Scheherazade smiled softly. ‘Yes. There are some very powerful Vayuputras who are on your side. But they cannot help you openly. Unlike most of the earlier Neelkanth pretenders, your blue throat is genuine. This leads to one inescapable conclusion; some Vayuputra has helped you many decades ago. Can you imagine the chaos this has caused? There were unprecedented accusations flying thick and fast after your emergence; people within Pariha were accusing each other of having broken Lord Rudra’s laws and helping you clandestinely when you were young. It was tearing the Vayuputras apart till Lord Mithra put an end to it. He held that our tribe has not authorised you as the Neelkanth and perhaps it was the doing of someone from within your own country.’

‘So, if any Vayuputra helps me, he will be seen as the traitor who started it all, many years ago.’

‘Exactly,’ answered Scheherazade.

‘What is the way out?’ asked Gopal.

‘You, My Lord Chief Vasudev, must lead the mission,’ said Scheherazade. ‘Lord Shiva must stay in the background. Don’t ask for assistance to be provided for the Neelkanth, but to you as a member of the Vasudev tribe, seeking justice. They cannot say no to a just demand from the representative of Lord Ram.’

‘I am sorry? I didn’t understand.’

‘What does the Neelkanth need, Lord Gopal?’ asked Scheherazade. ‘He needs the Brahmastra to threaten Meluha...’

‘How did you...’

‘With due respect, don’t ask superfluous questions, Lord Gopal. What Lord Shiva and you need is obvious. We have to devise the best way for you to get it. If you ask for the Brahmastra so that you can fight Evil, then you will open yourself to questions as to Lord Shiva’s legitimacy in deciding what Evil is, for we all know that he has not been authorised or trained by the Vayuputras. Instead, seek redress for a crime committed on Indian soil by a person who the Vayuputras have supported in the past. And what crime was that? The unauthorised use of daivi astras.’

‘Lord Bhrigu...’ said Gopal, remembering the great maharishi’s use of the divine weapons in Panchavati.

‘Exactly. The laws of Lord Rudra make it clear that for the first unauthorised use of daivi astras, the punishment is a fourteen-year exile into the forests. A second unauthorised use is punishable by death. Many in the council agree that Lord Bhrigu has got away lightly, despite having used daivi astras.’

‘So the Vasudevs are to present themselves as the ones enforcing the justice of Lord Rudra?’

‘Exactly. It is impossible for a Vayuputra to say no to this. You should state that the law on the daivi astra ban was broken and those who did this – Lord Bhrigu, the Emperor of Meluha and the King of Ayodhya – need to be punished. And, the Vasudevs have decided to mete out justice.’