...
The sun had long since set when Ayika climbed up from the Bed to walk past the long row of riverside ship berths in the dark and the damp. She shivered slightly at the first hint of autumn's chill and now wished she had put on a slightly heavier shirt above her hip-slit skirt and trouser combination. However, she did not think she could have withstood delaying her exit from the apartment even by those few seconds. Her mother had taken her dismissal from the school, however temporary, as a signal to begin redoubling her efforts to promote meetings between her daughter and every eligible male in the city. The whole thing made Ayika sick to her stomach and the ensuing screaming matches were not helping anyone. In the end she had stormed out saying only that she was meeting with the Bao brothers. She had not wanted to give them even that much information but the beseeching looks her tired father gave her convinced Ayika to provide him some reassurance. She had still slammed the uneven wooden door against her mom's shouting.
Even deep into the night there was still motion along the river docks in scattered pools of lamplight by the customs houses and company offices. Yet for the most part the space between the creaking ships and looming warehouses was empty and dark enough that Ayika found herself wishing Mister Gaoli could extend his pet gas-lamp project down here as well as up around his mansion in the Middle Ring. She could see over the roofs of the waterfront to where the city haze glowed orange from the perpetual day of the red forest of over-lit Exclusion towers. There people didn't have to stumble through streets in the dark or step in the fourth freaking puddle come on how did she keep hitting them!
"Psst! Ayika!" Xinfei's voice whispered out of the gloom.
Ahead, she could just make out a shape in the night waving at her. Make that two shapes, as a piece of wall detached and reformed its self into Xiaobao's familiar bulk.
"Hey," Ayika said, sliding up to their station in the shadows. "Two questions; has anyone seen Mizumi, and is there any particular reason we're standing in the dark?"
Xiaobao gave a short laugh. "Someone..." He nonverbally indicated to his side. "...felt like lighting a lantern would instantly attract every Public Safety agent in the city."
Xinfei bristled at his brother's jibe. "I just said that there was no need to draw attention to us hanging around out here trying to get involved with a conspiracy. It just-"
"Yeah, well could you spark it up?" Ayika said. "Mizumi's not exactly as familiar with this place and I don't want her stumbling into the river looking for us."
"Just give me a second to light it," Xiaobao said. He picked up a small hand-lantern from around his feet and then felt around on a nearby ledge on the wall. "I put the flint down somewhere..."
Xinfei sighed as he patted his clothes for something. "Let me see that." There was a scraping sound and flame blossomed in his hand. Gingerly holding the end of a short burning stick he stuck it under the hood of the lantern and caught the wick on the first try.
Xiaobao grunted in approval. "Ok, you may have actually been onto something with this product. What did you say was in those fire sticks?"
Xinfei was not listening. "And where is our foreigner? She was supposed to be here, those nationalists'll be arriving any minute. Not that I understand why we're taking her to an anti-Islander meeting in the first place, she's going to get us found out."
"Oh give it a break, please." Ayika said, looking down the street into the distant dark. "The war and occupation left plenty of mixed-race people out west. She passed fine at the teashop."
"Yeah, with those three Upper Ring idiots. But there's bound to be someone with brains out there. She's not exactly stealthy with her stomping around like she owns the place."
"Not stealthy, eh?" said a voice right behind him.
Ayika spun back around to see Xinfei jumping in fright. Xiaobao burst out with the laughter he had previously clamped behind his hand since he saw the female figure creeping up behind his brother with a finger to her lips. Mizumi lowered a lacy handkerchief mask from around her mouth with a laugh, and patted Xinfei on the arm in apology.
"My apologies, I should not have used stealth in that way."
"Good, you're here!" Ayika said. Tonight the Fire Nation girl had changed into a new outfit, which Ayika assumed was supposed to let her blend in with the nighttime citizenry of the harbor town outside the Exclusion. It was true that the cuts and patterns were to Kingdom fashions, and though those dark colored clothes might have allowed a pretty girl like Mizumi to blend in with the street traffic of the prosperous Middle Ring, down here amid the wharfs the intricate embroidery and quality fabric meant she could only be mistaken for a rather brazen thief or someone who clearly had no business out at these hours.
"Great disguise, Mizumi!" Ayika said and internally bit her tongue. She really had meant to raise those objections but the other girl was so clearly fishing for compliments on her covert operations skills that Ayika could not bring herself to do it. Xinfei rolled his eyes and Xiaobao raised his eyebrow at her but they decided there were now more pressing things to worry about. Mizumi was no longer the most out of place person here in the shadows beside the river. Voices from the distance bounced off the hulls of ships moored in their berths.
"Ow, it is really dark down here!"
"Are you sure we're heading in the right direction?"
"Look, the Gaoli business was north of immigration docks so we went to the water there and headed north. One of those lights out there has to be that dockworker guy we're meeting."
The three university students from the tea house were making their stumbling way along the wharf street. One held a small lantern aloft whose narrow gleams seemed to more often lead them astray than guide them. It was hard to believe, but it appeared that the only concession the three had made to subtly was to throw a dark cape over their black and white university uniforms. After Ayika's concerns about Mizumi, the lack of effort seemed almost insulting. The chubby student, Jiang, was hunching his shoulders as if at least he felt embarrassed with their lack of stealth but Chonglong was squared up to punch the darkness in the chin and Zhangyi was as straight backed and graceful as ever. They were speaking in the exaggerated fake whispers that actors used in the operas but Ayika suspected they thought they were being genuinely careful.
"That next place just has some burly night's-watchman out front."
"Psh! It figures that skinny little wharf rat couldn't follow through."
"No no, he has to! We already spread the word that we had secured the Gaoli warehouse for tonight!
Ayika decided that this had gone on for long enough and moved to exit the shadows where Xinfei, Mizumi and her had been holding position. She stepped forward towards the path as the shortest university boy nudged their handsome leader who was looking very upset. Jiang said, "Of course, Zhangyi's just worried he won't get to see that little Water Tribe girl again."
Chonglong gave a small bark of laughter and Zhangyi swatted his friend away. "Hey, Jiang, be serious. There are going to be a lot of angry people showing up here very soon if we can't get in. After the disaster that hit the last meeting we need this new place." Whenever Zhangyi stopped walking he would strike a pose like the charismatic hero in the festival street performances. Amazingly, it seemed unintentional. Ayika wondered if he really did think she was pretty.
She was very close now but with the torch blinding them to the night she was completely invisible. This seemed as good a time as any to reintroduce herself. "Well if you're pressed for time, then you boys might as well come on in."
Ayika was rewarded for her stealthy approach with jumps and some rather mild cursing as the boys almost dropped their lantern. Eventually, after much excuse-making they were able to salvage their pride enough to come watch Xiaobao unlock the door to the warehouse. There was some lingering embarrassment but Zhangyi at least looked genuinely grateful to see Ayika. At her urging they filed inside under Xiaobao's watchful and quite distrustful gaze.
"Yes, this should do perfectly," Zhangyi said, raising up his lantern as his voice echoed slightly in the silence of the vast interior space of the warehouse. The free-spilling light leapt out over jumbles of crates and stacks of metal girders. Fortunately for their purposes, the warehouse was at an empty ebb in the shipping cycle and several clearings presented themselves in the ordered forest of stacked goods.
The nationalist boys, as benefited a secret cabal, appeared accustomed to making themselves at home in unfamiliar meeting places. As Zhangyi moved to arrange makeshift seats for the expected arrivals, Jiang split off to gather more lamps while Chonglong installed himself at the door to welcome in any fellow conspirators. Ayika, for all her bravado, felt very uncomfortable now that her plan was coming to completion and could feel the unease in her companions as well. Despite Mizumi's quiet protests of nonchalance some of Xinfei's worries must have sunk in and the foreign girl seemed intent on making herself unnoticeable. She found ways to stay close to Ayika's back as they drifted together around the soon to be meeting-place. Ayika herself started remembering all the nasty rumors Xinfei had told them about the Mask.
She watched the warehouses entrance over the next half hour as each new member of this nationalist group slid through the door. Meeting their eyes, Ayika fixed her face in a mask of assured confidence that she did not feel. For the most part these conspirators matched what she had expected; the young, the unsatisfied, and the unemployed. The usual suspects who would be bothered to join a political movement. But here and there she saw faces with more age and intensity than she couldn't easily dismiss. These figures with clothes like shopkeepers or higher, and eyes like tigers stood apart from the rest. They waited at the edge of the lantern-light and surveyed the coalescing meeting with a look that said they already knew what needed to be done and wanted to find out if these were the people to do it.
In a sudden moment of terror Ayika's heart leapt into her mouth when the two booze-swilling thugs who had accosted her and Xinfei outside the school came in, but one of them managed to look Ayika dead in the eye without any sign of recognition. She began to breath again. It seemed there were some advantages to men not pulling their gaze above her neck. She nudged Xinfei to scoot a bit further behind his brother, since he had been the one to actually set their boss on fire. That might have made more of an impression. Up above, the lamplight vanished into the shadowed rafters.
As the anti-foreign influence meeting began to informally commence Ayika tried to follow the growing tumult of conversation. However, there was little order to be found and the more ardent politicals spoke in a lexicon as alien to her as that of the foreigners they lambasted. Zhangyi did seem to be a well known personality here, but no matter how he tried to act the leader of this organization Ayika could see he was in a minority for believing he held that position. Several times he tried to seize control of the assembled body, announcing that they as brothers needed to redouble their efforts to spread the word against the insidious foreign corruption racing through the veins of their great city. But then another voice called back that they'd heard enough calls to action and now they needed actual action like what the Initiated had promised.
To Ayika, sounded like these 'Initiated' that Chonglong had mentioned previously and the group was now awaiting were a fairly recent addition to these little associations. As far as she could gather from the various conversations, before the coming of these new secretive leaders this was mostly a student nationalist movement and Zhangyi had held a lot more influence. Him and someone named Li Feng who seemingly had not been seen in a few weeks. No one knew what happened to Li though many people had theories that featured the Fire Nation, of course. The student protester's policy of making a big but ultimately harmless display was falling out of favor these days as tempers grew more fierce. Ayika heard people mention the Ambassador's death as an opportunity, and a few other whispers that Li Feng had made a smart decision to stop coming to these useless meetings. The meeting began to gradually erupt in contrasting voices.
Xiaobao gently nudged Ayika's arm and leaned down to whisper. "It sounds like there's been a shakeup recently. Half these guys seem to be pulling on a different beat. Your college boy is losing control of his movement here."
Suddenly something new was happening. Ayika felt a chill run up her spine as a hush washed across the heated, arguing rabble. Out of the shadowed warehouse entrance a new figure emerged, dressed in nondescript but well-made clothes of indeterminate style. Nothing was remarkable about him save the face-concealing mask carved from wood painted in blue and yellow. He moved forward like a sauntering tiger and the nationalists parted around him. For all the scraps of respect Zhangyi was fighting for, this man received them effortlessly. He was their leader and if Ayika was to judge by the reactions of the other members he had done something fearsome to earn that title. This had to be The Mask.
For a second Ayika felt the irrational urge to call out for justice, but no, this was not the mask of the man who had attacked Lizhen. The face in the school had been white like bone while this was painted in stripes of blue and gold. She couldn't prove that they were the same man yet.
Xinfei was clearly nervous about anything mask related and Xiaobao looked on with uncertain curiosity but Ayika faced a sudden pall of dread. Something about this masked man reminded her of the smell of smoke. She blinked to clear her thoughts. Ma'er the 'gardener' knew her face, if that was him under that crafted veil, but only as a servant so her presence should not be suspicious. He didn't know they had been in his house. Without realizing it she took a small step backwards, bumping against Mizumi behind her.
The man was dressed in dull brown colors and a wide belt with a metal clasp over his robes. His entire face was hidden behind that beaked mask made of wood or lacquer. Those disguised eyes stared out at the assembled protestors, searching the surrounding faces for something or someone he expected to see. Ayika found herself half hiding her face behind Xiaobao's broad shoulder, for it seemed to her there was an unnatural gleam in those wooden sockets. The Mask did not find who it was looking for, and on one arm his fingers flexed in furious claw-like motions. But then the moment passed and his movements were smooth and controlled again.
Mizumi leaned in over Ayika's shoulder to whisper in her ear. "Is that one of the masks you saw in the secret room? It looks like something one might see at an East Island theater. Do they use props like that in operas here as well?"
Mizumi's voice jarred Ayika's brain back into thought. She tried to think back to the ranks of masks hung like trophies in Ma'er's secret room. She didn't remember seeing this face but it could have been hidden in some nook. Still, that was not proof.
"I see the reach of the truth has grown!" The man in the mask began, his voice booming out over the whispering convocation. "You who were the first to gather together have done your good work. Our brothers and sisters have awoken to the demons in their midst and know that they have been deceived!"
The crowd echoed back in murmured reply.
"They know that they have been betrayed!"
Now the response show a coherent emergence of an echoed "Betrayed!"
"They know that those who claim to serve the will of the king and the nation have conspired with our enemies! And they know that they have been sold!"
"Sold!" Roared back the crowd.
Mizumi pressed up to Ayika's back again and whispered into her ear. "That is Ma'er we are thinking, correct? Does it sound like him? I am bad at picking out Kingdom accents."
Ayika did not find time to reply. With an acrobat's catlike distain for gravity the man in the mask leapt to the top of a pile of crates and continued his exhortations to the crowd, lifting his fist to the sky.
"And so our neighbors and our brothers have awoken to find themselves lost without a protector! Our officials speak lies of compromise. The great men of the city have been bought with foreign treasure. Our culture and our gods have been abandoned to insult and pollution. Even now, while the children of the rich drape themselves in foreign fashion and our streets are stabbed with foreign iron, the devils plan to deify one of their own! Here in our city, they prepare the rights to elevate a foreigner ambassador to power on an equal level with our spirit gods!"
The energy was infectious. Ayika see even those nationalists who were still wavering in their support for this leader nod and stamp in outrage. The masked speaker was vibrating with restrained force but the hand he held out to silence the crowd was as still as steel. Ayika was much better than Mizumi at discerning accents but something about this man's voice made it difficult for her to place. In any case, it would take more than a voice to identify Ma'er. They needed something certain they could bring to the guards. Some admission of guilt. If nothing else they needed to find out when the next meeting would be held so they could set the guards on them there. Now the Mask's voice was soft, and yet still managed to echo across the piles of merchandise.
"For too long the enemies of our people have thought themselves invincible while their lackeys nip at our heels. But we will strike back! Do you think we were chased here to this shipyard? Their attack on our meeting two nights ago was meant to be a show of their strength but it shall now be met with a display of our own. In this very warehouse lies a secret store of corrupt spoils from the insidious Fire Nation! Well, this traitor Gaoli will profit from his treason no more! His smuggled treasures will be smashed! True sons of the Kingdom have strength these foreign devils will never know!" He raised his arms as the crowd roared back in agreement.
"Woah, woah. What?!" Xiaobao growled. He stood up very suddenly and as Ayika grabbed his forearm to calm him she felt his tensed muscles twitching under his skin. "They're going to destroy Mister Gaoli's merchandise? Xinfei, you didn't say a damn thing about this!" Despite this anger, acknowledgment of their outnumbered position led him to keep to a low tone.
"I didn't know!" Xinfei hissed, looking almost as panicked. "They just said they needed a meeting spot! Those college boys said nothing about smashing! Ayika, what do we do?!"
Xinfei turned to Ayika, his eyes wide in desperation but she had no ideas. They were outnumbered six to one and Ma'er in the mask would notice if that many people slipped away. Just looking at him now made Ayika's head hurt. She felt a pressure against the fabric of the world, the sensation of things moving in the shadows, but she supposed that must be her own fear. She had never felt anything like this before Professor Lizhen's final night, this intuition. Something bad was coming. Their odds worsened further as another newcomer slipped through the warehouse door to join the crowd, a young man nervously clutching a large bag in front of him.
Strangely, Mizumi was the calmest of them all despite being in a meeting dedicated to the ruination of her kind. "Relax. It is all bluster," she whispered to the Bao brothers, a small smile on her lips. "They are not going to find any Fire Nation products here to smash. Aizhang Gaoli imports all his Fire Nation goods from my father and I know for a fact that there is nothing left on the docks right now. In fact, father was just complaining a few days ago that Gaoli had no spare engines for Father's rail project until the next shipment arrives in half of a week. See, I believe some crucial machinery pieces that my father had shipped in were broken during Mister Gaoli's unloading and so he told my father that a replacement would need to be ordered from..."
As Mizumi was speaking quiet reassurances Ayika watched the latest arrival to the meeting. He was desperately trying to push through the crowd with his bag to get near the man in the mask. The hair on the back of her neck was standing up with each step forward he took but she thought she might recognize the young man. Something about him seemed familiar. She tried to place his face in the brief glimpses she caught but she was interrupted by a sudden burst of activity from the bird-masked demagog whipping the protesters into a fury.
With abrupt ferocity the man in the mask dashed across the room to the far wall of the warehouse with the strength and grace of a trained assassin. Something about him seemed even more wild now, and Ayika still felt a deep uneasiness radiating from him. Ayika moved forward in the tide of men and lanterns pushing for a view in time to see the masked figure punch his fist through the wood planks of the wall. In an instant, what must have been very thin slats ripped like paper and in the dancing lamplight the Mask posed strangely in front of the newly exposed hole, the suggestion of vague colored shadows roiling around him. Ayika stepped back from the growing sensation of horror as everyone else moved forward to see what the masked man had revealed.
Behind the newly revealed false wall was a secret room filled with mounds of machinery, all emblazoned with the tell-tale flame of the Fire Nation. Swearing and invectives swelled through the crowd. The man in the mask snapped around and his deep voice rang out again. "It looks like Mister Gaoli was so desperate for his foreign goods he didn't even want to wait to pay customs! This is the true greedy heart of those who call themselves 'reformers'. They say they want to 'modernize' but all they really want is to take our money and hand it over to foreigners! Two nights ago one of their bender agents attacked our meeting. They wanted to frighten us! To scare us into hiding, into abandoning the welfare of our fellow citizens! Well, we accept the challenge! Tonight the true power of our nation is among you so not even benders can threaten us! No more shall we be content with talk, only action will do! We will bring the fight to them!"
Cheers resounded through the cavernous warehouse as the men pumped their fists into the air and even the flames in their lanterns seemed to reach up, dancing in mob-like agreement. The flames were dancing. Ayika suddenly focused on the sight of those wavering fires. She had seen that before, in the halls of the school right before the white mask attacked. It was the same sign. The same power.
None of the other nationalists seemed to notice the radiating strangeness Ayika felt around that mask and they converged to this scene of revelation in the secret room. The protesters surged past the man in the mask and began to smash at the hidden machines with bars of metal an other crude tools. Xiaobao ran forward to protect his boss's merchandise. "Hey! Hey! You can't..." One of the men turned on him with sudden suspicion. He thought quickly. "I mean, someone outside might hear!"
Zhangyi and his student organizers appeared at Xiaobao's side. Zhangyi and Jiang seemed similarly concerned about this sudden turn to destruction of property, even if the property was suspiciously hidden and possibly illegal. Zhangyi called out. "He's got a point guys! Careful about the sound of metal on metal; that is loud! We can't afford to get the meeting broken up again!"
However, his tall friend Chonglong had no concern for this caution, "Ah, shut up Zhangyi. You aren't one of the Initiated and weak-willed speeches like that are why you never will be." He called out and caught a crowbar that was tossed to him by another agent of destruction. "This, not those stupid posters is what we are supposed to be doing! Stop holding us back. Hell, even that nervous gardner boy who just joined up was still elevated to Initiated before us!" He pointed across the room where the newcomer with heavy sack was still trying to reach the bird faced man through the crowd. As Chonglong called out the young man looked up and for the first time Ayika got a good view of his face. She had seen him at the school, and at the garden designer's house. It was Ma'er's assistant, Tian!
In that same moment Tian looked at her. Then he looked past her to where Mizumi was standing. Terrified recognition surged across his face. He could tell what her appearance at both his boss's house and this secret meeting must mean. Tian's head whipped back and forth in indecision, undoubtably thinking about calling for his master in the mask but cowardice won out and he ran off towards the other shadowed end of the warehouse. The man in the bird mask really was Ma'er! They had proof! The murderer would be brought to justice!
Amidst the growing chaos, Ayika was focused. Ma'er in his mask was out of her grasp for now as long as he stayed in that crowd of people destroying Islander merchandise but she had another lead in front of her. She just needed to grab the assistant and make him talk. Shaking off Xinfei and Mizumi she dashed forward into the shadowed stacks after where the young man had fled. He had a lead but he was clumsy in the dim and shifting light.
Ayika chased after Tian, leaving the Bao brothers behind despite their cries. The gardener's assistant was trying to escape but he took a wrong turn past a stack of carved chests from Yi province and his run ended at a flat brick wall. Far above, a glimmer of moonlight shone through a high window mixing its pale white light with the fierce orange of the strangely powerful lanterns.
Ayika slid to a stop in the aisle, blocking the path back through the stacks. "Stop!" She yelled, balling her fists and finding the cracks in the floor-stones to secure her footing. Tian spun, eyes wide with fear that seemed to encompass more than just her. He still clutched the large awkward package in front of him; inside was some irregular object the size of a large plate and he seemed intent on not losing it. It was the size of the package his master had given to the professor; the package that the murderer in the white mask had stolen from Lizhen's office. Ayika said, "Professor Lizhen! They killed him. Why!? What did you give him! A weapon, a curse? Is that it?"
The young man tightened his hold on the sack with one arm while his other hand searched at his belt. He was mumbling to himself, "They weren't supposed to kill him. Just get back what was taken. I was supposed to tell them no. But they were strong. Stronger than before. They got stronger when they got near it! Did he know that?"
Suddenly Tian lunged forward, and the blade of a small knife glinted in his outstretched hand. Ayika raised her palms, preparing to catch his arm and spin him, hoping that this worked as well as it did when she and Xinfei were play-fighting, wishing they had not just been making up moves for fun. She had grown up in the Bed, so she knew too well what knife wounds looked like.
"Look out!"
The cry came from behind her. There was the sound of dashing footsteps and someone carried their running momentum forward to spring off a crate and deliver a hard kick to the assistant gardener's chest. Tian went tumbling into the wall of merchandise to his side and Mizumi landed in front of Ayika, panting lightly with her fists raised. She turned to Ayika, "You are ok?"
"Yeah, fine." Ayika ran up to stomp the knife out of the downed man's hand. He gave it up easily, rolling to the side to protect his concealed burden. As he scrabbled back against the brick wall that marked the end of the building one arm reached deep down into his satchel, searching for something other than the main bulky object. Ayika advanced on him with Mizumi at her side. "Why did The Mask attack Lizhen to take back what he just gave him that afternoon? Answer me! Or do we need to go back over there rip that blue and yellow bit off Ma'er's coward face!" She pointed back to where the dissidents had been destroying Gaoli's hidden Fire Nation machines.
Her interrogation did not get the reaction she expected. Tian was suddenly confused. "What?Ma'er? Ma'er is not in the mask."
"He...What?" Ayika had the sudden sensation of putting a foot down and not feeling ground.
Mizumi was just as thrown off. "Then what are you doing here? What is your Master doing?"
The young man hung his head, seemingly exhausted but Ayika could see the arm reaching inside the bag trembling with bulging tendons and twitching rope-like muscles. He muttered, almost to himself. "There was a plan. I was the bait. The butcher's goat. But there are more than two sides, not just reformers and conservatives, good and bad. Now I see the shadows, hear the whispers. The skin of the world is too tight, the rising music, and dark men on the street know me! The ritual is started, not concluded. I don't want to give it to these people, but what choice do I have?"
"Answer her!" Ayika yelled. "We found the room of masks in your master's house! What did he have to do with Lizhen's death? Who is Ma'er?!"
Tian looked up with the face of one who is about to willingly leap off a cliff. There were dark circles under his eyes and his hand was still hidden inside the bag. "He is the hunter."
That was when the warehouse shuddered with the sound of splitting stone as a wall abruptly exploded with earthbending.
...