Chapter 3: Black Ice
Ariak did not ingratiate himself with the group easily. He and Ada got along well at first; they had a common history with combat training, and similar attitudes on world politics. Their interactions became less friendly, though, as Ariak's deliberate avoidance of Suda and Whistler became more apparent. He had not yet reconciled himself with their former lives as criminals. While Ariak had been exiled from the Shorewatchers, he still carried some of his old biases with him.
Luckily Sen's training was going much more smoothly. Water was coming as naturally to him as Earth and Fire had. Ariak was impressed by the Avatar's rapid progress.
He was still an amateur by any accounts, but he was learning much faster than could be reasonably expected. Ariak demonstrated a technique, and after just one or two attempts, Sen matched the feat, sometimes even exceeding it. They manipulated ice and snow as they walked, shaping the icy wastes with their bending.
"You are a very quick study, Avatar," Ariak said.
"Well, it all gets easier after the first element," Sen said. Few people had the privilege of learning multiple elements. While they were very different arts, every bending style shared common roots, and it became easier to learn new ones as you worked through them. Waterbending, as the most adaptable and fluid style, was perhaps even the easiest to learn.
"And, also, not to brag, but I am quite perceptive."
"So you've told me," Ariak said. "You can see things no one else can."
Ariak's statement was innocuous, but it called to mind an old worry. The Hssk was still out there, and Sen was still the only person who could tell it existed. Part of him worried about how he would handle that. He tried to put that fear behind him. The best thing to do now would be to focus on learning waterbending.
Despite his best attempts to shake it off, Sen found that the questions lingered with him. Wan Shi Tong had told him once that how he could see the Mind-Eater was irrelevant, only that he could, but Sen didn't feel that way. There had to be some kind of explanation for why he could remember the Hssk and no one else could. If he understood how his strange insight worked, it was possible he could share it and make his future battles much easier.
"Sen, focus," Ada scolded.
"I was," Sen protested.
Sen's lengthy thoughts on the Hssk had not detracted in any way from his studying. He had learned to multitask at this point; he could easily split his focus between bending and thinking. Nobody else would have even noticed his lack of focus. Ada, of all his friends, seemed the most keenly aware that Sen had a hidden worry, something he would not or could not tell them about.
The snow moved in a steady wave of motion as Ariak demonstrated another technique. Sen focused entirely on his waterbending practice. His mind drifted occasionally, but he always managed to pull himself back. It was an ironic twist on the very principles of waterbending; push and pull. Sen was pulled away by thoughts of the future and his enemies, and had to push himself back to focus on the task at hand. Sen found it almost humorous. Almost.
As time went on, Ariak ran out of lessons that could be taught on the road. More intensive training would have to wait until they had a safe and stable training environment.
"We may be able to make more progress before we retire for the evening, depending on how late we arrive," Ariak said. "But the real training will not proceed until we have reached the North Pole."
Sen could live with that arrangement. It wouldn't be long before they reached the northern capitol anyway. The harsh tundra of the polar continent made it impossible to create any rail lines, or even real roads, but it also meant that settlements weren't that far apart in the first place. The place they were stopping for the night would only be about a day's journey from the North Pole, provided there were no sudden blizzards or avalanches impeding their progress.
The icy wind cut across his face for a moment, and Sen pulled his hood closer around him. He took a moment to chip some ice flakes off his glasses as well. The lenses were becoming fairly problematic in the north. Every now and then Sen removed them entirely. It wasn't hard to see where he was going in the middle of the tundra. Everything here was white, and anything alive stuck out quite obviously.
A brief shred of black among the white caught Sen's eye, and it was gone as soon as it appeared. Sen scowled.
"Where are we stopping tonight, Ariak?"
"A tourist trap," Ariak spat. "A small settlement struck up around the Halka Ice Caves. Tacky and materialistic, but they have warm beds."
"Sounds good to me," Whistler grumbled.
"Why are the ice caves so special," Suda asked. "Why do so many people want to see them?"
"It's a safe haven for people who want to feel like they're exploring without actually taking any risks," Ariak explained. "Tourists walk around in the first few chambers, but the caves have never been fully explored. Most of the ones who go into the depths never come out."
Suda frowned. That was one tourist attraction he wouldn't be visiting any time soon. Sen looked at the icy hills that stretched out in front of them.
"Some people say that if you wander far enough into the Caves, you'll find a path into the Spirit World," Ariak said. "Though that rumor became much less prominent when we got an actual portal into the Spirit World."
That was all Suda needed to hear to know he didn't want anything to do with the Ice Caves. He'd had quite enough of the Spirit World for one lifetime. Possibly several. He sincerely hoped that whoever he reincarnated as hated the Spirit World too.
The ice-covered white hills took on a brief streak of black, and Sen's stress became apparent to everyone. Whistler caught up to him and walked alongside him, at his left.
"You look like those hills are calling you names," She observed. "What's going on, Avatar?"
"Just thinking about things," Sen lied. "I'm almost done training, after all. Going to have to be a part of the real world soon, you know."
Ada walked up to his right and tapped him on the shoulder playfully.
"You may be able to tell when everyone else is lying, but you sure can't fake it yourself," Ada said. "What's really bothering you?"
"Alright, I'll tell you," Sen said. "There's an evil spirit out there eating everyone's thoughts and memories, and I'm the only one who can remember it, and I'm pretty sure it's watching us from those hills right now!"
Sen pointed at the icy slopes before them, and sure enough, a shadow retreated from his sudden attention. Ada and Whistler shared a brief look of concern that quickly melted away into nothingness as their memories of the incident faded.
Sen sighed deeply and moved away from the women. The Hssk had not made any direct attacks on them since their first meeting, perhaps out of fear, but it could still affect them from a distance somehow. No matter who he told or how he said it, any memory of the Hssk simply slipped between the cracks of the mind and vanished entirely. Soon enough Ada and Whistler barely even remembered that they had been speaking to Sen in the first place.
The sun began to vanish behind the shadowed hills that hid the Hssk. Ariak encouraged them to pick up the pace a bit. Being caught outside after sunset in the arctic could be a death sentence for the unprepared. Luckily, as the sun set, the lights of the settlement became more visible, and Ariak's worries faded slightly.
The only incident that evening was the howl of a wolf in the distance, causing some minor fear that a pack might come hunting them, but such things never happened. Ariak led the way into the settlement surrounding the Halka Ice Caves. It was, as Ariak said, a tourist trap, filled with more souvenir shops and cheap hotels than houses. Sen somehow managed to resist the urge to purchase an aggressive salesman's snowglobes and followed Ariak into the least seedy of all the hotels. It was warm and comfortable, and the travelers were all too eager to remove their thick coats and relax. Whistler flopped down on a bed and asked them all a question.
"So, all things considered, better or worse than hiking through the Spirit World?"
"Better," Suda said. He was glad to be rid of that strange world where everything had strange properties and danger lurked around every corner.
"Worse," Ada grumbled. She hated the cold, she hated the clothes she had to wear, and she hated the fact that the environment itself would try to hurt you. At least in the Spirit World the battles had been with enemies. Ada couldn't fight a blizzard.
Whistler rolled over on the bed and looked at Sen. They were in the same room for now. Sen and the rest would leave the girls for their own room later.
"What about you, Sen? What do you think?"
"It's just more of the same," Sen mumbled. He was looking at the hills again. The reflection of moonlight on the snow meant that even the hills were fairly visible in the darkness. All but a single patch of blackness that crawled along the icy slopes, worming its way across the peaks until it vanished into the ice caves. Ada saw the look on his face and shook her head.
"It's a bit late, Avatar, but if you'd like to train before we go to sleep, I am willing," Ariak offered.
"Not tonight, Ariak," Sen said dismissively. "We should all get some sleep."
He said it, but he had no intention of sleeping any time soon. He waited a while for the rest of the group to fall asleep, and then he grabbed his cold weather gear and prepared to leave.
Ariak heard sounds of motion and sprang quickly to his feet. He took a quick look around and saw Sen geared up to head into the ice and snow.
"Sorry, Avatar, old hunters instinct," Ariak said apologetically. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing important," Sen said evasively. "You should go back to sleep."
It was almost surprising how quickly Ariak complied. He was back in bed as quickly as he had sprung out of it. Sen turned and left. He used a little more caution as he walked past the girls room. Ada would certainly hear him trying to leave, just as Ariak had. Whistler was, to say the least, less of a problem. She was a heavy sleeper.
Sen tightened the fasteners on his coat as he left the seedy hotel and headed up the hill towards the ice cave. The city was abandoned now to the dark and cold; no one watched the streets or monitored the entrance to the caverns. Sen hopped the fence and walked inside the darkened chambers of the Halka Ice Caves.
The caverns were a strange and unnatural thing. The icy walls were shaped in sweeping curves and slopes, twisting in precarious ways. Ripples of different colored ice waved through every wall, making the entire cavern look as if it had been painted with a massive brush. It might have been beautiful on any other day.
"Looks nice, right," Ada said. Sen spun around so quickly he nearly slipped and fell on the ice.
Ada was sitting on a ledge, examining one of her swords. They were getting a bit worn. She'd need to have them sharpened later. She sheathed her blade and looked to Sen.
"What are you doing here?"
"Wondering what you're doing here," Ada replied. "I thought if I came here, I could see whatever it is you're hoping to see."
"That's not the way it works, Ada."
"I should've figured," She sighed. She stood up and looked at the icy walls for a moment. The rippling patterns in the ice varied in color, from dark to light. Sen saw them for darker than they really were. Shadows were lurking in the ice.
"Sen, ever since we met the Ta Jide Shui, you've gotten this strange look every now and again," Ada declared. "Like you can see something that we can't."
"That's…exactly what's happening," Sen said. He was surprised that she had come to that conclusion on her own. He had feared the Hssk would steal the thoughts from her head.
Ada nodded. She was glad to have her explanation for Sen's strange behavior, but the thought of an enemy she couldn't even see was distressing. She liked her opponents to be tangible.
"So there's nothing I can do?"
"I don't really understand it myself," Sen said. "If I ever find a way, though, you'll be the first to know."
Ada paused for a moment and then nodded in acceptance. She trusted Sen to find an answer eventually. She would prefer sooner rather than later, though.
"So do the caves have something to with it?"
"I think so," Sen mumbled. Even his quietest whispers seemed to echo off the walls of the icy cave.
"Three chambers down that way there's a sign that says 'point of no return'," Ada said, pointing down an icy hall. "If you're looking for something, it'll probably be in the place you're not supposed to go."
It was a strange thing for that to be completely true. Sen looked through the icy chambers. Ada called his attention back for a moment.
"Good luck."
Ada jumped up and put her arms around his shoulders for a quick hug. Sen really was getting taller. She hadn't had to jump just to hug him before. Ada quickly released him and returned to her room. Sen lingered for a moment before proceeding into the ice caves. He adjusted his glasses and set out.
He walked past the point of no return sign and ventured into the lost depths of the cavern. Light bounced off of crystalline walls, illuminating even the deepest depths of the twisted caves, but a shadow wormed its way through every refracted beam of light. Sen watched carefully as the serpentine shadow crawled through the cracks in the blue ice.
"Why are you here?"
His voice echoed back to him, but it was not quite his voice. There were whispers hidden inside the echoes, words at first incomprehensible.
"This can't be a trap," Sen surmised. "You're here alone."
The quiet voices returned. The words the Hssk spoke seemed like nonsense, but they had structure of some kind. A language, perhaps, that every mortal had forgotten. Sen had the feeling that the Hssk was trying to tell him something. Though he could not understand the words, as he listened and paid closer attention to the shadowy whispers, he drew some semblance of a conclusion.
"You want to bargain," Sen said. The whispers took on a confirmatory hum. Sen waved his hand dismissively.
"You're afraid," He said.
The shadows screamed for a minute, but they settled soon enough. The Hssk knew it was true. Its powers, though impressive, were not absolute. Things were constantly slipping. Despite all its best efforts, new ideas, new inventions, were slipping through. People like Ada could see and remember things they shouldn't be able to. In the old days, when it had been completely invisible, such minor slips had been pointless. But now there was the Avatar, the Avatar who could see it and chase it and wound it without the help of Wan Shi Tong. For the first time, the Hssk was truly vulnerable.
Sen proceeded deeper into the caves. The slopes became harsher, the rooms and walls more twisted and strangely aligned, and the shadows grew deeper and deeper. If the Halka Ice Caves were in fact a gateway to the Spirit World, they were not a gate to any of the good places. Sen could feel a darkness slipping between every facet of reality. His chest started to burn slightly.
"You're wasting your time," Sen said.
The Hssk would not surrender so easily. Sen saw a pattern in the ice, a wave of motion that he could follow. The Avatar traced the black pattern deeper into the blue caves, seeking out its source.
As he proceeded further into the depths, the whispers of the Hssk became something more coherent. They became familiar sounds, speaking in the voices of old friends and allies. He heard Suda, Ada, Miyani, Hanjo, and others, their voices faint and in the distance, always speaking of their deepest secrets and greatest fears, and always becoming quiet just before revealing the truth.
Sen ignored the voices. He trusted his friends. He knew they had their secrets, but he didn't care to know them. If they mattered, they would be revealed in time.
The voices changed again, and they became the words of masters and monsters. He heard Bolin, the Harrier, General Rahm, Kyros the Blood, among others, and they spoke of the secrets of lava and lightning, metal and blood, and other things even more unique and strange. These too Sen ignored. If he learned such things, it would be on his own terms. Power had to be earned, not given.
One last time, in desperation, the voices changed, and this time they were not voices that Sen recognized. There seemed to be gasping at first, a woman desperate and tired, and a man encouraging her. There was a piercing scream, a moment of silence, and then crying, quiet but sustained. A newborn. There was a sound of fussing and shuffling feet, and then calm.
"Look at him," the man's voice said. Sen had never heard the voice before, but it resonated with him all the same.
"He's amazing," An exhausted woman said. Her voice was ragged and tired, but her words pierced Sen's ears and into his heart.
His mother. He knew it on some primal level. He was listening to his mother and father. The Hssk was taunting him with his origins, the history he had never known. Where had had been born, who his parents were, why he had been in the orphanage in the first place- things he had never known, and perhaps never would. But the Hssk was the keeper of all secrets. Through him all things could be revealed.
"Welcome home," Sen's mother said, her phantom voice echoing off the icy walls. The sound of her voice only intensified the burning in Sen's chest.
"You're going to do amazing things-" The echo of Sen's father said. Sen had the feeling that he was being cut off. The Hssk had taunted him enough.
Sen clenched his teeth, and was silent. The Hssk crept out of the shadows, taking shape. The icy blue of its narrow eyes slipped free from the shadowed walls and crept closer and closer to Sen, encircling him. The Hssk's four jaws flexed hungrily as Sen waited. Soon the Hssk's serpentine body, from its horrid jaws to its winding tail, wrapped around Sen in a shadowy circle. The twin blue specks of the Hssk's cold eyes stared at Sen expectantly.
Sen raised his hand, and a jet of flame roared towards the Hssk's head. The Mind-Eater shrieked in rage and frustration, screaming curses in forgotten tongues, before slipping into the shadowed bands of ice. It circled around him, still shrieking unfamiliar tones. Red light bounced across the icy walls in spectacular streaks of color as the light of the flame flashed across the twisted walls.
The Avatar shook off what little regret he felt quickly enough. He'd never known his parents, his birthplace, or any of that. It had never mattered to him. He was the product of his own actions, not what his parents had made him.
"You know what I want," Sen shouted at the icy walls. "I want to know why I can see you! I want to know why I'm the only one! Why is it me, and not Korra? Why not anyone else?"
Sen would get his answer, but not from the Hssk. Even the secret keeper did not know the answer to that question. There was only one shadow darker then the Hssk, and only one that could keep secrets hidden from the Mind-Eater.
Sen felt the burning in his chest first, and then the burning became an inferno, like a blazing knife cutting slowly through his heart. The Hssk looked on in curiosity as the burning became a crippling agony, and the Avatar fell to his knees.
The pain came to a point as a spear of blackness, darker than even the Hssk's shadow, burst forth, striking through the Hssk and pinning it to the icy walls. Soon came another and another, crucifying the Hssk to the icy walls of the black cavern.
"I should tear you to shreds now," A deep voice proclaimed, its hostile baritone echoing off the walls of the ice caves.
One last ray of darkness burst forth from Sen's chest in a slow and painful burn, but this one did not strike quickly. It was slow, sadistic, and predatory in the way it moved, like a venomous snake preparing to strike. The final fragment of darkness finally took shape, and the blue cave was illuminated by a pattern of red light.
"But such a simple destruction would be too much mercy for you," Vaatu declared.
Vaatu's spears of darkness twisted cruelly through the Hssk's spectral flesh, inflicting an unspeakable agony upon the Mind-Eater. The Spirit of Shadow and Pain took a moment to appreciate the tortured cries of the tormented spirit.
"You were the most favored of all my shadows once, Hssk," Vaatu elaborated. "The pain and chaos you wrought with your powers was a thing of legend."
For a brief moment, Vaatu relented the painful tearing of his dark spears. Only for a brief moment, though. Constant pain was a mere nuisance. True pain came from the interval between wounds, the brief moment when it seemed that the torture was over.
Vaatu allowed the Hssk to feel that one moment of hope, and then he redoubled his efforts, driving bladed shadows through the heart of the beast over and over again.
"But you sought to betray me," Vaatu said coldly as the Hssk screamed in unspeakable curses. "You would end me completely!"
The icy cave rang with the sounds of the Hssk's torture, and it resonated far and above. The city above was plagued with nightmares as darkness and pain overflowed from the ice caverns.
"I will not die," Vaatu declared proudly. "I am death! I am pain! I am darkness! I am Vaatu!"
Vaatu's relentless spearing came to a halt, and the black blades became shadowy tendrils that encircled the Hssk and held him in place. Vaatu turned away from his traitorous shadow and faced the Avatar. Sen was frozen, by pain and by fear, as the Spirit of Chaos faced him down.
"I have shrouded your mind in the only darkness deeper than his: my own," Vaatu said. "I give you this, so that you can hunt the traitor. You will learn the arts that it would seek to use against us, and you will use them to deliver it to the same fate that it would deliver to me."
Vaatu turned back to the Hssk and delivered one last cutting threat.
"No rebirth for you, traitor. You have seen your last Convergence. You will go to oblivion."
Vaatu's tendrils unraveled, and the Hssk fled into deepest darkness, running down roads that Sen could not walk. Vaatu could have simply torn the beast to pieces then and there, but that would not have put a permanent end to the Hssk. Vaatu wanted the traitorous Hssk to die eternal, his essence unbound by Energybending.
With his shards of darkness no longer occupied, Vaatu turned his full attention to the young Avatar. The black tendrils slowly but gently wound their way around him, lifting Sen to his feet.
"We find ourselves aligned for the moment," Vaatu declared. There was reluctance in his harsh voice. He had no desire to be dependent on a human once again.
"You- I can't, not you," Sen said. He had no idea what to say. He had always believed that Vaatu was just a fragment, a tiny shard of darkness locked inside Raava's light.
"But you must," Vaatu boomed. "Only by my power do you see the Hssk for what it is, do you understand? Without me you are merely prey for the Mind-Eater!"
Vaatu recoiled from Sen, and his shadowy tendrils diminished, until there was merely the great black kite, and the red pattern amidst the blackness.
"The fool Energybender would seek to remove me and Raava both from this world," Vaatu declared. "This I will not allow. By my strength you will gain the power to overcome his twisted alliance of traitors and fools."
Sen looked at the twisted red pattern stretched out in front of him. Vaatu was chaos incarnate, of that there could be no doubt. It was not like allying himself with Whistler, where there was decency hidden beneath the selfishness and violence. Vaatu was pure evil.
But if Vaatu was the only way to hunt the Hssk, then he'd have Vaatu for an ally. Sen had known since Sarin's address to the world that he was fighting for chaos as well as order. If he was already fighting for chaos, he might as well fight with chaos. Sen nodded weakly.
"Then we have our accord," Vaatu declared. "Do not call upon me as some pet guide as you might Raava. I will grant my strength when it is needed."
With that, Vaatu retreated back from whence he'd came, winding back into the shadows of Sen's heart. It was slightly less painful going the other way. Sen placed a hand upon his chest. It felt like he'd had every one of his ribs torn out, but his shirt wasn't even wrinkled.
A gradual warmth spread across his palm, a comforting glow that washed away the pain of Vaatu's emergence.
"My apologies, Sen," A comforting female voice said.
"A little warning would have been nice," Sen grumbled. He'd been hoping to connect to Raava one day, but under slightly better circumstances.
"Pain is a part of life," Raava said. "It is no more pleasant for me than it is you when he is released, I assure you."
"You have him under control, right?"
"He is a fragment of his former self," Raava said. "He has no more power than I allow him to possess."
Sen took a deep breath and started heading back through the icy caves. He kept a hand on his chest, as if that somehow helped him connect to Raava. It made him feel better, at least.
"Thank you for the answers, at least," Sen said to himself. "I'm glad to have one mystery solved."
"I wish I could do more," Raava said. She had been privy to the Hssk's temptations. Though Sen had overcome the offers of the Mind-Eater, there was a painful curiosity burning in his heart. About his parents, and many other things besides. It was admirable how Sen sought knowledge, but some things were better left unknown.
Sen wasn't particularly talkative the next morning. It was difficult for him to pretend that the physical incarnation of evil hadn't burst out of his chest last night. His reluctance to talk made it an awkward morning.
They set out early for the North Pole, hoping to reach it before nightfall. As Ariak began to lead the way, Ada hung back slightly with Sen and they talked privately about what had happened. Sen had to speak very vaguely, as Ada still could not remember the Hssk's existence, but she managed to get a grasp on the situation.
"Well," she said blankly. "That's certainly something."
"Yeah. It's not a story I want getting around."
"I can see why," Ada agreed. While the circumstances were perfectly understandable, there were a lot of people who wouldn't be happy to hear that the Avatar had allied himself with the world's greatest evil.
"I think I can make it work," Sen said. "I'm not worried about Vaatu. I just wish it could be some other way."
"If Vaatu's power is what you need to do…whatever it is you need to do, than you take it" Ada said. "We're no strangers to doing things we're uncomfortable with."
"Yeah, well I want to draw the line somewhere," Sen said. "We're getting close to the end now, Ada. It's time we stopped getting pushed around. We're going to be doing things our way soon."
"Then I'm going to need to get my swords sharpened," Ada said. "I have a feeling our way will involve a lot of violence."
"That's a reasonable assumption," Sen admitted.