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Nick was so bewildered, he couldn’t speak While he still re of his life, he had a momentary flash to a trip he had taken with his faht, color, and sound--sensory overload, everything co violently for his attention Well, the City of Souls was so as feel like a lazy Sunday suburb The sight of it would probably kill the living--or at the very least drive them insane

It was only as Mikey and Nick looked closer that a darker side of this eternal celebration revealed itself The dancers, so full of rhyther had ers, so full of joyous vocal tones, didn’t need to see their audience So they no longer had eyes The artisans, orked only in color and texture, had no need for ears And the wandering minstrels, who had no need to ever put down their instruht out of them

"E!" said Mikey, a bit einable monstrosities, actually said "E"

"Welluhthey seem to behappy," Nick offered, uneasily "It’s kind of like an extreme version of Mary’s ‘perfect day’"

"We all find our place in the City of Souls," said Jix, looking around at the strange living mosaic "But none of this is for their pleasure It’s all for the king’s amusement This entire place is his perfect day"

They cae temple and before theod, which was engraved in gold on every side While the living world saw the pyra ruin, in Everlost its li white

However, it wasn’t the sight of the pyramid that stopped them in their tracks It was the object behind it

"No!" gasped Mikey "It can’t be!" Mikey felt hi his innards fro places with his outards

"This could be really, really good," said Nick, "or really, really bad"

There, reat pyraas-filled object ever built bysat in the heart of Chichén Itzá, its sliver skin reflecting the tropical sun, looking like it belonged there

"H found a neay to get around"

CHAPTER 44

Zero Recall

The Unre had the power to create a barrier of wind in a world that had no wind, in order to keep certain intruders fro could speak any language instantly upon hearing it

The Unre frohter than anyone else’s

Such tall tales were common in Everlost, but when it ca of the Middle Realm, every tale was true He had been in Everlost for many thousands of years, and his true naottenuntil one day, he unre So suddenly he was And as a king he felt he should set up court in the halls and temples of Chichén Itzá, and declare dominion over all lands that had once been Mayan He unremembered that he had no actual claim to those lands--yet by the aweso in those places instantly believed that he was their king without knowing orhave power over the heavens and glow brighter than all the other Afterlights? So suddenly he did, because he couldn’t remember that he shouldn’t Naturally it was easy for hile language he didn’t know It was the sa from Mesoamerica, he had never seen people with red hair, and so when he did, he thought theles He unres, and so all spirits he saith red hair instantly greings the color of their hair, and could fly--which thrilled the spirits, unless they had a fear of heights

The power of unrehty ruler that he was--and when it cas he couldn’t not do, was his i Yax did not havealow

Lately, however, his attentions had been elsewhere