...
Mama Mua was in the Exclusion. Mizumi saw the shaman across the street at the same moment Ayika did and the two girls shared a speechless conversation of panicked confusion. There was no mistake. No one else wore robes of black and blue under that dark red cloth wrapped headboard. What was Mama Mua doing here? It had to be something significant, the Islanders were not her normal customers by any measure. However, the Miohuito party was just about to pass by and leave her behind.
Mizumi thought quickly. Loud enough that it could be heard by the other members of their walking group she announced to Ayika:
"Ah, yes, Ayika, could you pop over there and get me..."
She stumbled as she looked at the shops and stands beside where Mua was walking, trying to come up with some excuse. As a stalling measure she dug out some pieces of money from within her clothes.
"...er, one of those." She pointed vaguely in that direction. "Come on, quick as a flash. We have not got long to dally."
Ayika understood what Mizumi was doing and so gave a quick servile nod of her head and darted off. Behind her, she saw that Mister Miohuito was so absorbed in his business discussion he had unconsciously stopped walking when his peripheral vision noticed his daughter had stopped. However, he was already starting to look around in confusion as his mind finally processed that he was no longer moving. Mizumi could only stall for a moment. So Ayika wasted no time as she slid up behind Mua in the street.
"What are you doing here?" Ayika hissed. She waved the bills Mizumi had given her at the shopkeeper she had ended up beside and made a finger sign for 'one', ignoring whatever nature of product this venue might have happened to be selling. The little jars appeared to mostly hold dried flowers and other withered things.
Mama Mua slowly turned to regard her. Strings of beads and ornaments hanging from the shaman's headdress swished back and forth as an obstacle before her eyes. She seemed unsurprised to see Ayika but then again an ability to appear all knowing was a valuable asset for any fortuneteller no matter how talented. She replied:
"Ah might ask ya the same but Ah think Ah can see the answer."
Ayika frowned at this non-answer but before she could snap back Mua continued, smiling in an uncomfortably cheerful way.
"Someone on this island requested mah services and advice. They've spirits here too, and they certainly have their own worries and feuds. Mah appointment in fact just concluded."
Something was different. Every time Ayika had spoken with Mua before, she'd noted the undercurrent of repressed bitterness and anger that had lurked below the surface of her words. Now it was gone. For some reason it sounded like she was gloating. Like she had crossed some decisive threshold into a new realm of certainty.
Ayika glanced back at the Miohuitos. She only had a few seconds more to find out what Mua was really doing and why she was here. Mizumi's father had just finished remonstrating Ayika to never leave his daughter's side and she was not exactly making a good impression by doing just that. But still she was worried about this sudden and suspicious change in Mua's behavior.
So she made a final push to urge Mua to hold off on whatever was happening long enough for Ayika to have a spare moment. "Look, you said that Lizhen studied spirit stuff in the exclusion. He was killed for his knowledge so maybe I can learn something here at this Naruhama thing at their temple that will help us track down what the Masks are doing. For now just... just wait. We'll find out if Minister Erliao had something to do with the murderer. We'll catch the culprit." She winced a little as she said this. Mua had always reacted hostility to anyone who expressed doubt that her vendetta against Erliao was based on sound logic. The woman was obsessed.
But Nia Mua did not respond to the slight. She said, "Indeed you are right, child. If ya have patience, sometimes ya are given a gift. Be cautious tonight, those mask wearers have changed the other-world rules and this is the Festival of the Autumn Veils. But that's half the fun, isn't it? The upending of order in this far too ordered city. Perhaps even those lingering ghosts will be able to jog back for a visit. Of course any who die hereafter must wait a year for their chance if this spiritual disturbance persists. But if a ghost is forced to linger for a year, what's it to me?" She did not sound as distressed by this talk of ghosts as she had before. The topic which had made her tremble with rage now saw a faint curl of pleasure on her lips. Mua glanced to the side and raised her eyebrow. "Ah think your friend wants you back."
Mizumi was indeed making very agitated motions. Ayika had much more to ask but Mua was already sweeping off down the busy Exclusion street, its traffic parting in deference to the strange presence of power she exuded. It was all Ayika could do to grab the little paper wrapped package of whatever she had purchased from the by now very irritated shopkeeper who was waving it at her face. She darted back to the Miohuito's and made a show of presenting the little bag to Mizumi.
"Ah, yes. Thank you," said Mizumi. "See father, that did not take long at all and now I have..." She unfurled the package a little and looked down into its contents. It was clear that she had no idea what it was. "...what I asked her to get. Well, come on then, do we not have a ceremony to get to?"
Mister Miohuito had managed to secure a glance into the bag as well. "Mizumi?" he said in a very hesitant and slightly concerned voice. "Is that matzanata?"
Mizumi slammed the bag shut and her cheeks turned bright red faster than any Ayika had ever seen before. Now Mizumi clearly recognized the dried flowers. Her mouth worked for a brief second before she said, "Grandfather! Grandfather asked me to buy it!"
Miohuito looked at her cooly. "Grandfather. My father sent his teenage granddaughter to buy powerful aphrodisiacs on the street." Ayika's eyebrows nearly met her hairline. The Islanders sold that kind of thing outside the shop? What on earth did they have inside? Mizumi's only choice was to double down on her story. She nodded to her father, perhaps too energetically to be entirely believable.
Miohuito sighed, believing this explanation without question. "Of course he did. Come, let us continue."
Ayika was not sure Mizumi breathed for the next two blocks. She certainly could not bring herself to meet Ayika's eye. For her part Ayika was mostly sure she managed to keep the smile off her face. Her lingering worries about Mua helped her do so. Who had the shaman been talking to in the Exclusion?
...
The Exclusion Fire Temple was at the south end of the foreign territory. In fact, the way it pressed up into the corner of the rectangular island gave the visual indication that the building was attempting to lean as far away from the center of the Impenetrable City as possible. The temple was dominated by a multilevel pagoda in the deep red color that the Islanders saw as holy. Here the styles of Fire Nation architecture that dominated the Exclusion were exaggerated, the upward sweeping eaves surged up like tongues of licking flame made from tile and cast metal.
At either side of the temple entrance there were two large fires burning in metal pedestal-mounted dishes, their flames stoked to great heights in honor of the ongoing ceremonies for the ambassador's soul. Ayika shrank back as she realized that her path would lead them through that all too narrow space between the blazes but Mizumi urged her onward. As Ayika mastered her anxiety she recognized that the entrance was in fact plenty broad and she was in no danger from the flame. Still, the power of the fires did beat fiercely against her exposed cheeks and gave her ears the feeling of glowing with heat. She stuck close to Mizumi.
Ayika had not known what she would see in the interior of a Fire Temple but she supposed she would have been safe to expect fire to be in evidence. However, the primary characteristic she encountered inside was instead a pervasive dimness. She had heard people refer to the Islanders as sun worshipers but if that was true then it was a secret and subdued faith for there seemed to be no windows or indeed any hint of exterior light. Instead, at the far end of this long hall, past highly decorated wooden columns shining with lacquer there was a single fire like a large campfire in a brasier set in an elevated space. The rest of the columned hall was filled with shifting shadows which exposed and hid the carved figures decorating the walls in an inconstant rhythm which lent to those inanimate shapes the motion of a wild and exotic dance. Ayika did not recognize these gods.
"Come on, Ayika," Mizumi said softly.
The various other notable Exclusion personages attending this ceremony were gathering around the lone brasier at the end of the hall so the Miohuito party joined them. Ayika looked around attempting to discern which of these people was the priest but everyone appeared to be standing in the same impatient manner of waiting for something to happen. Soon enough something did. Ayika jumped when a particularly embellished section of wall suddenly split open and swung inward revealing that it had been a door all along. Two men in tall red hats and long red robes walked out on each side. Each held a ball of fire floating in the air above their palm; flame without fuel. All the Islander priests were benders. People said that for them the magic of the elements was traditionally a matter of holiness rather than one of civic service as it was in the Kingdoms. Not that this seemed to have stopped benders enrolling in their military.
The waiting crowd began to move into the newly revealed chamber. Suddenly, Ayika heard someone say:
"At least someone finally convinced Huitzlan that banning people from the temple's inner sanctum was ridiculous. Ambassador Naruhama's funeral was an embarrassment. Even I was forbidden from watching the body and totem burning, and that was after Huitzlan had me marching beside him in the funeral procession. At least the fool sage managed to get the incineration done by the ridiculous moonrise deadline apparently proscribed by tradition. I got to report to the Fire Lord that everything was technically according to form. You know Huitzlan only got away with modifying that ritual since Naruhama has no family in here in the city to object."
Ayika turned to see a tall man with a thin black beard standing beside Mister Miohuito and softly talking. She had only seen him a few times before but still she recognized Tailang, the Fire Nation Trade Representative and current unofficial leader of the Exclusion. Miohuito looked at the mn with a vague mixture of relief and annoyance as he made an indistinct noise of agreement. Mizumi responded to this sudden appearance by moved over slightly to better shield Ayika from the Representative's sight. Ayika doubted such a man would recognize a servant girl he had briefly seen at the school all those nights ago but Mizumi's concern was comforting. Ayika had read those suspicious messages Lili had written about him.
This new temple room they had entered was also dimly lit. What little light there was came from the flickering illumination on the top of a rectangular metal block that rose out of the center on a stepped pedestal. The object was hollow and was filled with dark liquid. Faint blue flames licked over its lips and glistened across the surface; fire on water.
Then a figure stepped up from the shadows and took his place on the pedestal just behind the burning pool. The man was old and dressed like the other red priests only with a greater profusion of embroidered gold and flanges of yellow cloth accenting his robes like he himself was aflame. This had to be Fire Sage Huitzlan. As he moved Ayika heard a strange sound, like the muffled rustling of paper from within his robes. In the dim light she thought she saw the edge of something peaking out from under a hem, paper with black characters like a spirit warding charm. The he shifted again and whatever it was vanished.
With a quick motion the Fire Sage raised his thin arms and the dish of fire burst into a blinding conflagration that blasted heat out to every corner of the room. Then the fire was gone, leaving the onlookers blinking at the splotches of color floating before their eyes in the darkness. The only visible objects remaining was the two small white flames floating above the sage's open palms. Their light shone reflected in the old sage's eyes.
The faint blue flames on the pool before him resumed their glimmer as the sage began to speak. Ayika could not understand his words, he was speaking in the Islander's native tongue. However, Mizumi had positioned herself among the worshipers so that she was pressing up against Ayika's back in a position to quietly provide explanations. When she whispered her breath brushed Ayika's ear. Mizumi began to translate and Ayika shivered although the room was hot.
"He is calling on Naruhama's soul to once again hear our pleas and to refrain from reentering the cycle of reincarnation. He beseeches the spirit world to allow Naruhama to tarry and make his home there so that he might watch over this settlement as its city god. He promises to continue the offerings which will empower Naruhama's soul to effect this change and he reassures the spirits that the ambassador's ghost was bound by mask and sealed by burning. And now he says...Oh, this is the part where we bow."
The assembled rows of observers had spread out and now sunk down to their knees while they pressed their foreheads toward the ground. Ayika did so too, looking out the corner of her eye to match the motions of those around her. She was one of only three non-Islanders that she could see in the room and certainly the only person of the Tribes. It was in her interest to blend in, even if it meant complying with this awkward genuflection. Elevated above the kneeling crowd, Sage Huitzlan continued his speech.
The listeners returned to their feet and Ayika felt the muscles of her back tense involuntarily at the phantom pressure of anticipating Mizumi nearing her ear. Sure enough she felt the soft touch of the other girl against the back of her dress. Mizumi resumed her murmured explanation.
"This part is just a ritual chant. To tell the truth I am not entirely sure what it means. It is an old tradition with archaic language. Oh, and now he will begin giving over the offerings for this day of the deification ceremony."
Other priests, less wizened and with less elaborate outfits, climbed up the first few steps holding a variety of valuable looking objects in their hands. Huitzlan grabbed the first and with a brief incantation and a flourish dropped it down to disappear within the burning pool. One by one the gifts fell through the flames to vanish from sight in the dark pond. Ayika thought it was a curious twist that the citizens of the Kingdoms burned their offerings while the Fire Nation dropped theirs into water. Now that she thought of it, the people of the Water Tribe left offerings out in the air until it was concluded the spirits had taken what they wished of it and the humans could reclaim the material husk that remained. There was something nicely cyclical or reciprocal about that.
Mizumi had her own interpretations.
"I have heard father suggest that the priests drop the gifts down so that they can be recovered later and sold once they remove the skin of burning oil from the water's surface." She was clearly impatient at sitting through this display. It was likely she had seen other similar ceremonies before, even if the precise nature of a deification ritual was a rare thing. Ayika had no issues with the priests collecting the offerings; spirits were concerned with intent and ritual rather than material things. The strength of the worship ensured the offerings were real on the other side of the veil. And Ayika could feel that the power being invoked was real.
Something other than boredom was disquieting Ayika. For the last few days she had been trying to meditate and sense the disruption in the city that Mama Mua said was disturbing the spirits; whatever the Masks were doing. Now as she was forced to remain still and contemplative here she felt an uneasiness from behind her heart. The same instincts that sometimes told her when a fight was soon to break out on the city streets were now telling her that something was very wrong here. This should be a peaceful, joyful ceremony, even if it was strange and unfamiliar. But she was not at peace. It was the same sensation she had encountered at Lizhen's funeral. A sense of disruption, of something not quiet right in the world.
A sudden impulse made her twist around and look behind her. Mizumi stared at her in confusion and all Ayika could see were the other guests behind her and the chamber door behind them. If she could have seen through walls her eyes would have gone on to look through the Exclusion streets and then on to the Wall and the City itself. Something was wrong in that direction, but a limitation of the entire city was not helpful. She would try to ask Mua for greater assistance though assistance with what she didn't know. She turned back around to attend to the Fire Sage again.
Mizumi put a brief hand against Ayika's shoulder in confused gesture of comfort before she resumed her translation. Ayika shook her head slightly to indicate that her disquiet had passed. The foreign priest extinguished the magical flames he held over his hands, and was now speaking more passionately. Ayika guessed that in some way he was now operating in a personal rather than holy capacity. According to Mizumi, Huitzlan was talking about the Fire Nation's strong relationship with the spirits and the spirit world, as well as his sorrow that the people of the Kingdoms suffered such limitations in those areas. He did not sound too sad about it. In the audience Trade Representative Tailang was smirking.
Mizumi continued, sometimes stumbling over the rapid translation. "Now it is the thing, the thing... he is saying how we must hold strong during troubled times. That if those who hate us look strong then their strength will only serve to destroy them. The people of the kingdom are without strength of spirituality and their desire to know a strength like ours leaves them open to corruption. Their forgotten gods will turn on them and our culture will be proved superior and...and he is saying a lot of things along that line." She had the decency to look embarrassed for the words of her countryman even if Ayika could understand none of them herself.
Ayika might have expected this kind of talk. But what she had not expected was the offense she began to feel as she caught the gist of this speech from the clearly articulated tone and Mizumi's guiltily muttered annotations. Ayika knew better than most the great many failings of the Kingdoms in general and Ba Sing Se in particular, the Masks' violence alone was proof, but to hear these foreigners smirking about it was something new. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Tailang smirking and even Mister Miohuito nodding occasionally. To her surprise she noticed she had been pressing her teeth together tightly. The Islanders were rich and had better technology than the rest of the world. They didn't need to rub it in. And they had nothing to compare to the might of the Impenetrable City, the greatest human settlement in history.
It seemed there was one final part to the ceremony, and one that shook Ayika out of her grumbling introspection. At a gesture from the priests all the worshipers straightened their stance and placed their feet close together below them. Huitzlan now began to chant again and to Ayika's surprise it was taken up by nearly every other person in the room. Every Islander recited the creed in unison. Even Mizumi belted out the foreign syllables with the force of a soldier on the parade ground as they pledged their service and unity to their nation. Ayika shivered despite the heat.
For people of her age the war was an event long past. The Islanders were just another group who came to the city to make a better life. But now, as the walls reverberated with the mass chant of unwavering nationalistic discipline, for the first time she began to understand why people were afraid of the Fire Nation. Now she remembered stories of the war when faces like these around her had marched across the earth, united by blood and faith under a single High Lord, with benders of both genders trained from birth for combat and piloting machines greater and more powerful than any created before in the world. Professor Lizhen had said they had not been defeated. They had decided on peace. One day they might change their mind. It was enough to make a girl feel cold even in a temple filled with fire.
...