“Don’t make any promises,” Marsilia said, cutting across her. “We will need to debate this. I think many of us will support Hilfa’s desire. I certainly will, but this is important.”

“What good is it you being consul, Marsilia, if—” Thetis began.

Pytheas looked up from the paper and stared at Hilfa. Simply by raising his head, he riveted all our attention, and Thee fell silent. His face was inscrutable, his lips slightly parted as if caught in the middle of a gasp or a smile.

“Are you going to share that with the rest of us?” Hermes asked.

Pytheas looked serenely at his brother. “She has gone beyond what lies outside time, into the Chaos of before and after, to discover how the universe begins and ends. She has done this with the help of a Saeli god of knowledge, Jathery. In case she had difficulty returning, she has left me the explanation of how to do this. Her explanation is divided into parts, each of which she has left with a different person, in a different place and time.” His voice was level, calm, and absolutely furious.

“Father will kill her,” Hermes said. He sounded awestruck and impressed. “He’ll hang her upside-down over the abyss for eternity with anvils on her fingers.”

“You know he never does anything to Athene,” Pytheas said, absently. “No, I think it’s worse than that. She’s broken Father’s edicts, obviously, but I think this time she might have gone too far and be up against Fate and Necessity.”

“What does that mean?” Thetis asked.

“It means she could be lost forever. And we might be too if we go after her,” Hermes said. He smiled at Thetis.

“Is this something Ikaros dreamed up?” Marsilia asked. “It sounds a bit like one of his ideas.”

“She worked on the idiotic plans with him, but she hasn’t taken him with her,” Pytheas said.

Hermes drained his cup and set it down decisively on the table. “We should locate the pieces of her explanation.”

“Maybe we should go to Father,” Pytheas said.

“But I’m safe from Necessity,” Hermes said. “And we should at least collect the pieces of her explanation first. When we have that, we’ll have a better idea of whether we could help her.”

“But we don’t need to. Father will already know how to do it,” Pytheas said. “And don’t you think this might be why he sent you to get me now?”

“It would be better if we can sort this out without him,” Hermes said. “At least, better to try.”

“Whatever he won’t do to Athene, he wouldn’t hesitate to do to us.”

“Why does Zeus never punish Athene?” Thetis asked unexpectedly.

“We don’t know, but we think it’s because he ate her mother,” Pytheas said. “Our previous goddess of wisdom. Metis.”

“Ate her?” I asked, horrified enough to speak out.

“Another thing Plato left out?” Hermes asked.