In Korra's dream the world was ending, He Who Sleeps was awakening.
She was standing naked and alone on in the courtyard on Air Temple Island, probably the only living thing on it other than the trees and grass if the crushing silence was anything to go by. There was no wind to stir the leaves or waves to crash onto the beach; the world was awaiting The End quietly. The great mountain that served as He Who Sleeps chamber exploded suddenly, sending rocks as large as apartment building flying through the air and crashing down onto Republic City. Entire streets and buildings were razed as the stones slammed back down to Earth, some even skipping along the ground if they could manage to clear the buildings.
He Who Sleeps sang as He stepped out of the rising dust, His eight giant elephant feet flattening entire neighborhoods when He strode out over the city. 'He should have had to dig a leg out from under the city.' Korra thought to herself. She had had this dream many times before so she liked to spend it pointing out the inconsistencies. 'The pool where we walked on his big elephant foot was in the maze under it, he couldn't have retracted it back into his chamber without causing a massive earthquake.'
He Who Sleeps many giant mouths surfaced from under the swirling mass of tentacles that was his body and he began to sing, a terrible mixture of heavenly human and croaking monstrosity. 'I never heard Him sing, this is just a guess.' Korra thought. 'Does sound beautiful and terrible at the same time though so it fits what Suzume described.' He Who Sleeps began to strum his massive stringed instrument, it matched the skyscrapers in height but still rested comfortably in His tentacle grip as He Who Sleeps swatted them out of His way. When His tentacles somehow plucked the strings the sound shattered windows and stilled the already quiet waters around Air Temple Island as if the sound had killed the very spirit of the ocean. 'Never heard this sound either so I have no idea what it can do. I'm just being dramatic.'
"wdjhwai awudiwa Little Avatar." A rotting voice greeted and Korra turned her head to see Those He Favors climb out of the waters and begin walking towards her. Their loose and rotting skin was hanging off of their animate bones as sea water rushed out of collected pools tucked inside them while they walked. Ignoring the march of the undead, she knew that they'd just be all mysterious and talk in circles, which was another mistake as in real life the lead corpse had been rather to the point and dismissive. Sighing in annoyance Korra turned her attention back to He Who Sleeps.
He had made quite a mess of Republic City doing whatever it He was doing; it looked like dancing in a way, but judging by the loss of Republic City's skyline she didn't doubt that millions were probably already dead from his stomping alone. There was a monumental crack and Korra sighed in relief. 'About time he showed up, I'm tired of this dream.' She thought as the noon sky was ripped away, leaving the sun dangling in the starry sky it usually kept hidden, one giant source of light in a dark sea of trillions. But soon, spreading out from the sun, the stars began to go out as an unimaginably large entity approached the Earth. She knew its name if not the correct appearance at least.
Azathoth, The Daemon Sultan and Creator of the Universe.
Korra watched as a mouth of fangs appeared from behind the sun, its light briefly illuminating teeth several times its size, before she watched them pass over head and over the western horizon. She breathed a sigh of relief when Azathoth closed his jaws over the Earth and sun; He Who Sleeps still singing and dancing over the now completely pulverized Republic City as the Azathoth began to chew his mouthful of space. The sun was ripped away and snuffed out by a brief glimpse of unspeakable teeth leaving Earth in the dark.
Korra merely greeted the cold dark with outstretched arms as she felt the descending teeth plunge towards Earth, the sensation like a sudden jolt of cold wa-
"GAHH!" Korra screamed as she jumped and fell out of her soaked bed. "What the fuck?!" She demanded to know glaring up from the floor at her twin stoic cousins wiping the water away from her eye.
"You're late for breakfast." Eska explained in that monotone way of theirs. "We've been attempting to wake you."
"Did you try just shaking me hard?" Korra asked as she got off of the floor of her cabin, one of the guest rooms on the Northern Water Tribe Royal Yacht.
"Yes, several times." Desna answered. "And one slap to the face. You must sleep very heavily to not even subconsciously feel the water coming towards you when we drew it from the bathroom." Korra growled as she went to the wardrobe and opened it, looking for some clean clothes.
"Well I'm awake now so you can go." Korra said as she pulled off the now wet scrubs and underwear, uncaring that they were still in the room, and tossed them aside making a mental note to throw them out as soon as possible. She didn't want any connection to mental hospital until she was done with She Who Walks Between The Storms. Then she'd either go back or try and get Huan out depending on how this mission went. "I can find the dining hall on my own." She insisted as Desna and Eska continued to stand there watching her slip into a clean set of underwear unfazed and emotionless.
3 months ago she would have found this behavior beyond creepy. But now she knew there were far stranger and terrible things in the world and she could understand their lack of consideration for normal behavior, like everything else Humanity valued or created it meant nothing in the face of the Great Old Ones.
"Were you having a nightmare?" Eska asked and Korra twitched in the middle of putting on a pair of deep purple pants, Northern Water Tribe always seemed to favor Purple and Dark Blue over the Southern Water Tribe's Light Blue's.
"No." Korra answered as she retrieved as simple white undershirt and a deep purple furred parka. "Nightmares are scary; I've just had this one a lot."
"What was it about?" Eska asked and Korra turned to face them with a glare, her single piercing eye accompanied by an empty socket giving a full view of the scarred flesh left by the giant spider rat's tongue.
"Why do you care?" Korra asked as she leaned back against the wardrobe, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Your mental health is important if you're going to be combating Spirits and casting magic." Desna explained and then warned. "Any doubts can cause incantations or rituals to… end messily." He and Eska both looked down briefly and Korra raised an eyebrow, the one over her empty socket.
"Well I don't have any doubts. I made it through that little trial The All Mother and her followers cooked up, I can handle anything this Yu'ruwib can throw at me." Korra assured as she turned back around to retrieve a pair of socks from a drawer.
"I wouldn't consider a carefully constructed and regulated simulation particularly challenging." Eska challenged, still speaking in that dry monotone. "No Avatar has died from it since Avatar Gang over 800 years ago. Father says that the official records say that he fell down some stairs and broke his neck in his home in Omashu." Korra stopped half way in putting a sock on and turned around again to face them.
"But Father thinks that he tried escaping the labyrinth with airbending as soon as the spider rats showed up and since his bending probably hadn't fully returned yet… He may have fallen halfway and broke his neck when he landed." Then he and Eska smiled seemingly unaware of the scowl crossing Korra's face. "Must have been a surprise for The All Mother, Those He Favors and the cultists; having to alter the annual sacrifice on such short notice only for The Avatar to die before it even really begins." He and Eska then began to laugh in a manner that could best be described as dying penguins.
"And what's so funny about that?" Korra demanded to know. "And how the fuck," she snarled at Eska, "was what I went through "not particularly challenging"? Have you been through anything like what I've been through?"
"It's funny because it was expected that Avatar Gang would go through the prepared ritual and learn to not bother with any occult or otherworldly matters. But instead he panicked and died accidently when a horde of regular spider rats showed up. It's likely he would have dropped dead at the sight of Those He Favors or one of the All Mother's specially spawned spider rats." Desna explained with a smile at the joke.
"And the ritual to keep He Who Sleeps slumbering has been practiced by the All Mother since before the evolution of Humanity." Eska explained. "And ever since our evolution and the arrival of the Spirits it has taken into account educating The Avatar on their place in matters of the occult and the otherworldly. Dead Avatar's don't learn anything; you were in never any real danger." She dismissed with a waved hand and Korra saw red.
"No danger?! Do you not see this?!" Korra shouted as she stormed up to Eska and pointed at her missing eye. "Or this?!" She pulled down her shirt collar to show the ring of scars around her shoulders left when that giant spider rat had attempted to eat her head first. "Or these?!" She rolled up her sleeves to show the scars running up the outside of her arms left by the spider rat that had attempted to tear up her face.
"Scars fade." Eska shrugged. "And while detrimental the loss of your eye is not the most extreme thing an Avatar accidently suffered during the ritual. Weren't you listening to Desna talk about Avatar Gang?" Before Korra could make a roaring rebuttal about how losing an eye and being sent to a mental hospital for 3 months could merely be "detrimental" Eska raised a hand to stop her. "And we have faced a situation similar to your's."
"About 7 months ago there were a number of missing person reports from very close to the North Pole and Father suspected it wasn't just a few men getting drunk and wandering off into dark Winter night." Desna said as Korra backed off a bit angry at not being able to let her rage out. "So fearing the worst he went out with us and 30 of our soldiers on an expedition. 5 days after leaving the capital city the 3 of us came back with 6 soldiers, 1 of whom had lost both of his legs." They looked back towards the ground for a brief moment and Korra found herself relaxing a little, her curiosity winning over her anger.
"What did you find?" She asked knowing that she probably wouldn't understand whatever name or terms they gave. But that's sort of what she was here for wasn't it? Learning all about the strange and terrible parts of the world.
"A shoggoth." Eska said simply. "It's rare to see one so far North, they seem to dislike cold air as it makes their bodies freeze a little, but it had been snatching people from villages by disguising itself as a snowbank and ambushing them. It would absorb them and then settle back down under the snow, the search parties were walking all over it when looking for the missing villagers." Her and Desna's eyes suddenly became much more distant. "Father made sure we had the best education on occult creatures so we knew about shoggoths but… it didn't prepare us for seeing it move. Or hear it talk."
"And what happened to it?" Korra asked, her anger gone at seeing even a hint of fear in Desna and Eska.
"Over 3 straight days we fought and chased it to the coast and back into the ocean." Desna shrugged. "Father has had agents in the Navy and Coast Guard keep an eye out for it but we haven't had any trouble since then."
"Hmm." Korra hummed as she turned around and finished putting on her socks and boots. "So… what does it look like?" She asked knowing that she probably didn't want to know the answer.
"Like a large blob of tar, the size of a train car, constantly shifting and growing organs, mouths, and green eyes all over its body, and tentacles of black rope that it uses to grab people and move with." Eska described quickly and to the point still not looking at Korra. "They also talk a great deal, usually in more than one language." Mentions of the disappearing and reappearing mouths reminded Korra of He Who Sleeps although from Eska's comment shoggoths were a lot more vocal.
Korra looked herself over in the mirror and made to reach for her eye patch when she stopped and looked at dark purple dress in the wardrobe. Smiling she took it out and began tearing off a long strip from the bottom as Desna and Eska watched curiously. Carefully positioning the dark cloth over her empty eye socket Korra tied the cloth behind her head to create a makeshift eye patch. With a grin Korra cracked her knuckles as she inspected herself in the mirror, not noticing Desna and Eska's odd look as they watched her.
"What is she doing?" Desna whispered confused.
"I don't know, I think it's to look "cool" or something unnecessary." Eska replied in an equally hushed whisper. "But it doesn't matter as long as it helps her keep a cool head during the mission." Desna nodded in agreement, the mission took priority over everything, especially if Father's suspicions were true and She Who Walks Between the Storms was awakening. And while it would be troublesome for them to do so if their cousin's flimsy mental health provided a hindrance then they would have no qualms over dumping her at the nearest mental hospital or leaving her as bait for whatever hungry horrors awaited them.
Uncle Tonraq and Aunt Senna would be devastated not to mention the disappointment of their Father but they weren't hindered by those emotional strings. They would do whatever it took to protect the world, it was the promise they made to each other 7 months ago when they had watched the shoggoth slip off into the sea after leaving a trail of death and destruction 3 days long.
Because what was the life of one Avatar in the struggle of the continued existence of Humanity?
"Nothing has been moved?" Tenzin asked as he stepped into Korra's room examining the modest furniture.
"Yes, Master Tenzin." Korra's primary physician answered as he squirmed outside the room. "She was here at the 11 PM security round but the guards couldn't find any sign of her at the midnight rounds." He explained nervously as Tenzin moved to the bed and the desk. Tenzin briefly picked up a crude drawing of a flower bed Korra had made, a sad smile appearing and then disappearing very quickly as he set it back down. "One of our security guards, Mr. Chung, was a member of the Metalbending Police Force and he knows a little bit of The Great Toph Beifong's Seismic Sense and he said that no earth was disturbed under here so she couldn't have tunneled her way out."
"So you're saying she disappeared into thin air?" Tenzin asked as he stopped in front of Korra's closet a hard edge in his voice that sent the doctor sputtering in an attempt to answer. 'Calm down,' Tenzin thought to himself, 'he's just afraid for his career and the entire hospital if something happens to Korra. Which means that she either did just disappear or…' He shook off the terrible possibility that something had befallen Korra and this was their cover up. He moved to Korra's closet and looked inside to find that some clothes were missing but when he closed it something caught his eye.
Kneeling down Tenzin inspected a faint drawing of a strange symbol on the door, the shape stirring something in the back of his skull as he looked at it. Tearing his eyes away from it he looked around the floor until he found a discarded pencil nearly rolled under the closet. Retrieving the pencil and a piece of paper off of the desk Tenzin quietly copied the symbol to the best of his ability having to erase straight lines that were actually slightly curved on further inspection.
"Where is Huan?" Tenzin asked as he stood up and the doctor suddenly sobered.
"He's in one of the therapy rooms waiting for you. He claims no knowledge of where Korra has gone or why." Tenzin simply followed the doctor out of the room and towards the therapy rooms tucking the drawing into his robes. They passed a number of orderlies and other patients who murmured at the disappearance of the resident celebrity in tones ranging from hushed to nearly shouting.
"What's that all about?" Tenzin asked as two orderlies tried to get a particularly loud patient back to their room.
"Korra's disappearance coincided with a number of other patients having night terrors, all around midnight when she should have disappeared." The doctor explained as Tenzin's hand drifted to the strange drawing tucked in his robes for a moment before they continued on their way. Soon enough they arrived at a door flanked by a pair of orderlies who stood straight when they caught sight of Tenzin approaching, keeping their gazes down. They opened the door and Tenzin caught sight of Huan sitting alone at the head of an encirclement of chairs, the mad former Equalist, he hoped for Korra's sake, not bothering to change his bored expression as they entered the room and sat opposite him. "Good Morning Huan." The doctor greeted warmly.
"It's good to see you again Tenzin." Huan said ignoring the doctor and not referring to Tenzin by his Master title. "But if you think I have any idea of what happened to Korra you're wasting your time."
"Yes the doctor mentioned that," Tenzin said gesturing to the ignored man next to him, "but surely Korra must have been acting strange before she disappeared? Something that… only you would notice?" Tenzin hesitated to ask. He had never liked Korra's "friendship" with Huan if it could be called that. It was more like a mutual dependency, the two of them the only ones who knew what the other went through that terrible night they hid behind mad tales of monsters, undead wizards, and dark gods. This didn't even begin to cover the fact that the man had been an unrepentant Equalist and actually a Chiblocker at one point. He had been flabbergasted when Korra had begged him to have Huan sent to the same hospital as her, at his personal expense, and not to jail where he belonged.
"Him being an Equalist doesn't matter Tenzin!" Korra had explained rather gleefully looking across at him from the family table before she left for the hospital with a single eye. "All that Equalist, Bending Elite, Bender, and Nonbender stuff doesn't matter!" She giggled. "There are much bigger things to fear! Much bigger!" She giggled as she looked out the window towards one of the mountains behind of Republic City only for the giggle to die suddenly and Korra to begin weeping. She had suffered a lot of emotional swings during the first month.
"Korra was the same as ever." Huan answered with a shrug. "We only talked a little that day, the doctors have been limiting our contact recently," he said with a glare to the doctor although Tenzin could see the logic in beginning to separate them, "but she did mention a surprise meeting with her Uncle."
"Her Uncle?" Tenzin asked shocked, noticing that the doctor seemed as confused as him. "…You know who her Uncle is?" Surely Korra wouldn't mention her status as pseudo-royalty would she? Especially to an Equalist, even if he claimed to be her friend.
"She didn't mention his name, just that her dad hated him." Huan soothed Tenzin's fears enough for him to turn to the doctor.
"Why didn't you mention that her Uncle had been here to visit her yesterday?" Tenzin asked as he mentally strained himself to figure out how in the hell it was possible for Chief Unalaq to have been here yesterday. He should have been on his way to the Southern Water Tribe for The Glaciers Spirits Festival! His ship hadn't entered United Republic waters at any point let alone docked anywhere a royal yacht wouldn't cause news, the only way it could have been possible was if he appeared out of thin air!
"Because he didn't!" The doctor denied as the orderlies peeked into the room. "All Korra did yesterday was some therapy sessions, talk to Huan, and spend time in her room!"
"That and write a note before leaving." Huan interjected as he leaned back in his chair and pulled out a folded up piece of paper from his pocket. "I'm sorry Huan. But The All Mother could be wrong. I have to know." He read before handing it to Tenzin. "Stole it from that orderly's pocket." He said pointing to the orderly on the right.
"I thought you said you had no idea why Korra left?" Tenzin asked before turning to the doctor, the orderlies nervously shifting their feet outside. "And you said that nothing in her room had been disturbed!"
"We, we wanted to analyze the message against her previous therapy sessions for any sign for where she could have gone!" The doctor stammered as he got out of his seat which Tenzin matched.
"Analyze?! It's 3 short sentences!" Tenzin shouted as the doctor continued to stammer. The doctor was about to say something when his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed to the ground, the two orderlies outside doing the same.
"Well I wasn't expecting that." Huan remarked still relaxed in his chair as Tenzin rushed to the doctor. Tenzin placed his fingers on the man's neck to search for a pulse and thankfully found one and in doing so found a strange tattoo behind the doctor's ear. Tenzin could swear he felt it thrum with heat as he touched it. "I knew they were lying but to just shut down?" He shook his head in confusion as Tenzin got to his feet and looked at the relaxed man. "Hope Korra knows what she's getting into."
Tenzin didn't stop him as he got out of his seat and walked out of the room. "If you find her tell her I said thank you again, she'll know what you mean." Alone Tenzin inspected the two orderlies and found the same symbol tattooed behind their ears, thrumming with heat when he touched them. He searched the room for pencil and copied the symbol right next to the other on the piece of paper he had tucked into his robes. They looked nothing alike, being some strange mix of straight and curved lines that pushed against his brain when he wrote them down.
With a great gasp the doctor shot up off of the floor and nearly collapsed again in coughing fit that surprised Tenzin so much that he nearly jumped back over a chair in surprise. "Master Tenzin?" The doctor asked when he could breathe, his eyes red. "Are you ready to see Korra's room? We haven't touched anything; everything is where it should be." The doctor assured apparently failing to remember the argument that they had had a mere two minutes ago. Tenzin was about to respond demanding to know what was going on when he noticed a trail of blood flow out from behind the doctor's ear where the symbol should have been.
Ignoring the doctor's questions Tenzin walked around to look behind his ear and found the symbol gone, just a patch of raw bleeding flesh where it had been. His blood turning cold Tenzin helped the doctor out of the room where the orderlies were waking up, taking them to the infirmary before he more or less fled to Oogi and left the hospital behind. The piece of paper with the symbols drawn on it never left his death grip as he flew back to Republic City.
"Tell me Korra," Unalaq started as they walked along the deck to her first lesson, "how is bending not magic?" Korra was about to respond when she stopped in place, unsure on how to actually answer.
"Bending is… instinctive, and something you're born with. You have to learn magic right?" Korra ventured and was given a smile by Unalaq in return.
"Correct, anybody could learn to do magic with enough time and the proper tomes but nobody can bend unless they're a bender." He explained as they continued on their way. "Bending is the manipulation of the elements here on Earth to do your will while magic is the manipulation of the energies of the Universe. Much more powerful but," he stopped at a door to look at her, "far more dangerous."
"Yeah Desna and Eska told me that it's a good idea to go casting spells with any doubts." Korra said. "Said it could get… messy."
"That it can," Unalaq agreed, "but it isn't the only threat magic brings. Many Great Old Ones offer knowledge and special magic's to their followers but they can all feel when the energies of the Universe, which they are far more in tune with, are manipulated." He turned around and opened the door and let Korra inside his personal study, a small cabin backed with bookcases with titles in languages she didn't recognize and one she did that she knew she shouldn't, strange figurines of unusual creatures, and a few sketches of terrifying places and creatures posted along the walls. "To use magic is to open yourself to the attention of all of the terrible and otherworldly creatures in the area and by extension the Great Old Ones they serve." He warned as he closed the door behind her. "You'll never be the same or free of them after using it."
"If you're trying to make sure I'm up for this you're wasting your time." Korra said as she looked over a dark green statue of an octopus headed man with bat wings. "I wouldn't have drawn that symbol on my closet and walked through if I wasn't," she turned around to face him as he took a book off of the shelf, "and The All Mother and her cult made sure that I'd never be free of all this." She said gesturing to the drawings, looking over one of a city in a jungle with buildings like fangs.
"Just making sure," Unalaq soothed as he stepped forward and handed her the book, "here, it's what I started Desna and Eska with. Can't really call oneself a studier of magic and the occult without reading it." He explained with a smile as Korra looked over the title.
"The Necronomicon: Translated and Abridged." Korra read opening the book and flipping through the pages of diagrams and drawings of terrible creatures and rituals.
"It's like the school version of a famous book, has all of the dirty words and pictures taken out." Unalaq said as he walked to his behind desk.
"Really?" Korra asked with a raised eyebrow flipping to a drawing of a flayed man laid down for a ritual for some being or other.
"Those drawings don't drive you insane when you look at them." He answered as he opened a drawer and pulled out a small silver amulet. "Here, this is an amulet bearing an Elder Sign." He said pointing to strange star symbol on its front with a twisting line with a circle near the bottom in the center pentagon. "It is one of the few things that universally offer protection against the Great Old Ones and their servants, but don't rely on it too much. It does have a limit." He warned as he handed to her.
Korra trailed her thumb over the Elder Sign and felt it pulse with an energy that sent a shiver up her arm. Shifting the book under her arm she slipped the amulet around her neck and let the small weight settle on her chest, the energy flowing into her heart and then through the rest of her body. It felt… good. Like a weight she didn't know she had been carrying had been lifted, which was rather terrifying considering what she had been through. She smiled down at the amulet and asked, "So who is this Elder?"
"The Elder Gods, the closest thing to allies Humanity has if only because they despise the existence of the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods." Unalaq explained. "But again don't go offering up prayers to them if you get in trouble. Their blessings are rare and fleeting, stick to bettering yourself and your understanding of the occult. Now then," he said as he pulled a book off of the bookcase and opened it, "we'll start with a very basic incantation spell, just memorize and repeat the words perfectly."
"What spell is it?" Korra asked as she looked over the words that Unalaq pointed out in the book when he handed to her. "And what does it do?"
"The Mists of Releh." Unalaq answered. "It summons the green and black mists of Releh to take you between worlds allowing the user to more or less travel unseen."
"So… it just makes me invisible?" Korra asked unsure how this could possibly be dangerous other than being permanently rendered invisible.
"To everything on Earth that is meant to be seen Korra." Unalaq said suddenly very grave. "But it opens you to things that walk among us that we were never meant to see, and they are very hungry for Humans that walk into their mists." A familiar chill and tightening of her gut struck Korra and suddenly the Elder Sign didn't seem so comforting. "Very, very hungry."
It feels odd writing a Chapter in this series where someone doesn't get horribly murdered by a monster at least once per chapter. But if my plans for this Story work out this one should be about 2 - 3 times longer than He Who Sleeps so not every chapter can have people eaten alive. But I do plan on most of them having it!
Fun Fact: I found out that this isn't the only Legend of Korra and Cthulhu Mythos out on the internet! If you do a Google search for "Korra Neonomicon" you'll find a number of Rule 34 Fanart of Korra fucking a Deep One! Enjoy that mental image.
Now I should probably finish the next Chapter of The Element of Freedom before its readers kill me.