AUTHOR'S NOTES: Apologies for the delay; I was sick as a dog yesterday and couldn't do much of anything. That said, this chapter is sort of metaphorical with its title, while also literal in another way. This chapter sets up for major plot points later on, and so here goes.
Happy Reading!
BOOK THREE: WATER
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED NINE: THE SOUTHERN LIGHTS
=Southern Air Nomad Realm, around the earliest legs of Korra's expedition...=
The flight to the Southern Air Temple was long and arduous for Tenzin, dealing with his restless family as well as the antics of his older and less responsible siblings. The latter two played cards and threw dice primarily, although when Bumi pulled out a bottle of spiced rum that he had swapped from the Glacier Spirits festival before their departure, Kya's face lit up and Tenzin knew there would be trouble.
Fortunately for him, Kya and Bumi were both, at worst, merely giggly drunks, but Ikki and Meelo wasted no time going right along with it and laughed with (or at) them and at the stupidest things. It was no surprise that Pema, Jinora, and Tenzin were all relieved when they finally landed.
"There it is," Tenzin sighed in relief as the magnificently restored temple came into view, "The Southern Air Temple. Isn't it magnificent?"
"I've always wanted to come here," Jinora leaned forward and gazed at the beautiful white structure growing larger in front of them. When they landed, a slew of Air Acolytes were there to meet them, practically kowtowing at their feet. Kya and Bumi were unimpressed.
"Master Tenzin," the abbot greeted him, "welcome, welcome!"
"Good to see you again, Abbot Shung." Tenzin greeted the man.
"Is there anything you need, Master Tenzin?" He asked, "Water; dandelion greens; perhaps you would like to re-center yourself by meditating in the gardens?"
"No thank you, I'm fine," Tenzin waved him off.
"Please accept this at least," Abbot Shung asserted, "this is an ancient airbender head shaver we've refurbished just for you…" he had hardly given Tenzin the weird dome-shaped object with metal blades that looked like they would easily shave one's head, when he turned to Tenzin's wife and children.
"And you must be the honourable Pema," he exclaimed, "Pema, these flowers once filled the mountainside. Now they can brighten up your room."
The man brandished an enormous bouquet of red, pink, orange, and yellow flowers—fitting colours for the Air Nomads of old and the modern-day Air Acolytes.
"That's… sweet?" Pema felt somewhat awkward but she didn't say no, "y-you didn't have to…"
"Nonsense!" the Abbott was a little too enthusiastic, "whatever you need is yours! Anything for the mother of the next generation of airbenders!"
"A bit too giddy at the prospect, isn't he?" Kya muttered dryly, to which Bumi nodded.
Ikki and Jinora interrupted the otherwise fairly quiet scene after the former tried to snatch a newly gifted book from the latter.
"That gift is mine!" Ikki demanded, but Jinora persisted.
"You don't even like to read!" she argued.
"Nyeh!" Ikki stuck out her tongue defiantly.
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" Meelo chanted, before a lemur hopped onto his shoulder.
"Mommy, daddy!" he seized the lemur and held it in front of himself proudly, not unlike the way a child might carry a housecat, "look! I finally got a lemur! He just hopped right onto my shoulder and so I'm gonna name him Poki!"
"Yup," Pema sighed, "those are the next generation of airbenders…"
"Come back, Poki!" Meelo gasped as the lemur freed itself and took flight. Meelo procured an air scooter and whizzed away in hot pursuit.
In all the excitement, Tenzin's siblings had been left trying to unload the luggage all by themselves, which proved to be a more difficult feat than either of them liked to admit.
"Ey," Bumi called out to one of the acolytes that hardly paid them any attention, "Excuse me? A little help here?"
He managed to catch a pair of large bags that Kya tossed down, but he teetered for a moment until the acolyte approached them.
"I'm sorry," she apologized with a bow, "I thought you two were the servants."
"We're Tenzin's brother and sister," Bumi replied with his lip sticking out enough that Korra would have been proud had she seen it.
"Avatar Aang had other children!?" The air acolyte's eyes lit up, "the world is filled with more airbenders? This is amazing! We ought—"
"We're not airbenders." Kya cut her off, and she might as well have just announced the death of the acolyte's family with how swiftly her excitement melted.
"Oh," she stammed, "I'm so… so sorry."
Kya and Bumi's irritated attitudes persisted into the afternoon, although both of them quietly agreed not to take it out on Tenzin just yet.
"Come on," Bumi reasoned, "this could be our only time to see 'Vacation Tenzin'."
"Mom would have wanted us to get along," Kya admitted, "although that doesn't mean we have to kowtow to Tenzin's fanclub."
While the two siblings decided to go back to gaming in a manner not unlike how they had done on the flight here, Jinora got directions to the Hall of Avatars. With all the excited talk Korra had mentioned of this place in the Western Air Temple, she wondered if the one in the Southern Air Temple was as grand as the young Avatar's descriptions.
It was shaped differently due to the structural difference between the Southern and Western Air Temples, but these statues had the same near-supernatural qualities of their western counterparts, and they were built in the likeness of every Avatar from the first all the way to a present-day depiction of Korra. She stood a lot taller than Korra normally did due to the young Avatar's slightly-off posture, but it was definitely Korra, albeit with her hair down.
Always a curious one for knowledge, Jinora began to explore. From analyzing the statues of Avatar Kuruk, Avatar Kyoshi, Avatar Roku, and Avatar Aang, to trying to find where the whole cycle began. She spent a lot of time in front of Korra's statue, wondering what she was up to, and low-key wishing she was here. Korra was sociable, but she wasn't necessarily chatty, "except when she talks about Avatar history…" in Asami's words. While she had a lot of questions about Korra herself, Jinora also couldn't help but be rather curious about another set of Avatars that she had only heard about from Korra in hushed whispers or accidental commentary—the Interregnum Cycle.
And so, tracing back from Korra and Aang, she began to follow the line of statues in a backwards spiral, hoping to find the incarnations of the Avatar that she sought.
=Near the South Pole, around the same time…=
Korra was still blown away by this revelation that Tonraq was actually a Northerner. She had never suspected a thing growing up, and for all intents and purposes it had been irrelevant for most of Korra's life. If it had truly been 20 years prior, then it must have been shortly before Korra was born which means Tonraq likely ran into Senna at that point… right? The statements that her mother's past wasn't what she had been led to believe made her wonder what was real and what wasn't anymore.
"You were banished from the North?" she blurted out after she had processed this, "why?"
"Because I almost destroyed the entire tribe." Tonraq explained, "20 years ago, I was a general in the Northern Water Tribe, sworn to protect my people."
"Barbarians were upon up; where they come from, we don't know to this day, although it is rumoured they were tied to the same Red Lotus insurgents that attacked in Si Wong that your mother dealt with during the Battle of Desert Storm. Either that, or they were paid. Regardless, they had set upon the Northern Capital and were wreaking havoc, and so my men and I mustered our forces and drove them back. We were able to drive them out of the city, but I paid a much higher price than I had hoped to."
"Wait, how?" Korra blurted out, "What happened?"
"We drove them deep into the frozen tundra," Tonraq continued, "We tracked them deep into an ancient forest—one that many people believed was a sacred home to cowards retreated here because they thought we would not trespass on hallowed ground.
They were wrong. We captured or slew every last one of them, but in the process we annihilated the forest. At the time, I didn't realize the consequences of what we had done."
"Let me guess," Korra frowned enough that it qualified as a pout, "you pissed off the spirits."
"Aye," Tonraq sighed, "by destroying the forest, I unknowingly let loose a legion of angry spirits. They threatened to destroy everything—the entire city, even. Fortunately, Unalaq was able to guide the spirits back into the forest, but by then, the damage had been done. For being the leader of the cause of so much devastation, my father banished me from the Northern Water Tribe in shame. That's when I came to the South to start a new life."
Korra mulled this over for a few moments, wondering how the Interregnums may have handled a situation like that. Many of them, including some of the more "good"-aligned ones such as Xilingshi, Serenez, or even Zakura, had had issues with the spirits and usually had truces with them at best. Korra mused that if she could instead come to terms with them, that perhaps she might manage to distance herself from these past lives that were still seen as something of a black mark on the Avatar's legacy.
"So where does mom fit into all of this," she turned to her father again.
"The things I could ramble about regarding your mother," Tonraq actually chuckled for a moment, "remind me again when we're not in such a precarious situation and I'll give you as many details as you need. It's the least I can do for you."
"You can leave the mushy parts out," Korra riposted. "In fact, please do."
"Spoilsport," Tonraq elbowed her before frowning again. "But, that's the story. I was wrong for keeping it covered all these years, but I accepted full responsibility for my actions and took the consequences accordingly."
"Whoaaa," Bolin blurted out, "so you were supposed to be Chief of the North, but then HE became chief? No wonder you guys don't like each other—oof!" he paused as Mako elbowed him in the gut. "Whaaat? Isn't that what happened though?"
"And that's why we're going," Unalaq clarified, "if I am able to help repair the damaged forest in the North and soothe the spirits there, then perhaps it's time the South followed in our footsteps."
"But what does opening the portal have to do with the raging spirits?" Korra wasn't quite putting two and two together on this, but she wanted as many facts as she could get.
"It's all part of bringing balance." Unalaq explained simply, "I am hiding nothing from you in this regard, Avatar Korra. You are the bridge between the physical world and the spirit world, and like the Red Lotus before me, I am offering you a chance to live up to your full potential."
Bolin and Mako exchanged looks. The former of the two looked like he was about to whisper something to Mako, but he caught a glare from Eska out of the corner of his eye and instead shut up. Mako glanced over, and Desna followed suit, causing a stare-down stalemate.
"It's getting late," Korra frowned, "we've made camp, so now's as good a time as ever to get some rest. I just need some time to sort this out."
"Very well then," Unalaq nodded, and while it may have seemed like an opportune time for Tonraq and Korra to have a moment to themselves to talk about it, but they both went their own separate ways as well for the moment, and rested up.
Korra ultimately found this endeavour to be hardly successful, but there was little she could do about it as the group soon all got back up, packed up, and were back on the move. Korra still felt this sense of uncertainty; a fear that she could not shake, that someone was following them. Spirits didn't bleed, but there had been signs of some sort of scuffle earlier when they had made camp. An animal would have no doubt left a trail of blood as it hobbled away, but that and the scuff marks looked like they belonged to a human. Most likely, it was a battle between human and spirit, which means it likely didn't end well.
Korra was a confrontational woman, all things considered, and so even after they got moving again, she turned to her father and sparked up the same conversation they had left on.
"So what's the deal?" She asked, and while she demanded an answer, her tone was mellow for the time being, "why are you disagreeing with everything we're doing here?"
"I'm not disagreeing, Korra," Tonraq spoke up, "and I know there are things that our whole family ought to come clear on at some point, but this is different. I don't want you to make the same mistake I made. The South Pole and the Spirit Portal are dangerous. Spirits and the physical world are supposed to remain separate."
"I'm not mad," Korra shook her head, "okay, I'm a little frustrated. The last time I didn't get all the details about someone and didn't know the true past and nature of my travelling companion I ended up with these scars." she only showed the one on her neck, but it drove the point home a little tenser than Tonraq was proud to admit.
"Do you really expect that I've got any malintent towards you, Korra?" he narrowed his eyes. "I, the one whose hair nearly went grey when we found you the night after your life hung by a thread? I, who watched in abject horror as my daughter threatened my life in a burst of rage?"
"I'm just trying to add it up," Korra tried to divert the subject, "you gave me your blessing; you said you trusted me on this. What changed?"
"It's not you I don't trust," Tonraq shot a glance at Unalaq for a moment.
"Oh, it's this again," Unalaq interrupted them with a very dry tone to match his expression, "brother, I can assure you that if anything ill befalls us for making peace with the spirits, that I will allow you to take it out on me to your heart's content. Korra is clearly mature enough and responsible enough to handle this power considering that she wields lightning, lava, and an explosive tattoo between her eyes. Do you doubt that augmenting her connections with the spirits would benefit not only her, but the Water Tribes—nay, the world—as a whole?"
Tonraq cursed under his breath but didn't answer. Maybe the foul play he suspected was his own grudges against his brother for what he swore was a setup. Even now, 20 years after the fact, he still didn't understand how the insurgents and barbarians had gotten in, or what their motive was.
"But if you're still not convinced, just look at the sky," Unalaq continued as he gestured upward, "where I'm from, the spirits are at peace and they light up the dark."
"The Northern Lights…" She remembered particularly seeing them through the eyes of Zeruda, who had been stopped by the spiritually potent citizens of the North… as well as that apparition that appeared both in Zulera's life as well as Korra's own life in the present.
Zoroka… Korra knew there had to be more to that mysterious entity than she realized.
"Yes," Unalaq helped snap her back to reality proper, "There used to be lights in the South as well, but during the Hundred Year War, the South was thrown out of balance and the lights disappeared. When the war ended, the North helped rebuild you physically as a nation, but we have not rebuilt you spiritually. As such, the spirits no longer dance in your skies. Instead, they rampage in the Everstorm."
Almost as if he had been timing it for this exact moment, Unalaq gestured in front of them. They stood at the edge of a cliff overlooking a valley which held a frozen, gnarled forest engulfed by huge dark storm clouds. They could hear the noise from where they stood, even.
"Looks like we're here." Mako quipped.
"Proceed carefully," Unalaq warned, "If we attract too many angry spirits there's only so much I can do to protect you."
"It's almost like they were provoked." Korra commented, as the group moved warily down the cliff and approached the Everstorm.
There was a loud screech in the distance, and the sound of something slamming against one of the rocky surfaces. All of them looked around, with the hair on Korra's neck in particular standing on end. However, other than the raging storm above and in front of them, nothing looked different.
"Whether or not it was provoked," Unalaq frowned, "something—or rather, someone—is exacerbating the problem. Stay close."
Korra and her friends did exactly as Unalaq ordered, but even then, the angry spirits around them were moving in closer and closer, almost as if closing in on a kill…