The Night Temple 1

Leaves from the vine

Falling so slow

Like fragile tiny shells

Drifting in the foam

Little soldier boy, come marching home

Brave soldier boy, comes marching home

– Iroh's Song –

Promise

"My beloved Lu Ten. We will meet again…"

Disembodied, dark-eyed, the son watched. A shade, a ghost of shadows, he sat curled beneath the oak, just beyond the stone lantern that marked his grave. When his father finally cried, the shade's own tears began, trailing like liquid pearls over the strong bones of his face.

Sight blurred, it was not until he felt the small hand land on his shoulder that he noticed the other spirits. He looked up, into the face of a girl. She couldn't have been older than fifteen.

"Come away," she murmured. "There will be time for you and him. But now, there is only time for history. Come, the Night Temple awaits."

Lu Ten nodded, and climbed to his feet. He cast one look back at the crouched figure before his grave.

"We will meet again, father. Promise."

Iva

Eyes the colour of smoke paved his spine with ice. Zuko fought the urge to shudder.

The owner of the chilling eyes was a girl – young woman, really – of about seventeen. She had come into the shop about an hour ago, drunk three cups of tea, eaten two pastries and written a great deal in a small note book she had with her.

That, and watched Zuko and his uncle like a hawk on a mountain top.

It would be futile trying to tell Iroh about her, he would only wink and chuckle like he had with Jin, and possibly try to arrange a date. Zuko had the creeping feeling this girl wasn't interested in a date. She was far more likely to stab him in the eye with her quill pen.

Most people might not have thought this about her. She sat quietly, politely, a contemplative expression on her face. She almost looked like she was daydreaming, the way she looked right through him.

"Sir?"

Zuko froze, back to the counter, shoulders hunching instinctively. Turning, he blanked his face and said, "Yes, miss?"

"I'd like the bill please," the girl said. Turning to Iroh she smiled, like any other human girl. "I wish I could stay, the tea is marvelous."

Human girl…

Iroh beamed and clucked over her while Zuko handed over her change. He watched her sign the bill with the name 'Iva'.

Iva…the yew tree…do you grow in graveyards…?

At that moment, the air seemed to darken, the way it does at twilight. It was only for a split second, but it was enough. Zuko glanced sharply at the girl. She smiled at him, and her eyes were not grey, but pale violet.

There was a crash from outside the tea shop. The moment was gone, and everyone was turning toward the noise. Two soldiers had run down a pick-pocket, who squirmed and snipped, but froze like a fox at bay when they put spears to his throat. The once-prince looked back to see the girl – Iva – was no longer at the counter, but pulling a charcoal coloured mantle about her shoulders and ducking out the door.

Biting down on the feeling of discontent pacing his gut, he looked down at the signed bill and the pile of pennies she had left.

The boy froze.

The bill and pennies weren't all that was there.

Sitting, bright and conspicuous, were two tags of glossy black paper. Cautiously, he picked up the top most one and studied it. Written in eye-catching silver ink…

The Night Temple invites the Man-Known-as-Li to pass beneath the Starred Arch and know Sanctuary.

A variation with his uncle's alias was written on the second tag. As well as that, the paper seemed to be giving off the odor of night-blooming jasmine.

Zuko sighed. As if life weren't strange enough already.

Waiting

Breakfast was late that day.

Toph and the boys sat in a row on the opposite side of the table wearing identical morose looks. Katara had to hide a smile when their stomachs grumbled in unison.

"That," Sokka declared flatly. "Is the most depressing sound on the face of the earth."

So it was not surprise that the moment breakfast did arrive, no one but Katara noticed that it was not the usual girl who brought it. As her companions fell upon their food, the young water-bender regarded the girl, who knelt silently in the corner, waiting to take the dishes away.

What made her distinctive from the other maids was that she wore an odd looking head cloth, hiding her forehead and ears. When she glanced up and found Katara's eyes, she had to keep from crying out in surprise. The girl's pupils were narrowed into black slits and surrounded by bright amber irises. The only other place Katara had seen eyes that colour was in the faces of Fire Nation warriors.

Quickly looking away, Katara nervously began eating. The meal ended and the new girl swiftly gathered the dishes and fled, stocking clad feet barely making a sound to mark her passing.

"Hey, guys, look at these!" That from Aang. He was holding a fan of black paper tags. Katara saw silver characters glinting in the morning sunlight. "They were under the breakfast tray."

The other three crowded over his shoulders, blinking.

"What is it?" Toph asked. "Hello, blind here…"

Aang shuffled through them, pulled out one tag and handed it to her. "It's got your name on it," he told her. He handed two more to Katara and Sokka.

Carefully the blue-eyed girl turned the tag over in her hands. The paper smelt oddly sweet. "The paper's perfumed..."

"Yeah," Aang replied, bubbling with delight. "Night-blooming jasmine. One of the monks at home had a whole grotto full of night blooming flowers." He grinned almost sheepishly. "I used to hide from my tutors there. Fell asleep once when the jasmine was in season. Weird, weird dreams…"

Katara smiled at him.

"Do your guys' ones all say the same thing?" Sokka asked. "An invitation –?"

"The Night Temple invites the Girl-Known-as-Toph to walk beneath the Starred Arch and know Sanctuary."

Toph's voice broke on the last word. She was gripping her invite hard enough to crumple it, the flesh beneath her fingernails turning white and bloodless with pressure.

"Toph?"

"I can see it," she said, sounding thick with tears.

Tears. I was so…un-Toph-like. Everyone else seemed afraid to speak.

"I can see the lettering, right in front of me. I – I know what it says – which makes no sense cos, gee, never learnt to read. But I can see them; read them, whenever I touch the paper."

"How…?"

Aang reached out and took Toph's hand in his own. "Magic," he breathed.

Hunt

The mask still fitted. He couldn't think why it wouldn't, but the fear was still there. Fear that he had changed so much, so abruptly and without relapse, that his old alter ego would forsake him as well.

But no. Despite all, the Blue Spirit persona still slipped over him like a second wild-faced skin.

Twin broadswords at his back, he padded down alleys, over rooftops, through gardens…neatly picking his way between the sleeping lives of Ba Sing Se.

Search…search and be cautious, ever so cautious…

He hunted 'til dawn, and found not a whit of her. No stranger with smoking eyes. No stranger with a charcoal mantle. No stranger with a fistful of invitations to a temple that didn't exist.

The boy beneath the Blue Spirit found many things – but nothing he was looking for. Collapsing into bed as the sparrows outside his window began to chorus, Zuko clutched the glossy black tag, and wished that it were true.

…walk beneath the Starred Arch and know Sanctuary.