...
When Ayika was a little girl she'd spent a lot of time with her Grandma Aka. After the family moved down south to Ba Sing Se, Aka had quickly established herself as the spiritual authority in the Bed. Being a recent immigrant didn't harm your community standing when most people around you had arrived even more recently. Uprooted and plunged down into a far distant land in self-imposed economic exile, many of the Bed residents clung to the little things that reminded them of their home. In this case it was a grumpy, grey haired woman puffing on a curved bone pipe sized for a man twice her height; a woman who knew the spirits of sea and mountain, and all the old stories that defined them.
Aka might have resented her son's decision to move his new wife away from the north after the war but when Ayika was little she hadn't noticed. All she saw was that her grandmother knew everything. When someone was feeling sick she knew which spirits were bothering them. When people were fighting she knew how to chant and dispel the bad magic of an unbalanced spirit world. She even knew what to do when people died; how to clean their bodies, calm their ghosts, honor their spirits, and comfort their families. And after all that she still knew to tell plenty of stories about spirits and heroes to the little girl sitting at the foot of her grandmother's rocking chair.
Grandma Aka hadn't believed in only nice stories for children. In fact, with retrospect, Ayika figured that Aka had found a lot of entertainment in how much terror she could bring her granddaughter without the child finally breaking to run away to hide in the corner sobbing. Aka had made a lot of noise about it being bad for a woman of the Tribes to be born in this foreign land far from her own culture, but she still spent the time with Ayika and beyond any cultural pride, Aka had been practical. She taught about the old country, but she also told Ayika the stories of this infinite city that was now their home.
She'd told of Blind Dog Lord the who could steal your breath and ruled over the local spirit court, she had told of the demon dogs, of the chained and split Kuang river spirit, of golden toads, and of the Nine-Step-Shadow of death. When knowledge remembered from the north or gleaned from the city failed her then she had told stories of pure invention. To this day Ayika was still uncertain which were which. She had never heard of another person speak of the terrifying Scissors-Man who had haunted her childhood dreams, but then again she had not mentioned that phantom to any living soul.
There were enough real things to be afraid of. For example, a tormented spirit world wounded by the Fire Sage's perverse ritual which was now spilling forth the hungry ghosts of the unhonored dead.
Ayika stood alone on a deserted Exclusion street outside the Miohuito mansion, some little distance away from the Fire Temple. Mizumi would return shortly. Until then, Ayika only had to withstand this terrible unearthly wavering of the world around her. Huitzlan's curse lay across the city and the twisted wisps of hungry ghosts were rising up from between the paving stones.
Ayika turned her head away from a grey spectral shape that bulged and stretched as it struggled into this material world. It was a horrifying yet pitiful sight. The transparent thing swayed and undulated with each bulge of effort in its struggle to cross over. Now thick tendrils began to separate off it, strange appendages echoing a fading memory of arms. Then it turned towards Ayika. The ancient ghost no longer had a human face, only a twisted spiral in the general proportions that might have been relative to a head. A single transparent tendril reached out from its side in a wavering path towards Ayika.
She took a deep breath and steeled herself. Ayika planted her feet on the paving stones and then stared back at the eyeless thing with all the force she could muster within her. The ghost halted. This hungry thing was not at fault, without connection to its soul it had slowly lost all its memories other than a vague sense that things should be other than they were. It was this need that led to them reach out and grasp at this world, withering grass, causing illness, and twisting temperaments. It was not their fault.
Still standing firm, Ayika lifted up bottom of her borrowed dress to reach a hand to the little purse she'd tied to hang down from around her waist. Then she straightened up and copper coins clinked softly in her hand along with a single piece of straw. She reached out her foot to mark a line on the dusty stones and the ghost swayed back slightly. Ritual rang loud to all things that resided in the spirit world, you just had to mean it. Ayika slid the coins back and forth between her two hands as she began to speak in a clear, calm voice, her own true emotions hidden well. She had its attention. Then she tossed her hands out, one after another, counting loudly the money that was cast out to the honor of this lost being. The hungry ghost leaned forward slightly and its tendrils arched nearer to her, but then it turned and began to move away, fading slightly as it searched for the coins that had been given to it. Then Ayika snapped the pice of brittle straw and the ghost vanished.
She let out a heavy breath of relief.
"Wow," Mizumi's voice came from right behind her and Ayika jumped in fright. Mizumi quickly apologized.
"I am sorry. What was it that you did? It looked like it was a ritual of some sort?"
Ayika gestured out to the departed specter Mizumi apparently still couldn't see. "Well, not a real...I kind of just made it... there was a hungry ghost here. It won't be the only one. Huitlzan's ritual messed up more than I could've imagined."
Ayika turned back to Mizumi, who stood there, slightly disheveled and limping from having just climbed in and out of a third floor window to her mansion home. They'd come back here to retrieve Naruhama's Fire Nation funeral artifact that Golden Toad had given them. Ayika decided to gloss over for now telling Mizumi that she had no idea what to do with that ritual object even if they had it. Ayika gave a questioning look and Mizumi patted a pocket of the short black coat she was now wearing, signaling success of her mission. Then she winced, still pained by the burns Huitzlan had given her arm and leg.
But even more than her wounds, Mizumi was unsettled at the mention of hungry ghosts. However, she still continued, "Lili and Xinfei are not in my house. I do not know where they went. I think back out of the Exclusion." She tilted her head back and took a deep breath to quiet her heart that must have been pounding from stress, pain, and exhaustion. But distraction was good medicine so she cocked her head inquisitively at Ayika. "You counted fairly high when you flung those coins. Where were you carrying that much money?"
Ayika was confused. "What?" Then she realized what Mizumi was talking about. "Oh. Oh! No, no, that wasn't..." Ayika opened her hand to reveal all six copper coins still held within. "Ghosts don't need actual money. What're they going to buy? It's the story that's important; the ritual. And even so I'm a bit surprised that worked. Grandma Aka always said that ghosts and spirits prefer their own kind, their own culture, and that one's form was very faded. They'd have died long before there were people of the Tribes here in Ba Sing Se. I didn't expect it to recognize me." She hiked her dress back up over her thigh to put the small coins back in her purse and despite everything still smiled when Mizumi awkwardly averted her eyes. It was her own fault for giving Ayika a dress without anywhere to carry things.
Mizumi coughed and said, "Right. Now we have the burning mirror. If you can complete the funeral ritual properly with it and we might stop the ghost god. As Teacher Lizhen tried to do before. But how are we going to find the funeral mask? Sage Hutizlan, curse his blood, gave no indication that anyone in his plot had ever recovered it."
"Then Ma'er's guy Tian still has it. But Gold Toad said he hid him." Ayika curled her hand into a fist. Her fingernails bit into her palm. "The spirits have all gone crazy how, but maybe we can find Gold Toad again, or maybe Ma'er knows something that might help. It's our only chance now that...its our only chance."
Mizumi nodded, shuddering as she glanced back in the direction of the Fire Temple. "Ma'er and Mama Mua were fighting the Masks at the theater. Or perhaps they are continuing to assist you friend Xiaobao's black forehead-band people. That might be the best place to begin a search and it is near the Frog well."
The two of them hurried down the empty main street of the Exclusion. The district's city-born workers had all been expelled and the residents were all inside their houses and apartments, barred against the turmoil of violence that had erupted beyond the bounds of their artificial island. Ayika couldn't blame them. For a mad priest like Huitzlan an abstract goal of spiritual dominance might have been worth this chaos but most of the Islanders here were just mundane men and women. They wanted to make money, live their lives, and keep their families safe. In a strange contrast to the eerie emptiness of the deserted canyon-streets the Exclusion's gas lamps still burned cheerful and bright, banishing the night to the tips of the red and black roofed towers above. But Ayika could still feel the wound in the world, throbbing behind the air.
They were approaching the Bridge of Fire that marked the edge of the Exclusion. Ayika saw the grey shadows of more hungry ghosts rising up into this world to drift across the surface of the empty water in the surrounding moat. She shuddered.
They were almost half way across the bridge before the Fire Nation marines posted there notice them and began to call out in their language. Mizumi snapped something back and pressed forward despite the shouted commands that even Ayika could interpret well enough. Ayika didn't know what the plan was, it was possible Mizumi intended to personally fight her way through the all soldiers and then the city guards on the other side. However, it didn't come to that.
There was a loud crash off to the right, down the long canal that was this side of the Exclusion's moat. The girls and the marines both spun around in time to see half of an entire carriage fly through the air to impact the second story of a building. Shouts and screams drifted over the water and then they were followed by a keening, inhuman roar that carried with it the notes of ancient grudges against all the material world. Something else landed out of the dark night onto the flotilla of tethered boats in the canal, capsizing one and setting the rest rocking to spill their cargo of casks forth into the water. The fallen meteor rose then up to show a vague human silhouette that glowed a sinister red. The Masks were doing their work.
One of the Fire Nation marines spat out a word that Ayika recognized from some of Mizumi's angrier moments. Down at the end of the Bridge of Fire the small group of local city guards posted there had a moment of silent unanimity and then proceeded to run in the direction opposite the Masks. The Fire Nation marines yelled at each other and ran forward to seize control of the bridge mouth as some more of them sprinted past to dash along the canal street in an attempt to drive back the Mask that was rampaging up there. Ayika and Mizumi no longer ranked as their chief concerns. The two women managed to slide by and get off the bridge to run off into the town.
Just before they rounded a corner, Ayika turned to look back. The man-shaped thing rose up from the shattered canopy of one of the canal boats, glowing red with transparent spines and claws. All around him floated a flock of bobbing half-smashed barrels that had been knocked free from other boats onto the water burbled forth their liquid contents. The Fire Nation marines dashed to close the last of the distance and punched out, jets of magical fire blinking into existence from their fists. Ayika just had time to recognize that the oily reflections on the water surface when there was a loud distant thoomp and crash and a flash of fire. Then the other lamp oil barrels exploded as the now burning oil on the surface of the water spread while the marines and the Mask clashed, neither side carrying much for the survival of the buildings around them.
...
Gold Toad's well had been empty and silent, but Ayika and Mizumi found Xiaobao and Ma'er more easily than they'd expected. In fact, they found everyone; Lili and Xinfei had joined Mua in the ad hoc command center Zhangyi and Jiang had helped the Black Bands set up. The fledgling organization was doing its best to maintain order, ensuring that the government guards were fighting the Masks and not pushing down the Kuang residents, but things were bad. The chaos was spreading in fingers along the canals, like the twisted spiritual power was somehow water soluble. Or perhaps the Masks just liked open spaces to pounce and leap across.
Even this little distance from the Exclusion Ayika could already tell that the hungry ghosts and spirit appearances were growing denser. From what Xiaobao said he'd heard about the rest of Kuang Harbor, that trend likely continued all the way to the Lower Ring or wherever Tian was hiding with Naruhama's ghost mask. The power that fueled all this was flowing from that thing, so it had to be at the center of the trouble. Well, that meant Ayika finally had a way to track Tian down. However, those concealing warrens were on the far side of a large group of rampaging Masks, a terrified town, an equally terrified guard regiment, and the great city wall of Ba Sing Se.
"We need to get into the Lower Ring. Naruhama's mask has to be at the center of these rising ghosts and we need to find it. Completing the funeral's our only chance now of healing the spirit world." Ayika turned to Nia Mua who was half sitting half leaning on the edge of a low wall, resting from administering a bit of magical water healing to Mizumi's burns that had left them improved but still raw. "Could you get us under the wall again?"
Mizumi was not excited about this plan and sputtered, "No, no, not, absolutely not. Not again."
Mua clucked dismissively at Mizumi. "Calm yourself, girl. It's not goin' to happen anyway. The greenies, the guards, have got a big push they're makin' out from the Craftsman's Gate. We'd never get to my house or boat and we'd certainly never get to the source-spring tunnels. And the wild spirits seem thickest on the water anyway for some reason."
Zhangyi wondered, "Is it possible that Mister Ma'er could gain us passage-"
The ex Dai-Li agent shook his head curtly. "There is no way I could get us through the main gate if that's what you are asking. Whatever you people seem to think, I have no governmental authority and haven't in a very long time. I would be arrested as quickly as any of you."
Ayika clapped her hands. "Right, so if it's our only chance, then we need to find a way to get Mua past the guard patrols to the water tunnels that go under the wall. I'm sorry Mizumi but we need to get in there to find Tian."
Lili stopped her nervous pacing for a moment. "Well, I can't say I'm any happier about the prospect of drowning and...Mizumi, what are you looking at?"
Mizumi had been twisting around, searching for anything that might offer a counter proposal to fighting their way through soldiers so they could smother themselves in an airless tunnel under the wall. Her eyes had landed on that section of the elevated tram track above the town rooftops out of pure nostalgia for simpler solutions in earlier days. Then the corners of her mouth twitched up.
"Mister Ma'er, how well secured are the tram traverse tunnels at times like this?"
Ma'er raised a greying eyebrow. "Not as well as the main body of the gate, but that's because every tram station is already under government watch and the soldiers posted in those wall tunnels could easily stop anyone trying to walk along the tracks."
Xinfei made a noise of sudden inhalation and abrupt realization about what Mizumi intended. Ayika twisted around to look at him and he was staring at Mizumi with disbelief and amazement. Now Mizumi was actually grinning.
"Oh, I was not thinking about walking."
...
Mizumi's father, Tetzamatl Miohuito, was an importer of many products but his speciality was machines. And of all those machines, he had staked his hopes on trains, on convincing the King of Kings to convert the earthbender powered tram network that connected and fed the unmanageably vast city into a machine powered system. He'd met with a lot of resistance but in the wake of the sympathy for the attack on his train-yard he'd finally managed to arrange governmental permission for a practical demonstration. That had been two days ago, so there was currently a Fire Nation built locomotive engine sitting on the elevated track of the tram maintenance garage near the line terminus station at the customs building.
"Well, this is insane. Ya want to steal the machine."
Xinfei had to agree with Mua's assessment. Their small group was standing beside that large hulk of black metal painted with stripes of red. It bristled with pipes and levers and wheels in wheels. Mizumi had climbed aboard and lit the onboard coal furnace quickly enough, but apparently now they had to wait for things to heat fully. Beside him, Lili was starting to twitch and fidget with nervous energy. Such unsettledness was contagious and after a brief moment of silently waiting for 'pressure to build', Xinfei decided he'd stood enough and scrambled up the monstrosity to squeeze inside the command cabin with Mizumi. He squatted down on his heels beside her, staring at the fiery furnace mouth set at the end of the little chamber. The whole space was filled with dials and wheels and things you were meant to spin and things that would explode if you touched them.
After a number of seconds he leaned over to Mizumi and said, "You have no idea what to do next, do you?"
"Not at all. My science textbook showed the engine when it was not incorporated into the locomotive."
"But doesn't your dad make these? Shouldn't you-"
"Yes, Xinfei, it has become painfully clear that I should have done quite a few things in my life very differently. Thank you for that observation."
He saw her twist to look out at the rest of the group waiting outside and at Ayika's proud, confident face. Xinfei sighed.
"Well, let's try and figure this out."
As he got up and moved forward Mizumi opened her mouth to say something about being careful because this was a very complicated and expensive piece of machinery. Fortunately, she caught herself and swallowed whatever that comment was before he had time to do more than narrow his eyes back at her.
Xinfei cast his gaze over the walls housing all the pipes and valves. There were little engraved plaques screwed onto the metal here and there. "Hey, there's instructions!"
"You can read-?"
"Of course I can read you high nosed little-!"
"No! I meant that I had thought such things would be written in the Nation's language! But then again, this is the demonstration car. I suppose father left nothing to chance for operator error."
They both leaned over to look at the little metal plates which has been screwed onto the walls near various contraptions. There were indeed instructions engraved there, though Xinfei may have exaggerated just how much he could read it. There were several characters he'd never even seen before. Judging from the radicals, one pair seemed to have something to do with water and, in context...stopping motion? He heard Mizumi mutter something in a questioning tone. That was not a very good sign.
There was a little hinged arm in the center of a circle in a prominent place. The arm was slowly moving and pointing to tiny lines labeled with numbers. Above several of the numbers it was labeled simply, "Good."
Xinfei scratched at his head. "Good?", he read.
"Really? Great!" Ayika called up from down below. "Guys, they've got it working. Everyone up!"
The cabin got crowded very quickly as the rest of their strange party climbed in. Xinfei was about to correct them all when he noticed that one person was still down beside the tracks. He looked down at Xiaobao with a sinking heart.
"Maolin, what are you doing? Get up here!" In his rising panic, Xinfei completely forgot that he hadn't actually wanted any of them in the train yet.
Xiaobao just hung his head as if that simple black band weighed as much as the city wall. "No, I don't think I can. I think I have to stay here. All these people out in the town...I don't know what I can do but I have to do something. They trusted me, so I have to try."
Lili opened her mouth as if to say something but Ayika silenced her. Xinfei just stared at his brother with disbelief. "But...We're going straight into the middle of everything. The Masks and the guards and the spirits and...We need you! You're supposed to be the one holding this together! Protecting people. You know I can't do anything like this by myself!"
Xiaobao now moved forward and stepped up onto one of train's metal flanges to half hang off the engine. He squeezed Xinfei's arm. "Xinfei," he said. "Shut up. We both know you're twice as smart as I am, and besides Ayika's clearly the one in charge. You've got this. I know you do. And hey, what did Kuang Harbor ever do to us that we can leave them with just Zhangyi and Jiang? The whole place'll be destroyed in five minutes!"
Xinfei laughed and felt sick as he did. "Damn you, freaking lunk. Ok, fine. But don't you dare be a damn hero! I want you to be the biggest coward this city's ever seen. Jump in a canal if you even see a Mask's shadow!"
"Me, the hero?" Xiaobao grinned as he stepped back down. "You're the one who's ridding off with the all pretty girls on a quest to save the kingdom from monsters." He stuck his hand in his pocket for a moment and then pulled out a long strip of black cloth. He held it out towards Xinfei with a smile. "Dad'd be proud."
Then Xiaobao almost fell backwards as Ayika flung herself out of the train cabin to wrap him in a furious hug. There were tears on her cheeks as she hung off his shoulders. "You damn giant idiots, both of you. We don't have time for this." Then she dropped down to the ground. "Keep my folks safe too."
Xiaobao nodded and Ayika climbed back up, aided by Mizumi's helping hand. Xinfei's throat felt sore as he looked down at his bother stepping back away from the tracks. But Xiaobao was right, they had a mission. So Xinfei turned away. Then he grabbed the headband and yanked the knot tight behind his head. Yes, the Bao name still meant something.
Now pressed up against the side of the train cabin and separated from whatever Mizumi was doing with her dials, Xinfei mumbled, "Um, right. Well, the furnace runs on coal so we need to keep that fed. Er, someone, could you...Oh." Ma'er flicked his hand and a large heap of coal magically sailed through the air from the rear hopper into the furnace.
"Right, uh, you take care of that." Xinfei looked over. Mizumi had her hand on an important looking lever with an expression of about eighty-five percent confidence. The little metal pointer was now starting to leave "Good" on the other side. Xinfei grabbed a long pole that disappeared down into the floor and pulled it backwards. The label said, "disengage before motion something start" so that seemed to be a safe bet.
"Right, Mizumi, whenever you're ready." Ayika clearly had complete faith in her foreign friend. Mua looked resigned to immediate fiery death, and Ma'er never had any emotion on his face. However, Xinfei caught a glimpse of Lili and she was unabashedly impressed with his command of this huge machine. Confidence welling in his chest, he twisted one last knob and announced:
"All right, start it!"
The engine jerked and made a lot of very unpleasant noises that sounded very expensive to fix. Xinfei twisted a lot more things and slammed a few more levers until, after several heart pounding seconds, the metal pointer stopped its plummeting fall out of "Good". The train shook again and then began to chug with the impression of forward and backward motion as it started to slowly creep along the track.
Mizumi tried to covertly dab the sweat off her forehead that showed she was the only one who knew exactly what those noises had signified. Lili nodded in approval, raising her voice to be heard over the building metallic din. "Not bad. Loud though! And it's not exactly fast but...oh, it's still getting faster." The train gave another rumble and she stumbled forward as the machine continued to accelerate, catching her hand on Xinfei's hunched shoulder for support.
Xiaobao waved from behind them but Xinfei couldn't bare to look back. The metal mechanical tram pulled out of the service building and slowly merged back onto the main elevated track. Its earthbender powered counterpart would have been three blocks ahead by now and perhaps still gaining distance but there was something disconcerting about the constant, relentless acceleration of the steam engine. Ma'er continued to transfer coal from hopper to furnace and with each blast of heat the machine seemed to gain a little more purpose. This thing was a lump of metal the weight of a house barreling along in response to Xinfei's command. Well, Mizumi's command since she had possession of the important brass lever but that wasn't the point. Xinfei straightened up and despite everything couldn't help a strange grin creeping onto his face. Carefully, he pushed past everyone and leaned out the entrance door to the cabin. He could see the roofs of Kuang Harbor passing beneath him while the building wind whipped through his hair.
White smoke billowed out of the chimney on top of the engine, stretching out behind them as the train pushed onward into the night. From up here Xinfei could see the growing chaos spreading out across the town front of him. Dots of smoke and flickering light showed several fires across from the riverside wharfs to the border of the surrounding farms. Even over the deafening chugging of the engine and the rattle of the metal wheels he could hear a few fire bells resolutely pealing out for help. In defiance of logic it looked like the fires were following the path of the canals that reached down from the city wall. In the streets below, clashing crowds of angry people looked up, their conflict frozen in a moment of confused amazement as something loud and new passed over the roofs of their houses, charging away down the stone vaulted trackway towards the growing mass of the city wall.
Suddenly, someone else was hanging off of Xinfei with her arm around his shoulders and another hand on the doorframe. It was Lili, still pretty even covered with soot as she leaned out dangerously far over the edge of the track.
"Look at it! We're still going faster!" She burst out into exhilarated laugher.
Ayika grabbed them both and hauled them safely back inside. She said, "That's good I guess. But what happens when we reach the wall?"
They all turned to look at Ma'er who simply said, "I don't know. This isn't a scenario gate troops have in their manual."
Mizumi had peaked her own head out one of the little forward windows and said, "Well, we will find out soon! We are growing near!"
Ayika was standing by her side but it now looked as if there were a few cracks in her confidence in the Islander woman. She spoke, almost yelling to be heard. "Are we still gaining speed? Should we hold off a bit? I can't imagine this thing stops quickly!"
Mizumi shook her head. "That speed is going to be what makes sure the soldiers cannot board us!"
"Yeah, but what if they just earthbend up a bunch of stones and seal the tunnel in front of us? Make it a solid wall?"
"We just...!" Mizumi stopped. There was a brief pause. "I...I had not considered that possibility!"
Mua muttered something unintelligible under the roar of the train as she gripped tighter onto her ad hoc seat.
In the Kuang Harbor tram tunnel guard station, a man leaned back in his chair. The soldiers whose job it was to guard this place knew that bad things were happening tonight. However, they also regarded the distant sounds of shouting and fire below them as something to be dealt with by soldiers who'd drawn less fortunate posting assignments. After all, on a night like this the only people with the authority to use the tram tracks would be government agents who lowly soldiers were not to question or hinder in any way, so it wasn't like they'd actually have to do anything tonight. And so, though they had heard the distant metal chugging sound, their discussion had been one of idle curiosity and a joint resolution to ask someone at the next shift change if they knew exactly what had been going on out in the harbor.
When one of the more astute guards noticed that there was something up on the tracks, it took him a few moments to gather up his fellows to come up and look at it and offer their opinions. What they discovered was that the thing on the tracks was quite larger than it had been a moment ago, and it growing distressing nearer by the second. The rails on the stone-walled vaulted track and in the tunnel were now both giving off a disconcerting murmuring sound of deep vibration. There was no protocol for this. Then the thing was upon them, roaring out of the dark night and spewing smoke; a massive black and red monstrosity louder than an army. The earthbending soldiers defaulted to their training in a panic and punched out with earth magic to halt the the train as they would a stone based tram but it shrugged off their techniques with absolutely no effect.
The train shot into the tunnel at an incredible speed and for a moment the soldiers were rendered insensible by the rumbling and screeching and smoke. Somewhere amid the din one of them thought he heard a girl's voice calling out the explanation for their failure.
"Sorry! It is made of metal!"
The soldier thought that the voice was being unnecessarily cheeky about the whole affair.
...