The vast, blighted wasteland extended as far as Korra could see. She and Asami, attached at the palms, made their way through the stinking brown land, silent. There were too many dead plants to count, and every time she crunched a desiccated vine beneath her boot, a shiver ran through her. She tried her best to stifle her anxiety, and could tell Asami was doing the same. She watched the sun linger in the western horizon, red-brown and heavy, but somehow unwilling to set. She did not know how many hours they had been wandering.
A new resolve took hold of her, and it led her forward through the sickening spiritual graveyard. She needed to get to the library. She was not only spurred on by the pleasure she knew the ancient building would bring Asami, but the thought of all the information its extensive collection may contain. Inside its walls, she might discover what was causing this strange withering of the spirit wilds, and why.
At the suggestion of that scared, tiny spirit, Korra continued due north, but it was hard going. They had to pick their way around the shriveled corpses of once majestic greenery, avoid clumps of dying trees whose branches reached out to them either in malice or weak supplication.
"This is really… sad," Asami whispered, breaking the seemingly invincible silence that had settled over the land.
Korra could only mutter agreement. She didn't know what else to say, and she couldn't shake the feeling that somehow, this whole mess was her fault. She led Asami onward, through the vast streak of blight that marred the otherwise green landscape, toward the north.
After a while healthy trees began to appear once again, and Korra let out an audible sigh of relief. The smell that they had gotten used to while they were knee deep in this plague, trudging through the death beds of so many plants, dispersed and made way for a fresher smell. Korra breathed in the scent of living trees, a scent she had taken for granted, and couldn't help but smile.
"We're almost there," she told Asami, who was also reveling in the olfactory alleviation that living things provided. They soon entered what seemed like a small jungly oasis. The trees, tall and umbrageous but seemingly healthy, grew skyward without limit. The path up into the oasis sloped upward, toward rocky pillars and cavernous overhangs that stood proud in the midst of the dying land.
"Where are we going, even?" Asami asked. "You've refused to tell me so far. It must be something important, since you insisted we walk through that wasteland."
Korra readied her answer, but then the library came into view, upside-down and vine-covered, suspended from some massive rock face. It hung miraculously, surrounded by trees and swaying ropes of vine. It looked just as Jinora had described, majestic, huge, with its many towers and pillars jutting down toward the verdant ground.
"Whoa," Asami gasped. "What is that building? And how is the whole thing just hanging up there?"
Korra smiled and wrapped an arm around Asami's waist. "Beats me. Spirit world stuff."
"You can't just make up some excuse like that. It can't just be magic. There has to be some sort of explana—"
Korra tugged Asami close and raised her opposite hand, summoning a strong wind around her. "Hold on tight if you don't want to fall."
Asami wrapped her arms around Korra's shoulders, squeezing firmly. Korra leapt from the soft earth into the empty air, swinging her legs, conjuring a whirl of air around them, pushing them upward toward the library. As Korra airbent their way toward one of the building's colossal open windows, Asami held on for dear life. Korra feared that her friend wasn't enjoying this intimate flight as much as she was, but when she looked over at Asami, she found she was grinning. The sounds she was making that Korra had attributed to fear turned out to be a bout of delighted giggles. Asami, ecstatic at her sudden weightlessness, laughed and squeezed Korra tighter, and in that brief moment the Avatar could forget about her nightmares, her worries, and the expanse of blight that lay just outside of this small, green jungle.
When they landed on the windowsill of the huge, suspended building, between two marble pillars encased in creeping vines, Korra let Asami down on her shaking feet. They were both still smiling, warmed by their brief flight.
Asami combed her fingers through her charmingly windswept hair, teasing it back into place. "Sometimes I forget you can do that," she said, a hint of a grin still dancing on her lips.
Korra stifled the sudden urge to reach out and touch Asami's pale face. "Yeah, well, you know." She winked. "Avatar magic."
Asami chuckled, and Korra led her deeper into the shadows of the beautiful building.
"So," Asami started up again, "you still never told me what this place is."
Korra led her down a dark hallway and into a large open room, filled from floor to ceiling with books. "Oh yeah, I didn't, did I? Asami, welcome to the great spirit library of Wan Shi Tong."
Asami gasped at the astounding collection of knowledge around her, eyes lighting up with eagerness. "You can't be serious."
Korra crossed her arms proudly.
"Korra, this is wonderful. I can't believe it! I've only heard stories of this place…" Asami swung around, voracious eyes eating up all the books and scrolls and manuscripts lining the walls. "Just look at all this stuff! It's incredible." Asami, grinning, grabbed Korra's temples and planted a kiss on her cheek. Korra's face flooded with blood, and she looked away, clearing her throat.
"I thought you'd like it."
"I love it."
"We can find the science section if you want. Lots of books on engineering, I bet. And they might have something on that weird disease that's drying up all those plants."
"Good idea." Asami stifled her grin, looking serious but eager. She and Korra made their way across the great hall and into the passages between massive bookshelves, glancing at the books' spines, trying to make out any information. "Half of these books are so ancient I can't even read the titles," Asami said, though not with displeasure. "Do you know your way around here?"
"No, I've never been here before." Of course a library would be the last place that Korra would visit. Just the kind of dumb Avatar I've been, she sighed to herself. Perhaps she and Kuruk shared a lot in common, with their pugnacious attitudes and their apparent lack of spiritual knowledge. Disinterest in academics may just be a water tribe thing. "I had to ask Jinora where this place even was. Although…" Korra looked around. "There should be a few fox spirits around here, to guide us to the right section. They're like the librarian's assistants here."
"And the librarian?"
"He's usually around here, somewhere. He's supposed to be stuffy and difficult, but as long as you bring him some knowledge he'll let you read his books. He might want to rip a page out of your notes. Sorry about that."
"It's fine. I have three other notebooks in the pack anyway."
Korra smiled, and then remembered she had no knowledge to give to the great spirit. It did not perturb her, since she was sure Asami had enough for the both of them. Apparently, though, it seemed that she didn't need to worry about giving knowledge in the first place, since there was no sign of Wan Shi Tong anywhere.
In fact, there was no sign of any spirits at all. Korra knew libraries were supposed to be quiet, but the thick silence that permeated the halls had an eerie emptiness to it. Korra began to wonder if they were truly all alone in the massive library.
"Look over there," Asami whispered, after a few minutes of quiet searching.
A slight trembling in the shadows told Korra that they were being watched. Unsure, Korra slowly approached the dark pace between two bookshelves. She knelt, lay her hands down by her sides to show she was no threat, and leaned forward, examining the niche. Curled in the dusty gloom lay a knowledge seeker, tiny and trembling, wrapped in its foxlike tail. It looked up at Korra without fear, but with a kind of unsettling uncertainty that made her reach out to stroke it.
"Don't worry, little guy," Korra said, lightly caressing its shoulder, right where Naga liked to be scratched. With an expert hand, Korra soothed the little fox the way she would often soothe her own pet, and the spirit stopped shaking.
"What is it?" Asami asked, kneeling by Korra and looking at the little spirit. "Is this the librarian's assistant?" The fox let her scratch behind its ear.
"Yeah, I think so."
"He feels just like a real animal. But I didn't imagine he'd be so… small."
Now that Asami mentioned it, the spirit did look a little shrunken. It was smaller than foxes in the human world, and it seemed to be tired, perhaps weighed down with the burdens of working for a demanding spirit like Wan Shi Tong. Korra wondered if spirits were allowed to take time off. "Can you point us to the science section?"
The spirit looked up at her, perhaps a little confused.
"Do you know of any books that can tell us anything about the plants dying around here? Then we promise we'll leave you alone."
The fox let out a long, doglike whine. It seemed to understand, and struggled to its feet. Korra backed up to let the fox limp out of the shadows, and when it came into the dim light of the open floor, her stomach turned.
The fox was emaciated, weak, and its underside was black, almost like it had been scraped with charcoal. As it struggled to make its way across the floor, Korra could see that one of its front legs was shriveled and worn down, almost to the bone, with only a few strips of flesh still clinging to it. The fox whimpered with each step, black fur falling off its hide like dust. Like the plants that lay withered in the spirit wilds, this creature had been touched by that mysterious blight, eaten away by terrible disease.
Korra couldn't bear to watch it struggle. "Stop," she told the fox, but it limped onward. "No, bad, stay. Sit down, don't hurt yourself—" The commands that worked on Naga did not work on the little spirit, and it shuffled along, dragging its dying leg, panting.
"Korra." Asami squeezed her elbow, and Korra looked back at her concerned face. "We should follow him. Maybe he knows we're trying to help."
"But—" Korra glanced back at the poor fox, hobbling its pathetic way past the narrow shelves.
"If you want to keep him from suffering, we should let him guide us. Any information we can get will help him in the long run. And all the other spirits."
Asami, as usual, was right. Realistic, practical, one who could accept necessity and deal with it. Korra sighed and took her hand, thankful she was around, and they followed the poor animal. They walked past rows and rows of bookshelves, through halls, and into a dusty, dark room. The fox sniffed the floor until he found the right place, then let out a pathetic howl.
Korra knelt and checked on the spirit. It whined and glanced up at her with large brown eyes, as if pleading her to hurry up and find a cure. Asami dug through the nearest bookshelf while Korra scratched the little spirit. "Thanks," she said. "I wish I could do more for your pain."
Asami shuffled through pages, coughing at the dust that sprang up from their untouched edges. She seemed to be gulping down the knowledge contained inside the way Korra gulped down dinner.
"Wait," Korra whispered to the fox. "Sit. Stay." The fox obeyed, curious, holding its diseased paw up limply. Korra reached back into her pack and pulled out a bottle of water. She popped off the lid and summoned a long string of liquid forward. Korra began to sway about the waist, wrapping the floating aquatic tendril loosely around the little fox. She slowly raised her hands and summoned up all the spiritual healing power she had at her disposal.
The fox closed his eyes, and although the black disease did not leave his body, he seemed to appreciate the effort. Korra tried again, a different position, a different mental image, a different flow of qi, circling her glowing water around herself and the fox, letting her spirit extend like a limb and arch over the afflicted animal.
Right when she thought she might be doing the spirit some good, its ears pricked up. It sat on its hind legs, whining, and before Korra could stop it, it sprinted off into the shadows. Korra recalled her flow of water and settled her bending energy down, tilting her head.
"What's he so scared of? I wasn't gonna hurt him."
"Uh… Korra…" Asami was staring over her shoulder, into the darkness beyond.
Korra turned around, and she spied a huge, hunched figure materialize from the shadows. It growled in a language Korra could not understand, an ancient, guttural, spiritual snarl that froze her blood and made her hair stand on end. Two red slits appeared on the entity's great, lurching head, hovering over a pointed, black beak.
Standing several meters tall and shedding blighted feathers, consumed by a malefic darkness, loomed the librarian himself, the great knowledge spirit Wan Shi Tong.