Episode 3.b
>Vulcan's Forge, mythic time, after the Titanomachy<
Vulcan stands at his anvil now, solid and whole, and his hammer is moving. The three brothers strike with him, one after another, and the whole forge rings. Between them, the thing they have made lies cooling on the stone: a narrow shaft of metal that splits into a fork at one end. Even lying still, it throws a hard white light across the cavern, brighter than the forge fire and brighter than anything you have ever seen. It is a lightning bolt, and Vulcan has made it for the new king of the gods.
The new king won't come near it.
He is young, much younger than you would expect a king of the gods to be. He is broad in the shoulders but doesn't look fully grown into himself yet, and he stands well back from the bolt with his arms folded tight, staring at it.
"I overthrew my father for this," he says, half to you and half to himself. "Saturn ruled, and I took the throne from him. Now they hand me a thing that can split a mountain in two and tell me it's mine." He doesn't move toward it. "How do I know I can be trusted with something like that? How could anyone know? My father was always sure of himself, and look where that led."
Vulcan glances up from the anvil but keeps quiet. This part isn't his to fix.
Quintus stands beside you, watching the young god watch the bolt. "He's right to be afraid of it," he says softly. "That's the honest truth. What I don't know is whether being afraid makes him the right one to hold it, or the wrong one." He turns to you. "I really don't. What do you think?"
The flame in your hand has gone calm and watchful, as if it is waiting to hear what you'll say.
Prompt: Jupiter has won his throne, but he won't pick up the lightning that makes him king. He doesn't trust himself with that much power, and in his own way, he is asking you to change his mind. What do you say to him?
