|
|
|
The sun blazed down from overhead, scorching the land with its persistant nagging rays. The children that should have been playing down the lane took shelter from the torrent underneath the only dying tree left in town. Creaks from the well fought against the intensity of the heat, but were drowned in ever more light, deep frying the land. Above the city could be seen the apex of the great temple to the sun god, Nanauatzin, forever trapped within the flames of his patron gods as a sacrifice to maintain the light upon the earth. At the entrance to the temple, a single white haired figure could be seen entering. He was the local magistrate.
"Do you see these things around you, brother?" Disembodied, the voice floated down through the temple to slide into the magistrate's mind. He was a tiny man, hair whiter than the sun's ceaseless light, with eyes greying in his final years. The villagers knew him as Tzlochtl.
"Your dramatics fool no one, Achtelz. Come speak to me as a brother, and for once please leave your mantle behind." The white haired magistrate spoke into the darkness, absent thought playing out on his face. Tzlochtl's voice echoed up into the cavernous temple where his brother's had not.
The silence was filled with Nanauatzin's ever present heat pouring into the temple, washing over every stone and crevice with a presence less seen than felt. The stench of dried blood began to filter up from the grooves in the floor. Tzlochtl stood patiently before the altar and waited, sweat pooling at the bottoms of his sandals.
Time wore on with no sign that Achtelz would appear before the magistrate. Tzlochtl stood waiting, and the sun continued its siege on the village. Hours passed with no sign or sound that the priest would appear. Tzlochtl turned, his sandals still soaked in sweat, and came face to face with a slack jawed horror, eyes black and hollow, the chin split down the middle. He gasped in shock and took a quick step back, the sweat giving his sandal no traction on the stone floor behind. Tzlochtl fell, a loud thud and the hot slap of his skin against the floor.
"If you had but merely sought, I would have been revealed," the skin mask spoke, "but you stood and expected me to appear before you. The Gods are the Gods because they are Gods! Who are you, human, to expect the Gods to appear to you?" The empty face swayed forward, split jaw unmoved with the words. The incessant heat made the decaying flesh bubble and foam at the edges, red and black and brown puss dripping to the stone floor below. The stench of vomit and fecal matter could be caught emanating from the apparition.
Tzlochtl pushed himself away from the skin masked being before him and stood to face its hollow eyes. "I told you to not wear your mantle, Achtelz. And you are no god king. You are but a priest, still subject to the rule of the magistrate." Tzlochtl's voice was filled with humiliated anger, a quick lash against that which had so disturbed his calm demeanor. The sun poured in from the cavernous doorway, washing over the temple with a fresh wave of meat stenched, blood coated heat.
"Do not rage against the will of the sacrificed Nanauatl, for he was humble and willing to give of himself when the richer and prouder Tecciztecatl was denied the brilliance of the day. Do not forget his example, magistrate." Achtelz spoke of the magistrate's role with scorn and derision.
"I have not forgotten my place, Achtelz. I bear my burden with obligated pride. Perhaps you should do the same." Tzlochtl's voice calmed in time with his words and his vengeful attitude seeped out onto the ground below in another wave of fresh sweat. Fear, perhaps, that Nanauatzin was truly watching, and the priest was right.
Tzlochtl spoke again, "The people beg me to implore you, Achtelz, ask Nanauatzin t cease his assault on our village. We die of thirst and yet have no respite. All we ask is for this day to end so that we may sleep in the dark and the cool of Tecciztecatl's embrace." The magistrate's tone gave away his disbelief in the powers of which he spoke.
The priest took down the cowl of flesh and looked carefully at the magistrate. His black hair and eyes were a stark contrast to the magistrate's faded color.
"I will pray to Nanauatl for the people. Tell your village to prepare a sacrifice should the Gods desire one. You may be required to participate in the ceremony this time, brother." Achtelz glared challenge into his brother's face, waiting for a response.
A sigh filtered up into the heat and darkness of the temple. The magistrate's shoulders sagged and his eyes fell from his brother's gaze.
"Very well, Achtelz. You have my word as magistrate that if the Gods require sacrifice, then I will aid in the ceremony."
The black featured priest smiled, his teeth filed to points and dark stains on his cracked lips.
"Good."
Several minutes later, the magistrate began his climb back down the countless stairs of the temple to tell the people of the village what Achtelz, the priest, his brother, had proclaimed. The stair was steep and his sweat drenched sandals made the journey dangerous. The sun beat down from its unmoving position above.
A crowd gathered in wait at the base of the temple stairs, waiting for the magistrate's report.
"Tell us!" they cried. "Tell us what the priest has said! When will this heat end? When will the sun set?"
The white haired Tzlochtl raised his arms for silence, the sun's endless rays, sharp as obsidian arrows, clawing at his bare flesh. "The priest has agreed to go before Nanauatzin. He will plead our case before the sun and beg for him to rest so that we may worship Tecciztecatl equally." A cheer went up from the gathered villagers. Tzlochtl raised his arms for silence again, the sun screaming heat down his torso.
"Do not celebrate yet, dear people. The priest says that Nanauatzin may desire sacrifice. We must prepare a vessel to properly ensure that Nanauatzin will hear our plea." The villagers trembled visibly and a murmurous wave spread throughout, anticipation and anxiety running rampant in their midst.
"Who will we choose?" the villagers cried. "Who will be our gift to the sun, Nanauatzin?"
"The sun wishes only for volunteers." the magistrate replied. A searing wave of fresh heat poured down on the gathering. "Who amongst us desires to be Nanauatzin's holy sacrifice?" Whispers were the only reply Tzlochtl received. "Very well." the magistrate proclaimed. "Go home and pray to Quetzlcoatl. Perhaps the Great White Dragon shall reveal who is to be Nanauatzin's sacrifice."
The villagers spread and each went to their own home. Tzlochtl stood, staring out over the village with a loving gaze upon his face, and waited for his brother's reply.
Several hours passed, the sun sieging the village all the while as Tzlochtl stood, a statue in honor of his village. Nanauatzin, the sun god, glared murderously down on Tzlochtl's unmoved place at the base of the temple stair and fired his hottest, angriest rays down upon the magistrate's white head.
Tzlochtl heard a noise creeping down the step behind and turned to again face the skin masked horror that his brother insisted upon wearing. A sneer snuck its way onto the magistrate's face as he looked in disdain up at Achtelz, his brother, the priest of Nanauatzin.
"What has the sun god declared, brother?" His voice dripped with hatred at his brother's manipulative nature. The priest's smile was visible even through the gaping maw of his mantle's lifeless face.
"Nanauatl demands sacrifice, magistrate." The sadistic glee in the priest's voice chilled the volcanic heat several degrees as his smile stayed cemented upon his shadowed face. "The sacrifice is to be unknowing. Gather your villagers and have them assembled here in an hour's time, magistrate. Nanauatl will select his sacrifice from amongst the villagers once they are gathered at the temple stair."
Tzlochtl gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. "Very well, brother Achtelz. I will inform the villagers at once." He turned and stepped down from the temple stair before the priest's voice stopped him.
"Remember Tzlochtl, you have given your word as magistrate that you will aid in the ceremony."
Tzlochtl sighed and left to gather the villagers as Achtelz began to laugh.
An hour later, the entire village stood, whispering in excited whispers, a hush hung over them like the ever present sun that beat down on them from above. Tzlochtl stood before them, again on the temple stair, waiting for Achtelz to come down and select one of his villagers for the sacrifice. Amongst the entire gathering, only he stood silent, grim resolution set into his white features.
The priest appeared at the head of the stair with slow, calculated precision. Achtelz took each and every step deliberately, his skin faced mantle swaying in time with his steps. The villagers fell silent, and only the pressing heat of Nanauatzin's gaze could be heard, pouring down in spiteful anticipation.
The priest reached Tzlochtl and leaned down, black teeth clicking in the magistrate's ear. "The temple is prepared, brother. Bring your gathering and let us all worship the glory of Nanauatl."
Achtelz turned and began the long climb back up to the temple. Tzlochtl followed, as did the entire village. The pounding of sandaled feet fought against the heat's intensity without progress, and the villagers trekked on, traveling steadily upwards towards the temple's apex.
Once they had all gathered, sweating and breathing heavily, the priest turned and began the ceremony.
"The Great God, Quetzlcoatl, has blessed our village with the gift of our sun god, Nanauatl, ever humble and faithful. Nanauatl has been good to us, begging corn to grow up so that we may grind it into maize. Nanauatl's light fattens calves so that we may eat and be faithful. And now, Nanauatl demands recognition for all the many gifts he rains down upon us. Nanauatl demands sacrifice!"
A cheer went up from the villagers, a deafening roar in the temple's cavernous hall, shattering the oppression of the heat for the brief time it took the echoes to subside. Achtelz continued, "And Nanauatl has seen fit to demand a sacrifice of standing, someone of presence and quiet humility, much as the sun god was as he leaped into the Four Day Flame of Quetzlcoatl's gathering." The priest began to walk amongst the gathered villagers, blood encrusted hands tickling over their shoulders and bared arms.
"Nanauatl has been kind to give us this sacrifice, village. This sacrifice has guided us and given devotion where it was not required." Achtelz's eyes slid closed as his hands continued to float amongst the people. "This sacrifice is male, and his face is a fading glory. He stands amongst you as a leader and has come before me to beg for you that this ceaseless day finally end." The priest came before Tzlochtl and opened his eyes, the hollow skin mask again staring up into the magistrate's shocked face.
"It is you, magistrate. You who are to be our sacrifice to the Mighty Nanauatl."
Two temple guards stepped forward and lifted Tzlochtl from his feet. The magistrate's struggles were useless in the grasp of the guards. The magistrate was taken, floating above the heads of the villagers, trapped on a sea of hands, to the altar, where he was bound about the wrists and feet, arms and legs stretched above and below.
"You cannot do this, Achtelz! I am you brother! I am the magistrate! You can't sacrifice me to a god that doesn't exist!"
A great and terrible silence fell at Tzlochtl's blasphemous words. Achtelz made his way through the gathered throng to stand over the bound magistrate. The priest threw back his cowl of flesh for the second time that day and looked down into the faded eyes of Tzlochtl, his brother, the magistrate.
"By your oath, you are required to aid in this sacrificial ceremony where ever Nanauatl saw fit. And before you I stand, saying that Nanauatl desires you as the sacrifice. Who are you, human, to not only go back on your oath to a god, but to also deny that same god his worthy sacrifice, and blaspheme against him, all in the course of a single breath?"
Achtelz took his flesh mantle off and flung it into the gathered throng, revealing himself to the hungry eyes of the villagers. He stood, lean and dark skinned, and naked before them, intricate scars covering his body. From beside the altar, Achtelz picked up a long obsidian knife, its glittering black edge jagged and sharp, still warm from the rock from which it was hewn.
"With this blade, Great Nanauatl, I will strike his words from our presence by a sacrifice of my own blood, so that this vessel may be seen as worthy and acceptable in your ever present eyes!" Achtelz took up the black blade and pressed it deep into the skin of his chest, drawing a line of hot blood to dribble down his navel.
"And now, Great Nanauatl, this sacrifice we make to you!"
The priest's skilled hands carved the flesh from Tzlochtl's body, flaying the magistrate alive, even as his faded eyes began to dim in the last moments of his life.
"Oh gods," the magistrate rattled as his last breath escaped, "what is that?"
The gathering, oblivious to the dying words of an old man, cheered when the priest pulled Tzlochtl's skin from his carcass and swung the new mantle about his shoulders, dead white hair streaked with red. When the priest looked up, the rabbit faced Tecciztecatl could be seen looming on the horizon, ready to take up his stand in the sky, well rested and anxious.
And beneath the moon's face could be seen the great leathery winged beasts of night, rising from the hollows of the earth, hunger in their bellies. In that instant, Achtelz realized what his brother had meant with his last words.
The monsters of Tecciztecatl rose up in a great swarm and flooded over the village with a terrible screech of torn flesh and bone.
LifesEndlessSorrow · Tue Apr 10, 2007 @ 05:20pm · 0 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|