Val with Foofy at her side stood across from Tavras at the top of the serpent snapping turtle’s shell.

The sea breeze swept both of their hair out to the side. Even though Val had regained her long hair, she still envied Tavras who had the beautiful appearance of a god, evident in the inhuman sheen about him.

“First, let’s start with a bit better offensive ability since you are more familiar with that. I think it will help you better develop a defensive ability, too.”

Now, Val would finally get around to developing a more reliable attack and the forcefield that she had thought up a month ago.

“I thought of this when your Divine Judgement failed against Arius,” Tavras continued. “Your aura is able to manifest in many different forms.”

“Yes,” she confirmed.

“What if you learned how to control your aura more deliberately so that you can perform some attacks at command?”

“I have already tried that, of course,” Val said with a roll of her eyes.

At once, Tavras tutted at her. “I doubt that you went through the proper process for aura production and manifestation. Some people have an affinity for aura just like I can play with water and Arius is aligned with fire. That bastard has a large aura capacity as well, but screw him. Not all of us ”

Val sneered and looked on at Tavras with a raised brow. In this case, only Tavras excluded himself because she too had been born from powerful gods—the previous God Supreme and the Demiweaevr. Even Foofy had the evident marks of a purebred Doberman Pinscher.

“I don’t touch my aura at all, personally,” Tavras continued, drawing up a tight face and looking away, “but the basic principles apply to all elements.”

In his long strides, Tavras strode to the very center of the serpent snapping turtle’s shell. He sat cross-legged with long hair draped over his erect back. The ends pooled across a plate of the turtle’s shell. “Come sit behind me, back straight.”

Val approached more timidly and did as he instructed. Her spine touched along the center of his back in kind. The back of her head rested against his neck at the height where she came up to, shorter than him.

“Have you ever had the patience to meditate?” Tavras asked.

“No.” Aside from when Ross had made her meditate when they were first getting started in their quest for power, Val preferred not to sit still.

“Did you observe any regular practices to worship the gods?”

Val shrugged, having lived a secular lifestyle. “I did not think to follow any of the gods or goddesses closely, hoping to become one myself.”

“Dang,” Tavras said with a whistle, followed by a chuckle. “Here I had thought that you were worshipping me.”

“Haha,” she forced out sourly. Val’s crush had not been that bad, according to her own respectable opinion.

“Aside from the gods and goddesses, would you consider yourself a spiritual person? Your mom had you worshipping the Weaver, right?”

“No.”

“Of course, Kierla would not have her daughter worship the Weaver,” Tavras mused. The movement at the tops of his shoulders felt like he shook his head.

“Why does this matter?”

“Well, typically people find a way to center themselves around something. Meditation is the act of becoming closer to your own mind, body, and soul. The various religious sects adhere to the belief of centering yourself around someone else. You are right that a serious demigoddess like yourself should not do the latter—not even to the Weaver, according to some.” Tavras said that last point grimly.

A small smile pinched to her lips. Her disregard for religion in her personal life let her do something right.

“Honestly, how did you ever strengthen your body and learn any abilities at all if you did not even learn how to meditate properly? From your condition after the sea serpent attack, I had assumed that you knew this!”

Val twisted around to see that Tavras had given himself a faceplant. “Um, I don’t know. I told you that I had no official learning.”

“If I had realized that you were this far behind in your development, I would have started you from absolute ground zero.”

She had nothing to say for herself other than, “As long as it will make me stronger, I’ll sit still for a while.” Val flashed her most sheepish smile, waiting for him to react.

“Turn back around.”

“Yes, Tavras.”

“Close your eyes while I’m talking. Try to see if you can feel what I’m talking about.” After that brief introduction, Tavras shifted his voice into something more soothing.

“When you meditate, you should focus on your heartbeat and the flow of blood through your veins. As you feel thoughts pass through your mind, acknowledge them, then dismiss them. Focus on your breath, the oxygen that travels through your golden blood. Your ichor is the source of your power. The more you are cognizant of that power within your body, the more readily you can access it.”

He sounded like one of those video meditation guides that could be found on the Internet, one with a voice that she liked. Val closed her eyes and almost started to loll off.

“Don’t fall asleep,” Tavras said abruptly. “I swear that I can feel you nodding off behind me.”

Jerking fully awake, she murmured a slurred, “Sorry.”

“Yeah, just sit there and do the thing. I’m going to meditate too, so I would appreciate it if you do not disturb me. This is a thing that gods do too.”

Val could not pretend that she was too good for meditation if Tavras literally sat behind her, meditating in his own respect. Though she could not help but wonder if young gods from strong bloodlines like Arius did the whole meditation thing. It would have been impeccably useful if only she could have learned some things from the modern school of thought as well.

A deep breath filled her lungs. Then, she exhaled. Such a simple thing, Val focused on while feeling the beat of her heart. It felt natural to pay attention to Tavras’s breath and start taking her breaths in sync with him.

Straight ahead, the waves sloshed against the shell of the serpent snapping turtle in the direction that it swam. Steady, the rhythm of the ocean provided ambience to the meditative session. Again, her surroundings seemed like an Internet video except for the fact that she could taste the sea breeze with every breath.

By the time that Tavras spoke again, Val felt surprisingly more in-tune with herself than before.

“Now,” Tavras said, “I want you to try casting Divine Judgement. Break through this stream of water.”

A channel of water sprung out of the ocean like a broken cord snapping free. From either side of the serpent snapping turtle, the water rushed forth to meet the other end. Each end of the watery cord snapped and melded together with a splash and swirl of water.

One side overpowered the other and unified the current of water, flowing by fast enough that Val could not hear the waves over the surge of water. Tiny droplets ricocheted everywhere from the intensity of the stream.

“Tavras, I have no way to use Divine Judgement currently. I don’t think that I can do exactly what you asked.”

“It was just a suggestion for you to go about your task. You may try all you want however it pleases you. The purpose of this exercise is to practice, after all!”

In disillusionment, Val watched the blur of water pass her by and again and again, ultimately disappearing into the ocean on the other side of the turtle. The water gushed forth with such pressure, she doubted that she could stick nary a hand between the water without receiving lacerations on her skin.

“Aside from meditating ad infinitum, could you give me a hint?” The pleading tone rang true in her voice.

“Remember the first lesson that I gave you on my Paradise—albeit that really should have been your second lesson.”

Recalling those early days brought a smile to Val’s lips. Tavras had done much for her then, especially in the form of dispersing information. One such lesson involved giving each ability that she generated a name beforehand to better center the power.

“Also, think of a certain someone whose abilities you could model after, in part, to better manipulate your aura.”

Her heart jolted at the reminder of Arius, how Tavras had called the apparition of Divine Judgement a reskin of his abilities. Where Arius had a red aura, Val had a white one. How much their respective auras could be manipulated in the same way, she would have to find out for herself.

Just like she had centered herself, Val tried to create a focal point for her power in her mind and soul. ‘Aura Manipulation’ would be her next ability, as she tried to force the processes of Divine Judgement into being without the clinching, moral aversion as a factor.

Both hands, she held over the water spraying like a fire hose. Her palms gained droplets of water until it dripped down her wrists and forearms.

Val focused on Divine Judgement in the same way that she had produced a useless attack against Arius, but instead, she wanted to consciously fortify it via Aura Manipulation.

The white light emanated from her hands and swirled around in a circle to constrict the stream of water. Her element merged with that of Tavras, and the water won out. Her pathetic aura disappeared back to nothingness.

“That was an honest attempt. Recenter yourself and focus.”

Drawing in a deep breath, Val closed her eyes. When she reopened them, new determination gleamed there. She had the full intention to get this sometime soon so that she could fully dedicate herself to practice.

In the end, she sat here until her cheeks and forehead felt rosy from sunburn. The sunlight nearer to the equator felt particularly harsh, magnified by the reflective waters all around.

“Ugh. You’re making me start to miss Arius. At least he would protect me from sunburn.”

“That would be doing you a disservice. You should work on getting a tan! Darker skin is clearly more practical. You don’t hear me complaining out here.”

Dark skin should still burn after a while, since Tavras had a decent mid-tone that by no means made him immune to the sun.

Val grumbled and wished sunburn upon him too. Through her mild pain and acute annoyance, she tried harder to get this exercise over with. The more aggravated that she became, the weaker that her sorry attempts at Aura Manipulation became.

“How come Divine Judgement works better when I’m upset, but I cannot do the same for Aura Manipulation?”

“It is the difference between a conscious process and a subconscious one,” Tavras said. “When a young demigoddess like you gets a powerful ability for free basically, you shouldn’t complain about not being able to do everything as easily as that! The demigods of old had to work for every single ability, training their way up to stronger abilities.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Val did not particularly want to hear his jaded attitude right now, especially given that he could not even remember his own past. That would be a thing too cruel to say after he had opened up to her for the first time ever.

So, Val held her tongue and resumed meditation for the millionth time.

When Tavras had expressed his contempt for young gods and demigods before, she had not realized that he had included her in that paradigm. While that made sense given Tavras’s spiteful personality, it still stung a little.

Val closed her eyes and let the bad feelings go, instead focusing on her breath and her pulse. Respiration fueled the power of her ichor. The sense of strength mounted in her until she felt ready to open her eyes again.

Her manipulated aura flashed outward and morphed into a disc that slashed through the flow of water.

“I did it!” she cheered. “Ah.” At once, she laid back across the serpent snapping turtle’s shell.

“You’re not ready for a break yet, are you?”

Along with the good memories that she had about training on Tavras’s Paradise, she also remembered how grueling his schedule had been. The last week in preparing to move and trying to get situated on the Summit had thrown them off of their training routine, but now her body relinquished to the exhaustion that she had become accustomed.

“I’m ready to keep training. You said that I should learn some defensive abilities next, right?”

“Yes,” Tavras said, hopping to his feet. “You will need an especially strong center for this.” Spinning out to the ocean, he faced the same way as Val to take on a more active role in her education.