Priest Walking Tenochtitlan Before Dawn

Acatl walks alone through empty Tenochtitlan streets in the last hour before dawn. Utterly still no crowds, only stone and shadow, distant temple fires on the horizon. He moves slowly, exhausted, head slightly bowed, dark robes absorbing the darkness. Lips move faintly in a barely voiced prayer at no particular shrine. Sacred Precinct pyramid silhouettes rise against deep indigo sky behind him massive, indifferent. Narrow street flanked by adobe walls. A single nearly spent torch gutters in a wall bracket ahead. A canal alongside reflects cold stars dark water, silver strip. Everything on the threshold of ending: the night, his strength, his certainty. Baroque chiaroscuro oil painting, established series style. Acatl as small solitary figure dwarfed by vast dark architecture. Dying torch as sole warm light; canal reflection as cold silver accent. Mood: not despair but exhausted weight of the unresolved. Full page vertical, illustration bleeds to page edge. --ar 2:3 --sref 186432398 --hd