...
The rain had stopped for the moment, but Green could make out other watery curtains sweeping across the city in the distance by the dim electric glow reflected against the thick night-born clouds. She was sopping wet, bruised across most of her body, and was pulling along a girl who just moments ago had been the one kidnapping her for a run from the cops. Now Green was leading; their footsteps pounding down the dark sidewalk as the other woman panted heavily. This Amala needed to spend more time on cardio if she was going to keep committing so many crimes. They were approaching a commercial street so Green allowed Amala to stagger to a walking pace as they strove to blend in with the perpetually present crowd that even this late or early could be found milling across the city.
Sirens were echoing through the streets. Behind them orange light flickered against the low-hanging cloud layer. A fire must have broken out in the chaos they had left behind. Green pulled her hood closer to her face and reached to grab Amala's hand as she chose an arbitrary direction to take them anywhere away from where they currently were. They passed a couple who brushed by them, the taller holding up an umbrella over both while his partner repeatedly observed that the rain had now stopped. Green pulled Amala in close to her side and spoke sharply and quietly, "What the hell was that back there? The explosion, the vines...Who are you, and what the hell is happening?"
The short air nation girl stared into the middle distance, her free hand plucking alternately at her braid and at the shoulder strap of her backpack. It looked like she did not have any spare clock cycles to notice what that arm was doing. She did not respond to Green's question, only muttering, "That drone acted autonomous. But there has been little to no success in generating A.I. that can react to that many unknown variances. I have not seen anyone get even close to that and those had trouble standing up on gravel..."
Green fought the urge to slap the other girl there in the street as even in Haru that might attract attention. This woman had somehow managed to get city police exhibiting a response time that did not need to be measured on a calendar and yet despite repeatedly escaping powerful pursuit she seemed to be the world's least competent criminal. So Green contented herself with digging her nails into Amala's palm as she hissed again, "Yeah, yeah, neat engineering. But not what I was asking about."
Amala shook herself out of a trance, "I... I found out something the Avatar is planning, when I was at the university I mean. Something that...I am part of a group, a secret group, that is working to undo the damage the Avatar has done to the balance of the world. The Avatar is preparing to establish absolute control over the spirit world as well as our own and I need to tell someone what I discovered so they can...so they can stop it."
Well as excuses for breaking the law, Green had heard and given worse. But this sounded far over her head and she said as much. Now Amala clung to her hand, drawing in close to look up at Green's face. "Huamei, please! I am so lost right now, I... The New Age Movement, they, they gave me training, and trusted me. My only chance to get away is their help. And they need to know what I found! This is bigger than the two of us. My allies go all the way up to the highest levels of government in many countries. And not just human governments. Please, help me, I... helping them make their move agains the Avatar is the only way I can get my life back now."
Despite every rational instinct of self preservation, Green felt inevitably being swayed. The airbender girl in her dirty clothes and highschooler's backpack encouraged sympathy. Still, a darker part of her mind reminded, the last time this girl looked on the edge of tears she called forth some power that put two cops in the hospital or worse. She never said how she did that. But what Green spoke was, "All right, well how do we contact this, your support network? If a single swipe of your credit card brings bots dropping from the sky I don't like our chances of ringing up direct."
"I need to find somewhere I can close my eyes for an hour or so."
Amala was visibly exhausted but Green had been having a bad night too and her patience was wearing thin. "Not the time for sleep right now, princess. You just...you have some seriously skewed priorities."
"No! I... I if I can find somewhere safe to meditate I might be able to contact help. The Lotus will be watching every other mode of communication."
Green raised her eyebrow in disbelief at this scant description but she seemed sincere. One more thing Green was not being told. As they continued down the street Green mulled her options. She could turn the other woman in, but that would be the first time Huamei Fong had ever provided aid and comfort to the police. Though if she didn't and they got caught she would absolutely be nailed as an accomplice. She could no longer claim she had just been swept up in the action. Ugh, she hadn't even gotten paid for this round of illegal activity and it threatened to sink her.
She rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed. "All right. I know of a place down by the docks. It is an old warehouse that is used as an ad hoc venue sometimes but it should be completely deserted now. You will be out of sight there, but just remember that if you get grabbed on the way I am not fighting any cops for you. I may be sympathetic but that does not buy you me getting kicked blue at the precinct. Got that?" Amala nodded and the two began to move with renewed purpose.
The side of a bus stop ahead flashed with blinding colors advertising a bag of candies. The bright, primary shapes were reflected in the puddles speckling the sidewalk and gutters. Green absently perceived them as she walked along watching her feet. Then the advertisement changed and something that tickled the back of her mind. She looked up to see Amala's face looking back at her, displayed four feet tall on the glass screen. She jerked to a hault and tugged Amala's arm. "Oh. We have to..." As she turned she saw a flickering wave move down the brilliant billboards that coated these buildings and storefronts. Fifty identical young airbenders looked out at Haru city with a scrolling label beneath each.
By unthought impulse, Green reached into her pocket and unfolded her Amon mask, slipping it onto her face as the plastic hardened back into shape. She felt a momentary flash of guilt as she did. Shouldn't she give the mask to Amala who was the one in most danger, rather than be so terrified of the police getting her own image? No, she had just been sucked into this, she had never volunteered to get involved in any fight against...Just then she heard a synthesized click. A girl across the street was holding a phone outstretched in her hand was pointing in their direction, talking excitedly to someone she was calling. The flash on the phone sparkled out again.
"Damn it," Green hissed, her voice muffled by the mask's audio disguiser. "We need to get out of this area." There were no cabs but luckily she knew these streets and quickly led the way to a brightly lit stairway descending into the ground off the sidewalk. She explained as she started down the first steps, "Come on. This stop is near the turnaround station for this line so the first morning run should be here in minutes. We...What?"
Amala had stopped at the top of the stairs looking terrified. "No, not the subway! The facial recognition will notify the police! And you would have to take off you mask and..."
She broke off as Green began laughing, "Right, you're from Full Moon Peak, and by your voice Omashu or someplace before that. You are used to the good stuff. Come on, we don't have time to waste right now."
Hesitant but trusting, Amala took quick little steps down the stairs as Green stopped on a landing to sift through her computer bag. Amala had to admit that this mass transit system looked rather different from the ones she was used to. It had a great deal more volunteer amateur art on the walls. The connecting theme of this mixed media instillation seemed to be scrawled profanity and unusual smells. Green exclaimed in success and produced a large notebook with a pen from the bag's depths. She began quickly scribbling as she talked, "Yeah, we have the fancy cameras here too, but the city cheaped out on the software. Didn't take people long to catch on. Here, take this."
She ripped out a page and handed it to Amala. Amala was impressed to see a well sketched woman's face looking up at her. "Wow," she said, "You're actually really good."
Green snorted and grabbed the other girl's hand to shove the paper over Amala's face. "Great, now look up!" She said, forcing the other girl's chin up.
Together they walked through the entrance gates to the subway platform as Green tapped two plastic cards against the sensor. She then drew back the sketched face to reveal Amala's own natural and rather confused one. Green cocked her head, "Yeah our system is not too bright. Two masks might not be inconspicuous but it will force them to search the memory by human rather than by computer. Er, hold on." She reached up under the edge of the mask and flicked a switch. The deep electronic distortion vanished from her voice. "Better. This system sees nothing wrong with masks or crude drawings. Also it hates sunglasses though no one knows why. And there is the train, showing that at least this one thing will go right for me tonight!"
After boarding, Green collapsed back against the hard plastic seats of the subway car, sprawling her long legs out before her. Amala nervously danced in place in the middle of the aisle, looking from the slowly closing doors to her masked guide and back again many times until the train zapped into action and the abrupt rumbling brought her tumbling into Green's lap. One shove later and they sat side by side silently panting as their limbs protested the exertion and stress. The only sound was the clatter of the tracks and the chipper chiming of a battered screen scrolling with adds that was delighted in its reprieve from the normal fate of muffled oblivion in the noise of the commuter crowd. Above the ads on the screen there was even a small square of video, showing what some civic network called the 'Early, Early Show'. Green had long since learned to ignore these nuisances but it was brought to her attention by Amala's muffled exclamation. "Oh my god."
Green's eyes snapped to attention through the holes in her mask. There across the screen was a headline, "Crisis in the Fire Nation?" Now the camera flashed to two simpering hosts at a pastel desk scattered for some ratings driven reason with teapots and cups. The man smiled at his equally cheery female comrade and turned to face the camera. "Strange news this morning out of the Fire Nation. It seems that Avatar Meili, on her way to the Northern Capital, made an unexpected landing on Funka Island late last night. That's a long detour isn't it Mai?"
"It sure is Zhang, and I think it's bad when there's just construction on the expressway."
"Ha ha, don't we all. At the same time we are getting surprising rumors that Firelord Kazuo may be accelerating his plans for retirement. The Firelord was traveling to the island for a special graduation ceremony and it seems that he may be planning to make that announcement there. If true, this will make him the youngest Firelord to resign the position. His daughter, Suzume, would ascend to the throne."
"Aww, and it's sweet of Avatar Meili to pay him a visit. I'm telling you, I'm not sure I would travel five thousand kilometers out of my way to wish my friend luck in his retirement."
"Not if there is construction on the express way, eh? Ha ha."
"Ha ha, oh you are right, Zhang. Speaking of construction, we have an update on the work going on around the new stadium for you early commuters. It seems..."
This chatter continued but Green redirected her attention to Amala, who was frozen in a rictus of fear. Green felt a sinking sensation, "You said before you had help in the 'highest level of government'. Why do I get the feeling that this story relates to us more directly than I might hope."
Amala's lips quivered as they hung slightly open, "I didn't know. I mean, no names were said. But there were always hints and...The Avatar never travels that far for simple P.R. measures. Something must have happened."
Green grunted, "And anyone who calls Kazuo her friend must have been suffering a head injury around the time of the Kasai/Huitzlan Islands issue. But whatever it means..." She looked over at Amala's paralyzed expression, "Hey, listen! We've still got to finish getting out of sight. You can still do your meditation contact thing and we can get out of this. Leave the statecraft to the statecrafters."
At the next station there was now a scattering of early morning workers beginning their trudge, yawning into travel cups of tea or coffee. Green got dark looks for her politicized mask and a few more were levied at Amala when she pulled the paper face trick again, but as a rule it was too early to be concerned with some girls on a walk of shame from a 'raver' or 'drugs' or whatever had young people out till unholy hours these days. For the first time tonight since the sky started raining death robots, Green actually felt a spring in her step. Well actually by now she had not slept in almost twenty four hours so any spring had long vacated her step but she felt more confidant. Just one or two more changes in transportation to be safe and she would be able to collapse in her hideaway. By now she was also beginning to feel the thrill of involvement in something big. An actual strike against the established order, more substantive than unpermitted freelance art on some abandoned factory wall and a little light forgery. This feeling of egotistical euphoria lasted until the moment she created the last step up onto the street and noticed the sound of sirens reverberating in their approach.
Green looked around. Good, no billboards displaying Amala's face here. Still they should do something about that. She put her arm around Amala's shoulder, bringing her in close to shield her from the street. She and said, "Ok, we should pop into that drugstore and grab you a facemask since the city is flashing your pretty mug around. No, don't..."
"Where, I don't..." Amala had wormed free to scan up and down the road. Unfortunately before she saw the storefront she saw strait into the front windshield of a police car. "Eep!"
They had a moment's grace as the cops processed who they had seen. Amala spent it trying to remember if she had the right program plugged into her bending circuitry. Green spent it wondering if shooting out their tires would count as assaulting an officer. The answers as they were decided on were yes and probably but I still want to try it. However before Green could dash into a firing line, Amala pressed a button at her waist and with a sweep of her hands a swirling dust devil rushed up between them, carrying all the grit and mud and trash of the Haru city streets into an obscuring smokescreen.
Once again they ran. Green cut to the side, pushing off a parked car in her effort to change directions. She took off running down this side-street fronted on one side by the back face of an office building and the other by a chain link fence blocking off access to a dip in the land beyond, racing to where the steetlet faded under a onramp and the expressway above. This street had no cameras to betray them but every path out of here led them past controlled intersections where the electronic traitors could spot their profiles. Behind them sirens wailed closer. They had a destination, but no means of travel, and the inside of this mask was damp from her heavy breath.
Green looked to her side at what lay beyond the fence. The canal. An obstructing line drawn across the city. The rains had only just blown in off the sea, the overflow banks were probably still clear. They could follow it down four blocks and grab a cab at Honglu square. She looked back, Amala was failing. "Come on, I've got a plan. We're hopping this fence." The airbender could only nod her assent between heaving pants.
Green scanned this length of chain-link for any disguised gaps some enterprising fellow with a wire-cutter might have left for them but there was no such luck. It would be easier to be airlifted over but one glance at Amala as she fumbled with the bending circuitry under her clothes showed Green she did not want to trust herself to anything that ran off that girl's personal energy stores. So she fitted the toe of her shoe into one of the chain-link holes and climbed over, ignoring the red line that formed on her wrist as a sharp knob of metal scratched against her skin. Then she dropped down off the top and stumbled slightly on the filthy cement.
Wind stirred through her hair as Amala made the air assisted jump and came to an unsteady landing beside her, kicking up a stinging cloud of dust as she did. Green was already moving, carefully planting her feet against the concrete slope that led down to the paved shelf beside the dark flowing water of the canal. That water was already rising and the wind tossed ripples were washing up over the lip onto the flood bank. They had gotten here just in time, an hour or two more and this path would be under water.
On the street above them them a siren sounded with a whoop and flashing lights washed across building walls. They needed to get moving. Up ahead the bank was shadowed where it passed under the expressway that rumbled with the constant invisible passage of cars and trucks. Light spilled over from the orange streetlights but down here it was only dark and darker. They could catch their breath there, safe from any eyes in the sky that were still braving this stormy night. Thunder tolled, she must have missed the lightning flash. She encouraged Amala to follow her before they took the rest they both needed.
Amala was still ten meters back when Green drew up to the shadow of the overpass. This meant the airbender had difficulty reading her body language as she suddenly skidded to a halt before the blackness. Now Green was running back, nearly tackling Amala as she arrested her forward motion. "No, back, we have to go back!"
"What?" Amala panted. "No! They're right behind us, we have to..."
Suddenly lightning flashed out to illuminate Green's reasoning. Amala could see into the darkness under the overpass where shapes were moving. Some large and hunched, some small and slithering across the tall concrete supports or hanging down from the roof above. They shared no common shape but they all glowed with the faint transparent colors that concentrated most concerningly at the point of eyes or fangs or claws. These they had in excess.
Green was yelling too, "Feral spirits! No one enters a den of them and lives intact! We've got to..."
Unfortunately that same flash revealed the core of Amala's wisdom as well. Shining like a bone against the sky a long, thin L-drive craft drifted through the building rain where the helicopters has long since fled. It was still almost a mile away downstream but as Green stood there she suddenly felt the weight of its attention bear down on her. The accuracy of her intuition was revealed moments later when a couple blocks down the canal there was suddenly a flash of light and the crunch of metal impacting metal as a police car rammed through the chain link fence and made its thundering way down the embankment to the water's edge. Its front bumper scraped against the ground as it made the bottom and it nearly slit into the water as a rapid turn sent it splashing through the rising wetness now lapping across the overflow bank. They would be there in seconds, and another car roared down to appear behind them.
Green grabbed Amala's shoulders to turn her away from where she was still looking at the squirming mass of spirits, who were now waking up under this focus of human attention. "This is it," Green said. The L-flyer was drawing closer, and it looked like it was carrying something large and multilegged clutched to its white metal abdomen. Green began moving to remove her mask for a peaceful arrest as she noticed a look of conviction slide over Amala's face. The short girl sank still further, bending her knees slightly as she brought her hands up in front of her her. Green swatted down her hand, only for it to rise into position again. Green yelled, "No! If you try bending at them they will beat you senseless and then they will arrest you." She pleaded, "You don't have any programed moves that can stop this many, and I am not shooting at the police!"
Amala slid out of Green's grasp, suddenly slipping into every place those clutching hands were not. Her fleet slid through the lapping darkness of rising water as her body began to revolve in constantly shifting motions. The wind began to rise, and with it a strange scent as well, something fresher than Green had ever known in the city. Amala's eyes were fixed in the middle distance, heavy with concentration, "This is not a program. We all have our tricks. You can shoot your rocks. I learned something different."
Sirens basted over the screech of breaks as the cop cars came in for a halt and speakers blared out orders for the two of them to stand down. Over the blinding glare of headlights and the coming of stinging bursts of rain Green could see officers in power frames leaping out of their doors to focus weapons on the two of them. Above and behind the police the white flyer of the Avatar's forces dropped down to hover in place, unconcerned by the swirling, whipping wind that splattered water against every side. On its underbelly, metal legs awoke and flexed from a tightly gripped cargo that looked distressingly familiar and predatory. All the while behind them, heads with glowing eyes rose and snaked, wavering in solidity against the harsh electric headlights. Green thought the creatures would run or dissipate, as spirits usually did when faced by this much technological power, but something instead drew them closer. The lead spirit sniffed the air.
"Remove the mask and stand with your hands clearly visible and still!" Came the order from the police. "Comply in five seconds or we will use force! If you step closer to those wild spirits we will not be able to protect you from what they do."
Amala finished her practiced motions. The swirling wind abruptly died as her arms came down to her sides. She murmured, "Protect me."
Green was slowly moving to comply with the police and remove her mask when motion exploded past her from behind her shoulder. A green outlined frog with the feathered wings of a bird erupted forward, stretched and distorted into a curving streak of blinding speed. One of the cops yelled and shot off a burst of capture cable but it did nothing as the streak swerved past and vanished into the hood of one patrol car with a splash. The car began to rattle and spark until the front exploded into flame, spitting forth the winged frog to land unharmed. In that same instant more spirits raced by, attacking car and weapon, plunging into any technological device the officers had brought. Some of the cops tried fight them, others lapsed into tortured dances as their own power frames were possessed against them. Then one more shape split forth from under the expressway, larger than all the rest. A huge beaked snake, trailing a long lion-like mane swam up into the sky where the White Lotus's flyer suddenly danced back in the air to avoid the erupting mass of chaos. The pilot darted and wove but the snake spirit waved and swept faster and soon plunged deep through the intact hull.
For a moment nothing happened, and then the impossible machine jerked to the side, its arial ballet now a series of bone jarring lurches. The beaked snake's head briefly emerged as a panel on the side blew out into fire and smoke.
Green took this as her signal to run. For once Amala agreed without question.
Sano's hand scraped against the damp and pitted rock leaving him flexing the appendage in pain. He did not even really have a body here in the spirit world, some of this abuse was simply not fair. A little way ahead, the girl made of wind shimmered with the colored wisps of smoke that composed her nature, floating easily above the next rough stepping stone. She saw Sano wincing as he leveraged himself up from the surface of the rock, and like a flitting gust she darted back to drift about him with concern on her face. She brushed her ephemeral fingers against his cheek and wore a pout that said while she regretted his pain maybe he could think about sucking it up and stoping his complaining. She spoke gently and generously, "Map!" and flew forward down the path again.
"Yeah, yeah." Sano grumbled, "Calm mind and all that. Though ppthhbbleth! Blegh!"
He had not been paying attention to his surrounding and had a mouth full of seawater to show for it. He stood up and stepped around the slow moving wave that crashed snail-like against this boulder of the dotted line path. He looked to the left and to his right where the storm tossed sea curved impossibly upward on both sides, surface dotted with waves that whipped and crashed with unsettling lethargy and vertical orientation. Except that those around him seemed to be moving quicker by the moment as time leaked into them. He took a few running steps and jumped to the next stone in the intermittent path, clearing the glacial surge that came rolling between them, droplets of spray drifting through the air like dandelion fluff. Secure on the next stone Sano took a moment to stand still and center himself, calming his vestigial breathing reflex. The wind spirit was annoyed by this pause but when Sano opened his eyes the waves were once again slowing to an imperceptible speed.
Yan had warned him that thoughts or emotion could influence the setting here in the immaterial world. What he had not warned was how damn confusing this place was. Even with Map's help and guidance Sano had to constantly repress the instinct to scream in frustration. This rough hewn hopscotch path with twisted seascape rising on either side was not helping the desire to remain calm. He needed to get a sense of how much farther he had to go. Finding a secure looking bit of rock, Sano knelt down at the edge of the sea. Map drifted in behind him and as she saw him lean towards the water she clutched at the back of his shirt in concern and exasperation. So Sano took a completely unnecessary breath and plunged his head into the nearest slow motion wave.
And like passing through a film of oil his face emerged out into the sun-drenched sky. The clouds around him and far below were white and sparkled like spun crystal. One central wisp hung more solidly in the air far below Sano's viewpoint and it shone flat and solid like a waving path. It was almost beautiful enough to make you forget the massive figures which paced along it. They patrolled like giant guards, one sweeping in a long blue cloak which covered its body save for the head which was a yellow five pointed star that fluttered like flower-petals. From the cape protruded two swords like shards of glass that shone with captured rainbows. The other was a mammoth human figure of muscle and hair with a bare tattooed chest over bright red trousers. Across his shoulders was hefted a massive polearm like a car-sized machete attached to a pine trunk and his face was that of a snarling monkey who was not a fan of visitors. Sano sighed to himself as he saw they had not gotten past the watchers yet. Map had reasons for the path she took them.
Just for a second Sano let his irritation get to him and the clouds around his head began to darken with splashes of grey. He quickly drew back through the surface of the slow ocean before the attention of the guardians could snap up to see him but even that inconsequential slip wore down on his resolve. It took him and the air spirit an unknown time more of leaping from rock to damp and slippery rock in the cleft of an ocean that flailed in violation of physics like the curving arms of a frozen octopus before the two of them reached a tall gate of pillars set across the slow sea path which they could climb down. Here the cloud road below was clear of watchers and ahead a great tree loomed against the horizon. Once they were down on the cloud road Map took Sano's hand and once she did so, every step across the strangely marble hard trail made the distant verdant landmark race forward, looming up impossibly high until Sano could see what he had taken for a fault in his eyes was actually a split in the middle of this mountain sized tree, perfectly vertical from root to crown, dividing the plant into two halves with a gap wide enough for twenty humans to walk abreast. Soon they were making their way between the bisected roots and above them loomed the wooden cliff walls of the trunk, bark pulsing with sap like veins of blood. It was a living canyon through the heart of an organism.
This was the place Yan had told him about. According to their spiritual sponsor the spirit world meetings between members of the government's anti-Avatar program had taken place here. Here and many places like here, but this was the designated rendezvous point for the spy at the Global University. Whatever that agent discovered was their last hope to turn the world against the Avatar and return Firelord Kazuo to the throne.
At first Sano's eyes struggled to continue picking out Map's vague colored outline as they made their way deeper into the shadowed cleft in this vast tree, but as his phantom pupils or his mentality adjusted he began to notice a dim golden glow permeating the air in here. The light seemed to come directly out of the pale wood that surrounded them, towering upwards in endless walls that formed undulations with slight variations from vertical.
Sano did not know how long they walked deeper into the divided heart of the tree. He knew from his biology class that the inner wood of a tree was supposedly dead, all the necessities of growth pumped through the surface under the bark, but here deep in the trunk he only got a sense of overwhelming life. Yan had said that an ally watched over this location. Map seemed sufficiently assured, flying forward and back, and sometimes wafting up and down as she played in the still air thick with scent of bark and leaves.
Ahead the outline of some structure slowly emerged from the golden gloom. On the long flat road of loam between the towering tree halves there now lay in the near distance a low stone platform marked at each corner with a standing stone. In the center of the platform there was a crudely carved rock plinth and on it a large sphere of something that sparkled too much to be glass. Sano ran forward in excitement to finish his mission, but a quick examination of the area showed that there was no one waiting there for him. Map drifted after him as he inspected behind the pillars, and apparently not having understood the purpose of this game searching for the spy contributed by pointing excitedly to random corners and bits of stone. The wind spirit was so visibly ecstatic at having completed her official navigational duties that her contentment wore down on Sano and eventually he just gave her two vigorous thumbs up when she pointed to one of the standing rocks for the fourth time. She seemed satisfied and proceeded to slowly revolve head over heels while smiling broadly.
Sano had no idea what time it was. Had he missed the rendezvous opportunity? But the window was supposed to be hours long and he had begun his meditation far in advance. More out of frustration than any expectation he called out, "Hello!" No one and nothing responded. Was Yan supposed to have given him a codeword or identification phrase? He tried again, "Hello? Is anyone there?"
"Depending on your meaning of 'there' there is always someone," came the voice from above and behind him. "Of course that also depends on your perception of 'anyone'."
Really, he did not know why he kept jumping. He could not help himself from spinning into an attack stance, but as he processed the information from his eyes he knew that even if he had his access to his bending here it would have been a fruitless effort. He assumed this individual was not the human spy he was supposed to contact. For all his adventures here had done to disabused him to notions of scale Sano felt that humans did not come in varieties seven meters tall, even if most of that height was lost where the pale golden flesh merged with the wood of the canyon wall at the waist and wrists. The huge woman leaned her torso out of the cliff of solid timber, her arms stretched behind her like crossbeams. If woman it was for Sano was tired of making assumptions in this world despite the feminine lips curved into a knowing smile and the suggestions of a female shape to the gold skinned body beneath sheets of bark arranged like plate armor.
Sano snapped into a bow of greeting, resisting an unjustified urge to scold Map for not being a better lookout. This gesture also bought him a few moments where he was not looking at the featureless skin above those lips that stretched unblemished by instrument of sense until vanishing into the mass of thick green hair that summited this sparse face. And what hair it was, longer than he could fully perceive and drifting in undulating locks across the breadth of the canyon like river-grass or infinite delicate antenna. As Sano stood there he saw long green strands snaking around and behind him though nothing moved to touch his body directly.
The spirit chuckled warmly and her voice filled the entire air. "Another one of the little humans. I have not seen you before. Did your master lose confidence in one of your fellows?"
"Er, no," Sano stuttered. "Yan sent me. I am Sano."
The tree spirit was impressed. She drew back, leaning up against the trunk wall as her long hair fanned around her in a verdant halo. "Yan made it to the mortal world? I had thought that the attack on the pole was only a half success." She smiled again, a strange gesture without nose or eyes. "But they say he always was a crafty leader. Well, trusted of Yan, I am Shu."
Sano spoke, "I am supposed to meet another human here, but I had an...interesting time coming here and I am worried I missed them. What time is it?" By ingrained habit his hand reached into his pocket for his computer, which to his surprise he found. "Hey, my slab came with me! And the time is...those are not real numbers."
Shu leaned her large golden face down to Sano's level, unhindered by sign of blindness. Strands of hair gestured to the spectral device in his hand. "Your garments and ornaments are only manifestations of your mind. Your tool is not really here."
"Huh, right. Pong app still works, though."
It was then that a flickering of motion to his side caught Sano's eye, and this time it was not Map gamboling in the air or Shu's drifting hair. He smoothly shifted to hide behind one of the standing stones before looking up at Shu who had turned her outthrust body and sightless face towards the new arrival.
An unknown person spoke, "Thank you, honored Shu, for your welcome and your sanctuary." It was a female voice. "Has Aza arrived yet? I have things I really need to tell him."
This person did not sound threatening and apparently Shu knew them, so Sano stepped out from behind his hiding spot with his palms raised. He said, "Hi, I'm..."
"That's not Aza!" The woman's voice came from a blurry human figure, like a watercolor of a person that had been dropped in a pond. What came next was disorientation. Sano suddenly found himself flipped upside down in his same location in a blink and he landed painfully on his head. The newcomer blurred out of sight in sudden speed and as Sano sat up her voice was right behind him. "Shu! Help me!" Sano had his hands pressed against the earth to rise but he suddenly felt himself slipping forward as the ground in front of him rippled and flickered into a view of jagged rocks and fire far below. He tried to scramble back but his hands were sinking into the floor and he was still being pulled forward and down. The woman's voice called out over his yelps, "Shu!"
Shu was amused, "He was sent by Yan, child." Suddenly Sano was sitting on solid earth again. He sprang up and turned on the person who had attacked him. The blurred girl was frozen for a moment and then shrugged guiltily. "Well, he could have said."
Sano sputtered in disbelief, "And when did I have the chance! You just..."
The blurred woman waved her hand, once more seizing control of the conversation. "We don't have time for this. I think the Avatar is moving against the Fire Nation. The rest of the Movement needs to be notified immediately."
Sano could not help laughing, "Moving? Lady, I was there! I am one of three things that walked out of there once Meili smashed into the portal lab and took the Firelord's whole party prisoner! As far as any 'movement' goes, I think right now you are it."
Shock radiated through the woman, and in that moment whatever concentration she used to mask her form wavered. Now a normal girl stood before Sano, wearing e-glasses and clad in a skirt under what looked like a saffron labcoat. She twiddling with the tip of her braid where it hung over her left shoulder but it looked like she did not notice she was doing this. "But, but...They were supposed to help me. What am I going to..."
This was not what he had expected. Sano had envisioned one of the smartly dressed super spies who flitted through the spirit world and casinos of a Nanxiang mover. This girl was not like that, she looked his age and when she was not bending the fabric of this world with her mind she looked as uncertain as Sano felt. Sano collected himself. "Um, I think I came here to meet you. I'm Sano and my friend and I are coming with Lord Yan to help you. You are in Haru city right? That is what the Firelord said before he was captured."
The spy choked slightly, "Firelord Kazuo mentioned me? Er, I mean, right, um. Ok, Lord Yan made it to the physical world? So that is good. I didn't know he was going to try." She suddenly met Sano's eyes, remembering his existence. "Oh! Yes, I am Amala, and I think that the police and the White Lotus are close to finding me. I met a friend and am hidden right now but they were chasing me across the city. There are only three of you?"
"These three will be enough," said Sano managing to muster up some of his usual bravado. "We have rather rapidly become experienced in extracting ourselves from the clutches of the Lotus. In fact we did it the same way both times, I wonder if we should give that move a codename or if that is just unnecessary or..." Amala was looking at him uncertainly. He was not selling this rescue well. "Look, we will get you out. And now Yan knows that the Lotus has the technology to capture spirits so he won't be surprised by that again."
"Capture spirits?" Shu's voice rumbled out above them. "What do you mean by that?"
Sano suddenly found himself the target of more spiritual attention than he felt capable of handling. Shu's sightless face leaned down near him, emphasizing that her head was the size of his torso and above that smooth golden skin hair poised like snakes ready to strike. He stumbled to clarify, but Shu's agitation was not to be mollified.
Amala spoke up, "Shu, are you ok? We can still stop the Avatar's new Tr...You know, the project. You don't have to worry about that."
Shu was muttering and it was not clear if the great spirit heard her. "The human can imprison spirits. Kage, Doubukan...I had thought they were going into hiding, that they had found somewhere the humans could not get to. I had hoped..." Here she trailed off into rustling murmurs.
"Is she..." Sano began.
"She is fine," said Amala. "You need to get out of here and tell Lord Yan so he can help me. The entire city is looking for me and I am sure Huamei is a very nice woman but still I am not entirely sure that I can just indefinitely stay with her since there are many things that she..." She carried on for while.
Sano sorted through this and after a few more exchanges managed to get an address of where Amala was holed up. Despite Shu's reassurances that they were safe from all eavesdropping here in her domain Amala was very nervous and since she was much better schooled in the practices of the spirit world Sano felt safe in being even more uneasy. The woman had a strange habit of switching abruptly from instinctive confidence and command to indecision and meekness. Yet soon Sano had been sufficiently instructed, they were ready to return to their own world, and all Sano's questions were answered but one.
"What about Map?"
Amala was confused, "What?"
"Oh, I mean," Sano stumbled over explaining his journey, "This floating spirit guided me here to Shu's domain but I am not sure she understands me if I tell her to go back home." He gestured futilely to the pastel swirling form of the air sprite who just smiled back.
"Map!"
Amala gave a passing glance at the drifting girl, "What, that? Shu, is it even...?"
The great tree spirit leaned down again, hinging at the merged waist and supported by the crossbeams of her arms where they merged solidly with the wood. She spoke, "Of the lowest cohesion. A simple and recent creation. In fact, if there is no need..."
Sano could not follow this exchange but Amala shrugged and with a sudden look of concentration the world rippled slightly around her. Nearby Map stopped in her absent investigation of one of the stone pillars and a new expression slid across her face. Spinning in the air she now raced upward in an arcing path. Her vaporous eyes were even more vacant than before but as she came shooting down towards the ground she still looked happy. "Map!" She cheered, before she impacted the ground with a puff as her human shell popped.
Sano cried out in shock but Amala only turned to him in puzzlement as he gaped at the little cloud of colored mists that had once made up the sprite's form. The vapors started to dissipate but they were swiftly surrounded by the waves of Shu's long green hair. Soon only an undulating green cocoon could be seen. Amala laid a gentle hand on Sano's arm and spoke with a slow reassuring tone used for people who are unjustifiably agitated. "That creation was just something some other spirit whipped together. It was barely an hour old, and Shu here could always use some more energy. She is the one who makes us safe from the Avatar here. Don't let similarity to human shape cloud your perceptions in this place."
Now the strands of hair parted again and no trace remained of Sano's guide. Shu loomed up above and he thought he might have seen the suggestion of her licking her lips. He tried to say something but Amala once more squeezed his arm. He looked down to see her pleading face. "Please," she said, "The Avatar's forces are closing in on me."
Sano thought that some of Amala's reaction was deliberate choice to influence him. That was not to say that he minded or that it did not work. She did seem to know more about the spirit world. Still, he would be glad to leave this place. He gave a silent prayer to whatever Map had been. At least in the real world he could tell what was murder.
He turned to Amala, "All right. Hold tight. We will be coming to get you. You can trust me."
Somehow Amala did not wince at this action mover cliche like Sano was sure she would. She just said, "Please hurry. You know where I am." Then she faded out of existence in front of him and for a moment the crystal ball on the center stone plinth could be seen through her head like a magical crown. Sano looked up at the mysterious Shu and smiled. He had a quest. He had his best friend, a magical mentor, and now he was off to save a princess. Or an engineering student turned spy but it was really all the same. He had direction and people trusting in him. The Avatar wouldn't know what hit her. Then after a moment's concentration he vanished from this world as well.
Shu looked down at where the little humans had departed from her domain. All the humans of the so called conspiracy gained confidence from the littlest things. Perhaps it was because their minds were obliterated with each death. Shu was over ten thousand years old and the ancients still counted her young. Young she may be by their haughty consideration but she was still powerful. That was why 'Yan' had trusted her to guard these meetings. But Worang had been strong too, and now he was imprisoned. The master would fight forever, that is who he was. However this was her domain, and Shu could learn from the mistakes of others.
She did not move as a shimmering began to spread around the stone platform that marked the heart of the Wooden Canyon, though she may have sagged beneath her bark armor. She hung from the wall as the distortion concentrated on a single of the standing stones marking one corner, and as the obelisk's surface began to ripple she lowered her head so that her waving hair hid her face. Yet behind blinds the eyeless could still see that standing stone melt down into the form of a bald man clad in trailing orange robes. His body was marked by tattoos and his feet did not touch the ground, such as it was here. The feet of the Air Gurus never did.
The man spoke in a calm breathy voice, "I thank you for your assistance, honored Shu. To work for peace is all the more noble when you must act against your friend to do so. The children will be gently treated once they are safely in our custody. You have no need to fear your own imprisonment for the actions of your comrades."
Shu turned, her vast waves of hair stretching out as if buffeted by a slow motion typhoon. "I betrayed nothing. I strove to keep you out of my domain as I promised. I was under no obligation to mention that you had overcame me. Not being forthcoming is not betrayal."
The Guru smiled and to his eyes, despite the spirit's protestations, the Yin and Yang symbol of balance blushed across her forehead. His voice was gentle, "Be at peace. To deny the feelings of guilt is still to be ruled by them. You betrayed no one, as all souls are part of one. Can you betray yourself? Of course not, your interactions with others are merely a continual exercise in self improvement. Your respect for the reduction of violence is a virtue." Here the Guru halted in his philosophizing as a thought struck him. "Among those of your mistaken comrades who preach revolution, who is this Yan? The two children spoke of him with some reverence."
"He is a spirit who has talked at length with the fire humans. In the past he spent much time in the mortal world," Shu said. "Now it appears he has returned." Powerful you may be human, when here in the flesh, but omission beaks no compulsion of truth. The Avatar is fearsome, yet so is the one the people of this time call Yan. That contest has yet to come.
The Guru inspected her words and clearly hoped for more elaboration but in the end was satisfied. With a motion of his hands gentle winds buffeted her and with a twist in space he blurred off into the folded distance.
Five minutes later Agent Jinpa of the White Lotus received an address on the Haru City waterfront.
-Continued-
