3.67 Everyone Can Have Excellent Hair

         Relentless were the icy winds which whistled through the An valley, Lemuria was falling into a deep freeze, rapidly. It was when the temperature plummeted, that some of the weakest survivors passed away, unable to continue the fight. With heavy hearts the Lemurians celebrated their lives with a gathering around the pyre on the lookout hill, sending them off on their journey into the Light with Love.

         Josh watched the villagers carrying their fallen friends up the path from the temple, realizing quickly, this ritual could very likely become a regular thing. Now that he knew where the Soloha came from he couldn't help but wonder if there was a way to intercept the ceremony, to cultivate a little high in order to ease the pain of the impoverished lifestyle that had befallen him. Watching it all go up in flames was torture, it was such a waste...

         "Thinking of ways to salvage the waste?" Adon was troubled by the wasteful oversight too, especially at a time like this.
         "I'm starving" Josh lamented. "I need more than potatoes. This sucks. What's wrong with these Savages?"

         Adon couldn't wait to ask, the time was right, he lowered his voice so as not to be overheard.

         "Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?"

         "Me?" Josh stiffened. "No... What's up?"

         "Were you the one stealing the dried pineals?"

         "WHAT?" Josh backed away in shock. "No way! I was only selling the Soloha, I didn't even know it was those stupid pineal things!"

         Adon had hit a nerve, he could tell. Josh was innocent, the idea would most certainly have crossed his mind if he had known about it.

         "Who was supplying you with it?"

         "Dr Seton."

         "You were selling it for Dr. Seton?" It seemed highly unlikely, there were too many rungs between them, Dr. Seton wouldn't even know his name. Adon studied his face, he could tell he was lying.

         Josh grew defensive. "Why do you even care?"

         "Because the inventory was disappearing and the Official Finger was pointing at me, when it was you who just happened to have daily access to them. It’s called Clearing Your Name."

         Josh wasn't guilty of the theft either, he had to prove it somehow. Adon's partnership and cooperation would be critical for his success in Lemuria. He had to face the truth himself, he really didn't know where the Soloha had come from or how deeply Nolan was involved. Now it was bothering him, too because it couldn't have been Nolan, either.

         "Torus had a key to the Lab you know."

         Adon thought about it for a moment. "Torus? But Torus is head of Security! How could it have been Torus?"

         "I don't know!" Josh shrugged, returning his attention to the funeral. "It wasn't me! Why would I be so stupid? Of course you'd suspect me, so would Torus. I work there, come on!"

         "But Torus suspected me!" Adon didn't understand. "And so did Bell!"

         "Bell?" Josh echoed. "Bell was asking you about it?"

         Water pooling in Nolan’s mouth assured him it wasn't over, he could feel the next one coming... Stars shot through his eyes as another violent surge of rejected stomach contents erupted from his body. Mel pulled his hair back and stroked his shoulder as he retched into the toilet, soothing him as best she could. 

         "There, there... You'll feel better once it's all out."

         He heaved hard, gasping for air between expulsions of bitter bile, never had he been so ill in his life, so wretched was this illness, was he going to die?

         As Mel gathered his long locks and soothed his shaky nerves, he realized she was the only real friend he had in Ebar and it wasn't a friendship based on convenience alone. Mel would be forever indebted to him for saving her life, she would undoubtedly be a loyal ally, perhaps she would even be his queen now that Atalon was out of the picture.

         "I think maybe you have the flu…" A loud knock at the door interrupted the unpleasant moment, unusual so early in the day. Mel turned to Fauna, the attending goddess.

         "Go see who it is!"

         "Yes, Ma’am." Fauna hurried to the door, only to behold a pair of uniformed officers, the likes of which she had never seen in Ebar before. “

         "Hello, may I help you?"

         "We're looking for Nolan, god of Desire" one of the officers replied, flashing her a shiny badge, a golden crest with a double winged phoenix, she had never seen a logo or an officer display such authority before.

         "Is he in here?" The officer craned his neck inside.

         "Um... I'm not sure…"  she replied, terrified. "He's sort of busy right now... Can you come back in a while?"

         "No, we're very sorry Ma’am. King’s Orders" The officer pushed her aside. "He's under arrest."

         "He's under arrest?" Fauna echoed, shocked, watching in horror as the officer waved an entire team of officers into the house.

          

         "What's going on?" Mel overheard the commotion and left Nolan's side, hurried out into the living room only to behold a team of scary looking military officers swarming their home! "What's going on!" No one even acknowledged her. "Don't you know who I am?" The officers were only interested in searching the home. "WHAT THE HELLIAS IS THIS ALL ABOUT?"

         "There's no need for you to know, Ma'am" an officer finally replied. Within minutes the officers had Nolan up un his feet and were dragging him to the door, still barely conscious his head was spinning so hard he couldn't form any words, his muscles too weak to resist or fight back.

         "He's SICK!" Mel screamed from the doorway as they dragged him away, still vomiting, completely unable to defend himself or reply. "Oh my god…." Still a nervous wreck from the Dog Show, she fell apart easily now. It had to be a huge mistake. "NOLAN IS THE NEW KING!" It made no sense at all. "YOU'VE MADE A HUGE MISTAKE!" She yelled as they loaded him into a shiny black carriage. "YOU'LL BE SORRY! JUST YOU WAIT UNTIL I TELL DION ABOUT THIS!"

         "Mel…" Fauna tugged her arm, gently coaxing her inside.

         "Is it always like this here?" She snapped, coming inside, fighting back tears.

         "No, never!" Fauna insisted, offering her a silk handkerchief, her face white as a ghost in comparison to Mel's. "I've never seen those officers before! I thought maybe they came here with you, from Atlan!"

         Mel could feel herself malfunctioning worse than ever. Frightened, she shuffled over to a chair by the window, trying to conceal the tears.

         "They're not from Atlan, I assure you! They would never treat me like that in Atlan!"

         "It's no good having nice hair if stupid's inside the skull!" Medena wasn't impressed with how things were turning out. She watched Nolan being hauled from the carriage with growing distain for his existence, relieved Seton was sending him back to Lemuria at least.

         "That’s exactly why we designed a Wig Culture!" Dion reminded, trying to cheer her up. "If you know that it's stupid inside, you can prevent them from having excellent hair!"

         Medena let out a heavy sigh, knowing inside while Seton leafed through Nolan's red folder, knowing too, barely able to listen to her constant whining about it.

         "He's such a loser" he sighed, tossing the folder aside. "King Nolan? Are we kidding ourselves? I'm sorry, I think it's a joke!"

         "That’s the point" Dion reached across the table and picked up Orius' file to browse. "He's not very smart, but he's one of the best explosives designers we've had"

         "You had better watch out, little brother" Dell cautioned. "Send him back to find the gold and he may turn it against you, he may shine bright under such pressure, he may decide to read those Lunie books and use their Sorcery on YOU!" Seton laughed, it was a funny thing to imagine, but Dell was serious. "What if you underestimated little Bomb Boy, turn your back for a moment and ka-boom! Ebar get's blown to smithereens?"

         "Are you sure you want to send him to Lemuria?" Dion was growing concerned too given the loose ends surfacing, given the very real sorcery he had witnessed for himself.

         "Bottom line is that they need us" Seton reminded. "They'll starve without our aid. Lemuria won't be producing crops for a few decades, at least, I assure you. They need food. By the time they have enough wheat to grow a loaf of bread, we'll have amassed all the power we could ever need to crush them."

         Medena returned her attention to the courtyard, the officers were dragging Nolan into the tower, he didn't look well at all. "We should probably be more concerned about Orius than Nolan" she observed. "Orius can actually pull of his devious plans without fucking them up." Seton joined her at the window just as Nolan disappeared out of sight. "Will he be alright?"

         "He'll be fine" the doctor assured. "A little headache perhaps."

         "Are you sure he wasn't lying?" Medena wasn’t convinced. "What if he was hoping you'd send him back? Don't you think it's a bit suspicious now that Halki was so keen to join them?"

         There was a chance the wine hadn't been poisoned or that the wrong targets had drank the wine. There was a chance the Solution hadn't been deployed or that Halios was in on it too, that was the reason for the voyage, they had to know. 

         "Well, we'll soon see" Seton concluded. "If things don't turn out the way we planned, we'll leave them all there to die. If Nolan fails, we'll just go back and find our gold once they're all dead. It's a win-win situation."