Amy
How's everything going back home? How's father taking my departure? I miss you very much, every single minute I spend down here I think of you. There's so much I want to tell you, it pains me not being able to go and see you, but Xibalba seems to think I'll run way because he won't let me go anywhere outside his castle. He claims it's dangerous, but during the race I didn't see anything that could possibly endanger me. But he does allow me to write, for which I'm grateful, or I wouldn't know how you guys are doing.
I must confess to you, I'm quite surprised at how Xibalba's treating me. I thought he was going to be cruel and abusive, but he has been tender and a gentleman with me; I don't know if he's putting on an act so that I'll lower my guard, or if he's being sincere, but I'm must say I never thought he'd treat me like this. I can tell there's something more to him than the mask of cruelty and indifference he shows everyone, he has his tender spots with those who know him well. Even his servants seem to be fond of him; I bet you didn't expect that.
Tell father that I'm fine, thankfully Xibalba has not even raised his hand against me, though I just mentioned it. I'm starting to doubt about what everyone says of him, as unbelievable as it sounds. When I fell off my horse and hurt my head in the race, he took me back and took care of me genuinely, he didn't even force me to fulfill my end of the wager, he nulled it because we both crossed the finish line at the same time, he says, and we would save it for later.
Take care, Amy. Don't forget to tell father that I love him too.
Love, your big sister.
It took La Muerte a great deal of effort not to cry as she wrote this letter. Setting the quill back on the inkwell, she folded the paper and slid it into a red envelope to seal it with wax, before snapping her fingers and making it disappear in a speck of marigold petals. It would reach her sister's room in a few minutes, but she didn't know how much time it would take her to write back, so she opted to go and spend the time somewhere else. La Muerte walked out of her room and down the halls, already growing accustomed to the darkness as much as she disliked it. She tried to recall where each room was, unless she wanted to accidentally go into one she was not allowed into.
After a few minutes of wandering around, she came to two great doors she found familiar. Pushing one door open, she found herself back in the armory Emilio and Roberto had showed her the other day. There were various kinds of weapons, such as javelins, swords, lances and bows with arrows either hanging from the wall or in crystal showcases, classified by type and antiquity. La Muerte couldn't understand why he liked European weapons, but she guessed it was because of his years away on war. Inside the armory were two lizards, the bulky one named Lorenzo was polishing the blades of the swords, and another that looked very different from the rest was dusting the shelves.
This lizard was the one who noticed she had entered the room, and turned around to receive her with a warm smile. "Why, hello, My Lady." Soon La Muerte realized this lizard was female, both because of her feminine voice and her more curved body shape, as well as the fact that unlike any other creature down here her secondary color was pink, not green. "Is there something we can do for you?" her voice was warm, and she could say even motherly.
"I was just taking a look around. Emilio and Roberto showed me the armory the other day, but I couldn't take a closer look at the weapons." La Muerte replied kindly.
"Ah, yes, those two have been talking about you very much, they are very fond of you, milady."
Lorenzo nodded his head. "Eeeyup."
"I'm sorry, I have not introduced myself. My name is Regina, milady." The female lizard curtsied.
"A pleasure to meet you, Regina." La Muerte returned the curtsy politely before glancing around once more. "So, this is Xibalba's collection?"
"My Lord knows how to use all these types, but the sword is his favorite. In his youth he was a skilled swordsman." Regina glanced at one of the crystal showcases, where a single-handed sword with sawed blade with green symbols, dragon-shaped hilt and an eerie air to it lay resting. "That's was his sword. He fought with it on the wars, nowadays people know it as the Sword of Seven Sins."
La Muerte approached the showcase and took a closer look at the sword; was it her imagination, or the symbols were glowing? The hilt was bigger than her hand, she wasn't certain if she'd be able to even lift it from the ground. Besides, the blade looked very sharp, and she wasn't one to like weapons very much. She heard footsteps behind her, but she was certain it wasn't any of the lizards, these footsteps were much more heavier. She let out a sigh. "If you want to startle me, you'll have to do better than that."
Xibalba chuckled as he approached his wife from behind yet again. "What? Still sore about what happened last time?" he glanced at Regina and Lorenzo. "Leave us." Unlike with most of his servants, his voice was softer when he spoke at her.
"Yes, my Lord." Regina bowed her head at her master and she left the room, followed by Lorenzo.
Once they were alone, Xibalba tried to place his hands on La Muerte's shoulders, but she pulled away uncomfortably. Yup, still as superficial as always. "You seem to like my sword."
"It's…" the goddess tried to find a word to describe it without offending her husband. "Intriguing. Who forged it?"
The dark god was staring down at his sword with pride. "Myself."
La Muerte looked at him with surprised eyes. "You forged it yourself?"
"What better sword could a warrior have than one he forged himself? Besides, I'm very picky with weapons., but I doubt you'd understand."
"Excuse me?"
"Women know nothing about weapons."
Incensed, La Muerte took her hands to her hips and shot him an angry look. "What are you implying?"
"Nothing at all, my dear."
"You're calling me weak?"
"You may take it as you'd like, all I'm saying is that you know nothing about fighting."
"I'll let you know that I can be as good as anyone! Even you!"
Xibalba raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Is that a challenge?" he smirked confidently.
She retorted with a taunting grin. "Take it as you'd like."
Chuckling, Xibalba snapped his fingers and summoned two fencing sabres from thin air. "Very well, my dear." He held out one of the swords for her to take. La Muerte grabbed the hilt of the sword with a confident look, but on the inside she was freaking out about the problem she got herself into, especially when Xibalba twirled his sword around by the hilt with that insufferable smirk of his. "Just to warn you, I'm not going easy on you just because you're a woman."
La Muerte huffed her annoyance. "Don't underestimate me!"
They got in position for their little duel, luckily the armory was spacious enough for them to fight in there. La Muerte was nervous, she hoped all the fencing lessons she had been taking since she was four years old would come in handy, especially against him. Sure, he was much more experienced than her, but she had her wits. She'd erase that taunting grin on his face!
"You can surrender now, dear La Muerte, I'd like to spare you the embarrassment." He chuckled upon noticing she was fuming; he wanted to add a little more wood to the fire.
Just as he expected, it was the last straw. With a cry of anger La Muerte charged at him with the sword, but he blocked her attempt effortlessly. Again, La Muerte started attacking him, but he blocked her attacks without a drop of sweat, though he backed away in every hit to make her think she was gaining terrain, but after blocking another attack the sharp tip of his sword swiftly flew towards the skirt of La Muerte's dress and ripped a perfect line, exposing her leg. La Muerte looked down in shock, and found no harm to her leg.
"What's wrong?" Xibalba chuckled. "I thought you would make me sweat, but I see it's going to be easier than I thought."
La Muerte became angrier each second, and once more started stabbing him with her sword, but he blocked her attacks in the blink of an eye. However in one of her stockades she ripped a scratch in Xibalba's cloak; one part of her was glad she got to struck him, but her more rational side grew dreadful when he looked down at the scratch in his cloak, all humor gone from his face. Lifting up the slightly torn fabric, he glanced at La Muerte with a mocking grin. "Not bad, my dear."
Now it was La Muerte's turn to block out his attacks as he stockaded and his sword engaged with hers; she was never good at counter-attacking so all she could do was to defend herself while trying not to leave any open spots. Xibalba performed a moulinet and La Muerte barely had time to react, her sword clashing against his but being lifted upwards to block his attack, unintentionally bringing them closer to one another, their faces a few inches from touching.
Xibalba grinned. "Not bad at all." Before she knew what was going on, he stole a kiss from her and quickly pulled back before she went into a fit; just like he imagined, her lips tasted of cherry-flavored sugar candy.
La Muerte was furious that he dared to kiss her; she no longer minded what attacks she was using, she just wanted to struck him and make him bleed. However, he blocked her stockades and stabs, and even his sword flew towards the shoulder seam of her dress and ripped it; the goddess gasped in shock as suddenly the left side and sleeve of her bodice now hung, nearly exposing her breasts. With a furious yell, she ran forward with a stockade aiming for his sides, but Xibalba quickly stepped aside and drove her sword sideward, pulling her closer and kissing her yet again. La Muerte pulled away once more with her blood at the boiling point as she saw him laugh tauntingly at her.
By this time her eyes were stinging with hot tears of indignation and anger. However, she refused to give up. Once more, she attacked swinging her sword at him, but this time the dark god maneuvered his own with a great skill and sent her sword flying through the air, catching it by the hilt in thin air just as he lifted his wife's chin with the tip of his sword gently.
"Touché, my dear." He smirked, lowering his sword. "The first thing you have to know about fencing is that you must never attack out of anger."
La Muerte crossed her arms and looked away, refusing to look at him to prevent herself from lunging at him. She felt his shadow over her, and felt his fingers gingerly turning her head around so he could look at her eyes.
"But I must admit, you have fighting spirit." His voice was seductive and tender, she couldn't help but blush in embarrassment at the compliment despite her previous annoyance and irritation. "I like it."
"T-Thank you, Xibalba…" she replied gently.
With a small smirk, the dark god placed the sabers aside and held out his hand for her to take. "Shall we go outside?"
She took his hand, not as uncomfortable as before, and allowed him to guide her outside into the halls. "You are quite the swordsman. You deserve the reputation you have."
"That's nothing compared to my younger days, I was known as the 'Winged Black Swordsman'." Xibalba chuckled. "I killed in cold blood in a fraction of seconds, no one could defeat me in a fencing duel. Unfortunately, on one occasion I had…" he sighed. "a little accident that made me retire from war."
"Accident? What happened?"
Before he could answer, suddenly an excruciating pain overcame his entire body as his muscles contracted and he lost control, making him snarl and yell in pain. La Muerte gasped in shock when suddenly he collapsed to the floor, his wings flapping and contorting with bristled feathers, a expression of agony and pain in his features; he looked like he had been possessed by something. "Xibalba, what's wrong?!" she tried to touch him, but he didn't want to hurt her and with a great deal of effort managed to slap her hand away. His teeth turned to fangs as he let out a roar of pain.
"EMILIO!"
La Muerte thought she would have a heart attack at the scene; despite it, she kneeled down and held him down by the shoulders with all the strength she could muster to pin him down. Xibalba felt an even worse flare of pain when she pinned him down and the muscles of his shoulders and wings contracted but were not allowed to do so, but he contained the urge to scream with her on top of him. Soon, Lorenzo, Emilio, Roberto, Luis and Regina were running as fast as they could towards the two gods, alarmed when they realized what was going on.
"You know what to do!" Emilio cried out at the other lizards, worried for his master.
La Muerte didn't know what they were going to do but nevertheless she quickly released Xibalba's shoulders and got out of the way. She watched in fear and shock as Lorenzo and Roberto pinned the dark god to the ground by the shoulders and legs respectively (probably because Lorenzo was stronger than the others), and Emilio and Luis pinned his wings; Xibalba's body tried to release itself from their grasp, but their weight combined was too much even though they were much smaller than him. Regina pressed something between her king's sharp teeth, a tightly wound cloth; when the pain flared and his muscles contracted, Xibalba closed his eyes shut and bit into the cloth with all the unwilling strength he could muster, letting out muffled snarls and yells of pain.
Regina realized La Muerte was watching, and she quickly took her by the hand. "Follow me, milady! This is not something you'd like to see!"
La Muerte was reluctant to leave Xibalba, but the sight frightened her, and she followed Regina down the hall, trembling everytime she heard Xibalba's muffled screams of pain, her heart drumming inside her chest. The female lizard took the Goddess to the kitchen, where the screams were not heard. When she recovered form shock, La Muerte looked down at Regina with terrified eyes. "What just happened?"
Regina sighed sadly. "Lord Xibalba has a condition that makes his whole body contract and lose control, I believe the humans call them epileptic seizures."
"Dios mío…" La Muerte took her hands to her mouth. She had heard about that disease, but she never imagined he would have it. "That's horrible… Does anyone know about it?"
"No, I'm afraid My Lord doesn't want anyone to know of his condition. He thinks they will think him weak, no matter how many times I tell him that maybe some of them could be of help." Regina sighed and shook her head. "I swear, he's as stubborn as his mother…" suddenly she gasped when she realized she had said too much.
"How can I be of help?"
"Usually I make him some tea after he has a seizure to relax his muscles, but we've ran out of herbs, I don't have enough to make the tea I usually make him."
La Muerte thought for a moment. "Do you have rosemary?"
"Well, I think there's some left, we use it to spice the food."
"It's also a known relaxant for pain, perhaps we could make some tea with it. Could you get me a teapot?"
Regina nodded her head and quickly went to one of the shelves to take a medium-sized black teapot while La Muerte started a small fire on the stove; the female lizard then went to look for the rosemary herbs in the drawers. La Muerte filled the teacup with water and then waited until it started to boil; luckily she had the basic knowledge about making tea, she'd often make some for her father when she lived up there. She poured a bit of the boiling water into the matching black teacup. Regina was soon back with the rosemary herb. When the water was at a rolling boil, the goddess emptied the teapot into the sink and added the herb, before pouring more warm water over it.
As they waited for the tea to steep, La Muerte couldn't help but ask. "You mentioned Xibalba got his stubbornness from his mother…"
Regina sighed sadly. "He has many traits from her, but unfortunately her kindness is not one of them. Don't get me wrong, he treats us fairly, but if you don't know him well you may find him unpleasant. But he's a good person, in his own way." Regina crossed her arms in thought.
"You surely are very fond of him. You all are." La Muerte smiled slightly.
"We've been with him since his birth. He used to be such a sweet little boy, until…" she stopped herself form speaking any further.
"Until what?"
"I'm not the right person to speak about My Lord's past, but I'd like to ask something of you, milady." Regina looked up at the goddess.
"What is it?"
"Try not to mention his mother in front of him, it's… painful for him."
Judging by her words and the tone of her voice, she guessed something must have happened to him that involved his mother, but she decided not to question about it any further. After a while, the tea was fully steeped; La Muerte removed the tea leaves from the teacup, and poured the tea into the teacup. Taking it in her hands, followed Regina to the dark god's chambers.
Xibalba relaxed his entire body as he felt Lorenzo's claws massaging his sore muscles and bones, especially around the joint where his wings joined with his shoulder blade. Every single muscle hurt, it had been a long since he had a seizure this worse. Xibalba grit his teeth and stiffened, his claws digging into his mattress and sheets when Lorenzo massaged a knot with his knuckles.
"How are you feeling, My Lord?" Emilio inquired.
"How do you think, aren't you seeing me?" Xibalba growled under his breath, his feathers bristling.
"Try to relax, or it'll hurt more." Luis added, placing a pack of ice on his master's spine.
"Eeeyup." Lorenzo nodded his head as he continued to massage the knot.
The dark god muttered under his breath. "Easy for you to say, since you're not the one with the sore back…"
"You should be more careful, you know!" Roberto commented. "One of these days you're going to end up in one of those weird yoga poses, those from the India, just like Federico. It took us a complete month to reassemble him-"
"Please don't start with your damn stories!" Xibalba groaned, massaging his temples and closing his eyes shut. "Where's La Muerte, by the way?"
"Last thing I knew, Regina took her away from the… scene." Emilio replied gently.
Xibalba let out an exasperated sigh, before someone knocked the door. "Come in." the door opened and he panicked a bit when La Muerte entered accompanied by Regina. His upper torso was completely exposed. "L-La Muerte! What are you doing here?!"
If the circumstances were different, La Muerte would have giggled at the sight of the great and feared Xibalba blushing, but now was not the moment. "We brought you some tea."
Shifting his sore wings, Xibalba glanced back at his servants. "Leave us."
"Are you certain, My Lord?" Emilio inquired with a hint of worry. "What if."
"That was an order." The dark god growled with narrowed eyes, his teeth turning sharp.
Regina rolled her eyes. "We got the indirect, you know." As she pushed her fellow lizards through the doorway, Emilio glanced back at his master.
"If you need anything, we'll be around here!" he cried out, before Regina closed the door with her tail.
Xibalba muttered something under his breath as he lay his head down on his pillows once again. La Muerte approached the edge of his bed, and caught sight of something on his back… scars. On his tar tissue they looked an eerie reddish green, they were intertwined with each other, as if he had been injured one time after another. They look quite nasty, but it didn't gross her out at all. Xibalba's voice brought her out of her thoughts.
"I'm sorry you had to find out about my… problem like that, my dear." He spoke gently, his wings resting on top of the mattress.
"It's okay." La Muerte replied as she pulled a chair closer from his tea table and sat down, holding the cup of tea in her hands. "How are you feeling?"
"Horribly sore, that's how." Xibalba snapped, turning face up in bed, wincing a bit at the knotted muscles. "Give me that already, would you?"
La Muerte rolled her eyes at his attitude, though she was sure right now it was the pain that put him in this mood and not his naturally cranky personality. She handed over the cup to Xibalba, and watched him take a sip. "Hey, this is good." The dark god complimented, looking at her. "Did you make it?"
"Regina helped me. It's rosemary tea, that herb is known for soothing muscular pain."
Xibalba took a gulp of tea, before speaking. "Thanks."
La Muerte watched as he continued to drink the rest of the tea slowly, his wings shifting every now and then. She couldn't help but feel embarrassed at seeing him without his armor, his shoulders were broad and his chest and torso would look muscular if they were of flesh and bone. Still, the goddess had to admit, he was quite handsome… wait, what?! La Muerte quickly shook that thought off her head, and fidgeted with her hair. She looked down when Xibalba turned to look at her, the last thing she wanted was that he thought she liked what she was seeing; it wasn't soon before the dark god returned his attention to the teat.
"So…" La Muerte tried to think of a subject to talk about that wouldn't offend him. "Regina is the only female servant you have?"
Xibalba sighed and placed the empty cup on his bedside table. "Yes. I can't treat her the same way I tend to treat the others, in some way I grew attached to her."
"They're all very fond of you, I could tell it. Even with the way you treat them sometimes."
"I may be hard with them sometimes, but they're the closest thing to a family I have, like I told you before." His expression softened.
"And your family?" La Muerte quickly took her hands to her mouth in horror when she realized she had mentioned precisely what Regina asked her not to mention. Her dread augmented when Xibalba gave her a hard glare, but she swore she could see old pain and sadness reflected in them judging by how they were glistening, like she had opened an old wound.
After a while, Xibalba sighed. "I'd rather not talk about it, if you don't mind."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it for now." Suddenly his muscles ached once more, and his wings spread out instinctively while he let out growls of pain. "Damn it…!"
La Muerte approached his bed and sat down next to him. "Turn around."
He glanced at her. "What?"
"Lay face down, I think I can help you."
"How I know you're not going to break something?"
"You'd rather sleep with a sore back?"
Muttering under his breath, Xibalba shifted on his bed to lay face down, stretching out his wings. He stiffened when he felt her hands massaging his sore muscles, but after a while it turned into pleasure as his muscles relaxed when her knuckles massaged over his knots. Then she moved to his wing bone, and he couldn't contain the shiver of pleasure, his wings were always very sensitive. He had to admit, this woman not only a great fighting spirit, but also a heart of gold; he would not admit it, not even to himself, but he was starting to like her quite a bit. He was so relaxed, that it wasn't long before he fell asleep, his feathers still twitching in delight.
La Muerte kept massaging his back and tension knots until she was certain there were none left (and when she realized he had fallen asleep), then she silently stood up from the bed and walked out of his chambers, closing the door behind her. In a blur of marigold petals she returned to her room, and as soon as she materialized she found there was a blue envelope in her desk, with the seal of her little sister. Her eyes brightened as she sat down and opened the letter, already thinking on what she would write in her next letter.
