Other than the Praetorian Guard, they were the people present who best understood what this meant. This conclusion prompted Kamar-Taj to further increase the number of Arcanists stationed here, making the already understaffed Himalayas headquarters even more strained. Even Mordo, an instructor who had only just been able to get out of bed, had no choice but to lead the newly qualified apprentices here. Together with Supiluliumas of the Praetorian Guard, they worked without rest to supervise the Kamar-Taj Arcanists as they drew protective and isolation formations, while also taking responsibility for consecrating every bullet and weapon.
Queen Yaaxil, who claimed she could open the stone gate through a ritual, was now under Mordo's strict watch. Though she had only mentioned certain elements of the ritual in passing, the Kamar-Taj Arcanists had identified, through Queen Yaaxil's language and their own analysis, that the sacrifice required by the ritual was actually the souls of those who died after the Feathered Serpent God awakened. Even counting only the deaths in the areas affected by the volcanic eruption in South America's Andes Mountains, the sacrifice was immensely weighty—enough to stir up towering waves within the Aether Wave of the Outer Dimensions and block the scrutiny of most divination spells.
Perhaps because she had gone too long without seeing the Emperor, perhaps because of Mordo's inexplicable hostility, or perhaps because superstition was gradually fading as reality failed to match myth, Queen Yaaxil kept seeking out the Praetorian Guard. She demanded that the members of her people who had been taken away be returned, and she also demanded to see "Hun Hunahpu" again, her name for the Emperor. Those gaunt primitives had turned the living quarters assigned to them by the Sky Sword Space Station into a complete mess. Victoria Hand dearly wanted to lock