Chapter 14

Kyoshi had spent nearly the entire next day trying to do research on spirit cults, or gatherings as the man referred to them as. She had stopped by the cell again earlier to find that he wasn’t in the mood for talking anymore. He seemed more spirit than man now, his voice echoing, and odd movements, like when she had first seen him. Not really 100% there anymore. Like there was something else in the room with them. But nonetheless he still said nothing.

“Kyoshi it’s late.” Jinpa said, tapping her in the shoulder. “You’re still up aren’t you? Why are you here anyway.” She responded, putting the book back where she had removed it from the shelf.

“I figured I’d find you here” He smiled smugly. “Of course you would.”

“What are you researching this time anyway?” He asked, examining the books. “I was trying to look at beliefs, belief systems? I honestly don’t really know.” She admitted.

“The guy we have captive stopped talking so I thought I would try and find a lead elsewhere.” Jinpa just sighed, “Just go to sleep, even if you do find something at this hour you won’t remember it anyway”

“Fine,” Kyoshi said, taking another book off the shelf. “But I’m taking this with me”

“Hey where’s your built-in alarm system anyway?” He asked as they walked out of the library and into the dark courtyard. Kyoshi thought for a moment, it was odd that Jinpa had found her first, normally Rangi would have dragged her away from any work by this time.

“I actually don’t know,” Kyoshi admitted. “I’m sure she’s fine,” Jinpa said as they continued to walk. “Yeah of course she’s fine, why wouldn’t she be?” She responded.

But a small wave of panic still flooded her body, all of the small what ifs, she just had to have them answered. “Just go, but for the love of Rava go sleep after” Jinpa said having sensed Kyoshi’s urgency to find the firebender.

“I will, promise”

After they had captured one of the members the disturbances seemed to have come to a halt, which was good. But Kyoshi’s mind still jumped to the worst case scenarios. It was hard not to. One hour, she told herself. If she couldn’t find her in one hour she would panic.

After a while of wandering around the grounds she finally found the fire bender in a training room Kyoshi watched for a minute as the fire bender’s back was turned to her while she produced magnificent flames. They were as strong as they were before the incident, if not stronger. “When did that happen?” Kyoshi asked as she walked up. “Believe it or not your stupid little ‘it all just clicks’ theory has some weight to it.” Rangi replied, as she produced two twisting flames.

“It was during the last attack at the wall of the palace.” She explained.

“I don’t remember you using any firebending, I thought you were just using hand to hand combat.” Kyoshi recalled.

“That’s because you had passed out, and you were flickering in and out of the avatar state. Remember?”

“Oh yeah right, so what triggered the click then?” Kyoshi asked, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.

“I had to protect you dummy.” Rangi replied, watching as the Avatar’s face went red.

“I can’t believe I missed it”

“Me too, but you were a little too busy being passed out on the ground in front of me.”

Kyoshi just laughed as they left the room. This made Kyoshi more confident in the possibility of her accepting the invitation, now that Rangi’s bending seemed to have returned to its prior strength, and force.

“So why were you out this late?”

“Hey you can’t be mad at me you were too” Kyoshi argued. “You act like I’m always mad,” Rangi said defensively, crossing her arms. “You always seem mad at me then, for one thing or the other.”

“That’s because you do stupid things, ” Rangi said smugly. “Anyway back to the original question.”

“Oh yeah right” Kyoshi said, rubbing the back of her neck again. “I was in the library looking up belief systems, or other things like that. I thought maybe I could find something on spiritual cults. But anything spirit related was all tied into the air nomads.”

“Fair enough, so that guy is still refusing to talk?” Rangi asked, taking off her chest plate as they entered the room. “Yeah he hasn’t said anything since that first day.”

Kyoshi felt guilty, she knew why he had stopped talking. It was because he had nothing else to tell. He had spoken his peace, and nothing she could say would get him to open up more without jeopardizing their position.

But keeping this had another toll on her. The thoughts seemed to have transcended into dreams, the night before it was all her mind would think of. While she didn’t remember most of them, they all felt so real. It was so terrifying in the moment, she began to fear that if she messed up that one of the nightmares might come true.

The two settled into bed with barely another word. Rangi must have sensed Kyoshi’s tenseness though because she nestled herself right under her chin. “Everything’s fine.” She said quietly. But that only caused Kyoshi to tense up even more.

The fire bender wrapped her arms around Kyoshi’s waist, pulling two even closer together. “I promise, no matter what, everything will be okay.” She said.

Her eyes started to water. Kyoshi felt torn, but unsure of the next move. The best thing to do was probably to accept the invitation, and go to see how much information she could find out. But there’s no way that Rangi would be okay with that, she would insist on coming along. Which would be another issue. Or if she didn’t come then she would trail her right from the get go, but if these people found out then there would be a whole other set of problems.

Better to ask for forgiveness. She would forgive her. Right?

Kyoshi drifted in and out of sleep, but every once and while she would wake up suddenly to look for signs of daybreak. Each time she woke she pushed a little further from Rangi, so that she wouldn’t disturb her once she got up.

The next time Kyoshi opened her eyes there was just the smallest bit of light parking above the horizon. It was time.

She rose from the bed and started writing a letter to Rangi. Apologizing, and telling her not to try and follow her, or the whole plan would be for nothing. She told her that she would be able to get first hand information straight from the source, and that she would meet her on the other side of the valley, a spot they had visited once before. It was a meditation spot of Yancheng’s, a very spiritual location. She was sure she could get them to be there. She wrote to meet her there in a week. But not to try and find her until then, she promised her safety as well. She was apparently part of a plan so she was sure they wouldn’t cause her any harm.

Even though Kyoshi wasn’t entirely sure about that last part, she thought it was important for Rangi.

As she signed it a bird landed on the window leaving a rolled up scroll. This was it, everything would all be fine, she would see her in a week and everything would be okay.

Maybe she would have gathered so much information by then Rangi wouldn’t even be mad. That was probably a bit too hopeful thinking but it was still nice.

She left the letter on the desk, but before she left she went over to her and gently kissed the firebender’s forehead. She didn’t even flinch, good. Kyoshi thought to herself, as she went to pick up her boots, and a couple belongings before leaving the room. Although a part of her wished the firebender had woken up to stop her, though she couldn’t bring herself to wake her herself either. She just had to do this right.

After she left the room she slid on her boots, and tucked her fans into her belt before finding one of the large mirrors and applying her makeup as perfectly as she could manage.

As she left she unrolled the piece of parchment that the bird had left, sure enough it was an invitation. Giving directions to a meeting spot just outside of town. She was sure she could do this right, she had to do this right. Kyoshi thought as she slipped on her gloves as she left the grounds.

The sun was now resting on the horizon as she walked across town and out into a field of open space, finding the largest tree for miles around.

At the largest tree dig down 18 feet. The letter read, Kyoshi tucked the parchment into her belt as well as she sunk the ground below her feet. It was dark so far below the surface, but it was made even darker when someone had covered the hole.

“Who’s there” Kyoshi called spinning around. There was a rumbling sound of earth falling, slighting shaking the ground Kyoshi stood on before a set of lanterns were lit revealing a larger room of people. The masked man among them.

“I’m glad you took up my invitation”

Thank you so much for over 1.5k reads that’s so amazing!!! I love reading all of your comments they honestly give me life. I’ll try and update soon, thanks again for reading❤️