Quiahuitl's Story: Chapter 4

VS Kazuko: Truths

Feb 16, 2023

Open on Quiahuitl’s Quarters

Quiahuitl is in bed. Epcoatl stands by it. The room is filled with luxurious decorations, it’s clearly a place of status. The attendant stands by the exit.

Epcoatl: You’re finally awake, I was so worried.

Quiahuitl: (I thought I wouldn’t wake up. That must be what the terror of powerlessness feels like.)

Quiahuitl: The organizers of the tournament are on to us. Did I win the match? When is the next one?

Epcoatl: You could at least spare the breath to tell me how you’re feeling. I’m handling the situation, you need to rest.

Quiahuitl: I can’t afford to rest. Someone must be acting against me, they want to prevent me from winning the tournament.

Epcoatl: Do you know how close to dying you were?! If it weren’t for some girl from the Corkoa tribe and her knowledge of poisons you’d be dead. Our own healers would have needed time you didn’t give them to find the cure.

Quiahuitl: (That girl? What reason could she possibly have for helping us, the Corkoa are barbarians with no ambition.)

Epcoatl: Besides, it took difficult negotiation to make the tournament organizers keep quiet about the whole affair and not disqualify you, and only because the poison means you’d have to drop out anyway.

Epcoatl: Unfortunately, it seems like someone loosened their lips so now everyone knows. I suspect it was one of the tournament organizers themselves, one who disagreed with the decision the others made, possibly Hákon.

Epcoatl: Regardless, the poisoning can help distract people from it with the right choice of words. Dropping out is still for the best.

Quiahuitl: Drop out?! No, I can still fight. I will fight. That wasn’t your choice to make.

Epcoatl: Every healer that I brought in made it clear you shouldn’t fight. People will forgive disqualification due to being poisoned.

Quiahuitl: I don’t do things halfway. People can’t see that it’s possible to stop me. Weakness or even being thought of as weak can be fatal, you know that.

Quiahuitl: (This could already be the beginning of the end for me if I’m not careful. I need to reexamine who to trust. Wait…)

Quiahuitl: (Nisha knew something she could only learn from texts like the one Epcoatl’s uncle had. She and Erlingr both seemed smugly sure I had no true allies. And the person who gains the most power from this poisoning is…)

Quiahuitl gets up from the bed.

Epcoatl: Don’t, you need to rest.

Quiahuitl: I’m going to keep fighting. And you won’t stop me.

Quiahuitl walks off screen.

Transition to Grand Festival Hub

Exploration Start

You have people to eavesdrop on again and some more platforming. This time the market stalls you have to run on top of lead to some interesting platform placements, you might want to toy around with them a bit.

Xilian Soldier: Our Revered Lady never takes the easy way out, it’s easy to follow someone like that into battle.

Xilian Noble: I personally find it hard to follow someone who refuses to play fair. If she would cheat here, why not in the other contests that advanced her cause?

Druid: So the huey chihuatlatoani was poisoned. They must have trouble narrowing their list of suspects, everyone has a motive to want someone like her dead.

Xilian Merchant: They say Lord Epcoatl hasn’t left his wife’s side once during this ordeal, carrying out all of his duties from their chambers. What a man.

Approach Epcoatl to start the next fight.

Exploration End

Epcoatl: Please, reconsider this.

Quiahuitl: Did you truly destroy your uncle’s collection?

Epcoatl: What?

Quiahuitl: Nisha made a reference to something not even that druid of hers should know. But it was the reason your uncle was executed. And her words make more sense if you were the one who gave them to her, even indirectly.

Quiahuitl: Then trying to stop me from competing here. Even you’ve betrayed me, haven’t you.

Epcoatl: …

Epcoatl laughs wildly. Text boxes reading ‘HAHAHAHAHA‘ fill up the screen.

Epcoatl: You think not wanting you to fight while you’re sick is treason?! You think the only reason I could possibly be doing this is because I’m plotting against you?!

Epcoatl: You have only one thing right, I passed along my uncle’s collection to Nisha. But I don’t consider that me betraying you. You were the one who betrayed me when you had my uncle executed.

Quiahuitl: He should have known better, his collection was a threat.

Epcoatl: To who? The past is the past, we don’t need to rewrite it. I’ve gone along with your pointless censorship because you willed it. I’ve chosen you over all else every time. But you took it too far.

Epcoatl: I thought our marriage was based on mutual love, but I’ve begun to suspect it’s based on something else. I love you, and you love yourself too.

Quiahuitl: (What do I say? He’s wrong, but how can I prove it?)

Quiahuitl: I’ve always treasured you. Remember when we fought for the title of tlatoani. I would have gladly followed you if you won.

Epcoatl: I remember that day, and how even then I knew you had ambitions and couldn’t let anything keep you from them. That’s why I lost on purpose.

Quiahuitl: What?!

Epcoatl: You would have made the empire even if I won. I knew I would be content as cihuacoatl and that you wouldn’t be. I did what I had to do to keep things harmonious between us.

Epcoatl: Now go fight in your stupid tournament. Meanwhile I’ll get to work avoiding your inevitable attempt to have me executed. Maybe you can appease Zolin by making him my replacement, you already spend more time on him than me these days.

Epcoatl walks off to the left. Quiahuitl runs to the right.

Transition to Corkoa Village

The main platform of the stage is a wooden platform on the sea, at the left side are elephant seals harnessed to the platform, like horses for a chariot. There’s a hut in the background of the stage.

Also in the background are similar platforms, when the stage starts moving they move with it. At times the stage will stop at different islands, each island has a summer and winter version, only one version of an island is used in a match.

Kazuko: I thought you would still need time to heal, I was so relieved when I heard you were well enough to still compete.

Quiahuitl: I have another pain to deal with. We can speak after the match.

Battle Start

At first glance the stage is a single flat platform with nothing special about it. Then it stops at one of the islands and you have to deal with additional platforms. The most inconvenient layout for you is the one that has a second platform equal in length to the main one, it can screw up your rallies.

Kazuko, like Nisha, is a character focused on traps. Hers are ground based, activating when you step on them and dealing damage or a debuff. Despite what you may expect, Kazuko’s boomerang doesn’t fly back to her. Instead it falls and she pulls it back with a string that can trip you up.

One of Kazuko’s supers, Abyssal Gate, is another trap, specifically a pitfall that locks you in place and leaves you open to attack. Her other is Fatal Wind, where she uses her knowledge of poisons to fire a poison dart at you. The poison effect only lasts a short while thankfully, not the rest of the match. If you can avoid the pitfall trap you should be safe.

As usual you can choose to go for rallies to avoid having to go past the traps, or get in close and get aggressive. The changing forms of the stage benefit you in giving you more ways to get around the traps.

Compared to the last battle you can take it easier here, you don’t need to rush this time, so you can afford to be careful. Staying away from the traps will give you a clear path to winning.

Battle End

Quiahuitl and Kazuko are back at round start positions, both in weakened poses.

Kazuko: Wow, you’re really strong. That was a lot of fun.

Kazuko: How is your husband doing? He seemed like he really cares about you. I hope I can find a husband like that when I get married.

Quiahuitl: (She means well, but she might as well have just stabbed me.)

Quiahuitl: He was grateful for your aid. Why did you help me? I turned you away when we talked.

Kazuko: Well you needed help, it was the right thing. There’s not much else to it.

Quiahuitl: I see…

Quiahuitl: (What I see is how I pushed Epcoatl away. Because that answer was incomprehensible to me.)

Quiahuitl: Thank you. I hope you enjoy the rest of the festival.

Quiahuitl walks away.

Chapter END

Note from the Author: I didn’t realize until too late that I’ve been using Kazuko a lot between stories, this is the third in a row to feature her. At least this is also the first to give her a directly significant role.

One thing I like about having different stories is how characters get to show different sides to themselves. In Aris’s story there weren’t any major hints of tension between Quiahuitl and Epcoatl, but here their relationship turns out to be more complicated than what Aris was allowed to see.

Optional Discussion Prompt: Now that things have reached a breaking point, what do you think of Quiahuitl and Epcoatl’s relationship? Did you suspect Epcoatl was involved in the poisoning?

The Warthog Report

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