Mount & Bending

by Luke Danger

As Harmonic Convergence came to a close, it seemed that things would be right again. But for Korra and her friends, it became the start of a new adventure in a strange land. This is Calradia, a land of war with six kingdoms locked in brutal struggles for dominance. Unable to return home, Korra must find a new path in a vicious world, and find what she wants to accomplish here.

12. With Fire and Sword

Making her way into the tavern, Korra saw her friends sitting at a nearby table. Asami was the first one to stand.

"Korra, how'd it go?"

"Good enough, except for Delinard stopping the fight when Harlaus had the upper hand," she muttered.

"Really?" Mako asked as he raised an eyebrow. "So was he impressed, or was it a timed thing?"

"Harlaus was impressed, but who knows?" Korra explained as she sat down and drew water from the nearby pitcher. "My left arm's hurting, but it's not broken."

"What happened, take a blow there?" Bolin asked, holding a bag of ice on his head.

"Through a shield, then he bent it backwards when I was knocked down," she explained as she brought the water over and it started to glow. Taking a deep breath, Korra enjoyed the soothing feeling that went through her as the pain dulled away.

Once she stopped, she put the water back and shook her head. "Anyways, he's offering to hire us to join his forces. Full time." She shook her head. "I dunno, I'm not interested."

"Too many remarks?" Mako asked. She had mentioned what happened with Regas when she was helping Bolin.

"Yeah. I think we should politely decline Harlaus' offer and get out of town. Maybe help some of the villages or something, I've had enough of the nobles for a while."

"We can decide in the morning," Bolin suggested as Pabu hopped onto the table and squeaked indignantly. "Alright, I'll feed you!"

Korra smirked. "How was Naga?"

"Mostly just slept the day away and she still is," Mako explained as he frowned. "She's probably going to want to run around tomorrow."

"Yeah; at least on Air Temple Island she could go run around the beach when I wasn't there." Korra frowned. "Speaking of that, where's Jinora?"

"Haven't seen her," Asami explained. "You want to head out in the morning?"

"If she isn't back by then." Korra glanced along the table. "So, you guys eat already? I didn't stick around for dinner."

"Not really," Bolin muttered. "My jaw's still sore and I wasn't even hit there!"

"You hit the ground," she retorted when the door opened.

"Jinora?" Mako asked as everyone turned. Korra noticed that the young airbender had a massive grin on her face and Furry-Foot was floating side to side behind her.

"I found them, Korra," she said with a wide grin. "Spirits. In the mountain outside of Praven."

XXXXXX

Getting up to the mountain took most of the day, though they had a late start as Harlaus tried to convince them to accept the mercenary contract before he relented that they were freelancers and not subjects of Swadia. Then getting up the mountain proved to be hard as there were no trails - they had to forge their own path with earthbending.

Eventually they reached a grove just below the peak of the mountain, one of grey rock and sparse grass with a spring in the middle of it which gave off heat - Korra could feel it as they approached.

And surrounding the hot spring itself were spirits, a little over a dozen of them. A few were similar to some animals they had seen, but others were downright bizarre like one that was a bush with a blank face save for eyes. As they approached slowly Korra spotted another spirit - looking like a baboon with monk's clothing, shifting behind a rock as he turned his nose up.

"So, Xiang was telling the truth," the bush spirit said with a voice that sounded to her like it was talking while inhaling. "We cannot sense the Avatar's spirit."

Korra's stomach tightened again as her fears of what she was rose again. Luckily Asami cut in before she could put too much thought to it. "So spirits can sense each other?" the ex-CEO asked.

"Sort of," Jinora elaborated. "It's kind of hard to explain, though. Think of it like a gut instinct."

"So… any problems here?" Korra asked as the grove fell silent.

"None, though perhaps you could settle an argument?" the bush spirit asked. "I've been debating with the baboon spirit and your friend wasn't able to settle it."

"Arguing about...?" Korra asked as she looked at the airbender.

"Some of the spirits think that there were some in Calradia, before Harmonic Convergence," Jinora explained as she shrugged. "I dunno, we knew about spirits as something very real back home, but here they're little more than stories and no one believed they were real until they met them."

"The reason spirits were around at all was because of Harmonic Convergence," Korra pointed out as she thought back to what Wan had showed her when she had to reconnect. "Vaatu was messed up, but considering he was throwing Wan around like a rag doll I don't see why he'd lie about being the one who breached the gap between our world and the Spirit World."

"So you think there were some?" the bush spirit asked, leaning forward.

"Sure, maybe… I don't know," Korra admitted with a shrug. "I'm just as in the dark about you and how is spirit water even made?"

"That's… not exactly clear," Jinora admitted, lip curling. "Nothing I've read ever discusses how a place becomes spiritual."

"And I'm betting most spirits weren't involved in our world," Mako suggested. "So, any of you have an answer?"

The spirits remained silent for a few moments.

"Well," Korra said to break it, "I don't really have an answer. Maybe some were here and found a way home, maybe there weren't and Calradia just happened to have something. All I know is that their history goes about thirteen hundred years, but who knows considering how long spirits exist…"

The bush spirit nodded. "I suppose the debate will continue then. A fine way to pass the millennia, at least."

"So what do spirits do for fun?" Bolin asked. Korra found herself shifting side to side as the answer hung in the air as now Korra was wondering the exact same thing.

"Fun," another voice cut in and they all looked to where the baboon spirit was meditating. "You have far more important concerns than 'fun'. The Avatar is missing her bending."

"It's coming back though," Asami commented. "Actually, isn't your firebending almost combat ready again?"

"Almost, yeah."

The baboon spirit sighed and stood. "Then perhaps I can help. Come… alone," he added as Bolin was starting to step forward.

"Uh, okay," Korra said as she walked over, giving Naga a slight push as the polar bear dog tried to follow. Leaving the others behind, the baboon led her into a cave.

"I trust you know that fire is the element of power, but it is more than destruction," the baboon began as they entered and Korra was able to feel heat belching out from deeper in the cave.

"It's also life," she answered.

"Good. At least some humans remembered that wisdom. Can you not feel this heat?"

"What is it?" Korra asked as she felt her brow starting to sweat despite being able to see a long passage ahead. This can't be some hot spring, it's way too hot this far out.

"You'll see," the baboon spirit said as he led her further down. "Fire is life and death. It burns down a forest, but in doing so clears the way for new trees to grow. It restores a cycle, an ever burning wheel."

Korra suddenly started to cough, a brutal smell assaulting her nose and the heat was getting to her as they reached the end. "Hold on, this heat is…"

They came to an area where the cave opened up. Korra looked up to see a small hole with the sky, but below her she saw why the heat was so intense.

Lava. It was dormant and moving slowly, but it was lava none the less. The mountain was more than just that: it was a dormant volcano.

"Feel the heat," the spirit continued, "feel it as it tries to break you down. A volcano can sweep aside all life, burning it in heat, suffocating it in ash, and melting it into the lava as it flows. Yet the soil that follows," the baboon knelt and grabbed some of the loose dirt. "Volcanic soil is rich, and once the danger passes new life grows abundantly."

Korra coughed again, covering her mouth as she was instinctively trying to firebend the heat away from her, but it was too much for anything passive. "Look, I…" she coughed as sweat began to run down her whole body, "can't stay here..."

"Come," he said, leading her a along a path that led to another small cave that put her on an outcropping, one that gave her a stunning view of Swadia.

In the distance she could see Suno, surrounded by the farms and vineyards that its people maintained. Looking to the left slightly she saw the forests to Suno's north, and to her right and in the distance the ones further south. She took a deep breath: although the volcanic heat was still coming out and beating down on her back, the air warmed by it was cool now that she was no longer right at the furnace and the sulphur seemed to have faded. It was still hot, but not deathly so.

"It may not actually restore your firebending, but perhaps it will help," the baboon said as he sat down and crossed his legs. "Mediate here, feel the heat of the fire and look at the truth of how it burns and provides."

Korra nodded, sitting down as well and putting her hands together, closing her eyes and taking deep and steady breaths as the heat from the dormant volcano pushed against her.

She tried to clear her mind, but she could not ignore her duel with Harlaus. She hadn't been defeated, not like she had been when Unalaq and Vaatu had managed to rip Raava out of her. She was still able to fight, just reeling from her arm being bent in a way it wasn't supposed to go.

Am I really sore about that? she wondered. It was petty - it was just a sparring match and the referee called it before it escalated. So why was it bothering her?

"Those who weep for the plight of a princess denied her throne should instead think of the plight of villagers taken from their homes to be sold in Tihr as chattel. That, I think, is something you are all too familiar with, having failed yourself in this defense."

Of course, she realized as she exhaled. She had failed there and she was trying to prove that it was just an impossible fight, not that she failed because she was weak.

But did that mean Xiang was right when he told her weeks ago that she was at fault for Vaatu's escape? Had I been just a bit quicker, if I didn't hesitate before we jumped in…

She shook the thought aside as sweat continued to run down her back. The heat was still pressuring her, but she felt something stirring in her stomach. She may have failed, but it was not the same as giving up. She never yielded.

And I'm not yielding here until I've got my firebending back, she decided as she took another deep breath. She could feel the heat stirring in her body now, feel the warmth of the sun in the clear skies. And more heat arose around her, growing and fading as she continued to inhale and exhale, feeling the flow of chi in her body as she generated a small ring of fire around her.

Failure, she realized, was part of her life. She was the Avatar, and the Avatar was held on a pedestal with the expectation to succeed even when it was impossible. And here she fought those who would not be daunted by that. She had failed many times, but so had Aang, so had Roku, so had Kyoshi, so had Kuruk, and she had no doubts that Yangchen had failed too. Despite being held as the acme of perfection, the Avatar had failed.

"And it's built on failure," she muttered to herself as she remembered how Wan had fared against Vaatu whenever they had met before Harmonic Convergence: poorly. But what separated Wan from the average goon that failed to get his mark because she had been there? What made the difference between her failing to stop Vaatu in time with Amon's - Noatak's - revolution?

She blinked as she remembered watching tiredly as Noatak had fled, swimming away with his water bending as his followers were demoralized. He had ran. He gave up.

The heat had built up, and Korra took one last breath before opening her eyes. The ring of fire had grown, and was now surrounding her entirely. Smiling to herself, she exhaled, let it fade, and stood. Looking towards the cave, she began to run through a series of drills she had practiced long before, driving fireballs rapidly and with great strength, consuming the air within the tunnel in a torrent of fire.

"It worked," the baboon said as he turned his head slightly. "Now, go bother someone else. Maybe the little airbender can help you with what remains."

Korra grinned slightly. "I'll go… but thank you."

The baboon paused, smiling himself. "You're welcome, Avatar."

As Korra made her way down, she found that it was easier this time to get through the volcano passage and made her way back to the spring. She found the others sitting around, Mako and Bolin sparring with each other as Asami was going through a series of drills with her sword. Naga was playing with Pabu and some of the spirits away from the hot spring itself, bounding around rapidly as she seemed to be chasing Pabu and the other spirits were also dodging. Jinora was meditating herself, but turned as she approached.

"Korra?" Asami asked, stopping and sheathing her sword.

"I did it," she said, creating a large ring of fire around her and directing it towards the sky. "My firebending, it's back."

"Whoa, how'd you do that?" Bolin asked, tilting his head.

"I figured out the difference between giving up and failing," she explained as Naga stopped playing and started to walk over. "I may have failed before, but I've never given up."

Most of them looked at her in confusion, though Asami nodded slowly a few moments later and Jinora was smiling.

"Bending is spiritual and physical," the young airbender said. "I told you that you couldn't game bending."

"No, I couldn't," Korra admitted as Naga came up and nuzzled her arms. "But it gave me the push I needed, I was almost there before, this just pushed it."

"One more to go," Bolin said. "So, punt another fake out a window?"

Korra glanced at Mako and wondered: what had really triggered her airbending there?

"It won't be that easy," Jinora retorted.

"We could try some pro-bending practice later," Korra suggested. "Maybe if I retrace my steps I'll get it." She stumbled, glancing at Naga as the polar bear dog pushed her. "Okay, okay, we can go for ride!"

XXXXXX

They spent the rest of the afternoon at and around the volcanic hot spring. The next morning they made their way back down to Praven. They were free, and none of them knew where to go from there. Bolin had suggested they see what work was available and Praven was closest.

"Ah, Lady Korra," the guild master said as they approached. "Good to see that you're still happy to help commerce."

"You don't need to call me 'lady'," Korra noted, though given that they were meeting in the same courtyard as the city's keep she had to wonder how close this man was to Harlaus.

"Regardless, I do have a job for you if you're interested," he said as he pulled out a map and held it out, pointing to several locations marked on it. "We have a problem with deserters who've been attacking travellers, even destroying a caravan from Yalen. There's a bounty on them, if you're interested."

"What're the crimes?" Asami asked as she folded her arms.

"Also, dead or alive?" Mako asked.

"The usual throw of the dice - larceny, murder, assault, and probably some nastier stuff we don't know about. At this point we don't care about dead or alive, do whatever works for you," the guild master explained. "If you can take them out, there's a bounty of six hundred denars waiting for you."

"Six hundred?" Bolin asked in surprise. "Wow, they annoying people?"

"They destroyed a caravan and killed many of the people on it. At this point we don't care about getting the goods back so much as getting rid of them."

"Any idea if we'll be able to return what we recover?" Asami asked.

"You're free to keep anything you can salvage, but if you'd like to return what you recover you can always try to bring it here or to the guild master of another town. We're in regular communication, so if it's marked we can probably find the owner." The guild master shook his head. "Rather odd question coming from adventurers, don't you lot live on loot?"

"We're honest," Bolin said with a shrug. "So uh, who exactly are they anyways?"

"Foot soldiers from one of the Iyindah levies, and if rumor is to be believed they're not just Swadian deserters. The guild suspects that there may be some Rhodoks with them. Possibly the ones involved in the recent grain fire at Nemeja, possibly not, but taking care of them can only mean good things for trade."

"How many men?" Korra asked as she weighed their abilities. With her firebending back she was feeling confident, especially if the levies were anything like conscripts from the Hundred Year War, but they still needed to know.

"Estimates range from eight to twice that - the caravan survivors said that a number of them were killed - but we do have a description of their leader and they were last sighted heading south from Veidar. However I'd ask people you meet on the road to pick up their trail."

"If they haven't had their fill, they'll probably attack again," Mako said, "Should be able to track them with that."

"Alright; anyone have objections?" Korra asked as she looked at them. "Jinora?"

The airbender shook her head. "We should try to bring them in for fair trial, but if they're attacking people I don't have any objections."

"I'm good," Asami said.

"Nope, nothing," Bolin added as he shrugged.

"Alright, we'll do it," Korra said.

"Good. Now, the leader of the group…"

XXXXXX

The hunt took them two days. The first day was mostly spent finding their trail, but on the second morning they found them near Nemeja and followed them southeast into Rhodok territory. They managed to catch up to them after the deserters had taken a side route to avoid a massive stone castle at the crest of a mountain pass. As noon passed, the deserters had halted and were partially unpacking their mules and one of them was gathering wood for a campfire.

Asami nodded to Korra as they had stalked closer through the brush and rocks. There were a dozen deserters and most of them had some sort of red leather for protection. A few instead wore white padded jackets with green sleeves, and the last three had mail with red tunics. All of them had some form of shield and most had spears, though one of the men with the green sleeves had a crossbow.

"Gotta say, this is far better than actually stickin' around for a few denars a week," one of the deserters said as he lit the campfire with a small fireball. "We're eating great, and if we can get to the Sultanate we'll even be able to turn this loot into coin and go find somewhere to retire."

"Only trick will be the bandits here, they might not take kindly to us," the green sleeved crossbowman retorted as he brought over an iron pot. "Plus, this is Solocolt territory. Do we really want to stick around?"

"You worry too much Petruzzo," another of the green sleeved deserters said, "And those adventurers with that big white thing dropped back hours ago."

Asami saw Korra smirking. They had been spotted, but dropping back they let Jinora and Furry-Foot scout from the air. Once they were in the woods that had led up to the mountains, they were able to really leverage the advantage of riding over walking without the deserters being aware as the trees hid them.

"Anyways, who's keeping…"

Heavy footfalls in the distance cut off the conversation and Asami tensed up, hand on the pommel of the arming sword. It sounded like an army was on the move nearby.

"Get a lookout!" one of the Swadian deserters ordered and Korra rose, shooting a fireball into the center of the group. The agreed on signal to attack.

Rising out of the rocks and brush, the two brothers attacked from the far side while Asami and Korra charged in from their end, catching the raiders in between. Korra's fireball exploded against the campfire, sending the pot flying into the crossbowman and he fell to the ground as more bending attacks - mostly fireballs but also a large rock from Bolin - slammed into the camp.

"You gotta be shitting me…" one of the spearmen grumbled as he turned to face Asami, shield and spear in hand. Asami held the sword to her side, inviting an attack. He thrust the spear forward and Asami stepped to the side, the spearhead just grazing her suit with it's wide tip. Grabbing with her left hand, she used the leverage to pull him closer and hit him with the pommel of the arming sword. Without a helmet he dropped down instantly, and as he hit the ground she saw Korra knocking another deserter into the air.

Asami turned in time to see one of the deserters in mail rush towards her, a short but very wide set sword in hand. He swung down and Asami leapt to the side, swinging her blade down as he followed through. She caught him in the back with the edge of the sword and he nearly fell to his knees, but the mail armor had protected him as he turned to face her. A third deserter charged Asami with a spear as he did so, but she managed to avoid the two handed thrust and used it as leverage to fling him aside and towards Mako, who hit him with a hard punch to the gut and blasted him back with firebending.

The mailed deserter came back towards Asami, carefully this time as he held his shield and wide sword tightly, looking at her as he held the sword to the side. Asami took the offensive this time, going towards his shield before cutting to the right. He turned to follow her and took a swing. Asami threw herself to the ground as the blade went over her head and she came up, thrusting the sword into the man's stomach with both hands, stabbing through the mail on both sides. The deserter dropped his sword and looked down, eyes wide in shock as his face paled, taking one last weak wheeze of a breath.

Asami pulled the sword out and he collapsed.

The rest of the deserters were beaten, the few who ran finding themselves blown onto their backs as Jinora dropped out of the sky with her glider staff and blew them back into their former camp. Groaning, one of the retreating deserters tried to get back up but Bolin bonked him in the head with his elbow and the man dropped down.

"Asami, you okay?" Korra asked as she turned.

"I'm fine," she answered as she noticed that she had blood over her torso and shook her head. "Just not used to drawing blood like that."

"Took a little getting used to when my dad was teaching me how to hunt," Korra admitted as another of the deserters groaned and Korra kicked him, then made earthen restraints to lock him into the ground. "Just give it some time."

"Yeah…" she admitted and looked towards the mules. "Though at least the mules didn't run off; that should make it easier to get everything to Veluca and back to the owners."

"Found their leader!" Mako called as he pulled up one of the deserters, a large rock next to where his head was. "He's a little dead though…"

"Guilty…" Bolin admitted.

Jinora walked over, looked at the dead deserters, and shook her head. Asami knew that Jinora didn't approve of it.

It's not like we're aiming to kill them, Asami thought as she pulled a rag from her back pocket and started cleaning the blood off of the sword.

"So, what're we going to do with them?" Jinora asked.

"Tie them up, drag them to Veluca?" Korra asked when she paused, looking towards the end of the clearing. "Uh, guys, we've got company."

Asami looked up and at the end of the clearing, at least a hundred meters away, she saw a host of soldiers in green with polearms and crossbows emerge from the pass, led by a man on an armored horse. The banner that flew over the host, worn on the leader's tabard, and was painted onto the shields was split in half with the left side a light purple and the right side a subdued pink, almost a dull red in color. And on this background was a white double headed bird of prey spread out as if it was rising into the air.

"Oh boy," Bolin muttered as the leader held a hand up and rode towards them at a low trot.

"Who are you?" the man demanded once he was closer. He was an older individual, though there were only small streaks of grey in his bushy red mustache while his hair was buried beneath the helmet he wore.

"My name is Korra, and we were hunting these deserters for Praven's guild master."

He nodded slowly. "I see. I am Count Matheas, lord of Veluca and Marshall of the Rhodoks. I see you beat my men to our quarry."

"You were hunting them, Count?" Asami asked, careful to address him properly. They had no idea what he thought of their interference.

"I was," he said as he nodded slowly as he looked around. "Well, you can certainly take care of yourself, Korra, though even age cannot prepare one's eyes for a lady caparisoned for war and slaying trained soldiers."

Asami rolled her eyes at the offhand insult, but if he was trying to get a rise out of Korra the Avatar did not take the bait.

"You said you were the man in charge of Veluca? We were going there to get this stuff back to its owners," Korra gestured to the mules. "Maybe we could travel together?"

Matheas nodded. "Indeed. Are you committed to anything beyond hunting this group? I may have a job for you."

"What kind of job?" Korra asked as she folded her arms.

"We can discuss the details on the march, but the broad stroke of it is that we've been having bandit problems. Nothing out of the ordinary, but with King Graveth leading so many of our troops in besieging Shariz and most of the levies being called to that front, we are a bit thin here. The few vassals allowed to go home are protecting their fiefs, but no one is after the source."

"The source? So some sort of safe house?" Mako asked.

"Exactly," the count said with a nod. "Normally I could take troops and sweep the hillside for their lair, but my men make too much noise on the march and they're familiar to the bandits. You, as something different, might be able to do more."

"Let's get going," Korra said as she nodded towards the east, "but I think we can help."

XXXXX

The trip to Veluca took most of the afternoon, but once they arrived the local guild master sorted out what could be returned -mostly objects that had some merchant's seal on it. After that he sent a letter to Praven's guild master along with proof of the deed, and Matheas invited them into his castle. Jinora and Bolin remained outside with Naga, Pabu, Minty, and Furry-Foot to keep the guards from getting antsy with their long polearms around the polar bear dog and because they were okay with not sitting on the final deal.

"So, we have an agreement?" Matheas asked as they finished discussing the terms. He had taken his armor off and was wearing a loose fitting green shirt and trousers.

"We do," Korra said as she looked to Mako and Asami, who nodded. "We'll work on the bandits in the mountains over the next week and bring down as many as we can, and hopefully get their lair too."

"Good," Matheas said as he nodded. "Now, common law still applies to anything you loot, but you seem to take extra steps in that regards. Also, be careful with the bandit lair. To really make it count you need to get them all in one go."

"What happens if we don't get them all?" Asami asked.

"They'll scatter," Mako supplied. "Same thing with Triads - you hit a safe house of theirs, they scatter and lay low until they find a new one. Then you have to do it all over again."

"Sharp young man you've recruited, Lady Korra," the count said with a faint smile.

Korra frowned, confused as she tried to figure out how he knew. "I never mentioned anything about…"

"You are the talk of Swadia's peerage after your appearance in Praven, my dear. It is hard not to hear of it when one watches the affairs of the old oppressors."

So he probably just has spies in Swadia, makes sense, she decided as she guessed he had checked the reports while they were talking to the guild master. "Fair enough," she said, "but you don't need to address me as 'Lady'."

"Very well. Now, before you go is there anything else?"

"Prisoners," Asami said. "What should we do with them?"

"Kill them, sell them to a slaver, drag them to a lord who's willing to take them, I don't care so long as they are no longer free to waylay travellers or attack villages."

Korra nodded slowly. "We'll take care of it, Count."

Matheas nodded. "Good, I will be watching your progress carefully while I am busy here. If you need support on dealing with the lair in one go, send word to me immediately."

A few minutes later, they were outside the keep where the guards at the door were still gripping their pikes tightly as they watched Naga.

"So, how'd it go?" Bolin asked.

"We'll be hunting bandits for the next week," Korra explained. "And he just wants them out of his hair."

"So what's the first step?" Jinora asked.

"Besides sleep?" Asami said as she walked towards where what could not be returned was in a few extra bags. "The first thing we need to do is get rid of this extra stuff." Asami paused for a moment, then crouched and pulled a set of dirty mail from the bag.

"What's the matter?" Korra asked.

"You think we should use the mail?" Asami asked as she held it over her as if she was checking the size. "I mean, I broke this set but it deflected a sword. Considering the amount of abuse we've taken we might want some better protection."

"I dunno, the weight might slow us down," Mako said as Asami was running her hand through the mail.

"As long as we're still flexible armor doesn't hurt bending at all," Korra said as she tilted her head. "But if you want it Asami, it's yours."

"Thanks," Asami said as she looked at the hole in it.

XXXXXX

"There they are," Bolin whispered and Asami nodded. It was mid afternoon the next day. They had already dealt with one group attacking a small caravan, and as they made their way west Jinora had spotted a fight ahead. Bolin and Asami had dismounted to creep in for a closer look while Korra and Mako took the long way up the hill with the animals.

There were eight outlaws in total, all wearing various rawhide, fur, and leather gear that looked to be cobbled together. Most of them had spears or more falchions - the sword she had faced off against the previous day. One had a small bow, and another with a normal sword was keeping watch on the prisoners. The prisoners looked to be farmers and their wives, probably going to market based on the sacks in the cart a brigand was poking through.

"Think we can get their attention?" Asami asked as she checked the bolas on her belt.

"I think so," Bolin said as he pointed along a small rise in the hill. "We come up along there, you take out the one guarding the people and I earthbend a barricade to keep them safe."

"Let's hope this armor doesn't rattle too much," she muttered as she glanced down at her new set.

It was not the same shirt that she had taken from the deserters, but rather one that had been acquired in trade, exchanging the damage shirt with some of the other loot. What she wore was a full shirt of mail, sleeves to her hands and a split skirt hanging over her thighs, worn over her padded suit. If nothing else, she hoped that it would help her avoid slashing wounds like what she had taken at Jayek while still being flexible enough for what she did.

As the two crept in closer, the rustle of Asami's mail felt like a train rushing by to her even though she knew it was no where near as loud. But in their effort to stay quiet, every sound she made seemed louder.

As they closed in, the bandit turned. "Who's there - freelancers!" he shouted as Bolin launched a chunk of ground at him and hit the bandit in the stomach. Asami ran forward, grabbing him and hitting him in the head with her elbow and forcing him to the ground. He collapsed as Bolin came and put up an earthen wall between them and the others as Asami moved past the captives. While they were muttering in confusion, she unhooked a bola from her belt as they took up positions behind the makeshift wall. An arrow shot over their heads and went off down the hill.

Spinning up the bola behind cover, Asami glanced over and saw the one with the bow standing on the cart while the other bandits were cautiously moving closer with shields raised. Rising, she threw the bola towards the man with the bow and caught him, binding his hands together and he fell out of the cart.

Ducking back down, Bolin had grabbed another rock and shot it at the bandits closing in. "Bolin, when they close in chuck this at them."

"Then you go and finish it?"

"Exactly," she said as she drew the arming sword. "Ready?"

"One… two… Now!"

Bolin rose and with a grunt managed to launch the makeshift wall towards the bandits, the ground rippling as it fell over and bounced across. The bandits had paused in shock as they felt the ground shake, and most of them had been knocked back as the makeshift wall was turned into a makeshift bulldozer.

Moving up behind it, Asami went for an outlaw with a spear gripped in two hands. He took a thrust at her, but she moved to the side just a bit too slow and it ran along the mail as she was turning away. She was unharmed as she swung her sword down to cut the spearhead off. Before he could do anything more she followed through by kicking him in the head.

A pair of fireballs came in as some of the bandits were getting back up and she saw Korra and Mako riding in as Jinora dropped down and knocked out the last bandit still standing with her staff.

"Sorry we're late," Korra said as Naga came to a halt in front of some of the knocked down bandits and growled in their faces. The bandits looked at each other, but stayed down.

"It's okay," Asami answered as she switched the sword to her other hand and ran her right hand along where the mail had been hit: she couldn't even feel the scratch with her gloves. "All the people are safe too," she added as she glanced back and saw them slowly rising.

A weary man with a straw hat walked towards them, looking at Naga and taking a fearful step back.

"Don't worry," Korra spoke up, "Naga's not going to bite you. She's really quite friendly…"

"Er… if you say so…" he said as he looked around. "Anyways, er… thanks for the help, strangers. Can't say we can really offer you much, only a little of what's in that cart is ours."

"What happened?" Asami asked.

"We tried to do a run to Yalen. We figured we might be able to slip past the bandits. Didn't work out... "

"We can give you an escort to the city," Korra offered. "We need to drop these guys off anyways."

"Oh no, we've already been to Yalen," the man explained. Asami pegged him as a farmer as she noticed how sunburnt his skin was.

"Alright, we'll get you back to your village. How far is it?"

"Not too far, it's Epeshe."

"Bolin and I can tie up the bandits," Asami said as she walked over to Naga and reached into the saddlebag, grabbing the rope that had been in the deserters' haul and they were able to keep.

The trip to the village only took an hour, but as they approached they were greeted by soldiers wearing white padded jackets with green sleeves. All of them were carrying pikes save for the man on horseback leading the group, who carried a sword and was wearing a red tunic with a black and white checkerboard pattern running horizontally across its middle. This man was in his prime, a large and not well trimmed beard sticking out like a row of spikes.

He rode up towards them on his horse at a slow trot. "Halt!" he called, and they obeyed. The peasants immediately bowed after doing so, and the others followed suit as Asami pegged this man as the local lord.

"Count Nealcha," one of the peasants said as he was on his knees staring at the ground.

"You can all rise," he said as he waved his hands. "I heard you braved a trip to Yalen. I apologize for not being present to escort you, but our king called me to arms."

Korra gently nudged Naga forward and turned to face him. "We found your people held by bandits," she explained, "though if you're going to thank anyone, thank Asami and Bolin, they actually freed them."

Nealcha nodded. "Indeed, thank you." He glanced at Naga, then looked east for a moment. "Say, are you the freelancers that the Redwalls hired to deal with the bandits?"

"Count Matheas hired us, yes," Asami supplied.

The Rhodok lord smiled. "Good! He may be too soft, but he never ignores the threat. And you ladies fought them? I hope one day that my daughters have a similar spirit." He smiled faintly before shaking his head. "Anyways, I'll take these hooligans off your hands and pay them the wages of their brigandage."

Asami shifted uncomfortably as she wondered what he meant by being 'too soft'. She looked towards the village and saw at least one person hanging motionless in a noose.

"Too soft?" Korra asked, a faint quaver in her voice.

"A subject for a little later," the count said as he waved his hand to gesture the peasants to move on. "So, shall we transfer the prisoners? I'll give you my standing bounty on captured bandits as well, thirty denars a man."

Korra glanced back at the bandits and Asami noticed they had all gone pale since Nealcha had mentioned taking them. "Is there something we aren't aware of?" Korra asked.

"If you'd prefer you are free to take them to Yalen, I believe there's a ransom broker there if you'd rather line your pockets more thoroughly by giving them to slavery. The salt mines always need more people and I'm not one to cut them out of their needed labor."

"Yes, yes, Yalen!" one of the bandits cried out. "We're worth money, twice what he's offering! Take us to Yalen and sell us, please!"

"I'm not a slaver," Korra snarled as she looked back then to Nealcha. "Besides, they attacked people from this village. Go ahead."

"Thank you, miss," Nealcha said as he gestured for his men to take them away.

"Please miladies!" one of the bandits begged as the pikemen came up and grabbed them. "We're worth more than this!"

Nealcha snorted. "They all beg for slavery. Take them away!"

The bandits continued to beg, but were cut off in the attempt by the guards who whacked them and dragged them to the village.

"Why would people beg to be enslaved?" Korra asked as she leaned forward and looked at Nealcha. Asami could hear the suspicion in her voice, a suspicion Asami shared.

"They fear the long arm of justice that I employ," Nealcha explained with a shrug. "But since it's getting late in the day, why don't you stay the night? Freelancers willing to assist the law are always welcome here in Epeshe." He bowed his head to them. "Now if you would excuse me, I should tend to the bandits."

"Korra, are you sure this is right?" Jinora finally asked as the count left, looking up at her.

"I have a really bad feeling we just set those guys up to be tortured," Korra answered as she glanced towards what they could see.

"So, stick around to make sure, or we just going to get out of here?" Mako asked as he nudged Minty forward.

"It couldn't hurt to make sure," Asami suggested as Tomoe's warning about prisoners echoed in her mind.

Korra nodded. "Yeah, we should know. You want to stay here?"

"Watching someone get killed isn't exactly high on my to-do list, but…" Bolin muttered as he fidgeted.

"He shouldn't be killing them at all," Jinora grumbled as they made their way into the village.

As they reached the village center, Asami stared with wide eyes and Jinora turned away completely. Besides the hanged criminal that Asami had seen earlier from further out, the village center had a variety of other torture devices set up. A chair with a dormant brazier next to it and a branding iron sticking out of it, a rack that looked to her like it was to stretch people past their limits, multiple sets of nooses on a long gallows, and a large wheel that one of the bandits was being tied too.

"People of Epeshe!" Nealcha called as he was standing on a raised platform near the torture engines. "Today you witness the fate of those who try to rob you of your hard and honest labor! These bandits tried to pillage the benefits of your work and do horrible things to your fellow villagers. Now they will pay for this insult to your families." He turned towards the wheel, a hand raised. "Hoist him up!"

The wheel was lifted up by a pair of burly men with their faces obscured by black hoods with only holes for their eyes. The man screamed, begging for mercy as the wheel was fitted onto a wooden pole. Then a third torturer picked up a large steel rod.

"Oh no..." Korra gasped as they all looked away as Nealcha's hand fell. A loud crack blistered against their ears, followed with the poor man's screaming. Asami had to fight down an urge to puke.

XXXXXX

"I still can't get that wheel out of my head…"

"I know," Korra admitted to Bolin as they had stopped for lunch the next day on their way back east.

They had spent most of the morning heading west, following a larger group of bandits that eventually attacked a caravan from the Kingdom of Nords. They helped the caravan out and the prisoners were taken to Yalen, though the lord there was abroad on campaign. It had felt good, but the events of the previous afternoon was still on their mind.

"And to think he acted all friendly and nice to us," Jinora growled as Furry-Foot purred something. "What?" the airbender retorted as she noticed Mako looking at her.

"Nothing, just… nothing stops a sadist from being nice to people," he explained. "I mean, the Triads are a bunch of nasty people but they aren't all the 'leave your friends behind' type."

"Still, beating someone to death like that? Is that really necessary?" Bolin asked.

"There's worse," Jinora muttered. "One of my history books mentioned an archaic Earth Kingdom punishment called the thousand cuts…"

"Let's not," Asami cut in as she was looking a little green. "We're eating."

Korra nodded as she tore off a piece of jerky and tossed it to Naga. Their makeshift camp was quiet again as they finished their food, cleaned up, and mounted back up to continue their work.

The next few days were spent chasing smaller groups of bandits and getting them off of villagers trying to go to market. Sometimes it was broken up when they found themselves supporting caravans under attack by larger groups, and one time they launched guerilla attacks on one of the larger groups that had actually destroyed a Vaegir caravan bound from Jelkala. Their hit and run attacks weakened it enough for the manhunters that Jelkala's guilds had hired to finish them off with their help.

They took many bandits prisoner in these days, but in small groups topping out at ten people that they could easily keep watch over while transporting and they had enough rope. The larger groups they usually only encountered going for caravans, who were able to supply the manpower to secure them or kept them as prisoners themselves. They avoided Nealcha's patrols when doing this, though, even as he hailed them as having justice it's own reward for not accepting his bounty for the first group.

Although the patrolling, post-battle clean up, and selling the salvage to various merchants took most of the day, they still found time to hone their skills as they made camp for the night or found lodging. Mako was getting more and more confident with being able to reliably generate lightning, Asami was continuing to hone her skill with using the arming sword, and Korra was going through airbending exercises with Jinora.

For her part, Korra found herself enjoying their adventure. The bandits were dangerous, but no more so than anything they had fought before. If anything, Korra felt that they were finally getting used to people trying to straight up kill them rather than aiming to subdue them as Amon's chi blockers or Unalaq's army had. Even with the minor injuries they had sustained and sometimes being dead tired at the end of the busier days, she was happy.

XXXXXX

"You know, I think this might be it," Korra said as they made their way east again.

Mako glanced to the left. He had the reins while Bolin was behind him, leaning on his shoulders and trying to get some rest from their busy day. They had been jumping between Yalen and the outlying farms of the city itself and the nearby villages that were suffering from a surge of looters going for everything not bolted down or guarded.

"What do you mean?" the firebender asked.

"What we're doing, dealing with the bandits. I think I might've found what I want to do in Calradia," Korra elaborated. "We're earning a lot more than we need to eat, and we've been helping a lot of people. Sure, this is more intense than it'll be most of the time, but I think this is what I want to do."

"Do you think Jinora will be okay with that?" Asami asked, turning her head as she was sitting backwards on Naga's saddle to have the room to sharpen her arming sword with a looted whetstone.

"What, because some of the bandits fight to the death?" Bolin asked as he tilted his head, yawning as he did.

"It's not like we're trying to kill them," Mako said as he considered some of his police chases. "Sometimes it just happens."

"No, but we are being aggressive," Asami explained. "Oath of non-aggression, remember?"

Korra shrugged. "I never said I was very good at all the Air Nomad..." she stopped suddenly and Mako looked forward to see smoke starting to rise in the distance. "Jinora, up ahead!"

The airbender, who had been flying above them, looked down before she flew on ahead as they kept moving. Mako was more alert now and he saw Asami turning back around as they were keeping an eye out for trouble.

Jinora came back a few minutes later, not even bothering to come all the way before landing but running towards them as she hit the ground.

"There's a big group of bandits pillaging Dumar up ahead!" Jinora warned. "The bandits are running all over the place and getting ready to leave!"

"Maybe we can ambush them?" Asami suggested. "We might not get there in time, but if they head this way we can cut off their escape."

"That'll work," Mako said as he looked towards Korra, rubbing his eyes. Come on, just one more brawl for the day, he told himself.

The Avatar nodded. "Jinora, go keep an eye on them and come back once they head out. We'll keep moving towards Dumar until we hear from you."

Jinora was back several minutes later and with the bandits heading towards them, they looked for the best ambush spot they could find in short order.

While not the best, the one that they did end up finding was a good one in Mako's mind. It was on a mountain slope near the pass to Dumar's west. To the north was a rocky outcropping where Korra and Bolin set themselves up behind large boulders, ones large enough to roll down the hillside as a way to cut off the bandit path and throw them into confusion. These boulders would run into south end, where there was a wide stream with enough large rocks to obscure Mako as well as Asami riding Naga. The south side rocks were more than big enough to break the boulders when they hit. Jinora waited above them, obscured in the clouds.

The force of bandits made their way in a northwestern march, laden down with their pillage as most of them were carrying large sacks over their shoulders. There were almost thirty of them, most of them laughing and joking with each other. A few were riding mules or horses and were looking around, but they also carried themselves confidently as if they were not expecting trouble. Once glance into the sky told Mako why: the sun was setting and if Nealcha was responding chances are his men would camp at Dumar instead.

The horses suddenly stopped, their riders looking down at their mounts. They smell Naga, Mako thought as he looked towards the polar bear dog's hiding spot. The two earthbenders also picked up on that, and the boulders began to roll down the bandits stopped in confusion, lots of shouting barely audible over the rumble of the rocks crashing into the southern stream.

With the dust partially obscuring his vision, Mako rose up and fired several fireballs as per the plan. As he did so, Korra and Bolin began to charge down the slope and Naga leapt up from where she was hiding, all of them rushing in on the bandits who were still shouting incoherently. As the horses saw Naga, several reared up and threw their riders off before running away.

The mix of exploding fireballs, Bolin chucking a large rock in, followed up by the benders closing in and Naga rushing into the fray kept the bandits disorganized. The plunder they carried worked against them, making them much easier to topple. As Mako ran into the melee he began to work on knocking them down. Lowly aimed streams of fire and using his RCPD riot baton on those who got too close provided much of his offense.

Asami slid off of Naga's back and landed right next to him, covering his flank as a pair of bandits charged at him. She blocked their attacks and slashed one in the arm as Mako turned around and hit the other in the face with a fireball, sending the outlaw's leather cap flying into the air.

As another bandit came at them with a large blade at the end of a stick, Jinora dropped down and blew him away, sending him flying backwards into the confused mass and his polearm fell to the ground. The pounding the bandits took kept them confused, and Mako saw some starting to run.

"One's on a horse!" Bolin shouted as Mako saw the man spurring a black horse on. Korra fired a pair of fireballs after him, missing. Recognizing the range Mako began to move his arms in a circle. Just like escape vehicles, he mused as he felt the surge in his body as he separated the energy, then directed it towards the fleeing horse.

With a loud crack, the electricity shot out and hit the horse, which collapsed and the rider flew into the air. As the energy shot out of his body, he dropped to a knee. Okay, that was a mistake, he realized as he knew he was getting tired from the day's work.

"Mako!" Asami shouted and he turned just in time to avoid a flanged mace being swung at his face, instead taking the blow to his helmet and the flash blinded him momentarily. As his vision recovered he saw the splash of red as Asami swung and cut into the bandit, getting through half his torso before he collapsed and the sword came out.

"Thanks," he said as he wiped the blood from his face, noticing a bandit grabbing a spear below them. "Asami!" he warned, shoving her to the side as the outlaw tried to shove it into Asami from the ground. He shot the desperate bandit in the head with a fireball and kicked his hand, forcing him to let go of the spear.

Oh boy, Mako realized. They had knocked them down and killed a few in the fight, but the bandits were not subdued. The whole team spent at least a ten minutes making their way through the lot, knocking them back down or out as they tried to struggle and all of them received several new cuts and scrapes as the bandits kept struggling. The armor they wore stopped the worst of it, or in Asami's case completely stopped a swing to her back. Eventually Korra and Bolin had managed to restrain the brigands with rock prisons made from earthbending, but even then some were still struggling.

"Now I see why cops can't let their guard down," Bolin muttered, wiping his forehead as he and Korra finished restraining the last of them against the ground. They were still a disorganized mess, but now they could better police them and the weapons were cleared from the brigands.

"Good thing they were weighed down," Mako commented as he looked down at one of the sacks that had been dropped in the chaos and spilled some of the contents - bags of wool. "Otherwise they probably wouldn't have had such a hard time taking the shock."

"What the fuck are you lot anyways?" one of the bandits snarled. "Fricken witches?"

Mako glanced at the one who had spoken - an older man in his thirties in dirty leathers.

"Nah, we just have the right training," Korra said before she glanced to the side. "Jinora, you want to go tell the villagers at Dumar that we caught the bandits?"

Jinora nodded and took off, heading to the east as the others started their wet work routine. The bandits were gathered up and the weapons brought together, while Asami went to grab Minty from where the horse had been tied up then started cataloging the goods they recovered.

XXXXXXX

"Jinora's back," Korra said, stifling a yawn as the moon was starting to rise, and the airbender came down with a gentle landing.

The villagers had come to recover their belongings, but refused to take the prisoners saying that with the raid they lacked the ability to hold the prisoners. And their lord Count Estroq, who also owned a castle by the same name, was a prisoner of the Sarranids and would not be able to help either.

"Did the garrison commander offer to send troops?" Mako asked as he glanced at the bandit prisoners. They had given up trying to escape the earthen restraints a while ago and were now waiting for the freelancers to determine what to do with them.

Jinora shook her head. "No, he told us to do what we wanted with them. If we were going to give them to him, he wants them brought to Estroq Castle."

Korra grit her teeth. There goes that plan, she realized. "He does realize that the reason we sent you to ask was because there's too many for us to move, right?"

"I told him and he just called me things I shouldn't repeat," she said as she shook her head.

"So what now?" Bolin asked, pushing himself up from the rock he had been resting against.

"You think we can force march these guys to the castle?" Korra asked as she blinked. "It's only an hour or two away, right?"

"If it was just us, sure," Mako said as he shook his head. "But we're tired, the villagers took the mules, we don't have enough rope, and on top of that they're not broken. They know we're tired and they'll fight us every step of the way."

"So we can't move them," Asami confirmed as she folded her arms. "Twenty two prisoners for five tired people, and we don't even have a paddy wagon."

"So what do we do, let them go?" Bolin asked as he looked between them. "I'm pretty sure the last time we tried that it didn't work."

"But aren't most of these guys just as fresh?" Jinora asked as she gestured to a few of the bandits who were in normal everyday clothes rather than worn leathers. "Why not let the ones who aren't hardened bandits go and take the rest to the authorities? Maybe this time they'll actually learn their lesson seeing the actual ones taken away."

"Besides being inconsistent and a 'maybe' in there, these guys were also wrecking a whole village rather than just trying to mug people for chump change," Korra retorted as she sighed.

"So what do we do?" Bolin asked again. "We need to do something because we're tired, it's getting dark, and if we don't act their friends will come looking for them."

Korra closed her eyes, thinking through her options. Letting them go wasn't an option, but they couldn't just sit there or try to move them without help - they were too tired to do it safely. They had to take matters into their own hands. A shiver ran up her spine as she realized another option they had. She was supposed to be better than that, but the alternatives were just as bad if not worse.

Sighing, Korra shook her head. "I know we're supposed to be better than this, but I've got an idea. Asami, can you hand me your sword?"

"I'm sorry?" Asami asked, eyes wide for a moment before they narrowed. "Wait, I know that look. You're doing something you don't want to do."

"I won't ask any of you to help with this but… we need to keep them from pillaging again." The others looked at her with a mix of surprise and confusion as what she was saying hit her. "Oh fuck dressing it up, we have to execute them."

"Korra!" Jinora shouted, staring at her with her jaw dropping. "Why would you even say that?! Killing in cold blood, murdering them?"

"I know!" Korra shot back, "but what are our options, let them go? Jinora, if we let them go they'll just grab more weapons and start hurting more people. We tried mercy once, and you saw what happened to that caravan. And what about Nealcha? Sure, he'd be happy to come get them, but that's condemning them to something worse than death. I can't… no, I won't put people through that when I have a different choice."

"That doesn't make it right," Jinora said firmly as she gripped her staff. "You're supposed to be better than this Korra, we all are."

"Maybe," Asami admitted as she was rubbing her chin slowly. "But Korra's right: our options are either letting them go and giving them free reign to go at it again, or we feed them to the torture machine. I'd rather avoid the torture."

"But neither of those options are right. We shouldn't have to choose between that!" Jinora protested.

"Then you won't have to," Korra shot back as one of Tenzin's explanations flashed in her mind. "I'll do it myself if none of you guys want to. But Jinora, we're lucky. We grew up with both our parents."

Asami, Mako, and Bolin all shifted uncomfortably and Korra immediately regretted using their pain as an argument. Push forward, Korra told herself.

"How many people aren't so lucky thanks to people like those bandits, and how many have lost children to them? Lost friends? Can we really say we hold the moral high ground if we just let them walk away when we can stop it?"

"Can we hold the moral high ground when we take life when it isn't necessary?" Jinora looked at the brothers. "Bolin, you were captured by the Equalists once. Would it have been right for them to just kill you there?"

"I was working for the Triads at the time..." Bolin noted, twiddling his thumbs as the spotlight fell on him.

"They also captured him just to strip his bending," Mako cut in, stepping in front of Bolin. "Amon aimed for cheap wins - stirp Triad goons and bosses of their bending to get popular. Heck, those rallies were basically set up like old Fire Nation executions." Mako's scratched just over where the RCPD badge usually went, looking around quickly.

"Heck, you were strapped up like that," Bolin remarked as he looked at Jinora. "Didn't Amon capture you too?"

"Exactly my point. I wouldn't want to be executed, why should we do the same to other people?"

"I don't think anyone wants to be executed," Korra retorted as the image of a frozen cliff over the ocean came back to mind. "Someone who goes into a fight thinking 'hey, I think I'd like to die in this one' either has some strange honor code that treats dying in battle as glorious, or is already contemplating suicide."

Jinora sighed. "I can't believe you're actually set on this. Fine," she scowled at them in disgust. "Go ahead and murder people, but I'll have no part in it." With that she turned and redeployed the glider with a twirl, flying off into the night and Furry-Foot followed behind, giving the team a mournful buzz before leaving.

"Jinora!" Mako shouted as Korra simply sighed and shook her head.

"Let her go," Korra ordered. "She'll come back. She just needs to come to grips with this."

"I'm not happy either," Bolin said, fidgeting and looking around.

"You don't have to help. It's my choice, I can't make you do this."

"So… what're you going to use the sword for?" Asami asked as she unhooked it from her belt and handed it to Korra.

Drawing the sword and looking at the blade - Asami had wiped it clean earlier - Korra wondered. If someone was going to execute her, how would she want to die?

"Korra?" Mako asked.

Blinking as she realized she had let her thoughts distract her, she lowered the sword. "Well, with what we can do we've got plenty of methods that are messy like our bending, or we can try one of the basic quick and painless picks."

"Cutting off their heads," the firebender finished as he nodded.

"One quick strike and it's over," Korra explained as she shook her head. "Unless one of you knows how to do a measured drop?"

They all shook their heads.

"Then let's not do something we'll just mess up," she said as she checked the edge and nodded. "Bolin, can you expand the grave?"

"Got it," the earthbender said as he moved over to the area off the road where there was a bump in the ground from the mass grave they had made for the earlier deaths.

"I'll keep watch," Mako said as he went to where the horse and Naga were waiting on the slope, leaving Korra and Asami standing there.

"Want me to hold them down?" Asami asked.

"Nah, I can use earthbending," Korra said as they walked over to the first bandit, a young man who was easily her age, scruffy with marks of an inexperienced shave on his face. As he saw the sword in hand, he paled and looked at her wide eyes.

"Please!" he begged, "I'll go home and learn and honest trade, I swear! I don't want to die!"

Korra glanced down for a moment as her unease came back, forming a pit in her stomach as she realized that had she not been the Avatar, maybe she would have ended up in a situation like this.

Ignore that, she told herself. She began to earthbend his restraints, forcing him to bend forward with his arms to the side. He whimpered the whole way, tears starting to streak down his cheek and drip onto the ground as he stared at the dirt below.

Holding the blade with both hands - one over the other as there was not enough room on the pommel for both - she held it over his neck, gauging the angle and the follow through: she didn't want to break the blade on the ground.

"You sure about this?" Asami asked.

"Pragmatically? Yes. Personally?" She curled her lip. "No, but… sometimes, you have to make a hard choice."

Asami nodded, putting a hand on Korra's shoulder. "We just need to remember why they're hard to make, and try to avoid having to make them."

"Yeah…" she said as she gestured for Asami to step back and lifted the blade into the air. He was still whimpering and the other bandits were watching her closely, likely wondering if this was going to be their fate.

And with as much strength as she could she swung down.

Blood splattered onto her hands and chest. Korra looked down only to see that she had only cut halfway through the neck. The young man was choking in his whimper, still alive. Eyes wide, Korra quickly lifted up the blade again and finished the cut. The head came off and landed with a muffled thump. The whimpering stopped.

"They usually leave that out of the stories," Asami commented as she was looking away.

"Yes they do…" Korra muttered as she moved to the next one, one of the older bandits.

"Make it quick," he said, lowering his head a dull expression as she shifted the restraints.

"You're not begging?" Korra asked, surprised as she held the bloodstained sword to the side.

"Look, most of us started this to get out of being serfs. We sweat, we work, we bleed for the lords and most of them won't even let us enjoy what we make. Besides, you're giving us a nice clean death, one the nobles would like if it's them. Better than Nealcha and his torture fetish."

Korra found herself keeping her mouth shut tightly and nodded, placing the blade on his exposed neck and raising it before bringing it down, taking his head off in one bloody stroke.

By the time Korra had finished with all twenty two of them, her arms were aching, the sword was bathed in blood, and she was stained red. Only a few heads had come off in one blow, though a burlier one towards the end had taken four good whacks to get through. As the last head rolled onto the ground, Korra collapsed against what remained of the earthen restraints.

"You okay?" Asami asked as she walked over and took a knee next to her.

"Not really," Korra admitted as she looked at the bloodstained grass and then to her hands. Covered in blood, even her palms were red thanks to the blood slipping into the small gaps between her grip and the sword. And it was not just one person's blood - the blood of almost two dozen different people, mixed together in the common killer's hands. In her hands.

Asami uncapped her canteen. "Here; you might want to wash your hands."

"Not yet," Korra said. "We need to drag the bodies to the grave. Is it ready yet?"

"He's breaking down the earth so it'll fall in better, but we can drag them over."

Korra nodded, then glanced at the heads. She had been careful to keep them together with their owners, and was now realizing that carrying them up was going to be difficult. Should have hauled them over first, she thought before looking at the canteen, then to her now bloodstained waterskin.

"Hang on," Korra said as she stood back up. Asami followed as Korra took a step back and adopted an earthbending stance.

Putting the earthen prison back into the ground, Korra watched the headless body slump down. The stench of death was thick in the air, and even with the moon out it was getting dark. They needed to do this quickly. Sighing she flipped the bandit's body around, brought the head until it was roughly in line with the neck, then drew some water to freeze around the neck. The ice acted almost like a glue to hold the body together.

"I'll bring them up," Asami said, her voice unsteady. Korra nodded and moved on as Asami began to pull that bandit to the mass grave. And once all the decapitated bodies had their heads put back on Korra began to carry them up too. When she carried her first one up, some of the ice had already began to melt in the grave and blood was beginning to form shallow puddles.

"Man, it smells worse the back alleys of Republic City…" Bolin complained. "Even Gommu's place didn't smell this bad."

Korra simply nodded. This was the first time they had left bandit bodies sitting out for longer than a couple of minutes before burying them. "Yeah, and it's not just decay."

Bolin paused, frowning uncertainly before swallowing and turning a little green, waiting as they pulled all the bodies in and then helping Korra fill in the grave.

"Alright, that's done…" Bolin said as they finished earthbending.

Asami looked back up the slope, stifling another yawn. "Let's get cleaned up and go find somewhere to sleep, I'm dead tired right now."

Korra looked down at her bloodstained hands. "Let's find a campsite first, I… I need to clean this blood off and it's going to take a while."

"You sure?"

"I don't think I can sleep with all this blood on me and I need more than a waterskin's worth to get it off."

Asami nodded.

After finding a small cave a few hundred meters further up the mountainside, Asami and Bolin were able to wash their hands with some contents from a spare waterskin though they didn't bother with dinner; they ate some of the bread in their supplies and started to make themselves comfortable.

With them settling in and Bolin able to seal the cave with earthbending, Korra and Naga could head down to the stream at the southern side of the pass by themselves. Naga began to drink directly from the water while Korra, just downstream, stared into at her moonlit reflection.

The blood that had splattered onto her was caked on now, dry and brittle. Washing it out was going to take time. Part of Korra, however, wondered if it wasn't telling her something. Is this who you want to be? she wondered as she looked at her bloodstained face.

No, it's who I have to be in Calradia, she decided as she started to clean it off of herself and her gear.

XXXXXXX

End Chapter

- Originally, Korra was supposed to restore her firebending during her fight with King Harlaus, sort of like how she does in the video game you can download on Steam by letting the fists fly against a bunch of chi blockers. I kept it before I truncated their sparring match down, at which point I decided to move it to meeting the spirits since firebending isn't only aggression and I already ripped the video game with Korra regaining her earthbending (I just replaced the Mecha Tank with a Nord Huscarl lookalike).

- As for spirits… admittedly it's a bit of an abandoned plot thread. Originally I was going to have some Calradian ones, but then I realized… they're not going to do much and it's shoving too much Avatar stuff into Calradia. So I just covered my tracks with the talk about spirit water and guesses, allowing me to reintroduce the concept later if I want without having to retcon the entire mess at Kedelke. Plus canon never told us what spirit water was anyways or how it forms…

- Nealcha is a divergence from the normal personalities. Normally one like debauched or pitiless (which according to rumors like torturing enemies) would also be rude and make insulting comments about female player characters, but then again nothing stops a cruel person from being friendly to others, right? So to go along with my attempts to give every character several facets, I tried to make him on the surface one of the 'good' lords except for the sadism. And yes, the breaking wheel was a very real punishment - and it's not even the worst of the stuff they had back then or before.

- Asami equipping herself more like a Calradian freelancer came to me at the same time as having her taser gauntlet removed: a chance to have Asami start to adopt Calradian fighting techniques. She can easily take care of herself, but as she pointed in the last chapter out her self defense classes were not meant for the kind of fighting she's been finding herself in. Asami is an adaptable woman, and while she's not going to go up against a trained swordsman and win with just swordsmanship, she is going to be able to at least have something to let her bring other advantages in.

- With Korra deciding to just go up and kill the bandits… that was another scene I had figured early on. The first version just had no lord around willing to take them off their hands and none of them wanted to go for the ransom broker anyways. Then since I had Nealcha, it tied in far better to have him as an option they would not take having seen Medieval punishments in action. Plus, no one said Calradia was a nice place. I did try to make it a logical jump for them and to give it the weight the decision deserved.

- The detail, admittedly, had me on edge in regards to content, but I felt that cutting away from Korra doing the act and not bothering to show the cleanup lessened the blow of how it was something outside of Korra's normal methodology. As Michael DiMartino put it in his Book 3 finale commentary: "We wanted [Korra's] sacrifice to really be a true sacrifice. She's in serious danger here." And in this case I felt that I could not make it a true hard choice by using a scene cut just before the first blow or tidying it up to be an abstract thing. I didn't go for complete realism as it's only rated T, but I also wanted to keep it the very ugly affair that it is, so the wet work was shown.