They all looked a little stunned. “I’ll have to sing it to harder audiences,” I said. “But stopping the art raids is what this song is for. And that’s the best thing I can do now in memory of Simmea.”

“Not just stopping the pointless deaths, but bringing the City closer to excellence,” Neleus said, seeing the point at once, as Simmea would have done.

“All the cities,” Arete said.

I nodded. “All the cities. I want to teach you to sing the harmony, so you can sing it with me when we go.”

“There’s a harmony?” she asked.

“Yes. Why are you looking at me like that?” They were all staring at me with eyes wide open in astonishment.

“You never write songs with multiple parts,” Phaedrus said. “You always write things you can perform alone.”

“Well, this song can be sung alone, as you’ve just heard, and it will sound even better with Arete singing the harmony, and it also has an arrangement that can be sung as a choral ode with parts for a whole chorus, which I am planning to have sung before the conference. But you’re going to have to rehearse them, Phaedrus, because Arete and I will be going around to the other cities to persuade them to come.”

They still looked stunned. I smiled, and sat down and began to eat a lemon.

“Have you ever written something for a chorus before?” Neleus asked. “Ever, ever? I know you haven’t done it in the City.”

“I haven’t, and it was an interesting challenge, especially without any privacy on the boat to work on it. But you wait until you hear the choral version, with the men’s chorus singing low down home and hearth and love and life and the women’s chorus singing high up worth the cost of risking life and the lines working with and against each other.” I sang the lines as I quoted them. They kept on staring at me. “Yes, it’s a new thing for me. But life is about moving forward and learning new things.”

“You’ve stopped being cracked,” Arete said.

“Yes, I think I finally have. I haven’t stopped missing her. But I’m whole again. I’m finally doing what she wanted.”

“Stopping the art raids?” Euklides asked.

“That’s part of it,” I said.

27. Arete

27

ARETE

In our absence, my brother Euklides had run away from Psyche and sworn a new oath to the Remnant City. He was staying in Thessaly and drilling with the Delphian troop. His armor stood on a stand in the corner, and he had moved things around in the house. He apologized for disturbing things, and said he didn’t know whether he was host or guest, welcoming us back. It was wonderful to see him, but on the second day after our return he discovered that Kallikles and Phaedrus and I had powers.