...

Maekayae of the Northern Water Tribe was a strong and determined woman who despite raising two children and sustaining an impressive output of piecework sewing-for-hire still managed to maintain the considerable network of personal acquaintance that determined status for women of every class in this city. Unfortunately, she was also Ayika's mother. That meant that all this force and drive was now brought to focus on her daughter's life with the power of a sea-eagle's dive breaking the water's surface after a fish. Today it all hit Ayika so that by the time she blearily blinked awake she had already been sat upright and her hair was being combed and primped while she was still on her futon.

After yesterday's failure of with the young suitor Yukip, Maekayae had decided to work on securing her daughter a job first, buying more time to find a man. As her mother jerked a brush through her hair with enough strength to make her wince, Ayika gave her father a look of wide-eyed and pleading desperation across the breakfast table. Her father, always a man of few words, only returned a similarly silent look that said on this particular instance he agreed with his wife. Then Makon finished bolting down the last of his bowl of porridge before rushing off to his job on the pilot boat. Ayika's shoulders sagged. Her little brother Oakas surreptitiously flicking crumbs at her face didn't make things any better. It did not look promising for her chances of meeting with Mizumi and Lili tonight. Instead she had an interview at Mrs Anyakya's Tribal Laundry.

There were a lot of stereotypes about the people of the Water Tribes held by citizens of the city. That they were all half-civilized, illiterate, and savage ghost-whisperers. However, it was also said they were the best at cleaning. Ayika could only assume that this idea came from some half-formed association between water and cleanliness, since Grandma Aka and of the other people who had spent most of their lives in the tribal lands tended to regard washing as akin to war; a necessary evil only to be conducted after extensive deliberation and consultation of the signs and spirits. However, residents of the city thought that the People were good cleaners so it had taken a young immigrant named Anyakya only a few moments after entering under the gate to decide to open her own laundry, staffing the front of the shop with pretty tribal girls in cliched outfits and the back with native Kingdom workers who actually knew how to get stains out of clothes. Decades later, she now owned eight locations.

Ayika had an appointment today at one of them. Fortunately, in one bit of good news she was able to convince her mother not to follow behind her like Ayika was a little girl sent into town on an errand for the first time. Actually, Xiaobao had convinced her. He and his brother had arrived just after Ayika had experienced being rapidly shoved into her best blue dress. She only owned three dresses but this article had not managed to accumulate any rips yet and was still retaining most of its original dye. When the Bao brothers arrived, Ayika's mother was suddenly all smiles and insisted on pressing into their hands a little package of dried fish as a gift to their mother. She said that it was a thank you gift for something Mrs Bao had done for her but Xinfei averted his eyes and Xiaobao nodded weakly to this story. Ayika's mother was always uncomfortable speaking about Mrs Bao but at the same time always insisted on doing what she could to take care of the two brothers. After that display Maekayae could hardly refuse to let them be the ones to chaperone Ayika to her interview.

Ayika stepped out of the door of her apartment onto the rough wooden walkway over the murky riverbed water and breathed deeply in the slightly fetid air. After that growling and quarreling with her mother even the green foamy pool at the foot of the River Wall was a welcome change. She shook herself loose, thanked Xiaobao profusely for saving her, and struck off leading the boys out into the Bed. As they walked, she filled Xinfei in on what she had discovered with Mizumi yesterday. She thought he reacted oddly when she told him about joining forces with Lili Gaoli but it was probably the strangeness of her spending time with his boss's daughter.

He in turn told her that he had reestablished their contact with the student protesters. Ayika no longer felt that those university boys were the right avenue of investigation. They didn't know who led their organization and hanging around them only risked exposure to the men wearing the masks. Those Masks made her uneasy. But it was so good to be talking to Xinfei in a normal way again that she didn't mention her doubts. Before they could climb the stairs up the old bank to exit the river bed and enter the rest of the town they had to stop by the Bao house.

The Baos hadn't always lived down in the Bed. Maolin and Xinfei had been born in a small but well-constructed dwelling along a side canal in a working-class neighborhood of Kuang Harbor. However, after the death of their father even the incomes of two boys with jobs could not afford to hold on to that little house. Moving down amongst immigrants to a ramshackle apartment of mismatched timber had been hard on Mrs Bao.

Xiaobao walked up a few uneven steps and opened the door. "Hey mom! We're back for a second, and we brought Ayika with a gift from her mother. Isn't that nice?"

Ayika followed him in holding the little bundle before her. "Hi, Mrs Bao." She held it out with both hands as she bowed a little. "It's dried dogfish with that slightly spicy seasoning she remembered you liking."

"Oh, that's kind of her." Mrs Bao said in a soft breathy voice. "I will have to remember to do something for her."

Mai Bao sat in a chair next to the tiny open window. Though still fairly young, the hand which took the bundle from Ayika was delicate and so thin that Ayika could see each individual bone. Mrs Bao had never recovered from the death of her husband. Of course everyone in the Bed had grieved with her when that nasty business had left her alone with two boys not yet to the cusp of manhood. They had even regarded her with no little bit of pride when she still wore her widow's shawl two years later. In a district where some remarriages were only delayed long enough to retrieve the knife out of deceased's back it was good to see a woman going above and beyond the customary rules. However, after four years the good will had run out. That point had been three years ago. These days Mai Bao had very few visitors, which was a shame as she rarely exited this room except on high holidays to make offerings to her lost husband's soul by the defunct River Temple.

"I'll tell her that you liked it," Ayika said cheerily. "Make sure you make Maolin and Xinfei eat some too so I can report back to her how everyone enjoyed it." Mrs Bao had a bad habit of giving out the household's food to people who passed by on the street. Food they could ill afford to lose.

The boys' mother nodded warmly if vacantly and slowly got up out of her chair to place the little bundle up on a rather sparse shelf. Ayika could never really blame Xinfei for constantly seeking a big payout in one of his many schemes. Or for his distrust in the government after the fate of his father. The three of them said their goodbyes, even if Xinfei's was only a grunted murmur, and left. The door shut on Mrs Bao settling back into her spindly chair by the little window.

As they climbed up and neared the edge of the Bed, the path up the old bank was more steps than plank-bridge as it was below. These crude stairs shifted materials every few paces as scrap-wood and pilfered street cobbles all did their part to climb the winding route through the rough buildings stilted against the rising bank. Here two houses borrowed structural support from the vaulted pilings of a drainage aqueduct that ran above on its way to the River Reformed. They were squeezing through the resulting gap when Ayika heard a voice.

"Hey! Xiaobao!"

Xinfei's brother casually looked around to see where this hailing had originated from. Such an event was not all that unusual. People liked to talk to Xiaobao. Beside her, Xinfei hunched his bony shoulders even more. Not many people ever called out for him. Ayika jokingly bumped him with her hip to get him to lighten up and stop moping. It seemed to work, at least he now had a wistful smile twisting his lips.

A young man dressed like a laborer was lightly jogging down the crude stairs. He stopped in front of Xiabao and automatically raised a finger to push his grey headband back up on his forehead. He was of Kingdoms heritage but his skin-tone and features indicated an origin far to the south of the Impenetrable City. Likely his family had come as refugees during the Hundred Year War. Many people in the Bed had.

"Hey, Bao," he began. "I heard you were right there at the harbor fire couple nights ago. What did you see? The whole place looks like it's still smoking. Is Gaoli done for?"

Xiaobao waved one large callused hand. "Yu, come on. These owner guys all prepare for stuff. Mister Gaoli's got one of those bets which pays him out if he needs to rebuild from fire. Us crews are going to be unloading again tomorrow. Just see." Ayika could not remember ever seeing this guy before in her life but somehow Xiaobao managed to pin a name to every face he came across. Down here more people knew him than knew Port Master Seiran. Even more had known of his father.

Yu wrinkled his mouth in displeasure. "So that Gaoli's going to be all fine and dandy, huh? I heard he'd been smuggling in Fire Nation machines past customs. Also heard that the fire might have been lit by some Islanders themselves. Like Gaoli had been trying to cut someone out of the pay loop and they got testy," he said fishing for their opinion on his theory.

Ayika narrowed her eyes, feeling dangerous terrain ahead. After all, they knew a good deal more about that night than they were supposed to. They had been at ground zero. Xinfei opened his mouth but Xiaobao spoke first and had fewer instincts for concealment. "What? No! The Islander wasn't who lit the fire. It was an accident! I think. I mean the flames were acting weird and when that Public Safety looking bender guy showed up to-"

Xinfei elbowed his overly honest big brother but Yu's eyes were already wide. He quickly looked around before leaning in. "I heard some of that stuff but I thought Guang was pulling my leg! I mean he got it from some guy in a drink-house late that night. People are saying things have been weird the last few days. You think the Islanders could be hexing us? Everyone knows foreigners have stronger magic." He now noticed Ayika with her pointedly foreign features. "It's a shame your people's Aka of the Bed is gone. We could use some of that power on our side. Hey, what do you think of that Mama Mua up near the wall? She's one of yours, right? I heard she's a healer but does the other spirit-stuff as well."

Ayika crossed her arms. "The Islanders aren't hexing you. All this panic's doing is covering up things that might actually be happening. If you want to be safer then stop hanging out in drink-houses when your should be sleeping."

Yu pouted a bit at Ayika's lack of showmanship and general absence of magic. "That Aka lady was better. Maybe I'll look into Mama Mua. I hear a rumor she might be a bender too and I haven't ever seen any tribal bending!"

Some people only ever heard what they wanted to hear. In fact, this guy seemed intent on establishing himself as Xiaobao's best friend right here and Xiaobao was of such a nature that he would have probably been fine with being amicably trapped forever in the middle of this path. Xinfei and Ayika, on the other hand, had appointments to keep. They exchanged a look. Falling into familiar old patterns they began to make excuses, rapidly playing off each other as they smoothly pushed past so Yu did not get a chance to say a single word more and did not notice until a few moments later that the three had vanished behind a verbal smokescreen. By the time he realized they were gone for good the three had climbed up the winding way and snaked between the last of the immigrant housing until they emerged at the former river's edge under that battered stone arch onto a street of the city proper.

However, leaving the Bed did not change the charged urban atmosphere Ayika felt from the people she passed. As they made their way over the canals of the town she noticed that the normal crowds in the streets were antsy. Out of the corner of her eye she saw people fingering charms on their wrists and the crudely scrawled spells scrolls wrapped around their belts. Nor was Yu the last person to approach Xiaobao. Two more young men called out to the tall Bao boy to confirm what they had already heard around town. Xinfei might grumble that these people were just using his brother as a sounding board for their own fantasies but Ayika saw how Xiaobao's ernest attention and solid presence provided them a measure of comfort, even if he intentionally said as little as possible about the actual situation. Some people were just who you looked to when there was a crisis, and there were signs of a crisis brewing.

It was almost enough to make Ayika think there actually had been a curse laid on the town. She shook her head. Her grandmother would have smacked her with a wooden spoon. It was true that spirits at the edge of the veil to the other world could be entreated by the wise to invisibly influence the mind or body, but no person could have enough power to affect such a large scale as rumor was claiming. The Impenetrable City was not a spirit oasis where the line between worlds was thin and ephemeral. The City liked its walls strong. Those spirits that spent the power to cross over usually kept to themselves according to grandmother. Not that anyone but a gifted few could see them.

All these rumors were just people making themselves nervous. However, this explanation was not any less dangerous in so large and tightly packed of a metropolis.

All this anxious commotion on the street was giving Ayika a headache. As they walked past the long-shuttered government River Temple, she rubbed the bridge of her nose with her eyes closed and watched the colored circles bloom into existence as her fingers pressed against her eyelids. However, it was not safe to be without sight when walking down an Impenetrable City street. People had died for much less. So she opened her eyes and squinted up into the bright morning light as she tried to ignore how her wavering vision made the roofs' curved eaves shed their shadows into crawling forms like vaporous lizards. But at least by now the three of them had reached their destination. Ayika pressed forward ahead of her friends and opened the door of this establishment.

As soon as they stepped in a bored female voice began reciting, "Greetings, welcome to Mrs Anyakya's Super Best Tribal Wash. Our cleaning secrets handed down from the spirits themselves insure your belongings will get as clean as polar ice. How may I help you today."

The teenage girl droning this memorized pitch from behind the counter was Water Tribe sure enough. In fact she had her hair done up in old-fashioned traditional loops and was wearing a dress with an inordinate amount of white fur trim like an arctic princes. However, the fur actually looked to be fake, just white thread, and Ayika was sure that traditional northern clothes were not supposed to hug the body that tightly. Really tightly in places. The girl herself was propping her face up with a fist against her chin and her elbow on a small statue of the Golden Toad as her mouth worked up in down in the rhythm of chewing gum. Ayika was seized with a brief urge to slap her for that contraband before she remembered that she was not at the school, not that she could have followed through with the impulse there either.

She also remembered why she was here. "Yes. Hello. I think I might have an appointment to speak with Mrs Anyakya? I was told that..." She took a breath to remember the chain of transmission her mother had explained to her. "...that my mother Maekayae had spoken to Kya who had spoken to Mrs Anyakya's sister's daughter Amishiq who said that I could come in today."

The girl behind the counter continued to look at Ayika for a moment. Then she lazily turned her eye on Xinfei and Xiaobao who were awkwardly standing at the other end of the room near the door. She slowly stood up. "Just a moment." She walked over to a curtain covered doorway and stuck her head through. "Hong! There's another here to be a counter girl! Go tell the boss!"

Ayika blinked rapidly as the girl's forward lean revealed just how tight that dress was in the back. Belatedly she remembered to reach over lightly smack Xinfei on the arm for looking. At least she assumed he was looking. Then she realized that this was the job she was applying for. Well, at least she saw what her mother meant about this job giving her more opportunities to meet men.

The employee came back behind the counter and said, "She'll see you in a sec." With that she settled back onto the stool to resume her gum chewing.

Despite that reassurance, there did not seem to be any immediate action brewing from behind that curtain so Ayika looked around the small storefront to amuse herself. It seemed that whoever had decorated this place had just swept though some closets in the Bed and nailed everything they found to the walls. There was an old fish spear, a carved oar, some seal-fur mittens, a beaded water-skin and a lot of small spirit idols. In fact, it looked like most of them had not even been properly desecrated. Well, that was just asking for trouble.

Before she could think any more about that there was the sound of a storm building deeper in the laundry. Whatever it was involved an awful lot of yelling. Then the curtain was swept aside and Mrs Anyakya strode out like a martial queen on her own parade ground. Anyakya had arrived in this city almost twenty years ago, just another young migrant seeking opportunity after the war. Since then, time had left its marks with grey streaks in her hair and lines around the corners of her mouth. However, power had left its mark as well. Anyakya, still a 'Mrs' five years after her husband's death, was perhaps the most influential member of the Tribes in this part of the city. In all Ba Sing Se only the benders of the Ice Maker family companies outstripped her. Certainly in Kuang Harbor she wielded indisputable power and prestige and this was clearly evident from the first moment you saw her. In that instant Ayika would have trusted this lady's shawl over any steel armor.

Mrs Anyakya strode over and managed to look down at Ayika despite a lack of any significant difference in their heights. "All right," she said. "Let's see what we've got."

"I-" Ayika began but Mrs Anyakya held up a finger. Apparently this was not the talking part of the interview. The boss began to slowly walk around Ayika while looking her up and down. She grabbed the back of Ayika's dress and pulled it back to press it against her sides. The motion moved Ayika's sleeve up a bit which exposed an ugly healing bruise from the night at the warehouse, which made the boss frown but say nothing. She circled around and squeezed Ayika's upper arm and then came to her front and bruskly brought her hands up and under much more sensitive areas.

"Woah!" Ayika said, as she jumped back, throwing an arm up in front of her chest. "Just what was that about?!"

Mrs Anyakya rolled her eyes at this young woman before her as she crossed her arms under her own considerable bosom. "Oh, save me your outrage. You know perfectly well why I'd think about hiring you instead of one of those boys you've got back there. What are they, boyfriends or friend-boys? You know, I don't care." She waved her hand. "Amishiq told me that you're supposed to have cleaning experience, but that's not exactly what I'm looking for."

Ayika thought quickly. She needed this job. Her family needed it. "I can also read and do my plusses and minuses rather well."

"And you can write?"

"...Yes."

Anyakya noticed her hesitation. "Which means yes as long as you're the only one who has to read it again. All right, that's better than most of my girls, but I've got my own notation system so it's rare that you'd need to read out of the saga of Shin Hutou." She stepped back. "Well, it's true that I was looking for a new girl when I put out the word, but this location's been nothing but problems lately. Hardly enough business to keep this genius behind me." She waved a thumb at the girl behind the counter.

"...Hey!" The girl replied belatedly.

The boss did not acknowledge this and instead shook her head at Ayika. "No, sorry girl. On top of everything else, this last week things've been unsettled all from here to the Middle Wall. Everyone's angry and now I hear people might be coming down sick. I'm not sure what's going to go down but if trouble is brewing then I can't afford to be taking on new staff. Check back in a month if you're still looking."

That was not good. Ayika knew that the family could not afford for her to be out of work for nearly that long. Whatever the outfit, Mrs Anyakya's businesses were better than whatever else Ayika was likely to find hiring in Kuang Harbor.

"Um, wait! I worked for two years in the Middle Ring at a school. I know all the proper manners and can class up my accent. I also know enough about the Islanders to deal with them really well on a personal level." That last was not strictly true, but if she was truly becoming friends with Mizumi then any question she had could find an answer to any question she might have quickly enough.

However, these attempts did not impress Mrs Anyakya.

"Islanders?" She snorted. "Troubles with them are half the problem on people's mind. Don't need any more of that. And as for poshing it up, a good bit of what I am selling at my places is the allure of the exotic savage. No one's ever going to believe you're an Inner Ring lady, so you might as well own up and not pretend. If they're going to disrespect you anyway, might as well make a few coins off the so called tribal traditions." She turned and began to head towards the entrance to the back of the shop, dismissing Ayika's presence without another word.

Ayika's hands clenched at her side. "Yeah?! Well at least I know about the culture you're making into a joke. And I know better than to hang up a stranger-repelling totem up in a freaking business!"

Anyakya stopped and turned to look back at her. She followed Ayika's angry eyes up to the small spirit idols suspended from the walls. "Those are just decorations, all deactivated and nothing to get all superstitious about."

Now it was Ayika's turn to roll her eyes. She walked over and jabbed a finger up at a stone fish leaping over a mountain carved out of bone. Her gesture also included a snarling and heavily toothed forest creature's head made of driftwood. "Yeah, most of the idols are bashed or defanged. But these couple never got touched since the shaman made them. When did you put these up and when did this location start having business problems?" Even if it was not a wise move, after being judged and groped only to be turned down burning bridges felt good. "Let's see who made who feel stupid," she thought.

The owner swept over and shoved Ayika out of the way, squinting up at the idols on the wall. "Damn it all. I thought I saw Inuksuq's widow flee out of this place after she spotted something. Never knew what she was on about. And if the Tribal housekeepers start staying away then damn sure others are going to get the same idea. Oh, I could just kill Fu right now!"

Xinfei spoke up from the back of the shop in tones of mild disbelief. "You trusted a guy named Fu to deal with Water Tribe spirit charms?"

A dangerous finger jabbed out at him from across the room. He clamped his mouth closed. Anyakya said, "I've got no idea who you are, local boy, so you can shut it right now." She turned back to Ayika who had her arms crossed and a look of smug satisfaction. Some of that satisfaction melted away as the matronly mogul moved nearer. "All right, girl. You've got my attention. Who are you again?"

"Um, well." Ayika began, suddenly a bit cowed. "See my mother is Maekayae and my father is Kadat son of Makon of the..."

"Wait, wasn't Kadat the child of Aka the Witch?"

Ayika sputtered, "Grandma?" The indignation was reflexive. She had heard that nickname before, but never from a person of the Tribes, at least not that brazenly.

"Ha ha!" Anyakya's laugh was loud and forceful, and betrayed much more cheerfulness than had been evident from her person. "You're Aka's grandbrat? Well, that explains a thing. Maybe even two." She looked closely at Ayika, this time inspecting deep into her eyes instead of her figure. Ayika was not really sure which made her feel more naked.

"I might have something for you after all. Come with me. We're going for a walk."

...