Chapter Summaries

The Main God festival brought Cuba’s Taino chiefs into talks about an alliance, while its market drew tribes together through barter. The captives were assigned new roles in Iron Bay Town, and Arana began overseeing saltpeter production under guard.

• After the blood sacrifice, captured artisans drank Rodrigo's Blood Wine and swore to convert, while Gutierrez begged High Priest Tomatl to spare him.
• High Priest Tomatl proposed a Hot Land Tribal Alliance centered on Iron Bay Town, and eastern Cuban tribes agreed while western tribes hesitated.
• Tribes traded goods at the festival market, where Paulo exchanged ironware for gold dust and Bartolome and Gonzalo enjoyed Havana Tribe tobacco.
• Antonio built a wooden cart, Little Gil was assigned to raise turkeys, and Arana was ordered to supervise saltpeter production using manure and toilet soil.

Black Wolf Toltec ordered Stone Carving City cleaned and his forces withdrawn after the Black Wolf Legion destroyed the Tail Feather Clan and held a bloody festival. News arrived that the Maya fleet returning from Cuba had encountered White-Skinned Demons, and Toltec ordered two thousand-man units to march north at dawn.

• Black Wolf Toltec studied the ancient Long Count Stele, but gave up after Uta told him the Maya priests who could interpret it had all been sacrificed.
• Toltec ordered the Black Wolf Legion to leave Stone Carving City, bury the dead, and have surrendered Maya warriors clean the city under guard.
• Toltec worried that blood and corpses had contaminated the reservoirs and resolved to move the legion's camp back to Tail Village while enforcing sanitation.
• Jaguar-Head Copilli arrived from Tail Village and reported that a Maya merchant fleet returning from Cuba had brought news of White-Skinned Demons and several bearded demon heads.
• Toltec ordered two thousand-man camp units to follow him north to Tail Village at dawn.

Black Wolf Toltec questioned Yan Hu about the white-skinned invaders in Cuba and planned how to counter their fast-moving fleet, while continuing the Kingdom’s conquest of the Maya coast. He ordered Yan Hu to prepare for a future assault on the Ixi Clan and Ekab Chiefdom, then turned his attention toward Cuba and the Caribbean islands.

• Black Wolf Toltec questioned Yan Hu about the invaders in Cuba and examined a preserved enemy head, finding it ordinary despite High Priest Tomatl’s warnings.
• Black Wolf Toltec devised three ways to fight the enemy fleet and concluded that intelligence from the Eastern Sea Islands and control of the remaining Maya coast were essential.
• Black Wolf Toltec told Yan Hu that the Kingdom had twenty thousand Samurai in Maya and ordered him to deliver enemy heads and Tomatl’s letter to the Kingdom Water Fleet at Salt Village.
• Black Wolf Toltec planned to conquer Moto City, eliminate the Deer Worm Clan’s god-descendants, and use Yan Hu’s help to attack the Ixi Clan, the Great Temple of Tulum, and Yan Island Harbor in October.
• Yan Hu accepted the plan in exchange for becoming sole chief of his clan and the acknowledged king of the Ekab Chiefdom, while Black Wolf Toltec looked east toward Cuba and the Caribbean.

Red Crow Great Chieftain Amoxi faced a food crisis after Alan brought fifty thousand Coahuiltec tribespeople south. He rejected a reckless invasion of the Silver Crow Alliance and ordered envoys to seek grain from Qingqiu, Silver Crow, and Totonac, offering repayment, threats, or military aid.

• Moqi and Zukata told Amoxi that Alan had brought fifty thousand prairie tribespeople to Warrior Lake, while she continued northwest in search of coal.
• Amoxi learned that the Red Crow lands could feed only twenty thousand newcomers and rebuked Moqi and Zukata for proposing a southern raid.
• Amoxi warned that an invasion could fail against Crow City and leave Red Crow City vulnerable to Balamo and the Qingqiu tribes.
• Amoxi ordered envoys to demand grain from Balamo and Papata, threatening to bring Red Crow fighters south if they refused.
• Amoxi ordered a sea mission to ask Snake Mother for grain, offering Red Crow warriors to fight for the Totonac Alliance in return.

Balamo led the Qingqiu Great Tribe out of the wasteland and settled in the fertile Huastec River Marsh, where he planned to build a lasting power base. As his warriors began securing the new territory, he brooded over Xolotl’s absence and warned that his own and others’ ambitions might be unleashed if anything happened to him.

• Balamo and several hundred Dog-kin headmen and warriors arrived by canoe at the confluence of the Tampico River tributary and celebrated reaching fertile land.
• Balamo ordered scouts and patrols to secure the area and had his people prepare an abandoned village as their camp.
• Balamo assessed the riverside farmland and planned to bring settlers there and begin spring cultivation.
• Balamo recalled how Xolotl had sent him to rule Qingqiu more than ten years earlier and wondered why Xolotl had left him in the wasteland while favoring Monkey.
• Balamo revealed that he had mobilized twenty thousand Dog-kin warriors, ready to fight for Xolotl, and feared that his and his allies’ ambitions would grow uncontrollable if Xolotl fell.

Great Chieftain Balamo reflected on his eastward expansion and planned to establish a new Qingqiu capital on the Tampico River. After his son Ba Shenyu shot down a crow and asked for a wife with a son, Balamo proposed Red Fox Oztohua’s widowed sister as a bride.

• Balamo recalled his jealousy of Ezpan’s power and explained that Qingqiu had expanded east into Huastec lands to give its people fertile territory.
• Balamo planned to establish a new city in the middle reaches of the Tampico River and expand Qingqiu’s control along the Great River.
• Balamo ordered his hunters to shoot at circling crows, and Ba Shenyu and Ivicán each brought down one.
• Ba Shenyu asked Balamo for a pretty woman who already had a ten-something-year-old son so he could become a father immediately.
• Balamo asked Red Fox Oztohua whether he would betroth his widowed sister and her nine-year-old son to Ba Shenyu.

Balamo used marriage alliances and political maneuvering to bind Red Fox Oztohua and the Red Fox Great Tribe to Qingqiu, naming the planned city Fox Hill City. He then asked Oztohua to help kill supposed Mexica envoys, while reflecting on his loyalties to Avet and Prince Xolotl and the uncertain struggle ahead.

• Balamo arranged for his son Ba Shenyu to marry Oztohua’s sister, and Ba Shenyu sealed the agreement by kowtowing to Oztohua.
• Balamo offered Ivicán a bronze axe and arranged for him to marry Balamo’s fourth daughter, which Oztohua accepted.
• Balamo asked Oztohua to name Qingqiu’s new city; Oztohua proposed Shooting Crow City, but Balamo named it Fox Hill City and assigned Oztohua responsibility for spring plowing after the Red Fox tribe sent settlers.
• Balamo told Oztohua that apparent Mexica envoys had come to Wasteland Hill City and asked the Red Fox Great Tribe to kill them while disguising the attack as the work of Dog-kin.
• Oztohua asked whether Balamo wished to become a great power or remain a subordinate; Balamo said his future depended on the Suns and the blood-red sky, whose coming and casualties he could not predict.

Xolotl used yarrow-style divination with sunflower stalks to judge eight generals who had fled during the siege of God Stone City. The first was condemned to die by cannon fire, as the eastern-route army prepared to march on Yodzocahi.

• The Mexica Alliance completed its conquest of God Stone City after a brutal siege that killed thousands and destroyed the Cloud Temple’s old order.
• Divine King Avet summoned eight generals who had fled during the assault and ordered Xolotl to divine their prison judgments before the next campaign.
• Xolotl displayed his mysterious Eight Trigrams and Sixty-Four Hexagrams banner and performed divination with sunflower stalks.
• Xolotl obtained the Zhen Hexagram for the first general, and Avet sentenced him to thunder punishment.
• The condemned general accepted the judgment and was dragged before a Tiger-Crouching Cannon, which killed him with a blast.

Xolotl performed a series of divinations for the Mexica nobles, using punishments and sacrifices to cow the army before its southern campaign. He declared the Feng hexagram an auspicious omen for the attack on Yodzocahi, and Avet ordered the army to march south the next morning.

• Xolotl divined the fates of six nobles, and Avet pardoned one, sentenced several to sacrificial deaths, and ordered another to lose his little finger before fighting.
• Avet asked Xolotl to divine whether the southern campaign would succeed, and Xolotl completed a six-line milfoil divination using sacrificial blood.
• Xolotl interpreted the resulting Feng hexagram of thunder above fire as a sign that the Main God would help destroy Yodzocahi.
• Avet proclaimed the omen auspicious and ordered the generals to spread the news through the camps to raise morale.
• Avet ordered five thousand vanguard soldiers to march south the next morning, with the main army to follow and take Yodzocahi before the May rainy season.

Xolotl reflected on his ten months as Divine Inspiration High Priest, his efforts to manage the capital’s nobles, and the discoveries brought by Zuwaro’s northern expedition. As he began a divination about his own future, the hexagram changed from Heaven to Humility, which he took as a warning to lower himself and conceal his strength.

• Xolotl recalled how he investigated corruption in the capital’s Artisan Camp, negotiated with royal nobles, and executed several offenders before reforming production.
• Xolotl read Zuwaro’s report from Kamchatka, which described an alliance with the Mountain Tribe, captured Deer Tribe people, and Wagoku Samurai, Joseon Sailors, artisans, and horses.
• Xolotl approved Talaya’s plan to build a fast Wind God Caravel and gave her authority to oversee the project with Miki and Chiwako assisting.
• Xolotl recalled how he used the Eight Trigrams Divine Banner and Yarrow Stalk Divination to help Avet judge military cases and establish himself as a High Priest influencing the army’s nobles and Samurai.
• Xolotl performed a divination about his own future and received the Heaven Hexagram changing into the Humility Hexagram, which he understood as guidance to remain humble and keep his power concealed.

Xolotl warned Avet that the southern campaign’s vast mountain terrain would make supplying the armies increasingly difficult. After discussing the western and central routes, they turned to the eastern army’s much larger force and longer supply line, leaving its logistical burden unresolved.

• Kuakehu led five thousand vanguard warriors south toward Mountain Pass Fortress.
• Xolotl inspected a grain shipment, noticed a discrepancy, and went to Avet with the tally board.
• Avet received news that Kasal’s Western Route Army had captured Huamuxtitlan, while Xolotl warned that advancing to the coast would require a much larger grain-transport force.
• Xolotl traced the western, central, and eastern army routes on Avet’s map and described the forces and supplies each required.
• Avet explained that Stanley’s Central Route Army was meant to pin down Yuchi’s main force while the eastern and western armies advanced south to encircle it.
• Xolotl warned that the Eastern Route Army’s fifty to sixty thousand troops and longer supply route posed the greatest logistical challenge.

Xolotl advised Avet to establish military farming in God Stone Valley to reduce the eastern army’s supply burden and support the long campaign against the Mixtec and Zapotec. Avet decided to leave twenty thousand men under Xolotl’s command to farm the valley while he led thirty thousand troops south toward Yodzocahi.

• Xolotl explained that extending the army’s grain road south would require up to two hundred thousand transport laborers and disrupt the Alliance’s spring plowing.
• Xolotl proposed securing God Stone Valley, settling its Mixtec inhabitants, and having them farm so the army could draw supplies locally.
• Avet calculated the logistical and agricultural costs, then agreed that military farming in God Stone Valley should be a priority.
• Avet decided to leave twenty thousand men in the valley to oversee farming and lead thirty thousand troops south himself.
• Avet offered Xolotl command of the farming force and one thousand Kingdom guards, and asked what he thought.

Avet persuaded Xolotl to entrust Ekat and his remaining kingdom guards with managing God Stone City's garrison farms, while promising to support Xolotl's path toward becoming high priest. The conversation turned to royal succession and the enfeoffment of Cloud Land, which Avet linked to the imminent birth of Xolotl and Alisa's second child.

• Xolotl refused to govern the garrison farms himself and proposed Chichimicqui, Chiltototl, and Mihoti as candidates.
• Avet asked Xolotl to choose a trusted follower, and Xolotl recommended Ekat with one thousand kingdom guards for the task.
• Avet appointed Ekat to oversee the farms and Chiltototl to assist and defend the valley, then assigned guards and intelligence support to protect Xolotl.
• Avet warned Xolotl that his new Bagua Divination could threaten the Priest Elders' authority and promised to help strengthen his position as a high priest candidate.
• Avet planned to have royal and noble youths, including Cuitlahuac, study divination under Xolotl and began discussing a new plan for Cloud Land's enfeoffment if Xolotl and Alisa's second child was a boy.

Xolotl realized Avet was balancing the royal branches by arranging fiefs and positions, and proposed sending Montezuma II south to the wealthy Mixtec coast. Avet promised to enfeoff Alisa’s sons and spoke warmly of trust, but the sour plum wine reminded Xolotl of a story—and he sensed that something dangerous had happened.

• Xolotl reasoned that Avet planned to use his and Alisa’s children to counter Axayacatl’s line, while assigning Ekat, Chiltototl, and Cuitlahuac roles that strengthened the royal center.
• Xolotl suggested that Marshal Kasal remain at Ahuatepec while Montezuma II campaigned south and received the wealthy Mixtec coast as his fief.
• Avet approved the proposal, seeing it as a way to balance the royal branches and separate Montezuma II from Cuitlahuac.
• Avet urged Xolotl to have more children with Alisa and promised that their sons would receive powerful fiefs, including Xiuhua’s future inheritance through Alisa’s line.
• Avet helped Xolotl up and shared sour plum wine, prompting Xolotl to recognize the wine from a story he had told and grow alarmed.

Avet drank wine with Xolotl and retold a story about two rival heroes, using it to explain how powerful leaders could secure lasting loyalty. He argued that true heroes needed shared political goals, family ties, and binding roots, then boasted that he had surpassed the chieftain in the tale.

• Avet invited Xolotl to drink and recalled their youthful dreams and oath of equality.
• Avet recounted the story of a Great Chieftain and a Little Chieftain who became enemies after the Little Chieftain fled.
• Avet admitted that he had acted arrogantly like the Great Chieftain and asked Xolotl how the two heroes could have remained allies.
• Avet explained that loyalty came from shared goals, family bonds, and roots that bound people together.
• Avet concluded that the Great Chieftain had failed to use all three bonds and declared himself superior.

Avet got Xolotl drunk and pressed him about their bond, the future of the realm, and whether Xolotl would share power with him. Xolotl swore loyalty while Avet slept, but two armed figures appeared in the tent with loaded crossbows.

• Avet praised Mexica traditions of shared rule and urged Xolotl to return to the capital to support Alisa and manage logistics, but Xolotl refused to abandon his duties as suzerain priest.
• Avet and Xolotl drunkenly admitted their doubts about divination and reminisced about the dead, before Avet asked whether Xolotl was his Same Tree, Shared Branch, and Intertwined Roots.
• Xolotl affirmed their shared aims and family ties, then promised to remain beside Avet and help him rule until his death.
• Avet fell asleep on the carpet, and Xolotl lay down beside him after quietly reaffirming his oath of loyalty.
• Two shadowy figures emerged in the tent holding loaded Bronze wooden crossbows with sharp Bronze bolts.

Avet reconsidered moving against Xolotl after learning that a four-year-old prophecy of Xolotl’s had come true, giving him immense religious and political prestige. He chose to honor their oath for the sake of the royal family, while Xolotl woke at dawn and sought guidance through another divination whose meaning he could not recall.

• Shadow Dagger Chiwami and a Secret Guard carried Xolotl from Avet’s tent to a nearby Royal Tent, and Avet watched him leave.
• Avet recited poems from Poetry of Xoloc and studied a secret letter reporting that a white-skinned stranger’s severed head had arrived in Golden Bay City, fulfilling Xolotl’s prophecy.
• Avet realized the fulfilled prophecy could make Xolotl revered as a god and make any attempt to kill him politically disastrous.
• Avet dismissed Shadow Dagger Chiwami and reaffirmed his oath to Xolotl, praying to Huitzilopochtli and their ancestors for the royal family’s future.
• At dawn, Xolotl woke wary and exhausted, then performed a divination that produced familiar hexagrams whose meaning he could not remember.

The Alliance’s armies pressed their invasion of the Mixtec lands, capturing Mountain Pass Fortress while surrounding other cities and preparing further assaults. Far across the mountains, a strange sailboat crossed Atoyac Lake carrying priests and three old men, including one clutching the Main God’s Gold Talisman.

• The Alliance’s Eastern Route Army stormed Mountain Pass Fortress from both sides, and Rio Viejo fled south before the garrison surrendered or escaped into the mountains.
• Great Chieftain Yuchi mobilized Mixtec forces, called on southern allies for help, and built defensive camps near Mountain River City to delay Stanley the Giant Bear’s Central Route Army.
• Kasal’s Western Route Army surrounded Ahuatepec, set fire to buildings with poison-smoke fireballs, and prepared to assault the city.
• A square-prowed sailboat crossed Atoyac Lake under sail, drawing the attention of local tribespeople who praised Huitzilopochtli and the Institute of Divine Inspiration.
• The boat carried Institute priests and three old men: one held a Shaman’s Scepter, one watched the vessel from the bow, and one adjusted the sails while clutching the Main God’s Gold Talisman.

Cedar Shaman, Old Militia Chiwako, and Shipwright Kim Seon-su sailed across Atoyac Lake while Cedar learned to steer their ship and traded jokes with his companions. The three old men ended the chapter comparing northern tribal customs with Kim’s homeland’s strict rules.

• Cedar Shaman turned the ship sharply, alarming Shipwright Kim Seon-su and Old Militia Chiwako before they steadied the sails.
• Chiwako scolded Cedar for handling the ship recklessly, and Cedar bragged that he could swim far enough to rescue them both.
• Cedar recalled how he had joined the Lake Kingdom, become an honorary fourth-level Chief Priest, and settled into work at the Navigation Academy and Southern Shipbuilding Institute.
• Cedar and Chiwako wrestled over Cedar’s Scepter, then laughed together as they traded insults about farming, hunting, and their strength.
• Cedar claimed he had won a Wiyot Fish Sacrifice Festival by knocking fish with a stick and had attracted women afterward.
• Chiwako asked Kim whether his northern homeland shared that custom, and Kim denied it while describing the punishment for adultery, leaving both men baffled by his explanations.

As the square-bowed sailboat returned to the shipyard, Cedar Shaman and Chiwako challenged Kim Seon-su’s beliefs about the Liangtang Tribe’s hierarchy and encouraged him to take pride in his skills. Kim Seon-su accepted his new home and explained how the kingdom could build practical sand ships, leaving the shipyard’s plans for its first fleet in view.

• Chiwako and Cedar Shaman condemned the Liangtang Tribe’s rigid ranks and rules, arguing that its nobles used them to control people.
• Cedar Shaman urged Kim Seon-su to abandon his old subservience and value his shipbuilding skills, and Kim resolved to make his home in the kingdom.
• Chiwako learned how the sail worked from Kim Seon-su, who praised his attentiveness and explained the boat’s name and design.
• Kim Seon-su described the sand ship’s construction, handling, and advantages for rivers, lakes, and nearby seas.
• Kim Seon-su said Priest Mekat had ordered twenty ships while Priest Miki wanted at least forty, but he could initially supervise only five at a time.