Since I forgot to say before, most of the names for the Sandbenders are based off of Uzbek names that I found floating around the internet, as well as a smattering of Tatar. The reason I decided to use them was because Yulduz, a canon character, has a name of that origin. Or so I assume, seeing as there's an Uzbek actress by that name, Yulduz Uzmonova.
Darth Nefurious: Well it's not really very advanced mathematics. The Pythagorean Theorem is at least 2500 years old, probably older as evidence exists that it was discovered, and later lost, by the Babylonians over a thousand years before Pythagoras was even born. Given that we've seen that in the Avatar world at this time they're about to enter the industrial revolution, meaning that for any of that to exist there has to already be a good deal of knowledge based on the world, including geometry and physics, which are used in a million different ways including construction. Based on that and what we see of the elegance of Wan Shi Tongs Library it isn't a stretch to say that he would already know the formula before Lien even said it.
SNicole25: Why would she do that? All she cares about is the Library at this point.
Ayumi. Furitomanaku: Thank you! I love Sokka.
MrCcoz: Thank you, you will!
YoYo: Thanks! I hope this meets your expectations.
JaimeTheMonster: I'm glad that you're liking it! I'm afraid that Appa is in for a bit of a hassle again.
amgs: Thank you so much for saying that! I've been trying hard on this one, it's good to know that it's not in vein.
Sokka was twitchy.
Not only was a he a bad liar but he was a truly terrible thief. Lien caught his wrists before he could push a scroll into his bag. Her eyes were hard, dead serious.
"There's a limit on borrowing from this library," she warned, "ten pieces can be taken out at once, for three weeks. You have to sign them out at the registrar downstairs before you go. If you're not back to return them the Seekers will come to collect them."
She would only assume that the reason they hadn't gone to get the scrolls Sokka took in the series was because the library was no longer in the physical plane.
"So what?" he demanded, yanking his hand away from hers to stuff the scroll into his bag. "Are you trying to say something?"
Yes. He was a liar and cheat, a thief and he knew it.
The fire benders shook her head. "No. But you should know to be careful what you pick. If you're going to the Fire Nation, you're going to have a hell of a time getting back here for anything else. You should be careful what you decide to take with you."
"Right," he narrowed his eyes at her, "I wouldn't want anything to be burnt."
Lien bristled in offense. It wasn't hard to see what he was implying. Katara and Aang were watching from not far off, and neither seemed overly inclined to defend her against the young warrior. Her lips drew into a thin line.
"Of course not," she snipped tersely.
At last Aang appeared at their side, slipping between the two. It was Lien he faced, no Sokka.
"Speaking of, can you show us where the Fire Nation stuff is?" he asked. The girl felt her face fall.
"I'm afraid I can't do that," she had her mouth open to explain when Sokka jumped in, stepping closer. Was he trying to threaten her?
"And why not? Are you trying to defend them?"
Her teeth clicked together. Her temper flared but she kept it in check. This was no place to light his ass.
"Why would I defend people who burned down and entire section of the library?" she demanded hotly.
That, at least, drew them up short. She watched their expressions change, to horror and disbelief, then disappointment and anger. Lien clasped her hands behind her back to prevent them from curling into fists. Peter appeared at her side, sitting next to the girl and leaning on her leg. It was a small comfort.
"A whole section?" Sokka parroted, his eyes locked on her. Gold met blue and she nodded grimly.
"A fire bender came in here roughly seventeen years ago, shortly before I was born. He torn through the library, found out the mortal identities of the ocean and moon spirits, and burned down the section dedicated to the Fire Nation. There are still quite a few things left on fire bending, but those are far between and very specific, and none of them detail much about the country besides some of the traditions. I've gone through all of them at least twice," she confessed.
"That's horrible," Katara declared, "Why would anyone do that."
Lien arched a brow at the girl. "Why do you think? To keep people like you from doing the same thing he did. Using what was in those books and scrolls against his nation."
"If it was all burned down, how did you know about the Day of Black Sun?" Sokka demanded, suspicious again. She heart the small click of talons on tile and felt the warm existence of Wan Shi Tong. Eves dropping on them.
"A show was put on when I was young, detailing a number of occurrences in this world. One of them was Day of Black Sun. The only mention of it in here is charred piece of paper under glass. If there was anything else, it's gone now." Total truth. She still felt like she was betraying Wan Shi Tong somehow.
"We came all this way to come back with nothing," Sokka mourned. He was slumped, his eyes on the ground. Lien sighed and touched his shoulder, gently.
"Take a breath. Find a book. No trip is ever a waste unless you let it be," she declared, drawing her arm back to herself so she could bring out a piece of dried Jackalope. One animal that was the same in both worlds.
"Who said that?" Aang asked, looking around them at the books, as if it would be right next to them.
Lien smiled to herself. "I did." All of her time around knowledge spirits was making her philosophical. Perhaps one day she would right an actual book instead of personal notes on her accomplishments. Proof that she had existed. Had done something.
She knelt down, scratching the little Seeker behind his ears. Peter made a strange sound, vaguely canine, and pushing his cold nose up under her chin. He was a sweet creature. More than once he'd just followed her around the desert for no real reason.
The little spirit accepted the piece and leaned against the girl further. He was a sweet thing.
The group looked from her to each other before they started to spread out again, looking around. She must have said something right, at least.
Hours passed.
Lien stayed with the group for a while longer, until they had had enough and were packing in what they had decided to borrow. As the firebender had instructed, they checked out their books, and prepared to shimmy up the rope, save the professor, who seemed quite content when he was.
Lien hung back, a smile on her face, pleased as punch.
She could keep her library!
Claws clicked softly behind her on the tile and the girl turned to look up at Wan Shi Tong, a smile lighting her face more than her fire ever could. Her hands clasped behind her and she swung around cheerfully, rocking on the balls of her feet.
"Lien," he greeted, fathomless eyes lingering on the human. "I think it's time that I move my Library back where it belongs."
Her heart plummeted.
"What?" Lien didn't care about the crack in her voice. She loved this library, and the spirits that made it their homes. It was her favorite place in the world. It was peace and stability in a world that was always changing, she relied on it heavily.
"Humans are starting to come back. Not all of them will have the same intentions as you and the Professor. I will go back to the spirit world, and take this knowledge away from the reach of those that would use it for harm," he explained, his voice slow. She could tell that he had picked his words carefully, as he always did.
Lien bowed her head, pressing her lips together.
"I will miss you," she said quietly.
She didn't see the expression that lifted the owls face.
"You will be able to come back," he said, slowly. The girl stared at him like he had lost his mind.
"I'm not a spirit," she objected. Bewildered, she was. What was the owl talking about? If he took his Library back to the spirit world then only spirits and the spiritually enlightened would be able to visit it. She knew what she was, and she was neither of those things.
Wan Shi Tong towered over his, his head tilted in a way that it might have screwed off if he wasn't an owl. There was something in his dark, deep eyes that she couldn't pinpoint, couldn't understand. It was like a more intense version of the look you gave a child when they told you that the world was flat.
Lien did not like being looked at like that.
Not at all.
"We shall meet again," he said simply, turning and walking away, into the shadows of the Library.
Lien watched him go, confused and hurt.
It took her until she heard a ruckus from outside, a scream carried on the wind to pick up her heels. Surely her cousin wasn't stupid enough to follow them and take the bison anyways? Surely not. Please not.
Lien hoisted herself up on the ledge of the window and looked down, over the vast desert. Under her breath she cursed, long and low. There was sand, and people. A Lemur.
No bison.
"Shit on a fucking-" Lien cut herself off with a snarl under her breath and pitched herself off of the edge of the tower. She wanted to linger, to hold on to what little time she had left with her Library but there wasn't time. The Avatar and his friends were in her desert, without transportation.
They could die.
Lien didn't know which direction they were going in in the show, when they had stumbled upon the Sailer in the sand. A vague direction like that wouldn't do them much good. She had no idea at all. So she didn't try and wander as they had.
As they were, actually.
The girl crossed her arms, staring at the backs of the moving children as they left her behind. They were stubborn and stupid. Just because it was her cousin that had stolen Appa didn't mean that she supported him, or wanted anything to do with those actions.
She wanted to scream.
She wanted to cry.
The Professor had decided to stay longer, amongst the book and scrolls. He might stay there forever, in fact. She wouldn't be surprised.
Lien closed her eyes and turned her face to the sky above, towards the sun. It was a long time until the sun set. And a long walk to civilization. That was for her, who knew how to get where she needed to be, even on foot. For the Avatar and his friends, it would be near impossible.
Gold eyes closed and she took a breath, long a slow. She shook out her arms, looked towards he Library mournfully, and started off into the sand, after the footprints of the four that had left her behind. She couldn't risk letting them die if the direction was different. Already she had made alterations. Not many but some.
That meant that the future was not inevitable, which was at once comforting and terrifying.
On one hand, she had a choice in her future. Destiny was a load of shit, the way she had always hoped it to be. Alternatively, that also meant that Aang was not guaranteed to beat the Fire Lord. Nothing was set in stone.
Lien cursed again, long and hard.
Her footprints were glass in the sand.
Keeping up with the Sailer would have been much harder if she wasn't happened upon by Sidari* and Ninsun* of the Lanzhou, who both owed her a debt years passed for Ninsun's water bound son. They allowed her to hitch a ride to the Green Place*, where most of her tribe was staying.
She came off of their Sailers to be greeted by her mother and Sha-Mo, but brushed passed them to the gaggle of teenagers behind. Shiran and Zara took one look at her face before bolting in the opposite direction. Temur, Ghashiun's best friend, and Ilida, Ghashiun's probable future wife, stayed behind.
They didn't stop her from clocking him in the face the second he turned around.
"Lien!" Shuya shouted, running after her furious daughter. The girl was rearing back to go for a second shot when Sha-Mo grabbed her arm and stopped her, forcing her fist to cease in the middle of the air. His grip on her elbow was strong, unshakeable.
The girl spun to level him with the darkest glower available to her, enough to send the leader of the Gansu back a step before he straightened up.
"What are you doing, Lien?" he demanded, lifting his chin to try and look bigger than her, unafraid of fire that rolled through her eyes.
She pointed to Ghashiun.
"He stole the Avatar's flying bison, and stranded me, Professor Zei, the Avatar and his friends, in the middle of the fucking desert, left us to die!" she snarled into the face of her leader, her uncle, Ghashiun's father.
Sha-Mo was a fair man. He had an even temperament and a clear head. He did not favor his son over anyone else, and had no illusions about the boy's habits in the art of theft. Most of those went unaddressed, none of them were entirely free of theft, but this was different. This put other people, more importantly other tribe members, in danger.
The older man stood straighter. His eyes narrowed onto his son, who was nursing a soon-to-be bruising cheek.
"Is this true, Ghashiun?" he demanded, voice hard.
His son bared his teeth at the man in an act of defiance and anger.
"It is not! She's lying," he declared boldly. Lien felt her temper rising. Her teeth grit together, her face flushed from a tan to a burn. She wouldn't have been surprised if smoke started rising from her ears then.
"Why would I lie?" she snarled, ready to pitch herself at her cousin again. She might have it Shuya hadn't slipped an arm around her daughters middle to keep her in place. Kyu, who had been watching from one of the structures of the oasis, scolded and stormed over.
Lien ignored her when she started pulling insistently on Shuya's clothes, whining pathetically for the woman to pick her up.
"Because- because you want to get me in trouble!" he stumbled over his words. A terrible liar for some so good at stealing.
"Yeah," she snapped, "I do. Because you could have killed me," she quarreled. Lien had no memory of ever being so angry. Even when she was young and easy to rile up.
"Lien," Sha-Mo's voice cut in, stopping her from continuing. She grit her teeth and leaned into her mother's side, trying to rein herself in. The leader turned his harsh eyes on the boy in front of them.
"Ghashiun, I've been patient. I've tried to give you space, and time to mourn for your mother-"
"Don't talk about her!" the boy demanded.
Sha-Mo ignored him. "This is the end of it. You put your cousin in danger. Nothing excuses that."
"She was talking about mom!"
"So she deserved to die?"
Sha-Mo was the only one Lien knew still alive that could begin to reign in his son. The boy's face twisted with betrayal and frustration. Lien pushed down the sliver of smugness with a small amount of guilt. She knew that bringing his mother up was a bad idea, but she had done it anyways. She had been fed up with his behavior and now look at where they were.
"We will discuss your punishment when we get back," Sha-Mo warned, his voice dropping low with the threat. He turned to Lien, who stood straighter when his eyes landed on her.
"Do you have any idea where they were going?" he asked. That was the sign. Shuya pushed Kyu towards her father, against the girl vicious objections. Three more of her tribesman moved to prepare the sailers.
Lien nodded.
*Special prize for the first person who recognizes both of these references.