Chapter Three: The Mapmaker's Secret
Chorus:
Every city is drawn on a map, but some maps hide more than they reveal. Today, Thebes meets a stranger whose parchment holds the past, the present, and perhaps the key to its future. In a city where every street is a story, who will be brave enough to follow a new path?
Thebes, dawn. The city is still waking, the air cool and sweet with the promise of a new day. Sunlight glances off tiled roofs and the festival's last ribbons flutter in alleyways. The marketplace is a patchwork of color and anticipation, and in the center, a small crowd gathers around a table cluttered with scrolls, compasses, and inkpots.
At the table sits a stranger: the mapmaker, a wiry figure with ink-stained fingers and a hat too large for his head. His eyes dart over the crowd, measuring curiosity and caution in equal measure.
Antheia, Echo, and Jocasta approach, trailed by a few council members and the ever-present Agent Gray, who is already suspicious of anyone with "too many pockets and not enough answers."
Mapmaker (bowing with a flourish):
Welcome, friends!
I am Callisthenes, cartographer of the wide world, collector of secrets, and, today, your humble guest.
Jocasta (smiling politely):
Thebes welcomes travelers—and their tales.
Antheia (eyeing the scrolls):
What brings you to our city, Callisthenes?
Callisthenes (grinning):
Curiosity. And perhaps a little mischief.
He unrolls a map with practiced flair. Thebes is there, bold and proud, but so are other marks—strange symbols, faded lines, and, just beyond the city's southern edge, a circle drawn in red ink.
Echo (leaning closer):
What's that?
Callisthenes:
A question.
A city lost to time, but not to memory.
Chorus:
A map is a promise—
Of danger, of discovery, of change.
Scene One: The Map Unfolds
The crowd leans in as Callisthenes traces the red circle with a fingertip.
Callisthenes:
I have spoken with old traders, listened to riverfolk, and heard whispers in the wind.
They all speak of a place south of here—once a sister to Thebes, now vanished.
Agent Gray (skeptical):
If it's lost, how do you know it exists?
Callisthenes (winking):
If it's on a map, it's never truly lost.
Antheia exchanges a glance with Echo. Curiosity flickers between them.
Antheia:
What would you have us do?
Callisthenes:
Come with me.
Let us follow the map, and see if the past is ready to be found.
Jocasta:
We have a city to care for.
Echo:
But sometimes, the best way to care for the present is to understand the past.
Chorus:
Every journey begins with a single step—
And a good pair of boots.
Scene Two: Preparations
Word spreads quickly. By midday, Thebes buzzes with rumors: "A lost city? Treasure?" "Curses?" "Maybe just more olives." The council debates sending an official delegation. Antheia volunteers, with Echo at her side. Jocasta gives her blessing, though her eyes linger with worry.
Agent Gray insists on coming, "for documentation purposes." The caravan's leader, intrigued, offers two guides—one with sharp eyes, one with sharper wit.
Supplies are gathered: bread, water, rope, a small medical kit, and, at Echo's insistence, a lucky pebble.
Chorus:
The city watches as its champions prepare—
Some with hope, some with doubt,
All with curiosity.
Scene Three: The Journey Begins
The party sets out at dawn. Thebes recedes behind them, its walls glowing gold in the rising sun. The land south is wild—fields of tall grass, groves of twisted olive trees, and a river that glimmers like a silver snake.
Callisthenes leads, map in hand, humming a tune that seems older than the hills. The guides trade jokes and warnings in equal measure.
Echo (to Antheia):
Do you think we'll find anything?
Antheia:
Even if we don't, we'll come back with stories.
Agent Gray (muttering):
Let's hope none of them involve quicksand.
They cross a rickety bridge, skirt a patch of brambles, and pause at midday beneath a lone cypress.
Callisthenes:
We are close.
The land remembers, even when people forget.
Scene Four: Signs and Shadows
As afternoon deepens, the landscape changes. Stones jut from the earth in strange patterns. The guides find shards of pottery, half-buried in the soil. Echo discovers a carving on a fallen pillar—an emblem nearly worn away by time.
Echo (excited):
Look!
It's the same symbol as on the map.
Antheia brushes away dirt, revealing more markings—stories of harvest, of flood, of celebration and sorrow.
Callisthenes:
We have found the edge of the lost city.
Agent Gray (taking notes):
Remarkable.
And slightly unsettling.
A sudden wind stirs the grass. For a moment, it sounds like voices—laughter, singing, the echo of a city that once was.
Chorus:
The past is never silent—
It waits, patient and persistent,
For someone to listen.
Scene Five: The Threshold
The sun dips low as the party stands at the threshold of ruins half-swallowed by earth and vine. Thebes's champions look at one another—nervous, excited, awed.
Callisthenes (softly):
We are the first in generations to stand here.
Antheia:
Let's honor what was lost—
And see what can be found.
Echo presses her hand to the stone, feeling the pulse of history beneath her palm.
Agent Gray:
Let's proceed with caution.
And maybe a little optimism.
Chorus:
A map is not just a guide—
It is an invitation.
Scene Six: Return to Thebes
As dusk falls, the party returns to Thebes with fragments of pottery, sketches of carvings, and more questions than answers. The city gathers to hear their tale.
Antheia (addressing the crowd):
We found the past waiting for us.
Now we must decide what to do with it.
Jocasta (embracing Antheia and Echo):
Thebes grows not by forgetting,
But by remembering.
Chorus:
The city sleeps,
But dreams of lost cities and new beginnings.
Chorus (closing):
Every map is a story,
Every journey a question,
And Thebes is ready for both.
End of Episode 3.
Ready for Episode 4: The Festival of Questions?