...

The Kuang River docks were a cacophonous maelstrom of humanity. Even before Mizumi and the others got within a block of the warehouses themselves, the streets and bridges were full with a constant press of porters and overloaded carts. The two friends who had grown up in this mercantile jungle swam through the surge like fish in the sea but Mizumi was confounded. She tried to hold on to the back of Ayika's dress but soon the Water Tribe girl executed some flowing dodge around an overladen wheelbarrow and Mizumi was lost, alone in the crowd. Her father was an importer, she knew ports, and she now lived in the Exclusion itself right in the middle of Kuang Harbor but the traffic of the Impenetrable City was still beyond belief. For a people so obsessed with rules and regulation and stratification, here among the canals there was no sign of law or even human decency.

A heavy bump to her side pushed Mizumi against the stone railing of one of the innumerable bridges over the town's lace of canals. She tried to press in between two waist-high posts to prevent being scraped against a passing cart or pushed down into the water below. Not that she would hit the water if she fell, for the space beneath the bridge appeared to just be another road almost as crowded as the one above, though it was paved with water instead of brick. The canal was filled with long, thin, comically overloaded boats poled by workers who called out incessantly into the clamorous din.

Mizumi was staring over the flow of water traffic with a vacant and tired expression when a hand suddenly seized her wrist. Instantly the dull throb of the day's stress transformed into a surge of adrenaline and the combat lessons her grandfather had given came flooding back as she turned on her heel and clutched her free hand into a fist. She spun as she leveraged the force from her hip but luckily she managed to stop before her jab impacted Ayika's face.

The tribal girl blinked at the sudden attack. "Woah. Good reflexes I guess."

Mizumi was flush with embarrassment. She whipped her fist away from where it had frozen in front of Ayika's nose. "No, no, I am sorry! I just-"

"Forget it," the other girl said with a smile, brushing off the concern. "Come on, this way. Don't be freaked out. I'll give you a personal guided tour." She grabbed Mizumi's hand tightly. "Don't let go."

Together the girls made their way through the press, finding a way to the landward rear of one of the dock warehouses. Xinfei was grumpily waiting for them. He addressed Ayika as soon as they approached. "He's not going to be happy about all this." Presumably he was talking about his brother on whom their plan with the Student Nationalists seemingly hinged.

"Relax. I'll make him understand." With that Ayika led the way through damp, dirty alleys between dockside buildings out to the set of ship berths where Xiaobao worked. Xinfei's brother's name was not actually Xiaobao, Ayika explained to Mizumi, but working on the docks was a family tradition for the Bao family and when young Maolin Bao first came to work as a longshoreman he was distinguished as the smallest of a set. The nickname quickly became ironic as hard work and growth spurts turned the gentle and quiet boy into a towering young man who could carry two people on his broad shoulders. No one thought the fact that Xinfei was his younger and thinner brother presented anyone enough confusion to undo such an appropriate appellation. As Ayika told this story was told Xinfei was grumbling again and Mizumi could not help giggling. Ayika smiled.

The Gaoli Import company was, on this day, currently confining its activities to a single berth half-way along the port side bank from the rebirth of the River Reformed. Deeply tanned men in small, sweat-stained vests were involved in the heavy work of disgorging the contents of a long wooden ship of Earth Kingdom design, now slumbering in its berth with bamboo ribbed sails furled against the masts on each side of a thin smokestack. The engine was cool and the paddle wheel lay silent and still in contrast to the flurry of human motion. Giant bales of something white and fibrous were piled up on the dockside, in the process of being hauled away by porters on wheelbarrow or lashed to their back. The longshoremen themselves had moved onto the task of transporting wooden crates lifted carefully out of the ship's hold and over the sloping gunwales with an unholily complex system of ropes and pulleys hung from many spars. An older man with a scar under his lip, dressed the same as the rest but with a woven conical hat, stood apart from the laboring workers and barked out rhythmic instructions to the men whose straining muscles lowered the crate slowly onto the stones of the pier.

During a brief lull in the action Ayika waved her arms and called out, "Xiaobao!"

A young man, the tallest of all the workers, looked up and gave a smile that then faltered and was followed with what looked from this distance to be a stream of quiet curses. He yelled out to his foreman, "Hey, Jun Do! I've got to take care of something for a second! Ok?!"

The work boss tugged the edge of his hat down a bit to better shield his eyes and peered at where Ayika and Mizumi were standing as he yelled back in response. "Is that Xinfei? Yeah Xiao, go ahead and take care of that! Lasu! Grab his line!"

Xiaobao jumped down from his position and made his way up the pier through the piles of cargo already unloaded. Xinfei smiled weakly and waved but his older brother was having none of this. "You're supposed to be in bed." He said. "You've already missed two days this week and while Jun Do has sympathy for anyone who gets nabbed by the guards he doesn't have much for someone who refuses to simply sit down and heal. What did mom say? Ayika, what's he doing out?"

This close Xiaobao looked even taller and broader than Mizumi had thought he was before. However, unlike many of the other dock workers who were giving her and her foreign dress openly inspecting stares varying from hostility to hunger this young man barely spared her a glance.

Xinfei wrinkled his bruised face in agitation at being denied his own agency. "Yes, I'm actually feeling better. Thanks for asking, bro."

"Shut up, you look like a raccoon-bear with that black eye. Ayika, you told mom that he should spend a day or two resting."

"Hey, I told him too. However, I didn't have enough line on me to tie him to the bed so there wasn't much I could do when he insisted on following me around the city all day."

"Around the city...?" Xiaoboa started. "Ayika, what were you doing? And why does it involve an Islander-looking girl in fancy duds?"

Ayika gave him a reassuring smile that Mizumi felt made no impact on its intended target. She got the sense these two had known each other for most of their lives. "Relax man, I was just, you know, looking up on something that might give the guards a hint on catching who...attacked Professor Lizhen." As she reached the last part of her description her smile slipped and Mizumi saw the weariness and fear that must have always been there since last night. Mizumi found herself feeling guilty about her own level of emotional attachment to their search. Yes, she wanted to help push the unjust suspicion off her father but she had only known Teacher Lizhen for one day. Ayika had known the man for years and Xinfei had already paid for the city guard's incompetence in blood and bruises.

Xiaobao groaned and smacked his forehead. "Damn it, you can't go playing investigation outside the Bed. Not now. The whole city's on edge since that Ambassador died. The guys on the docks have been saying stuff all day. Stuff like, supposedly the spirits are angry about foreign ceremonies being held here and now all the spooks were out creeping last night. Possessions and magic and all that."

There was a snort from Xinfei. "That's ridiculous."

His brother rolled his eyes, "Look, I'm not saying I believe it or not, but you know as well as I do that what gets said on the docks is city-wide rumor in a few days. And people are antsy. People are starting to want ghost charms but at the same time they don't trust the government priests. I guess they think they're in the Fire Nation's pocket. Two of the guys just over at at Dahai Shipping supposedly went to see that Mama Mua on Flowing Water street and got so spooked at what she told them they never came back to work. Not the best climate to start buddying up with Islanders."

Mizumi spoke up, as this suspicion was wearing on her. "Neither I nor my family have done anything worthy of this caution."

Maolin called Xiaobao met her eyes. "I'm sure not, Miss, but I've got to look out for my family."

"Hey," Ayika insisted. "Just because some folks got spooked by a fortune teller I'm not about to give up on helping Lizhen! My grandma always said that people will find someway to scare themselves no matter what you tell them so what does it matter now?"

Xiaobao crossed his arms, "Yeah, well right around now I wish we still had your grandmother. These people are wanting that spirit magic help and I'm starting to think it couldn't hurt."

"Well, Lizhen wasn't killed by some spirit! It was a murderer!"

"Yes! And we have uncovered a promising lead on finding them!" Mizumi interjected.

Ayika looked at her, slightly thrown off by having her arguing rhythm disrupted. Mizumi shrugged, "It did not sound like you were getting around to describing the plan we decided on."

Xinfei softly groaned to himself as his brother turned a very skeptical eye on Mizumi who despite the exponential weight difference stared up to meet eyes with confident assurance. He kept his gaze on Mizumi but he addressed his brother. "Yeah. Xinfei, how about you start explaining more exactly what you're up to here?"

Ayika started speaking before her friend could open his mouth. She began introductions, "Xiaobao, this is..."

"My name is Mizumi Miohuito," she interrupted. She had spend enough time on the sidelines of the conversation here and her general experience in this country had shortened her patience for being discussed as if she was not present.

Luckily, this brother did not seem to be one of those who held distrust and disdain for her entire race. What he did appear to have was a profound skepticism for any plan cooked up between his brother and Ayika. An explanation of the potential gains from observing a meeting of the student protesters did not convince him. "Nope, nope, nope." he waved his hands. "This is a bad idea even if you weren't bringing a rich Islander girl into the middle of it. I can't have you guys putting yourselves in danger like that."

Xinfei snorted, "Danger? Those idiot university boys just read books and write posters. I agree that we probably won't find out anything good but it's not going to be dangerous. And it might be a laugh."

There was a frustration building up behind Ayika's eyes. "Look," she said, trying to keep the welling emotion out of her voice. "He was killed right in front of me and no one but us has any leads. I need to...Where do you see any justice in this city? You know what the government's investigation into a death looks like."

Something about what she said caused a reaction in both brothers, the younger's eyes got wide in surprise and the eldest narrowed in what could be anger or sadness, Mizumi did not know. Ayika's voice broke a little. "I mean, I just...I just want to try something. The professor was just trying to say we should all get along and learn from each other. And now they've made it about politics instead of truth. They killed him and I was right there."

For a moment the four of them stood in what passed for silence here in the busy harbor of the largest city in the world. Mizumi tried not to fidget, but she felt like she was missing some crucial background information about this conversation. Finally, Xiaobao sighed and uncrossed his muscular forearms. "Fine." Ayika's head snapped up in excitement and gratitude but he held up a hand to forestal response. "But the warehouse keys stay with me. If you guys are doing this, I'm coming with."

His younger brother rubbed his spiky hair discontentedly. "Hey look, I can handle-"

"Shut up Xinfei," Ayika said without malice as she shoved him to the side. "Thank you, Maolin. Thank you so much." She turned to Mizumi and met her eyes with broadcasted excitement. "We're on!"

Mizumi jerked to attention. "We are? This is great!" She said as she pumped her arm in the air. Her celebration brought new stares from the rest of the traffic around the docks. She looked down at herself and decided that a little less attention might be preferable. But they still had to organize their plan of action.

"All right, I should really get on some more local clothes for this mission. But before that, on to planning." She began to pace as she rattled off what they needed to arrange. "That warehouse over there with the Gaoli seal is the correct one or is there another that we will be using? All of you three live in the former Kuang riverbed neighborhood which is just as far from this warehouse as the Exclusion is so our travel times should be the same. The university students said that the meeting would start just after moonrise which tonight is I believe is two hours after sunset, so we should try to meet just after an hour past sunset. Do you have the sand glasses to mark that? It does not really matter though, that level of coordination is unnecessary as long as we meet up here before the protesters arrive."

The three other co-conspirators were blinking at this rapid speech as Mizumi paced back and forth listing out points on her fingers. Clearly they had not expected this rich merchant's daughter to start talking like she was planning a military campaign. Now she rushed forward and took Ayika's hands in hers, clutching them in honest thanks that left Ayika looking flustered and confused. "Thank you so much for allowing me to help. The conservatives are always eager to blame everything on my father and the others of the Exclusion. To think that they would actually try to pin the murder of our supporter on us is...Well, we will get them. Oh yes, we will. Thank you, Ayika of the Water Tribe." There was a fierce gleam in her eye as she turned and jogged off down the crowded pier, turning to wave goodby as she promised to be back at the agreed time.

Ayika blinked in a poleaxed way as she waved to Mizumi who was now getting back to her feet after tripping over a bale of cotton she had not seen while jogging backwards. Xiaobao stepped up next to Ayika. "She has energy," he said.

"Yeah, she's really something," was all she could say. It had been a long time since she'd had any female friends. It was nice. This Islander girl was rich and presumptuous and fierce but she was smart and quick to improvise and did not seem to harbor any bad feeling for Ayika's race or class that was not part of the foreigner's generalized pity for this whole country. Could Ayika trust her? She didn't know, but it would be interesting to find out.

Xinfei was a little less impressed. "Yeah, she's something. But what do you actually know about her? Didn't she just join your school yesterday? And didn't you catch her sneaking around the building listening in on the professor right before this all happened? Are we sure we want to trust her?"

Ayika waved away these concerns. "She didn't do anything. She only wants...I just know, ok?"

Xinfei still looked skeptical but he nodded, accepting that point for the sake of debate. "Ok, sure. She's clean. Maybe. But we don't have to necessarily buy into her whole 'clear daddy's name' plan."

"What are you talking about?"

Xinfei moved to explain. "Look, her dad was caught lurking in the dark outside the school when the killer came right? And that name Miohuito, he's the one building that coal powered metal tram system he plans to put the earthbenders out of work. I know you've heard some of the bad rumors about all that. He wasn't exactly beyond suspicion even before he became the suspect in a murder. If the Islanders can control the tram lines they can control movement in this city so no one can act against them."

Ayika had heard people talking about that before. "Pshh, rumors. The conservatives just don't like any Fire Nation businesses operating in the city."

Xinfei did not take being dismissed that easily. "Hey! Just because the protesters are jerks doesn't mean they can't be right sometimes! And the Miohuitos aren't magically innocent because you had fun today being gal pals with that foreign girl!"

Ayika had not felt this much resistance to one of her plans from Xinfei for years. In fact, for a while now he had mostly been an easily flustered doormat. She found herself getting angry as well. "Hey, I didn't force you to come along today! I'm sorry you got hurt last night but someone was killed! If you're too scared to help then stay away and I will do it myself!"

As soon as she said that Ayika knew she had gone too far. He had always been her partner in crime and he now looked genuinely betrayed. "Wait, Xinfei..."

He hunched his bony shoulders and shrugged her off. "Whatever, I can probably still sell some matches in what remains of today. See you tonight." He walked off, sliding into the heavy port traffic and disappearing.

Ayika stared at his departing back as her mouth worked for something to say to help put all that back together. A large rough hand landed gently on her shoulder. Xiaobao brought her in close to provide comfort. "He'll be fine," he said. "Just give him a moment to cool down. There are things in his life that don't look to pan out how he wishes they would, and being beat blue by the guards didn't help his self esteem. Not your fault but you know him, he'll bounce back."

Ayika leaned back a little against Xiaobao's chest, appreciating her older not-a-brother's presence. "Yeah, I guess." Why did everything seem out of her control? Things had been easier when they were kids. Above, a seabird let out a harsh cry and turned to spiral up into the sky.

...