“It’s so pointless,” he said. “Athene set us here to enact the Republic as best we can, to become philosopher kings and live the just life. We’ll be destroyed when the volcano takes down this side of the island. There’s no sense in going beyond that.”

“Because there’s no posterity,” I agreed. “No future, except for our souls. But don’t you feel you have a duty to Fate?”

“My excellence is here,” he said. “I feel my best self isn’t in acquiring divine powers and learning about them, it’s in living the good life here in Athenia.”

28. Arete

28

ARETE

I had heard so much about the City of Amazons and Ikaros that finally seeing them was almost a disappointment. The city was much like Athenia, like home only smaller, and not so well built. The Naming of Crocus was as impressive close up as it was from a distance—crouching Sokrates was bigger than a building, and Maia, younger but very recognizable, seemed to have her head almost in the clouds. Crocus himself was completely unrecognizable as anything, seeming equal parts Worker, human, and flowers. “It’s even bigger than his Last Debate,” I said.

“It was his first full-scale colossus,” Father said. “Crocus’s art has always been really interesting.”

“And he’s been making more of it,” I said.

Father nodded. “He’s one of the city’s most unexpected successes as a philosopher king. Sixty-One’s numerology confuses me, but Crocus is a true Platonist.”

“His art shows good people doing good things,” I said, gazing upward at the huge Maia. Her braid was falling down slightly, the way it did sometimes when she twisted it up before it was quite dry. I wondered what she thought of seeing herself this way.

Ikaros met us as soon as we stepped out onto the quay. He was a man in his early sixties, with a charming smile and a cloud of untamed silvery hair. He had a girl with him, an ephebe about my age, whom he introduced as his daughter Rhadamantha. My birthday had come while I was away. I would be cutting my hair and taking my tests when I got home again.

Ikaros kissed my hand and told me that I looked like my father, so I must have been blessed with my mother’s brains. While this came out as a compliment to me, it was subtly insulting to Father, but he only laughed. “I’m not such a fool as you think, Ikaros, for I have been chosen as envoy on this mission, and so far all the cities have agreed to come to the conference we are arranging.”