Silver moonlight floated on the surface of the sea, and gray-black mountains showed faintly along the shore. In the bay between the ocean and God Mountain stood a stone-built water fortress, low, ancient, and desolate.
In truth, this was also one of the ancient Olmec ruins. Like the two ancient divine statues at the crater of God Mountain, it had been built at the end of the Warring States era of the Celestial Empire, a full thousand years and more ago. And the original purpose of this water fortress had been a sacrificial site beneath God Mountain, enshrining the "Mother of the Sea" revered along the coast, who was likewise one of the deities of the Mexica Plateau: Cihuatéotl.
"Blessed by The Sun and the Feathered Serpent! In this raid on the Mexica People, we won a rare and great victory!"
The Feathered Serpent priest Pap smiled as he loudly proclaimed this to the Temple priests and warriors who had come to greet them. Afterward, he arranged for the people of the fleet to rest, and also assigned craftsmen and hands to repair the ships. Only when everything was done, and the moon had risen to the middle of the sky, did this High Priest of the Feathered Serpent, the Water Fleet commander of the Holy City, silently walk into the depths of the water fortress's sacrificial site under the guard of the chief Chuchut.
"Chuchut, take a few tribal warriors and guard the outside carefully!"
"Yes! Priest Pap!"
Snake Lake Tribe chief Chuchut bowed his head respectfully, like Pap's personal bodyguard. With Priest Pap's rise once more, his own status had also risen with the tide, and even the clansmen who had been settled there now had guarantees. And after the two of them had fled together for a