Chapter 2: A City Fallen

It was a day of obscene beauty. The sun was bright and strong, the sky was brilliant blue with the occasional poofy white cloud. Flowers were blooming, the world had turned green, birds were singing, and the Beifong children were setting out for a picnic on their own.

"You watch out for your siblings, Zhi," Poppy told her oldest child, a wrinkle of worry on her forehead. "Make sure someone is always with Toph, she gets scared if she's on her own and hears something, and I don't want her hurting herself."

"I know, Mother."

"And don't let Meilin stay in the sun for too long, it will ruin her complexion."

"Yes, Mother."

"And Jiao is absolutely not to be doing any earthbending, even if he thinks he can. He could get hurt, and Master Yu won't be there this time."

"Yes, Mother."

"And be back in four hours, or I'll send the guards after you -"

"Mother, we'll be fine," Zhi said in exasperation. "This isn't the first time we've done this. You know I know what to do."

Poppy sighed. "I know, dear, it's just worrying to send you out all by yourselves."

"I'm a man now. I can take care of us."

"Are you sure you don't want someone to come with you?" Poppy asked, not for the first time. "I'm worried about Toph, she would be helpless if anything happened…"

"If anything happened, she would be the safest of us all," Zhi mumbled.

"What?"

"I said, if anything happened I'd make sure she's safe first of all."

Poppy, with a last anxious once-over of her children, sighed and nodded. "Have fun, dears," she called, and they waved as they walked out of the gate.

It had taken a long time the first time, convincing their parents they would be all right on their own. Their first few such picnics, their parents had sent guards and servants with them. They'd finally convinced Lao and Poppy, and now they went out almost every week, enjoying the chance to be themselves. It was always nice being out in the sunshine.

They had walked for ten minutes when Toph said, "I'm gonna speed us up a bit." Her siblings braced themselves, and Toph cracked the chunk of ground they were standing on and thrust it forward, carrying them at a much faster speed.

It was a testament to the little girl's power, Zhi thought admiringly. An ordinary earthbender would be exhausted from the weight and strain after a hundred yards. Toph wasn't even breathing hard, and they had almost covered the mile and a half to today's picnic spot.

But what else would anyone expect of the Blind Bandit? She had crawled out of complete obscurity and earned nationwide fame as the greatest Rumble champion of the generation, maybe even the greatest Rumble champion of all time (although Thunder Bringer still had a devoted following, and he was dead so it was kind of hard to say). Zhi was pretty sure that if the Dai Li were facing Toph, she would serve them their collective behinds on a silver platter. And the Dai Li were supposed to be the best of the best. The equivalent of royal firebenders, or moon-blessed waterbenders.

Zhi was very, very proud of his little sister.

Their earthbent ride arrived at the crest of the valley and gently slid down the other side to settle down in the grass and let them off. The valley was a secluded place they had found, a perfect retreat. The northern end of the valley was tumbled rock, some sort of old quarry. The southern end was grassy and beautiful, with trees and flowers. A pond sat sort of halfway in between, deep enough for swimming, perfect for hunting icefrogs in the summer or muskrat-newts in the winter.

Zhi set the basket down and pulled out a big, spring green cloth that Meilin helped him spread out in a shady spot. Even though it wasn't really summer yet, the sun was hot against their skin.

Zhi plopped down on the cloth, sighing happily. A cool, shady rest out in nature, with his siblings around him. What could be better?

Meilin sat down very properly, arranging her robes just so. No plopping for her.

Zhi expected Toph and Jiao to head off for some earthbending practice before it got too much hotter, but instead they sat down, too. Toph shucked off her outer dress to reveal the Rumble outfit she'd smuggled out, and pulled her headband out. Jiao flopped onto his back and stared at the sky.

"Alright, spill," Zhi said, eyeing Toph. "Something's up."

Toph blew her breath out, ruffling black bangs. "This isn't working," she said. "I can't keep teaching Jiao and have Master Yu teaching him too. The styles are too different and it doesn't work." She thumped the ground in frustration. "Jiao almost got squished because he was trying to bend two ways at once. I don't want him hurt."

Zhi frowned. "You're saying that the badgermole's earthbending is too different from everyone else's? It's messing Jiao up?"

She nodded. "It's different for me. I barely get any instruction from Master Yu, so it's not like I have to keep two different advanced bending styles straight. Jiao does, and he can't. I'm quitting teaching Jiao until we can work something out, because if he gets hurt it's my fault-" She sniffed and glared sightlessly away.

Zhi lay back like Jiao, lacing his fingers behind his head in thought. It wasn't a problem he was sure he could solve easily. Not like the figuring problems his tutor gave him, or even the tricky court problems that Father presented him with. At least he knew there had to be a solution there. He wasn't sure there was one here.

"We could just tell Mother and Father," Meilin said in a studiously bored tone.

They were silent for a moment, all contemplating that. They brought it up often, causally throwing it out there. It would be a lot easier if they knew. But no one told them. Mother and Father were… not ready for that. Zhi wasn't sure if they would ever be ready.

"How do you even tell them something like that?" Jiao asked.

Toph snorted. "Hey Mom and Dad, by the way I'm the greatest earthbender in the world and I'm a famous Rumble champion and I won Earth Rumble VI three years running, what's for dinner?"

Zhi propped his head up on one hand, turning to look at the other three. "I don't think that would go over very well," he said, and they all knew what an understatement that was.

Lao and Poppy were very set in their ways and beliefs. They were good people in their own way, but they didn't always agree on what was best for their children. Zhi knew if their parents found out what the four of them were hiding, they would be in some serious rabbitdog doo.

"What if you teach Jiao normal style?" Meilin asked. "After all those Rumbles, you have to have picked something up."

Toph shuddered. "It's just warped and wrong. So inefficient, so much lost. I can't do that to my brother. It's hard, not teaching him. I want to make him better but I can't!"

"There's always a way," Zhi said thoughtfully. "Always a solution; we just haven't found it yet. But we will." He hoped he sounded more confident than he felt. "Let's brainstorm some options here. Toph, you said teaching him normal earthbending was out?" She nodded. "What if Jiao told Master Yu that he uses a different style than most people because it's easier for him?"

"I don't think Master Yu would let me," Jiao said glumly. "He would just think I was crazy."

"Okay, what if we tell them part of the truth?" Zhi suggested. "We tell them that Jiao learned from the badgermoles in secret, and that's why his bending is so advanced, and some of the forms are different in original earthbending so he doesn't bend the same."

"And if Mother and Father find out that we've been taking our little brother to see the dirty, wild, dangerous badgermoles, enough for him to learn a completely different style of earthbending from them, we're in a world of trouble," Meilin pointed out. "If we tell them that much we might as well tell them everything. It's not like we could be in more trouble."

"No one is telling them anything until after my Rumble championship, got it?" Toph spoke up fiercely. "I don't think we should tell them at all, but if you do and I can't go to the Rumble I will make your life an absolute misery."

"No one's telling them anything right now," Zhi soothed. "Listen, I hate to sit on a problem for too long, but short-term we might just not do anything. It will give us time to think about it, and get stories straight and things ready just in case."

"Or we run away!" Jiao suggested, waving an arm in the air. "No one to tell us what to do or what to wear or say. Just us, on our own, being who we really are!"

Zhi sighed. "Little buddy, that sounds great right now." He wished it was possible. But he couldn't do that to his parents, not yet.

"Anyone hungry?" Meilin started pulling food out of the basket. Zhi accepted a pumpkin-apple pastry and munched on it, thinking.

"What's up with you?" Meilin asked him suddenly. He looked up in confusion. "What?"

"Ever since that trip you took to the Ni Quan's, you've been acting funny," Meilin said, raising a dark eyebrow. "And don't try to deny it either. I should know – you almost got us caught last night, you were so out of it."

"Really?" Toph said interestedly, looking over. "I didn't hear about that."

Zhi reddened. "It wasn't a big deal," he said, shooting Meilin a glare.

"Whatever." She looked at him coolly. "You aren't getting out of this, Zhixiang Beifong. Something has you in a twist. What is it?"

Zhi looked back at his little sister, pretty as a butterfly-lizard and cleverer than most grown men. Inwardly he sighed. They all knew each other far too well. "It's… well…"

"Don't even try to wiggle around it either, Sunshine," Toph said, one hand off the blanket against the ground. "I'll know if you are cutting corners. And… whoo, your heart's doing funny things! Big something, huh?"

Zhi groaned. They would drag it out of him sooner or later. "Father is arranging a truce and treaty with House Ni Quan. And the most convenient way to do that is forming a marital bond. Between House Beifong and House Ni Quan."

Meilin made a noise halfway between a laugh and a choke. "No."

"Yeah," he said flatly. "Father's trying to marry me off to Esi Ni Quan."

"Wait, Esi?" Jiao said. "You're marrying her? But she's boring!"

"Don't tell me," Zhi muttered.

Meilin was smirking. "Well, that throws a boulder into your spiderfly web, doesn't it?"

"What?" He stared at her. "What spiderfly web? What are you saying?"

"I'm saying," she enunciated, "that I don't think it's Esi Ni Quan who you had your eye on."

Toph sat bolt upright. "You're in love and you didn't tell me?"

"I'm not in love!"

"Liar!" Toph shouted. "And I can tell! You are in love! With whom?"

"No one!"

"You're ly-ing!"

"Aargh!" Zhi grabbed his head. "Meilin!"

Meilin was shaking with very unladylike laughter.

Toph whirled on her older sister. "You knew and you didn't tell me either!"

"You guys are crazy," Jiao declared.

Zhi folded his arms grouchily. "If I tell you, will you leave me alone?"

"I make no promises," Toph said, though she looked less terrifying.

Zhi sighed – I am crazy – and said, "It's this girl from the Underground… her name's Sandstorm-"

"Wait, what sort of a name is that? Is she a Si Wong or something?"

"Yes. And no, she isn't a sandbender. And stop interrupting. Anyway… well, we've been going on scouting missions together, and she's kind of cute under the desert headwraps, and she's vicious with her knife… I don't know. I like her. And Father would blow up if he ever knew. And if you ever bring this up again so help me I will murder you."

Meilin rolled her eyes and bit into a pastry. "Overdramatic much?" she asked, swallowing.

Zhi rolled his eyes back at her, much more wildly, and returned moodily to his own pastry.

After a while Toph stuck her hand down through the dirt and returned with a fat handful of stone, which she started to mold into shapes. First she made a mountain, then a bowl, then a blobby thing that might have been an icefrog.

"It's a turtleduck," Toph grouched when Zhi said this.

He watched idly as she shaped it again, molding solid andesite into the shape of a human head. Hair. Nose. Lips… that was definitely a dopey grin she was making. And the ears stuck out way too much. Otherwise, it was an unfortunately accurate representation of Zhi. He sighed.

Shaping things like this was something that Toph had just recently started doing, and she was best at making her siblings. She had felt them so much, had ran her hands over them in an attempt to understand what they looked like, had memorized every detail.

Zhi found this to be both incredibly sweet and incredibly sad, because she couldn't make their parent's faces.

"Hey," he said, as she gave Stone Zhi a pair of horns and a bulbous nose, then poked a stick through his head.

Toph gave him an innocent smile.

"Ooh, make him angry," Jiao suggested.

Toph molded the stone around for a minute, then set it down and scooted over to Zhi, putting her hands to his face. "Look angry," she said.

He put on his best frowny glare, eyebrows down, lips pursed. Toph's hands moved lightly across his face, feeling every wrinkle and contour, before lowering. She moved back to her former spot and picked up Stone Zhi again, shaping his brow into a scowl, his lips down.

"Not bad," Zhi said, and Toph grinned and collapsed it into a sphere like it was clay before tossing it off to one side. It made a very solid thunk when it hit the ground. "Can we do writing?"

"Sure." It was Meilin who answered. "Can you clear a spot?"

Toph swept a hand out, and a patch of dirt the length and width of her arm suddenly appeared, the grass sloughing off, pulled by soil and stone in its roots.

"I'm going to practice earthbending," Jiao announced. Toph shot him a stern and slightly off-target look. "Make sure you don't do anything above the sixth set. And stay slow and simple."

Jiao nodded and moved off, settling into a bending stance. Zhi looked back to where Toph and Meilin were sitting by the dirt.

"Write your name first," Meilin directed. Toph gripped the stick in her hand and moved it slowly, carefully through the dirt. Stroke by stroke, her name appeared. Toph Beifong. It was slightly sloppy and misshapen, and wouldn't hold up to any court standards, but for a blind girl it was very remarkable. It was also very important. If she could sign for herself, she had much more control over her life. If someone else had to sign for her, they could do all sorts of things that she wouldn't want.

"Good." Meilin nodded and reached out with her own stick, writing Toph's name in court-perfect calligraphy. "Do you feel the difference?"

Toph nodded slowly and stretched out a hand, fingers moving minutely. She was better with her feet, but her hands gave her more fine control. The dirt shifted, altering her strokes to match Meilin's.

"Much better," Meilin approved. "But you need to be able to write it with a brush, not with earthbending. Try again."

Toph didn't look upset at the correction, just bent over the task again, tongue sticking out slightly as she wrote her name out again.

Zhi watched them for some time. Meilin was a patient teacher, and Toph was a good student. Part of it was a sheer determination to learn to read and write. It would enable her to write messages to other people in earth, and read things engraved into dirt or rock. Meilin and Toph were already experimenting with ink that had dirt or sand mixed with it, so she could feel the strokes on the paper.

There really wasn't much that Toph couldn't do, if she set her mind to it.

;=;=;=;=;

They were laughing as they rounded the turn in the road and headed to the manor gates. The guards smiled indulgently as the four children (or three children plus Zhi) waved and entered, still chuckling over the joke they were sharing.

Meilin had instinctively straightened and slowed as they approached the manor, taking the small steps of a lady. Toph rested a hand on Zhi's arm, letting him guide her. Like a proper lady.

Gardeners and workers moved here and there in the spacious estate grounds. Meilin noticed with some interest that they were planting a young amanogawa cherry near the pearlguppy pond and bench. She loved the scent of cherry blossoms.

The four of them went through a side door, nodding to servants. They traded their outer shoes for slippers and moved into the interior of the house. Meilin enjoyed the cool shade as they walked.

Father appeared in a doorway suddenly. He was holding a sheet of paper in his hand, rolled as if fresh from a crowpigeon's message cylinder. An odd look was on his face. He stared at them for a moment.

"Father?" Zhi spoke for them. "Is something wrong?"

Father looked down at the paper in his hand. "Yes… no… nothing's wrong, it's just… startling, no -"

"What is it?" Meilin asked, feeling worry curl around her stomach.

He looked back at them. "I just got the news… Omashu has fallen to the Fire Nation."

Meilin wasn't going to cry out. She wasn't. Even though she felt like she'd been clobbered upside the head. Omashu had fallen. The last great city-state besides Ba Sing Se.

Toph's fingers tightened around Zhi's arm, digging into flesh until it turned white. Zhi didn't seem to notice, just stared dazedly ahead. "Fallen?" he echoed.

Father nodded. "It shouldn't affect us, though," he added. "We're too far south to feel the effects of something like that. Hopefully we can reestablish contacts in Omashu soon, and pray our deals with the Fire Nation merchants don't break off – I'd hate them to start going to Omashu instead -"

"That's all you care about?" Zhi's fists clenched. "We shouldn't be dealing with the Fire Nation at all! How can we call ourselves loyal Earth Kingdom citizens if we are helping the enemy?"

Father's brows drew down. "We aren't involving ourselves in the war, Zhi. We don't help either side. The Fire Nation brings us a lot of good trade and gives us an edge up -"

"An edge up!" Zhi's laugh was bitter. "Why not drape the grounds in red and install a fire fountain, since you love them so much?"

"Zhi!" Father snapped. He took a deep breath and seemed to remember the others standing in shocked silence. "We will talk about this later. It is not a topic to be discussed around ladies and children." He turned and strode back into the room.

Meilin sighed, and Zhi threw her a meaningful glance. If Father ever found out they were involved in the war in any way…

"Ladies and children," Toph mimicked softly. "He sounds like you two." She gave Meilin and Zhi a dark look.

"Toph." Meilin rubbed her forehead, keeping her voice low. "We aren't the ones who decided you were too young to join the resistance. Wait another couple of years."

"And what if the Fire Nation's won the war by then?" Toph hissed.

"Not here," Zhi interrupted. "Let's talk somewhere else, all right?"

"You guys are boring," Jiao complained.

;=;=;=;=;

Zhi let his breath out slowly. He wasn't in the clear yet, but he was almost there.

He wished briefly he could earthbend. Just drop a tunnel into the ground and be gone. He crouched lower as a guard passed by, hoping the bush he hid behind was sufficiently boring.

The guard rounded a corner, and the next one hadn't appeared yet. Zhi threw himself forward, trying to keep in cover as he ran through the night. Over to the wall, where a large jasmine-wysteria bush swarmed up the wall and waved fragrant, pink-and-white striped flowers at the sky. He froze near the base of the bush as a guard came into view.

Just a boring lump here, Zhi thought, grateful for his dark clothes and the paint on his face. Just a boring clump of dirt. Nothing to worry about.

The guard finally passed out of view, and Zhi dared movement, wiggling under the bush and back until he reached the wall. There was a patch of wall here that looked different than the rest, and when Zhi pushed it, it slid out of the way, unexpectedly light for its size and the stone it should have been made from.

Heh. Maybe Dad shouldn't have approved that paper-plaster activity after all.

He slid through the tunnel in the Beifong Manor wall and emerged in another bush. This location had been carefully chosen for its cover on both sides, as well as the fact that here, the woods were just a short distance away. Toph had done a little rearranging of the landscape here, moving the bush closer, shifting some lumps of dirt around to make it more shadowy.

Zhi pushed his way out of the bush. A glance around to make sure no one was there. Run nearly double, feeling exposed and naked. Into the woods. Straighten up, grateful for the relief and the cover.

He found the trail and followed it to where it intersected a path. Turning left onto it, he pulled a glowstone pendant out of his shirt for light and started jogging through the night, his leather pack thumping against his side with every stride. The night air was cool and slightly humid, clouds obscuring much of the sky and making the night around him darker than usual.

The path forked a thousand feet from the trail. The left-hand fork went to the Gaoling Rumble Arena (technically illegal but even the law enforcement came to watch the rumbles). The right meandered up into the mountains, eventually joining a more major road that curved towards the coast and ended up by Omashu. But Zhi wasn't going to Omashu tonight.

He took the right fork and soon peeled off onto another path. A building came into view through the trees, a small house with a few lights glowing in the windows.

Pulling a deep hood up over his head, he trotted up the path and knocked on the door in a specific pattern, alternating taps, heavy knocks, and scratches. There was a moment before the door opened. An old lady squinted at him, backlit by a fire in the hearth. "Ah, Hopper. Enter." She opened the door farther, and Zhi stepped in, rolling his eyes at his stupid Underground name (why couldn't he have been allowed to pick his own name, something cooler?). The old woman closed the door and locked it.

Two people were sitting by the fire around a pai sho table; a tall man with a close, dark beard, and an elderly man with his white hair shaved in front and braided back in a northern style. They looked up as Zhi approached. Most people in the Underground kept their true identities hidden for safety, but these two didn't bother. They were the leaders of the southernmost resistance against the Fire Nation. They'd been on the run for a long time – no sense hiding your identity if people already knew what you were doing anyway.

The younger man, Lord Fulin, had once been a prosperous goldsmith. When his home was invaded by the Fire Nation, he tried to fight back. His son was killed in the struggle, and Fulin barely managed to escape with his life. The older man, Wuyu, had a less well known past, but he'd traveled all over the world, from Ba Sing Se to the abandoned Air Temples to Omashu. He had struck an instrumental blow against the Fire Nation when he was younger, in the area near Taku where Pouhai Stronghold now stood.

"Hopper," Fulin greeted him. "I trust you have been well?"

Zhi swallowed. "Not well, I'm afraid, sir. We just got the news about Omashu."

Fulin's face darkened, and he clenched a fist for a moment before relaxing it. "It has held out for so long," he said grimly. "I was sure that King Bumi was going to be able to hold Omashu out forever, that conniving old rascal, but…" He rocked back in the chair, staring gloomily at the ceiling. "We haven't been able to get news from our contacts in Omashu yet, but I fear the worst. If the Fire Nation was able to take Omashu, that means nothing good for the king."

"Do you think he's dead, sir?" Zhi ventured, swallowing. Omashu had been one of the central hubs of the resistance in the southern Earth Kingdom, and with it fallen, the Underground's position was greatly weakened. If King Bumi was dead, the hopes of taking the city back were slim indeed.

Fulin rubbed his temples. "I don't know," he admitted wearily. "I can't imagine that Bumi would let the Fire Nation take Omashu without fighting them to the bitter end. Hopefully he's a valuable enough prisoner that they would have captured him alive, but…"

"If there's one thing we know about Bumi, it's that he can always find a way to make things work towards his advantage," the old man said, flipping a boat tile across his fingers before setting it down on the table. "He managed to become king in the first place, and then he kept the Fire Nation out for as long as he did." He gestured politely to a third chair.

Zhi pulled the chair up and sat down. "Do we have any reports of the number of casualties yet?" he asked.

Fulin shook his head. "We have people who saw the size of the Fire Nation force sent out, though. It was enough to squash Omashu twice over. And with the losses that the Fire Nation must have suffered just getting their men to the city at all, through mountains full of earthbenders… well, I can't imagine they showed any mercy." He raked fingers through his short hair. "We are still waiting on the casualty count, but I'm afraid it's going to be high." Fulin forced himself off the topic with an obvious effort. "You had something for us?" he asked, trying to smile.

Zhi nodded. "I was able to gain information on troop movement near Chin Village and surrounding area," he said, reaching into his pack and pulling out a rolled sheet of paper. "It's rough and partially incomplete, unfortunately, as we were unable to gain access to the complete plan."

Fulin took the paper and unrolled it, spreading it onto the table. "Is this your sister's work again?"

Zhi nodded. "She is much better at drawing and copying than I am, sir."

Fulin snorted. "That doesn't take much." Wuyu laughed, and Zhi gave him an injured look. "I'm not that bad."

"It looks like they are drawing out of here," Fulin said thoughtfully, tapping up at the northern end of the Chin peninsula. "Must be more soldiers moving to support the forces at Omashu. If we target the outpost here, while the forces are small, it would reduce the risk and force the Fire Nation to put more soldiers there instead of Omashu."

"Are you planning something for Omashu?" Zhi asked.

Wuyu filched one of Fulin's tiles and put it in a different place while the other man was distracted. "We would like to, but right now we don't have nearly enough information at all. We're also too far south to do anything at this point."

There was a sudden rapping and scratching at the door. Wuyu's old wife got out of her chair where she'd been sewing and hobbled over to the door, opening it to admit two people. One was a man in dark green robes and a theater mask of a hawkbat, and the other was a girl in sand-colored clothing, loose wraps wreathing her neck and most of her face, leaving dark, intelligent eyes to look out.

Sandstorm.

Zhi felt his cheeks warming, and he turned his head away even though no one could see his face. The embarrassing interrogation he'd gotten from Toph that afternoon rose to his mind, along with the confession he'd never actually admitted to himself before: he liked her.

"Ah." Fulin rose from his chair. "Hawk and Sandstorm. Did you travel here together?"

"We met a few minutes ago on the path," Hawk said, his voice deep and rough.

"I have the requested key," Sandstorm said without preamble, a hint of a crackling accent in her voice. She held out a leather pouch, and Fulin took it with cautious hope. He reached in and withdrew a skeleton key, examined it closely, then put it back in and looked up, smiling warmly. He bowed to Sandstorm. "This is a huge asset. Thank you, Sandstorm. You have served the resistance well tonight."

"What is it to?" Zhi asked curiously. He hadn't heard about this key.

"Wan Shi Tong's library," Fulin said, a smirk tugging at his lips. Zhi sighed. The Spirit Library was unofficial code for classified information. Where are you going? Wan Shi Tong's library. Can I see that map? It's of the Spirit Library. What's the big thing happening in two days? A vacation to Wan Shi Tong's library.

It was kind of annoying that Sandstorm got to go on classified missions. Also kind of awesome, because anything she did was awesome.

"Hawk," Wuyu said, abandoning his game and getting up. "May I speak with you?"

Hawk and Wuyu disappeared into another room. Zhi glanced around. "Are we doing anything else tonight, sir?"

Fulin tapped his cheek thoughtfully. "At the moment, no. We should be getting the weekly report in soon, and if there is anything that I need you for I will let you know. Are either of you opposed to waiting a few minutes?"

Zhi shook his head, and Sandstorm said, "Nope."

"Thank you," Fulin said, tucking the key pouch into his belt. "Both of you are valuable assets to the resistance."

"Anything to get the Fire Nation's smoky behinds out of the Earth Kingdom," Sandstorm said. She turned to Zhi, eyes gleaming with challenge. "A bit of sparring while we wait?"

"Why not." Zhi grinned, even though she couldn't see his face.

They went into the hallway and turned left, pulling up the trapdoor and descending a long, narrow hidden staircase into the main Underground base. The house up above was just a small part. It was built over a wide network of tunnels and caves that went for hundreds of miles. This particular tunnel burrowed into a series of three main caves with smaller caves branching off to the sides.

They emerged into the large central cavern, lit with hundreds of green and blue glowcrystals. The ceiling was fifty feet or more above their heads, walls sloping down to meld into the floor. The cavern was nearly round, five hundred feet across. A large hole in one wall led into a smaller cave, and tunnels and caves pocked the walls up to the ceiling.

The main cave had six or seven people in it. Four were sparring in pairs. A small group was talking quietly and intently on the other side. Somebody appeared in a tunnel high up on the wall, earthbent themselves down to a lower cave, and disappeared again. No matter what time of day or night, there were always people here.

Racks of weapons lined up next to each other along one wall. Zhi picked out a sleek katana, then switched it for a longsword. Sandstorm drew a heavy knife from her hip and picked the katana he'd turned down, slicing it through the air a few times. "Good balance."

They warmed up for a few minutes, then came at each other. Zhi had been taking lessons in the sword for years, and wasn't half bad. Sandstorm utilized a sloppy but surprisingly effective technique, combining a katana for offense with a knife for defense. She wasn't a skilled swordswoman, but sheer determination made up for a lot.

"So," Sandstorm said as she jabbed at him, "did you hear about Omashu?"

"Yeah." Zhi dodged the strike and swung at her middle, but she blocked it with her cursed knife and nearly wrenched the blade out of his hand. "I wondered if they were going to send a strike force to check the city out, but it sounds like they have people closer."

"Well, of course they do." Sandstorm spun under his next blow, the ends of her headwrap fluttering. "They're practically on the other side of Si Wong. Why would people from all the way over here go?"

Zhi frowned at her tone. "Is something… wrong?"

She didn't reply.

"I kind of wanted to go too, to feel like I was doing something real, not just smuggling old information and irrelevant reports, but Omashu's so far away," Zhi said, disengaging and taking a rest position.

"No, it's not that, it's just…" She looked away. "I have family there, and I'm really worried."

"Oh," Zhi said, unsure what to say. "I'm… sorry. I hope they're okay," he offered lamely. This was also the most he'd ever heard about the mysterious girl's other life.

Sandstorm took a deep breath and nodded. "Me too."

They sparred for a few more minutes before a tall, lanky man wearing a silver hood approached them. "Lord Fulin says that you are free to leave if you wish, as he has nothing requiring your attention tonight."

"Thanks, Viperfox," Zhi said. He turned towards the weapon racks. "I'd better go," he said. He was getting up early the next morning to complete a figuring report for his father to send off, and wanted at least some sleep that night. "Are you leaving?"

Sandstorm shook her head. "I'm going to practice for a bit and see if Sakura shows up. She had an idea that we were working on."

Zhi bit his lip. Sakura was, in fact, Meilin. She and Sandstorm got along surprisingly well, seeing as Sandstorm was about as far from a proper lady as you could get. Since people in the Underground were supposed to remain anonymous, he couldn't very well explain that Sakura was his sister and wouldn't be there tonight. Sharing of any personal information was frowned upon, anything that could clue people in on their true identity. "Well, enjoy your practice." He rested the longsword where he'd gotten it from and headed up the stairs, sparing a last glance at Sandstorm's lithe form spinning and ducking.

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