FIVE YEARS LATER
Morning rays crested a hill of ice. It was dawn in a snow forest in the Spirit World.
A wooden hut sat perched on hillside. A weathervane swung in a drift of snow, jangling a melody of gears attached by wire.
Korra secured the final tie of her parka. Her cloak was otterseal skin dyed indigo. A gift from Katara. More importantly, it was a thick hunting jacket best for the biting frost. Korra drew on her fur-lined hood. She swiped her fingerless gloves from the table and slipped through the door.
A rush of cold smacked her chest. It bound her body in iron bars. Korra closed her eyes and crossed her arms over her torso. Heat flowed out her fingertips. A trick from Mako. She strode through the deep snow. She dug deep with her boots and felt surged with purpose.
She needed to move. She needed to watch sunrise wink off the iridescent coats of unnameable spirits. She needed to cross the frozen stream which whispered lingering desires before it melted into a raging tumult of howling needs.
Mostly, she needed to pee.
After that need was satisfied, Korra wanted to do something she had never done before, back home or in the spirit world. She wanted to hunt.
Korra found Naga sniffing up a tilted pine tree. His heavy tail thumped the snow until it packed down in broad strokes behind him. He turned to her, eyebrows lifted, then returned to his quarry.
"So early, Naga?" Korra asked, coming up beside him and running her hands on his wide back.
A small nest of slender spirit owlalets peered down with their telescopic necks and cooed.
"We don't want anything to do with them, boy," Korra whispered, digging into his fur, "come on, now, let's get going before their mom returns."
Naga whimpered faintly and stepped back from the tree. He nuzzled Korra's shoulder and licked her face mightily. Her hood fell back but she didn't mind. She laughed and hugged him. With a blast of air at her feet, Korra somersaulted and landed on Naga's back.
They sprang to a run through the snow. Naga's mouth was wide, tongue lolling. Korra tossed back her hood, her hair flying back.
Naga padded down a slope, sliding and fumbling. A frozen pond glittered in the new day. Geesequail sat lazily on the ice, tucking into feathers with their black shining bills. One turned and honked.
Naga lowered himself and growled low.
"I can see the Air Temple diet didn't stick," Korra whispered affectionately, "Atta boy."
Korra reached for a leather pouch at her waist. Inside it held an orb of obsidian. Metal mined from Zaofu and blessed at the Republic City Air Temple. The spirit world prohibited weapons. Her metal was pure.
"Here goes," Korra whispered.
At once, the metal shifted into a dozen pea-sized balls. They swirled faster and faster in her hand until they were singing with might.
She hopped off Naga, landing in the snow silently. A few geesequail raised their heads in concern, but soon continued their work of preening and gabbling. She closed her eyes and took a wide stance. It would just be like throwing stones on a pond, she told herself. Just like that.
"You're not serious, are you?" Asami whispered behind her.
"What's it?" Korra spluttered.
She released the balls and they leapt wildly like heated corn kernels. Korra turned and saw Asami.
"Could you let me know if you're going to stalk me?" Korra fumed.
Asami had the unfortunate resemblance to a metallic bug. Her sleek emerald snowsuit and gigantic reflective goggles seemed out of place in the landscape. Asami rolled her tongue in her cheek as she took off her goggles.
"My apologies. It just looked like the human bridge between spirits and mortals was about to break the first rule of the Spirit World," Asami countered. She turned behind her and with a double-tap signal from her bio-gloves, her Satocycle lowered itself to the ground.
"Talk to Iroh sometime. He'll give you loads more rules before that one," Korra grumbled as she called back the metal balls to her palm, "except he always says things as if they're not rules but more like life lessons. You think he knows how frustrating that is?"
"And yet you're out here because?" Asami asked, walking up to Korra and crossing her arms.
"Because it was a beautiful morning?" Korra tried, cocking her head and glancing to Asami.
"What?" Asami swept off her slick hood. Her lustrous curls bounced out and fanned around her face, "a beautiful morning without me? I can't see that being possible."
Korra blushed and looked down, "You know what I mean."
"I don't," Asami said, "that's why I'm asking you. Why are you out here? There could be big consequences for doing this."
"They're not even spirit geesequail!" Korra answered, "They migrate in and out of the spirit world every season."
"It's still their land," Asami answered, grabbing Korra's hand, "And we have to respect that."
"Now you just sound like Tenzin," Korra said, frowning.
Asami stepped closer to Korra's ear, "Does this sound like Tenzin?"
She whispered what was, in short, a summary of the previous night's activities. Asami's way with words was like a form of bending Korra had yet to master. Her words were jewels thick and heavy in the hand. A tender heat flowed down to Korra's thighs..
"R-remind me why I willingly chose to get out of bed this morning?" Korra answered in a daze.
Asami stepped away, "Because you're more restless than Bolin at the mention of dumplings."
"What? Dumplings?" Korra mimicked Bolin, swinging her head from side to side, her eyebrows raised, "Where? When? How many? Are they free?"
Asami laughed behind her hand, "Are we mean?"
"Eh," Korra shrugged, "Come on, I think I just realized what I need to do this morning."
They rode north. Since she was a little girl, Korra wanted to return to a place from her earliest memories. Memories that brushed against dreams. It was a place not mapped by the Southern tribe and only whispered by the elders. But she felt it. Iroh told her the Spirit World was a physical map of her feelings. She was guided by this sense.
It was noon when they crossed a hill of snow and saw it. Fluted blue columns rose above the ice fields.
"The Clock Towers," Asami whispered, bringing her bike down closer to the snow.
For the first time, Korra felt a twinge of hesitation. A pause.
"Are you sure you want to come with me?" Korra asked.
Asami tilted her head, "Why not?"
"It's just," Korra paused, "I've only been here once. When I was five, I lost my way in a snowstorm. All of a sudden, there they were, those towers. It wasn't until later that I realized I had drifted into the Spirit World."
"Do you think there's something there we shouldn't mess with?" Asami asked.
"No, I think I would feel it," Korra answered, taking a breath, "my powers are supposed to be stronger here, right?"
Asami answered by revving her cycle and flying ahead. Korra smiled.
Naga galloped, barking happily at the cycle. He rushed through the snow until they were at the foot of the towers. They were enormous pinnacles, spears of glass piercing the sky.
"Hang on," Asami drew her cycle to Naga, "I'm going to get a reading for later. I don't think this area's been charted."
"Your tech might not pick it up," Korra whispered to herself, "not here."
Asami brought out a small keyboard on her cycle and swooped around. With a thumbs up, she landed and they stood gazing up.
"I- I don't know what to do next," Korra whispered, reaching out a hand and stroking the icy sides, "it's just kinda nice to know I wasn't just making it up."
"Hey, I think I found a doorway," Asami said, tugging on her elbow.
One of the towers had a slim but definite entrance. They walked over. Naga moaned reluctantly.
"We'll be back soon," Korra said, turning around.
The entrance led to a spiral staircase. Korra led the way up the narrow stairs. The translucent walls bent and refracted light from outside, causing strange cascades of sunlight in prisms.
"It's a little like being in one of Verrick's Prismatoscopea," Korra whispered.
"Or a large tomb of ice," Asami responded, her teeth chattering.
"Hey, you're the one who chose Future Industries over tried and tested water tribe gear," Korra answered.
"Clearly, the prototype needs a bit of tweaking for explorers who venture into frozen monoliths," Asami responded quietly.
"Hey," Korra turned around, "we can turn back any time."
"No," Asami shook her head, "I want to see the top."
Korra lifted an eyebrow, "Even if it turns you into an unattractive popstickling?"
"I'll be fine," Asami said with a light laugh, "Now come on, I want a better view than your backside."
"Good luck," Korra said, racing forward.
They climbed and climbed, winding in circles, panting and sweating. The world was a warped and strange land of scattered light. Finally, the last step. Korra reached a small and empty room with a window of thinned ice.
"You mean this is it?" Asami said through heaves and gasps, wrapping her arms tight around her middle.
"Hang on," Korra went over to the window and spread out her arms. She waterbended the ice back, revealing a clear view of the hills and mountains before them, "That better?"
"Oh, my cabbages," Asami breathed reverently, "this is amazing."
"Yeah, I figured you'd like it," Korra said, staring out at the snow covered landscape. She turned and gasped.
Asami's face had turned blue. Her eyes bulged and she gripped her throat.
"Asami!" Korra cried.
She ran behind her and wrapped her strong arms around her middle. With a heave she pressed into her stomach. Nothing happened. The silence was strangled and aching. Korra tried over and over again.
"Oh no, oh no," Korra said, tears streaming down her face. She brought Asami down to the ground. Touching her hands to Asami's chest, Korra breathed out slowly and then-
Korra's eyes flashed. The rushing power of the Avatar state flowed through her limbs. In her mind's eye, she wrapped Asami in golden bonds of protection. The bonds snaked down Asami's throat and she sensed a blockage. Strange. The blockage was a darkness that she could not feel. Like a shadow, passing through and over it, she could not grasp or contain it. It just- well- it just could not be handled.
No! Korra willed. Spirit, come out! Whatever we did to upset you, I apologize. As the Avatar, I command you to release her.
"Here," came a soft voice, "here."
Korra turned her head and saw a black teapot. On the teapot was stenciled a white flower. A lotus.
"It will help her," the voice whispered again.
Korra knew better than to accept the teapot. She knew the Spirit World was a place of illusions, especially during heightened fear. But, in the Avatar state, she could see things closer to what they were. She grabbed the pot and lifted up Asami slightly. Tilting the pot to her lips, she poured whatever was inside.
Immediately, Korra could sense the blockage weakening. Like a shadow against the turning sun, it weakened and became light once more. Korra burst into tears, her body shaking with fright.
"Easy there," came the same voice, "she'll need a little air."
Asami blinked and looked up, behind Korra.
"Katara?" Asami whispered.
"What?" Korra turned.
She was horrorstruck. Katara stood before them, stooped and wrinkled and smiling.
"Oh no," Korra leaned back, "Katara, please don't tell me. No, no, no, don't tell me you're dead."
The woman smiled and stepped forward.
"You mean to say you don't recognize me?" the woman asked.
Korra squinted and stood. A memory began trickling into her.
"Kya?" Korra whispered, "It was you."
Kya nodded.
"You were the one who saved me," Korra whispered.
Kya nodded again.
"I would have died out in the snowstorm if I hadn't found these towers," Korra said, "but you took care of me."
"I fed you and sang to you songs of the Southern water tribe," Kya answered.
Korra smiled, "I remember now. They were old songs. My parents couldn't understand how I learned them. They always assumed it was a freaky Avatar thing."
"I mean, technically, it was," Asami said, standing, "I don't think anyone else could have found their way here."
Kya laughed, "You'd be surprised. Here, won't you sit?"
Kya gestured behind her. The room had transformed. Warm chairs and a fireplace and steaming cups of cider.
"So it's true, then," Asami said, "These are the Clock Towers of Lost Souls."
"The what?" Korra asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It goes by a few names," Kya said, sitting and placing the teapot down, "But yes. Sometimes when a member of the water tribe gets stranded, they may find themselves here. I lost a friend, when I was very young. Her name was Nini. I never forgot her. When my spirit passed on, I knew I wanted to live here, to continue guiding my people."
"Katara speaks very highly of you," Korra said, taking a mug, "And I can see why."
"Yes, well, I'm afraid there's other business at hand," Kya said, taking a sip of the cider, "you're…I'm sorry, are you two-"
"She's my girlfriend," Asami and Korra said simultaneously, looking at each other and blushing.
"Right," Kya said with a smile, "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Asami Sato," Asami said, "And believe me, the pleasure is most certainly mine. You saved me."
"Yeah, what was that, by the way?" Korra asked, "When I was in the Avatar state, I tried reaching out to whatever was hurting Asami and-"
"Yes, go on," Kya said gently, "What did it feel like?"
"Like, well," Korra twisted her mouth, "It was darkness. But, I mean, I couldn't touch it. I tried but- it was like- it was like it was immune or something. I'm sorry, my brain's getting a little knotted. My girlfriend did almost die."
"You could not touch it," Kya bowed her head, "this is very disturbing. I'll have to speak to Iroh about this."
"What's going on?" Korra said, straightening her back, "What was that?"
Kya looked up, her blue eyes shimmering.
"It seems like Vaatu has found another way," she whispered.