We sighed simultaneously. Choosing classifications was the hardest part of political work. If we made a mistake, we’d lose a citizen, or worse, bind somebody where they’d be unhappy as well as unproductive. Every year we lost some people when they were classified, and while we often gained more than we lost as others joined us from other cities, it always felt like a failure. And when the newcomers chose to take our citizenship examinations, they were the hardest of all to classify, because we didn’t know them as well. I sometimes welcomed it when newcomers chose to live here as metics instead, though that had its own complications. Athenia still didn’t allow metics, but all the other cities did now.

As we came up to the Temple of Hestia, the doors opened and a crowd came out and went off down the street. “Is there a festival I didn’t know about?” I asked, surprised.

“I expect they went to pray for reassurance,” Dad said. “People do that sometimes, when things are uncertain. They want the gods to listen and help. I sometimes think they’d be less inclined towards that kind of thing if they knew more gods.”

“They do know them, though?” I protested.

“Not as well as we do, having them in the family.” He sighed. “If Father is in Thessaly tonight, and godlike, he’ll be different. Don’t be surprised.”

I didn’t ask how he’d be different. I’d met Athene once. “It’s such a strange thought, him dying and maybe being there anyway.”

“The only time he talked to me about it, before he went up against Kebes, he said he’d come back a heartbeat later and get revenge,” Dad said. “He didn’t say what he’d look like, and that’s the only time I remember him talking about it, when he knew his life was on the line. He didn’t imagine living out forty more years on a planet full of black rocks and volcanoes. None of us could have imagined it.”

“I love this planet,” I said. “I think it’s beautiful.” I was used to older people complaining about it.

“We all love Plato, whether we like it or not, but we still couldn’t have imagined it,” Dad said.

We were at Aroo’s house, and Dad scratched at the door. One of her podmembers answered it. Saeli live in pods of five adults, with assorted children. I’d never met any Saeli who didn’t live in a pod, except Hilfa, of course. The podmember wished us joy and called for Aroo, who came out at once to join us. “I have spoken briefly to the ship, and they are highly pleased with the news of better communication,” she said. “And I have found a technician who was already at the spaceport and who has reported to the communications room.”