27. Dress Code Blues

        Zara hurried back to her apartment and walked straight to Dena's closet, ripped open the curtain but to her horror, the golden clothes were gone! Heart pounding hard, she searched the room, frantic, pulling out drawers, pulling back bedclothes, she burst into the bathroom and almost threw up in shock. The bath was full of bright red dye! Her golden wardrobe was soaking in the water? "NO-O-O-O-O-O!" Zara fell to her knees, sobbing without control, the build up of tension pouring forth like burst dam.

        

         After the shock wore off, she pulled herself together and wandered out to the window, gazed toward the glistening sea, pondering her dilemma through swollen blurry eyes, feeling like a total loser. What would she do now? With aching heart she dug out her contract and tried to read it but her vision was too blurry. Where would she get new clothes from? She wasn’t a gold-bead carrying member of society yet, she couldn’t go out and buy some outfit and she really, really didn't want to confront Hedena, this was the worst possible first impression she could ever have possibly made, was her reputation even salvageable? Why did she have to be so stupid? Mesta was expecting her to come back and now she couldn't even show up at all...

         Hedena's office was on the top floor of the administration building, the goddess of Conformity wasn't pleased with the news at all. "What do you mean your suits were dyed red" she snapped. "How did they do that. Hmmm?"

         Zara clenched her sweaty hands, the lump in her throat was huge, the question booth was a torture prison. She tried to explain the clothing swap but nothing she could say would help, her words weren't coming out right.

         "You won't make things any better by making up ridiculous excuses and blaming your roommate!"

         Zara felt cornered, it wasn't like that, but Hedena was translating everything she said that way.

         "We go to great lengths to design clothing that enhances your education, clothing which we have gone to great efforts to create for you so that you can have the FORTUNATE life we provide. And you turn your nose up at the COLOR? WHO do you think you are?"

         "I jus.."

         "WHAT do you have to say for yourself?"

         "Your honor, I am not worthy of Atlan's Empire today." She swallowed hard, fighting back the tears, welling up in her eyes. "Please forgive me of my sins?"

         "It is MEDEL whom you need to beg, not me!" Hedena slammed a folder on her desk, documents spewed out. "I order you to twelve lashes in the University Square! EDEN!"

         Twelve lashes? Blood draining from her face, Zara clenched her jaw, fighting back tears but it was impossible, now her nose was going.... Twelve Lashes? She had worked so hard to please Hedena, she couldn't have done more damage to her reputation if she had tried.

         "STOP snivelling! Your wardrobe will be replaced after you have paid the price! EDEN!" 

         A side door opened and a familiar looking, ebony tressed goddess entered the room, hurried in such a way that didn't fit her appearance at all. She looked like the model in some of the text books Zara studied in Culloom, almost identical, but it couldn't be her, could it? 

           "Yes, Your Honor!" Eden curtseyed to Hedena.

           "Twelve lashes!" Hedena waved the now empty folder in Zara's direction.

         "Follow me." Eden took Zara's hand and led her outside to the fountain square in front of the campus buildings.

         "Next time maybe wait until the end of the day before you go see Hedena" she advised as she tied her hands to the post. "The lashings aren’t held until after classes end for the day."

         Zara felt the panic set in as Eden tied her to the well-worn post. She was leaving her there all day? Alone now, tied to the University Lashing post on her first day, Zara struggled to fight back tears of embarrassment, tears she could not wipe away. And as word spread of the lashing, crowds came to see, hour by hour it grew harder and harder for her to remain composed.

         "Visualize the golden string…" Hedena’s wisdom echoed loudly, but it was hardly possible now. Hour by hour the crowds grew, students even ate their lunch in front of her, parties of hate and scorn grew like weeds amongst them, among students she hadn't even met before. Now everyone would look at her in a bad way, she didn't stand a chance of making a good first impression at Fina U to anyone now.

         Twelve lashes? Terrified of the impending whip, Zara struggled with fresh flashbacks of her childhood lashings, she had barely survived six dreadful lashings in Culloom, her back was still scarred today. Never in her wildest dreams did she ever worry she would face a lashing again. The terror was real, she had to pee. She knew already what kind of hell it was going to be...

         Carefully, so as not to waste any of the precious samples from Lemuria, Seton tapped the edge of the mushroom ever so gently, sprinkling the spores onto a petri dish. He added some powdered chemicals and stirred in a few drops of fermented oils. The solution sizzled on the dish as he mixed the experimental potion, turning color just as he expected it would. He placed it over the burner and heated the ingredients, this time letting it boil. As the liquid boiled it thickened, it turned into a dark runny serum. 

         "Ha!" Excited now, he removed the solution from the burner, let it cool and using a small syringe, injected a small ammount into the IV of a Moha Lab expiree, strapped down for safety reasons. But her response wasn't good, within a few minutes she began to moan, her moaning increased until her body started trembling. The trembling turned into shakes and jolts, her arms began jerking violently, soon she was screaming loudly, her entire body contorting from a massive seizure.

         Startled, Seton took a step back, watching and documenting the changes until she completely collapsed, unresponsive. He put down the tablet and felt her pulse. "Damn!"