Say something,” Pytheas said after I’d been staring at them for a long moment. “I’m all right. I’m cured,” I said. “But I—. You. How, why?” They looked at each other for an instant, and then back at me. There might be gods who couldn’t have deduced what I meant from that, but these two were not among them. “Asklepius told her?” Septima asked. “Why?” “Nobody told me. I worked it out. It was obvious. I turned around and saw you and I knew.” “Half the masters know about you anyway,” Pytheas said. “And Simmea won’t tell anyone.” “Why are you doing this?” I asked. “You knew I helped to set up the city. Now I’m living in it for a little while, and still helping. It needs my help.” Septima frowned. “Is my brother right? Will you keep this secret?” “Why is it a secret?” I asked. “So I can live here quietly, without any fuss, and experience it normally,” she said. I thought about Septima, about her strange halfway status in the library.
