The following morning, as Rodrigo admired the beautiful sunrise over the desert, he spotted a man approaching in the distance. It was immediately clear that he was missing a leg and used a cane to walk. At the same time, the young tannin felt his divine presence and knew at once who he was.
That man who attacked us by the lake... the one who called himself the king of Tula, Rodrigo thought.
Annoyance and resentment flared in the young tannin’s eyes as he remembered how badly that man had wounded Ana. He wanted to rise and attack him.
But those damned chains.
“Niltse, nikniuuan!” shouted the Toltec king-god as he approached the extinguished campfire where Rodrigo and Bellona were. The goddess was still asleep, snoring in a most undignified position.
“If you are not a coward, then untie me and face me!” Rodrigo shouted the moment he saw the man drawing near. The deity looked exactly as he had when they fought him in the north.
Tezcatlipoca studied Rodrigo carefully and smiled.
“Well now... if you did not have those green eyes, I would truly believe you were Quetzalcoatl. You are his very image,” he said.
“Who are you talking about?” Rodrigo asked, puzzled and eager to learn his identity.
The king of Tula walked over to where Bellona lay sleeping and hit her with his cane.
“It is daylight already, you lazy wretch!” he shouted, while the goddess fell face-first to the ground from the strike.
Bellona jolted awake, and when she came to her senses, she saw Tezcatlipoca standing in front of her.
“Lazy, am I? I have been waiting for days out here in the desert!” she shouted furiously.
“I had matters to attend to,” said the Toltec god, sitting down on the ground in front of Rodrigo and beside Bellona.
What business could they possibly have with me? Are they planning to kill me after all? the young tannin wondered uneasily.
“I do not know whether these lands have been blessed by fortune or cursed by the worst calamity imaginable,” Tezcatlipoca said, just as Bellona tossed him her waterskin.
“What happened?” the Roman goddess asked, watching the Toltec god drain the water and toss the empty waterskin back to her, which only worsened her mood.
“Anat... has disappeared,” the king of Tula replied bluntly. “The last time she was seen, she was heading toward the Haida territories. Even my communication sphere with her can no longer find her.”
“Anat... died?” Bellona asked in horror.
The mere idea that perhaps the second most powerful being in the universe had died in these lands sounded like a fable to the Roman goddess.
Anat? Isn’t that the woman Ana and Tania were always talking about? The leader of Lel or something? Rodrigo thought.
“It is impossible,” Bellona said. “Anat cannot die or be captured, much less by barbarians.”
“That is not all,” Tezcatlipoca continued. “I also learned that there were gods from the other side of the great ocean in that region. It is possible they destroyed one another.”
Wait... Haida... wasn’t that where Epona, Ana, and the others were headed? Rodrigo thought, and at once terror gripped him.
Epona surely found that woman and... that is why she said goodbye to me!
“Did the gods from the other side of the world survive?” Rodrigo asked anxiously.
“How should I know? All I know is that Anat vanished, and that may be either good news or terrible news,” Tezcatlipoca replied.
Bellona covered her head with both hands and began spiraling into panic.
“Impossible, impossible... if Lord El learns of this, or his children... they will destroy everything,” the goddess said nervously.
“Indeed,” Tezcatlipoca said. “From what I know, that Lord El has around seventy children as powerful as Anat. They will surely destroy this land in retaliation.”
The situation did sound dire, but Rodrigo cared only for his friends.
Are they all right? Were they the ones who killed Anat? he kept wondering.
“Boy,” Tezcatlipoca said, looking at Rodrigo, “I wish to make you a serious offer.”
At that, the king of Tula moved one finger, and Rodrigo’s chains vanished. Bellona protested at once, but the god ignored her completely.
“I want you to tell me about your past, who you are, and whether you and your companions would be willing to remain and help defend these lands against a possible reprisal from Lord El,” said the king.
“Why should I believe you?” Rodrigo asked angrily.
“Because... you are identical to my late brother,” the Toltec king replied with such a cold and solemn expression that even Rodrigo was taken aback.
“You mean this boy is kin to you?” Bellona asked.
“That is why I want to hear his story, so that I may know whom I am dealing with,” Tezcatlipoca replied.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
“I have no idea,” Rodrigo answered. “I have always lived in Spain, and I know no one besides my late mother, who also lived her whole life in that kingdom. I came here to learn why a totema from this land told me it was my servant.”
“Ehécatl... your totema belongs to a Toltec god named Ehécatl, and he was the servant of my brother Quetzalcoatl,” said Tezcatlipoca.
“You mean... my father was that man named Quetzal... something?” Rodrigo asked.
“No, that is impossible,” said the king of Tula. “That is why I wanted to hear your version, because none of this makes any sense.”
“What do you mean?” Rodrigo pressed.
“Quetzalcoatl was the former king of Tula. He was the one known as Tezcatlipoca. Yet despite all that, he never took lovers, neither women nor men. He was entirely chaste,” Tezcatlipoca replied.
“And then... he died?” Rodrigo asked, bewildered.
“No, he...” said the Toltec god, then fell silent.
Rodrigo saw the king’s face darken. It was clearly something he did not like speaking of.
“We killed him, on Lel’s orders,” the king finally said.
“Lel wanted him dead? But why?” Bellona asked, astonished. “Anat or Lord El should not be making decisions of that kind on this continent.”
Rodrigo was stunned. With every passing moment, he felt he was drawing closer and closer to learning who he truly was and where his powers had come from.
“Our dealings with Lord El had begun some time earlier, when we established a buffer zone in the great ocean that separates us, so that our humans and theirs would not meet, because of differences in technology, disease, and all that,” Tezcatlipoca explained.
“Yes, I had already heard that,” Rodrigo replied.
“But then, one day, without warning, Anat appeared in our capital and demanded to see my brother,” the king of Tula said. “I do not know what they discussed, but that bitch left in a fury that day.”
“Shortly afterward, I received a communication from this El, urging me to kill my brother. If we refused, our kingdom—and this entire continent—would be invaded and colonized, and diseases would be brought that would decimate our people,” Tezcatlipoca continued.
“Wait a moment... you... spoke with the Father of the gods?” Bellona asked in shock.
“Yes, I did, or at least that is what the man claimed to be,” the king of Tula went on.
Tania’s father? Rodrigo thought.
“No! That is impossible! Lord El has not made personal appearances in years! It is impossible that he would do so with a foreigner!” Bellona shouted furiously. There was so much rage in her eyes that it reminded Rodrigo of the same look she had worn when Tania and Ana told her that God did not exist.
“And why should I care about that? Your hierarchies on this side of the world mean nothing to us!” Tezcatlipoca shouted back, and the two glared at one another with open hostility.
“Could you continue the story?” Rodrigo asked, trying to end the argument.
Bellona withdrew her gaze from Tezcatlipoca and sat down again.
“It was obviously a false El,” she said.
“I already told you, believe whatever you like. I am only repeating what I heard that day,” Tezcatlipoca replied.
“After discussing it with the other gods, we decided to sacrifice my brother in order to avoid the wrath of the gods from the other side of the world,” he continued.
“That is why it is impossible for someone like you to be his son, because he died and never once traveled to the other side of the world—which, given the restrictions, would have been impossible,” the king concluded.
“I think in the end this answered none of my questions,” Rodrigo said, taking the totema hanging from his neck and staring at it.
“Then what do you say? If you remain in Tula, both you and your companions could be treated as gods, while at the same time helping us protect this continent. With a single communication from me to Heshuka, your friends in Cahokia will be released,” said the king of Tula.
“I refuse,” Rodrigo answered flatly.
“What? Then what do you want?” Tezcatlipoca asked in surprise.
“It is simple. You sacrificed your own brother and tried to kill me out of fear of Lel—and especially of that woman. My friends would have faced that Anat without hesitation. You are nothing but cowards,” Rodrigo replied, rising to his feet.
Because I’m sure Ana and Epona fought that beast, the young tannin thought inwardly.
“I have a duty to protect my kingdom and my people! Those are not decisions I took lightly!” Tezcatlipoca shouted angrily.
“That is not all,” Rodrigo continued.
“What else, then?” asked the king of Tula.
“Your endless human sacrifices. Everyone speaks of them. Of how you gain superhuman strength through the blood of innocents,” Rodrigo replied, still glaring at him.
“Very well, boy. If you will not be my ally, then I shall have to consider you my enemy,” Tezcatlipoca said, rising to his feet as well and staring Rodrigo down.
Bellona then made her chains appear, but Tezcatlipoca raised his palm in a gesture for her to stop.
“My own power is enough,” said the god.
But at that very moment, Tezcatlipoca’s communication sphere began to ring. The god made it appear, and within it he could see Tlaloc wearing a worried expression.
“What is it, Tlaloc?” the king of Tula asked.
“Tezcatlipoca, you must return at once. A man from the north has seated himself upon your throne and massacred your servants. This is chaos! Chichimeca warriors have—” cried the Toltec rain god, when suddenly the transmission cut off.
“It seems something has happened in Tula, so we shall leave this confrontation for another day,” Tezcatlipoca said, signaling Bellona to bind Rodrigo once more.
The goddess complied, and Rodrigo was bound again in her chains. Then the Toltec god turned his back on him.
“There are two things I shall tell you. Quetzalcoatl’s totema still lies within Toltec lands, in one of his temples. If you are able to wield it, then you shall be considered the heir to his will,” he said.
“And the second,” Tezcatlipoca continued, “is that yes, I truly spoke with Lord El, but I was unable to see his face. Yet when I heard his voice, I expected the voice of an old man. Instead, it sounded like that of an arrogant youth. Someone more than ten thousand years old should not sound that way.”
“An arrogant youth?” Rodrigo asked himself.
“Hey! And what exactly am I supposed to do with this one?” Bellona asked furiously. “Besides, I still have orders to follow in Lel. Are you still their ally or not?”
“Woman, I have just suffered a coup in my absence, and that is what you ask me?” Tezcatlipoca said sarcastically as he looked back at the Roman goddess. Then he turned away again and said in an almost faded voice:
“Do as you please.”
Tezcatlipoca then leapt high into the air and vanished into the horizon, leaving Bellona and Rodrigo alone in the desert.
At that moment, one of the goddess’s chains coiled around Rodrigo’s neck and began to strangle him.
“I have nothing against you,” said the goddess, “but I must complete my mission here, and if those people are no longer willing to cooperate, then I shall have to deal with you first—and them afterward.”
“Why... do... you... fight... with... them?” Rodrigo gasped as he choked and felt his strength beginning to fail.
“I already told you. It is for my people, for the glory of the Römisches Reich,” the goddess said coldly. Then she concluded: “Farewell.”
At that moment, a golden spear came hurtling down upon the chain Bellona was using to strangle Rodrigo and shattered it. On its tip was carved the rune ᚠ.
Bellona immediately turned around and saw Menrva and Freyja standing atop a dune. It had been the Norse goddess who threw her spear to save Rodrigo. Meanwhile, the young tannin fell to his knees, breathing with difficulty after nearly being strangled by the Roman goddess’s chain.
“Meow see? I told you meow feline instincts never fail,” Freyja said with a smile. His totema, however, was broken
“I must admit, you were right. I never expected to find Rodrigo in this desolate part of the continent,” Menrva replied.
Bellona looked at them with disdain and summoned her totema to fight.
“Menrva, surely you do not believe that the help of one of your friends with her totema broken will make any difference when facing me,” the Roman goddess said.
“You are mistaken, Bellona. She will not take part in this battle. I alone am more than enough to defeat you,” Menrva replied, summoning her electric spear.