Set between Books 3 & 4 of Legend of Korra.
Huffing in frustration, Suyin flapped her hand at her dance troupe. "Go on. We'll try again tomorrow."
They mumbled relieved farewells, departing in twos and threes, while Su tipped her head back to stare at the ceiling.
She bared her teeth with an "Urgh."
Stretching her arms as she walked, she headed for the main building and a shower. Maybe the hot water would loosen the blockage that made every move she choreographed wrong.
A nigging at the back of her mind suggested she'd be better served calling Air Temple Island and demanding to know where Opal was.
"I'm NOT going to be that sort of mother," Su hissed. Opal was fine. She was traveling the world, doing exactly what Su herself had done. Su wasn't going to be a worrywort.
A shower was all she needed.
…
Bataar peered over his book at his wife. They'd retired to the conservatory after dinner, and Su had gone through the motions of watering plants that didn't really need watering.
Now, she stood staring at a planter Opal had painted - bright splotches of colors and a child's haphazard attempts at daisies - with a brooding expression.
"You could call?" he ventured.
"What?" Su jerked her head around to face him. "No, it's fine. I mean - we would know, someone would let us know if anything - I'm not going to do this."
"I'm worried about her too," Bataar said quickly. "Why don't we give Master Tenzin a call tomorrow?"
"No, I don't want to be -" Su broke off. She hmmed and chewed the corner of her mouth. "You think we should?"
"It would make me feel better," he replied. "We haven't heard from Opal in over a month. I think that's more than enough time for any reasonable parent to get a little...anxious."
"I suppose." Su rearranged a spray of blossoms, then rearranged it again. She turned the planter a few degrees. "My mom never bothered about this kind of thing. She figured we could take care of ourselves, didn't need her hovering and worrying and asking questions. Lin though -" Su snorted, "- it was always 'Where are you going?' 'What will you be doing?' 'Who are you going with?' It was spirits-awful annoying. Drove me batty."
She turned the planter back to its original position. She picked up the watering can again, moving towards a potted dragon-flower.
"Um dear?" Bataar said.
"Yes?"
"Dragon-flowers don't do well with too much water."
Glancing between the plant and the watering can in her hands, Su said, "Oh. Right." She set the can down. Perching on a bench, she snagged a magazine. She read, seemingly intent on the latest fashion trends, but she gnawed her nails as she did.
…
"Ma'am," said the servitor, pausing at the edge of the Huan's sculpture garden. Su paused in her examination of his latest endeavor - a whirling, spiraling contraption powered by wind - and gave him her attention.
"There's a telephone call for you. It's from Miss Opal from Republic City."
"Opal - thank you -" With a nod to Huan, Su scurried away. The servitor had to nearly jog to keep up with her. She dismissed him at her office door with a snapped wave.
"Opal?" she exclaimed into the phone, loud and high-pitched with anxiety.
"Hi Mom, it's me," chirped Opal. "Can you hear me okay?"
"I can hear you perfectly, sweetheart," replied Su. "How are you? Is everything alright? Where have you been?"
"I'm fine, Mom. Just got back from Juju Island, we thought there was an Airbender there, but there wasn't, but they have this fantastic beach, the sand is actually black which is weird, but it's really pretty."
"I know, I've been there. You had a good time then?"
"Mhm. How's everyone at home?"
"Same as always," Su replied.
"That's good. Have you heard from Bataar?"
Su picked at a nail. "A couple of weeks ago. He's working on extending the train network in the provinces which have been unified."
"Good for him, I guess," murmured Opal.
"He's doing what he wants," Su said, and frowned at how unsatisfactory that answer felt. It was what she'd always encouraged her children to do, but somehow she'd never connected that to the possibility of having them hundreds of miles apart from her with only sporadic contact.
Mentally shaking herself, she asked Opal, "How is your training coming along? Will you be bald the next time I see you?"
"Fine, and definitely not." Su can almost hear the shudder Opal made at that suggestion. "I like my hair. Also, tattoos hurt. Like a lot. Jinora says it wasn't that bad because she was in a meditative trance, but Aunt Lin says she's lying and the meditative trance only lasts while you're actually getting poked, not after."
"Well, Lin would know. She and Tenzin were already together when he got his."
"That's what I figured," Opal said sagely. "Aunt Lin told me he spent the two weeks afterwards pretty much unable to move because everything hurt."
"I can't remember, too busy with other things," Su said, "and tattoos were one thing I was never interested in trying."
"Me neither," said Opal fervently.
"Do you know if you'll be coming to Zaofu anytime soon?" Su asked before she could stop herself.
"I don't know. Tenzin was talking about a trip to the Eastern Temple in the next week or so," Opal replied. "If we do, maybe I could stop by on the way back?"
"We'd like that."
"Okay, I'll let you know as soon as I know." Opal paused, then called distortedly as if she'd turned away from the receiver, "Be there in a minute!"
Distinct one more, Opal said, "I've got to go, Mom. Aunt Lin's made breakfast and then I've got to go check on my bison."
"Alright, remember I - what?"
"I forgot! I'm staying with Aunt Lin."
"You are?"
"Well, with all the new people, there's not a lot of space on Air Temple Island, and sometimes, it's nice to be somewhere else. Meelo and Ikki are fun, but they always want to play and Meelo ate too much candy and threw up on me the day I got back." Opal sighed. "I asked Aunt Lin if I could stay with her this time and she said yes."
"That's nice of her. Is it nice, staying with her?"
"I like it. Kind of reminds me of home. It's quiet but not too quiet, I can go down to the shops whenever, I can eat meat without getting a lecture, Ikki isn't asking me questions or demanding to play tic-tac-toe every five seconds, and Aunt Lin's pretty cool. She's actually the one who insisted I call you."
Su's mind boggled. Lin, 'pretty cool'?
She heard a faint, "Opal?"
"Coming!" Opal shouted back. "Say hello to Dad and Huan and Wing and Wei for me?"
"Of course I will."
"Thanks. Bye, Mom, love you."
"Bye, love you too sweetheart."
The connection clicked off.
Su went about her morning with a smile on her face. She cheerily shared Opal's phone call with the twins, Huan, and finally with Bataar who'd been surveying a site in the city and had only returned at lunchtime.
" - might stop by on her way back from the Eastern Temple," finished Su.
Bataar said, "That's good news. Do you have your sister's number somewhere - I'd like to talk to Opal myself, maybe call her tonight or tomorrow?"
"It's in my address book." Su spooned up the chilled pumpkin-butternut soup.
"Funny how we were just talking about calling her yesterday," remarked Bataar, sipping his own soup.
"Maybe the universe was listening." After a few more spoonfuls, she added, "You know, Opal mentioned that Lin made her call."
"Really?"
"Really." Frowning a bit, Su asked, "Why do you think she would do that?"
"I don't know, but perhaps she thought we would be worried. Especially if she found out Opal hadn't talked to us in a couple of months," suggested Bataar.
"I suppose."
The question stuck with Su. It rolled around in her head, bumping into whatever was her current train of thought now and then.
In her office, her eyes swept across the line of photographs on a shelf. They skimmed along, stopped, and returned to the one from her circus days.
Stripes tint the light blue and yellow. Su's tempted to poke her sister just to be sure Lin truly has appeared here, hundreds of miles from Republic City. Disbelief wars with curiosity,
"How did you find me?"
"Mom gave me joint control of our bank accounts. I asked them to notify me when you next made a withdrawal."
Irritation crackles.
"Tracking me? What for? Are you gonna haul me back to our grandparents - or to Republic City?"
"No, I -" Lin hesitates, something strange in her expression. "I hadn't heard from you in almost a year, Su. I - I needed to know you were okay."
It had been fear, Su realized thirty years later. The strangeness in Lin's expression had been fear.
"I care because it was found on the body of a dead young woman in Luquan." There's a picture sleeve in her hands. "Two detectives came to Republic City with it. They wanted me to help identify the girl."
Su's stomach churned. Icy sweat broke out all over her body.
She knew why Lin had insisted Opal call her parents.
…
"Su?"
"Back here."
Skirting past dusty boxes and outmoded furniture, Bataar found Su squinting at a journal. She sat crossed-legged underneath the attic window which let in the fading sun.
Bataar surveyed the open boxes scattered about her. Their contents radiated outwards from each: clothing, costume jewelry, books, miniature statues, faded posters, toys the children had outgrown, crafts the children had made, all sorts of knick-knacks.
"What were you looking for?" he asked.
"My old diaries." Su lifted the one in her hand. Glancing around, she asked, "When did we get so much stuff?"
"I have no idea," Bataar replied as he lowered himself to the floor. "We should get rid of some of it. Sell or donate it."
His wife nodded distractedly.
"What's going on Su?"
"I made a mistake, a long time ago," Su replied.
"What sort of mistake?"
"When I was with the circus, Lin tracked me down. She had a picture, there was this girl. She was dead and Lin wanted me to identify her."
"Why you?"
"Because she was found with my ring. Lin thought I might have known her." Su bowed her head. "I was angry at Lin for tracking me down; I refused to help. I didn't even try. I just told her to go away."
She whacked the diary against her knee. Stridently, she exclaimed, "And I forgot about it. I never thought about it again - not once in three decades - and now -"
"And now what?" Bataar prompted, laying a hand on her arm.
"I get it now. What Lin must have felt, what I would have felt if someone came to me and said they'd found somewhere who looked like Opal, was wearing something of Opal's and - that poor girl - her parents, Oma and Shu, if it were Opal and we never, never knew what happened to her - if she just - Bataar, I did nothing."
"Sweetheart…"
"I have to try to fix this," Su declared, lurching to her feet with the diary clutched in a white-knuckled grip. Bataar scrambled to his feet and winced as his muscles twinged sharply, unused to sitting uncushioned on floors.
"If this is important to you - and it obviously is - then I think you should do whatever you feel is necessary," he told Su. "Do you know that is?"
"Yes," Su replied, "I'm going to go see my sister."
Opal gasped, then leapt at her mother. "Mom! You're here!"
"Surprise!" Su squashed Opal in her hug. "I thought I'd drop by for a few days."
"Really?" Glancing over her shoulder at Lin who was leaning against the doorjamb, Opal asked, "Did you know?"
Lin nodded, saying, "Yes, your mom called yesterday and we arranged it."
"How long?" Opal demanded of her mother.
"At least through the weekend," replied Su. She looped an arm over Opal's shoulder and they proceeded into the house, Su's suitcase clicking on the tile floors.
...
Having held dinner for Su, three supped on spiced rice with fried snapper, caught just that morning in the waters outside of Republic City.
Afterwards, they settled in the living room with tea. Opal and Su carried the conversation, catching up on the minutiae of their lives. Off to the side, Lin wadded through a stack of file folders.
Opal drained her cup. Rising languidly, she announced, "I gotta be up for meditation." She leaned down to hug Su, then waved to Lin.
"Goodnight, Mom. Goodnight, Aunt Lin."
"Goodnight, sweetie."
"Goodnight."
Opal ambled from the room, stretching her arms.
When Lin continued reading her files, Su stood and wandered around the room. She peered at the mountain watercolors, pulled out and pushed in several books in the bookcase, and poked at a dish of multicolored pebbles.
"What are you working on?" she asked her sister finally, perching on the sofa arm.
"Officer performance reports." Lin clipped her pen in the folder to save her place and closed it. Ruefully, she said, "Always more paperwork."
"Yeah." Su gnawed on a thumbnail.
Head slightly cocked, Lin waited. After a minute, she prompted, "Su?"
"Did you talk to Chief Duan?"
"Yes."
"We're good for Saturday?"
"9 o'clock airship, meeting at eleven," Lin informed her. "We'll take the train back. The return airship doesn't run until the evening. There's a train at two twenty-five."
"Alright. And Chief Duan said he'd put someone on the case?"
Pursing her lips momentarily, Lin said, "He'll have someone look at it."
"Look?" repeated Su. "What does that mean?"
"It means he'll have someone look at it - review the old case and the new evidence, see if there's anything worth following up," Lin answered with a shrug.
"That doesn't sound like he's taking this seriously," protested Su, jumping to her feet. Gesticulating, she demanded, "I thought we were getting a proper investigation. Not some cursory skim just -"
"There was a 'proper investigation' thirty years ago," Lin interrupted, a hard edge to her voice. Crossing her arms defensively, Su looked away.
Adjusting her tone, Lin added more evenly, "Please don't get your hopes up, Su. Thirty years is a long time. Chief Duan can't afford to sideline active cases for a very cold one unless there's a viable lead. Do you understand?"
"Yes," snapped Su. Her expression conveyed her unhappiness with that understanding. "I get it."
"Good." Reopening the folder, Lin said, "I'm sorry, but I need to finish these for tomorrow."
"I think I'll get a bit of fresh air, then go to bed." Su walked towards the sliding doors leading to the inner courtyard. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
...
Rising as they entered, Chief Duan extended a hand eagerly. "Lin, it's good to see you. You're looking well as always."
"You too." When Duan released her hand, Lin swept it towards Su. "Duan, this is my sister, Suyin Beifong."
"Miss Beifong, a pleasure to meet you. I understand you have some information for us?"
Nodding, Su said, "Yes, it's about a case -"
"Of course, of course, your sister gave us the details and we've managed to locate the old case file - which is something of a miracle - and I've assigned Detective Aiguo to review the new evidence, he should be -"
A man rapped on the ajar door. "Chief?"
"Here," finished Duan, waving for the man to come in. "Detective Aiguo, perfect timing. Chief Beifong, Miss Beifong, please allow me to introduce Detective Aiguo. Detective Aiguo, you recognize Chief Beifong and this is her sister who has the new evidence on that Li Si case."
"It's an honor to meet you, ma'am," replied Detective Aiguo with bob of his head to Lin. Turning to Su, he added, "And you, Miss Beifong."
"Aiguo, why don't you escort Miss Beifong to your office to go over this new evidence?" suggested Duan. "While I give Chief Beifong the five yuan tour, we've made quite a few changes since you last saw the place, and you come find us when you're finished?"
"Yes, sir," replied Aiguo while Lin nodded.
Startled, Su glanced between her sister, the Chief, and Aiguo. She asked Lin, "You aren't going to sit in?"
"No, why would I?"
"Right, I just assumed but nevermind."
"This way, ma'am," said Aiguo, escorting her out and then into a conference room.
...
As the cabby came round to her door, Su peered through the cab's window at the elegant apartment buildings, the posh shops, and the well-heeled housewives strolling along the sidewalk. She asked the cabby as he opened the door, "Are you sure this is Shenlong Street?"
"Yes, ma'am." He pointed to a street post; curly white letters on a crisp blue background spelled out Shenlong St. A dragon crouched in the bottom right corner. "See?"
With a tiny huff of impatience, Lin excited the cab through the street-side door. In long, quick steps, she gained the sidewalk and stood by the cabby.
"Come on, Su."
Su climbed out while Lin handed the cabby his fare. She said, "Thank you."
"Pleasure ma'am," he replied with a slight bob.
"Thanks," Su managed to remember to add, her eyes roving up and down the street.
They began walking. Each sister paid attention to their surroundings, Lin with a practiced curiosity that conveyed a sense of mapping the scene while Su exhibited surprise and no little amount of disorientation which she accompanied with squints and shakes of the head.
"It's so different," she remarked disbelievingly. "Everything - that building there, I could swear, I think it was a second-hand clothes shop but now - and that one, there was a rent house there, I had friends who lived there, artists, it smelled like paint all the time and now it's townhouses - "
"Places change in thirty years."
They passed a nurse with a pram, prim white with green bows and polished wheels. Su turned her head to follow it, watching until it was two houses behind them.
"I know - I just - this used to be full of artists, Lin. Dancers, acrobats, actresses, painters, songwriters, musicians - it maybe wasn't the best neighborhood but it was fun and gay and had life, you understand? Not this -" Su fluttered her hand at a modiste with twinkling gowns displayed in the window and a "By Appointment Only" placard and then at a collection of ladies being waited upon by gloved servers in a tearoom with crystal light fixtures. "This pretentious respectability."
"You live in a mansion with servants, Su," Lin said. "You're a lot closer to this than you are to whatever artistic" - she said 'artistic' in the same sarcastic way as Su had said 'respectability' - "commune this place used to be."
"That's not the point," Su countered swiftly. "The point is - it's all different."
They continued walking until Su halted, staring at a structure across the street. Three stories tall, it boasted displays of drapes and fine soaps, glassware and books. Gold lettering declared it "The Emporium of Treasures."
"I lived there," she informed Lin, half-disbelievingly. "So did Jiayi; she was at the end of the hall."
"Did you know her well?" Lin asked.
"Not really, I mean, I only stayed here for about three months, and we weren't close friends," Su glanced about them as if seeking something. "There's no one left who would remember her, is there? Even if Detective Aiguo tries, there's just no one left."
"Not likely," Lin replied flatly.
Su wilted, and Lin laid a hand on her shoulder, resting it there in lieu of false platitudes.
"Let's go," Su murmured. "Let's get out of here."
"Alright." A snap of her arm and a whistle conjured a taxi into which Lin bundled Su, who couldn't help but look back as they drove away.
...
Umbrellas of leaves shaded the sisters as they progressed down a lane of graves. Verdant grass cushioned their steps. Every gravestone had its tree or bush or flower bed.
This early in the summer, no apple-pears adorned the tree under which they halted. Ivory blossoms clung to the branches.
Time had worn the gravestone, weather splotching it and blurring the inscription. Only the freshly carved name "Jiayi" stood out sharp and clear.
Lin touched Su's shoulder. "I'll meet you at the entrance." She walked on.
Su stared at the stone for a long while. Guilt congealed in her stomach.
"I'm sorry," she blurted. "I should've - I'm sorry."
She waited to feel better.
She'd admitted she'd screwed up. Tried to fix things. Apologized.
She didn't feel better.
"I'm not mad at you for taking the ring," she said finally. "I know you really liked it. I would have given it to you if you'd asked."
That much had been in her diary - living down the hall from Jiayi at a boardinghouse for a couple of months, meeting the aspiring singer, Jiayi commenting on how pretty the ring was more than once.
She'd probably swiped it right from Su's night table. The boardinghouse hadn't invested in the sturdiest of locks. Or maybe it had been during one of the gatherings Su had held in her room.
A wave of shame rolled through Su. She hadn't even noticed the ring going missing, not according to the diary anyway. She couldn't remember one way or the other.
In retrospect, Su did recall the carefully patched clothes Jiayi had worn and the way she'd counted her coins when buying a bun from a vendor. The ring had mattered so little to Su, but what would it have meant to Jiayi? A taste of luxury? A dream of wealth?
Su suspected Jiayi had valued the ring more than she ever had. Maybe that was why she hadn't sold it, but kept it hidden and on her body.
"I'm sorry. I hope you've found a kinder place." Su whispered and bowed. She held it for a few heartbeats before straightening and going to find her sister.
…
The train's wheels click-clunked, click-clunked on its route back to Republic City. Having secured their own compartment, the sisters attended to their own pursuits: Lin reading a paperback novel, Su gazing blankly out the window.
Apartment complexes and shops transformed into tidy houses and then into farmland before Su turned to her sister.
"Do you think they'll ever find her family?" Su asked quietly. "Or her killer?"
"Or killers," corrected Lin, folding a corner of her page. She closed the paperback. "What were you able to tell Detective Aiguo?"
"Her name, where she lived, where she worked, some of the people we knew - I knew she came from somewhere in the Earth Kingdom." Su entreated, "Surely that will help? Right? It has to."
Grimacing, Lin said solemnly, "I don't know."
"That means no, doesn't it?" Su demanded. "It's much more than they had, it has to make a difference - if they track down the leads -"
"Su, you said it yourself, 'there's no one left to remember her'." Lin reminded her. "Maybe, Aiguo will get lucky but if not...I warned you not to get your hopes up."
"And her killer? Killers?"
Lin blew out a long sigh. "If the killers aren't dead? He'd need a confession. No witnesses, murder weapon probably destroyed or lost decades ago, little evidence found at the time, any other evidence or records forgotten or lost or destroyed - and that's assuming Aiguo could even find a suspect."
"So that's it. You just give up," Su retorted angrily. "Too bad, so sad, just faceless dead girl nobody cares about because she doesn't have a family or friends or - "
Lin's fists clenched and she folded her arms. "Don't throw stones when you live in a glass house, Su. You're the one who refused to come forward thirty years ago. You don't get to blame the police for this."
Squirming, Su opened and shut her mouth a couple of times. When she spoke, she'd subdued the accusatory note. "What about her family? Don't they deserve to know what happened to her?"
Looking away, Lin focused on the fields rushing past. "Maybe but it might not help."
"What'd you mean?"
"Maybe they told themselves a pretty story - that Jiayi had made it good in the big city, so good she'd be embarrassed by them. Or that she fell in love and is happily married with six children and lives in a great big house and never wants for anything. Maybe if they learned what had really happened to her, it would destroy them." Returning her gaze to Su, Lin's eyes were shadowed. "Or maybe her family was what Jiayi was running from. Not everyone runs away because they're bored. Some people run because risking the streets is better than what's at home."
"Oh...I didn't think about that," Su admitted. Imaging that, her stomach twisted and she took several deep gulps to suppress the urge to gag.
The wheels clacked on and on, straining as the train would up a hill. A couple strolled by their compartment, arm in arm, then the conductor, and then a grandfatherly figure, leaning on a cane.
The train crested the hill.
"She has a name now," Lin said, breaking the quiet. "That's something."
"It doesn't feel like something."
"It never does."
"Do you have cases like Jiayi's?"
"We all do."
Su peered at her sister, hearing the weariness in those three terse words. She asked, "How do you do it?"
"One day at a time," Lin answered, quietly matter-of-fact in a way that spoke of a lesson learned the hard way.
"That's it?"
With a small shrug, Lin said, "There's not much else you can do. You fight the battles as they come. Some you win, some you don't. You learn to live with it."
Su fell back into silence. Lin returned to her book.
Later that evening, as Opal toed off her shoes in Lin's entryway, Su pounced on her, hugging her tightly.
"Mom?" Opal asked, a bit anxiously but returning the hug with equal strength. "What's this for?"
"Can't a mother just hug her daughter without needing a reason?" replied Su. She gave Opal a last squeeze before releasing her and flitting away. "Come on. Dinner's almost ready."
"Okay…" Opal mumbled, still confused. As her mother finished setting the table - the big one in the dining room she'd insisted they use rather than the small one tucked almost inside the kitchen that her aunt preferred - Opal stepped into the kitchen. She inhaled tangy spices and her mouth watered.
"That smells good. Curry?" she asked her aunt, keeping her voice low as Lin had the phone pressed against her ear and a notepad open on the counter. Lin nodded, and Opal went to the sink to wash up.
As she dried her hands, she heard her aunt finish her conversation.
" - expect an update tomorrow. Good night." The headset clicked onto the base.
"Aunt Lin?"
Scribbling a notation, her aunt glanced at Opal. "Yes?"
"What's up with Mom? What did you two do today?"
With a slight slant of her head, Lin replied, "I think you should ask your mom."
"There's nothing wrong, is there?
"Not wrong just - ask your mom. It's her story to tell if she wants to," said Lin. She closed the notepad,, sliding the pencil through the wires along its top. "Get the bread from the oven, please."
Throughout dinner, Su kept up a steady stream of chatter. She spoke about her plans for when she returned to Zaofu, inquired about Opal's day and her training, and described artwork she'd seen yesterday, occupying herself with galleries while Lin and Opal worked.
She avoided any mention of what she and Lin had done that day. Knowing her mother, Opal let her chatter, supplying responses when required.
Only later, changed for bed, did she perch on the arm of the sofa and lean against her mother. Su automatically wrapped an arm around her daughter.
"Mom, what did you do today?" Opal asked softly. "Aunt Lin wouldn't say."
After a prolonged moment, Su replied, "We went to Luquan. I used to live there, a long time ago. There was something I had to do there, someone I needed to see."
"Why?"
"Because I made a mistake and I wanted to try to set things right. Except…"
"Except?"
"I couldn't."
"Oh." Opal pressed close. "I'm sorry."
"So am I."
They sat together until Opal yawned and Su shooed her off to bed.
...
After lying in bed for an hour, Su shoved her covers aside. Pulling on her robe, she tiptoed to the kitchen and started making tea.
"Can't sleep?"
Twitching violently, Su hissed, "Lin! Don't sneak up on me like that."
"Sorry," her sister replied, not sounding the least bit repentant. "Mother would say you're going soft."
With a sigh, Su said, "Probably. What are you doing up?"
Lin shrugged and took down mugs. "Could ask you the same thing."
Su hugged herself. "I can't stop thinking about her, about Jiayi. I keep seeing her and wondering - do you know why I remembered this now?"
"No, why?" Lin prompted. She selected a canister of chamomile blend, spooning it into the teapot.
"When Opal decided to go be an Airbender, go travel the world, I thought it was wonderful. I mean, I learned about life, about myself, about everything when I did that. Leave everything behind and just go - it was amazing," Su said. "And I kept telling myself that when I didn't hear from her for days, then weeks, then months, and I didn't want to be…"
"Me?" Lin asked bluntly.
"Well, yes," admitted Su. "I didn't want her to feel tied down. Or think that I didn't trust her to take care of herself, but I still...I couldn't help wanting to know that she was okay."
Lin said nothing, just poured the now-boiling water into the teapot.
"When she called, when you made her call, I - it made me think of what happened all those years ago. If it had been Opal, if someone had told me they had found a body - I don't want to even think about it." Su grabbed for Lin's wrist as her sister tried to turn away. "I didn't realize, back then, what I put you through."
"You didn't care to. You thought I was bossy and controlling and - how did you once put it - 'a fun-killing stick in the mud who thought she always knew better than anyone else'. At Altay, you told me to stay out of your life," Lin replied, a rough edge to her voice. Like in Zaofu, her words flooded out as if a dam had been broken. "You didn't want me in your life. I went home, and I did what you wanted. I stayed out of your life, and made sure you stayed out of mine. And then, one day, you decide you want to be friends again? A family again? After - you and Mom - you were the ones who left. Not me."
Su winced, shamefaced.
"I know," she murmured. "And I'm sorry, Lin. Not sorry for going out and living my life, but for the way I treated you. It took being a mother myself to understand; you were trying to look out for me because you loved me."
"Yes."
"I'm sorry," repeated Su, not knowing what else to say.
Lin accepted the apology with a small nod. After a moment, she gently shook off Su's hand - which still held her wrist - and poured the tea. Handing a mug to Su, she said, "Drink your tea. It'll help you sleep."
Her past self would have bristled at the directive. She would have refused the mug out of pure obstinacy. Her present - and considerably wiser self Su thought - sipped the tea, and said, "Thank you."
Lin hmmed in acknowledgement. Gripping her own mug, she ushered Su out of the kitchen, saying, "You're more likely to fall asleep if you're in bed. Besides, didn't you promise Opal you'd go for pancakes tomorrow after morning meditation?"
"I did. Goodnight, Lin."
"Night." Su entered her room while Lin continued on to the master suite.
This time, Su was able to set aside the ghosts of her past and sleep.
"- and give my love to Dad and Huan and the twins," Opal said as the conductor shouted "All aboard" and Su broke their hug.
"I will," Su promised with a smile. "You'll come home soon? At least for a visit?"
"As soon as I can, I'm sorry I can't take you home on Juicy, but the ritual starts tomorrow and I can't miss it," said Opal apologetically.
"It's fine. I'm just happy to have spent time with you," Su replied. "But - your father - and I - would like you to call more often. He worries and I - it's good to know you're okay."
"Sure, I can do that," Opal said without hesitation.
"Thank you."
"Ma'am, if you would?" Approaching them, the conductor gestured at the train. Su threw him a glare, but being accustomed to such looks, he was unmoved.
Opal and Su exchanged a final, brief hug, then Su climbed the steps into the train carriage. Finding her seat, she let down the window to wave at Opal who waved back.
When the train pulled out, Su watched Opal until the train rounded a bend and she was out of sight.
...
Bataar greeted her with a hug and a kiss. Then he pulled back, scrutinized her, and smiled. "You look better. How's Opal?"
"She's good, she's enjoying learning Airbending and traveling and she seems happy," Su said. "She promised to call and write more."
"And the other thing?"
Su sobered a little. "I did what I could. I don't know if it'll do any good, but at least I tried. Also, Lin and I talked about some things. It was good."
"I'm glad, and glad you're home."
"So am I."