======== 58 - Twists of Fate ==========
"What could possibly be so interesting in books? Only strength and combat experience will save your life!" Sitting on the edge of a large saddle and sharpening his boomerang, Sokka looked extremely mockingly at how our ENTIRE team had lazily settled down with books and, following Afka's best advice, were adding to their wealth of experience.
"Shut up. And by the way, you could use some brains too," Katara glanced disapprovingly at her brother as she read a book by some wizard and declared with an important look, "Did you know, for example, that only men lived in the southern and northern temples of the nomads, and only women in the western and eastern ones? I wonder which one I would have been born in if I had become a nomad?
"Does it say anything about which mountain goat meat tastes better, from the southern or northern temple? No? Then I'm not interested! - making his sister roll her eyes, he turned sharply to another girl, "Seriously, Tai Li, support me. A sharp sword is better than some history lesson, and a couple of extra hours of practice are more useful than a couple of hours reading about a technique you need to repeat.
"Huh?
Pulling away from my personal research on methods of opening chakras, I tilted my head thoughtfully. Tai Lee was clearly not on his side.
It just so happened that our last few stops on the way to the mountains had been incredibly boring, which is why I could only think about how to strengthen my bond with Tai Lee, while Aang pondered his advances towards Katara, and only Sokka was left to get bored, which is why he was acting up. He didn't know that nowadays you can hook a girl with a romantic story, so he advised Aang to give Katara a book about how monks from different temples searched for wives. He gave Tai Li a book about chakras, which didn't seem very romantic, but only until you realised that the book was written especially for her. She immersed herself in the meaning of her anti-magic and tried to come up with completely new techniques with such excitement, as if she were reading a romance novel.
As for Sokka... I took away his chance to start a romance with Suyuki on Kioshi Island, so he felt like a guy who no one pays any attention to.
"Don't worry, Sokka. You'll find a girl at our next stop," I said, giving him a thumbs up and making him grit his teeth in confusion. Well, while the guy thought I was making fun of him, our bison finally fell near a village located right at the foot of a huge mountain. Although it looked like a mountain at first glance, it was actually a volcano, whose peak was so high that it was completely covered with snow.
The village was a typical example of the architecture of the Earth Kingdom: green roofs, wooden walls, yellow and ornate edging resembling gilding, and stone tiles underfoot that were pleasant even to look at. "Oh, there was information about this place in one of the books about Avatar," Katara said, pressing the book to her chest and swaying playfully. "This is the village of Makapu, where Yung was born and raised, who was considered the Avatar instead of Kioshi. They were more than friends, but Yung was consumed by hatred for the politicians, he fought Kioshi in a great battle and, in the end, died.
"...Did you hear that, Aang? Your ex-boyfriend was from here," Sokka waved his hand, causing his friend to roll his eyes, and we walked along the stone pavement towards the centre of the village.
The residents here were all dressed in yukatas, behaving in a relaxed and even romantic manner — there were stalls with flowers everywhere, people were giving each other boxes of sweets, and the kindness of those around us seemed contagious!
As for Katara's story, it was the absolute truth, at least the part about Yuna. This wasn't the first time I'd heard of someone being mistaken for the Avatar himself, but he was a truly talented individual who travelled with Kioshi for a long time and, at the end of his life, gave her an extremely tough fight. Funnily enough, Kioshi learned a lot from her dear friend. He was the first to use stone gloves for remote control, a skill that Kiochi would later pass on to Dai Li. He could liquefy the earth to create swamps, play Pai Shao at a professional level, and, according to the description, he advanced magic so much in his time that it was as if he possessed five chakras. In other words, he resembled me in his genius, only he lived three hundred years ago.
In general, there were a suspiciously large number of geniuses born at that time, but I'm not here to restore his legacy. I doubt that any of his writings that didn't end up in the library have survived, so I'm here primarily to develop sand magic and communicate with Kioshi. Since, as Anubis said, I could learn to use her style without movements, I should turn to her. But before that...
"Hello, beautiful lady, would you like to meet me? Auntie Wu said that today I would meet someone with a fiery personality, a true passionate soul! - A good-looking guy jumped out in front of our group, fell to his knees in front of Katara, and began to look at her with loving eyes.
"What? - the girl was taken aback as soon as he took her hand and kissed it. She was so taken aback that she waved her hand and slapped him with a water whip from a flask, knocking the guy on his back." - Oh, I didn't mean to!
"Oh, really... true passion...
"What do you want from her anyway? - Aang stepped forward, looming menacingly over his now rival in love," - Who is this Auntie Wu who makes incomprehensible promises? Katara has never even seen you before.
"Auntie Wu is a real fortune teller. She can predict the weather and your future love. Oh, once again I realise that she is never wrong," a blissful smile spread across the guy's face, after which he was unable to get up, and my team and I quickly exchanged glances.
The fortune teller, how could we forget her when she was part of one of the most exciting episodes? Aang challenged the volcano, saving the entire village from a flood of molten magma. Now, it seems like no one even thinks about the eruption, so we probably came here a couple of weeks, if not months, before the canon.
It would have been possible to solve the problem in advance, before it reached boiling point, but before that, it seems we will have to visit Auntie after all. And not only because our whole group has taken a keen interest in her, but also because I wanted to understand whether she really can predict the future using only Qi, or whether, as Sokka said:
"Nonsense, there are no predictions!
"I'm curious," Katara smiled, walking around the guy. Ty Lee made the same flirtatious face and followed her friend, while we, the group of guys, trailed behind, towards a tall, long building with a queue in front of it. It was immediately clear that someone rich lived here.
Our turn came quickly. The doors to the house opened, allowing us to enter a beautiful hallway made of the purest wood, and a dwarf with hair tousled in all directions and a bright smile appeared at the threshold.
"Hello, I'm Meng, Auntie Wu's assistant," said the little girl in a pink yukata, politely letting us inside, her gaze immediately catching Aang, who was looking around. "You can wait on the sofas, my auntie will get ready and let you all in one by one. If you like, you can have some of these bean cakes.
She quickly ran to the table with a tray and brought us a couple of plates. At first glance, they looked normal and, as Afka said, didn't even seem to be laced with any hallucinogens.
"Oh, bean pies, I love them!" But just as Meng placed the plate in front of Aang, he quickly reached out with his stumps and accidentally grabbed the girl's hands. Sparks flew, a storm broke out, and the little lady's heart was struck a fatal blow. From the moment she had arrived, she had been looking at the bald guy with tattoos on his head as if he were an object of interest. She had strange taste, but who was he to judge her? "Help yourself," she said to the completely calm Aang and quickly ran away.
"Yeah, Aang, I think it's fate, you'll find your love again in this place," Sokka cheered up.
"You really think so?!"
He didn't understand again, got excited, and started throwing frequent excited glances at Katara. In any case, the snack was a good excuse to let his guard down and win someone over, so I became even more suspicious. But soon Meng returned and, glancing at us, stopped at me.
"Auntie Wu is calling you.
I immediately blinked, and some of my team clenched their fists enviously. Intrigued by such a quick summons, I got up and followed the little girl down the spacious corridor straight to the sliding door.
"Good luck," the girl smiled and opened the door.
Taking a step forward and seeing a woman sitting in the centre of the spacious room in front of some kind of crucible with ashes, I felt... something unusual, extremely faint. Something I would never have noticed if I hadn't started to approach the opening of my fifth chakra. An extremely unusual spirit hovered around the old woman, peaceful but powerful.
"Dagoth..." Afka began cautiously, sitting on my shoulder, and I nodded, understanding perfectly what she meant.
Spirits... Hey Bai had already shown me how dangerous they could be and that they possessed completely abnormal magic. Sometimes they could protect a village, and if that happened, it would be a huge mistake to hurt their masters.
"Greetings, Auntie Wu," I said, putting on my most serious expression and sitting down in front of the smiling old woman.
"And welcome to you, mighty conqueror of Earth Magic.
"The power of this spirit is somewhat similar to mine. It can see the twists and turns of fate."
"Thank you for mentioning that so timely, Anubis."
========== 59 - On the heels ==========
The abilities of this world cannot be called limited; rather, it is the people themselves who are capable of very little within the cycle of events. We cannot manipulate knowledge like Wang Shi Tong; we cannot grow an entire forest from a single seed in a matter of seconds, let alone bring someone back to life.
But Aunt Wu showed perfectly well that merging with the spirit world can expand the magical abilities of ordinary mortals like us, giving us the opportunity to touch the unknown. What can we say, when in the canon, the power of spirits restored the magic of air to humanity.
Just being near a spirit is hardly a bad thing. Wu was clearly not under its control, and there were no signs of advanced obsession, but rather some kind of cooperation. It had to answer direct questions and predict the future, and in return receive prayers from a bunch of believers from this village, or whatever they feed on there.
I even felt a little envious of this fortune teller's luck: my guardian god usually just shows me the way and never answers my questions properly, but I would never dare to change him. Mine clearly has more authority.
"Ah, before we met, I hoped that this was your power, then I would gladly become your disciple to finally be independent from everyone," I said, sitting in the lotus position and resting my head on my hand in disappointment.
"Who said I take disciples? "The old woman tactfully sent me packing with a charismatic smile and finally asked what I wanted from her. It was a strange question from someone who should know everything, but when you realise that she is not in charge of this power and, like me, only receives hints from it from time to time, everything falls into place.
"The most important thing is that the volcano won't accidentally explode if I get too close to it, right? Without an answer, I wouldn't even dare to approach it. My distance from the huge pimple of the planet itself, capable of spewing magma, was already catastrophically close, and it was impossible to predict the outcome of events. Anubis, as luck would have it, was silent and apparently laughing at my fears.
"Hmm," Wu looked intently at her cauldron of ashes, stirred it with a stick, and shook her head importantly when she saw some kind of pattern. "It's dangerous to approach it, but you won't cause it to erupt. And the village is out of danger, which is the most important thing!
She's not lying and speaks from the heart, at least she believes it herself. Well, it seems detailed enough not to worry about the village's safety. As for the danger... it was foolish to expect there wouldn't be any, I didn't go there just to look at lava.
"Then my most important question," I said, resting my hands on my knees and looking as serious as I could. Auntie Wu's face broke into a warm smile, as if she already understood everything. "How can I establish the strongest possible connection with the person I love? I think I'm being as honest as I can with her, but such delicate matters are too complicated for me. How can I create the strongest possible bond?
"This is... surprisingly, the most difficult question about love that I have ever been asked," "Woo opened her eyes wide at my wording," "But the answer will be banal. Trust, like the feelings that go with it, is something that can easily be thrown away. You love each other and are willing to do anything to see your other half smile, but then you tear each other's throats out. I am often asked how to find perfect love, but unfortunately, only those who are willing to work hard on a relationship will find the real answer, because you create the perfect relationship yourself. You see, you need to test your connection with a person, and if it doesn't work out, don't get upset and move on.
"…
"See, I told you these were completely trivial things. I don't even need to predict anything to tell you this.
"No, thank you very much. I have zero experience in such matters, so your words are very important to me," I realised. That's why Avatar Kuruka's words seemed meaningless to me, a womaniser who visited nomad temples with girls for fun. It really must be obvious. And when he finally found that very love, he became so attached that he continues to look for ways to save her, even while in the spirit world. Isn't that the connection I need to create? True trust.
Continuing to ponder the subject, I chatted with my aunt for a little while and then left her room. When I returned to the common room, everyone looked at me with undisguised interest. Tai Li came closer and began twirling her hands behind her back.
"Well, what did they say?" Her face was slightly flushed with intense interest.
"Everything will be fine!" I smiled at the girl, and we held each other's gaze for a couple of seconds. Tai Li blinked in surprise but quickly looked away, as did I. "Ahem, anyone who wants to can follow me. I think we can trust Wu."
"Come on, you've started believing this nonsense too?!" "Sokka threw up his hands, but no one was listening to him anymore. I waited until everyone had left to hear the news that was important to them, and only then was I ready to go to the mountain for training, because before summoning the spirit to communicate and negotiate with him, I needed to warm up.
By the way, I didn't ask my grandmother about the upcoming conversation with Kioshi; Anubis had already explained such important topics to me better and more simply.
"Yes, by the way... What did Aunt Wu say to you?" Walking among his pensive group, where everyone was lost in thought because of the predictions, he focused on Tai Li. Out of tact, he didn't eavesdrop on the conversation of the girl walking nearby, so he didn't understand why she blushed.
"The same thing she told you. Everything will be fine.
"Oh, I already know that."
Although things weren't so simple for the others. Sokka complained that he had been insulted, saying that he was creating problems for himself, which was why his life was so difficult — which was hard to argue with. Aang was just very pensive and somewhat frightened, as his heart was extremely unstable. And Katara... she kept giving me thoughtful looks and frowning.
"What did they say to you?" Tyra Lee whispered.
"...That I'm going to marry an extremely powerful mage.
"Oh, congratulations.
Having reached the base of the giant volcano, I finally managed to bring everyone to their senses. We couldn't afford to cool off while the others were training, so I didn't want to leave part of the group in the city; everyone had to try their best! Besides, climbing such a peak would be easier than climbing the southern temple of the nomads, so I pulled out the stone slab and prepared to haul it up.
"I think I'll take it on my own," smiled Aang, who was still behaving strangely, and, taking out his staff, spread it out into a glider. Launching himself with a gust of wind, he began to rush upwards, faster than I could move.
The bald man reached the top a couple of dozen seconds before the rest of us. The snow falling there immediately caused an unpleasant feeling of cold, which I was very unaccustomed to, and the strong wind unpleasantly grabbed at my clothes in an attempt to blow me off the high slopes. If I had been barefoot, my feet would have suffered greatly from the surrounding snow, but the stone soles of my shoes protected my heels from freezing. And, I must admit, the views from here were magnificent.
Looking into the depths of the volcano, all I could see was a black plateau of still-frozen magma. It was indeed dormant, but I could feel it... the earth itself was telling me that beneath the crust of frozen rock, violent processes were underway that would soon cause an eruption. And if nothing was done, many people would die.
"All right, let's begin.
There were several requirements for summoning Kioshi's spirit, and only a couple of ways to negotiate with her. If we didn't prepare everything, we'd be in trouble. Yes, she wouldn't have all the power — otherwise she could have just defeated the Fire Lord herself — but you could say that this was a partial state of the Avatar. In other words, she would be more powerful than the current Aang.
Yes, the same one who continued to be consumed by his emotions. Sitting literally on his backside, this "someone" completely abandoned the plan. "Come on, Aang, remember your cool airbending techniques, you can't just sit on top of a mountain and not take advantage of such powerful currents! It's extremely unpleasant when your student just sits around and sincerely believes that there is no room for further development! You're too distracted, you can come up with a bunch of other techniques that could help you immensely.
"Nothing comes to mind because of what Auntie Wu said," Aang shook his head and looked up at the sky, "She said I have to decide the fate of the world, fight the most powerful wizard in the world, and figure out which side to take, but I don't understand what that means." It's as if the world wants everything to be complicated.
"The world is always complicated, so don't feel sorry for yourself," I didn't like that prediction. It was too vague. Reaching out my hand to the little one, I lifted him to his feet as gently as I could. "Aang, I don't want you to get upset over something so trivial, because I know you will fulfil your duty as the Avatar, and I will help you, because I truly value you and your view of the world.
"Thank you. I'm also glad that you adhere to the pacifism of the monks," he smiled childishly and brought his hands together in a monk's gesture. Until my gaze became gloomy again. There were several ways to counter our next enemy, and each one could help in some way.
"Are you just going to stand there? Katara, do you think I'm going to let you use the snow? Learn how to condense water from the clouds around us, in case we need to put out fires. Sokka, it looks like the wind is preventing you from hitting your targets with your throwing weapons. Learn to shoot so that the wind works to your advantage. You need to hit their weak spots! And you, Ty Lee... you're doing well, keep working on your anti-magic. The rest of you are completely slacking off.
"Why doesn't he ever praise me?" Sokka began to whine, who had several metal boomerangs at his disposal in case one didn't return.
But as for me... speed training is no easy task. Different fighting styles and fans made this process much easier in the past, but the accumulation techniques that Aang uses now to throw air with his staff don't help me. But if I can't learn to use Kioshi's style without Kioshi herself, then honing my speed and regaining the ability to use fans is a matter of practice. Or so I thought.
We raise a couple of fans in front of us using telekinesis and wave them to build up power. And immediately we realise... it's all useless. It's unlikely that I'll be able to learn something like this on my own in the next fifty years.
***
"I didn't expect us to return to the ship after finding out all the necessary information. My sweet little pus doesn't like swimming," a very measured female voice echoed discontentedly throughout the ship. The black-haired woman, whom all the soldiers on the ship looked at with hidden lust, was just casually stroking her huge blind dog, helping it cope with the smell of the salty sea.
"Faster through the water, June," said Zuko, removing his own cover and approaching the hired mercenary. "Especially since we already know that the target is in a village near the sea. If they stay there for at least a day, we'll quickly catch them all and finally rid the world of the Avatar."
The woman curled her lips and did not take offence at this method of transportation.
"Answer me just one question: how are you going to fight the Sand Mage if something goes wrong and he doesn't get hit by the paralysing poison in my sweet bun? I'm willing to help capture many people — for a handsome fee, of course — but he already killed my rival in the bounty hunt, who was in first place. And my life is worth more than money.
"The Flaming Mage," nodded the old man who had come up beside him.
"I don't plan on fighting," Zuko said, turning to his ship's crew, who were already stocking up on dynamite sticks illegally acquired from pirates, and clenched his fists. "We'll distract the Sand Mage, but he's not our target. I know who the true Avatar is."