Maya struck her forehead in annoyance. How stupid she was. She retrieved her pouch and broke open the final olive and fed it piece by piece to Hari. She watched fascinated as his expressions changed at a rapid pace from unknowing blankness to a bewildered horror.

“Where are we? How did I get here? The last I remember was that Naiad making cat eyes at me!”

“Calm down, Hari. You have been through a lot. All is well now. You are free and at a healthy distance from that Naiad. What did she do to you, btw?”

Hari blushed suddenly before replying.

“Nothing too bad. Now to more important things. Where are we? Are we in anyway close to the lightning bolt?”

Maya wondered at what felt like an evasive answer for the first time from Hari. Yet, he was right. How should they go about retrieving the bolt? It seems like ages ago that Thor’s book had advised them to go on this quest for Minerva’s olives and how that was supposed to help them acquire the wisdom necessary for Zeus’ bolt. Yet, she seemed no more closer to getting the bolt than she had been when she had last waved a good bye to Thor.

Hari’s nervous words shook her out of her stupor. (What was he nervous about?, wondered Maya idly)

“What are you thinking, Maya?”

“We have gotten the olives and eaten them. Yet, we seem no closer to getting the bolt.”

“The olives were supposed to provide us with wisdom to make our decisions to help us get the bolt. Let’s figure this out. We can and we will!”

“How do we do that?”

“Don’t interrupt when the Brain is at work.”

Maya swatted at him, being secretly glad that he was back to her normal self. She pulled out the Symantak and rolled it over in her hands while pondering on the problem.

“Gotcha!”

“What?”

“We simply have to go to the most famous religious historian our time to find out. Simple.”

“Who is that?”

“Xander Page, of course. My adopted dad’s close friend in Hong Kong.”

“Never heard of him!”

“Remember this moment. This is why you hang around me, ignoramus!”

Hari quickly ducked out of the way from a slap he knew was coming.

“Tell me, Mr.Funnybones. We don’t have time to waste.”

“Uh, actually, we have all the time in the world, thanks to Symantak, remember? Anyways, this guy Xander Page or Mr.XXX as he is called by my dad, is a religious historian. He is obsessed with ancient Greece and is one of the foremost experts in the world. He is the person to help. I just have to find a way to keep him from telling on me to my dad. And oh, by the way, a billion dollar grossing Hollywood movie was made based on him, they just changed a few things about his work and character. So, he is totally a celebrity!”

Maya rolled her eyes but acceded to his idea.

“Fine, let’s go.”

Author’s note: This is the twenty-fourth chapter of the novella “The God, The Girl and The Gem” I am writing as a part of the #BlogchatterA2Z #AtoZChallenge.