The candle's light flickered, the soft breeze wafted against its light but it refused to die. Zaheer looked at with a troubled sigh and closed his eyes, trying once more to meditate.
It troubled him. The flicker of the candle. No air could be conjured down here unless he was the one responsible. It was ironic, in a way. He had finally mastered the art of flying, the ability to free oneself from the tyranny of the Earth. To be unbound by the rules of gravity. And now here he was, wrapped in chains. He had said as much to Korra. It was his most vivid memory.
Because every night since her visit, he was unable to sleep.
It was tantalising, a torture of frustration. He knew something was wrong in the Spirit World. Ever since Korra had opened up the spirit portals, a wealth of new life, of new opportunity bloomed. But also new threats and new dangers had arisen.
Maybe this was paranoia. After all, the Avatar had been successful. Most of the spirits that dwelled in Republic City had returned. Even lately with his unusual failure to pass into the Spirit World he had felt it. Maybe this unsettling feeling was due to lack of rest. He rarely slept now, and when he did his mind was plagued by dark dreams. His imprisonment was an inconvenience, but he could never truly be chained. There was always this ethereal world he could escape into. There was always the tranquillity of his mind.
His forehead had started to sweat. With a loud sigh, he opened his eyes.
He nearly jumped when he saw someone staring back at him.
"Greetings, my friend," the figure said. He gestured to the tea set before him. Zaheer was puzzled. He only got three square meals a day. It had been a while since he had felt the relaxing steam of the hot beverage on his skin. He missed the feeling.
The stranger's voice was deep, with a little bite to it. Zaheer could only liken it to a snake.
The drawbridge hadn't been opened. No alarms had gone off. This person had gotten in without arousing any suspicion or triggered any alarm. The unsettling feeling in the bearded man's chest remained.
"Please, sit," the man implored, as he himself sat cross legged on the floor. His hair was dark brown, a contrast to his pale white skin. He wore a cloak of ceremony, with ancient symbols and tomes written into the fabric. The garment almost seemed unreal, like the thread had been made by a ghost.
Zaheer complied with the man's request. "Who are you?" His voice was distrusting.
"There was a time when no one had to ask that," the stranger replied sadly, but with a disturbing smile on his face. "But alas, time does change. Where are my manners? I go by many names, but back in the days of old I possessed only one. My name is Shin La. A pleasure to meet you."
Zaheer's blood ran cold.
At the change of expression, the man's smile deepened.
"So you have heard of me? I am flattered, truly. You are a well read man, Zaheer. I was wise to come to you."
"Why are you here?" Zaheer asked, a hint of anger in his tone. "More importantly, how?"
"There's no need for such fury," Shin replied, waving his finger as if he were lambasting a child. "Now that I am free, I like to travel. It just so happens that my path led me here. After all, thanks to the Avatar, anything is possible nowadays. You and your compatriots were captive for thirteen years. Vaatu was imprisoned for ten thousand of them. Nothing can be buried forever. You should know that better than most."
"You didn't answer my question." Zaheer didn't like where this was going.
"Oh, I think you know why I'm here." Shin La's smile was a paradox. There was no kindness in his gaze. His grin contained only malicious intent. "As to how, well, the thing about people these days? They are afraid. Every single day of their lives they spend living in fear, every single action they make because of it. And belief is one hell of a healer. I don't blame them really. They haven't had much cause to live in harmony lately."
"And you think you will be able to thrive on it? You don't stand a chance," Zaheer dismissed. "You are nothing but an old tale used to scare children off strangers. A cautionary story. You are nothing."
"I would not say that in my company," he growled, his voice a sinister whisper, transforming from the gentlemanly manner into the likeness of a monster. Suddenly with a flick of his hand every candle sputtered and died. The air became thinner. The room lined with frost and everything went dark.
"I am the shadow in every corner, no matter how light the room is. I am the dark thoughts that creep into your mind after a black day. I am hell in ethereal form. You would be wise not to temper with me, Zaheer. Considering what's about happen now."
"And what exactly is going to happen now?," The airbender rebuked him. "I am not some mindless civilian, ignorant of the ways of the spirits. You hold no power over me."
"Truly? I do not think that is the case. Let me tell you what is about to happen. I am going to cut open your shackles. I am going to give you one last measly attempt at life. And then, when I have defeated you, I am going to crawl down your throat and possess every muscle, every bone and every nerve in your body." He spoke with a calm, matter of fact demeanor, as if he were talking about the results of a pro-bending match. Like it was going to happen and that there was nothing Zaheer or he himself could do about it. "And then, when you have been subjugated indefinitely into my care, I am going to use that unique flying ability of yours and make my way to the Southern Water Tribe. There, I will kill the parents of Avatar Korra, Katara, the wife of Avatar Aang and anyone who attempts to stop me. Do you understand, Zaheer? Or do I have to explain myself again to you?"
Shin La made sure to let the words sink in. The backdrop of their conversation was disturbingly tranquil. The candles had been re-lit. The tea continued to boil. And the quiet, composed and collected look never left Shin La's face.
"Why me? Why choose me for something like this? And why do it at all? The Avatar has done nothing to you." It was strange, really. Up until a few years ago killing the Avatar had been his life's goal, or at least a part of it. Now he found himself protecting her, right after he'd aided her in healing. Strange indeed.
"Because as powerful as I have grown, regretfully I still cannot take full physical form," he spoke, with the first hint of emotion since his display of anger. "I can possess you. I can turn your mind inside out until you are a shell of the man you once were. But I cannot take a life in my form. I can in yours. Why you? You are already an enemy of this world. No one will weep for you, and no one will listen to you. Your whole plan backfired. Instead of destroying the Avatar you made her more powerful than ever. And in doing so, you lost the love of your life."
"Don't," Zaheer growled as he lunged forward, t he sudden tornado of wind erupting from beneath him as he launched himself towards the spirit. His chains barely held him back. "Don't you dare."
"A touchy subject, I see," he replied. His voice almost seemed to pity him. "Anyway, to answer your last question, you are right. Avatar Korra has done nothing to me. Avatar Aang has done nothing to me. Nor has Roku, Kyoshi, Kuruk or Yangchen or any of them, apart from the one that trapped me in the first place. But you see, some spirits don't want the portals open, Some spirits are angry. And she is the one responsible."
"That's not a proper answer," Zaheer furiously retorted. This anger was unlike him. "I am no fool. You aren't angry because the portals are open. In fact, she is the only reason you are free!"
"Correct," he said. "She is the reason I am free. But there is a reason I was locked away for so long. And considering that Avatar Noah took, I don't know, maybe two thousand years of my existence away from me? I think I'd like to see her suffer. But, her time has not yet come. Your trial is at hand. And unlike those inadequate juries and officials that you people love to have, I will be much less forgiving."
Shin La barely had time to move before Zaheer took to the air as the shackles came off. Even in the limited space he was elegant, on point and focused. He made no sound as he walked through the air. Only the power of his airbending made a noise.
Zaheer surged at his opponent, even as sleep addled as he was. While his forms were as agile as ever, the years of the cramped space and the fact that he barely moved each day had taken its toll. He wasn't in the best of shape and he knew it. It didn't stop him from blasting a column of air straight at the spirit.
Shin La merely laughed in response. His body split in two as he took the shot head on, the black organs of his phantom body being momentarily displayed before he knitted himself back together in a flash. Seeing this Zaheer launched himself into the ghost, hoping to incapacitate him. He merely passed through the spirit before he checked himself to avoid smashing head long into the wall.
"Good! Show me what you can do!" Shin cackled, his white smile even more disturbing in the darkness now that the candles were blown out for good.
Zaheer sent wave after wave at his opponent but La merely sidestepped each hit with the speed of a sprinter. Any longer and he would catch up with him and then... Zaheer didn't want to think about that.
He knew this spirit. The Stalker of Dreams. The Father of Nightmares and the Destruction of the Mind. The unholy link between insanity, nightmares and death. His weakness was light. In any form.
The candles!
By some miracle the flames in the fair side of the room still flickered with life. Breathing in, Zaheer concentrated. He imagined little balls of oxygen covering the tiny little flames, protecting them from the gust of the wind but still allowing room to burn. He imagined a fiery tornado erupting in the small, underground chamber. And he imagined them all flying towards the evil phantom at once.
Shin La's delirious laugh turned to a scream as he was engulfed in fire. Zaheer pulled back, catching his breath and letting the flames do their work. He wasn't a hero. Not by a long shot. But he reckoned to himself that it wasn't a bad job.
But then, in that shadow in the corner, darkness erupted from within the phantom's cloak, sucking in the flames. And Shin La looked at him, a sinister smile on his lips.
"For that futile piece of resistance," he snarled. "I'll make this hurt!"
Once more Zaheer tried to fight him, but this time the spirit was having none of it. And as the airbender sent another blast of wind at him, he used it's momentum and launched himself right back at him, until Zaheer had fallen on the ground and Shin La stood before him.
"I am more powerful than ever before," he smiled. "And not even fire can harm me. Only the sun will burn me, and here we are, below the ground. I hope you find peace after I take your body and defile it."
And in a single motion, black tendrils sprung from Shin La's back and wrenched themselves into Zaheer, pinning him down. His mind whirred as he tried to fight it, blasts of air going everywhere but his intended target.
"You should be honoured, Zaheer. It has been so, so long since I took physical form," he smiled. "The first of many to come. Now, open wide."
And the spirit revealed it's true form as it shoved itself down the airbender's throat. Zaheer could feel the unnatural sensation as he fought for control. His limbs no longer thrashed. His mind was becoming foggy as he felt the spirit crawl into his body, scurrying into his brain. And then all he saw was black.
Shin La rose unsteadily as he adjusted to his new form. The White Lotus guards outside were long dead, but there was a small chance their bodies could have been found. It was night time when he had first arrived weeks ago. What would happen when he faced the tyranny of the sun?
The doors to his prison unlocked as he made his way up. He could feel the breeze outside on his borrowed skin. The feeling was foreign to him, but not entirely unpleasant.
Finally, he reached the exit as he was greeted to the morning sun, rising over the hills in the distance. The mortals found it stunning, beautiful. He found it disgusting. Experimentally, he put out a hand right in the paths of its rays, ready to pull it back at any time to alleviate the burning.
There was none. Shin La looked at his hand in triumph as he walked out into the open, unharmed by the light. There was once a time where he could only survive at night. No more. He was free to roam where he desired. And he knew just where to start.
The Avatar was beyond his reach. She couldn't be killed, not by him, not in this life. But she could be broken. Her family's death would be the key to that. Using his new gained power of flight, he flew into the air. Unbound. Free.
He headed for the Southern Water Tribe.
A/N: So, this would be my second Legend of Korra story. I got the idea for this after watching the finale, The Thing and after reading the Skulduggery Pleasant books. Kind of hesitant to put this up, but we'll give it a try. As for the relationships, I haven't really decided. I don't now think Korrasami is canon. I think it was done in a way that if you really want it to be official it's official, but if you don't it's simply just two female friends. Either way, whichever pairing I do choose will be decided as I write more of this (By the way, all other pairings of the show will be left intact, particularly Bolin and Opal and Varrick and Zhu Li. Because come on, who in their right mind would split them up?). Both Makorra and Korrasami is possible, and to be honest since I'm not too psyched for either whichever one makes more sense to the story will be the one I opt for. What I can promise however are moments for all of them. My biggest gripe about Book 4 was that Team Avatar were mostly apart for all of it, so I'll try to keep them all together. Maybe even with an appearance of the old crew here and there.
Anyway, thanks for reading!