“How will he anyway? She can’t have known we’d be the ones to come. I mean she must have known Grandfather couldn’t come, because of being in two times at once. So he’d have to send someone, but Athene wouldn’t know who. She might have expected it would be Porphyry. He’s the only one of my uncles who goes in and out of time.” Or I suppose he could have asked another of the Olympians. Hermes was only helping because he happened to be there, wasn’t he? For the first time I wondered why he had come to Plato when he did.

“I wonder why Athene chose a time she knew Apollo couldn’t reach? It can’t have been accidental. She must have had a reason. I think we should say we come from Athene, to collect what she left with him,” Hermes said. “If he asks who we are, we should simply tell him the truth.”

“But we already know it didn’t go well,” I said. “The way he reacted when he saw us.”

“If it’s not going to go well, then nothing we can think of will change that,” Hermes said.

We walked on in silence as I pondered the ramifications of that. We soon came into the main part of the city and passed the sleeping house where I had stayed when I had spent my year in Lucia. It looked exactly the same, except that there was a pea vine covered in orange flowers growing up the white-painted wall which was new—or no, of course, old. The vine had probably died of cold before I was born.

“It’s really quiet,” I said. “Where do you think everyone is?”

“Napping in the heat of the day,” he said, gesturing towards the latched shutters. “It’s a normal thing in Greece. In summer everything gets done in the morning and the evening.”

“That makes sense, because it is really hot,” I admitted. “I’m not sure I’ve ever been this hot.”

“I might be able to help make you more comfortable.” My red kiton didn’t change, but it immediately felt lighter. I wondered if the weight and warmth of my fishing clothes had been in it until then. After a moment, a little breeze sprang up, ruffling the water, now far below us, and evaporating the sweat from my face. Hermes smiled.

We came to the agora. A man and woman were sitting debating something at one of the tables outside the cafe, bending together over some papers. An old woman walked across the plaza carrying a whimpering toddler. Hermes wrinkled his nose at the freestanding wooden crucifix outside the church. I’d seen it before, so I pushed the door open and went inside.