Final chapter of book 1!
Thanks to my reviewers!
The First Avatar: Legend of the Star
Book 1: Earth
Chapter 25: The Burning Earth Pt. 2
Will and the rest of Team Avatar stared down at the ruined estate, their eyes wide as they witnessed the Lightbenders battling with the Estate Guards. The guards were elite warriors and benders of all kinds but they were no match for the Lightbenders. Before Will could issue any orders, he sensed two powerful presences disappear.
"Kyora and the Lightbender leader have disappeared. She must have been Chi Flickered somehow, which means the Leader is a powerful Energybender." Will said, scowling at the mountainside symbol that the enemy had carved. In his hand, he held Ophi in staff form while his other hand played with the small dagger.
Asami closed her eyes to try and sense what was going on and like Will had said, neither Kyora nor the enemy leader were in the estate. "They are gone…but I still sense her parents. We can interrogate and arrest them."
Will nodded. "Correct. Team Baizon, I want you to try and rescue any civilians. Team Pisces, I want you to search for any evidence of abuse. Teams Korra, Lin and Rohan, assist in the fight against the Lightbenders. Leo, search for Kyora's father and Aries, look for her mother."
Everyone nodded and jumped from the Airship, finding their own ways to a safe landing. Noatak and Will stood alone on the Airship for a few moments while Will thought. "Will, what are the two of us going to do?" the former Equalist asked.
"Noatak, stay here and manage the Teams." Will said, handing him a small blood red stone. "This stone will allow you to speak telepathically to the other members. Let them all know what's happening to the other teams." Will instructed.
"Okay, and what of you?" Noatak asked, his eyes closely watching Will.
"Ophi and I are going to try and find Kyora. We'll keep in contact with you. It's best I'm not here when you interrogate the Hoshins." Will said simply. Noatak sighed and shook his head.
"Do you have so little faith in your own Self-Control?"
Will didn't answer, instead choosing to fly off without a word. Noatak sighed again and went back to concentrating on the battle.
Teams Korra, Lin and Rohan had spread out across the estate turned battlefield and began to repel the Lightbenders. Mako and Asami quickly found their way to the kitchens where the kitchen staff were being threatened by three Lightbenders. Upon seeing the two of them, the Lightbenders spun around and sneered at them.
"Well if it isn't the failures! That kid went through hell because of you!" One of them yelled, making Mako growl.
"We didn't exactly have a choice in the matter! Besides, we didn't know this would happen!" he roared at them. His anger was met with cold glares.
"Try using that as an excuse when you face her again, IF you can face her again." The Lightbender said back.
Mako roared and pounced, swinging his flaming fist at the talking enemy only for him to bounce painfully off a wall of light. The wall, like all Lightbender Constructs, looked like a shimmering wall of crystal that gleamed an odd shade of orange when in close proximity with Mako's flames.
"Mako, we can't be careless here. A Lightbender can create almost anything they want and we can't break it!" Asami reminded her fallen husband. The Lightbender that had created the wall gave orders to the other two and they both grabbed the kitchen staff and trapped them in crystal like Light Prisons which levitated behind them as they fled. With his two men gone, the Lightbender turned back to Mako and Asami.
"My name is Paladin Lieutenant Gabriel. No, that is not my given name but a title given to me by her holiness. We were sent here to collect Miss Kyora after Mistress Tekari sensed she was in great peril. I was to deliver a message the next time I met one of you." the man said, pulling of his mask and voice changer. His eyes were red and his hair a golden blond with an incredibly handsome face.
Asami and Mako looked warily at him. "What message?" Asami asked cautiously.
Gabriel cleared his throat and began to chant the message. "The Sun did rise and give us it's light. Then the Moon did rise and brighten the darkness. Now the Stars must heed our call and bathe the Earth and the Heavens in Eternal Light! Should the light not bathe us, then the Beast will rise and swallow us all. And then the Cycle will begin anew."
Mako's glare became a look of bewilderment. "Is that supposed to be some kind of prayer from your crazy cult?" he asked mockingly.
"Fool! That is the word of her Holiness that you belittle! And we are no cult, we are an ancient and powerful order of Paladins!" Gabriel hissed.
Asami rolled her eyes, "Enough bickering! Tell us where Kyora is." She demanded.
"She is in our home city. The city of Light: Los Luminus! We do not wish to go against her will so Kyora will be returned whenever she wishes. The Prayer is a message to Silver, Korra and the Kami. My own personal message is for all of Team Avatar: all will receive their fair judgement and if I were you, I'd try and repent while I still could." Gabriel taunted, facing Mako from behind the light wall.
Mako snorted, "Big words when hiding behind a wall."
"Oh, we will have our battle one day, I promise you." the Lightbender said before turning on his heels and fleeing through the back door of the kitchens. By the time the wall of light disappeared, he was long gone and there was nothing Mako could do to find him. Even as the sounds of battle echoed around the Estate, Mako found himself feeling oddly about the prayer that had been said…and what Gabriel meant when he had talked about repenting.
Elsewhere in the estate, Leo and Aries were walking together through a hallway, far away from the raging battle outside. "I hope we find these bastards soon." Leo said angrily as he tore apart another room while Aries waited in the hall.
"I think Will had you and me searching for the Hoshins because we're the most likely to kill them…well you are at least." She said in a teasing tone. Since having her son, Aries preferred to face sadness and anger with a sense of humour, seeing as it worked so well for Regulus.
Leo grumbled at the comment, knowing he'd be in serious trouble with the others if he killed them. "Relax, I'll not lay a finger on them…despite what they've done, Kyora will likely hate us for hurting them."
"She was always too forgiving." Aries muttered sadly.
"Indeed. That forgiving nature may cost her a lot of pain one day…the world is never short on people who would abuse her forgiveness." Leo muttered back. Since the room he was currently ransacking was the last one in this wing of the estate, Leo was about to turn away when he noticed some things that made him nervous.
"This must have been Kyora's bedroom." He said sadly, picking up a tattered old toy.
Aries looked around, "Probably. There's a little blood on the floor…and a massive hole in the wall and ceiling. The one in the ceiling looks like it was burnt open." She commented.
"Lightbending might burn, I'm not sure. I'd like to think that the lightbenders broke in here and Kyora fought back and that the blood is theirs…but it looks too dry. This may have even been dry before they arrived." Leo said, his voice filled with anger and sorrow. Aries patted him on the back with a sympathetic smile.
"Hey, we'll find her. She'll be okay and we'll forget all of this even happened." She comforted. Before anymore words could pass between the two, Noatak contacted them in their minds.
"The Lightbenders are retreating! They are Chi Flickering away! All the guards and civilians are safe now and…we found the Hoshins. All members return to the courtyard."
The two former subjects frowned at Noatak's odd tone and raced back to the courtyard, arriving there at the same time as Mako and Asami. There, lying in a heap was a very battered and bruised corpse, but it was still recognisable as…
"Toroi Hoshin." Lin said coldly, looking at the body. "Looks like he was beaten up pretty bad before someone finally snapped his neck."
Tenzin nodded, "This wasn't done by a Lightbender, they wounds suggest he was beaten with stones, sticks and random blunt objects. He must have been attacked by the civilians here."
One such man stepped forward from a group of them that was cowering away from the team. "Aye Sir, we killed him. Poor Miss Kyora… he demanded that she quit Team Avatar and pledge herself as a servant of the council. When she refused, he beat her up! All we could hear for bleeding hours was that little girl screaming and her mother begging this bastard to stop. We couldn't risk losing our jobs so we did nothin'…these Hoshins like to hire the poor 'cause they know we can't afford to disobey 'em. At least 'till them white robes came! We realised real quick we weren't gonna get paid anyway so we took our chance and bludgeoned him to death." The man admitted proudly.
Jinora smiled wickedly, "Now that was a serious crime…murdering a man is a big deal in both court and the Spirit World. Murderers are relentlessly hunted there. If you servants agree to work at my temple, I'll make sure your spirits are redeemed. I'll provide food and lodgings for you and your families of course, and a wage as well so you aren't tempted to steal."
The Air Matriarch's façade was a transparent as they came, but everyone played along and the servants and guards all eagerly accepted the position. Among the civilians was Azaia, Kyora's mother, who was looking sadly at her dead husband. When Iroh noticed her, he grabbed her and dragged her forward.
"Did you really think we wouldn't find you?" he said angrily.
"No, I counted on you finding me. I want to turn myself in for what I've done…you can also charge me with my husband's murder, it was my foot that broke his neck." The woman admitted.
Team Avatar looked at the woman with varied expressions, only Young Maruka was willing to speak to her. "So, you finally feel some guilt for everything you've done to Kyo?"
Azaia opened her mouth like she was going to refute the young girl, but decided against it. "Yes. I waive my rights as a parent…I hand my daughter over to Team Avatar. In just a few weeks, you've made her happier than I have in my entire life. When we first found out she was the Avatar, things were good for all of us. Toroi and I loved her dearly and we all enjoyed the things we got because of her, but when her bending training began to go poorly, we feared we'd lose what we had gained. Over time we just lost ourselves and Kyora paid the price. In a way, she's still the same little girl she was at five years old. She has never really grown up past then."
Lin sighed, "She's telling the truth about everything. So you both truly loved her once? If only you had held on to that instead of wealth…but why did you constantly refuse to allow us access to her? We must have tried at least a hundred times."
"We-We were scared we'd be discovered. We thought we'd be arrested if anyone found out about what really happened at home." The woman admitted. Most of the adults felt pity for the woman while the children were…less kind.
"Kyora was BEATEN! All because you were scared of losing your fancy house! You deserve no better than your husband." Haiumi spat.
"I'd do the honours myself, but I'd rather not dirty my hands with your filthy blood." Baizon said, turning away so he wouldn't have to see her face.
Yanos didn't say anything, instead choosing to stand beside his mother Ikki and scowl. Regulus and Lyrae both glared down at the woman with a look that could almost kill with fear.
"I say we hand her over to Korra and Silver. Let their divines rip her to pieces." Kirok said coldly.
"No, we throw her in jail. That's enough." Maruka said, holding Bolin's hand tightly. "If we killed her, Kyora would be sad. It's bad enough her dad is dead, she'll only blame herself if we let this one die too."
Despite the disagreements between the children and the adults as to what they should do, they all knew that Maruka was right. With that, everyone piled into the Team Avatar Airship and the Hoshin's Airship, heading home to the Western Air Temple while they awaited news from Will and Ophi.
OXOXOXO
1st Day of Summer 191ACS
OXOXOXO
The time spent at the estate and the journey back took up all that was left of the last day of spring, making them arrive in the early hours of Summer 1st. Korra and Silver greeted them with the other Kami in tow and before long, every single one of the nobles were woken up and assembled for the last council meeting.
Lin explained everything that had happened at the estate which amounted to nothing more than finding some scared civilians, getting into battles with Lightbenders which were never won or lost and finally finding the Hoshins, one alive and one dead. Nothing good came of the meeting until Mako recited the prayer that Gabriel had told him.
Kona had shot up in his seat and all the Kami had squirmed in their chairs, like their Divines were responding as well.
"Kona, what does all this mean? What is the beast and all this business about Heaven and Stars?" Korra asked, Tsukiyomi having gone quiet.
Kona frowned before punching (and destroying) the wooden desk for the Kami Delegation. "I cannot believe she would actually reveal such ancient forbidden knowledge." He mumbled. With his temper quelled, he stood up and took Jinora's place in the centre of the room.
"Ladies and Gentleman of the Council. As you are all aware, the Spirit King known as Izanagi created from his three eyes, three Divine Daughters and then made the five members of the Divine Circle from feathers from his wings. Currently there are five female divines and three male ones. Izanagi values balance above all else, so why create more females than males? Why create more Divine Circle Members than his own children?"
Silver's heart sank as she realised where this was going.
"Izanagi has two sons. And they are aiming for our destruction"
OXOXOXO
Avatar Extra:
End of Book Message
OXOXOXO
Okay! With the one week break until I start uploading book 1, I'm sure a lot of you are now mad at me for the cliff hanger. Well…I'm gonna make you hate me even more now.
I will still be releasing in one week (so next Tuesday) but from this point on, chapters will not be daily. I will release them every other day as sadly, I don't have the time anymore to write every day, especially so close to Christmas. When I have more time, I'll hopefully return to daily updates so I hope you understand but I'll brace myself for rage anyway :D See ya next week.
OXOXOXO
Avatar Trivia:
Book 1 Chapter 25
OXOXOXO
I planned this chapter to be part of redemption for Azaia. She'll be fully "redeemed" by the end of book 2.
The way most of these books are lined up is that the first ten chapters is for training/Kyora/post-book finale parts to the story while the centre is very filler like, with the final few chapters being the end of the book villain and the major continuations of the plot. But I'm tricky so I try to always weave some new and important info into each chapter.
Kyora is planned to be the only person to use real Divine powers on-screen.
As demonstrated in the earth trials chapter, Kyora has the ability to create anything she wants from her chi, however this is very difficult as it nearly exhausts her relatively low amount of chi.
A massive theme in LOS is duality. Light and Darkness, Chaos and Order, Balance and Imbalance, etc. it's also meant to highlight how you cannot have one without the other and a few other little things that'll come out after awhile.
Hope you liked it!
thanks for reading!
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