This is going in a direction she has never felt she needed to prepare for.

"Another?" she repeats in disbelief. What does he mean, another? Is this some new horror she must worry over: was the portrait missing someone else? No. That would be impossible. Headmistress was there, she would know. She would not hide something like this from her.

But, truly, Melinoë doesn't know what to say.

This is a trick, she thinks, but she cannot define its edges or borders. Time is the culprit, as it has been since she was first aware of Cronos's crimes at all. "You don't know me, do you?" It tastes sour as she says it. "He was. He put himself back together." Put himself together, took their home... stole her family.

And yet, Zagreus is pleased with her announcement, confused by her question. Sharply, she thinks if she says more, she may burden him with something that eludes him now. She puts that elsewhere, setting it aside; Time will be there, regardless of what she says next.

So she decides on this: "I've wanted to meet you for so long."

And while this reunion is not one she dreamed of, it is a reunion all the same.