It took a while for the angry (or perhaps embarrassed) red in their cheeks to die. When it did, the tense muscles of frustration, glittering eyes of awe, and jumpy responses of fear took its place.
"It's impossible." Tezcatlipoca insisted, leaning against the tunnel wall, his light hovering between us. "The barrier is unbroken, and I did not invite him in."
"Not to mention he altered the portal and took out three mages….can a single individual be that powerful?" Cove added, his face paling.
It must be odd for Cove not to be the strongest person in the room.
Speculating about the heights of his power would only run us in circles. According to what we'd already seen, it appeared that nothing was outside the bounds of his abilities. So, instead, I found myself far more concerned with their goals.
We'd walked out of that encounter with our egos more damaged than our bodies. He'd shown no desire to harm us yet went out of the way to sabotage our portals, ensuring only a single person could come through at a time. I'd been concerned when it had happened in Agartha, suggesting that the limitations couldn't mean anything too terrible for either side.
Now, I found myself once again wondering why.
Clearly, he didn't want to shut down relations between the mage cities entirely. With the abilities they'd already demonstrated and the speed at which they'd acted on the portals, such a thing would be well within their capabilities. So, that meant communication between our communities wasn't the problem. The problem was with the number of mages using the portals at once.
A rock dropped in my stomach, and I crossed my arms. With the dropped clues, there was one answer I could find–he was preparing for an invasion.
The next question: who's side was he on? I'd already established that he seemed to have no intention of harming us, so did that mean our alliances with these ancient cities were not what they seemed?
However, the ancient cities appeared to hate each other, and I couldn't imagine them grouping to invade our 'inferior' city of Ventosus. From what I'd seen, they could do such a thing independently without significant losses. Perhaps he was an overly cautious individual? Then why the subterfuge?
On the flip side, Ventosus didn't have the numbers or the power to invade Agartha or El Dorado.
And what did all of this have to do with our world travels? He'd interfered there, too, to our benefit.
My temples throbbed with an incoming headache. With a sigh, I released all my questions to the wind, brushing them to the back of my head. Tezcatlipoca pushed himself off the wall he'd been leaning on, recentering his elongated head. Given the present company, it would be best to keep quiet for now lest I incite suspicion or fear. Until we were safely back in Ventosus, I could only watch and make notes.
"Do you know where your familiars might have gone?" Tezcatlipoca questioned, taking the lead once more.
Cove rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, and I tried not to flinch. "To find trouble, probably."
Internally, I thanked my troublesome companion profusely for the opportunity to stay and observe just a little longer. At Tezcatlipoca's suggestion, we decided to return to our rooms from last night until our wayward cats returned.
With fresh eyes, I scoured what little we saw of El Dorado carefully for any clue as the bright artificial sunlight reflected off the gold, appearing to set the city aflame.
As we walked, I begrudgingly had to admit that, on the surface, Agartha was by far the more suspicious city. I hadn't missed the implications that they'd abducted humans for their experiments–though neither Cove nor I, at the time, could have done anything about it. However, I had to remind myself that being more human-looking like the citizens of El Dorado did not mean they were any more human than the Agarthians had been.
Of course, in their desire to show off their wealth and power, the Agarthians had shown us much more of their great city. They'd gone so far as to host us in the very heart of their city. Meanwhile, Tezcatlipoca had placed us on the city's outskirts and ferried us directly to and from our rooms with little fanfare and offering little explanation.
We stuck to the residential district, jam-packed with row upon row of homes and apartments. Much taller buildings–their places of business, politics, and worship, I assumed–were cluttered closer to the center, set up in a similar manner to Ventosus and Agartha.
With the city now wide awake, the occasional conversation drifted toward us.
"Did you hear about the humans?"
"Yeah. I think I see them."
Two sets of eyes bore into my back, and my neck prickled. I turned, searching for, then meeting, the offenders gazes squarely.
One of the two, slightly taller than the other, curled his lip. "Hardly more than monkeys," he scoffed, walking off.
While uncomfortable, the conversations we overheard were more dismissive than malicious.
Cove and I both turned curiously to Tezcatlipoca, wondering about his opinions on the matter. He shook his head and gave the kind of smile a proud grandparent bestows on their grandchild. "You humans have something we haven't in 12,000 years."
"What's that?" I asked curiously.
"Global communication."
Cove and I both shifted in our steps uncomfortably.
Tezcatlipoca laughed, not unkindly. As if he were bestowing a great secret, he said, "Climate change may have sunk the great continent of Mu, but it didn't send us colonies underground or force us to keep our location secret. War did."
Looking as puzzled as I felt, Cove asked, "Then why open up to us?"
Tezcatlipoca's gaze drifted over toward the center of the city. "Your father convinced our king that it was time for us to stop hiding. That the world was ready to come together once more."
Cove's face was nearly as bright as the artificial sun, radiating pride.
I thought of the shrunken portals and felt skeptical.