I am all alone. Theodoros and Xenon abandoned me two days after we left Cassope. They could not understand why I insisted on visiting Gitana, a ghost town where nobody lives since before our great-grandfathers were even born. My protestations as to the quality and history of the local theater fell on deaf ears. They both knew that the road to Dodona does not go through Gitana and that my insistence on visiting them meant we would be penniless on the road for many more days that necessary. They even questioned the haste in which we left Cassope since we all agreed that it was a most pleasant site. So I was forced to reveal the truth. In Athens I lost my entire fortune to a treacherous Corinthian dice player and I am forced to reach Dodona in secret, in haste but also in the most roundabout way possible, if I am to avoid the men he has sent after me in search of the huge sum I owe him.