Chapter 1739 – Angrylotl and Diplomacy
“Splendid, ‘First to be Rejected’ – the title of my dreams.” Nahua’s voice dripped with literal venom, purple, viscous fluid trickling from the corners of her mouth. It also pooled in the corners of her eyes. “If you wish to salt my wounds, just barrage me with all that I cannot have through this connection we share.”
“You are not… – Nahua, I don’t want to reject you. I… simply don’t think it would be appropriate right now.” She pressed her lips together. A beckoning motion of her head demanded him to continue. “I want you. I want every fibre of what you are, but for all the desire I feel for you, all the care I have developed for you, this is not the time and place.” John had to moderate his tone very carefully. If he came across as berating, he might as well have burned the bridge. “Once we know, for certain, how all of this plays out, we can have a proper talk on what we are or could be.”
Nahua blinked several times. Her jaw circled, teeth grinding against teeth. Sadness and anger were vying for control, both of them getting beat down by discipline. In one enraged motion, Nahua grabbed her empty cup and smashed it onto the floor next to her. Her elbow slammed on the tabletop after. To call the motion that of a child would have been to miss the depth of differences. This wasn’t impotent anger, it was the wrath of a woman that could decimate the city if she went on a rampage. The dark expression on her face could only have been likened to Aphrodite being rejected by a man of her choosing.
“Fine… Fine!” she spat out, cleaning the corner of her eyes with the back of her hand. “Fine…” she muttered, visibly trying to get herself under control. Placing her chin on her hand, she stared off to the side. Aclysia swept the shards of burned clay into a dustpan. “I wanted to throw myself at the first man I came across.”
John went the unpleasant kind of rigid at the comment. Making every effort to look bored, Nahua attempted to hide that she was watching for his reactions in the corner of her eye. “Did you?” the Gamer asked, letting every bit of possessiveness flow into those two words.
The answer caused a smile, the first she had afforded him directly since entering. She was testing how invested he was and he sounded every bit as invested as he felt. “No,” she told him, which made him visibly relax. “For now, my interest lies with you – deny me so tactlessly again and I will make you wish ‘Crotch Rot’ was the tool of my vengeance.”
The threat was somewhat impotent against him, but John took it in the spirit of it and nodded. The air cleared, there remained a distance between them. Even if they now saw eye to eye on it, that flow state of them growing closer had been broken. For the sake of seduction, that was bad. For the sake of their relationship at large… perhaps it was best that they weren’t guided by passion first and foremost anymore.
They sat there in silence. It was neither harmonious nor awkward, it was just silence. John stirred his tea. He had not touched it at all and he did not really intend to either. “I’m glad you gave me the chance to clear things up,” John told her.
“You can thank her for most of that.” Nahua gestured in the general direction of Momo.
John did not know what had been said between the demigoddess and the fairy. The conversation was locked on both sides, the memory kept from his distant gaze. An attempt to look into it had not been made. Secrecy had to be respected. Besides, he did not need to know every curse Nahua had found in her native language for him.
Even with that talking to, Nahua had waited until now, the following morning, to approach him. It hadn’t been entirely her choice though. She was duty-bound to guide him during his stay and this morning had a number of important developments.
“I’ll add it to the hours of face-sitting I owe Momo,” John said, then, carefully, changed the topic, “Justified grilling aside, I think there is a different reason you came here?”
Nahua gave him a sombre nod. “The other invaders have been allowed to stand before my father.”
“The fact that I haven’t heard anything explode means that things went well?” John did not hide the nervous drumming of his fingers, but he did mask the reason for it. Glory and Norahnon he wanted inside the Sanctum, but Liakan was best kept out. A decision that John did not get to make. ‘The important factor is that Glory did not immediately turn hostile.’
“The Azure Tribe has been quartered to the north, the Illuminati to the south, and the three riders to the east,” Nahua reported. “Father has promised to deliver a proper explanation to the Grim Reaper upon his arrival. The other two factions were allowed entrance after a short talk. Liakan has made her bid for an alliance. My father will come to a decision this noon.” She took a short pause. “I understand you would want to obstruct such an alliance?”
“It would be in my geopolitical interest,” he answered.
“Alrighty, then, and take this as the silly words from a silly girl that they are, you may want to prepare for combat,” Nahua chatted, her sweet tone giving John the kind of whiplash that it was supposed to. A dark giggle later, she continued in the innocent tones, “Tradition has it, when two different sides seek the favour of Huitzilopochtli, they must fight it out and then the winner presents the losers heart as sacrifice.”
“Barbaric,” John stated his clear disapproval.
“If you’re not prepared to kill, then why fight?” the demigoddess asked.
“The Azure Tribe are my enemies, they aren’t pests I want to eliminate. You don’t value life highly enough in your culture.” ‘As is proven by this very place,’ he thought. It said something about the frequency of human sacrifice in this culture that after 500 years in a Sanctum, where food and water was as available as the god could make it, the population had only risen to 200’000. John had no idea how small or large the original group of survivors had been, but he could assume there were enough of them to prevent genetic issues. 500 years were 15 generations, more than enough time to bloat the population rapidly.
“Fight by our traditions or do not,” Nahua answered with a shrug.
“You say that like there is no third way – Momo, could you take Metra along to where the Azure Tribe is staying? I’m sure we can work out an agreement and alternative sacrifice.”
Momo looked between him and Nahua. ‘I’ll keep an eye on you!’ she assured (or threatened), then nodded. “Sure thing… Now where did we leave our angry wolf…?”
Disapprovingly, Nahua followed the chancellor leaving the room. “Must you subvert everything?”
“I’ve followed your Glory Road, didn’t I?” John asked.
“As if you had a choice.”
“First off, I did, because Aclysia killed the last Tezcatlipoca,” John reminded her. “Second, I have my ways.” Whether or not Lee could have gotten through the seals was doubtful, but the chances were bigger than 0.
“Whatever you want to tell yourself.” Nahua waved off. “Are you going to send envoys to the other two as well?”
“I really don’t want to talk to Norahnon if I can help it,” John confessed. “As for Glory, War and Famine… they still have a hostage.”
“What is the honoured teacher doing anyway?” Nahua asked.
“Still searching for the corpse of the giant,” John told her. Lorelei was giving him regular updates on that search. Currently it boiled down to her writing how she felt about the search. The Grim Reaper was not letting her partake in the active scouting, at least not so far.
“As long as they do not bring the Purple with them. Then again, it probably wouldn’t matter – in this body I would be powerful enough to devour it all.”
John left that uncommented. A change of topic was in order. “If you have nothing else to do, mind showing me that training place that I requested yesterday?”
“Are you, like, stoopid or something?” Nahua drawled. “I gave you the mental map yesterday, you could have totes found it yourself or whatever.”
“I was in no mood to leave my room yesterday,” John told her.
The implication made the demigoddess smirk a little wider. “I see,” she hummed, then got up. “Then we may as well.”
“Hold down the fort while we’re out,” he told Aclysia and then followed Nahua. He expected to find Rave waiting for them by the front gate. When he didn’t, he thought, ‘She must be giving us some extra space.’
The privacy was incomplete. The elementals were with John, all six of them, resting in his soul in their incorporeal state. When he turned to look at them, he saw them sitting in some kind of large bedroom, following the view of his senses through a big flatscreen. It was the manifestation of them inhabiting his being through the contract, a sort of complex that symbolized his esoteric being.
“Oh, hi John,” Gnome greeted him, when she felt his presence. “Uhm, we’re just doing live commentary.”
‘Is that popcorn?’ he asked, his voice echoing in his own head. He was doing the mental equivalent of knotting his tongue.
“Uhm, yes? Don’t ask how it works.”
“Get out of here and pay attention to your date!” Salamander told his disembodied voice.
John heeded the advice and went back to full presence on the material side. Not that there was a lot to do at the moment, besides following Nahua down the street. The wiggle of her hips had him distracted for a long stretch. Curiosity had him take a look around.
Business in the city was… quiet. There were shops around, most of them indoors, hiding away from the sun that, at this early hour, was at least reasonable. Public gatherings were few, usually centred around the spots designated for sacrifice. Fresh blood marked pedestals atop small ziggurats. The sacrifices made had been claimed and removed by Huitzilopochtli, leaving only the aftermath of the ritualistic slaughter.
The people walked in orderly rows, following lines on the ground. Men and women carried baskets on their heads, containing fruits and vegetables. They were delivering them to the many temples around the city. Another act of sacrifice.
“Your father demands much,” John said. He spoke in English, not wanting anyone to take offense to his blasphemy.
“It is a great honour to live in the inner realm,” Nahua answered.
John just hummed. A Sanctum was a natural extension of a god’s power, so something like upkeep was not required. ‘Demanding sacrifice is in the god of sacrifice’s nature… but how much does he ask for?’ “Have you read Alice in Wonderland?”
“I have read references to it on your electronic devices – why?”
John followed the long trail of people they passed by. Very few of them looked over forty. “In it, there’s a story of a walrus and a carpenter that both wish to eat oysters. They have to trick the oysters in order to do so, and when they succeed, the walrus cries as he eats them all, while the carpenter feels nothing. I often find myself wondering which of the two is worse and what I would do with either. One is a knowing criminal, the other is essentially a creature, acting on an instinct I would consider immoral.”
“You’re wise not to utter such blasphemy in our tongue,” Nahua told him, “and you test my good will again, as well as that of your host.”
“I didn’t mean offense or even to link your father to either,” John answered. “I’m just imagining a worst case scenario. It’s in my nature.”
“Imagine more realistic things,” she told him off. “Or pay attention to me.”
John opted to do the latter.
They had a pleasant day together.