As I looked around the room, which was only about half as full as the day before, I felt filled with social anxiety. Almost everyone in Thessaly was a god or a close connection of a god, and none of them were people I knew. Thetis was sitting laughing with her mother, she didn’t even glance at me. Why was I invited to this party? I accepted a cup of wine from Kallikles, Pytheas’s son who was in charge of lightning and electricity. “I recognize you now, you’re the fellow who works on the boat with Marsilia,” he said.

“Jason,” I said. “And this is Hilfa, who works with us too.”

Hilfa took his wine, and we escaped through the fountain room into the garden. It was cool out, but not bitingly chilly like the night before. Crocus was looming large in the corner, talking to Pytheas and Sokrates, who was waving his arms about. Over in the other corner, where there was a carved herm, Athene and Ikaros were deeply engaged in conversation with Neleus and a stranger, a beautiful woman with teased-up hair, dressed in a green and black stripy thing. She looked over at us, and I saw she had bright Saeli eyelids, and at once realized who she was.

Gla left the others and came towards us. As gla walked across the garden gla changed with each stride, growing taller, gla hair and clothes and female body fading away. As gla reached us gla had completely transformed and was entirely Jathery again: huge, naked, greenish-gold, with very distinct dark markings writhing across gla skin. Hilfa tried to hide behind me.

“Joy to you, Jathery,” I said, and tried to think how to follow this. “I see you’ve returned safely. And found Athene too.”

“I’d like to speak to Hilfa for a moment, if you’ll excuse us,” gla said.

“I don’t think Hilfa wants to speak to you,” I said, though it was difficult to refuse gla, especially as gla made gla request seem so reasonable. The best of their gods? I hated to think what the others must be like. “I think Hilfa’s terrified of you. I think all the Saeli are. How does a god of knowledge come to be so frightening to gla people?”

“Are you not afraid of Athene?” gla asked, gently.

I looked over at where Athene was standing listening to something Neleus was saying, and found courage in the sight of her, so like her statues. “A little awed, certainly. I’d be intimidated if she wanted to speak to me. I’m only a Silver. But I also love her. I would do the best I could.”

“And the Saeli also love me,” Jathery asserted. The markings on gla skin changed and shifted as gla spoke, making new patterns.