“So now can we form a pod?” he asked, as we walked out of the side room and into the main part of the temple.

“What?” I kept thinking the day couldn’t hold any more surprises, and then finding that it could.

“I have fulfilled my purpose and should be free now. I can change my name and take oath and form a pod. Arete said I belonged here, and Marsilia said she’d argue for me to take oath. So we can form a pod now,” Hilfa said. The statue of Amphitrite looked as surprised as I felt.

“You do belong here, and you should certainly take oath if that’s what you want, and I know that Saeli live in pods, but what does that have to do with me?” I asked.

“The two of us, and Marsilia, that’s three, and Thetis, four,” he said, waving his free hand. “We need one more to be five. A pod. A family. Maybe Dion? Though he’s so much older.”

“Marsilia and Thetis—look, Hilfa, this isn’t how it works. And humans don’t make pods of five. You should make a pod with Saeli, surely. Don’t you want children?”

“There are children already,” Hilfa said. “Camilla, and little Di. And Alkippe. You could make more. And I could have children.”

“Not with humans,” I said, sure of myself on that. “You’d need a Saeli pod for that, like I said.”

“No. I would need an egg, that’s all. Pods are about childraising, not genetics.”

“But where would you get an egg?” I asked. “Athene isn’t going to give you one in a box.”

He laughed his learned laugh and started walking again, out of the temple and into the chill of the street. “No. I would fertilize one in my body, or find one in the sea.”

“The sea’s not full of Saeli eggs, is it?” I looked out towards the peaceful starlit water as if expecting to see it suddenly swarming with young Saeli.

“Yes, it is. Most Saeli don’t want babies most of the time, and so they discharge eggs swimming. Fish eat many of them, but many survive. But don’t worry, none will hatch unless brought out and touched with the right … I don’t know the word. The right touch. By one of my gender.”

I thought of all the times I’d seen Saeli swimming, and shuddered at no more than the thought of how cold the water was. “Do people know this? Do the consuls know that the sea is full of Saeli eggs?” I asked.