“It can get highly uncomfortable,” Jathery said. “Even knowing there’s a really good reason not to go back and sort things out, I’ve been getting more and more uncomfortable about not doing it. It’s like pain. It’s harder and harder not to act to relieve it. It takes a great deal of will to resist. I couldn’t last this way much longer. Resisting inevitability is difficult, and much better avoided.” The markings on his skin writhed unsettlingly and re-formed themselves.

“Like on Delos,” Arete said, looking at Pytheas.

“And again, freedom?” Sokrates asked.

Pytheas was frowning. “We’re free within Fate and Necessity. The more we tangle ourselves up with them—and that would be nothing but a deliberate tangle—the less we are free to act. Our past actions bind our future selves, and all we gods do is remembered in art. The more we want to be able to change and grow and pursue excellence, the more we need to leave ourselves open to that.”

“And the same for humanity too?” Sokrates asked, cheerily.

“Mortals never know, so they are always free to act,” Pytheas said.

I noticed he said mortals, where Sokrates had said humanity. Sokrates hadn’t really had time yet to take in what the Saeli presence meant.

“And when you make predictions to them, through your oracles?” Sokrates asked.

“My oracles give useful guidelines and let people know how to get the attention of the gods,” Pytheas said.

“But if you went into the future now, could you see Jason’s fate, and come back and tell him today exactly what will happen in his life and how much fish he will catch every day until he dies?” Sokrates asked.

“Please don’t!” I said at once.

Pytheas smiled at me. “Don’t worry. All gods learn early that it doesn’t do any good to warn people about their future. Necessity makes the steps they take to avoid it turn out to be exactly what will make it happen. Look at Oedipus. Advice can be useful, sometimes; actual prophecy mostly becomes self-defeating. It’s much better for oracles to be ambiguous. Necessity is a very powerful force.”

“But you do know people’s fate?” Sokrates asked.

“Sometimes. It depends whether we’ve been paying attention.”

Sokrates screwed up his face. “So doing what Jason suggested wouldn’t help because you’d have to go anyway, whether it succeeds or fails?”

“Yes. And it’s so unpleasant to be caught up by Necessity we don’t want to any more than we have to. It feels like being pinned. So it’s better to stay free and take actions without knowing.”

“Why do you have to go?” Marsilia asked.

“We already went through all this!” Pytheas said impatiently.

“I mean can’t Jathery go after her alone? Gla’s the one who has the shield of Necessity, not you,” Marsilia said, though she was still not looking at Jathery.