“That gla will get me alone and unmake me. Gla is one of my parents, Arete said. I think gla could do that, now that gla and Athene don’t need me as an anchor anymore,” Hilfa said, looking down so I could not see his eyes but only the turquoise and orange of the lids. “I thought now that my purpose was fulfilled I could be free. But Jathery put power into me, and now I think instead gla will take gla part of me back, to be stronger.”

“Kill you?”

“Worse than kill me. I do not want to cease to be me, but I could bear it. I am afraid gla will unbind my soul. Gla and Athene made my soul. Gla could take back what gla put into it.” He rocked once and then back, then looked up at me. “Don’t leave me alone with gla, Jason. Please.”

“No way. But I don’t think gods can make souls. I think it was your body Arete was talking about. And she said you’re part human too, remember, and belong to Plato. You’re a child of gods. You must have a heroic soul.” I put my hand on his shoulder.

“Arete did say I belong here,” Hilfa said, tentatively, as if testing a proposition.

Marsilia stepped from the main room into the fountain room as he was saying this. “Of course you do, Hilfa. I’ve been enquiring, and Dad says if you enroll in classes now, you can take oath in the spring.”

“I want to take oath right now. Then I’d belong to Plato and not to Jathery. You’re consul. You could hear it.” There was a note of panic in his tone.

Marsilia shook her head. “It has to be done at the altar before the archons. And it can’t be rushed, because you have to be classified, and that takes a lot of thought.”

“Pah. I am Silver, like Jason and Dion. I work on the boat.”

“But I work on the boat too, and perhaps you should be Gold like me,” Marsilia said. “It’s not easy or quick, making that decision for anyone. And why are you in a hurry anyway?”

As she asked, Jathery came into the fountain room, with Sokrates in hot pursuit.

“I want to speak to Hilfa, before I answer any more of your enquiries,” gla said. Sokrates shrugged and caught my eye, as if to say he had done his best.

“Then speak to him,” I said. “He’s here.”

“We need to speak alone.” Again, gla made it seem like such a reasonable request that it was hard to protest.