...

"Stop picking at it."

Ayika gently slapped Xinfei's hand away from the bandage wrapped around his chest under his vest. He in turn scowled at her and leaned back against the shady wall of the alley they were lurking in. A few paces away people walked along the crowded sunlit street, carrying whicker crates or escorting small children by the hand, all dressed in the simple but well made clothes of this moderately prosperous Lower Ring district. Two old men sat on barrels, loudly chatting between the arrayed wares of their neighboring family shops which both spilled out from the impossibly narrow premisses onto the packed dirt street beside it's little drainage channel.

Just across this quiet side-street from the alley there stood an octangular green door in a cracked plaster wall that wrapped around a small house and what Ayika assumed was an equally small garden. Not that she could see any garden from here. The two halves of the door were securely shut, studded with circles of greening bronze while the rest of the house's wall reached up a meter past the top of her head. To each side stood small apartment buildings, dipped in flagstone stone at their feet before transitioning to white-washed walls all the way up to the dark clay-tiled eaves which hung over little windows.

She and Xinfei had spent more than half the day tracking down leads across kilometers of the lower city to find where that so called 'garden designer' named Ma'er lived. Now she was stopped by a single door. Ayika was starting to think that her grand investigative strategy might have some holes. However, that did not mean she was going to give into Xinfei's lack of enthusiasm.

"He has to come out sometime, right? So I guess we can just stay here all day and maybe tomorrow as well," Xinfei said, thick with sarcasm as he grumbled and gently fingered the bruises on his ribs again.

She did not bother looking back behind her in the alley. "Shut up, you should have stayed home with your mom and healed in bed instead of following me around half the city."

"Why? I've got the poultices you made and your Gran used so say these things are mostly cured by time. Time goes by just as fast with you as at home."

"You need rest and you know it. Xiaobao said so."

"What and let you get arrested for poking around in the Lower Ring? What even is your plan anyway? If the gate was wide open and we knew for certain this was that gardener's house, then what? How does all this help a dead teacher?"

Ayika muttered indistinctly and continued to stare at that obstinate green door. There was a frustrating truth to what he said. When this day started she had followed a vague fantasy of finding some damning evidence that linked this Ma'er to the murderer and turning it all over to the guards for some measure of justice and answers. But last night's righteous fury was giving way to exhaustion. That 'gardener' with the scars on his cheeks had brought a package, threatened the professor, and the white-faced figure had killed Lizhen and stolen it back away. Probably. That was all she had, and no way to prove anything.

Ayika pressed a knuckle against her eyebrow. She was so tired. After everything that had happened she was not sure if she had slept more than a couple minutes last night. Still, she had to do something. What was it that had gotten Lizhen murdered?

Then the doubt whispered in her mind again. Why was she spending this much effort? People died all the time. Even more frequently in the City, and if you got all the way down to Ayika's home in the Bed it wasn't even noteworthy. What had Lizhen done to earn this loyalty? Nothing. Nothing but be a decent man. He tried to remember her name. A small courtesy, but one that no one else at the school had bothered with since Ayika could always be distinguished as 'the tribal girl'. Lizhen had been kind. Kind, brilliant, and had not made her feel like a servant's position was so far beneath him. And he had been killed in front of her while she was powerless to do anything. If things like this just happened beyond anyone's control how could she ever feel safe again? She needed to do...something.

Almost without her noticing it, Ayika's lips began to move. One hand felt at her sternum where she was still tender from the sudden attack in the dark last night. She mumbled, "The black figure with a white face. It was... I, there something about it. Something beyond just a person who..." She trailed off, not knowing what she meant to say herself. She was grasping at straws.

Xinfei looked at her with quiet concern. Ayika was his oldest friend and despite whatever he might insist, there was a reason he chose to trudge through all these streets and alleys with bruised ribs.

"You were freaked out. As you should have been! I mean, someone was mur..." He reconsidered his sentence. "Hey, I saw that masked guy in the school too. He slammed into me as he was running out! Then he ran up the wall like a stage ninja on a wire in an opera but he was just a guy with acrobatics training or something, not magic or anything. A guy who's long gone."

He rubbed his hand through his rumpled spiky hair. "I'm regretting telling you those crazy rumors about the stupid Society of the Mask stuff now if it's gotten you thinking about conspiracies and all that. There are always rumors around the city about political schemes, no need to pay attention to this one. People get killed. Robbery or politics, I don't think that teacher would want you risking yourself for him."

Whatever she had seen, Ayika could not leave it to end like that. Even if Xinfei was right, she couldn't listen to him. She needed to do something. She couldn't let that be it. Who could live in that world. And her hands were still trembling.

Shaking off thoughts of that horrible burning room and strange shadows, she clenched her hands into fists and strode across the street, smoothly sidestepping a passing man carrying two large baskets hanging from each end of the pole over his shoulders. Ayika hopped over a small, recessed drainage channel and squeezed into the tiny alley that bordered Ma'er's walled garden. She heard the slapping of Xinfei's sandals as he dashed up behind her.

"Seriously Ayika, what are you doing here?" He said as he turned to nervously look back out this alley. "That Public Safety agent from the school knows your face! You're a witness; you're on the gov's radar. If you're thinking about doing what I know you are, it's a really bad idea!" He whispered as loudly as he could manage without alerting everyone on the nearby street.

Ayika continued her skulking path. Deep in this other alley, which to judge by these tight dimensions was more of a surveying accident than a civic plan, there was a small wicker door set in Ma'er's plastered wall. Here and there that pale plaster was flaking to reveal the dark underlying brick. This little wicker door was an entry point to the gardener's property but as Ayika pressed her eye to a gap she saw that the door was clearly visible from the open walled first floor of the house. She could discern someone moving around in that exposed front room. Ayika exhaled in frustration. Sneaking inside by this way was not an option.

"No way you're sneaking into his place that way," Xinfei cautioned; a frustratingly accurate echo of her own mind.

Ayika drew her face back from peering through the gate and said, "I know! I just...never mind. Look, maybe if we could cause a distraction of some-"

"No! Just no, Ayika! I know you're tore up about that guy you worked for dying but I've already taken enough hits from the guards and you won't have any foreign princess to help you if we get nabbed again. I'm sorry but we'll just have to do without some breaking and entering today. Please, all right?"

Ayika's nails dug into the flesh of her palm but she knew Xinfei was right. She still looked down at the alley floor covered in dust and shreds of a few feathers from some ill fated bird. She knew that the expression on his face would only be one of sincere concern for her safety. She knew she was acting ridiculously. Ayika sighed and without any reply squeezed past Xinfei to make her way back to the road. With barely a whisper she let out a prayer.

"Please, spirits, gods. Help me do...something."

A loud wooden knocking rang out from the street and she jerked her head up. Pressing up against the alley wall, Ayika quickly crept back to the street mouth. A peek around the corner showed a curtained palanquin newly laid down in the middle of the narrow thoroughfare beside four grey-vested bearer-men. The passenger, now disembarked and currently rapping quite heavily on Ma'er's green gate, was Mizumi Miohuito of the Fire Nation.

Ayika's mouth fell open. "What the...?"

"What? What is it?" Xinfei interrupted from behind her. In the narrow space between the wall and adjacent house he could not fit past her to look.

"Shhhh!"

The foreign girl smacked the door again. Now that she was out of her Legacy School for Young Ladies uniform, Mizumi was an even more striking sight than previously. She was clad in loose trousers under a short embroidered tunic held tight with a broad cloth belt in a color that set off the tint of copper in her straight dark hair, all of which was almost scandalously masculine by Kingdom standards. Mizumi's bearing was the same as at the school, military straight, with confident gaze that met the eye of everyone she passed. Why on earth was she here?

The front gate to the gardener's yard cracked open and Ayika saw enough to recognize Ma'er's nervous assistant, Tian. He poked his head out and almost received a rap from the next knock for his trouble, which did not improve his confidence. Mizumi was almost as surprised but she recovered in an instant, drew back her hand just short of drumming his forehead and spoke before Tian could open his mouth.

"Ah, yes. It is good day to you. This is the house of the garden designer Ma'er?" Mizumi announced all this with rapid if accented courtesy. In fact, Ayika felt that she was intentionally playing up her accent more than was normal for her.

"I...uh..." the young man stammered in confusion.

"Excellent," Mizumi continued, her tongue rolling the words along at a rapid clip. "Go on and tell your master that I am remaking a piece of our Exclusion property as a birthday gift to my father and I heard that a man named Ma'er was well regarded as a competent craftsman."

"Er...Yes, I just...but..." Tian looked even worse for wear than the last time Ayika had seen him at the school. There were dark circles under his eyes and his nerves looked ready to fail completely before Mizumi's cheerful assault.

Mizumi heard the words she chose to hear. "Oh, you are too kind! I would be honored to wait inside." With that her hand shot out to shove the gate open. In a flash she had snaked past the befuddled assistant gardener who was left to hurriedly shut the door and chase after her towards the main house.

Ayika grinned at this fortune and shoved her way back down the alley past Xinfei who was struggling to remain abreast with events.

"Wait," he began. "Was that that girl from the-?"

"Shush, I don't know what's happening but we need to act quick." Ayika was back at the wicker side gate in an instant and drew a thin wooden scraper from her belt's pocket. She knew from long experience that no house with servants ever had a well-locked service gate during the middle of the day. Sure enough, a little fiddling between the gate and wall allowed her to catch the simple wood latch and flip it up. The gate creaked slightly as she inched it open and through the widening gap she could clearly see Ma'er's house.

A full quarter of bottom floor was a single parlor that, when its full length wooden screens were open as they were today, melded freely with the small outside garden of raked gravel and elegantly arranged stones. Mizumi had apparently already claimed residency inside, sitting down in a chair with her back to the open yard as the assistant fidgeted in front of her. Ayika could not see Mizumi's face but there was clearly a lot of one-sided talking going on, to judge by Tian's uncertain vacillating movements. Ayika caught the word "tea" said in an Islander accent which seemed to allow the boy's disparate components enough collusion to successfully take him out of the room on this new mission.

Mizumi was still faced away from the garden but the instant the assistant had left the room she suddenly sprang up to her feet. She peered around, intently investigating the room's various furnishings as if looking for something. In any case she was distracted, Tian was distracted, and Ma'er was nowhere to be seen so Ayika seized her chance.

"All right, come on," she said, grabbing Xinfei's wrist as she pulled him through the gate.

Xinfei sputtered in a panicked whisper as he felt her tug at his arm. "What? No we..."

But his gangly frame gave way to her pressure and so they darted together across the open space of the garden, skirting the raked gravel field to hug the wall behind a small red-leafed tree. The whole distance was less than a street-width but by the time Ayika was safe around the corner of the house and hidden from those out-flung door-screens her heart was pounding so hard it was a wonder the whole building was not alerted. She looked to her left were Xinfei had ended up similarly plastered against the wall and could not help but give him a grin of exhilarated triumph. He looked at her like he wanted to scream that she was crazy but could not bring himself to make even a whisper. The silent glare of frantic disapproval he settled for only made Ayika grin wider.

Here in the eve-shadowed space between the house and the outer wall Ayika found the kitchen door that she had assumed would be there. Her previous stint in a hireling maid service had given her a general sense for how building layouts operated, namely the necessity of a straight path from the servants' section to the alley gate. She pressed her ear against the flaking paint of the kitchen door, waving a hand to deny Xinfei's silent gesticulated entreaties for them to make their escape. Inside, Ayika heard the rattling of someone messing with cookery or teapots, likely the assistant preparing the tea. Ayika held up her hand in a fist signaling a wait, which only provoked new silent protestations from Xinfei to the gist of them never having arranged or discussed a hand-signal system.

But then she heard another voice drifting from out the open front parlor, deep and forceful and definitely not Mizumi.

"Good day to you, Miss. I'm honored to entertain an appreciator of my humble arrangements."

Ayika recognized Ma'er's gravelly rumble instantly, and heard the assistant rush to vacate the kitchen to attend to his master. A shiver ran down her back as she remembered the "gardener's" looming presence when he came to threaten Professor Lizhen. However, all presumed occupants of the house were now accounted for in the front parlor so Ayika eased the back door open and crept up the steps into the kitchen itself. Xinfei reluctantly followed her into this man's home as conversation continued in the main salon.

She could hear Mizumi speaking in the other room. "Ah, Master Ma'er, how kind of you to see me. I was admiring your own exquisite work on this garden."

"A weak effort executed with paltry resources I assure you. You will take tea? There should be some being prepared...Tian? Good." At this Ayika froze in place, directly in front of the teapot, but it appeared the assistant was not returning to the kitchen just yet. Luckily this room did not open directly onto the salon and instead disgorged into a narrow hallway that bisected this floor so Ayika was able to peek a bit more into the rest of the house without being seen. The nearest door in that passageway opened into a small store room which revealed nothing criminal if Ma'er was not smuggling assorted cooking supplies and household goods.

The others were still talking in the parlor. "You are generous. Since I have intruded on your time I will be forced to accept a cup." This was followed by a gentle giggle that seemed out of character for the confident and forceful girl Ayika had met the previous day.

Ma'er replied with equally practiced formality. Ayika frowned as she closed the storeroom again; that speaking talent was odd for someone who lived in the Lower Ring. "It's my honor to provide. As I am quite honored that you appear to be acquainted with my work. How embarrassing it is that I must ask you to make your own introductions."

Ayika crept forward with silent footsteps. The next doorway down the hallway seemed to lead to a more private dining area, at present unused and unlit. She was already mostly inside the dining room when the corner of her eye caught a motion of shadows and Xinfei darted to hide with her just ahead of the the assistant entering the hallway on his back towards the kitchen. Getting out might be difficult. She tried not to look at Xinfei, whose eyes were saying the same thing with a lot more silent profanity.

There was a barely perceptible pause in Mizumi's speech, but she covered it well. "I suppose it is I who have been impolite. My apologies, and I am Mizumi Miohuito, daughter of Tetzamatl Miohuito. In fact it is for his love that I have come to you. My father's birthday is approaching and I am hoping to surprise him with a renovation to a small gardens of ours that has sadly fallen into neglect. I was provided your reference by an acquaintance."

"How filial are the girls of the Hundred Islands to prepare for their father's birthday so far in advance. Of course I would be honored to help." This gardener, a man with scarred cheeks and calloused knuckles, modulated his tone in expert and disquieting subtleties. Ayika paused. Had he just implied he knew when Mister Miohuito's birthday was? Who was Ma'er, really?

The dining room also proved empty of anything that might hint to why this man had been involved with Professor Lizhen. He really did seem like a moderately well-to-do gardener. She would have to search even more of the house, and at the same time ignore the panicked voice in her head calling herself an idiot over the thudding beat of blood in her veins.

Ayika was starting to agree that this excursion had been bad idea. She caught Xinfei's attention, who had come to that same conclusion long ago, and moved to exit from the dining room's second door. From what she could hear of the conversation in the salon, Ma'er was suspicious of Mizumi's sudden appearance and was probing for information. However, so far Mizumi had managed to deftly deflect every question with smooth and evasive prattling. The girl was clearly practiced in deception. Even so, Ayika was impressed that Mizumi showed no reaction whatsoever when Ayika stepped out the next doorway and found herself staring directly at where the foreigner was sitting on a couch with a tea cup in her hand.

Ayika had just accidentally entered into plain view of the main sitting room. The gardener and his assistant were both in their seats and had their backs to her. Ayika found herself paralyzed in total panic in as Mizumi also froze in the middle of sipping her tea. Mizumi swallowed, gave a slight widening of the eyes, a single blink, and a hint of imperceptible effort as she wrenched her gaze to continue a gentle perusing of her surroundings as if there was nothing particularly interesting to be seen. Even a close observer would not have thought that this illustrated dumbfounded flatfooted surprise.

Mizumi took a breath, hurriedly picking up the threads of her conversation. "What...I am looking for is, of course, a sort of a...small, secret spot where my father will not be reminded of the troubles of business. A garden of relaxation and contemplation." Neither Ma'er or his assistant had turned around to see her so Ayika frantically waved Xinfei forward, practically shoving him across this exposed corridor into the next room.

"Why...should we not all have a little place of peace. I am sure you agree, Master Ma'er?" Mizumi said with barely perceptible hesitance. Miraculously, the Fire Nation girl seemed to be covering for them so when her eyes' deliberately lazy orbit swung back by to the doorway Ayika made a stalling stretching hand signal and pointed up to indicate that they would search the second floor next if Mizumi could hold the inhabitants here. Then she darted out of the hallway to join Xinfei through the doorway. If Mizumi could continue to serve as a distraction then they could search the whole house for clues.

"Quick," Ayika whispered to Xinfei, her heart in her throat. "I think she's going to stall for us, though why she's here I..." Ayika shook the question out of her head. They did not have time for that. "We need to find the stairs up, quick." You could not always question good luck. Searching the room they were now in took seconds. It was the sparsely furnished sort of space of indecipherable purpose that wealthy people seemed to always have so many of. Then they were out the other door towards the staircase at the back of the house. The uninterrupted flow of conversation behind them indicated that Mizumi was doing her part.

Ayika's heart was beating like a hammer as she began to creep up the stairs with the stealth of a mouse. Then she caught herself just before she put her foot down in the middle of the first step. Fearing creaking planks she instead squeezed to the edge of the staircase and made her way up with Xinfei mimicking her motions behind. They were almost all the way to the top when one of them shifted their weight wrong and produced a wooden squeak that to Ayika's ears rang louder than a temple bell. In the silence that followed she swore that she managed to stop the flow of her own blood as she listened for sign of detection.

From the salon she clearly heard Mizumi's languidly buzzing voice. "I am having trouble visualizing the concepts you are so clearly describing. Perhaps you could take me up to your study so that I might see some of your designs? I would greatly appreciate your accommodation."

What? Why would she tell them to go upstairs when...Ayika really needed people to understand basic hand signals. No time for complete silence, people were standing up down below. She and Xinfei scampered up to the second floor desperate for somewhere to hide. The first door was no good, that room looked like the man's office that Mizumi was for some reason urging him towards. The next door looked more promising, opening as it did into a personal bedroom. Ayika raced inside and swung the door shut behind them as quietly and quickly as she could, one hand pulling on the knob and one pushing flat on the wood so that both controlled the motion. She froze, forehead almost to the door and eyes closed as she listened to the footsteps that would signal their inevitable capture and arrest. But that did not come. Instead she heard Ma'er and Mizumi make their way up the stairs into the office, followed by the uncertain tinkling of someone with trembling hands trying to carry a tea-set.

When she heard the muffled conversation resume in the office, Ayika finally allowed herself to breath and begin to register her surroundings. Xinfei was standing half-crouched in the middle of the bedroom as though afraid to touch a single thing. Ayika exhaled heavily. Well, they were already deep into this so they might as well do a thorough job of searching for evidence. Holding a finger to her lips for silence she gestured to Xinfei for him to examine this room and he in turn signed something about butterflies in the walls wanting to punch him. Perhaps discussing hand signals beforehand would have been a good idea.

Not that searching this room promised to be a daunting prospect. The furnishings were sparse and inelegant, almost barracks-like. There was a rigidly tucked bed large enough for one person, with small end tables on each side. The bed was set high enough off the ground that she could clearly see there was only a single rolled mat beneath it. Against the walls there were neatly filled bookshelves, two painted scrolls of a tree branch a mountain scene, a large dresser and a washbasin table. There was an infuriating lack not only of clues to the man's involvement in Professor Lizhen's death but of any indication that this was a man's private home instead of a room rented from an inn. Ayika was at the point of peering inside the water jug in frustrated desperation when she noticed Xinfei staring at the blank wall beside the dresser.

She slid over, tapped him on the arm and whispered in his ear. "Looking for the butterflies?"

He was confused. "What? Why would..." He shook his head as he looked again at the empty wall. "No, I, I just...shouldn't there be a window here? This is the corner of the house and I'm pretty sure I saw windows at each corner when we were down on the street."

Ayika could not remember, but the room did seem pretty large to only be intended to be lit through a single small window. She slid over to try to peer behind the dresser, and was wondering how she could move it without making a noise when she heard a click and an soft exclamation from Xinfei.

Xinfei was gone. In his place, part of the plain wooden wall had pivoted revealing a secret space behind. As she moved over, Ayika whispered, "How'd you do that? What's in-?"

Xinfei emerged from the narrow hidden room. He was as pale as a day-old corpse, "We've got get out of here."

"But what-"

"Now, Ayika. I mean it." He grabbed her arm, harder than she expected. His eyes were wide with fear, and his teeth were clenched together. That fear was contagious, but she had to see for herself. She gently pushed his hand to extract herself and peeked into the secret room. The small window to the outside had been papered over but still a glow was admitted that allowed her to see the faces hanging on the walls. Masks; with grimacing mouths, wild hair, pointed fangs in strange colors. They hung from their hooks between torn scraps of anti-Islander propaganda posters and maps of this section of the city. There were cross marks angrily dashed across several spots from the Harbor to the Middle Ring. In the dim light the empty wooden eyes looked like they met hers and the still air almost shimmered around them. In the corner there were some cloth strips spotted with dried blood and a box full of assorted vicious looking knives.

The hairs on the back of Ayika's neck were standing on end. But none of the masks were white with jutting tusks. None of them had been worn by the man in black who killed Lizhen. No, every one of these was different, a unique individual. She had never seen anything like them in Ba Sing Se.

"Ayika!" Xinfei pleaded in a quite unnecessary bid to make her think this discovery was serious. "We've got to go." He put his arm out in front of her to keep her out of the secret room. "I think this guy might be the Mask! Leader of the secret Society! If what they say on the street's true, he'll kill us in a heartbeat. We get out now."

As Ayika looked back into that ill-omened room she heard her own voice speaking in her head. Well, it said, you wanted to find something.

...