Chapter 1 — Erhebung Without Motion
a/n: I've changed the setting a bit by placing the castle on the plain instead of on a bluff, so I could expand the gardens and include more unique areas in its boundaries, and added a river port in the town downstream of the cascades.
At this time Katara is 20 and Zuko is 22.
Also, regarding the chapter numbering, this was designed as a series but FFN discourages that so I've plopped it into one story for here. It's all contiguous so please ignore it. I won't change it because I cannot count past 10. Thank you.
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[Eighteen months after the meeting in the spirit oasis]
At the southern tail of the great crescent of the Fire Nation, towards its eastern boundary, an island in the chain rippled in torn hills and current-softened ravines, covered from shore to shore in thick grass. The land was crossed by dozens of rivers glistening silver in the partial sun. The seabreeze kept the temperature mellow. Climbing a slope was the town of Shu Jing, a hundred houses with terracotta roofs framed in golden piping, their walls white-washed and stacked on a foundation of masonry to even out their floors. Staircases had been built into the pathways, and they had attempted to organize the heights of the village across even terraces. The mountains formed a jagged sage-green horizon.
Yue had let slip the parasol from her grasp and it tilted at an angle, revealing her face to sunlight. Wen fretted, and Yue was reminded to right it. "Princess, are you feeling well again? Shall we continue?"
"Yes, I'm fine." Wen smiled in relief, and Hua shouldered the luggage to resume walking.
They had changed ships at the southern tip of the western Earth Kingdom, where the outer ocean became the sheltered Mo Ce Sea, and the high-sided ships used in the harsh Northern Sea would become disadvantaged. It had been explained thus by their captain, Balik, but Yue thought the real reason might have been that the Northern fleet were still apprehensive making visitation to the Fire Nation just yet. Only two years prior they had been in a fierce war, and they didn't yet trust them not to open fire upon sighting the Water ship. Yue's group had transferred to a smaller wooden vessel at that time manned by a colony-born captain who knew the channels around the archipelago of the crescent. That ship had sailed upriver to the town near the center of the island, and it was the first time in her life Yue was too far from the ocean to see it. It would have been winter, then, in the North Pole; it would have been their period of darkness, but Yue had chased the sunlight and refound it.
Ahead on the path was their frontal escort and, an equal distance behind, the other half forming the rear along with two administrators sent by her father. They had plans to continue on to Caldera City after the ship restocked. As the town was partially up the slope, the climb there, from the dock, was steep and difficult. Yue had insisted on carrying her own luggage—only a small shoulder bag—but Hua had taken it from her upon seeing the looming climb. She had Yue's bag and her own crossed at opposite shoulders, forming an X across her back and chest, and her dark hair was cropped short.
She'd used the excuse of wanting it easier to maintain on the journey, but in truth she had always resented the elaborate hairstyle her mother had forced upon her. In its natural state her hair could grow to her thighs, and she complained miserably of the weight upon her neck. "I won't go back there," Hua had sworn. "My brothers were allowed to see the whole northern coast of the continent while I was locked away. I want to see trees, and roses, and mountains tall enough to block the clouds." She clung to Yue as one did driftwood while drowning. On their last day in Agna Qel'a, Hua had left her shorn hair in a pile on the floor, telling her mother she could cling to it and grieve for it, but not for her. Her father began to admonish her until he caught sight of the princess standing nearby. Hua's hand trembled as she pulled Yue away by the arm, her mother screaming behind them at the doorstep. At the port where they had changed ship, Yue had searched for a rose but found none, and instead presented Hua with winter jasmine, a flower with no fragrance that welcomed the coming of spring. Yue told her, "For Hua, it will never be winter again."
Exhausted from the climb, they finally reached the inn at the town proper. The building was taller than the rest, and the three girls shared a top-floor suite while the men took another. Hua threw open the window and a breeze swept in carrying the sweetness of grass. "I can't wait for dinner. I want grilled mushrooms with sesame oil, and egg custard."
Wen replied, "I want to try black rice. They make it into a pudding, too, or you can have it savory."
Both girls looked to her for her preference. Her mind was far from food, and she was interrupted before she could answer and informed the bath was ready. They would each use it in turn so by the end they could eat together in the sunset. Yue lowered herself into the steaming water, which was perfumed with dried flowers that floated limp and soggy, and Yue pushed them to the side discontentedly.
She recalled the day at the spirit oasis as the Kyoshi Warrior's leader, a slim young woman her own age, peered into the pool where Tui and La circled each other as if constrained in an eddy. Her short-bobbed hair had grazed against the fur collar of her coat feather-light, that unusual shade of tea-brown which framed familiar eyes in the warmest blue. She wasn't a waterbender, but there was undeniable admixture from genetic stock from the Southern Tribe. Yue could tell by her posture that she was athletic, but, while she'd seen a demonstration from the Avatar of the three elements he knew, she'd not seen anything from the leader of the famed band of women-warriors. Yue had heard that they fought with golden fans and could equal any male in ability. The girl smiling at the koi had seemed so delicate despite those claims, and, rapt, she forgot about the two gods at her feet.
Seated at table, she ate with only her two companions as the men were taking their meal downstairs at a stone patio. From the window they could hear them getting rowdy, drinking to calm their nerves. The mixed crew from the colonies let them taste the various dishes, most of them heavy, vulgar drinking-foods, fried and stinking of garlic. The three women had been given lotus-root-and-peanut soup with pork-chive baozi. The lotus roots, usually white, had taken up a roasted brown hue from the bone broth, and had been cut cross-section to show the holes from channels that flowed up their stems. A lotus grew in the mud but produced the purest flower, and its stem served as a filter taking within itself only clean water. They had bowls of white rice and herbal tea saturated in floral tones without sweetness. Garlic and capsaicin stung the air wafting from the window.
"Huuuuueeeeee, hot, hot!" roared a man from the crew eating below, who must have been tempted into trying the local cuisine. The others mocked him for not being able to take the spice. Hua went to the window to watch them, carrying a small bowl of baozi with her so she could eat. She picked one up with her chopsticks and stuck it halfway into her mouth, sucking on it childishly to enjoy the flavor longer. Her lips pressed around the soft cream-white dough.
Yue set aside her soup and went to the window next to Hua. In the distance, set apart from the town, was a mansion set with gardens and a bamboo forest, visible even at that distance, its spiky leaves forming an unmistakeable silhouette of green-on-green. That was where Suki had mentioned she was heading after her introduction to the South Pole to train with her boyfriend. Yue watched it slip into the darkness of late evening. At that time a worker knocked at their door to bring them a lantern, and she pulled her gaze away and returned to her meal, which had grown tepid.
The next morning she awoke early, at just the start of sunrise when the sky first began to illuminate the town and the chill of night still lay thick. She slid the paper-paned window open a crack, fearing that a draft would wake her companions, and dressed in the near-darkness, then slipped outside without being noticed. Only a few residents of the town were awake yet, and of those none had left their residence. Farmers might have, by that time, but they lived far from the town borders. Before her was a cold, empty street in clean paving stones. As Yue left the shadow of the inn, she looked back towards where the window of their suite remained the nearest sliver open and felt a lightness in her belly to be outside without notice or escort. Like a child pressing new limits, fearful of disapproval from a watching parent, she entered the street and began walking. Not wanting to deal with the challenge of the steps, she kept straight across that terrace level, which had shops, still closed, and restaurants, likewise. To the other side she looked over the declining slope to the river far below. The ship they had taken was still anchored there, and it would be a few days before it moved on to take the emissaries to the capital.
At the end of the lane a view opened of the distant mansion, dappled in a glow of morning sunlight shifting the prairie to yellow. A single road led to it, long and empty with no shade. From that distance it looked unreachable, like an illustration from a story-book, and the sharp contrast to the environment of Agna Qel'a still halted her breath. She wondered what it would be like to wake up every day surrounded by verdant plantlife, or lie in sun-warmed grass. Yue wanted to stay and watch it a while longer, as if preparing herself for inevitable disappointment by assuring herself such a landscape was only fantastical and utterly intangible, but when the townspeople began their days and footsteps echoed on the stone streets she pulled her gaze away and returned to the inn. "Princess, princess!" shouted one of the escorts, a man from the military her father had assigned her. "It's dangerous to go out by yourself, especially here," he said, refraining to say that it was the people of the Fire Nation and the recency of the war which caused him concern the most. "Anyone could be out there."
She couldn't leave again until midday, when they began their journey to the mansion, and she held the parasol to protect her skin from the equatorial sun as her mother had demanded. Hua and Wen made due with hats, while the men went without, and yet didn't seem troubled nor in pain. Carrying the parasol was tedious, and it rested against her shoulder awkwardly. After an hour's walk they announced themselves at the gate, into which a gilt lotus had been carved, and they were received to tea. While the escort were there they spoke for her of the words her father had told them to say and Yue waited listlessly with the teacup warming her fingertips. After a while the men left to watch a demonstration of Piandao's swordsmanship. Yue set aside the tea and stood, startling Wen and Hua, who followed dutifully as she rushed out of the mansion through a side-door.
Eyeing the wide stone patio where the demonstration was being held, Yue slipped through a garden path that would obscure her. The parasol remained abandoned at the tea-table. They moved towards a wooden annex in a large single-room configuration on a stilted foundation, with one side entirely formed of sliding doors which could be removed completely if desired. They were only slid open at that time, so that every other door-span was open for fresh air. It didn't seem like anyone was there, due to the quiet, but Yue stepped inside anyway, leaving her slip-on shoes discarded at the boundary. She wore high socks, which were covered by the linen skirt reaching to her ankles, and were slippery on the polished wooden floor. Her Northern clothing was stripped to the barest layers of a skirt and a plain long-sleeved blouse, as her people had no tradition for warm-climate outfits.
Inside, a girl in a pine-green skirt was seated in seiza near the tokonoma. Before her were a calligraphy scroll and two sticks of incense lit in a ceramic holder. Twin trails of smoke wafted around her, fragrant with agarwood. She noticed their presence and turned to look. Those appealing blue eyes were shadowed with crimson, and her complexion powdered flawless white. "Oh, Princess Yue!" She stood up smiling. "It's nice to meet you again. I didn't know you were coming."
Yue had not sent notice, fearing that her request would be dismissed more easily with a written word. Suki, of course, recognized her by her snow-white hair, which left a strong impression with everyone. "Am I disturbing you? Were you meditating?"
"I'm so glad to see you, nevermind that. You came all the way to the Fire Nation? Are you with your father?"
"No, my father remained in the North. I've come with an emissary to speak to the Firelord, but wanted to stop here first. It's on the way, after all." Eighteen months had passed, and Yue's chest fluttered to see her just as warm and vibrant as before, but around the young woman's neck was chained an engagement necklace. Yue worried if it meant she would resign soon and retire to hearth and childbed. "You've been married?"
"Only engaged for now. You've met Sokka, Katara's brother? He's my fiancé." She said it like a musical note, but to Yue it sounded like a death sentence. "My condolences again for the loss of your husband."
She hadn't wanted to speak of Hahn, nor engagements, but the question had slipped out stupidly from her own mouth and left her awkward and off-balance. "Thank you," she murmured. She had said the phrase so many times that it felt meaningless. "Actually, I had wanted to…" Her voice hesitated, unable to form a convincing sentence. "Will the Kyoshi Warriors be training today?"
"Yes, we train every day. Would you like to watch? We will be having our evening session in about two hours, though it isn't as intense as our morning workout."
"I would love to watch."
She introduced her two friends. Suki, seeing how short Hua's hair was cut, went and stood next to her, measuring her own against it. "We match." Her personality was so bubbly and welcoming that it was intoxicating.
Hua smiled and replied, "In the North it isn't customary for a woman to ever cut her hair, but I'm glad to see standards are more lenient here." There was more resemblance between the two than only their hairstyle, Yue thought. Hua might have envied Suki for living the lifestyle she had always desired—Hua was naturally athletic, but her talents had been suppressed as unladylike. Among other things, freedom and independence were forbidden to Northern women. Yue vowed to do her best for her friend.
Having a few hours to idle, they were led on a tour of the grounds. The property belonged to Piandao, and the dojo had once been where he instructed his classes until he had moved to a newer facility. The annex was built of bamboo wood, swept and mopped every day by the students, once his and now her class, and was beside a grove of bamboo which shaded the building and kept it cool internally. A stone garden and water feature were in front of it so that the students had the sound of flowing water to meditate by. They had no lack of space and so the campus was winding and leisurely, with expansive gardens well-tended of different varieties. The traditional strolling garden of pine and cypress, with scattered water features and a sand-gravel pathway, flowed into an herb garden that yielded well year-round thanks to the climate. The mansion itself was as exceptional as Agna Qel'a's palace. Instead of ice, its structure was painted in gold and ash-black giwa tile, and the wood finish and red detail were vibrantly warm. Suki led them to a last feature—a brilliant garden of flowers in every color and shape she could have imagined. Yue did not even know their names. As Wen inquired, Suki listed them unerringly. She wondered that the world could really contain so much beauty, and that she'd seen none of it. What value did ice have if it could not bear fertile soil?
They were given a light snack of tri-colored dango, with an edible flower skewered between each, and jasmine-petal sencha. Suki cupped hers absently and gazed at a scroll hanging on the far wall. From the distance its calligraphy was illegible, but she seemed to know what it said. Noticing her gaze, the girl turned back and smiled. "Is it good?" Yue raised a hand in front of her mouth self-consciously, trying to chew the sweet dough-lump more demurely and wishing they came smaller. She felt like a child beside Suki. Her lack of answer hadn't mattered, as, a moment later, Suki rose and flew across the room to greet her fiancé who had come in from the hall, their demonstration finished. He swung her around in an arc while embracing her to his chest, and Yue ripped her gaze away feeling the absence beside her.
"Princess Yue!" he called, and she reluctantly stood to greet him. He resembled Katara superficially, but when she looked too deeply his face doubled with Hahn's and she felt sick. Consciously she knew that comparison was unfair to him, but resentment tinged her response. She made introduction of her two friends to the master, whom she had previously met at her wedding. Sokka had adopted the same dress-style of dark grey hemmed with gold, completely abandoning his Water attire, though he still wore the white puka shell necklace, which bore such similarity to something Hahn used to wear that she grew nervous. His collar didn't completely hide it, and she looked away. He greeted the three of them enthusiastically while holding Suki's hand. She didn't know what to make of the young man, and tried to think of him only as Katara's brother.
In afternoon a dozen women in pine-green costume gathered at the dojo. Their eyes were gold, amber, or chestnut—all but hers. Suki led them through the steps of an elaborate kata, making the complex sequence seem impossibly elegant, though the students could not copy it to the same proficiency. She was still just as fierce and capable as reputed, and her engagement hadn't yet smothered her. The girls had been gathered from across the Fire Nation to train as a new sect of the Kyoshi Warriors. Hua, sitting beside her, was restless as if she wanted to join on the instant. Wen watched them passively, still holding reservations about the former enemy nation.
The afternoon light set golden across Suki's hair and dress.
When the class concluded, Yue remained behind, sending her friends to wait outside, and she approached Suki alone. In the flesh it would be harder to turn her away, though still probable. She sifted through her thoughts for how to begin, finding nothing suitable, then pressed her hands to her chest and bowed. Suki took a step back, not knowing how to respond to a princess lowering herself before her. She was flustered when Yue straightened to speak. "You've done well in establishing a sect for the Kyoshi Warriors in the Fire Nation. Already their prowess is respectable, and your education is apparent in their grace. I came to request the same for the Northern Water Tribe." Yue's voice faltered, and, in that moment of silence, Suki did not reply, prompting her to rush, "I know it's a difficult request to meet—the women of the Northern Tribe are not supposed to learn even waterbending, much less hand-to-hand combat—but please consider us. There are many who, now that communication and travel have once again opened internationally, have heard of the exploits of the Kyoshi Warriors and your fame. You've stirred the hearts of every young woman in the North. We've felt the weight of oppression for so long and we had no name for it until now. If we are forbidden to learn waterbending, then please let us learn from your school. With the opening of international travel, we in the North will need a peacekeeping organization for our territory, and there is no finer example than the Kyoshi Warriors."
As Yue concluded the speech, she raised her eyes from the girl's chestplate to her face—she was suppressing a laugh! Yue blushed and turned away, wondering where she'd went wrong. "Wait," she said, trying not to giggle. "I just didn't expect such formality. Princess Yue, I'd be happy to work with you to establish a sect for Agna Qel'a. In fact, I've wanted to but thought it forbidden, so I never had a chance to suggest it."
"Really?" Yue smiled, then stepped forward to take her hand in hers. "I look forward to this opportunity. Thank you so much for granting my request."
"As I understand it, much as Zuko is now Firelord, you are the next in line for rule of the North, now that your husband has passed in battle. Or were you intending to remarry?"
"No, no, I don't think I shall remarry." She bit her lip, remembering the taste of the blood that had been there when Hahn had been too rough, lifting her and throwing her around in the darkness, and the headboard of their bed had impacted her teeth and lips from the strange and sudden position he had forced her into. It had taken her two minutes to gain his attention that she wanted him to stop, and by then he said he was so close that he may as well finish, to which she hadn't had any answer. She braced herself through the unpleasant ending of his violent motions as the blood dripped down her chin. The rouge which covered her lips each day stung the split until the day it healed, but at least no one had seen, and Hahn certainly had not noticed.
Suki's lips were heavily rouged, and she wondered what marks were hidden under her makeup.
"I can't leave for Agna Qel'a right now. I'm not sure when we'll be established enough here for me to take leave," she said, and Yue wondered how long it might take for her to fall pregnant and lose that dream forever, and grew anxious thinking of the years passing, each drawing closer to the inevitable. "I'll do what I can, though. I need some time to discuss it." With her fiancé, she means. He'll have the final say, and it will be, 'No.' "Did you need an escort while here, by the way?"
"No, that's alright. I have my friends and the guards my father provided."
"I see."
She must have been thinking that in that case, they didn't need the Kyoshi Warriors at all, and Yue wondered how long it would take for her to be abandoned.
Just as quickly as she had been exhilarated with an acceptance of the request, she fell again to suspicion that it would never been seen through, and that mood held through dinner and late evening. They three stayed in the mansion, which had ample rooms at hand for guests, and Yue had been given a private suite, separated from Wen and Hua. The men returned to the town as they were in the best of care under watch of the Kyoshi Warriors and Piandao's students, and they were preparing for their departure to Caldera City, which Yue and her friends would not attend. She tossed around in the third bed in as many days, not able to get comfortable, and finally rose sleepless and agitated sometime in the night. Dressing and stepping outside, she reasoned that the mansion was a far distance from the town and any danger, isolated as it was a mile from the town's border.
She was surprised by how dark it was at night. In the north, the moon always reflected on the snow and lit the landscape brightly, always but on new moons, but the grass swallowed the moonlight, giving nothing back. Despite that it was a good moon, just a few days past full, and her eyes did eventually adjust. In a full moon at Agna Qel'a it could look indistinguishable from daylight. She pulled a strand of her hair aside to toy with, thinking of the deity—it seemed like the moon was more distant in that land. Yue passed by the garden. The colors were dull, but the fragrance remained stronger than ever. She wandered and found herself at the edge of the property, to where a river carved a steep drop through the ground and cascaded into a waterfall. There in the trail of the water she found the moonlight.
Standing to watch the water glisten in silver light, she was comfortable and at peace, and even the night did not carry any unpleasant chill. Water overtook the space with crashing sound and melodic current tumbling over round stones. The grass grew to the edge of the river, but no further, and looked dark and blurred in the night. The background was a thick wash of indecipherable landscapes.
Motion stirred behind her. Yue turned to look. A man stood in close proximity to her so that she stepped back from him. His face was covered in black fabric but for his eyes. In his hand was a knife.
He lunged at her, swiping with the blade, and she put her arms up defensively. Pain blazed across her forearms. Her heart beat so heavily that it hurt, and she watched as he readied himself to bring the knife down upon her again. Glinting, it cut through the air. Yue threw herself away from it, her mind filled only with the overwhelming pain of her injury and the imminent fear of more. The ground dropped from under her.
She fell through the air, with a bright moon above and the roar of the whitewater at the base of the cascade below and approaching. Everything around her was sound and whiteness.
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Suki woke, uncertain why, and lied motionless in bed. Sokka was beside her, warm and heavy, but still. Wind sifted through treebranches to susserate the leaves. Momentarily the same breeze swept into their bedroom, gently rustling the edges of the sheet and their hair until the sound came to rest. She felt the softness of the pillow under her and the texture of the linen sheet across her chest. In the distant background, as far as she could listen, came a partially-stifled scream followed by a sharp thud. She shot up, then clambered to the window, accidentally kicking Sokka. He jumped and pushed her leg from his face. "Suki, what are you doing?"
"Get up. Something is happening."
She ran down the corridor as he stumbled behind her, half-dressed and clutching his sword. In over a year of living there she knew every room and corner so the darkness was no obstacle, though the same ability did not grace her fiancé. She tore into the garden and raced through, not certain what she would find. Nearby, in a clearing beside a branch trail surrounded by bamboo, a girl was lying motionless. Suki knelt beside her and caught the scent of blood. Sokka bounded the corner and saw them, then took a stance and examined their surroundings. Seeing no one, he knelt at the dirt to look at footprints, but the gravel mixture did not yield anything useful.
"She's out cold," she whispered. "This is the companion of the princess, Wen. Someone must have hit her."
"Where are Yue and the other girl?"
"Stay here, I'll go check." She doubled back and entered the mansion again. Piandao had woken as well, probably having heard them running through the corridor. "The companion of the princess has been attacked; she's in the bamboo grove with Sokka."
They went upstairs and threw open the door to the room Yue had been assigned but found it empty. At that time the other door opened, and Hua, the girl with short-cut hair, peeked into the hallway, sleepy and confused. "What's going on?"
"Where is the princess?"
"I don't know, I was asleep until just now. I thought you were Wen coming back. Is Yue not there?"
"Stay here." She and Piandao jogged back to the grove, where Sokka was helping the young woman sit up. Her nose was broken and blood ran down her chin, pooling onto her blouse dark and shining. "Who attacked you?"
Her voice was distorted as she held her face. "A man. I was following Yue. She went that way," she said, and gestured urgently.
They left Piandao with her and went in that direction, tense and watching the dark background around them. Suki searched desperately with her chest burning for breath. Several minutes yielded nothing. Finally, desperate, she began screaming her name, "Yue! Yue!" No answer came. If the man had still been around, he would have left upon hearing that, and so would fade their chance of finding him.
They split up and crossed the grass in the open area of the hillside. A river ran through it, and she thought it improbable that the princess had crossed it. She began moving upriver while Sokka combed the other direction, towards the cliff. All she found was plain bare grass and the churning river.
"Suki!"
She turned and ran back to him. He pointed towards the ground—in a patch of moonlight, blood gleamed dark crimson. "The cliffside is damaged here, like part of it recently collapsed," he said. "The ground is scuffed. Someone was here not too long ago."
If anyone had gone over that cliff, they'd be dead. They knelt beside the edge and looked down. It was a long drop, perpendicular, and fell, though a few yards off, into the pool created from the waterfall crashing down and carving out a hollow. She looked back up, scanning the line of grass, but there was nothing for anyone to hide behind even lying down.
"Sokka, I'm going down to check the river."
"Wait, I should come with you. We don't know where that man went."
She wanted to argue but didn't have time. There was a route down, but it wasn't direct, and they had to leap the river back where she'd been investigating and follow the other hill down a tricky rockfield. Even in daylight it was difficult to navigate without twisting one's ankle. At the bottom they were level with the white-water, pluming in a violent mist that turned the area dripping humid. The two leapt the bottom channel and looked at the sheer cliff-face. The ground was wet, like the river had been in flux and swept across it.
They knelt at the pool, found it empty, and traced the river down. She didn't even know if one could hit that river if falling from that height, as it wasn't tight against the cliff, and thought it too shallow to survive in either case. "Should we go back up?"
"No," replied Sokka. "Something fell over that cliff. The grassroots were recently torn apart and it was dusty from the crumbled dirt. Let's go a little further. The others are awake by now and will be searching the grounds up there."
"But, even if she did…" Fall. "Sokka."
"Don't decide anything until we find her."
It had been just a few hours ago that they'd spoken, that she'd made such a heartfelt request. Suki saw what it had cost her to speak, and that she'd had a lot of reservations and inner doubts. And that same girl, so delicate and unguarded, might be… A pile of white lay ahead. Sokka had seen and leapt the river. Suki stumbled, splashing through the water, and knelt on the ground beside her. Yue, in a white skirt, white blouse, and flower-white hair swept into soft curves, was soaked wet and crossed in blood.
"She's alive." It was like she had been submerged in the water, as her clothing was drenched and hair dripping wet, but it wasn't apparent how that could be so, as the river was too shallow to have floated her down and she was safely upland from risk of drowning. It was like the heavens had cradled her in their arms and placed her there in safety.
No one ever found the man, but they two brought Suki back up the slope and into the mansion. Sokka had repeated, "She's so light," as he carried her. With her thin clothing sopping wet and clinging to her body, it was apparent how slender she was, still girlish despite being about twenty or twenty-two. She resembled a pile of ocean foam, ready to melt away upon exposure to air or sunlight. "Katara can be here by tomorrow night. I'm sending a hawk to Caldera City."
The wooden chair was hard and uncomfortable beneath her when Suki regained consciousness. She had waited beside her all night into late morning, unsure when she'd fallen asleep. Sokka leaned against the wall nearby with his sword at his hip, lost in thought. After all his training he must have been conflicted that he hadn't been able to do anything to protect her.
Yue stirred. She was the first thing she turned her gaze to. "Suki? Did I die?"
"No. You haven't died, Yue. You'll be fine now. You're injured, though, so don't move."
She jolted upright, winced, and began shaking, clutching her arms to her chest. Suki went to her and put a hand on her back. "Don't tell my father," she pleaded, shuddering. "Please don't tell my father what happened."
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Hua: 花 – flower. Wen: 文 – literary.
Title and chapter names are TS Eliot.
"Erhebung": Elevation/exaltation (German). (Eliot's note.)
Erhebung is an important term in German philosophy. Kant, for instance, speaks of the beautiful as the "symbol of the morally good", and discusses how the harmonizing of voices which takes place in aesthetic perception, as opposed to the dissonance of contradiction, brings about an ennobling elevation (Erhebung) beyond the senses in the direction of the intelligible. This ennobling elevation places the aesthetic in a mediating role, defining it as that which points beyond itself toward the supersensible domain of the ethical. Kant wishes to grant to the aesthetic both a final and a mediating function, where horizontal and vertical planes join each other.