"There is always some madness in love, but there is
also always some reason in madness"
-Friedrich Nietzsche
The spirit was startled, and shook with anger.
"No?" He bellowed. "Why 'No'?!"
Unalaq stood firm. "Neolani told me the physical and spirit worlds are meant to be separate. I believe her."
"I told you!" The spirit cried. "She knows nothing of the way things could be; the way they SHOULD be! And you know this is the only way you two can be together!"
Unalaq shook his head. "That's where you're wrong." He said. "Even if we belong to two separate worlds, we don't need to change the balance of the earth to maintain our bond. The love we share is strong enough to transcend the boundaries of our worlds."
The spirit snarled. "You are making a grave mistake, Unalaq. You will see. You will come crawling back asking for my help soon enough!"
With that last word, Unalaq jolted awake, and immediately felt the river's currents rushing around him. The sky was a fading pale blue as the sun began to rise, and Neolani still rested contently on his chest.
Just a dream...
...
Spirits had been swarming around the Tree of Time for several days now. Some beautiful, misty spirits with the appearance of young women and men, and some of the more anthropomorphic type. Despite their vast diversity, however, they had all gathered around the one thing they had in common:
Their master.
Inside the tree, Vaatu, in all his darkness, lay fuming. His failure to turn Unalaq over to his side had wounded his ego and caused his plan to come to a grinding halt. Out of all the humans Vaatu had seen, Unalaq was by far the most connected to the spirit world. He was the ONLY choice Vaatu had in mind to free him.
But he had said no.
Was he a fool?
Vaatu chuckled. Of course Unalaq was a fool. He was in love. And only fools fall in love. Vaatu had learned that the hard way over 100,000 years ago.
"Master..."
He heard a voice, almost like a flute, and turned to see a spirit woman standing in the doorway. Fog wreathed around her, making her long black hair look almost grey. And with her long white dress, pale as ice skin, and glassy eyes, she looked almost like a ghost.
"Come closer, Lorelei." Vaatu told her.
Lorelei entered the tree's interior, her feet gliding over the straw settled on the ground.
"I have called you here for a special reason."
Lorelei raised her brow. "What do you require of me?"
"You know of the spirit Neolani, correct?"
Lorelei nodded. "My sister keeps mostly to her waters, as I keep to the mist. We have not seen one another in 50,000 years. Why do you inquire, if I may be so bold to ask?"
"As it appears," Vaatu answered "Your 'sister' has fallen in love with a mortal man."
Lorelei did not react. "She was never good at judgment."
Vaatu sighed inwardly. "This man has a connection to the spirit world that I have never seen in anyone but the Avatar. He is important; I need him to free me. However, while he is blind-sighted by Neolani I cannot turn him to my cause."
"You want me to get rid of her?" Lorelei asked.
"Not just that." Vaatu told her. "You and I both know how you are a master of trickery." He leaned forward. "Shape your appearance to that of her face. When the man; Unalaq, his name being, comes to meet her, he will find you disguised in her image. Break his heart; say that you are abandoning him, that the distance of your worlds is too much for you, and when he is in agony and begging you to stay, disappear, and I shall appear to him while he sleeps."
"Neolani will not simply stand by while I destroy her love." Lorelei protested. "Even if we dispose of her temporarily, she will reveal everything to him once she finds him again."
"Then we will have to make sure she never finds him."
"You know as well as I do that she is immortal; you cannot simply kill a spirit."
"I do not imply we kill her." Vaatu said, looking up briefly. "You shall steal her away, and I will be her prison keeper; I will hold her where she can never escape." He turned back to Lorelei. "All you must do is bring me Neolani, wear her image, and destroy her love. Can you do that for me?"
Lorelei bowed. "Without a doubt, Master."
...
The sun shone through the leaves on the trees and reflected off of the water as Neolani sat in the shallows, bending the water and waiting for him. Excitement bubbled in her chest like a geyser, and she bit her tongue and she tried to piece together the news into a sentence that sounded neither to serious or too nonchalant.
It was two days ago when she had felt the first stirrings of life within her. She'd been startled; in fact, too shocked to right away tell Unalaq of what she had discovered. She had carried this news, and the growing offspring, secretly until now, not quite sure how to react or what to say. Her head had been in such confusion that she knew not what to feel, so she had felt numb more than anything else.
Of course, there would come a time when she would have to raise her chin and reveal the word of this pregnancy to Unalaq, and she decided sooner was better than later. She had gone over what to say and how to say it; oh, there were so many variations of the word, and so many ways to say it, she was more nervous at how she would word it as to not to suddenly drop the news on him and possibly scare him away.
"Unalaq..." She whispered to herself, going over her script "There is a secret of which I must reveal to you...if you recall clearly our night spent under the Northern Lights, well, I believe that I am with child as a result..."
She sighed. What if it was too sudden? What if he became frightened and ran away?
"Unalaq will not run away." She told herself. "He is different, and you know that."
"Yes." Said an echoic voice behind her. "He is different."
Neolani didn't have a chance to shriek before the mist wrapped around her, and she was pulled into the shadows.
...
As he made his way through the forest to the river, Unalaq's heart pounded.
He felt his pocket once more to ensure that his sacred treasure, the thing that he had spent nearly two days working on, was still there. Satisfied when he felt the lump in his pocket, he strode forward towards the river and found Neolani standing there, her back turned to him.
His heart raced. "Neolani!"
She turned to him, and without stopping he approached her and hugged her tightly.
"Good morning, Unalaq." She said, although there was something different in her voice. He couldn't pinpoint what, though, and right now he was too nervous to care.
He pulled away and took a deep breath, trying to calm his frayed nerves. "I have...well...there's one tradition in our tribe...do you remember when I told you of our customs?"
"Yes." She answered simply. Had he been paying closer attention, he would have noticed the unemotional tone of voice she held.
"There's one more; it's a very important tradition..." He took another breath. "When...well, when a man finds a woman he wants to marry, he'll...carve her a betrothal necklace..."
She starred at him, and slowly he brought the amulet from his pocket.
It was an intricate piece of jewelry; instead of a cloth ribbon, what held it together was a smooth metal loop, and bound around it, trailing down in front like a waterfall, were several strings of aquamarines.
Unalaq held it out to her. "Neolani, will you accept my proposal?"
Her eyes widened. "Unalaq..." She took the necklace, starred at it, and immediately returned to her black stare. "I'm sorry, I cannot accept this."
He couldn't even ask why. He was too hurt by the breaking of his heart.
She continued. "Our worlds are separate and that is how they must stay. I'm sorry, but we cannot be together anymore."
"No..." He whispered. "No, Neolani, don't say that..." He took her hand. "Don't say that..."
"I'm sorry." She answered only. "There was a time I believed we could be together, but all it was blind love. The truth has opened my eyes." She turned around. "I cannot love you anymore."
He waded into the water and wrapped his arms around her. "No!" He screamed. "Don't go, Neolani! My sweet love, don't leave me! I can't live without you by my side! Please!"
"I'm sorry."
"NO!"
"I'm sorry." She pulled away from him. "Forget about me. It is better. For you will never see me again." Before he could catch her again, she disappeared in a cloud of mist, and the river froze over, turning to ice.
Unalaq stood on the banks and screamed her name for hours. He wept hysterically, crying for her to come back to him. He pounded on the ice, but alas, there was no sound, no life, no trace she had even been there at all.
...
As the other spirits enclosed her in her prison, Neolani couldn't help but find it funny that the walls were made of ice.
Her chamber lay at the base of the Tree of Time, the ice mixing with its roots to create her prison walls. They were clear, and other spirits could enter and leave.
She, however, could not.
She looked up, and too her horror saw the image of another spirit with a face identical to hers.
"Lorelei." She hissed.
The illusion melted away, and her sister stood there, her blank expression almost interrupted by a smirk. Quietly she held something out.
"I met with your lover today." She said, almost laughing while she did. "He brought you the sweetest little present." She tossed something into the cage.
It was a necklace.
"What is this?" Neolani asked her, slightly afraid of the answer.
"He brought that for you." Lorelei repeated. "He said it was custom for a man to propose with a hand-made necklace."
Propose?
"He wanted you to become his wife." Lorelei said, not bothering to hide her smirk.
Neolani's heart broke at that moment. She choked, making a squeaking sound, and sobbed, leaning forward and covering her face with her hands.
"Don't try to free yourself and find him." Lorelei sneered, turning away. "This prison was built especially for you. You will never be able to escape."
...
Unalaq's entire life felt like a black hole. He had shut himself away in his room, refused any and all human contact, and lay buried under his blankets like they were his grave. The public made the excuse that it must have been his father's failing health that was distressing him, but, not without guilt, he couldn't have cared less about his father.
As far as he knew, his entire life had come crashing down around him.
As he lay in the confines of his blankets, wishing for death, he heard a dark voice say "Do you still yearn for her?"
He sat up, though he did not have to look to the mirror to see. He knew who it was. "You know I do."
Vaatu chuckled. "I can bring her back to you."
Unalaq didn't look up. "She didn't die, she left. You can't change her mind. She said it was because of the distance between our worlds-"
"Are you underestimating me?" Vaatu said in a voice that was almost teasing. "I am the oldest spirit alive. I have molded time and creation to my very will. To suggest I cannot manipulate the mind of a simple water spirit is almost an insult."
Now Unalaq looked up, hesitantly. "You can...change her mind?" He smiled hopefully. "You can make it so that she loves me again?"
"Undoubtedly I can. But," he added before Unalaq could even begin to feel excitement "I need you to do something for me."
In an instant he was on his knees in front of the mirror, tears streaming down his face. "Anything!" He rasped. "I will do anything!"
If spirits could smile, Vaatu would have been ginning ear-to-ear right now. "Do you remember my offer?"
...
Months passed by. To Neolani they felt like centuries.
Her stomach grew quickly, and she took to hiding in the corner of her cell to keep her condition hidden. No matter what, she could not let Vaatu find out about her child.
Lorelei and a few other dark spirits used to like to come to her cell and spend hours taunting her, but eventually they had tired of that game, and they quickly forgot she was even there.
Now, all she did was hide within her prison, her dark hair covering her like a curtain, hiding her face and belly from the world.
Had she not happened to look up one night, she would have missed it.
At first all she saw was a light, but once her eyes adjusted, she saw an old man with a long, grey beard. His bald head and dark amber eyes shone in the light of the lantern he held, and he gazed upon her with worry.
Immediately she felt a rare glimmer if hope. "Hello, my brother."
General Iroh smiled warmly at her. "I am hardly your brother." He replied "Neolani. It seems you've gotten yourself into quite the predicament."
Instantly, Neolani realized that her hair had fallen away, leaving her obvious pregnancy exposed, so it wasn't just her cage he was referring to.
She smiled. "According to Lorelei, I always had poor judgment."
Iroh smiled again. Slowly, he turned his attention to the prison's walls, poking around the edges where the ice was stuck to the tree roots.
"It's no use." Neolani whispered. "Lorelei has told me repeatedly that it is impossible for me to escape."
"Have you ever tried to?"
She was taken aback. "They said I couldn't..."
Iroh smiled. "You are a water spirit, Neolani. These prison walls are made of ice."
In a desperate experiment, she pressed her hand to one sheet of ice.
"...Nothing's happening." She said exasperatingly.
Iroh held his lantern up to the ice. "This will help. Keep trying."
It took many hours, but eventually, with the heat of the lantern and Neolani's power, they both happily laughed as the ice began to bubble and drip.
...
As a banshee screamed, alerting the other spirits to her escape, Iroh gestured toward the forest and yelled "Go! I will distract them!"
Had she not been pregnant, she would have objected, but her fear of Vaatu and what he would do to her drove her legs forward.
She heard the other spirits chasing her, and struggled to stay ahead of them. Occasionally she would run for a body of water, where she would conjure up a wave or a wall of ice to slow them down, but she dared not dissipate, again, for fear of what would happen to her child.
She weaves through jungles and canyons, mountains and plains, running as far as her legs could take her, before a shooting pain traveling up her side made her stumble.
Neolani gasped and staggered, leaning against a tree, desperately hoping the pain would pass soon. And it did, only to be replaced by another.
She could not continue on like this. She had to find shelter.
She looked around. To her left was nothing but trees, but to her right was a stream leading out into a lake.
Her eyes widened. She knew that place. Underneath the water was a series if tunnels, most of which led up into small, hidden grottos scattered around the lake. The only trouble was that the tunnels were like a maze. If she lost her way or hit a dead end...
Vaatu's spirits were getting closer. She could hear their shrieks now...
She ran for the lake and dived in.
Her heart pounded as she moved quickly through the black tunnels, careful not to crash into anything. The water propelled her forward, and she swam for anything that remotely resembled a light. After several wrong turns, she finally surfaced in a grotto, and as soon as she did, let out a scream of pain.
On her hands and knees, Neolani crawled to the edge of the pool and laid half-in half-out of the water. The pain shot from her stomach up to her ribs and down her legs, now. She breathed deeply and laid her head back, trying to keep from crying out again.
But that didn't stop her from weeping silently.
...
As they reached the river, Lorelei stopped. Even she had to admit Neolani's trail had gone cold.
The other spirits swarmed around her, some growling, some roaring, all of them asking her what to do.
Lorelei narrowed her eyes. She could not go back to Vaatu empty-handed.
"What do we do?" She repeated. "Find her."
The spirits shuffled around...
"FIND HER!" In a rare display of emotion, Lorelei turned and snarled at them. Immediately they dispersed, and Lorelei turned back to the river. Raising her arms, white mist formed around her, spreading and curling in wisps.
"I will find you, sister." She whispered. "No where is safe for you."
...
Several hours passed. The sun rose and then fell again, and in the dim light of twilight, when the feeble cries of an infant echoed through the cave, it was over.
Neolani relaxed in the water, breathing in and out deeply and slowly, now overwhelmed with joy in the midst of her fear. In her arms lay, not one, but two infants; a boy and a girl, both snuggled against her after having fed only minutes before.
Neolani smiled and stroked her son's tiny head. "I thought it was only going to be your sister." She whispered. "You were quite the surprise." She smiled. "My little Desna."
Her daughter squeaked.
"And my darling Eska." She almost sang. "You are strong, so so strong. And so beautiful." She took a good look at both children. "You are both so beautiful. Your father would be so proud to see you."
Suddenly, Neolani felt a familiar ache in her heart as she thought of Unalaq. He would have loved to see the children born, she knew. She'd never had a chance to tell him; he didn't even know they existed.
Neolani held her children closer and sighed. "My darlings." She whispered. "You are both so beautiful; you will grow up to be very brave and very strong. You are the children of the prince of the Northern Water tribe, and you are destined for greatness."
The twins opened their eyes then. They both had icy, cold blue eyes, just like hers. They bore into her soul, understanding, it seemed, far beyond their years.
Then they smiled at her.
Neolani smiled back, though her eyes filled with tears. "I love you." She whispered. "I am your mother, and I love you more than anything on this earth."
She stood up, the water forming her garment around her again, while she wrapped her shawl around the two babies and cuddled them close. "If nothing else, remember that."
Lorelei's mist eventually reached the grotto, but by then, the mother and her children were all gone.
...
The moon shone brightly in the starry sky, providing light as Neolani made her way up the hill. As soon as she got close to the top, a familiar shape appeared: that of a young woman with flowing white hair and robes, her misty grey eyes always slightly sad.
Yue smiled as Neolani reached the top. "So what I saw was true."
"Why would it not be?" Neolani jested with a grin before she looked worried again. "What of Iroh?"
"He's alright; I saw him escape the spirits. They aren't looking for him, anyway."
"I know." Neolani sighed and sat against a tree. "Seven days I've been running from Vaatu and Lorelei, almost without rest." She looked sad. "I feel awful for saying this, but my children are slowing me down. I cannot care for them and hide from Vaatu all at the same time."
Yue say next to her. "Do you regret having them?"
"No." She replied quickly and sternly. "Never. But I deeply regret what I am about to ask of you."
The two women stood again, and Neolani continued.
"My children are not safe here. If Lorelei catches up to us..." She didn't finish the sentence. "They'll only be safe if they're far away from me. Their father is the prince of the Northern Water tribe." She held them out slightly. "You must take them to him."
Yue nodded. "Does he know about them?"
She shook her head. "No. I was taken before I could tell him."
"Then I'll have some explaining to do." She gave a small smile. "What are their names?"
"The girl is Eska," Neolani said with pride "And the boy is Desna."
"Beautiful names." Yue praised her. "You chose well." The sad look in her eyes became even more so. "I should take them now. There's no time to waste."
"Wait..." Neolani stopped her. "Let me look at them...one last time." She held out the babies in front of her, and they opened their eyes again. Eska burbled and opened and closed her tiny fists, while Desna yawned and looked around curiously.
Neolani felt a lump in her throat, but she swallowed it. Gently, she kissed each baby on the forehead. "Mother loves you." She whispered. "And Father will love you just as much. You will both be so happy there. He...will love you..." The tears fell, dripping down her cheeks. "I will always love you, my children. If nothing else, remember that."
Then, slowly and painfully, she handed each baby to Yue.
As the moon spirit wrapped both children in their own individual blankets, they began to cry at being separated from their mother, and Neolani's heart broke that much more.
"Please do not think badly of me." She whispered.
Yue smiled at her. "Don't worry; I completely understand." She stood up, holding the twins. "I know what it's like to be in love."
"Thank you." Neolani smiled "But...I didn't mean you."
Yue smiled sadly at her. "You're doing this for them. Just remember that."
"I will." She replied. "I'll remember that every night for the rest of my days."
With that, Yue turned and flew back towards the sky, taking the children, and leaving Neolani alone.
...
The woman Unalaq saw on the balcony was not Neolani.
While he had been studying, he had seen a bright flash of light, radiating with spiritual energy. Desperate, he had run upstairs, thinking he would find his lover standing there.
He didn't.
"I'm not who you expected." She said. "My name is Yue; I'm the moon spirit."
"I know." Unalaq replied, not trying to mask his disappointment.
"You are the prince of the Northern Water Tri-?"
"Chief." He interrupted. "My father passed away a few months ago."
"I'm so sorry."
"That's not what's bothering me the most."
Yue smiled sadly. "You wanted to see Neolani. You love her."
He said nothing.
Yue looked at him seriously. "I have good news and bad news. The bad news is she cannot see you again." She smiled. "But the good news is, she's left something for you to remember her by."
Yue extended her arms, holding out two small bundles, and Unalaq looked at her, confused.
"...These are your children." She insisted. "Neolani gave birth to them a week ago."
Unalaq covered his face. Neolani was...she'd been...then why? If they were due to have children together, why did she leave?
Yue's form wavered. "I can't stay long. Please, Unalaq, you have to take them. Their mother cannot care for them; they need you."
Unalaq hesitated. He slowly began to reach for the twins, but Yue shoved them into his arms more quickly than he had anticipated. He stumbled a bit, but made sure he had a tight grip on both babies.
"What are they called?" He asked as they began to try to burrow into his jacket.
"Your daughter's name is Eska, and your son is named Desna." Yue smiled at him sadly. "Neolani said it wasn't safe for them with her. She trusted you to care for them." Her form wavered again, like she was becoming a transparent beam of moonlight. "She said...she loves you."
Immediately, Unalaq's heart flared with pain and grief. "She loves me?" His voice was wavering. "Then why did she leave me?!"
"Unalaq...she didn't leave-" But suddenly there was another flash of light, and the moon spirit was gone.
Unalaq starred at where she had been. Had he dreamed that? Had it all been an illusion?
Then Eska shrieked, and Desna started to cry, confirming it had all been real.
Quickly, he rushed the babies inside and out of the cold. He closed himself in his bedroom again and quickly lit a fire in the hearth using some spark rocks (which, considering how old they were, was a bit of a miracle in itself). Once the room was warm, he turned back to the bed, where the twins lay.
Gently, as not to disturb them, he sat cross legged on the bed and gently moved both of them into his lap. Miraculously, Desna stayed asleep, and Eska, while she awoke, did not start crying.
His children...they were his children.
His and Neolani's.
Suddenly, hope did not seem so far out of sight, and as he cradled the twins, singing a soft water tribe hymn to them as they were lulled to sleep, his thoughts turned to the woman in the river, and how she had risen from the water like a ghost from her grave.
...
It had been almost three years since the twins had been born.
Now that Unalaq had them as a distraction, he no longer so much wallowed in his sorrow. That wasn't to say, of course, that he was completely cured.
There were some nights when he would wake from a dream and go sit by their bedsides, stroking their hair and cheeks, just to assure himself that they were real and they were there, and he had not dreamed their coming to him, and most importantly, he was not alone. And then there were other days where merely looking at them made his heart lurch and gave him a lump in his throat, for they both looked so much like their mother; with their silky black hair and icy blue eyes that could penetrate his soul without the slightest effort.
He still longed for Neolani. He yearned for her.
Now, he sat on the garden seat in their yard and watched as his children made a castle out of the snow on the beach, Eska designing guard towers and Desna digging a moat around the outer wall.
Unalaq smiled. Even as babies, he had always been able to tell; Desna was so much quieter and gentler, and Eska was much more impulsive and forceful, especially when she wanted something. His children rarely threw tantrums, but Eska was usually the one more prone to them than her brother, and she knew, while her father was pretty much immune to them, the servants would undoubtedly give in.
He sighed. He knew the servants whispered rumors as to what happened to the children's mother. Some claimed he'd had an affair with a commoner, some said it had been a young, Fire Nation princess, which was where they got their heart-shaped faces and sleek, black hair, and some even claimed, due to their tendency to be quite antisocial and what others considered to be odd behavior, that he'd had brief relations with one of his first cousins in the southern tribe. Of course, Unalaq never considered his children abnormal and he had no cousins in the southern tribe.
All he had told them, however, was that Eska and Desna's mother was dead, having died in childbirth with them, and that was all anyone needed to know.
When they were older, he would have already freed Vaatu, and Neolani would join him again.
Eska and Desna would know their mother, and he would have his wife back.
It was only a matter of time.
"Fawder!"
He looked up, not realizing he had been lost in thought, and saw that the twins had finished the castle, and were waving for him to come join them.
"Fawder! Huwwy up!" Eska cried again; they were still at the age where almost every other letter was replaced with a "w."
Chuckling, Unalaq rose from his seat and went over to admire his children's work.
...
Out off the shore of the ocean, a few miles away from the dock, a misty figure stood on the water.
She had flowing black hair, icy blue eyes, and shiny dark skin.
And she wore a silver necklace of aquamarines around her neck.
Quietly, she watched her lover and their children sitting in the snow, constructing a fortress out of the slushy ice. Finally, after several minutes, she saw Unalaq carry the sleepy twins inside, undoubtedly for a nap.
As soon as they were out of sight, the mist swirled around the snow castle, and Neolani appeared on the beach. She looked down at the children's work, admiring it, and placed a tiny ice lily on top of one of the turrets.
"You've done well with them, Unalaq." She whispered, looking up to the window, where she saw Unalaq laying the twins in their beds and tucking them in.
"Always know that I love you." She disappeared into mist with that last word. "If nothing else, remember that."
"Let me fall, let me climb,
There's a moment
When fear and dream must collide."
-Josh Groban
And there you are. That is who I think Desna and Eska's mother is. And no, I don't care that the last episode destroyed this theory, I like it and I'm the one writing the story.
I feel like Unalaq is now a sympathetic character for the first time since...ever. All he wanted to do was be with Neolani again...That's one of the things I hated about season 2; Unalaq got no character development at all. Why is he so obsessed with the Spirit world? Why does he seem to put his kids second? Why did he want to fuse with Vaatu and create the Dark Avatar? Why? Why?! WHY?!
Anyway, this is my theory. That he was tricked by Vaatu into thinking he could get Neolani back by fusing the two world again.
Fun fact: Neolani's name means "Heavenly mist" in Hawaiian! Now the title makes sense!
Special thanks to IsisT/freestarisis (tumblr/deviantArt) For providing the cover image. The links to both are on my profile.