The Avatar managed to physically leave the Fade, but the world that awaits her on the other side is much different than what she expects.

Rough landing didn't even begin to cover her entry to the Living World. The Veil didn't make it easy for spirits to cross, and had she not been able to bend, she would've been… Well, she didn't know what would've happened, only that if didn't sound good.

But she was happy to have left the Fade. She was now surrounded by endless trees, all towering over her and extending as far as she could see. Shrubs grew around the base of the trunks, and the grass was soft underneath her bare feet. Her seismic sense was working perfectly, allowing her to sense the vast wildlife in the forest her eyes couldn't see.

Though she was happy to see that this world had beauty in it, she was even more relieved that there was no one around to witness her nakedness. Decades of training in the bending arts had left her with a very athletic and toned body, but no amount of pride in her hard work would shadow over the shame she felt at strangers seeing her naked body. It made no logical sense but she couldn't change how she felt.

Unfortunately for her, the next step in her plan was the one she dreaded the most: finding another person. Not only did she not have any clothes, but she spoke a language humans didn't speak. And she might look weird depending on the population's genetics. And she would definitely offend a person at least once within five minutes of talking to them.

But that was predicted. Nobody just showed up to a new world and understood all of the customs from the beginning. She only hoped her own culture did not clash too horribly with this one. She knew her people, and though they could be easily dissuaded from conquering, they would do it without hesitation should they see no other choice.

Jin looked behind her at the small green tear that had helped her travel through to this world. It looked slightly bigger than the one on the other side, and something told her that made it easier for spirits to cross to this side. In her book, that was a nice plus, but Knowledge had mentioned that spirits turned into demons when crossing. Oh, well, how dangerous could they be?

Besides, that wasn't her biggest problem. She looked around again, analyzing her surroundings. She was in the middle of a forest, naked, probably didn't know the language, didn't have food, couldn't find shelter. She wasn't lost because technically she didn't belonged anywhere anymore. That was a depressing thought, an unproductive one, so she pushed it to the back of her head. There was no room in her head to be sad, or mopey. She had time, but she didn't have all the time in the world.

She needed to find food, and soon. Jin knew that her implant required more energy than the normal human being needed, but she wasn't sure how long she could go without eating before she starved. She never had to think about starving to death because no one had ever died of hunger in the last two thousand years.

She wasn't about to be the first one, either.

The Order of the White Lotus had a small survival course while she prepared to to travel to another world. Since she was the Avatar, she didn't need to learn how to build a fire or clean water or regulate her body temperature or make shelter, but she did need to know how to find food. The biggest part was finding a source of water, like a river or lake. Animals would go there to drink water, and from there she hunt them for food.

Jin shivered at the thought of eating meat, and she almost gagged at the realization she would have to kill an animal. On most occasions she was fine with just taking a food pill, but when she was feeling like treating herself or went to some important dinner, she would eat rice with eggs and some fruits and vegetables. Never, ever meat or fish, though.

The monks of the Eastern Air Temple had always assured her that there was no evil in eating meat when the circumstances were absolutely necessary, but she still felt bad about it.

The Avatar slapped her cheeks lightly, snapping herself out of her pitiful thoughts, and headed where she thought was east. Her feet are getting very dirty, but it was reassuring that she can sense far more than what she could see or hear. And, she had to admit it, walking so far removed from any source of civilization was refreshing. As the Avatar, she had never been more than five minutes away from someone, be it a Parliament member or a White Lotus guard or a person clamoring to meet her. Being alone was… Was better than what she had previously thought. The monks had always told her there was freedom in solitude, and she had thought she knew what it meant to be alone, but that was nothing compared to this feeling.

Sure, there was the constant reminder that her world was going to die looming over her head, but other than that, she was free.

Jin had to stop the bubbling laughter that wanted to escape her throat. Now was not the time to feel happy. She should feel sad. Very sad. And worried. After all, she didn't even know what the Blight truly was, and had no idea how to go about ripping down the Veil, and was even more clueless as to how to do it without killing anyone.

The leaves of the tall trees shielded her from sunlight, but a quick look to the sky confirmed that dusk was approaching, and she still hadn't found the river in the hours she had walked. Maybe she had been in the edge of the forest? She could continue searching for the river during the night, but her body was screaming at her for rest. Intergalactic travel really took it out of her body, so she would indulge it with sleep.

She looked up and chose a tree with a thick branch a good twenty meters up. That would be tall enough to protect her from the forest's predators. Jin used her airbending to power her jump and gently landed on the branch. The branch could support her body weight, but it wasn't wide enough to allow for movement. She was a rather messy sleeper, so how long would she be able to sleep before she woke up free falling to the ground?

A gust of wind blew in the night, and she would've shivered has she not mastered regulating her body temperature with airbending. It did move her body a little bit, and she hoped this was as strong as the wind ever got or else she would also wake up in the air, but this time not because it was her fault.

Jin tried to make herself comfortable by leaning against the tree trunk, but the hard bark was poking her naked body almost everywhere. She had always amazed everyone with how easily she fell asleep anywhere, yet this place was making it hard to uphold her reputation.

But she wanted to sleep, dammit, so she was going to!

A couple of hours later, and she finally managed to do it.

Jin closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, she no longer was in the tree branch, but rather in her old room from the Eastern Air Temple.

A perfect recreation.

The Eastern Air Temple was old, older than the era of the Avatar and the Host. History taught that it was rebuilt by Tenzin, son of Avatar Aang, in the time of Avatar Korra and Host Unalaq. At that time, the whole world was advancing to modernity rapidly, but the airbenders saw the danger of unchecked technological advancements, and prohibited all forms that clashed with the airbender lifestyle.

Time would prove the airbenders were right to be wary, and though by the time she was born, all airbenders scoffed at the idea of technology getting in the way of spirituality, sometimes even criticizing their predecessors for being so close-minded for so long, the Air Temples remained stubbornly unchanged, and as a relic of the Old World, nobody dared try to impose change.

Thus, her quarters had an old-fashioned bed made out of wood with a water mattress. Her small desk and chair was directly opposite to her bed. She had a closet to her right, which had always been empty since no one had physically stored anything in their rooms for many centuries. Without the addition of the virtual reality mod that could add decoration skins, her room looked incredibly old. She had forgotten her room looked like this.

The best part of her room was to the left, where a glass door led to a terrace that overlooked the mountains surrounding the Air Temple, all of it so high up that they all mingled with the clouds. In her youth, she had thought true freedom was found in the clouds. She was incorrect, but being wrong did not make the loss of this splendid view any less painful.

She felt the Spirit of Knowledge and Duty materialize next to her, so she wasn't surprised when they spoke. She was still confused as to why they were here.

"This is an interesting place, Jin," Duty said in that disembodied voice.

Jin frowned. "Where am I?"

"This is the Fade," Knowledge replied.

Her eyes narrowed further. "The Fade didn't look like this before."

"That's because you were there physically. Right now your dreaming mind is visiting the Fade, and when that happens, spirits and dreaming mages can shape their surroundings. But, you might notice inconsistencies. I was unable to recreate this environment completely."

Jin walked around the room, scanning for these inconsistencies Knowledge had revealed. The mountains were blurry and shifted between being there and being in another place.

"Amazing," she breathed. She willed the mountains to copy her memory of the place and they slowly did, as if trying to resist her power. "That's more like it."

"You're quite proficient at this," Duty noted. "It takes some time for almost all mages to start learning how to shape their environment."

"You call it the Fade, but I call it the Spirit Realm, and I was always more in tune with the Spirit Realm. I guess it doesn't matter that I'm another world; some things never change."

"Willing your environment to change, being hyperaware of the Fade, crossing the Veil, coming from another world… You're not a normal, mortal human, are you?"

"No," Jin said, her tone leaving no room for more prodding. Her identity as the Avatar was the only thing Aruk had begged her to keep secret, and she had already danced far too close to that line with the being in the Void.

"You asked for our help," Duty pointed out. "Most spirits wouldn't even consider the offer, yet we gave it freely. Answering some of our questions would benefit you."

Knowledge's purple projection form inched closer to her. "You have no idea how to control your magic, no clue about the world you are in, and want to cure the Blight and tear down the Veil without fully comprehending what they are. I only ask for knowledge in exchange for knowledge. I may not have the answers to the questions you seek, but I can give you the opportunity to find out."

Jin scrunched up her nose and her eyes widened when she felt the wind on her skin, except there was no wind in the Fade at the moment. No, this was her actual body feeling it. She snapped herself awake and swayed a bit. She clutched the branch from underneath her, careful to not move even more.

She groaned out loud when she looked up to the sky and saw the sun was still not out. This must be the shortest and most uncomfortable sleep she'd ever had. Jin had half a mind to go back to sleep, but her desire of avoiding her spirit "friends" and her need to relieve herself ultimately convinced her not to go back to the Fade. Not that it would be hard to go back if she only needed to sleep. All those years perfecting meditation to access the Spirit Realm and here she only needed to do what she loved best and she was there.

If she meditated, would she go to the Spirit Realm? Or was she only able to astral project herself?

Jin resisted the urge to slap her cheeks and jumped from the tree branch, manipulating the air around her so that she fell like a leaf at moment before impact.

She crouched down and tried to think really hard of other things while her urine flowed out. She knew she was being childish by avoiding Knowledge and Duty, but she knew she wouldn't resist their offer. Knowledge was right; she knew absolutely nothing about this world, only that its name was Thedas and people were scared of magic. Oh, and she had magic, which she had to learn how to control, thanks for that. She knew uncontrolled power was dangerous, but she thought by now she was done learning how to control her powers and she could focus more on mastering them.

Jin finished her business and swayed her hips like a turtle duck. She would leave this part out when she was retelling her heroic story to Aruk.

She considered foregoing her daily physical and mental routine, but quickly decided against it. Worse than hunger and thirst was the unimaginable pain her Universal Implant caused her if she didn't keep her body and mind in top shape. This was the first time in her life where she regretted getting it.

Then again, it's hard to regret something that hadn't been her choice.

Jin went over the katas for earth, fire, air, and water, making sure they were a perfect match to what her instructors had taught her years ago. Though her bending now almost never incorporated the katas as they were, they were the foundation to the movement of chi through her body, and the amount of physical prowess required to complete them made them an excellent choice to keep her physical body strong, flexible, and dynamic.

Keeping her mind sharp was easier, but more abstract. Usually she read for fifty minutes, sometimes she solved math problems or puzzles, and other times she meditated. Considering her situation, math problems would have to do.

As she continued her journey in search of a river, she added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided anything she could think about. The harder the number, the more she got out of the training. She couldn't check if she was right or wrong, but the process of getting to an answer outweighed the correctness of the answer in this case.

She was getting the twenty percent of eighty-one when she sensed the source of nearby water. Jin leapt in joy and created an airbending wheel that sped her through the rest of the way. Now that she knew where to go, it didn't matter how fast she traveled.

The river was wide, and she could feel it was a bit shallow. The green of the forest gave away to the gray of rocks that littered the river bank and the stream. Jin observed the river and felt elated when she watched fish freely swimming by. She waterbended a sphere around the fish and took it out of the river and into her hands.

She waterbended the water back to the river and let the fish flop rather pitifully in her hands. "I'm so sorry," Jin muttered at it. "But you must understand I have no other choice. I mean, I have no other choice, right?"

The quickest way of death was the most humane. Usually destroying any organism's brain was an instant, painless death. She walked away from the river, placed the fish on the soft grass, and airbended a slash that cut deep into the earth, decapitating the poor fish. Staring at its immobile form made Jin want to cry. She had taken a life that no amount of power would bring back. Had she not arrived to this world, this fish might've served as food for some animal who truly needed it.

Jin roasted the fish in a low flame she firebended and ate it slowly, methodically, mechanically, trying not to think that she was eating the flesh of a being who had once breathed like she was doing right now. And, to add to her shame, she found herself liking the fish. All these years she had convinced herself the taste of flesh would disgust her, but her own biology disagreed with her.

She finished the fish and her stomach gave an audible growl, as if asking for more. She flushed and resisted the urge to hit her abdomen. Why was she still hungry? Was this not enough?

Jin groaned and walked towards the river. She hadn't been rolling around in the mud, but she felt dirty, especially after eating the fish. The strength of the stream was not to her liking, so she waterbended it to go slower until the area around her almost resembled a pool. Much to her surprise, the amount of chi it took to manipulate the water was less, almost as if there was a force making it easier to waterbend.

She cleaned up some water to drink then washed herself slowly, staring at the fish that swam around her self-made lake. They still did not fear her, even after what she had done. Did that mean that they didn't mind? That they were used to the cruel reality of the Old World? Now she really wished she had taken the Order of the White Lotus's offer in teaching her mind to accept the possibility of eating meat and fish. At the time, she had truly thought she wouldn't need to give up that part of herself, but she had sure given up at the first sign of trouble.

No, not exactly. She had done it for her survival. And her world's survival, too. Her life wasn't the only one on the line.

She took a deep breath and went underwater, getting her entire body wet. The water truly was beautiful. It was untouched by anything or anyone, pure and simple, never before bended. If this world didn't have bending, then the very elements of the planet had never been subjugated to the will of another human. If this water had never known another master, would it respond to her more readily?

Silly her, the water already had a master, and it wasn't her, nor would it ever be.

Jin rose back to the surface, her wet black hair covering the entirety of her face. She was in the process of taking taking it out when she heard a tree branch snap. She whirled around to the source of the commotion only to find four men staring at her, their eyes wide. They were in a simple white shirt with a vest over it and brown trousers, a fashion she had never seen before. Once the shock wore off, their agape mouths closed and they all reached for something attached to their hips and brandished it silently. The strange thing glinted in the sunlight and they crept towards her, a strange smile on their faces and an even stranger look on their eyes that made Jin instinctively want to cover herself.

A quick search of the silver things they carried made her realize they were made out of easily bendable metal. She was in the water, which meant it was harder to earthbend, but the perks of being a fully realized Avatar couldn't be understated. She quickly disarmed the men of their swords (they were carrying swords!) with a wave of her hand, letting them fall to the ground. The men shouted in alarm, but she didn't give them enough time to try another weapon. She waterbended a giant wave towards them and as soon as they were encased in the water she froze them from the neck down.

They shouted in anger and fear, but Jin paid them no mind. Had they tried to steal from her? What kind of world did they live in where stealing was necessary? She looked down at her naked body and realized that she needed to steal their clothes.

Aruk had said she needed to try to assimilate to the culture.

Jin covered her breasts and her privates and got out of the water. The men snarled and shouted at her in a foreign language, but she simply observed them. The smallest man was about her height, and though her build was lither, the differences were not that noticeable. She pressed on a delicate chi point and the man passed out, his head falling forward. His friends started shouting louder and had Jin been in a less forgiving mood she might've knocked all of them out.

She unfroze the area of water surrounding the knocked out man and grabbed him when he fell forward. She laid him down gently on the floor and started undressing him. She took his knee-high boots, long-sleeved shirt, gloves that reached his elbows, pants, belt, a bag with what looked like coins, and his short vest. She left him in his underwear because there was no way she was going to take that off.

Jin was about to put on the shirt when she got a whiff of the smell and almost gagged. Had this man not showered in the last five days? It smelled horrible! And she had no soap! She shot the unconscious man and his friend a dark look and gathered all the clothes in her two hands, then headed towards the river.

Washing clothes had never been her strong point, but she managed with the help of her waterbending. Once she was happy with her work, she bended the water out of the wet clothes to dry them fully, then put them back on. They still smelled bad, but the stench was not as pungent. She also was not naked anymore, so that was a nice plus. She opened the bag and saw a couple of gold coins inside. Gei, did they still use physical currency? She tied the bag around her belt, feeling only slightly guilty at stealing from them considering they wanted to steal from her.

The men had stopped yelling at her and had settled for simple glares. "Stop looking at me like that," Jin said. They cocked their heads to the side, confused. So they didn't know the language, just like Knowledge had said. "The ice will melt after a while, but you better not try to steal from anyone again."

She airbended a wheel and sped away to the east, not sparing the men a second glance.

But they dominated her thoughts.

They had tried to intimidate her with odd-looking swords. The last time someone had used a sword in her world was in the Fire Nation era. After the creation of metalbending, swords were very susceptible to the Earth Kingdom, and arming every soldier with platinum swords was counterintuitive. Swords were phased out for ranged spirit weapons and the odd spirit sword, but that was in the Warring Era. Now, there was no need for weapons besides keeping them as decoration. On the rare occasion self-defense was needed, everyone resorted to bending.

Those men would've hurt her had she given them the chance. She had tried to erase their appearance from her mind, but their narrowed dark eyes and their dangerous smiles kept coming back in her mind. If she hadn't known how to defend herself, would she have seen them up close? Would she have experienced what they wanted to do with her?

What did they want to do to her?

She felt something tickle her fingertips and almost lost her balance when she saw sparks of electricity dancing at the edges. Jin panicked and shook her hands to get rid of the sparks, but this only made the electricity grow stronger. She dispelled the air wheel, the abruptness making her lose her balance and fall on her knees. Her hands were killing the grass underneath them with her magic, and the more she panicked the worse it got.

Magic! Magic is strongly influenced by emotions!

Jin breathed in deeply and emptied herself of the negative feelings towards the men. They did not want to hurt her, but rather felt compelled to by a million tiny decisions, both in and out of their influence. They were partially to blame for feeling the need to hurt another human being to survive.

The words sounded rather hollow in her mind, but she did manage to calm down. The sparks went away.

Her disdain of magic did not.

But she couldn't deny that she would need to learn how to control it. Uncontrolled power was a theme her history was too acquainted with, and the story didn't always have a happy ending. Perhaps the emotion-emptying exercises the monks had taught her would help with her predicament. Fen had taught her emotion was the root of all good and evil in the world, and such things were always under their control.

The bright light made her squint her eyes. From the position of the sun, she guessed it was midday by the time she exited the forest. Her stomach growled again, a reminder that she was still hungry, forcing her to continue on her way east.

Knowledge and Duty had asked her to refrain from bending or using magic, but there was no way she was going to travel anywhere by foot. She created another air wheel and propelled herself forward, leaving a line of dead grass on the ground she passed on.

If those men had seriously used swords as a weapon, what kind of transportation did the people of this age have? Definitely not teleportation or hovo-cars. Engine cars? No, too advanced, maybe. Ostrich-horses? Oh Gei, she hoped not. She had never learned how to ride ostrich-horses.

A small town appeared in the distance and she quickly dissolved her airbending wheel to avoid any accidental onlookers. She walked he rest of the way and finally arrived some thirty minutes later, more tired, thirst, and hungry than before.

Jin observed the town with wide eyes. The houses were made out of wood and almost never more than one floor. Some windows were broken and had never been fixed, while others were dirty. The ground below her wasn't paved, but made out of flattened dirt. The town had many tiny roads that lead to the various various houses, but only one main road that led to the market square.

Everyone stared at her warily. Jin noticed some mothers cling to their children more tightly when she passed them. Some men stepped aside and shot her nasty looks. Did she look threateningly? Jin hoped not; until a few hours ago, she had never killed anything in her life. Ugh, that stung.

Was it perhaps her clothing? She had stolen it from less than exemplary people. Maybe everyone around her recognized something about that group in her.

A man stepped in front of her, causing her to run into him.

"Ooof!" she breathed out. Jin massaged her nose and looked up. "I'm sorry sir, I didn't…" she trailed off when she saw the murderous look on his face.

He started yelling at her, but she couldn't understand a word he said. She took a couple of step backs and raised her hands in what she hoped was a universal sign of passiveness. The man with the impressive beard just prowled towards her, his blue eyes menacing.

The people of the town just stared at the spectacle and made no move to offer help, to either the man or her.

"I'm sure we can talk about this without resorting to fists," she babbled. "Not that you understand me. But we could still try! I'm not who you think I am!"

She felt the air movements of his arm before she saw his fist swing and she easily evaded it. Even though her black hair covered her ears, decreasing her sensitivity to air, she was still a master airbender. The bearded man was surprised to see her easily evade his punch and must've decided it had been a fluke, because he tried again, only to fail once more.

Jin huffed. "Look, if it didn't work the first time, it probably won't work the second time. I really don't want to fight, sir, please."

He growled, whether at her or in frustration she didn't know. He spit at her feet, then turned around and walked away. As if a spell had been broken, the people that had gathered around them started dispersing, but not before shooting her nasty looks.

Well, that did rank in the top five of warmest welcomes she's ever had. Probably next to the time she had unknowingly insulted the Parliament Elder's son and then met with said Elder in the same night.

Leaving the town was easier than entering it, but no less awkward. Once she was far away enough she airbended a scooter and sped away. So, she was wearing the clothes of well-known bandits. That was bad. This world seemed far less advanced than hers, so news probably traveled slower. That was good. If she went far away enough, she would eventually hit a place where nobody recognized these clothes.

Jin saw another town in the distance but passed by, not wanting to risk a violent show. The sun was now at the top of the sky and though she could regulate her body temperature, the sunlight made it unbearably hot. After a couple of hours her thirst became more prominent, and her hunger harder to ignore. She was starting to push the limits of what her Universal Implant could handle, and she wasn't looking forward to finding out the side effects.

A city was a site for sore eyes. She knew it was a city because the buildings were tall enough to be seen from the distance. They seemed to be made out of stone, but it had been so long since Jin had seen a stone building that she was unsure what they looked like. Walls surrounded the city with the only entrance being large metal gates that were letting a sizable stream of people in.

There were two guards stationed at the entrance, a woman and a man, wearing suits of metal armor that didn't seem well-suited for fast-paced fights. A sword was emblazoned in the chest plate with lines coming out of it. Nobody paid any attention to the sigil when crossing by, so Jin didn't either when she entered the gates.

This city's marketplace was right at the entrance. It was a giant square that converged from three giant roads. Various stands were selling all kinds of vegetables and raw meats and armor and weapons and jewelry and Jin had never seen anything like it. Most of her shopping was done virtually from the comfort of her home. The concept of going to a different place to buy her necessities was as foreign to her as she was to this place.

She ambled, observing all of the trinkets the merchants were selling with amazement. She didn't quite understand the language, but she managed to exchange ten of her gold coins for some vegetables and weird fruits that went from whole to chewed pieces in her stomach in the span of five minutes. Common survival sense dictated that she had to wash them before eating them since the bacteria of this world was different than hers, but her Universal Implant made her immune system almost impenetrable. Unless she had a gaping wound and injected millions of bacteria into her blood, she would be fine.

She continued to the less crowded areas of the city. While the town she had visited before favored wood heavily, this one relied on stones and cement. The architecture was more ornate in certain places, but nothing too gaudy. As she entered the more residential area, the houses reverted to being made out of wood, still more sophisticated than their counterparts. Her leisurely walk was interrupted when a small girl slammed into her thighs. Jin didn't feel much, but the girl bounced back and fell on her butt. She wanted to say she looked around forty, but ages in Thedas didn't match ages on Earth.

The girl stared up at her with watery brown eyes. Jin put on her most charming smile and crouched in front of her. "Hello!"

She was dressed in a ragged white dress that was closer to brown than white. She tugged on the hem of the dress and looked down shyly. She replied in a small voice something incomprehensible.

"My name is Jin." The girl continued looking at her with terrified eyes. Jin exhaled heavily through her nose and tried looking even less intimidating. She pointed her index finger at her chest, staring at the little girl meaningfully. "Jin." The brown-haired girl cocked her head to the side, her eyes now confused. "Jin," she said again, then pointed the finger to the girl's chest.

"Lily," the girl, Lily, replied in a high-pitched voice.

Jin dropped her finger and grinned brightly at her.

"Jean," Lilly repeated, pointing a finger at her chest.

She frowned. "Jin."

"Jean?"

"Jin."

"Jeeen?"

She stuck out her tongue in annoyance. Her pronunciation was going the opposite way. Maybe it was too hard for her? Or was her name too foreign.

The pitter-platter of approaching children interrupted what was going to be Jin's last attempt to correct Lily. The girl stiffened, her eyes widening in horror, and she quickly ran behind Jin, using her body as a shield. The Avatar beamed at the girl, standing up to face whatever was chasing her, and offered Lily her hand, which she snatched without hesitation.

Two boys appeared down the end of the road, looking no older than… Well, she wasn't sure, but they couldn't be taller than her stomach. The taller one was pudgy and wore a dirty white shirt with brown pants, while the shorter one wore a yellow tunic that reached his knees. The three children had brown-hair and brown-eyes and were dirty, but none of them smelled bad.

Jin had hoped that her presence would deescalate whatever trouble Lily had gotten herself in, but the two boys crept towards them, their eyes mischievous.

"I know you can't understand me, but I hope my voice sounds stern enough to dissuade you from doing what I think you want to do," she said. The boys stared up at her, confused, but continued getting closer. Had these boys no sense of survival? Lily shivered behind her, compelling Jin to cover her fully and making her stance more threatening. "I don't want to embarrass either of you!"

The boys looked at each other, then simultaneously blew raspberries at her, running away before Jin could even process what they had done.

Wow, blowing raspberries was the universal sign of childish dissent in authority.

Lily laughed, jumping up and down. Jin smirked and looked into the distance, wishing there was some wind blowing so she could look like those heroes in movers after they did something grand.

The girl giggled even more and tugged her arm meaningfully, then tramped in the opposite direction the boys had left. Jin allowed herself to be led down the streets, wondering what exactly Lily wanted to show her.

They passed through what Jin had dubbed the nice part of the city into a more rundown area. The smell increasingly worsened with every step they took. Jin's eyes unwillingly watered at the stench, her sensitive nose picking up the smells of human waste. The road wasn't as well kept and went from stone to dirt to muddy. The houses were smaller, usually with only one room, and made out of wood. Some houses had clean, pristine windows while others were dirty and broken. The sun was setting, adding a rather somber, dark look to the place.

Jin wasn't surprised Lily lived around these parts. Her clothes spoke of little care in hygiene and not enough money to buy new clothes. She herself didn't wear clothes more than once in her lifetime, but Jin wouldn't be surprised if Lily had been born with her ragged dress.

Lily stopped in front of a house that was bigger than the other ones. Jin's sensitive ears could hear the laughter of children inside and the creaking of floorboards under the children's light footsteps. Lily opened the door, revealing a mess hall with fifteen kids eating on a wooden table. They immediately quieted down when they saw her and Lily, bewildered. The only adult in the house, a woman with yellow hair wearing a beige dress, abruptly stood up from her seat on the table, glaring at Jin.

Lily started talking animatedly, moving her hands and making what Jin thought was an impression of her. She kept mispronouncing her name, but she didn't have the energy to correct her.

Once she finished her story, the children cheered and gathered around Lily and Jin, dancing happily. The woman visibly calmed down and even smiled at her. She spoke to her in a rather high-pitched voice in that weird language of hers.

"Sorry," Jin replied with a sheepish smile. "I don't know what you're saying."

All of the kids cooed in amazement at her and started tugging her shirt. Jin panicked slightly, clueless as to what they wanted, and tried to gently pry their fingers from the hem of her shirt. "Please, don't do that," she said with a nervous chuckle.

Lily yelled something, snapping the kids out of their stupor. They took a couple of steps back, but their faces still had the barely restrained excitement.

The woman made her way from the head of the table, stopping a short distance away from Jin. She pointed at Jin and said, "Jean," then pointed at herself at said, "Valerie."

Jin considered correcting her pronunciation but thought better of it. If her name was too weird for the general populace to pronounce then perhaps she should tweak it slightly to fit in better. She already was weird to all of them.

"Valerie," Jin repeated in what she hoped was an acceptable pronunciation.

Valerie grinned and nodded excitedly. It must not be often that they met a foreigner. Her face morphed into an apologetic look and she beckoned towards the table. The kids stared at her with hopeful eyes, intensifying the confusion Jin felt.

A small boy with pointed ears ––why were his ears pointed?–– tugged her arm and made motions of putting something in his mouth. Were they inviting her to eat with them?

She grinned, nodding at them enthusiastically. She had eaten before, but she was still very hungry. The kids cheered and sped towards the table. Lily reserved a spot for Jin right next to her, and the boy with pointed ears took the seat on her other side. Valerie disappeared into another room and brought back with her a bowl filled with vegetable broth along with a water cup.

Everyone started chattering as soon as Jin started eating. She didn't have a clue what they were saying, but Jin didn't mind. They were feeding her a free meal, something that judging by the look of the area, wasn't easy to do. What was this place, anyway? None of the children looked like Valerie, so she couldn't possibly be their mother. At least not without some extensive genetic changes.

So where were the children's parents? Maybe Valerie took care of the kids while the parents were away? But it was already past dinnertime, and most parents she knew picked up their children before that.

No use in worrying too much about it. Without knowing the language, she was far from getting her answers. Duty had mentioned she spoke Elvhen, the language of Arlathan. Was that a people or a place? Where could she find them? It was weird for a human to speak Elvhen, but why?

Jin didn't know how to tactfully ask these questions. The children seemed enchanted by her, and whatever doubts Valerie initially had for Jin had seemingly disappeared at seeing how much they were taken by her. This was the first positive contact she'd had with someone from Thedas, and it could easily get ugly if she wasn't careful enough.

"Valerie," Jin spoke once she finished eating. The entire table quieted down immediately, with every member frozen, waiting for her to finish. "Arlathan?" The name just made them more confused at her. Jin pointed at her mouth. "Elvhen."

The boy with pointed ears perked up, his blue eyes widening and his mouth breaking into a radiant smile. He pointed at his ears and said, "Elf!"

Jin cocked her head to the side. Elf? Was that what he was, an elf? Did he think she was an elf? Jin pulled her black hair behind her ear and touched the tips of her ears. No, still rounded, thankfully.

The elf boy's face fell, and Jin felt a stab of guilt at causing the poor child pain. "Wait!" she said. She wiggled her index finger between them and with a conspiratory smile she whispered, "Elvhen."

It was then that a huge yawn ripped itself out her. She belatedly covered her mouth, blushing slightly when the children laughed at her expense. Valerie took pity on her and chastised the kids, though a couple snickers still escaped some of them.

The woman with yellow hair stood, the kids following suit. They picked up their individual bowls (Lily picked up her bowl and the elf boy her cup) and marched to where Valerie had first gotten her food, which Jin guessed was the kitchen. She followed them, observing the kitchen and their dynamic of cleaning the dishes on a bucket of water. Did they not have sinks? They had no food storage system, either. Her food was printed, so she had never seen with her own eyes someone store food, but she knew in the olden times there was a refrigerator system that kept food from spoiling immediately.

The kitchen was just a small room with a table, cutlery, and an oven made out of bricks and a coal stove.

Oh, no this world was so behind. Judging by the various oil lamps scattered around the house, this place didn't have electricity either.

And yet, all of these kids were doing this she had never done with expertise. They were probably more self-sufficient than she was, and she was a little over two hundred years old. They were primitive, yes, but Jin had to admire how resilient they were.

Once they were done cleaning up, the kids retired to the last room the house had. It was larger than the dining room, but not by much, and it was lined with small beds, sixteen in total. Jin counted all the people in the room and came to seventeen, including herself. Tui La! She had been hoping to pay Valerie some coins to let her stay, but the fates weren't being kind to her. Where would she sleep? She had slept in the wilderness before as part of her Avatar training, but it had never been truly uncomfortable, just a minor inconvenience. Here, though, everything was real, including the dangers.

Lily spoke to Valerie and another girl a bit taller than Lily in a whiny voice. The yellow-haired woman alternated from looking at her and the girl, as if considering something. Finally, she relented, saying something in a slightly annoyed voice, but Lily was elated. She grabbed Jin's small finger and pointed at one of the beds, her eyes excited.

Jin frowned. "What about you?" she asked, pointing at Lily and making what she hoped was a confused gesture.

The taller girl whom Lily had spoken with grabbed Lily's hand and pointed at another bed. Ah, so they were sharing a bed so Jin could have one. Jin felt overwhelmed with gratitude and bowed her head at all of them. She hoped they understood what it meant, and she had an inkling they did because their faces became somber.

All the children and Valerie went to the end of the room, where a wardrobe was located. The opened one of the drawers and started getting out matching white tunics, taking off their clothes and putting the new ones on. Valerie took out her own nightclothes and handed Jin a spare. She felt like refusing, knowing that this was probably the only other tunic Valerie owned, but one look from the woman shut down any protest she could make.

Jin was about to start undressing when she remembered she was not wearing underwear. It was odd for children to be okay in each other's nudity, but it was more acceptable than her changing in front of them. She awkwardly retired to the dining room and changed into Valerie's white tunic. She resisted the urge to squirm at the airiness below, but decided she would have to get used to being out of her comfort zone in Thedas.

Aruk didn't know how lucky he was that he sent her here instead of him.

Everyone was already in bed by the time she came back. Jin slipped into her bed and curled into a ball. The bed wasn't nearly as soft as her own, the pillows not comfortable, the size not big enough, the sheets too unclean for her. Everything was not enough to her standards, which seemed like a common theme so far in this world.

But the day had been incredibly tiring. Jin didn't have much energy left to complain in her head before she slipped into a deep sleep.

And she appeared in her airbending training grounds. For a second she had forgotten that here people didn't dream normally. Or at least mages didn't. The training grounds where she had practiced her airbending was a large terrace overlooking the tall mountains. The Air Nomads of old practiced with the same view she had. The view had been useful to teach the young airbenders how to glide with their staves. Except now airbending masters flew in and out of the temple by simple skill of their airbending.

Jin had never been able to unlock flight. Being untethered to the ground was almost an impossibility for her considering just how much everyone relied on her. It wasn't a problem isolated to her either; only a few amount of Air Avatars had been able to achieve flight.

She felt a presence materialize behind her. "Took you a while to…" Jin trailed off when she turned around, expecting to see Knowledge or Duty, but instead being greeted by a rather normal looking woman. She had airbending tattoos poking from her full set of hair and wore the traditional acolyte clothing. However, Jin didn't recognize her, and that was hard to believe because she knew everyone in the Eastern Air Temple. Jin didn't need her chi to realize this spirit or person didn't have normal jing.

"Who are you?"

She smiled widely, her grey eyes crinkling. "I am a friend, and I thought as a gift I would give you a place you are most relaxed in."

"Friends usually introduce themselves fully," she pointed out. "For example, I'm Jin. And you are?"

"Not important."

Jin giggled, and it apparently wasn't the right response because the woman frowned. "All right, your refusal to introduce yourself fully and mysterious attitude put you in the negative jing category. What was it that they called you? Demon?"

The woman narrowed her eyes at her. "How did you know?"

Jin clapped her hands together and inched closer to the "demon." "It doesn't matter where I go, I'm a bit of a spirit specialist. Now, I'm really new on demons, so what's your name? Or, actually, what do you represent?"

"If you don't know, then I won't tell you."

"But where's the fun in that! Fine, fine, if you won't answer that question, here's a couple more: how did you become a demon? Do you remember not being a demon? How long have you been roaming? What do you want to do? Why are you here?"

The woman barked a laugh. "Oh, how did I miss such a naive and stupid child before? The amount of magic you have is criminal, and your resistance to me rather pitiful. Didn't anyone teach you how to deal with us, girl?"

"No. Should I learn?"

"Please, don't. I rather hate it when mages cower at my sight and start hurling outdated insults at me. I rather be welcomed with open arms."

"Well, I'm not sure about welcoming, but considering I don't know how to get rid of you, my choices are rather limited."

The spirit growled at her. "Enough of this. Your mental fortitude is weak. I would've been content with feeding off your sloth, but now I can't resist the idea of using your body."

It lunged at Jin, but she quickly dodged it. The spirit lunged again, and Jin considered continuing their dance, but she was really curious as to what it meant by using her body, so she purposely stayed still.

The spirit collided with her body and Jin felt the beginning of an intrusion, only for Raava to easily reject the spirit, as if swatting a fly. The woman flew a couple of feet and landed on her side, sliding even further back from the impact.

Jin stared at the spirit with wide eyes. "You tried to possess me?" Jin asked. "Why?"

The spirit stood up and morphed into a brown gooey being with a hood and single bright eye. "I tire of feeding off mortals' sloth. Your body is the only ticket to going past this accursed Veil, but I couldn't even attempt to possess you. What… What are you?"

Why would spirits go these lengths to go back to the Living Word? Were they not content with living in the Spirit Realm? Even before Korra and Unalaq opened the spirit portals, no rogue spirits had tried to cross to their side, though that had a lot to do with the Avatar being the bridge between the two realms. But could this be because her world's spirits had been uninterested or because they had found no way to do it?

"I can't be possessed," Jin explained, but said no more. She was already intimately bonded with a great spirit. She was Raava, and Raava was her. When she died, her spirit would join the spirits of past Avatars living within Raava and reincarnate into the next Avatar. No spirit could get in the way of their bond, here or in her own world.

Jin observed her surroundings, a wave of nostalgia hitting her in the chest. She didn't want to remember what she lost. Not right now, anyway. How did she get out of the Fade the last time? By waking up? How could she will herself to wake up?

Ah, there it was. Simple as that. Just will it so, and it shall be done.

"Hard work isn't something you or anyone should be afraid of, Sloth. May we meet again in better circumstances."

She left Sloth in the Fade, hoping it got its positive jing back, and woke to a new day.