I didn’t wait for my kiton but walked on, naked as in the palaestra, leaving the others behind. If we had to be back on the ship by nightfall, I didn’t have long. There was a spring I needed to find, and I knew where it was. I kept walking around shadow-buildings that didn’t exist yet, like the opposite of ruins, potentials. The spring was in a grove of trees, exactly where I had known it would be. I heard it before I saw it and pushed through the trees to come to it. When I came out into the clearing around the spring my two hero brothers were there, grave-faced, waiting in silence. Everything felt right, even that I was naked and they were clothed. We did not speak. Kallikles brought out a cup from the fold of his kiton, which he held out to me. I took it in both hands and dipped it into the pool, raised it high so that sunlight reflected into the water, then poured out a few drops on the ground and drank. I passed it to Phaedrus, who drank and passed it on to Kallikles. We kept on passing it around between the three of us until the cup was empty.

All this time, since my foot had first touched the shore, I hadn’t thought, only acted, and everything I had done had been inevitable, necessary, and right. Once the cup was empty that changed, and I was only myself again, not a vessel of divinity, but I didn’t want to speak and break the silence. Phaedrus put his hand on my shoulder, and without discussing it we all began to walk back toward the ship. By the time the sea was in sight I felt more nearly normal, though I noticed that we all kept avoiding the future-ghosts of temples.

Ficino handed me my kiton, and I put it on. Unusually for him, he didn’t ask any questions, though his gaze was sharp. I sat down next to him. There was food ready, nut porridge and baked fish, and I ate it hungrily. The priests of Apollo, a man and a woman, came and blessed us, sprinkling water on us from branches with green leaves. I accepted their blessing with the others, avoiding my brothers’ eyes.

Klymene came over and sat down by Kallikles, who made room for her. “Joy to you, son,” she said.

“Joy,” he muttered.

Klymene rolled her eyes and turned to Ficino. “They know Minos, and Troy, and Mycenae, but no names of kings we could offer,” Klymene said to Ficino. I was listening, but like my brothers I didn’t want to talk yet. I just sat there eating in silence.

“Have they seen Kebes?” Ficino asked.