Avatar: The Last Airbender Created By: Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko
Avatar: The Last Airbender Owned By: Nickelodeon, a subsidiary of Viacom
All original content and characters © Acastus


Chapter XXXV – Riddles In The Dark

The staircase descended through several wide landings. The thick matte of pine needles, forest debris and dirt which covered the stairs near the entrance quickly gave way to bare concrete. Metal railings appeared on each side after they arrived at the first platform. The air became steadily cooler as they progressed and soon the outside light failed completely.

At the bottom of the stairwell the pair found themselves before a rounded archway with metal pocket doors protruding from housings on either side. Even in the flickering light of Iroh's flame the doors were obviously damaged. They had been bent inwards with tremendous force, their ends shredded so viciously that their edges were now heavily serrated.

Without a word Nikon turned to squeeze himself through the dangerous gap in profile. Iroh followed, careful to avoid the jagged edges of the shattered doorway.

Once through they found themselves in a long featureless hallway which ran perpendicular to the stairwell. Bits of metal from the broken doors littered the floor and made tinkling sounds as their feet inadvertently kicked some of them around.

Iroh walked across the tunnel to the opposite wall. Thick metal tubes or cables were fixed to the sides of the tunnel with large metal fasteners that appeared every so often. One of the cables was periodically punctuated with large ovals of frosted glass held in a metal frame. Dark and opaque, they looked to the Fire Nation soldiers like the milky, cataract stricken eyes of some nameless cave dwelling horror.

"What the hell is this place?" Nikon asked with a mixture of wonder and fear.

"No idea, my friend," Iroh admitted.

Nikon looked up and down the hallway. To the left the corridor stretched into the gloom without any obvious exits. To the right a few other archways could be seen.

"I don't like this, Iroh," the daimyo confessed, "I don't know what this place was for, but it was built for lots of people to use… but now, empty like this… it feels… haunted or something."

The young general didn't reply. He didn't like the place either. The air was now cold and carried with it the faintest scent of putrescence. A deep and disturbing silence reigned when they were not speaking or moving, subliminally prompting them to fill it with any manner of noise lest the perfect stillness drive them mad.

Iroh was reminded once again of the book he had read during the crossing. Mere minutes ago in the sunlit world above the book had offered hope, far-fetched as it might be, of redemption. Now, in this strange tomb, he remembered the many dark passages it contained.

Shrouded in legend and metaphor, the book had given scant detail on specific places, people and events. The author had, however, been clear on the ultimate destruction of the ancient world and the long string of successor states which had clung desperately and ultimately unsuccessfully to the way of life lived by their ancestors. Whatever age this outpost belonged to didn't matter, whoever built it had met an unpleasant end long ago.

Iroh shuddered to think Nikon might be right and hoped they would meet no malicious spirits.

"Which way, I wonder?" Iroh muttered to himself as he scanned the hallway as his friend had moments before.

"Looks like there are other tunnels down there," Nikon observed, pointing down the length of tunnel to their right.

"I think that direction takes us away from the cavern or cliff face or whatever it is, but it's a little hard to tell down here… all right, let's go that way first."

They moved down the corridor. It was as wide or a bit wider than the stairwell in which they had descended. The ceiling was arched as well with another thick, metal cable running along its topline. The cable was punctuated with white frosted glass spheres, larger than the oval ones on the wall. Each of them was suspended from the ceiling by a pair of metal supports.

After a short while they came to a four way junction where archways of the same size intersected the hallway they were travelling. The pocket doors on these archways were closed tight. Above them a sign hung suspended from the ceiling, but the symbols were faded and unreadable even after Iroh illuminated it with a quick burst of flame.

Just beyond the intersection a doorway opened to their right. Here again obvious damage was seen. The wooden door had exploded inwards into the chamber beyond. Stepping through into the room, Iroh held his lighted palm aloft, Nikon in tow.

The room was full of overturned desks and other furniture in an advanced state of decay. Huge mounds of what once had probably been paper were strewn about the room. Cabinets of various sizes had been tipped over, their contents sacked. The walls between this large room and several small neighboring rooms had been blown open, sporting huge gaping holes one could stick one's head through. The intact wall to their right was covered with what looked like a chalkboard, but it was blank.

They stepped deeper inside, kicking aside some of the decayed paper and wood. Nikon produced a flame in the palm of his own hand and picked up a few small wooden objects on the floor next to one of the overturned desks. They had short stubby handles and wide heads stained with ink.

"Stamps or seals, I think," Nikon speculated before dropping them, "Some kind of office, maybe?"

Iroh didn't respond, instead walking over to the short hallway visible behind the largest of the broken pieces of furniture. Nikon saw Iroh's flame intensify for a moment as he walked into another chamber off the short hallway.

"Over here," the Crown Prince invited.

Nikon hopped lightly over a broken chair to gain the passageway. He emerged behind Iroh in a small room that served as the antechamber to a walk in vault. The vault's huge, heavy door lay on its side, largely melted, its hinges twisted and broken.

The vault was empty.

"Guess we aren't the first ones to discover this place," Iroh observed quietly.

Nikon ran a hand over the crazed and melted edge of the massive door.

"What the hell could have done this? You can't tell me someone did this with firebending."

Iroh looked over at the damaged colossus.

"No, I don't even think your blue fire would be hot enough for that… besides it looks like something ripped the whole thing right out of its housing, at least judging by those hinges."

They looked at each other for a moment, unspoken fears communicating between them.

"Hey," Nikon suddenly offered to break the silence, "let's get the hell out of here, okay?"

The air smelled stale and the walls seemed to close in about them. They left the way they came and proceeded down the hallway once more. Another opening appeared on their right, but this was a metal hatch with a large threaded screw protruding from its middle. It was painted a faded red and had a metal plate at eye level which had raised symbols on it that neither Iroh nor Nikon could interpret. They passed it and moved on.

Suddenly the floor beneath their feet became covered in a layer of sand, dust and pebbles. Moments later the tunnel in front of them abruptly terminated in a mass of concrete, stone and shattered metal supports. Iroh once again projected his flame higher to provide a singular view of the obstruction. A cave-in or some other calamity had blocked the entire passage and prevented further progress. They spread out, looking for a way around the obstruction, but to no avail.

"Not going any further this way," Nikon concluded with no small amount of relief, then continued in a tone of exasperation, "Man, what the blazes happened here? And what was it all for? I don't get it."

Iroh grunted and kicked at some of the metal and concrete at his feet. He bent down as his eyes detected a glint in the fire light.

He stood up, holding a clear yellow crystal in his hand.

"Huh!"

"Pretty," Nikon agreed, coming over for a closer look, "A gemstone or something?"

"I think so, it's been polished, but it feels too heavy for a gemstone."

He handed it to Nikon who felt its weight before returning it. Iroh slipped it into a pocket. Nikon in turn knelt down and fished something out of the wreckage. He stood up. Iroh brought his flame closer. His friend held a slightly rusted slender handle of metal. Nikon turned it over in his hands only to have it unexpectedly split in half to reveal a nasty looking knife.

"A switchblade," the daimyo observed wistfully, swinging open the folding cover in one smooth motion, locking it open, "A dime a dozen back in Shinjuku, but the blade is steel, not iron."

"I see you know how to use it."

Nikon snorted, "Somebody else did too," he held the blade closer to examine its rust colored edge, "This was used quite a bit and not for whittling sticks judging by the stains on the blade… Anyway, where I grew up, we all knew how to use these. Before I learned how to firebend this is how I survived."

"Is it Fire Nation make?"

"I think so, but like I said it's a poor man's weapon, never seen a steel one before."

He dropped it back in the rubble with a clatter.

After a few more minutes poking around and finding nothing further of interest, they returned the way they had come, Iroh's flame illuminating the left wall and casting crazy shadows along it.

They passed the stairwell to the surface in silence except for the crunch of metal and glass under their feet. Soon the tunnel turned sharply to the left. Signage which had clearly hung from the ceiling long ago lay on the floor covered with a thick layer of dust. They wiped it off, but could discern no markings.

After a short distance the tunnel ended in a thick metal door that had no obvious lock or handle. It was smooth, featureless and seamless. Iroh rapped on the featureless wall of metal. The sound it made was dull and weak, as if absorbed by the material itself.

"Solid," Iroh concluded.

"Yeh, we're not getting through that either, are we?"

"No, my friend, I bet we could firebend that thing all day before it melted... if it ever melted."

They were flummoxed.

"Head back, I guess?" Nikon finally asked in a hopeful tone, "I've had enough riddles in the dark for today."

Iroh nodded, swinging around so his fiery palm now illuminated the wall opposite. Halfway back to where the tunnel turned back to the right, Iroh's flame revealed a slightly recessed doorway they had missed the first time through. Iroh pushed the door and it opened noiselessly. The space inside was dark.

"Let's try this," the Crown Prince commanded before he stepped through.

Nikon failed to suppress a low groan, but followed without hesitation.

The room was small with a low ceiling, and was largely occupied by what looked like a boiler, though it was rectangular instead of the more familiar pot belly shapes they were used to seeing in the Fire Nation. The vessel was as dark and silent as the room it occupied. A fine, but solid layer of dust stood mute testimony to the many years that had passed since it had operated. Pipes emerged from its smooth surface and bent at crazy angles only to disappear into the walls.

Iroh expanded his flame slightly to examine the unit as Nikon passed behind him to the opposite side of the small room.

"There's a passage over here," the daimyo called out from the other side of the boiler, "and a staircase going down."

Iroh moved behind Nikon and peered over his shoulder. The passageway in front of his friend was narrow and dark, but they could feel slight air movement. The stairway to their right was made of unpainted metal and descended into blackness.

The daimyo mounted the top of the stairs, lit a flame in the palm of his hand and began to descend. He barely went three steps before he splashed into water.

"Oh for Agni's sake!" Nikon cried with disgust, "It's flooded."

Iroh came to the edge of the stairwell and could see the blackness rippling in the wake of Nikon's splashing. The water looked oily and sinister.

"Yes, and I suppose that's promising considering what we hope to find. Still, I too wonder what the purpose of all this was. Why build all this underground? At the edge of the desert?"

Nikon backed out of the stairwell, clearly unhappy at having soggy boots.

"Did the book mention the ancients had a drug problem?" Nikon remarked sourly as he tried in vain to shake the water off his feet, "I bet that's why they all died, overdosed on dope or something."

Iroh ignored his friend's cynicism and instead motioned with his hand at the narrow passage before them.

"Oh, all right," Nikon acquiesced with a heavy breath before stepping into the tunnel.

A short distance later the passage terminated abruptly at a metal hatch, rounded at its edges. It was featureless save for a large metal wheel in its center, similar to the red door they had seen in the main tunnel. They looked at each other briefly before Iroh backed up to allow his daimyo enough room to try the door.

Nikon grasped the wheel in his hands and twisted first one way, then the other. Grunting with effort the wheel turned slowly at first, then faster. The wheel was mounted on a screw and it moved outward along its' thread until the hatch opened with an audible pop. The daimyo glanced quickly at Iroh, and then pushed lightly on the hatch.

The door swung noiselessly outward to reveal a wonder of the ancient world.