Revolutions

103 - Paxilche

At the sight of Tlexnín being forcibly detained, I can feel the storm raging within me. The sky growls like a jaguar, reflecting my brewing anger. As if I couldn't distrust them more, the Auilqa have gone and done this? Was this part of the agreement between Xolotzi and Walumaq?

Saqatli must see the fury building within me, because he rushes to my side and places a consoling hand on my arm. Something brushes up against my leg, startling me. I quickly recognize the turquoise tail, watching the boy's ocelot companion nuzzling my calf.

I take a few steps back, pointing accusingly at the Auilqa boy. "This is the fault of yourpeople!" The boy's eyes grow large with fear, and he holds up his hands to try and placate me. But I persist. "You're in on this scheme, aren't you? Sent by your ruler to spy on us! To lull me and Walumaq into a false sense of security, all while he sends his goons to–"

"Paxilche," the boy says inside my head in that disturbing way he does. There's a slight wonder in his voice, or whatever it's called when he speaks inside my mind. "Your eyes... They're glowing white!"

'Glowing white'? What does he even mean? Besides his amber-colored eyes, Walumaq's blue eyes, and the green eyes of the Auilqa, I hadn't thought anyone's eyes could be anything but brown.

Walumaq approaches, looking at me with expressed caution and worry. "What is... happening to you? Why do you look..." She can hardly finish her thought, switching between staring at me and looking up toward the darkening sky as though she's piecing together the series of events.

"Is this," she points up to the night sky shrouded by an impending storm, "you're doing? Are you about to strike down the Auilqa?!" She sounds shocked, mortified, exasperated. She clutches my arm tightly as if squeezing the juice out of a lucuma. "By the sea, Paxilche!"

"They're about to do gods know what to an ally!" I shout, incensed that Walumaq thinks I'm in the wrong all of a sudden. "We're just going to allow this to happen?"

"Of course, we're not allowing it to happen," she says. "But we're not going to go on some senseless rampage because of it. We need to be strategic, before we have an entire nation at war with the eight of us! Your recent destructive attitude has been shocking, and, frankly, revolting. What has gotten into you? Who are you becoming?"

I look around at the scene, noticing how the Auilqa appear to have the numbers over the remaining Ulxa warriors. It's possible I could have succeeded in smiting them all, but after taking a few breaths, I realize now that, perhaps, I may have endangered more lives than saved them with my possible actions.

"I don't know what I was thinking," I begrudgingly concede, casting my eyes downward.

"You weren't thinking," Walumaq scolds, "and that is the problem. You need to control your powers and your anger."

Still emotional from seeing Tlexnín's capture, I sound more intense than I intend. "But this wasn't what was agreed upon! They can't get away with this!"

"They won't," she responds, "but violence will only create more violence. We must be smart about this, not merely attacking everything in sight. Otherwise, we're no better than the Timuaq."

I slump my shoulders. "I... I apologize, Walumaq." But before I can finish, she brusquely walks away toward the Ulxa temple. Saqatli frowns, then follows closely behind her, along with Noch.

The Auilqa bind the Ulxa warriors and villagers, then lead them off, likely to some prison encampment. Those who resist find a spear driven straight through their stomachs without hesitation, left to bleed out upon the ashes of their home village. Recalling how we were initially treated, the Auilqa are prepared to inflict a dismal and despairing scene upon the people of Analoixan, one in which the captives will be brutally mistreated for being viewed as 'lesser'.