Episode 4.1.a
>Sextus's Villa, Pompeii, Italy, 79 CE<
Sextus meets you at the door with the look of a man who has already decided what comes next and is pleased about it.
"Good," he says. "You are here. I have been reading about the Trojan War, and now you are going to learn something." He holds up a wax tablet. "Sit down."
The world around you flickers and begins to dissolve.
You are standing in a royal hall. The columns are painted red at the base and the ceiling is high and dark with smoke from years of fires. A king sits at the far end with a scepter across his knees, and the argument has clearly been going for some time: voices raised, hands moving, men talking over each other in the way of people who have stopped listening and are simply waiting for their turn to speak again.
The king is watching the debate unfold, but is clearly distracted. He is a broad-shouldered man with a dark beard, and whatever is occupying him is not the argument in front of him. His lips move, barely, and his hand is closed tight on the arm of his throne.
"There is something in Troy," he says, to no one in particular, or perhaps to you. "Paris knows what it is. He took it when he took Helen, or he knew it was there and Helen was the excuse." His grip tightens. "I intend to have it."
Around him, the other leaders argue about honor and obligation and the will of the gods. He lets them argue. He already knows how this ends.
He glances up and sees you. Something shifts in his expression: not surprise, exactly, but a recalculation. He straightens and nods toward the assembled leaders.
"Come," he says. "Sit with the others. Make your case."
Prompt: Choose a hero who might be present at the debate over whether to go to war with Troy. The only ones off limits are Agamemnon and Achilles. Convince the others of your point of view.
