That same week, at a gathering of the entire tribe, I was inscribed in the book of water masters, which had been kept since the shaggy years of the Northern Water Tribe capital's founding.
Being a master, I now have my own voice at these kinds of conferences where the future steps and life of the entire tribe are discussed. As the son of the current Chief, I already had some advantages. Of course, I'm not entitled to another vote, but I would have had some weight even without my mastery.
However, how boring it is to sit at these kinds of meetings. Essentially, nothing serious happens in the capital's life. There are individual people responsible for supplies, catches, checking the suitability of structures — they're the ones who mainly report at these meetings... the rest just wear out their pants.
I had to put on an interested face and try not to fall asleep. My efforts didn't go unnoticed, but honestly, there were those who were actually snoring — after all, most people at these gatherings are already quite advanced in age. By the way, this very circumstance best speaks to peaceful times, because in troubled times, only "youngsters" sat at such meetings, as the old men rushed into battle first to preserve more fresh blood.
Little by little, I tried to test the waters regarding allowing both genders to practice those directions of bending they want to study themselves. I quite often saw young guys who simply didn't fit the tense combat part of bending by their character makeup. I think they would make good healers.
Sometimes at night I found girls who were trying to practice waterbending from scrolls on their own, and if they had been given proper training — we would have gotten worthy replacements for current masters. Such people have motivation through the roof, you just need to guide them, and they'll reach the summit on their own. I don't want to judge harshly, maybe there's something I still don't understand, but it seems to me... the system that was invented long ago simply doesn't let such people flourish.
Not everything is as bad as it seemed to me. The Chief, the head of the Healing Huts, father's loyal supporters, and a small part of the masters generally agree with my thoughts. Only even such a number of people isn't enough for a full change of the old foundations that were created by our ancestors. After all, the latter are very respected here, and their decisions are viewed through rose-colored glasses, as if they definitely knew how to live and what to do.
There's a certain part of neutrals who simply like to observe the course of political games. The biggest headache is the ardent traditionalists led by... Pakku!
Well, okay, so your fiancée whom you loved deeply left you... fine, she did it right before the wedding... alright, she didn't just leave you, but ran away to the other end of the world, it happens to everyone...
Now because Kanna — Sokka and Katara's grandmother — ran away, Pakku has really gone crazy about traditions. The man is sensible, always cares for his tribe, I often saw him playing with children, showing them spectacular waterbending techniques. Even at my past antics, he mostly looked with such a good-natured, condescending gaze, not getting too offended by my words.
I need to somehow influence either the neutrals or the radicals. Only by keeping more than seventy-five percent of the votes on my side can I advance in my endeavors. Will they be useful? Time will tell. However, some customs definitely need to be gotten rid of.
For example, some weddings are arranged without the consent of the groom and bride — they supposedly shouldn't go against their parents' decision, who have already agreed on the marriage. The first example that comes to mind is Kanna, the second could be called Yue, who, in theory, might not have had to marry the person the tribe imposed on her, but as we saw in the series, she was kind and compassionate, which is why she put the Water Tribe above her personal desires.
Let them just try to lay their hands on Yue, I'll knock their eyes to one place immediately. This problem also needs to be gradually solved.
***
Most of my time after my victory I began spending with other water masters. That's when I felt the difference between the fights I had with mom and benders who really live for developing their element. However, it should be said that Jun, not having a proper mentor for training and enough time to work on techniques, can definitely shut up weak masters.
Master Izamu, who decided to take a rematch, was the first to challenge me to a fight. The first victory this time was his. From one battle with me, he had already roughly determined my fighting tactics, and this time, taking into account my strengths, he systematically looked for my weaknesses and pressed exactly on them. According to him, there were very few of those. I severely lack experience of clashing specifically with benders... Other aspects of combat, like imagination, arsenal of techniques, magic power, and control are all at a good level.
Yes, I should honestly admit, my victory in the arena is largely a clear following of a pre-planned strategy. For a whole year I observed all the masters. Their fighting style. I looked for their weak and strong sides.
I chose Master Izamu not by chance either. He often conducts his fights at long distances, not approaching himself. This very feature of his gave me time to saturate the ice with my energy.
The first month I lost more often than I won, but... already in the second month, only real monsters who for some reason looked like kind grandfathers left me without damage.
The first fights with them really put me in some dissonance. In peaceful life they might walk with a cane, supporting their weak back with their hand, but as soon as a battle begins, all weakness disappears somewhere. They jump around the field like antelopes, some are even dangerous to approach at close distance, they'll tie you in a sailor's knot purely through hand-to-hand combat.
I often challenged Master Pakku to fights. He just really annoyed me with his stubborn obstinacy, so at least I released my anger in tense battles with him. Noticing that in our sparring I was strongly giving in to my emotions, he approached me to ask what the reason was, and even offered his help in solving problems. The guy is really good, but his quirks aren't great...
Yes, so many new ways of simple water manipulation I hadn't even found in scrolls. Different tactics, all kinds of methods for improving mastery and control. And all this is documented carelessly! At the meeting I raised this question — approval was given to allocate notebooks for me to record everything useful, just in case.
But let these notes appear on library shelves, and healing benders who practice in secret could immediately read them. The big problem with scrolls in the library is that they mainly record ready stances for techniques and more complex things — there are no development methods for control to perform these techniques. Our brave girls have to jump over their heads just to master what's described in the scrolls.
At the same time, I went to study healing magic. There's no ban on men mastering healing magic, but by signing up for it, people will start looking at you sideways and consider you weak behind your back. In my case, saying something to a water master is quite traumatic.
My mentor on this path became Yugoda, who was formerly Kanna's close friend. She was also the one who checked what I already knew.
"You know the theory excellently, even said something new for me," Yugoda said with a gentle smile when she finished checking my competence. "Recently I heard your words about expanding women's rights in the tribe. A very good initiative, if only you had been born earlier, when many girls went to the outside world just to avoid marrying an unloved person," her smile became bitter, and her eyes unfocused, as if she was remembering something distant and forgotten.
"Good," she said, coming to herself. "Let's start in order of increasing complexity! First, we'll learn to heal animals: a simple fish will do for starters, then we'll have to deal with rodents, and only then under my supervision will we treat a human with a light external injury. As soon as we build a solid foundation, we can proceed to medium and severe cases."
"I've only taught young girls before, and I haven't had to teach a whole water master yet," she said with laughter. "I hope you're definitely used to blood? It's really hard at my age to care for students who might faint several times a day."
With such an unusual, one could say even monologue, my studies began. At first I tried to feel my life energy. This process would have taken quite a long time if I hadn't started preparing to open chakras. Chakras are precisely energy centers — the main gateways through which life energy passes.
Finding its flow in your body isn't too difficult, but directing even a drop of life energy into water seemed completely unrealistic to me for a while. Very heavy energy. At first I learned to drive it through my body, and only after a couple of weeks could I bring it outside my body, but... as soon as it came out, it immediately dissipated.
Having learned to direct my chi into water, we began practical training. May all the living creatures I destroyed for my own progress forgive me. The first fish simply exploded into pieces. I'll say right away, I didn't want this! Yes, I was shocked myself! You're trying to close a cut on a poor fish when... boom! And its head is already flying to "kiss" your head... I walked around with a bump on my forehead for another week, amusing people. And the bones of local fauna are very strong, as is the entire organism in general. It's a magical world after all. [ image ]

Yugoda, it turns out, always conducted such a peculiar entrance test to show that your inattention costs someone's life. No, I assumed that not everything was so simple in healing, but how naive I was. It's not enough to simply direct chi into water and wave your hand over a wound. First you need to, without introducing your chi into the victim, tune your life energy "closer" to your patient. Everyone has their own chi, and to heal rather than kill — you need to be able to intuitively adjust your energy. That's what happened with my first victim, I was pouring my chi into it, which was a priori hostile to the fish. So, seeing no way out, it entered into conflict with the fish's life energy, which ultimately created an explosion.
Then you must program the already adjusted chi for healing. Beginning healers say words about healing to themselves — small mantras for better tuning. Therefore, external injuries are easier to close, seeing it with your own eyes — you just need to sincerely believe that it's closing. With internal injuries, water with properly tuned chi that's correctly programmed will try to find deviations in the organism itself, but this is much more energy-consuming.
Yes, having gotten the hang of it, over a whole year I could treat ordinary injuries without teacher supervision, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are many diseases that still cannot be healed, but it seems to me that they simply haven't found the right approach yet. My goal is to master healing magic that will heal the mortally ill and stop aging or at least prolong life!
***
On one of the few days when parents are busy with their affairs until late, I was putting Yue to bed. We had a conversation that sooner or later had to happen.
"Brother, why am I so different from my peers?" asked my little sister, covered up to her neck with a fluffy blanket. "Hmm, just don't joke around anymore, I overheard our parents' conversation where they discussed how I came into the world."
"I thought this conversation would happen much later," my little sister is growing up too fast mentally, I suppose some secrets should be revealed. "You were born very weak, one could even say you wouldn't have lived a day without a miracle. In desperation, I shared a part of myself with you, maybe you remember how emotions appeared that helped you calm down?"
"So it wasn't my imagination?!" she exclaimed much louder. "I thought it was just my imagination... then why don't I feel your emotions like in the first year?"
"I thought it would interfere with your development under my constant care. On my part, I learned to block this channel, listen," opening the spiritual channel, I transmitted feelings of love and care to my little sister. "Now do you feel it? I've always been with you," I said, looking at her with tenderness.
"I love you too, brother," said the embarrassed girl. "Will you teach me too?" she asked with delight, looking at me with her big eyes.
"Of course I'll teach you, but you mustn't tell anyone about this. Let this connection be our secret," I said more seriously.
"So I'm so smart because you were smart too," Yue said with approving nods of her head. "Now everything is clear to me, thank you for telling me, brother."
"Something like that," I said with a smile. "Well, now it's time to sleep, good night."
"Sweet dreams," was said by Yue in an already sleepy voice.
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