Gods of Jade and Shadow

The next morning, Casiopea and Hun-Kamé find Martín outside the hotel. Martín is there to take them to Baja California, and since it doesn’t matter if they go with him, Casiopea and Hun-Kamé accept the offer. When they arrive, they check into the grandest hotel in the city. The beauty and the closeness of the ocean overtake Casiopea, but Hun-Kamé recognizes the structure for what it is: the other point of power his brother wishes to connect to Xibalba. Hun-Kamé smiles, thinking about how he will enjoy his brother’s torment when he tears the hotel apart. Casiopea realizes that gods “can be as petty as men” (251).

Casiopea asks what Vucub-Kamé was like before the siblings fought. Hun-Kamé explains that Vucub-Kamé resented him and did not show deference when he should have. Casiopea sees similarities between Vucub-Kamé and herself, as well as between Hun-Kamé and Martín, and she wonders if Vucub-Kamé felt hurt by his lower status. Hun-Kamé says he could have no more denied his godly nature than nature could change itself and admits that Casiopea makes him wish to be kinder, a softer person. Even as Casiopea appreciates this, she sees the ruthlessness of his desire to rule Xibalba.