Chapter 9: The Path of Light

Now cured of the mental affliction called Sozin Syndrome, Sen was ready to advance on the path of the firebender. Miyani led the way to the top of Hayao's mountain, far above the fog bank that surrounded the islands base, and stood in the heart of the ancient volcano's caldera. The sun shined brightly overhead.

Seeing her in the light of the sun for the first time, rather than the faded light of the fog or the darkness of Hayao's cavern, Sen noticed something new about Miyani. They were difficult to see, but when Sen examined Miyani closely he could see many narrow patches of discolored skin. Taking a few steps closer to her, Sen looked closely at her arm. They were scars, to be certain, but very light ones. They had healed remarkably well, considering the apparent size of the cuts.

Sen rapidly stepped back as Miyani came to a halt in the middle of the caldera and turned to face him. She gestured towards the blazing sun overhead.

"Everything that lives comes from the sun," Miyani said. "Plants absorb the light, and then those plants are eaten, passing the energy on to animals, or people like us. In that way, we're all connected to the sun. The heat you feel within your body is only borrowed from the heat of the sun. That's why when you try to bend solely from your own body heat, as firebenders did in the Hundred-Year war, you warp the art. True firebending comes from the sun and the sun alone."

Sen looked at the great yellow disk above him. Even though there was a cold breeze on the mountaintop, he could still feel the warmth of the sun. It was only a faint connection, though, hardly comparable to the way he could feel earth beneath his feet. He wondered how difficult it would be to draw on the suns power.

Miyani took a deep breath, and a small flicker of flame appeared in the palm of her hand. She held it out for Sen to examine. It was a very faint tongue of flame, barely holding together in the breeze, but it was a serviceable first lesson. Sen had learned the hard way that he couldn't expect to do advanced techniques on his first outing.

Sen recalled his long, dull lessons on breath control and stance. He breathed in, shifted his feet into place, and held out his hand. He could feel heat rising in his palm. He wondered if he was doing it right. Was the heat supposed to come from inside him at all, or was he supposed to bring it from outside? The heat dissipated under his self-doubt. He tried again, and once again failed to produce a flame. He decided to ask Miyani for guidance.

"Am I supposed to feel heat inside me? I'm worried, because of how I was before, when I was burning up."

"Firebending is very closely linked to your internal chi, so yes, you have to channel the energy through your own body," Miyani said. "Don't worry about the heat you feel. When you breathe in, you should draw the heat of the ambient air with you, and then release it through fire."

Sen nodded, internalizing her advice. He tried once more, repeating the breathing process and the focus of heat in his palm. There was a brief spark, but no defined flame. He tried twice more, and managed to maintain a flame on his third attempt. In excitement over his success, the flame flickered and died suddenly.

"You're making progress. Next time focus on maintaining the flame."

On his next attempt, Sen was less excited just to create the flame, and when the spark ignited he managed to hold it steady for a few minutes. Miyani told him when he had held it long enough. Moving on to another lesson, she summoned a similar ball of fire, but this time she rolled her hand beneath the flame, letting the crackling energy roll over her bandaged hand. The flickering light crawled across her faint scars as it rolled along Miyani's hand.

"Precise control is the next step," She instructed. Sen thought just rolling the fire along his hand would be fairly easy. He was thus confused when Miyani withdrew a strip of cloth, the same kind as her bandages, and wrapped it around Sen's outstretched hand. She repeated the demonstration.

"Follow my example. You instinctively avoid burning your skin, but not burning cloth is much harder."

Sen had never even thought about the bandages on her hand. He'd never seen her without the cloth wrappings around her hands, shoulder, and head, so he almost thought of them as her skin. He'd never realized the bandages were anything but a part of her.

Sen's first few attempts went poorly. It was harder than he thought to move the flame, much less to do so without burning his bandage. It took several hours and several strips of cloth for him to master the exercise. Miyani had him repeat it a few times just to be sure. By the time he had finished, the sun was very nearly vanishing. It actually wasn't sunset just yet, but a massive wall of stone stood to the west, which would make the sun vanish from view early for them. Miyani decided it was a good place to stop exercises for the day. It kind of defeated the point of her lessons to practice without the sun in view.

The two hiked back to the base of the hill, bank into the fog bank and Hayao's secluded cavern. Sen deliberately kept his pace slow, trying to keep himself out of the cloud of salty mist for as long as he could. He passed the time by making conversation with Miyani.

"So, when you trained, did you have a proxy master like I have you," He asked. "Or did you train right under Master Hayao?"

"I trained with Master Hayao."

"So, is it rare for someone to be trained like me?"

"I can't say. I've only been with Master Hayao for ten years. He's been teaching people for more than sixty."

Night started to fall. Miyani held up her hand, alight with flame, to illuminate the surroundings. Sen did the same, not for the sake of more visibility, but for a little extra practice in controlling fire.

"So, why did you come to Master Hayao in the first place?"

Miyani didn't answer immediately. Sen clarified.

"I mean, did you have Sozin Syndrome like I did, or was it something else?"

Miyani maintained her silence. Sen quickly realized he wasn't going to get an answer to this question. He could feel a vague sense of unease. Sen had clearly overstepped a boundary to his relationship with Miyani. He wasn't frustrated by this; there were plenty of things he wouldn't tell her if she asked, so he understood. They weren't exactly friends. He decided to go with a less personal question.

"How old are you anyway?"

"Eighteen."

"No kidding," Sen said. Thanks to her height and her behavior, Sen had imagined her as much older, but she was only two years Sen's senior. Maybe one year. Thanks to poor record keeping at the orphanage, Sen had no idea when his birthday was. He just added a year to his age every New Years. "You're not much older than me."

Miyani didn't carry on the conversation. Sen kept talking anyway. Visiting Suda and Ada had re-ignited his desire to converse, and he didn't get many opportunities on the island.

"I'm only sixteen, so that puts us two years apart. Maybe that's one of the reasons Hayao partnered us up."

Something about Miyani's presence changed for the better. Sen wondered how he knew that. He couldn't see it, as Miyani was as blank-faced as ever, and he couldn't feel her heartbeat with the seismic sense either. He was left to question how he could feel her mood change. He chalked it up to good intuition and continued. Apparently she responded positively to conversation about Hayao.

"Why did Hayao ask you to train me, anyway?"

He figured Miyani could finally give him some real insight on their situation. Hayao was not exactly talkative.

"I don't question my Master. Neither should you."

"But Hayao isn't my master. You are."

Miyani's mood soured.

"Then listen to me," Miyani said. There was an unusual hint of bitterness in her tone.

"Yes master," Sen said. He had been hoping to learn something today, and in a way he had. Miyani didn't know why she was Sen's teacher any more than Sen himself knew. Whatever game Hayao was playing, Miyani was as much of a pawn as he was.

"Do you talk to Hayao often?"

Something about Miyani became very cold, and Sen already knew what her answer was going to be.

"My training is complete. Master Hayao has no more reason to speak with me."

Her voice said it, but everything else about her screamed that she didn't believe it. For the first time, Sen felt an actual emotional connection to Miyani. He wished it could be something other than pity. Miyani still had lessons she needed to learn, and the one person she was relying on to give her answers was refusing to help her.

The two descended into the fog bank, and Sen gave up on his attempts at conversation. Between the sinking darkness and the thick fog, Sen could barely see his own feet. Every step risked a troublesome fall. Miyani was the first to make a mistake, tripping and falling in the darkness. Sen offered to help her up, but she refused. All he could offer was a light as she righted herself. They continued through the shadowed fog until they reached Hayao's cavern and parted for the night. Sen slept very peacefully; his nightmares had ended, it seemed.

The next day, the fog was surprisingly thin, so Miyani decided they didn't need to hike all the way to the top of the mountain. They went far enough way to not disturb the other monks, but no further. Sen had yet to learn anything about the other residents of the island; Miyani only told him that they were not to be disturbed.

Standing just above the cloud of fog, Miyani took up a stance. Sen quickly mimicked her, earning a nod of approval from Miyani. Taking a deep breath, Miyani shifted her feet and pushed her hands forward. A weak gout of flame emerged from her palms, streaking lazily across the foggy sky. She gestured wordlessly to Sen. He followed her example. He absorbed the energy of the sun, building it up within himself, then released it.

His first attempt was needlessly cautious, and so it turned out weak. He could still remember the striking pain of electrocution, and the feeling of energy flowing through his body scared him somewhat. It took him a few tries to realize that he was not going to hurt himself this time as he was only creating fire, not lightning.

Once he had overcome that lingering fear, it became a matter of control rather than power. His attempts to firebend ended up as spectacular but ineffective bursts rather than targeted attacks. Miyani demonstrated a weak stream of flame when she felt it necessary, but her guidance was mostly verbal. Under her training, it didn't take long for Sen to match her initial firebending display and be ready for the next step.

Eager to move on, Sen watched with rapt attention as Miyani ran through another stance, took a deep breath, and produced an identical burst of fire, as weak and direct as the first demonstration.

Sen quickly duplicated the feat perfectly and they moved on again. Once again, Miyani ran through a unique stance, a new technique, only to produce the exact same lackluster result. Sen repeated her behavior, and the process repeated itself. Then repeated itself again. And again.

"I'm beginning to wonder if she even can do anything else," Sen grumbled to Ada.

As days had turned into weeks, Sen's patience had been tested once again. At first he had believed that Miyani's weak displays of firebending were just for training practices, but Sen had quickly overcome the pitiful spurts of fire she produced, and she refused to demonstrate anything beyond her miniscule sparks. Sen had to consider the possibility she was not restraining herself at all, but was just inept. He thought he had overcome the only roadblock to becoming a firebender when he had cured himself of Sozin Syndrome, but now he faced another.

Ada did not respond, as she was slightly preoccupied deflecting the attacks of Master Sorikami. The elder swordswoman didn't seem to care that Sen was defying Hayao's orders; she was more concerned with her own pupil. Ada had made progress in the past weeks, but not enough for Sorikami's satisfaction. She was not disciplined enough quite yet. Ada was still allowing her emotions to fuel the way she fought.

When that emotion had been depression, after Hanjo's demise and Sen's abandonment, her fighting had been weak and sluggish. Now that Ada was in higher spirits, her swordplay was more energetic, which was an improvement in some ways, but not what Sorikami wanted. The Master intended for Ada to completely sever herself from emotions during a fight. Their training had been growing more intense lately, occupying more and more of Ada's time. Ada wanted to talk with Sen now, to help him through his problems, but Sorikami didn't give her the chance.

Ada made a slight slip-up, and in her usual form, Sorikami punished her for it with a swift strike from the dull side of her blade. Sen stood up.

"What are you doing?"

"Educating," Sorikami said.

"How is that helping anything," Sen objected. He was hardly going to just stand by while Sorkami beat Ada.

"Sen, don't," Ada said weakly. "Just let me do this."

Sen relented. As long as Ada was willing to put up with it, there was very little point in arguing it. He bid goodbye to his sparring friend and wandered off to find Suda. He stopped to pat Gun on the head on his way. The badgermole had become much more affectionate in Sen's absence. He still avoided anyone who wasn't an earthbender, of course.

Walking in Gai Zhu made Sen feel very out of place. The Fire Nation town was different, on a fundamental level, than any city he'd visited in the United Earth Kingdoms. People in the UEK seemed to be mostly concerned with maintaining a routine, having a schedule and sticking to it. Here in Gai Zhu things seemed to be evolving, rapidly and dangerously. People he had seen wearing fancy suits and jewelry on his last visit weeks ago were now wearing rags and squatting in alleys. Life here changed rapidly and riskily. People took chances that didn't always pay off.

It made Sen uncomfortable. He hurried to the house that the Fire Lord had set up Suda and Ada in. He wanted to talk to Suda, another earthbender, and get back into his comfort zone.

His first few knocks on the door met no response. He hadn't heard that Suda would be out and about today. He knew that it was much too early for the gym Suda spent time at to be open, so he couldn't think of anywhere else his earthbending master might have gone.

As he turned around, Sen nearly had a heart attack when he saw two uniformed agents casually leaning against the wall of a neighboring house. He quickly realized that these must be the two agents Fire Lord Goto had left behind, and put his heart at ease.

"He's looking for the earthbender, isn't he Luan?"

"Seems so, Zouf."

Ada had informed him of the agents dialogue "quirk", she had called it, but Sen had not really believed her. He could see this routine getting old very fast.

"Do you know where he is?"

Agent Zouf managed to respond without doing his call-response routine with Luan, which relieved Sen to no end. The two secret agents served as Sen's guide through the shifting streets of Gai Zhu. They tried to introduce themselves on the way, but Sen had already heard about them from Ada, so the introduction was short. The strange duo led Sen to an unfamiliar house.

"He's in here," Zouf said. "Or he was last time we checked."

"Aren't you supposed to be keeping an eye on us?"

"We do," Zouf replied indignantly. He was offended that the Avatar doubted his ability to perform his job. "But while your buddy may be playing a lot of sports know, what he's been doing lately isn't exactly for spectators, is it Luan?"

"That depends, Zouf," Luan replied. Zouf gave his partner a dirty look. Sen had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. Weren't all sports for spectators, he thought to himself.

Luan and Zouf stayed behind as Sen went up and knocked on the door of the unfamiliar home. After a brief pause and some quiet shuffling, a strange woman answered the door. She had dark skin, and her hair was tied in intricate loops. She was definitely from the Water Tribe, but more importantly, she was definitely not Suda.

"Can I help you," She said, clearly confused by Sen's presence.

"Umm, maybe," Sen mumbled. "Is Suda here?"

The strange water tribal squinted for a second, and then her eyes snapped open in a moment of clarity. She cracked a small smile.

"Oh, you must be Suda's firebender buddy," The girl said. "I'll go get him for you. Come on in."

Sen took an awkward step inside the unfamiliar woman's residence. He was deeply confused as to why Suda would be here until he took a look around. A few trophies were on display on a shelf right inside the door. Apparently this woman was one of the pro-benders Suda had been getting to know.

Suda himself appeared eventually, looking exhausted and confused, but still quite happy to see Sen. He clapped Sen heartily on the shoulder.

"Hey pal, what's up?"

"Oh, I just started firebending, kind of want to talk about it," Sen said. "If I'm not interrupting anything."

The waterbender girl laughed, and Suda gave her a strange look. Sen had no idea why she'd laugh at that. She quit laughing and started to introduce herself.

"Hey, I'm Nura. You're Sen, right?"

"Yeah, that's me," Sen said quietly. He was still a little confused as to what was going on, and why Suda was here instead of home. It was far too early to be visiting a friend. Unless they were eating breakfast together for some reason.

"Gym opens in about an hour, right," Suda asked. Nura nodded. "I'm going to swing Sen by my place. I'll meet you in the ring, alright?"

Nura nodded again, then turned to Sen.

"Don't let him leave you behind, Sen. Maybe we can get you some practice in too."

Suda took Sen by the shoulder and led him out of the house. Sen was just starting to like Nura, too. Hopefully they'd see each other at the gym later.

"How'd you find this place, anyway?"

"The Fire Lord's agents led me here," Sen explained. Luan and Zouf had both vanished while he had been inside Nura's house, presumably going back to observing them all in secret. Suda shook his head.

"Alright, well, can you do me a favor, Sen?"

"Of course."

"Don't tell Ada about this."

"Sure, I guess," Sen said. This was just getting more and more confusing. "Why not?"

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it?"

"No, I don't get it," Sen replied. "Does she not like Nura? Why can't you two be friends?"

Suda stopped walking to give Sen an awkward stare, like the look a teacher gives a child that has been eating glue. Sen wondered what he'd said.

This was the situation where Suda drew the line. He was the mature one, yeah, he was the "team dad", but there had to be a point where he said enough was enough. He was not going to have this talk with Sen. He was not going to explain why he'd been at Nura's house. He had principles. Sen could learn that lesson from someone else.

"Just promise not to tell Ada," Suda repeated. Sen promised, without understanding why. He could feel confusion from Suda, so he decided to drop it. Suda knew that Ada would not be happy to know how he was spending his time, so hopefully Sen could keep a lid on it.

"So how's firebending going?"

Sen explained his concerns with Miyani's substandard firebending. Suda nodded understandingly, though he was mostly concerned with having changed the subject.

"Well, you are an amateur. Maybe she's taking it easy on you?"

"That's what I thought, but she's been at it for weeks. I'm starting to think she just isn't good."

Sen had tried everything he could to push Miyani towards more skillful displays, but she consistently produced very lackluster results. On a few occasions, Sen had felt more like he was training her than the other way around.

"Well, she's got to be good, doesn't she? Why else would Hayao tell her to teach you?"

"I just don't know," Sen admitted. "I mean, she helped me with that Syndrome thing, but now we're stuck again. I'm starting to think Hayao was wrong."

"I don't know, Sen, Master Sorikami and the Fire Lord both seem to trust him. He's got to be some kind of wise."

"I'd like to see some of that wisdom, then," Sen said angrily. Suda was surprised to see him so upset. He was usually kind of mellow. "All I've gotten out of him so far is vague garbage and a mediocre-"

Sen's voice trailed off. Suda didn't understand the sudden change in tone. He'd been really angry one second and then he'd just given up.

"What's up? You got a mediocre what?"

"Uh, I was going to say something about Miyani," Sen admitted. "But this isn't her fault. She doesn't deserve that."

"Really? You seemed kind of critical of her last time. You were on about how she doesn't have feelings."

"Well, of course she has feelings," Sen mumbled. "She just doesn't show them. Inner peace. Monk stuff. She's very calm."

"Well, didn't you say maybe that's what you're supposed to learn from her? How to be calm."

Sen remembered saying that, and he still sort of believed it. At the same time, Miyani seemed to be a very bad firebender, so wouldn't being like her make Sen a bad firebender too? Sen wasn't sure how to proceed.

Suda vanished into their temporary base of operations for a moment and returned wearing a more sport-ready outfit. Sen had only the clothes on his back, so he was going to have to go the gym in those. Hopefully nobody would think him strange for his oddly monastic grab.

Approximately everyone found him strange for his oddly monastic garb. Few people in Gai Zhu were actually aware of the island monastery only a few miles off of their shore, so they were unused to the sight of such rustically dressed people. Sen stuck out like a sore thumb. Luckily he had the fairly popular Suda with him. Suda couldn't take ten steps without getting a friendly greeting from a resident of the gym. Sen was a little jealous of all the attention. If he wasn't restricted from showing off his earthbending, he'd probably be just as popular in a few minutes.

Suda found Nura and headed for a practice match. Nura briefly argued that Sen should play as their third, but Suda countered with the fact that Sen knew next to nothing about pro-bending.

"What, it's simple. Just don't burn the other guys and you're golden."

"I agree with Suda, really," Sen said. "I don't know any of the rules. Or what probending is, at all, in any way."

In the Beaker Hall orphanage, there had been no televarrick, radio, or even newspapers. The only time Sen had ever even seen a pro-bending match had been on the blurry TV in Zang, and that gave him nothing to work with. Nura looked at Suda in confusion.

"You find this kid under a rock?"

"Something like that," Suda said. The full story, which involved attempted robbery and Energybending terrorists, was obviously not meant for Nura's ears. Suda felt bad for lying to her, but it was unavoidable. In almost every other aspect, Suda was quite honest, which he hoped made up for it.

"Well then just watch for today," Nura advised. "It's a simple game, honestly. Pay attention and you can be in the ring by tomorrow."

Sen stayed in the stands while Nura and Suda went into the ring. They were joined by a third teammate, a firebender Sen didn't recognize, and the practice match began. Sen quickly found himself agreeing with Nura; pro-bending was a surprisingly simple game. The rules of striking your opponents and zone advancement were pretty obvious. Maybe Sen was just a quick study, but he didn't think he needed this explained to him.

Rounds in pro-bending only lasted about three minutes, so the practice proceeded very quickly. A coach on the sidelines stopped play every few minutes to give the players pointers. He especially liked to yell at the firebender on the team opposite Suda's. It seemed that player couldn't go two seconds without making a major mistake. Sen kept an eye on him. The amateur firebender almost reminded Sen of Miyani. His flame was about as weak, but his stances and strikes were much sloppier. Miyani at least had a good grasp on the technique; this firebender was just bad.

Suda was doing a fantastic job, in comparison. He hadn't been moved back in the entire practice session. Suda's personal technique was to keep to the back of the current zone, and charge forward whenever he saw an attack coming. His massive size meant that his sheer inertia cancelled out most attacks, making him nearly impossible to move backwards unless he was caught off guard. Most of his opponents had given up on ever moving him back with a single strike.

On the other end of the arena, the young firebender seemed to be knocked over by the slightest scrape.

"Mogoshu," The coach shouted. "How many times do I have to tell you? Balance on your toes, not your heels!"

Sen noticed how Mogoshu's center of balance was put off, making him easier to knock down. He remembered that. Balance was important to all bending styles. The firebender stood up, play resumed, and he was immediately knocked over by a bolt of water launched by Nura.

Nura's play style was fairly aggressive. Normally, the waterbender on a team might use their water to play defense for their teammates, but with Suda playing the role of a juggernaut, Nura had no need for defense. Their team's firebender suffered for her lack of cooperation, but she could keep up an effective offense that made up for the trouble.

Mogoshu tried to launch a counterattack, but his flame strikes were slow and easily dodged.

"Mogoshu! Never breathe in while firebending!"

Sen knew how important breathe was to firebending, but he had never really seen the consequences of doing it wrong. Improper breathe technique robbed your firebending of potential power. Sen doubted he'd ever have that problem with self-control, but it was handy information to know.

After an hour-long practice, Suda and Nura moved out of the arena, and another team took their spot. Sen waited patiently for a while, until Suda and Nura tracked him down in the stands. They were sweaty and tired, but they were still having an excited conversation about the days performance. As soon as Nura laid eyes on Sen, she asked him what he thought of the practice.

"I think you guys did great," Sen said. It was enlightening to watch a waterbender in action in a peaceful environment. Up until today, all the waterbenders he'd met had been trying to kill him. Hopefully watching Nura would come in handy when he finally got around to learning waterbending.

"No, see, you're supposed to tell Suda he did terribly," Nura said. She smacked Suda on the shoulder lightly. "He needs to get his act together, right?"

Sen shook his head. Nura rolled her eyes.

"He's never going to get any better if you don't push him around! A guy will only get so far if you only pat him on the back; now and then you got to shove him around."

"I thought he was doing well," Sen said. Suda crossed his arms triumphantly. "That firebender on the other team was the really bad one."

"Mogoshu? Yeah, he's awful. Great guy to practice with."

"Why does being awful make him so good to practice with?"

"Because sometimes you can learn as much from a screw-up as you can from a coach," Nura said. "We see all the things he does, and then we don't do them."

Suda had a sensible chuckle at Nura's joke. He soon noticed Sen wasn't laughing at all. In fact, he seemed to be deep in contemplation. Nura noticed the same.

"You okay, little guy?"

Sen nodded, but the concerned expression on his face remained the same. Suda played connect-the-dots with recent events and figured Sen was thinking about Miyani and her sluggish firebending training. He tapped Sen on the shoulder to get him going and said goodbye to Nura. The two of them headed back to the beach.

Sorikami and Ada were having a sparring session that was quite rudely interrupted by a massive badgermole emerging from the ground between them. Gun greeted Sen and Suda enthusiastically, glad to have his favorite earthbenders back. After receiving a satisfactory amount of love and affection, Gun vanished back into the soil of Gai Zhu, leaving four humans alone on the beach. Sorikami was rather annoyed by the interruption, but Ada was glad to take a break. Despite what she'd said earlier, Sorikami's training was getting a little too intense for her.

"Welcome back, Sen," Ada said, quickly trying to keep Sorikami from shooing them away. "Did you have fun?"

"I was," Sen said quietly. Nura's comments had given him a new perspective on the situation. Early on in his training, he had resented Miyani, thought of her as being too emotionless and detached. Maybe that had been Hayao's intention all along. Was Miyani a failure he was meant to learn from?

Sen shook his head. It was too early to jump to conclusions.

"What's the deal, Sen," Suda asked.

"I don't think I should talk about it," Sen said. It didn't feel right to talk about Miyani behind her back. It would feel especially bad to contemplate whether or not she was a failure with a group. He did need to talk to someone about it, though. There was only one person who knew her well enough to give Sen any answers. It was time to talk to Hayao.