Episode 2.b
>The Divine Hearth, mythic time, the theft<
The hearth is steady now. Vesta stands beside it, and the flame burns clean and strong in the pale stone basin. The room feels whole in a way it did not when you arrived.
Then someone else is here.
He is tall and lean and he moves quickly. He carries a fennel stalk, dry and hollow, and crosses the room toward the hearth without hesitation. He has done this before, or he has planned it so thoroughly that it makes no difference. He does not look at Vesta. He does not look at you. He reaches the stalk toward the flame.
Nothing happens. The fire pulls away from him.
He tries again, more carefully this time, and the flame leans the other way, as if it does not recognize him or cannot find him in the room. He steps back and stares at the hearth.
Vesta has not moved. She is watching him with an expression you cannot quite read.
Quintus speaks very quietly. "That's Prometheus, but not the one we're chasing." He watches the Titan struggle with the flame. "This is earlier. This is the moment he was supposed to steal the fire. Something is stopping him."
Prometheus stands in the center of the room holding the empty fennel stalk, and you can see it happening: the certainty draining out of him. He looks at Vesta's flame, then at the stalk, then at nothing in particular.
"Jupiter will know," he says, to no one. "Jupiter will know, and there will be a price. There is always a price." He turns the stalk in his hands. "I told myself it would be quick. No time to reconsider." A long breath. "But now I have time."
He looks at you. He is not afraid, but he is no longer sure.
"The mortals have nothing," he says. "They sit in the dark and the cold and they call out to gods who do not answer. I want to answer. I have always wanted to answer." He looks at the hearth again. "But the fire will not come to me, and the goddess I am about to rob is watching me in silence. I am no longer certain that this is right."
Vesta says nothing. She watches.
Prompt: The fire will not come to Prometheus, and he is starting to doubt whether or not he should take it. He has told you why he wants it. Vesta watches and says nothing. Decide together what your Recentii do: speak to him, question him, help him reach the flame, or stand between him and the hearth. Whatever you choose, tell him why.
