The Fifth World ends in screams and the shaking of the earth under their feet as Tezcatlipoca--Tepeyollotl, the Mountain Heart, the great jaguar--strides the land and roars his triumph from the top of the Great Temple. The Fifth Sun is falling. He will be the sixth. He will be the sixth, and Acatl has failed to stop it.
"You haven't," Teomitl says. His face is streaked with ash and blood and one arm is heavily bandaged, but he's alive. They're all alive, him and his family, and they're huddled in the ruins of the Duality House as they try to figure out what to do. "We can try again."
"Try what? To stop him?" Acatl shakes his head, feeling the words as bitter bile on his tongue. "How do you stop a god in the flesh?"
"We've done it before," Teomitl says, and smiles as though that will make everything better.
Obsidian & Blood, Acatl
"You haven't," Teomitl says. His face is streaked with ash and blood and one arm is heavily bandaged, but he's alive. They're all alive, him and his family, and they're huddled in the ruins of the Duality House as they try to figure out what to do. "We can try again."
"Try what? To stop him?" Acatl shakes his head, feeling the words as bitter bile on his tongue. "How do you stop a god in the flesh?"
"We've done it before," Teomitl says, and smiles as though that will make everything better.
For once in Acatl's life, it doesn't help.