A/N: Some dialogue from "The Painted Lady" in here. So just to be on the safe side - Avatar is owned by incredible people who are definitely not me.


Water was flowing, yet water was dying.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. The breath she took in the headwaters, tumbling over granite and obsidian, should have been renewed by slower sips along her winding track; skirling eddies, the in-breath of shelled life, the splash of fish. She should have rejoiced in her people, laughing and playing pranks with nets as they fished and swam.

But she was ill, and they were ill, and all were dying.

Where is Jang Hui's lord?

Lost and gone, feverish memory reminded her; to greed, to death. The clans remaining were helpless, humans weakened beyond her fragile power to mend.

Where are my kin-who-were?

Lost and gone, felled by Sozin's orders. Some wings yet flew, she sensed it - but few and far. Agni's eyes and ears were not here.

Where are the firebenders? Where is a Sage to hear me?

None to be found. War had swallowed the benders with their lord, and all Jang Hui had left was poisoned hope. No one had the power to draw her forth...

My name.

She heard it ruffle the river. Felt it thrum through the town pilings, as power moved. Shivered, as it lingered like a mantle cast about one who was not hers.

Who dares?

One night, she might endure, enraged. Two, even, she might have suffered, to let a little mortal fool escape with but a warning. Three-

The mirror was ice, was water, was her. She looked into a painted face and alien blue eyes.

You claim to be the Painted Lady? I accept.

Breath. Heaviness of bone and muscle, lacking the fluidity of water. A scream of terror in the back of the human's mind. "Hush."

A young voice. Hmph. Old enough to know better, no matter what protests now rose from a trapped mind-

Oh. How very, darkly amusing. "I am a Fire Nation spirit, so I cannot be real? Silly child."

Rage and fear and demanding-

"Hush," the Painted Lady said firmly, taking her first steps in borrowed flesh. "I am a river. I have no wish to be you. You took my name. You took my place. So now you will help me mend my ills. And then you and yours will leave, or I will blaze your invasion from here to Shirotora."

Affronted outrage.

"You were trying to help?" The river spirit hissed, water lapping sand. "Then help. As a human. My name, foolish girl! It binds me, it is bound to me, as your flesh and bone are to you! As well skin your own brother and wear him for your robe. How dare you? I could plunge you to the river bottom to drown, and no spirit would say I had done anything but justice!"

Fear. Disbelief. And again, fury.

"Oh? What else should you expect of a Fire Nation spirit, hmm?" She reached out to the water, testing the power this bender carried. Yes; it might be enough. "Tell me. What did your spirits do, when they were offended? Were they gentle and forgiving? I hear otherwise."

More outrage. She walled it off. If she truly did not wish to harm this girl, she should not lair in this body too long. She knew the poison's source. Time to end this.

"Hello, Painted Lady spirit!"

Human. Yet not. Was the boy another possessed soul?

I want no interference. Summoning the water that was herself, she danced upstream. Toward human-made venom, born of hate.

Wind rattled behind her, carrying shards of words. "Excuse me... friend's sick... Hei Bai..."

The thwack of flesh against a roofpole made her giggle. Chase her at night over her own river, would he?

Touching down on the riverbank, she paused to judge exactly where the factory was. Human flesh felt distance far differently than a river's flow-

"My name's Aang." The young boy grinned at her. "I'm the Avatar."

The Avatar. She drew a borrowed breath, water curling up from the river around her. "Where have you been?"

He rocked back on his heels. "Um... I was frozen in an iceberg. And... I guess you're mad. A lot of people... spirits... are." He braced himself, and faced her squarely. "But I'm here now. I'm going to defeat the Fire Lord. We'll stop the war."

"Defeat the Fire Lord? You created the Fire Lord." Human eyes needed to blink; she let water sink down halfway, considering the spirit before her. "Agni has not forgiven you that."

"But I didn't do that! Avatar Kyoshi did. You can't blame me for what I didn't do!"

"I did not say he blamed Aang." There. She could taste the factory in the water. "I have no time. Mortal life depends on my speed."

"It does? Where? Wait, let me get my friends! Katara's a healer, she can help-" He stopped, gray eyes wide in disbelief. "Katara...?"

She smiled; a borrowed, dark smile. "So that is the mortal who stole my name. You should have warned her, Avatar. I run even to the sea - and the waves that washed our dead tell me you know better than anyone, spirits are not safe."

He fell into an airbending stance; hesitated, apparently realizing violence might not be the best answer. "Let her go!"

"I cannot." The Painted Lady kept her words simple, almost gentle. He was the Avatar, but the human in him was a child. "She has affronted me. She stole my name. I must have my revenge."

"She didn't mean to!"

She cocked Katara's head, lifting the veil with a painted hand. Letting him see how much was not paint, but a spirit's power spreading into mortal flesh. "Avatar. You told the Fire Nation long ago, intent means nothing. You bound us to that. I must have my revenge." She tried to soften her voice, and pointed upriver, toward the factory. "If I am able, I intend to take it there."

"...You want to destroy the factory?"

"It is what your mortal friend intended, before she stole my name the last time." The Painted Lady stepped out onto the river, flexing a waterbender's power so the surface held under her footsteps. "When this is over, be certain it is the last time. You declared the Fire Nation merciless and cruel, Avatar. Even Agni can only soften your curses so much."

"I didn't-!"

She looked at him, unblinking, as the rolling river bore her up. Earth smothered. Water drowned. Fire burned. "You are the Avatar."

And she had work to do.


Ground by a sick river, Toph thought queasily, patting her earth tent back into said grassy ground, or up in the air on Appa. Decisions, decisions.

Up in the air was sounding better all the time, though. Aang would take Appa's reins, which meant Boots could tiptoe and squeak around her in the saddle. As long as he did it quietly. The little spirit was very quiet, these days.

She was as mad about that as she was about Katara. Only nobody else seemed to get what Aang had almost done to Boots, and Katara seemed to think Aang was upset covered everything.

Resting her hands on the wiry leafiness sprouting from the earth, Toph tried not to get mad at that all over again. Instead, she wriggled her fingers in dewy blades, listening to the perky sounds of birds near dawn, as she felt down through earth to bedrock.

Even the rock's different here.

Earth Kingdom rocks felt like rock. Solid, or wispy with wind like sand, or soaked with water in limestone. These rocks felt like fire.

Not fire here and now. But had-been fire, once-was fire. Like glass, and heat, and a ringing crystal tingle she'd only felt so deep she'd never had a name for it before.

Fire and sand and glass. Darn it, she missed Sparky.

Tao's got to be wrong. He's got to.

She was not going to lose Zuko to some stuck-up spirits' ideas on what people should and shouldn't bend. No way. Bring 'em on; she'd show those spirits what it meant to take on a real earthbender.

Besides, Tao had to be wrong. Zuko'd told her straight out: he hadn't been trying to bend water. Not even as much as she had, poking at the salt in the sea. The moon had drowned him first.

Sparky's gonna be okay. He's got to be.

A season, the shaman had said. She had to grab Zuko before the end of summer. She had to prove Tao was wrong.

But Sozin's Comet was coming, and the eclipse was coming faster, and helping Aang had to come first. Darn it.

What really got to her was, she was pretty sure Zuko would agree with her. The sooner the war stopped, the less people would die. And if the war did stop, and they helped Aang stop it - maybe they could head off that nightmare Zuko had slashed them with, about what Earth and Water wanted to do to his people.

He believed it was going to happen. She'd felt that, to her bones.

Not if I can help it.

Toph pushed at fire-touched stone, and felt how it pushed back. Every rock had its own particular twist of Earth's stubbornness. Some were solid strength. Some a gliding resistance like sheets of mica. Some had the brittle tension of a fracture zone. Only these rocks-

"Great! Both gone!" Scrubbing at his eyes, stumbling in what must still be dark, Sokka snarled at the camp in general. "I tell Aang not to sneak off anymore, and what happens? Katara starts sneaking off. So either she's sneaking off for him, which is not what I had in mind, or - what the heck is she doing? We can't get noticed before the invasion. Sure, Aang's the Avatar, but there's a lot more of these Home Guard types than I thought. If even some of them are firebenders like Teruko - what are you doing?"

"Feeling rocks," Toph said, matter-of-fact. Duh. "They've got to be on the river or miles from here. And they've been gone a while. Ground under their sleeping bags? Not warm."

"Nice trick," Sokka said thoughtfully. Flung up his hands. "Gah! What are they doing?"

"Sit down, Snoozles," Toph advised. "Wait 'til it's light enough. I can't feel them. We're gonna need your eyes."

"Good to be needed for something," Sokka grumbled. Flopped down by Momo's curl of fur, rousing a sleepy chitter from the lemur. Reconsidered, and sat up again, leaning toward her. "What are you up to with the rocks?"

Toph grinned at him. Too bad he wasn't the guy she had to teach earthbending. Sokka wanted to know things. Aang never asked about stuff. "Bet you think earth is earth, right?"

"Umm..."

"Well, kind of. I could throw boulders around all day. But if I wanted to do something fancy, like get you out of a crack? Earth Kingdom rocks break in layers, like this." She waved flattened hands across each other. "This stuff? Breaks a lot more like glass." She flicked fingers out, miming shattering. "So I'm poking at it first. Before I have to do anything tricky."

"I am so glad we added you to the group." The way Sokka rolled his shoulders told her he was grinning. "Nice to have somebody who doesn't make me panic half the time." He shifted, the sound of his voice aimed a little to the side. "Or talk me out of talking to him. Darn it."

"Lying without lying?" Toph tried not to smirk. Aang's excursion into a Fire Nation school had been nerve-wracking for everybody.

"Arggh." Sokka buried his head in his hands. "Yeah. That."

"Gotta admit, books don't do much for me," Toph said. "So maybe I don't get what the mess is."

"Not sure I do, either," Sokka admitted. "Wish he'd grabbed one of the books. Maybe I'd feel different if I saw what they said about the Water Tribes. So Sozin screwed with history and wrote about conquering a big Air Nomad army that didn't exist. Hello? We knew the Fire Lords were bad guys! We know they want to send those kids - darn it, they're kids! - out to kill people." He blew out a breath. "I hate to say it, but... I don't think they could do that if they thought they were the bad guys."

Toph frowned. "Not sure that's what's getting to him."

"No," Sokka agreed, tensed and thoughtful. "No, I don't think it is. It's like he thinks teachers always know what they're doing..."

Toph wiggled her toes in grass, waiting for Sokka to put whatever had popped into his head together.

"No," Sokka said at last. "It's not that simple." He brought his knees up, leaning on them as he lined up his words. "What he says about the temples? Kids had to listen to teachers, and everybody had to listen to elders. Outside of that, everybody did what they wanted."

"Yeah, right," Toph scoffed. Paused, taken aback by Sokka's steady pulse and breath. "Seriously?"

"Aang says Zuko didn't want to burn our village down," Sokka said bluntly. "Which means when he said he'd do it anyway, he had to be lying. Even when Aang thought he was telling the truth."

Toph made a strangled noise.

Sokka nodded. "That's pretty much what I said."

"But- that- he-!"

It fit, darn it. Aang trained as long as he wanted to train, then he was after butterflies. He helped who he wanted to help, he went off on vacations when he knew he had to master the elements by the end of summer...

And wasn't that part of why she'd run off with everybody in the first place? No parents wrapping her up in cotton like a glass doll. Nobody telling the greatest earthbender in the world what she couldn't do.

But there's a difference between can't do and shouldn't do, Toph thought. A big difference.

A difference she'd had pounded home by a humongous spider-squid-thing. Blind didn't mean she couldn't play with water. It did mean she ought to bring someone with eyes. To watch out for the man-eating monsters she couldn't see.

"I think what's getting to him," Sokka went on, "is that a hundred years ago, people here had to know the truth. The Fire Nation had to know there wasn't any Air Nomad army. But the books say there was."

"You're saying, he thinks the people who wrote the books wanted to lie about it," Toph guessed.

"Not just the books," Sokka said soberly. "All the parents, and grandparents, and everybody. Even Kuzon went to work for Sozin."

Toph snorted. "What was he gonna do? Take on the Fire Lord all by himself?"

"Yeah. I guess he didn't want to do that," Sokka said sourly.

Oh. Oh, ouch. "So Katara's kind of right," Toph realized, stunned. "If she didn't want to listen in on Tao, she just had to... Aang thinks that's like lying." Her stomach grumbled; she headed for where smell and weight on the ground told her Katara had stashed a bag of berries.

"Yeah. And now they're both gone... hey, where'd that come from?"

"Katara got 'em yesterday," Toph shrugged, munching.

"And she didn't share? Man, some sister."

"Says the guy who brings back Dock's clams instead of hunting for some real meat." Toph stuck her tongue out at him.

"Yeah, well, Aang gets upset when I- why is your tongue purple?"


This is bad. This is really, really bad.

Blowing up the factory? Sure. Great idea. Watching a spirit move in under Katara's skin? Awful.

He'd tried asking. He'd tried demanding. He'd tried begging. He was the Avatar. The spirit of the whole world. He wasn't supposed to let stuff like this happen!

And none of the stuff Tao had told him about reminding spirits of justice and balance worked. None of it.

"She had no right to use my name," the Painted Lady had snarled at his last try. "You seek justice, Avatar? Better for your friend if you do not! She is naamacaura! Justice would be her drowned body washed ashore, liver eaten, to show all I am not mocked! Ask Tui and La, if you think I lie.

"But your friend is fortunate. I was once other than a river. I remember what it was to do kindness. As she sought.

"So bury your pleas. And I will bury my justice."

Looking back on it later, he was surprised he'd been surprised. The inside of the factory did kind of smell like blasting jelly.

BOOM.

Whoa, smoke. And wind. And lots of smoke. And a strong hand grabbing him by the collar, dragging him clear.

"A-Aang?"

Faltering voice. Paint flaking off skin. Confused blue eyes. "Katara!"

She held him close, shivering despite the flames rising behind them. "I was - I was inside it, I could hear you. I just couldn't get out..."

"I'm sorry!" Because he was, he really was. He was the Avatar, he was supposed to fix things. And he couldn't keep one spirit from hurting the best person in the world. "I'm so, so sorry..."

"Less sorrow, Avatar. More thought."

He knew who that unearthly voice was, even before Katara went rigid. Letting go of her, he glared at moon-shimmer and painted skin. "You're not going to hurt her again!"

"No. I have had my revenge." A floating step forward, that somehow never left the water's surface. "You are brave, thief. Agni favors courage. And you meant to help my people. So live. Do not steal from me again."

Katara blanched.

"You..." Inhuman eyes narrowed at Aang. "You are not nearly as brave as you think, Avatar. Life-stripper. Assassin of clans."

Okay, now he was starting to get mad. "I keep telling you, I didn't kill your people! Kyoshi did."

"As the Ocean moved without your bidding, to rend and slay? He says not." She stepped backward on the river, mist rising about her. "Every dawn, Agni looks down on the death of his people. He does not forget."

"Dragon," Katara blurted out. "You weren't always a river. You were a dragon." Still shaking, she pointed through fire-shot darkness toward the village. "How can you still care about them? After what they did?"

A shadow in mist, the Painted Lady halted. "Once, they lived and died with us. But you..." A painted finger rose, claw-tipped. "You had not the courage to face Fire's children. So you stole from them, Avatar. You stole what let their clans and ours be one. Now even the strongest fade and die, like flying sparks.

"But you kept the gift for yourself."

Mist faded, and the river was empty.

"What was she talking about?" Aang said, exasperated.

Katara tugged on his arm. "Aang-"

"I know I'm supposed to be the bridge between the living world and the spirits, so why can't one of them talk to me? Without going around in circles? I didn't steal anything-"

"Aang, let's go." Something cracked in burning rubble, and Katara flinched. "Let's just get out of here."

Yeah. Good idea.

Scrambling with Katara back down the riverbank, Aang couldn't help but grin. The factory was ka-blooey, the village was going to get better, and this was going to be a great story!

Too bad, Sokka. You missed all the fun!


Schedule thrown off, Katara lying about Appa being sick with tongue-purplizing berries, sister possessed by angry spirit, and now village about to be burned to the waterline by Fire soldiers. Sokka ticked them all off on his fingers as he watched jet skis close on the village. "The universe hates me."

"Plan would be good," Toph muttered, standing a little closer than usual.

He couldn't blame her. Everything was happening on the water, which meant her only warning if somebody lobbed a fireball this way would be everybody else ducking. "I'm working on it..."

"It's not fair!" Aang was glaring at the river, wind rippling sludgy water. "They believe in you! They trusted Katara to help because they thought she was you! Why won't you help them?"

Katara edged back from the water, and Sokka tried not to growl. "Aang. You guys just got away from that spirit. I don't think you want to wake... her... up..."

Mist rose, and he forced himself not to run.

She's pretty.

But not human. He could see it, the same way he had in Yue. Even if she hadn't been transparent.

Wait a minute. Hei Bai and Wan Shi Tong were solid...

She swept them with a glowing gaze, and held out a hand. Beside him, he felt Katara moving forward-

Oh hell no.

Moving fast, Sokka grabbed the spirit's hand.

...Okay, not my best plan ever...

The world went foggy, all his muscles going limp. Like strength was flowing out of him, into the gripping fingers that were... becoming more there. Smoke, instead of translucent mist.

A whisper tingled his ears like spring rain. Tell the Avatar...

"She's still sick, Aang," Sokka managed. "She used up a lot of power helping you blow that place. She can't... I don't know, reach here, without some help..."

Jumping in, Aang grabbed the Painted Lady's other hand.

Oh good, Sokka thought, as the spirit shimmered into presence and the exhausting drain stopped. Maybe I can fall down now...

Toph grabbed him, bracing him as the Lady let go of his hand. "Don't pass out on me now, Snoozles."

Brave words, but he could hear the tremor in them. "You okay?"

"I can see her."

"But she's on the water... whoah. Is it that sludgy?"

"Not with my feet," Toph said tightly. "I see her."

Yipe.

"I have never been a strong spirit." The Painted Lady's voice was mist and water-trickle, oddly louder near Aang. "In times of need, they would send a Sage to lend me strength. None have traveled here in a very long time." Inhuman eyes regarded Aang. "You called."

"The villagers need your help," Aang said quickly.

Painted brows rose. "They have not asked for it."

"That didn't stop you before!"

"Night, and mist, and mortal invaders to take the blame." The Painted Lady did not blink. "Yes. Before, I walked."

Sokka gulped. "Mortal invaders? Um, guys... I think she means us..."

Her smirk flickered like moonlight on water.

"Yep," Toph said under her breath. "She means us."

"Daylight, and witnesses, and you wish to pass unnoticed," the spirit continued, implacable as a flood. "Walk? And have them believe me more than legend? No."

"Yes!" Aang insisted. "If they know you're here, they'll stop hurting you!"

"Young." Inhuman eyes narrowed. "If the legend is known as truth, Fire Sages will seek me." She tossed her veil. "I am the river! I will not be bound!" A wave of a hand pulled mist around her, and she stepped away from the world-

And was yanked back, eyes blazing, as Aang swept his arms over the water. "I am the Avatar, and I'm telling you-"

"Vizvaasahantr'!" The sludge of the river seemed to congeal, as the spirit fisted clawed hands. "Asmadruh!"

"Get ready to yank up a wall," Sokka muttered toward Toph. "This, does not look good."

"Wait!" Katara's voice was still shaky, but she stepped toward the river anyway. "You're afraid. I know, I felt it. They hurt you. They could hurt you again. And the Fire Sages can do worse than that, can't they?" She shook her head, dark hair brushing her borrowed cloak. "But the Sages take their orders from the Fire Lord. And we're going to stop him. I know I didn't believe in you. All the horrible things the Fire Nation's done; how could they have spirits? But you're real." She reached out, touching Aang's shoulder. "All my life, I believed the Avatar would return. No matter what anyone said. And he did. He's here to help all of us."

"Brave thief," the Painted Lady murmured. "You, I would help." Her gaze shifted back to Aang. "But you... what hope do you offer spirits, child of wind? Serve you, or be bound? I am Agni's child! I defy your chains!"

"Whoa! Stop!" Between a ticked-off spirit and an even more ticked-off Avatar, Sokka realized. Like I didn't learn with Hei Bai... think!

Something he should have done before he got between these two. But when he'd moved, the spirit's fury had seemed so familiar...

Zuko. She feels like Zuko. In a really, really bad mood.

Meaning they were doing this all wrong. Sure, she was a river spirit; but a river touched by fire. Like Toph's rocks.

I'd better be right about this. "Aang. Stop pushing. I think she's loyal to Agni." Sokka didn't take his gaze off the spirit. "That's the problem, right? He's the Avatar. And you're not a strong spirit. He can make you help. But if doing that means going against what Agni wants-"

"Why would Agni want to stop her?" Aang pounced. "I'm trying to bring the world back into balance!"

"Why would the Fire Nation want balance?" Katara said bluntly. "They're getting what they want."

"No." The Painted Lady was still as deep water. "What we want, was stolen long ago. And every time we have neared it, every time we sought to restore ourselves - you have stolen it. Again. Avatar."

"I keep telling you, I didn't steal anything!"

"Maybe you didn't," Toph put in. "What about Roku?"

Aang's head whipped toward her so fast, Sokka felt the breeze. "What?"

"Actually, I'm guessing Kyoshi," Sokka said, throat dry. "The fire-healers. That's why Agni's mad. Isn't it."

"Aamaavaasyavidha." She inclined her head. "You have a flicker of the flame. Seek further." A deliberate blink, and she regarded Katara. "I would help you. But I risk - much. If the Sages know I am more than legend..."

"They won't hurt you," Aang insisted. "We're going to stop the war."

"We can't promise that," Sokka said bluntly. "I don't know what Tao told you, but in the Water Tribe? You never give a spirit a promise you can't keep." He shrugged, deliberately casual. "But we've got a waterbender, an airbender, and an earthbender. And somebody told me, deception's legit when you're taking revenge."

All eyes were on him. Even glowing ones, under intrigued painted brows.

"So..." Sokka grinned. "Is there any way we can make this look like some other spirit got mad?"

The Painted Lady, Sokka reflected, had a truly wicked grin.

"Tell me, little thief," she murmured, like water running under ice, "do you know how to make a river run backward?"


"First," the Painted Lady had said, "we need the air to be still."

On the one hand, Katara wanted to rush into the village, where the general had already set one house ablaze. On the other - she hated it, but Sokka was right. The village needed more than just what she could do every night. They needed something that would last.

And she'd never, ever admit it, but it was kind of funny, watching the faces Aang made as he tried to get air to stand still.

But they're burning down the village! Who's going to notice there's no wind-

In the crowd, Dock jumped, staring wide-eyed at smoke rising straight up. Other gazes followed his, the crowd suddenly afraid of more than just firebenders.

"Then the ground must shake, strongly. As far as you can reach, little earthbender."

Katara had forgotten just how far Toph could make that. Ground rolled and swayed and broke, cracks reaching the river, filling with water. Her stomach lurched; she had to hang onto Sokka just to stay standing. On a slope above them, solid earth shivered into mush, sucking down rocks like quicksand.

"Now - and here I will help you, thief - we will pull the river back, toward the sea..."

It was like holding Appa's reins, if Appa was in a very, very touchy mood. She swayed sideways, and water pulled-

The river. She's helping me move the whole river.

Well, not all of it. But all the water in sight of the village had pulled away, leaving deep sludge bare to sun and breathless air.

And now there was panic; soldiers scrambling for jet skis, mothers after children, fathers clearing the path toward boats and ready to cast off ropes...

"And then, little thief, we will hold."

Oh spirits, it hurt, the water was too much-

"We will hold."

Too much - but this was water, and she'd promised-

"We will hold - until that coward General Mung moves, and I will have him!"

Sokka gripped her shoulder. "He's running, Katara! Go for it!"

Sweat blurred her vision, but she could just see red armor fleeing. Gritting her teeth, she flung-

The river roared. Katara felt it raging through her own veins, as if her heart surged in that torrent. Roiling water flooded backwards, and no town or boat could escape it...

A slender figure of mist and violet robes rose from the water. Pressed her hands together, like a wedge-

Like a firebender parting flames.

Water split and curled around Jang Hui, crashing back together to shred jet skis in a scream of steel.

"No!" Aang released his hold on the wind, breezes skirling off in the water's ebbing wake. "You didn't say you were going to kill anyone!"

"You did not ask."

Katara blinked, feeling water shift-

Mist billowed, and the spirit was beside them, a toe's breadth from the shore. "You helped craft the form of a tsunami, Avatar. Did you truly believe no one would die?" She lifted her hands slightly, and let them fall; river lapping gently up on the shore. "You seek for answers you should have within you. But if you cannot find them - there are those you might ask." Waves rippled up farther, carving eerie symbols in the sand. "Asiheti suhasta milati..."

There was more, a long, liquid utterance that sounded like nothing Katara had ever heard. But Aang blinked, and Toph and Sokka both tensed.

Wait. I have seen those symbols before. They look like - like the script on Zuko's letters...

"High Court," Aang blurted out. "Why'd you do that? We can't read High Court!"

"Do you not?" The Painted Lady glanced at him from under her hat, eyes dangerously mild. "The Avatar balances all the world. Or is that... just a legend?"

Wind blew, and only the river remained.


A/N:

नामचौर naamacaura; stealer of another person's name.

विश्वासहन्तृ vizvaasahantR; destroyer or stealer of confidence.

अस्मद्रुह् asmadruh; inimical to us.

आमावास्यविध aamaavaasyavidha; belonging to the new moon.

सुहस्त suhasta; skillful or clever with the hands.

असिहेति asiheti; swordsman or soldier armed with a sword.

मिलति milati; find.