He liked it. No one had to be in possession of a clever eye and quick mind to guess that, it showed on his face as clearly as the underwater stones that covered the shallow waters of the lake gleamed with flecks of mica. There was nowhere in the world that matched the halcyon temple, left by forgetful mortals to be reclaimed by the forest, nowhere she ever felt as calm. What last vestiges of tension had clung stubbornly to her seeped away as his did, becoming nothing but a harmless memory.
She took a deep breath of the clean, sweet air and would have simply sat down there in the grass if he hadn’t still been clasping her hand. Either he had forgotten or… Thyone found it puzzling that he continued to hold it but not so much that she was going to make something out of it. It was… nice. Aside from her own son and those she took under her aegis during the orgies, it had been a long time since she had maintained physical contact with anyone for that long.
“We are in Hellas.” Thyone gave him a curious little glance, since if he had to ask, then he certainly was no Greek god. By that point she had already entirely figured that out and had no doubts, yet it was always good to have a final confirmation before she opened her mouth and shot off something foolish and rude. Such a beautiful blond hair… had she been unknowingly trespassing on his domain in her wanderings? Thyone did not pay attention to things like that because quite simply, she had enough on her mind with her own people; thinking about multiple pantheons and how that all worked made her head sore. Since that answer might not be worth much to him, she was quick to add. “On the island of Aegina. Athens is to the North. It was a place where… it’s one of my temples.”
Thyone was not shy. No one associated with the Dionysian Mysteries could retain that particular trait and continue to perform their duties. She did feel somewhat odd to be standing alone with a god that she did not know, who had not yet given her his name, who was not pulling away. Yet she still sensed no malice in him, no ill intent to make internal alarms sound. True, Thyone tended to believe the best of everyone, if possible, but she was not utterly foolish. At least not since foolishness had been the vehicle in which her own death had been delivered.
What she was instead was someone who found it difficult to be awkward for long; it simply wasn’t her natural state. All of it had happened so fast and so unexpected that she hadn’t had a single second to think of how absurd the whole event had been. Thyone shook her head slowly, starting to crack a wide smile that made the scratch hurt again. She felt something liquid drip down her jaw.
Oh. Oh, no. She dropped the necklace to the grass without thinking and brought her hand up, covering the scratch with genuine horror. Ichor, she had learned the hard way, despite how beautiful the golden color that seemed spun of sunlight, was poisonous. Thyone tried to pull away from him, not about to test personally if ichor was also harmful to gods of other realms. “This is – I am so sorry, I had not noticed." Though she was plainly distressed and concerned, Thyone managed to keep her tone even, focusing on dealing with the ichor before she inadvertently caused harm. What tricky and awful things an immortal body was capable of!