“Joy to you, Hilfa,” Sokrates said. “And what a joy to meet one of your kind and learn that you exist.”

“Joy to you,” Ikaros echoed.

Hilfa turned to me and Thetis where we sat on the bed. “How do I welcome them? Should I bring them wine?” he asked in a loud whisper, as if this were a real question of whether they should be extended hospitality, a question to which there could be possible negative answers. They politely looked away, pretending not to hear.

“Yes, I’m sure they’d enjoy wine. I’ll get cups,” Thetis said. She got up off the bed, picked up the empty water jug from the table, and went off to the little storeroom.

“But are they humans, or gods?” Hilfa asked me, still in the same tone. “Or heroes perhaps?”

Behind Hilfa, I could see Ikaros make an uncomfortable movement with his hands and open his mouth without speaking. What should I say? Some people said Ikaros was a god, a new and different kind of god. Even among Ikarians there wasn’t any consensus about what Ikaros was. “They were human when they were in the City before. I really don’t know what they might be now,” I said, quietly but making no attempt to hide my words from the others, which wouldn’t have been possible anyway. It wasn’t as if I didn’t know that everyone else in the room probably knew more about it than I did. Certainly Pytheas would have had a better answer than my fumbling one. But Hilfa had asked me because he trusted me, and I was here to help him as best I could.

To my great relief, Thetis came back in with beakers and water before Hilfa asked me any more difficult questions. She began to mix the wine at the table. Everyone turned to watch her.

Hilfa took the two full beakers from Thee, and handed one to Sokrates and the other to Ikaros, who smiled at Hilfa and set down a pile of books on the table so he could take it. Thetis went around with the jug refilling cups. Sokrates and Ikaros each took the first ritual sip of their wine, thus formally accepting Hilfa’s hospitality and becoming his guest-friends.