All That Was Left: Honor

by All That Was Left

The Fire Nation has been defeated at Ba Sing Se. Lu Ten is dead, General Iroh disgraced, Fire Lord Azulon passed, and Ozai inheriting his throne. As the Earth Kingdom aggressively regains its territory and the Fire Nation attempts to assert control, a group of Fire Nation deserters seek to protect those unable to defend themselves, and punish those who abuse their power.

33. Chapter 30: The Library

Zhao

Even with it standing directly in front of us, towering hundreds of feet into the now-clear sky, it was still impossible to discern just what it was we were looking at.

An obelisk of sandstone, standing erect from the desert floor, it was clear beyond all reason that it wasn't meant to be there, but there could be no denying as I placed the palm of my hand against it that it was, indeed, right in front of me.

I hadn't had any expectations in touching it, but to the touch, it felt cold, unnervingly so for its position in the middle of the desert, as though whatever laws it adhered to were clearly not those of our own world. This is it. This has to be it.

"Zhao?" I heard Harzek's voice form behind me call. "Is this-is this-"

"This is it," I finished for him, an irresistible smile of satisfaction and relief coming to my face. "We found it," It was real. It was actually real. I knew it. I knew it had to be real. I knew it couldn't have been a lie. It was real!

My knees wanted to give out from under me, to allow me to collapse into the sand, having finally reached the end of the line.

No. Not the end. Not yet. This structure, this library if that's what it truly was. It's only a piece of the puzzle. It's what's inside that will make all the difference.

I turned to Shilo, my knees still week, hand on the spire to support myself, "Did you know this was here?"

"N-no. It wasn't. I've been here hundreds of times. It was only more desert here. This. It has to be the work of the spirits."

"Which means we've found what we've been looking for."

"What are you looking for?"

"Knowledge. Lessons of the past to safeguard the future." This is it. This is everything.

"We should," Shilo started, apparently still in awe of what was before him. "We should get the others. Bring them over here. Make sure we're all in the same place. Zhao, Harzek, stay here. Don't go in. We have no idea what to expect."

With that, he bent the sand beneath his feet into a wave of sorts that carried him back the way we had come, following only the direction that the fox had come from, as no footsteps had remained in the sand. None of this is normal.

My eyes only followed him for the single moment that he turned away from us. From that point on, my eyes hadn't left the tower, myself simply looking up the height of its majesty, following it up as it pierced the sky, wondering just what lay within.

"It's smaller than I expected," I heard Harzek's voice from behind me say.

"This. This is only part of it. The rest is beneath the sand. This is only the beginning," I said, looking back up at the entry point that the fox had gone through, myself unable to see any opening, but given how the fox had disappeared, likely housed an entrance into the structure. "We'll need climbing gear to get up there."

"We should wait for Shilo to get back, Zhao."

I was already digging through my bag for the climbing pitons and rope. "No time. We should get up there and get a better understanding of what we're dealing with. Care to lend a hand?"

He was tired. I could see that much. We'd been fighting for our lives for nearly most of the day and just now was the only breather we'd had in a long while. I could still see the mist of the sandstorm retreating away from us, thankful to the spirits that it was moving away from us rather than towards us this time, but still sat there, inching across the desert, a reminder of the pain and loss we'd gone through. Despite that, however, Harzek simply shrugged his shoulders and neared my side, digging through his own bag for climbing gear-something we'd expected to use in the incident of approaching a rock mesa such as the ones some Sandbending tribes resided in. We hadn't at all expected to use it for something like this. Notwithstanding, however, we were all the gladder for including it among our gear.

Shilo returned by the time we were already halfway up, the vague cry of "Need any help there?" almost causing me to slip with a hammer strike, threatened to assault my own thumb rather than the nail, hesitating just in time, centimeters away. I saw Zaik onboard the skiff alongside an injured, but by the looks of him, still breathing Gani. I found myself hoping he'd live to tell the tale about this to his family, a sentiment I hadn't expected to feel for an earthbender. The two of them were simply gazing up in awe at the structure before them. If my visions were correct, this was only a small portion of a much greater monolith that slept beneath the earth. "Just keep an eye on things!" I yelled back. "Could do without another ambush!"

Soon enough, and by that, I mean around 30 minutes, we had dug the last climbing spike into the tower, the rope running all the way to the top. I shambled eagerly onto the platform above, desperate to be the first one to set put, and sure enough, on the floor of the platform lay a gaping hole, one shrouded in darkness, but beneath it, light, lots of it, illuminating hundreds upon hundreds of stories, no end to the layered abyss, no floor to behold, simply a bottomless structure, hundreds of stories worth of, what looked to be bookshelves, to behold.

Harzek was already at my side, looking down, his eyes wide.

"It's. It's real," Harzek mumbled, approaching closer, his words given him the sound of one who still didn't quite believe what was right in front of him. Could I blame him? I myself was still locked in a rather strong state of disbelief.

"Of course it is," I responded with, attempting to banish the awe in my own voice, something I believe he may have seen through judging by the grin on his face that faded shortly afterward into something grimmer.

"At the very least, the people we lost, their deaths weren't-"

"We're not done here yet," I retorted. While it was of some solace to hear the words coming from him, not outright opposing me in the wake of so many casualties, I couldn't allow him to fall into the false belief that our work was done. We had no idea what lay ahead. For all we knew, the library could have been occupied by scores of hostile sandbenders ready to kill us on sight. We had to be ready for anything.

I looked down again, still finding it hard to believe what rested below me.

This is only the spire. Even here, in a room such as this, it only made up a fraction of what likely was the true extent of this structure. Platforms lined the walls, decorated in rows of bookshelves, connected by walkways spanning the abyss. It was…beautiful.

"You said this was only a part of it?"

"That's right," I said as I measured out what I thought would be enough rope to reach the first walkway below, figuring I may as well get it secured now. "The answers we're looking for are somewhere in here."

"The place is enormous. It could take us weeks to find what we're looking for."

"Months," I corrected, still remembering the scale of it in my dream, knowing weeks would hardly be even close to enough for us to explore the extent of this place.

"Should call in reinforcements. Clean this place dry. Can get through this much quicker with them than without."

"Can't be sure this place will still be here when we come back," I said, shaking my head. "Shilo himself didn't know this was here. We leave, can't guarantee it'll be here when we come back with a search party. We need to do this now.

"What's it going to do? Stand up and walk away?"

"I'd be lying if I said that wasn't a very real possibility."

He went silent for a moment, thinking to himself. "Can't very well just split our forces. Not in this desert. Well then. Guess we better get started."

I turned to him, surprised by his willingness to so easily go along with that. He seemed to register the expression on my face, responding to my nonverbal question with a shrug, simply saying, "Besides. What are the odds that the Fire Nation will believe what we have to say? They'll be more inclined to believe we'd desert mad rather than that we've found a magic library dwarfing even the royal palace."

I nodded. He wasn't wrong, and I found myself looking back into the innards of the library, taking in its enormity. I'd only been to the Royal Palace once. And that had been decades ago when I'd graduated from the academy. Azulon himself had spoken to us, congratulating us for our perseverance in graduating, and spurring us into battle against an enemy we'd, insofar, only knew of through what we were taught. Back then, the Royal Palace had been the peak of it all, the pinnacle of the world. I'd left on my assigned vessel, the FNS Revanchist, knowing that I'd be back, that I'd come full circle and return to the Royal Palace, but not as a bright-eyed student, but an esteemed commander of the Fire Nation's forces. Now, looking at what awaited below, knowing as reference what I'd seen in my dreams, it didn't seem quite so big.

Harzek seemed to be readying to descend down the rope when Shilo's figure appeared to us beyond the ledge of the sandstone pillar, carried by a torrent of sand that kept him levitating in the air, one simple step all it took for him to join us, the sandnadoe dying behind him.

In the only obvious thing to do atop here, his eyes drifted to the gaping hole in the floor, into the empty abyss of the library below, and he stood there, unlike us, in complete and total silence, new life brought to his old and weathered eyes, disbelief granting a new air of youth to him.

Soon enough, with Shilo still caught in a trance, Zaik ascended as well, haphazardly bumping past Shilo, looking into the hole as well. "Well son of a bitch!" he cried out, breaking the fragile silence that had prevailed only moments before. "So it is real after all."

Irritated expressions followed him, prompting a look of embarrassed defensiveness from him. Perhaps I couldn't blame him. He was only saying what we all were thinking. Nonetheless, the lack of subtlety wasn't the most appropriate for the moment.

"Maybe somebody should stay behind to watch Gani," I offered, non-stealthily attempting to rid ourselves of him.

"Gani will be fine," Zaik retorted. "He can leave if things get too hot."

"Was that supposed to be a pun?" Harzek asked, seemingly half-amused.

"We shouldn't be here," came Shilo's voice, breaching the levity that had been momentarily established.

"What?" I asked in response, wondering just what the hell he was on about. What was this? A sudden lack of willingness to assist us? Second thoughts? "What do you mean?"

"This place. We're not meant to be here."

"Having second thoughts now, Shilo?" I asked, frustration no doubt present in my voice.

He turned to me, a new darkness in his eyes where life had been only moments before. "We shouldn't go inside."

"We're going to go inside." I countered, leaving no room for discussion. We came here for this, and we already lost too many people for it. We're not turning back now."

"Zhao!" he called to no avail as I secured the rope we'd used to descend into the library. He saw he would make no progress to me, and turned to Harzek instead. "Lieutenant. You have to stop him."

"Sorry, Shilo. I'm with Zhao on this one. We've lost too many for this to be worth nothing."

"Going in there will prove a danger to us all."

"Then stay out here!" I retorted. "Keep an eye on Gani if you're afraid to enter.

In that moment, he somehow seemed to manage to grow even older in how he held himself, shaking his head before saying, "Gani can take care of himself. I'll go with you. If anything to ensure that you two don't get hurt."

I nodded to him, the rope now in place, personally glad that he'd come around to see our view. The more, the merrier after all. "Very well, then. Shall we?"

Luke

There were hardly any of us, upon learning of where the mercenaries were, that didn't desire swift and decisive vengeance. After this last week, after so much pain and suffering, now finding those who had been the source of it all, those who had preyed on the sick and dying, we finally had the perfect outlet for that built-up anger and frustration.

It was too dark to continue cleaning the bodies that day. We knew we'd continue tomorrow eventually. Already with an outbreak of cholera, we had to get the streets clear as quickly as possibly lest another epidemic begin.

Zare and I had found a quiet spot near the edge of the square, away from where the sick were being tended to, trying to find some sense of peace and quiet after what had felt to be a week, but rather, had just been a single day of moving the dead.

I pulled down the mask covering my face, followed by my gloves from my hand, tossing them aside as Zare did the same. My clothes were stained in blood, that of the people we'd been moving to a pile for them to be mass buried.

We'd considered burning them, but feared that the smoke might give us some unwanted attention. More than we had already, apparently.

The two of us had been silent the entire day, neither of us still ready to talk about Hana or the events of the day before, or, well, anything else for that matter. An eerie quiet had followed us throughout the entire day that now, I think, it was starting to get to us.

I removed my flask of water from my side, uncapping the lid and consuming its contents. Lake water. We had cleared the well, and new water had been reached, but notwithstanding, I doubted anybody here would be willing to drink from it any time soon. A new well would likely have to be built. Assuming, of course, there was any hope left for this town after today. I myself had my doubts. When I was done with the water, I wiped the brim with my thumb as opposed to my blood-stained clothes, figuring I knew well and good which was cleaner, and offered her what was left of mine, knowing she'd run out earlier in the day.

Her head turned to me for a small moment before she took it, upturning the contents into her mouth, emptying the flash before handing it back to me with a nod of thanks.

I laid it down by my side, not having the energy to buckle it back to myself just yet.

The day couldn't end soon enough. I felt my eyes growing heavier, completely content with just falling asleep right now. What was the point of falling asleep back at camp anyway? Here was just fine.

I wasn't sure if I had actually managed to fall asleep, but I found my attention suddenly snapped into focus. It was still night outside, but through blurred eyes, I still managed to make out the figure of Zek in front of me, holding out a hand to help me up.

It took me a few seconds to take it, spending the brief intermission regaining a sense of my surroundings. Longer than it should take. If this had been Ba Sing Se, those seconds of inaction could have gotten me killed. Still could at any moment. I've been out of combat for too long.

"What's going on?" I asked, this the second time in the last week he's woken me up from sleep. I feared the circumstances of this interruption would be similar to last time. Another disease? Were we attacked? I looked back to where I'd been asleep against the wall, looking for Zare's form. It wasn't. Fair enough.

I'd missed Zek's answer and asked him to repeat himself. "Gordez found one of the Rhino's mercenaries on patrol. Hiding in the forest. He's interrogating him now. We're gathering people to hit their camp once we know where it is. You in?"

"Of course I'm in." There was no question to it. We knew where they were. We were getting payback.

"Good. We're going to gather more from here. See how many more we can get."

"So we'll be doing this tonight?"

"Can't risk them realizing their buddy's gone missing. Can't afford to waste any time."

"Where's the prisoner being kept?"

"To the west of the wall. Gordez will take care of it and get the information we need. Right now, I need you to help me gather more people.

Gordez is interrogating the prisoner. Getting information out of him. I knew what that would likely entail. And I knew with scum like this, a little more than kind words would be needed to extract what we needed. I'd be of better use out there than in here. I was no good at rallying people. Last time I had, I'd gotten everybody I'd ever known on the streets killed. I was no good at leading people. Hurting people, however. That, I had experience with.

"Alright," I lied. "I'm going to wash up and get some water. I'll be right there."

Zek nodded. Sorry, Zek.

My path diverged there from Zek's as I proceeded through the western quadrant of the city, not bothering to fill my water, wash myself, or grab a bite. I didn't need it. There was a small, early taste of retribution waiting outside. That would be just fine for now.

Zare and I hadn't yet cleared the western side of the city, and so bodies still littered the streets as I passed through. If there was any doubt before of what I intended to do, it was swiftly swept away as cold, dead eyes watched me from the pavement, burnt corpses frozen in time with screams of terror plastered onto their faces, begging to be saved, begging for their suffering to end.

I couldn't do either.

But I could avenge them.

Gordez's position was lit by a small campfire not far from the western gate. I could make out the vague silhouettes of others as I approached. I suppressed a small grimace that rose to my face as I came to understand that my abilities wouldn't be put to use here.

Perhaps it was for the best. My fire would have been too quick for him anyway.

My approach had been unexpected, and accordingly, the others shot into alert at my arrival, weapons raised, among them Gehor's hammer and Gordez's broadsword. "Luke?" he questioned upon seeing me. "What are you doing here?"

I made no response immediately to his question, my eyes drawn to the man tied to the trunk of a tree. He was conscious, his head also turned to me, likely having been hoping I was an ally of his. The hopeful eyes of his bearded face quickly sunk into the same desperation and fear that I'm sure they had been only moments before. Good. So you understand. "Zek said you caught a mercenary. Figured I'd lend a hand."

"We have it under control," Gordez said. "I'm sure you'd be more use-"

"I've spent the last week digging through the bodies of people killed because of assholes like this. I'm staying."

He wouldn't talk me out of it. He was smart enough to see that.

I knew what he was thinking. I knew where his mind was likely going. Back to that day almost a year ago, outside the inner wall of Ba Sing Se, a burning village, civilians screaming in their final moments as they died by my flames.

Or maybe that was only where my mind was going. It didn't matter. I was staying. And he saw that too. He nodded, his attention turning back to the prisoner. "Today's your unlucky day. This kid's even more dangerous than I am, and he's spent the last week cleaning up your mess. I don't think he's particularly happy to see you."

The man's face turned to me again as he sized me up and down, attempting to put on a brave face. "This little runt? I've killed people twice his height before. Then again, that doesn't say much given the size of this little shit."

Apparently, it was a fitting moment to introduce myself. I'd have burned half his body had we not been surrounded by outsiders, so I merely, in one fluid motion, brought my leg atop where his knee was bent in a sitting position, and brought my foot down upon it, turning his leg at an angle it was naturally supposed to be at.

There was no intelligible response that emerged from his lips as he screamed once upon the breaking of his leg, and I reared away, momentarily satisfied. "You little fuck!"

Gordez, for only the briefest of moments, turned his head towards me, but knowing he couldn't afford to show doubt right now, he turned back to the prisoner, saying, "shut up!" followed by planting a hand on top of the man's head and hitting it against the trunk behind him. "There'll be more of that coming if you don't answer our questions."

"He broke my leg! You broke my fucking leg!"

"He can break a lot more if you'd like. Or instead you can talk to me."

"You fuckers! I already told you everything!"

"You haven't told us anything. You told us the Rhinos left."

"They DID leave. The ones who burnt the town our gone. We weren't responsible for that."

"How convenient then that it's not the Rhinos we're after, but your friends."

"Why?! Why us?! We're not responsible for what happened!"

"Don't lie!" yelled one of the other people attending our little entourage. I didn't recognize him, but clearly enough, he recognized the prisoner. "I remember you! You swore to protect us, but you opened the gates! You led them right to us! Let them sack your hometown!"

"They would have done it anyway! Yes, alright? We did open the gates. They told us they'd let us leave with our families if we did. We were only trying to survive!"

And poisoning the city, harassing us when we tried to fetch water, killing the sick and dying? That was also your way of surviving?!

I said none of that, however, but the fire burned brighter inside of me. I wished the others hadn't been here. To have been able to watch him writhe in pain as red fires danced around his body would have been more a pleasure than anything I could have asked for in this moment.

"Bullshit!" The civilian cried again. "You had no family! You were only out for yourself!"

"I was scared! That's all we did!" He continued. "I'm sorry. We didn't have a choice!"

He didn't know we knew. How stupid did he think we were?

Gordez sighed. He didn't believe him either. Right? He sheathed his sword, walking closer to the fire, picking up a waterskin that had been left unattended, and returned to the prisoner. What? "Here," Gordez said, raising the skin to the man's lips, allowing him to drink. What are you doing? The man lifted his head at an angle, bidding for more to be poured into his throat. Gordez obliged, water spilling around the man's lips as he greedily sucked in its content until the skin appeared half empty and the prisoner seemed half ready to puke out the contents.

He coughed, the beatings he'd sustained likely contributing to his dehydration, the sudden satiation of which was even too much for him to handle.

"Water tastes like shit," he said, spitting. This ungrateful fuck. "Hell's in this?"

"You tell us," Gordez replied. "It came from our well."

A chill went through my body as I came to realize what had just been done. Oh.

The man's eyes, and his proceeding actions betrayed his profession of innocence from only moments earlier.

His eyes widened, and the ropes binding his hands behind the tree twisted as he attempted to break his hands free to trigger his gag reflex and try to puke out what he'd just consumed to no avail. He keeled over, eyes facing the ground, coughing, attempting to force himself to throw up.

"What have you-what have you done!?"

It was back to Gordez now to ask the questions. "I'll ask again. Where is your camp?"

"You-you're sick! This is-You can't do this! This is wrong! This is heartless."

Gordez tossed the waterskin to the ground, clearly done with it, having no further need of it. The man had already drunken enough to kill him within the next 24 hours. In the next few hours, he'd begin suffering from stomach cramps. After that, he'd lose all control over his bowels, and he's begin evacuating on the spot. This would continue for the proceeding time, all liquid in his body passing directly through him, being lost despite his attempt to control it. Within 36 hours, likely 24, he'd be dead. It was a slow death. Not one I'd wish on anybody. But seeing as he already had it, I couldn't help but find myself guiltily deriving some sick pleasure from it.

At least it's not the innocent I'm reveling in the suffering of. Not like he had done.

Gordez had no response than to merely ask again, "Where is your camp?"

"What does it matter!? I'm dead anyway!"

"Because" Gordez answered coldly, sending another shiver through my spine as I saw a side of him that I'd never seen before. "You can die now, quick and easy, or you can die hours from now, drowning in your own shit."

The man gulped, only on air this time, realizing just how hopeless his predicament truly was. He was going to die here. The only thing he could do now was decide how quickly or slowly it was going to be.

"Well?" Gordez asked.

The man closed his eyes. He'd given up. "We're to the north. In the woods by the river."

"How far?"

"Like-uh, 3 miles, I think. More or less."

"How many of you are there?"

"37."

"Are any of them benders?"

"4 of them?"

"What do they bend?"

"They're earthbenders. Only earthbenders!"

"Are the Rhinos among you?"

"No! I told you this before!"

"Are you lying to me?"

"No. I swear to the spirits, I'm not.

Gordez went on a knee in front of the man, drawing his face real close to the prisoner. "The spirits can't hear you anymore. Only I can. And I'll know if you're lying. So tell me again everything you just said."

"We're camped in the north. In the woods by the river. 3 and a half miles away. 37 of us, myself included. 4 of them are earthbenders and the Rhinos are already gone. They left the minute the town went up in flames. Paid us to make sure it didn't recover!"

He was telling the truth. Somehow that made me all the angrier. He'd been a brave man up until today, perfectly proud of himself for preying on the weak, on those who couldn't fight back, turned coward the moment he faced resistance. He was pathetic, and so I felt no pity when Gordez turned the other direction out of the wood, his blade clean of blood.

"Wait," the man cried. "No! Don't go!" His wails fell on death ears as the others turned away, only the civilian staying a moment longer to spit on the man's face as he sat against the tree, bound to that location that would prove to be his eternal resting place. "You can't do this! You can't just leave me like this!"

I turned to face him before I could be the last one to leave. You're right. I approached the waterskin resting by the fire and picked it up by the string, placing it around his head like a necklace.

"You sick fucks! This is inhumane! This is wrong! This isn't human!"

His cries would have no effect on us. With the pained cries of those we'd watched die over the last week, his wallowing would be drowned out. The repentance of the guilty would not be heard above the cries of the innocent.

We left him there, the animal that he was. It's the punishment he deserves.

The others had already disappeared back into the city when Gordez pulled me aside as I left the small, wooded area, holding me still as the questions I had expected followed. "What the hell was that, Luke?!"

"That son of a bitch poisoned the people in this town! People who were dying, sick, and injured. And who the fuck are you trying to convince!? You just left him to die over the course of the next day and you're going to lecture me?!"

"It's not about that! You weren't supposed to be out here."

"Didn't stop you though, did it? He got what he deserved. We both know that. Would've gladly given him a slower death if I could."

Gordez sighed, simply shaking his head. "He got what he deserved. Yes. Just…fuck, you-"

"I know, Gordez. But after this last week, it just feels good to see the right people suffering for a change."

Gordez nodded his head, understanding apparently where I was coming from. "I know. Just-"

"I know, Gordez," I said again. "I won't. We won't."

By the time we were back at the town square, a crowd had been assembled, not among the wounded, but separate from them, in the town's proper center rather than the small alcove that had been providing refuge for the town's residents.

Numerous people were gathered in front of Zek and Ka'lira, who stood rallying the others. I counted 23. We didn't have the numbers. But we had surprise on our side, and enough anger and hate between us to fuel us in spite of a lack of sleep and rest.

Zek's eyes met mine as we entered into the city. He failed to suppress the displeasure he clearly felt upon seeing me return with Gordez and the others who had been conducting the "interrogation." If one could even call it that. It was torture more than anything else. It should have felt guilty for what I'd done, but alas, the guilt didn't come. I think Zek was able to see the lack of remorse as I approached, and I had no doubt that he'd grill me over it later.

He'd been just as angry as the rest of us. He would've done the same in my stead.

Or maybe he wouldn't have. Who could really say anymore?

My eyes scanned over the crowd, finding Gehor and the civilian from earlier who'd stood witness at the prisoner's execution, or "pending execution" rather. He'd spend the next 24 hours dying. For fuck's sake.

As my eyes went over the crowd, I found myself surprised to make out Zare's figure among them. Her eyes, having caught the approach of us newcomers, drifted over to me, prompting her to detach herself from the rest of the crowd, moving over to me, as though she were surprised to me. From here, my path separated from Gordez's as he approached Zek, likely to share what he'd learned and assume control over the gathered militia.

"Where were you?"

"What are you doing here?"

The two answered had been asked at the same time, but she took it upon itself to answer first. "Heard your buddy Zek was gathering people to get payback against the mercenaries. Wasn't about to turn that down. How about you? Where were you?"

"Was questioning one of the mercenaries," I said, glossing over it, more interested still on what she was doing here. She doesn't know how to fight. Then again, neither were half of the people gathered here. Just civilians who had lost everything, looking for revenge to fill that void. "And no, but, why are you here? You don't know how to fight."

"I can handle myself. What do you mean "questioning?"

"The nuns didn't stop you?"

"They tried to. Didn't succeed. Now what do you mean by "questioning?"

"Gordez found one of their thugs scouting us out. Got the jump on and captured him. We were getting information out of him and getting rid of him."

"Getting rid of him," she repeated, not as a question, knowing very well what I was insinuating by that.

I nodded, figuring that was enough to end the discussion. "So," she said, moving on from that topic. "What did you learn?"

I turned my head towards the front of the crowd that was now forming into more of a semicircle around Gordez, Zek, and Ka'lira, their look towards me informing me that I ought to be among them. I gave Zare a slight nod as I departed, returning to the side of my comrades, gladdened to know that, despite the losses of the last week, none of us had been among them.

"Everyone!" came Gordez's voice. "We all know why we're here. This last week has been nothing but hell for all of us, some more than others. If you're here, it's because you're tired of being the victim. For the last week, a group of rogue mercenaries hired by the Rough Rhinos to ensure this village did not recover from their raid, have been tormenting us in raiding our convoys, attacking our people, and poisoning our water supplies. I know you all want revenge. You'll get your chance tonight. We know where they're hiding. There's more of them than there are of us, but we possess the element of surprise. They won't be expecting us at this hour, and much more, they won't be expecting us to put up any resistance. We have the chance to prove them wrong tonight. So if it's revenge you want, justice for those who have been made to suffer for no reason, then step forward now.

23 pairs of feet stepped forward, among them, Zare's. I couldn't help but feel a cold bead of sweat trickle down the back of my neck as I saw the anger in her eyes as she did so. Perhaps what scared me more than anything else was knowing that they were the same eyes I shared. We could preach about "justice" as much as we wanted. This wasn't about that. This was about revenge. This was about killing those who had wronged us. We all believed that nothing less would suffice.

Zhao

The rope was secured. We'd tested its weight, ensured that it would be able to take the 3 of us all at the same time if it came to it, though we had no plans on descending all at the same time.

I'd been the first to descend. This was, after all, my operation. It was only natural it be me who go in first. Harzek followed soon after me, proceeded by Shilo, and lastly Zaik who took up the rear.

Ornate carvings decorated the interior of the tower as we descended, relying on the strength of the rope we had secured to keep us from falling hundreds of feet onto a rocky bridge below.

It was difficult to discern at just what point we had descended below ground, but by the time that the tower's structure had ended, expanding into a far more expansive inner chamber.

This is only the topmost dome. How much more waits below?

We descended below where the spire began, opening into a far larger room, uniquely carved buttresses and imagery on the walls and columns, the most notable of which being a recurring image of an owl's face.

Some sort of pagan deity? I could think of nothing else it could be making an illusion to, save that of some spirit, which, on second thought, was likely the case. The structure is made of earthly materials, however. Sandstone and gold ornamentations lining the wall.

Not much was known of the spirit world, but a good amount was known of our own, and the structure that surrounded us all was most certainly made of materials found in our own plane. Made by man to honor the spirits?

The lower I descended, the less things made sense. Mankind knew little of the spirit realm. Apparently, judging by the vast stores of information around us, far less than the spirits knew of us.

In due time, I reached the bottom of the rope, dropping the last foot onto the stone walkway beneath, my eyes immediately scanning all cardinal directions around me, searching for the nearest possible source of danger.

None appeared.

Shadowed hallways between bookcases were my only surroundings, providing no indication of danger. I approached the rail of the walkway I was stood on, peering down for good measure only to similarly find no similar threat. There was no noise to be heard either, not even the rolling of sand carried by the wind that we'd heard on the desert surface. Only complete and total silence, interrupted a moment afterward by my call of "All clear!"

The rope shifted as the next man followed me down-Harzek, then Shilo, and eventually Zaik who had taken the rear. It seemed the three others were no less enthralled with their surroundings than I had been, everything about the grand feat of architecture surrounding us likely more glamorous than anything we've ever encountered before, matching even the Fire Nation Royal Palace.

"What is this place?" Zaik questioned, agape, eyes somehow even wider than his mouth.

"A spirit library," Shilo spoke. "We thought it only a myth. We never knew it actually existed."

"A spirit library? So how are we here?"

"An insightful question." The voice came from one that was no of our party. In front of me, 3 pairs of eyes turned towards me, then shifted upwards. I looked above me, met only by the arched ceiling, but then around, and saw…it…standing there. White face, black body, piercing eyes boring directly into me-an owl. The same owl whose liking decorated the walls. The hairs on my body stood up as a shiver of realization went up my spine, sending my posture still as I stood before the great beast towering over me at least twofold, staring directly inside of me.

None of us were capable of speaking, our shock triumphing over our shared curiosity, leaving us in a state of silenced shock, one that the owl had no intention of waiting through. "You should leave the way you came. You are all very clearly lost.

I do not know how much time had passed, but eventually, it had been Shilo who spoke first, asking, or rather, struggling to ask, "You. You are Wan Shi Tong, are you not?"

"Indeed. He who knows ten thousand things. And you are obviously human. It has been many years since one of your kind has stepped foot into my library. Now I ask you again. What are you doing in my library?"

It was me who spoke up now, responding to the spirit made manifest in saying, "We followed…a fox. It led us here."

"Hmm, so I see. My knowledge seekers do have a peculiar habit of aiding castaway humans. A remnant of their connection to the physical realm, I suppose.

What is he talking about? I shook the question aside, focusing on more pertinent matters, and asked, "You mentioned somebody has been here before?"

"Indeed," the spirit spoke simply. "3 centuries ago. An infamous nomad and assassin by the name of Lao Ge. He sought to uncover the secrets of immortality, to preserve his own life. A selfish desire. And what of you? Your armor is that of the Fire Nation, locked in war with the Earth Kingdom and its tributaries for the last 96 years."

For a spirit locked underground, he seemed to know a great deal of the affairs of the material realm. "How do you know this?" I asked, the stupidity of my question only hitting me shortly afterwards.

"It is my responsibility to be informed of matters surrounding the material world. And it is the duty of my knowledge seekers to provide this information."

The foxes.

"Now then. You have not yet answered my question. What is it that you seek? Immortality, wealth, power?"

Destruction. Naturally, I would say no such thing, but thanks to the intervention of Shilo, speaking on our behalf, the excuse of "We seek to learn more of the spiritual realm, good spirit."

"For what purpose?"

Shilo moved past me, now even closer to the ghastly owl than I had been. "We simply seek to understand the truths of a world so distant from our own."

Thank you, Shilo. Yet despite this, while he may have been lying for us, something about him seemed to be speaking the truth on his own perhaps. With any luck, he'd end up thanking me for bringing him here after all, despite his earlier protests.

"Hmm. So I see. It is not often that I encounter those as seemingly enthralled with knowledge for knowledge's sake as you, for I sense no deception from you. Then again, my last interaction with one of your kind has been centuries past. Very well. I will allow you to study from my archives, but on a single condition."

There's always a catch.

"And what would that be, great knowledgeable spirit?"

"To prove your worth as scholars, I will ask you contribute some worthwhile knowledge to my collection. I will ask your Fire Nation companions first, as I have more reason to doubt their intentions than with you."

Worthwhile knowledge? I thought of everything I had on me in that moment, scared out of my mind, perusing my mind as to what I had that might qualify as such.

The spirit's eyes were directly on me as I stood humbly in his shadow, suddenly remembering, swinging my bag around to my front, uncovering a firebending scroll. One that had been gifted to me by my former master. And now traitor of the Fire Nation. I'd been meaning to rid myself of it anyway. Perhaps he could serve the Fire Nation one final time.

I held the scroll between my hands, demonstrating them to the owl spirit as he viewed the scroll emotionlessly, not knowing where his eyes were moving to, be it the illustrations, the descriptions, or the note that had been left by Jeong Jeong when he gifted it to me. "The fire is your breath. The fire is your life. But managed improperly, the fire is your death." He had always been afraid of our greatest gift as a people.

"Hmm. Lǐng Lù. The form of "Leading the way." Excellent for balancing the body and adapting to fight with either side. This will do nicely."

In one moment, I held the scroll in my hands. In the next, with a simple and fluid flow of his feathers, it was gone, himself already moving past me to Harzek.

"And what do you have to prove your worth?"

Come on, Harzek. You have to have something. He held his bag in front of him, searching calmly through the contents, as though he knew what he was looking for. Or perhaps simply pretending to do so to buy himself more time. You've got this.

Eventually, he did indeed pull out a sheet of paper. One I recognized. We saw it plastered everywhere in the region we were deployed in.

"Edict 55/62," the spirit read off of the paper. "'The Nip Sea is hereby declared an active warzone. Any vessels caught beyond the Fire Nation blockade as of the date mentioned below will be treated as hostile vessels and will be fired upon, subject to immediate termination.' Very interesting. Staying informed of the world's political atmosphere is a difficult task, even for my knowledge seekers."

He collected Harzek's presented piece in a similar manner as he had done with me, now moving on to Zaik, who sat kneeling on the ground, holding his bag upturned over the walkway, spilling its contents: a thermos, rations, map, bandages, and many other pieces of equipment, and finally, a flimsy folded paper which he eagerly grabbed, rising to his feet, presenting it to the spirit who he stood in the shadow of.

"Letter from my girl back home," he said, a stupid grin on his face as though he were bragging about the fact. Harzek's hand rose to his face as I simply shook my head. For crying out loud, Zaik.

Wan Shi Tong collected the paper, unfolding it as he held it in his feather grip. It was too far away for me to be able to make out the contents, but I looked over notwithstanding.

"Careful," Zaik said. "She can get kinda intense in her writing."

After a few more seconds, the letter disappeared within the spirit's feathered arm. "This will," he began, actually hesitating, "Find its place in a more…niche area of my collection. I suppose this will have to suffice as knowledge."

"Oh believe me," Zaik grinned. "There's plenty in there I doubt you know about."

For fuck's sake, Zaik. Please don't get us all killed.

The spirit made no response, leaving the walkway, seemingly intent on passing by Shilo until the man with a seeming deathwish stood in front of the spirit, presenting him with a piece of knowledge of his own.

"I will not require anything of you. Your words in themselves speak of your sincerity."

"I insist, great spirit," said Shilo, presenting a small, leather-bound journal, no bigger than the palm of his hand. "This is a prayer book of my tribe. A look into our culture and beliefs that I believe will add to your collection."

"That it will," said the near-omniscient spirit, collecting the book. "Your sacrifice to my collection speaks even further of your respect. You are an admirable example of your kind. You and your friends will have free reign of my collections. See to it that my faith in you is not misplaced."

"It isn't. Thank you, great spirit."

And just like that, he was gone, having descending off of the walkway, flying below into the endless inner depths of the library, dozens of stories continuing on below us, the bottom of this building nowhere near in sight.

What the hell just happened?

The eyes on the faces of my companions seemed to be asking the exact same question, all of us left in a state of sheer shock by what had just transpired. All, that is, save for Shilo, who, rather than appearing shocked, seemed to sport a grim expression on his face. That, however, was the least of my concerns, and the others seemed to feel the same.

"What in spirit's name was that?!" Zaik called out. "It was some sort of owl, but not an owl, and it was huge, and-"

"Yes, Zaik, thank you," Harzek interrupted the kid. "We all saw it. You can spare us your…unique description of events."

"So it wasn't just me who saw it?!"

"It's real," I confirmed.

"Wan Shi Tong," Shilo finally said, speaking up. "The spirit's name is Wan Shi Tong, and this is his library. I told you we shouldn't be here."

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "He gave us free reign to explore the library. We're set. Just a matter of finding what we're looking for now."

Shilo seemed unconvinced, but that was none of my concern. I turned back to Harzek and Zaik. Only three of us. This wasn't going to be pleasant. We'd be here for a while.

"Fan out. You know what we're looking for. If you find what we're looking for or any leads that may point us in the right direction, blow the whistle we have in our packs and stay still. We'll find you."

"And if we run into any danger?" Zaik asked.

It was a reasonable question. Wan Shi Tong had said that the last human he encountered was one from centuries ago who had sought immortality. I had no reason to believe he would lie to us, but it was better to account for all possibilities than be caught unawares. And besides, he had said that the man sought immortality. Perhaps he found his answer and still waited somewhere in this library's halls.

"Then sound your whistle all the same. Keep a map of where you've gone and where you're going. It's a big building. We don't want to get lost or recheck covered ground. Let's get moving."

And with that, the others set off, Harzek included. He understood. This was no longer his domain. Granted, it was hardly mine, but he knew who covered what bounds as a part of this operation. His domain had been getting us here. Mine, that had been knowing to do once we got…wherever here was.

I turned the opposite direction that they had headed in, figuring it best to cover more ground, met instead with Shilo still standing in the middle of the bridge, looking at nothing and everything at the same time, as though he were in some form of trance.

"Shilo?" I called out, breaking him out of his present state. "What's the matter with you?"

"Hmm? No, nothing. I just-. Legends have always been told of this place, but we never knew it to be real. Others from my tribe had spent generations looking for it. So many lives lost searching for something we, over time, came to believe to be falsehood."

"Well. Now you know their lives weren't wasted. It does exist, and we've found it." I don't know why I was attempting to reassure him. I owed him that much, I supposed, after he'd saved my life and that of my comrades on more than one occasion over the last day. I owed my survival to him. He deserved to know that. "You've found it," I corrected. "We wouldn't have been able to get here without you." He was of a nation that wasn't my own, supposedly an "enemy" as far as the laws of my home were concerned, but he'd proved himself more. He'd proven himself a worthwhile ally and friend. Placing my left hand atop of my right held in a fist, imitating a flame, I bowed forward, thanking him for what he had done to get us here.

He bowed in return with a hand gesture of his own-one I did not recognize but understood enough to be a sign of respect.

"Just do remember," he said. "We are on hollowed ground. The spirit of this library has given you his trust. Don't abuse it."

He had gotten us this far, but the poor man was still a fool.

"I won't," I lied.

He did not question the sincerity of what I said, turning his one way to peruse the contents of this great storehouse of knowledge. He didn't understand. How could he? He lived in a vast desert, secluded from all conflict, warfare, and horrors of reality. I'd seen this war. I'd seen what it was doing to the world, and I saw my own future, my destiny, how it would be me to stop it. I was here for that reason, and I couldn't allow anything to stand in my way. Not him, not Wan Shi Tong, not anything. My nation, my people, they were relying on me, and I wouldn't let them down.

I took my first steps since stepping foot onto the stone of this walkway, towards the first of many wings of this library.

I didn't care how long it took: days, weeks, months, I would find my answers here. I would return to my people with answers on how to finally win this conflict.

And nothing would stand in my way.

Harzek

"Zaik, got any parchment on you?"

"'Fraid I gave mine to the talking owl, sir."

Talking spirit owls, magic libraries, endless shelves of all the world's knowledge, and I was fretting about parchment. What the hell is wrong with today?

"Think I have some in my pack. Stop for a second." I turned my bag around to my front, swinging it by its shoulder strap, looking within for something that would suffice, quickly enough getting my hands on some loose parchment paper, proceeding to hand it over to Zaik along with an ink pen. "Keep a map of where we go and where we've been. Don't want to get lost down here."

"Trapped with all the knowledge in the world doesn't appeal to you?" He said, following it with a soft chuckle as he took the items, I handed him.

I didn't respond. I needed to keep him on task. For his sake more than for mine. He lost about half of his squad earlier today, including his Krezk, with whom he'd been rather close. I couldn't let him think about that now. Not when we still had a job to do. Not when we were still deep in hostile territory, a lapse in our judgement the potential catalyst for a quick and untimely death.

"We'll take this half of the library, work our way down from there until we reach the ground floor." Wherever that ground floor is.

"That'll take days."

"Then it will take days. We have a job to do here and we're going to finish it."

"Yes, sir, but, with all due respect sir, what are we looking for?"

It made sense for him not to know. Zhao, despite my protests, had kept the details of this mission to a minimum, only allowing the vague detail of "it will finally allow for our Nation's victory" to slip every now and then, though all the help that was. He'd kept the others in the dark, his only reason for divulging me into more information being to appease me and gain my loyalty.

Considering I was still here, I supposed that it worked.

"Information about the water tribe. Something related to the spirits perhaps. We're looking for information about their weaknesses. Something we can exploit to gain an upper hand in this war."

Zaik nodded, more out of loyalty to me than his question being answered in any real sense. A month or more ago, I would have been yelling into Zhao's eat just how stupid this is, how he's going to get my men killed for nothing. So far, I'd been right on one count. Now I just prayed that I wouldn't be right on the other. This can't be for nothing.

Hours went by. We'd passed by four stories in that time. 4 out of hundreds I presumed. There were more books here than any number I'd ever learned to count up to. I'd followed leads, opened up books I believed would prove relevant, and had come across, in just those 4 stories, more information than anything I'd ever learned at the academy: books of geography, outlining the formation of the Serpent's Pass resulting from opposing currents from the East and West seas battering at the pass until it became the haphazard shape that it was today, theoretical papers on how all four nations had once been part of the same supercontinent, something called "continental drift" driving them about, a number of theories existing that it was pre-historic benders that, in an effort to forge their own societies, separated the continents, and a number of ancient scrolls referring to some strange creatures known as "lion turtles" who still roam around the world, taking on the illusion of moving islands.

It was clear quick enough to us that we were in a geographical portion of the library. Thus, it was only natural to try and find some information about the two poles. Zaik tracked down what he could of the South Pole while I went on a quest to learn more of the North.

We met up with one another at a pre-assigned point, scattering the texts we'd collected: atlases, scrolls, books, journals as well, compiling whatever information we could garner from the collected texts.

Apparently, both the Northern and Southern Water Tribes, despite being locked on permafrost, still supported vegetation, but only in peculiar locations, namely, the exact poles of the Earth that were claimed to once house gateways to the spirit world, creating a passageway between the two poles of the Earth.

"Maybe that could be useful?" Zaik suggested. "A gateway between the poles. The South is practically already gone. We could move an army through there, strike the North from inside. They'd never expect it."

"A good plan, but it says here that these portals no longer exist. That it's theorized they were only open when spirits used to roam the Earth."

"Spirits used to roam the Earth?"

"Apparently so."

"What happened?"

I shrugged. "Couldn't tell you. This is as new to me as it is to you."

"Found something too in this scroll," Zaik said, holding out a piece of parchment to me was an image of two worlds resting upon the backs of one another, one on the top appearing to be that of our world, housing mountains, the North and South pole, and in the center, a great mass of vegetation, below it, upside down, a far more alien land, two balls of light on either end beneath the poles, and in the center, a misshapen tree.

"What's that supposed to be?" I asked, not having enough time to read the text before Zaik turned it back around.

"Says here that, despite a vast difference in scale, the spirit world and the physical world exist parallel to one another. It says that if a line were to be cut going down the center of the Earth as well as the center of the spirit world, the closed spirit portals would align with the Northern and Southern poles, and in the dead center, where the Foggy Bottom Swamp lies for us, apparently 'The greatest spiritual center in our world next to the two poles', would, in the spirit world, translate to something known as the 'tree of time.' Any of this making sense to you?"

I shook my head. "Oh thank fuck. I thought it was only me."

He set it down. It had already been, for the most part, common knowledge that our worlds overlapped, the occasional spirit sighting near the Solstices telling us that our worlds were closer than we believed. I couldn't deny, however, that the newfound knowledge of the Swamp did set me somewhat at unease, though it did, however, explain a lot of what had happened there during our expedition.

"This doesn't really get us much closer," I said with a yawn. "We should settle down for the night."

"Is it even night, sir?"

I shrugged as I removed my bedroll from my pack, setting it down, saying, "Doesn't really matter anymore. But we should conserve our energy. Won't be of much use if we're half asleep."

The mention of sleep seemed to awaken a hidden exhaustion within the boy as he stretched his arms with a yawn, saying, "You know. Now that you mention it, it has been quite the day. I could use some shuteye."

I nodded, saying, "I'll keep first watch. You get some sleep."

"With pleasure, sir." He undid his own bedroll, setting it down.

My watch passed by quicker than I'd expected it to, my eyes drifting around the great structure, trying to comprehend just how long we'd be here. We didn't have food to last us months of exploration. Sooner or later, we'd have to call it quits and regroup if we couldn't find what we were looking for. But who could know if this place would still be here when we returned?

No.

We had to find what we were looking for. Not for our own sakes, but for the Fire Nation's. I scoffed. Zhao really has gotten to me, hasn't he? The fallacy of sunken costs, I supposed? I'd already lost so many damn men for this. I had to force myself into believing that it was for a reason. If I stopped believing that they'd died for a reason, I might just end up going insane down here.

My own watch came to an end soon enough, and I went to bed with the pit in my stomach that left me closing my eyes to fall asleep, praying that my lost friends had given their lives for a reason.

The next day came, destined to be yet another day of wandering through a never-ending library in search for something we prayed actually existed.

The geography section eventually became one of astronomy, talking of celestial forms, the other bodies in our solar system, the sun, all of that.

It wasn't too long ago that mankind still believed us to be alone in the world. How quickly things seemed to change.

It was only a little over 150 years ago that the Fire Nation explorer and navigator Ajorok Rasan had circumnavigated the globe, finding a route to the Earth Kingdom due West of the Fire Nation rather than East, finding only vast ocean and scattered archipelagos that occupied the otherwise barren sea between our two worlds. Likewise, it has only been around a century ago that Aizone Sai, another Fire Nation born, invented the high-powered telescope, realizing we weren't the only planet, and in fact resided in something he coined the solar system, a number of planets that revolved around the sun.

We really have come far in not a lot of time. It helped justify everything, I supposed. People no doubt had their doubts about the war, but when everything was put into perspective, were we wrong? Before the colonies had been established, that area of the Earth Kingdom's eastern coast had been warring dutchies and baronies, savage tribals, and avaricious trade companies attempting to make a profit from the unrestrained warfare.

Now? Now they were hubs of industry, society, cultural exchange, law, order, and security.

Notwithstanding, Zaik and I spent the hours of that day going through shelf upon shelf of text, finding reference to any number of space-related phenomena ranging from topics as simple as the phases of the moon to others as strange and offwordly as some complete and total alignment of the planets in the solar system, an event dubbed "Harmonic Convergence." A fanciful name for some floating rocks getting in a straight line.

Everything here, whether useful or useless, so many things I'd never been taught growing up in the Fire Nation. Perhaps there was a reason to it, myself seeing no reason why a soldier such as I should be wasted learning about the occasional coincidence in the alignment of the planets.

Notwithstanding, I could no deny that some of it was useful, though old news to me. The phases of the moon directly relating to the power of the waterbenders. The texts I found, however, made little to no reference to the real-world applications of these celestial occurrences, analyzing them rather, to a degree completely disconnected from anything else, completely impartial, neutral, focusing only on that field. Something I, as a matter of fact, found to be admirable, even if it did hinder connecting anything to something that may be useful for our endeavor.

There were other documents I found to be more interesting-works speaking of events known as solar and lunar eclipses, the former being the perfect obscuration of the sun by the moon, perfectly located between the Earth and the moon to cut off the flow of light, the latter referring to when the moon was caught in the shadow of the Earth, no light of the sun being reflected onto the Earth's surface. The "red moon" it was prone to being called.

"Find anything useful?" Zaik called down to me from where he'd been, a few rows away, himself checking through a number of texts.

"Not particularly," I said, stowing away the texts I'd been perusing, not finding much of any note within them. "You?"

"Nope," he exclaimed, slamming shut a rather heavy looking piece I'd noticed him dwelling on for a while, approaching me where I was instead. "Damnit!" He called out. "This is going nowhere."

"We'll find something," I said, trying to reassure myself more than him.

"Or we'll just waste time here that we should be spending in the field, you know, actually doing something to fight for our Nation."

"Zaik, we'll find something. Just gotta hold it together."

"At least in the field, we'd be dying for something real. Out here, our guys getting killed fighting fucking sandbenders of all people, who we're not even at war with, what's the point? What did Krezk die for?"

What did Krezk die for? He'd been killed with a spear of sand impaling his side, leaving him to waste away in a sandstorm that had likely already buried his body beneath tens of feet of desert. He'd never be found, his family would never have closure, he was lost to all space and time as far as anybody was concerned. And what had he died for? A shot in the dark, a slim chance of a secret strategy that would win this war for us? What the hell did he die for? "He died for his country. And we should all be so lucky to die as he did, fighting for something that can change the tide of this war."

"Do you really believe that?"

My eyes turned to the ground beneath my feet. What do I even believe anymore? Before I could answer, I heard a shuffling of feet to my right, and turned to face the same creature we'd seen out in the desert-that foxlike animal, just standing there, looking at us.

I stood there quiet, while Zaik, pacing a few steps back, said in a quivering voice, "Easy there, boy. We'll leave you alone. Just don't uh-just don't eat us. Please."

I turned to him, annoyedly questioning what the hell he was saying, then turned back to the pup, saying to Zaik behind me, "He's not going to eat you, Zaik. If he didn't eat us in the desert, why would he do so here?"

"Maybe the terrifying owl sicced him on us?"

I looked back on the fox, wondering myself if that was a possibility, but the animal made no move to attack us, instead just sitting there, head tilted to the side, questioning.

"Do you think he understands us?"

The animal tilted its head to the other side, eyeing us still. "I think he does?" I said, more as a question than a definitive answer. "Wan Shi Tong did mention they have a strange connection to humans."

"Maybe he's trying to help us. The owl called them knowledge seekers. Think he could lead us to what we're looking for?"

One way to find out. "Hey there,…boy. We're looking for information about the Water Tribes. Do you think you could help us?"

Still deathly quiet, the animal turned, making in a full toe sprint away from us, stopping suddenly, lifting one of its forward legs, pivoting its head to face us.

"I guess," Zaik started. "He wants us to follow?"

I shrugged, facing him, figuring we had nothing better to do, and so, myself collecting a few minimal texts I believed possessed some worthwhile information, followed.

The fox was kind enough to wait for us to make pace with it before continuing, heading now to a flight of stays which it promptly descended, still beckoning for us to follow. I couldn't tell you how low we got until we reached a segment of the library that seemed more of a midsection, the platforms leading in all 4 directions of the room, no bookshelves lining the walls, but rather, 4 doorways, and above them, the banners of the 4 nations, each leading into a wing that seemed to be appropriately decorated.

My eyes danced around the room, noting the uniqueness of each entrance, that of the Fire Nation wing being flanked by 4 golden dragons, guarding the entrance as vigilant sentries. What secrets of our nation could possibly be lying in there?

My eyes now turned, searching for the segment most relevant to us, and sure enough, sitting right behind a seated fox, was the banner of the Water Tribe, on each side of its entrance, a statue of a Koi fish, one facing upwards, the other downwards, as though if they swam close enough to one another, they could fit perfectly with each other.

"Well," started Zaik, scoffing as he caught up from behind me. "That answers that question."

I couldn't help but let the slightest of grins slip as I bent over and gave the furry guide an appreciative pat on the head for his service, Zaik following suit as I had already moved on, entering through the massive doorway that led into the wing that seemed wholly dedicated to all things Water Tribe.

I suppose I should have been expecting it, walking into such a room, but it felt as though I'd found myself immediately behind enemy lines the moment I stepped foot into that wing of the library. All around me hung Water Tribe memorabilia, shelves laden with pertinent texts gathered all around, one inclined to think that we sat at the very heart of the Water Tribe itself. In a way, I suppose we did. I had my doubts that even Agna Qel'a, the capital of the Northern Water Tribe, possessed this much knowledge on themselves.

And the room was beautiful too. At the far end of the room, as an ornate carving in the stone wall, was the insignia of the water tribe, the rolling waves within the image circle of the full moon, saying nigh everything there was to be said about where we were.

"This is-" Zaik started, unsure of how to finish even as he began. "This is-"

"Amazing," I said. "Everything about the Water Tribe. In this room alone."

"Which begs the question. What are we looking for?"

"I don't know. Something about a weakness the Water Tribe possesses. Anything along those lines. Something that can help us defeat them."

"And…where should I start looking?"

"I don't know!" I exclaimed, already looking through the shelves. "Just start pulling out books."

And so we did, going through them, not quite sure what the hell we were looking for in particular, the two of us merely searching desperately for something that could give us the edge.

And the hours rolled by. I reached a section entirely about the Water Tribe capital, about its architecture, its design, its passageways, underwater caves that led under its ice into subterranean tunnels beneath their palace. A detailed overlay of the terrain north of their city, outlining its hazards and proper navigation through it, leading essentially to the city's backdoor.

Zaik and I had the documents sprawled out across the floor, going through them one at a time, cross analyzing them with one another, putting together connections where and when we could, the accounts, blueprints, and documents we found in such thorough detail that it was frankly frightening. Neither of us missed it. Just how convenient it was. Everything we could ever need. Right here.

It was too easy. And if this library has this much on our enemy

"-Then what does it have on us?" Zaik finished, himself having been talking in the exact same words as my train of thought.

Our heads turned up from the writings on the floor to look at one another, a mutually shared fear in both of our eyes. If we had everything on our enemy we could ever want here, then what could they have on us if they found this as well.

"Go," I said. "See what's there. I'll stay here. I think I'm on to something."

He nodded, standing before asking, "Sure you don't need any help, sir?"

"I'm sure, Zaik. Thank you.

I was on to something. I truly believed that I was.

I had found a number of battle reports involving Water Tribe forces of all known tribes-Northern, Southern, and Foggy Swamp, though the latter was very rarely involved in actual fighting, this being limited to recent years. They even have accounts of battles from just months ago. How the hell? I don't remember any foxes watching us as we fought.

I had them all sprawled in front of us, organizing them into 2 piles: Water Tribe victories, and Water Tribe defeats. The victories held in common many similarities. Namely, battles fought during nights, full moons in particular. But defeats, on the other hand, most had occurred during the day, those during summer in particular. However, there were some that stood out, and the way in which they were written, hell, the casualty numbers on their own, they spoke of something entirely unusual.

Battles in the dead of night, resulting in complete and total defeats, but more interesting than anything else, all occurring during full moons, their enemies not other waterbenders, but earthbenders, firebenders, hell, even nonbenders. Those reports however, those of Water Tribe losses during full moons, they shared something in common. The moon they spoke of these conflicts occurring under, it was red.

And so I read all the further, read of the moon, read of the Water Tribe's worship of it, read of their traditions, their customs, their beliefs, of the two fish by the names of Tui and La who eternally circled one another in the capital's spirit oasis, the symbols of the tribe's belief in their two closest elements: the moon and the sea, explaining the statues that had guarded the entrance to this room.

And in that same document that spoke of the tribe's beliefs, it spoke of the entire purpose of Agna Qel'a, how it was not simply a capital city, but a shield, a shield for these two simple fish.

What the hell is-

"Lieutenant!" A rushing Zaik called to me as he stormed back into the Water Tribe ring.

It had only been around 30 minutes since he left. What could he have found in that sort of time?

"Private?" I called out to him, confused. "What is it, Zaik. You find something?

"Yes, sir! It's bad, sir! The enemy! If we don't do something about it, they'll destroy us before we can finish this fight!" He was grasping for every lungful of air he could take between his exclamations, seemingly burnt simply from his effort of running here. What could possibly have been so bad?

"Well, what is it?"

"It's-"

"As selfish as the last human who entered my library." It was that same voice that would interrupt Zaik, myself turning to find the shadow that had been enveloping me out of nowhere belonging to Wan Shi Tong where he stood directly behind me, facing down, his eyes boring into my skull. "I suppose I should not be surprised. If there is one thing all you humans have in common, it is that you are terrible liars."

Zhao

The first day had yielded little to no results. Following down a section that seemed to be dedicated to the natural sciences, I had not expected to find much success, but notwithstanding, I could leave no stone unturned.

On the second day, I wanted to think I was nearing something closer to what I was aiming for. It was easy enough to piece together the trends that the natural science section was following, allowing me to skip rather large segments of text while still getting a general idea of what they entailed. It was around midday of the second day that I began to approach something more akin to a historical section. I was following the levels down as directed, not skipping a thing. I couldn't afford to. So instead, I spent hours on end scanning through the names of different texts, perusing through some of them, finding information pertaining to old tribal societies emerging after something known as "Harmonic Convergence." I attempted to find more texts relating to this phenomena, but had no luck, the vague references I saw of it leading me to believe that more information regarding this event would likely be found in a more spiritual-based area of the library.

The texts I found, the ones I bothered to look into anyway, spoke of the emigration of mankind away from the "first cities" as they were called, initiating a stage of human migration across the lands of the present-day 4 nations. I wasn't sure if it was sheer interest, or the expectation that they might lead to something useful that pushed me to read them, but I did so anyway, eyes scanning through the texts, reading of how mankind, following this so-called "Harmonic Convergence" emigrated from their cities that had previously been built upon the backs of prehistoric beasts known as "lion turtles", proceeding to inhabit a, for all intents and purposes, barren earth.

Whatever this Harmonic Convergence was, judging by other texts I stumbled upon, it was important enough to be labeled a "starting point" of modern history, placing us now in the year 9,925, the year of the Dragon. I couldn't help but muster a smile at that. The year of the Dragon. A good a year as any to bring a massive victory to the Fire Nation. All the more reason to stay on task.

So I continued to search through the library, alone, wondering how the others were faring, until I received an answer, or at least, part of an answer, when Shilo stumbled upon me.

"Shilo?" I asked, rather surprised, soon enough annoyed at the intrusion, myself having lost track of where on this shelf I was, realizing I'd have to start from scratch. "What are you doing here?"

"Hope I'm not interrupting, but I think I found something that might be of interest to me."

Might be of interest to me? What did he think he knew of what I was after here?

"What might interest me?"

"Follow me. I'll show you."

He turned, indicating for me to follow. What harm can it be? I unrolled the map I'd been drafting, marking my location of where I'd left of. Worst case scenario, Shilo would lead me to nothing of importance, and I'd just return back here, the only thing I'd have lost being time. Time is however valuable. My supply of water was running low-all 8 canteens that I'd packed, making up the majority of the weight of my bag. My dry rations were running low, myself suspecting that I'd only have enough to sustain me for around another 3 days. IF I rationed. Considerably.

I stowed the map back into my bag, following Shilo as he led me through the maze of shelves, down more flights of stairs, passing by a number of levels that I feared I'd have to return back to if I didn't find the answers I was looking for with the aid of Shilo.

Eventually, we stopped descending, departing into a wing of the library marked by a 2-character word, "Warfare."

"What's this?" I asked as I began looking through the shelves. I trailed down the shelves, looking at all that was held here: records of battles won and lost, accounts of conflicts, diaries, and journals from peon and general alike, 1st hand accounts, 3rd hand as well, works of military theory and philosophy, everything one could hope to find about the history of warfare. But wartime history wasn't what I was looking for.

"You're here to gain an edge over the Earth Kingdom. Am I wrong?"

I didn't answer, still looking through the shelves for something that may be useful.

Nothing.

He continued on, saying, "No other reason you'd come here. You're looking for some edge in the war, are you not?"

"What we're doing here is not relevant to you. You saved our lives and got us this far, and for that, I'm thankful, but now that we're here, what we're looking for is on a need-to-know basis, which you don't. Sorry," I finished, trying to blunt the otherwise cutting effect of the words I'd said. I didn't dislike Shilo. Not in the slightest, but the man was in over his head. I wasn't sure if he was trying to be helpful, just enthusiastic at being a part of something bigger than his powerless village, or possibly even trying to mislead me. I shook that last thought out of my mind. He had no reason to do so. He had no stake in any of this whatsoever.

"Well, then I apologize for being an intrusion, but stick around. There still might be something here to help you."

"I very much doubt that I mumbled under my breath." He hadn't stuck around to hear. He was already gone. And rather quick at that. May as well go back to where I was before. Continue where I left off. Notwithstanding, I stuck around, intrigued by what I may come across. A number of hours passed that I spent in that wing, hours I feared would only be misspent, until I began coming across a number of accounts of battles that seemed to be coincidentally similar.

I spent my time collecting, and sprawling across the floor, a number of accounts of battles involving water benders. I read of raids conducting against the Water Tribes, including a historic siege Agna Qel'a in 9,473 that lasted for exactly a month before it instantaneously fell apart, the catalyst, of course, being the arrival of a full moon. The barbarians, a mixed bag of Firebenders and Earthbenders had attacked the Northern Water Tribe capital on the day after a full moon, hoping that, even if severe delays did occur, they'd be gone with the city's plunder before the full moon came around.

They failed to do so, overstaying their welcome, refusing to retreat after what they believed to be 'significant progress,' resulting in their force being wiped out in a waterbender counterattack, their attempt to retreat back into the sea being prevented by a wall of ice, trapping their forces only to be systematically eliminated by vengeful Northern forces.

This was all common knowledge, however. Not the siege, but the relationship between waterbenders and the full moon, how their powers seemed to increase exponentially during such an occurrence-a factor that, ever since this war's beginning, has been a thorn in our side, the water tribes never keen on letting us forget that for at least one day of each month, they held all the cards.

There were other reports, however, ones that didn't add up, ones that spoke of battles fought under full moons that resulted in either minimal water tribe victories to catastrophic losses for them. For occurring at times where they, theoretically, should have had all the power in the world, it made no sense. I was inclined to believe it was a matter of the skill of their warriors, unable to properly harness the full moon's potential to bring themselves cataclysmic victory. But even then, their losses during these events I'd singled out, ranging between the 70 to 100 percent casualty markings, it was too high. It didn't make sense.

I collected other reports that seemed to tell of similar phenomena, gathering them, but not quite sure where to go from there. I considered returning to the historical wing I'd been in before, but something told me I was onto something.

And so, to pursue this quest of mine, I gathered a number of these reports, setting off in what I assumed to be the only logical location-the astronomy section, wherever that may be.

I had only just begun setting off in that direction when, though I never felt it, I felt something, perhaps by some shift in the air, appear as though out of nothing directly behind me.

"Perusing military theory, I see?"

The cold serenity of the voice sent an uncontrolled shiver running up my spine, perhaps caused by the shift in the wind, the voice, or the dark shadow I suddenly stood in. I turned to face Wan Shi Tong where he stood, looking down on me like an unsuspecting hare that would normally make such a beast's meal.

I would have liked to say something, to respond to at least some degree, but I found the words stuck in my throat before I could. His patience for a response ran thin quickly enough as he continued, "You humans are all very alike, your quests for knowledge only limited to gaining some advantage for yourself over others. Immortality, politics, economics, warfare, you humans never surprise me."

To say nothing now would mean to essentially plead guilt. "You have in your possession the greatest storehouse of all knowledge in the world. A storehouse you allowed us to peruse at our pleasure."

"And yet all those who I have allowed into this great library have completed neglected that knowledge which may actually benefit the world. Knowledge of society, of architecture, herbalism, of the spirit world with whom your kind's connection has so sadly faltered over the last near ten thousand years."

"Ten thousand years. You mean Harmonic Convergence."

"Ah, so maybe you have learned something in your stay here so far. I highly doubt your kind teaches of this event in your own world. You impress me, human."

"What was Harmonic Convergence."

"I am not your tour guide. The knowledge you seek is within these walls. If you have trouble finding what you are looking for, consult one of my knowledge seekers."

"You criticize us for focusing on war, politics, and money, but when I ask you now for knowledge of something else, you ignore my request. Doesn't sound like you particularly care after all."

The large creature craned its head closer to me, its neck extending by meters just to reach where I was while still standing firm on its two feet, to the point I could nearly feel its breath against my face. "You are a bold one, human." He sighed, widening the distance between us. "But very well. Follow me and I will tell you what you wish to know."

And so he flew, but not far, and not fast, giving me the means by which I could follow him, past the shelves of military texts, through the great halls, across one catwalk after the next, down multiple flights of stairs, eventually reaching a wall, or perhaps a doorway, whatever it was, taking the appearance of some multi-petalled flowers, multiple circles within one another. It did, indeed, eventually prove itself to be a door as it the great circle rolled off to the side behind the rest of the wall, revealing within it yet another domed room, this one, however, far different from the rest.

In the center of the room sat a circular table, resembling that which one might find on the bridge of a Fire Nation cruiser.

Wan Shi Tong led the way, approaching the table, one swipe of his feathering hand causing the room to shift into motion. Light had suddenly entered the pitch-black room, myself looking up to see that the sky was in view. It's still night? I could have sworn it would be day by now. And where are we? I don't remember seeing this dome above ground. But it wasn't the sky. That became obvious enough by the movement of the stars, and the moon, the sight above me not that of the real world, but a complex machine that gave a view of the night sky, and, no, not just the night sky, of the heavens in their entirety, night becoming day, the sun moving across the sky, rising, setting, allowing for night to emerge again. It was a planetarium.

"This room is a great pride of my library. It took many centuries of studying your kind's machines to be able to craft such a room that you would be able to comprehend."

"I guess us humans are good for something after all. Should I guess it was Fire Nation machines you studied."

He seemed almost annoyed when he paused for a few moments before saying, "Yes." I suppressed a smirk, not wanting to get in the business of aggravating a potentially vengeful spirit. He said nothing more for a while after that, still at the table, with another swipe of his wing, setting the machinery into motion again, settling on an image of which seemed to make no sense. Some error in the machinery. Across the night sky, colorful swirls of green, pink, blue, red, and other colors appeared, seemingly dancing on the night sky.

"What is this?" I asked, attempting to make some degree of sense of the world around me.

"This is Harmonic Convergence. You may know that twice a year, during the Summer and Winter solstices, the Spirit World and the Physical Realm are at their closest points. This is the extent of it, however, our worlds remaining separate."

"With you being the exception, of course."

"I among others. Our worlds come no closer than this, however, save during Harmonic Convergence, where the divide between our worlds is nonexistent. Of course, however, this is only ever since the last Harmonic Convergence. Before then, there was no divide between our worlds."

"How many Harmonic Convergences have there been?"

"Since the dawn of life? Even I cannot say, but I have lived through 300 thousand Harmonic Convergences.

"300 thousand? That's over 3 billion years. The Earth isn't that old!"

"There is a lot you do not know, human. Your kind is still new to this world."

I put that thought aside. That would have to wait for another time. "And what was before then? Before you? Before the first Harmonic Convergence?"

"None of us can say for certain, but not one of us Spirits believe ourselves to be the pinnacle of life, nor its origin. We are not so vain. We believe there was something before us, is something above us. Though what, we cannot say."

"So, before the last Harmonic Convergence, our worlds were interconnected. What changed?"

"The Avatar. The first of his kind. Wan."

The Avatar? "What did they have to do with this?"

Before the last Harmonic Convergence, there was no divide between your world and mine. Humans could travel freely to the Spirit World just as we could do to yours. The Avatar, however, disrupted this balance. The actions of Avatar Wan broke the fragile balance between light and dark, throwing the Spirit World into disarray. His only solution for mending it was to separate our worlds, banishing us Spirits to our own realm."

"You sound bitter."

"'Bitter' is not what I would call it. I have no qualms with the Avatar's decision to separate our worlds, though others cannot say the same. Many spirits long for the day when they may return to the realm they called home for many millennia. I, however, do not."

"Clearly. You're here after all. What qualms would you have?"

"My presence here came at a sacrifice. My life of harmony and serenity in exchange for the chance to enlighten your kind. I am not alone in that sacrifice. Ran and Shaw, the essences of Fire, and others as well.

There are more spirits on this Earth?

I attempted to contain my surprise, and my satisfaction. I believe I may have had my answer. I played along, however. I couldn't risk leaving so soon. He'd suspect something.

"So what is your qualm with the Avatar, then?"

"The Avatar meddled in affairs that weren't their own. When Wan broke the balance between light and dark, deceived into doing so, he disrupted that which held the world together since the dawn of life for us. He closed the spirit portals that bridged our worlds, giving himself the mantle of "bridge," himself simply an Avatar of Raava's will."

"Raava? Who's she?"

"Raava is the spirit of light, until almost 10,000 years ago, bound eternally with the spirit of darkness, Vatu."

"So what happened, when the Avatar broke the balance?"

"He merged with Raava, becoming the first Avatar, eternally entrapping Vatu in the tree of time, having the gall to call what they did "balance." Hmm. Perhaps I am what you call, "bitter." Do excuse me. I seem to have lost myself. Is there anything else you wish to know, human?"

"Only one thing. If I wish to learn more of what you've said, where might I go?"

"Hmm." He eyed me, curiously. "Information of the spirits and the spirit world. Follow my knowledge seeker," he said, his eyes perfectly turning 180 degrees to reveal a fox standing at the doorway, sitting patiently. "He will lead you to what you seek. I have other matters to attend to. And do behave yourself. I have answered your questions here, but I will be less inclined to aid you "

And with that, he was gone, as though he'd dissipated into thin air, his silent wings carrying him far out of my sight before I could even react.

I smirked. You've already helped me more than you'll ever know.

Luke

We had gathered a number of weapons from around the town, digging into the town's stockpile to get whatever we could to put up a fight with.

It seemed that, in the plunder, Heigou's weapon stock had been equally as reaped as the rest of the town's goods, the armory, with a blown out side wall, having been completely ransacked.

Zek, Ka'lira, Gordez, and I had only come with the gear off of our backs, not having much to donate to the cause. The mercenaries that defended the nuns, however. They had more to offer.

Longswords, short swords, spears, pikes, halberds, traditional bows, crossbows even.

"Where the hell did they get this stuff?" I asked to nobody in particular as I, along with the rest of Squad Iron Fire, watched the volunteers for our little excursion help themselves to whatever weapons suited them most.

"Well," Zek started, a humorous tint to his voice. "You can ask that girlfriend of yours once this is said and done."

I looked up at him, my expression unamused as he stood with that same usual grin on his face, attempting to lighten the mood. Whether it'd been in Ba Sing Se, aboard the Patriot, or even here, he'd never lost his sense of humor. I envied him. I missed the days when something clever to say came as quickly to me as the instinct to defend myself from any number of threats came now. Back in simpler times.

My eyes searched for Zare among the group of the vengeful 24 who had volunteered for the task ahead. I found her eventually, at the back of the weapon cart, grabbing a bow and a quiver of arrows, myself not able to help but feel a small bit relieved at knowing she'd be keeping her distance from the proper fighting.

I couldn't help but slightly regret that it wouldn't just be Squad Iron Fire to take the reigns on this. We've been up against worst odds before, and with my fire, we'd make short work of them. But I understood it would raise too many questions if we came back unscathed, leaving in our wake a pile of scorched carcasses.

"Alright!" Gordez called out upon seeing that everybody had armed and equipped themselves. "The mercenaries are camped in the woods by the river to the north of here. There are 37 of them, 4 of whom are earthbenders. They outnumber us, but we have the element of surprise. They'll likely have sentries guarding the perimeter of the forest. We'll take them out with our archers and get the jump on them within the forest. By the time they know what hit them, they should all be did. There are 28 of us in total. We will divide into 4 groups of 7."

I wondered who are extra 3 would be. I couldn't help but feel they'd only end up slowing us down.

I turned to Zek who was at my side, and whispered, "We'd be more effective if it was just the 4 of us."

"I guess he wants somebody with experience on each team."

Each team. "Wait. Zek. What do you mean each team?"

I received my answer just then as Gordez continued with his announcement, saying, "The teams will be headed by me, Zek, Ka'lira, and Luke," he said, nodding to each of us respectively. Wait. What?

I intended to speak to object but it seemed that a number of people among the 24 bloodthirsty volunteers already had something to say of the topic. "They're going to lead us?" "We're older than most of them by double." "That small one is younger than even my son was!" "You're putting our lives in their hands?!" "What the hell is the matter of you?!"

Yeah, Gordez. What the hell IS the matter with you? I stood patiently however, regardless of the insults and criticism being thrown my way. Granted, none of them were unjustified, but it still hurt.

"Listen. I know they are young, and I know that, at a first glance, one could be expected to have some doubts, but these aren't children. They're soldiers. How many of you can say you've fought in the war? How many of you can they they've fought in the battle of Ba Sing Se? That's what I fought. We have!" May be a good idea to stop before you say whose side we fought on, Gordez.

"Should I break the news to him that I didn't fight in Ba Sing Se?" I could overhear Ka'lira whisper to Zek.

"Let him ride this high right now. He's just trying to rally people. I'm sure once the heat has died down, he'll come to his senses."

It seemed I wasn't the only one who had my doubts. I wasn't sure if that came as a reassuring relief to me, or if it just validated my fears. Whatever it was, it didn't feel good. It didn't feel right.

"Now," continued Gordez. "Gather any last belongings you have. Meet us at the East gate in 5 minutes. From there, we march!"

With that, he began on his way towards the East gate, leaving me, Zek, and Ka'lira in a confused daze.

"What the hell just happened?" I barely let out.

"Let's go see," Zek said, hurrying after Gordez, followed by Ka'lira and me shortly behind.

"Gordez," Zek said, catching up to him as he was still walking. "That was just to rally the others, right? We're not really going to be leading them, right?"

"You are."

For fuck's sake. It was my turn to speak up. "Gordez, I know you were Boss's second in command, and maybe he taught you a thing or two about leading others, but that was just you. We didn't get the same. I'm only 13 for fuck's sake. You expect me to lead people twice to even three times my age?"

"You have more experience in the field than most of them do combined."

"So what's my excuse?" Ka'lira interjected. "I don't think being a whore on a ship full of soldiers actually qualifies me as a soldier."

I could still see the effect on Zek that Ka'lira's occasional reference of her past had. He'd ever so slightly turn away, his face twisting, clearly put at unease by it. I couldn't blame him. In his shoes, I didn't doubt I'd feel any different if somebody I cared about had been tossed around that way. He didn't seem to hold it against her, though, realizing she had little choice in the matter, but the concept of it still wasn't pleasant for him.

"You've been with us for a while, Ka'lira. You've seen war, and I've seen you hold your own before."

"Yeah," Zek interrupted, "But leading people is entirely different. If we mess up, it's not just our lives on the line, but people under us as well."

"That's the cost of responsibility. With no proper leadership, everybody's life would be in jeopardy."

"Then you lead us. You have the experience. Keep us together, lead a straight assault. We'd be catching them by surprise anyway. And with your leadership, it'd be a solid plan."

No it wouldn't. Gordez saw right through that feeble attempt to evade responsibility. "You know damn well that's not a good idea, Luke. They'd see us coming if we stayed that closely grouped together. We'll be launched a 4-pronged assault ranging from the Southeast to Southwest. We won't be far apart. Worse comes to worst, you link up with the team closest to you. Look, I know I'm asking a lot from you. I'm no Boss, but I have thought this through. We'll enter the forest in separate teams, and link up in the middle where the enemy is. From there, it'll simply be a matter of killing them before they kill us. No amount of planning will prepare us for that. I think we all know that well enough. Your jobs will be to simply make sure your people don't get spotted by the sentries. Understood?" He looked to all of us, none of us 3 clearly having been particularly excited by the prospect of leadership, but we understood there was little other choice. We'd do what we'd have to do.

We were at the East gate now. Directly outside, around 50 meters away, a few hundred bodies stacked into a pile, ready to be mass buried tomorrow. I clenched my fists. It should just be us. I could burn them all alive, and not have to worry about losing anybody else. But fine, if this is what it takes, we'll get the job done. Not one of them will get out of that forest alive.

The others were arriving, and teams were assigned. Randomly. I didn't, as I had hoped, get Zare assigned to mine. She had been put in Ka'lira's group, rather. Not that it mattered for the moment, I supposed. We were still marching to the general area as one large group. It was what would come after that concerned me. I knew Ka'lira, she was a good soldier, sure, but she had the least experience of us all. Of the 4 of us, she was the least qualified to lead. I felt guilty for even thinking it, but it was true, and I hated that it was. Just don't get her killed, Ka'lira. I already learned her name. Watching people whose names you knew die always hurt all the more.

We'd initially started with some semblance of a formation, me, Zek, Ka'lira, and Gordez at the head, our respective warriors behind us. To me, two of the nuns' protectors, Heni and Gehor had been assigned, along with 5 civilians-Gino, Luhaan, Banu, Fimor, and Rung. I'd restrained myself, back in Ba Sing Se, from learning the names of the new recruits. It made it harder when they inevitably got themselves killed. Here though, I didn't want to let myself go in with that same mentality. I wanted to, I needed to think that things would go differently.

The formation fell apart soon after. Not that it mattered. We'd organize ourselves when the time came for it.

Even my place at the head slowly diminished, unsure if it had just been that I wasn't keeping pace, or that I'd been pulled back, something that seemed just as likely as Zare was immediately by my side the moment I had trailed far enough away from the main group. I wouldn't be lying by saying that I expected what I'd been getting from everybody else-questions as to my competency, whether I could do this, all of that shit. As though I didn't have enough doubts on my own. Instead of any of that rather, she simply asked me, "You fought at Ba Sing Se?"

I turned my head to face her, having been expecting something completely different, and nodded. I guess that cat was out of the bag now. Thank the spirits that Gordez hadn't gotten carried away and said anything more. "I know," I said, conceding. "A bit young."

"Nah, not really. My brother was around your age when he joined the Earth Kingdom army."

"Did he-did he fight at Ba Sing Se?" I asked, terrified for a brief moment that he may have been one of the many faces I'd watched burn to death in front of me by my hand, praying her answer to my question would be-

"No." Thank Raava. "The Mojiang province."

"Is he," I paused, not knowing exactly how to ask, but thankfully, she removed the need to do so, shrugging and saying, "Don't know. Never heard."

"Wait, so your name, Zare, it's Fire Nation, but he joined the Earth Kingdom army."

"Fire Nation controlled the land, but the people less so. Even if he grew up with a Fire Nation name, same as me, part of the Fire Nation's cultural enforcement policy, that didn't stop him from leaving the first chance he got to free his country."

I couldn't help but feel a knot in my stomach now, myself having spent the last 2 years of my life fighting in the name of the Fire Nation, and now standing next to somebody who's brother had fought, and, let's be honest, likely died fighting for the country I'd been fighting against all this time, lying through my teeth, pretending to have fought for her country.

"So you're from Ba Sing Se?" she asked. "I mean, I imagine you are if you fought there."

One lie after another. Damnit, Luke. "Yeah," I said. "Raised in the streets," I said, attempting to at least make some recovery at approaching the truth. "Got conscripted by the army when they became desperate enough." Another truth.

"Hmm," she said. "I'm sure you have plenty of interesting stories to tell, then."

Oh, you have no idea.

"So what was it like?"

"Hmm? You mean Ba Sing Se?"

"The battle, yeah."

"Wasn't much of a battle. Most of it was spent in a trench, them pounding us with artillery for months on end to the point you forgot what the world sounded like when shells weren't constantly landing around us."

"Hmm," she simply said, myself not being able to tell if she was disappointed by the answer I have, herself finding it underwhelming, or if she just didn't take. Turns out, it was neither, as her attention, rather, was drawn to the formation that had stopped, as expected, approximately a half mile away from the forest. It was a full moon today, more than enough light to guide our way. From here, Gordez indicated, wordlessly, for us to divide into our teams. Even this far out, he was taking no chances.

I saw where my people were, moving to link up with them before feeling a light tug at my sleeve, prompting me to turn to Zare. "Hey, good luck," she whispered.

"You too. Stay safe."

She nodded, heading off towards where Ka'lira was already gathering her men. Don't get her killed, Ka'li.

I linked up with my team, themselves having already gathered for the most part. We would take the rightmost flank, ourselves already splitting off away from the others to head towards the East end of the forest, remaining low, Heni and Gehor at my side as we approached.

Unlike us, it seemed that the mercenary sentries had found the light of the full moon to not quite be enough, themselves holding torches to light their immediate surroundings.

How nice of them to broadcast to the world exactly where they're standing.

Idiots. Sure you can see the 20 yards in front of you quite well, but beyond that…?

We were just around 35 yards away, me, Gehor, and Heni huddled behind a rock while the militia hung a few dozen yards behind us, waiting for our clearance to proceed.

The sentry stood leaned against a tree, a bow and quiver strewn over his back, right hand lazily holding the torch by his side, his left picking at something stuck between his teeth. I'd like nothing more than to see the head of an arrow break his stupid fucking teeth.

"Heni," I whispered to the mercenary who was about twice my age. "How well can you shoot?"

"Asking me if I can take him out from here?"

I nodded.

He already had the arrow out of his quiver and nocked it. "Damn right I can."

"Wait," I held out a hand. Make sure nobody has a line of sight on him. If he goes down and somebody sees, we're fucked."

"There's nobody watching. Now let me shoot the fuck."

"Wait. We need to make sure."

"The longer we wait, the more likely we'll fall behind the others. I'm not letting them beat me to the punch."

"Wait!"

It was no use. He'd drawn and loosed the arrow before I could object any further. The arrow struck, but not fatally. The man went down, the torch clattering to the ground, still lit, its flames catching some blades of grass, too wet however to be set ablaze. The man was on the ground, an arrow protruding from his side, gasping for air through the one functioning lung he had left, writhing on the ground, reaching desperately for something at his side. He's going to alert the others.

I jumped over the rock we were huddled behind, racing towards his position as fast as I could, another arrow flying directly past my head as I did so, dangerously close, but another miss anyway, both in regard to me and the sentry who I wanted to think was the intended target. I reach the sentry, kicking his hand aside just as he brought up whatever it was he had been reaching for to his lips. His arm went flying to his side, whatever item it was in his hands toppling to the ground, the force of my kick prompting him to sit up further, perfectly exposing his neck for a quick slash of my blade across it. Black ooze seeped from the wound, the pressure pushing it out like some grotesque fountain you'd find in a Fire Nation city plaza. He felt down on the grass, dead, the scene promptly shrouded by Gehor's boot stomping on the flame of the torch, immediately extinguishing it.

Heni followed close behind, my look at him saying all that needed to be said. He made no show of giving two shits about what I felt, however, him towering over me, simply needing to look down on me to convey all he was attempting to say.

Well. Fuck you too.

I raised my hand, signaling for the other civilians to follow, looking to my left, not far away, seeing other groups entering into the forest. No alert so far. That's good. We haven't been detected yet.

I followed into the forest after Gehor and Heni, the civilians behind me. Guess I'm no longer in charge as far as the mercenaries were concerned. So long as they didn't open fire and start fighting before we were all in position, they could do whatever they hell they wanted. Just don't screw us, and you're free to kill all the mercs you want.

As we went through the brush of the forest, I could begin to hear the rushing of water coming from ahead. I'd caught up to the two who had taken the lead, and as our positions started to near one another, could even make out Zek's team to my left, albeit in the distance. I returned to the head of the formation, continuing along, not as a measure to assert dominance, but simply to keep things in an orderly fashion. I didn't want them, Heni especially, getting any reckless ideas and alerting the entire damn forest before the time came to do so.

We were closer to the river now, approaching a small clearing. Within it, as expected, was the enemy camp, tents strewn across the dirt floor, campfires burning, spits bearing animals cooking a midnight snack, another set of sentries, or perhaps just sleepless mercenaries, still awake, sitting by the fire.

I counted 4 people in total still awake, 2 sitting by the fire, both fortunately facing away from us, 1 taking a piss by the river, closer to where Ka'lira's group on the Westernmost end would be, and the last one sitting off on his own, just as likely asleep leaning against the trunk of a tree as not.

The 2 at the fire were closest to us. That would be our responsibility. I turned to Heni, putting the previous transgression aside, considering this his chance to redeem himself in my eyes.

"Alright," I said. "You shoot the one on the right, and I'll take out the one on the left, got it?"

He nodded, myself praying that I could expect him to do his job, and do it right this time. I held my short sword in hand, still bloodied from the previous sentry.

I stalked out of the forest cover, taking deliberate care in avoiding leaves, branches, hell, pebbles that may, if light enough, crack beneath my feet.

I was only a few feet away from the leftmost sentry, the right still very much alive, myself just waiting for the Heni's shot to come so I could pounce on the one that remained. Come on, Heni. Take the shot.

The shot came, the whistle of the arrow screeching as it penetrated the air to my side, plunging into its target. But the wrong target it was. The man directly in front of me, the leftmost sentry, went down, the arrow perfectly impaling his head, the shaft stuck in his skull, the point perfectly emerging from his forehead. It just had to have been the wrong target.

The man to the right, quite obviously having noticed the death of his comrade immediately to his leg, gasped in shock, seeing what had just transpired. He attempted to scream, but my left hand was already over his mouth, the point of my blade already in his stomach, the only noise that emerged being a muffled whimper as he dropped dead to the ground.

I turned back behind me, not saying, or even conveying anything, perhaps simply trying to give a reminder that I was here. Whatever good that'll do.

I turned around back in time to hear the soft splash of the pissing mercenary falling into the water flat on his face, an arrow straight in the back of his neck, myself suspecting Ka'lira's hand in that kill, as the other mercenary by the tree got pinned to the bark behind him by a similarly placed arrow.

The other teams were emerging from the forest now, Squad Iron Fire leading the way, other disparate forces behind them, none of them demonstrating the same rebelliousness that my group had apparently. Side effect of following a teenager into battle, it seems.

We quickly enough began linking up with one another, myself thankful at least to have made it this far without any of my people getting killed out of nowhere.

"Everybody accounted for?" Gordez whispered to me, a majority of out party having gathered, no shortage of eyes being kept on the tents around us, never knowing if somebody was listening.

Zek, Ka'lira, and I all affirmed the positive, myself gladdened by Ka'lira's indication that all of her people still lived and breathed. Gordez pulled out his knife from its place on his belt, saying, "Let's do this quietly then. Have your men go through the tents and take out anybody within. Keep your archers outside to keep watch. They may have other sentries we haven't seen."

We all nodded, relaying the orders to our men, Heni set to keep watch over the East of the clearing to ensure nobody snuck up on us. I, meanwhile, Danev's blade in my hand, chose my first target-a small enough tent to only house one, the canvas entrance sealed shut, quickly enough parting as I parted it before me, revealing a sleeping mercenary, completely unaware of the imminent death approaching me.

Some small part of me wanted to feel sorry, but all it took was remembering the hundreds of bodies piled atop one another to the East of Heigou, remembering Hana, to push any vague doubts I had aside.

I placed a hand over his mouth, waking him, his eyes shooting wide open, my face the last thing he'd see before my knife entered into his neck, and the life in his eyes quickly faded into oblivion. I departed my tent, met by the pleasant sight of others entering and exiting from tents. I turned East, ensuring that Heni still was standing at his post, but was met by nobody there.

Where the hell-

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a scuffle behind me, myself turning to see Heni emerge from a tent, atop a mercenary's dying body gasping for air, a knife lodged into his chest cavity, the look on Heni's face speaking of nothing short by pure anger.

What the hell are you doing?

"Heni!" I whispered, his face turning to face mine for me to question him as to why he was here.

It would prove irrelevant, however, as the shocked pant of "Oh shit" emerged from behind me, prompting em to turn East, where Heni should have been, seeing only in his stead, a mercenary sentry holding an object to his lips, mumbling all the while, myself attempting to reach him before he could sound it off, but being too late.

The sharp shrill of the whistle penetrated the air as he alerted all those around us as to our presence. "Intruders!" He called out once, bringing his whistle to his lips again, in the middle of already yelling for a second time, "Intru-" his yell interrupted by my dagger slicing through his throat, sending him back to the ground. Damnit!

The camp was awake, the whistle having been enough to restore life around us. It only took a few seconds for mercenaries, some in nightwear, some already equipped, to begin emerging from their domiciles in mass, scuffles emerging in the tents where our people had been, one such scuffle resulting in one of our militiamen being forced out of the tent he'd attempted to infiltrate, a mercenary's hand wringing his neck, snapping it shortly after.

For fuck's sake! I was rushing the mercenary before I heard a rustle behind me, turning to face a new mercenary emerging from his tent, a spiked club already raised in greeting towards me. I swung towards him, hoping to catch him with a slash as he got to his feet. He, however, managed to throw himself back, avoiding my blade, regaining his footing rather quickly, springing back onto his feet, charging at me with a swing of his club, going straight for my head.

I backed away just in time to avoid his swing, raising my sword to block his counter swing, the wood of his club chipping against the blade of my sword, actually finding it lodged within. I used the moment to pull him towards me, himself still dazed by his present circumstance. I placed a solid kick to his chest, knocking him to the ground, my blade becoming free of his club, and forced it down into his chest, bypassing his Earth Kingdom security armor which he still had the gall to wear following the betrayal of his hometown, pinning him to the ground.

My blade emerged from his torso, bloodied and muddied, and I turned back, finding that the mercenary who had killed the militiamen now slumped on the ground, his skull a bloodied mess as Gordez reared away from it, morningstar in hand.

All around, the camp had shot into action, numerous brawls and exchanges occurring all around, my attention taken away from my surroundings as I heard the cry of somebody to my side, charging at me with a spear. Idiot. All it took was dodging out of the , grabbing his spear with my left hand, and slicing across his side with my sword in the right, and kicking him down onto a campfire to send him writhing in pain as the flames danced across his soon-to-be corpse.

"If only I could have burned you myself, asshole" I whisper more to myself than to him doubting he could even be capable of hearing my words over his own agonized screams.

I turned back to the fighting, now finding more fighters entering the fray, emerging from the east side of the woods-more sentries we had evaded before apparently.

These new attackers had caught a number of our forces by surprise, one knocking a militiaman over the heard with a spiked club, kneeling atop him, raising his club to finish the job before I pulled him back by the collar of his shirt, slamming him back first into a tree, slowly plunging my sword into his stomach until it reached the dark, my eyesight in tunnel vision, focusing on the fear in his eyes as he squirmed, shifting at the last minute to face to his left, my right, and I felt it, just the slightest shift in the air.

The blade left his stomach, and I spun, blade outstretched, cutting directly across the belly of the man who had been to my right, his guts pouring directly out of him as he collapsed to his knees, and sank backwards into the mud. That's what you get for trying to sneak up on me, asshole. I mustered up enough saliva in my mouth to spit on him where he lay, doing so, confident that the fight was near over, both my arms lowered at my side, until I saw the black outline on the ground-a shadow, next to my own. Oh no.

I turned, attempting to bring up my own weapon in enough time to defend myself, and there he stood. Or rather, there he was. To say he was standing would be giving him too much credit. Like one would nail a sign on a wall, his head was nailed to the tree trunk to his left side by an iron barbed arrow, entering just above his right ear, exiting out of his left, directly lodging into the tree. His hands had been in the very process of falling limp as I turned, axe in hand, my life having been milliseconds away from being suddenly cut off, myself only saved by whoever had landed that expert shot.

Who the hell?

I turned, looking around, attempting to connect a figure to the deed that had just saved my life, but could see no bowman nearby who'd have done that. Heni, I wondered, myself pondering the possibility of him having finally come to my aid rather than putting me in direct jeopardy. Instead of finding my mysterious benefactor, I merely turned to see the final moments of the fight playing out before me: Gordez knocking a mercenary beneath his chin with his newfound morningstar, Zek removing his blade from the back of a mercenary who'd been charging Ka'lira who let off a bolt at a mercenary, puncturing him straight in the heart, Gehor bearing down his warhammer atop the skull of a mercenary who was crawling away, reducing his head to a pulp of blood and gore, many others finishing the job, putting down the dwindling mercenaries that remained.

And just like that, it was all over, the bodies of the dead littering the camp. After everything they did: betraying their town, picking of its wounded, poisoning its sick and weary, it was finally over. They were dead. Too easy.

I looked at the bodies around me in disgust. They'd gone down too easily. After everything, I'd have though they'd put up a fight, make themselves a threat, but they were only a danger to those too weak to fight back. They were pathetic.

I kicked the singed corpse of the man I'd killed who'd fallen into the campfire, his body having smothered the flames beneath him. "Fucking pathetic," I mumbled, kicking the body again.

"Is it-" I heard somebody ask from somewhere among the carnage. "Is it over now?"

"Yeah," Gordez said, letting the morningstar he'd seized from a mercenary fall to the ground. "It's over." He looked up, now popping back into the present state of the situation. "Everybody, give me a head count. Find who's dead and who's injured. Count the bodies of the enemy as well. Ensure it's 37. We don't want any more surprises."

He turned to me now, Zek and Ka'lira also close by, all of us apparently having wanted to check in on one another to ensure we all still lived. We all wore the blood of those we'd been fighting, none of us unstained by it.

"You all alright?" Ka'lira asked, turning to me and Gordez, Zek having clearly been the first person she checked on.

We both nodded. "Yeah," I said. "You two?"

"We're good, Luke," Zek said, wearing a relieved smile on his face, clearly glad for this all to be over now.

We all stayed there for just a few moments longer before it would be Gordez who'd' interrupt the moment, saying, "Alright, we can rest later. Let's finish up here and head back to Heigou.

We all nodded, not one of us disliking the prospect of getting out of this warzone, and got to work.

I was counting the bodies, both ours and that of our enemy. I was at 13 bodies of the enemy when I stumbled across one of our own. So if it wasn't him, then who? Heni's body laid sprawled out on the floor, arms limp at his side, left ear to the ground, his blank eyes looking off into the distance, the back of his skull caved in. Despite everything, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him as I shut his eyes and numbered him as the first of our casualties. His bow was around his back, his hand, rather, still warm, still clutching a hunting knife. He hadn't fired his bow throughout the whole fight. So if it wasn't you, then who?

"Looks like it's over," I heard a familiar voice say from behind me, myself unable to suppress the sigh of relief I let out upon hearing Zare's voice.

"Looks like it," I said, turning back to face her, remembering my current count of 23 bodies. She looked around her, contemplatively by the look of it. "It had to be done, didn't it?"

I nodded. "Won't be hurting us anymore in this state," I said, my eyes drifting again to the burnt carcass. I turned back to her, seeing her still-clean self, unstained by any blood, neither her own, or that of others, a stark contrast to me who had the blood of 6 different people today on my hands and body. "Did you…did you kill anyone?"

She shook her head. "Shot at a few. Missed. Your friend, Ka'lira, she's a good shot."

"Yeah," I chuckled acknowledgingly. Maybe it was Ka'lira? No. She was firing bolts. Not arrows. She looked me up and down, her eyes clearly settling on the numerous blood stains across my body. "Not mine," I reassured her, realizing shortly after that perhaps it wasn't the best reassurance. I didn't want to consider how I looked right now-likely some bloodthirsty monster, but the look in her eyes didn't express fear, or anger, or anything along those lines. It was just the same green eyes that she'd had in this last week.

"I counted the bodies," she said. "We lost 4."

I grimaced. 4 more people we failed to save. My head sunk, to which Zare, upon noticing this said, as though attempting to reassure me, "Hey. Come on. It's a shame that we lost them, but now, the others are safe because of what they did, because of what you and you friends did. We wouldn't have had the guts to take them on if it wasn't for your people.

It was easy for her to say. She had no blood on her hands. It was easy to watch a battle from a distance and say you knew what war was.

I simply nodded, a part of me discouraged upon the realization of this disconnect we clearly possessed in relation to one another.

She sighed, nodding, and placed a small pat on my shoulder before turning in the other direction. I watched as she trailed away, the bow around her left shoulder, the quiver of barbed iron arrows jostling as she walked away, only 2 or 3 remaining, the subtle glint of blood against the shafts reflecting the light of the campfires surrounding us.

Wait. I turned back around, approaching the body of the man I'd found dead behind me, losing sight of him at first, him not where he was before, but rather, at the base of the tree trunk he'd been nailed to moments before, the arrow removed from his head, an oozing hole lying in its place.

No, I thought. It couldn't be. But as I turned to watch her disappear amongst the crowd of the battle's other survivors, I saw something I saw before-a disconcerting degree of comfort with the world of death around her. I turned back to the body that lay dead, myself know believing I knew who his killer had been.

I'd lost track of the bodies I was counting.

My mind was dwelling on something else entirely.

Harzek

"How did," Zaik gulped. "How did you know?" Idiot! What kind of stupid question was that, admitting guilt in the process?

"This is my library and my knowledge. Do you truly believe I do not know of all that transpires within these walls?"

He had made no motion to the fox who appeared behind him, but its presence did enough to confirm what was suspected.

"Why, you furry traitor," mumbled Zaik.

"Do not blame him for being loyal to his master. Loyalty is a precedent of his kind, just as warfare and destruction seems to be a precedent of yours."

"You act so surprised," I say, seeing this as the only time to speak up if there ever was one. "It's you who's gone out of your way to compile all of this information, you yourself saying you keep it in the physical realm for our kind to have access to!"

"Knowledge must not have limitations, unlike your kind who will only bring ruin and chaos to the world if you are not properly…restrained." He spoke the last work with a chilling venom that had me subtly reaching for the knife by my side, no part of me any longer expecting this having a good ending.

I still need to hear what Zaik had to say.

"If it's that important to you, we'll just be going now." I turned to the man by my side, grabbing his wrist by my hand. "Come on, Zaik." We needed to get out of here. Quickly. We could decide what to do once we were safe. That effort, of ours, would be interrupted by the feather-light figure of Wan Shin Tong descending directly in front of us, blocking our way out.

"I'm afraid that is no longer possible. You already know too much."

My eyes widened, watching as his neck grew exponentially in length, his head rearing back, building the force necessary to lunge forward, coming straight at us.

"Zaik, run!" I pushed my comrade out of the way, to my left, myself leaping to the right out of harm's way, the antagonized spirit's beak clashing onto the stone ground in between us, where both of us had stood just moments ago.

As I fell to the ground, I managed to work the knife out of my belt, throwing it to our latest enemy, watching as the blade was simply swept aside, Wan Shi Tong letting it shoot to the ceiling of this great hall, the point becoming stuck in the masonry overhead.

Seeing me defenseless now, no longer at threat, he turned his attention away from me and to my comrade.

I grimaced. I need to get that owl's attention on me and off of Zaik.

Still on the ground, I clambered to my feet, rushing immediately to the pile of documents I had lying on the ground. I could have picked up any one I imagined, and the spirit would have gone after me, but there were documents there that were important, and I had no intention of backtracking to this room, assuming I even got out of here alive, which was still up to debate.

I slid across the ground as I got close, grabbing the curled scroll I knew to be the one making reference to the two fish, myself believing it to be of importance one way or another. I narrowly avoided another attack from the owl, clambering quickly to my feet once again, scroll in hand, that being the determining factor in keeping it after me rather than my friend.

I sprinted to the far side of the room, using the support beams for cover, varying the moments in which I transitioned from one spire to another, keeping the spirit from noticing my patterns, allowing me to make it to the one nearest the doorway. It's still too far. I won't make it.

"Hey asshole!" I heard Zaik's voice call from the other side of the doorway, followed by a wet squelch that I could only assume to be the sound of a thrown dagger sinking into the spirit's side. Whatever it was, it had bought me enough time, the sound of my footsteps themselves being drowned out by the owl's pained shriek.

I rushed past the great beast as it writhed in pain at its injury, very likely starting to regret its presence in our world. I reunited with Zaik on the other side, pushing him along as we left this wing of the library and sprinted elsewhere, just desperate to be out of harm's immediate way.

Wan Shi Tong's shrieks still filled the chambers behind us as we clambered up the stairs to the level above, knowing that whatever escape we chose would only grant us a moment's respite. This was his library. He'd knew where we'd be hiding. We didn't have much time, and Zaik realized similarly as I pulled him aside into the alleyway between bookshelves, away from the ledge where the spirit would be very easily enabled to catch us.

The two of us were still in the process of catching our breaths, both exhausted and terrified, myself just barely managing to let out, "Tell me," between my labored breaths. "What did you find?"

"The Fire Nation," he breathed out. "We have a weakness." He coughed, gasping for air. "One that could kill us all."

"What!?" I wanted to yell.

"An eclipse. A solar eclipse. Over 2 centuries ago. "The Fire Nation's Darkest Day." All firebenders. They lost their power. The Fire Nation was attacked. Tens of thousands were killed, the capital pillaged. It said it would happen again. If it-if it does, and the enemy is prepared, then we-"

"Then we could be destroyed."

A solar eclipse. The sun was the firebender's power. And so, if the sun was blocked, then, then it was true. We'd be defenseless.

The sun was our Nation's power. We worshipped it as a god. As the waterbenders worship their moon.

Wait.

And it all clicked.

The documents I'd seen earlier, those of lunar eclipses, and the ones I'd seen after that, speaking of the horrific losses of waterbenders on full moons. They were full moons, but during lunar eclipses. The red moon. The moon being obscured in the Earth's shadow. It all, it all made sense. That was it! That was our edge! That was how we could win!

"Umm, lieutenant?" Zaik asked. "Did that spirit hit you in the head? Because I do not think you should be smiling that wide after what I just told you."

"It's not that!" I wanted to laugh at the top of my lungs. I had it! We had it! That was it! "A lunar eclipse!" I nearly shouted, suppressing my volume so as to not alert the knowledge spirit.

"Umm, no. I said a solar eclipse. You know, for the sun, not the moo-oh."

"Our weakness, it's only a parallel of their own. We need to-we need to find Zhao. We need to find him now!"

"Found you!" Came the ethereal voice from directly behind us, Wan Shi Tong's figure emerging from around the bookshelf we'd been hiding behind, his neck angling around its corner to reach at us, myself just barely pulling Zaik out of the way of the violent attack.

"Run!" I yelled, pulling him to his feet as we sprinted in the opposite direction, towards the area that Zhao was set to be covering.

The spirit was directly behind us, hot on our heels. "Zaik!" I called out. "Grenades!"

He nodded, reaching into his pocket as we dashed across the bridge spanning over the abyss of the library. I heard the sizzle as the fuse was lit, the friction of the washer over it igniting it, Zaik promptly tossing it behind him as we ran.

The explosive went off too early, but still momentarily caused the spirit to halt its flight in the wake of the ball of fire, fearful of getting too close, granting us some extra ground.

It resumed its flight soon enough, however. We were almost across the bridge. "Another!" I called out.

Zaik had learned from last time, setting the fuse again, allowing it to cook longer, taking in account the extra footing we'd gained, and let the grenade loose. I could hear the clawing on the stone of the bridge as Wan Shi Tong skidded to a stop, the noise of it immediately overpowered by the boom of the explosion that followed.

The smoke of the explosion concealed our next maneuver, the two of us splitting up, blending into the rows of pillars that marked the entrance into the next wing of the library, both me and Zaik hiding behind separate ones, waiting for the spirit to pass. The sooner he did, the sooner we could get to Zhao without bringing feathery peril in tow.

The smoke cleared soon enough, and from it, he emerged. I immediately ducked behind cover once again, intent on not allowing my head poking out to be spotted.

I could not observe what happened next, myself too terrified to even ponder looking around, only having the shifts in the air to guide me as to where he was, his footsteps too quiet, too unearthly silent to be heard.

"I know you are in here."

Then came a crash, one that echoed across the hall we were hiding in, the sound of stones clashing against the floor, myself needing to poke out for just a moment to see what had transpired.

Where an ornately carved stone pillar had stood only seconds ago, a pile of rubble remained. He could rebuild. He was willing to do anything to catch us. Damnit!

I hid back behind my pillar, breathing, tying to keep my cool.

Another crash.

I needed to believe that he'd stop before he reached me.

Another one, closer.

I had no idea where Zaik was.

Another crash.

Wherever he was, I prayed that if Wan Shi Tong reached me first, he'd take the opportunity, and run.

Another crash, nearly right on top of me.

He knew what he had to tell Zhao. He would have to finish the mission. He'd have to. I had to have faith in him.

I closed my eyes, awaiting the next crash I knew was about to come, this one destined to either sever me in half along with the pillar I awaited my fate behind, or crush me beneath its weight as it came toppling down.

"I'm right here!"

Zaik. No.

Wan Shi Tong had been waiting for just the moment for one of us to make our appearance.

He wasted no time in immediately turning to the other side of the hall, moving faster than a Yuyan archer's arrow in immediately clasping both of Zaik's shoulders in its talons, pinning him to the ground in the center of the hall.

"Let him go!" I yelled, leaping out of cover, but the owl's attention was set on Zaik, having its prey solidly in his grasp, nothing about to change that, not even me, not until he was done with his current target.

Wan Shi Tong's gaze was transfixed on Zaik, nothing else in the world about to take his attention away as his talons sunk deeper, drawing blood from Zaik's body, feeble and pathetic by comparison. My attention was similarly directed, looking along in horror as Zaik attempted to raise his head, grunting from the pain.

And this time, it was his turn to tell me, "Run."

It was then that I noticed the metallic cylinder sliding underneath the ghastly owl's mass, fuse lit, ready to go.

No.

I dove for cover, the explosion sounding off the selfsame second I did, loose stones blowing off of the corner of my pillar as well as surrounding ones, myself immediately emerging from cover to find what had transpired. What I saw first was Wan Shi Tong's figure, his rear feathers and much of his back caught in a burning inferno, his screeches penetrating the otherwise dead-silent atmosphere of the library, trailing ever closer to the edge of our level, his talons hardly making contact with the surface as he reared ever closer to the ledge.

As well as that, I saw Zek's body on the stone floor, blood pooling around him. I fought the urge to immediately run to his side, knowing that if I gave the spirit any respite, it would use it to kill us both.

I took the chance I had, rushing the spirit while his guard was down, distracting by the flames dancing through his feathers, no solid footing to be had. I reached him, and as I'd done so many times during training when busting down doors and practicing unarmed combat, I slammed my shoulder into him where he stood at the edge. Despite his size that towered over my own, he lost his footing, the talons scratching at stone but finding no grip, and he toppled over the side, falling aimlessly into the abyss below.

I stood there at the edge for a second, watching his form become overtaken by the darkness below, and then I remembered.

"Zaik!"

I turned around, rushing to where he lay on the ground, more of his blood outside of him than in him. He was gasping for air, no shortage of shrapnel still protruding from his weakening body, the deep scratches at his shoulders not helping him much either.

"It's alright," I said, immediately sliding to and sitting by his side, taking his head into my hands atop my lap. "It's alright. I'm here now."

I looked over his wounds. He had practically next to his own grenade when it went off. It was a miracle he was still alive right now, but he was bleeding from a hundred wounds.

He would not survive.

He coughed out a glob of blood, chunks of his guts a part of his emission. "Shh, shh. It's alright. You did good, Zaik. You did good."

His coughing slowed for a minute, his gasps fading, but himself not yet dead, looking up at me, listening to what I had to say with the last of his strength.

"You saved my life," I said, smiling down on him, forcing back the moisture I could feel rising to my eyes. "You saved…your nation."

And I could have sworn I saw the slightest of smiles rise to his lips as he allowed his eyes to close, the last of his life escaping him, myself needing to find some solace in knowing that he died peacefully, knowing that he fought to save his comrade, to save his nation. It was a death I wish to have myself when the time came.

I waited there for a few seconds longer, eventually bringing my arm up to wipe away at the rogue droplets of water forming at the corner of my eyes.

And now Zaik joins the fallen.

All we know of was the lunar eclipse, ourselves still haven't having done anything to ensure the information of the solar eclipse fell into enemy hands. Has he really saved his Nation? Has anything we've done here really ensured we'd win this war?

No. There has to be more. There has to be more we can do.

I look around me, Zaik's lifeless head still resting in my lap. I had to find Zhao. Together, we could finish this. We had to.

I looked down at Zaik one last time before setting down his head back onto the cold stone beneath us. We'd come back for his body once this was all over. He'd get a hero's burial. For joining us on this mission, for fighting alongside his allies bravely, for saving his comrade, for saving his Nation.

Thank you, Zaik.

And so I left him there, promising him that I'd come back, that his family in Tozanji would hear about what he did. And so I headed deeper into the library, knowing that I had to find Zhao. That we had to finish this once and for all.

Zhao

The dim glow of a candle on the desk I had chosen to do my work on illuminated the scrolls as I tore through them, one after another, in the quest of what I was looking for. Whatever that was.

I was situated in a small segment of the library, far lower than any of the others, deeper than any other segment, its antiquity revealing itself-chipped walls, faded masonry, and dusted over artifacts more than clear indicators of this wing's age.

Every scroll I found appeared on the verge of falling apart in my hands, each requiring to be handled with the utmost care lest I lose a millennia's worth of information because of a careless mistake.

I'd followed down the well-kept stairs until they led into more catacomb-like tunnels, leading deep into the library's inner structure, the air becoming staler the further down I went, eventually coming across the general area where I was now.

Splintered wooden shelves lined the walls of the narrow halls as I passed down them, a number of scrolls written in a text I couldn't even read, some in styles of calligraphy so antiquated that I could barely make out what they read.

Following whatever reference I could, any lead I could find, I traversed deeper and deeper into the foreboding tunnels, images in my mind arising of bedtime stories I'd hear as a child back in the Fire Nation, rumors spread of the skeletons of the Fire Lords of the past that rested in catacombs beneath the palace, rising from the dead during the Summer Solstices to punish those disloyal to the Fire Nation.

I pushed the repressed memories aside, focusing instead on the task I had, on my loyalty that I was here to prove beyond all shadow of a doubt.

It took a while for me to come across a truly useful reference, myself, notwithstanding, having still collecting whatever I thought might even have a chance of pointing me in the right direction-accounts as modern as paranormal spiritual sightings to ones as told talking in detail of human expeditions into something known as the "Spirit Wilds."

What felt like hours had passed until I found across something I believed would truly set me in the right direction-a scroll speaking of the process by which a spirit transmuted itself into a mortal form, and I followed it along, reading until the end, a station for myself set up in a cramped study room, my chosen desk beneath a map of the Earth. I read through it in it's entirety, but it still said nothing of any use.

I had the vaguest idea of what I was looking for. Spirits did exist in our world. Some of them at least. There was a chance, though a slim one, that perhaps the same could be said of the Water Tribe's personal spirits.

And so I continued my search, digging through shelf after self, the piles in my study growing with each trip I made over the course of hours, and then, after all that time spent chasing after something which may not have even existed, I believed I finally came upon something real, something concrete, a scroll speaking of spirits who inhabited the physical realm.

This was it. Either confirmation that there was hope, or definite proof that there wasn't. And if there isn't? I pondered it for a moment before willing myself to read the text, wondering then and there, What if they're not? I considered that I'd just have to start over, abandon this chase, and go after something new, find a different lead, something, anything.

I looked back down at the scroll before me, terrified of opening it, mortified at the thought of what I may see within, or, perhaps, 'not see' was more accurate.

I took a deep breath before opening it, awaiting whatever would be the case.

I saw numerous illustrations, numerous examples, "Ran and Shaw," the "Kemurikage," the things of nightmares as a kid for me, "Hundun," an old myth of the Kings of Chaos that I now learned to be true, and lastly, that which caught my interest more than all else, "Tui" and "La."

My eyes settled on the reference of these final two, looking through the section of the scroll dedicated to them, reading many times over the text beneath the image of two Koi fish swimming in close proximity to one another, giving off the appearance of Yin and Yang, and so wrote the description beneath their names: "Tui" and "La", "Push" and "Pull." And all it took after that was one final reference to confirm it, to give me the validation I so desperately sought, to finally put this question to rest, the reference of the only words that mattered: "Moon" and "Ocean."

I've found it.

They were real.

They existed in our realm, and unlike many of the previous examples, no reference was made of their departure to the spirit world, but only their departure from.

They still resided in our world.

They can be found.

And if they can be found, they can be killed.

I was reading through the text for what must have been the 50th time over between a chilling shriek echoed through the halls, some unearthly howl that was in no way human. What the hell?

I immediately bolted directly outside the door, expecting to see whatever it was that had made that noise standing right there judging by how close it had sounded to be.

But alas, there was nothing there, the hall outside of my study completely empty. What is going on here?

I looked back into the study, wondering just what to do. The sound didn't come again, but notwithstanding, I had the gut feeling that something was incredibly wrong. I rushed into the study, grabbing my chest plate which I had taken off in light of the constant running back and forth that I was doing, and bolted out of the room as I grabbed my pack and was still tying my armor pieces together.

What in Spirits' name is happening here?

I was already backtracking through the halls, going past the rows of bookcases I had been tearing through in search of answers only moments ago, racing up ever-widening stairs as I left the catacombs of the library's lower levels.

As I rose, the noises only became stranger and stranger, the screeches of some horrific-sounding creature rising above the usual deathly silence of this grand building.

I rose even higher, pausing in my footsteps as I heard a sound I recognized all too well-a Fire nation grenade.

I skidded to a halt as I'd been running through the halls, now in the horticultural wing of the library.

Are we under attack? Did a band of Sandbenders find us?

I rushed all the quicker, not knowing what the hell was happening, especially as a second bang ran out, shaking dust from where it had been settling on the ceiling atop my head.

I raced all the quicker as the sounds of whatever was occurring reverberated through the central abyss of the library, until one stood above all the rest-one final explosion, all the louder from my closer proximity, followed immediately by a loud screech, even more horrific and pained than the first I'd heard.

It sounded close, just a few levels above, and so immediately rushed to the railing that led into oblivion above, craning my head up just in time to watch the figure fall-the owl's form, fires dancing upon it as it barreled down below into darkness.

What in spirits' name just happened?

I rushed up further, finding the nearest flight of stairs to ascend.

Harzek, Zaik, where the hell are you two? What the hell is going on?!

I was storming up the stairs, intent on getting to where the action had been unfolding just moments past.

Up one level.

Another.

Almost there!

I nearly crashed into him as I turned the corner, finding Harzek just feet in front of me.

"Zhao!" he let out amid pants, his breath labored, eyeing me up and down as though surprised to see me. "You're-"

"What's going on!" I demanded, wasting no time on pleasantries. "I heard explosions!"

"It's the spirit. Wan Shi Tong! He learned about what we were trying to do. He turned on us."

Turned on us? I immediately thought back to my last interaction with him, when he'd questioned my going through military archives and accounts of battle. He'd mentioned his disdain for our warfare on more than one occasion. I guess he finally got tired of watching. Decided to take matters into his own hands.

"And the explosions?"

"Zaik and I held him off, got him off our tail." It was then that I first noticed Zaik wasn't among him, scolding myself for only noticing now. My expression must have registered my confusion at not seeing Zek here, though with each half second of Harzek's silence, the realization of what had likely happened slowly dawned on me. "Zaik," Harzek started. "He was killed."

I sighed, looking to the stone-cold floor, grimacing at his lost. I'd saved him in the mountains on our march to the Swamp. He'd tagged along with me in making my deal in the desert that would end up granting us the information we desperately needed to bring us here. He'd fought by my side in the desert, saving my life on more than one occasion. And so he'd been killed. "I see."

"He died a hero. He saved my life, and he gave our Nation a fighting chance. He was a true soldier"

I breathed in and out. I suppose there's no better way to go.

"Please tell me that you found something," He said to me, seemingly desperate for some value to be given to the sacrifices of this mission, of all of this. At the very least, I had something for him. But no location. Nothing more than that they were out there. What good would that do him now?

Notwithstanding, I spoke, saying, "I think I did. The Water spirits. They're on our Earth. Hiding as two fish. Tui and La.."

I hadn't noticed Harzek's eyes flash open, myself only seeing them when I looked up from the ground to face him in the eyes as he exclaimed, "Wait. What?"

I nodded. "The Moon and Ocean spirits. They live on our physical plane. Hell if I could tell you where though."

He said nothing, and it was here that I saw him simply staring at me as he said, "I know where they are."

"What?"

"I saw reference to them, in the Earth Kingdom wing of the library. It mentioned them, but I thought they were only cultish animal of worships. I didn't know, I didn't-"

"Where are they?!" I asked, practically pulling him towards me as I clung onto his shoulders, desperately seeking the answers to make this all worthwhile.

"Agna Qel'a. The Water Tribe capital. It's more than a capital. It's a fortress meant to protect them in their spirit oasis. It's the heart of their tribe."

"It's more than that. It's the heart of their life."

"What do you mean."

"The moon and the Ocean, the physical manifestations of who they are, of their bending. If we kill them, the waterbenders lose their power."

His eyes were wide, staring at me in disbelief. "You mean, permanently?"

I nodded. "Not that it matters," I grimaced. "Agna Qel'a is years of conquest away. We're still bogged down fighting them in the Nip, no end in sight there, nothing I learned here helping with that."

"That's not the case."

I looked up. "What do you mean?"

"Zaik and I, we found another way. A more temporary solution. The waterbenders, they lose their abilities during the lunar eclipse."

And suddenly, it all made sense. Everything I'd been reading from before. The losses, the massive casualties, the humiliating Water Tribe defeats during full moons, because they weren't full moons, it was-

"The Red Moon," we both spoke as one.

"Not that it does us much good," Harzek said. "We have no way of knowing when the next will come around, and we can't just expect to be able to tell Shu to wait around until the next lunar eclipse. We have nothing definitive, and no way of finding out. This library may have everything on the past, but for the future, it hasn't got shit."

The planetarium. "That's not the case. Follow me."

And so, I led him back down the flights of stairs, to the place in question, pleased to find the door to it still open, the two of us, all the while, keeping our eyes open for Wan Shi Tong. Neither of us believed him to be out of the picture that easily. Zaik, as Harzek had told me on the way here, had injured the beast, but killing it was another matter entirely, one that I was afraid we had no time for.

We had more pressing matters to attend to.

"What-what is this place?" Harzek let out in awe at the sight of the room, the domed roof still displaying the scene of Harmonic Convergence.

"A planetarium," I said. "One that will allow us to see all dates of the past, and all dates of the future."

"So, we'll just go through dates from today's until we find an eclipse?"

"That's exactly what we'll do."

"And if the owl comes back?"

"Then-" I considered for a moment. Harzek was a nonbender. He wouldn't be able to put up the same fight I could. I had a better chance of getting out alive. "Then I'll distract him. You find the date, and you get it back to command."

"No."

"What?"

"I said no. I'm in charge of this mission even if you outrank me. It's my call."

"Your command only extends to the mission. As the parameters said, when it comes to my men's lives, it's my call, and you're one of my men. They'd believe you more than they'll believe me anyway. This is your mission. It's only right you finish it."

As though on cue, we both heard the screech again. It was close. Back so soon? I thought, a cold sweat rolling down my forehead.

"No rest for the weary, huh?" Harzek chuckled. "Well, you do what you need to do. What you learned here, get it back to the Fire Nation. We have a chance of finally ending this forsaken war. We can't let that die in this tomb. You understand?!"

I didn't say anything for a moment, saying soon after, "I'll meet you outside once you're done, alright?"

"Of course."

I nodded, not believing the sincerity of what he said, but having nothing else save for his promise that I prayed he'd fulfill, and he nodded back. "Good luck, Lieutenant Zhao."

"Good luck to you too, Lieutenant Harzek"

And with that, he left the room, the back of his figure the last I feared I'd ever see of him. No. He'd make it. I had to have faith in him. And even if he didn't, I had to focus on the present.

I turned to the mechanism in front of me, and so I set to work, moving each date at a time, watching as the world twisted and turned around me to the groan of machinery, day after day, night after night, watching the sun and moon rise and fall and rise and fall.

I went one after another, waiting, begging, praying, until finally, the room lit in an unearthly red. I found it. And it's only a month away!

I couldn't suppress the smile on my face, nor the chuckling that ensued. I got it! We can do this! Now just to get the hell out of he-

"In one month," I chuckled to myself, "The Revanchists. In a few years, the last of the waterbenders."

I turned around after having written the date on a piece of parchment and stuffing it in my bag, and standing in the room behind me, bathed in the red light of the room's simulated lunar eclipse, was Shilo.

"Shilo?"

He was simply standing there, eyes facing me, his aged face wearing new life, the only expression to be observed on it, however, being shock, the age revealing it once more as his expression settled into something far more dismal, far more sorrowful. "I guess I should have known all along, huh?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't. No more lies, Zhao."

My face hardened. So he knew.

"I never lied about anything. You knew full and well I was seeking information on the war, on how to win. You told me yourself, and tried to help me."

"And what you're doing now? That's winning a war?"

"Yes!"

"No! That's exterminating a people! You were down in the catacombs. I went down after you left; I saw what you were reading. You're going to kill them, aren't you, Tui and La, the Water and Moon spirits."

"I don't see how that's any of your concern."

"It's all of our concerns! What, you think you're just going to rip the world apart at it's foundation and only expect your enemy to be those who suffer?! What you're doing, you are not only fighting a war to an inhumane degree. You are not only tearing apart an entire culture of people. You are threatening to tear apart the fragile balance of the world. You're going to destroy everything!"

"I'll do what I have to for my Nation!"

"Forget about the bloody Fire Nation and think! You'll destroy the world, Zhao. Is that what you want? Is that what you want your legacy to be?"

And I thought. I did. Long and hard. I thought of how I wanted to be remembered, of what I wanted to be known as, of what I wanted my children to think of me after I was long gone. Zhao, the Conqueror, the moon slayer, the man who ended the war, who finished the fight, who brought peace.

"Yes," I said, staring him down. "That's exactly what I want my legacy to be. That, is my destiny."

"Then you don't leave me much choice."

I hardly noticed the stone shift beneath my feet, but before I could realize, I was on the ground, sliding to my side to avoid a boulder sent my way, crashing into a hundred tiny pieces immediately to my side.

I scrambled to my feet, firing a shot of fire at him, the blast being instantly absorbed by a funnel of sand he shot, dissipating the blast, breaking right through to lunge at me, clasping me by my shooting arm, and throwing me to the ground, my attempt to get up foiled by a pillar of Earth that rose from the floor, knocking me straight in the chest, knocking any and all air out of my lungs.

I was out of my element. Everything around him, made of stone. And so he stalked towards me, sand hovering around him, manifesting itself slowly into a weapon by which he'd end my life.

"I'm sorry, Zhao. I didn't want it to end this way. I promise you that your men in our village won't be harmed. They'll be sent home safe and sound."

"You're a coward, Shilo!" I let out. "You don't have what it takes to achieve victory."

"Maybe not," he confessed. "But I will do whatever it takes to defend those I love."

He raised his hands, and my eyes shut, ready for the end that awaited me. And so our hope for victory dies in this tomb. How anticlimactic.

Except it didn't. I heard the squelch of blood, and a sudden gasp, and opened my eyes to see Shilo, a sword emerging from his chest, bloodied, and Harzek standing directly behind him.

He's alive.

The blade left its position, and Shilo dropped to the ground, the red blood still spilling from him indistinguishable from the rest of the room bathed in red light, the poor man still gasping for air where he lay.

Harzek looked down at the body, and dropped the sword he'd been holding in his left hand, his right clutching his side, blood oozing out from beneath. My eyes drifted to Shilo where lay on the ground. You poor, naïve fool. My eyes then drifted back up to Harzek.

"You're injured."

He allowed his hand to leave his side for a brief moment, exposing the gnarly wound he'd suffered. He chuckled softly. "Damn owl got me pretty good, but I got him tied up in the catacombs. It'll be a while before he gets out." He looked at me, then to the ceiling, clearly making note of the red all around. "Did you find it."

I nodded. "We have it. The date, the information, everything we need. We're done here. We can go."

"No. There's one more thing."

I turned to him, the sudden relief in me put on standby once again. "What do you mean?"

"The same way we found a room on the Water Tribe, Zaik found one on the Fire Nation. All the information in the world on us and our weaknesses."

"What weaknesses?"

He gulped. "Their lunar eclipse, our solar eclipse."

And so I understood. If anybody found out, we could be destroyed.

And so, only a few moments later, we stood in front of our banner, dragons standing sentry at the doorway leading into our wing, and a beautiful ring it was, decorated in banners, memorabilia, and more information on our Nation than I'm sure was stored in the sum total of all libraries across the Fire Nation.

If you want those libraries to stay there, if you want the children of your nation to have the chance to read what limited information they have on their nation, if you want to give them that chance, then you know what needs to be done.

I nodded to myself, swallowing, Harzek standing directly behind me as he watched, and I summoned everything within me: the hatred I felt for the enemy, the Anger I felt at Zaik's death, the fear I felt at having our future stripped from us if the enemy found this place, merging it all into one beautiful flame that danced through the room like the sea poured int the breached hull of a shit.

The shelves caught fire, the books and scrolls igniting as the perfect tinder, our Nation's banner at the rear of the room going up in smoke and flames as well, myself keeping up the onslaught of pure hate, anger, and fear as swirls of red, yellow, and orange danced around its entirety, not stopping until nothing was left save ash, and I stood there staring blankly at what I had left in my wake, at what I had done.

And I knew why I'd done it. There was no questioning that anymore

Everything I'd done, it was for my Nation. It used to be about me, but it was more than that now.

If I became a legend in the process, so be it, but I would do whatever it would take to serve my Nation, to end this war, and so Harzek and I departed from that library, Zaik's body in tow, coming back the way we'd come, smoke still swirling out of the tower's opening, the two of us knowing that we'd done what we had to do.

And so we stood in the light of the full moon overhead, at the top of the tower, and the two of us looked up as one, all that was left of our mission into the desert.

And so we finally knew how to bring this war all the closer to its end. For the first time in my life, I finally knew for a certainty where my destiny would take me. The moon stared down at me, and I stared back

Author's Note:

Okay. I know that chapter was long. 28,456 words. That's more than half the length of a novel I'm supposed to be reading for class. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of the length, but I wouldn't mind asking you to let me know if you're fine with chapters of this length, or you'd prefer that I split them into parts, a chapter such as this being in 2 or maybe 3 parts. I'd appreciate if you'd let me know, but notwithstanding, I hope you enjoyed. It's 5:14 am now, and I should probably head to bed. Enjoy!