62

Warm, hazy air hits you as you step out of the cave and look up the slope.

"We'll be there by evening," Stralchus says. "I'm not sure if we'll like what we find, though." He adjusts his tattered cravat and glances toward Keimia, who looks like she didn't sleep at all.

"Whatever waits for us atop the mountain," Control says, "it's more than local superstition. I'm detecting wireless signals."

Wireless transmissions seem to tie the individual controllers together and form Control's group-mind, but you're not sure what their presence on the mountain signifies.

Mud slows the climb, but in less than an hour you're on a wide, straight stair cut into the mountain. The scope of the project is beyond anything you've seen here before. It's almost sunset by the time you finally see signs of active civilization.

Two men guard a narrow stone archway of crude artisanship but imposing size. Dressed in skirts and armed with macuahuitl, they regard you with solemn dignity. Winding blue tattoos cover every inch of their heavily muscled bodies.

They are the Guardians of the Apostolic Mound, Vecla explains. The markings on them never come off and can turn aside spears, stones, even fire. They guard the Apostolic Mound with their lives and see to the mound's feeding and care.