...
Ayika and Mizumi crossed the little arching stone bridge over the thin water channel that demarcated one side of Gold Toad square. There were fewer people walking the streets in this part of the town, human or spirit. Ayika could see that Mizumi was nervous, no matter how she tried to hide it. Behind that sparkling gold mask she slitted her eyes suspiciously at anyone who got too close to them. When the night suddenly echoed with the staccato bangs of firecrackers from down the street one of her hands shot reflexively into her opposing sleeve. Ayika had noticed this gesture earlier; Mizumi had something concealed in there but Ayika declined to press the question. She was nervous about confronting Mua but, however carrying bladed weapons was too dangerous for anyone who did not live partially under the protective umbrella of an ambassadorial mission. She was fine with one of them having some defense.
Ayika steeled herself as she approached the carved stone well in the center of the open space. At the edges of this old cobbled square some of the buildings spilled forth a few small local parties but they were a good distance away and not concerned with two girls wandering in the dark. Ayika had been having an internal argument for the last five blocks with the significant portion of herself that said she was behaving like a fool. They suspected that Mama Mua was on her way to murder a government minister and she was dawdling around here trying to impress some girl with stories half remembered from her grandmother and an incomplete understanding of whatever spiritual power she might or might not have.
"A spirit lives here? In this square?" Mizumi was curious. "And I chose this location as our first meeting place! Is that why it is called Golden Frog Square?"
"Toad," Ayika corrected as she glanced around to make sure no one was was near enough to see her possibly make a fool of herself. There were plenty of lanterns and candles shining out the windows around the square but somehow instead of illuminated the space they only caused the shadows stretching across the whitewashed walls and tiled roofs to darken and grow more suspicious.
Mizumi furrowed her brow. "Frog, toad. There is a difference between those words?"
"Maybe I should handle the talking with this spirit."
Grandma Aka had told stories of the powerful spirit Gold Toad. It was said that he mediated exchange of information and services between humans and the population of spirits that had made a permeant or semipermanent home in the material world of the city. There were many stories of the spirit providing help but a general theme had been that helpful was not the same as friendly. Or generous. It was at this moment that Ayika remembered something she should have thought of before.
"Shoot!"
"What?" Mizumi spun around, suddenly at the ready to attack. "What is it?"
"Oh, um, sorry. The standard rules of exchange apply for this spirit too and I've heard this one has expensive taste. Plus he probably knows about matches already. I just realized I don't have anything to give." To attract the attention of a spirit required an offering. Everyone in the knew that but Ayika had forgotten in her eagerness to appear powerful in front of Mizumi. It was never a good idea to let a spirit choose its own price. "In the main story the crane paid with two flawless jades but that's not particularly helpful to us right now. He's also supposedly in love with the moon but that's no use either. Just let me think of some-"
"It likes jade? Would this work?" With that Mizumi abruptly leaned over and parted the embroidered cloth strips of her skirt to reveal her ankle. There was a little jade charm tied around there with a red braided string. Mizumi wobbled a little as she balanced on one foot to untie it.
"I bought this thing years ago as an exam charm and I suppose I simply fell into the habit of wearing it. However, I have gleaned from recent days that any true spirit charm is unlikely to be purchased from a shop which specializes in hand-fans. I willingly offer it as the sacrifice."
Smiling with success, Mizumi stood up and grasped Ayika's hand to place the charm inside it. Ayika looked down. The jade ring on that red string might be small but it was of a smooth uniform color. Ayika's family would have to stop eating for three days to afford such a thing. But She didn't say anything and instead just met Mizumi's eager smile. She also decided not to press the issue of referring to the spirit as an 'it'. They had their offering.
Ayika grasped the charm in both hands and moved over to the dark pit of the well. She closed her eyes as she concentrated on finding her spiritual center. She whispered words she knew Grandma Aka had used in spirit callings even if Ayika wasn't sure if they had any true power. Grandma had also told stories about Gold Toad, but she's also told stories of the Scissors Man, a spirit Ayika was sure she'd just made up. Ayika realized she really should have asked more questions when she still had the chance. In any case, tonight at least she seemed to be having more trouble avoiding spirits than getting spirits to appear so this half-cocked effort might actually have a chance of succeeding. She had to try. With one last call out to Gold Toad in the Kingdoms' language she dropped the charm down the well. It instantly vanished into the dark with an answering plop.
Nothing happened. After a minute of waiting, Mizumi leaned back against the edge of the well as she peered out into the dark around the square, attempting to watch all angles of approach. "I wonder what it is that I will see? I could barely see the little fire man. Those people out walking who you said are spirits did not look of the other world to me. Yet you say you see something very different. Will I see this spirit as another normal man on the street?"
A deep booming voice rumbled from inches behind her. "You know, I should take both 'normal' and 'man' as insults."
Mizumi spun around and then opened her mouth in a sudden scream that never actually materialized in her throat. The entire opening of the well was now filled with an enormous amphibian whose cabbage-sized eyes had been centimeters behind Mizumi's headdress. Two fat but muscular arms hooked over the well's lip securing the rest of the toad's bulging bulk from sliding back down. His lumpy damp skin shone like gold, yet it was still so transparent Mizumi could see straight through him to the open front of a restaurant on the other side of the square. There were people eating there. They looked to be having a nice, normal evening, something that Ayika and Mizumi vaguely remembered as having once existed.
Ayika recognized that Mizumi was freezing up and so she stepped forward towards the spirit. Now that it had come to this moment she was not sure she was any more ready than Mizumi.
"Oh, great and honorable Gold Toad, thank you for answering our unworthy entreaty."
The massive spirit toad casually flicked a clawed hand and shrugged in his damp, flabby flesh. The missing leg he'd traded away was hidden from sight down in the well but he seemed to be holding himself up by his forelegs well enough."You have been lucky to catch me in a curious mood. Not many priests come down here these years and your fiery friend is a rarity here even in these centuries. Plus it is not as if I am going to get any rest tonight with both sides of the veil riled up for this wasteful festival."
Ayika was about to launch into her planned speech but then she stopped and frowned with puzzlement. "Wait, I thought a priest came to perform a ritual here every new year? I know that I heard one the neighborhood temples-"
Goad Toad's giant eyes flashed with anger. "Those humans? Those failed things? They can not SEE me and so they are not true priests! That the city would let such people even light incense for me is an insult I have long brooded over! Over this last century standards have fallen terribly on the human side!" Both Ayika and Mizumi took another step back but the spirit quickly quieted down. He seemed almost embarrassed by his outburst, as if he prided himself in displaying more reserve. "But what is it that you want? Let me guess, you want me to help you both hide away somewhere. Well, I can not pretend I haven't heard this story before. And at least you didn't have the bad taste to bring up that story with her ladyship the Moon. All right young priest, your talent could be of value to me so I can tell you the way to contact-"
Ayika broke in, "We have not had a chance to bring up anything! And we're not hiding anything! I came to ask you for some information of what is happening tonight."
Gold Toad blinked over his large bulbous eyes. They flicked back and forth between Ayika and Mizumi. "Hmm, times do change among humans I guess."
"What?"
The spirit shrugged again. "I really do not care. Come, tell me what it is you wish to know and I will see if it is something I am willing to tell you for so paltry an offering." He may have belittled the jade ring, but Ayika glanced down and could see it being slowly twisted and grasped in his webbed claws.
Ayika gave up on understanding every bit of the spirit's comments and just began what she had planned to ask. "There's a water tribe shaman named Nia Mua who lives near here. In the last few weeks she's been calling on many spirits to aid her for information and attacks. Tonight we fear she may be trying to do something...dreadful. She might be using spirits as some sort of weapon and if she-"
Gold Toad interrupted. "Ahh, the mist priest. I know of her. She has been bothering a lot of people by asking for favors she has not earned credit for. But you are incorrect in your claim of her being the one to welcome spirits across the veil as weapons. That is not her doing. And what little of the action is by her hand will likely soon be over. The shaman has now cashed in all favors save her last and most dearly earned. Tonight she just barely managed to convince a low rank spirit to go along with her and cast some charms in humans' minds to make them accept her where she needs to go. The whisper I heard said she wants to get into a party, hehe." Here he gave a brief yet deep throaty chuckle before dropping back into serious discussion. "Foolish petty humans. Such a waste of power to talk to one man."
Mizumi relaxed. "Oh, well that does not sound as bad as I had feared. They say she only wishes to talk to someone? And she only use her powers to ensure the Inner Ring does not turn her away despite the invitation? Last time she called out spirits into the street she was considerably more dramatic." She turned to Ayika. "Perhaps you misinterpreted her intentions towards Erliao. You did say that her words in the Exclusion were very vague. If she intended to kill him tonight would not honorable Mister Frog know about that?"
The spirit frowned at Mizumi once again mistaking his species. However, Ayika couldn't spend much time noticing that. Even as she remembered how spirits tended to not place much importance on human death, Erliao's death, she heard a subtle emphasis hidden in the middle of Gold Toad answer. There was some hidden communication there, volunteered information from a notoriously stingy authority.
She seized on that thread. "But there is someone using spirits as weapons. Crossing them over. The Masks are doing that and it's upsetting the entire spirit world. Who's calling them? We both know that something's happening here. Please, this turmoil is hurting both worlds and if we're the only ones trying to stop it then quit these games and please tell us how to stop it!"
Her plea met an impassive amphibian stare. "That answer is worth far more than you paid. And I am not in the business of giving away free information. You would gasp to hear what that particular faction has been giving away in their power bargains. All while they fruitlessly search this city for the missing thrice stolen anchor. That anyone would knowingly agree to those terms is unbelievable, even for humans, even for the power given to them in exchange."
"Wait, anchor? What anchor?"
Gold Toad's eyes alternated sinking and rising in his face in a manner which made up for his not having eyebrows to waggle or a forehead to house them on. "Don't you worry about that. The young man beseeched me well to keep him hidden. Unlike some spirits, I deal plainly. I took payment and have rendered services." As proof the spirit reached one arm down into the well and plucked from somewhere a shiny metal disk that had presumably been given to him by this mysterious boy. Ayika had no idea what it was.
Mizumi suddenly spoke up in surprise. "Wait! That is a Fire Nation cremation charm! How did...Wait, that looks familiar."
Memory came crashing back go Ayika. She had seen that little disk before. "That was stolen from Professor Lizhen's office. Same night as the secret mask! That was the one thing the guards said was missing since they didn't know about that special package Ma'er gave the Professor. Wait, the guy had that package at the meeting. That means that the guy you hid must be er, um..." She wracked her memory to pull up the name she had just heard mentioned once or twice before. "Tian! Ma'er's missing assistant! When we saw him at the warehouse fire he was terrified."
Mizumi was watching Ayika with a frown as she struggled to follow this disjointed narrative but Ayika was caught up in her own surging thoughts. "Ok. The Initiated in the white mask killed Lizhen in the school when they were just supposed to steal back Ma'er's mask. That's what Tian said. Then Ma'er said Tian has been hiding from him ever since! Wait, the Masks are still looking for him? No, go back, what does Lizhen's mask do? Is that the anchor? What's an anchor in this? Why is that so important that the Initiated will kill over it?!" She was practically trembling as she stared at the spirit in desperation, her hands shaking with adrenaline.
Gold Toad just stared back impassively. His disguised helpfulness was at an end. "I have already given you the information you paid for. You will get nothing more out of me."
Mizumi was getting angry. "Now listen here honorable mister Frog of Gold." Ayika was starting to think she was doing that on purpose. "We know that the Masks are causing all sorts of trouble in the spirit world as well. They are damaging this city in both worlds. You must be worried too! You must tell us how to help!"
Ayika knew that this was the wrong attitude to take with a spirit like this but she remembered had her own questions as well. Questions about the Nine-Step-Omen of death. She cursed in her head that she'd gotten so caught up in being clever that she'd almost forgotten. She hurriedly began to say, "Wait, even if you don't answer that, just one more thing. Honorable sir, there's also a shadow spirit that has attached its self to one of us and-"
Gold Toad's patience was at an end. "I have had enough. Go get on to your party. If you hurry you will make it there before the other shaman. I know her chosen path." With that Gold Toad lifted up his arms and for a brief moment his translucent form caught the light of the lanterns behind him, transforming this spectral flesh into a shining monument of liquid metal that would have outdone the grandest mortal king in magnificence. Then with a slight squelching sound the toad slid back down into his well. There was no sound of him hitting the bottom. Ayika ran over to look over the lip but there was no sign of anyone inside. Only smooth dark water far below, faintly reflecting the silver moon.
"Grrr!" Mizumi growled to herself as she clenched her hands into fists. "Are spirits always that annoyingly unhelpful? I may have begun to understand how Mama Mua grew so angry if she has to speak with such creatures with any great frequency. He was just teasing us with tiny bits of information."
Ayika was more reflective. "I'm not so sure he was actually being unhelpful. I think he told us a lot more than he had too. There are rules for him too but I think he came very close to breaking them." As calm as she managed to sound, her heart still pounded as she mentally whipped herself for got getting even more out of him.
Mizumi opened her mouth to disagree but then closed it again. "Hmm. I suppose that the spirit did not need to show us the stolen cremation charm. Or mention this 'anchor', whatever it might have meant by that. Maybe it was trying to tell us something."
"And the last thing he said was that if we hurried we could reach Erliao's party before Mua arrived. I am not sure we should relax in our worries about her just now. He told us that for a reason."
Mizumi blinked. "Right. Then we should start moving. It does not appear that this spirit is going to pop out of his hole again for us to get any clearer information. We can board the tram line inside the Lower Ring just past the gate, correct?"
Ayika nodded and they set out together, crossing bridges over canals and they angled through the town towards the towering castle of the Craftsman's Gate and the entrance to the true city. The walk was not as pleasant as it had been before. The shadows seemed blacker. The night was still magical but now it was a dark and creeping magic, powerful but something beyond human control. The faint breeze blowing through the gate tunnel brought the odors of the Lower Ring, now tinged faintly with the smells of smoke and distant fire.
...
Xiaobao was enjoying the festival night. Xinfei had told him he was off somewhere selling something, Ayika was probably home watching after her little brother, and his mother was content to sit in her chair in the apartment with the door open so she could talk to passing revelers. With all the neighbors out on the street celebrating she'd be perfectly safe. Strangers didn't venture down into the Bed.
Tonight neither did Xiabao. He was up in the town near the Sweetwater aqueduct sitting on a crate at the street-corner where he and the two men beside him could look off down the five haphazardly arranged streets that met at this intersection. He was feeling good and that did not entirely stem from the little bottle of ricewine he now passed back to its nominal owner. How exactly Chouyu had gotten his hands on three bottles of imported Islander liqueur was perhaps best left to the imagination. Now was certainly not the time to press that issue. Xiabao scratched one finger under his black cloth mask stretching across the bridge his nose that. That thing was his compromise between the traditional colorful holiday costumes and the murmurings some of the neighborhood watch men had made about desiring uniforms. So far tonight there had been precisely nothing for the neighborhood watch to do, in uniform or not. He liked that.
Their chosen watch-post was in a rather quiet spot of the town There were groups of people walking by from time to time but many of the buildings that stretched out in front of them were businesses and small factories and thus not of much attraction on a holiday evening. In fact, Miohuito's train yard and factory complex down the street was probably one of the largest black spots in the town on this most illuminated night; a dark gap in the gleaming web of streets and squares. The dark warehouses were rather boring to look at compared to the colored flags and spirit lanterns which tonight decorated the rest of the city but since looking at anything else would require Xiaobo and the other two men to actually shift their position on their seats conversation remained focused on rumors about the Islander Industrialist.
Miohuito was not an unknown name in the Kuang Harbor. Even the proudly uninformed had heard by now about the foreigner's proposal to replace the earthbender-run trams with some sort of land-steamship. For a while the town had been flush with excitement for the prospect of the burst of new jobs promised by the promoters drawing their pay from the Exclusion. But then weeks became months, the people had remembered that anything new was not likely to happen quickly in this city. Even the Islanders seemed to learn to adjust their expectations towards the ministers' permit schedules. However, Li's cousin had managed to secure a job in the initial hiring blitz and Li was telling what he'd heard about the place.
"Zhonglin says that the boss's machine is all ready to go. There'd be a second one too but something got mixed up or broken in shipping and of course they're blaming us down with Gaoli for their missing engine. Of course, they've only been able to test the one they have for a quarter of a block or so since that is all the space they've got in that yard for the metal roads. But supposedly it'll be able to pull six tram cars or more once they get to put it up on!"
Chouyu was decades older and less entranced by new technology. "Sure, that's great. But if you've got a great big furnace pulling you along how on earth are you going to stop it? It,s not a person, how will it know where the stops are or is it just going to plow on all the way until it smashes into the King's palace?"
Li waved his hand dismissively. "Oh, they've got some way to slow it down. Something with water in metal pipes or something. Zhonglin was talking about hydo-rawlics, hydraltics, whatever that is. I mean, they do the rail system fine on the Islands without falling off the end into the sea so those foreign guys have to have something worked out." Finished with his speech, he held his hand out to Chouyu, signaling his willingness to take his turn with the bottle.
Chouyu instead took another swig himself. "Still, don't see it working better than the King's system now. I mean, sure, I get it, this uh train, the paddle-wheels can start pushing it along and if you oil the metal road enough it should be able to slide along up to speed. Ok. But come on, those foreigners only had to come up with that idea because their benders couldn't do it the normal way. And if you put this steam ship on wheels all the way up on the tram tracks away from the water the furnace is going to overheat in a moment." He finally gave in to Li's increasingly obvious gesturing and passed the bottle.
The younger man gratefully took a gulp and twisted his face at the bitter aftertaste as he tried to continue the conversation. "Zhonglin says it won't. But come on, isn't it good that it wouldn't run on benders? All those Islander's machines, you don't need any special power to use them. Look at those partnership factories they've set up across the Kuang!"
"Bah, cheap crap's what they make. A real craftsman'll make something that lasts twice as long."
"Yeah, at four times the price. And then there's all those uppity ringdwellers going on and on about protecting our cultural heritage. Ha! I've seen what their buying, all that high fashion. If you went up to the middle ring I bet the Fire Lord himself would think it was his country from how they're dressed."
Chouyu just made a grunting noise indicating that he didn't follow modern fashion and was proud of that. He reached over to grab back the bottle.
Xiaobao was letting the other two men carry the conversation for now and just focused on enjoying the night and the pleasantly warm feeling rising up from his stomach. Chouyu had been going on about how this Islander drink was supposed to be served hot but none of them had found the patience to set something like that up. Xiaobao thought the wine seemed to be doing its job just fine cold even if it did taste funny and foreign. He reached up to adjust his mask as the eyeholes had started to slide off-center again. His motion must have looked like a greeting to the young man with a coat covered in green and yellow paper streamers who was just rounding their corner at that moment. The man gave a head gesture to Xiaobao and flashed a smile as he headed off. Xiaobao watched him leave, privately noticing how the man's short-cut trousers showed off his calves quite nicely. Tonight was a good night.
Now there was someone else coming down one of the dark streets from the other direction. Xiaobao would admit that he and his watchmen were into their second bottle and his vision was starting to waver a little bit at long distances but he could still identify the shape of two people walking down the machine-shop street. He tried to think of where they could be coming from or going to that this path would have been a short cut. All the options seemed unlikely.
Then the two human shaped shadows stopped halfway down the street and crowded around a darker patch of wall that might have been a gate. There was a sudden small sound muffled by distance that never the less bounced down the empty street to Xiaobao's corner. It was the sound of something breaking and sure enough the two shadows disappeared within. A moment later more dark shapes were walking very quickly up the street to vanish behind the gate to Miohuito's complex.
There was no one who would be going into an empty machine yard after dark on a festival night. Those men were breaking in.
Xioabao looked at his companions. They had obviously noticed the same by now, but no one was anxious to say anything. They'd started this neighborhood watch to stop troublemakers but a lifetime of living in the Harbor Town had deeply ingrained habits of minding one's own business. And besides, the purpose of the watch was to protect their friends and families, not the property of people who they didn't even work for. Even if it did belong to a man whose enterprise supported their own and whose daughter had somehow become best friends with Ayika. This wasn't their responsibility. There was only one sensible thing to do.
Xiaobao sighed. Unfortunately there was also only one right thing to do. He turned back to his coworkers. "Chouyu, go run over to the nearest guards station and tell them about some men breaking into the Miohuito yard. Li and I will move closer to make sure they don't sneak off without anyone seeing where they went to." As an afterthought he grabbed Chouyu's arm and said, "Oh, and if you see any of the other guys on your way you might want to let them know we could need some help."
The older man murmured his agreement gratefully and set off into the night. Li looked a lot less grateful for being left behind, but he had the good grace not to say anything.
Xiaobao glanced around his immediate area and his eye landed on one of the empty bottles they'd been drinking. He bend down to grab it. If they accidentally got in some trouble with those burglars, well, the sight of a large man suddenly breaking the end of a bottle was generally regarded as effective intimidation. A broken bottle could also be thrown down on the ground to rapidly become much more broken and avoid anyone landing with weapon possession charges if the city guards materialized.
Xiaobao stopped rolling the bottle in his hand and looked up. Enough stalling. He pushed his black festival mask up until it stretched across his forehead like a headband. No hidden faces on their side. It was time to keep watch over the neighborhood. Together he and Li marched off against the night.
...