It turned out that what Asami wanted to discuss something about her candidacy for the Council. The election results would be announced in just two days and the voters would be the other council members, candidates and several select authorities that formed the recently structured city assembly. The election method was new, it was rare to have to replace so many members at once so the Council was forced to find an innovative and fair process to decide on the new members and this would be the test trial for such method.
Unfortunately, whilst Asami didn't really expect to be chosen, it had come to her attention that somebody had been slandering her image to all the voters, Tenzin had actually been the one to discover and had relayed the information to her two days before but ever since then Asami Sato had been investigating and her research had led her to the discovery that several smear campaigns regarding several candidates where being run with careful precision.
"Wait. Are you telling me someone is trying to make several candidates look bad? For what?" Korra asked in all her political innocence.
"Obviously to give an advantage to other specific candidates." Asami replied patiently.
"But it's all lies!" Korra protested, smacking her good hand on the bed.
"It doesn't really matter if it's truth or lies, Korra. So long as the slander seems credible it will hurt the person's odds. Do you think they actually check every accusation for truth? Besides the fact that a candidate gets smeared indicates a large opposition from the people, which is troublesome for Council." Asami explained with an air of annoyance, not at Korra but at the system itself.
"But that's unfair!"
"Of course it is, but what's ever fair in politics? I mean, come on Korra, you knew Tarrlok." Asami said the name somewhat bitterly.
"Well yeah, but Tarrlok is exactly the reason why they shouldn't make the same mistakes again!" Korra was actually whining.
"They are trying, Korra."
"Damn it, this is why I hate getting involved with politics." Korra sulked, crossing her arms.
"Well, as the Avatar I guess you don't have much choice, huh? Especially in a Republic founded by your predecessor himself." Asami seemed sympathetic.
"…" Korra didn't have a way to refute her.
The Avatar took the news with worry. It did not technically confirm Noatak's theory but it seemed to support it further, however Asami was unable to discover which specific candidates were being favored or who was spreading the lies but she was angry about the lack of fair-play and fully intended to find a solution.
There wasn't much the Avatar could do in this situation but Asami had wanted to ask Korra to appear before the Council on the election day as means to incite fair impartially and she wanted the Avatar to be present during the announcement, probably as a referee in case anything got out of hand. It was only a pretext though and Korra knew it, but Asami didn't want to admit what she really needed.
Korra understood the need for a leap of faith and it didn't bother her, what did bother was that everyone was shuffling her to the backseat in a supporting role while they all tried to fight head on, she could get why Asami would do that given that she now knew of Korra's condition but even Noatak and Tenzin were overprotecting her when she just wanted to jump into the fray and neither of them even knew the truth about her yet. It was upsetting.
The problem was, when Korra tried to fish for more information and demand to get involved, Asami decided to change the subject but after hearing something so serious she really didn't have the patience to hear about stuff like Asami accepting dates with Mako or Chief Beifong arresting some famous hoodlum. The Avatar was beginning to think they all found her useless in intellectual matters because she always got hot-headed and violent but that didn't mean she wasn't paying attention or understanding the situation. She had learned a lot from the equalist war, she had mentally grown up in a substantial way in the last year, and yet they still underestimated her as the sheltered kid.
Korra was sulking and quite vexed but she realized that Asami wouldn't understand why unless she confessed about all the information Noatak had shared with her and she really wasn't ready to dish out anything that could be traced back to Noatak any time soon. So she pretended to go along with the conversation, she owed Asami that much for having accepted her secret so well.
"You sure all you want me to do is show up that day?" Korra asked for the tenth time as Asami got ready to leave. She had some sort of work appointment to get to.
"Yes, Korra. How many times will you ask?" Asami chuckled, finding the insistence sweet.
"I just want to get involved!" Korra complained.
"You are involved, Korra. But we have to let politics take their course, if we actually interfere we'll be no better than cheats. I just want your moral support." Asami seemed determined.
"What about…" Korra was interrupted by Ikki and Meelo barging in.
"Korra, Korra, are you really sick? What happened? What's that on your hand? Do you have a fever? Dad said you were sick and not to bother you but we wanted to come. We fed Naga for you, by the way. Oh- hi Asami!" Ikki prattled on hyperactively.
"Ikki…Ikki!" Korra had to snap a little to get the girl to stop talking. "Yes, I'm a little under the weather but I'm fine ok?"
"Can we do anything to help? Can we? Can we?" Ikki looked from Korra to Asami and back while Meelo stood weirdly to Asami's side staring up at her.
"No, Ikki. Go train." Korra ruffled the girls' fringe.
"Accept my token of affection, beautiful woman." Meelo declared handing Asami some sort of rank-smelling oozing weed with a wilting orange flower bud at the tip. It seemed that the kid was developing a huge crush.
"Oh, I…" Asami looked reluctant.
"She can't, she has a boyfriend, Meelo." Korra chuckled trying to rescue her friend.
"I shall duel him for her honor." Meelo proceeded to show-off a set of airbending fighting stances, making Asami snort discreetly.
"Boyfriend? What boyfriend, Asami? Is it Mako? Did you steal him from Korra again?" Ikki interrupted.
"Ikki! None of your business." Korra seemed appalled and got up on purpose to hush both kids out. "Go practice for that duel with Ikki, Meelo."
As Korra closed the door that could hear Ikki's angry hissing followed by a resounding "Stop! Noooooo!" And a crash as both children rolled down the corridor in some sort on crazy fight. Asami was laughing as they left but stopped only to give Korra another hug before she headed out herself. Korra wondered when her friend had become so spontaneously affectionate.
By the time jade-eyed beauty had left, leaving Korra with the invitation for the election day, the Avatar was annoyed by her feelings about all the secrets being kept around her and Ikki's prying, her head also hurt from trying to understand the complexity of political matters; and yet the kids' antics had lightened her mood yet again. But it was mid-afternoon and she was starving.
After a bath to wash off the dust from sleeping on the floor and the acrid smell of throw up, Korra got back to her room, fully intending to comb her moist hair and head down to eat but luckily Pema was the best caretaker of the world and actually brought her some food to her room; Korra initially feared it would be rice porridge or broth since she was supposed to be sick but Pema had a whole tray of delicious left-overs from lunch.
As Korra dug into the food, Pema sat next to her, smiling at the avatar's obviously eager appetite.
"Someone's feeling better." The older woman commented with good humor.
"Yup." Korra replied, chugging down some cool water with a fried tofu ball. She actually missed meat and fish a lot but everyone was vegetarian at the temple so she never asked for it even if Pema would occasionally bring her some grilled meat skewers from the market.
"Well, that's good." Pema smiled and placed a small package next to Korra. "Here. This helps."
"What's this for?" Korra curiously opened the brown paper pouch to find crushed herbs, she sniffed it and detected ginger and a couple of dried plants she wasn't familiar with. "Tea?"
"Yes, tea. It' helps." Pema repeated herself not really answering the question and left the room with a smile. "Bring the dishes down when you're done, ok?"
Korra didn't actually understand what she meant but her curiosity got the better of her and she used firebending to boil her water and brew a pinch of the mixture. «A little tea can't do any harm, right?» She thought to herself as she sipped up the drink. It was spicy and pungent but delicious.
By the time she finished a whole cup and gathered the dirty dishes she began to realize what Pema meant- the drink did help, the constant pang of nausea she had had since the day before was fading into nothing and she was feeling like her old self again. It made her feel great and she was suddenly her optimistic self again but she wondered if Pema knew anything about her secret and if she did…that felt scary because it just meant she was becoming obvious.
~~~~~~.:oOo:.~~~~~~~
Korra waited for Noatak that night, sipping on tea on looking out the window, but he did not show up. She wondered bitterly if it was because she had thrown him out or because he was meddling into something dangerous. Deciding that she didn't want to know, she sprawled on the bed and slept- clothes and all.
She woke up the next morning with another panicky dream; it was the exact same as the one she had had the day she had slept next to Naga except much, much worse. She sat up, wiping cold sweat from her forehead and gasping for air and looked around the room nervously- everything seemed reassuringly the same except the half-drunk cup of tea that she thought she left by the window but was now next to the bed, she picked it up on instinct and drank, realizing how parched her throat was. It was cold and had taken on a bitterness of oxidized tea but it was oddly reassuring in its normality too and she found it kept her from puking her guts out again.
She got up after that since it was already morning and leaned to the window, the soothing foggy breeze seemed to help her catch her breath and soon she was following the usual routine, in which she bathed, dressed and headed down for breakfast trying to seem normal to everyone around her. She knew then that it was going to become a daily thing unless she did something about the dreams.
Korra was really confused; during the war crisis all her flashes and visions had pointed to a single event, a single warning, but now she suffered from a jumble of different flashes and visions and something that she didn't really know what it was because it felt like a warning and threat and a murky premonition all at once rather than something a previous avatar experienced. It was driving her crazy that she couldn't figure the mystery out but ever since the gazebo incident she was reluctant to meditate on things too deeply but figured she'd have to overcome that fear sooner or later.
The rest of the day turned out to completely normal and passed quickly, this felt strange for Korra after the long dreary events of the previous days. She practiced airbending forms, had her meals with everyone, challenged all three air-babies, as she teasingly called them, for a match, and didn't feel sick in any way so long as she kept drinking Pema's tea, all in all she felt like herself again. She also sat down with Tenzin and made him elaborate on the candidates for Council only to figure out, with a little dread, that as the Avatar she was required to vote too. Luckily, the voting process was being kept anonymous this year rather than by head count like before so all she needed to do was select the candidates she supported on a piece of parchment and deliver it to main Council table. She figured it shouldn't be too hard.
It was a good day for Korra, nightmares and worrying for Noatak apart, she actual felt as if a semblance of her old life was back. The only anxious part of her day were the looks of worry Katara gave her, apparently the old master was under the impression that something was wrong between Korra and her nighttime visitor, but Korra didn't really get a proper chance to explain the facts that day.
~~~~~~.:oOo:.~~~~~~
On the election day Korra woke up much earlier than necessary. She was nervous for some reason and her recurrent dreams didn't let her sleep past dawn, the fact that Noatak hadn't showed up for the second night in a row also troubled her and she had bad feeling about it.
She dressed comfortably in her usual attire, detecting that the weather was cooling down a little. She didn't mind at all, she preferred the cold anyway and was eager to see summer come to an end, even if that was still weeks away the sun was obscured by a light swatting of clouds that colored the sky in greying white rather than blue and allowed a stuffy but cooler breeze to blow onto the city.
Breakfast was actually a quiet event given that only Tenzin and Korra were there, they were eating earlier in order to be at City Hall ahead of time and the others were all still asleep except for Pema who was kind enough to cook for them, in fact she made Korra's favorite sweet buns to go along with the broth, tea, fruit and tofu wraps.
Deciding Naga needed some exercise, Korra took her along and on the ferry the Avatar began to feel more excited and energized. Who knew, maybe the day would have some action after all.
City Hall was already littered with all the voters that were taking their seats and waiting for the process to commence. Nobody seemed particularly inclined to speak to each other and there was a still a lazy early morning pace over most people present. There were, however, a few groups of people clustered around discussing the candidates in whispers and shooting furtive glares at those that were disliked.
Asami herself was gathered with the other candidates, they all had orders not to vote for themselves in order to give a fair edge to everyone but Korra could see the flaw in that system- if the votes were to be kept anonymous who would ever know if they voted for someone else or not?
Korra was ushered right up to the front row as Tenzin to his place with the Council members. It felt lonely being there amongst a mass of people that knew her by reputation when she didn't know a single one of them. To avoid more awkwardness she looked around the Hall, she was shocked to remember that was the same space she had pretty much wrecked in her fight with Tarrlok, everything seemed perfectly pristine as if nothing wrong had ever happened there.
After several yawn inducing minutes, the whole Council was in place. She saw the squeaky spectacled man that used to be Tarrlok's assistant standing at the edge with some sort of box in his hands; Korra assumed he'd been chosen to take the votes and her assumption proved correct.
She also noticed that while Chief Beifong was one of the authorities chosen to vote as well, many of her own metalbending personnel were surrounding the area, either for protection or fair-play, Korra assumed it was for both.
"The Council hereby opens this voting session." The Fire representative boomed.
"We will now explain how this session will take place." Tenzin spoke calmly but with commanding presence. "Each of you will be given three sheets of parchment, each sheet will be directed to the election of one Council member. All the members for each category are displayed on their respective sheet, merely circle your chosen options and deliver them in line at the ballot." He waved gracefully at the nervous-looking little man.
It turned out that as the Avatar, Korra was the first to vote. She wasn't really happy with the attention but it was surprisingly easy.
The first sheet of parchment held the sketch of each of the non-bender candidate's faces and their names annexed to it. Asami was the top choice and Korra quickly circled it with the piece of charcoal supplied to each voter.
The second sheet held the names and faces of all the Water candidates. She spotted the man Noatak had warned her about in the second slot, the grey haired man looked kind and competent but Korra wasn't risking it and instead voted for the third option- the top-knot wearing, bulky middle-aged guy named Sukuda that had supported her before; he seemed to be the youngest of all candidates but Korra didn't really care.
The third sheet of paper held the choices of Earth Kingdom representative. Korra immediately spotted the one person she didn't want to choose- Amora Kufeng was the only female face and held the last slot. Korra ended up selecting the first choice, a man Tenzin spoke highly enough about, Korra didn't have enough information to make a more informed decision but she didn't really mind.
The Avatar was the first to place her vote in the box, earning whispers and stares from most of those present. It was incredibly annoying but she was soon back at her seat and waiting as the throngs of people copied her actions. It wasn't that there were really that many people, it was simply that it was a slow boring process.
Eventually, all the candidates placed their votes and at last the Council members themselves handed over their choices. Moments later the session was placed on hold while the nervous looking ballot holder and two bespectacled officials counted the votes.
Everybody else was free to do what they wanted during the wait but most people chose to stay in their seats. Korra was too bored so she headed over to Asami by the Hall entrance where Mako and Bolin had showed up to wish her good luck.
"Korra! You're here too!" Bolin announced a little too loudly.
"Of course she it, Bo. You think they wouldn't ask for the Avatar's vote?" Mako reproached, apparently he was a lousy mood.
"Right, right. Avatar stuff." Bolin rubbed his neck as if a little embarrassed. "Good luck." He grinned at Korra.
"Actually we already voted, Bolin." Korra gave him her cocky smile.
"What? Everyone?" Bolin seemed astounded.
"Yup. Just waiting for the results." Korra nodded, for once she wasn't the one politically confused and it actually made her feel great, if a little bad for Bolin. She wondered if that was how everyone else felt around her most of the time.
"Good luck, Asami." Mako hesitated but placed a peck on the raven-haired woman's cheek, giving Korra a self-conscious glance.
"Thanks, Mako." Asami replied with her soft voice, giving him a little smile.
"Yeah, good luck A." Korra reinforced, smiling at Mako. She was starting to feel a little bad that she had broken his heart and caused all the tension between them.
"Yeah, good luck! Do you still have that lucky bunny-rat paw I gave you?" Bolin was poking at Asami's cheek playfully.
"Um…Yeah, Bolin, I do." Asami seemed a little squeamish about the issue. "Thanks." She added to both Bolin and Korra.
"So, Korra, who's gonna win this thing?" Bolin elbowed Korra companionably.
"Asami. Duh!" Korra chuckled, elbowing him back.
"It's not a competition, guys." Asami chided playfully.
The banter stretched on a bit hesitantly, they were aware of some of the disapproving glances that people were shooting in their direction, most of which were directed at Asami herself. Korra was starting to get annoyed and a little curious about what rumors people had been spreading around about her friend.
"Want to go out to lunch after this?" Bolin asked to the gathering in general, after a particularly long and uncomfortable stretch of conversation with all eyes on them.
"Sure, we could…" Korra was interrupted by the voices of the officials calling people back inside.
"See you in a bit." Asami announced and headed back towards the line of candidates.
Bolin and Mako waved goodbye and headed somewhere outside to wait for the end of the session. Korra herself just took her assigned seat again.
"This session is now back in order." One of the Councilors rumbled loudly.
Korra waited anxiously as the results were passed around the Council table for verification. Tenzin was the last one to receive them and got up, walking to the center of the raised dais were the Council table was erected. He cleared his throat, the metalbending police shifted into military stance, those present murmured among themselves softly and Korra knew the results were coming.
It was time to face the music.
~~~~~~.:oOo:.~~~~~~
(Author's Note: Next chapter will be action packed. Get ready to see Korra fight again.)