A Friend in Need: Man of the People
Teotach stretched languidly before springing out of his fourth wife's bed. She always had the power to reenergize him in ways he had not even known he needed. A quiet and intelligent woman, she had been seeming sad for a few days, but always waved away his concern with a soft smile and a jest about his doting on her like a schoolboy. Her dark eyes were so deep and profound, he found himself seeking her out when he was feeling down. He would never admit it, but those eyes reminded him of his mother's, and they comforted him in ways he had thought of himself as beyond for years now. He smiled at her, donning his clothes fluidly, like a jaguar would if it were to suddenly require clothing. The thought made her chuckle, which made the King smile.
He fairly skipped out of her rooms in the palace, past her giggling hand maidens and brazenly curiouis younger sisters. They were lounging in various states of undress around a fountain of laughing cherubs. Laying back casually upon finely upholstered divans, or amidst a cloud of cushions made from the tediously gathered silk of the kingdoms Rilworm. He whistled and danced a swirling spin, leaping into a graceful mid-air split before landing soft-soled to just let his momentum turn him toward the door. With a wink and a laugh, Teotach danced away from his hareem with a song in his heart. It was time to meet with his city's planners. His fourteenth wife, Aglethal, had dreamt up such a heart-wrenchingly kind idea for civil infrastructure that he could not wait to show her the blueprints he had had them draw up. His engineers had, with Daolmecc's help, figured out how to design and build machinery that would lead the waters of the spring to all of the homes on the island! better yet, he could use the same technology to water their crops directly. And, in a leap of logical faith, the plans for such a beautiful city arose that he had invested much of his own time into designing it. he could not wait for his people to see the wonders they would build; but more than that, right now, he wanted to show his youngest wife how much her input and influence had helped the people of the island. He just knew she would be ecstatic to see the prosperity her ideas could help their people realize! He spun gracefully, all those years of dancing lessons paying off handsomely. He cut quite the figure, swirling through the date palms of his royal estate, heading toward the smallest of the wives' cottages. The one traditionally meant for the youngest wife, the difference between 'youngest in age', and 'most recently married' was a hotley contested subject he preferred to stay right the fuck out of, thank you very much. His wives could get catty. Why did he ever marry fourteen women, he lamented silently?
Aglethal heard him coming, humming as he glided over the crushed stones of the meticulously maintained walking paths. The wafting breezes sighing through the date palms grated on her last nerve as the king's grindingly happy mood caused her teeth to squeak as they rubbed together. She could always tell when the king had visited one of the other wives, and while she put on a good show of acceptance the circumstances were so insulting she had already decided something drastic was necessary. Her new responsibilities demanded that she maintain a certain stature in her followers' eyes, and her proportionally expanding ego was quickly outpacing her perceived stature within the community. Here, in this paradise of pink veined white marble columns and walls and pleasantly patterned tile floors, Aglethal felt stifled, and tonight she was fighting back. At the moment, however, she was killing time, and she did enjoy seeing the fruition of her labors. The king was a rock headed Gong farmer; very hard to charm with her burgeoning dweamorwork. He was just naturally resistant to charms of all sorts. Aglethal had had to resort to another, age old, method of manipulating her husband.
Sex.
Oh, Aglethal had tried passive agression. After all, aggression is what came naturally to her. She'd been hoping hoping the passive kind would work as well for her as the straight-up aggressive type of aggression usually did, but, alas, the King seemed impervious to it. She had also tried wheedling, whining, begging and lying, but laying with her husband turned out to be something she'd begun to look forward to. The attention he lavished upon her was quite gratifying! Yet, when he came to visit after leaving one of his other, older, wives, all she had to look forward to were boring engineering assessments and torpid architectural prints. Those things were fine, if they were foreplay, but in and of themselves they were quite tedious. Like massages. Or conversation. But her power had been growing, politically as well as personally, and the time would soon come when she would no longer entertain his company. For the time being, she would set into motion a plan that she had been priming for over a year. She could wait until all of her sisters' threads of the web had been thoroughly plucked. It would make her prey all the sweeter for the fight.
The king came dancing into her bower, smiling, and with mint tea on his breath and the scent of another woman's sex thick in his hair he swept her into his arms and spun her around childishly. She giggle ferociously, feeling her body react to the closeness of his, to the feel of his body heat, but she knew there would be no sotisfaction for her today. Not right now, anyway. Right now, she would play her part and be Aglethal the queen, the kingdom builder. Aglethal the Inferior to Her Husband. She threw her head back and laughed as he put her down and bonked her on the head with a tube of rolled up papyrus.
"My dear, we break ground next week on the auspices of spring!" She blinked, confused. As far as she knew, they had just begun to envision an agricultural irrigation system that would bring Daolmecc-blessed water to all of the fields on the island. He unrolled the papyrus, familiar spidery lines of text and drafting revealed themselves, and she gasped. His vision was truly grand! It would also bring fresh water into every home on the island, and provide birthing pools for traditional underwater births. Her smile, beginning as a sort of wavering idea thinking about whether or not to cross her face, grew suddenly large and feral. Her eyes glinted fiercely, and her breath caught in her throat. She managed to make all of this seem as if she was simply excited at her husband's prospective civil engineering project.
She had just realized how she could extend the reach of her influence into every home in the kingdom, thanks to her husband, the King.
Summary
King Teotach the First's youngest wife, Aglethal, inspired an act of civil engineering...namely, indoor plumbing...that she planned to use against the people for whom it was meant as an improvement to their way of life and wellbeing.
Historical Basis
This is the event as dictated by the royal historian, and hypothetically verified by the iconographic nature of the decorations covering the stone structures of their public plazas and temples
Spread
The ancient lore of this area of the world is actually mysteriously absent from the general historical register. It would be a real boon for The Bardic College Campus to get a thorough archeological expedition out there.
Variations & Mutation
There are some version of the story that has Aglethal as a Sea Siren, or King Teotach as a Couatl.
Cultural Reception
This story would be the absolute Tea around the water cooler at the office.
In Literature
It has only been referenced in the most basic outline, as nobody really even knows about it.
In Art
There is a famous painting of one of The Tolmec Empire's greatest ziggurats.
Date of First Recording
3000
Date of Setting
2930
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