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Oi. Madison was beginning to see a few potential hiccups in her grand plan to get herself a boyfriend who was the strong, silent type. Why had he even brought her here, anyway? She wanted to ask him that directly, but she was struggling to think of a way to make it not sound terribly rude.

Seriously, though, what a weird place to bring a date. Well, maybe he didn’t think it was a date. In fact, he probably didn’t. It was her hopeful delusions that had put that idea in her head, she knew.

Dammit. How was she supposed to save the situation? The silence was already so long and awkward. She could do it, couldn’t she? Being a social butterfly was practically her job--no, her life.

That had mostly come from attending tons of ritzy parties, though. And this was not that.

She didn’t have much experience dealing with people like this. Hell, did anyone have much experience with it?

“Do you know of Lhutwë?” said Dimas, stirring Madison from her thoughts.

Agh, she had to pay better attention. That was key to any good social interaction, she knew. Paying attention to whoever you’re talking to--and not paying so much attention to yourself. When you paid too much attention to yourself, you became self-conscious, and when you became self-conscious, you became uncertain and awkward. Avoiding that pitfall was usually easy, but it got a lot harder when the person you were talking to didn’t actually talk.

Regardless, it was a rookie mistake. She did her best to recover, though. “Oh. Um. Ah... Lhutwë? Is that... some kind of Rainlord cuisine?”

Dimas’ expression flashed with the faintest hint of what looked like a smile. Or irritation, perhaps. Madison couldn’t really tell.

“No,” the tall man said. “Lhutwë is the name of the old water god whom our ancestors worshiped.”

“Ooh...” Yikes. That one had been a genuine airhead moment. She hoped he didn’t think she was a complete idiot now. “I, ah... I guess I’m not all that knowledgeable when it comes to religion. I only know a little bit about Cocora, and that’s it.”

“I see.”

Crap. She needed to step her game up and try to ask an intelligent question or something. “But, um... I’m curious about them.” Okay, maybe that would’ve been a lie two minutes ago, but it was totally true now. “Is there a reason why you only said that your ancestors worshiped him? Or, wait, is Lhutwë a woman?”

“No, Lhutwë is described as male.”

“Ah, okay. I love it when I assume things that turn out to be true. It sure is better than the opposite thing.”

“I am not sure I understood your first question. A reason why I said only my ancestors?”

“Oh, I meant, like, did you mean that you don’t worship him anymore? And if so, why?”