The walls of the Beden Fortress were one of the tallest in the whole north pole. They had been ordered to be as such by the new chief Tulok. They were bulkier than normal and made any other fortress in miles pale by comparison. An army of firebender could try to punch through them for weeks without getting to the inside. And so it was the perfect fortress to hide his secret weapon. It was impenetrable by all his enemies.
Lucky for Tash she was not one of them.
The lengthy short girl appeared at the top of the northern wall suddenly as if pushed by the air itself. She was covered in white robes except for her eyes making her difficult to discern from all the ice around her. Her stolen water tribe uniform laid just outside in the canoe she had taken to arrive here from the capital. It was surprisingly closer than expected but she hadn't been able to see it until almost crashing onto it.
As soon as she landed she flattened herself to the ground to remain invisible. Her eyes darted from one side to the other. Two guards were closing in on herself and she damned her olders for making her swear she would harm no one or engage in any conflict.
The air nomads were against war. But to maintain the proper powers in check as to not start any undesired conflict some ugly pieces had to be used. Such as spies. They could act all high and mighty about not liking what she did but when time came they asked her to help the cause. And of course she did but the conditions were stacked up against her.
Her heart pushed at her chest stronger than ever as her mind raced with exhilaration and almost made her half panic thinking of a way to deal with this without being noticed or killing anyone. She tried to relax and let any unproductive thoughts out of her mind. Her anxiety dampened and her course of action was chosen in the last moment she could still pass unnoticed. She waved a hand making a breeze untap a little vial strapped to her chest with a brown powder inside that looked like crushed gemstones. She took a deep breath and let it out, directing it with all her concentration to be as controlled and perfect as she could.
The powder flowed through the air directed by the current her bending manipulated and without being noticed was inhaled by the two guards at just a couple steps from her.
They both stopped and coughed trying to breathe deeper. Instead they freezed mid action and fell unconscious in their places, breathing ever so slightly.
Tash let herself breathe normally again and she stood up, taking her hood down and letting her shaven head and dark skin feel the chilly wind of the upcoming storm.
She did and did not miss this job. She was too jumpy and felt too stressed when the heat was on her but she was also good at it. Really good. And she acted her best when under pressure even if she didn't enjoy it. Apart from that this work was important, her people were on the line, again. She couldn't hesitate now though the conflict did churn in her stomach.
Now that the guards were dealt with her time was set and she couldn't afford to waste any of it before they woke.
She looked down into the fortress without really being able to see at all. The entire structure was covered in dense mist that covered most of the territory. The fortress felt more like a prison to her and looked as one but inside there were no criminals, at least not yet. That didn't stop the oppressive aura she felt at the mere intention of going inside.
In the distance there would be some stairs to take down but she decided that was too slow. So she jumped down and pushed through the fog without any hesitation. As soon as the first building's shadow came rushing to her she waved her arms and legs creating a wind skateboard just below her that stopped her descending slowly.
She let the wind go and dropped to the ceiling flattening herself once more. She crawled and waited to hear if anyone had listened.
Tulok wouldn't be here. He was occupied in some sort of meeting near Republic City, where the council of the different nations were trying to make him desist from his course of action.
But Tash, as well as the rest of the temple, knew better. The chief was going to occupy the western Air temple by peace or by force and he was as sure of it as of his own name. And that security could only come from some secret weapon. So she had to find it and let her people be ready for it.
She skidded through the roofs jumping from one to the other without any difficulty. She skipped the third jump instead dropping and pushing herself from a wall into an open window. Not a sound followed any of her movements as she entered the main complex.
Her skin started to feel cold and heavy but she regulated her breathing following the fire technique that Daichi had taught her when they had traveled together. Cyrus would have laughed if he had seen her openly use another person's technique. The bastard never understood the pride one could feel of surviving only with one's own strength. Even though he was ridiculously strong himself. She wished she was able to have his seismic sense right now, though she would never say it out loud.
Instead she relied on her normal sense, trying to listen for every passing guard and sneaking around the big facility in a crouch, snatching keys from different waists with a flicker of her hands and the wind at her command.
She finally arrived at a sealed door. It had no keyhole she could see and it looked entirely like a block of ice on the way to the next and last room.
She figured at that moment that she was probably three or four floors below the surface but had been distracted by the more rustic and jagged design the place had taken as she had gone deeper and deeper.
She pushed lightly on the slab of ice but it was a dead end. She could bet that whatever she was looking for was on the other side. She had already a guess that horrified her mind and the horrible stench that not even the isolated chamber could stop from spreading only worked to further believe it but she couldn't accept it. Not until she looked at it with her own eyes.
She had to stop for a second to calm herself once more. She didn't like close spaces, it felt like the air was lacking and she couldn't extend her arms and legs as much as she wanted.
But the air still reached this deep, and had to reach the next room too.
Tash's eyes darted immediately to the ceiling and she found a couple seconds later what she was looking for. An air vent sprouted at one side. It was locked in place and covered in a metal fence but a sudden jerk with her arms pushed a gush of wind through it and expelled the blocking with ease. She caught it before it tumbled to the ground and, not happy with the idea, entered the vent herself.
On the other side she could see from the ceiling that there was a big open room with the border walls outside of her vision. It looked like a training arena, made from metal and ice like everything else in that frozen prison.
Two girls in light blue robes that couldn't be older than 15 were standing face to face in the middle of a circle. Tash forced herself as far as she could without making a sound to look around and found at the border there were some more children and a couple older ones.
An old woman with grey hair and red robes that separated themselves from everything around her so violently that Tash almost thought she was from the fire nation walked to the middle.
She took a closer look at both of them and then stepped back. "Begin."
The two girls didn't hesitate at all, extending both arms to each other threateningly and started to exert obvious force, even though nothing happened.
Tash was sweating now, her mind wanting to escape as far as she could and her skin feeling almost too tight on her bones in front of the pressure the two girls emanated. But she couldn't move, she had to watch and be witness to whatever happened next.
The girls stood there for a couple of seconds more trembling in their control, their veins marked with such a force that they appeared near to bursting.
The closer one dropped her grip and as soon as one of her arms started falling it froze into place and twisted in an uncomfortable angle. The other girl raised her hand and the first one started to float like invisible chains were restraining her in mid air.
Blood bending.
Tash wanted to throw up at how sick she felt. Now she had to accept it. This was Tulok's secret weapon, his ace in the sleeve for all his pride and security.
The old lady made them stop and gave the winner a coat like hers, only a shade softer, while the loser witnessed as silent as she had been during the fight.
Tash would have left right there and then but she was too afraid of making any sound and being controlled by one of these… monsters. She didn't want to call them that, most of them were too young, but her mind couldn't find another word. So she waited and made herself watch and remember. When everyone had left she would move.
As soon as they left the ring two boys stood up and went to their positions. As soon as the old lady let them, one of them moved in a flash and his arm swayed like a wip. This time the opposing kid yelled in pain and Tash could see part of his left arm become a bleeding mess like it had exploded.
The ceremony resumed and a soldier appeared commanded by the lady to take the losing child to the frozen waters in the back to "clean himself and think about his weakness".
Next in line were the older people, maybe in their young thirties. They already had pink coats so they were probably more experienced.
The lady provided some headbands for both of them and they proceeded to cover their eyes with them. Then she ordered the start of the combat.
The two of them entered in an obvious defensive stance but nothing happened. The last kid's blood started to ripple and the pressure in the air became stronger and denser until Tash could feel another presence in her own body.
Both of the combatants looked in her direction at the same time letting the bandages go.
Tash was already building a small tornado behind her to propel herself as fast as possible.
"There's an intruder!" One yelled.
"Get them!" That would have been the lady.
A stream of water followed by jagged daggers of ice pierced through the vent but Tash was no longer there, sprinting and almost flying as fast as possible in the narrow space.
She couldn't run back the way she had come from. They would have covered that way immediately and if they could pose her eyes on her long enough she wouldn't be able to move again.
That left her only one option on her mind and she hated it.
"They are not outside, they must have gone to the water room!" Yelled an unknown voice.
"They are trapped then. " Replied one of the warriors that had spotted her.
She hoped that thought would keep 'em from running behind her.
She lurched from the next exit right into the room like they had predicted. She had pulled the hood back up again. She couldn't allow them to recognize her or see she had any ties with the air nomads.
The boy and the soldier were inside and looked at her like she had probably looked at them before. The boy was half covered by an extensive pool of dark blue water where fish swam around.
The soldier stumbled for his weapon and to his credit launched a potent stream of water directly at her. Tash jumped to the side positioning herself between the soldier and the door. The soldier launched a second stream even bigger than the first just as she expected.
Letting the waves of air alarm her body she danced around the attack at the same time the door behind her opened and the water hit directly to her assailant behind her. They froze it in place giving her a couple of seconds to act.
She dashed to the guard and swept at his legs throwing him to the floor. Then raised her elbow and plunged into his face with her whole body. Or she would have but her fall froze in mid air.
Tash looked to the side and to the child soldier that had his healthy arm extended in her direction and was doing an obviously astonishing amount of force to keep her in place. She could have gotten rid of him with ease. She had only to breathe in and out and one of her many powders would flow to him. But she couldn't. She couldn't guarantee it would not kill him or just barely let him survive but with a huge cost. She wouldn't. So…
"Why?" She asked and was amazed to be able to talk.
The kid didn't answer and his grip tightened as he frowned.
"If you keep up with these instead of that you are gonna lose that arm." She said.
His attention quivered. It wasn't probably true but his eyes darted for a second to it. She propelled herself with a gush of wind from her breathing and finally toppled on the guard, breaking the kid's grip and knocking the man out.
She looked at the kid again trying to discern if he had seen her use air bending but the wall behind her finally dissolved and she was shit out of luck and time. She acted as if she was going to throw something to him and he flinched, covering his face.
Tash instead jumped on the water and submerged as she felt the grip of blood bending try to take a hold from her but dissipate as soon as she was out of sight in the water.
Just as she thought, this pool of water connected directly to the ocean below the pole, which meant theoretically she could get out of the entire fortress directly through it. The thing was that even though she could hold her breath for a ridiculous amount of time, her body wouldn't survive the time it would take the trip. So she took a chance.
Tash turned herself overlooking the pool as she was moving away from it and pushed all the air in her mouth out giving her momentum. She then spoon and kept doing it faster and faster creating bubbles of air around her and using them as fuel to propel herself like a cyclone.
She started to move even faster and to gain velocity as she kept spinning and even though it was very disorienting the only direction she needed to go once she wasn't under the fortress anymore was up. So before her lungs collapsed and blackness filled her sight she pushed all the air she could feel around her with all the energy she had.
The ice cracked and exploded outward a few hundred paces outside the fortress and Tash came out through it like a dolphin piranha trying to catch his prey. She collapsed on the snow heaving heavily. She was pale and her lungs burned with every breath of cold air but she was alive.
And more importantly. She knew the chief's secret.
She got up limping and feeling dazed and with no energy. Then started walking away slowly hoping she wouldn't be able to be seen through the thundering snow storm that was assoting the place.
She needed to tell her people. She needed to tell the world. And she needed to tell Cyrus.
A new war was approaching, bloodier and deadlier than all the others before.