When I awoke next the sun was beginning to set, Nysa had run a bath and so I left the comfort of my bedroom to freshen up for the gathering later. I knew I had been in the other room for a long time as when I returned the sun was kissing the line of the horizon. Nysa smiled at me for the first time and asked what dress I would like, we decided upon a midnight blue/purple as it would be appropriate for the time of day. Once again she applied my make-up with darker eyes than before and pale pink lips, my hair was pulled back into a spiralling plait with a few curls falling around my face, I knew my sister and mother would be wearing elaborate layers of curls so I felt it appropriate to have simpler hair as I would be able to blend into the shadows and not have to converse with many people.

The evening came too quickly for my liking as soon enough the sun was down and the guests were arriving, I excused Nysa for the night allowing her to either change then serve the guests or have the night off. She chose to change as the other servants would be aiding in preparation and serving the wines and food thus she's spend the evening alone otherwise.

I made my way out to the foyer into the grounds attached to the house. I knew mother would be socialising with everyone so as long as she saw me near the beginning of the evening she would leave me be for the rest of the night; she was standing near the entrance so I nodded in her direction, she smiled slightly and I trailed off towards the patio wall were Oceanus was sitting.

"You look grim." I commented

"Baluis won't be able to arrive till later." He spoke, clear depressed about the issue

"Why don't you just talk with your friends like Apollo is?" I asked pointing towards our younger brother who had changed into cleaner attire but was covering it in dirt as he ran around with his friends.

"I wish it was still acceptable for me to do that."

"Why can't we?" I asked jumping up "We could play …. Er… Tag?"

"Sit down Phoebe, you'll gather mother's attention and you know what that leads to."

"Of yes, Phoebe, this is rich gentleman you should marry." I spoke impersonating mother's tone, Oceanus laughed and leaned forward onto his knees. "At least your smiling now!" I commented, proud of my accomplishment.

"You always know how to cheer me up," He looked across to me "but"

"Oh no." I stopped him from continuing "'But' is always bad. Let's just leave it at 'You always know what to say'" I smiled.

"Mother wants me to introduce you to someone."

"Bye." I said standing up.

"He's nice, a friend." He said grabbing my wrist and standing himself, "Please Phoebe, she might accept Baluis and I if she sees me pairing you up with someone." I raised an eyebrow "Okay I wasn't going to tell her but I was going to announce my decision to devote my life to knowledge, which means"

"No marriage." I finished for him, he nodded, I looked at the floor, I wouldn't be the reason he couldn't be happy, but was I ready to give up my life so he could be? I sighed, of course I was, he was my big brother "They better not be obsessed with children." I looked up at him. His jaw fell open in shock. "Come on," I said pulling my arm away and straighten my stola "where is the lucky man?"

"T-this way," Oeanus lead me through the now thick crowd of people to the other side of the patio where a group of men were laughing, as we approached I stayed a step behind, knowing my place "Xanthos." He said tapping a man on the shoulder, as he turned I couldn't help my think that my brother chose well. He was a lot taller than me by at least a head with broad shoulders and muscular arms. His dark hair curled to his shoulders and touched his green chiton, his brown eyes looked straight past Oceanus and looked me up and down. "This is Phoebe." my brother gestured, I smiled trying to be polite "She's the one mother wanted me to introduce." He continued.

Xanthos nodded and took me by the hand, he lead me away to sit upon the wall a short distance away from the group. To begin with I felt really awkward, he'd started by saying, and I quote "You're eyes are greener than the grass we tread." Bless him, he tried hard, he attempted talking about my dress and the jewellery I wore, then onto hair and make-up. Soon I couldn't bear the conversational topics any longer and changed the subject myself.

"I hear you go to school with my brother?" he nodded "Do you enjoy it?" I asked, I was much more interested with our talk from then on, I learnt that he studied the Gods, incidentally finding my families' naming method comedic. I showed him the vases we had for each child and the tradition of items being put in them that we found affected our lives. He was very interested in mind as he could see from the others there were a great deal of objects in each of them, most was predictable while mine wasn't even half full. I explained that it was because I haven't found many things that have affected me greatly enough to be remembered for a long time. He wouldn't allow the issue to die so I handed each of the objects that I had in the vase and why I had them, he was astonished that there was only four items, my first school book, a necklace from my grandmother who died when I was five, an arrowhead from the first shoot I ever landed on a target and my first paintbrush.

The evening was a long one where I spent a lot of time with Xanthos, he was a lovely man who was happy to talk with me about interesting subjects rather than the future. Mother was delighted to see me spend the amount of time I did with him and after that evening we began to see more of each other. A few months later we began seeing each other in secret, wanting to be a couple but without marriage. After six months we were beginning to be serious, we talked about the future a lot and how we could get married, it would stop both our parents complaining and we would be happier with each other than with some stranger that we were arranged to be with. I was so happy, and yet, on our six mouth anniversary everything fell apart.