If Melinoe were honest, she might think that the now-mortal Phonos would throw his back out trying to pry open the elevator doors. Still, he managed to avoid needing to be in traction, and she found it disheartening that only concrete stared back at them, rather than some light between floors. At first, she took his silence as an expression of disappointment in finding the wall, but his words immediately removed the assumption.

"He is my friend, and my friendships are dear to me." Her brow had long since furrowed, though her increasingly aggravated gaze remains on his person, despite the fact he'll not look at her. "There is nothing about my relationship with Helenus that should hinder my father in any aspect of his life--I would leave that to my sister who seems to despise my very existence at times.

"What does any of this have to do with you? Other than my father having you seek me out?" The tension in his voice had been noted, and the pull was there to ask him again what it was that bothered him so. But Phonos despised the fact that he being mortal meant that there were very real issues that he had never experienced before and should deal with. That meant emotions both good and bad, and that had been a never-ending battle between the pair of them, mainly the fault of Melinoe who had stepped over a line that should have never been crossed, despite the fact that she had desired it so.