When glint of light-hearted amusement entered Iason's eyes, Persephone couldn't help but return the feeling and likely show the same in her own expression. It had been so long since she had taken a simple joy in her life such as riding to the cliffside and looking out across the city and harbours. She would wish for someone in her future who could enjoy such small things also... and by the lightening of Lord Iason's expression and the calming of his frame, it looked as though he might be just someone of that ilk.

Watching him from the corner of her eye as she was able to give her first hello to her steed in several weeks, Persephone felt a little piece of herself warm to Iason when he was kind to the animal before him. Persephone's mother, Queen Lucille, had always insisted that you could tell the kindness of a man's heart by how he treated those of a weakened position. Not his peers nor his superiors - but those who were at their mercy. Like animals, children or slaves. For a man who showed unkindness or harshness to those he considered unworthy might one day, for whatever reason he saw, consider their partner as just such... and then that harshness would be theirs to face. A man who showed mercy and a protective spirit. That was man worthy of putting your safety into the hands of.

Keeping that momentary tidbit of internal though to herself, Persephone kept her focus on the gelding before her, only distracted from it when Lord Iason came to her side to offer her a hand in ascending into her saddle.

"Yes, I think we shall."

With a polite smile of thanks, Persephone took the man's offered help, surprised to note the roughness of his palm against the smoothness of her fingers - for no nobleman she had ever shaken hands with had work-worn hands - she used his support to push herself up unto position on the back of her horse.

The shirts of her chiton had been altered for the day and sewn in a manner that allowed her legs to part over the back of the creature and have two skirts hanging down each leg. Such a design allowed only her dainty feet in their golden sandals to be on show despite her riding astride the gelding.

It was only once the two of them were on horseback and, with their escort of half a dozen soldiers that Lord Diomedes had provided, heading through the streets of the Inner Circle of the city, that Persephone chose to ride beside Lord Iason and address his earlier question of why such an apparently random change of plans.

"I cannot give you a firm answer, my Lord, but I can give you an honest one." She told the man, their conversation lost to all but themselves in the hustle and bustle of the streets and the calls of the people to their princess.

Persephone smiled and raised a hand in greeting to the ladies or men who stared, she wiggled her fingers in a miniature wave to the little girls who jumped and pointed her way, staring at her gown and the piece of gold ivy in her hair.

"I love my home. I love my family and I respect and honour my position." She began in order to seek a truthful response to his equally honest curiosity. "But to stay within the palace walls only reminds me of what I am, as opposed to who." She said with a glance his way to see if he might understand the meaning in her turn of phrase. "I feel that, if we are to move forward with our... negotiations." She smile she shot him conveyed that she only used the word over another because they were in mixed company. "I cannot help but feel it is important for use each to get to know both."

And with a bright smile, Persephone raised a hand to instruct the men around them to move faster. With a call of "make way!", the guards surrounding them sped to a trot and then kicked their mounts into a canter as they headed through the calmer streets on the outskirts of the Inner Circle. Persephone made sure to keep pace with her own beast and followed carefully, knowing the route they were taking by heart.

The path she had mapped out ahead of time and insisted that the guards followed was one that would lead them immediately from the inner circle to the city walls and then out onto the open lands around the capitol. The road they then took wound around the crescent clifftop and out towards a large and circular precipice that looked out over the Aegean Sea.

As they rode down the path - no more than worn strip in the grassy lands - Persephone felt the wind quicken and the air turn salty on her tongue as the breeze caught tendrils of her hair and sent the curls flying.

Upon reaching the cliffside edge, they were able to look down and across at the harbours of Athenia, not to mention were offered the entire visage of the capitol site.

"I like to imagine this is how the Gods feel." Persephone offered to Iason as they looked out over the cityscape. "Looking down on us from their Olympian home." She smiled at her potential suitor and then with a quick instruction of "Come..." Led him out onto the open precipice, a few trees and bushes stood to one side. Riding beneath the shadow of their branches, Persephone hopped down from her mount without aid and then fastened the leading rein of the horse to one of the tree's limbs, making sure it was tight enough to save them leaving if a fright was had but offering length enough that the creature could dip their head to the ground to eat at the grass.

Stepping back into the sunshine where one of her guards was depositing several woven baskets from the back of his own ride, Persephone nodded her thanks at him and then waves a hand towards the main cliff.

"Offer us a perimeter of security. No-one is to disturb us." She told them, ensuring that just such a perimeter was outside of earshot before she was ready to turn back to the Taengean Lord.

"Are you too high and mighty, my lord, to sit in the dirt with me?" She asked with a smile, before lowering herself to the soft green grass that coated the land right to its grand and dangerous edge. Her gown of burnt umber spread about her legs like a pool of sunlight and she brushed a few of her curls back behind her ear before the wind could snag them once more...