(THE QUEEN WITH THE PEACOCK FAN AND THE GIRL IN THE SHORT BLACK DRESS)<br/><br/>Hera smiled.  When she did condescend to milling about with humans and engaging in conversation with them, she preferred talking to humans with brains that kept their wits about them.  She checked off this box in Zafira's favor.  Now Hera needed to decide how to deal with the question.  But first, another glass of wine.<br/><br/>She looked for a nearby bartender and was delighted that she spied Dion.  He turned and she caught his eye.  Something unspoken passed between them, he produced a bottle of Limniona from under the bar and presented it to her for inspection.<br/><br/>"Dear Dion," said Hera with a genuine smile, "you don't need to go through the formalities with me.  I know that you'd never serve me with less than the best you have available."  Dion's smile seemed less than genuine and Hera understood why.  She understood that she was, in part, responsible for his mother's death, not to mention what she'd personally done to him.  But Hera had put that chapter behind her.  Dion uncorked the bottle and left it there for the two women before leaving the bar.<br/><br/>Hera poured herself another glass and raised it in a salute to Zafira, this time sipping from the glass.  She smiled and replied to the mortal's question, "How do I know your name...?  What's that term they use in the movies...?"  She playfully let it hang there.  She knew all the terms in the movies.  "Psychic?  Mutant?  Witch?  Goddess?  Pick one."<br/><br/>Reading the wariness and resentment in the mortal, Hera decided to be a little less of a bitch.  "I'm sorry, dear girl.  You're thinking that I'm being something of a bitch and you're right.  I much liked your earlier thoughts, the ones that you had when you were first looking at me.  They were quite flattering and enticing."  She sipped more from her glass and motioned for Zafira to do the same.  "It's just that my cheating husband, the muscle man with the magnetic personality, drives me crazy with jealousy.  Then I see you, this lovely young woman, who looks to be just the type he'd try to sweet talk into his bed."<br/><br/>Hera spread her fan open, momentarily looking into the design of the feathers that resembled eyes.  Not looking at Zafira, Hera said aloud and mostly to herself, "He's here."  She closed the fan.  Turning back to the young woman, she said, "You might dissuade him from hitting on you by claiming to love women, but he's so arrogant he might take it as a challenge to show you what you're missing."