======== Part 41 - The Red Hunter ==========
Perhaps Afka's latest news was too unexpected for me, which is why I stood in one place like a statue, with an extremely funny smile on my face. Not in the sense that it happened suddenly — on the contrary, I was expecting his second coming this year, and all the plans had been prepared precisely for this time; nor was it because the butterfly effect had no influence on it, because it was to be expected that the distant South Pole has little connection with what is happening on the mainland. In order not to spoil anything, I didn't even send any of my acquaintances there. However, to be one of the first to find out about it, thanks to benevolent spirits? Previously, the most I could hope for was a message from Airo: we had discussed the possibility of communicating with each other in such a case, and he promised to pass the information through the Lotus network, using a more covert method, with an encrypted message that only I would understand. Now everything has changed. I should have intercepted him somewhere at the beginning of his journey and started training him. No, not him, there wouldn't be any particular problems with him, I needed to continue my training myself! Well, what else could I do? Aang would have wandered around the world without any purpose, but he has an excellent, safe buffalo that can take me anywhere, and with him I could visit all the poles and learn the details of water magic and healing along the way. Afka would kill me for this. The sooner we meet, the more benefit I'll get out of it.
"By the way, about the gift for the swamp guru," the fox mentioned.
"Hm? Isn't the information about the Avatar's rebirth a gift?" I asked, making her smile as I walked along the platform.
"Is that all you think I'm capable of? I managed to beg for something else," she said innocently, taking out a scroll attached to her tail, which turned out to be a collection of information about animals, and not just any information. It contained knowledge on how to make whistles for them, just like the one Aang had to call his bison. "I don't know why, but he said you wouldn't be able to unlock the power of the fourth chakra without it. However, I do know that the air nomads were masters at making them and valued such knowledge highly.
She looked at me intently. A spark, a storm, a misunderstanding:
"...Let me guess, he didn't deign to go into details?
"Of course not, he's the Guru.
Well... in any case, I fulfilled the promise I made to him, albeit indirectly. The Swamp Guru wanted to meet after I mastered the initial chakras so he could tell me what these notorious chakras were capable of. As if they could give me something other than strengthening my element.
Now I had to leave the platform where the captive mages were still locked up. While Afka was telling me in which direction the Avatar was, further impressing me with how excellent informants spirits are, I quietly returned the bent metal plates to their places, including the wall that protected the crowd of prisoners. Oh, their faces when they saw the magic that was inaccessible to them... I didn't need anything to focus all their attention on me and explain the situation: Of course, most of them remained in a state of shock and disbelief, even when I mentioned the ships they could sail away on, and even Omasha, who would gladly take them all in. The only question that followed my explanatory speech was...
"Who are you?" asked the very man who was to be executed the next morning for who he was not. "Eh. Magician of Sand. You can just call me Dagoth.
And my words gave them hope. It was extremely strange to feel how people whose will had been crushed by years of imprisonment suddenly opened their eyes and looked at me as if I were some kind of legend from rumours and myths. But then they approached me on unsteady legs, held out their hands to me and said thank you. From the bottom of their hearts, almost with tears in their eyes. I don't know, maybe I underestimated my own image, but during all my travels, I seem to have acquired a real saviour's halo. Even in prison, it turns out, there was a rumour that the Sand Magician would come and overthrow the tyranny of the people of fire. And when I decided to ask how so many people had heard about me,
"We decided to become rebels because we were inspired by your actions," said a man who was about to be executed, holding my hand. "I led a squad, carrying out your will, liberating the occupied territories! Tell me, can we join you, just like this glorious warrior Kioshi?
They even knew about my personal squad.
"We will avenge all the deaths and take back the territories together! Dagoth the Conqueror will lead us and make our nation great again! A wave of emotion began to sweep through the crowd, it was a powerful surge. It was almost impossible to shout over a hundred people. Rolling my eyes and glancing at Tai Li, I saw no less enthusiasm in her.
"People rejoice in you. Now I understand why you decided to attack the Admiral, they needed you," she said, rubbing her chin and examining my body intently. "Maybe you're the Avatar?"
And I stopped immediately. This wasn't the first time I'd been called the Avatar, and I was unlucky enough to be mistaken for someone else who could cause me even more trouble. What I mean is, the Admiral was extremely surprised by my ability to throw flames and lightning. Could it be that they decide to make me their target because they think I'm The One? And now Anubis' words about me becoming the target of the royal family of Fire sound suspicious.
Of course, I need to prepare for this, and seriously. It's definitely a good thing that I've learned a bunch of secrets about working with metal — Afka was already drooling over them, but the most important thing is knowing how to make a thermite mixture in the field, and that's way more dangerous than any fire. All that remains is to come up with more ideas like this, copy the techniques of other nations and multiply their power.
"My strength lies in strategy.
Ruffling the hair of Tai Li, who was standing with her eyes raised, I formed a good idea in my head.
"Keep a cool head," I said, and at that moment, my voice washed over the people like a wave of pressure. I rose off the ground on particles of metallic sand, literally hovering in the air at a height of ten metres, and attracted everyone's attention. "You need to understand that I am not a conqueror, nor am I a valiant defender of a single nation on earth. I do not accept this division at all, and I am primarily concerned about the people who could work together... Look around you, do you see this structure? It is a technical achievement in the truest sense of the word, which, however you feel about it, is a great one. All of you, without exception, have worked here, you know how to build ships and operate machinery. Now this place is badly damaged, and it will take a long time for the people to rebuild, so you could develop something similar in Omas, where preparations are already underway. Use the experience gained from another people, and in this way you will greatly help the war effort and even the families in the colonies.
"…
"And women and money await you.
"Hurrah!
"That's where we should have started!
This was the best possible outcome. I saw with my own eyes that the uprisings lead nowhere; they are either stopped or new fire soldiers arrive and stop everyone again. Such rebels, acting even without orders from the Kings, are capable of very little, and even if they don't want to work in a factory, they'd be better off joining the army. There was just one problem: I didn't want to get on a ship to take them back to Omash.
"We don't need help, we'll get there ourselves," but my inner conflict was answered by several old men, already grey-haired but extremely calm. "We are former invaders. We stole ships from the Fire Nation and, under cover, ended up in the enemy camp.
"How did they catch you?" Tai Lee asked with interest.
"...We were caught by some extremely meticulous and intelligent captain. Many people are here because of his detective skills. I think that brat's name was Zhao.
***
"You're losing your reputation, Commander," said a pale-looking man sitting in the iron-bound cabin of the frigate, lit by numerous candles and lamps, staring at a single point, trying to calm the tremors in his hands. He flinched at every strange sound in the pipes, as if thinking that someone might be there. The bags under his eyes showed that he had not slept for a long time, as if he was tormented by constant nightmares. His breathing was ragged, not at all like that of a powerful fire mage. Nevertheless, the voice of the assistant reading the letter calmed the tense commander. "Your family in the capital is suffering somewhat because of rumours that you have gone mad, and the aristocrats are laughing at you.
"Laughing? - Zhao's eyebrows immediately knitted together." - They think those dark spirits are just a joke? Idiots, I barely got rid of them! Only understanding how to fight them saved me.
"The Lord of Fire is just as disappointed," these words knocked Zhao to the ground. He tensed up and finally turned his gaze to his assistant, "You haven't brought him any good news lately. However, he remembers your excellent tactical skills that you demonstrated earlier, and you can try to regain his favour and restore your family's reputation.
"How?!" Zhao tensed up even more. Previously, as his influence grew, he hadn't given much thought to how his family perceived him, because everything had always been fine with them, but now this was a blow. He considered it unworthy to bring a bad reputation on the family that had given him access to the army and supported him in everything.
"It says here that the Sand Mage has returned and there are suspicions that he may even be the Avatar, and his sand magic, it turns out, is an excellent cover for air magic. Although there are some oddities about his age, they can be explained away," silence hung in the room, "Check out this rumour. By any means necessary. You don't have to capture him, just make sure it's not him, and then you'll be one step closer to a promotion.
"Ha... ha-ha-ha. Just check? - A cruel smile spread across Zhao's already half-mad face. He immediately leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the table. Looking at his trembling hands, he clenched them into fists in a highly ominous manner. "Do you know how the people of fire exterminated that bunch of escaped air mages who weren't destroyed during the first wave of genocide? Why, even though they hid, were they still beaten to death like dogs?
"No," the man asked, intrigued.
"But I do.
========== Part 42 - The Magic of a Simple Man ==========
As strange as it may sound, determining the location where the Avatar would arrive and getting there at the same time was about ten orders of magnitude more difficult than finding out that he had returned at all. The spirits could sense a gigantic level of energy, but it was only released at the moment of entering the Avatar state, only when one of the firstborn spirits fully unleashed the powers of the little boy. As you can imagine, no one could sense the Avatar now, so we had to search for him with our own legs and eyes. Fortunately, I knew where Aang was supposed to reveal himself to the world again — the Southern Air Temple, where he would go in search of the nomads. It would be the perfect place: the very beginning of the journey, the realisation of the importance of teachers, and, in the end, it would be possible to prevent him from being exposed. But to sail there... I doubted I would even make it in time.
Aang was closer to the Southern Air Temple than I was, and he had an extremely fast plane. My only hope was his carelessness. If they stopped along the way to play or look for food, then... no, even then the frigate wouldn't reach its destination in time. The only things that could compare to a flying bison were the lizards Azula used in the canon, but could they cross the sea? With blind faith that we would be lucky and not drown somewhere along the way or be eaten by some huge snake that surely lived there? Sure, sure.
"Why do we need to get there so urgently? - we Tai Li were sailing away from the iron platform on a small boat that could be steered even by one person. All ships higher in class than simple frigates were equipped with such boats, and they were seriously faster than the latter. There were many of them in the prison, and if we hadn't found other options, we would have had to continue sailing on one of them.
"You know, I'm still a monk," he began from a distance, looking at the girl. "I don't only interact with the dark spirits you saw last time. The light ones also support me, and Afka is one of them.
The fox waved her tail and disappeared before our very eyes. A second later, she reappeared on the girl, perching haughtily on her shoulders. Tai Li paused, blinking amusedly.
"She said that the Avatar has returned. I want to meet him and get to know him better, and the best place to start would be where he studied and disappeared.
"...So you're a spirit?!" Finally raising her eyebrows to the sky, she leaned against the floor and began to stroke Afka, taking all this information extremely lightly. She didn't care about all these powerful magicians and their influence on the world, she was just having fun here and now. Nevertheless, holding the fox on outstretched arms, she quietly added, "I wish I could see Zuko's face when he finds out about the Avatar.
But while the two girls played with each other, I continued to ponder the important question. How would I get there? There was no element in the world that could transport Tai Li and me to our destination in such a short time. No, teleportation existed, but it was even further away than I needed to go.
"Hmm," I said, taking out my bag and pulling out the swamp Guru's scroll, which contained numerous sketches with details on how to make whistles. Various alligators, predators, herbivores, and large sea creatures: water dragons, snakes, and other species that were extremely common throughout the sea, and whose speed could exceed that of any ship. But why did the swamp guru Hugh say that this knowledge would help me unlock the potential of the fourth chakra? Where is the connection between animals and the ability to feel emotions... - Come on!
I jumped to my feet and looked at my hands — it was obvious! I had already thought about something like this — magic that is available to absolutely anyone, even an ordinary person. Magic can both subdue animals and do much more mystical things. Yes, developing it is hard work, but influencing with bare qi is something that both Tai Li and Guru Patik are capable of, who managed to create such mysticism with energy that even the Avatar is incapable of. By instilling some kind of intention into a creature, it could be calmed or tamed, which is why the swamp dweller gave me the devil's scroll so that I could learn the potential of the fourth chakra!
"Got something figured out?
Tai Li turned to me, exhausted from playing with Afka. At that moment, several beads flew off my neck, turned into sand, and took the form described in detail in the scrolls, landing in my hands. I smoothed out the silver whistle to get it into the right shape.
"I'll just lure whoever I need to. But I don't know if it will work, because I still don't know how to get a simple animal to trust me.
"I still don't quite understand what you're talking about, but..." The girl crawled closer, looking closely at the whistle. "Animals also want to be loved and respected. Those tigers in the circus felt that you respected them, so they fawned over you.
Our eyes met, and I remembered how, after the rebel attack, the rescued tiger cubs came up to me and licked me all over. They were supposed to be wild animals, but they showed such affection...
"Let them feel how much you respect and love them!
What can I say... Tai Li filled me with the emotions she was talking about. I looked at the whistle and finally blew it.
...
Silence. It seemed as if it simply wasn't working, so I had to blow it a couple more times, and only when I looked at the place where the sound should have come from...
Bang* R-a-a-a-a!
The water parted, and a giant green monster appeared in front of our boat — much smaller than the dragon Unagi, but just as beautiful and, let's be honest, just as fast. It exuded pure wildness, pure and unbridled fury. No human could ever subdue it by normal means. However...
"If Unagi really obeyed Kioshi... then I might be able to tame a slightly less brutal version.
***
Drops of sea water hit our faces and rolled down our heads. The wind was blowing so hard that it seemed like Tai Li and I were about to be swept away and sink to the bottom of the sea — but even if that had happened, I could say with confidence that the sea serpent we were riding would immediately return and pull us back up, even from the bottom.
After a while, the snake, which I won't hide, had to be calmed down a little by force, raced straight across the water's surface at a speed about ten times faster than any ship we had ever sailed on. Sitting on it was not easy, of course; it was a real rodeo. I tied myself to the extremely smooth scales with metal sand, which fortunately could not soak through and disintegrate like some kind of abrasive, and Tai Li sat behind me. She held on to my torso very tightly, pressing her whole body against me so as not to fall off.
"Woo-hoo!" - although she was even more confident, her sense of balance was God-given. Afka was extremely unhappy about this, she was soaked and seemed to have lost the meaning of life. And on top of all that, she was supposed to guide us with her internal compass.
"Left," she whispered to me in a dead voice, and I passed the message on to the snake: "Down."
"Good... stop, what?
"Yes, I thought it would be nice to drown you for choosing this method of transportation.
Rolling my eyes, I looked at the horizon and already saw the island we needed, covered with mountain peaks. The Southern Temple of Air, like any other nomad temple, was located in a place where the air currents were incredibly strong, and the archipelago was just such a place. I won't say that the journey was short, but it was extremely successful. If anyone wanted to eat, we simply caught fish and dried it using my abilities. If anyone needed to use the toilet... Well, we arrived at our destination, and the Sea Serpent delivered us right to a high stone cliff, lifting us up with its enormous neck. Before our eyes appeared only gigantic mountains that were higher than the clouds themselves... looking at it, it was hard to believe that we had managed to storm them.
"Thank you for your work, Supreme Serpent," I said, turning to the beast, folding my hands respectfully and bowing. Completely soaked, Tai Li followed my movements and repeated them. "I hope everything will be fine for you, and you will find your soul mate.
"R-y-a.
"Actually, I advise you to go to the snake pass in the east. There are members of your own kind there.
"Ur?
The snake's eyes opened, and it immediately looked in the direction I pointed. After letting out a few cries that seemed frightening at first, it dove and swam away, waving its tail in farewell. How many wonders there were in this world! It was funny that as my power grew, all kinds of legends, such as taming Unagi and connecting with the world tree in the swamp, were becoming quite plausible. Maybe I'll even tame dragons... Hmm, that's true. One of the two dragons currently alive will become Zuko's, so the other one could be mine.
"Right, now... oh," I looked down and saw Afka sitting silently, staring blankly into space. Taking some sand from the ground, I rubbed it on the fox and dried all the moisture from her body, allowing her fur to fluff up again. Only then did she look up at me, her eyes filled with gratitude. "Now, let's go upstairs."
"How are we going to get there? - Tai Li raised her head high, and even had to arch her spine. Among the mountain peaks, there was indeed some kind of structure, but it was hidden by clouds. None of us wanted to go rock climbing, and we had to get up there before we got too old. So I had to show Tai Li a trick. I got her to the foot of the mountain, pulled out the slab we both stood on, and then started pushing her up, climbing on a primitive lift made by earth mages. The higher we went, the stronger the wind blew, and halfway up, we were almost knocked off our feet, so we had to create handrails. But the view was magnificent.
And when we broke through the clouds, rising sharply to the level of the highest columns, a truly mesmerising sight appeared before us. A giant white temple surrounded by massive rocks, through which powerful gusts of wind pierced, creating completely unpredictable whirlwinds. Here, one could train not only air magic, but sand would also be perfect for practice. Well, these two elements are so similar.
"What a magnificent city..." Tai Li was inspired, greatly admiring the architecture. But there was one tiny problem: it was actually a ghost town.
========== Part 43 - There are different paths ==========
The mountain range loomed over us with its gigantic size and the echoes of the wind whistling menacingly in our ears as we wandered through the extremely empty, lifeless and dilapidated city. Most of the buildings had huge cracks, some of the bricks had already crumbled away and the roofs had collapsed, and the sparse grass and intense cold only added to the atmosphere, giving the place a touch of madness. It would seem that after everything that had happened, there should have been a whole horde of dark spirits here, a horde of monsters thirsty for revenge, but... either they had already scattered, setting off to terrorise the archipelago where we were, or the air nomads made extremely nasty dark spirits. All of them are studying the path of the clergy, and it is quite possible that they managed to stop the spread of dark images and negative thoughts. But as Tai Li and I walked towards the centre, we both kept seeing shadows flitting around us, even though there was no one else there.
Although... maybe it was just dark spots in our eyes. It was extremely difficult to walk with dizziness, severe malaise and profuse sweating. Even Tai Li wasn't jumping around and having fun, and her legs were barely moving, because something very strange was happening to our bodies. It was impossible to prepare for this, only to accept the consequences and develop immunity afterwards. Yes, at a great height, the air was simply depleted, but the cartoon didn't show how the fox's friends fell dead in their attempts to breathe, most likely because they had already adapted to travelling on flying bison and got rid of altitude sickness, or because Aang is an incredibly good friend and allowed them to do so. had already adapted from travelling on flying bison and got rid of altitude sickness either off-screen or Aang was an incredibly good friend and allowed his friends to quickly adjust. How? Who knows.
"Oh, humans," Afka sat in the middle of the road, a dozen metres away from us, looking down condescendingly as Tai Lee and I held each other up, helping each other take even a single step. I had no idea how to deal with this sickness, so I eventually gave up and lay down on my back in the middle of the road. Tai Li crouched down next to me, her face contorted, and we were both shivering from the cold. We didn't even have the strength to build a shelter to keep warm, and there was little point in going into the surrounding buildings, as they had more holes than a sieve. "Here, take this."However, when we needed help the most and it seemed that we were about to pass out, Afka approached us. She had small eggs in her teeth, probably from local birds. She broke them open, poured the raw contents into our mouths, and began to wag her tail, explaining that the eggs, especially the yolks, contained vitamins that would help us adapt. Eggs from birds native to such high altitudes were particularly good. Then she told us to breathe slowly and deeply, and when the pain on our faces began to subside, she simply took bottles of water out of her bag and made us all drink. After all this, it was as if new life had awakened in our bodies. According to her, if our bodies had been less prepared, we would have passed out.
"You saved my life!" Tai Li found the strength to reach out and hug her. She really did get us out of a terrible situation, and in response, she simply said:
"I broke my principles and stole bird eggs for you, I feel like I snuck into a chicken coop full of vicious animals. So get well soon," but the main thing was how embarrassed she was! It used to be difficult to understand, as the fox's face didn't express any emotions other than arrogance, but because of Tai Li's caresses, hugs and coos, she was extremely happy. This softness and kindness... Afka became remarkably attached to us, the "little people."
In any case, we had to be more careful now: as we climbed towards the centre of the temple, we stopped and adjusted our footing. Given the whole situation, the warriors of the fire people began to inspire, if not respect, then at least caution — after all, they must have been rigorously trained to defeat nomads who could reveal their full potential in this environment. Although there were also casualties among them. After walking a short distance, I finally felt the first bodies, or rather metal, a lot of metal, hidden behind large houses that filled the clearing. Leading Tai Li to one such place, we came upon a scene of carnage... a whole cloud of iron armour piled up in a heap, surrounding just a couple of skeletons, of which only monk's beads remained. Yes, the nomads had put up an extremely fierce defence.
"So, they killed in such huge numbers," said Afka, bewildered, and I soon put my hand on her head.
"To protect someone, you can abandon the principles and foundations of your entire people. I'm sure it saved someone's life... although I can't guarantee that those who escaped lived very long," I said, having seen firsthand how dangerous air magic could be. Many bodies, even the armour on them, were split in two: some had their skulls crushed, others lay with broken knees. Even such staunch pacifists can become bearers of death in an instant, and yet, as the books say, the fire mages did this with the help of the comet Sozin. Even with such a powerful buff, they barely managed to deal with the pacifists.
Heading for the main temple, whose tower rose above the entire city, we came upon a strange wooden door with an incomprehensible device with a blower in the centre.
"What a strange... decoration," Tai Li tilted her head.
"No, it's a lock. The air mages blow into these slots to open the door," I said. The girl approached the door, took a deep breath, and blew into one of the pipes. "Oh, it moved."
"Really?
"Of course not
Approaching with a smile on my face, I placed my hand on the stone wall nearby. In fact, for an earth mage, walls are practically non-existent, and even a metal barrier is no protection for me. I pushed the stone aside and created a convenient passageway, which led to a hall filled with statues. There they were, the previous incarnations of Aang, hundreds of statues standing on the floor and on the walls.
But if Ty Lee was simply mesmerised by the aura of mystery in this place, I felt... something special. In the head of each statue, strange as it may sound, there was chi connected to absolutely every neighbouring figure. Was it living stone or the skill of some enlightened guru capable of imbuing even inanimate objects with magic? I don't know, but they had to react to Aang. If they sensed him entering the Avatar state, the rest of the world would know.
"Oh, the Avatars end with him," Tai Lee stopped in front of someone specific at that moment. A man in the robes of the Fire Nation, with a long beard and aged features, superbly detailed. Of course, it was Roku. At the sight of him, my eyebrows immediately knitted together, because somehow I had to prevent him from influencing Aang. He couldn't be allowed to stop the development of the child and the whole world.
"The Avatar Temple, they are in all the important places in the world, but only here are all his incarnations. What a magnificent legacy," stammered Afka.
"We must destroy them," but my words brought her back down to earth with a crash. The girls opened their eyes and looked at me as if I were some kind of madman. Especially Afka, she even froze in incomprehension with her mouth open. "We have a huge advantage because we are the only ones who know about the Avatar, but the energy of these statues is like a spindle, tightly connected to each other, even to the statues outside this temple. If you look deeper, it's amazing magic, similar to what I'm just beginning to learn, it allows you to find identical or emotionally connected sources of energy. Afka, maybe you can predict the moves of future enemies better than I can, but wouldn't it be easier if the enemy didn't find out about the Avatar's return so quickly?
"...But destroy all the statues? Blasphemy!" Afka's tail bristled.
"I don't have an opinion on that, but then ordinary people won't know about the Avatar, will they? And they all need hope right now..." Tai Li, in turn, lowered her eyes. And she was right: the circus gave people at least some kind of imaginary belief in a better future, even though it was just entertainment and created the illusion that everything was fine. With each passing year, faith in victory was dwindling.
"Choose:
1 - The illusion of doom (Leave the world in ignorance. Destroy the sources of chi inside the statues. Please note that you have already made a decision that has made you a target, so you will not be able to completely avoid responsibility, but you will be able to get out of it and suppress rumours that the Avatar has returned. It will be more difficult to raise armies and gain audience with important people. The Avatar will reach peak form and the battle will begin. Due to your failure, you will not be able to calm him down, so you will have to suppress him by force. Warning: concealing information will have a negative effect on the chakra of truth. You will upset Afka)
2 - Erase information (Get rid of all bodies in the temple that could influence the Avatar. The statues will not be activated, and no one will know about the return of the legend. Be careful, you will give Aang hope that someone could have survived, but revealing the truth will make him even angrier. Be careful, hiding information will have a negative effect on the next chakra)
3 - Secret Rumour (You have forced the entire Lotus to get off their butts and start helping the world, so you can only tell them about the Avatar's return. Be careful, the Lotus is now focused on supporting you, so if you make this decision, many will start trying to help only the Avatar. Hiding information will have a negative effect on the next chakra. This decision can be combined with the first or second option.
4 - Wind and Stone (You decide to steadfastly accept the consequences and bring the wrath of the entire Fire Nation upon yourself. Be careful, the Fire Nation does not know who the Avatar is, so the hunt will be focused specifically on you. The armies of friendly countries will rise up, they will have a strong incentive; Lotus will shift some of his support from you to the Avatar. The Avatar will enter peak form and the battle will begin. Warning: due to your failure, you will not be able to calm him down, so you will have to suppress him by force).
I froze, wanting to cry. So many good choices that I wanted to make with all my heart, the first one in particular — literally what I had been striving for from the beginning. But could I really suppress the chakra of truth just by breaking some statues? What kind of crazy system is this that deprives me of a tactical approach? This will definitely be considered concealment, which is bad, of course, but is it really that bad? Or does it work this way because I myself consider it a lie to the whole world and concealment of important information... as Tai Lee said, the Avatar is needed, but people lived without him.
And then there's the Lotus, which will start to wither and stop supporting me if I choose the third and final option. Although it's worth mentioning that they didn't really try to help me before, just giving me bits and pieces of information that all members of the Lotus are entitled to. Maybe it's just that I didn't really interact with the most influential members of the order. Only Bumi and Aang, that's it.
The second option seems completely insane: not only would I suppress my chakra, but I would also give false hope that could be shattered at any moment. It's not certain that I would be blamed, but I can't go down that path... however, I may not have a choice. It all comes down to the last option: who would have thought that all the problems he would cause would accumulate around me? He literally gives me nothing positive, except, of course, the opportunity to face the consequences and let my chakra blossom. And then there are these statues — in the canon, they calmed Aang, so why shouldn't they work now? Fight while he's in Avatar form, at such a height, with powerful wind currents supporting him? When I'm far from my best? There was a chance, but what kind of chance...
"This is the most difficult choice not just in recent times, but in my entire life. Of course, I could have come up with all kinds of traps, built walls to stop the wind, but I would only have decided to fight if I was in peak form."
The further I went, the more difficult it became to choose the path of my development. Knowledge was very tempting and pushed me to take a step aside, to move away from the chakras, because I began to understand that they were not always the easiest way. Why should I always tell the truth, expose myself at every opportunity, when I could just stay where I am and learn to lie so well that it would only improve my strategic potential? Why study other chakras when I could find analogues on the path to power that would only make my life easier, such as returning to the study of spirits? Anubis once gave me two options: a choice between a deeper understanding of the chakras or improved interaction with spirits, and from the example of the canon or even Avatar himself, I know that it is quite possible to merge with spirits in order to gain power.
After all, there is the same Dark and Mighty Spirit, the antithesis of what sits in Avatar. With the knowledge from the library, I would quickly get in touch with him, and considering my open chakras, I could even negotiate. Let him be locked in a cage until the next Harmonic Convergence, but there may be other options; all the other chakras can be replaced with cunning and deceit. And no more restrictions, I can lie with peace of mind, do whatever I want...
"Do whatever you want," but at that moment, Tai Li approached me. She was extremely strange, as if she wanted to say something else, but the words barely came out of her mouth. "But know that if you have to fight, I'll help you so that you don't end up in a situation where you have to kill someone."
"I'll help too if something goes wrong, snort," Afka, in turn, was even ready to go against the Avatar. And that's absolutely abnormal.
Exactly... Anubis said that the armies would rise from their knees and they would have an incentive to help us. I'll be travelling with Aang, so any army, any people who want to help him will also help me, and there won't be any setbacks where I'm turned away and forced to train on the sidelines.
"Now we have to do the right thing," I exhaled, calming my heart as much as possible. "Strategically, it would be right not to hide the secret, but to use the ton of advantages that have fallen upon us. Even if great misfortune comes with them, we will squeeze the maximum benefit out of it.
"So you're not going to destroy the statues?" Afka asked tensely. In response, I just shook my head. Do I want to make the path more difficult by opening only my chakras? It's a difficult question. I would gladly learn to talk like Azula, twisting the truth for my own sake, and I would have no problems. But now it's time to do something completely different.
Duduh*
At that moment, my senses alerted me to a strong vibration. Some large object had landed on the edge of the temple, and three people jumped off it.
"They're here," I said, raising my head and struggling to catch my breath. "Well... we should at least go and meet them."