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Xocolatl was a very different sort of drink from the hot chocolate common to a modern era. Rather than being mixed with processed sugar and milk, it was a mixture of cacao beans with some amount of honey, dried chili peppers ground into a powder, and corn flour, all whipped up into a froth before drinking.

It burned at Jaguar's tongue, lips, and the inside of his cheeks, but it was mild enough that, knowing it was coming, he was able to keep his poker face and put on a show of enjoying it while the Spaniards... did well in putting on the same act, but didn't quite manage it as much. By contrast, Chel clearly enjoyed the luxury of being allowed the drink, and she, Chief Tannabok, and Tzekel-Kan all clearly thought nothing of the amount of powdered chilis used in the drink.

"When the bargain was struck with the three-part God of the men across the sea, we found easy agreement." he began. "The Spirit did not care and the Son was in genuine great favor of assisting us in giving warning of what was to come for our people. It was the Father, ancient, wrathful, and ever searching for a way to expand his dominion who needed to be convinced. In the end, though, the three-part God agreed in full that we would have our opportunity. The counterpart, however... the tempter, the tester, the tormentor... he made no such agreement to stay his hand."

Jaguar grimaced.

"Enemy of the three-part God that he might be, he is often used to see that one's plans to fruition. Their holy book even boasts of this, with the tale of the suffering Job." Jaguar noted. "A tale which encapsulates the nature of the Father well indeed, when removed from the Son's merciful nature and the Spirit's carefully balanced restraint. A tale from the time when he was a singular entity. In this case... he did not order or give permission, as in a gamble such as the suffering of Job. If so, the adversary would have either defiantly refused, or gleefully gone much, much further in his work. Rather than that, he merely... let it be known that the agreement had been made, and then did not intercede, and did not allow the others to intercede, as the adversary leaped to interfere with the arrangement."

Jaguar exhaled and then gave Tulio and Miguel to come to grips with the idea that the actual Satan himself had played some part in their ending up the way they had. ... It was for the better that way, as there was only so much of their own personal history that Jaguar knew, meaning that it was better for them to fill in the details of every little thing that had gone wrong in their lives with the sudden idea that instead of it just being bad luck there might actually be something to blame.

It was a plausible enough story of betrayal among enemy gods. Rather, as Jaguar had claimed before, it was something that was to be expected in hindsight when even stories of gods in the same pantheon involved them coming to blows and bitterly holding grudges against each other. Tulio and Miguel themselves seemed to find it... an uncomfortable claim, but they weren't faithful enough adherents of the church to rise up and object to divine slander. Or, perhaps, they were just well read enough on the holy books to find the claims possible enough that they couldn't be discounted.

Jaguar grunted.

"Well, despite the interference, our messengers made it to where they were meant to be at the right time anyway. It seems you played a part in that, Chel." Jaguar said. "But personal matters can wait for later discussion. First. Cortés. Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano."

Jaguar set his empty cup down on a stone table with a loud clack.

"He leads a group of what they call Conquistadors. Conquerors. Not explorers, searching out new paths through foreign lands to trade with the inhabitants. Not adventurers, seeking thrills and the rush of excitement that comes from discovery and danger. Conquerors. That is how they have named themselves, for they have come to conquer, to take, to seize whatever they wish and eventually destroy the rest. This suits the Father's wishes well, and so he has blessed the beast Cortés and guided him in the selection of followers who agree with his goals, with his methods, and who will support his every action, whatever it may be." Jaguar said. "He will not treat you fairly, or with honor. He will strip your lands of every edible crop and leave you to starve. He will claim for his own every scrap and trace of gold he sees. He will kill your men and rape your women without blinking an eye, and those who survive will be made slaves. There will be no dignity in this servitude, no method by which one may escape the yoke, for all slaves taken by the Conquistadors are treated as nothing more than disobedient livestock to be worked to death and their bodies thrown aside to rot as they are replaced. There will be no honor in your passing, and any children that may be born to a slave will themselves be known as a slave."

Jaguar made sure to exhale sharply through his nose.

"He may approach a tribe with open arms, listen to their troubles, and swear to aid them against their enemies, but this is nothing but a ruse. He will assist them in battle, yes, and then when they are weakened and vulnerable and have placed their trust in him, he will turn upon them as well. For he will be satisfied with nothing less than taking everything these lands have to offer for his own, and you? You who do not know the ways of his people, who do not wear the right clothes, who do not eat the right food, who do not worship his own god, he will not consider you to be truly human at all. If he can, he will tear down the temples, forbid you to worship any but his own three-part God, he will outlaw the practice of sacrifice, starving the gods, and he will bring scribes and learned men to take every record of history and the gods and rewrite them to suit his preferences. They will take the days of our ceremonies and make new rites to take place on those days, then exterminate all those who do not comply and worship the god of Cortés." Jaguar growled. "They will piece by piece, systematically and unflinchingly erase the people of these lands and create a land of servants to their will and their god who do not even know of a time that came before the Conquistadors. It is all something that has been done before, to other peoples."

Chief Tannabok didn't seem to know how to respond to the outline of how the native peoples would be destroyed and crushed beneath the boots of plunder-hungry Conquistadors. Tzekel-Kan, by contrast, was quicker to process the situation and speak.

"A terrible future indeed. But... one which can be avoided with your aid, my Lord." the priest declared confidently.

"To the best of my ability, I will prevent this future from coming to pass." Jaguar agreed. "But... Look upon me, Tzekel-Kan. Gaze upon me, and ponder two questions."

Jaguar raised one finger.

"Why have I taken on an appearance such as this? Small. Unimpressive. A form that would bear no notice in passing, were I to not make myself known before you. When I might have appeared before you as a mighty figure, with the height of three men, mighty enough to cast a mountain into the sea, glowing with divine power and authority at all times. Why this, instead?" Jaguar asked.

"I... Well, I hardly dare to venture a guess, my Lord." Tzekel-Kan replied, immediately turning to ass kissing instead of asking something like 'Yes, now that you mention it, why didn't you?'.

Jaguar huffed.

"Not even a ventured guess? In truth, there are several reasons. Convenience. Long term plans. But most importantly of all, were I to make myself known in my full power, with all the might that I could bring to bear? You would die." Jaguar said, simply. "The human body responds to fear and awe in certain ways. Most critical among the speed at which the heart beats. As these feelings increase in intensity, the heart beats faster... but there is only a certain point to which it is safe to do so. Increase the speed further than that?"

Jaguar snapped his fingers.

"And the heart can't keep up. Like an exhausted runner that can go no further, it stops. And then the person dies." Jaguar explained simply. "Which is not ideal. Of equal importance is the matter of escalation. As things stand, this remains a conflict between humans. We were promised the opportunity to send a warning and information, and this message was interfered with. Acting to ensure it is delivered regardless is a small thing that merits no response. However... directly striking at the coming Conquistadors with divine power is a different matter. This demands escalation and retaliation in response from the three-part god. It is a situation where there are no potential winners, because even if the world is not destroyed and all things need not be created anew in the wake of such a battle, He is a petty being indeed, and would make sure to cause as much destruction and death in passing as possible for the people of this land, even if he must avoid striking at us and focus instead on crushing humans like ants beneath the fingers of a child playing in the dirt."

Tzekel-Kan didn't seem to know how to process this and grimaced as he tried to fit it into his own world-view. As such, Jaguar seamlessly moved into extending a second finger.

"Now, with that being said, answer yourself this. Why was I the one to take on this role?" Jaguar asked. "Limiting myself in this small, paltry form, wrapped in flesh, and barely extending the most minor sliver of my divinity only briefly, in order to prove my nature and then hide it again? Why did I come, and not Quetzalcoatl, or Tlaloc, or any of those who might have chosen to do so? Why did I take the role?"

He grinned, savagely.

"Because I am Jaguar, and I walk between the worlds. Even in this limited, meager form that is a power I have that few other gods do, and one which I can use even under these conditions." Jaguar said. "We have been cheated by the three-part God. And so we will cheat him in turn. I will walk the worlds, venture into strange places, and find the magics and tools of the men who live there, that I may bring them here. I will find the traces of distant, sleeping divinity and sink my fangs into their skulls, to devour their power and take it for my own. My Jaguar Warriors will be the mightiest in all the land, and El Dorado will become the beating heart of an empire to put the men from across the sea to shame, all for the sake of spiting the Father who has deceived us and dealt in bad faith to see us destroyed and banished from this world!"

"Indeed, my Lord! I was a fool to doubt for even the most fleeting of moments!" Tzekel-Kan cried out in response.

"Yes you were!" Jaguar cheerfully agreed. "But pay that no mind. We shall need you and Chief Tannabok both to be at your best for the coming conflict. Remember as well that sacrifice is a tool to be used calculatingly and with care. Not a method to be rid of opposition, and not a punishment for failure. Why is it that a man selected as a sacrifice is treated as though he were a god, with none of his needs unmet and granted the best of everything he wishes? Which is a greater pleasure to drink... finely prepared xocolatl, or a cup of crudely mashed cacao beans, corn, and fresh chilis carelessly mixed into sludge with river water? Fundamentally they are the same, are they not? And yet..."

Tzekel-Kan seemed enlightened, and Jaguar felt for a moment like this was the point where he should probably feel bad about just how much bullshit he was shoveling into these peoples' laps.

And then the moment was gone again, as he saw the man and the portly Chief to their feet.

"Spread the word of what is to come. Make preparations, both to determine those with the mightiest potential to serve as warriors, the greatest talents for the priestly duties, and the most open minds to be able to quickly understand and learn how to make use of new things. Cortés comes, and even should he be held at bay or his forces destroyed in battle, the nation he hails from will not lightly take him falling to what they will call savages barely better than beasts!" Jaguar said. "There is little time to waste... but take care not to allow haste to lead to errors. The time it takes to do something carefully and well is often less than needing to do it a second or third time to get it right."

The key to a good con, after all, was to keep things moving. Keep everyone's attention focused in the way you wanted it to be. Make sure there was nothing that drew attention to something that stood out as being not exactly how your narrative was portraying things, never say anything that could be proven to be a lie, and by the time anyone started to catch on that you might not be perfectly honest it should be long past any point where they could do something about it.

That left Tulio and Miguel, both of whom seemed... discomfited, to say the least, at talk about sacrifices. And Chel.

"So, ah... Just how much of all of that was true?" the sassy young woman asked, having already long since discreetly stolen and drunk Tulio and Miguel's xocolatl for them. "If you don't mind my asking that, your divine lordliness. Because, uh..."

What she was edging towards and not quite verbally addressing was how all three of them had been in on a con to see them packing up as much gold as they could haul away and leaving, and now none of them were completely sure about anything.

What a treat.

"About Cortés? Most of it." Jaguar claimed. "Though as I understand it, his charter to make of these lands an official Spanish colony was revoked due to arguments with the person who decides such things. He ignored it and set sail anyway. Success may lead to this technicality being swept aside, or potentially the fact that he is acting without permission may see other Spanish forces coming to slap the man down and put him back in his place. Either way, it is true that the Spanish Crown will likely be most unimpressed with tales of some jungle-dwelling barbarians causing trouble for... Good, decent, god-fearing Spaniards."

Jaguar snort.

"I mean, that is good to know but..." Chel said ambivalently. "I was really getting more toward..."

"Your adventurous gold-snatching plot to pretend to be gods and then run with the goods?" Jaguar asked idly. "Better question. Did you have a plan for how to handle things when these two gentlemen brought you back to Spain, as agreed, and the people there treated you as little better than a performing monkey that had learned a few amusing tricks because you have the wrong color skin, dress funny, and don't have the same bone-deep church-going indoctrination as everyone else over there?"

"... When what?" Chel responded, visibly starting to lose her cool as Tulio and Miguel discreetly looked for ways they could hide from this conversation.