Book II: Earth

Chapter 10: The Library

Si Wong Desert - Ten Years After Sozin's Comet

After hours of flying over seemingly endless dunes, seeing nothing out of the ordinary except a sandstorm that was too far away for them to worry about, Sokka finally pointed to a lone tower rising out of the horizon and told Aang to bring them down there. When they had landed and all dismounted, Sokka and Zuko spent a few minutes getting together the things they thought they would need. Meanwhile Aang leaned on his staff, with Momo perched on his shoulder, and stared up at the tall, narrow structure. It didn't look like much of a library to him - it didn't even have a door, at least not that he could see, only a pair of window-holes at the very top - but Sokka proudly proclaimed that this was it, the great Library of Wan Shi Tong.

"It's underground?" Toph asked in surprise, running one hand along the smooth beige stone of the tower. Aang guessed she could feel more of the structure below the surface.

"Yeah, you can thank Zhao for that," Sokka replied as he tied a length of rope to his boomerang. Aang winced at the reminder of their late enemy, the memory of the spirit-guided lightning striking him down sending a chill down his spine even under the hot desert sun. "He didn't follow the rules," Sokka added as his only elaboration. Throwing the boomerang through one of the tower's windows, he gave the rope a tug to make sure it was secure, and then began climbing.

"Well, let me know if you find anything in there that sounds interesting," Toph commented, sitting down in the sand next to Appa.

Aang gently deposited Momo in her lap. "You can send him to find us if there's any trouble," he suggested, ignoring Zuko's exasperated sigh at the suggestion. The odds of Azula or anyone else finding them way out here in the desert admittedly did seem slim. If anyone had been following them, they would have seen them from the air. There wasn't exactly anywhere to hide.

"Sure," Toph agreed, not sounding like she thought they were in any real danger, either. She settled back against Appa's flank, burying her bare feet in the sand, and Momo curled up and closed his eyes.

Aang hurried to follow Sokka up into the tower, and Katara and Zuko climbed after him. When they had all made it up to the window, Sokka repositioned the rope so they could climb down inside, but Aang opted to swoop down on his glider instead. The interior of the library below, ornately decorated with mosaics and relief sculptures, was much more spacious than the narrow tower had suggested, and was surprisingly pristine given that the entire building was buried under the dunes. The cavernous space, shielded from the desert sun, was remarkably cool, and was lit with a dim green glow that seemed to be coming from crystals mounted on the walls.

Aang landed at the center of a cruciform bridge directly below the tower, then ran to the edge and peered down at the levels upon levels, all filled with shelves, stretching deep into underground gloom. He let out a low whistle, which echoed in the stillness. There had to be something helpful about the Avatar State here somewhere, though it might take them a long time to find it.

When the others made it down, Aang saw Katara point to the glowing crystals and say something to Zuko, too low for him to hear. But Zuko smiled at her comment and squeezed her hand.

"This place is amazing," Aang said as Sokka came and stood next to him. "How did you find it?"

Sokka smiled and knelt as what appeared to be a large grey fox ran towards him across the bridge. "The Knowledge Seekers showed me the way," he replied, greeting the fox with affectionate scratches under its chin. "They're the spirits who help acquire new learning for the library." He slipped the fox one of the treats he usually kept on him for Momo.

"That thing is a spirit?" Zuko asked, eyeing the fox skeptically as it licked Sokka's hand in thanks for the treat. "It looks like an ordinary animal."

There was a great rustling noise, and a large shadow fell over them. "I would think a firebender wearing blue would know that things are not always what they seem," an irritable baritone voice commented from behind them.

Aang started around with a gasp to see the owner of the voice, who could only be Wan Shi Tong himself, in the form of an enormous black and white owl. The spirit towered over them with a haughty expression, and Aang couldn't help but notice how sharp his beak and talons looked. He took an involuntary step backwards. Zuko and Katara seemed equally unsettled.

"You might think yourselves adept at deception," Wan Shi Tong went on, "but you are obviously humans, and I do not allow humans in my library."

Sokka was the only one not taken aback by their chilly reception. "Great Spirit of Knowledge," he addressed the giant owl with a respectful bow. "You made an exception and permitted me to learn from your library once before. Now I have returned, with the Avatar, to humbly ask that you grant us access to your knowledge again."

Wan Shi Tong clucked his beak scornfully. "The Avatar," he repeated in a dismissive tone. "The Avatar and who else?" He narrowed his eyes at Zuko and Katara, and Aang saw Katara's hand twitch slightly towards her water skin.

But Sokka replied smoothly once again. "The Avatar and his highly trusted teachers and guardians, of course." He grinned, put one arm around Aang's shoulders, and gestured around the rest of their group with his other hand. "You might say we are like Team Avatar…"

"You might say that," the owl interrupted him dryly, turning his dark, scrutinizing gaze back on Sokka. Aang shrank under even the indirect intensity of those inky black eyes, but Sokka held Wan Shi Tong's gaze with the same placid smile. After a tense moment, Wan Shi Tong gave a low humming sort of sigh. "Team Avatar," he repeated Sokka's words again, with disdainful resignation. Then he shuffled his wings and drew himself up to his full, considerable height. "Very well. What have you to offer me?"

Sokka gestured for Katara to go first, and she squared her shoulders and stepped forward, unfurling the Avatar Day poster that she and Sokka had brought back from Chin Village. "Great Spirit of Knowledge, I offer you this memento of the Avatar Day festival," she said politely.

Wan Shi Tong nodded in approval. "The people of the Chin Peninsula have the most curious customs," he commented. With a sweeping gesture of one wing, he summoned another Knowledge Seeker, and the fox spirit took the document from Katara's hands and ran off with it, presumably to add it to the archives. Then Wan Shi Tong turned a suspicious eye on Zuko. "And you, firebender?"

Zuko stepped forward, offering the thick scroll with many seals that Sokka had brought when he had joined up with them. "These are the terms of surrender agreed to by the Fire Nation governor upon the liberation of the city of Omashu at the end of this past winter," he explained.

Wan Shi Tong narrowed his eyes. "Humans and their wars," he muttered. "So tedious." But he nevertheless summoned another fox spirit to take the scroll and archive it. Then he looked expectantly at Sokka.

Sokka withdrew the book from the bag he carried over one shoulder, and held it out to the great owl with a wordless bow. Aang could just make out the faded characters on the spine, which read: The Art of Earth Kingdom Cooking, by Ju Li Haizi.

"I already possess a copy of this work," Wan Shi Tong said, clearly unimpressed.

Sokka looked up and grinned. "But this copy has my notes on how to adapt several of the recipes for vegetarian sensibilities." He opened the book and flipped through the pages, where sure enough Aang could see liberal annotations in Sokka's somewhat scrawling hand.

The great owl shuffled his wings and made a harrumphing sound deep in his throat. "Very well. That will do." Another fox spirit came and collected the book from Sokka, and ran off with it as the others had. Wan Shi Tong then turned his gaze on Aang. "And you?"

"Uh," Aang replied awkwardly, shifting his staff from one hand to the other. "I'm the Avatar?" He gave Wan Shi Tong a nervous smile.

"Have you brought me anything for my collection?" the great owl asked impatiently. Under the intensity of the spirit's scrutiny, Aang looked to Sokka in distress, smile slipping.

"The Avatar has free access to the knowledge of the spirits," Sokka said firmly.

"So it was," Wan Shi Tong replied. "But I am more cautious than ever since the library at Ba Sing Se went up in smoke. No one gets in for free."

"It is not in your rights to bar the Avatar," Sokka insisted.

"Don't tell me what is in my rights," the great owl snapped, drawing himself up to his full height again. "I do not bar him. He may be admitted, on the same conditions as anyone else. Now, what has he brought me?" He turned back to Aang expectantly.

Sokka reached for one of the talismans around his neck and seemed prepared to argue further, but Aang was getting really nervous by this point. "It's okay," he said hastily, holding out one hand in a conciliatory gesture. "As the Avatar, I...I have decided to make a gift to your collection, out of my own generosity." He thought quickly, fingers drumming against his staff, trying to guess what the spirit would accept. Tangible knowledge, Sokka had said, so no storytelling. He had no letters or maps on him. But he did have… "This glider was crafted by hand, by the great Monk Gyatso of the Southern Air Temple," he said, holding his staff forward and extending its wings.

"A rare artefact indeed," Wan Shi Tong commented. "I accept your...gift." Another fox spirit came, and Aang closed the wings of the glider and surrendered it. He watched the fox disappear into the dusty dimness of the library with a heavy heart. Detachment from material possessions was what the monks had always taught him. But all the monks were gone, and now so was the last thing Gyatso had given him.

"If it is knowledge you seek," Wan Shi Tong said, spreading his wings wide, "then you may proceed." With that, he took flight with a great rustling of feathers and stirring of the air, then seemed to vanish. But as they followed Sokka deeper into the library, Aang couldn't shake the feeling that those dark owl eyes were still watching them.

Eastern Earth Kingdom - Eight Years Earlier

I wish you would tell me the truth, she had said in the dark, a girlish plea that had embarrassed her even then. Now, under the midday sun, Katara fumed at the memory as she trudged onward, putting as much distance as she could between herself and Zuko. Prince Zuko. The Phoenix King's son.

She couldn't believe she hadn't figured it out when the innkeeper had told her the story of the Fire Nation's dishonored prince. That was why he had been so secretive, why he had refused to tell her his name the whole time he had been at the refugee camp. She never would have felt sorry for him, never would have trusted him if she had known who he really was. He had deceived her all along.

She came to a fork in the road, and stopped, scowling at the unsigned intersection. She didn't remember coming this way with Nivi when they had left Gaoling to join the refugee camp, but the right fork seemed to bend away further inland. She took the left fork, wanting to stay as close to the coastline as she could. It might make her journey longer, but as long as the drought lasted she didn't want to take any chances.

Katara continued on in that way, furious and alone, for the rest of the day. She didn't see any indication that she was nearing a town or settlement by the time the western horizon started to glow orange in the sunset, and she was still in open country, even flatter than where she had left Zuko behind. Reluctantly, she stopped to set up camp under what she knew were less than ideal conditions.

The mundane tasks of unpacking her camping gear and collecting water distracted her from her simmering anger, but it flared up again when she realized she had a pot full of water that needed to be boiled and no idea where her spark rocks were. She hadn't had to use them in a while, since she'd been traveling with a firebender. A lying, deceitful, royal-pain-in-the-ass firebender.

But that wasn't quite fair, she had to admit, as she dug through her pack in search of the fire kit that contained the spark rocks. Zuko might have been less than forthright, but he'd also tried to tell her to leave him alone at every opportunity. She had been the one forcing her company on him, not the other way around.

Well, he'd gotten what he wanted now.

And that was another thing, Katara thought as she found the fire kit and set about building a fire. If Zuko had really wanted her gone, why hadn't he just told her who he was? The whole mystery act seemed so stupid, in that light. What had he been playing at? And why had she fallen for it?

By the time she got the water boiling and was able to collect the steam, Katara was almost as angry at herself as she was at Zuko.

After an uneasy night under a waning moon, Katara set out again the next morning determined to put all thoughts of the previous day's revelations from her mind and press on ahead to Gaoling. The road was still more or less following the coast, but now heading due east rather than south, presumably taking the long way around the eastern peninsula. When she got to the mouth of Chameleon Bay, it should turn back to the southwest, if she remembered her Earth Kingdom geography correctly.

What she had forgotten was that the mouth of Chameleon Bay was bordered on the western side by high cliffs, and as she traveled on that day, the road began to zig-zag up and away from the increasingly rocky shore. By midday, she was high above sea level. So much for this route keeping her close to the water, she thought, though so far the only company she had run into were rock gulls, who posed no danger. The water was still there, of course, and she could still feel it beating against the cliffs. In a true emergency, it would be better than nothing. But the distance made her uneasy nonetheless.

Her uneasiness only grew as the road brought her to a town at last, only for her to discover it eerily empty. There were a number of fresh graves on the outskirts, and though the well in the town square was not entirely dry, Katara didn't trust the murky brown water that came up in the bucket when she tried to draw from it.

Tapping her fingers against the side of the bucket, Katara looked around at the desolate town square and wondered what had happened. There were no signs of a fight - no burned out buildings or broken down doors or windows - which made her think the town had been hastily abandoned because of an outbreak of some sickness. Perhaps it was even the same fever that had struck the refugee camp which had driven the townspeople away.

There had been no Fire Nation prince in disguise to save them, it seemed.

With a noise of disgust deep in her throat, Katara shoved the bucket back into the well, where it fell to the bottom with a sickly wet plop. "Okay, so he saved the children," she said aloud to no one. "But all those people in Ba Sing Se…" Even if he hadn't killed them directly, it had certainly sounded like he had helped. If his uncle really could have stopped Ozai, and Zuko had sabotaged his attempt, she wasn't sure anything he could do would ever atone for that.

Because she had seen the refugees in that camp, with scarred flesh and scarred souls, the ones who had survived against all odds only to realize they had lost everything they had and everyone they loved. She knew that haunted, deadened look in their eyes, people who didn't even know what they were living for anymore, now that the Fire Nation had destroyed their lives. The Earth Kingdom and its people had been broken, and for all Sokka and his general still talked of resistance, Katara didn't know if they could ever truly be healed.

After one last cursory search to confirm that it was indeed abandoned, Katara left the town behind. The road turned back west sooner than she expected, skirting around jagged formations of bare rock and taking her further from the water, and she began to doubt in ernest her choice in coming this way. The only blessing was that she had yet to encounter another soul, friend or foe.

She made camp by the roadside again that night, forced to drink from her waterskin with no way to replenish it. She would have to ration her water carefully until she could find her way back to the shore, or find another source. Hopefully, she thought, looking up at the faint sliver of the moon that would soon vanish from the sky, she would come to a town that was actually inhabited soon.

On her second full day of traveling alone, the road continued westward, sloping downhill into flatter country covered with dry brush. Katara gazed to the south as she walked, knowing that the shoreline must be that way if she was right about where she was on the peninsula, but not relishing the idea of leaving the road to beat her way through the thick and thorny vegetation. She could cut a path with waterbending, of course, but she was afraid of depleting her already less-than-full waterskin.

So she stuck to her course, and by late afternoon she came to an intersection where another road joined hers from the north. Katara suspected this was the same road she had chosen not to take at the last fork. So much for her detour, then. But at least, at this intersection, there was a sign. "Hangdao," it read simply, and pointed west. That had to mean a settlement of some kind. She pressed on.

By nightfall, she had discovered that Hangdao was a village nestled against the foothills of the mountains - she had come farther west than she had realized - where the people were welcoming and, most importantly, had a clean well, albeit one that still had to be rationed in the drought. The village was too small to have an inn, but she found a family who was willing to let her sleep in their barn, and for the first time in three nights, in spite of the new moon and her still less-than-full waterskin, she lay down to sleep feeling she was out of danger.

So, of course, that night the village was attacked.

Spirit Library - Ten Years After Sozin's Comet

Once they had been allowed into the library, Sokka suggested they split up to cover more ground. He and Aang stayed on the topmost level, where they had come in from the spire, while Katara and Zuko headed down to the level below. Less sunlight made its way down there, but the green crystals glowed brighter, apparently not requiring total darkness like the ones in Omashu. Katara wondered if they had been brought from Ba Sing Se, long ago, but if the answer to that question was buried somewhere in the library, it wasn't what they were here to look for.

Unfortunately, Katara wasn't sure exactly what it was they were looking for.

"Any idea where to start?" she asked, fiddling with the strap of her shoulder bag as she eyed the signs on the ends of the rows of shelves. They were written in a script she didn't recognize, and Zuko just shrugged, indicating he couldn't read it either. Probably it was some ancient Earth Kingdom language, maybe even older than the Omashu shrine. "Well," she said, heading down the first row, "here's as good a place as any, then."

Katara was afraid that everything would be written in ancient languages neither of them could read, but to her relief most of the books and scrolls were labeled with recognizable characters. Though some of the titles seemed rather dry, like Agricultural Products of the Western Air Temple, others looked more intriguing, like Politics Taken from the Sacred Writings, or On the Movements of the Five Planets, or The Water Tribes and Their Migrations. Yet none seemed to immediately offer anything about the Avatar State.

"Think they have an instruction manual for Avatars?" she asked wryly as she ran her index finger along the shelf at her eye level, still scanning the titles of the books until she came to a section of neatly stacked scrolls. One in particular caught her eye: it was clearly Water Tribe in origin, with the same waves carved into its decorative blue end as were carved on the front of her necklace. Picking it up and gently unrolling it, she found it told the story of Avatar Kuruk healing the Fire Lord.

Zuko said something in response to her question, but Katara barely heard him, too engrossed in reading the detailed account of the story she had only heard vague versions of. Fire Lord Aizu had called Avatar Kuruk to the Fire Nation because he feared an assassination attempt, and Kuruk had arrived at the palace just hours after such an attempt had been carried out. The assassin had fled, and the Fire Lord was on his deathbed. Summoning the power of the Avatar State, Kuruk had been able to…

"Energybending?" Katara read out loud.

"What?" Zuko asked in confusion.

"That's what it says," Katara replied, pointing at the scroll. "In the Avatar State, Kuruk was able to heal the Fire Lord by energybending." The scroll offered no explanation of the unfamiliar term, and Katara frowned in thought, puzzling over what it meant. "He didn't use waterbending to redirect the body's chi," she finally surmised. "He must have been able to bend the chi itself." It seemed the spirits really had seen fit, for whatever reason, to withhold the gift of healing with waterbending from any man, even the Avatar.

"Well, that might make Aang feel better about the fact that he couldn't heal Appa," Zuko said, evidently having reached the same conclusion. "But does it say anything about how Kuruk controlled the Avatar State?"

Katara quickly skimmed over the story once more to make sure, then she shook her head regretfully. "No, it doesn't," she said, rolling it back up with a sigh. "So we keep looking." It had seemed like a promising start, but she should have known better than to think the first scroll she picked up would have the information they were searching for. Still, she put the scroll in her bag, in case they needed to refer back to it later.

Zuko nodded and headed over to the other side of the aisle, and they both continued their search in silence for a while. Katara crouched down and started looking at lower shelves, trying to figure out some sense of order in the collection, but there seemed to be texts from all the nations, covering all manner of subjects - history, poetry, astronomy, medicine. She picked up one of the books on medicine, entitled Investigations of the Healing Techniques of the Four Nations, by Professor Hua Tuo, wondering if it might have more to say about the Avatar's energybending abilities. It was a heavy tome, so she stood and set it down on the reading table nearby.

"Maybe we should be looking for something written by an Avatar?" Zuko suggested as he browsed the opposite shelf. Apparently not seeing anything that fit that bill, he looked around at the other shelves, but found no clues that way, either. "How is this library even organized?" he muttered. "Is there an Avatar section?"

Katara shrugged as she flipped through the book on healing techniques, most of which seemed to consist of Hua Tuo's catalog of the medicinal herbs found in each of the nations and his evaluation of the efficacy of various remedies. The word "Avatars" jumped out at her in a passage towards the end of the book, and she read eagerly:

Part Five: Bending Techniques

While stories of Avatars and other great benders healing wounds or curing the sick crop up here and there in all the nations, my research suggests these are by and large apocryphal legends. The only benders consistently known to have these powers are the women of the Water Tribes, who are of course some of the most skilled physicians in all the nations, both as regards their remarkable gift and the more conventional medicinal methods. Why the former should be limited to the women of the tribes I have not been able to discover. They insist that the spirits have simply ordained it so, and the men seem to have little interest in the healing arts. At any rate, I was unable to find male benders willing to experiment with the techniques.

Among the other nations, those alleged bending healers I have encountered have proved either to be charlatans, or else they produce their results by other means. A notable exception is the phenomenon known as the royal touch in the Fire Nation. The Fire Lord is able to use his bending to cure those afflicted by fever. As the story goes, this is a special blessing bestowed upon him by Agni's consort. While this sounds like yet another fanciful tale, I have personally witnessed Fire Lord Zoten perform this "miracle", and I have verified its efficacy. Skilled firebenders are often able to control their own body temperatures to an impressive extent, but none that I have worked with have been able to replicate the results of the royal touch - that is, true healing of the ailment, rather than temporary relief of the symptoms. The traditional explanation, while undoubtedly a romantic bit of royal propaganda, may yet contain some kernel of truth.

Katara tore her eyes away from the book. It didn't elucidate Aang's problem any, but she couldn't ignore the implications of that second paragraph. "Zuko," she said anxiously, holding the book out towards him. "Look at this."

Zuko set the scroll he had just picked up back on the shelf and came and took the book from her hand. He skimmed the page quickly, and frowned. "Fire Lord Zoten was Aizu's grandfather," he pointed out. "So this book must have been written before Kuruk's time."

"No, not that," Katara said exasperatedly, leaning over his arm to point to the line on the page that first mentioned the royal touch. "Doesn't that sound familiar to you?"

Zuko read the passage she had indicated again. "Oh," he said softly. Katara sat down on the bench along the reading table as he flipped through the next few pages, but apparently he didn't find any reassurance there, for he merely set the book back down on the table and sat next to her.

"Okay," he said, taking her hand and threading their fingers together. "That's one book, one scholar, and he obviously doesn't even fully understand what he's talking about." He sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as her. "There could be another explanation."

"But it fits too well," Katara insisted. "Your trick for fevers...you said yourself that you've never heard of another firebender who could do that. Those children in the camp were fully cured, just like the book describes. And at the spirit oasis, Yue said you've had the blessing for the Fire Lord for a long time." She worked her fingers out of his grasp and, reaching over with her free hand, pulled his hand into her lap, turning it over so she held it cradled in both of hers, palm upwards. "What if this is what she meant?"

"You think the spirits wanted me to be Fire Lord," Zuko said slowly, looking down at his own hand, "even back then?"

Katara could see how that would be hard for him to believe. The years between his uncle's death and their meeting at the refugee camp were the loneliest and most difficult of Zuko's life. But the young fire sage Ukon's voice whispered in the back of her mind, if the crown were his by right… "I think, maybe," she answered hesitantly, tracing her thumb over the beginning of the lightning scar on his palm, "as far as the spirits were concerned, you already were."

Zuko closed his eyes and took a deep breath, but before he could say anything more, they were interrupted by a soft whining sound. They both looked back towards the end of the row of shelves and saw one of the gray fox spirits sitting there, bushy tail sweeping back and forth across the floor, eyeing them intently. "What's that in its mouth?" Katara asked.

Zuko got to his feet, and the knowledge seeker ran to him, rearing up on its hind legs to offer the object to him eagerly. Katara could now see that it was a scroll, though it looked rather worse for the wear than anything else she had seen in the library. It was even singed at the edges, like it had been rescued from a fire.

Zuko carefully unrolled the scroll partway. "It's a Fire Nation legend," he said, looking back at the fox spirit. "Why did you bring me this?"

The knowledge seeker only gave another low, pitiful whine, then cocked its head as if listening to something far away for a moment, before darting off into the shadows. Katara thought the spirit almost seemed afraid of someone finding out what it had done, which only piqued her curiosity about the contents of the scroll.

But before either she or Zuko could read the mysterious document more closely, a piercing shriek, unmistakably owlish, sounded from the level above them. Zuko tucked the scroll inside his tunic as they both ran back towards the stairs.

Someone, it seemed, hadn't followed the library rules.

Eastern Earth Kingdom - Eight Years Earlier

Zuko reached the village at the base of the Hangdao Pass three days after the anniversary of the comet. Remembering the lay of the land from when he had joined up with General Kwon's army, and from countless hours spent poring over maps afterwards, he had made for the pass directly, planning to cross through the mountains and continue his voyage south on the other side. It would have been an even shorter journey, except that he had stayed where Katara had left him for nearly a full day before he had found the will to keep moving. Her reaction to learning his true identity, while completely expected, had left him feeling empty and aimless.

When he saw the state of the village, he cursed himself for having given in to those feelings. From the broken doors and windows to the debris littering the streets, it was obvious they had just been attacked. Hollow-eyed villagers went about picking up the pieces of their homes. Somewhere, a child was crying. Zuko clenched his fists. If he had been here a day earlier…

What would he have done? Fought off the attackers? He probably would have just gotten himself hurt again in the process, with no waterbender to save him this time. Or, he thought bitterly, he would have ended up revealing himself as a firebender once more, and the villagers would hate him. As they should. He had to stop thinking like he was some kind of hero, like he would ever be able to earn anyone's respect.

The suspicion with which the villagers greeted him was certainly a helpful reminder of that. Most drew back in fear when they saw him. Mothers clutched their children tighter, husbands edged in front of their wives. Zuko pulled his straw hat lower on his brow and bowed his head, trying to look non-threatening, and resigned himself to passing through the village without stopping.

A tall man with fresh cuts and bruises on his bare, muscular arms blocked his path, clearly having other ideas. "What do you want?" he demanded, voice both gruff and tired.

"Nothing," Zuko replied, his own voice hoarse with thirst. There was a stream just on the other side of the pass, or at least there had been when General Kwon's army had marched this way. He would just have to press on, and hope it hadn't dried up. "Just let me go. I'll get out of your way."

"He doesn't look like one of the pirates," another male voice put in. Zuko glanced to the side to see a young man about his own age, holding a wooden staff at the ready in spite of his words.

"Pirates?" Zuko echoed in confusion. This far inland, how could there be pirates?

"Sandbenders," the first man clarified, crossing his injured arms over his broad chest. Zuko looked him in the eye for the first time. He had a leathery, sun-worn face and a salt-and-pepper beard. "A nasty gang of sandbenders. They've never come through the pass before, but I guess it's hard times all around. Got them desperate."

Zuko nodded in understanding, glancing around at the damage done to the village again. With General Kwon's army, he had skirted the desert, and seen the sandbenders on their strange land-going skiffs only from a distance. "I'm sorry," he said lamely. "I don't want any trouble."

The bearded man gave him a scrutinizing look for another moment, then shook his head. "Neither do we," he said, making a gesture with one hand for Zuko to go on his way. Bowing his head again, Zuko complied. He could be through the pass soon, and then the stream, if his luck could just be something less than abysmal this one time…

Behind him, he heard the bearded man add as a melancholy afterthought, "Neither did that waterbender." He froze, his mental image of a clear, calm stream hardening into one of furious blue eyes.

"What waterbender?" he asked, heart pounding. There had been two of them, at the camp, Katara and another healer, he reminded himself. There could have been another waterbender wandering this part of the Earth Kingdom. It didn't have to be her.

"She came here just yesterday," the young man with the staff replied. "Said she used to work with refugees."

Zuko's head snapped up as he turned abruptly to face the two men again. "What happened to her?"

"She tried to help fight them off," the young man explained, planting one end of his staff in the ground and leaning on it slightly. "But the sandbenders took her."

Zuko's mind reeled, filling in the blanks of the story. Katara had come here, had tried to help the people in this village, because of course she had, because she would always try to help those who were deserving of it. The sandbending pirates had attacked, and she had tried to fight, but she had been overpowered because… "The moon," he said aloud, little more than a rasping whisper. Last night had been a new moon. He of all people knew how the moon affected waterbenders.

"Did you know her?" the bearded man asked, gentler than his earlier interrogation. But Zuko was looking past him now, back towards the road he had taken into the village, the same road Katara must have traveled just ahead of him. If he had gone after her, if he had made any attempt to catch up to her, instead of just giving up again…

She still would have had every reason to hate him, he reminded himself.

"I'm sorry, if she was your friend," the bearded man was saying. "But we're in no shape here to go chasing after sandbenders right now…"

Zuko knew he was right. The villagers were in no position to be heroes, and neither was he. They were all just barely surviving, and had to look out for themselves. Running headlong after pirates would be a fool's errand, and even if he could find her now, there would be no guarantee it would do any good…But there had been no guarantee for the princess of the Northern Water Tribe, either, and that had not stopped her from doing what needed to be done.

It came down to the same two choices he'd always had: He could do what was easy, or he could do what was right.

Zuko looked the bearded man in the eye once more. "The sandbenders," he repeated determinedly, "which way did they go?"

Spirit Library - Ten Years After Sozin's Comet

While Sokka suggested they split up to search the library for information about the Avatar State, Aang stared down the arm of the bridge where the fox spirit had run off with his glider, hoping his hasty decision had been the right one. He barely even noticed when Zuko and Katara left them to explore the level below, and only belatedly realized that Sokka had called his name twice after that.

"Sorry," he called, snapping out of his reverie. "I'm coming!" He followed Sokka down the opposite arm of the bridge, into the seemingly endless rows of shelves piled with books and scrolls. If they wanted to find anything, they had better get started.

Sokka led him down several aisles, glancing occasionally at the placards at the ends of the shelves, which Aang couldn't read, and muttering to himself, "No, not here...further back...this one perhaps? No, not likely…" At last, after several twists and turns that had Aang nearly disoriented in the warren of shelves, Sokka let out a triumphant "Aha!" at a section that, to Aang's eye at least, looked like any other, and declared that this was where they would begin their search.

Aang scanned the shelves uncertainly, but Sokka quickly began pulling books and stacking them on one of the reading tables, still muttering to himself as he went. "How do you know what to look for?" Aang finally asked, pulling a book at random. It was an illustrated guide to ancient megafauna, and it fell open to a picture of some kind of giant lion turtle.

Sokka glanced over Aang's shoulder. "Well, that's not going to help us," he said dismissively, taking the book from his hands and putting it back on the shelf. "Think history, not zoology; or possibly spiritual writings. We want Avatar stuff, right?"

"Okay," Aang replied, reaching for another title. "Like this one?" It was a slim green book with gold lettering, and he held it out to Sokka for inspection.

"The Wonders of Kyoshi," Sokka read aloud from the cover. He took the book, flipped through it, and then shook his head. "This is just a guide book to Kyoshi Island." He replaced it on the shelf as well. "Tell you what," he said, placing both hands on Aang's shoulders and steering him towards the reading table where the books he had pulled were piled up. "Why don't you get started with those, while I keep looking?" He gave Aang's shoulder a final clap and wandered off, talking to himself again.

With a sigh, Aang sat down at the reading table and pulled the first book from the stack, opening it to the title page. "The Rise and Fall of Chin the Conqueror," he read aloud, then frowned. "Oh great, that sounds like fun reading," he muttered.

"What was that?" Sokka called from the end of the aisle, where he had unrolled a large scroll and was studying its contents.

"Why do I have to read about Kyoshi killing Chin?" Aang complained. He would rather not dwell on that particular episode of his past life, if it were up to him, since he had already ruled out the same solution against Ozai.

"She used the Avatar State to do it," Sokka replied with a shrug, rolling up the scroll and replacing it on the shelf. "It would have to be an Avatar before Yangchen," he mumbled, tugging on the ends of his beard as he resumed his monologue. "Now, who was before Yangchen anyway…"

"Avatar Hasekura?" Aang offered helpfully, though he was almost certain he had never heard the name before. Sometimes little things like that just came to him, snipits of his own past lives with no context. But Sokka seemingly ignored him, and he had little option but to return to the book on Chin.

He skipped over the first few chapters on Chin's rise to power, looking for the point where Kyoshi entered the story. He was surprised to discover that she had actually negotiated a series of peace agreements between Chin and the other rulers of what was then the Earth Nation, not yet united under a single king. Chin had broken every one of them, seeking to expand his territory, the other princes and generals had rallied to the king in Ba Sing Se, who promised them protection in return for fealty where Chin only offered subjugation. But the war had only come to an end when the Avatar had chosen a side, and faced Chin in battle.

Unfortunately, the author of this particular book had little to say about the details of the battle itself. He didn't even mention the Avatar State by name, only that Kyoshi had "called upon the full extent of her powers as the Avatar" to defeat Chin and separate her hometown from the mainland. Aang snapped the book shut in frustration, and moved on to the next one in the stack Sokka had laid out for him.

He didn't have much luck with that book, either - a rather dry account of a dispute between the Northern and Eastern Air Temples that Avatar Yangchen had helped resolve, which he could barely follow. As he set that tome aside, Sokka came and joined him at the reading table with another armful of books and scrolls, which he began to silently peruse. But no great insights seemed to immediately come to him, either.

Aang picked up the next book in his stack, which had a plain black leather cover. The spine was stamped in silver characters with the title Spiritual Exercises, which sounded vague, but he was pleasantly surprised when he opened it to the title page that it had actually been authored by an Avatar named Inigo. While Aang felt a faint stirring of recognition at the name, the same way he'd been able to conjure up the name of the Fire Nation Avatar who had stood beside Yangchen in his visions at Roku's temple, he didn't know any of the details of Avatar Inigo's life, and no further revelations came to him. Still, he felt certain one of his previous incarnations had to be more helpful than some boring scholar writing about things second-hand.

Sure enough, scanning the chapter titles, he found there was a section of the book dedicated specifically to the Avatar State. Hastily flipping to the appropriate page, he read eagerly:

Even more than the command of the four elements, it is mastery of the Avatar State which is the Avatar's greatest task - and often his most difficult. Yet it is essential. Only in the Avatar State is the bridge between the natural and spiritual worlds fully open, and thus only by judicious use of the Avatar State can the Avatar fully exercise the duty to which he is called.

To properly open the bridge to the spirit world, the Avatar must himself be open - that is, any spiritual blockage will hinder him. The clearing of all seven chakras is an essential prerequisite, a prayerful and meditative process which the Avatar must complete under the spiritual direction of an experienced guru. A full exploration of this process would be another book unto itself.

Once this is done, the Avatar will have control over the greatest of the powers given to him. But control must always be accompanied by discernment. The Avatar State errs not, but it carries tremendous risk nonetheless. I learned this lesson from none other than Koh himself, an unlikely ally, but it was my own folly that brought me into his clutches.

Aang stopped reading. Avatar Inigo might not have given him all the answers, but he had at least indicated the right direction. "Sokka, look at this," he said excitedly, placing Inigo's book on top of the one Sokka was currently reading.

Sokka blinked and read the page. "Of course!" he exclaimed, taking the book from Aang's hands and leaping to his feet.

"So, now we look for books on chakras, right?" Aang said eagerly, springing to his feet as well.

But Sokka closed the book and shook his head. "Clearing your chakras isn't something you can learn to do from a book," he said, tapping the black leather cover with his knuckles. "Like Inigo says, you need a guru."

"So...can you teach me?" Aang asked. Sokka was the most spiritual person he knew, so he figured if anyone could direct him through the process, it would be him.

Sokka pinched the bridge of his nose. "I keep telling everyone, I'm not a guru." He sighed dramatically, and when he spoke again it was as if he was complaining to the otherwise empty room at large. "You have one or two visions and people think you know everything…"

"Okay, okay," Aang said impatiently. They were finally on to something. This wasn't the time for Sokka to get weird about his spirit connection. "Then how do we find…"

His question was cut off by a lemur who swooped down the aisle of shelves, landed on Sokka's shoulder, and began chattering urgently. "Momo?" Sokka asked in confusion. "What's up, buddy?"

Aang frowned. He had left Momo with Toph, and told her to send him if something went wrong… "Oh no," he gasped, and ran for what he thought was the exit, airbending enhancing his speed.

"Aang, wait!" Sokka called after him. "The way we came in was that way!"

Aang skidded to a halt, looked back to see Sokka already heading in the opposite direction, and hurried to catch up with him. Briefly, he considered whether one of them should go find Zuko and Katara, but just as they came back to the edge of the cruciform bridge under the tower, there was a great rush of wind, and Wan Shi Tong suddenly blocked their path.

"Leaving so soon?" the great owl asked darkly. "Have you already found all the enlightenment you could need?"

"Our friend is in trouble!" Aang hastily explained. "We need to help her!"

"Do not presume you will be admitted to my library again if you leave," Wan Shi Tong went on, as if he hadn't heard. There was certainly none of Aang's urgency reflected in him. "If you were truly in pursuit of knowledge, for the sake of knowledge and nothing else, you would not waste this opportunity so carelessly." He leaned towards them menacingly. "In fact, you might never wish to leave this place at all."

Aang clenched his fists, anger at the great owl's obstruction welling up in his chest. "What's the point of knowledge," he snapped, "if I can't do anything with it!"

He didn't need to hear Sokka's whispered uh-oh to know that this had not been the right thing to say to a testy knowledge spirit.

"What is the point!" Wan Shi Tong repeated furiously, drawing himself up to his full height and spreading his great wings wide. "The acquisition of knowledge is all that matters! There is no other point! Would you rather return to the world of men and their pointless conflicts?"

If it came to his personal feelings, Aang wouldn't actually mind if there were a way for him to escape having to deal with the war. But practically speaking, that would mean abandoning not only the people he cared about, but the entire world. And he couldn't do that again. "I'm the Avatar," he insisted to the great knowledge spirit. "Those conflicts are my responsibility."

This, also, had obviously not been what Wan Shi Tong wanted to hear. He let out a great shriek, the first truly animalistic noise they had heard from him, as if human speech could not contain his wrath. Then with beak and talons bared, he lunged.

Aang barely airbended himself out of the way in time, grabbing Sokka's arm and pulling him with him. They ran, and the great owl gave chase, through the aisles of his precious collection, scattering books and papers in his fury. Aang followed Sokka's lead, and soon realized he was bringing them towards the stairs to the lower level - which they reached just as Zuko and Katara came running up to meet them.

"What happened?" Zuko asked.

"Owl mad," Sokka replied breathlessly, grabbing both him and Katara by the upper arms and shoving them ahead of him. "Run!" Momo leapt off his shoulder and swooped to the head of their party just as another furious avian shriek sounded behind them.

They ducked and turned through several more aisles until they finally seemed to have lost their pursuer, then headed back towards the bridge. They were almost at the center crossing of its four arms, where Sokka's rope still dangled invitingly. Aang wished with a bitter pang of regret that he still had his glider. It was going to be a long climb, and they would be sitting turtleducks.

But the great owl shot out of the gloom below the bridge and barred their path before that could become an issue. Wings spread again, he gave a final shriek and prepared to lunge again. If ever there was a time Aang wished he could summon the Avatar State…

"Halt!" a booming voice commanded the spirit. But it wasn't the Avatar's. It was Sokka who had cried out, who now stood holding out one of the many talismans he wore around his neck - one that Aang thought might have been shaped like an owl.

Wan Shi Tong shrunk back with a low hiss, and Aang realized his neck had grown longer, almost snake-like. In fact, with his wings now pressed against his body, the knowledge spirit looked remarkably serpentine.

"Wan Shi Tong," Sokka continued in the same commanding voice, stepping forward so he now stood at the head of the group, between the spirit and the others. The rope now hung behind him. "You were given this library so that you might share your knowledge with mankind. You have neglected this duty, and have been shown patience. But now I ask you: Will you serve as you were meant to?"

Katara had grabbed Aang's hand and was edging him towards the rope, but Aang was too transfixed by what was happening to start climbing. At Sokka's question, Wan Shi Tong seemed to coil in on himself, more snake than owl by the second.

"Serve," the spirit repeated indignantly, drawing out the sound of the word so it was more of a hiss. Somewhere, there was a distant rumbling sound, and Aang thought he felt the bridge tremble beneath his feet, just a little. "Will I serve?" the spirit repeated again, and the rumbling grew louder, the tremors more definite. "No, I will not serve!" the great black snake shrieked, for that was now what it was.

"Aang, climb," Katara whispered urgently, and Aang hurried to obey. The whole structure of the library was shaking now, and the rope swayed perilously as he clamored up it, Katara and Zuko close behind. He spared one last glance down when he reached the top, to make sure Sokka was following them, and he saw the great snake thrashing as if in agony as pieces of sculpture and masonry fell around him. Then the light from the window, their only way out, began to shift, and Aang realized with horror that the library wasn't collapsing, but sinking further into the depths of the earth.

Aang leaped through the window with a burst of airbending, pulling on the rope with all his strength, and Katara, Zuko, and Sokka all came tumbling into the hot desert sand after him. Momo was flying in frantic circles overhead. A moment later, there was a burst of flames from the window, and then the tip of the spire, all that was still visible of the great library of Wan Shi Tong, crumbled and sank into the dust, leaving nothing behind but a faintly sulphuric smell that was soon blown away by the dry desert wind.

Then, pushing himself to his feet and looking around, Aang realized there really was nothing but barren desert sands as far as the eye could see. There was no sign of Toph, and Appa was gone, and any clues as to what had happened must have been erased by the shifting sands.