On the sea which was called the Gulf of Mexico in another time, a longboat was moving painfully slowly toward a river that the Totonacs considered the end of their civilization. Everything along this river was theirs. Much of their commerce relied upon this river to move goods, lumber, and stone via canoe. The farms of Totonac relied on this river for irrigation. Seeing the river in the distance meant that Zuma and his warriors were finally home.

It took weeks longer than it should have to reach the shores of their home because neither Zuma nor any of his men were seamen. The longboat even had sails, but the concept of sailing was totally alien to Zuma and his men, so instead, they paddled the entire way with paddles that were ill-designed for the vessel they stole.

On board, the ship were nine men with their hands and feet tied. Their wrist and ankles were blistered from rough rope rubbing their skin raw. They were hungry, dirty, and smelly from their time at sea. Much of their skin was red because Zuma and his men were trying to teach these men the Totonac language, but every time they got something wrong, they were slapped, but all the pain they suffered did not compare to the fear in their hearts. They had heard what happened to Quincy, and they thought they were heading to their doom, so they were not inclined to do anything but grieve their miserable short lives.

Once the longboat finally reached the mouth of the river, the warriors began poling up the river and began making much better time than they did when they had to paddle along unfamiliar coast.

As the boat made its way upriver, Zuma watched men and women do their various jobs. He noticed that many of the people were thinner than normal. Clearly, it was a result of rationing. As they made their way upriver, he smiled as men and women stopped doing what they were doing to point and shout about the giant canoe. Many cheered as they saw their warriors on it. They had heard their enemy, the Giant Deer People, had giant canoes, and so they were ecstatic when they saw that the jaguar warriors were able to steal their enemy's vessel.

On the front of the longboat stood a warrior that yelled at the canoe traffic, “MAKE WAY! NOBLE ZUMA IS RETURNING FROM HIS MISSION FOR THE EMPEROR!” Canoes half a mile away moved out of the way for fear of facing the wrath of their Emperor, but they still cheered as the captured vessel passed. It was worth celebrating.

On the second day poling upriver, Zuma noticed things felt eerie. He didn’t notice the eerie feeling the first day because he was basking in glory, but after spending a night in a village along the way, he noticed it. He dwelt on the eerie feeling most of the night, a full dad, another night, but halfway through the next morning, he realized what the eerie feeling was. There had been no cries during the night, no small children screaming or playing during the day, no toddlers following their mothers around as they went about their business. Every child five and under had been sacrificed. The food supply was so damaged after the Giant Deer People attacked that it was determined that it would be better to sacrifice all the children, who were too young to work, to the gods than to let them starve. Their sacrifice made the world a quieter place, although it also allowed enough food to save their nation. At the end of the day, it was better that the useless children die than the useful adults, although it seemed to make the entire world a more melancholy place.

After a while, Zuma and his warriors became used to the cheers and tuned them out, and they began to notice other things on their way upriver. Some good, like the crops, looked healthy and full this year. Some bad, like the villages that were destroyed beyond all hope of being rebuilt. As the miles passed, it became clear that their nation should be able to recover, although it would take time to rebuild.

In time they finally reached Teotihuacan. It was a sad sight as the city was still damaged, but it was recovering. Zuma watched as slaves dragged stones into the city to repair damaged buildings.

Zuma sent one of his Jaguar warriors ahead to inform the Emperor of his return. As the warrior sprinted off to tell the Emperor of the successes of their mission, the other warriors and hunters gathered the nine captured men and the belongings they found at the men’s camps and began making their way to the palace.

As they made their way to the palace, Zuma couldn’t help but shout, “WE HAVE BROUGHT BACK NINE GIANT DEER PEOPLE! IT IS THE FIRST VICTORY OF MANY!”

The people who heard the announcement could not help but cheer. Some of the people began running to tell their friends, and many of the construction workers left their work to come and gawk at the hateful enemies that were tied up and helpless. Zuma puffed up with pride, not because of the cheering but because of the political points he earned. His house would be stronger because of his military victories.

When they reached the palace, the Jaguar Warriors standing guard immediately showed them in and brought them to the Emperor. When the Emperor saw the Giant Deer People being carried around like fish on a string, he couldn’t help but smile.

But the Emperor could not give Zuma too much credit because Zuma was a political opponent, so he asked, “Have you gotten any information from these men?” The Emperor knew it was a risky question because he did not know the answer, but he also knew it was unlikely that Zuma would be able to get anything out of these men simply because they did not share a language and likely didn’t learn it in the time they were captured.

Zuma answered, “Not yet, your majesty, but I have taken their giant canoe, supplies, and strange tools.”

“We already have giant canoes, supplies, and strange tools from the first time the giant deer people came to our shores. What we need is the secret to their power.”

“I will get it; I just need more time.”

“You have already had enough time. You have done well to give us the first victory over the giant deer people, but we need their power, and you have failed, so I will extract it from these men.”

Zuma did not like how the Emperor was spinning this, and he could already imagine what the Emperor's new priest would do to these men; but he was riding high on his success and fell into the Emperor’s trap, “Your immanence, your priests are still new. If you want someone to torture information out of them, my men are more experienced than the new priest.”

The Emperor waved his hands dismissively, silencing everyone in the room, then turned to the prisoners and said, “If you do not answer my questions, I will have a warrior chew off your manhood, and when he is done, he will use a red hot stick to seal the wound shut. After that, he will peel your skin off, starting with your feet. Once the skin is peeled up to your knees, he will put your legs in boiling water until your wounds are burned closed. Then he will pull your teeth out and insert needles into your gums.”

The captives did not react to the description of the Emperor's torture; instead, they looked just as defeated and deflated as they did when they came into the throne room. The Emperor asked, “Zuma did you see those men react to any of my threats?”

“No, sir. If you want, I can beat them and get a reaction out of them.”

“Now you are just showing me why I use nobles in wars. You nobles are filled with fighting fire, but not wisdom or cunning. These men didn’t react because they don’t know our language. It doesn’t matter how much pain we cause them; they will not be able to explain their power to us until they learn our language.”

“Oh, yes, I can see that.”

“And what do you think the solution is?” The Emperor smiled as Zuma frowned. Both men knew that whatever Zuma said would be wrong. Even if Zuma said exactly what the Emperor was thinking, he would change the answer to make Zuma look foolish.

Zuma decided to use this opportunity to build bridges since he wasn’t going to come up with the correct answer, “I would say bring the wisest men of our nation, the scholars here, to teach these men our language.”

“The scholars are indeed wise, so why waste them teaching these men how to speak when teaching language comes naturally to women. Every mother teaches their child how to speak, do they not? Why debase the scholars with a job a woman can do? No, we will call the scholars when these men learn the language.” Then the Emperor turned to one of his servants and said, “Go to the Tezcatlipoca impersonator’s harem and bring nine women who have not been with Tezcatlipoca in a year.”

The Tezcatlipoca impersonator is a young man who has been trained to play the flute his entire life. Every year the Tezcatlipoca impersonator is sacrificed to Tezcatlipoca in May, and a new Tezcatlipoca impersonator gets the job of playing the flute throughout the great city of Teotihuacan and impersonating Tezcatlipoca. For one year, this impersonator would go throughout the city to every party getting drunk and high and returning home to a harem of women. Then when the day of sacrifice came, he would play his flute as he went up the steps of the temple. When he reached the top, he would break the flute before being sacrificed.

Zuma was a bit confused and asked, “Why get women from Tezcatlipoca’s harem? Couldn’t any woman do the job?”

For the first time, the Emperor gave Zuma a genuine look, instead of a calculated look that presented the right political tone. The look said, “I didn’t know you were actually this stupid.” After a long moment of silence, the Emperor spoke, so speculation about why the Emperor made this decision would not run rampant, “We do not just need these men to speak our language. We need these men to tell us where they get their power from. Tezcatlipoca’s harem spends an entire year pleasing Tezcatlipoca in such a way that at the end of the year, he is so wrapped around their fingers, he willingly sacrifices himself. These women will have no problem getting whatever they want out of our guests. And besides, if these Giant Deer Riders resist the women, I wonder if they will resist me if the lives of their children are threatened. Tezcatlipoca’s harem must sacrifice any child they conceive, and so they will have no issue using the lives of their children as bargaining chips as we seek the Giant Deer Rider’s power.”

Zuma nodded in understanding. Everyone in their nation understood that their child could be used as a sacrifice if needed, but that didn’t make losing a child any easier. After a long moment’s thought, Zuma simply said, “You are wise, my Emperor.” There was no point in trying to get political points by disagreeing with the Emperor. He had a pretty good plan, and it was obvious for anyone to see.

As they waited, the Emperor looked over the captives as he would an item in the shop. A few minutes later, nine beautiful women, albeit older by the standards of Totonac, in their late twenties, came into the room. The women bowed down before the Emperor.

The Emperor told the women, “I need each of you to choose a captive. Make the man love you, cherish you, and become his whole world. Teach him our language, and get every secret you can out of him. These men have secrets, strengths, and powers that we have never heard of before, so this job will take years, maybe even a lifetime. You are in this work for the long haul, so have his children, but do not sacrifice them. Use his children to hold power over him to get as much as you can out of these men.”

The women nodded to their Emperor, as it was not appropriate for them to speak to him, then they got off their feet to obey his orders. The obvious first step was to untie the men and begin cleaning their wounds in front of the Emperor. As the women released the men from their bonds, they took the measure of the confused men. They noticed when the men gasped in relief as the cords stopped digging into their flesh. With the pain gone, the men couldn’t help but give the women in front of them a long lingering look, but the biggest reaction was when the women took their arms and began applying medicine to their wounds. The men became utterly confused and captivated, especially as the women were tending to the men's wounds as sensually as possible. The women carefully paid attention as the men reacted to their beauty, touch, and kindness, and each woman thought the job they had would be easy and pleasant. After all, they had pleased and manipulated men in such a way that they willingly went to sacrifice their lives after a year of delights. With these men, they had more than a year, and they were only extracting secrets, not lives.