It was a big space, but crowded now. The seats were packed with people when we arrived, more people than I had ever seen in one place before, perhaps more people than lived in the Remnant. Some were sitting on blankets and sharing picnics. A girl with a little piping flute was wandering through the crowd and being given presents—or no, I reminded myself, money. They used money here.

The nine judges were sitting on raised seats down on the stage. Neleus was among them. The other three from the ship were Klymene, Ficino, and Erinna. From the city were Nikias, immediately recognizable as Neleus’s father, Aristomache, and three strangers. I wondered if it would be good or bad that the ninth judge was from Lucia. It was the most likely outcome of choosing by lot. There were ninety of us and more than three thousand of them.

Father was wearing his cloak, pulled back over his shoulder to show the two swords through his belt. Phaedrus carried the lyre. Everyone fell silent when they saw us and then a murmur went through the crowd, which parted to let us pass. It was like a play, and I felt that we should have had time to make costumes before our grand entrance, or at least re-dye our kitons so that we all matched. I would have put us all in black and gold, but any unified color would have done. As it was we were hopeless. Father’s cloak was pink, embroidered with scrolls and suns, one of Mother’s favorite patterns. His kiton was plain white, as he generally preferred. Phaedrus’s kiton was blue, embroidered six inches deep with four different patterns, and mine was a faded yellow embroidered with red Florentine lilies.

There was no sign of Kebes.

We walked down one of the clear aisles and onto the stage. The judges were sitting toward the farther side, on a row of chairs. In the center was a strange piece of wood, almost as tall as I was and about half that broad, with two iron loops bolted into it at the top and another two near the bottom. It was just one straight upright, not a cross, but it had something of the same feel as the crucifix outside the temple. I had no idea what it was for.

Aristomache came forward and introduced the judges to us. The three strangers, two women and a man, were strangers to Father too, it seemed. Their names were Sabina, Erektheus, and Alexandra. Everyone wished each other joy. Erinna was biting her lip, looking very serious.