Prologue

My name is Duyi, meaning independent wholeness. I was born right after the last avatar, Korra, had died. She fought quite a few battles in her time so I was born in a time of peace. Of course, no one would find me right away but because of Avatar Aang's life and Avatar Korra's upbringing, the search because frantic and earlier than they usually tested. Just before I could walk, in fact, there was a tester. I don't remember him but I know I was passed over because I am still here, at home with my family.

My mother is a daughter of a well-known earth bender who, unfortunately, cannot bend herself. She is a very pretty woman and apparently looks a lot like my great grandmother, except the eyes of course. Other women flock to her lead like they would die without becoming her shadows. She is not an easy woman to find fault in but there are times I feel sorry for her. Though having sons brings honor to a woman's family, she has no daughter to share her intimate feminine secrets with and every so often, I know that is why she stares out the window as if in dreams of what could have been.

My father, to everyone's surprise, became a fire bender. With his mother a normal woman, great grandmother seems to be the cause. She never married officially but I have heard it said that all four of her children were from the same father, a fire bender of slight noble status she met on one of her lone journeys. Either way, my father is a formidable man and though most would never think of crossing with him, I remember him as being a very tender-hearted man especially in our younger years.

Then there are my brothers. The first is my brother Honghui. The difference between us is nearly ten years, my parents having started early and decided to wait a while before trying again. He shocked my parents at his coming of age by renouncing his right as heir to the family business but it wasn't surprising to everyone else. He spent a lot of time with our great aunt and now works in Republic city, upholding order. Every word sent to us is dripping with justice and heroism.

After me is my year-younger brother Delun. My parents were so happy to see him into this world and haven't stopped showering him with praise since. I am not saying I am jealous of him, for I like being left alone and in the back ground, but I am afraid he has developed quite a head over it. Though heroic like our eldest, he has this glimmer in the back of his eye that says he knows exactly what his actions mean and what will come from their fruition. He has not done wrong by me but then again, I haven't gotten in his way to find out what he would do.

And at last the baby, my brother Enlai. He is three years younger than me but because of his early interest in mathematics and business, he is being raised as the heir, Delun being raised to be a general. His earth bending skills are poor but that just makes mother coddle him more and shield him from her overbearing father. Out of all my brothers, he is the one I get along with the best, perhaps because he hadn't learned how to treat me like others do. I am the only person he becomes quiet around and I am usually free to give him a well-earned distraction from his studies. He is also very good at baking, though where he learned it from I haven't quite figured out.

So where do I fit in this whole picture? Well, I am the second son and unfortunately the biggest disappointment in the public eye. Actually, sometimes I wonder if the only reason I am even in the public eye is because my coming was such big news to outsiders who had thought Honghui was going to be their only. It is not because I am stupid, unskilled in bending, or ugly. I actually think I am rather smart for being able to follow Enlai's homework, I am just as skilled in my bending in my brothers if not a bit more, and if I am ugly, then so are my parents. No, it happens to be something out of my control, something I was born with.

Simply put, I am deaf.

Well, to say I don't hear anything at all would be an understatement. When I was younger, I could hear really loud noises such as cannons firing, fireworks in the sky, and a tutor's books when he or she was trying to get my attention. Earth bending had also been a solstice for my hearing as well. But always I have heard the voices of the dead oh, I mean spirits. Sometimes they have filled me in with what others are saying around me and sometimes they just tell me their opinion. Wait, no, I take that back: they always tell me their opinion.

Though I cannot hear my mother's voice or the music played at parties or the sound of giggling coming from behind a fan or sleeve of a woman, I can hardly say I am without something important in life. My great grandmother had a similar difference: she was blind but she overcame it with her own power and found her own ways to work around it. It is my greatest dream to also forge my own path with my own strength and prove that I am just as capable as my brothers. But you are probably wondering why being deaf would be such a problem in a family my size. It all deals with our family legacy.

My family name is Bei Fong.