Heeled feet tread lightly over the cobbles of the city as Shion walked along a burned man. Well, from what everyone had been telling her, that was past tense, but she could still see wrinkles and angry red puckers of fire-kissed skin. Used to be burnt, used to be out for himself. Used to be happy?

No, that last wasn't meant towards him. She was projecting again, as she kept finding herself in the habit of doing with this motley crew. "Irregulars", the Companions Guild called the handful of benders. She couldn't help but agree. All of the people she'd been travelling with for the past week or two were just that. That didn't make them unpleasant to say the least. In fact, even the fire bender that walked with a cadence that still hinted at his Abel lineage had been mostly polite to her - even if he was a little bit bossy.

The only reason she was even here was because of what she was guessing was a pity move on the part of a light elemental who seemed to like her a little bit. Lothair. Best buddy to Ryo Takeshi (the nice one, not the evil overlord), cute little owl full of information that the Daimah wasn't sure she wanted to comprehend. Then again, there were a lot of things that she'd
learned in the past two weeks that she knew she didn't want to comprehend, but she was stuck with the knowledge now.

Void magic, for example. Why would she even need to know it? Yes, knowing of it could really save her in a fire fight, or if she needed to run from it knowing what to expect pursuing her, but she'd never be able to manipulate it. It took a master Mage with about 12 other people fused together to even think of the concept. And, as literally everyone with power was having fun telling her every chance they got, she wasn't a very strong mage.

She wasn't a very strong anything. Her Ki was weak, her Zeon reserves weak, her mastery over psychic was weak. Hells, she wasn't even a master of the Selene art. The only things she could do were talk really nice and sneak into places she didn't belong.

'If you could just focus more, you might actually have been a good assassin,' she heard the mocking voice of Khali the Executioner tell her, the blindfold wrapped around Shion's eyes giving her no information as random sparks of pain dotted her vision. If only she could have fought back, cut those leather straps holding her down sooner, she would have shown Khali who was an assassin and who was worthless.

Who was she kidding? She knew Khali would have whipped her into the dust. And the fact that something like that boiled Shion's blood in not only hate, but lust, disgusted her. Most of the time, her promiscuity was chalked up to a job, or boredom, but every once in awhile, knowing someone that could thoroughly dominate her...that riled her.

Hence one of the reasons she was so attracted to her lovely travelling companion, Mr. Smoke Bender Giatsu. The things she had seen him do would be so delicious that she would be whimpering for days, of that she was sure. Despite her current parties' notions, however, her attraction to the older man wasn't just one of the physical, nor was is just a case of puppy love. No. Her love was deeper, more passionate, and not even entirely directed at Giatsu himself.

Her passion was directed at his beliefs, his drive. She'd hit it off with him when she first met him all of those years ago on La Dama, flipping up girls skirts and drinking some nicely spiced rum, but that was back when she was married, a mother, somewhat happy. Ever since La Dama, her life had gotten worse and worse. Everything she knew she questioned, every arrogance she had tested, and everything had failed her.

Everything except for Giatsu and his ideals. And, to be fair, Nice Ryo and his crew had always been nice to her too, but where they had provided mercy, Giatsu provided her the passive learning in silence and the warm affection - if not love - that she needed.

He was kind, but crass. If something needed to be done, it needed to be done. He helped people, but if they deserved a punishing, they would get it. Though he didn't strictly follow her belief that everyone deserves a second chance (which is the decision that had gotten her husband killed and her daughter...captured,) he still embodied it. Not to mention he had a mission to live for. Meaning. Propagate more Airbenders, protect and teach the Avatar. It was something Shion didn't have anymore. It wasn't a pitiable thing; her life just wasn't useful to anyone in particular in the big picture. Still, she knew it wasn't something that should go wasted. Everyone deserved a second chance. Including herself. She very adamantly believed that.

Was belief just another word for heedless determination? Probably. But curse the Creator, she was going to find a reason to live, and so far it had been to live up to the morally-questionable ideals of a man who had let her travel with him, no questions asked. He had always been interesting like that, at least to her - someone who, like her, had asked questions and had lost something because of it. Giatsu had lost brothers and sister monks and his voice, Shion had lost family, and both were on the prowl to help in any way they could...

...even if they didn't like being dragged into this little escapade that she was currently embarking on. Thus her thoughts were brought back to the present. Senses she had ignored while she thought slowly came back into focus. Oxen and sheep begging for meals; people chattering away as the sun began to dip behind mountains; pinpricks of light that came with lanterns lighting the path as she and her fiery acquaintance walked it. Crowds moved around her, the mesh and slide of bodies around her a home away from her home's home.

Dainty eyebrows furrowed under her sunlight-colored bangs. She missed the Ilmora of her childhood. She even missed the sanctified training halls on the unmapped island of Selene, pride and hurt notwithstanding. At the end of it all, the place she missed most of all was the tiny little cottage with wooden floors on the outskirts of Gabriel that her family had lived in.

With the slightest of nods, her mind was made up. She would have to settle for crowds being her home. A slight roll of yellow eyes accompanied the thought. She'd been having to settle for quite a lot, most of all her travelling companions, though she was coming to terms with the latter. She'd actually made what she could consider at least tentative friends with the tiny Avatar (Kit-Ling liked to trigger the mom instincts in her), a funny little plant on the Ibarra, and she had Isamu too. And of course the sneaky one who was way better than her operations-wise (though Shion's pride would never let her admit it). It made her laugh that the grey-skin was somehow so ignorant of the shadows she was born into.

The firebender ('Sai. His name is Sai.' Damn was she bad with names) was alright. She still thought he was Satan, but he was a fairly nice Satan, so she could live with that. And with the Ja'yan actually calling Shion by her name now, she could see them probably being friends. It depended on how ('What was HER name again? It was like someone was sending postage...Oh yeah!') Mei-lin played her cards. She'd already started off with several bad hands, and her poker face wasn't a very good one.

That didn't matter though. What mattered was the mission to get Ghost back. Shion owed Ghost, and right now, that was her meaning in life. She'd figure out the particulars later. After all, adapting to her situation in life was the one thing she did at least somewhat adeptly.