Atlantis Vs. Talokan

Chapter Five - K'uk'ulkan and the Kingdom of Talokan

Atlantis 

Far away, back in Atlantis, in his lab, Orm was watching the screen.

"She hasn't moved from this spot in ages," he explained to Atlanna, pointing to the dot on the screen that represented the tracker Aurelia had taken with her so that Atlantis could keep an eye on her movements - well, so that he could.

"Don't panic yet," Atlanna said, though her eyes wouldn't leave the screen. "No use jumping to conclusions." However, the former queen did not sound as sure as her words made her seem. 

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Talokan

Namor enchanted Aurelia with the story of Talokan's creation, launching into the tale. 

"My mother and her village were driven from their farms by Spanish conquistadors who brought the smallpox, a hateful language and dogma from another world. Facing war, starvation and disease, my people turned to Chaac-" He gestured to one of the paintings on the wall surrounding them. "-Our god of rain and abundance. Chaac gave our shaman a vision, a way to save his people. Chaac led him to a plant sprouting from a blue rock. My mother was pregnant with me at the time and she did not want to ingest the plant for fear of what it may do to me. But the shaman was convincing. They all fell sick, and their lives, their existence there, ended." She listened intently, completely enraptured. "The plant took away their ability to breathe air but enabled them to draw oxygen from the sea. And so they settled in the ocean, away from war and diseases. My mother gave birth to me there and I became the firstborn son of Talokan. The plant gave me wings on my ankles and ears that pointed to the clouds. I was a mutant. I could swim in the sky and age slower, breathe the air our ancestors breathed. As she grew older, my mother mourned the life on land that she once knew, and died with a broken heart."

"I'm sorry," she sympathized, as someone who had also lost her mother at a young age.

Namor nodded, acknowledging her apology.   "She made me promise to bury her in the soil of her homeland. Nothing could prepare me for what I found there."

Aurelia winced - she could only imagine the horror he found there. 

 "A Spanish man of faith cursed me as he died by my hand. He called me 'el nino sin amor'."

"'The child without love'," she translated.

"Exactly. And I took my name from there: Namor. Because I have no love for the Surface World, and now you understand why."

She took this all in, absorbing his carefully-chosen words.  "I appreciate you telling me all this, but why?"

"So you can understand why I have to stop you from furthering your kingdom's connection to the Surface."

"I see..." He was trying to get her to see it from his perspective. "I'd love to see your nation - may I?"

A smile quirked his lips. "And I would love to show you. Let's just say it is a good thing you are an experienced swimmer."

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Talokan was incredible. While similar to Atlantis in the ways only underwater empires could be, it was also completely different. Two different underwater cultures, two different underwater wonderlands. 

There were people everywhere, swimming about their daily activities, whether working in the market, swimming with sea creatures, or playing sports.  They bowed their heads in greeting to Namor, holding their hands together at the wrists, palms open, a greeting which he returned.