Deep in the catacombs beneath one of the many grand step pyramids of the Mayan capital of Comalcalco sat a small chamber. The chamber's stone walls were covered with intricate carvings of various beasts, spirits, and landscapes of the Mayan underworld, which seemed to eerily dance under the room's dim candlelight illumination. In the centre of the room there was a raised stone dais, upon which sat Ah Puch, the master of death and bringer of earthquakes. Unlike the elaborate and showy vestments he usually wore, replete with headdresses, masks, capes, and other such divine regalia, here Ah Puch sat wearing merely a plain woolen loincloth. His skin, however, was covered from forehead to toe with pigments of blood red, bone white, and night black, painted on in exquisite detail.

As the night wore on and the candles burned deeper, the vials of incense that stood around the candles bubbled and boiled. The vials began releasing clouds of aromatic smoke, which quickly filled small room. For Ah Puch, the only distraction from the overwhelming smell of the incense and the increasing heat of the room was the sensation of his body paint melting and running down his skin. Ah Puch felt droplets of paint flow over his closed eyelids, into his earlobes, and around his nostrils, partially replacing the aroma of incense with the odour of paint. It was not long before the clouds of incense had permeated Ah Puch's lungs and entered his bloodstream, causing his consciousness to fade and blur. He smiled as he slumped to the ground on the dais, his muscles no longer interested in holding him up, as his mind filled with visions of things to come, things that have come, and things that must not be allowed to come.

Some unspoken time later, Ah Puch awoke. The small chamber he was in had been filtered of incense, and the candles had long been reduced to nothing but cold wax. As Ah Puch sat up, he felt the chill of the now cold and dark room's air on his exposed skin, which now lacked even the meagre protection of paint. His mind raced with possibilities and plans, even as he knew that he did not yet have the means to ensure that what must happen does, and what mustn't happen doesn't. In time, however, he surely would. He must – both for his own sake, and for the sake of this entire cycle.