"What is this?" Tenzin demanded. "I thought you said you were healing her!"
The blood that spotted Tenzin's fingers was also present just inside Korra's ear, not from a wound to the appendage but seeping from deeper inside. This was bad. This was very, very bad. Tahno knew what it was because he'd heard healers talk about it amongst themselves; her brain was hemorrhaging, Somewhere in her head, an artery or blood vessel or whatever had ruptured and broken, causing internal bleeding. He knew it to be commonplace among head injuries, but had counted them lucky that she hadn't displayed any symptoms beyond a minor concussion. Why now? She hadn't hit her head again, hadn't done anything to make the damage worse…If she had overexerted herself somehow, then maybe it could have led to such a problem…
"Are you listening to me?!" the air master snarled, jerking Tahno by the shoulder. "Why is she bleeding like this?!"
Still staring, dumbfounded, Tahno tried to articulate a response with what little medicinal knowledge he possessed.
"I think...I'm not sure, but when she encountered Mako...She strained herself a lot, and just now she used her bending for the first time since she got hurt…" Tahno mumbled. "Maybe the strain was too much, on top of her injury…"
"But she's the Avatar!" Tenzin cried, more horrified than angry. "How could she have overexerted herself from bending?!"
Tahno shook his head, words failing him. She hadn't said anything, but for this to have even been a possibility, she had to have been enduring agonizing headaches and incredible weakness in her body. Sure, her hands were tremble a little sometimes or she would stumble while walking, but he would never have thought to attribute those to her brain short-circuiting rather than simple vertigo. She should have told him if she was feeling anything like that, because he couldn't very well try to heal her if he didn't even know the extent of her pains.
"She still has a human body," Tahno shrugged hopelessly.
"Can you heal this?" Tenzin wondered.
"I...don't know," he answered honestly, but even as he said it, something caught his eye through the nearest window. He glanced outside and noticed that the moon was beginning to rise, its silvery fullness seeming to dominate the still-lit sky, as of yet neither abandoned by the sun nor occupied by stars.
Waterbenders were at their most powerful beneath the full moon. That fact was as well-known as it was overlooked. There were techniques a Waterbender could only perform at that time, techniques not generally acknowledged or welcomed by the vast majority of society because they were cruel and inhumane. However, as he stared up at the moon, Tahno wondered if maybe those techniques could serve another purpose, a better one.
Quickly he turned back to Tenzin, who was looking at Korra as though completely lost for what to do or how to help her. Thank Yue he had someone as useful and quick-witted as the illustrious Tahno for guidance.
"I have an idea," the Waterbender said without preamble. "Take her to her room."
Tenzin was wise enough not to waste their time with questions, hoisting Korra effortlessly into his arms and all but sprinting down the corridor with Tahno close on his heels. Her door was open, saving them the trouble as they entered.
"What are you going to do?" Tenzin asked as he laid Korra down on her bed.
"Something you probably won't approve of," Tahno said bluntly. "But I think it's our only shot at actually healing her. I should've tried it sooner, but I didn't even think of it."
"What are you-" Tenzin began.
"I'll ask Katara's forgiveness later," Tahno interrupted, and he moved his hands to hover over Korra, closing his eyes and reaching out with that sixth sense.
He felt the waves crashing against the cliffs outside, felt the seawater spray into the air before splattering over the ground. He felt pools of water sitting stagnant outside and beneath the temple, stirred occasionally by a breeze. And he felt the water right beneath his fingers, rushing without pause in small tunnels and canals to keep its host alive. Tenzin's voice faded away from Tahno's awareness as he flexed his hands above that last source of water, the liquid that kept every person walking and talking and living day to day. Beneath a full moon, he could do it easily.
Bloodbending had been outlawed by Katara shortly after Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko founded their hard-won peace, and Tahno fully understood her reasons for that. It was a dangerous practice and a cruel one, taking the free will away from another human and bending that person to the attacker's will. However, it hadn't been given a chance to be explored for any other purposes it might serve. Blood was the life of any person, a substance meant to heal and protect the physical body. If that was the case, then maybe, just maybe, it could be used as an even more powerful healing agent than water.
Tahno latched on to the presence of water inside Korra's body, feeling his way through it to the injuries in her head and sensing them as he never had when trying to heal them with only water. He could sense every rupture, every microscopic tear and bruise that aided her present condition, and began to knit it all back together. Dimly he was aware of Tenzin saying something behind him, but Tahno was too focused to pay the older man any attention. This was working, he could feel it, and he wasn't about to be distracted now.
Sweat began to bead on his brow and roll down his back as he used the blood inside Korra to fix up her body the way it could never have done on its own. It was like he had turned the fluid into needle and thread and was sewing her wounds shut with the care and precision a seamstress might use on a piece of particular elegance.
Minutes to hours the time passed, and when Tahno at last collapsed into the chair at Korra's bedside, the sun had long since gone from the sky and his shirt was stained with sweat. Tenzin had not moved from where he stood when Tahno had begun working, but he did stumble to Korra's side when at last the Waterbender vacated it, saying words that he couldn't quite comprehend in his dazed fatigue. Patching Korra up via Bloodbending had been harder than Tahno would have imagined, but at the same time easier than he had dared hope. Korra's injuries were healed, maybe not perfectly, but with some rest, she should make a full recovery. She would be alright. As to whether or not her memories came as part of the deal, Tahno couldn't say.
"...going to be alright?"
The raven-haired man blinked and looked around. Tenzin's gaze was fixed on him, his expression bordering on frantic.
"Huh?" Tahno said eloquently, not having caught the first part of the air master's query.
"Is she going to be alright?" the man repeated. "Korra. Will she recover?"
"She should," Tahno nodded wearily, leaning back in the chair and closing his eyes. He wouldn't mind some sleep. Bloodbending was, apparently, quite as taxing on the bender as it was on the victim.
"Thank goodness," Tenzin breathed, obviously relieved. "I never would have imagine how much trouble she would be."
Tahno snorted in amusement but said nothing. There was a moment of silence.
"Tahno."
"Mm?"
"Thank you."
"Mm...Anytime," he mumbled hazily.
"If there is any way I could repay you for this…"
"Just one thing," the Waterbender requested.
"Anything."
"Keep Mako out of here for a while."
Tenzin stifled a chuckle and swept out of the room without another word, clearly assuming that Tahno was not up to moving anytime soon. Quite correctly, of course. He found that even had he wanted to, he could not force his eyelids open, and that black, yawning void called sleep dragged him easily into its clutches. He met it with open arms, and was lost for a short time to the real world.
When Tahno woke, he found that a blanket had been draped over him and a pillow had been carefully tucked beneath his neck at some point in the night. There was also an oppressive weight on his lap that revealed itself to be the very large head of Naga, Korra's unusually friendly polarbear dog. Naga's ears perked up when he stirred and she stood up on all fours to sniff his face, her huge, warm tongue licking him chin to forehead and making him splutter incoherently at the wet, slimy sensation. The creature just barked and wagged her tail happily before bounding out of the room.
The Waterbender shook his head after the animal and rose to his feet, setting the unfolded blanket and the pillow on the seat of the chair and stretching languidly, giving a wince as his joints popped and cracked from his less than princely sleeping arrangements. Upon looking around the room, Tahno found that he was quite alone, though the warm and unmade bed suggested that Korra hadn't been gone long.
Working his shoulders gingerly, Tahno strode out of her room and down the hall that led to the main entrance. He could hear voices coming from there, and when he entered, he found a group of people sitting around a table eating breakfast and talking quietly. The chatter died the moment they saw Tahno, but far from shunning him like he expected, everyone immediately moved to open a spot for him amongst them. He took it gratefully, realizing that he was famished when somebody offered him a fresh-baked roll.
"Good morning, Tahno," said Tenzin graciously. Next to him, Pema spared him a warm smile before turning back to her baby.
The Sato girl nodded her head to him in acknowledgement, and the idiot Bolin whom he had sat beside nudged him with his elbow, his mouth too full to speak. Mako was conspicuously absent from the table, leaving Korra on Tahno's immediate left. She neither looked at him nor made any attempt to welcome him to the table, but neither did she seem to reject his presence. She looked very tired, her face pale despite its olive tone and her eyes downcast.
"Mornin'," Tahno responded with a yawn, loading his plate with an assortment of fruits and cheeses, noting as he did that Tenzin clearly meant for Airbenders to remain vegetarians, not even providing eggs for breakfast. Not that it made any difference to him one way or the other.
"I trust you slept well?" the monk continued.
"Surprisingly," he said as he broke a roll in half and applied liberal amounts of what looked like pear jam. "Considering I was in a hard chair all night."
"Didn't Tenzin offer you a bed?" Pema asked, throwing a reproving look at her husband, who balked visibly and tried to stammer a reply.
"I was asleep before he had the chance," Tahno offered. Tenzin threw him a grateful glance.
Silence fell again as the group continued to eat, broken only when Meelo burst into the room demanding that Bolin's fire ferret play with him and returning the instant the boy left. Tahno was just about to force Korra into speaking up when she rose abruptly to her feet, setting her napkin on the table.
"I think I'm gonna go meditate for a while," she said shortly, turning on her heel and striding quickly out of the room.
Tahno stared after her, more than a little confused by her curtness this morning. Was she still in pain? Had she had another altercation with the Firebending brat? If so, what was she giving him the cold shoulder for?
Without a word Tahno rose and made to follow Korra, fully expecting somebody to try and stop him for whatever stupid reasons they might provide. Instead, all he got was a half-joking warning from Bolin that when Korra was in one of her moods, it was best to remain at least an arm's length away and be on alert in case she decided bending him seemed an attractive notion to her.
"I'll keep that in mind," Tahno noted drily. Then he made his way out as well.