It took, frankly, an embarrassing amount of time for the Spaniards to clue in to Jaguar's presence, though in fairness, they had been looking towards the entrance and that wasn't how he had come back. He was definitely going to have to look into tweaking and adjusting how his travel worked, because if it natively ran on a rule of convenience for an external observer... well, that could lead some messy places, if he showed up in a world in the middle of something that he didn't want to be a part of. Comic, for others. Unpleasant, for him.
In the end, it was Altivo that noticed his presence first, and it was the horse's whinnying start that clued the men in. Once they caught on, they started stumbling over themselves to give what it seems like they felt were proper greetings.
Jaguar paid them no heed as he stalked forward to peer into Altivo's wide eyes.
"Now, isn't this interesting. You're more clever than other beasts of your kind by a wide margin, aren't you? You understand exactly what I'm saying." he hummed. "I wonder if that's how it was done, then? Sealing away one thing by opening up another..."
He chuckled and stroked Altivo's mane carefully, slowly calming the horse.
"That being so, it makes sense that you found your way here as well. Fortunate circumstance, serendipity, the touch of fate... there's any number of things that it could be called." Jaguar said. "But being so intertwined as that, it's natural that you got pulled into things as well."
There was a moment of silent consideration.
"Okay, I'm just going to say it." Tulio said, running a hand through dark hair with an aggrieved sigh.
"Tulio..." Miguel tried to cut him off as Jaguar continued smiling, waiting patiently.
"We're frauds. You have to know that we're frauds. A pair of gambling cheats and con artists from Spain, and that's all." Tulio continues. "And you're fine with it and helping out for some reason, and I don't know why. And it probably doesn't matter anyway. But you keep talking about how we're also sleeping gods, and making... these mysteeeerious vague statements like you're the oracle at delphi setting people up to kill themselves while trying to avoid being killed. Yeah, I read some of those old greek stories. Messy."
Jaguar arched an eyebrow, nodding along as Tulio wiggled his fingers theatrically as he stomped around.
"Come on, Tulio, this isn't the time..." Miguel muttered out of the corner of his mouth.
"Then when is? We're here, we're alone, if there's ever going to be a time to get a straight answer from this guy it's going to be now, right?" Tulio said. "And no offense. You're clearly... yeah. But one of the biggest rules of this job is that you cannot start buying into your own con. You've always got to know when to cut and run. So."
Well, he was wrong about that, at least in this case. There was a reason that 'fake it until you make it' was a widely repeated phrase, and that was because some cons, if you held on to them long enough and tightly enough and convincingly enough? They became real. All the same, Jaguar waited a further moment for Tulio to try to find the words he was looking for. When he failed to do so in a few moments, Jaguar leaned in.
"What language are we speaking?" Jaguar asked. "Just out of curiosity."
"... Spanish." Tulio answered, after a moment of gesturing lightly in confusion.
"That would be the Spanish that they speak in Spain?" Jaguar asked, lightly.
"Yes. I mean, I don't think there is another Spanish, but that's the one. Yes." Tulio answered.
"The Spain that is across the ocean from here." Jaguar continued.
"I mean, I don't there's anywhere else it could be." Tulio said, as Jaguar nodded along.
"Indeed, indeed. And just to be sure. You are quite certain that it is not the native tongue of the people of El Dorado?" Jaguar asked lightly. "Who have never seen a Spaniard before the two of you, and who only know of a prophecied description of godly messengers coming from across the sea. Who do not, in point of fact, have any reason to know so much as a single word of Spanish."
"Yes." Tulio began, before stopping to think. "That is... Wait, I..."
His hands came to a stop at a position around chest level as he stared in puzzlement at them, visibly processing the conversation step by step and thinking with great focus on something he hadn't paused to fully acknowledge and internalize before.
They couldn't have made an animated film about this if there was a huge issue of neither the Spaniards nor the natives of El Dorado being able to understand each other when they spoke, after all... or at least not easily. The plot would have probably looked very different in the end.
It did make things very convenient for Jaguar, as well.
"You can hardly carry a message of warning if nobody understands what you are trying to say. At least enough to make it clear what you're warning them about, right?" Jaguar suggested. "Unfortunately, if Altivo was Cortes' horse, that might have rubbed off on him a little. This sort of thing does tend to work that way."
Tulio continued to stare at his hands, bewildered and marveling as though he had never seen them before as he processed. Miguel uneasily clasped his shoulder, and received no response for a moment as Tulio muttered to himself, brow creased as he tried to rationalize it, before focusing back on the here and now.
"Take some time to relax. Enjoy the xocolatl and the cassava bread." Jaguar said, as he strolled out of the chamber. "I've got big plans for El Dorado, and it would be a shame to miss out, don't you think, gentlemen?"