"No, I can't say I thought of that!! What does that even matter if I am, I'm—I'm still a person, I'm still..."

"You are. It does not put into doubt your value or position, and if you do not believe it matters, then it does not. My point is not to injure. But I do not think your once-family lost the girl they knew as their daughter."

"You think they just. ... Got an extra one."

"I do."

"I... okay. I guess that would change how much it matters that I get home. I. How do you know?"

"Hades was mistaken when he said you were more like Chaos than myself. You are a strange being, made further from this world than even Chaos has ventured, and out of stranger substances besides. But I am the goddess of the night. And you, child of the infinite void and boundless stars, are more clear to me than most of even my own kind."

"... Right. Uh. I'll... keep that in mind."

"Do with it what you will. But I believe it would be a disservice to keep it from you."

"Right," repeats Yvette, inanely. "Uh. Thanks. I'm. Going to go find Zagreus now."

"Be well, child."

Yvette melts back into starscape and flees. Again. To find Zagreus, so she can hide in his shoulder skulls again. She should probably process this or do some soul searching or self-investigative journalism or something, but. That sounds so hard, and she mostly just wants to hide.

Zagreus is walking back at a leisurely pace when she finds him, a smile on his face and a spring in his step. He spots the puddle and waves at it.

Shloop! Into the shoulder skulls goes the puddle.

"Hey," she says. She does not want to deal with her shit right now. "Soooooo. How'd it go?"

"He didn't say no. After getting on my case rather a lot he vanished but I managed to get a lot of words in before that. I think it went well."

Giggle.

"Aw. I'm glad."

"How about you? Did you manage to find Nyx?"

".... I did, yeah."

"...do you want to not talk about it?"

"Not... really, no. It wasn't bad, just, um. She. Gave me some things to think about."

"Well. I hope they turn out to be good things. Do you want me to introduce you to Achilles?"

“Maybe later. Can I just be your quiet shoulder buddy for a while?”

"Sure.—I do want to tell him about what Patroclus said, though, if that's okay. You don't need to come out."

“Yeah, absolutely, go ahead. He should know sooner rather than later, just I uh. … want to hide again.”

He pets his shoulder skull.

Giggle.

“Thanks.”