the mighty spirits / tolerate no impudence / and show no mercy

[roc_on]

Beila has been volunteering at the hospital for a week now. About four percent of the population can waterbend, and all benders have to be trained some just to control their powers instead of being plagued by constant accident, but most don't acquire significant skill, and most don't specialize in healing. There is always more demand for waterbenders than there are waterbenders to be had, so Beila's working alongside nonbending and other-element doctors and nurses and techs. They start her in the burn ward, because burns are easiest and Avatar or no she's a novice, and she washes away hurts and refuses to sign autographs and takes her legally required twenty-minute breaks at regular intervals and then heals more.

The school term ends. Beila withdraws from classes. She writes an open letter about that, thanking the teachers and so on for their time and attention, explaining her decision, and she puts it up on the public-facing official Avatar screenserver that the nuns set up for her. She divides her time between classes with Shifu Hayaka, volunteer work at the hospital, intensive meditation, reading, and Dao.

She's with Dao when the earthquake hits, sitting on her roof while he does homework and she reads.

The ground shakes like gelatin, and Beila's been airbending to keep from falling over too long to react with anything other than an instinctive shove of air; but the air is sluggish, reluctant, something is wrong.

The roof has a view of the sea, and the sea is bubbling - no steam, it's not boiling, it's just angry -

And the air is too warm.

Something has the elements spectacularly agitated.

And Beila doesn't know what.

Comments

[thinklikethis]

Dao puts her down.

[roc_on]

Beila gets down on the ground and creeps forward - sensible of her, given that she can't walk very well and it's a long way down - and peeps into the pit.

"Hello!" she calls.

The moaning starts up again.

[thinklikethis]

Dao hangs back worriedly.

[roc_on]

"I'm the Avatar," Beila calls into the pit. "Are you upset? I want to help."

"Avatar," rumbles the thing in the pit.

[thinklikethis]

Dao worries some more!

[roc_on]

"Yes," says Beila. "I've come to find out what's wrong."

"Tell them to stop," rumbles the spirit.

"I will carry messages for you, but I must know who to carry them to," Beila says.

"They who promised me."

"You've been promised that someone would stop something and they haven't?"

"Yes," growls the voice.

"Who is it? What do they need to stop?"

"Pouring."

"Someone is pouring something somewhere and promised to stop and didn't."

"Yes."

"Is this happening - here? In this corresponding place in the physical world?"

"Yes."

[thinklikethis]

...Where are they? Dao looks around, although he isn't sure that's going to help.

[roc_on]

It's really not. They didn't walk far enough to be out of Republic City, and this is clearly a giant sinkhole in a forest with ludicrously enormous trees.

"What are you?" Beila asks the spirit.

"The pocket," says the spirit.

"A pocket of - something under the ground? Magma, water, air -"

"Yes."

Beila gulps.

"Who promised you?"

"Humans," says the voice. "Lying humans."

"Names. A company, an individual, a group -"

"Humans," repeats the spirit.

[thinklikethis]

Maybe he'll pay attention on the walk back. If direction and distance even mean the same thing here that they do in the material world.

[roc_on]

"Do you manifest?" Beila asks.

"Yes."

"What are you, when you do?"

"I am myself."

"Has anyone named your manifestation?" Beila tries.

"No."

"Do you look like an animal? A human?"

"No."

"I will carry your message. Please calm down while I do it. It is harder to travel in the physical world while a powerful spirit is upset."

"Lying humans."

"I'm the Avatar," Beila reminds it.

"Avatar," it muses. "Yes."

"Will you be calm for - three days?" offers Beila. "And I will spend those days looking for the humans who lied to you so I can pass on your message."

"If you lie I will listen to no more promises," rumbles the spirit.

Beila swallows again.

[thinklikethis]

Dao hangs back and frets.

[roc_on]

"Is there anything else you want to say?" Beila asks the spirit.

"No," it rumbles. "Make them stop."

"I will carry your message," Beila says.

It rumbles without words and falls silent, and Beila creeps back from the edge of the pit and manages to stand up and position herself near Dao for picking-up. "I'm going to try to count your steps while we go. I'm pretty sure we traveled north and a little east; help me out and mind the sun when we can see it. It'll be a start at finding what place matches the pit."

[thinklikethis]

"Yeah, I was thinking that," says Dao. "Will do."

[roc_on]

Beila counts steps, and peers at the sun when it's visible, as they go back the way they came.

[thinklikethis]

Dao does likewise.

[roc_on]

When they get back to the spirit-shadows of their bodies, which appear to have fallen on their sides in the second quake but aren't obviously injured, Beila says, "Okay, um, I have a set of instructions for how to get back into my body. Which I really, really hope apply to you. You have to line up with it, and then - we aren't actually breathing, here, it's just easy to feel like we are because breathing feels like normal to us, but there's no air to breathe and no real bodies to need it even though we're sort of pretending on both counts. You focus on breathing, which you are doing in your body and are not doing here, and this should, on top of being lined up with yourself, put you back in your body. Try it, I'll wait for you."

[thinklikethis]

Dao tries it.

It takes him some trying, but then - poof. He's back in himself.

[roc_on]

Beila follows, and sits up. The air feels normal again.

"Okay," she says, "now we - walk thataway, I guess," and she rummages around under fallen objects for her screen so she'll be able to do some simple geometry on the way to compensate for not being able to walk in as straight a line as the forest permitted. (The trees in the spirit world are huge; they are none of them the size of city blocks.)

[thinklikethis]

"Yep," says Dao.

Off they go.

[roc_on]

"I didn't know bringing you into the spirit world with me was even possible," Beila muses, counting steps, pausing to account for an office building in the way, counting more steps.

[thinklikethis]

"Me neither," he says wryly.

[roc_on]

"I guess I'll ask the nuns about it. You're okay, right? You feel normal?"

[thinklikethis]

"Yep! As far as I can tell, anyway."

[roc_on]

"Okay, well, tell me if that proves to be - temporary or anything. I would be upset but not surprised if I'd managed to accidentally kill you, doing that, I would've taken precautions falling-over or no falling-over if I'd known it was a remote possibility."

[thinklikethis]

"I'm so reassured," Dao mutters.