6
The farther we descended into the cave, the more I knew my search was far from over. The woman kept her distance from me, avoided looking at me. Even the little girl abandoned her attention to me and clung to her mother's arm. I noticed now that the little girl had an oblong marking along her forearm. Like curls of smoke burned into her skin.
The cave twisted and narrowed until, finally, we came upon a massive opening, tree roots weaving through a polar-dog-sized hole in the rock ceiling.
Thirty or so villagers huddled around meager fires or cupped their hands into the still waters of a pond leading off one side of the area.
I scanned the room for that singular scar, those light-licked eyes, but found him nowhere among the crowd. I glanced at the mother from the corner of my eye, but still she avoided me. "Hello," I said, stepping toward a group of elders.
"My name is Su Yi. I seek my friend—." I meant to continue on, but noticed a gallery of cold faces staring back at me. "I, I'm sorry. I thought he would be here." I reached into my bag and took out my coin pouch. "If you have information, please—,"
Before I could finish a pot pounded the back of my head, my face met the stone, and all faded to black.
The same images swarmed my mind as they always did when I was thrust out of consciousness. Parched cornstalks, rotted wheat, fifty-foot waves, red sails, red sheets. My mind was forever stuck to those moments, of the last days of my village, of those years spent on the sea. After everything, I couldn't move forward. Treading water.
When I came to, hot blood snaking down my cheek, my hands and feet were bound. Back pressed against the cool cave wall. The world snapped back into focus and I spied thirty sets of eyes piercing into me, looks of horror, wonder, glee.
"Does it bleed? Do we know, does it bleed?"
A white-haired woman hobbled over to me, body bent low. She peered into my green eye with hers and grimaced. She pulled her hand back like she was winding it up, before she went in and slapped me hard across my uninjured cheek.
"What the hell is going on?" I asked, composure useless to me now. "I'm just—,"
The old woman slapped me again. "Look for a snaggle tooth," one man said, cowardly among the crowd.
"No, it's supposed to have six fingers on each hand."
"Hey!" I shouted. "Where is Zuko? He's the only reason I'm here."
Five, ten voices implored the woman to find gruesome anomalies among my features. Finally, the woman stood and gave me space.
"She's clean as far as I can tell."
"Please," I started, stuffing down the rage bubbling inside me. "Tell me what is going on."
Finally, another elder, whom I now recognized as the chief from years before, stepped forward, raised his palm and quieted his people.
"Enough. It isn't her." He knelt and untied me. "I apologize..."
"Su Yi," I said.
"I apologize for this brutality. We have to be wary of any sudden visitors."
The little girl from before brought forth a jug of water to clean my face with.
The chief continued. "Some days ago our guardian spirit, Hei Bai, appeared before our village and warned us of an incoming dark spirit."
That panda can speak? I hadn't known.
"A trickster from the old days, when our realms were one, who would clothe himself in the face of our familiars and bastardize our energy for his evildoings."
"And so, because you recognized me..."
He nodded.
"Lian Wei had been imprisoned to a lightless sector of this world, when, somehow, he broke free. He is a brother of Koh the face stealer, son of the Mother of Faces. Too powerful to be stopped by mortals, and so Hei Bai brought us to this realm where he could properly protect us."
I tried to recall the few sentences I had read on Lian Wei during my studies at the academy. I had never learned to read, until Grandmaster Tao found me and brought me to that school, gave me tools I never could have imagined possessing. Bending training from a master, lessons in world history, spirits, politics, and sociology. I had considered my comrades at the academy my greatest friendships, my teachers the most venerable masters, until those days after Sozin's Comet. When they learned how I had befriended Fire Lord Zuko—beyond that—how I had agreed to serve as his advisor, they cut me off from all contact. Some wounds, they believed, could not be healed by promises of a new monarchical leader. They had expected more of the same evils, and even when Zuko proved them wrong, they did not relent.
And still, seven years later, they had not contacted me. I was certain they had tracked me, followed my movements, and still they could not see that I had never strayed from the path. Not really.
The only notes I could remember were these: The Lian Wei places himself among villages to rob humans of their light energy, and through darkness commands them. They commit acts of treachery, violence, and viciousness and in turn he grows. After the spirit realm and physical realm were separated, Lian Wei spread havoc among unprotected villages and entire provinces were left desolate in his wake.
If the spirit were truly free and roaming the physical world, this was bad. Only the avatar could possibly subdue him, and the last I'd heard, Aang was dealing with a serious crisis in Ba Sing Se.
If the avatar were unavailable, who could save these people and villages like them? My friends from the Academy, if they were still united, might be suited for this, but would they accept me if I approached their front door?
"Why your village?" I had to ask. "In your absence, will he not move on to a different settlement? This is troubling," I said, recalling my few encounters with dark spirits. All had ended in turmoil.
This is when the little girl stepped forward.
"This is all my fault," she said, extending her arm, the one bearing curls of red along one side.
"The spirit preys on the young and naïve," the chief said. "Now that he has marked young Lila, he may appear at any time, masked as one from her memory."
"And his appearance?" I asked, "He has some deformities that stay with him?"
Then the cacophony of voices rose up again. "I heard he has a bum knee!" "No, no. I heard that he has a black tongue and cat whiskers."
Again, the chief raised his palm, and the crowd quieted to murmurs.
"All we know is that he will claim he seeks a friend, but will be unable to name who. And once injured he will relinquish his form."
I considered the time it would take to find the avatar, a month's trip to Ba Sing Se. The old Academy grounds were likewise a few weeks' trek from where I had left the physical world. I could promise little to these people, and yet I felt for them. Stuck in the Spirit World, unable to trust those around them. I had to help them, but first, I had to find out when and if they had seen Zuko.
"I will do my best to contact the avatar and request his aid," I said, standing, head still woozy. "But please, tell me. Have you seen my friend? I desperately need to find him."
The chief nodded, suddenly remorseful. "We have. Shortly before Hei Bai escorted us here, the young man arrived at our doorstep, asking for shelter and a hot meal in exchange for coin. He, well," the chief said, pacing away now. The whole village had gone quiet. "We had only just learned about Lila's encounter with the spirit. She had been hesitant to tell us, and I do not fault her." A guilty look rose up on the girl's face. "We knew little about him. We cried out for our protector, Hei Bai, to come save us, believing him to be the trickster."
"I gave him a good push," the elderly woman said, "right out the second-story window. Probably broke an ankle or two."
"When Hei Bai appeared," the chief continued, "He stormed through the forest and blasted the young man with energy. His firebending is the only thing that saved him."
My blood ran hot. So he was alive, injured but alive. I wished to ask a million questions. Was he healthy, was he fed? Had he seemed desperate or merely reserved to his situation? Even after all this time, I craved to know that he was okay.
"Hei Bai quickly realized your friend was not the demon in question, and so he allowed the poor man to escape. Hei Bai then transported us here." The chief handed me a bag loosely filled with bread and dried meats, all that they could spare. "I'm sorry, we don't know where he went after that, but I believe he couldn't be far."
I declined the food. I could make due on my own, and knew that they needed it more.
"Thank you," I said, though my emotions were complex: disappointment, fear, a slight rage. "I will do my best to help you when I can. Until then, stay safe."
And with that I exited the cave, and bade Hei Bai return me to the land of the living.
