Episode 4.b
>Tellus's Chamber / The Caucasus, mythic time, across the seam<
Tellus remembers now. She has told you all of it: Caelus and his cruelty, the children he kept locked inside her, the long grief that led her to forge the falx and put it in Saturn's hand. She has told you what Prometheus's plan would mean. If the falx never reaches Saturn, Caelus is never overthrown. The Titans stay imprisoned. The Olympians never rise. Mortals are never born. Everything you have seen on this journey ceases to be possible: Vesta's hearth, Vulcan's forge, Jupiter's throne, all of it.
The flame in your hand is brighter than ever before. The chamber is steady around you, warm and whole, thrumming with the weight of what Tellus has remembered. She stands at the center of it, her hand resting on the stone, and looks at you for a long time.
"He is at the rock," she says. "The place where you began. He has the falx with him and he will not give it up willingly." She lifts her hand from the wall and the stone splits. A seam of pale light opens in the air before you, narrow and bright, and through it you can see the Caucasus: grey rock, open sky, the ledge where the chains once hung.
Prometheus is sitting on the rock. The falx rests across his knees. He looks older than you expected, or perhaps he is simply more tired. When the seam opens, he turns toward it and sees you. He does not look surprised.
Quintus steps forward. "This is it. Everything Tellus told you, the imprisoned Titans, the falx as the instrument of correction, the whole order he would unmake. You can see him. He can hear you. Make your case."
The seam holds, but it is thin, and the light at its edges flickers. Prometheus watches you through it, waiting, his hands resting on the sickle that started everything.
Prompt: You can see Prometheus across the seam, and he can hear you. You know what Tellus has told you about the cosmic order, the imprisoned Titans, and what his plan would unmake. Speak to him. Make your argument.
