Game table

"That it does." I begin to play and sings:
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

The glossiness clears from my eyes, and I shake my head. "Was I singing? Please tell me I wasn't singing. I have a vague feeling I was singing, but that can't be right? It was you, snarky luter, you sang something before this song, right?"

"Yeah, let's go with that." Smiles.

Kit leans her head against Duke as she listens to Jacob singing, enjoying the entertainment.

Puts his hand on her hair and stokes it’s beautiful length. "I love you Kitsune. I think we have let our attentions get the better of us and we have not received our guests to our table well. Kon, my apologies For interrupting your conversations you wanted to have with Huatzi. Let us take a short rest and have lunch here to discuss what all we need to do. Our ship still sails in the morrow so maybe we can find this seed of Stormslayers. Maybe we can get your news out Kon. Maybe we can finally see what hold us together besides google eyes, Antethoe. "

"I love you too, dear. Let's eat!"

"So it was you, Bluebard, who sang snippets of that old sea dog's song? I'd hate to think I would have made you all suffer the experience of a Goliath playing at being a bard. We have very few with the will, much less the talent, among us. Songweaver was a fine exception, she was, but get a good amount of ale in some of the elders, and you'd be wanting to run for the caves!" I'm not sure why I'm obsessed with this issue, but the song seems to be bubbling to the surface of my mind, as if called there by the strong (and strange) draught these lowlanders called tea.

Humming to myself, deep in thought, I grasp at the vestiges of the song, as the bob up and down, momentarily breaking the surface of my consciousness...

"mm Hmmhm
mm Hmmhm
Hmmm hmmhmmhh'hhmm

On somethin' stony mountain top
Somthin' somethin' a god to try
That plies their gifts in trade for us
Somethin' somthin' somethin' and cry.

E'ha gifts life itself as... as... as breath
And sends us forth to seek our gain... no, no, our fame
To c'alicue we finally... go(?)
To trade our wife, no... no that's not right...
To trade our LIFE, our death the game

Tum Uhti (Uhti?!?)
Teo Uhti
Alle tinqui'um..."

Much to everyone's relief, I'm muttering it this time, rather than singing it. Though it appears the memory does not hold so strong a hold without the music. Or perhaps the hallucinogenics. Either way, I break free of my thoughts again...

"Bluebard... do you know of this song? It had many a word I did not understand, but the melody... it felt as if it reached inside my soul."

"I am unfamiliar with the word Uhti, but Alle tinqui'um is to read the future in cacao tea. That is why I called for it from the kitchen.
The other little words you sang in this chorus are conjugations: I, you, he, and on and on. This is Nahuatl, the old tongue of the gods.

Is there any amongst you gifted with divining? We must read our futures in the tea swirls and foresee what this group shall do with themselves, and how the darkness may fall away."

A Uhti
Ti Uhti
Alle tinqui’um

Alas one day I went to sea
I left home far behind me
And now I’m lost, so gone and lost
Not even gods can find me

Out here they got a god for rain
For wind and mountain stone
But when you’re lost, there is no god
You look to fairness, Uhti onn.

Eh Uhti
An Uhti
Alle tinqui’um

On sea and stoney mountain top
For ev’ry cause, a god to try
That plies their gifts in trade for us
To gnash our teeth, to wail and cry.

E’ha gifts life itself as breath
And sends us forth to seek our fame.
To c’alicue we finally go
To trade our life, our death the game.

Tum Uhti
Teo Uhti
Alle tinqui’um

We all have lost our loves somewhere
No use to hope, to seek, to dare
The gods do not have answers more
They strut and wail much more than care.

Steadfast the stone, primordial sea
Needs not these sacrifices
To judge a man’s morality;
So fair are nature’s vices.

Eh Uhti
An Uhti
Alle tinqui’um

Alas one day I went to sea
I left home far behind me
And now I’m lost, so gone and lost
Not even gods can find me

Out here they got a god for rain
For wind and mountain stone
But when your lost, there is no god
You look to fairness, Uhti onn.

A Uhti
Ti Uhti
Alle tinqui’um

A Uhti
Ti Uhti
Alle tinqui’um

A Uhti
Ti Uhti
Alle tinqui’um

"I find that hard to believe, Ladybird, given that something dark and creepy claiming the name of Uhti has spoken through two of your companions here. It spoke to me, privately, through Lilanca. And the little girl, Camihuatl, first identified herself as Uhti when we were all in the square." The words leave my mouth before I realize that I have referred to the gathered adventurers as a collective "we" for the first time.

Looking to Stormslayer, "Uhti, the Mistress of Darkness, can possess whomever she’d like, at least in my experience. Even a bird. It was weird when she possessed Dukalu though, had to ask her not to do that. I can summon her when she’s needed."