Chapter 18: The Library
After stopping in another town to finish purchasing supplies, Sokka and Toph traveled to the interior of the Earth Kingdom continent. On the northern side of the Si Wong desert they found a trading outpost of the local sandbenders, one of the few safe points of entry to the vast plains of sand. Using some of the conned coin from the earlier village Sokka purchased travel on one of the local sand-sailers, since Toph had trouble seeing when she stepped into sand.
While riding on the sand-sailer Toph was fascinated by the sandbending used to propel the vessel. Instead of dominating the earth like Toph did, the sandbenders made it flow and carry the sailer with the current of sand. Earthbenders bending like waterbenders was a concept Toph had never thought was possible. During the trip Toph asked the sandbenders to show her how they bent the sand, and in exchange she taught them how to see with vibrations.
On the journey into the desert Sokka shared the scroll with the sandbenders, who knew the landmarks far better than Sokka. Intrigued about what might be hidden in their territory the sandbenders propelled the sand-sailer as fast as they could. Only a few days after entering the desert the sailer reached the location on the scroll, coming to a stop in front of what appeared to be a tower sticking out of the southern desert sands.
"That's it?" Sokka questioned as he climbed out of the sand-sailer. "This thing leads to a tower?"
Toph jumped out of the sailer onto the sands. "Why would anyone build anything all the way out here?" she asked.
Walking over to the tower Sokka looked for a door, but found nothing even as he walked around it in a circle. "Maybe there's more here than just this tower?" Sokka said. "Hey Toph, come here and tell me what you can see with this."
"Alright," Toph said. She walked over to the tower and struck her hand against the side. "Whoa… This this thing is huge!"
"What is it?" Sokka said.
"This part you see is just the tip of a massive building," Toph described. "It's completely intact, and far from empty."
"Can you tell what's inside?" Sokka asked.
Focusing for a moment Toph tried to find an answer, but eventually shook her head. "I can't tell from here," Toph admitted. "We'd have to go inside to find out."
Thinking for a moment about the discovery, Sokka turned towards the sandbenders. "Hey, do one of you guys have an idea of what this is?" Sokka asked.
Once of the sandbenders, a young man named Ghashiun, stepped ahead of the others. "There was some teacher from Ba Sing Se asking about a library a few weeks ago," Ghashiun said. "It looks like he wasn't as crazy as I thought."
"Let's check it out," Sokka said. He tied a rope to his boomerang and threw it up to catch a window near the top of the tower. Climbing the rope with Toph they reached the window and peered inside. When Sokka saw how far down the floor was inside he said "I'm going to need more rope."
Borrowing a longer rope from the sandbenders Sokka made certain it could reach the floor inside before climbing down. After taking several minutes to reach the floor Sokka tugged on the rope to tell Toph to start climbing. Once Toph made it to the floor Sokka observed his surroundings. There were rows of books as far as the eye could see, and several floors below the bridge they stood on. Strange green lights illuminated the rows of books while the area in the middle was lit by sunlight through the tower.
"Nothing I can use here," Toph complained. She laid down on her side next to the rope. "Tell me when you're done. I'm going to take a nap."
Before Sokka could respond he heard something moving from a distance. "That's nap's going to have to wait," Sokka said. He grabbed Toph and pulled her up and ran for the end of the bridge, hiding behind one of the many support pillars.
While they hid a giant owl walked from the other end of the bridge. It stopped at the rope in the middle and looked up, seemingly aware of trespassers. Then the owl turned its head away from Sokka and Toph, turning all the way around to stare at the exact pillar they were hiding behind. "I know you're back there."
"Is that a giant bird?" Toph questioned as she walked away from the pillar towards the owl. For the first time she wondered if her feet were lying to her.
While wondering if it was a bad idea, Sokka followed Toph and stopped in front of the owl. "What… Who are you?" Sokka asked.
"I am Wan Shi Tong, he who knows ten thousand things. And you are obviously humans, which by the way are no longer permitted in my study."
"Why not?" Sokka asked.
"Humans only bother learning things to get the edge on other humans."
"He's got a point," Toph interrupted.
"Brutal honesty. Unlike that firebender who came to this place a few years ago, looking to destroy his enemy."
"Hang on a sec," Sokka said. He grabbed the scroll from his bag and showed it to Wan Shi Tong. "That firebender wouldn't happen to be the guy that wrote this?" Sokka asked when he unrolled the scroll.
"HE RECORDED IT!" The library shook for a moment in the spirit's anger, furious that the firebender had not only damaged his collection but had the location of his library written for anyone to see. Millennia ago Wan Shi Tong had specifically chosen the desert for his library, so that only those willing to brave the dangers would be worthy of the knowledge within. A map leading directly to the library was unacceptable to the spirit.
"I'll take that as a yes," Sokka said, barely maintaining his composure in front of the angry spirit.
Toph stepped over to Sokka and took the scroll out of his hands. "How about a trade?" Toph suggested. "We give big bird the scroll and he lets Sokka use this place?"
"You do not desire knowledge?"
Waving her hand in front of her eyes, Toph said "I'm blind. Even if I wanted to I can't read anything in here."
"That can be corrected."
"Say what?" Toph questioned.
"A portion of my collection was scribed in a text invented by a blind human. I have little use for it, and for centuries it has been gathering dust."
Sokka took the scroll back and offered it towards the spirit. "So do we have a deal?" Sokka asked. "The scroll for access to the library?"
"Agreed." Wan Shi Tong swept a wing over the scroll and it vanished. "The collection for the blind is on one of the lower floors."
Wan Shi Tong walked through the halls of the library, guiding Toph towards the bottom. Once he couldn't see the spirit Sokka started wandering around the library, browsing through the collection at random. Skimming through books and scrolls Sokka placed interesting ones into his green bag while putting the rest back where he found them. Before long Sokka wished he had all the time in the world to spend in the library, so much to learn that could not be found anywhere else.
Losing track of time Sokka got lost in row after row of books. He noticed strange foxes roaming the library, often placing books and scrolls on shelves or tidying up. Stumbling across a wing dedicated to Fire Nation texts, Sokka found that everything inside had been burned to ash. While disappointed about the destruction of the information, Sokka realized that this had to be why Wan Shi Tong had been furious about the scroll he used to have.
Eventually Sokka wandered into the lower floors of the library, wondering what a book for the blind would look like. He found Toph sitting at a table with a book in front of her, one hand slowly moving over a page. When Sokka got closer he saw that the page had rows of raised bumps in various patterns, and that Toph's fingers were dragging over the bumps.
"What are you reading?" Sokka asked. Immediately Toph yelled and fell back out of her chair onto the floor. "Did I just surprise you?" Sokka asked, himself surprised at Toph's reaction.
Standing up Toph walked over to Sokka and punched his arm. "I finally learn to read and you come along and ruin it," she complained. She couldn't believe how absorbed she had been with reading to not notice Sokka coming.
Glancing at the book on the table, Sokka had no idea what any of the little bumps meant. "How do you read that?" Sokka asked. He picked up the book and looked at the cover. Beginners Guide to Braille was written on the cover in normal writing, as well as in the raised bumps.
Toph took the book back and placed her fingers back on the page she was on when Sokka had interrupted. "The owl got me started on this, and I'm starting to get the hang of it," Toph said, slowly reading the page.
"Well, have fun with that," Sokka said. He grabbed a few random books from the section and stuffed them into his bag, having no idea what was in them but felt that Toph should have something to read after leaving the library. Leaving the blind section of the library Sokka resumed his browsing, trying to find anything useful.
Even after a few more hours of wandering, Sokka continued to be impressed by the library. Only his rumbling belly gave away the passage of time, and he kept his stomach happy by snacking on meat jerky. He believed he could spend lifetimes inside and still not cover a fraction of the entire collection. And yet all the knowledge seemed wasted beneath the desert sands, most of it forgotten by the world above. For a while Sokka considered founding his own library on the surface, once the Avatar ended the war.
Interrupting Sokka's ambitious thoughts was a display case that caught his eye. Set up against a wall between rows of bookshelves, the glass of the case glinted in the light. Sokka walked up to the case to see what was on display, finding a piece of burned parchment inside. There was a date on the parchment and text reading 'The Darkest Day in Fire Nation History.'
"I wonder what happened on the darkest day," Sokka muttered. Forcing the case open with his machete Sokka took the parchment out. He was about to place it in his bag when he found there wasn't any room left, the bag completely filled with books and scrolls. Then he heard one of the spirit's foxes pining at his feet, trying to get his attention. "Do you know what happened?"
The fox skirted past several bookshelves, then stopped and looked at Sokka. When he followed the fox continued, leading Sokka to another part of the library. At a round stone door the fox slipped through a hole and activated a mechanism on the other side, making the stone door slid into the wall. Walking inside Sokka found a domelike room with a round table in the middle. There was a lever next to the table and the fox pushed it with its front paws.
When the domed roof started to move Sokka realized he was inside a planetarium, a marvel of engineering he didn't think was possible. The roof stopped with daylight displayed and the sun placed near the horizon. "Neat…" Sokka muttered, wondering what else the planetarium could display. Examining the table in the center he found adjustable rings showing dates. Turning the rings Sokka made the date match the parchment, then pushed the lever.
This time the domed roof stopped with daylight displayed, but the room was dark. Sokka didn't see where the sun was placed, until he noticed it was behind the moon. Putting two and two together Sokka realized that the darkest day for the Fire Nation was literal, a solar eclipse darkening the sky. Something devastated the Fire Nation on that day, and Sokka figured the only explanation was that the eclipse disabled firebending. Similar to how the lunar eclipse had rendered waterbenders powerless.
Thinking about the lunar eclipse made Sokka curious about how accurate the planetarium was. He adjusted the date to match the recent eclipse and pulled the lever. The domed roof moved to show the night sky with the moon displayed, but the light in the room shone a dull red. "Interesting…" Sokka muttered, noting that the planetarium had to have been engineered to predict celestial events. He doubted that Wan Shi Tong noticed the lunar eclipse, or even bothered to add recent events to the planetarium.
Suddenly Sokka realized how he could use the planetarium against the Fire Nation, and make poetic justice for the Water Tribe. He started adjusting the date to the future, and observed what the planetarium predicted one day at a time. If he could find another solar eclipse in the future it could give the world an opportunity against the Fire Nation. Eventually he found one only a few months away, and wrote the date down inside several books just in case he forgot.
Not saying a word even to the fox, Sokka walked out of the planetarium to find Toph. He tossed a bit of jerky to the fox and it scampered away, and Sokka hoped the fox would forget showing him the planetarium. Suspecting that the owl wouldn't like his intentions, he hurried back to the blind section of the library. He found Toph still at the table, her hand moving along the raised bumps slightly faster than earlier.
Wondering if he could surprise Toph again, Sokka tiptoed towards her. He got up to a foot behind her when his foot sank into the stone floor. "Nice try," Toph said, then earthbent Sokka's foot out of the floor.
"Come on, I had to try it," Sokka said. He walked up to Toph and whispered "It's time to go."
"I'm not done here," Toph said.
"Trust me on this" Sokka whispered. "Grab what you want to bring and let's get out of here."
Toph earthbent a stone box out of the floor and started filling it with books she could read. After bending a few stone wheels onto the box Toph started pushing it out of the blind section, using earthbending to bring it up stairs. With Sokka helping her push the stone box they made it to the rope leading out of the library in half an hour. But directly between them and the rope was Wan Shi Tong.
"Are you satisfied with the library?"
"Yes, yes I am," Sokka said.
"Very well. Return those tomes before you leave."
"Um…" Sokka muttered. He hadn't even thought about hiding the scrolls and books he and Toph took, since it would have been nearly impossible to cover up. "Can we rent them?"
"No."
"Oh alright," Sokka said. He set his bag on the floor and pulled out one of the books. Then he threw it as hard as he could, taking the spirit by surprise and hitting its throat. The blow disoriented Wan Shi Tong and he stumbled off the side of the bridge, falling down a few floors before taking flight. Wan Shi Tong shrieked in anger, the noise echoing throughout the library.
"Way to go, you pissed him off," Toph said, pushing her stone box to the rope.
In a heartbeat Sokka was next to Toph with his bag. "Just earthbend us out of here," Sokka said.
Just a moment before Wan Shi Tong could reach them Toph earthbended the stone in the bridge, launching them into the tower above. When they hit the inside wall of the tower Toph made the stone collapse, sending them tumbling onto the desert sands outside. Sokka and Toph were ready to run for it when the tower began to sink into the sand. Within minutes the tower vanished, Wan Shi Tong sealing away the library for good.
Once Sokka's heart stopped pounding did he finally notice that it was dawn outside. He could have sworn that it had been mid-afternoon when they found the library. "How long were we in there?" Sokka asked.
Toph shrugged. "I have no idea."
Looking around Sokka found the stone box and his bag half buried in the sand. A few of the scrolls and books had spilled out, which he quickly collected. But there was no sign of the sandbenders. "Great, they left without us," Sokka complained.
"Probably got tired of waiting," Toph suggested. "Now what was so important that you had to anger the owl?"
Sokka checked one of the books he had written in earlier, making sure that the date was still there. "A solar eclipse is coming" Sokka explained. "The firebenders will be powerless. It's an opportunity to do some real damage."
"Won't they see it coming?" Toph asked. "They knew about the lunar eclipse."
Thinking about it for a moment Sokka realized Toph might be right. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Sokka said. "Right now we need to get out of this desert."
"And how are we supposed to do that without our ride?" Toph asked. "I can barely see here."
As if on cue Sokka spotted a strange cloud on the southern horizon. Several minutes later Sokka could make out several sand-sailers, the cloud being sand kicked up in their wake. Sokka waved his arms and yelled in an attempt to get their attention. The sailers came to a stop, and Sokka recognized one of the sandbenders as Ghashiun.
With the sandbenders was a tall man in a brown desert outfit and hat, and was the first to climb out of a sand-sailer. "Hello there" the stranger said, waving to Sokka and Toph. "Are you the children that these kind sandbenders said that found this?" He held up a drawing of an ornate building, with a familiar tower at its peak.
Sokka looked down at where the stranger's feet were. "You're standing on it," Sokka answered.
For a moment the stranger was speechless, looking down at his feet. "WHAT!" he shouted. "My life's ambition is full of sand!"
"Who is this guy?" Toph asked, wondering why the sandbenders left her and Sokka behind to get him.
"Oh yes," the stranger said, regaining his composure. "I'm Professor Zei, Head of Anthropology at Ba Sing Se University."
Ghashuin jumped out of a sand-sailer and walked over to Sokka. "Figures that I give this guy a favor and his precious library disappears" Ghasuin complained. "How in the world did you pull that off?"
Toph jerked her thumb at Sokka. "He threw a book at the spirit in there," she explained.
Professor Zei perked up at the mention of a spirit in the library. "What spirit? What book? What was it like in there?"
"You know, I'd be happy to tell you…" Sokka said, holding up his bag full of books and scrolls. "For a favor.
"Anything," Zei said, staring at the treasure Sokka offered.
"We found something in there that needs to get to Ba Sing Se," Sokka explained. "Could you possibly get us in there?"
"Of course," Zei agreed. He took a random book from the bag, finding a copy of Water Tribe: A Tragic Division that was nearly impossible to find. "These tomes must be brought to Ba Sing Se immediately."