This man didn't recognize the word Cthonic? It wasn't an easy time, trying to adjust to what people did or didn't share in common with his world. For all Zagreus knew, there were people here who likely didn't even know what death was - and, as Hypnos put it so aptly time after time, death was his family's life.

The phrase about being a prisoner, though, did make him laugh, a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Hah! Maybe I would have once called myself a prisoner, but I'm sure my father would have accused me of being quite over dramatic. If I'm a prisoner to anything, I'm a prisoner to Fate. I was born in the Underworld; that's what Cthonic means, 'of the Underworld.' It's for this reason that apparently the surface world isn't very good for my health. Neither are talismans meant to ward off the dead, it seems."