"Catacombs and Conscience
It wasn't quite day and it wasn't quite night,
'Cause the sun and the moon were both in sight,
A situation quite all right
With everyone else but them.
~ Shel Silverstein, "A Battle in the Sky," Falling Up
Katara had been telling the truth when she said she wasn't hungry. The night's events, and the prospect of dining with the Blue Spirit, had taken away her appetite. Then, she tried to hold out just to prove her point, and to show her tenacity. But after a few hours, she was hungry, and she couldn't ignore it. Only, she was apprehensive about leaving her room.
The Blue Spirit had said she could go wherever she wished (with the exception of the Dragon Bone Catacombs, whatever those were), so she couldn't be punished for leaving her room, she reasoned. It might take a bit of searching to find the kitchen, but maybe Yue or the Blue Spirit's servants could help her.
"If there's anything we can do … we're here for you."
Katara gently pushed her door open, scanning the corridor to make sure it was deserted before coming out.
She didn't notice a soft light shining through the bottom a window curtain. She didn't hear two teasing, elderly voices.
"Care to hear your fortune, handsome?"
Iroh smiled serenely. "I prefer to leave the future a mystery. It makes life much more interesting and bearable. Unless … you know whether that girl will break the spell?"
Aunt Wu, the fortuneteller-turned-feather duster, smiled mysteriously. "The future is not set in stone. But one of them must make the first move, take the first step." She peeked out from behind the curtain. "Oh—I did not mean literally, but it seems I was right."
"What?" Then Iroh heard the patter of moccasins on the floor. He looked out from behind the curtain and saw the Water Tribe girl just turning around the corner at the end of the hall.
"Cinders and ashes! She has emerged!" Iroh exclaimed. He hopped after her, followed by Aunt Wu.
The kitchen wasn't very hard to find; it was on the ground floor, near the back
"Hiya, Katara!" Aang called out.
"Welcome," Iroh said warmly. "I am Iroh, the prince's uncle and advisor. You know Aang and Yue. This is Chief Arnook, Yue's father."
"Nice to meet you," Katara said, with a polite but wary smile.
"And this is Aunt Wu, the resident fortuneteller," Iroh finished with a coy smile in the feather duster's direction. Then he gestured to the porcelain sets in the cupboards. "The Kyoshi Warriors serve my nephew. If there is anything we can do to make your stay more comfortable …"
"I am a little hungry," Katara admitted. Actually, she was famished, not having eaten anything since breakfast, or drunk anything since her tea with Jet.
Iroh turned to the Kyoshi Warriors, who stood at attention. "Did you hear that? She's hungry! I hope you didn't throw away the meal earlier."
"Iroh, you heard what the prince said," Arnook hissed. "If she doesn't eat with him –"
"I'm not going to let the girl go hungry," Iroh huffed indignantly.
"But –"
"Look here: I'm a prince too. I can give orders; I can even overrule an order given by my nephew. Besides, the girl is not our prisoner, she's our guest."
"Mind if I help?" Yue offered."I am a teapot," she reminded them.
"That's very kind of you," Iroh said graciously. "Miss Katara, if you'll follow me …" He led her into a dining room with a low table, the kind that required you to kneel on the floor. Katara thought this must make it easier for the objects to put food on the table. She felt a little embarrassed when the walking cups and chopsticks carried out several large pots and platters of food.
"I don't want you to go out of your way," Katara began.
"Are you kidding?" One of the plates stopped to face her. "We've been serving no one but the Prince for years. It's an honor to have you as our guest."
Curious, Katara lifted the lid of one dish, and was met with a surprisingly familiar aroma. "No way! Stewed sea prunes?"
"Help yourself," Iroh offered.
Katara didn't hesitate now. She loaded her plate with food, some comfortingly familiar, some she had never tasted or even seen before.
"In the future, we should have some kind of evening entertainment," Aang said, watching her eat. "We could get Ty Lee to perform, or the Kyoshi Warriors could do a routine – that'd be fun."
"I can give readings," Aunt Wu suggested.
Katara swallowed her food before speaking. "Can you tell me my fortune?"
"If you wish. Hold out your palm."
Katara held her hand out palm-up. The feather duster bent over it, peering at the lines on her hands.
"May I ask about something specific?"
"Certainly."
"Will I ever see my brother again?"
Aunt Wu paused, then studied the lines again. "Ah … You will be reunited with the ones you love."
Katara's eyes lit up. "Then I'll see Sokka again!"
Yue also looked happy hearing this interpretation. Aunt Wu just smiled mysteriously. But Chief Arnook frowned. "You shouldn't give the girl false hope," Arnook admonished.
"False? I think not. I've given her hope, with good reason. I've never been wrong before," Aunt Wu reminded him.
Arnook just shook his head.
When she had finished eating, Arnook made as though to leave, saying they should all rest.
Katara shook her head. "I don't think I could sleep now." She wasn't tired after her rather long nap earlier, and besides, she was too excited now. "Maybe you haven't guessed, but this is my first time in an enchanted castle."
Arnook tried to cover his shock with nonchalance. "What—enchanted? Who ever said we were enchanted …?" He shot a suspicious glare at Iroh, who held up his wick hands in a gesture of innocence.
"I figured it out myself," Katara informed him slyly.
Arnook blinked. "Oh."
Katara stood up. "I would like to look around more—if that's all right." She was almost warming up to the idea of staying in a castle. This place must be full of stories, and if she was going to be here for some time, she wanted to try to plumb the some of its secrets.
"Of course!" Iroh said warmly. "Would you like a tour?"
"That would be great."
Iroh led the way, while Yue and Aang tagged along. They started by covering the ground floor. After leaving the dining room, Iroh pointed out the expansive ballroom, with windows spanning from marble floor to the painted ceiling, from which hung a golden chandelier. "This room hasn't been used in quite some time," Iroh said regretfully, glancing sideways at the girl. Katara didn't notice; she was trying to imagine what the place would look like on a clear night, with the chandelier lit, perhaps some decorations, and people dancing on the floor … she was starting to think like a romantic from one of her stories.
Iroh led the small entourage down another hall, pointing out certain features in the architecture and décor. Katara was distracted when they passed a stairway that went down another level; she started to turn, but then Iroh skidded in front of her, and she came to a half.
"What's down there?" Katara asked.
"Where – down there?" Yue glanced down nervously. "That's … nothing."
"Nothing of interest in the Dragon Bone Catacombs," Iroh stated.
"Oh, so that leads to the Dragon Bone Catacombs," Katara said, sounding observant but casual.
"Nice going," Aang said in an undertone.
Katara looked down the staircase. "I wonder what he's hiding down there," she mused.
"Hiding? My nephew is hiding nothing," Iroh said.
"Well, if he weren't hiding anything, it wouldn't be forbidden," Katara said logically.
"Um—maybe you'd like to see something else?" Yue said, trying to sound cordial while grasping at straws.
"There are gardens," Aang suggested, "or the stables, or the arena …"
That piqued Katara's interest. "You have an arena?"
"Oh yes!" Iroh looked excited to find they had something she would like. "With access to all four elements, and seats for spectators—"
"And the library has scrolls on bending forms and martial arts …" Yue added
Aang looked wistful. "Now I wish I'd spent more time there while I could bend …"
The objects were mostly talking among themselves now. They didn't notice when Katara stopped walking, watched them walk ahead anyway, and then pivoted and headed for the stairway.
At the bottom of the staircase there was a door. Katara ventured through and walked cautiously down a hallway lined with what appeared to be the bones of dragons, mostly large skulls. They don't call it the Dragon Bone Catacombs for nothing, Katara thought wryly.
There was yet another door at the end of the hallway. By now Katara felt apprehensive—what might lie behind that door? The word "catacombs" brought to mind tombs and bodies and curses …
But she had come this far, and nothing had happened. She might not have another chance.
She pushed the door open.
The room was huge, cavernous, but so dimly lit that she couldn't see all of it. As her eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness, she saw that there was furniture scattered on the sides. The furniture was plentiful and expensive-looking, but old and ruined. The chair cushions had been slashed; there were strange lines carved into the wall, as though by a sword; many items and some sections of the wall had scorch marks. There was a mirror on the wall that seemed to have been smashed intentionally; its few remaining shards offered a skewed reflection. There was also a paper wall hanging, a painting, which had been slashed and now hung in a few large tatters.
Katara lifted up a shred of the portrait to reveal the picture. It was an image of a family of four: a stern-looking father, a kind-faced mother, a son and a daughter close in age.
Katara stared at the portrait. Who were these people? Was the Blue Spirit one of them?
She looked around again. A few torches gave off a little light, but there was another light, more orange in color, coming from the other side of the room. Katara crossed over, and stared transfixed at a table with a curious object on it.
It was a lily, but Katara had never seen one of this color before. A fire lily – she thought she may have heard of it somewhere. It was a beautiful, exotic type of flower; but this particular one was otherworldly, glowing orange, hovering in midair. Katara wondered if it was real. Acting on an impulse, she reached out to touch it –
Suddenly she felt and then saw a shadow rise over her. She turned, startled, and nearly cried out.
The Blue Spirit stood before her. He had lit a flame in his palm in order to see.
"What are you doing here?" the Blue Spirit demanded.
"I'm sorry –" Katara stammered.
She backed away as he Blue Spirit strode over to the table, taking the bell jar and putting it back over the flower. He leaned on it protectively, and turned his face to look at Katara, who imagined he must be glaring behind the mask.
"Do you realize what you could have done?" he said, sounding positively livid.
"I didn't mean any harm –"
In his fury, the Blue Spirit knocked over a chair with a flaming hand. Katara gasped and backed away from the flames.
"I'm sorry! Please, stop—"
"GET OUT!"
Katara fled.
Maybe it made her a coward, but who could blame her? She didn't have any water with her. This Blue Spirit, whoever he was, acted like a madman. Wasn't running just the smart thing to do?
She almost tripped over the candelabrum and telescope in the hallway. "Where are you going?" Iroh asked.
"Promise or no promise, I can't stay here!" Katara yelled over her shoulder.
"Katara!" Aang called out, but the only response was the door slamming shut against the wind.
"So close," Iroh moaned.
"What do you suppose …" Yue trailed off questioningly.
The small group hurried down the stairs to the Catacombs, where they found the Blue Spirit moping in a corner.
"What happened?" Iroh demanded. He was the only person who could get away with using such a tone with the prince.
The Blue Spirit folded his arms. "I gave her one rule. Don't go in the Dragon Bone Catacombs. And what does she do? She goes into the Catacombs!"
"What did you do?" Iroh insisted.
The Blue Spirit's shoulders slumped. "I yelled at her. I told her to get out. And let me guess—she interpreted it as an order to leave the castle?" He almost said Good riddance, but something stopped him, something he couldn't put his finger on.
"You're letting her get away?" Iroh said incredulously. "You finally have a chance, finally some hope of breaking the enchantment, and you drive her away?"
"To Koh's lair with the enchantment!" Yue exclaimed, uncharacteristically indignant. "The Swamp is dangerous! Wild animals and illusions – you saw how Sokka was after he went through that. You have to help her!"
The Blue Spirit leaned on the table, gripping the carved edges.
Sometimes, it was very annoying to have a conscience.
Appa was resting where Katara had left him, inside the castle gate. They flew over the gate, but they stayed low to avoid the cold cloud cover, which would have made navigating more difficult.
It had stopped snowing, but the wind blew the powdery substance through the air. The wind chill only worsened while flying on Appa. They flew under the canopy of tree branches, trying to avoid the water and large tree roots below.
The reins snagged on a branch that seemed to reach out as though to grab them. Bison and rider were jerked backwards and fell into the swampwater below.
"Great," Katara muttered, her teeth chattering in the cold. She stood and bended most of the water off of herself, except for what she was standing in.
Appa tensed, and then roared. Katara looked in the direction he faced, and saw movement not far off. She recognized the animals as catgators, about half a dozen of them investigating what had disturbed their habitat.
"Oh—perfect!" Katara said through gritted teeth. Suddenly something splashed in the water just a few yards away from her; she screamed in surprise when she saw the catgator's head, snarling at her, about to strike. She threw up a wall of ice between them, but it was only a momentary impediment. She slashed out with the water and actually managed to injure the animal's abdomen. But the others were coming fast.
Katara fought, doing all she could with her limited bending skills, barely keeping them away from herself and Appa. There were too many of them, she realized. Two or three she could handle, but not a dozen at once. Appa was so big, there was so much of him that they could hurt—she wouldn't be able to protect the both of them.
She was so distracted, worrying about Appa, that she was startled when another catgator came upon her. She couldn't move fast enough, and she wondered if this was the end, if she wouldn't see Sokka again after all …
Suddenly the water seemed to be on fire, a wall between Katara and the predators. Katara fell down with a splash, shocked and instinctively avoiding the heat.
When the flames dissipated, they revealed a figure standing on a tree root above them. Katara could just make out the silhouette of the Blue Spirit.
He leapt down, landing in the water in front of her. "If you can fight, watch your bison on the other side," he told her. "If not, get him to higher ground."
The catgators were more frightened than hurt by the attack. They were creatures of water, and like all animals, they were terrified by fire. Most of them started to retreat, backing away in surprise or fear. Only two or three dared to retaliate against the newcomer, snarling and coming forward to defend their territory.
Katara didn't understand why he didn't simply make a circle of fire around himself; then she realized that doing so would have sent fire toward Appa and herself. He was restraining himself so he wouldn't hurt them.
Finally heeding what he had said, she ran around to Appa's other side, ignoring the horrible sounds that came from the Blue Spirit and his opponents as they began to fight. Catgators were also coming on Appa's left. Katara fought as well as her limited training could allow: she sent waves on top of the animals, and then froze the water around them.
She heard the Blue Spirit cry out in pain. She circled back in time to see him sending repeated blasts of fire at the creatures, finally driving them back. They disappeared into the mist between the enormous tree roots and trunks.
Once they were gone, all was quiet, except for the wind blowing around them, shifting the vines and making ripples in the water. The Blue Spirit slowly turned around to look at Katara. She could hear him panting, and his shoulders rose and fell with each deep breath. In the patches of moonlight, she could see tears in his black clothing; blood dripped from a few of them, most profusely from one of his arms.
They stared at each other, confusion and relief and amazement passing between them; then the Blue Spirit collapsed, falling backwards into the water with a splash. It was just shallow enough that his mouth was above the surface.
Once the shock wore off, Katara's instinct was to flee. She turned as though to climb back onto Appa, but then she hesitated and glanced back at the Blue Spirit. He was unconscious. This was her chance to escape. But it was against her nature to ignore someone in need. It wasn't the honorable thing to do. Especially considering he had just helped her – she owed him her life.
Katara's conscience won over. She dragged the Blue Spirit, holding him under his arms, onto Appa's saddle.
The animated objects hoped the Blue Spirit would come back with Katara. They were shocked to see Katara come in, with a semi-conscious Blue Spirit leaning on her.
"What happened?" Aang blurted out.
"I'll tell you later. Yue, I need water. I don't suppose there's a doctor or a healer around, is there?"
Katara helped the ninja into the den, the same place where Sokka had been just the day before. The Blue Spirit collapsed into the comfortable chair. Iroh set a blaze in the hearth, while Momo pulled a blanket over. Katara placed it over the Blue Spirit's legs, since he was holding his bleeding arm.
"Are you warm enough?" she asked, concerned but still wary.
The Blue Spirit just grunted in response.
"Let's look at that arm." Katara tried to be gentle as she rolled up the sleeve of his black shirt, exposing the gash on his forearm. For a moment she just looked at it, not examining, but wondering.
"Why?" The question was out of her mouth before she could stop it.
The Blue Spirit looked up at her, then back down at his arm. "I don't know," he said finally. He sounded thoughtful, trying remember and understand what had happened. "I didn't expect to pass out like that. I hadn't fought anyone for so long … maybe I overdid it."
Yue returned and poured some hot water into Aang. Katara waved her hand over the teacup, summoning the water and wrapping it around her hand like a glove. She moved as though to touch the wound, but the Blue Spirit pulled his arm away, holding it with his other hand.
"Just hold still." Katara moved her gloved hand over the wound, and the Blue Spirit hissed in pain.
"That hurts!"
"Well, if you'd hold still, it wouldn't hurt as much," Katara snapped.
The Blue Spirit scowled. "If you hadn't run away, none of this would have happened!"
"Well if you hadn't frightened me, I wouldn't have run away," Katara answered shrilly.
The Blue Spirit opened his mouth to respond, but then he had to stop and think of an argument. "Well, you shouldn't have been in the Dragon Bone Catacombs!"
"Well, you should learn to control your temper!" Katara retorted.
The Blue Spirit raised his uninjured hand to make a point, but found he had no response, so he fell back into his chair.
The objects emerged cautiously from their hiding places. Was it possible that this girl had a temper that matched the Blue Spirit's?
Katara made a glove around her hand again. "Now, hold still. This may sting a little."
This time the Blue Spirit didn't pull away as she moved her hand over his wound. She heard him hiss a little as the pain intensified, but then dimmed, like a light flickering out.
"By the way," Katara said softly, "thank you … for saving my life."
She couldn't see the Blue Spirit's expression. He was silent for a moment, but then he said gruffly, "You're welcome."
The anthropomorphic objects watched the two benders and exchanged hopeful glances. It was a start.
The Blue Spirit realized he hadn't touched another human being since the enchantment was cast – and even then, he had never experienced much physical contact with anyone. But now, he kind of liked feeling Katara's hand on his skin. He could feel her taking away his pain. He looked down at her hand.
When he spoke, he sounded surprised. "You're hurt, too." The whole point of going out had been to save her, but when he was injured himself, he hadn't even stopped to consider whether she was all right.
Katara looked down at her arm. The blue cloth was stained red with a few drops of blood. "It's just a scratch. I honestly forgot about it."
The Blue Spirit grasped her wrist, stopping her from continuing to heal him. "Enough of me. You need to heal yourself."
The staff looked bemused now. Since when did the prince put others before himself?
Katara looked at him. He let go of her hand, and she obediently rolled up her own sleeve, wincing as it pulled at her dried blood on her skin. It was a very small wound, but it hurt to the touch.
"I should have gotten there sooner …" The Blue Spirit murmured.
"Don't start," Katara admonished, moving her right hand over her wound. A scab formed over the cut, as though it were already days old. It would heal on its own much more quickly now. "I'm all right. We both are." She returned the water to Aang and stood up, pushing herself up with the arm of the chair. "You should rest," Katara said, placing her hand on the Blue Spirit's arm again.
"You both should—it's well after midnight," Aunt Wu said, having looked through Arnook to see the moon's position in the sky.
The Blue Spirit rose slowly, and walked with Katara up to the second floor. Katara found her room easily enough, but he followed her anyway to make sure she found her way.
"Good night," he said abruptly.
Katara looked at him, startled, before responding automatically, "Good night." Then she slipped into her room.
"What happened?" Suki asked, before taking in Katara's haggard appearance. Katara hesitated, unsure of where to begin, but Suki sensed her exhaustion. "Never mind—you can tell me tomorrow. Do you need pajamas?"
Katara nodded, and somehow went through the motions of preparing for bed. She had to admit, she loved being able to climb into the large bed with its soft, warm fur blankets that smelled like the Water Tribe. It was new and luxurious, but with the comfort of home.
What a day, Katara thought, remembering the proposal, the search, the bargain, the separation, the fight, the feast, exploring, running away, and being rescued. Then she'd had an almost reconciliatory conversation with her captor … but she was too exhausted to contemplate that now.
Katara closed her eyes. "It's been a strange day," she murmured to Suki.