“Well—normally that would be true. But I don’t want to stay bound by Necessity any longer than I have to—it’s exceedingly unpleasant. And we don’t know if there’s time where Athene is, or if so how it works, or what’s happening to her there, and whether duration there has any connection to how things work here, or in time. So actually we should collect our puzzle pieces as rapidly as we can.”

“And do you have any idea why she did it this way—giving different people the pieces instead of leaving it all with Hilfa?”

“It does seem most peculiar, doesn’t it? Even using Hilfa. I sincerely hope it was explained in that letter my big brother wouldn’t let me see, and that it was a good explanation too. The Enlightenment, ugh.”

“I’ve never heard of the Enlightenment. What’s so awful about it?” I asked, curious.

“The wigs.” He shuddered and gestured with both hands an armspan from his head, and for an instant I saw a huge elaborately curled monstrosity, with a Saeli face peeking out beneath. My stomach lurched. I quickly looked back up into the peacefully waving branches. “They all wore the most appalling powdered wigs, all the time, huge ones, men and women.”

He was much too frivolous for me. He was right to think he was better suited to Thee. “Well, we’re not going there,” I said, briskly. “But I don’t know the exact year the City was founded, I’m afraid. Athene never told us.”

“We’ll go to the Thera eruption and work back,” he said. “I think you’d better try negotiating with Kebes in the first instance. You have more of an idea of their culture. Normally I’d take the personal time to learn, especially as it’s so interesting. As it is, it might be better if you make the first approach.”

I nodded without looking away from the fascination of the branches weaving across the sky. “All right. But what should I offer him?”

“Tell him you’ve come to collect whatever Athene gave him, that ought to be enough. And if not, try the gold in your new purse.”

“I suppose that might work,” I said. Everything I’d heard about Kebes made him seem likely to be sufficiently corrupt to accept a bribe.

“Failing that, we can offer to teach him some inappropriate songs,” Hermes said. I could hear the amusement in his voice. “What do they wear?”

“Kitons,” I said. I looked down at my cold-weather fishing gear. The Amarathi-made waterproof jacket seemed terribly out of place in the beautiful golden sunlight of this grove. “I should have changed before we left.”