“Unless you know different, where we are doesn’t matter. It’s some remote spot where Athene thought you’d enjoy being a fly for a little while.” If you liked nature in the Romantic mode, it was beautiful. As we looked around, I heard a sound that reminded me of charging elephants, and a huge pink-and-green allosaur dashed past us, easily twice the length of an elephant but shorter and much less bulky, with small arms, an enormous head, and serrated teeth as long as my arm.

“Look, a big scary lizard!” Sokrates said, peering after it cheerfully. “What was it?”

“Maybe a wyvern?” Ikaros suggested.

“It’s not a lizard at all,” I said.

“Is it one of the creatures Lucretius talks about that wasn’t fitted for survival?” Ikaros asked, taking a step in the direction in which it had disappeared. “Or were they all hunted down in the age of heroes?”

“The former,” I said. “And they used to hunt in packs. Let’s go.”

Sokrates nodded after it thoughtfully, then turned back to me. “Where is Athene?” he asked. “We have unfinished business.”

I understood then what Pico had meant about why she hadn’t changed him back. Sokrates wanted to continue the Last Debate, even in a Jurassic swamp full of rampaging dinosaurs. Of course he did. If anyone was a perfect example of themselves, he was. And the reason Athene had changed him into a fly in the first place was because she had lost her temper and couldn’t bear to be defeated in a logical argument.

“She’s lost,” I said. Before he had time to respond, I went on. “Now I’m going to France in the Enlightenment to collect part of the message she sent about how we can rescue her. Do you two want to come, or should I take you to the Just City first?”

“Is that where we’ll be going afterwards?” Sokrates asked.

“Yes. Or rather, it’s where I’ll be going. If you want me to leave you somewhere else, I can do that. With some restrictions. And not here.” I was suddenly unsure. Volition really did mean letting them choose, whether I wanted to or not, and however terrible their choices might be. “Where do you want to be?”

“I asked Krito what I’d do in Thessaly, but he didn’t listen,” Sokrates said, still looking around him at the swamp. “I don’t know what France or the Enlightenment are, so let’s illuminate my ignorance a little by exploring them. And after that, the Just City by all means. I can do my work there.”

“You’ll love the Enlightenment,” Pico said enthusiastically, waving his hand to shoo away flies.

“Has Apollo been taking you on a tour of human history?”

“No, I’ve been working with Athene, and she has taken me to places,” Pico explained.