And there it was, the great achievement of my political career, in haste, in the fountain room of Thessaly. Platonic Saeli didn’t need to ransom themselves individually from Jathery anymore. I had freed them all with a coin he had given me.

I don’t know how I sounded, but I was frightened inside the whole time. I’d spent all that time with Jathery, thinking gla was Hermes, but seeing gla in gla real form threatening Hilfa was terrifying. If I hadn’t spent that time with gla in disguise, and especially if I hadn’t known that we were guest-friends, I doubt I’d have been able to stand up to gla. I think it was what gla wanted, though. Gla wasn’t pretending. Gla would have liked to take back the power gla put into Hilfa. But gla was also tricking us, tricking me. Gla really wanted the Saeli to be free and equipped with Platonic ideas. Why else had gla given me the purse? It was one of gla riddles, and I think I guessed right.

I was focused on that, and it wasn’t until Sokrates used the word marriage that I fully realized what I’d done to my friends.

“Marriage!” Thetis said, pulling her hand away from Jason’s. I couldn’t look at Jason, so I looked at Hilfa. His expressionless face was soothing.

“A pod isn’t exactly a marriage,” I said. I was exhausted. The need to save Alkippe and then Hilfa had buoyed me up, and now that I had done it and they were both safe the relief came with a wave of tiredness and a familiar cramping in my belly that meant my bleeding would likely start the next morning.

“It’s the Saeli way of forming a family,” Jason said, speaking gently and looking at Thetis in that way nobody ever looked at me. “Hilfa was talking about it last night after you left.”

“But I—” Thee’s expression was comical as she looked from Sokrates to Hilfa to me and then back at Jason, who was standing there, solid and warm and reliable. You could always count on him to have your back.

“This is merely an expression of our intent to form a pod. We haven’t gone to a magistrate or asked a god for blessing, only said we could,” I said. Jason had taken my hand again, and Hilfa was still clinging to the other. Jason’s was warm, and Hilfa’s was slightly cold, as was normal for him. “Hilfa’s free now whatever we do, and so are the other Saeli. And anyway, nobody is trapped. Pods can be dissolved here. It takes the consent of all members, and the magistrate has to be satisfied by the arrangement for the care of children. Nobody who has been part of a pod dissolution may enter into any form of marriage for a year, including marriage at the Festival of Hera.”