Interlude II (Estonia)

[Thalia]

Thalia felt no great guilt for her irreverence despite the sharp bite of his correction. She was careful not to let that amusement touch too much of her expression though, lest it rile his mood only further. “I’m glad we agree,” she said instead, with perfect amiability. His irritability ran like water from duck feathers. She wondered whether he was departing to return to Rome, or whether something new required his attention. Her understanding of their shared dream was patchy at best, more a thing of feeling than understanding.

“Sometimes we walk in circles for so long it is supremely uncomfortable to discover ourselves suddenly shoved onto a new path. Especially when we are walking alone.” She sounded thoughtful, not as though she was giving advice. A pensive gaze turned to peer at the drawing he studied; the roadmap for some new fancy. Currently upside down, not that it made any difference, for she had no idea where it was. She’d spent years in the same rut, pointedly ignoring all the small indications that her life was not quite ordinary. This new world left her quite anchorless.

“No, not everything needs an answer.” She laughed, then, tickled by something she could not quite put a finger to. He knew full well she had been expressing concern, but she did not press further. Thalia knew well the weight of an ill feeling with no discernible cause. She watched him a moment as the sun glared his eyes, and wondered if it might be so human a thing as that the gulf of their station made a friendship nigh on impossible. Not supposing that it was what he wanted. But needed, maybe. He was surrounded by people, but he was very alone. And that without the added anomaly of insight.

“I will be careful,” she said eventually.