"..... Yes?? Yes, of course they do that. You like escaping, don't you? Imagine if that were your job. Finding security flaws in the system and exploiting them. Would you put your all into doing that?"

"...I don't know. Maybe? But if I managed to get out I would just want to... stay out."

"That's fair. I guess some other situation that uses your skills properly and were fun, and furthermore also your job, but topside. Adventuring around, slaying beasts and saving people, or something."

"That... would be fun," he admits. "Do people do that up on the surface? As a job?"

"I mean, I don't have a very good perspective of the surface at the moment? I was hanging out with Than and he sees the decidedly unpleasant parts of it. But according to the Greek mythology I know, there was a lot of... heroing around, slaying great beasts that were threatening cities, pulling off impossible feats, maybe saving a maiden or two because mortals currently don't really see women as people. And if nothing else, there definitely are wars, and there are all kinds of innocent noncombatants trapped in the middle of those. Being menaced by monsters that call themselves mortal."

"Oh, I suppose Achilles himself was a hero. And Herakles. And," sigh, "Theseus."

"Right. So presumably you'd fit in okay up there, too."

"Does anyone feel that way about paperwork?"

"Mmm. Maybe not the same way, but some people find it less irritating than others. I'm fine with paperwork, personally, though I get very annoyed if it's dumb paperwork. Which is in itself a useful thing, if someone tolerates paperwork that isn't dumb, but doesn't if it gets too... bureaucratic and stupid."

"Well, good luck." Zag walks by the lounge, sticks his head in to check whether there's anyone there, and moves on when he sees no one. "Meanwhile I am about to give it another shot." Into his room he goes, and he makes a beeline towards the enormous wall-covering mirror. It seems to simultaneously reflect too much and too little, eternally clouded in darkness that seemed like it shouldn't allow anyone to see anything yet showing every detail with almost more clarity than real life.

She’s distracted from whether or not she’d like to be a shoulder buddy during his escape by the work of art in mirror form before her. In function, though its form is lovely as well. “… Nyx made that, didn’t she. It’s beautiful.”

He nods. "She did. It's—it helps me grow stronger, though Nyx tells me that it can give me nothing that I would not otherwise have been able to get myself. It just... speeds things along."

“It gives enhanced self reflection. She’s right, it’s not doing anything you couldn’t do yourself, just. Making it easier.” Also, to her, making it super obvious how right Nyx was about her origins. But mostly: “It’s so pretty.”

"It is," he agrees before letting his gaze drift into the endless void of the mirror.

She is his quiet shoulder buddy and wrestles with her complicated feelings for a while. She can wait until he’s done before thinking out loud.

He's back fairly quickly. "Not quite enough Darkness to get anything fancy.—uh, basically energy lying around in the Underworld that I can smuggle back here which helps power the Mirror up."

Giggle.

“It doesn’t do that, the mirror isn’t the one that is being powered up, but. Close enough I guess.”

"Is it? I didn't ask too Nyx deeply about it but now I'm curious."

“You are becoming more powerful by trying to escape the Underworld, but it’s. Its you? You’re getting stronger because you’re… being yourself. Playing to your strengths and your divinity.”

"...okay I'll just pretend I understood that."

Snorts.

"You're the one gaining power. You just figure out what to do with it faster with the mirror's help."

"What's the 'Darkness' thing then?"

"I'm... not entirely sure! Stray power of the Underworld, going spare? I wasn't looking at it very closely when you picked any up last time, do you tend to get it incidentally as you do other things?"

"Yeah. It—when I look at the mirror there is a... cost... to things? And some things cost more than what I have but whenever I come back here I have more of it. So I assumed it was just coming with me. But I don't... grab it with my hands or anything like that."

"Well. You could be picking it up, or you could be making it, or it's a tidy measurement that will let you easily quantify everything going on with you."