“But you are,” he said, picking out the books and piling them on the bed. “You are the perfect Apollo. You’re the light. And both of you grow and change and become more excellent, while remaining perfect as you are. Perfection isn’t static. It’s a dynamic form.”

“Is this your new theory?” I asked warily.

“That part was in the New Concordance,” he said, smiling reminiscently. “Klio and I came up with it long ago.”

“So you think Athene is perfect in her imperfections? Including turning Sokrates into a fly and dropping him off in some swamp millions of years ago? Why didn’t she simply take him to Athens where he could have bitten some of his friends?” He had bitten me, after his transformation, and then flown away. She must have caught him as soon as he was out of sight, and taken him to this location.

“I don’t know. I told her you’d take me with you anyway, but she wanted to be sure.” He looked guiltily down at the books. Then he picked them up and tucked them under his arm. “Let’s go.”

Taking him with me, I stepped out of time, and back in at Athene’s precise coordinates of time and place. Red rocks stuck out of dense green swampland vegetation. It was warm and humid, and there were many flies. Pico, still clutching his books, looked around delightedly. For an instant I thought I could never identify Sokrates among the other flies, and that this must be an impossible test Athene had set me for reasons of her own. But he was my votary and my friend. He flew to me at once, and as soon as I saw him I knew his soul, even as a fly, as he had recognized me incarnate. Tears sprang to my eyes. At once I changed him back to his proper form, and there he was, exactly the same as he had been when I had last seen him in the Last Debate, in the same plain white kiton that was slightly frayed at the hem.

“Apollo!” he said, smiling at me. It was always his joke, to name me and pretend he was swearing. He looked around. “Ikaros!”

“Sokrates, I am so glad to see you!” We hugged each other, and then he hugged Ikaros.

“I’m very glad to see you too. Speaking of seeing, did you know that vision is entirely different when you’re a fly? Where in the world are we?” He looked around at the lush bushes and ferns all around us.