“She wishes you joy too, Crocus, and many years of making art and helping to lead the City and fruitful philosophy, and at last many joyful rebirths.”

She grunted again, and Arete laughed through her tears. “She says she’s always thought it’ll be so funny for her relatives to see her disappear as a young woman and reappear a second later as she is now. She says coming to the City has meant she’s had a better life than she could ever have imagined.”

“Ah—” Maia said, and now even I understood her. Sokrates, dying in Athens, had asked Krito to offer a cock to Asklepius for his recovery from life. In the City, it was what almost everyone said when they felt themselves dying. Then she disappeared at the moment of death, as all the Masters and Children did, her body drawn back by Athene’s power to the moment she had left to come to the City, leaving her cloak empty behind her.

We voted unanimously to name a mountain after her, which is the highest honor we give in the Republic. Maia left a great legacy and is remembered honorably by everyone. I still miss her.

The purpose of death I understand, though I worry about it in my own case. But I do not understand why the process has to be so indecorous and uncomfortable for humans.

14. Apollo

14

APOLLO

All the time since I had read Athene’s letter the question of where she might have put Sokrates had been tickling the back of my mind. It had to be somewhere I wouldn’t guess, by definition, or I wouldn’t need Pico to tell me where to find him. But he only spoke Greek, so it had to be somewhere Greek-speaking, and somewhere either obscure enough that nothing he did would be remembered, or somewhere so full of philosophers he wouldn’t stand out. The second option seemed more like Athene. Pythagorean Kroton or Roman Alexandria were the likeliest choices, but of course she’d know I’d know that.