Chapter 10: Heart of Steel
The canyon presented both an obstacle and a curiosity. In many ways it was like any other chasm, a massive crack in the earth. It was unique, though, in that it seemed to be made of solid metal. The landscape was a strange grey-black color, and though the metallic terrain was rough and unrefined, it still shone with a metallic glimmer.
"I've heard of this," Ada said. "Spirit Metal."
Many mundane things in the Spirit World had unique qualities compared to their counterparts in the physical world. Spirit Water was renowned for its healing properties, and Spirit Metal had a similar quality, though it was much less renowned for it.
The black metal of the Spirit World was nearly indestructible. While this should have made it the most valuable material on earth, it was, in essence, absolutely useless. Since it was impossible to mine, refine, or shape, Spirit Metal existed only in its raw form. Nobody had any use for massive lumps of indestructible metal.
"Is there anything in the spirit world that doesn't have special magic garbage," Suda wondered out loud. "Spirit plants, spirit water, spirit metal."
He scooped up a handful of dirt and displayed it to Ada.
"Should I bring this back with us? Does it have special magic powers too?"
"Actually, Suda, dirt from-"
Suda slammed the handful of dirt back on to the ground.
"I don't even want to hear it. Getting back to the metal stuff. Can I metalbend it?" Suda asked. "I mean, it hasn't been refined at all. It should be really easy to metalbend with all those impurities."
"I don't think so. There's a quarry near the northern portal; they've had all kinds of metalbending masters drop by, but nobody has ever done it."
"Well, maybe I'm the one," Suda said confidently.
"I say give it a shot," Whistler said. "You can make us a bridge to cross this canyon, then bring some along, and then we spend the rest of the trip clobbering people with indestructible junk."
Ada and Sen agreed. It was at least worth a shot. Suda stepped up to the rim of the canyon confidently. Planting his feet firmly and outstretching his hands, Suda focused on the metal below. As expected, he could feel numerous impurities in the metal below. Despite that, he could do little to shape the metal. It was simply too rigid and inflexible. Suda pushed himself to his limits, but accomplished seemingly nothing. Ada thought she saw a subtle vibration in the metal, but that might have been her eyes tricking her.
After a few minutes of desperate attempts, Suda finally gave up. He had a headache from trying to focus too hard. It was clear that he was not the metalbender for the job.
"Hey, no shame in it," Sen assured him. "The impossible is impossible."
"It shouldn't be impossible," Suda grunted. "I can feel it, I could do it. I'm just not good enough."
Suda sighed. It would take more than he had to move the intractable Spirit Metal. Ada reached up to put a hand on his shoulder. Suda shook off his failure and they proceeded along the canyon side.
"So, we're walking all the way around, then?"
"Yeah," Sen said. "I don't want to take any unnecessary risks."
The canyon was not particularly wide, but it was rather deep. Any fall into that abyss would end very poorly. Whistler agreed. If there was an absolute disaster, she could probably glide across the canyon on her own, but she wouldn't be able to take anyone with her. Riding with a passenger would only end in an unpleasant fall.
"Hey, what about Gun," Suda asked. "He can't tunnel through this stuff, can he?"
"He'll be fine, I talked to him about it earlier," Sen assured him. "We're walking around anyway. He says he can tunnel underneath the canyon if he has to."
"Oh. So, when he talks to you-"
"It's hard to explain," Sen said. "When I figure out how to describe it, I'll tell you."
Suda nodded, satisfied with that explanation. Gun was still something of an enigma to everyone but Sen.
Ada kept her eyes on the depths of the canyon. The metallic walls of the chasm were usually steep and deadly, but there did seem to be some rough, sloped patches. With luck, they might be able to find a place to descend one side and climb the other, saving them a lot of travel time.
A shockwave travelled through the metal, barely perceptible to anyone but Sen. He came to a quick halt. His allies stopped in turn. A few more reverberations travelled through the metal.
"What's going on?"
"Something's shaking the ground," Sen said. It seemed strange. If this Spirit Metal was really so durable, what could possibly be heavy enough to shake it?
Sen looked to the far side of the canyon. There was something moving in the distance. Something like a man, but too big, too shadowed. Sen tried to warn his friends, but he never got the chance.
The sound of tearing metal deafened them all as the chunk of Spirit Metal was violently ripped from its home and began a slow drift through the air. Sen lost his footing as the metal stone shifted. After a brief tumble, he hastily grabbed on to a ledge in the metal and held on for dear life.
"What's happening," Suda shouted.
"Just hold on," Sen screamed back. Now was not the time to be asking questions. The metal boulder was rising higher and higher into the air, dragging them all along with it.
Suda hastily unwound one of his ziplines and wrapped it around an outcropping of Spirit Metal, securing himself tightly. The floating chunk of metal lurched beneath his feet, sending him off balance temporarily. The metal zipline kept him from falling off, but it distracted him. Ada and Whistler had yet to secure themselves.
As the stone shifted, Whistler and Ada were thrown to the side. They both began to roll down the side of the metal slope. Whistler quickly took hold of her staff; it slid slightly, but it ended up catching a ledge in the rock and holding her in place. There was no such catch for Ada, and she continued sliding down the side of the flying stone. Suda desperately sent a line flying towards the sound of Ada's screams. Ada clutched at it, but the thin metal line slipped through her fingers. She soon ran out of line to grab at, and soon after, out of metal beneath her.
Ada had always heard that there was a second of weightlessness before you started to fall. That turned out to be false. She could hear the screaming of her companions fade slightly as they drifted away, still clinging to the stone, and she plummeted into the depths of the black canyon.
The plummet to the depths curiously failed to make Ada's life race before her eyes. It would have been nice to have something to focus on. She wasn't sure what she should be thinking about. Canto, or her parents, or Suda and Sen, or the mission she would never get to complete. They all seemed to be the kind of thing you were supposed to think of in this kind of situation. The morose idea that she would probably hit the ground before she made up her mind brought Ada no comfort.
Something hit Ada's back like a hammer, and she let out a brief gasp of surprise. For a moment she had believed it to be the ground, and thought everything was over, but she was obviously still falling. It was at a different angle now, though. A more sloping descent, rather than a sheer fall.
She hit the ground soon enough, though. Thanks to whatever had hit her in the first place, she hit the ground at an angle, and rolled instead of going splat. It was hardly a pleasant landing; Ada hurt herself in more ways than she could count, but the pain at least meant she was alive.
Ada eventually rolled to a halt. She couldn't keep track of all the places she hurt. Letting out a single, long groan of pain, Ada collected herself. It was agonizing to move, but she had to. Just because she was safe didn't mean anyone else was.
"You're welcome," a sarcastic voice grumbled. Ada sighed.
"Thank you, Whistler," Ada said, and she had rarely been more earnest.
Whistler probably hadn't earned that gratitude. She had weighed the trouble caused by saving ada versus the trouble caused by letting her fall, and decided that she didn't want to deal with Suda and Sen moping for the next few months. That, and Ada was perhaps the person Whistler disliked the least of this merry band of misfits.
"Suda and Sen are still on the rock?"
"They landed while we were falling," Whistler said. "I heard them crash."
Ada managed to stand up. Her legs seemed to be doing all right. Her arms had absorbed most of the impact. Nothing felt broken, though. Whistler was just fine, since she'd quite deliberately landed on top of Ada.
"We should catch up to them," Ada suggested.
"You sure you don't want to take a minute to breath," Whistler suggested. "Just to celebrate the fact that you still can?"
"I'll rest when I'm dead," Ada said. "Thanks to you, that can wait a while. Let's get moving."
Ada and Whistler's journey out of the canyon had not been easy, and in fact it had barely even been possible, but somehow they had managed it. Locating the landing sight of the wayward Spirit Metal was much easier, given the suspicious circumstances surrounding it.
"Well, I suppose this explains why all those people have gone missing in the Spirit World," Whistler observed dryly.
The mysteriously flying chunk of black iron had landed in the middle of a small circle of huts. They were clearly of human manufacture, made obvious by their design, and the fact that human skeletons were scattered about them. Ada examined one of the bleached bones.
Something had cleaved this skeleton into two pieces. Its ribs were split diagonally, and the ends were crushed. Whatever had slain this person had done so with a hammering blow, as much crushing as cutting. No spirit could make a wound like this.
An unfamiliar fear found its way into Ada's heart for a moment, but she was quickly distracted by Whistler.
"Hey, funsize, come here," Whistler shouted. She was pointing at the ground. There were a set of tracks from the wheels of a cart. Just behind, human footprints, and long, furrowed trails where something or someone had been dragged along.
"Humans?"
"Humans with vehicles," Whistler observed. "And it looks like they've got the guys."
"At least they've left a trail," Ada sighed, trying to look at the bright side. They were in a massive mess. She had to take whatever small favors she could get. "We can hunt them down."
"Hopefully the Avatar's buddy meditates himself here soon," Whistler said. "We could use a ghost right about now."
The two set out, following the trail of footprints, unaware that they were being followed in turn. They were not the only ones on the hunt.
Whistler got her wish. Once Hanjo was up to speed on the situation, he was a great help in leading the girls to Sen and Suda's location. The two men were being held in yet another human settlement, though this one was populated by living individuals rather than corpses. Whistler and Ada kept their distance while Hanjo took some more direct scouting.
Hanjo shifted his ethereal form across the distance and through several barriers, finding himself at Sen's side nearly instantly. Sen was still slightly incoherent, as he was recovering from unconsciousness, but Suda was eager to talk.
"Hanjo! Did you see Ada? Is she alright?"
"She's fine, Whistler caught her," Hanjo assured him. Suda sighed deeply in relief. Hanjo continued on.
"How'd you guys get locked up?"
"Don't know, we were unconscious," Suda said. "By the time we came too, we were all locked up."
Suda lightly tapped the walls around them. The walls were made of thick wood, and there was something heavy keeping them from opening the door. This wasn't a dedicated prison: their captors had simply propped a heavy object against the door to the room to keep them in place. Sen might have been able to burn through the walls with firebending, but he was still having trouble thinking straight. He had landed on his head, after all. What limited thought he was capable of was all focused on the ground.
"Are the girls alright?"
"They could be better," Hanjo sighed. "Bruised, not broken. Probably still good enough to rescue you guys, though."
Sen was trying to focus on their escape, but something else was occupying his attention. Something was…thumping. The ground beneath them was composed of Spirit Metal, just like at the canyon, but even through the indestructible metal Sen could feel travelling shockwaves. Something heavy was pounding down with a steady beat. Whatever had been shaking the ground at the canyon was still nearby –and it was getting closer.
"I'm sure we can manage something," Suda said. He was glad to finally have some confirmation that Ada was safe. The last he'd seen of her, she had been plummeting into an abyss. "Take a look around and then let them know where we are."
"Then go west. I mean, right, go right from where we are right now," Sen said.
"Why," Hanjo asked.
"There's something out there," Sen said quietly. He could make a little more sense of it now. The black figure from the canyon, whatever it was, it had to be massive. Some kind of machine, maybe. Something heavy and metallic.
Hanjo nodded and drifted away slowly. It was hard to get any information from this small village. The buildings were austere, lacking any kind of identifying banners or flags. The people here seemed to be wearing some kind of uniform, but it wasn't one Hanjo recognized.
Hanjo returned to the makeshift prison, and hovered above the guards. Though they weren't talking to Sen or Suda, they did talk to each other. One of the guards changed shift, and the older one had to explain the situation to the new arrival.
"These are the intruders we found out at the old quarry," the one on the left explained.
"Really? Think they're responsible for the massacres?"
"Me? Nah. All the guys at the quarry died months ago, from the looks of it, and these guys had just barely arrived. But I'm willing to bet somebody in charge will want to blame them for everything."
"Sure is easier than admitting we're getting wiped out by something we know nothing about," the newer guard admitted. "Some warrior's paradise this is."
They stopped talking. Hanjo drifted around the settlement for a little while longer, trying to gather information, but nobody said anything useful. There weren't any signs or flags around with symbols that Hanjo could identify, either. This looked like a very shoddy, temporary settlement. Hanjo returned to the girls and told them the situation.
"So, you have no clues at all?"
"They're wearing some kind of uniform, so they're all organized, but it isn't any one that I recognize."
"Do you think they might be Howler's goons?"
"No, if they were with the Energybender we'd recognize their uniforms," Ada said. "But I can't think of anyone else who'd be staking out the Spirit World. This complicates things."
"I don't see any complications," Whistler said. "Seems to me the plan is we run in, I smack some guys, you smack some guys, we get the guys out of chains."
"No ones in chains," Hanjo noted.
"Irrelevant," Whistler declared. "They're locked up, and I'm all about freedom."
"I'm glad you actually have some kind of nobility, Whistler, but we do need to make a plan."
Whistler agreed. Ada was glad she was being reasonable about this. It was comforting to know that cooperation was possible after all. Whistler had been rather stubborn in the past.
"I actually have something I'm going to investigate," Hanjo said. "Sen noticed something. I'm going to go check it out."
Ada observed the mysterious base while Hanjo vanished, seeking the source of the rhythmic pounding Sen had noticed. To Ada, it seemed like the rescue might be easier than it had first appeared. The outpost seemed to be lightly manned, and those that were present didn't seem to be combatants.
Hanjo found his way to the source of Sen's disturbance. Here at the source, the footfalls of the titan visibly shook the ground. Hanjo had at first assumed that the behemoth in front of him was some kind of mechanical creation, like a mech-suit, but that was impossible. Spirit Metal was as heavy as it was hard to bend. There was no one alive who could wear a suit of armor made completely of the durable black ore. Hanjo travelled back to Ada and told her the situation. Whistler was naturally curious.
"Spirit Metal? You sure? Even Suda couldn't bend that stuff."
"I know what I saw," Hanjo replied. The black metal still surrounded them. The metal behemoth he had seen had clearly been wearing an armored suit of dark Spirit Metal.
"It has to be some kind of spirit," Ada suggested. "Maybe the guardian of the canyon."
Ada said that, but there was a vague familiarity to Hanjo's description, as if she already knew what it was. The exact identity of the mysterious black titan escaped her, but there was a familiar fear in the back of her head.
"It was carrying something, too. It was like a slab of metal, bigger than most people, but long and flat. I don't know what it was."
"What, like a big sword?"
Ada rubbed her hands together. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.
"Whatever it is, we should just try to stay ahead of it," Ada suggested. In the best case scenario, they'd avoid the black behemoth entirely.
"Right! So, smacking time?"
"Smacking time," Ada repeated, and she hated herself a little bit for saying that.
Whistler ran out of cover, hollering like a madman as she charged down their mysterious adversaries. Initially caught off guard by her madcap display, the guards of the mysterious settlement rallied their defenses soon enough, to little effect. Whatever they were expecting, an airbender was not it. A single focused hurricane scattered their ranks entirely.
Whistler and Ada struck the scattered soldiers with equal ferocity. The two had their disagreements on a personal level, but there was certainly no conflict between them when it came to fighting. They both shared a similar love of the fight, and they approached battle with the same sense of violent enjoyment.
Whistler simply enjoyed hurting people. Ada was slightly more artistic. She enjoyed the careful dance of combat, the back and forth of defense and retaliation, the rhythmic clashes of conflict. It had been a long time since she'd been in a decent battle. These soldiers were just skilled enough to be an interesting challenge, but no talented as to actually cause her difficulty. Against her better judgment, Ada cracked a smile. A fight like this made her feel alive.
Whistle was having a less enjoyable time. The initial surprise of airbending had worn off, and the enemies were now mounting a more effective defense. They had formed a defensive wall of earthbenders, and their firebenders were now launching a constant barrage at her. Whistler was staying ahead of all their attacks, but it was nearly impossible for her to retaliate.
Hanjo appeared slightly behind the troopers, and called for their attentions. They turned all their attention to him, giving Whistler an opportunity to attack, one she didn't waste. She jumped into the middle of their formation and sent a focused rush of air downwards, and then outwards, launching all her foes into the sky in a single cyclonic burst. As it began to rain soldiers, Whistler nodded gratefully to Hanjo.
"Thanks for the distraction."
"Can't do much else," Hanjo sighed, holding up his ethereal hands. Sometimes he felt useless without his bending.
Whistler ignored Hanjo's plight and headed to Ada's side to reinforce the swordswoman. With the two of them back to back, they were nigh-unstoppable. Their acrobatic motions allowed them to evade every attack, and their vicious attacks decimated their opponents. Hanjo was left as a spectator to their carnage.
"That thing's getting closer now," Hanjo said to Ada. When she listened closely, she could hear the pounding footsteps of the black titan as it drew closer. It was drowned out, soon enough, by the sounds of approaching soldiers. Their adversaries were being reinforced.
"We've got time," Ada said. She needed this adrenaline right now. Her close call in the canyon had made her blood run cold, but this fight was enough to get her heart pumping. Ada readied her swords for the second wave of soldiers.
The uniformed men saw their targets and froze in place briefly. Someone who appeared to be in charge rallied them, and they took up a tight, practiced formation, trying to close off any avenues of retreat. Distracted as they were by Ada and Whistler's intrusion, they paid no mind to the pounding footsteps that drew ever nearer. The titan was approaching even faster now.
"Stop right there," The lead soldier declared.
"Get slagged," Whistler shouted back.
"I order you to stop, in the name of the Seventh Kingdom."
Ada's eyes opened wide. The Seventh Kingdom. For a moment, her mind boiled with questions. How were they still alive? What were they doing here? Her thoughts were undercut by the drumbeat of the titan's footsteps in the distance.
An icy grip of fear closed around Ada's heart, freezing her in place. In that moment of horrified paralysis, an earthbender's boulder struck her in the chest. She was knocked backwards, falling to the ground. She scrambled to her feet, her face still locked in an expression of blind panic.
Ada turned her back on the Seventh Kingdom, and dashed madly towards the building where Sen and Suda were being held. Whistler followed the swordswoman and found her eyes panicked, her face contorted into a horrified expression. The moment Ada reached the impromptu prison cell, she threw her body against the makeshift barricade, trying to push it away from the door.
"Hey, shortstuff, what's going on?"
The footsteps had gotten too loud and too rapid to be ignored now. The soldiers of the Seventh Kingdom had somewhat lost interest in their intruders, and were hesitating. Whatever was coming, it was coming much faster now.
"We need to get out of here," Ada said, and her voice was filled with more fear than Whistler had ever heard.
"What? We can take these guys, pintsize, Seventh Whatever or not," Whistler assured her.
"It's not them," Ada shouted. She needed to raise her voice now, because the drumbeat in the distance had gotten too close, too loud. "It's him!"
Ada leaned heavily on the weighted pallet that was blocking the door. On the other side, Suda and Sen struggled to escape. They could feel Ada's panic, and they were just as eager as she was to escape the approach of the black giant.
"Who is he," Whistler asked.
The black metal, unbendable by any other. A massive sword in his hand. And now the Seventh Kingdom ready to die before his blade. Ada cursed herself for not seeing it before. There was only one person it could be.
"Rahm."
His name was spoken, and like a curse, he fell upon his prey. Rahm was merciless. He was not here to defeat: he was here to annihilate. The Spirit Metal of his armor rendered blows from fire and water as effective as gusts of wind against a mountain, and the Spirit Metal of his blade meant that armor, buildings, and men fell before him like reeds in a hurricane. His massive weapon was as much a hammer as a sword, crushing his opponents as it cut through them. Entire buildings shattered in a single sweep of his blade.
Some of the civilians in the Seventh Kingdom outpost tried to run. Rahm didn't care. He was fast as he was strong, and no prey escaped him. Rahm was thorough in his work. No one made it further than the edge of the outpost. The ground here was metal, and he was lord of all metal. The Spirit Metal of the ground rose up in jagged black spikes, impaling any who tried to run. Those who stayed to fight were met with annihilation at the edge of Rahm's titan blade.
Whistler joined Ada in pushing against the barricade against Suda and Sen's cell, and with their combined strength the barricade fell away. Ada pulled on the door and found it locked. Whistler leaned in to examine the door's lock.
"Come on, come on!"
"It's locked, give me time!"
Ada had been trying to keep an eye on the situation outside, but she no longer wished to watch Rahm. The things he did were swift, but they were horrific. He never struck more than once, but each strike was brutal and merciless. Ada would not be able to forget some of the things she had seen. Suda and Sen worked to free themselves from the other side. Suda struggled with the lock.
"You were a thief, why don't you know how to do this?"
"This is not the time," Suda shouted back. This was stressful enough without being reminded of his dark past.
Ada shoved Whistler aside and drew her swords. She began to hack at the doors handle with heavy blows, trying to break the door open. They had no time to waste on intricacy. Rahm was running out of victims, and they were running out of time.
Ada's sword finally chipped away the last shard of the door, and it opened wide, allowing Sen and Suda an avenue of escape. For a brief moment, the Avatar felt hope. Then, through the ground, he felt the last terrified heartbeat of the Seventh Kingdom come to a halt. Rahm's work was done.
"Too late," Sen whispered.
The wooden wall of the prison exploded into a cloud of splinters. A massive hand, armored in a black gauntlet, took hold of what was left of the wall and tore it from its foundation, causing the entire structure to collapse. Rahm had dismantled and entire buildingwith a single sweep of his arm. Suda was buried in the collapse of the wooden structure as Rahm lunged forward.
The black Spirit Metal encased Rahm in an indestructible shell, shielding his face behind a massive helmet. The armor was built in the plated style worn by ancient soldiers, modified so that the thick metal covered the entire body in a solid shell. On anyone else, such an impenetrable cover might have been impossible, but Rahm's metalbending was powerful enough to make the hardened armor as flexible as a second skin.
Rahm grabbed hold of Whistler's throat with his clawed gauntlet and held her in the air. He was massive, large enough to crush Whistler's skull with one hand if he so desired, but he did not. Instead he pressed her against the wall, held her still, and raised his blade.
It was a massive sword for a massive warrior. The blade alone was as tall and as wide as Sen's entire body, with a single cutting edge and a heavy counterweight to add crushing force to every blow. The behemoth sword rested idly in the air before Whistler's head. She struggled against the titanic grip that held her in place, but never once did she beg for mercy.
Rahm's blade did not move. Slowly, carefully, the claws of his gauntlet loosened slightly, allowing Whistler to breathe again, though he did not drop her yet.
"You're the ones I used as bait," Rahm said. His voice was harsh and cutting, like broken glass in the ears.
Rahm had seen these children wandering the wastes and used them to bait a trap. For the past several years, Rahm had been wiping out their settlements in the Spirit World, and then following the trail to the next outpost. Recently, though, they had gotten better at hiding, and covering their tracks. Rahm had given them a little extra incentive to show their faces by sending the strangers in ahead.
"You fight the Seventh Kingdom," Rahm bellowed. "Why?"
"It was an accident," Sen mumbled. "We're just travelers, we never meant to find any of this."
Rahm's armored head shifted. He seemed somehow disappointed.
"I had hoped that I would not be alone in hunting down the enemy," He said. "I suppose I have been betrayed after all."
Rahm released Whistler's throat, and she fell to the ground gasping for breath. Rahm placed his titanic blade upon his back and stood upright. The dark face of his armored mask turned to Sen.
"You are no enemies of mine," Rahm thundered. "You are free to go."
Rahm flexed, and the metal plates of his gauntlets shifted slightly. Sen saw bladed claws on the end of every fingertip. Rahm's entire body was a blade. He was as steel now, from his heart to his skin.
"Unless you wish to stop me," Rahm said, practically begging for an excuse to kill again.
Sen looked at his friends. Whistler still barely breathing, Ada paralyzed by fear, Suda still buried under debris. There was nothing Sen could do now. Nothing but walk away.
"No."
The General departed without another word, setting out for parts unknown, continuing his eternal hunt for the Seventh Kingdom. Sen and his friends remained frozen for a while after Rahm's departure. Ada was the first to move. She reached over to Suda and began to clear the wooden debris that pinned him to the ground. He had a few splinters, but he was alright.
Sen worked his way over to Whistler. She was still gasping for breath. Sen offered a helping hand, but Whistler swatted it aside. She drew her staff and used it to prop herself up, though she stumbled slightly as they prepared to move. The pain and fear she had felt as Rahm held her throat would not leave her any time soon.
Luckily the Seventh Kingdom troopers had not thought to confiscate any of their belongings. They did not have to spend any more time in the now-lifeless outpost than absolutely necessary. They all kept their eyes straight ahead as they left, avoiding any glances at the death and destruction left in Rahm's wake.
The village was empty now, lifeless. The soldiers, the civilians, even the buildings themselves, had fallen before Rahm. His blade cut, his hands tore, his boots crushed, until all was ruin and death before him. Sen took one look at the scene of the destruction, then turned away in shame.
They walked some distance, away from the empty village and the black metal it rested upon. As soon as their heels touched soil again, Gun emerged from the depths and investigated them all with equal parts curiosity and concern. He had been able to feel the entire happening through the shaking metal, but had been unable to reach them. Now that they were finally back in his reach, Gun wasted no time investigating his master.
Sen found some small comfort in Gun's presence, and as the huge badgermole continued sniffing and scratching at his master, Sen finally felt calm enough to stop trying to run from the graveyard they'd left behind. Sen laid down and rested his head against the badgermoles fur. The others came to a halt as well. The day bore heavily on them all.
Ada buried her head in her hands and cursed her own foolishness. She could have prevented all of that had she simply focused on rescuing Sen instead of wasting time fighting the Seventh Kingdom. She'd lost herself in the thrill of the fight. It left a bitter taste in her mouth. Maybe Sorikami had been right about her after all. She enjoyed fighting too much.
Though they all rested, it took a while before anyone started talking again. Whistler had noticed some metallic clattering, and eventually found the source. Sen was toying with that bracelet he always wore. It was the first time she'd seen him do that, so it wasn't just a nervous habit. She decided to break the silence, hoping to distract herself from the painful bruises on her throat.
"What's the deal with your bracelet, Sen?"
"I told you about Miyani, right?" Whistler nodded. Sen talked about the combustion bender every now and then, on the idle days when nothing else was happening. She had given him the stone block that formed the bracelets centerpiece.
"A long time ago, before I ever met her, she met Rahm. He wanted to kill her," Sen said. That had just been a footnote in Miyani's life story, but it suddenly seemed much more important. "I thought that if I ever saw Rahm, I would do…something. Something that would make him understand why what he wanted to do was wrong."
Sen stared forlornly at the blank horizon. The shell of the empty outpost lurked behind him.
"But I saw him, and he did something even worse, something I hate even more. And I didn't do anything. I couldn't do anything."
Sen's balance between determination and patience had been rather tenuous lately. He wanted to make a difference, to accomplish something, to change the world, but he had spent the past few months doing almost nothing. His airbending training had accomplished little, and he felt as though he was constantly on the run from enemies he could not fight. The Fogbender, Hssk, and now Rahm were ever-present threats that he could do nothing to fight. Sen looked away from Whistler and tried to fall asleep. He couldn't even manage that.