Thalia rared back and slapped him across the face with his patronizing comment about ascending from on high. "THERE. Another one for your COLLECTION!" She spun and climbed over the railing of the ship and dropped down; a move that was second nature by now. She'd grown up dropping from the same heights, only from high walls that surrounded the palace of her families estates. "You ALWAYS have a choice!" She marched off; glad he didn't follow. If he did she'd have to pull her blade on him and it would be worth it. She hadn't shown him ALL of her moves, after all.

PRINCESS. Add it to the collection of things he made sound like an insult that weren't. Besides.. what sort of insufficient woman could have survived this long with a band of pirates?? How many nobles did he capture who fought off his own men and taken back their freedom? Or at least as much of it as she could. And to say that he was only taking pity on them when he was the one who couldn't distinguish the wives from the whores. Or like it mattered for that matter? They were all still stuck here and dependent on them. And she could bet that in the three weeks he'd been gone she'd learned more about many of them than he'd learned in the ten years he'd lived on the island.

Yes, ten. She knew that now. She also knew that Frona had been one of the early immigrants to the island. She'd been taken as a slave and Lukos found her useful as a healer and midwife as he did the woman on the ship when he first captured her. She knew she had two children she'd lost when he'd taken her; sold off from under her and now she had 7 others that ran underfoot..but she still missed the two she lost. Pallas was the wife of a fisherman. Liaros had taken a fancy to her when they raided her town and took her just as they'd taken Thalia. Save she couldn't fight back. She'd fought like Thalia had in the beginning, but over time, she'd come to accept her position. She had three children..all boys. She left two daughters behind when they took her. They weren't as wealthy as Thalia was, but they had similar stories. The only person that only saw her for her noble status was him. And he used it to fling arrows at her any time he got a chance. Like she wasn't good enough for it. Like it somehow made her weak.

If she didn't walk away, she would have run him through.

By the time he found her she was sitting on the edge of the cliff; dropping stones down the side to watch them roll down the face of the stone wall before plunking into the ocean fifty feet below. She didn't hear him until he sighed her name. Or what had become her name here. It'd been on the tip of her tongue so many times to tell him that it wasn't her name.. that her name was Thalia of Nikolaos. Daughter of Stavros Nikolaos..one of the most well-respected men in The Senate, and sister to Diomedes of Nikolaos; commander of the Athenian guard. Her family was as old as her money. She'd served the Princess of Athenia at court...granted, not for very long, but her connections were immeasurable. It was why she hid them from him. At times, like last night and this morning when he woke her, she considered telling him everything. ...And then he'd go and say the things that he was saying now and solidify her resolve at remaining anonymous. She was far more valuable than he even knew and if he would risk the lives of everyone on his island for gold and glory, what would he risk if he found out who she was?

She looked over her shoulder at him as he moved closer; his tone growing argumentative again, She was growing tired of fighting with him. Everything was an argument, And while making up afterward was exhilarating, the longer she knew him the harder they became on her. He laid out his case, flimsy as it was attempting to justify his actions before turning to walk away and she stood up. "Yes.. go then. Walk away. Sail away. It's not your problem, is it? None of them really matter as long as your next trip is more profitable than the last. And when it's not? You reign holy hell on them all, don't you? You can't even go down and have dinner with them. You sit up in the temple and have the smallest of them slink up and serve you. You think I know nothing about them? It doesn't take very long at all to know everything about them when they're the only companionship you have for three weeks.. They're all scared to death of you. I can't BEGIN to imagine what inspired that sort of "respect"." She followed after him as he walked back through the caves and the temple. "My 'noble' ideas. That you should treat people who work for you with respect and not an iron fist. To be with them and see how they live and try to make their lives better. And because they're of lesser means, that they are more dependent on you for basic needs. You have choices, Lukos. Everything you do is a choice. Keeping me or letting me go was a choice. Taking people as slaves and selling them off or traveling to distant lands as a merchant shipper and not a thief is a choice. Going to war and not leaving people behind to care for the women and children if you don't come back is a choice. Leaving me here...was a CHOICE." She stopped in the middle of the temple; surrounded by sheer drapes that climbed to the tops of the pillars that she'd hung by herself. It was no small feat. She'd had to squirm her way up each massive column by herself and tie the ropes off. It took days to do. Days to keep her mind occupied on something else besides staring at that cliff. To not think about him and when she wasn't thinking about him, to not think about her family. Her brothers and her parents. "...And choices have consequences."