1.21 Rumour Has It

        Zara’s 180º view of the Atlan Empire was as magnificent as the reverse from the meeting room in the penthouse suite of the Headquarters building. Facing east, the only eyesore was the neighboring island of Lemuria, a taunting reminder of Unfinished Business, thanks to one single hideous beast living inside a mountain. 

        The Time to conquer Lemuria once and for all was near, the future had already been written in the stars, this time was supposed to be different but once again, things were falling apart. This week it was the economic report tablets that had the king wound up tight. "Silence!" He slammed a stack of red folders on the table as he arrived, causing the prints to spill out.  "I need all of your attention! According to these reports, we have lost over a dozen aribu from the TLS program alone in the last month!"

         Gods exchanged worried glances, already aware of the growing concern. There was also reason to be concerned for the king's mental health, his face was red, sweaty, ploughed with furrows, no one had seen him under this level of stress in a few decades.

         "Fifteen files unaccounted for!" Atalon raised one of the empty folders up and waved it, animating his anger "last month it was eleven, the month before that it was thirteen! We cannot achieve excellence if we are losing aribu like this!"

         "Where are they going?" Hedena dared to ask.

         "Obviously, Aquilla has taken them!" Dion, the god of Beauty pitched.

         "Or the dogons" Halios offered. 

         "Who else has access to the Terminated Life Securities Prison?"

         "There is a nasty theory" Atalon hushed them with his hand, "that is spreading throughout the empire that Aquilla is kidnapping them and training them to be Rebels, to fight against us!" His voice was escalating. "I heard this from a Merchant from Ebar! He's turning them into TERRORISTS!"

        "Ebar?" 

         "Yes" Atalon continued, his voice calmed. "It is therefore in the Empire's greatest interest that we prepare for a Coming War. I have ordered a new defence budget so that we can start planning. Immediately!"

         For Halios, the god of War, the news was excellent. He wasn't losing aribu, if he had they had disappeared unnoticed, which meant they were useless defects in the first place. He had bigger plans, war bunkers that would serve to protect Atlan from this very sort of situation had to be built, the extra funding would be a timely windfall, the timing was perfect and the plans were print-ready.

         As Atalon continued to explain some relevant details concerning the Coming War, Orius found himself gazing out the window towards Lemuria, pondering the kidnapping theory, he knew it was a lie. Where had it come from? And was the timing of the Crystal Skull program just a coincidence? Was Atalon panicking over the Panther prophecies coming from the crystal skulls? The latest comet concerns and medicinal plant explorations were perhaps a huge clue that he was... 

         He scanned the faces around the table, pondering the recent trip to Lemuria. Were Halios and Halki stirring the pot? Everyone knew that Atalon used the threat of an Aquillan attack as justification for new project funding, was this not the case today? Was he really considering a war against the Immortal Beast yet again? 

        Success just didn't seem plausible. Aquila had the power to incinerate any of their weapons long before they would get close enough to be of any threat, how many more times did Atalon need her to prove it?

         Late that night after the lab technicians had gone home for the night, Malodon labored under the dim lamps in one of the experimental labs. He placed Zoran's pineal gland on a small stand beside the crystal skull and opened a cabinet full of tools, devices and instruments that he used to conduct his experiments. He picked out a small cage with a large moth inside. The moth was an electromagnetic meter of sorts, it would vibrate its wings in the presence of an electrical frequency, beating them fast for a high frequency and almost stretching them out if it was low. He placed the moth between the skull and the pineal gland and waited, but the moth remained still.

         Unimpressed, Malodon returned the moth to the cabinet and drew out another small cage, this time trying a scarab beetle who, in the presence of an electromagnetic field, would begin to circle the cage, quickly if it was exposed to a high frequency and slowly if it was low. He placed the cage between the skull and the pineal specimen, but the scarab beetle didn't respond either. He wrote down the findings, frustrated, wondering... Perhaps the pineal still had to be alive?

         Opting for one more experiment before giving up for the night, he pulled out a glass jar of star flies and placed them between the pineal specimen and the skull. If there was any kind of electromagnetic energy being emitted from the pineal specimen, the star flies would light up too. He turned out the lamps and waited for a glimmer of light, but once again the test failed. "Damn!"