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"You are familiar with this castle?"

"Yes Tlatoani, I took it with the first wave." Tlamanih yes, but I have pride.

"You have been to the dungeons?"

"Meztli, there are others." The Tlacate spoke with fatigue in his voice.

"Tlacate." Atl bowed his head slightly and saluted the Tlacate. This was the closest that Atl had ever been to the man, and yet Atl felt as though he new him. The orders that came down were from him, and this was the man that had led them across the ocean and to victory here on the forgotten continent. The Tlacate seemed older then Atl would have guessed but there was a hardness to him. His years as an officer could not cover the body of a soldier beneath. Like the Tlamanih he was touched by the empress but his marking were simpler befitting a soldier. The golden collar was the same but instead of a ring the Tlacate wore a silver bracelet his right wrist and the matching tattoo on his right wrist. THe man's eyes were green and Atl felt as though he hadn't seem them blink the entire time.

"Tlamanih." The Tlacate nodded. There was respect in his voice.

This man was a soldier.

"The first wave," the Tlacate continued, "this will be remembered. Quetzal knows our names now Xolotl will have them in his book, our passage in death is secure."

Atl felt his back straighten unconsciously as he filled with pride. He was marked as a Tlamanih but this, from the Tlacate? This was high praise. To be in Xototl's book was every warriors desire. To achieve a balance, to secure enough for the gods and the empire to outweigh the lives taken by a soldier. Each death brought with it a heavy burden, the sundering of Quetzal's divine gift of life, but to give enough back, to pay for those lives that was what a soldier did. What every Totec did try to achieve a balance in their life, for all that they lay waste to, the same should be planted in return.