He opened his workbook. Question 14 was no longer blank. In his own handwriting—but older, firmer—were the words: The Silk Road was not a road but a conversation. It turned strangers into neighbors and goods into stories. Without it, no great empire stands alone.
And for the first time, he didn’t need to look at the back of the book to know he was right.
Elias, clutching his workbook like a shield, stammered, “I… I just need the answer for question 14.”
For what felt like three days (but was probably only an hour in his bedroom), Elias walked beside Zhang Qian’s small delegation. He saw them barter jade for horses. He watched a Buddhist monk from India share a fire with a Sogdian merchant. He tasted pomegranates from Persia and heard stories that shifted like sand dunes.
He smiled. “That the answer key is just a map. You still have to make the journey.”