Cosamado’s spirit body floated out amongst the stars, drawn slowly back to earth by the beating of the priests' ceremonial drums. Having spent the last two days traveling to the sun and then out over the great northern sea to a strange and foreign land called “England,” Cosamado was happy to be returning home. All about him the green leaves from the banana trees flapped in the morning sun and smiling monkeys clapped their hands and danced as his soul slid back into his dormant body. Soon he began to feel the warmth of the sun and hear the sounds from the chattering priests who were running frantically about in celebration that one of the “brethren” had finally returned from his spirit journey. As he lay there, the memory of his travels and the weight of the message he carried slowly bore down upon him and he let out a soulful groan. Concerned something was wrong, the priests picked up his body and passed it overhead from hand to hand down the steps of the pyramid and carried him back to his home. There he was placed on a bed of sweet herbs and left to the care of one of the town’s best physicians. As he slowly regained his strength, he began to tell the other priests about the warning from the Gods that their time on this planet was running out.
At first, the response from the oligarchy was that Cosamado must be mistaken, for surely the Gods would not abandon their chosen children. But when he removed his tunic and revealed to them the tattooed details of the portal that Xbalanque and Hunahpu had placed on his back, they had reason to believe him and the politics of power soon raised its ugly head. While the priests could not deny what their eyes had seen, the competing factions within the priesthood interpreted the message from the Gods quite differently. The pragmatists wanted to send Cosamado off on his journey with all the necessary resources and support from the entire community. Others within the priesthood just smelled the possibility of a great public works project; a mammoth stone calendar that would not only forecast the exact date of the end of the universe, but also guarantee riches for their own coffers.
However to secure the backing of the treasury, the coalition of profiteers would need to independently verify Cosamado’s warnings. Their solution was to use spirit agents, young members of the priesthood who were bred and trained to undergo drug-induced vision quests into the future. Normally the priests would send their agents out on short excursions to foresee weather conditions or to bring back news to be used to outwit their political rivals. The concept of sending someone to the end of time and back again was unheard of and considered quite dangerous. Danger, however, only served as an enticement to this elite group of time-travelers.
Five of the most experienced were selected for the journey, and on the day of their departure, crowds of supporters from throughout their nation filed into the city to witness this unique event. As the faithful looked on, four elderly priests climbed the long steps of the pyramid, each bearing one of the four elements of creation. Leathered hands and blind eyes carrying the golden fire of the sun; long stands of gray hair, flowing wildly with the force of captured sacks of silvery wind; soiled garments baring the beating heart of the good earth and leathery vessels of living water. As they reached the pinnacle, they placed each element into four separate jade bowls located at each corner of the ceremonial platform. This represented the segregation of the universe into its passive and active parts. Drummers then began to pound huge bass drums that were made out of animal skins sending out powerful reverberations that crossed out over the valley floor. It was a call to the gods requesting a fracture point into the fabric of the universe.
Standing atop the same pyramid used by Cosamado, each of the five young men was given a golden chalice which contained the most powerful combination of medicinal herbs that would allow them to transcend through the veil of time. One by one they drank the bittersweet elixir, and as they did, their bodies collapsed, as the potion brought them to the brink of death. From this precipice they would break free from the earthly realm and plummet like skydivers toward the future.
About them the light of the stars fell away and the linear flow of time melted into a vast meandering river of dissociated moments, allowing them to pass through the eons like a hot knife drawn through butter. Wrapped in the silk-like fabric of their souls, the glowing spores of consciousness maneuvered themselves in unison. As they neared their destination, the five spirits began traveling at incredible speeds, and like shooting stars, they began to slowly dissolve bit by bit as they flew over the fields of time. This shedding of the souls unfortunately had the adverse effect on their physical bodies lying atop the great pyramid, causing them to slowly deflate like punctured balloons as their life force ebbed away. When their souls had completely disintegrated, the empty shells of their bodies collapsed into a papery dust that spun away in fiery little dust devils.
Soon, of the original five, only the two strongest remained, both determined to survive their perilous journey to the edge of time.
After what seemed an eternity of free fall, the two travelers noticed that the structure of space had begun to thicken with broken flows of time, slowly reducing the rate of speed at which they traveled. It was as though they had entered into a vast stalled bay of time, moments from history floating all about them, swirling without direction. Amid the sea of disrupted moments they also saw multitudes of multicolored spirit trails from all living things, flowing forward only to cascade against a great translucent wall, beyond which lay a great dark void. It was indeed the end of time
Exhausted from their difficult journey, the two men floated within this jumbled sea of space and broken time-lines. After carefully inspecting the infinite barrier, which flowed out in all directions, they concluded there were no breaches in the great wall. The two spirit agents circled about slowly, gathering their strength, and began the long trip home, bearing Cosamado’s verification.
Upon the return of the time travelers, Cosamado met with a coalition of supporters who helped him to organize his great expedition. Never before in the history of the Mayan people had anyone dared to venture north beyond where the lands of the great continent narrowed, pinched by the Gods of the sea.
Eighteen of the King’s most experienced soldiers were chosen, as were two cooks and an interpreter who spoke three languages used by their neighbors to the north. Joining them also was Cosamado’s little dog, Xolotl, a brave soul who danced with joy on his hind legs, upon being told he would join his master on what seemed to be an important journey.
As the sun rose on the day of their departure, Cosamado bid farewell to his wife Lexis and their two children, and walked through his village to join the caravan that had assembled just outside the city’s northern entrance. As he made his way past the government and religious buildings he came across the foundations that were being prepared, at great expense, for the great stone calendar, for which the coalition of profiteers had, upon the return of their subordinates, recently approved funding.
“Let us hope that our journey renders the “Great Clock” obsolete,”' noted Gukumatz, Cosamado’s lieutenant colonel, as he greeted Cosamado at the city gate.
Cosamado smiled at his old and trusted friend, and replied, “As long as there is a buck to be made …the bastards would happily pave the road to hell,” referring to the project’s great expense.
In preparation for their trip, Cosamado met with old Acat, his people’s most gifted mapmaker, and related to him in detail the visions that had been revealed to him by Jean Adam’s father. With great skill and beautiful craftsmanship, Acat was able to create a three-dimensional wooden map inlaid with semiprecious stones that unfolded out into a perfect sphere displaying the Gulf of Mexico and the North American eastern seaboard. In great detail the map outlined the route Cosamado would take on his journey to the far-off county of England. With great care, Cosamado and Guk calculated that their journey would take them at least two years, provided there were no serious setbacks. The first leg of their journey would take the expedition to Xalapa, about 600 miles north. It was there that Cosamado would meet the first of his spirit guides, the beauty known
as Ix Chel.
Whistling for his faithful dog ,Xo, Cosamado turned and waved to the crowds of people who had gathered along the city’s walls to see them off on their journey. He did not know it then, but this would be the last time he would ever see his village.
After two months of travel along the trade roads, which were well maintained by their Aztec neighbors of the northern lands, they arrived on the outskirts of Xalapa. Guk’s soldiers called it, “the land of big heads,” referring to the massive carved stones that dotted the surrounding fields of flowers like giant gray mushrooms.
While the soldiers set up camp, Cosamado and Guk studied Acat's etching of Ix Chel, based on Cosamado’s recollections. Somewhere within Xalapa there lived a young woman, who alternated between the world of dreams, and the waking world.
Cosamado had met and been attracted to the woman who lived in the world of dreams, and knew she would be assisting in drawing them back together again. Still, he was unsure how much of their encounter would have filtered through to her memory when he was to finally meet her in person.
“I suggest we go in and meet