“This is a whole new civilization,” Crocus said. “We know less about them than we do about the aliens. In some ways they will seem more familiar, yes, and we will share some cultural referents. In other ways they might surprise us more. They might have very different priorities. Many of the Masters came from times that did not value the classical world as it should be valued. I remember Klio and Lysias talking about what misfits they had been in their own times. And Lysias, who came from the mid-twenty-first century, was the last Master. Nobody from any time later than that had read the Republic in Greek and prayed to Athene to help set it up, or they would have been here. No Workers ever did. That isn’t a good sign. Besides, there were other human civilizations, on other continents of Earth, which had their own philosophical traditions and might not know or care anything about Platonism.”

“I don’t care about Platonism either, or the aliens. And whatever they’re like, they’ll still be there tomorrow, and going off to a debate on the day when Grandfather has died is heartless,” Thetis said.

“I’m consul. I think Grandfather would agree I should be there. And I really do have to go,” Marsilia said, climbing up onto Crocus’s back and taking hold of the braided blue and black web of harness that hung there. “Dion, Jason, thank you.”

I wanted to thank her as she and Crocus disappeared up the hill. This was the closest I had ever been to Thetis, and I was going to go with her all the way to Thessaly.

3. Marsilia

3

MARSILIA

I was woken the morning of the day when it all began by my daughter Alkippe bouncing on my stomach. It may not be the best way to wake up, but it’s far from the worst one. “Why are you still asleep?” she asked. I was often up before she was, up and washed and dressed and getting on with my morning. Now the sun was high, and casting a bright square of red-gold morning light on the foot of the bed, but I felt as if I could do with another whole night’s sleep.

“Yesterday was a long day,” I said.

“It can’t have been longer than nineteen hours. That’s how long days are.” Alkippe had that didactic tone kids always get when they’re beginning to learn how to muster facts for an argument.

“When people say they had a long day, they mean they made part of the night into day and didn’t get enough sleep. Or that a lot of things happened so it was an extremely busy day.” I yawned.

“It’s not a very precise term.”