Atotoxtli visits Moctezuma in his bedchamber, having dismissed all attendants. She argues that he went too far in ordering the public execution of their cousin, Xochitl, and she proposes giving Xochitl to the Caxtilteca instead as a way to cultivate a spy relationship with Cortés’s translator, Malinalli. Moctezuma refuses, accepting a reputation for weakness and cruelty as a temporary cost of maintaining his authority. He confirms that Cuauhtemoc issued a call to arms while Moctezuma kept Tlilpotonqui occupied, and he dismisses Atotoxtli’s warning that Cuauhtemoc has grown dangerously powerful. He instructs Atotoxtli to approach Malinalli directly, discover what she would require to betray Cortés, and use the visit to count the horses and their guards. As she leaves, he calls her back by a childhood nickname to request that she send the chamber-shaman via the priests’ passages before his meeting. Atotoxtli begs him not to take mushrooms beforehand; he swears by the gods he will not.

Arriving underdressed in the Council hall, Tlilpotonqui notes that Moctezuma’s chair is absent and reads the four councilors’ indifference as confirmation that they did not issue the call to arms. He tries to adjourn, then asks who called the meeting. After evasions, the eldest councilor reveals that it was Tlilpotonqui’s own son, Tlacaelel. Masking his shock, Tlilpotonqui pretends the summons was deliberate, sits in his family’s ornate heirloom chair, and asks whether Tlacaelel mentioned Cuitlahuac. The elder evades the question and begins the interminably long song of the Legend of the Suns.

Cuauhtemoc, Moctezuma’s son-in-law and leading general, sits motionless in the courtyard of the Eagle College, where the Eagle Warriors train—his customary practice before solemn occasions—as the city anticipates battle following Moctezuma’s planned meeting with Cortés. Moctezuma wakes disoriented from a nap, holding the image of a dream in which a colossal, oddly dressed stranger warned him not to make a mistake and showed him Tenochtitlan replaced by smoldering ruins.

Earlier, before sleeping, Cortés had violently assaulted Malinalli to suppress his own anxiety about the meeting and punish her for hiding her Castilian fluency. He then read Livy before falling asleep and dreaming that Jesus told him to speak of him to Moctezuma. After the assault, Malinalli went to the pool in the courtyard. Meanwhile, Cuauhtemoc’s stillness conceals a puzzle: Walking to the Eagle College, he encountered a dark-skinned, mustachioed man in foreign dress—like the man from Moctezuma’s dream—who addressed him in cryptic verse and disappeared.

Sitting through the interminable recitation of the Legend of the Suns, Tlilpotonqui mentally reconstructs the chain of decisions that produced the current crisis. He recalls early reports of the Caxtilteca and Moctezuma’s immediate fixation on their horses as a potential military asset. The emperor, Council, and cihuacoatl agreed to send one of the councilors—the Majordomo of the House of Darkness—to the coast to investigate.

At a subsequent private garden briefing, Moctezuma interrogated the Majordomo intensely about numbers, weapons, and especially the horses, then instructed him to downplay the significance of the horses in speaking of the newcomers to the rest of the Council. Atotoxtli immediately grasped that her brother had already decided to bring the outsiders to the city and warned Tlilpotonqui privately that the empire was too overstretched for this gamble. At the formal Council session, Moctezuma framed his decision as a consensus and deployed Cuitlahuac to escort the Caxtilteca. Afterward, alone with Tlilpotonqui, he asked whether there was time to secure the horses before the empire’s vulnerabilities exploded. Tlilpotonqui said yes—and Moctezuma handed him full governance while retreating from public life.

Cutting her bath short, Atotoxtli prepares for her tasks and reflects on her circumstances. Living in Moctezuma’s palace, built for a rotating succession of concubines, has always felt like occupying another woman’s space. She privately fantasizes about the end of his reign, worn down by accumulated wars and the growing authority of priests. She traces Moctezuma’s susceptibility to priestly visions to his years as head priest of Tezcatlipoca—a concern raised even before his coronation, though his military record left no alternative but to crown him emperor. She dresses plainly and sets out.

When the Legend of the Suns ends, Tlilpotonqui politely asks for the real reason behind the meeting and receives only a cryptic instruction to consider Quetzalcoatl’s ant. Pressing the question at the door, the eldest councilor holds his gaze—a notable breach of palace protocol—and repeats that one must begin at the beginning and think about the ant. Tlilpotonqui walks back toward his office, unable to recall the story, hears shouting ahead, and enters to find his secretaries and calpulli leaders in open, chaotic dispute.

Malinalli eases into the pool still clothed to soothe the injury from the assault, checks for blood, and murmurs a quiet vow of revenge in Popoloca. She stays in the water until the coolness dulls the pain and her breathing steadies, then composes herself in silence before leaving.

Calpulli (trade guild) leaders who have jumped the line confront Tlilpotonqui: the emperor keeps out of sight, the princess abandoned the imperial lunch, the Tlaxcalteca are camped in Iztapalapa, and General Cuitlahuac has vanished. Tlilpotonqui insists that the emperor’s reception was for the Caxtilteca, not the Tlaxcalteca, and promises that a decision will be announced after Moctezuma speaks with Cortés that evening. When the leader of the blademakers’ guild declares that the people’s loyalty is neither free nor permanent, Tlilpotonqui signals Metztli, who pins the man to the floor. Publicly, the leader is announced as the emperor’s honored next sacrifice; privately, Tlilpotonqui orders Metztli to kill him at once and dump the body in the lake so the calpulli is forced to choose a replacement immediately. Before giving the final order, Tlilpotonqui also instructs Metztli to secretly summon Cuauhtemoc to his private garden.

Caldera, one of Cortés’s captains, slips away from the others, shaves his beard, cuts his hair, and dresses as a Colhua lord. He leaves the Old Houses without alerting his comrades, steps onto the causeway, and blends into the traffic, intent on circulating through the city undetected.

The Secretary of Maps reports that Cuitlahuac has not been seen since the emperor sent him after the Caxtilteca. He confirms that Cuauhtemoc issued the call to arms—a protocol breach that alarms the captains. Tlilpotonqui internally panics, believing that Moctezuma’s use of Tlilpotonqui’s son to summon the Council is a sign that he, Tlilpotonqui, has lost the emperor’s trust and will be the next to disappear. When the secretary casually states that Moctezuma is “like the ant” (137), Tlilpotonqui sharply orders him never to repeat it. He still doesn’t remember the story of the ant or understand what it has to do with the emperor, but he has a vague sense that any discussion of the ant might be treasonous. He tells the secretary to find Metzli and tell him to bring “what I asked” (Cuauhtemoc) (137) to his private garden instead of his office. Before leaving, he asks another secretary, the Secretary of Petitions, to host one key border envoy at dinner while stalling all others.

Atotoxtli navigates the dark, fetid priestly wing to summon the chamber-shaman, pausing to recall childhood afternoons tracking down the young General Moctezuma. When the shaman appears, he reveals that Moctezuma, despite his oath to her, has been consuming copious amounts of hallucinogenic mushrooms since morning and will want more. Atotoxtli throws down her flowers and storms back to confront her brother, accepting that the attempt may cost her life.

In a conditional mode, acknowledging that Jazmín Caldera is a fictional character whose actions are imaginary, the narrator imagines Caldera exploring the temple precinct at dusk while disguised as a Colhua lord. The account establishes the precinct’s layout, with whitewashed paving stones, a reflecting pool, a ball court, and the massive central double temple, noting that like other Spanish colonialists, Caldera would have been stunned by the cleanliness and order of the precinct. The pyramidal stairways that lead to the sacrificial altar are exercises in geometric perfection symbolizing the shedding of physicality as the sacrificial victim ascends to the heavens. The description culminates with the huey (great) tzompantli: a rectangular rack of roughly 40,000 skulls strung on poles, rattling softly in any breeze. The narrator suggests that Caldera, as an educated and contemplative 16th-century Spaniard, might have perceived it less as pure horror than as a geometrically austere meditation on universal mortality.

Atotoxtli reaches Moctezuma’s bedchamber and finds him in his nightshirt, disheveled, talking to a wall. She turns without stopping and heads toward Tlilpotonqui’s rooms to push for action. In the Eagle College courtyard, Metztli delivers Tlilpotonqui’s summons to Cuauhtemoc, who rises in a single motion and accompanies him via restricted passageways. En route, both mention having encountered strangely dressed strangers near the temples that day, then fall back into silence.

The Spaniards conclude that the increasingly spiced food they have been served throughout the campaign is deliberate—Aguilar says it is a way of tracking an enemy who cannot conceal movement when constantly needing to defecate. On a latrine with Livy, Cortés resolves his pre-meeting anxiety with a bold act: a march to the Great Temple to install a Christian chapel. He dresses in full armor and polishes his boots while reciting a prayer, the two activities intercut with a flat recollection of how the boots became soiled: at Cholula, after luring the city’s unarmed lords to a farewell gathering and massacring them, he had his men render the fat from the four heaviest corpses over a fire to use as boot grease.

Cuauhtemoc enters Tlilpotonqui’s garden through the priests’ tunnels and finds Atotoxtli weeping on the old man’s lap—a sight that halts even the implacable general at the threshold. He remains there a moment, taking in the unexpected intimacy, then waits without speaking as they steady themselves and prepare to address him.

The chamber-shaman finds Moctezuma collapsed on the floor in his nightshirt, drooling. Despite an imminent meeting, Moctezuma requests another dose of mushrooms. The shaman relays the unanimous consensus among the priests: The auspices forbid attack; Moctezuma must wait up to 100 days. Moctezuma gets dressed, then escalates sharply—accepting a full mushroom dose immediately and ordering the powerful cactus-of-tongues for the meeting with Cortés, a substance so extreme the shaman warns it may disorient him completely. Moctezuma orders it regardless, and they set off through the secret passageways.

In Tlilpotonqui’s garden, the three leaders confer. Cuauhtemoc confirms that he issued the call to arms; Atotoxtli confirms that she transmitted both that order and a separate instruction for Tlacaelel to summon the Council. When Tlilpotonqui asks why he was not informed, Atotoxtli says that she assumed he knew. He voices his fear that Moctezuma intends to eliminate him next; Atotoxtli says the Council summons was a message whose meaning she cannot decode, though she insists that he must figure it out, adding that Moctezuma may be acting protectively, operating in silence like the ant. Tlilpotonqui is frustrated to hear of the ant again—he still doesn’t know what it means.

Cuauhtemoc then lays out the real plan: Use the four Tlaxcalteca lords to destroy Texcoco’s rebels by offering them Texcoco’s place in the Triple Alliance. He chastises Tlilpotonqui for having the blademakers’ leader executed, as the man was an ally. When Tlilpotonqui asks why he wasn’t told, Cuautemoc reminds him that his job as cihuacoatl is to know what is going on. All three quietly conclude that Cuitlahuac has likely been killed on Moctezuma’s order. Tlilpotonqui suggests Cuauhtemoc begin positioning for imperial succession before Atotoxtli departs to carry out her assignment at the Old Houses.

Cortés leads eight captains, Aguilar, and a group of workers to the Great Temple to topple the idols and install Christian icons; Malinalli refuses to come. The party’s confidence dissolves as they confront the immensity of the temple precinct. As they pass the huey tzompantli—the massive wall of skulls--they pray aloud in terror; Atotoxtli, crossing the citadel in plain dress, watches their frightened devotion with contemptuous amusement. Underground, the chamber-shaman guides a heavily intoxicated Moctezuma through the tunnel network, talking him through his hallucinations. At the central underground chamber, the shaman departs; above, Cortés drives his men toward the inner chambers; Moctezuma surfaces below, puts on his ceremonial sandals, and ascends the stairs alone with unhurried imperial composure.

Atotoxtli enters the captains’ quarters alone, reveals her imperial tiara, and tests whether Malinalli understands Castilian without Aguilar to translate. Malinalli denies understanding, and Atotoxtli recognizes the lie but lets it pass. The princess delivers Moctezuma’s formal offer: While Malinalli’s relationship with the Caxtilteca is useful to Moctezuma, she is to understand that she is welcome to come to the palace if she ever feels threatened. Moctezuma will restore Malinalli’s birthright and make her a princess again. Malinalli makes clear that for the time being she prefers to stay where she is. She agrees to take Atotoxtli to the horses but makes clear she will inform Cortés of the visit and frame it as the princess’s own request—stripping Atotoxtli of control over the encounter’s secrecy.

Moctezuma enters the inner sanctuary of Huitzilopochtli’s temple and greets the high priest with easy informality; both are deep in hallucinogenic states. The priest divines in a basin of dove blood, producing an image Moctezuma cannot interpret. He then consults the veiled idol directly and relays its answer: The calendar is fractionally wrong and needs revision; Moctezuma should trust his instincts over the auspices. As Moctezuma turns to leave, an acolyte reports that Spaniards are climbing the exterior stairs with small religious objects. The priest instructs the acolytes to frighten them off and redirect them to the temple of conquered gods, where they will receive a proper altar.

As evening falls, several threads converge. Caldera explores the Tlatelolco market and is impressed by its scale and variety, but what strikes him most on the return walk is the city itself: Tenochtitlan was engineered from the outset—geometrically planned, immaculately maintained, synchronized in operation—unlike any European city he knows. He remembers meeting a young artist in Italy named Michelangelo Buonarotti (who would become one of the most renowned figures of the Italian Renaissance), and he thinks that among all the Europeans he knows, Buonarotti would be most awed by the precision and logic of Tenochtitlan.

Malinalli and Atotoxtli spend the day together, developing a genuine bond of friendship. Toward evening, Malinalli leads Atotoxtli to the horses in the ravaged orchard. Badillo brings one animal close and demonstrates its trained docility. Atotoxtli touches the horse, struck by its size and calm, and concludes that Moctezuma’s fixation on acquiring these animals was correct: They represent a future military advantage for the Colhua. Before Malinalli and Atotoxtli part, Atotoxtli reiterates that Malinalli is welcome in the palace at any time.

Aguilar urges Cortés not to desecrate the temple, points out that the city’s bridge-and-island geography can easily prevent their escape; Cortés proceeds anyway, and most of his men emerge vomiting from the inner chambers. From the temple heights, Aguilar watches the city begin sealing its calpulli for the night.

Cuauhtemoc finds Tlilpotonqui in the palace garden, surrounded by his grandchildren, and delivers Moctezuma’s instruction: Tlilpotonqui is to bring the Spaniards to Axayacatl’s throne room, and bring Tlacaelel to observe. Cuauhtemoc also says that Moctezuma knows Tlilpotonqui has been asking about the ant. The emperor’s message is that Tlilpotonqui should ask Tlacaelel about the ant, since his son is wiser than he is. Tlilpotonqui asks about the Tlaxcalteca lords, and Cuauhtemoc replies that they are still undecided about whether to accept the emperor’s offer. Spotting Caldera drifting into the city, Atotoxtli dispatches a lady bearing her imperial tiara to guide him to safety. She expects that all the Caxtilteca will soon be dead, and she wants to preserve him as a potential resource for handling the horses. From the temple platform, Aguilar watches Caldera’s escape and, understanding his choice, says nothing to Cortés. The evening drums begin. Each figure responds in private: Malinalli decides not to pick up after Cortés; Moctezuma remarks that he is late for his bath.