...
Ayika and Mizumi ran through the crossing shadows of the gas street lamps as fast as their playgoing outfits would allow. Mizumi hadn't said a word since they had slipped free of her father. As they raced off, his angry shouts had become further accented with fear for his only daughter. Then he was left behind in the press of the looming buildings and towers. Even as they ran Mizumi's mouth was clamped shut, her nostrils flaring in breath as she held on tight to the emotion inside. Mentally, Ayika tried to lend her strength. When they had time, Mizumi would be able to explain to her father. Once they fixed things. If they fixed things.
The Exclusion was long and thin but ahead the bulk of the tall Fire Temple pagoda rose up, its ranks of flaring wing-like eaves abruptly emerging from hiding behind another multi-story building and burning dully red with shielded lanterns. As they turned a corner and came onto the temple's street Ayika saw the entrance with its two large iron brasiers blazing with furious fires. No one was standing outside.
She said, "There's no one here in front. Is that normal? I thought Huitzlan was freaked out?"
Mizumi shook her head but said, "They might have gone off to the edge to help protect. The whole Exclusion is on high alert. News of Representative Tailang's death got here soon ahead of us. Hopefully, Sage Huitzlan is now free to help us at the very least." Her brow was knotted with barely disguised worry. Ayika moved forward to provide some reassurance. Then her breath caught in her chest as her eyes went wide.
"Spirits," she whispered.
They were all around them, fading in and out of view in the shadows like wisps of red, purple, and yellow. More than Ayika had ever imagined seeing. They stood on the stones, they hung in the air, and they stepped through solid walls. They were strange, even for the spirit world. The spirits she'd seen before had all held some twisted reflection of the City and its people; some vague sense of familiarity in their dress or in aspect. These did not. Ayika saw twisted flanges of gold, capes of black smoke, and fire that was not fire, burning bright and strong. One by one these forms turned their tri-faced heads her way and quietly regarded the tribal girl wandering through their midst. Then they returned to look at the temple, as they slowly drifted towards it on the street or through the empty air high above. They were the godly spirits of the Fire Nation that had followed their people here. Their whispered sound was that of a faint cymbal crash reverberating through the alleys.
"Mizumi, the spirits, I hear them. It-"
Mizumi looked around, blinking her eyes as if struggling to see something out of the corner of her eye, but then she help up a hand to quiet Ayika. "No, I hear that sound too. The gongs? That is a real thing. They ring those gongs when there are rituals being conducted in the temple. But what could they be...? Maybe Sage Huitzlan is already trying to banish the Mask's spirits."
They pushed forward through the cloud of alien gods. Then Mizumi put her hands up to the heavy iron bound door and pushed. To their surprise it parted easily, with only a faint sound of ripping paper. The widening portal revealed the long front hall illuminated only by the dancing light of an open fire deep within. The sounds of foreign chanting echoed within and another soft cymbal crash resounded in the muffled distance.
Mizumi stepped inside and began to speak. "Something is odd. Sage Huitzlan should have locked..." Then as she glanced back she noticed something startling. "Oh, he really is worried. With the Representative gone I think he may have forgotten about the human threats."
She stood inside and looked back at the temple doorframe. Ayika stepped through and saw that the entire inside surface of the front door and all the walls beside it were plastered with strips of paper decorated with scrawled black characters. Vaguely in the back of her mind Ayika knew they were spirit repelling charms. And then she realized how she knew without reading the language.
Outside the temple, blanched against the roaring light of the twin iron brasiers, the foreign spirits were moving closer. Ayika saw a bird beaked human form that wore a crown on its head and carried a scepter held in front of an androgynous bare-chested body. It slowly drifted forward as a red skinned phantom with a long protruding nose leaned down from where it hung in mid air to glacially extend a long black staff towards where Ayika stood. More were crawling forward, wavering in and out of even here sight, a growing horde, nearly blind to the material world they slid through. They'd been drawn by the girls' passing, but they still did not cross the threshold.
Mizumi grabbed Ayika's arm. She gestured vaguely in the direction of the spirits. "Hurry, I do not know what all that colored haze out there signifies but I do not think we want to be amid it. Come, we must find Sage Huitzlan and tell him what has happened."
Ayika nodded and took a step away from the temple door. Then she stepped back and struck out to slice two firm fingers through the strips of paper that criss crossed the heavily carved and embossed walls on each side. Many of the bands ripped and split easily on the first pass. Then the remaining ones on the doors parted as well to a similar gesture, only leaving intact the few spirit charms that were stuck very close to flat portions of the wood.
"Ayika! What are you doing?"
She was not sure. She was operating on a feeling, but everything she had seen said that feelings were powerful in the spirit world. It would have taken a very long time to paste up this many spirit charms. Much longer than it had been since the theatre attack. "Trust me," she whispered as she wondered at her own voice. Why should Mizumi trust her when she didn't fully understand her own actions? Why was she acting on a vague, inarticulate suspicion? These spirits wanted to come in, and so she was easing their way. They looked angry.
But Mizumi did trust her. There was only the briefest moment of hesitation before Mizumi nodded and helped finish ripping the charms. Then they both turned and walked through the long hall of dark wooden pillars, every inch covered with the carved forms of spirits and heroes, winding in a constant struggle or dance. Ahead stood an elevated central fire in front of the large ornate door that led to the inner chamber.
The sounds of ritual chanting in the Islander's language grew louder. Mizumi rushed forward to this inner door and reached out to throw it open. But then she hesitated just before her palms touched the carved red wood banded in metal. Ayika recognized this instinct. There was fear and reverence toying in Mizumi's mind. The sanctity of sacred spaces was implanted deeply in every person of this world. Ayika knew this even if she'd never been part of any such sacred place herself. She'd never been one to go to the government temples or their priests. For her, all those powers had been bound up in her Grandma Aka and in some abstract idea of the City its self. Now she advanced and lifted her hands up beside Mizumi's. Together they pushed on the doors to the inner sanctum as the final word of the chant faded out of hearing. That word was one even Ayika recognized; "Naruhama".
The first thing Ayika saw was fire. A ring of fire around every wall which quickly resolved into many individual balls of fire held magically suspended in the hands of red robed priests. In the middle of it all, on the elevated central platform before the central water-filled plinth was Fire Sage Huitzlan in all his finery. In front of him the oil burned on the surface of the offering pool. In his hand he held gold coins that slowly slid through his fingers to vanish through the floating flames with a plop. It looked like the same deification ceremony that Ayika had seen before, offering up power to the soul of Naruhama. But the Sage knew the rituals were a trap. There was no one left to force him and yet he continued.
Mizumi yelled out some question in her language, each word filled with shock and anger, as she thrust out a finger to point at the old sage in the raised center of the room. Huitzlan's eyes widened slightly in surprise at Mizumi's sudden appearance but other than that he showed no concern. He gestured both his hands to the other priests and spoke a short, dismissive sentence. They looked shocked but began to move back towards the exits.
Mizumi didn't accept this as an answer and yelled out again, this time in the language Ayika could understand. "You are performing deification rituals again! Why? Tailang can not threaten you anymore! These rituals are only empowering the destructive ghost of Ambassador Naruhama! You must stop, the Masks are running wild through the city! Do you know what you are doing?!"
Huitzlan looked down with self-satisfied condescension. "Of course I know." His voice was heavily accented but surprisingly smooth, even surpassing Mizumi's fluency in this moment of her agitation.
"I am drawing forth the angry, powerful spirits through the shaman masks to drive out the pitiful so-called gods of this land." He almost sounded pitying, as if ashamed for them. "Who did you think arranged for Aza Naruhama's funeral mask to be 'stolen'? Do you really think that muddy rabble of natives could have entered this temple without my permission? My dear, I must say this confusion is as much your own fault as it is due to my deception. My story was so full of holes. I even forgot to give you an excuse for why the ambassador's funeral procession featured a fake mask!" Above all he sounded triumphant as his admission hung in the waving heat of the heavy air. Before him, the fire on the water wavered and clutched towards him in some strange echo of his power.
Thoughts began to flash together in Ayika's head. After all this heart ache and pain, the man had casually confessed to be the one behind the weakening of the barrier between worlds. He had purposefully released Naruhama's unquiet ghost on the city. That meant he was responsible for the masks possessing people. That meant he was responsible for all of this. All the others, Zhangyi, Tailang, Erlaio, had all just been pawns.
But she had no time for thought. The Masks were rampaging now. She could figure out the why of it later. She just needed it to stop. She said, "Please, just stop! It's over! Tailang's dead. Lizhen's dead, the student' are torn apart, the Initiated are all slaves of the wild spirits now. Erliao admitted to murder, if they can ever get him out of that possessed mask! All your adversaries are gone, and the King of Kings will be convinced that Erliao was behind it all, since he publicly confessed to that. Call it off now, take that power away from the masks before they destroy everything! You've won!"
Huitzlan looked over to Ayika as if she was a strange talking bird. The other priests had all finished filing out of the room before he spoke again to Mizumi. "Amantza Tailang is dead? That is an unexpected benefit. I had simply expected your accusations against him to keep him occupied for a few weeks. I take it was one of the possessed who did it, as is fitting. And what did you say? Erliao, the minister? I thought the pathetic man was killed days ago, during that local festival."
Ayika felt herself sag like a puppet with its strings cut. Huitzlan wasn't lying. He didn't know. He barely remembered who Erliao was. Ayika was dizzy. Questions collided behind her heavy tongue. How? Why? If he was the mastermind behind it all then why did he not understand what was happening?
Mizumi yelled out in a desperate plea for reason against hope, "Things are beyond control! The Masks are killing people, and the spirit world is spilling forth. You have gotten everything you can hope to get. Please, turn over Ambassador Naruhama's ghost mask and burn it properly so that we can end this! Soon the possessed will turn on the Exclusion and everything you value! There is nothing that you could gain now that would be worth this!"
The sage sneered down at the girls beneath his plinth. "As if I care for this measly prison of a settlement. But in any case, I do not have the funeral mask here. Please try to listen, I just told you I gave it away. The act of killing Aza Naruhama placed enough of a spiritual bounty on my head and the ghost mask would have only magnified the call to hungry spirits. That is why I sent the object away with Amantza Tailang's catspaw natives, so they could destroy it themselves or at best hide it somewhere deep in the city where the disruption could strike at the heart of the local gods. Now that Tailang is dead I suppose no one can!" the old man laughed. Ayika's stomach churned, he thought that Tailang still controlled the Initiated.
The old man in his red and gold robes spread his palms regally. "I must say, young Miss Miohuito, you gave me a fright that day when you came here and told me that Naruhama's mask had found its way into the hands of Chen Lizhen after all. At least Tailang's local agents were competent enough to kill the professor and get it back. In all this degenerate land, that Lizhen was perhaps the only one who would have instantly recognized such a thing as the ghost mask and known how to complete the burning ritual. After all he learned from me. Then all my work would have been for nothing."
"Work..." Ayika gasped out in horrified disbelief. "You just admitted to killing the ambassador. And Erlaio said that-"
"What does Sub-Minister Erliao have to do with anything? As for confessing, I suppose I'm fortunate that neither of your opinions matters for much." The old man was sickeningly confident. He smiled as he began to spin a tale.
"Miss Miohuito, I am afraid you were distraught when you ran in here on this frightening night. When I spoke of Amantza Tailang's involvement in the death of Ambassador Naruhama you got confused and thought that I was somehow also involved. You were quiet insensible after that, ranting about strange conspiracies, poor thing." Huitzlan twisted his wrinkled mouth into the grin of the powerful and privileged. Mizumi was standing right in front of him having heard a confession and she didn't worry him at all. Ayika, the strange Water Tribe servant, didn't even factor into his coverup. She wasn't even worth a lie. She was nothing.
Ayika could barely bring herself to process what he was saying. Huitzlan didn't know that Erliao had been commanding the Masks. Tailang hadn't known that the masks called spirits, or that Erliao had usurped his control over the nationalist group. Erliao hadn't known that the desecrated ghost of Naruhama was what was causing the masks to become unmanageable, or that Huitzlan was involved at all. All three men thought they were controlling this city and all three were working at cross purposes to each other. Ayika's mouth worked open and closed in stunned disbelief. None of them had ordered Lizhen's death. They all thought the other had done it. This had just been a spider's web of accidents. So much death and sorrow, and no one had planned it. No one had been in control.
Mizumi had a more direct way of dealing with existential crisis. She burst forward into a full dash, the deep leg slits of her golden qipao allowing her to rush Huitzlan's burning podium in seconds. As she ran she reached under her left armband to pull forth a small knife. For a moment, even the Fire Sage was astonished by the ferocity of this sudden attack. She cleared the steps three at a time and struck out with a loud yell. Then he punched the air in front of him with a single magical motion and everything exploded into sorcerous fire. Mizumi was thrown back screaming, shielding her face with her arms even as her upper arms and legs caught the force of the heat. She hit the floor of the chamber hard.
Ayika found herself kneeling at Mizumi's side before she even noticed that she'd moved. Mizumi groaned and gasped through gritted teeth as Ayika tried to hold her, avoiding the spots where she could already see pale skin being outlined by a rush of blood hurrying to what would surely be painful burns. Ayika snapped her head up to glare at Huitzlan above them on his platform and a sound she didn't recognize burst forth from her throat. It was a growling roar of pure hatred like a cornered animal. She felt her lips pull back from her teeth as her heart thudded deafeningly in her ears. It sounded like drums calling for war.
The firebender looked almost pitying at the two women below him. "That was foolish." He shook his head. "Miss Miohuito, you asked before what I stood to gain from this. The answer is nothing. I do it solely for the benefit of others, for the wretched fools who live in this city, enslaved by their miserable history. Soon the deification will be complete. Aza Naruhama, who in life was a constant thorn in my side with his incessant talk of peaceful cooperation and respect for native culture will be the power that fuels the cleansing of this human cesspool! Tonight, all the sinful dead of this city will burst forth, and wash away the feeble spirits of this land, making way for our own gods! The gods of Fire and Honor, of Strength and Innovation! And as it is in the spirit world so is it in the material world. New spirits will dwell here and the natives of this city will have their minds subtly shaped to bring them out of the dark vault of tradition. The natives will from this day be shaped into our image, not by conquest but by the spirit world. Then one day they will be as great as our own people! This is my gift to them!"
Magical fire spouted forth from his spread hands and the air in the chamber rippled with heat and light. Suddenly, Ayika felt a shiver travel down her back. There were frightened shouts outside the chamber. Then the continued absence of the other priests through all this commotion was quite adequately explained. A tall, bird-faced spirit stepped through the solid wood of the closed grand doors from the main temple. It held a ghostly burning sword in its hand.
Huitzlan blanched in sudden fright at this spirit's entrance. It frightened him in a way nothing yet had. "How?! I saw to the excluding charms myself! Even if they were broken, my power in this temple...the rituals. There was no one to issue a call-"
Ayika slowly rose to her feet. "You're not the only one here who knows the spirits."
The little hole she'd ripped in the Fire Sage's defenses must have been enough. More spirits proceeded to drift through the walls. Three headed dragons, women wielding blazing swords, and dark things made only of smoke all advanced. They were the spirit gods the Fire Sage had wanted to welcome into the heart of the city. But Huitzlan had been right; murder and desecration drew the attention of the spirit world. Tonight, the spirit world was close enough to reach out and grab what it wanted. It seemed that these gods did not agree to the Fire Sage's plan. He was faithful, and so he was theirs. Lizhen's lessons had taught her well.
Huitzlan now looked down and for the first time really saw Ayika. "You," he spat out, containing in that one word every vicious insult to her people that had ever been spoken.
Ayika tore her eyes away once more from Mizumi's pained breathing and raised them to meet his. "Yes, me." In her mind she echoed every moment of power and authority she'd ever seen in her proud Grandmother Aka or in the passionate Nia Mua. Ayika had been born in this city and she stood here wearing Fire Nation clothes, but in this one brief instant she knew she was a daughter of the Water Tribe, a shaman of the People standing before the spirit world and one who had disturbed it. And this was her city.
Huitzlan growled and looked away from her, concentrating his attention on a stream of rapid chanting in his own language. His hands shifted in constant patterns, recalling lessons and rituals learned decades ago, formulas promised to calm the spirits.
The advancing spirits halted, their feet and claws and wings freezing in place as they floated above the floor. Huitlzan knew more of the spirit world than Ayika could likely learn in a lifetime. He was in the center of his power surrounded by layered decades of rituals. Then the sprits turned to look down at Ayika. With spirits, ritual was important but exchange was what mattered. Huitzlan had destroyed all his credit with the spirit world. He had nothing left to offer that they would accept. Ayika had everything. She felt strength rising up from below as she planted herself in the world against the might and fear and rage that was stacked against her. Then she nodded, and the sprits turned back to Huitzlan.
The Fire Sage's eyes boggled. He spat out curses at Ayika, and then lashed out with fire at the spirits. The nearest ones drifted in the air to duck out of the way of his flaming jets. Clearly bending could effect them in a way which normal matter could not. But more were gathering in the room by the moment.
At Ayika's feet, Mizumi slowly pulled herself up, wincing and blanching at the pain from the red areas on her upper arm and lower leg. She stood beside Ayika and placed her other hand on her friend's shoulder. Together they watched Huitzlan flail on his perch before the burning offering pool as he punched out jets of magical fire at the encircling spirits. He was only barely keeping them back as their numbers grew. Then, suddenly, a new sense of calm settled over the beset Fire Sage.
He gave a small laugh. "Of course." He looked up to meet the gaze of the bird-faced spirit with its burning sword. It floated before him, approaching above the burning water of the deep offering pit as its weapon rose over his head. "The noble spirits would not abandon the good intention of my project. But they would enforce the cost. The power of exchange is everything. If I had continued with these traditional offerings of gold and iron, then some native priest would eventually have been able to unseat the dark god I have made of Aza Naruhama. I had forgotten the old stories. I had forgotten the old ways."
Mizumi's hand tightened on Ayika's shoulder as Huitzlan leaned down to grab something behind the alter, ready to pull her back in some protective gesture. Then Huitzlan straightened up, his wizened hands laden with a length of heavy chains. He began to hang the thick iron links around his neck like a piece of tremendous jewelry. The spirits were now creeping closer, reaching forward to grasp at him, but he seemed unconcerned. Then he looked down to speak directly to Ayika, clinking with heavy metal chains draped around his thin body.
"Sacrifices must be made for a ghost god to be born."
Then the old man threw himself forward into the burning water of the offering pool.
Mizumi screamed out, but Ayika just froze. She had figured out what was about to happen a single breath before it occurred. The surface of the water lapped and splashed, spilling its sheen of burning oil to leave rivulets of fire running down the sides. Huitzlan was gone, pulled down deep into the pilar of dark water under the floating fire, the last sacrifice offered to the restless ghost of the departed Ambassador Naruhama. The room was silent except for the faint lapping of the dark water sloshing back in lessening ripples. Even the circling spirits faded out of sight. Existence took a breath.
Then every particle of the world groaned and every fire in the room burst forth with new anguish. Ayika clutched her head as she opened her mouth and could not hear the sound that spilled forth from her lungs over the sound of ten thousand scrabbling hands pulling themselves forth from the void beyond this world. Deep out somewhere in the brick canyons of Ba Sing Se, the unquiet ghost of Naruhama was now a god. The veil was torn and the dead were coming.
...
"Pile that high!"
Xiaobao was fairly certain that this group of Kuang Harbor residents would have continued stacking tables on top of that overturned wagon in the middle of the street whether he had yelled or not. However, Jiang had insisted that it would aid moral if he were to shout out directions at regular intervals. The strange thing was that it seem to be working. The barricades were being built. Elsewhere in the town, chaos reigned as the insane Masks brought destruction to all around them.
"Right," Zhangyi said at Xiaobao's side. "If I'm right about the layout of the map here, then this barrier should confine most of the violence, er the action to the central area down from the Craftsman's Gate. The government forces are still fighting the Masks across the town, but at least we can limit the number of citizens exposed." The student had apparently appointed himself to some leadership position directly under Xiaobao's own, whatever that was supposed to be.
Jiang squinted as he looked around, trying to get his bearings in this dingy neighborhood off the main streets of Kuang Harbor. He murmured, "Not technically citizens since they live outside the city wall, but that doesn't really matter. And this is all assuming no bender pushes the Masks over that line. Those spirit possessed people seem to take the path of least resistance when left alone so they might not jump the barricades otherwise. Might."
Xiaobao's head was pounding. The air smelled faintly of smoke. When they were prepping for the failed theater plan Ayika and Mua had said something about the dead Fire Nation ambassador was affecting the lamps and torches, any open fire. Xiaobao had arranged two bucket-lines already to fight small accidental fires that had nevertheless turned into destructive blazes in moments. Mua and Ma'er were down the street with one of those lines, taking a break from their attempts to fight the Masks. Those desperate fights between the possessed and random knots of benders had already leveled three more buildings that Xiaobao had seen. In a battle between two types of magic there was not a normal man like him could do. Off to the side, Zhangyi and Jiang were talking to people; saying who knew what.
Xiaobao looked up at the cloudy night sky to see a single ember floating through the air. It had wafted up from a fire several streets away and despite having traveled so far, it was somehow still glowing bright orange. Its lazy motion on the currents of the air was almost peaceful somehow. Such a thing could be dangerous if it landed against a paper screen or some woven baskets but this one bumped harmlessly against the wooden wall of a building and began to fade away. Xiaobao breathed in and out. Then the lone particle burst into a rush of flame larger than a fist.
"Woah!" Xiaobao yelled, rushing over to beat out the freak fire with a water dampened broom that had been donated to the cause of civic defense. "Watch out, guys we've got a..." He stopped talking as the fire failed to go out. In fact the blaze grew, licking up the solid wooden wall. Now Xiaobao was becoming concerned as well as confused. "Guys! There's something really strange-!"
A jet of water blasted over his shoulder, soaking him with the spray that rebounded off the wall. As Xiaobao sputtered and wiped the water from his eyes he actually saw the strange fire fail to go out for a moment. For that brief second it continued to burn under the force of all that water. Then it was gone and Xiaobao turned back to see Mama Mua, wide eyed and panting.
He said, "Hey, so what was-?"
"Shut up," the woman said as she twisted around frantically as if looking for something in the bricks below her feet or in the nighttime sky above. "Something's happened."
"Xinfei said that Ayika was going to try something with the fire priests. Do you think that that it might have worked? Maybe this was some sort of magical side-effect that..."
Mua looked back at him with contempt across her blanched face. "No. I don't think it worked. Something's gone very wrong. The border between the worlds' been torn open."
Xiaobao looked over at Ma'er for some confirmation but the other bender showed no readable reaction beyond a slight narrowing of his eyes. Lacking any better clue or extra-natural sense, he turned around vaguely. He had no idea of what he expected to see. "That doesn't sound good."
Mua let out a single snort. "No, it's not good. All the spirits of this land who've never cared for humans can come spilling over and with them, the dead. The hungry ghosts are rising."
Xiaobao opened his mouth to say something but before he could down the street he saw another knot of the black bands working at the barricade where he had just been. What a second ago had been an exchange between two men of understandably harsh words born of stress and fear had erupted into a vicious fistfight which was now dragging in everyone else stationed on that street.
"Hey! People! Stop this!" Xiaobao ran down to where the fight was, his heavy footsteps thudding on the uneven brick street. He grabbed the two nearest combatants by their collars and forcibly pulled them apart. "What is this? Come on, you know that we've got to keep working together!"
The man who's collar was in Xiaobao's left hand spat out, "I was! Then this guy goes crazy and starts saying I've been disrespecting him!"
"You have!" The other man yelled back. Xiaobao tried to think back, he thought that the man was a fish-seller. "You keep making digs at me, and you thought I was just going to take it! Well, not any more!" Xiaobao had remembered this man as being meek when he had first come over to this barricade station, almost to the point of disability. Now his eyes were wide and his teeth were bared.
"Easy man!" Xiaobao said, shaking the fish-seller slightly to get his attention. "Calm down. There's no need to fight each other. What's wrong with you?"
The voice came from behind Xiaobao's back. "The ghosts Ah just mentioned. Get away ya damn thing!"
Mua came forward and was muttering in what might have been her native language. She angrily waved her hands at the furious man that Xiaobao was still holding at bay. Then she yelled something at the air around the man's knees as he managed to regain some small bit more control over his emotions. Whether from the effectiveness of Mua's ghost banishing or from sheer embarrassment, the fight finally drained out of him and he muttered an insincere apology to the man he had been fighting with. Xiaobao thought that most of that might be because he wanted to get out of Xiaobao's grasp and away from the unsettling Mama Mua but he could understand that motivation. The tribal woman was suspiciously eyeing the paving bricks.
When it looked like people were not about to leap back to each other's throats, Xiaobao set them back to workings on the barricade to occupy their hands. Then he turned to Mua. "Um, nice performance. You said... ghosts?"
She nodded, "Hungry ghosts of the unhonored dead. That strange fire's not the only thing that's gone wrong with that dead ambassador. The ghosts'll twist these people's mind. And I'm not goin' to be able to do anything against any big bit of it. They'er everywhere. And with them come those meddlin' spirits." She wearily gestured up in the air at another thing that only she could see.
But Xiaobao caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. A great purple bird fringed with glowing gold silently soared through the night, just brushing the tile roofs above them, a living shadow in transit. He could see clouds and stars through its transparent wings. It was a spirit. Was this what Ayika could see all the time? It was beautiful, and it was terrifying. Then the spirit bird vanished behind a chimney and a chorus of screams rose up from the street below there. Mua saw Xiaobao's expression and her eyes widened, as she added together his fearful wonder and the nearby sounds of panic.
Ma'er crossed his arms and sighed wearily. "Masks smashing bodies, ghosts twisting minds, and visible spirits provoking panic in the public by their mere presence. Holding order here will be impossible."
Xiaobao agreed. "Yeah, but we're still going to try. Zhangyi! We're going to need a new plan!"
...