Yewniverse #4: Epitaph for Fire and Flower

Chapter 1 – Now in the Crux of their Vows Hang your Ear

a/n: Epitaph for Fire and Flower, Sylvia Plath

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Aang turned his attention to the beads of jade around the Earth King's neck, each perfectly shined and flawless, and shut his ears as Long Feng was dragged from the room shouting his objection all the while. Jet, by his side, had been stiff and tense as if he hadn't expected it to go well, but Kuei was true to his word in his commitment to peace. He'd already harbored distrust at the Dai Li for keeping the war a secret from him and letters from Piandao, Jeong Jeong, Captain Touwa, Zuko, Katara, and Suki along with testimony from Jet and himself had been foundational to an overwhelming verdict against the group.

Kuei, in distress, went to his pet bear for solace and ran his fingers through the short brown fur of the large animal, who might have looked ferocious but was impossibly docile. "This is a terrible turn of events. The Dai Li have always protected the Earth King for generations, but now I see they've grown corrupted. Jet, would you be willing to take over as head for a new chapter and oversee recruitment?"

"If I may, Earth King," said Jet in a surprisingly polite and formal tone, "it might be time for a greater structural change. The Dai Li have always functioned as a secret police force, and that will remain how the citizens view them and how they view themselves even were we to recruit entirely new members. Perhaps it would be better to abolish the department altogether."

"Who will protect me?"

"We can borrow a form from another country. In the Fire Nation, the Firelord has a small, loyal guard, who themselves are separate from but also head of a domestic force at the capital city. That format would benefit you as well as signal to both the citizens and the other nations that an injustice has been corrected, that a reign of terror is over."

Aang added, "As long as you are on the side of peace, you will have me as a friend as well, King Kuei."

The king had wanted to emphasize that it was a happy occasion, not a sad one, and had commissioned a feast to celebrate a new chapter of the nation. Many of the nobility who attended seemed uncomfortable, and Aang thought they might have had friendly relations with the Dai Li and were not pleased to see their arrangements abolished overnight, but that would be for Jet to deal with. He was seated at the right hand of the king quietly eating his own meal, prematurely formidable in appearance due to the extensive scarring from his duel with Azula, which made him look decades older than he truly was. After all, it was hard to tell, but he was the same age as Sokka, who was lighthearted and often immature and playful, still boyish in many ways. Jet's lot in life hadn't been so blessed, and his experiences had taken their toll. By contrast, Aang still felt himself a child. Jet's romantic attempt had been refuted, but Aang had not even started to gain experience in that field.

Toph, seated with him on Appa flying overhead of the ship as escort, had shifted miserably. She disliked ships, but equally disliked air travel, as in neither instance could she see very well. While she might have been a genius at earthbending, he was humbled by the extent of her limitations otherwise, which she did anything to convince him didn't exist, or didn't matter to her, but he was beginning to see through her tough outer persona. She'd been happy to leave the rebuilt Gao Ling as quickly as possible, and he didn't have the heart to ask why, though he could guess. The ornate dress her mother forced on her like a yoke out of place while the town's site was still a wasteland of rubble and dust stole her smile. By the time he received the letter from Sokka, she was ready to swim across the ocean if it meant a break from the heaps of anxiety placed upon her shoulders, the nitpicking, the infantilization, and the impress of her family name serving as a gag to her true feelings.

"Do you hate them?" he'd asked her.

"I love my parents, Aang—I really do. I just don't like them."

It had been a difficult concept for him to grasp, as he had no precedent. It seemed a terribly complicated burden to live with.

Jet and even Kuei had their own situations. Kuei was older than both of them, but, for a king, was young; his parents had been sickly, and not even the best healthcare could spare them. If his disposition was predominantly that of anxiety, it was no wonder. Unfortunately, as the king of a nation, his difficulties translated to a greater national tragedy upon the escalation of the transgressions of the Dai Li, and Yue had almost paid the ultimate price for it. While other citizens were free to have personal weaknesses, a king could not harbor such a sin, as weaknesses in his character would inevitably be magnified until dragging the entire nation to calamity. Sozin's ambition would not have extended past the limits of his own life's sphere had it not been for his birthright of ruling power. Roku had understood that.

Upon arriving in Ba Sing Se, Toph had left him, saying she despised the city and wouldn't be joining them, and had declined a ride to anywhere else. He tried not to fret as her parents did, but it was difficult to place the same confidence in her abilities as she herself did. In appearance, she was small, blind, and alone, despite her skill in bending, and he tried taking his mind off thinking of where she was and if she was okay.

Kuei asked him, "Will you stay here while I enact the new changes, Avatar Aang? We could use your wisdom."

He wasn't sure he had any to give. "I'll stay for a while, but I won't be able to stay quite that long. I place my confidence in Jet to assist you."

"I do as well. He's been a great asset to me."

The blue ribbon was still tied around his wrist. Jet did not smile at this praise. He ate like it was an obligation and declined further remark, though Kuei did not seem to mind.

He lingered for a week but was reminded of the comments of both the monks and Toph that the city was inherently polluting to the soul, though each arrived at that conclusion for different reasons. He thought Toph had more in common with the monks than she would admit as the primary thing she was in want of was freedom, which was the foundation of their ideology. Earth suited her well, but he wondered if she wouldn't have made a fine airbender.

With Appa below him and Momo on his shoulder he soared above the green forests. The air was clean and brisk, and his mood lightened. When he landed for the night, he thought the saddle seemed far too large for one person's use. At night under the free stars he could think clearly again, like the stifling overtone of the city had faded from shadowing over him. The city might be worse than it had been in other times. They had taken on the burden of hosting so many refugees as the Earth Kingdom was eroded to the war, village after village put to torch. Jet as well had been one of those refugees, before his actions in the red forest; he'd been a child once, standing witness as his parents burned in the pyre of his hometown. The new scars were only an outward manifestation of what had always marked him. The Lower Ring's influx of sudden population from displaced people had formed miserable circumstances and bitter poverty, overcrowded with neither enough jobs nor food to provide for them. In another time, maybe the city didn't have to be that way. Maybe it could be serene and kind again.

Above were the navigation stars, but he didn't care where he was going.

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"No way," he uttered, but he'd already witnessed that scene many times before and should have known how to handle the disappointment by then. Aang slowed the approach with a bitter sense of resentment clouding his emotions. He'd sought comfort but found a new tragedy. The Northern Air Temple was a smear of collapse across the mountain, blackened and desolate. His eyes watered, and he wiped them on his sleeve trying to suppress it. Another remnant was gone.

Below him, Appa slowed to hover in place, not moving forward as he felt the rein slacken and drop. He would be just as confused as Aang to see it. Momo trilled, then rubbed against him.

"Wait, Zuko said this temple was intact when he came. That was only a few years ago." Something wasn't right, and Aang took the reins and continued forward. He wasn't even sure where to land, as there was no solid ground on the summit left, but he took Appa to circle tightly around the premises as close as he felt comfortable. "This was recent." It was like the temple had been blasted apart in a singular, catastrophic explosion. The damage had been centralized and shrapnel expanded evenly from its radius, and it was clear the marks of the Fire Nation were not present as he found neither discarded weapons nor shattered armor, and the burn marks were not human-generated in small bursts targeting an enemy but were uniform and even in a way firebenders could not have created.

There was no safe landing room, so he set down in the valley under treecover. He still had a large reserve of food provisions from Ba Sing Se and was not in danger of going hungry, but he didn't feel like eating that night. Something awful had occurred there, and it was likely that not even the Earth Kingdom knew about it as someone would have informed him if they had, whether the military or an advisor of Kuei. The location was remote and far from the hinterland of the city, sequestered into the mountains which did not yield resources or agriculture for them to concern themselves much with the region.

He'd found himself drawn like being guided by the North Star to the temple, and had decided it would be perfect salve for his mood to take a retreat there and meditate on what to do next, but his hopes were refuted. He sat below a pine tree. As its fragrance filled his lungs, its needles pierced the fabric of his clothing.

"Lonely. That's what my problem is. I thought Toph would stay with me, but she left without warning. Zuko has someone, Sokka has someone, but I don't." Momo found nothing of interest to forage and glided over to his shoulder. "I don't even have a home anymore. Maybe I'm still not over the loss of the monks, of the air nomads. Gao Ling can be rebuilt, but the air nomads cannot. There was never time to grieve for them."

He found sleep easy, as his dreams were too alluring; there the monks still lived and the temples were still vivid. Waking was the problem.

There was nothing to salvage from the rubble, and he turned to put the black mark of the destroyed temple behind him and headed to a forested coast on the north side of the bay from the Serpant's Pass. The water was dangerous, and ships traveled tight to shore, but they had enough traffic to form an economy. A port town spread between the forest and coast, which was rocky and steep but gave a firm foundation for the docks, which were connected by staircases carved into the bluff. The bay was sheltered but had connections to the great city and to the northern and western oceans. It was less trafficked than the southern waters but was still populated enough to have good market. Aang landed Appa at the outskirts and told him to wait there, as the streets were too narrow for him, and took his glider and Momo the last stretch. Sailing with the paper orange wings outstretched, he felt that lightness in his stomach of a thrill. He knew all four elements, but air would always be special to him and would always make him feel like himself.

He gave the town a pass-over, scouting for what he sought. There was a temple, though it was small and made of wood rather than stone, as were all the structures there. At the docks pine logs were being loaded for transit and crates of vegetables and displays of fish were sheltered from the grey-dappled sky with canvas awnings. If there is a temple, they'll surely have incense. I can take it to the Northern Temple, though it's all I can do for them now. He landed in the market street and folded his glider.

He made his purchase quickly and pocketed the pine-and-sandalwood coils while the merchant gawked at the lemur, then took to glider again. He judged the sky. A few plaps of heavy rain landed on his shaved head. Rethinking, he landed uptown and sought a teahouse to wait the rain out. He ordered and sat down at the patio. Summer waned to autumn-like temperatures as the rain pelted the streets. Waiting for the oolong to brew, he turned his gaze to the streets absently and caught a glimmer of the bay between the rooftops. A young man in a hand-propelled wheeled vehicle laboriously climbed the last slope of the street, then paused at the top and panted for breath. His legs were elevated and wrapped, like he couldn't use them, and he wore Earth Kingdom clothing with simple designs but kept clean and in good repair. In the downpour his brown hair was dark and flattened on his head, and he looked around desperately like he was trying to find someone.

Momo reached his paw towards a plate of dumplings and Aang turned to shoo him away. In revenge, the lemur turned sharply and flicked his long tail out, which caught his glider resting against the railing and clattered it to the floor. The mechanism was triggered and the orange wings sprung out. Aang stood to fix it and picked it off the floor. The wings folded back into the chassis, then he looked up as someone called, "Wait!"

Aang lowered the glider and set it back down against the bannister, then met eyes with the young man who was rolling himself towards him. However, his expression fell when he saw his face clearly, and he paused his hands at the last roll, letting the vehicle coast to rest.

"Did you want to speak to me?" asked Aang.

"I thought you were someone else. Nevermind." He began to roll away, then brushed a hand over a bag on his lap to make sure the flap was closed against the rain.

It wasn't a situation that often happened. In fact, Aang had never been mistaken for being someone else even once since awakening from the ice, and he was curious. "Wait, come have some tea with me. I'll treat you." The young man paused and looked to him curiously. "Come inside out of the rain."

He did, though it was cumbersome to weave through the tightly packed seating for him, and Aang hesitated to offer assistance until he asked for it, thinking of Toph's reactions. He was dripping wet as he pulled up to his table, caught in the cloudburst, and looked tired from exertion, as he'd rolled himself uphill at a quick pace to chase after him. He began to apologize, "I didn't mean to bother you, it's just that I saw your device, and some friends I once knew had something similar."

"Really? I'm surprised to hear that. This is an artifact that's a century old." The young man and the lemur greeted each other, equally curious at the other. "Let me dry you off, at least. Hold still." He waterbent his hair and clothing dry, and let the sum splash outside the railing in the street. "Sorry you didn't find who you were looking for."

"You're the Avatar?" He was examining the arrow on his forehead.

"Yep. That's me." He asked the waitress for an extra teacup to be brought. "Help yourself to some dumplings before Momo makes off with them all." He was hesitant at first, but then took one and began eating. "What exactly did your friends have which looked like my glider?"

"Well, exactly that, gliders. If you start from a great height and take off at a place with strong updrafts and currents, even someone who isn't an airbender can use them." He rapped a hand against his mobility device, which was wooden and smoothly polished. "Even I used to have one that attached to this."

"That's amazing."

"We lost our home and became scattered. It's been a few years since we parted."

"In the war?"

"No, it was a natural disaster. My father lost his life in it as well, and we lost everything we owned."

"Sorry to hear that. Was it an earthquake?"

"A natural gas explosion. Our home had been built over a deposit of it. My father was working to install safety equipment, but must have cast a spark as he was doing so. Everything ignited. I thought the entire mountain would be destroyed."

"I just passed a place that looked like it had been blown apart in an explosion—the Northern Air Temple."

"That's it. We had been living there since losing our home village. My father said Ba Sing Se was too crowded and I wouldn't be able to have a good life there." It explained the puzzling discovery. Aang had already known the air nomads had been destroyed, but he was sorry to hear others had also lost their lives there.

"What's your name?"

"Teo."

Aang poured them both tea. The table wasn't quite at a good height for him, as his wheelchair sat too low and the cafe seating ran tall. They ate while listening to the rain on the cobblestone. "Do you live in this town?"

"No. I was trying to sell some schematics my father had drafted. It's all I have left of his work, but no one would buy them without a prototype. We lost all the prototypes in the disaster. I've tried everywhere else, and this is the last place I could think of, but it's no good."

"Do you need money?"

"Yes. I'm trying to find someone, but I can't do it on my own. Three years ago I visited a medical school with a good reputation, known for using a variety of techniques, hoping they could help my condition. They couldn't, but the daughter said she heard of a library containing all the knowledge of the universe and that a cure might be found there. She went to search for it but hasn't returned. It's in the middle of the desert, and I can't use my wheelchair in the sand, so I would need to hire people to help me, but I can't work and my father didn't leave any money behind. If something happened to her, it's my fault for giving her the idea. I wanted to help her, but like this I can't do anything."

Aang had traveled the world, first with the monks and then with his friends, but had never heard of such a place. "So, tell me about this library."

Framed with the steady rain he began the story. "About a decade ago, a certain university professor came across a reference to a great, benevolent spirit…"