The age of 18 was not a grand time for Thea.

Logically, it should be, right? The time of early adulthood was when the feminine beauty began to manifest itself. By now, the naivety and innocence of adolescence had mostly faded away on the typical girl’s visage to make way for a more matures sense of vivacity. 18 was the period for womanly curves to start rounding out in the right places on a woman’s body. Her skin became soft and supple enough to eat after the pubescent blemishes had cleared up without a trace. Her lips became a tad bit fuller, just enough that they looked inviting to onlookers, and her hair had developed new shine to its now luscious locks.

And this truly was the case for the second daughter of the Thanasi household. Thea, with her striking golden orbs and plump rosy lips, turned heads everywhere she went. The dark-haired maiden’s angelic facial features, accompanied with her graceful figure, had earned her a reputation as the belle of Megaris. On top of her royal heritage, one would figure that she had everything a girl could yearn for. However, for the last few years of her life, this had hardly been the case.

Were Thea to be in control, she would simply leverage her family’s wealth to travel and learn as much as she possibly could. To be honestly candid, she wished for the unchallenged autonomy other people seemed to have. But ever since she was of age, her father had made it a mission of his to force her into his frenzy political games. “The family legacy must go on.” , Dionysius would assert whenever she cracked underneath his relentless tutelage. The way his voice remained frighteningly even throughout his hour-long lecture might mislead an unsuspecting observer that they were engaging in a civil discussion. But Thea knew better than that. She was well aware that her cards had been dealt for and the patriarch of her family would not ever accept otherwise. Knowing that her seeable future had been decided for always struck her with a sense of absolute suffocation.

On the other hand, without fail, the way Dionysius taxed so much of his time on her like that enveloped the young girl with a temporary feeling of importance. The conflicted Thanasi daughter sometimes felt weirdly validated, knowing that he still viewed her as capable enough that he would exhaust his efforts to pressure her into conformation. Perhaps her judgement was so warped with insecurities, which stemmed from her envy with Nethis, who her father dotted on so much. Regardless, every single time, Thea ended up with an emotion cocktail that left her confused and disoriented as if she had really been consuming real alcohol. And just like a hungover person, she would wake up the next day, struggling to lift her heavy feet up but nonetheless continuing her way down this political path he had chosen for her.

Understandingly, court had been an inevitable part of her life ever since Thea became of age. She could actually recall her first time vividly. It was actually two days after her 15th birthday celebration, during dinnertime with the whole Thanasi family, whereas her father mentioned that her appearance at court would be expected the following day over a loaf of rye bread. The off-handed manner in which he broke the news admittedly troubled Thea to no ends at the time. Showing up at court, in her eyes, meant that she had begun acquiescing her right to freedom. First it would be court, then it would move onto more political meetings, and before she processed it she could got married off to some Zeus-knew-who. However, to Dionysius, the decision to sway her entire life did not seem more outstanding than breaking a damn clump of yeasted dark flour.

Nonetheless, every time he managed to get some maids to doll his stoic daughter up and more or less chauffeured her to their family carriage. Thea would then spend the whole ride being quizzed about who would be there, how she could identify them, which gossip or current event was floating around and what was the focus of court that day. Nethis, being the perfect elder sister, never endured any of that grilling, at least not that she had ever witnessed. Thankfully, her indifference was often mistaken as a knowing silence more than disinterest, and Dionysius interrogation meant that on the rare occasions she did speak up she understood what she was talking about.

Yesterday went similarly by as it was another court session. After accompanying her matriarch around on some other nameless business with who she believed was one of his informants from Athenia, they rested at their Midas resident for the night and took off for Megaris at noon. The tension inside the vehicle was unbearable for her father was particularly unkeen about her turning down a lunch offer with an up-and-coming noble son. As soon as they arrived at their home, she excused herself and made a turn to the local watering hole. Thea could really use some space from her overbearing dad at the moment, and a drink to take her mind off things sounded lovely right now. Moreover, the Thanasi family backed half of the taverns in the area anyway so she honestly did not have any qualms about being alone in such kind of establishment.

The streets of Megaris at night were breezy and humid, graces of winds coming in from its open ocean. The little bronze bell tinkered jovially as the fogged up door opened to welcome its first female patron for the night. Pubs had always been a boys club, so the soft curves of a woman immediately grabbed the attention of a few tipsy guests.

Thea paid prying eyes no heed as she made a beeline to the bar and ordered a honey mead. As she waited for her drink to be poured, the nymph brushed a stray lock of ebony hair from er face and dusted some dew off the tail of her dress, barely settling down before feeling an unnerving presence to her right. The dark-haired Thanasi turned and was greeted with a drunk leering at her. From the looks of it, he appeared to be a vassal of some noble house, as this tavern was located in a more prestigious neighborhood and his clothing was not too shabby but not luxurious enough to suggest wealth either.

“Hey beautiful.” , he chortled before placing a wandering hand on her face. “My my, this silken ivory skin. Where did Aphrodite send you from?” , he slurred, his flirtatious grin widening to see Thea outwardly grimacing. She unceremoniously slapped his grabby digits away from her visage and dodged away as he leaned in closer. Her evasiveness did not phase the pervert in the slightest bit, however. If anything, it infuriated him. The smile on the man's features grew unkind and morphed into a lecherous sneer, the pungent scent of strong alcohol warfing in the air around him indicated that the liquor had only fueled his brazenness. “C’mon, you think your rich girl ass is too good for me?” , his words resonated to a growl, his clammy palm slapped her keister and jolted her out of her seat.