Author's Note: Skipped ahead a little bit in my Book 1 edits to "Agni's Eye." Minor stuff again for that chapter, check it out for details if you want, but it isn't necessary to reread.

Book 3: Water

Chapter 11: The Taboo-Breaker (The Southern Spirit Portal, Part 1)

After everything Suki had gone through to get to the Spirit Oasis, she did not expect to be stopped by a fear of superstition.

The only thing that stood between her and the oasis - and perhaps an answer to Yue's predicament - was a wooden door. It was small enough that she would have to bend down to avoid hitting her head and perfectly round, like it had been erected just to cover a hole in the icy mountain wall. White ropes tied with knots had been draped across the door and beaded amulets of cloth and leather had been tied into it. These were all prayers from those who beseeched the spirits for good fortune in a hunt, for strength, food, or a good match in marriage. There were so many prayer amulets that they had been attached to the walls around the door, covering a huge swathe of the cliff face in white rope.

Suki didn't believe in such things. The spirits never bothered to grant her good fortune when she asked for it. She always found that in her own strength - that was one thing Hakoda had taught her, if indirectly. But even with her beliefs in mind, even with all the sneaking past patrols and hiding her intentions to visit the Spirit Oasis which only Arnook and his elders could enter, she found herself hesitating before the prayer wall. It was only when she saw a single black feather woven into one of the charms near the door handle that she shook the hesitation away and pulled it open to go inside.

The North Pole and their nightly prayers to the waning moon were just plain creepy. The sooner she could go find Yue, the better.

After going through to the other side and straightening, she gasped at the sudden feeling of warmth. In the oasis, it felt unexpectedly balmy. She inhaled the warm air with a smile but almost gagged at the overwhelming smell of wood rot and an old bog. The sun's rays shone directly into her eyes when she stepped through the door but she ducked her head just a fraction so it would hide behind the mountain rim surrounding the oasis. As it started to set, she looked around at the area before her.

Yue had always told her it was beautiful but Suki saw nothing beautiful about it. A pool of murky water took up the center island surrounded by a ring of blackened grass. A bamboo grove beyond the pool looked shriveled and colorless, the leaves at its base sparse and dying. The only thing that moved was a black feather floating on the surface of the water.

Suki didn't know what she would do once she got here. She had no idea how to petition the spirits. She'd hoped the answer would come to her when she got there. Ghashiun had said that she might be able to find the answer through meditation. But right now, she had no desire to sit and mediate in front of that pool, not with its filth and the feeling of dread in the air like a miasma. Just as she was about to turn around and head back through the door from which she came, a raven squawked and a gravelly voice spoke up from behind her. The raven made her jump.

"It is considered taboo for anyone beside myself, the elder council, or my daughter to come here," said High Chief Arnook. He spoke with no inflection other than his statement of fact. He'd been off to the side of the entrance, overlooking the entire oasis from a point that also gave him a view of the city below. The raven sat on his shoulder, staring at her with its beady eyes.

She fell into a bow, her heart racing. "I apologize," she said. "I was just worried for Yue. I want to save her." She had no fear of the spirits or what it meant to be a taboo-breaker, but she did fear the fate that those people often suffered. Dying alone in the cold, exiled to the winter fields. A death far removed from battle or glory or honor.

"I know," said Arnook. "Stand."

She did so, hoping her war paint would hide her fear. She tried to stare beyond Arnook - looking into his too-bright eyes was unnerving. He said nothing for a long time and eventually Suki herself broke the silence. "What happened here?" She blurted out the question before she could stop herself.

"Spiritual decay," he said, and for the first time since she'd met him his voice took on a tone of lament. "The spirits are unhappy with us. The Nightseer demands more offerings."

Urns of offerings to the Nightseer were on just about every street corner throughout the city. How much more did she need? She thought it wise not to voice that thought, though. "What can we do?" she asked instead.

He walked past her toward the dismal pool and her eyes followed him, resting on the black fur mantle draped across his back and the equally black feathers woven into it. Like most people of the Water Tribes, he wore all shades of blue except for that mantle. "We will give her more respect. More piety. More offerings," he said. "We owe everything to the Nightseer. She is the one who saved my dear Yue's life, who has guarded our city ever since the Moon and Ocean have forsaken us. And in turn we must expel any sign of corruption from our city so her purity is all that remains."

By this point, Suki figured she might just be able to escape getting in real trouble, so she felt braver. "And Yue's life is in danger again. She's one of my best friends. I have to do something."

"Perhaps you could," he said. "Or perhaps even I could. But neither of us are waterbenders, and so liberating her is not in our future. I have had visions of our failure to save her. As I have said before, they were visions that ended in your death."

Suki grimaced. Being a nonbender had nothing to do with it - she had gotten by just fine on her own without bending. Besides, if she were to be a bender it would more likely be earth, but she wasn't about to say that. She also didn't fail to notice his exact wording that it would result in her death, not his. "We can't just sit by and let it happen without even trying," she protested, clenching her fist. "And we won't need bending to do it."

Arnook scowled and turned away from her and that time she figured she had perhaps gone too far. "My visions are a gift from the spirits and they are never wrong. You are lucky I haven't proclaimed you a taboo-breaker for your sacrilege today. Begone from here. I need to pray before I depart on my pilgrimage to the North Pole."

When he looked toward the murky pool and fell silent, Suki stepped back, knowing that the encounter with Arnook could have gone much worse. She ducked through the portal door back into the cold, hurrying away in her eagerness to put the Spirit Oasis behind her.

If he was leaving the city, she thought it might be prudent to explore the palace a little and find what he might be hiding. She wouldn't get an opportunity like this again.


Aang found himself under a sky that was both twilight and dawn, the ground mostly barren and rippling as if damaged from an ancient, titanic battle. It spiraled outward from two separate points - the portal he had emerged from and another dome of energy far on the opposite side of the wasteland. Equidistant from both geysers of energy, Aang saw the oldest tree he had ever seen, bare of any greenery, thick around the trunk but with bark twisting into spindly, finger-like branches. He saw a hollow, and even from his distance he felt a great force within it.

It was something dark, something terrible. Something antithetical to him and the power he wielded. His equal and his opposite. He felt the weight of it pressing down on him, oppressive and stifling. He didn't want to go near it, didn't even want to look at it. And he certainly didn't want it to ever come out.

"He is the Destroyer."

The voice wasn't his own or the young monk's. But something just as familiar, a part of him he'd never heard. He thought of the mother he'd never met, the friend he'd never known, the nun he'd forgotten, the queen he'd only heard of in stories. A wisp of light coalesced in front of his eyes, forming together into a being of white and blue. She reminded him almost of a kite, but from what he knew of her primordial light she predated such things as shapes.

"You're Raava," he said. Now that he could see her, he knew her identity with all certainty. "Avatar Wan told me about you."

"It makes me glad to see you again, face to face," she said. Kindness radiated from her voice, strong and true. "It is so rare that any of your lives manage to connect directly to me."

"I learned about you from a guru once," Aang said. The colors in the sky dissolved, shifting from vivid orange and pink to a deep purple on one side and cerulean blue on another. "You were the light that was there at the beginning, along with the darkness."

She coiled, stretching high above Aang. With her tail, she gestured toward the tree. "And that is Vaatu, locked inside the Tree of Time - which binds each world to the Spirit World. Vaatu is darkness that stands opposed to us - who indeed had once been united with me, back before the time of humans and spirits."

Aang forced himself to stare at the Tree of Time. "He can't… he can't come out, can he?"

"No," said Raava. "He can only be freed once every ten thousand years, during Harmonic Convergence, when an influx of spiritual energy will enable him to break free and shroud the world in darkness. That time approaches, but I do not think it will be in your lifetime, Aang."

He let himself breathe a sigh of relief. He didn't have the capability to face something of that apocalyptic proportion, especially when his world had already fallen to a different kind of darkness. "So then if he's the Destroyer, does that make you the… Creator?"

The layers of her voice all took on a slight lilt as if she found the notion humorous. "Creation is not the opposite of destruction. What is the opposite of death?"

"Life?" Aang guessed. He wasn't prepared to have a semantic discussion with the Avatar Spirit, but his first physical journey into the Spirit World was bound to have its surprises.

"Yes," she said. "It is life, not birth. Birth is just the beginning, as is creation. Vaatu destroys, but I preserve. I preserve life, and light, and justice - all the things that Vaatu seeks to tear down. I am order. He is chaos."

"Why are you telling me this?" Aang asked. "I'm not here to face him. I'm here to save my friends."

"SHE SEEKS TO TURN YOU AGAINST ME."

The voice boomed with enough force to rattle Aang at his core. The world pulsed and he pressed his hands to his ears. He smelled blood and decay and tasted something metallic on his tongue.

"You have to know this," Raava continued, as if Vaatu never spoke from his prison. "These unshakable facts of the universe will help you in your coming battles. Vaatu is locked away but his presence can still be felt, can still affect the world outside."

"I AM THE UNLIMITED POTENTIAL OF HUMANITY. I AM CREATIVITY. I SEEK ONLY TO DESTROY SO THE WORLD CAN BE REBORN INTO SOMETHING NEW."

"Humanity was born from me and my light," Raava said, and their voices overlapped, fighting to overcome the other. "Animals and spirits as well. I sought to preserve the aspects of myself as Vaatu and I fought for eons until Wan separated us."

"And each time you struck each other it created a new world," Aang said, every part of him on edge. Now, he couldn't look away from Vaatu thrashing inside of his prison. "I know that. And because we only have light it means we're imperfect, unbalanced." He remembered how much that imperfection inherent in humanity had bothered Azula, and despite everything the recollection made him smile.

"Not quite," said Raava. "That is why you need to learn all of this. You - all humans, animals, and spirits - were created from light but darkness eventually became part of you. And you learned. Adapted to it. Found a sort of balance. But sway too far to either side…"

"And spirits can become either light or dark," Aang finished. "Can the same happen to people? Or animals?"

"Of a sort." Other voices joined Raava. People emerged from the ether, their forms solidifying into those of his past lives. Kuruk had spoken, and he stood alongside Raava looking just as he did in his younger days. "I'm sorry, Aang. For everything. For making you pick up the pieces of my broken life, for everything Aniak had done."

"I already told Roku in my world this, but it's not your fault," Aang assured him. He saw more of his lives forming - Roku, then Kyoshi and Yangchen and Wan. "I'll fix it. But… can people turn unbalanced toward light or dark?"

"They won't become monsters like light or dark spirits," said Kyoshi. "But yes, people and animals can be corrupted. The same can happen even to highly spiritual places. It is like an illness in the body or a miasma in the air where there may have once been a horrific battle, or something similar."

Kuruk fixed Aang with a stare. "For a person, it might be like losing your face. Corruption by light will lead to preservation. Or, in other words… stagnation."

Aang clenched his hand into a fist. "I think I understand," he said. Everything he told him, everything Raava had said could lead to him saving Toph.

"EVEN LIGHT IS HARMFUL. WHEN SHE SPEAKS OF BRINGING BALANCE TO THE WORLD, SHE INSTEAD SEEKS THE DOMINION OF LIGHT. IS THAT TRULY WHAT IS BEST FOR HUMANITY?"

Roku folded his hands in his sleeves and shot a glare toward Vaatu. "You think Raava is simply biased? Don't listen to his lies, Aang."

"YOU ONCE RECOGNIZED THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUE BALANCE. WHEN THE MORTAL REPRESENTATIONS OF FIRE WERE THREATENED, YOU ACTED TO SAVE THE FIRE OF DESTRUCTION."

Vaatu's words sent chills up Aang's spine. Ran and Shao, the mortal forms of fire - one who represented life and warmth, the other who represented destruction. Bato killed the avatar of destructive fire but Aang brought the dragon back.

"Because without its mate, the dragon of life nearly lost itself in grief and destruction," said Raava. She rippled in a way that Aang thought meant agitation. "Aang, you made a wise choice in doing what you did. But it does not mean Vaatu is right. Balance does not mean what he thinks it does."

Ever since the beginning, he had been told it was his job to bring balance to the world. But what, truly, did that mean?

Wan looked at Aang with a furrowed brow as if reading his mind. "I know he is making you have doubts, Aang, but you have to find your own answer. Right now, with all the worlds as they are, you don't have time for those doubts. Vaatu's not going anywhere until Harmonic Convergence. You don't have to worry about him."

"Though something happened to accelerate the merge between worlds again," said Yangchen. "We tried to hold it off for as long as we could, but we fear a mortal has interfered." He didn't have time to think about who that might have been, but it chilled Aang either way. If someone knew about the worlds, what would they gain by keeping the barriers between worlds unsettled?

"Now, we will join with you again," said Roku. "Our power is yours. You are at your most powerful in the Spirit World - you will be able to use your connection to your friends to find them."

"It should be easy," said Kuruk. "Just think of them."

"Like I did with Appa," Aang realized. "Back in the swamp, so long ago." He let out a gasp. "Appa! He was with me when I went through the portal!"

"Appa is fine," said Yangchen, her smile gentle. She gestured with her arm, sweeping her robes toward the distant horizon behind him. A silhouette flew toward him, and eventually it came close enough for Aang to recognize Appa.

He wondered if Appa could see Raava and all his past lives. Thankful that Vaatu had fallen silent, he turned to them all as they disappeared one by one - until only the Tree of Time remained. Aang planned to continue giving it a wide berth, though now that his past lives became part of him again he felt reinforced against the fear, like he had been secured by an unbroken chain all the way back to Wan.

"YOU WILL LEARN, AVATAR. YOU WILL FIND THE SPIRIT BORN OF LIGHT WHO SAW THE VALUE OF DARKNESS. AND YOU WILL UNDERSTAND."

With Vaatu's words at his back, Aang knelt, pressed his palm to the ground, and thought of Toph.


The unrelenting chaos of the Spirit World dropped them next into a forest of tremendous, colossal trees. Each of them stood perfectly straight, almost evenly spread apart from each other, with boughs so high up that Yue could only see the lowest branches and trunks so thick that her father's palace in Agna Qel'a could fit inside. As far as forests went, it was unusual for other reasons, too: there was no undergrowth or shrubbery, no roots that bunched up near the base of the mammoth trees. They all looked nearly identical, with only the knots in their bark giving them any form of individuality.

And within those knots, Yue saw eyes.

Some were brown. Some were green or blue or amber. Some had all the colors of a stormcloud or patterned irises with swirling, spiral pupils. Occasionally, they blinked. But all of them glanced at Yue, Nagi, and the two Tophs as they passed, but then their gazes shifted to one specific direction. Hesitantly, nervously, they walked in that direction. Yue had taken it as a sign that these tree spirits were guiding their way, and despite misgivings Nagi laced her fingers with Yue's and let her lead the way. Yue held on; Nagi's grip made her feel brave enough, as always, to face whatever lay ahead.

"We've been here before," said Spirit-Toph. "Other me and… me. When Koh first pulled you guys into the Spirit World, before we found you."

"Were the eyes looking at you then?" Nagi asked, trying not to glance too long at any of the passing gazes.

Spirit-Toph shrugged her spirit shoulders. "Dunno. Couldn't see 'em. Didn't know there were eyes at all until you freaked out."

"I did not freak out," Nagi said, squaring her shoulders. "I simply didn't expect every single tree in this forest to open all of their eyes all at the same time."

Yue glanced back at Nagi, holding back a giggle. "You might have freaked out a little bit."

Nagi's jaw dropped and she scoffed at the betrayal, but Yue spotted the twinkle of amusement in her eyes. "Too bad you're walking ahead of me," she said. "Because I'd much rather look at your eyes."

Yue felt heat rise to her face and she hurriedly faced forward to hide it, and as she tried to sputter out a response she heard Spirit-Toph laughing at her embarrassment. But Yue felt her face redden for other reasons, too; remorse most prominent. How could Nagi say such things to the princess of a nation that caused her people so much pain? They'd been united by their conviction to save all of the worlds from a spiritual disaster, and some deeply shameful part of her wanted to be thankful for such circumstances, even hoped that the problems might continue so she wouldn't have to go back to being Nagi's enemy.

She couldn't just turn her back on her people. She had a duty to them. For a princess to consort with an agent of a foreign nation, it would be a great taboo she'd be breaking. It would be easy to use the excuse of a greater calamity to fight alongside each other.

Nagi didn't let go of her hand. If anything, she gave Yue's hand a gentle squeeze, and that simple motion made all of Yue's worries drain right out of her head.

At least until an ostrich-horse sized toad dropped right in front of their path from above.

"Well, would you look at that!" the toad spirit exclaimed. Green, warty, and extraordinarily fat, she made a loud thump when she landed in their path. "More humans! How splendid, opulent, marvelous!"

They heard the throaty call of another toad, almost as large as the first one, and the spirit showed itself clinging to one of the eye-trees. "Oh, superb! Spectacular! Sublime! Right this way!" He gestured in the same direction that the eyes looked, his vocal sac expanding.

"You… like humans?" Nagi asked, hesitantly stepping forward.

"Like humans? We love you, adore you, cherish you!" said the lady toad, bouncing along the path excitedly. "There are more of you right this way! Many more! We didn't like humans at first, same as all the other spirits, but then we met some and realized how adorably helpless you all are! We just love your whimsy!"

Spirit-Toph let out a chuckle. "You think we're the whimsical ones?"

Yue gasped. "The others from Ba Sing Se! I'm so glad that we're close!" She just didn't know whether to expect Earth Kingdom citizens or the Water Nation raiders, and she walked forward with trepidation as that worry creeped into her mind. What if they were both there, and they kept fighting? What if her people wiped out the Ba Sing Se survivors? What if it was the other way around, and Nagi and Toph cast Yue out when they reunited with their own people?

"The human leader is right up this way! In the Hallowed Hollows!" said the toad in the trees. A chorus of toadsong rumbled from the treetops, and he stopped for a moment to listen. "Oh, that means the Hollows are still safe, sheltered, guarded!"

The first toad stopped and stared at Spirit-Toph as if noticing her for the first time. "Oh, are you a spirit-human hybrid! I'm so jealous, envious, green!"

Spirit-Toph gave a huff of irritation as Toph dragged her feet below her. "No. Just keep hopping."

Eventually, the flat ground dropped into a steep incline that allowed them to overlook what appeared to be a graveyard of giant trees. All of them had been hollowed out, presumably by time, and within them life thrived. Human life, Yue was delighted to see - the hollowed-out trees were large enough to house over a hundred people each from the looks of them, all settled on different levels within the tree, like a tower. Even more surprising, Yue could see both Earth Kingdom greens and browns along with Water Tribe blues, but they did seem to segregate themselves to separate trees, with the Earth Kingdom citizens in the center.

As they walked closer, Yue spotted more details about everyone's living arrangements. Some had carved dwellings out of the remains of the wood right in their hollows while others lived inside giant mushrooms that had grown like parasites. Others gathered below wide mushroom caps and strung up moss hangings for privacy. The Earth Kingdom survivors still seemed tired and afraid, but ultimately they had been resilient.

People barely glanced at them as they marched along with their two toad escorts, and Yue had just begun to think that this sight might have been the oddest she'd witnessed since coming to the Spirit World when three children covered head to toe in mud sprinted past them. One of the children had two giant, mud-splattered protrusions sticking out of the sides of her head and for a moment Yue doubted she was human at all until a young woman who might've been Yue's age shouted after them.

"Lee! You deserve whatever Meng throws at you after that mud-slinging!"

The toads practically vibrated with excitement when they saw her. "Look, Jin! We've found more humans! Just outside - wandering, meandering, gallivanting!"

The girl named Jin pulled back her hair, but she still looked unkempt and a little frazzled. Even so, her eyes lit up in joy when she saw Nagi. "Oh, a Dai Li agent! What a relief - I didn't think there were more people out there, but maybe you can help keep things in order around here." She noticed Yue next, and looked wary, but then she saw Toph and put her hands over her mouth in shock. "Oh, not another one! You're the second faceless person we've seen since we got here!"

Nagi took a moment to introduce them and Yue felt her heart flutter when Nagi said Yue's name as if the Dai Li having a Water Tribe companion was the most normal thing in the world. "There's another?" she asked.

Jin nodded. "Yeah, on the Water Tribe side. I can bring you to meet him. I'm gonna guess you two ran into the same spirit or something."

Spirit-Toph crossed her arms. "Don't know how helpful that'd be, but that means it's even more important that we all get outta here. Koh always comes back for his victims and he could put everyone in danger."

Jin put a hand on her hip and stared at Spirit-Toph, likely with a million questions burning just behind her lips, but she turned around and gestured toward one of the few normally-sized trees. This hollow had become her home, apparently - roughly the size of a small cottage, she had a bedroll made from cloud fibers like Yue's and the remains of a campfire outside. A ceramic teapot hung from a curling stick that resembled a shepherd's crook. Both of the toads fixed their eyes on the teapot with something like hunger.

"Don't take this the wrong way," said Nagi. "But how did you end up the leader of all these people? Aren't there, um, people who are more…"

"Qualified? Knowledgeable about what they're doing? Older?" Jin asked, finishing for her. She let out a tired sigh. "Yeah, definitely. But the toad spirits who have been protecting us since we got here more or less assigned me the leader just because I introduced them to tea, which I only had with me because I was working at the tea shop when everything happened. Who would've guessed spirits would end up liking tea so much? And I'd already been looking after the kids who got separated from their parents. Everyone seemed perfectly happy to let me be the liaison to the spirits… even if I don't know much about them at all."

Yue clasped her hands together. She only just realized that Nagi had let go of her hand sometime after their arrival in the hollows. "Even my people?" she asked.

Jin's face darkened. "I don't know. We try to stay apart as much as possible. A couple of times some fights broke out, and … the toads weren't happy about that." She glanced at the two spirits who still seemed fixated on the teapot. "They went through changes every time, becoming dark and scary. And things got even more chaotic, which just made people on both sides get hurt."

Yue and Nagi exchanged worried glances with each other, but one of the toads piped up. "Jin, can't you make us tea? It's so delicious, scrumptious, salivating!" While the toads protected them from outside threats, they also seemed to be a threat themselves - or perhaps they unwittingly protected the humans from each other.

"Yes! Please hurry, hustle, hasten!"

"I'd offer you some tea as well, but these two would likely drink it all first," Jin said with an apologetic look. She knelt down to the tinder with some spark rocks to try to get a fire going. "Anyway, I don't know of any other Dai Li among the rest of us survivors. Maybe the people might be heartened to see you? We don't really have a plan for getting out of here, you see…"

"I didn't expect there to be so many survivors after the attack on the city," said Nagi, looking back toward the larger hollows. "We learned of a way back to the mortal world, but we don't know how to get there and so many dangers still stand in our way. It's been a perilous journey."

Jin nodded her head to Yue. "Maybe you should try asking your people if they know anything. I don't think the faceless guy has his disembodied spirit following him around, but he might've learned something since the attack."

Yue's eyes fell. She wondered if any of her people would bother to listen to her without Katara present, or if they wouldn't listen to her because Katara got them into this trouble in the first place. She was about to voice as much when Nagi put both hands on her shoulders.

"Chin up, Yue," she said, giving her a gentle smile as if she'd read her mind. "I'll stick with you, so don't worry."

Yue's eyes met hers. It was hard to believe that her warm eyes had once regarded Yue with suspicion. She couldn't even place when things might have changed. "Thank you," she said.

After everything, she only hoped Nagi could understand the depths of her gratitude with just those two words, because she wasn't sure if other words existed to properly convey it.


When Azula was young, she always imagined the stronghold of the Water Nation to be an impregnable fortress of everything evil in the world. She had pictured solid walls of impenetrable ice, grim watchtowers reaching to the heavens, polar bear-dogs patrolling the tops of the walls with spears held in their claws, and ice sculptures that came to life and viciously attacked anyone who came near.

Aside from the polar bear-dogs and living ice sculptures, Azula's imagining of Aniak'to wasn't that far off.

Azula and Katara approached the eastern gates, traversing across the final snow fields and a frozen river to reach it. Far to their left, beyond the southern end of the city, Azula saw a scattering of tents and igloos that just barely poked out of the snow and Katara explained to her that those belonged to taboo-breakers. At their arrival, guards came out in heavy leathers to admit them once they recognized Katara, but Azula didn't let her guard down when the gate opened like a giant double door and allowed them entry. Her eyes flicked back and forth to the men on either side, watching them stir at the arrival of their princess. Katara gave them a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

Aniak'to wasn't much different from the other villages they had passed on their way - just bigger. Buildings had been constructed from ice or wood or stone, sometimes a mixture of all three, and the townspeople moved up and down streets of hard-packed snow. She saw people atop buffalo-yaks, some of which dragged sleighs, though all of them gave the caribou-panthers a wide berth. Many faces, most of them women and children, looked up at Katara with unbridled joy when they passed. Azula couldn't believe how many people were open with their admiration for Katara and she couldn't help but pity all the idiots who fell for her false compassion.

She could smell smokehouses cooking their selections of smoked meats. The musk of buffalo-yaks. Wood polish from the longhouses where woodcarvers worked. The sharp, pungent scents of dyed leathers hanging out to dry. All of it combined in a way that made Azula's head ache and she didn't know how anyone could stand it.

A memory of her mother came to her, unbidden and unexpected. As a child, Azula often complained about the smells of the komodo-rhinos penned outside the village. Her mother had often left bouquets of flowers on Azula's window to help ward off the bad smells made worse by the heat and humidity.

Don't waste your thoughts on her, said Fire Lord Azula. She thought you were a monster. Focus on your surroundings. You're in enemy territory.

She never thought that of me, Azula thought back. Just you.

Katara led her to the city stables, but rather than leaving their caribou-panthers with the stabled buffalo-yaks they were kept in a separate pen. A flash of blue caught Azula's eye and she spotted a woman ducking into the space between two stables. She shared a glance with Katara as they dismounted and she knew Katara had seen the person too - but her brow furrowed and she ignored the stablehand, waved off the guards who escorted them from the gates, and rushed after the woman watching them.

"What?" Azula asked, her question sharp. "She's just a peasant who tried to catch a view of her princess. Ignore it." The words didn't sound like her own, but Katara didn't seem to notice.

"No," Katara responded. She had never seen Katara look so distracted. "I… think I know her."

Azula sighed and picked up her own pace a little bit, but they didn't have to chase the woman anywhere. She had pressed herself against the side of the stable, petrified and breathing heavily. When she saw that Katara and Azula had followed her, she didn't run.

She was a mousy woman, with her hair up in a messy bun and a warm parka that seemed a little too big for her. She had wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and some grey just beginning to frost her scalp. Her chest rose and fell with heavy breaths. "P-princess, I'm sorry…"

Katara stepped toward her, eyes narrowed. "I remember you," she said. "You were there… the night my mom disappeared."

The woman gulped. "You're the spitting image of her… I thought I'd seen a ghost." She put both gloved hands to her mouth. "But I cannot speak of her. She doesn't exist. She - she was…"

"A taboo-breaker," Katara finished for her. The alley dropped several degrees colder. "Just like you were. Your name is Nini, isn't it?"

The woman's eyes dropped. "Yes, yes, you're right. She was so kind to all of us at great risk to herself. So… so I… need to speak openly of her, to tell her story without fear, to be as brave as she always had been."

Azula crossed her arms.

Katara stepped closer to Nini. "Tell me what happened that night."


It was impossible to hide Yue's white hair once they walked among the camps of her people in the Hallowed Hollows. Nagi and Toph accompanied her but they thought it best for Spirit-Toph to stay hidden somewhere, mostly to avoid unnecessary questions. As she expected, many of the warriors regarded her with barely concealed scorn before turning away once they spotted Toph. But why shouldn't they? She deserved their ire for playing a part in leading them here. Furthermore, she wasn't even their princess - most of the warriors were southerners. Even so, she kept her head held high as she walked through the camp to the healing hut, hoping to find one of the few northerners she knew had been in their midst back in Ba Sing Se. She could only hope that she'd find the woman here, among the rest of the healers from their band.

The healers had clustered together under whatever materials they could throw together to make shelter. Here, Yue was pleased to see, she found them treating wounded from both the Water Tribes and Ba Sing Se. They'd come to the Earth Kingdom with about a dozen waterbender healers, but it seemed that they had recruited anyone from among the survivors with medical knowledge to help keep everything sorted between the two camps. Yue's nostrils stung with the sharp scents of medicinal concoctions and ointments, but she tried to put on a brave face for the wounded - for the soldiers hurt in battle, the townspeople suffering their attack, and those who sustained injuries after coming to the Spirit World.

Nagi's eyes glistened when she looked around the shelter. "How wonderful," she said. "They're all working together to heal, regardless of nation."

A voice ragged with age spoke up from behind them. "Of course. Without the prince and princesses to tell us what to do in the face of this disaster, we figured the best thing would be to help anyone we could." Yue turned around to see exactly the person she was looking for - Misu, a prominent healer from the North Pole. Misu smiled when she saw Yue. "Well, there was a chain of command left behind, but when he tried to tell us to focus on just our own people we told him to stuff it."

"Misu, it's good to see you," Yue said. The elder's eyes looked tired and her hair hung in two lank grey braids, but all things considered she looked well. "I would have told you to do exactly as you are doing. These people need our help, especially in light of what we have done to them."

Misu bent into a low bow. "And you, princess, though it pains me to see you dragged to this world as well. I know the plan was to avoid harming the townspeople to begin with, but after all that chaos in the city we woke up here, together, and thought it best to join our strength for the survival of all. Their soldiers are few, and no one trusts us, but we can't really blame them, can we?"

Yue folded her hands together and lowered her eyes. "No, we certainly can't."

Misu's eyes widened with shock as she regarded Yue's companions. "Oh, dear! Is that girl lacking a face?"

Yue turned to face Toph, who kept her head bowed so that her bangs blocked most of her face. But apparently she realized they all stared at her, so she lifted her head to show Misu. Nagi put a hand on Toph's shoulder. "Yes," she said, frowning. "We have heard that there is someone here with the same … condition."

Misu's hand covered her mouth in horror, eyes brimming in tears that she blinked away. "Yes," she said after a moment. "My brother, Rafa."

She showed them to the back of the shelter, where fabric had been strung up to block off a portion of it from prying eyes. When she pulled it back, they saw a man sitting up, shoulders slumped, staring into space at nothing. A wooden, featureless mask concealed his face - or lack thereof, Yue supposed. Her heart ached with sympathy for this man, who she'd never met but had heard of from Misu, and how he suffered the same fate as Toph. Toph could at least still interact with the world through her other self and her earthbending, but this man somehow even looked like more of a statue than Toph did.

Misu sat at her brother's side and squeezed his hand. "It happened while he was out patrolling. Our warriors have been doing their best to keep these Hollows safe for everyone, you see. But someone else found him out there like this. I assume it was some sort of spirit."

"It was," Yue said gravely. "A being called the Face Stealer. He was the one who dragged the three of us to the Spirit World to begin with."

"When did this happen?" Nagi asked, brow furrowed.

"It is hard to tell the passage of time in this horrid place," said Misu. "But a few days ago, I'd gather. Has your friend's change started to accelerate?"

Yue looked back to Misu, perplexed by the question. "Why would it accelerate? She lost her face, but she clings to her identity."

Misu shook her head. "It's not just a loss of identity or his face. His skin is hardening and turning white, like porcelain. I'm afraid it seems to be spreading from his face as well - it gets worse by the hour."

Yue's heart pounded and she rounded on Toph. "What? No, nothing of the sort has happened to Toph. Not… not that I know of."

Toph shook her head, her fists slowly clenching.

Then, Misu lifted her hands to the edge of Rafa's mask, slowly pulling it away. Yue gasped when she saw his face - it had turned a vivid white, clashing against his tan skin, and it had indeed taken on a smooth and hard texture, like porcelain or eggshell. The white spread from his face to his neck and beneath his shirt, like a spreading mold.

"I wonder…" said Nagi, rubbing her chin. "Could this have happened after we confronted Koh in his swamp? When he started to… transform?"

Yue had nothing to say to that. If Koh's powers had changed, had grown more terrible, then she didn't know how they would face him. Misu let out a low rumble, a hum that indicated she was lost in thoughts of her own. "Rafa was found not far from here, and the warrior who founded him reported a bright light in the distance. I fear this Koh may find us soon."

It became too much for Yue. She couldn't fathom facing a spirit so horrible, not when she had to keep all of her emotions under control. Not after everything that had happened. Turning away from them all without a word, she hurried from the shelter to find a space far away from anyone else. She was about to press herself against the trunk of one of the massive trees but then remembered the eyes with a cry of disgust and fell to her knees on the soil. All of the eyes watched her but she didn't care.

"Judge me all you want," she said to the trees. Teardrops fell onto the backs of her hands when she clenched the soil.

"I'm not judging you for anything."

Yue turned to face Nagi but didn't get up from the ground. Now that her hands were covered in dirt she couldn't even wipe her eyes, but she avoided looking directly at Nagi to hide her tears. "I was, um… talking to the trees."

Nagi approached with her hands clasped together in front of her. "It's okay to be overwhelmed by all this, Yue. Goodness knows I'm trying my best to hold it together, too."

"We fought Koh and caused him to change like that and hurt Rafa. It's my fault we're even in the Spirit World in the first place - Koh first mentioned something about how I was supposed to die and I can only think he meant the version of me from the other world. And worst of all, it's my fault that all those people in those Hallows are here. My people invaded yours, Nagi."

"You can't blame yourself for the things Koh did," Nagi said, kneeling down in front of Yue. She brushed the dirt off of Yue's hands. "And as for that last thing? Yeah, it was wrong, but you know that now. You were just trying to do your duty to your people and now I believe you will do everything in your power to make things right."

Yue stared down at their joined hands. "I knew it was wrong to begin with. There's no way to justify a war. But I just did as I was told anyway… I always thought that's what duty meant."

"And now your duty, shared with me and Toph and the Avatar, is to do what we can to save all the worlds," Nagi continued, leaning forward to catch Yue's eyes. "Afterward there will be time to make amends. And… I hope you'll be at my side so I can help you stay on that path."

Nagi's wide, dark eyes made Yue's chest ache. "How can you say that?" she asked, struggling to keep her voice from breaking. "After what my nation has done? What I have done? Nagi, I… I like you, a lot. You have been an immeasurable strength to me here in our struggles and I don't know how I would have gotten this far without you. But I can't believe that I've been the same source of strength for you."

Nagi squeezed her hands and a musical laugh escaped her lips. "Of course you have been, silly. You've also been a source of joy and comfort and bravery who has given me the will to keep fighting. And trust me, the way I've been feeling is… complicated, to say the least. But I know above all that you have a good heart. I wish I could give you a better response than that, but I fear I won't be able to sort out my thoughts until after we get out of here. Is that… all right?"

Yue let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. If she was being honest with herself, the feelings crept up on her until they started to come all at once the more she thought about their escape from the Spirit World and the idea that things wouldn't be the same once they stopped being in constant mortal danger. She only had her feelings for Sokka to compare it to, but something about this was different. With Sokka, they had feelings for each other from a young age. She admired him and even loved him a great deal, and always felt that she could have come to love him even more if she went through with the engagement, but that path in life always represented a choice that had been taken away from her. Joining the Water Sages had been her way of making her own choices in life.

And where had those choices taken her now? It had led to all these failures, all this guilt she had shouldered. She had chosen to follow a duty that was set upon her by others - did that mean she didn't follow her own path at all?

"Oh, Yue! You're crying again. I'm sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear, but…"

Yue wiped at her eyes with her sleeve. "No, no, it's not that! Really, I understand. And even the fact that you'd consider returning the way I feel is more than I could hope for. It's just… I'm thinking about how long we've been here and how it often feels like we're no closer to finding our way out or getting Toph her face back. We don't know how we will help the Avatar save the world or defeat Koh. And it's… so frustrating. We've learned so much and come so far but it still feels like we're at the beginning. I know crying does nothing to help, but…"

Nagi gripped both of her shoulders. "Shh, it's okay. If anything, you can get all that emotion out now so it'll be easier to face Koh later. I think you have the right idea."

Yue choked out some laughter between her sobs. "If you say so."

Nagi's hands fell back to her lap. "But honestly, it is rather intimidating. I'm not sure how we might face Koh, especially if he truly has become stronger. I didn't even know spirits could do that."

Yue took a deep breath in an attempt to steady herself. "I've heard of spirits changing and going dark, like those toad spirits. But it doesn't sound like Koh has done that." When they saw him last, she remembered seeing lights, and that seemed to match the account of the warrior who had found Rafa. But was it possible for a spirit to become unbalanced toward light? And could they cause changes in people to the extent that he harmed Rafa? "I am aware of a special waterbending technique that can restore the balance to dark spirits," she said. "To my knowledge, it has some similarities to healing abilities."

"So do you think Misu might know it? This… spiritbending?"

"I would think so," Yue said, nodding. "But we cannot expect anyone to battle against Koh in our stead. He is too horrifying, too powerful. And Misu is not a fighter."

"Perhaps she can teach it to the warriors," Nagi suggested. "Or… what about me?"

Yue tried not to look too doubtful. "But it's a waterbending technique."

Nagi huffed. "Well, if you ask me, waterbending shouldn't have a monopoly on all the spirit and healing abilities. And we just saw Toph invent a new form of bending - I am inclined to believe anything is possible at this point. Believe it or not, the Earth Kingdom used to be more spiritual than even the Water Tribes and Fire Nation, back in the days of the Pearl Dynasty at least. Ba Sing Se was known for its Seven Sages who led the Divine Chrysanthemum Court, but even today my people have always been known for being a little more spiritually inclined than the rest of the Earth Kingdom…"

Yue could have listened to her lecture all about those historical facts, but more laughter escaped. "I see, I see. I certainly believe earthbending can be spiritual enough to use such a skill with the right student."

Nagi moved to rise from her seat. "Then let's go ask Misu to teach me!"

She didn't know how Nagi did it, but whatever she did kept Yue feeling hopeful that they'd prevail against whatever perils faced them. Even if things could be confusing, Yue knew she wouldn't trade this experience for the world.


Nini led Azula and Katara to her home - an igloo with a foundation of stone down the street from the stables, where she worked. It was small, with only two rooms, and from the lack of many personal belongings Azula assumed that the woman lived alone. She didn't keep her home sparse out of a preference for simplicity, that much Azula knew.

Nini offered the only chair to Katara, who took it, and then tended to her hearth fire. Azula sat on a mooseram rug, arms folded to keep warm. She thought it best not to firebend; there was no telling what sort of fuss Nini would raise. She supposed her expression must have looked dour as a result but she didn't care, and didn't offer a polite thanks to Nini at her offer of stale seal biscuits. Instead, she looked around the igloo, at the clothes she sewed herself and the buffalo-yak saddles and shoes strewn about. Nini scrambled to pick up the mess while she tended to the fire at the same time.

"Living alone, I sometimes forget the need to keep tidy," she admitted. "Please forgive me."

Katara leaned back against the chair, which rocked. "You're unmarried?"

"Oh, of course," Nini said, nodding. "Becoming a taboo-breaker ruined any status I might have had."

"And you're not a taboo-breaker anymore?" Azula asked. Katara had explained the basics of what it meant to be a taboo-breaker to her earlier, but to her understanding they could only live outside the city. She understood the concept of marrying for status, of course, but not the idea that someone would lose any prospects of marriage for something like that.

"No, I'm not," said Nini, kneeling in front of the fire again. She prodded it with a poker, a faraway look settling over her face. "Not since that dreadful winter. Tribe law says that if a taboo-breaker survives through the winter, they are allowed to exist again. We are allowed to be seen and spoken of, and reintegrate into society and use the tools and trades of others."

Azula scoffed in disgust. "And yet it's never forgotten. You're never allowed to climb back up to your former status. It's barbaric."

Katara levelled a glare at her. "Don't call us barbaric when your people burn out the eyes of your own sons."

Azula glared right back at her, but then rolled her eyes and directed her glance to the glossy ice walls instead. Part of it had dripped away previously, melting into a puddle that had frozen over again on the stone floor.

Fire Lord Azula perked up in interest. Oh, she's remembering things, is she? Did I ever tell you that fact about dear little Zuzu? Honestly, I thought my brother was weak but I can't imagine yours surviving such an ordeal.

You might've mentioned it. Azula pushed the voice to the back of her mind and stared back into the growing fire. "How did you become a taboo-breaker, anyway?"

"I fought for women to have a place in the emperor's council of elders," said Nini, rubbing her elbow. "I thought it was only fair. But apparently organizing meetings with that many women, hoping for a political office, was considered a taboo…"

Katara clenched the arm of her chair. "My father sentenced you for that?"

Azula looked back to Katara with a raised eyebrow. "Can I call him barbaric, at least?"

Nini put a hand to her mouth at Azula's brazen display, but Katara said nothing.

"What I am about to tell you could condemn me to the same fate again," Nini said, gently lowering the poker to the floor. "But you deserve to know. And out of respect to my dear friend Kya, I must tell you. I've always feared the day I would meet you face to face, princess, but knew that it would come."

Katara lowered herself from the chair and joined Nini on the floor, grasping the woman's hands in both of hers. "Tell me. Please. I've hated not knowing."

Azula rolled her eyes again at Katara's open display of emotion. She wanted to say Katara was better off not knowing - Azula had to witness her own mother's corpse, after all. Better to guess and never know the horrible truth. But then she reminded herself that everything about Katara was a farce, and the story would only serve to further her own ends. Azula said nothing.

"It was the night Emperor Kvichak died," said Nini, her fingers curling against her chest. "Kya fled from the palace with you and your brother. She told me she needed to protect the two of you, especially since Kvichak had proclaimed that you were to be sacrificed to the spirits."

Katara clenched her jaw. "So it's true. Others have implied as much to me. So… my mother meant to protect me that night, not kidnap me."

"The official story is that your mother killed the previous emperor," said Nini. "But… she was as surprised as I was to learn of his death. I don't think she did it at all."

Azula wondered what her own mother would have done in that situation. She liked to think that Ursa would have killed him on the spot - she had a way of being fierce like that. One of her stronger qualities, to be sure.

Katara leaned forward, hunger in her eyes. "Was it him? Was it my father who killed my grandfather, and placed the blame on my mother to protect himself?"

Nini looked away. "I don't know for sure. I'm sorry. A man of the Buffalo-Yak Clan, the emperor, and the Moonlit Mother all came into my igloo that night, but of course I was not permitted to stay in their presence. I don't know what they spoke of before Kya vanished."

Katara rose to her knees, eyes wide. "I remember now. That Buffalo-Yak man was Bato. He… he took us back to the palace, I think." She hugged her arms. "It was so, so cold that night. I remember being confused because Bato tried to hand us over to the chief, his father, but I didn't want to go with him. I wanted Mom."

Azula remained silent. She knew what it must be like for her to get lost in the memories of perhaps one of the most significant nights of her life.

"You've been really brave to tell me all this, Nini," Katara said after a moment. "Thank you. Azula, let's go."

Azula stretched her arms. "Leaving already? Oh, very well."

Katara shot a glare at her, but Azula didn't care that the nonchalance annoyed her. "Yes."

Before they left the igloo, Nini grasped Katara's shoulder. "What will you do?"

"I'm finally going to stop at home," Katara said, without looking back at her. She crouched out of the igloo and Azula followed. She stormed down the street and turned down an alleyway devoid of people before spinning on Azula. "I knew it. I knew something didn't add up about that night. How… how dare he do that to my mother?" Her eyes brimmed with emotions that Azula had never seen on her face before. It made her look dangerous, like she could lash out at any moment. This was a side that she didn't show to Nini, and Azula wasn't sure how to feel about Katara showing this vulnerability, this rage, to her.

"Yes, well, sitting here crying about it won't do anything to bring her back."

Katara's hand shot out and pinned Azula to the wall with bloodbending, her expression twisted in hatred. "You don't have a shred of sympathy buried anywhere inside, do you?"

Azula scowled. "Why should I? Your people are the ones who took away my mother."

Katara released her hold on Azula and turned away. "Then you could empathize, at least."

"Not really my style."

Katara crossed her arms. "Do you ever think… the people we lose are still with us? Guiding us, watching over us?"

"I'd rather have that than a homicidal maniac," Azula said under her breath. "But no, not really."

"What was that?" Katara asked, but Azula brushed her off. "All this time, my father lied. My grandmother lied."

Azula inspected her nails, pretending to be disinterested, but she hung onto every word. "And what will you do about that, princess?"

She clenched her fists. "They have to pay. The Buffalo-Yak Clan, too. All of them were involved in schemes that night but my mother is the one who suffered for it."

Azula locked eyes with her. "Revenge, then?"

Katara stared at her fist. "Yes," she said finally. "Bato's already dead. I saw it happen myself. His father Kuskok is next. And then my father… and grandmother."

"But I thought you planned to remove your father's enemies so he would no longer have any obstacles to his absolute rule. To your dominion."

Her anger came back all at once, and the blistering cold with it. "I don't care about that anymore. He doesn't deserve it! He needs to die. They all do."

Azula kept her voice low. "You'll overthrow him, then? What'll come after that?"

"I don't know," she said. "I don't care. Maybe I'll make the decisions." She turned to face Azula fully. "You've proven yourself on the mountain with the Wolverine-Skunk Clan. Are you with me, Azula?"

Azula smirked in response. "Every step of the way."


Hahn's spirit token had worked. When Mai held it up to the giant raven spirit late in the night, it moved aside to permit her entry into the secret ice tunnel leading under the palace. Jet came with her while Haru and Ty Lee kept watch outside, ready to cause a distraction if need be.

The tunnels led to a part of the palace that Mai assumed was restricted to the royal family and the First Spears. The entrance to it had been concealed behind a statue of a seal woman and a pair of crossed spears. The floors and walls had been carved from smooth, pristine ice, with white and blue fur rugs to prevent slipping. Most of the furniture had been constructed of ice as well. Several tables pushed up against the wall with candles on them as the primary light source for the halls. The First Spears, Arnook's honor guard, stuck to a rigid patrol, but the shadows cast by the candles and their torches made it easy for Mai and Jet to hide.

They came to a junction, the hall splitting in two. Mai gestured for Jet to go down the left hall while she took the right. They didn't know where Arnook's sleeping chambers were, but if Mai was correct her path led to the heart of the palace so she took that direction. She gripped her knives in her palms, ready and willing to take the High Chief out in his sleep if she had to. The names of all of her dead warriors brushed silently against her lips.

She came to a chamber with a frozen waterfall. A round platform held a pile of sleeping furs, surrounded by a ring of ornately decorated urns. Glistening water sat inside each of them, completely still. Around the room, she discovered bone jewelry and art, black feathers and white ermine tails tipped with black like they were paintbrushes dipped in ink.

But High Chief Arnook was nowhere to be found.

"Who are you?"

Mai whirled to the source of the voice, cursing herself for not noticing the approach of the person in the doorway. But it was no First Spear - she was a girl with a short blade in her hands and white paint on her face. A golden crest on her forehead reflected the light of the candles in the room and Mai recognized her as a Kyoshi Warrior, one of the ancient orders devoted to the Avatars. Just like the Roku Warriors.

Which meant that this could only be Suki. They'd never met, but Mai knew her from Aang's stories of another world.

Suki narrowed her eyes when she saw Mai's face, and launched into an attack.

Mai threw a dagger before Suki could reach her but she deflected it with her round arm shield, whirling into close quarters with a swing of her blade. Mai danced out of the way of her attack, bending back to shoot darts from her ankle launchers before catching herself on the floor and hurling a spinning knife. The darts did little to pierce her armored dress but Suki brought her blade up in time to deflect the knife. Mai kept up her assault and her distance, throwing a trip wire that coiled around Suki's hilt and ripped the sword from her hands.

"An assassin," Suki said, coming to the answer for her own question. "How did you get past the guards?"

"I could ask the same of you," Mai said, crossing two daggers in front of her to match the golden fans Suki had unveiled. "I thought only the First Spears were allowed here. Snooping around, are we?"

Mai knew she was at a disadvantage in close quarters and also knew that she needed to find Jet and leave. But Suki wasn't keen on giving her that opportunity, deflecting every strike with her fans and swooping in with attempts to disarm her. She ducked into low, sweeping kicks that Mai leapt over, but every knife Mai threw in response caught only air or ice. Both of them were too skilled to get an edge over the other.

"Whoa!"

She heard Jet's voice from the doorway and was never so glad to hear him or see him, and he didn't hesitate to involve himself in the fray. Suki avoided the swings of his hook swords and deflected more of Mai's knives, but against the both of them she was outmatched. But even when they managed to knock the fans from her hands, she came at them unarmed, defending with her shield. From behind Jet, Mai threw her knives with attempts to pin her to the ground and disable her, but when she started picking up the fallen knives and throwing them back Mai hesitated.

Jet swung both of his swords at her, but she caught them in her gloves before the hooks could slash her. While they held the deadlock Jet aimed a kick at her midsection that knocked her to the ground with shuddering breaths. Mai took the opportunity to pin her to the floor by her arms and dress with five perfectly aimed knives that bored into the ice, halting Suki's movement. While she struggled to break free, Mai kept her guard up. Chills danced down her back and shoulders; she kept her eyes on Suki and away from the shadows cast by the flickering candles.

"What did you find?" Mai asked. She stood beside Jet with their backs to the doorway while Suki faced them down.

"Pahmo," he spat. The elder who told them of Hahn's spirit token, and a former pirate. "In a different part of the palace. Said Arnook left earlier to go to the northern spirit portal. He took Captain Sekun with him." He uttered the last part with contempt and Mai assumed that was the pirate he'd seen earlier in the city.

Suki narrowed her eyes. "A pirate captain?" she asked, catching her breath.

"Well, then," said Mai, backing toward the doorway. "Time to go… that won't hold her for long."

It seemed that their next destination would be the northern spirit portal after all.


Author's Notes: Rafa and Misu are yet more comics characters. In "The Search," Rafa lost his face to Koh the Face Stealer. Please review! Part 2 will hopefully come soon!