*First, Ahuiliztli Gets A Budget...*

"Ahuiliztli, calm down," Ichtaca says, once you are far enough into the caves that she's sure you won't be overheard.

"Calm down, calm down?! I've been given no budget what-so-ever, his Excellency has left me last of all the advisers to be bedded, and now he's interfering in my cultural development projects?! Why the hell would I 'calm down'?!" Ahuiliztli yells angrily.

"Because, now that you've just shown me how much you can accomplish without a budget, I'm about to give you one," you state, and mentally adjust the sliders for the national budget to 40% Treasury/ 50% Science/ 10% Entertainment. "There, done, a full tenth of the national budget is now allocated to Entertainment," you say.

"Yeah, I get a tenth, one out of ten, while Malinalxochitl gets HALF," Ahuiliztli says bitterly, but at least she's not yelling.

"I'm sorry," Ahuiliztli says after a second. "I don't mean to sound ungrateful, even I can't properly comprehend yet what this change will mean for the arts and artists in our civilization over the long term, but I can't help feeling a little bitter that I had to organize a volunteer royal orchestra to convince you that arts and entertainment deserved even just a tenth of our civilization's discretionary funds... Earlier you called me the 'Minister of Happiness' and its sort of true, I am responsible for keeping people happy... And I'm not succeeding. I'm not happy, Necahual isn't happy, most of the population is neither happy nor unhappy, and... I don't think you're happy Excellency," Ahuiliztli says.

"What do you mean Ahuiliztli?" You ask, and she begins to explain.

"Excellency, you're bedding us is like some kind of checklist, you don't want us for ourselves but because we are your advisers. Yoatl likes anal, Malinalxochitl was a virgin, Teoxihuitl is spirit touched and knows secrets no whore could ever hope to learn, Ichtaca does some special trick that left my link to you both resonating with bliss for hours, though she locks me out of knowing what exactly that is, I'm just a sing-song-girl. Like Necahual I'm a former whore who you rescued from being a streetwalker, but unlike her, I haven't done it long enough to get good. I'm the cipher, the missing number, the spare, the throwaway. That's why you left me for last, I'm not special..." Ahuiliztli says sadly.

"Ahuiliztli, do you actually want to have sex with me?" You ask, and she seems taken aback.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Ahuiliztli stammers.

"Why did you become a prostitute Ahuiliztli?" You ask.

"M-my, my hu-hus-husband died!" She says and then grabs hold of you and begins to cry uncontrollably...

When the crying jag, at last, subsides you gently push her away and tilt her head back so you can look in her eyes. "It's still too soon, isn't it? All the more so because of the fact that you'd just be my 'kept woman' instead of making an honest living, worse, one of my 'kept women', right Ahuiliztli?" You ask.

For a second or three Ahuiliztli just looks away and doesn't respond, but then she starts nodding her head, and you pat her hair gently. "Okay then, here's the thing you have to understand Ahuiliztli, I didn't leave you for last because you weren't special, I left you for last because at a certain point each of the others has approached ME asking to have sex. In almost every case I started the ball rolling before that, but you're the only one who just flat out doesn't want to. I'm not going to **** myself on you if you don't want to Ahuiliztli, I'm not a ****. Take as much time as you need to mourn your husband and recover from what you had to do to survive without him, if we don't have sex until you are fourty-one that will be fine with me. Weather you will regret waiting that long is another issue, but: you come to me when your heart wants my love, not before, understand?" You explain gently, and she starts crying into your cheast again.