The Temple of Questions (audio story)

The Temple of Questions was the fifty-fourth Bernice Summerfield audio story released by Big Finish Productions. It was the second story of the Epoch series.

Publisher's summary
Life can be dangerous when a god's got it in for you.

Bernice and her Historian allies, Ruth and Leonidas, are trying to unearth the truth behind the mysterious world they're living in.

Poseidon, god of the seas, is apparently offering them answers – but only if they play his games. And he's not playing fair...

Bernice's new family is in danger of being ripped apart by forces that are beyond their understanding. To keep her friends, she might have to lose the games... and her life with them.

Plot
In the market, a man selling olives. tells Benny that "the sky's no limit", but she does not pay any attention and notices Acanthus, blind and selling stories. He calls himself Heskith the Pauper and has no memory of Benny nor giving her the parchment with "the sky's no limit" written on it. Upon realising what the salesman had said, she returns to him and learns that he is Leonidas, a Historian who has temporarily taken over Nicomedes' stall in order to have an excuse to speak with her.

Leo takes Benny to the Temple of Poseidon where Ruth, a priestess whom he met a few weeks ago but who remembers having a long history with him and his wife, explains that they are Historians and were looking for her because of her connection to Pallis. They show her to a trench where they have found a smooth, plastic-like floor and Benny bonds with Leo over their lost partners, although Leo clarifies that his wife is alive but has a new identity and memories. In the morning, Benny is briefly visited by Jack, whom she cannot remember meeting.

After a look around the other sites where the floor has been found with Leo, Benny decides to try diving into the sea and learns of a place where sailors are forbidden to go. Ruth, who has suddenly become the only priest of Poseidon, gets Poseidon's Shell and Trident and summons the Chariot of Poseidon, pulled by hippocampi. They take it to the forbidden area and are unexpectedly taken underwater, through an airlock and into Poseidon's coral labyrinth.

The voice of Poseidon challenges Benny, Leo and Ruth to play his games and promises to tell them who the Epoch is if they win; Poseidon asks Benny to choose between a quick death or a slow and painful one, but she does not give an answer and he refuses to tell her about the Epoch. Next, he promises to tell them why the people of Atlantis change if Leo gives him the names of the Historians that he has worked with, but Leo refuses despite the possibility that he might be able to restore his wife, whom Ruth can no longer remember. The next question, for which he will reveal who Ruth is, is for Leo and Ruth to tell him who Benny is.

The lights go out and Leo and Ruth have to choose between two Bennys. Ruth chooses the correct one thanks to Leo noticing that one went to comfort her whilst the other sought comfort, which Poseidon decides is grounds for disqualification. For the fourth question, Poseidon asks them to tell him his name, in return for which he will meet them in person. Benny deduces that Poseidon is the Great Leader, a computer and creator of Year Zero, and attempts to destroy him, but he is protected by a force field. For the final question, the Great Leader asks Benny which of her friends betrayed her and has led her here, saying that the traitor has placed a device on their rival which he will detonate if she answers incorrectly.

As water rises, Benny notices a water clock and has Leo and Ruth help her climb up a pillar to destroy it, ensuring that the water keeps rising and shortcircuits the Great Leader's force field. She then has Leo damage him with the Trident and summons the Chariot with the Shell using the Great Leader's speakers so that they can escape whilst the Great Leader is destroyed. Upon returning to the surface, Benny realises that Ruth is upset as she thought that she must have been the traitor when she did not die following the Great Leader's destruction, but she assures Ruth and Leo that she knew that neither of them were traitors.

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * Ruth - Ayesha Antoine
 * Leonidas - Marcus Hutton
 * Poseidon - John Stahl
 * Heskith - John Montgomery
 * Jack - David Ames

Worldbuilding

 * Leo claims to pick olives at the top of Mount Praxiteles.
 * In Ancient Greece, only virgins were allows to pick olives.
 * Nicomedes sells olives.
 * Leo was married to Charis, who is now called Euanthe and is married to Giorgos. He remembers that he used to go on picnics, but the Great Leader suggests that they might never have been married.
 * Benny and Leo toast to verisimilitude.
 * Leo hands Benny his wife's ring to use the diamond to try to scratch the floor.
 * Leo cannot remember the Kraken.
 * Poseidon was the Greek equivalent of the Roman Neptune.
 * The Great Leader quotes Hamlet.

Continuity

 * Acanthus gave Benny a piece of parchment. (AUDIO: The Kraken's Lament)
 * Benny remembers Pallis singing a forbidden song; Leo and Ruth use this to find historians. (AUDIO: Year Zero)
 * Benny asks Ruth if they have met before. They previously met on the shuttle to Zordin. (AUDIO: The Kraken's Lament)
 * Benny mentions the death of Jason Kane. (AUDIO: The End of the World)
 * Benny has briefly met Jack in Atlantis. (AUDIO: The Kraken's Limit)
 * Benny mentions the Kraken. (AUDIO: The Kraken's Limit)
 * The Great Leader says that Leo should not be so sure that he would be proud to have Ruth as his daughter. Ruth will later learn that she was originally an unpleasant person. (AUDIO: The Curse of Fenman)
 * Benny reads Leo and Ruth's body language. (PROSE: Love and War, etc.)