A/N: Sorry for the delay in updating. Life got difficult and now I'm working on my NaNoWriMo project. That'll take up most of my attention during November, but I'm not letting this die. Promise.

Chapter summary: In which Li is disconcerted by a kiln, makes a child's day, and scares a brat out of his skin. So far, so good.

20: Library

Something was off. He wasn't sure what exactly, just that it just was. He stood glaring at the kiln as if expecting it to tell him what was wrong. It wouldn't, no surprise. At least Zenko didn't think he was crazy. She too stood staring at the kiln, her head cocked curiously. At least her eyes were still closed. If they opened, Li would probably run for the hills.

Interestingly enough, the children who were too young to apprentice under their parents or the other potters here were avoiding this particular kiln as well. Although, Li thought with the beginnings of what he just knew was a blush, that was probably due to him. He knew how dangerous his scar made him look when he glared. Even Than would sometimes think twice before approaching him when he got like this. Only Ying and Zenko seemed to be entirely unaffected.

Still, something about this kiln kept nagging at him. He felt like he should know what was wrong with it, but, for the life of him, he had no earthly idea. He was wracking his brain for any rational explanation and coming up empty. It was driving him insane.

Zenko brushed his clothed leg with her tail, startling him out of his thoughts. Someone must be coming to check on him. Swallowing back his growing frustration, Li straightened and turned his head to his visitor.

Li took in the dark brown hair speckled by gray over stern green eyes and winced. As the son of the pottery guildmaster, Cheng wasn't the friendliest man in Ba Sing Se, but he was fair. Don't do something stupid and you typically had nothing to worry about. Li grimaced, staring at a kiln probably counted as stupid.

"Is something wrong, Li?" Cheng asked calmly, tucking his clay covered hands inside his sleeves.

Pressing his lips together, Li let his shoulders droop and returned his gaze to the shut kiln door. "No," he replied.

"I see."

Instead of focusing on Cheng's approaching footsteps, Li focused his attention on the kiln. There. He could still feel it, the wrongness. As if something wasn't where it should be. Or too much of something wasn't where it should be. What was that something?

"Then perhaps you could enlighten me as to why you insist upon staring at the kiln like it will bite you" Cheng asked, and Li could just hear the raised eyebrow in that voice. Curious, but little patience for nonsense.

Zenko deliberately sat on his foot. Well, if that wasn't a command than Li was a waterbender.

"Something's wrong with it," he said, without preamble.

Cheng. "And why do you think that?" he asked. "It appears to be working correctly."

Which was true. As far as Li understood the inner workings of kilns, it was working correctly. But if wasn't really the kiln that had something wrong with it so much as there was something wrong inside the kiln where all that heat-

Heat. He was feeling heat.

"It's not the kiln, exactly," Li said, choosing his words with care. How best to describe this? "It's the heat. It's not… where it should be, I guess."

Li crouched in front of the door, staring at it and feeling the heat. It rolled off the kiln in waves that rippled the air and made the inside glow red hot as it baked the clay pottery inside. Narrowing his eyes, Li could feel the heat flowing around each jug, cup, plate, and vase inside. These were most apprentice-made pottery so they weren't as smooth or perfectly formed as the masters'. Li could feel the imperfections as the heat roiled around them, disturbed by the indentations and irregularities, before returning to the flow it desired.

"What do you mean it's not where it should be?" Cheng asked, his voice breaking into Li's concentration. "Is there a crack in the kiln?"

Worry. If there was a crack in the kiln's outer shell, that would cause a lot of problems. But no, it wasn't that, so Li shook his head.

"Inside," he said.

Zenko moved so she stood still, tails down, and her head cocked, ready to pounce. Her ears twitched, brushing Li's knee, and he dipped his chin in silent agreement. He could sense the heat seeping into the clay within. But now that he knew it was heat he was sensing, he could follow the heat's movements.

Heat was seeping into weaknesses too small to be detected by the naked eye. The potters probably wouldn't have detected the weaknesses in the clay until it was too late. Even masters made mistakes, after all. But how many…? Ah, three.

"Three," he murmured and Zenko flicked her ear in agreement.

"Three what?" Cheng asked, a faint hint of frustration slithering into his words. Just like the heat was slithering into the infinitesimal cracks in the clay to-

Crack!

There went one. "Two," Li murmured. Cheng said nothing. He didn't need to.

Cra-crack!

And there went the other two. With that, the sense of wrongness in the kiln faded. Rolling his shoulders, Li stood, brushing the dirt from his pants and long, dark brown tunic. He held out his hands for Zenko to hop into and waited for her to settle before turning to Cheng.

The man's brown eyes were narrowed and his mouth was slightly open in surprise. Li really didn't want to talk about it. Not like he could explain it, after all. With a polite bow of apprentice to master, Li strode out of the courtyard to where Ying and Than were working on their respective wheels.

Zenko yawned noisily and bumped his arm with her nose before resting her head vertically against him. He felt his own lips twitch up in quiet amusement.

"You're so weird," he muttered to her. She made a warbling chirp, grinning her foxy grin and he huffed a laugh. "How is that even comfortable." Another warble and his lip twitch became a small smile.

The sun was reaching its daily zenith so he should probably head to the train station now if he was going to spend a decent amount of time at the university's library.

Every time he rode the train, he was always pleasantly surprised by the smooth ride. It gave him the chance to lean back against the open window and let the wind whip his face. Other than the initial ride into the city after leaving the ferry, Li had ridden the train a handful of times. It was useful for grocery runs and errands with Ying and Than on guild business. This time, he was riding it of his own accord.

He'd had to ask for today off from his pottery work. He wasn't looking forward to failing at forming another jug from clay with his clumsy hands. It had taken him three full days to finally accept that he just wasn't cut out for pottery. He didn't have the patience for it and his callused hands simply weren't delicate enough for the detail work. They were made to handle his dao. He knew that now. He just wasn't sure if he was ready to accept that fact.

At least asking off had gone smoothly. Although he still wasn't sure how he felt about the way Cheng looked at him this morning. It made him feel out of place; well, more so than usual. It almost felt like Cheng was…afraid of him. But why would that be? Li couldn't remember doing anything to earn the guildmaster's son's ire.

Why him?

"Um, excuse me?"

Looking down, Li saw a pair of bright green eyes in a young face staring up at him with wary hopefulness.

"Can I pet her?" the little girl asked, pointing to Zenko.

Li blinked, glancing down at Zenko. She flicked her ear at him and eased her nose out to nudge the child's finger. The young green eyes widened and locked on the fox spirit. Zenko licked the child's finger and Li knew he wouldn't be left alone for the rest of the ride.

Strangely, that didn't bother him for once.

The University of Ba Sing Se was definitely busier than he expected. It also looked deceptively larger. Middle Ring citizens and more than a few Upper Ring citizens bustled between buildings or lingered in the shade of trees on the patches of grass on either side of the main quad. Li stared. It was one thing to see it at night, it was another thing entirely to see it in daylight.

Those were actual trees and grass. Li hadn't this much green in one place since arriving in Ba Sing Se. He didn't realize he'd missed it until now. The temptation to just lay down in the grass and take a nap was almost too much for him to handle. I t reminded him of turtleducks and…

What?

Gone.

Suddenly the greenery wasn't so interesting. Biting his lip, Li strode confidently into the quad, ignoring the curious stares. They weren't really aimed at him anyway so much as the kitsune lazing on his shoulders, tails swaying with ever one of his steps, and ears flicking every which way. They'd probably never seen a regular fox or fox spirit before.

If Li hadn't just known he'd seen one before and Zenko hadn't latched onto him, then he'd probably be staring too. But he'd grown used to Zenko and her hair-raising presence. It was understandable that her presence would make such a fuss.

That didn't mean he appreciated being the center of attention. He already got enough attention because of his scar. He didn't want more. Soft fur brushed his scarred cheek and a wet nose pressed against his other temple. She didn't care. He was hers. She liked him, scar and all. Let them stare. She could stare right back. Some of the tension eased from his shoulders and the frown faded to a more neutral expression at her gesture.

Then everything faded into awe as he stared and stared and stared. The Ba Sing Se University library was huge. Shelves upon shelves lined the walls of the buildings and extended in broken lines from the front of the room to the back. Tables and chairs dotted with chairs and unlit, glass encased candles filled the front section of the building. It wasn't a lot of sitting room really, but it looked big.

Windows lined the top of the walls by the ceiling, casting light onto the floor. Other windows lower down broke the pattern of bookcases on the walls with light and a cushioned bench for further reading. Li would bet there were other, smaller sitting areas further in, but he couldn't see them.

Swallowing nervously, he stepped inside the library, careful to shut the door quietly behind him. He didn't want any undue attention. Striding down the center aisle between tables, Li sighed.

"So," he murmured under his breath to Zenko, "any idea where to start?"

She swished her tails and cocked her head in consideration.

"You do know animals aren't allowed in the library, right?"

Both Li and Zenko turned to the person who'd spoken to them. It was a young lady who might have been pretty if she wasn't wearing so much makeup. As she was, she looked like she belonged in the theatre not in a library. And Li would eat his shoes if that hairpin wasn't worth more than his, Ying's, and Than's pay for the entire week and then some.

Upper Ring people were really something else.

Zenko batted his cheek with her tail and he agreed. Might as well ignore her. Turned his pale gold gaze back to the bookcases, he read the posted categories. It seemed each row of bookcases was for a single category.

"Excuse me."

If he wanted to figure out why no one could talk about the war going on outside the Walls or what could be causing his headache without paying for any old healer, then he should probably consider the history or science categories. If he only knew where those sections were.

"Excuse me!"

Zenko turned her head to the right and Li obediently followed her lead. She was a Knowledge Seeker for Wan Shi Tong, after all. If anyone was familiar with libraries and classification systems, it would be Zenko.

"Hey, you!"

Someone grabbed his sleeve, halting his movement. Biting back an angry retort, Li settled for glaring at the person who'd stopped him. It was male student who was shorter than Li and who wore a pair of round spectacles. Those glasses definitely cost a fortune. The student's haircut was also a bit odd. It bared all of the student's forehead not hidden by a green patterned hat before tumbling back in a jet black braid. That must be the style for the Middle and Upper Ring citizens. The rich were definitely something else.

The student flinched when he noticed Li's scar, but refused to stare at it for long. Instead, he looked at Li's other eye and frowned. "Animals aren't allowed in the library," he said.

Li raised an eyebrow. Yes, that girl had already told him.

"You need to leave," the student said, tugging on Li's sleeve.

Narrowing his good eyes, Li yanked his sleeve from the stranger's grasp and tucked his arms into his sleeves.

The student bristled. "Look sir." Oh, so Li was a 'sir' now and not a 'you.' That was a promotion, maybe. "You can either leave your animal outside," he pointed at Zenko, "or I'll have to call the Guard and have you escorted off campus."

Li glared, feeling a flash of pleasure when the student flinched. "She's not an animal," he growled.

The boy flushed in indignation. "You think I'm stupid?" he demanded.

"Yes," Li answered simply.

The boy's mouth dropped open. "I am most definitely not stupid," he said, sounding utterly offended. "Unlike some people."

Li blinked, feeling hot fury surge to the surface, burning him from the inside out. Every instinct raged at him to vent, but a soothing touch of a wet nose and brush of fur helped him keep his tenuous control. Well, if he couldn't yell…

"I'm stupid?" Li said in a deadpan voice.

"Yes!" Did the brat really just stamp his foot?

Li ran his eyes up and down the student's body, unimpressed. "At least I can tell the difference between an animal and a Spirit," he said.

Li felt a tingling sensation on the back of his neck and shoulders at the same time all the blood in the student's face drained. Zenko must have opened her eyes. He fought the smug smile begging to paste itself on his face with supreme effort.

Then Zenko bounded off his shoulders and ran on padded feet across the bookcases towards some unseen goal. Li rolled his eyes at her theatrics before hurrying after her. A quick glance over his shoulder had him snickering at the still frozen student behind him. Zenko's inhuman gaze had been enough proof. She hadn't needed to run horizontally across the bookcases as if gravity was optional.

But that brat's dumbstruck expression had definitely been worth it.