The December plateau had the coolness of clear autumn and the brilliance of early spring. In the Sierra Madre del Sur, red flowers bloomed all over the mountains and plains, spread across the rolling ridges, spilling a crimson color fresh as blood. They were local poinsettias and hibiscuses; the former had an intense fragrance, while the latter's petals were sweet and tart. And from the Yunshan Valley to the Oaxaca Valley, there were also many swaths of white flowers blooming in the lower valleys, yellow-tinged white like sunlight. These were common daisies and ginger lilies; the former symbolized hope, while the latter symbolized purification.
"May the Main God bless us! In this season, if there were no war in Cloud Land, it would be a beautiful autumn scene among the mountains, a vibrant 'red and white'!... And yet at this moment, the 'red and white' I see is the death of a grand scene..."
Xolotl wore light priest robes, with tough leather armor beneath them. He stood quietly southeast of Yodzocahi, atop a hill, overlooking the red and white below.
The dark red was congealed bloodstains, soaked battle robes, flowing and sketching out irregular semicircular "petals." And among these sacrificial petals lay clusters upon layers of warrior corpses. Those bodies stripped of their battle robes shone under the noon sun, indeed yellow-white like "ginger lilies."
"Legion Commander Kuakehu, was it beneath this hill that you ambushed the Zapotec legion?..."
"Yes! Lord Prophet! It was behind this stretch of hills that we laid the ambush, all of us wearing the grass cloaks from your 'revelation.' This valley is very close to Yodzocahi; you can already see the Yodzocahi fort at the summit, within the sentry sight of the Yunshan Tribes... The Yunshan Tribes sent three waves of envoys in succession to