The plan to meet with Ares had become more concrete when Vatra was finally able to win over Hakora. She had to convince the goddess that they were both ultimately on the same side. Both despised the war god. After more deliberation, Vatra won over Hakora. At least, she'd hoped so. The goddess had agreed to arranging a meeting.

If it turns into a double-crossing, I'll deal with that later, Vatra thought.

Vatra prowled through the halls of the resort like every step was being listened for. Her focus was on her target. She couldn't let her mind wander about what could possibly be beyond the other side of the walls with him.

The decor of the passage around her faded to the plain neutral colors of the walls and floors. A gray and black gradient that masked a multitude of fantastic artwork and marble statues were nothing for her to marvel at. If she wasn't on a mission, she might have paused for a moment to look around. Instead, she caught sight of the room she was to have her next 'planned' event on her itinerary.

Only, it was what Hakora had worked into her schedule.

Pausing at the stone doors, Vatra ran her gaze over the intricate detail to the entryway. There were odd markings carved into the stone, a language unrecognizable to her written out in an arch all the way around the massive door. She placed a hand to the stone, thinking about how it reminded her of a cave wall.

The handle was warm. As if steam were building on the other side. When she opened the door, a warmth caressed her face as if two gentle hands cupped her cheeks.

"Gods be damned," Vatra cursed. She knew exactly what was beyond the doors.

A steam room.

Hakora had so politely left out the details that Vatra would have her meeting with Ares in a steam room.

Of course. Of course I have to meet with him here. Vatra blew air from her nose and tightened her fist around the handle to the door. Her knuckles whitened against the cool, gray tones of the stone.

After considering her options, Vatra stomped into the steam room. The door fell shut behind her, sealing her into a hall that was humid and dark. Water slopped beneath her shoes, and before she had a moment to complain about ruining her magnetic boots, she looked up to see an attendant walking up to her.

The pale-skinned Struko was the first of her kind that Vatra had seen in years. She didn't think they'd ventured far from their own solar system. But, the long tentacle that extended down from the top of her head and draped around her shoulders like a scarf was unmistakable.

Vatra lifted her eyes from the towel that the Struko carried, meeting her black irises with an obviously confused look.

"My name is Umarai. There's a changing room just to the left. We don't expect

you to just drop your clothes right by the front door." Umarai extended her arms, a smile springing to her face at her last words.

"Right," Vatra said cautiously. She took the towel and passed to Umarai's left, slinking to the changing room as quickly as possible.

Regret was heavy on her mind as she found her way to the changing room. It wasn't easy to locate, either. Vatra fumbled around the stone passageway like a bat, her hands shifting around the wall until she tapped onto a wooden door. Inside, the light was blinding compared to the darkness beyond.

Vatra closed herself inside, looking around the changing room as if the answers to her dilemma would reveal themselves. Even though there was no magic eight ball to shake around, Vatra noticed a sign on the back of the door. The print was small, as if every language imaginable had been scribbled on it.

Over and over the same message for entry into the steam room was written. Remove all clothes before entry. Only the towels given are allowed inside.

"You have to be kidding me," Vatra groaned.

She had to admit, it wasn't like she didn't know how steam rooms worked. But, she was hoping she could at least leave something on.

"Well, it's not like I have any shame left in me, anyway," she added.

There wasn't another way around it. The steam room was going to be her only opportunity to meet with Ares. If she felt vulnerable going into it, then Ares was going to be vulnerable, too. 

Stripping down hastily, Vatra wrapped the towel around her and stepped back out into the darkness of the hall. She followed the passage to the steam room, toward the sound of water and voices.

Vatra emerged into a room filled with stone columns rising from the surface of a bath unlike one she'd seen in thousands of years.

So, not a steam room. A bath house. This isn't as bad.

What surprised her even more was that there were familiar faces tucked away to the side, away from those she didn't recognize. Vatra had abandoned searching for Ares when she saw safety. She sighed in relief and walked past the first columns, their sheer size at least three stories in height.

A small waterfall poured down from somewhere overhead, splashing a surge of steam and some kind of earthy scent into the air. Vatra walked past it, too, admiring the waterfall for a moment before she hastened her pace over the marbled floor. She caught the attention of her companions. Everyone else from her crew was in the bath.

Hakora must have planned for all of us to be here, this is no coincidence.

Vatra power-walked until her toes rocked over the edge of the bath where everyone gathered. She carefully planted herself down on her knees and looked around at them all.

A cocky grin met her from Enyalius.

"I'm surprised there isn't blood in this water. It looks like he's cooled off his influence over you lot enough, at least. Where is he?" Vatra whispered. She finally looked around at the others lounging around the bath, but she couldn't make out Ares. The bath was huge.

"Ah, dear old dad?" Enyalius dipped down in the water as if mischievously hiding a secret.

"What about him?" Vatra pushed. She looked to the others for more answers. The god was insufferably helpless.

Hisato cleared his throat and gestured with his chin. "I know he saw us. He and Enyalius had a stare down when we got here. The both of us arrived first not too long ago."

Vatra turned and followed Hisato's direction. In the far corner of the bath was a barely discernible figure, caught in the haze of steam. She could feel the god's stare on them. Ares was watching.

"Hmm." Vatra sat down. Her legs dipped into the water and she slipped into the warmth of it before she allowed herself to consider waiting. The towel floated up around her. She tossed it over her shoulder and onto the edge of the bath as if she hadn't cared about clinging onto it until the last moment when she walked out into the bath house.

As soon as the towel slopped to the marble, Vatra started treading the water closer to Ares.

"Wait, are you crazy?" Revna grabbed her by the elbow. "We shouldn't approach him."

"What do you mean? That's the whole point of this. I didn't strong-arm a goddess just to chicken out now," Vatra snapped back. She gently pulled her arm free, but didn't continue on toward Ares until she made sure she had the support of everyone else.

"You what?" Hisato asked.

"Well," Vatra shrugged, tapping the water's surface with the palms of her hands, "I had a very convincing talk with a goddess to set up this meeting with Ares. We won't get another chance to talk to him."

Set nodded along. "Fair, but do you think it will look good for all of us to suddenly swarm him? There's other patrons in this bath house," the storm god warned. He addressed the others in the bath with a wide sweep of his gaze.

Vatra blew a raspberry. "Yeah, yeah."

"So maybe just a couple of us will go with you? A few, non-threatening escorts," Fulgora offered. She treaded water between Enyalius and Revna, casting a narrowed gaze to the former.

Enyalius rolled his eyes at the goddess. "Oh, please. I can be cordial to my father. He might even be happy to see me."

"I agree with Fulgora," Vatra said, ignoring Enyalius. "Fulgora and Revna will go with me. There's nothing threatening about a few women approaching Ares."

"Except it might give the wrong idea. We're all naked in here, remember?" Enyalius splashed water at Vatra as if she was stupid to overlook the eyebrows their approach would raise. "Maybe just take Hisato with you."

"Gods, I forgot how perverted so many non-asexuals were," Vatra mumbled, lowering her mouth just below the surface so she could blow bubbles. She turned to face Ares with furrowed brows, the war god's figure still a blur.

"Wait, are you saying I'm not threatening enough?" Hisato swam closer to them.

Enyalius raised a hand. "Calm down. I'm just saying, a man and a woman approaching Vatra won't be as suspicious as two women, let alone three women like Vatra suggested. And, everyone else in our crew is a god. Although you could kill like one—to them," he paused and nodded to the others in the bath, "you don't look like you'd be approaching Ares as Vatra's bodyguard."

Hisato looked between Enyalius, Set, and Geb. He would be fooling himself to say he was taller than any of them, or as muscular in build. Even though Enyalius was right, and he could probably hold his own against the best of them, no one else in the bath house knew that.

"Fine," Hisato agreed with a deep frown. He turned and swam what small distance had separated him and Vatra.

The first thing Vatra noticed was that Hisato refused to look at her directly the closer he approached. His feelings for her had been uncovered, after all, and now they were in an uncomfortable position together to interrogate Ares. She could empathize for how it must have made him feel.

"I never took you to be shy," Vatra teased as they slowly swam away from the others, taking a path that didn't seem so direct toward Ares.

Shit, that didn't come across as very empathetic, did it?

Hisato smiled, nonetheless. "You're impossible, you know?"

"Yeah, I do," Vatra said. She turned back to Ares, watching his figure take shape the closer they got.

The war god's gaze was unwavering from them.