CHAPTER 18: Manipulating energy

"Like yin and yang, our souls carry the eternal opposition."


Later that day as the sun began its descent, leaving a trail of vibrant colors with each passing moment, the group of friends were gathered again around the fire.

Aang and Zuko had spent the day calculating how many supplies the Fire Nation were to send off when Zuko made it home.

After having slept a little, Toph had begun recovering walls, stone pathways, pillars and statues with the help of Sokka's brilliant eye for details.

And Nii had also slept and recovered a little from her night working with Aang.

Meanwhile, Katara had washed off so many scorch marks and ashes from walls, railings and pillars that she had stopped counting around midday.

It had been a very rough day for her.

On the one hand, she had been filled with sorrow. Sorrow of all the peaceful lives lost here. On one wall, she had seen scorch marks etched upon the wall that formed an eerie silhouette, unmistakably resembling the outline of a human figure.

Each curve and angle had seemed to tell a haunting tale of sudden, intense heat meeting a resistant surface, while jagged lines extended from the edges of the silhouette were evidence of the chaotic dance of the flames that had licked against the wall.

Despite the charred remnants, the shape remained hauntingly human, with discernible imprints where arms might have been outstretched and a head might have bowed in agony. It had made her cry. She had thought a lot about her mother all day.

On the other hand, she had also felt at peace knowing that she was washing off remnants of a previous time of imbalance, turmoil and hatred. For every wave of her hand, the water led them towards a time of healing, peace and love, one wave at a time.

She had also thought a lot about Zuko.

She knew deep in her heart how proud her mother would be if she could see her with him. They had both lost their mothers to the fire, in one way or another, and they had transcended the hatred and ventured together into a realm of acceptance and forgiveness.

Katara could not help but to marvel at the man he had become. Like the scar on his face, he was a testament of unwavering determination, grace and inner strength.

They were opposites in so many ways.

Fire and water. Hot and cold. Masculine and feminine. Yin and yang.

But if there was anything that she had come to learn the past couple of years, it was that it is exactly in the harmony of opposites that balance is found, where neither side dominates but instead flows in harmony with the other. It is through the acceptance and integration of these opposites that true balance is achieved in the world.

And that is what their love was.

A symbol of the new world.

Katara closed her eyes and smiled deeply as she felt Zuko's hand cup her face, while he placed a sweet kiss on the crown of her head, causing her heart to flutter with warmth.

As he sat down next to her at the fire and put his arm around her, she felt cherished and protected, as if nothing in the world could harm her.

"I missed you," he whispered into her ear in his raspy voice, only for her to hear.

She smiled and nestled herself closer to him, allowing her head to tilt gently as she found the perfect resting place against the curve of his neck.

"I missed you," she breathed in a whisper, while their hands found each other, their fingers soon entwined, as if they fit together like pieces of a puzzle, perfectly aligned as if they were always meant to be.

The sensation of his skin against hers sent a subtle shiver of warmth through her body, igniting a spark of affection in her heart.

"By the way," she continued, turning her head a little so she was sure he was the only one who listened. "I prepared a room for us up in the dormitories."

She felt him squeezing her hand gently in his, causing a small sigh to escape her lips.

"I can't wait to be alone with you again," he whispered into her ear, causing another wave of shivers to run through her body, while a slight blush colored her cheeks.

She quickly looked around at the others to see if anybody had noticed.

She noticed a subtle smirk on Toph's lips.

Katara hoped she had not heard anything.

As the sun moved further down over the sky, a symphony of warm oranges and fiery reds painted the horizon, casting a soft glow over the landscape around them. Wisps of clouds, tinged with shades of pink and gold, drifted lazily across the sky, while the fading light gently kissed the earth, bathing everything in a soft, golden hue.

With each passing moment, the world seemed to exhale slowly, surrendering to the tranquil embrace of the twilight that was coming closer.

As Sokka made a joke about a cabbage merchant wanting to 'turnip' profits, some chuckled while Katara rolled her eyes.

She noticed that Nii was not laughing.

Nii just smiled while petting Momo whose small, furry form lay in her lap molded perfectly to the contours of her legs, his tiny paws tucked snugly beneath him. As Nii ran her fingers through his fur, his tail swayed lazily in response.

Katara opened her mouth to ask her if she was okay, but Toph beat her to the punch.

"So, Nii…" Toph started, causing everyone to look at her. "Ready to tell us what happened last night?"

A moment of silence went by as all eyes were on Nii.

She did not seem hazed by it, she just continued to pet Momo, who looked completely splattered in her lap, his tongue hanging lazily out of the corner of his mouth.

"Aang already told you guys what happened," she smiled.

Katara noticed Aang fidgeting a little in his seat next to her.

"Yeah," Toph said in a breath. "But I'm curious. I heard you singing, dancing, fiddling around. What do you actually do?"

Aang furrowed his brows at Toph.

"Toph that's not…" he started, but Nii soon stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

Nii smiled at him as if telling him that it was okay.

Aang looked down on his hands that were folded in his lap.

Was he nervous?

"It's hard to explain," Nii started with her eyes closed, before opening them only to look back down at Momo as if avoiding eye contact with the group as she spoke.

"But I use a series of different methods to manipulate the energy within someone. I sense into their energy centers in the body, their chakras, and I use movement, chanting, singing, spirit language, touch and so on to create flow wherever something is stuck. Sometimes I go to the Spirit World with them, as was the case with Aang."

Toph did not answer and she sat completely still as if she did not know what to say.

"So, you're energy bending?" Sokka asked.

Nii finally looked up at Sokka with furrowed brows.

She shook her head at him.

"No," she said warily. "I'm not bending anything. I'm just physically manipulating the energy, or… the chi in his body."

"Oh," Toph sounded out in a sarcastic tone, as she waved her hand in a small movement, earning a rock to rise from the ground. "You mean like I'm just physically manipulating this rock?!"

She threw it a couple of meters away, earning a grunt from Appa behind them.

Nii looked confused.

"No, it's not bending. It's different… I mean, anybody could…"

"It sounds a lot like bending to me," Zuko suddenly rasped next to Katara's ear, startling her a little with the bass in his voice vibrating over her skin.

Nii shot Zuko a couple of angry eyes before she sighed out heavily, earning for Momo to awaken from his slumber and chirp out, as she started moving in her seat.

"Knock it off, guys," Katara said with concerned eyes on Nii. "If she says she's not bending, that's how it is."

Katara then looked at Aang and wondered what was on his mind, but she was distracted from that thought when Nii soon rose to her feet on the other side of the fire.

"Thank you, Katara," she said. "Anyways, I wanna clean myself up a little. Could you point me in the direction of a pond that we're not drinking from?"

And while Katara noticed Zuko and Aang looking at each other with eyes that seemed to communicate something that she did not understand, Zuko soon said with a smile on his lips:

"Yeah, I'm sure Aang would be happy to take you there."