"My king! How is it?..."
"Ekat, you and Tecos, support me... Don't say too much. We'll talk after we get back!..."
"Yes!..."
The setting sun was like rouge, smearing the sky and lake light. The white city and red clouds wound together, the temples towering and majestic, yet now softened by a few gentle shades. Xolotl lifted his head slightly and, supported by the guard captain and the shield guard, slowly made his way toward the prince's residence. Across the entire Lake Capital, the distant sound of evening prayers rang out, as if drifting over the rosy clouds.
"How beautiful!... The Lake Capital, the city of white stone, Tenochtitlan..."
Xolotl's expression was distant and dim, his feet barely touching the ground as he floated home like a cloud. On his face were three parts calm, three parts nostalgia, three parts release, and one part emotion impossible to name or explain. Yet only Ekat, who was supporting him, knew that the family head's robe was already completely soaked with sweat, sticky and carrying a faint scent of blood, as if he had survived a struggle out of the deep Abyss...
"The Sun, oh The Sun! You stand high and see far, farther than I imagined! You roll with magma, so hot, hotter than in my memories!... And the reason you became what you are today, became the true Sun... is because I once told you what the real sky, the real sun, was like?..."
Ekat tilted his head slightly, listening to the family head's almost imperceptible murmurs. He faintly caught a little, yet could not understand it at all. But he could vaguely sense that the family head's mood at this moment was extremely complicated, even carrying a trace of regret. It was like Tecuciztecatl in the myths willingly leaping into