After some deliberation it was decided that the airship would be sent home.
"A scouting party could stumble upon it before we get a chance to drag them home by the ears," Korra pointed out. "It'd be a needless risk of life to keep them here when we don't really need them."
And so Asami, Korra and Bolin sat astride their snowmobiles and watched as the ship took to the air and turned back north. Asami's jaw was set as the ship grew smaller and smaller; that was her way back home. She trusted Korra, but having no way to escape should things go wrong made her more than a little anxious.
Still, she did her best to keep her worrying to herself as they mounted the snowmobiles and set off. They were easy vehicles to operate (for Asami, at least; Bolin had some struggles and more than once ended up headfirst in a snowdrift), but it wasn't exactly a short trip, and despite her growing nervousness Asami found herself profoundly grateful for the sight of Korra's village breaking through the trees.
Her gratefulness was dulled, however, when she saw who was waiting outside to greet them.
"Just what in the hell do you think you're doing?" Kuvira demanded before the engines even had a chance to rumble into silence.
"Hello Kuvira," Korra said mildly. "It's nice to see you too."
Kuvira ignored her, turning her attention onto Asami. "What are you doing here, girl? You ought to know you're not welcome."
Asami feigned a look of stunned embarrassment. "I'm not? Oh no. Oh, what a terribly awkward situation. I guess I'll just go home, then."
Korra cast her a disapproving glance, but it was obvious she was fighting to conceal her grin. "Kuvira, stow it. Where's dad?"
"Away." Kuvira didn't take her eyes off Asami, and though Asami was more than a little uncomfortable beneath that unwavering glare, she returned it with a look of vast disinterest.
"Away where?"
"I'm not at liberty to discuss his location in the presence of enemies."
Korra swung out of her seat and stood, standing firmly between Kuvira and Asami. Despite her slightly shorter stature, Korra's stance made her seem like she was towering over Kuvira, and though Kuvira didn't so much as flinch Asami swore she caught a flicker of uncertainty cross the southerner's sharp features.
"They aren't enemies, Kuvira," Korra said firmly. "It can't have escaped your attention that Hiroshi has withdrawn his forces. We're brokering a peace – that's what she's doing here."
"And I should believe that why?" Kuvira spat. "How am I supposed to believe that you convinced Hiroshi Sato to withdraw?"
"I'm not sharing anything until dad gets back," Korra said. "So call him back."
"I can't."
"Fine, then I will."
"Korra." Kuvira's look was pleading. "You can't."
"Why not?" Korra was getting exasperated now. "This is fairly important, Kuvira. Particularly if whatever he's up to involves the north in some way."
"It doesn't." Kuvira cast a brief glance at Asami and Bolin before grabbing Korra's arm and pulling her in to murmur quietly into her ear.
Whatever she said had a profound effect on Korra. The tension drained from her shoulders only to be replaced by something else, something Asami couldn't quite make out from where she sat astride her snowmobile. "How long?"
"A week or so. It was fast – nobody saw it coming."
Korra remained silent for a long moment. "I'm going."
Kuvira didn't argue. "Of course, but..." She glanced at the two northerners again.
"They'll come with me. I don't trust you to look after them." It was blunt, but Kuvira accepted the reasoning with a firm nod. "Send word ahead; tell them I'm on my way. We'll refuel and leave immediately."
Kuvira left without another word, and when Korra turned to Asami, she finally identified what had replaced that tension.
It was fear.
"Korra, what's happened?" Asami asked.
Korra's eyes were distant and unseeing as she answered. "It's... it's my mother. She's ill."
Asami's heart clenched hard in her chest. "How bad is it?"
"Bad," Korra said. "Our healers here couldn't do anything for her. Dad's taken her to another village, about two days' ride away. The best healer in the south lives there."
"Korra..." Asami reached out, but Korra shook her head, her lips pressing into a thin line.
"Don't," she said, and Asami's hand froze midway between them. "She's not dead. There's still a chance. We just need to get to her and find out what's wrong."
Though the rejection stung a little, Asami understood. Hope was a powerful ally in the face of loss. "Alright," she said. "Let's go."
Over the next two days Asami was faced with how sheltered her life in the north had been.
Korra was clearly attuned to this environment, and it showed. She knew which paths to take through the trees and which to avoid; she could identify the hunting grounds, it seemed, of almost any dangerous predator and led them along safer routes; and when they pitched their tents for the night she insisted they do so in a spot where the wind buffeted them against a sheer cliff face. Though both Asami and Bolin protested, they were later proven wrong when the wind changed and found them cosily sheltered by the towering wall of stone at their backs.
Though Asami and Bolin did their best to keep up and not be a burden, Korra's mood didn't improve the further south they moved. Asami couldn't fault her for it. The loss of her own mother had been abrupt, out of her control; had she been presented with the opportunity to do something about it, slim as the chances may have been, she'd have seized it with the same grim determination that Korra had drawn about herself now.
They were all in sombre moods when they finally reached the village. As they pulled in amidst the various huts and cabins Asami found herself, not for the first time, profoundly grateful for the change of clothes Korra had provided the two northerners before they set out. Curious villagers poured into the street to see who had arrived, and had they for a minute suspected that Asami and Bolin were northerners... Asami did her best not to think about it.
As it was, their fairer skin was sure to give them away, and so they kept their deep, fur-lined hoods up and their heads down as they approached a large cabin at the head of the village.
Two guards were posted outside, but as soon as they saw Korra they bowed and moved to hurriedly open the door for her. Korra stormed past them with a regal bearing Asami had never seen in her before while Asami and Bolin shuffled in behind her, avoiding eye contact with the guards.
The inside of the cabin was roomier than Asami had been expecting, and blessedly warm. She didn't waste time taking in her surroundings, however – her gaze remained on Korra, who had moved immediately to the centre of the room, where a sickly-looking – but undeniably beautiful – woman was submerged to her neck in a pool of quietly steaming water.
"Korra," Tonraq breathed when he saw her. Asami was taken aback by how gentle his voice was – it was a far cry from the gruff, brisk chief she'd spoken to on Air Temple Island. "Thank the spirits."
Korra's mother cracked her eyes open and a wan smile brightened her features, if only a little. "Korra?"
"I'm here," Korra said softly, dropping to her knees beside the pool and pressing a kiss to her mother's head. "What kind of trouble did you get into while I was gone, hm?"
Korra's mother tried to laugh, but the gentle sound twisted into a bout of fitful coughing. A calm-looking old woman moved to adjust some valves at the side of the pool; the steam thickened a moment and soon enough the coughing subsided.
Korra waited for her mother to settle again before looking up at her father.
"We don't know," Tonraq said helplessly. "It's nothing Katara has seen before and none of her methods seem to be working."
Korra looked to the old woman hovering near the row of valves. "Katara?"
"I'm sorry, Korra." Katara's voice was raspy, but warm and genuine. "All we've been able to do is fight the symptoms. We've kept her alive for this long but if we don't figure out what's happening soon, we may very well lose her."
Asami found herself surprised by Katara's bluntness, but more surprising was the fact that she managed to say it without sounding harsh. Asami guessed there was a history of familiarity between Katara and Korra's family – perhaps Katara was Korra's grandmother?
Tonraq finally looked up at them then and Asami's blood ran cold with sudden panic. "This probably isn't the best place to have friends over, you know," he said to Korra. Though his tone was a little more firm, Asami was surprised by how gentle he came across now.
"I couldn't leave them," Korra said flatly, not taking her attention from her mother. "Has anybody new been around home lately? Someone unfamiliar?"
Tonraq's gaze lingered on Asami and Bolin for a moment before turning back to Korra. Asami breathed a small sigh of relief. "No," the Chief said, "no one. We've checked."
"We have considered the possibility of poison," Katara said. "If it is, it's not one we've seen before."
"Not exactly an outlandish thing," Korra murmured. "How hard can it be to make poison?"
Tonraq grunted his agreement. "We've considered it. The biggest problem, obviously, is that new poison means an unknown antidote. We've tried everything."
Katara was glancing back and forth between Korra, Tonraq, and Asami and Bolin. "Perhaps you should all go and rest for a while," she suggested carefully. "Korra has just come a very long way; I'm sure she and her friends are very tired. I will send word if anything develops."
It was a clear dismissal. Tonraq hesitated, casting one last worried glance at his ailing wife, but forced himself to turn and leave the cabin. Korra, Asami and Bolin followed in silence.
"How long has it been?" Korra asked as soon as the cabin door swung closed behind them.
"Three days at Katara's, a week since she started getting ill." Tonraq leaned heavily against the porch railing, rubbing a hand wearily over his face. "We sent a messenger to Air Temple Island but you must have missed each other. Did you take a different route home?"
"You could say that," Korra murmured, casting Asami a sidelong glance.
"And who are your friends? Did you steal some of Tenzin's youngsters?"
"Not... exactly," Korra said carefully. "Maybe we should go inside for this."
Tonraq's brow furrowed suspiciously, but he followed Korra to a small hut not far from the cabin. Asami assumed it belonged to their family, going by the familiar way in which Korra breezed through the flap and inside.
Asami and Bolin exchanged an anxious glance as they followed the two southerners inside. In their rush to get to Korra's mother Asami had almost forgotten her nerves; now they returned a hundredfold as the prospect of confronting Tonraq became a rapidly approaching reality.
"Alright Korra," Tonraq said, shrugging off his thick outer jacket as the fire crackling in a pit in the middle of the room warmed them almost immediately. "What's going on?"
Korra followed suit, taking off her jacket and twisting it nervously in her hands. "Well..."
Tonraq caught on to his daughter's guilt almost immediately. "Korra," he said dangerously.
Korra sighed and made a vague gesture to Asami and Bolin. Though her heart was hammering wildly in her chest and she was barely containing outright panic, Asami reached up and pulled her hood down with far more calm than she was feeling. "It's nice to see you again, Chief Tonraq," she said, profoundly grateful for the steady tone of her voice.
Tonraq's eyes bulged, but to his credit, he didn't explode the way Hiroshi had. Instead, he turned to Korra. "Explain," he said coldly.