...

Mrs Anyakya of Mrs Anyakya's Super Best Tribal Wash was a supremely mercantile woman and not given to indulging most cultural institutions. However, even she had to bow down before the Festival of Veils. That holiday had long since began to throw out its creeping tendrils into neighboring calendar days as people took time off to prepare for the celebrations. By the morning before its commencement, shops were already closing and long strings trailing colored paper flags stamped with spirit faces fluttered over the streets like some festive spider of enormous size was spinning webs to catch the city whole. Ayika saw this transformation through the open window of the room in the front of the laundry shop. Luckily the boss had been forced by threat of a generalized worker uprising to give them half of the day off even though the festival did not properly start until nightfall.

As she sat on her rickety stool behind the front counter awaiting that time, Ayika practiced focusing her mind on the energy of spirits as Mama Mua had passingly explained her. Mua was stingy with her advice on the ways of the spirit world. That had to be the cause of her difficulties; that or Ayika's own incompetence. No. She shook her head to clear away that thought and re-find her center. She had been trying to recapture the sensation she had noticed on the nights of Lizhen's death and the warehouse fire. Somehow the dancing flames and the shiver up her back had to be connected to the power of the Masks. They were doing something involving spirits. Lizhen had known what it was and they had killed him for it. But Mua was distracted by her hatred of Erliao, both Lili and Mizumi barely believed in spirits, and since Ayika had not managed to attract a single spirit on her own she to admit that her own intuition might not rate for much when it came to shamanistic meditation. She was stuck without a lead.

"Dozing on the job?"

Ayika opened her eyes with a guilty start. Mrs Anyakya was across the counter, staring at her in a rather unappreciative manner.

"No, mam! Not at all. I was just...thinking about things. Sorry, I didn't hear the front door open." Her hands reflexively lowered to pull down on her uniform dress even though it did not ride up nearly as much anymore. This was around the right time for one of Anyakya's workplace inspections but Ayika had not heard her come in the building. She looked over to the front of the show and saw that the wooden clacker was still in place above the door.

Anyakya followed her eyes. "Didn't come in the front. Got off a boat on the backside. But don't let that excuse you. You will not let the customers see you with closed eyes. I hired you to calm the fretting chits with the illusion of on-staff spiritualism help so I won't say I mind that you've been apprenticing yourself to that Mua broad in your off time but don't let it be affecting your work here. You hear me?"

"Clear as rain, mam."

Ayika really was resolved to demonstrate her dedication and competence but the world chose that moment for Mizumi's servant Fong to enter the shop. He had a weary expression on his face as his eyes quickly found Ayika hopping up from her stool. Even before she could begin the required speech he interrupted:

"My employer has sent me here on an errand relating to the Festival of Veils. There will be costumes to be cleaned that need to be be treated differently from normal clothes. You are to be given special instructions at the house so that your establishment will be prepared to receive those articles after the festival and there will be no risk of damaging them. An increased per-item cost is acceptable."

Anyakya clucked her tongue from the corner of the shop which caused Fong to give a slight start that he quickly covered with even more glowering. Anyakya said, "And let me guess, my counter girl's the one who has to be going and it must be now when I'm already closing in just a bit?" Fong gave no reply though he looked as if he had a great deal to say about the sense his orders.

Ayika began to form a coherent excuse in her head. She'd asked Mizumi not to pull this stunt again so if she was doing so there must be a good and urgent reason. "Um, Mrs..."

Mrs Anyakya continued to address Fong. "She'll be right with you in a second."

Ayika blinked but she supposed this accommodating attitude was to be expected. Mizumi was already overpaying for laundry services by quite a considerable amount. Ayika had just scooted around the counter when Anyakya swept in close and tugged Ayika in by her collar. From Fong's perspective it might look like she was straightening the uniform but it was rather more forceful than that. Anyakya talked out of the corner of her smiling mouth as Ayika quietly choked.

"Now tell me, is that Lord Miohuito taking any liberties? That's not what I am charging him for."

It took a moment for Ayika to process the assumption. When she did her mouth worked up and down as she stammered her defense. "Oh! Oh, no! I never..."

Anyakya continued in her businesslike tone as if she was tallying rice. "If he is and you're letting him, tell me so I can tack on an appropriate surcharge. Just make sure to do it in a way that won't result in pregnancies. I can't afford to keep swapping out workers."

Ayika was sure she had never been more mortified. "No!" She whispered back. "How could... Mister Miohuito wasn't even there last time! It's just the daughter who asked for me."

Anyakya shrugged indicating it was all the same to her. "Hmm, I guess that's a good way as any to avoid getting pregnant. Well, whatever or whoever keep it up but be smart"

Ayika sputtered with dumb surprise while trying to deny this new embarrassing accusation but Anyakya did not seem to care. Ayika felt like trying to knock herself out by slamming her own head against the counter. At least she managed to convince her boss that if she was to wear the mortifying counter girl uniform outside again she might rip it so she was afforded the opportunity to change into her street clothes. However, when she reemerged from the back of the shop Fong was still waiting and in a flash Anyakya was pushing her out the front door with a slap on the bottom. Ayika made her way out through the increasingly festive town towards the foreign quarter, trailing behind the Miohuito household man. Soon enough they were crossing the Bridge of Fire to the looming towers of the Exclusion.

If the Exclusion was joining the city in decorating for the Festival of Veils Ayika could not tell. On any normal day these narrow paved roads between the soaring spires connected by red walkways were clean and festooned with colorful signs and lanterns like the City might do for a major holiday. Today, as always, there was laughter and light spilling out of a large building by the bridge but were those silk wrapped celebrants honoring the special occasion or just their fiery foreign blood? A woman draped in gossamer robes of pale red fastened with twinkling gold ornaments leaned out of an upstairs window and waved at Ayika below as she laughed. Then a black haired man came up behind her and she turned around with a smile to follow him back in.

Despite the growing political tensions throughout the city, many of the people Ayika and Fong passed on the Exclusion street were not foreigners but rather natives like her. Then Ayika frowned as she realized how she had just classified herself. All throughout the city people were breaking up into sides. It was foreign against local. Earth race against Fire. Where did she stand in that? Half the time the other city citizens were 'us' to her, the other half they were 'them'. From their perspective she knew she would always be a 'them'. But this was the only home she had ever known. Who else could she be? These thoughts only made her tired and Ayika knew there were no answers.

Before she had too long to muddle through those considerations they'd arrived at the strangely diminutive street entrance of the Miohuito mansion. Now that she knew what to look for, Ayika could look above and past the street-side shops to pick out the mansion's upper stories and towers looming up behind them, nearer the canal at the island's edge. From the outside the foreignness of the mansion architecture stood out even more. Red painted wood and black metal ornaments stood out prominently. These people were from far away. Ayika wondered what other strange artifacts of culture the Islanders had brought with them. Did their spirits come too?

Fong had barely ushered her inside the front entrance under his perpetually disapproving gaze when a welcome voice shook Ayika out of her revery.

"Ayika! You are here! It is great to see you!"

Mizumi was waiting in the entry foyer and broke into a grin as she saw Ayika. From the uncomfortable expressions of the servant waiting to do his duty of receiving guests it was not normal for the lady of the house to be lingering here like that. Particularly not to welcome a poor tribal girl. Ayika had been to this house a few times by now but she still couldn't convince Mizumi to let her come in through the servant's entrance on the other side of the building by the carriage garage. But when she saw Mizumi's smile her weak objections fled from her mind.

Mizumi anxiously shifted in place as the servant lay out house slippers to replace Ayika's street-shoes. After a few seconds she grew tired of waiting.

"It is good that you could come quickly. I am sorry there is a short time now, but my father had been very vague about when the start would be and I made incorrect assumptions. Well, it can also be said that I did not tell him what my plan was but that hardly-"

"Um, Mizumi?" Ayika looked up as she slid her feet into the offered slippers. "Slow down. What are you talking about? You knew that I was going to be off at noon anyway, why make Fong get me now? Sorry, Fong."

Fong did not even grunt in reply.

Mizumi continued unimpeded. "Ah, yes. That is right. Why you are here. Well, you are learning matters of the spirits with that Mama Mua. I thought so you would be interested in attending a ceremony of the Nation. When we attended Lizhen's funeral together I remember I had said I wished I could have invited you to Ambassador Naruhama's funeral. Now I have realized I can take you to one of his deification ceremonies." Here Mizumi's confidence seemed to run out of steam. She clearly realized that her behavior might have been very presumptuous and her voice suddenly grew soft.

"That is if you are interested in something like that. I know very little about these, er, spiritual matters."

Ayika now remembered that conversation in Lili's carriage on the way to Lizhen's funeral. It seemed like ages ago but was in fact less than a week. And Mizumi's unspoken implication within the speech was right. There was a spirit crisis going on and Nia Mua was not the kind of person on which one should hang all one's hopes. Ayika needed every bit of spiritual knowledge she could get. The Masks had feared Lizhen for what he knew about spirits. And perhaps more importantly, she needed to know how to stop the Nine-Step-Shadow. If it was targeting Mizumi...Ayika could not bring herself to finish that thought. Or indeed it could be her own death that had been foretold. Once again Ayika keenly felt the absence of Grandma Aka.

But Mizumi had remembered a small promise she had made to her in passing a week ago. Even disregarding all the life or death motivations Ayika had to be enthusiastic about this ceremony for that reason alone. Newly shod, she followed Mizumi down the long hallway passage that connected the street-side entrance to the main body of the mansion. Mizumi was just beginning to explain her plan for excusing Ayika's presence at the ceremony when her father abruptly appeared in the mansion's main hall and derailed the still-born plot.

Tetzamatl Miohuito looked tired. His dark robes were well made and costly as ever but it looked as if they had seen a great deal of use today already. When he saw Mizumi out of the corner of his eye he began to speak in the Islanders' language. All Ayika could make out of the foreign speech was Mizumi's name but before he finished one sentence his eyes locked onto the strange tribal girl who was walking through his mansion.

He switched to the Kingdoms' tongue. "Mizumi, who is this?"

Ayika's heart sounded its beat in her ears. She had not been this close to Miohuito since the night when Teacher Lizhen had been murdered and the city guards had attempted to hold him under murder suspicions. For all the comfort she had come to feel around Mizumi, her father had remained a safely distant and abstract figure. That personification of wealth and power was now focused down on Ayika's trespass onto his territory.

Mizumi was clearly caught off guard by her father's sudden appearance and began to say, "Oh, her? Well, father, you know how..."

Recognition flashed across Miohuito's face. "Oh wait, I recognize her. She has been by this house a few times in the last several days. She was carrying parcels?"

Ayika had been transporting Lili's letter that Xinfei had given her, hidden among a set of clothes that Mizumi had sent off to Anyakya's to provide Ayika with an excuse to return. When Mizumi had spirited her inside the mansion Ayika had tried to stay out of sight of the master of the house but apparently she had not succeeded.

Mizumi gave an easy smile that was casual if you did not notice how she subtly shifted her posture to balance her weight. "Yes, she has been a great help in, er, getting things and-"

"Hrm," Miohuito gave Ayika a thorough visual inspection from foot to hair and then nodded. "You are right of course, we had been meaning to hire you a lady-in-waiting but all this new political business had driven it clean out of my head. Not to say that is an excuse, the way this city is having a second set of eyes and hands to follow you around is likely wise. And very clever, Mizumi, to choose a tribal girl. That will be far less likely to incite resentment among the common folk than seeing an Earth Kingdom girl waiting on you. Wherever did you find her?" Recognition was tickling at the edges of his eyes as he tried to place the memory of first meeting Ayika.

Mizumi flicked her hand dismissively as she gathered her words. "Well, she was employed at the school and-"

Miohuito now remembered where he had seen Ayika before. After all Headmaster Gang had once shoved Ayika into his arms by accident the night of Lizhen's death. "Of course, that's right. Well, I will send off to that Headmaster Gang for her reference when I get a chance but this was good initiative. Now hurry up and get ready for the ceremony. Fire Sage Huitzlan is not sympathetic to latecomers." With that he was off up the main staircase to disappear through some passage on the second floor.

Mizumi was left blinking where she stood. "Huh. Well, I must say I thought I was going to work much harder for that. It is a pity. The story I had concocted was very clever."

Ayika was not sure her heart could stand any more sudden interrogations. It was beating very hard as Mizumi drew near to whisper more. "I'm sure it was. Perhaps we could move to somewhere a little more... a little less exposed?" Apparently, she worked for Mizumi now? Or her father? Ayika was now finding herself quite overburdened with employment offers. Between Mrs Anyakya, Mama Mua, and now the Miohuitos she felt positively swamped.

...

They did not go to the same parlor Mizumi had led Ayika to on her last visit. Instead, after winding through the third floor they arrived at Mizumi's own room. Or rather it was rooms. Mizumi had to herself multiple connected chambers that together must have been larger than Ayika's family apartment. As Mizumi closed the main doors to the suite Ayika made her way through the outer room past yet another set of expensive looking chairs set around a lacquered table too small to be useful until she came to an open doorway that led to Mizumi's sleeping space. The other girl was speaking of how this event they would be attending did possess a moderate expectation of formality in regard to dress. It was phrased delicately but Ayika had only to glance down at her street clothes to know that she did not stand a good chance of fitting in at a Fire Nation religious ceremony.

Mizumi came up behind Ayika and indicated through the second set of doors to a folded set of clothes lying on some furniture in front of a large elevated bed.

"It should fit. When I mentioned my idea to invite you for the ceremony in a letter to Lili, she replied with a very precise set of measurements for you. She seemed very confident in her guesses and I suppose she looks to know more about dressing than I do. Not that it will fit better than what you have worn for your work." Mizumi absently made a quick undulating gesture with her finger in air. Then she caught herself and stumbled over her sudden embarrassment. "Er, no, what I mean is..."

Ayika looked away blushing with awkwardness as Mizumi did the same. Sometimes she wanted to strangle Mrs Anyakya for that stupid skin hugging uniform. "Um, thanks Mizumi. I am sure they will be great. I, uh, will put them on?"

"Yes, great." Mizumi suddenly started. "Oh, I mean, er, I will be in the outer chamber!"

Mizumi quickly slid out the door and Ayika was left alone in her bedroom. She looked over at the books stacked on the shelf but of course she could read none of the titles, despite a few familiar loan characters doing their best to confuse her. With nothing else to do but stand in place feeling embarrassed she moved over to the odd piece of padded furniture at the end of the low but ornate bed. She reached to pick up the indicated pile of clothes, taking care to not let so much as a finger brush the sheets of where Mizumi slept.

The outfit consisted of multiple pieces, but at least it looked like it was not one of the loose midriff baring getups with semitransparent cloth that Ayika had seen some Islander women wearing. She knew the islands were hot but a line had to be drawn somewhere. If that was what they wore on the street then what did they wear in the bedroom? At this point she realized she was actually in a strange bedroom right now and decided to hurriedly get off that line of thought. She absently looked over at a clothes chest wondering if Mizumi owned any of those filmy pieces until she could remind herself that she needed to put on these clothes quickly or Mizumi would think she was snooping round the room.

What Mizumi had gotten for her started with a long light skirt made of fibers so thin the cloth felt like silk. This seemed to go with a loose long-sleeved top in a purple-red shade of grey and both went under a darker draped cape-like thing that somehow crossed in the front like two arms thrown over her neck and was fastened in place with a sash across her waist. This article had fine embroidered stitching along the edges in a lively pattern that swept and whorrled like some mystic script. There were also what looked like armbands but for all Ayika knew about Islander fashions they could just as easily have been intended for the ankles or to be tied to her ears.

As she put on the outfit Ayika had to admit Lili knew what she was talking about when it came to fitting clothes. The outfit matched her form as well as if she had sewed it herself. Better even, perhaps. She glanced down to get a sense of what it looked like on her. She looked like a wealthy Islander woman. Except for her skin. Well, at least the Islanders had more color in them then the pale house-bound ladies of the city. Ayika snorted to herself, if she stayed inside for a year and Mizumi spent a summer working on a ship's deck their skin might actually meet in the middle.

But that was not what she was supposed to be thinking of. Ayika shook herself back down to earth. She hesitantly said, "Um, I think think I have it."

Mizumi opened the door instantly. She must have been waiting right by it outside. "Oh, you look great! Very good!"

Ayika still felt self-conscious wearing this outfit but Mizumi seemed to be sincere. In fact she was once again apologizing for the trouble of making her change but Ayika knew perfectly well that her normal clothes were not appropriate for a fancy temple of any culture. And besides, it did feel strange in a nice way to dress up like this. Ayika smiled a little to herself. That phrase described everything about Mizumi; strange in a very nice way.

By this point Mizumi had remembered that she had promised her father to be back downstairs quickly, so off they raced. When at the end of that quick dash through the mansion halls the main gallery was empty of people Ayika sighed to herself. All that dashing had not actually been necessary. However, Mister Miohuito somehow sensed their arrival and chose that exact moment to come sweeping down the stairs behind them. Mizumi's father was deep in conversation with the some man of his employ and remained so even as their party made its way down the long access hallway through which Ayika had entered the mansion.

Ayika could understand none of the discussion, not speaking the language, but there were a few words here and there which sounded like mangled pronunciations of City government positions. Those two were talking either politics or trade and Mister Miohuito was very absorbed. So absorbed that as their little party exited onto the street and walked down the length Exclusion to the far end of the little island Ayika got the impression that Miohuito's man was subtly steering his boss around obstacles by gesturing figures in the air in the direction needed to avoid danger. Ayika was swept along with Mizumi in the general bustle of departure. Apparently, her presence had already been accepted into this household.

Ayika had just began to relax as she walked beside Mizumi and looked around this new part of the Exclusion she had not seen before when she heard Mister Miohuito's faintly accented voice behind her ear.

"You stick to her side well. Your task will be to obey her in every way, only keep your eyes on her at all times and scream at the first sign of trouble."

Ayika thought it was to her credit that she did not flinch at the man appearing suddenly behind her. Instead she managed to cooly angle her head to the side and reply in her best cultured Middle Ring accent. "Of course I will do so, sir. But are you saying so now because you have expectation of some immediate-"

Miohito waved his hand dismissing this implication as his daughter gave him a very sharp look. "It is always wise for there to be caution. We are on Trade Mission land but this is still foreign territory. Mizumi, stop looking at me in that way. I have every right to curtail your freedom in much more troublesome ways. Setting you a watcher matched in age and gender, of your own choosing, hardly buys me those stares."

Ayika spoke up. "I promise you, sir, I take all my duties very seriously. I will be vigilant as you command."

Mizumi's father gave a vague harumph of approval and fell back to his conversation with his man. When Ayika was angled so Mister Miohuito could no longer see their faces Mizumi gave her a subtle raising of one eyebrow. Ayika met this look and gave a playful shifting of her eyes in return. Her promise here had been very easily given. Of course she would watch after Mizumi. Nothing could have stopped her. Then a shiver ran down her spine. Whether she would be able to do any good was another matter. There were far more dangers than Mister Miohuito could have known; masks and spirits and shadows creeping behind.

And waterbenders. Mama Mua was walking along the far side of the street in all her shamanic splendor. That couldn't be good.

...