A. N. : Starting now and for at least the rest of this semester, I'm going to update on wednesdays instead of tuesdays. Other than that, no change to the schedule, but yeah. College just be like that sometimes.
This is bad.
Actually, scratch that, bad isn't nearly strong enough a word to describe exactly how terrible the situation is.
Ty Lee bites her lip.
The thing is, if she uses the right words, then everything will be real, and she doesn't think she can bear it. Or rather, she is sure she can't. And so things are bad, and not awful, or terrible, or Agni, Azula is –
She forces herself to breathe.
Tao the pirate and Sekiji are both by Azula's side, trying to understand why she suddenly started getting worse, trying to help her, and Ty Lee notices that, even though he said he retired, Sekiji seems to be the one who knows the most about what is happening. Bender's disease, Tao the pirate called it – and now that she thinks about it, isn't it weird that he would know about that in the first place ? Ty Lee is pretty sure she's heard that pirates are never benders, that it proves just how backwards they are and how much they have to gain by assimilating into the Fire Nation the way Fire Lord Azulon so graciously offered them to.
Before Ty Lee can grab onto that thought to distract herself from – Azula, no, no, no, please no – Tao the pirate leans back, hands raised, face closed, his vibrant yellow aura now a sad, dirty brown – no, no – and he says the words Ty Lee has been afraid to even just think –
Azula is going to die.
Mai calls him a liar, but doesn't draw any of her weapons. Even without seeing auras, without the absolute knowledge they offer Ty Lee – even then, Mai understands, no matter how much she refuses to believe it.
Is there truly nothing… – Qin asks, the calm of his voice contradicted by the fact he couldn't bring himself to finish his question. He seems truly upset, in his own way, and Ty Lee wrings her hands together to avoid punching him for caring.
Tao the pirate shakes his head. Says they can't know with precision what pathways or chakras are blocked, and so they can't do anything about it. Sekiji doesn't say anything, Ty Lee notices, just – his aura has this brief, weird flash of some sort of emotion when Tao the pirate mentions not being able to do anything, and Sekiji's eyes close painfully hard.
He thinks he should be able to do something, Ty Lee realizes.
Mai and Qin continue to plead with Tao the pirate, but all Ty Lee can do is – keep on watching Sekiji, watch the way his breathing changes, right as the pale beige Ty Lee thought was his normal aura shifts to a more intense – determined ? – brown, watch the slow swell of his chest as he inhales in a weird, purposeful way, like –
Watch as his hands slowly unclench, old joints looking so rusty that Ty Lee almost expects them to creak and crack like bamboos.
Watch as he exhales, eyes focused on Azula's unconscious body, once, twice, aura flickering like a flame as a tiny spark forms inside his palm, each breath feeding the spark a little more.
The others have noticed it too, now. Mai and Qin seem as perplexed as Ty Lee herself, but Tao the pirate simply presses a hand against Sekiji's back in support of – whatever it is he's trying to do.
When the flame has grown enough, Sekiji divides it in two, one for each of his hands, and then passes the flames above Azula in a slow, fluid movement that reminds Ty Lee of that waterbender with the Avatar. His hands never touch Azula, but are still close enough that it should burn her – and yet neither her hair nor her clothes seem affected at all by the fire.
Ty Lee had heard of it, from Auntie Mei Lin – firebending doctors with odd flames that don't burn, who can cure ailments of the chi sometimes even more effectively than she can, something that clearly annoyed her – but to think one would be in this backwater village…
Why in Koh's name did he not do anything earlier ?!
He speaks before she can question him. Everything, he says, from the root to the stomach, is blocked. The crown's flow is also disrupted. Pathways are damaged around the hands in a minor way, but the throat region has taken a hard hit when some chi forced its way through a knot, burning the surrounding pathways in the process.
The accuracy of the diagnostic is surprising, to say the least. It's like he can somehow see the flow of chi inside Azula, down to the smallest pathway. No wonder Auntie Mei Lin was jealous.
Sekiji – Doctor Sekiji, since he's practicing again – says that the priority is to unlock the main root-to-stomach pathway, otherwise Azula will consume herself from the inside as her chi accumulates near the knots, to the point of overflow. In fact, the process has already started.
Then do it, Mai's clipped voice orders, but Ty Lee knows that he can practice neither acupuncture nor acupression, not with these hands. And if his fire could unlock chi pathways, he'd have already done it, instead of just explaining. The way his aura dulls says it.
Touching the correct pressure points requires a lot of precision, and anatomical knowledge. Knowledge of where each point is, of how hard one can hit them to avoid causing more harm than good. It also requires a steady hand.
Ty Lee doesn't hesitate.
Tell me where, she says, fists already in position.
Doctor Sekiji looks at her, surprised, then at the way her pointer fingers form a different angle from the others, knuckles ready to be jabbed with way more precision than if she was using the tip of her fingers. His face immediately goes back to observing Azula's state.
He asks Tao the pirate to hold her into a sitting position, and quickly starts giving instructions to Ty Lee. If this goes well, Ty Lee will need to move away from Azula the very moment her task is complete, as the unleashed chi will seek to escape Azula's body in order to avoid self-destruction, and could burn the people around.
Ty Lee nods. Starts hitting – above Azula's knees, the dip between stomach and pelvis, sternum, then three fingers below, right where the ribs stop. Azula's back, behind the kidneys, the connexion between the sacrum and the lumbar vertebrae, and just left of the thoracic vertebrae behind which the heart lies –
She jumps back as Azula screams.
With the light of the setting sun, the blue fire flowing from her mouth is even more beautiful than usual. Then, as the balance of her chi returns to its natural state and she starts running out of air, the fire changes, just like the sky – yellow first, then a deep orange, then, as the stream of flames weakens, a red that shines brighter than the dying sun.
Azula finally falls back bonelessly, unconscious, breathing deeply, the corner of her eyes wet with the tears that didn't evaporate in the fire.
All that's left is silence.