If I do not go to the hell to help the suffering beings there, who else will go? ... if the hells are not empty I will not become a Buddha. Only when all living beings have been saved, will I attain Bodhi. - Kṣitigarbha
Asami rubbed her temples. She had known modernizing Republic City's infrastructure and finding a way to integrate the material and spiritual worlds would be a challenge, but she was determined to see Korra's dream fulfilled and for a new age to dawn. Some projects were easier than others. Modernizing the rail system and building a new train station wasn't one of them. She sighed.
"You've been at it for hours." Mako laid a hand on her arm. "Let's grab a bite to eat. Grandma Yin's making noodle soup, and I need a little snack before my shift starts. And possibly a drink."
"As much time as Wu spends with your family, visiting your grandmother practically is part of your shift," Asami said with a small smile. Dating seemed to agree with Wu. And it seemed to agree with her too. She covered Mako's hand with her own. They had been dating for four months, and she was only now becoming used to the fact that she could just lay her head on his shoulder. That he would be there when she needed him. That he had chosen her this time and didn't seem inclined to go anywhere. And that no Red Lotus or triad thugs would take him from her. That she might be allowed to be happy.
But there was still the rail system. "Raiko needs the revised plans by next week. Kuvira can't finish reuniting the Earth Kingdom if she can't get to it, and there are a lot of people depending on the freight the new trains will move."
"I know. But I also remember how well you don't think on an empty stomach." He tilted her chin up to look her in the eye. "Korra will be just as proud of you if you finish this after dinner."
"Am I that obvious?" She leaned into his embrace. "I miss her."
He kissed the top of her head. "Me too."
It had been almost two years since Zaheer's capture, and there was still no word from Korra and only scraps of news from Tonraq or Tenzin. Asami had moved on, or was trying to, but she still loved Korra. So did Mako. There would always be a wound in their hearts as long as Korra was lost to them. She wished desperately for a letter or a phone call, something to quiet the nagging voice in her head that Korra had shut her out of her life forever. Something to let Asami know that she approved of all that was being done for her sake. And that she was all right with her friends finding happiness with each other.
There was a brisk knock at the door, and Asami straightened up and schooled her face into a mask of professional decorum. "Come in."
Min had been working for Future Industries for as long as Asami could remember and wasted little time. "One of the workers at the new apartment complex got himself trapped by a collapsing wall. He's not hurt, but emergency services is skittish about all the spirit activity. Chief Beifong was hoping you and Mako could get him out—"
"Because we're Korra's friends and have talked with spirits before." And it was one of her people who was trapped. That made it her responsibility. "I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Same here. Beats bodyguard duty. Tell him to stay calm and for everyone else to try not to antagonize the spirits. Most of the waterbenders who know the pacification technique are White Lotus, and they went south with Korra."
Her assistant nodded. "I almost forgot. Man down at the docks gave me this for you," she said as she handed Asami a plain, unmarked envelope. "No toxins or bombs, but security couldn't tell me anything else."
Asami took the letter and flipped it over. No postmark or other identifying details. Strange. "Tell them to bring my car around."
"That's suspicious," Mako said when they were alone. He stared at the envelope. "And way too small to be a bomb. Could be blackmail or threats."
"It wouldn't do them any good. The only thing I'm ashamed of is my father, and that's been public knowledge for years." Or at least it was the only thing she was ashamed of that anyone would bother blackmailing her about. No one blamed her for her real failures. "And I don't cave to threats."
"Just…if they ask you to meet them alone on Kyoshi Bridge at night, don't."
Asami smiled despite herself. Mako was older and wiser, but he could still be utterly adorable sometimes. "Don't worry, sweetie. Now, let's see what our mystery writer wants." She opened the letter.
Dear Asami,
Forgive my theatrics, but I can only conclude that you've been ignoring my other letters. I deserve that, but there are things I must say to you, and I can think of no other way to ensure you read this.
I am truly sorry for how I hurt you. When your mother died, I could only see what I had lost and how those monsters got away with her murder. I was going to build a better world for you so that you never lost those you loved. I see now that I was seduced by a liar and that I lost you as you surely as if the Agni Kais had killed you, too.
This is a frightening world for non-benders. I saw the battle with that terrible beast from my cell window. What can a mere mortal do in a world with spirits that can destroy us with barely a thought or maniacs who can fly? I thought the Equalists could protect you. My rage over losing your mother poisoned me and I said and did things I can never take back, but I told myself that I was doing it out of love for you. I still love you. You are the one creating a better world, not me. You are my legacy.
Please, Asami. I only want to see you one more time. Hear your voice. Or, if seeing me disgusts you, a letter will do. I want to earn your forgiveness, if I can. I don't have many years left. I would like to spend them repairing what I've destroyed. Please.
With all my love,
Dad
Asami saw the words. For a few horrifying seconds, her mind was completely blank as an icy coldness filled her and awareness returned only in fits and starts. The hardness of the floor beneath her, the weak breeze of the ceiling fan, Mako's fingers digging into her shoulder. And then little bits of broken thought and memory, spelling through her mind like debris. Her hand shaking as she put on the electric glove for the first time. Her father screaming "Now I see that there is no chance to save you." Realizing that, yes, this man who had held her so tenderly after her mother died intended to kill her now. Staying locked in the mansion after Mako was arrested because she was afraid of who else she might see. Stacks of unopened letters postmarked Republic City Prison. Her father had written to her. Again. And this time he had gotten through.
Mako took the letter from her unresisting fingers. He read. "Wow. I never thought I'd see Hiroshi apologize."
"It's not an apology." Her voice sounded like it was coming from somewhere else. "If he were sorry, he wouldn't spend all that ink trying to justify what he did." A tremor spasmed through her body. "He's just—I don't even know what he is."
Mako's arms came around her. "Do you want to talk about it?" He sounded nervous. Mako still didn't like talking about his feelings, but Asami knew that he thought it was the sort of question a good boyfriend would ask. She decided she appreciated the thought.
She shook her head. "Not really. Where's the car?" Rescuing someone was just what she needed. It was action, physicality and danger requiring absolute concentration. No room for regrets and no room for memory of a man she had thought was kind and brilliant but had turned out to be a monster.
Every time she drove near the Spirit Wilds, Asami was reminded how far she still had to go. Vines choked the streets, forming cracks in the pavement and buildings. Thousands were still homeless. The car ahead of her swerved to avoid a catdeer spirit who swore at the driver in its high-pitched voice. Somehow she had to make the city livable for two forms of life that Avatar Wan had considered so incompatible that he had sealed the spirit portals. Well, she always had been one for a challenge.
A crowd of pale, frightened, but very strong-looking onlookers had crowded around the half-collapsed building. Mako flashed his badge and they were past the police line. Asami surveyed the heavy stone and metal. She turned back to the crowd. "Any of you earth or metalbenders care to give us a hand?"
A woman shook her head. "That place is crawling with spirits. I don't know whose idea it was to build there, but this place is cursed. Only person who can deal with the spirits is the Avatar and she's never coming back."
"She'll be back someday, but we have to do the best we can until then." At least Asami hoped she would.
"We? You can't even bend! I bet you were cowering like the rest of us when Unalaq was wrecking everything."
As a matter of fact, I was in a healing hut in the South Pole. She turned to Mako. "I guess we're doing this the hard way. Can you give me a light?"
When the apartment building was completed, it would be a marvel of affordable, solid construction that would allow people to live as close to their old neighborhood as possible. Right now, it was vaguely creepy in the dim light provided by Mako's hand fireball, with the naked cross beams casting strange shadows on the walls. Stone scruffled under their feet.
"You know," Mako whispered, "you didn't really miss anything in the Spirit World. Not a place I ever want to go back to."
Asami shrugged. When she was little, her nannies had regaled her of stories of brave heroes who ventured into the spirit world in search of knowledge or to save the women they loved. It was a mystical, romantic place where anything could happen and had wonders beyond imagining. A brave new world. She had made herself sick meditating and trying to enter. But a life of gears and switches had left little time or hope for enlightenment. After the portals were opened, helping Korra find new airbenders had seemed more important. Perhaps it was just as well. After all you did only sit and watch when the world was ending, whispered a voice. Just like you watched when Korra was dying.
"Shut up," Asami whispered.
"Who are you talking to?" Mako asked.
Now she was hearing things. Lovely. "Let's just find him and go home."Asami cupped her hands together. "Can you hear me?" she called.
There was a chirrup as something soft and warm brushed Asami's leg. A spirit, vaguely pear-shaped and colored blinked up at her. "I know you. You're the Avatar's friends. She hasn't been to the Spirit World in a long time. Do you know why?"
Asami knelt, but was still looking down at the spirit. "Yes, we're her friends." Was Korra still so sick that she couldn't even enter the Spirit World? Was she still as haunted and broken as she was when she left? "We're looking for a worker trapped under a wall. Can you help?"
"Yes." The spirit chirped nervously. "But you have to hurry. One of the others said Dizang had been called. You don't want to be here when he comes."
"Who's Dizang?"
The spirit looked at her as if she'd just asked if the sky was blue, "He's very old and very powerful and he doesn't like humans. Now hurry!"
The spirit led them to a section of collapsed wall and the sound of terrified whimpers. "Someone help me!"
Asami and Mako dove into the debris, moving the stones as fast as they could. As promised, the workman was caked in dust and filth but seemed otherwise unharmed. They worked him free stone by stone with a speed that would have made Bolin proud, but sweat formed on Asami's palms. Hurry. She had never heard of this Dizang before, but anything that made other spirits nervous couldn't be good. Especially with Korra and the White Lotus gone and Jinora on the other side city.
Mako extended his hand to the workman. "There you go now. Now we just—"
The ground shook beneath them. Asami grabbed onto a metal beam for support, but Mako and the workman were sent flying backwards. A sudden cold wind whipped Asami's cheeks and seeped into her bones. It carried the scent of jasmine tea, but a moment later Asami could smell something fouler underneath. Rotting eggs and rotting flesh. The spirit chirped madly as the ground rumbled again. Asami held onto the steel beam with all the strength she could muster. Her teeth rattled. This wasn't an ordinary earthquake. This was...
"Who summons Dizang? Who seeks enlightenment?" It was a moment before Asami realized that the rumbles were words and not another tremor. Someone screamed. The spirit filled the entrance. His body was shaped like that of a man's, all dark silver and dull golds, but his face was that of a lion. A cruel, mocking lion. His gaze turned to Asami and she could almost feel the weight of those black eyes. "You."
Asami forced herself to breathe. Calm. She had to keep calm. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mako stirring feebly and the workman still unconscious. And just beyond the police line were who knew how many civilians. She had to de-escalate this somehow before someone got hurt. If she could. "How have we displeased you, Dizang?"
"By being foolish. As you always have. But you keep asking for me." The rumbles seemed to come from inside her own head. "I'm here because you asked for me. You wish to learn."
"I don't know what you mean." Asami did her best to keep her voice soft and reasonable, as if she were dealing with a particularly troublesome client. She wished she had asked Korra and Jinora more questions about spirits, something that would have let her know how they thought and how to keep this one calm.
"You wish to learn," Dizang repeated as if she were small child. "And I have to help you." That was all the warning Asami received before tendrils erupted from his body. Asami turned to run but the pain of them dug into her skin and dragged her backwards towards Dizang, toward whatever he planned for her. Asami screamed at last. "Help!" She struggled, but the tendrils simply burrowed deeper.
A fire blast whizzed past her. Mako was on his knees, flinging fire towards Dizang. "Let her go! She didn't summon you!"
Dizang appeared to take no notice of the flames. "That's what my students always say. But they still call for me. And I see they are as weak and cowardly as ever." She could feel herself almost pressing against his body. "Take a deep breath. I'm told this hurts." The tendrils dug deeper still. Asami felt as if she were being forced into a coffin. Mako screamed her name, but his voice sounded far away. And then Asami noticed something crumpled at his feet. Her own body, lying there as if she had chosen this moment to lie down for a nap, her chest rising and falling with shallow breaths. Asami screamed again, but no sound came out.
"Calm yourself, Asami. I never kill anyone. You'll get it back once you're finished. If you finish."
Asami found her voice of last. "Finished with what? Where are you taking me?"
"My school, of course. There you will stay until you are done." Dizang's voice changed, becoming deeper still. "You will need your strength. You'll fail like all the rest, but I am bound to give you your best chance. Sleep.
Asami blacked out.
Asami woke to the feel of rough stone beneath her cheek. Her body ached with a dull, throbbing pain that started at the base of her spine and extended to the crown of her head. People murmured in low voices around her. She forced an eye open. Her thoughts felt muddy. She had…there had been an attack…a spirit…
A spirit had ripped out her soul and taken her here. The memory came back with sudden, horrifying clarity. Was she dead? The—her body was still breathing when she had saw it last. So she was only dying then. Like Jinora after Unalaq had captured her. What a comfort. Blind, numbing panic threatened to drown her. She was dying. In the spirit world. And Korra was half a world away, her body and mind still injured by the poison.
No. She would not let the panic overtake her. Korra was gone, but there were others. Mako knew she had been taken. He would get help. Jinora could meditate into the spirit world. Tonraq could mount a rescue from the spirit portal. Asami just had to hold out for…how long exactly?
The airbender girl survived nearly a week, but you aren't so spiritual. I give you a day and a night. Dizang's voice, coming from inside her head again.
Of course, escaping on her own would be good, too. Asami sat up and looked around. She was in a cell. At least she thought it was a cell. Wherever she was seemed to be constructed according to no human logic. The angles were all wrong, seeming to press down on her at one moment and curve upward the next. Dull amber light illuminated the stone, but there were no torches. Scrolls of parchment that seemed a moment from crumbling to dust lay heaped in the nearest corner. Asami touched one gingerly. When it didn't crumble, she tried to read it, but the characters seemed to crawl along the page before she could finish a sentence, so she could only decipher a word or two at a time. Enlightenment. Focus. Maze. Chakra. Asami groaned in frustration.
Oh, come now. You didn't thing you could find true enlightenment by reading, did you? The cell door swung open. Go explore if you want to earn your way out. One of the other students will tell you what to do. He'll be delighted to see you.
"Stay out of my head," Asami growled, but pulled herself to her feet on unsteady legs. She wouldn't find a way out sitting here. And at worst…well, she was dying anyway. Asami walked along a long hallway. Symbols had been carved into the stone at regular intervals. The symbols of the four nations and three others Asami didn't immediately recognize the significance of: an ear, a sun, and a star. Voices murmured all around her, too soft for Asami to understand words, but carrying unmistakable notes of terror. Asami came to plain wooden door and tried the handle. Instead of opening, the door dissolved like fog before the sunlight. It was a cell almost identical to the one she had woken up in. A woman in green and gold robes lay huddled in a corner, shivering. Asami reached for her. "Where are—"
The woman hissed as if she'd been struck. "No," she whimpered. "I'm tired of your torture. I don't want to learn anymore. Please."
Asami looked at her. The robes looked new, but also a style that hadn't been worn for centuries. The pit in Asami's stomach deepened. "How long have you been here?"
"I…a day? A thousand years? You make time so strange, Sifu." The woman lifted her head, revealing the paint of the Kyoshi Warriors. "You're not Dizang."
Asami knelt, but didn't dare touch the frightened woman. "I'm Asami. A prisoner here. Like you. Do you remember your name? How you got here?"
"Gama," she said as if she were repeating a mantra. "I am Gama, one of Kyoshi's companions. We were scouting the woods during the solstice. Dizang came from the water and attacked. I alone survived. Or maybe I alone died."
Asami recoiled. The Companions were what the Kyoshi Warriors had been called during Kyoshi's lifetime. "You've been here for almost four hundred years." It seemed impossible. Gama should be long dead, her soul reincarnated into whatever form non-Avatars took. "He's kept you prisoner that long? That's monstrous."
"He said I still had much to learn," Gama said as if that explained everything.
You can't expect me to let a student go before they've learned everything I have to teach. I ask for nothing the Avatars haven't done lifetime after lifetime. The moment any student reaches enlightenment, they are free to go.
"This isn't teaching, it's torture."
I expected the Avatar's love to be wiser. But then, you aren't her love anymore. Moving down in the world, are we?
"Korra is—" Asami groaned again as she realized what she was talking to and clenched and unclenched her fist rapidly. "I am not discussing my love life with an insane spirit."
A pity. Humans came to me for advice about all sorts of things in the old days. But take a good look at Gama. I always find knowing the price of failure is an excellent motivator.
Asami walked on. "I will not go insane," she whispered. "I will find a way out of here. There is always a way out." Her fingers ran over the rough stone. No obvious structural weaknesses despite the crudeness of the workmanship. Maybe a secret door or switch? There has to be something here. Unless it was all just a cruel joke and Gama was right and there was no way out. "No. There is. I just have to find it."
Asami had no idea how long she had been walking before she heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps. She stopped. The footsteps stopped. She started walking again. So did whoever was following her. Their footsteps were heavy. Not someone accustomed to walking quietly. She turned. In the shadows cast by the amber light stood the silhouette of a man.
"Asami?" His voice sounded familiar. "Is that you? I mean you no harm."
Asami made a noise in the back of her throat. Let them think she was nonthreatening. She's always been a better fighter at close range. "Come into the light."
"I'm afraid my appearance may shock you."
"I'm not easily shocked."
"For your sake, I hope that isn't bravado." He stepped into the light. Asami saw his boots first, well-made and in the Northern style. Her gaze traveled upward to a tailored coat that was waterlogged and torn. A jutting chin and sharp blue eyes. His hair had been braided once, but now flew about in every direction. Tarrlok. He and Amon had disappeared after the Equalist movement collapsed. Everyone said he was dead. Except here he was.
"You. How?" She dropped into a fighting stance. Korra had said he had been remorseful about his bloodbending, but that didn't count for much. She had barely had time to think of him between her father's betrayal and Unalaq and everything else, but she still remembered writhing on the ground helpless as her body no longer obeyed her, and no last-minute change of heart could erase that. "Hands up, Tarrlok."
He raised his hands, though his smile held no amusement. "Afraid I've somehow managed to recover my body and my bending? You needn't worry. I'm quite dead by now. At least I assume. How long has it been since my brother and I—" He bowed his head, unable to finish.
"Almost three years." She didn't trust Tarrlok as far as she could throw him, but he seemed saner than anyone else in this place. "Do you know anything about this prison? Why you're here? Why I'm here? How we can get out?"
"There is no way out. None that you can use."
He'll never unlock his sound chakra if he keeps lying like that. You are right. There is always a way out. All any of you have to do is make it through the maze and you'll have the enlightenment you summoned me for.
"I did not summon you," Asami muttered. Defiance was better than fear. Defiance kept you sane when nothing else could. "I just want to go home and eat a hot meal and wait for my friend to come home. The only interest I ever had in chakras was when I was learning chi-blocking."
That's not true, is it Asami? Trying to meditate your way here as a little girl. Attaching yourself to the Avatar. The world of spirits and bending fascinates you. You had everything you ever wanted growing up. Smartest girl they ever trained, your tutors said. You understand everything. Except this. That's why you like pro-bending. Mako was just an endless source of fascination for you wasn't he? You basked in that power. And then the Avatar. Being around all that made you feel like you were something, didn't it? More than a scared little girl who watched her mother die.
"I thought I told you to stay out of my head," Asami whispered. She loved Mako. She had loved Korra. And yes, she loved watching them bend. It was the same fascination that drew Korra to the track time and again. Watching Mako wreathe lightning around himself or Korra create jets of flame and fire were beautiful, an excellence she could never share but could appreciate. She was not six and cowering anymore. Dizang was wrong. "What is this maze? Where do I find it?"
"Your way out. All of your ways out. That the others allowed themselves to be trapped instead shows just how weak humans are. And the Avatar brought more humans here. But come, let us see if the Avatar made you any braver. Walk through the maze, Asami. Unless you're as weak as all the rest. At least the other human had some nerve."
Tarrlok made a face, and if Asami hadn't known him better, she would have said he looked guilty. His hand hovered over her shoulder before he thought better of it and forced it to his side. "I won't let you drive her insane. She has a chance to escape and live. Do you realize what you've done, Sifu Dizang? Avatar Korra will be a fully realized Avatar by now. She will come for her friend. She will defeat you. And we can finally move on."
"No, no she won't. Whatever we do, we do alone." Asami ran her fingers through her hair. How many minutes had passed in the material world already? A day and a night. That was all the time she had for Mako to find help. For Tonraq to brave the storm for her sake. For Asami to escape the inescapable.
She really might die here.
Tarrlok looked as if he was thinking the same thing. He shook his head. "I am so, so sorry for this Asami."
A bitter laugh escaped Asami's lips before she could stop it. "Sympathy from you? The last I remember, you were chomping at the bit to lock me up. This place must really have changed you."
"No, Noatak changed me." Tarrlok reached into his jacket and Asami's eyes widened as she realized what he held in his hand. An exact copy of her electric glove. He pushed it into her unresisting grip. ""I can only feel pain if Dizang wants me to, but since he seems to take particular delight in tormenting me, this may be able to protect you. I offer it to let you know that I am truly sorry for hurting you and for arresting you. And in the hopes that you will listen to me when I say that the maze is a terrible danger. Dizang is no longer entirely sane."
Asami snorted. "I already figured that out."
"Yes, I suppose you have," he said with a half-smile. "Believing his prisoners are students and driving those already fragile over the edge before they die. I never wanted this." He did not speak for several moments, and when he did his voice was low, monotone, and as mechanical as Dizang's had been in the human world. "Noatak took me from Air Temple Island after he was exposed. He was deranged enough to believe we could start a new life and escape the consequences of what we had done. But the taint of our father's blood can't be escaped. I was going to use that glove to ignite our fuel tank and put an end to Yakone's bloodline once and for all. But before I could, Dizang rose out of the water and dragged us here."
Oh. Asami had known that sort of despair, never to the point of knife, rope, or poison, but when she had almost lost the company, it had been as if a great chasm has opened up beneath and around her. That she could have something in common with this man who had tried to trample on her to increase his own power seemed incredible. But he looked miserable. "I'm sorry."
"So am I, but I'm not rehashing this for my health. Noatak ran off into the maze just after we arrived, very eager to escape and get started with his new life. I went after him a day or so later. And I found him, not so very far in, and completely out of his mind. He saw things that weren't there, attacked me as if he were a wild animal." He bowed his head. "That maze is no way out. Whatever else he was, Noatak had a strong will. I've done enough harm to you. I'd hate to see you driven mad."
Anyone with clear chakras can pass.
"And that's been done before. By benders and non-benders. It beats waiting here." Meeting Amon again sounded terrifying, even without his bloodbending, but what choice did she have? And the one good thing her father had taught her was to always do what had to be done, no matter the cost. She looked up into the darkness where she imagined Dizang was. "I'm not afraid. Show me this maze."
"Asami…"
But Dizang laughed as the walls shifted around them, revealing a massive stone door engraved with the seven symbols. For the chakras, she realized. The door swung open with a groan. Asami sniffed. The air on the other side was sweet and…fresh?
Asami looked back at Tarrlok's terrified eyes. Enter and go crazy or stay and die.
She stepped through the door.