For The Sake of Knowledge
A/N: This should go without saying, given the summary, but this story is based on and contains spoilers for Book of Earth chapter ten: The Library. If you have not seen that episode, you shouldn't read this. Rated K: nothing bad here, unless you want to criticize my writing. I'm still practicing the fine art of brevity. This is writing for the sake of writing. I was a little put out at Nickelodeon for marketing Chapters ten and eleven as a "movie", not to mention that the previews for the show that depicted the spirit of knowledge as being an evil being. So nothing too great here; just an epilogue of sorts.
Disclaimer: Avatar, its characters and properties belong to Nickelodeon, not me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Released from the young earthbender's hold, the last remaining entrance to Wan Shi Tong's Library slipped beneath the sand. The last rays of sunlight disappeared. The library was silent and pitch dark, for a long moment seemingly existing in a space between worlds; between life and death, spirit and physical, an ethereal dream that few yet sought and fewer still ever found. Knowledge was like that. Tangible yet fleeting, coveted by many, but truly understood and appreciated by few, more precious than gold but so often carelessly lost or abandoned or misused. That was the purpose of the Library. Knowledge for knowledge's sake.
Wan Shi Tong slowly rose from where the young Avatar's departing blast had knocked him. His elongated neck and almost serpentine body reformed into the more benign shape of a giant bird. When the spirit had long ago chosen a physical form, it had picked an owl, the classic symbol of wisdom. A bit of a cliché, but something even the humans could understand.
A fox nudged his feathery wing softly, a low whine echoed down the silent chamber. The spirit owl understood; his foxes had an insatiable curiosity and constantly sought out knowledge; this one had unwittingly aided the humans in their quest to find a Fire Nation weakness. "It's all right," the owl assured it. "You acted true to your nature, as, sadly enough, did the humans."
Wan Shi Tong sighed. Time and time again his Library had been abused, finally forcing the spirit to ban all humans, sinking the enormous building beneath the shifting sands with only a single spire visible to the world. His foxes came and went, bringing him tomes and scrolls and artwork. His library stood outside of time, apart from the world in which it existed, quietly preserving knowledge that would otherwise be lost. He clacked his beak together; green spirit flames lit the torches that lined the corridors, releasing light but neither consuming air nor emitting damaging smoke. The spirit, of course, needed no light. It knew the Library's architecture as well as it knew each and every book that resided here. The light was for the comfort of the foxes, which were not all that far removed from the mortal coil.
Sand had entered his library, although it ceased to do so now. Wan Shi Tong was an ageless being. He had been collecting knowledge since the world was young. Very few things could surprise him now. He had witnessed the rise and fall of civilizations long forgotten, the beginning of bending, the birth and rebirth of the Avatar, the split of the Water Tribe and the demise of the Air Nomads. Humans tended to live their lives in cycles. Cycles of birth and death, of war and peace. What the young humans that had raided his library failed to realize was that the old owl had witnessed many wars and so-called 'justified' abuses of his knowledge. Now the Fire Nation was the aggressor; in times past it had been the Earth Kingdom or the Water Tribe… in the future who knew which group of people would rise up at the expense of another country's well-being. It was endless.
He shook himself, large brown feathers realigning themselves in proper order, and took flight. Large wings carried him silently through the long corridors to the planetarium, a creation of an ancient tribe of star worshippers who had died out long ago. The room had been a gift made for him; the technology used to move the mechanical sun and moon around lost forever to the world with their passing. He surveyed the damage with a practiced eye. When he had let the humans explore his library, he had known that they were lying about pursuing knowledge for its own sake. The new Avatar, whose past lives were documented in many books, had given him his word on the matter though, vouching for the Water Tribe boy who had lied so poorly.
The giant owl clacked his beak; a fox brought him Aang's book, one which was still mostly blank. A feathery wing floated over a page and a new entry was added. Wan Shi Tong, much like his precious knowledge, was neither good nor evil. He has allowed the humans access to his library in spite of knowing what they would use his knowledge for. Because humans, while predictable as a species, were capricious as individuals. These children, so young that they giggled over the word 'buttress' and yet obviously embroiled in things that should be beyond their ken, had aroused his curiosity. And, after all, the very reason he had brought his library to the physical world was to share his knowledge, to give the humans a chance to learn from past mistakes, to better themselves. He had sat and watched their actions to see if one of them would have a crisis of conscious.
He had been curious about the Avatar in particular. Wan Shi Tong had dealt with many of the airbender's previous incarnations. The Avatar was the bridge between the human world and the spirit world; would the boy actually betray the trust of a spirit in the name of misusing knowledge to gain an advantage over other humans? The answer had been very disappointing.
The owl shook his head and instructed the fox to return the book to its proper place. It was his chosen duty to watch and record, not to interfere; revenge was not generally in his nature. Although in this case his disappointment in the humans, and in the Avatar especially, had caused him to strike out, to forcibly evict the betrayers from his library; he would not seek further revenge. Things had a way of balancing themselves, without the meddling hands of humans or spirits. The truth had been documented. Many spirits came here and read his collection; this current Avatar might have a hard time gaining the trust of spirits who read of his actions today.
Wan Shi Tong cocked his owl head to one side; sharp hearing picking up the sounds of a human's distressed muttering. Leaving the foxes to clean up the mess he had made while chasing the children, he once again took flight. The human, Professor Zei, never heard the owl's stealthy approach. He was busy trying to rescue books on the bottom shelves from the encroaching sand. The spirit watched as the man frantically excavated those tomes that had already buried. Although anxious and rushed, the man would pause every now and again to eye the titles on the covers, eyes widening in glee at each new discovery. When Wan Shi Tong had sunk the temple, only this human had remained, had risked life for knowledge. The bird stretched out his giant wings and flapped them once; the sand retreated, sucked back out the cracks and windows from whence it came.
The Professor looked startled for a moment before murmuring, "Oh my, how fascinating. This is one for the log book." The man's eyes were again drawn to the books, like a moth to the flame, his hand extended, freezing as Wan Shi Tong cleared his throat.
"Oh might and noble Spirit of Knowledge," the surprised Professor said while abasing himself, "Please do not destroy your Library. Please. It is priceless. It is everything I've ever dreamed of. If you must have vengeance for our foolish actions, take it out on me, but not on the books."
"Oh?" Wan Shi Tong blinked his liquid black eyes. "Are you volunteering to become apart of my collection, a stuffed Head of Anthropology?"
"Er…" The Professor, arms still full of the rescued books, winced slightly before looking down at his arms full of knowledge. "Er… is there any chance; any chance at all that I could study these books first? And maybe those over there, and those over there?" The Professor gestured with his laden arms, losing a few scrolls in the process. His eyes shown with unshed tears. "Please, oh Great Spirit of Knowledge, this is what I've been searching for my entire life. Please, isn't there a way I can stay?"
The giant owl fluffed and rearranged his feathers. Perhaps today's events hadn't been a complete waste after all. This human had risked his life for knowledge; knowledge not for a specific purpose, but for its own sake. "Humans are forbidden," he reminded the man. "However, if you wish to stay that badly, I think an arrangement can be made, oh seeker of knowledge…" Once again, the spirit extended his feathery wings.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are rumors of a place hidden deep in the desert, of a single spire that reaches above the endlessly shifting sands. The sandbenders avoid it; the locals who live on the fringes of the desert deny its existence. Every now and then, foolish people risk their lives trying to find it, but only true seekers of knowledge are aware of its location. They travel the world on their foxy feet, journeying far and returning with tomes and scrolls. Removed from the mortal coil, they will spend eternity in servitude to the Spirit of Knowledge, an eternity chasing that which drew them to the Library in the first place. Wan Shi Tong's foxes, who exchanged their humanity for the sake of the world's largest collection of knowledge.
Fin