The story
The Fifth Sun is dying
And the Lord of the Dead says he knows how to save it.
Tenochtitlan pays in blood
The Mexica keep the Sun moving with blood. It is the oldest debt in the world, and Tenochtitlan pays it every day from the top of the Templo Mayor.
Tzilacatzin fights for that city. He is the best warrior in his calpulli, and one mistake from his past still follows him.
A voice in a dream
One night a voice comes to him in his sleep. It says Tenochtitlan will fall and the Fifth Sun will go out with it. The voice belongs to Mictlantecuhtli, lord of the dead, and it offers a way to stop it.
Tzilacatzin says yes before the voice has finished.
Beyond the city
The deal takes him out of Tenochtitlan, past the lake and into the jungle, to temples nobody has opened in generations.
Tlaxcaltec warriors hunt him on the road. The gods keep guardians, and every ring Tzilacatzin takes from one of them makes the others notice him.
Under the sun, the truth burns
Dying doesn’t end it. Fall in battle and Tzilacatzin wakes in Mictlán, the land of the god who sent him, and has to fight his way back up.
Down there he starts to wonder who the deal was really for.