Legends Of the Fall - A House of Crows Companion
Title: Legends Of the Fall - A House of Crows Companion
Author: Eternity in Seconds
Rating: T
Pairings: Blue Spirit/It's a Secret
Summary: (A companion to the House of Crows. Outatkes, Extras etc) Ch1: The Fire Nation has many legends. One that has withstood the test of time is that of the Blue Spirit – a Warrior of Water… The extended tale from HoC Parts 4 & 5
Authors Note: So, this is the complete tale from the House of Crows (Parts 4 and 5). I decided to put it in its completed state here, so any who haven't read House of Crows can still read this! Legends of the Fall will be a place for outtakes or extra titbits from my House of Crows vignettes (I'm thinking of an episode starring... Sokka!)
Disclaimer: Bryke own EVERYTHING. I may own the story herein this FanFiction and I may own some of the Original Characters, but the original idea belongs to them.

In the Second Age of the Dragon's Eye the World of the Here and the Spirit World were at war. The War was started over a mortal girl, as most of the wars back then were. Two spirits had fallen in love with her, but she was married to a mortal King. One of the Spirits was the Great Lord Agni-Of-The-Sun; the other was La-Of-The-Ocean. The girl was Hellan of Froi.

Froi was a land to the Far West, across the Emerald Sea, where the people had spun hair of yellow and gold. She was beautiful. She'd caught the attention of Lord Agni when her husband, a Prince of Froi, had led her through the streets of their city. She had stopped in front of a group of orphans and, along with her handmaiden, had given each of the children a blood red apple and a large gold coin. Agni had been mesmerised by her generosity.

Agni fell in love with her.

Agni had loved many women – Spirit and mortal alike – because he was passion and fury and light.

Hellan had caught the attention of Lord La on a brilliant night, when the moon was asleep and only the stars graced the skies. She had danced along with the beach with her handmaid, singing a song in her native tongue, and danced on the line where water met earth.

Lord La had seen her dancing and fallen in love with her beauty and grace. He had ridden his chariot of coral, led by three sea foam horses, and spoken to her. Her handmaid had warned her, but Hellan had been hypnotised by the strange man. Before anything more could happen, Hellan's Prince had arrive on the beach and taken her back to the castle. He was too late though.

For a complete moon cycle, Hellan took her maid down to the beach and danced. La would watch from his perch on the waves. On the night Hellan was supposed to wed, La took her from the beach at sunrise. Agni was furious. He sent a thousand Spirits out to find her. They scoured the globe, but hadn't found any trace of the girl. Lady Tui-Of-The-Moon took ill and the moon disappeared from the sky.

Months passed and finally Agni had no other choice. He had always been in love with Tui, and had spent his days chasing her across the sky, but, knowing that he could never have her, he loved mortals. For Tui had always loved La.

He knew that Tui's Inner Light was going out, so he left his Sky Kingdom and descended down into the Pits of Purgatory, where the worst mortals and Spirits were forced to stay for all eternity in pain and suffering. He travelled past the Plains of Everlasting Ice, he moved past the Grotto Of Despair, past the Fire Canyon of Endless Unrest until he arrived at the towering Black Ash Mountain. Then, he started climbing. He climbed and climbed and climbed, and he could feel the years he wasn't supposed to age come and go, until he finally came to the chained man at the top. And his Guardian.

The Guardian turned to Agni and bowed deeply.

Long ago, the Guardian had been a member of Akala– the Mistress of the Dawn and Agni's beloved daughter's – guard. He had been a strong and fearsome warrior during the last Great War between Froi and the Fire Nation. The Guardian had been blessed by the Spirits of War and Chaos themselves. But, somehow, Akala had been murdered.

La had been married to Akala at the time, and taken the Guardian's name, moulding the mask he wore as a member of the guard to the Guardian's face. Then, La had cast the Guardian out to serve Leelo, the Mother of the Dead.

"Guardian, I come to you in an hour of sorrow and pain," Agni said to the masked man. "I come to you for help. The Moon's light is going out, and the Veil between Us and the Mortal World is tearing apart. You are my last hope." Then Agni did something he had never done before. He bowed his head to the Guardian.

The Guardian had always loved Agni, and appreciated and loved his people. The Guardian was also a Warrior of Order, and knew that if the discord Agni was explaining continued, the world would forever be a place of Twilight and Shadow. So, the Guardian clasped his fist and bowed in the traditional style of Agni's people and offered his sword to the King of the Sun.

Agni smiled. "From this day forth, you shall be one of my Blood Warriors. Thank you, Warrior-mine." Together, they descended.

"Warrior-mine," Agni said, "I do not wish another Spirit War upon the people. They almost did not survive the other one. You shall work in My Shadow and be My Shadow. My first task for you, Warrior-mine, is to find the Princess Hellan of Froi.' Agni explained everything he could to the Warrior, then; "Even if you succeed, Warrior-mine, I will never be able to have you with me in the sun. But there is a chance that you can join me of your own good deed. My test to you, Warrior-mine, is that you protect what is most precious to me. Like you once did with Akala."

Agni said no more, for they had reached the Doors of Death, where Leelo the Dark Mother and her Three Dark Sisters waited.

"She did not bow nor did she greet the Sun King.

Her crones did.

"I have seen the past, Sun-warrior. I have seen every mistake and every choice," the first Dark Sister said.

"I have seen the present, Sun-warrior. I have seen every decision and every choice,' the second Dark Sister said.

"I have seen the future, Sun-warrior. I have seen every decision not-yet made play out and every decision not-ever made occur. You walk a twisted path, Masked One. Your choice will determine the future and the past."

Then the Dark Mother opened the gates and the two Sun-warriors left.

The Guardian started on his quest. He searched for thirty days and thirty nights, finding only traces and whispers. He took a boat across the Crystal Channel and arrived in the wild terrain of the Eastern Earth Kingdom. The Guardian could already see the effects of the tearing Veil. The fields were barren, the woodlands untamed. The people were sick and desperate. It was not the world he left behind.

On the thirty-sixth day, he was in a village on the top of a waterfall. The people hid from him, whispered and shut their windows and doors. He talked to the merchant who had the information he needed and bartered for the goods he needed. Then he was attacked by the servants of La. The Men and Spirits he had called brothers before he had been cast into Purgatory were out for his blood.

The battle was fierce and blood ran like the rain in a Fire Nation Summer Storm. The Guardian defeated his enemies, but felt no pleasure or vindication. He felt empty and torn. A blade had pierced his gut, and he felt his life-blood leaving him. He sheathed his duo blades and fell down the cliff top that had been his battlefield. The Guardian had lost too much blood and drifted in and out of consciousness.

He remembered floating in the soothing and cold waters of the river and being pulled by the current. He remembered a strange bird song as beautiful as he had ever heard, making all other forest sounds fall silent. He remembered soft hands tugging him out of the river, something as soft as spider silk brushing against his face, a scent so sweet it clouded all his senses. He felt soft hands taking away his weapons and clothes and tending to his wounds.

Five days later, the Guardian woke up. He was in a little hut, really just a single room, with a fire burning low in the centre, its smoke dancing up into the hole cut out of the roof. A tiny cot was pressed against one wall and a sleeping figure breathed evenly beneath its ghostly white sheets.

As silent as the night, he crept up to the sleeping figure and pressed his curved blade to their throat as he straddled their prone form.

"Do it," a low, throaty voice whispered in the dark. The Guardian was taken aback. He didn't do anything, simply stared at the slim woman in the bed beneath his thighs. She spoke again, "Do it. Nothing is easier."

"Aren't you afraid?" The Guardian hadn't meant to speak, but he had.

The girl was quiet for a long time. The Guardian was about to slit her throat, thinking she had finally succumbed to the fear like a coward, when her soft words echoed through the hut again. "Everyone dies, whether today or fifty years from now."

The Guardian was so taken aback by the girl's honesty - by her acceptance of death, by her beautiful and startling eyes - that he did something that he had never done before. He moved the blade from her throat and slid it back into its sheath.

"Are you the one who saved me?" He asked, getting off her soft and smooth body. She nodded, sitting up in her small bed. "Why?"

The girl didn't respond, but pulled a veil down over her face before he could look at her.

"You are looking for Hellen, are you not? Do not answer. I already know. I overheard the men talking to you on the cliff top as I searched for moonlace herbs. I can help you. I know where she is. I was her handmaiden. I told her to stay away from the bearded man, who looked too beautiful to be human. She did not listen. But, she saved my life once; when she bought me from the slave markets across the sea. I owe her a life debt. And I can repay it by helping you. Who are you, strange one, that can take on thrice as many men as himself and still survive?"

The Guardian looked at her like she was some exotic, strange animal.

"You talk too much. We need silence where we are going. Noise means death in war," he said, and the two left.

They travelled together for a hundred and one days and nights before they finally reached the place where Hellen was being held captive. The Guardian told the girl to wait for him while he saved her mistress.

The battle inside the Cathedral of New Moon was fierce. The Guardian and the men he and the girl had gathered to them in their travels took the palace by storm. He found Hellen of Froi, slung her over his shoulder, and took her away.

But when they reached the place where the girl was supposed to be, she was gone. Giving Hellen to one of his trusted Generals, the Guardian went in search of her. He found her with La.

When La saw the Guardian he exploded into a rage so powerful that the oceans beneath the Cathedral of New Moon turned blood red and the water started to boil, hissing and spitting like the infernos of Hell.

The Guardian tried to soothe the Spirit, all the while trying to get the mortal girl who had become his friend away from his rage. But the Guardian could not. "You are the reason that Akala is dead! You killed my love, No-Name, so shall I do what I should have on that day long ago. I shall take your life!"

But, before La could cast his curse, the girl took La's very own dagger and stabbed him through his heart.

There is one Law. Any mortal who slays a Spirit without being challenged by Them shall perish and be sentenced to Purgatory. Spirits cannot die in the Human Realm, but whenever they are slain in it, they will take a new form. As La fell from the Cathedral of New Moon, his body glowed and he transformed into a fish. And the girl fell to the ground in agony.

The Guardian went to her and took her in his arms.

"Why did you do that, girl?" He said.

The girl replied, "Because I love you my sweet, sad, foolish Blue Spirit."

And then she disappeared in a cloud of smoke and starlight.

The Guardian did not move. He couldn't move. The place where his Phantom Heart lay ached and bled. A thin trail of blood trickled down from between the girl's thin lips and The Guardian wished that he could see her face.

A day past and the moonless night appeared. He felt the soft and weak rays of Tui and looked up to see her cold face in the sky as it blessed him, and he heard her voice upon the bitter wind giving him Her blessing and a position as her Warrior.

A small part of the Guardian recognised that his job was done. The world was balanced once more and the War that would have ended humanity had ceased before it could start. Yet he could not move away from the girl. Her veil was still firmly in place, keeping her face a mystery shrouded in shadow and silk. The Guardian could not bring himself to remove the veil, though, because he didn't want to admit that he had failed when he needed to succeed. Cradling the girl tighter, he felt the sting of tears that would never fall and cursed La to every corner of Purgatory.

Suddenly, gracefully, the silence that had entombed the Guardian on top of the Temple was broken. A voice, like the whispers of a thousand and one lovers, or bells through wind chimes spoke; "Well done, Warrior-Who-Has-No-Name."

The Guardian looked up, startled, to face Leelo, the Dark Mother.

"You have saved us all with your sacrifice and quest for redemption. But you have failed. You could not protect what was most precious to the Sun King."

The Guardian stood up, carefully lying the veiled girl down on the cool stones.

"But I have, Milady of Shadows. Tui shines in the sky once more. Lord Agni…"

The Dark Lady cut him off with a waved, luminescent hand. "So blinded you have become. That foolish Moon-child is not the most precious thing to the Sun. Yes, he loved her – stupidly, like a little lost puppy – but if she was most precious to him, he would have claimed her long ago. The Sun is a selfish and possessive man. You of all Spirits and mortals must know this."

The Guardian growled at the most powerful Spirit in the known Realms. The Dark Mother did not flinch as he punched through a pillar, causing the rubble to fall into the ocean in the same way its master had fallen.

"I am here to take what you failed to protect. Agni wants his daughter back." The Guardian looked up, startled. "Yes. The mortal you so sorrowfully mourn is of Agni's lifeblood. Mortal, she is now, but like all mortal children of Spirits who have done great deeds, she is too be made Spirit. But first, I must take hold of her Heart so I may add it to my Heart Vault."

The Heart Vault was the place where all Spirits drew their immortality from. It was the place where their Hearts were kept alive by the Dark Mother - Mistress of Death.

''So," The Dark Mother continued as the Guardian returned to the girl's dead side. "I ask you to give me her Heart, since it belongs to you."

The Guardian froze, but the Mistress of Death continued. "Yes, Nameless. It yours and yours alone to give. The foolish child fell in love with you. If you refuse her Heart, she will move on to the Other Realms – to the Glades of Valour no doubt – and she will be forever happy. You will never see her again, because you will never belong in the Glades. But if you give me her Heart to place in my Vault, you will see her again. She will not remember you, though, Nameless. She will not remember the events that transpired here today. She will start anew in the role I give her. The Choice is yours."

The Guardian looked down at the daughter of Agni in silence and brushed away the dirt from her clothing. Tenderly he bought her cold body to his chest and held her close, burying his masked face into the crook of her neck. The silk of the Veil was soft against his neck and the Guardian regretted that he would never feel her against his face.

"What is your decision, Nameless?" the Dark Mother asked, her whispery voice brushing against him like a soothing balm. Death really was hypnotising; the greatest seductress the world would ever know.

The Guardian released his tight grip but kept the girl to his chest. "Take it. But you can't take her."

The Dark Mother smiled and her midnight and shadow hair floated around her.

"The Choice is made."

So fast she was a blur, the Dark Mother moved, coming to kneel beside the Guardian. She tilted her head to one side, watching him in a way similar to how a bird watches a stalking cat, and opened her blood red lips in a silent question. The Guardian waited for her to speak, but the Dark Mother remained silent. Then, she forced her lips against his mask and thrust her hand forward, driving it into the mortal girl's chest. Her body jerked, spasming uncontrollably and a horrifying scream ripped from her mouth. The Guardian held her tight as another woman kissed him.

"I will miss you in Hell, beloved Nameless," The Dark Mother whispered in his ear as she stood up, running a dainty hand along his masked cheek.

"Agni will come for his daughter as the sun rises in the eastern sky. I would recommend being long gone before that happens. Agni is blind in the darkness of night, but when the light of day touched the earth, he will know that his daughter is dead. Stay to my Shadows and Tui's hours, my Nameless one."

"I am not Nameless," The Guardian spoke, standing up as the Dark Mother turned away, allowing the girl to fall back to the cold earth, an empty shell. "I am Blue Spirit."

The Dark Mother watched him in the same avian way and smiled. "You are my Nameless one. You belong to me. A name given to you by some silly child doesn't change that. You are mine, just like she is now." With a twitch of her cloak, Death vanished into the Night.

The Blue Spirit knew that the Dark Mother was right. Turning to the girl he had come to love, he bent down and slowly lifted her veil. He pressed his masked lips to her bare cheek. "Come find me in the future." The Blue Spirit disappeared into the darkness of Tui.

The Guardian was never seen again. The Blue Spirit became legend as he stalked the night, a servant of the Moon, helping travellers and lost men find their way home. One day, on the reunion of his birth, the Blue Spirit was visited by Tui.

"A girl is in grave danger. I sent a unicorn to help her last night, but now they're heading into a trap. The child cannot survive without water, and the men who have taken her led her into a volcanic crater. Help her, Spirit. Bring her back to the water where she can live."

So the Blue Spirit left to do his Mistress bidding. He tracked the men to the volcanic island – a lush, green place of life and passion – and found the men. He commanded tem to let the girl go and when they refused, he cut them down. When he found her, she was near death, dressed in red dress with a veil over her face. Quickly, he bought her back to a hot spring and lay her down.

"Thank you, stranger," She said, her chest heaving beneath the fabric of her dress.

"I do as my Mistress wants, girl," he could feel his pulse race.

"Still, you did not have to save me."

"Her will is my will. I owe my livelihood to her, girl. She freed me."

"Then your Mistress is all goodness."

"She is what she is, girl."

"Why do you call me girl?"

"I do not know your name."

"I am the Painted Lady," and she raised the veil around her face and the Blue Spirit lost all his breath as he gazed at her, Agni's daughter.

And he knew that this was the only way Tui been able to thank him.

He stood up, bowing to her deeply. "I take your leave, Painted Lady of Agni."

She stopped him with a pleading whispered. "Will you leave me in the dark, wondering who my Saviour is?"

Not turning, he said, "I am the Blue Spirit."

Suddenly, she was beside him. "Thank you, then, my Blue Spirit." And she pressed a kiss to his masked cheek.

He left without another word and tried not to return to her.

The Painted Lady did not forget her saviour, and asked Agni to raise a city within the volcano, near the life-returning waters he had bought her too. This city, raised in honour of the Blue Spirit, was called Caldera City.

Authors Note: Well, TA DA!

The full and complete Tale of the Blue Spirit (as partly seen in House of Crows). I hope you enjoy the ending.

Regarding House of Crows: Don't expect another update for a while. I have plans for the 2013 ZUTARA WEEK and that will consume most of my time for the wnext week and a half. Apologises for all those people who actually read my FanFiction.

Read and Review, constructive criticism welcome,

- EIS