Are you a god or a monster?

The focus that she demanded was peculiar in its own way, a center of light that pulled the air itself towards her. He wondered if the sun could dim when people walked out of the room. She had a strange way of speaking, not that there was anything wrong with the language but that it was accented in a way that he couldn't place. Ian wasn't from Italy, he wasn't even from Europe, people had been pointing out the odd curve of his vowels for years now so it just happened to be something that he tended to focus in on.

"Right... I was thinking maybe I could help you call a cab or something, maybe give you some directions?" Ian's joke was good-natured, despite the fact that the woman looked like she could burst into tears at any given moment. "Honestly though I think everyone feels like that sometimes, that's the whole crazy little thing called life. Did you just fly in?"

Yet hope remains, for despite the loss of what they have shared Orion has returned to her against all odds. It had been a long time since she had last laid her eyes on the features she so loved, and while it wasn't quite right— while he is no longer an elf but one of Titania and Oztalun's creations —, his very essence remained the same and for that alone she had to rejoice.

"A cab," Hemera repeats slowly, lips shaping around the words in curiosity. It takes her a moment, before she connects the odd word with the contraptions running around. Oh. Not quite as sleek as Vulcan's creations, but functional enough, she supposes. "I would prefer to walk, I admit. Clear my mind with fresh air and all that," she excuses, any excuse to spend even a fraction of a second longer with him. Not much, not while she has been shaken too badly and cannot quite great a grip of herself. It takes all her effort not to lay before him and weep like a child, so an introduction will do for now, and then she can begin taking steps to ensure his safety above all.

"Life has hit me with more surprises today than it has in a long time," she agrees with a soft snort and a helpless shrug. "I arrived today to the city, but I think I might choose to stay."

The days were long, especially when his shifts ranged from two to three days, and he was constantly waiting for an alarm. Last night had been ruthless, but at least for the next couple of days, it was over, and he could look forward to going home and resting. Physically, he was still tired from the last time he'd hung out with Magnus, listless and sort of depressed ever since he'd camped out with that guy Alder in the woods. Ian kept putting one foot in front of the other; he'd landed in Rome because he was trying to find himself outside of the home where he'd been raised; there was this restless, daydreamer quality to the man he'd always possessed. Helping people and doing right by them satisfied him for a while, but Ian couldn't help but think something was missing.

He'd spent the last decade looking for something that was inherently intangible. It wasn't like Ian had had a hard life; it was more or less atypical to the sort of lives that people led where he was from. Ian's grief wasn't the most exciting thing about him, and neither was his regret.

Ian craned his neck towards the sun; even with a head full of seeds, he kept looking towards the light. Tired as he was Ian could feel the restless parts of him going a bit quiet, they'd wake up and rally when his strength had fully returned. For now, he was content to drift. A sigh passed from his lips before he looked ahead and saw a woman standing there who had the most faraway look in her eye that he had ever seen. There was something just... Radiant about her, like she'd been exposed to nuclear radiation and might just end up killing everyone.

"Ma'am are you lost?"

And what wonders they had created with that will.

As jaded and weary as the goddess was, she had to admit that mortal craft had some appeal, even when it compared not to the wonders of Elysia. Rome could count itself amidst the handful cities that had a character worth visiting, and yet it was not the architecture that had brought her to the eye of the storm. Rumors of the silly little lycan fight had reached her ears, quickly followed by the rumored sightings of Archfiends, Aspects and Gods alike, and the curiosity that had ensued had overpowered her usual apathy. Thus she found herself wandering the city built atop ruins, the bitter knowledge that Orion would have liked to explore the Fey Forest keeping her away from Lupercal until the festival was to take place.

Hemera gets lost on her wanderings, uncaring of where her feet take her as long as it is not the green forests Orion would have loved so, her mind gone to a better time as she glances at the sky, hoping to see what is left of her North Star despite the daylight and the fact that the constellation had been gone for near three decades.

As always, the Fates strike when one least expects it.

The voice she hears it's one that she had tried to impress upon her memory through magic, but had feared that the memory had faded through time. Its a balm to her senses, hope manifested like a tinkle of water from a dried well. Head snapping towards the voice, Hemera's immortal heart seems to stop between heartbeats and then takes off racing. She recognizes those features, would remember them even if she forgot her own face.

Orion, she wants to call, wants to bring him closer and bask on his warmth.

My North Star, ma u'vun, vhenan, she wants to weep, to fall to her knees and thank the stars and the Fates for his presence.

She wants to crumble, after millennia of standing tall and alone.

And yet she is stopped by the mortal tongue he speaks, by the humanity of his feature, by the lack of recognition on his eyes and on his voice.

Her heart lives but does not know her.

She remains devastatingly alone.

"Lost in the road of life, perhaps," she says, finally, after a long silence, voice rough as she holds back her desire to weep. Instead, she offers him a trembling smile, voice accented with her divinity as she wraps her tongue along one of the mortal language she had learned on a whim. "I am new to the city, you see. Haven't even had the time to figure out if I am meant to be anywhere."