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Era of Yun 5,110
Hei-Ran hated walking through the Yokoya mansion. The hurried, unfinished skeletal frame was a constant reminder this was just one more of Kuruk’s fourteen year old messes they were stuck cleaning up. As always, Hei-Ran strode quickly through the halls, barely registering the servants practicing nearby as she continued her discussion with her daughter.
“Remember to ensure Yun—”
“You’re pouring too fast!”
Hei-Ran pivoted on her heel, shocked to see her daughter no longer a half step behind her, but instead snatching a tea cup from a servant’s hand.
“You have to pour slower, so the flavors won’t get concentrated into one cup. Harmony between the flavors is the most important part of the ceremony! Are you trying to embarrass the Avatar by serving his guests in such a lackluster fashion?!”
The tall servant girl looked stunned by the tirade. “No mistress,” she said meekly.
Belatedly, Hei-Ran realized that this was the orphan Keslang introduced them to a couple weeks ago, and only because she was so tall. Hei-Ran had barely taken notice of her then, having written her off as another one of the monk’s charity projects.
Apparently her daughter had not felt the same way.
“Again!” Rangi demanded.
The servant poured correctly this time, her movements gentle and graceful.
Rangi nodded curtly. She turned on her heel and rejoined her superior.
As they left, Hei-Ran caught Rangi watching the servant girl out of the corner of her eye.
The tall, beautiful servant girl Rangi’s age. The only person in the manor Rangi’s age besides the Avatar.
Hei-Ran’s frown deepened.
A few years back, Rangi had had an intense… friendship with a classmate at the Royal Fire Nation Academy for Girls. They were inseparable, and more than once Hei-Ran had noticed Rangi’s armor and hair in disarray when she walked in on them unexpectedly. It had ended when the classmate sided with the whispers about Hei-Ran’s rise to headmistress.
Rangi didn't speak to her mother for weeks afterwards.
Hei-Ran wouldn’t forbid her daughter from speaking with the servant girl, Hei-Ran decided. It was at most a passing attraction, a harmless crush. Rangi needed a friend that she wasn’t sworn to protect or that was old enough to be her parent.
Being the Avatar’s bodyguard brought the type of honor to the Sei'naka clan that made the crutch of a political marriage unnecessary, and she would never make her daughter marry someone she could not love.
Still. There was no way a Sei’naka would ever pledge herself to an Earth Kingdom peasant.
Era of Yun 5,857
It was a rare night where Hei-Ran and Rangi had finished their duties early enough to have tea privately together in their quarters.
Rangi gazed into her cup, as if she could read the boiled leaves and divine an answer. “After the Avatar masters firebending, he’ll go stay in the Southern Air Temple to learn airbending, correct?”
“Yes. It’s tradition for every Avatar to learn airbending at an Air Temple directly,” Hei-Ran said, sipping her tea.
Of course, the other reason was that Kelsang teaching Yun would be seen as a direct offense by the Abbots.
“I know it’ll be just us and Jianzhu, but I think he’ll need a servant. Yun’s messy, and gifts follow him wherever he goes, even in a monastery.”
“Rangi, servants aren’t allowed in the Air Temples. All pilgrims are supposed to be equal there." Hei-Ran lowered her tea. "Is this about Kyoshi?”
Rangi’s eyes widened, shocked that her mother had caught on to her. Hei-Ran resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
“Yun’s incredibly talented, but it’ll take him years to master airbending. My duty is to protect him, but…you don’t see the way the villagers here treat Kyoshi. It’s awful. And I won’t be around to protect her, to help her stand up for herself,” Rangi said, her mouth a firm line.
Hei-Ran’s gaze softened. She could drill a million hot squats into her daughter to ensure her posture was iron straight, but Rangi’s pure heart was entirely of her own making. Her unshakeable sense of justice only further fueled her compassion. It was one of her favorite qualities about her daughter. It reminded her of Junsik.
Her daughter’s compassion aside, Hei-Ran hadn’t failed to notice that Rangi’s crush hadn’t exactly subsided. Rangi would often seek Kyoshi out after her duties were complete, running to meet her at top speed. Her preoccupation with the servant was clearly a combination of isolation, circumstance, and hormones.
It was the same heady mixture that nearly ensnared her into Kuruk’s bed a lifetime ago.
“Rangi, your heart is in the right place, but you can’t look after a servant forever, even if she is your friend. Your duty is to Yun above all else. If you are to have the incredible honor of being the Avatar’s bodyguard, it’s important you don’t get dist—”
“I know exactly what my priorities are,” Rangi said, standing up so suddenly she knocked the teapot over. "But Avatar Kuruk didn't just have bodyguards and advisors. He had friends. Kyoshi is Yun's friend too. More than any of those dignitaries in the mansion right now. But I guess the Avatar's companions only matter when they have a title next to their name." Rangi turned on her heel and stormed out of the room.
It was a good thing she did, because Hei-Ran didn't have a response for her.
Era of Yun 6,014
“I agree with Jianzhu. It’s a bad idea,” Hei-Ran said, packing her things with military precision.
“What? Kyoshi coming?” Rangi asked, handing her a warm parka.
"Hostage negotiations are no place for a servant," Hei-Ran said, crisply folding the parka and packing it.
"Yun wanted her there as a friend. I don't like the risk either, but between us, Kelsang, and Jianzhu, she'll be perfectly safe," Rangi said. “I think it’s brave of her to come.”
Of course it wouldn’t hurt that Rangi would look fierce and heroic by Yun’s side, Hei-Ran thought to herself dryly.
“As long as she won’t be a hindrance,” Hei-Ran said, handing Rangi her pauldrons but not letting go. “Protecting the Avatar is our main priority. We can’t afford to keep an eye on her.”
“She grew up on the streets of Yokoya before she met Kelsang,” Rangi said, meeting her gaze evenly. “She’s tougher than she appears.”
"Then you can make sure she doesn't get into any trouble," Hei-Ran said, finally letting go of the armor pieces.
“I swear on my honor to take full responsibility for Kyoshi,” Rangi said solemnly.
Hei-Ran still had her reservations, but not even she could go against the Avatar’s decree, especially since Jianzhu had relented into letting the servant come.
“In that case, we are taking a limited number of tents. You’ll have to share yours with Kyoshi.”
“Share?” Rangi yelped, her ears turning red. She caught herself and straightened up immediately. “I mean, that’s acceptable. It’s a good idea. For me to keep an eye on her, that is.”
Hei-Ran frowned. The sooner this business was handled, the sooner they could go back to focusing on Yun mastering firebending, and the sooner they would go to the Southern Air Temple. The servant wouldn’t be a distraction in Rangi’s life for much longer.
Era of Yun 6,021
The mansion’s training room was demolished.
Training dummies were scattered haphazardly, some burnt past recognition with the stuffing poking out of stomachs and heads. The ground itself was singed, and the air tasted like ash. In the far corner of the wreckage was her daughter, breathing heavily. Her training uniform was in disarray.
“You should rest your arm,” Hei-Ran said mildly.
“How could she do this? To the Av—to Yun? To me? I thought we were… did she just think that… was she just using us?” Rangi cried out.
“I don’t know,” Hei-Ran said bluntly. Rangi glared at her. “Normally, I would trust Keslang’s judgement, but love blinds us to our children’s faults.” As does greed and power, Hei-Ran thought to herself darkly.
Rangi kicked the dirt and her shoulders dropped. For anyone else, this would be the equivalent of flopping to the ground in despair. “Kyoshi belongs to this mansion, but the Avatar belongs to the spirits and the world. I don’t want to give her up. She’s my friend. My only real friend.”
Hei-Ran put a hand on Rangi’s shoulder. “There’s a chance this is all just a misunderstanding,” she said as encouragingly as she could muster. “Yun could still be the Avatar.”
“I mean, why is this even a discussion? You’ve been training Yun for over a year now. How can you firebend and earthbend and not be the Avatar?”
Hei-Ran looked away from her daughter’s penetrating gaze. Of her many regrets, the secrets she kept from Rangi ranked highly. “Jianzhu and I have a plan. We’ll figure out exactly what’s going on here.”
Era of Yun 6,033
Hei-Ran handed Kyoshi the tinder, smiling at her soothingly, politely. The way she would a servant. Because, in Hei-Ran’s eyes, that’s all Kyoshi was.
It came as no surprise when Kyoshi failed the firebending test. Secretly, she was relieved. The three minutes was the most time she had ever spent with the girl, and it was clear her stature belied a meek wallflower. Kyoshi seemed more scared of the tinder than the pirates across the sea. It was as if you plucked the broom out of a Ba Sing Se zookeeper’s hands and gave him the Earth Kingdom crown instead. Ridiculous.
Her feat of bending on that ice (and who had a clear view of it anyways, aside from that wretched Pirate Queen?) was just an impressive feat of self-preservation, but nothing more. Yun was still the Avatar. He just lacked the right motivation to firebend. Maybe a challenger to his claim was exactly what he needed.
Hei-Ran was nonplussed to see her daughter waiting outside of their quarters for her.
“She failed the test,” Hei-Ran said simply.
Rangi’s shoulders dropped in relief. “So Yun’s the Avatar?”
“We can’t say that just yet. Rangi, you have to prepare for both possibilities. Your duty is to the Avatar, regardless of your personal feelings.”
“Yes, Mother,” Rangi said, inclining her head. Hiding her face wasn’t enough to disguise the sound of Rangi's sharp little inhalations through her nose. Hei-Ran’s heart smoldered into ash.
How could Keslang let things spiral so out of control?
Era of Kyoshi 6,100
The first thing she noticed was the cold. It seeped deep into her bones, a numbing chill that not even her natural warmth and the furs covering her body could entirely counteract.
She opened her eyes to blazing whiteness, the sound of water lapping gently nearby. Her eyes adjusted enough to make out ornate carvings etched into ice and tiger seal bones.
Agna Qel’a.
An excited gasp made Hei-Ran turn her head. She was greeted by her worst nightmare: Rangi, with sunken eyes and hair shorn. Hei-Ran croaked out a groan, raising a weak finger to point at her daughter’s hair.
Rangi’s face fell. She reached up to touch the ghost of her topknot. “Jianzhu did this.”
And Rangi told her everything.
Era of Kyoshi 6,112
Hei-Ran spent much of her first months shivering under her anorak and furs, being force-fed sea prune soup and medicine—the taste between the two indistinguishable. Often she was doused or dunked into healing water, briskly poked and prodded by Sifu Atuat. Whenever she closed her eyes she’d see the ethereal blue of a healing glow.
Her daughter was always by her side, an ember of Hei-Ran's internal flame ripped out of her chest, to warm and guard.
Hei-Ran didn’t deserve it.
There was so much she had been wrong about. She had trusted Jianzhu and stood by his side, advising him. Helped him carry out his plans. Looked the other way as his training methods became dishonorable. She had failed to protect or recognize the real Avatar among the servants. And then her oldest friend had poisoned her. Murdered innocents. Kidnapped her daughter. Dishonored Rangi. Even as she regained her strength, she didn’t feel she deserved to speak.
But she had lived. And Rangi had forgiven her. They had what she had hoped for after resigning from her headmistress position—a second chance.
This time, Hei-Ran would take it.
Era of Kyoshi 6,256
Rangi took the hairpins out of Hei-Ran’s hair, carefully setting them aside. She helped her mother lie her head down in the basin that Rangi had pre-heated.
“Give me a full report on the Avatar. Strengths and weaknesses,” Hei-Ran ordered. Intel would help distract her from the humiliation of not being able to perform such a basic task in maintaining her honor.
“She has trouble bending smaller objects,” Rangi said, massaging Hei-Ran’s scalp. At least the smell of fermented rice water was a familiar comfort. “I had actually never seen her earthbend before our trip to the South Pole, because she was so afraid of her own power. She uses a set of fans to compensate.”
Hei-Ran frowned.“Sloppy.”
“We were desperate. I’m just glad she found something that worked. Her grasp of firebending is rudimentary, and her waterbending is pitiful. Her airbending ability is practically nonexistent, but I’m sure the Air Temples will help with that.”
“She has time. Though I fear it won’t be as much as her predecessors. The world is out of balance. Both the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation will need the Avatar’s guidance.”
Rangi nodded. “Kyoshi is infuriatingly stubborn and has a despicable lack of self-preservation instincts. She throws herself head-first into the worst situations and doesn’t get enough sleep. It’s like she’s punishing herself for being the Avatar instead of Yun!” Rangi pulled the comb through Hei-Ran’s hair with more force than she intended. “Sorry."
"If only Kuruk felt a little more guilt," Hei-Ran muttered.
“She has an unshakeable sense of justice and loyalty to her friends," Rangi continued, not even registering her mother’s comment. "I think the Earth Kingdom sages will find she won’t respond to bribes.”
Hei-Ran snorted at that. Bribery was a fact of life in the Earth Kingdom. Even Jianzhu couldn't avoid it.
“You should see her in battle. She’s a force. At first she was just a battering ram, but now? She's purposeful. It never seems like she’s fighting for her life. It’s as if she’s deciding your fate.” Rangi gently lifted Hei-Ran’s head out of the basin and held her mother's hair in her hands, warming it.
It was hard to imagine the servant girl as the uncompromising warrior Rangi had described, but her daughter was not one to embellish.
“You warned me about it, but The Avatar State is more powerful than I expected. It was terrifying. Kyoshi was terrifying," Rangi said, pulling Hei-Ran’s hair into a top knot.
"The Avatar State is the manifestation of that ancient and unknowable power, their duty to keep balance in the world," Hei-Ran said.
Not that Kuruk used it all that much, Hei-Ran thought to herself darkly.
"Right. It’s just…it hurt to see her like that. It was like she wasn't my Kyoshi anymore," Rangi said in a small voice, pinning Hei-Ran’s hair in place.
“The privilege and burden of being a companion to the Avatar is they not only belong to our world, but the spirits. We can’t keep them all to ourselves, no matter how much we try.”
Rangi put the last hair pin in and straightened out the top knot. “I know, it’s just…an adjustment.”
Previously, before Kyoshi upended everything they thought they knew, Hei-Ran had breathed a sigh of relief when she found out the Avatar was a boy. It would be exactly Kuruk’s sense of humor to seduce her daughter in his next life. Thankfully Rangi was immune to Yun’s flirtations, even if she couldn’t avoid worshiping the ground he walked on.
Kyoshi on the other hand…
I am going to find Kuruk in the Spirit World and drown him, Hei-Ran thought to herself. He must be somewhere, laughing at her. This was beyond a mere daydream. Her daughter was clearly in love with Kyoshi.
Loving an Avatar was no easy task. And yet she had practically trained her daughter for it. All the while barely deigning to acknowledge the one person her daughter cherished just because she wore servants' robes. Leave it to the most egotistical Avatar on record to teach her a lesson in humility.
Hei-Ran wanted to know more about the woman her daughter loved, but she had gathered so little intelligence on the subject that it made each line of potential questioning seem either invasive or insulting. She fell back on familiar ground.
"Fans are a strange choice for an earthbender. Why would you allow the Avatar to choose such an impractical weapon?"
"They're a family heirloom. Kyoshi’s inheritance,” Rangi said, with a curiously bitter expression. “Her mother was actually an airbender."
How many secrets could one sixteen year old keep? Hei-Ran wondered to herself. What, did the Avatar also moonlight as an opera singer?
It was a shock, but the situation was more common than one would expect. For all their talk of earthly detachment, Air Nomads did not hold themselves above all earthly pleasures. Not all children of the wandering nomads were raised in the Air Temples. Like the corruption in the Earth Kingdom or the strife between the Fire Nation clans, there were cracks in the images each nation tried to project.
"Well, that explains why she's so tall. Going to the Air Temples sometimes felt like visiting giants. Especially the women. Did you know Kelsang once tried to play a trick on me? He knew how much his towering height was an annoyance to me, so he had Kuruk bend an air cushion underneath him so that every time I looked over at him he was taller and taller! All while we were supposed to be focused on an important diplomatic conclave. I was so mad at them that afterwards I made them both do hot squats for three hours at the break of dawn!”
“He must’ve looked like a mountain! A mountain with a beard!” Rangi giggled.
“He hadn’t grown his beard out. It was still coming in patchy. Kelsang was like a mountain with tumbleweeds!”
This was too much for Rang—she dissolved into a fit of full blown laughter so contagious Hei-Ran couldn’t help but join in.
It was the first time they had laughed together in years.
Era of Kyoshi 6,300
“Aren’t you some sort of fancy-pants former soldier? You can lift higher than that!” Atuat scolded.
Hei-Ran grumbled, but raised her leg higher. She hated these exercises, but the more she did them, the sooner she’d be able to walk again.
Rangi watched from the corner, sorting through their mail.
“Another marriage proposal, this time from an Earth Kingdom sage,” Rangi said, reading one of the letters. “One of Jianzhu’s. ‘I know Jianzhu would be comforted by his oldest friend finding happiness with a man who always stood by him.’ Gross.”
Atuat’s eyes gleamed. “Earth Kingdom sages? Aren't they supposed to be incredibly wealthy?”
“He’s all yours,” Hei-Ran deadpanned.
“Marry for money?” Rangi exclaimed, affronted. “How could you spend your life with someone you can’t even stand to have a conversation with?”
“Oh, it wouldn’t be the rest of my life,” Atuat said. “Just long enough for the ink to dry and to change his will.”
Rangi looked at her, appalled. Hei-Ran had married Junsik out of love. It was the only type of marriage she knew.
“Well, if you’re so interested in marrying a rich noble, I was going to offer my hand, but now I think I’ll have to rescind,” Hei-Ran said, switching to lift her other leg.
“Oh, I’ve spent too long healing you to kill you,” Atuat said.
“Go carve me a betrothal necklace then.”
Rangi made a disgusted noise and pointedly shuffled the mail, picking out a letter. It was good to know she could still embarrass her daughter.
“This next one is...” Rangi trailed off, her eyes widening in excitement. She ripped off the seal and scanned the letter, her eyes dimming. “Unreliable as well. That’s what I get for asking a Saowon.” She crumpled up the paper. “I am officially out of ideas for a temporary bodyguard for Kyoshi. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if anyone becomes available. Neutral jing, Kyoshi’s favorite,” Rangi eyerolled.
“The Avatar needs a bodyguard?” Atuat asked.
“A bodyguard, a political advisor, and a babysitter, all rolled into one,” Rangi grumbled. “But for now, I’d settle for a bodyguard.” She picked up another letter. “It’s a letter from the Zeizhou governor. He’s not happy with how the Avatar has acted in his province. Apparently while breaking up the Yellow Necks that had tried to regroup there, she also arrested the police officers taking bribes from the daofei.”
Atuat laughed at that. “I like her!”
“Surely, the Avatar will go to him and smooth things over,” Hei-Ran said.
Rangi snorted. “The Avatar surely will not. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s the first Avatar outlawed from most Earth Kingdom provinces. She will boulder through as much political conflict as she can get away with.”
“Looks like your initial assessment was correct.”
“It’s working too. We’ve been getting less and less reports of Yellow Neck activity throughout the provinces,” Rangi said, gesturing to the map sprawled on her table. It was filled with a dizzying array of dots, lines, and circles detailing Yellow Neck and Kyoshi sightings and movements.
Ignoring the silken webs of diplomacy was a risky move, and one that wouldn’t always work for the young Avatar, but Hei-Ran found it refreshing. Jianzhu had spent so much of their lives seeing the world as one grand game of Pai Sho that she had forgotten it wasn't one.
There was something that had been bothering Hei-Ran, though. “Remind me, why were you in Zigan Village when Xu Ping An escaped his top secret prison?”
Rangi clearly was not prepared for that question. “Kyoshi chose…interesting bending teachers on her quest for revenge that led us to unexpected places. Right place, right time.”
“Destiny and duty have a way of finding us,” Hei-Ran mused. “Especially the Avatar.”
Era of Kyoshi 6,328
Hei-Ran glared down at her chopsticks, willing her hands to cooperate with her through this dinner.
“Thank you, Headmistress. I have heard I am the first to dine with you outside of the master healer and your daughter. I am honored,” Panuk said. Having met him multiple times in the Yokoya mansion, the ambassador to the Earth Kingdom was at least more tolerable than the other diplomats that had tried to cow or seduce her.
“You should be,” Atuat said. “I rejected the dinner invitations of some of the more boring Agna Qel'a officials.”
Hei-Ran looked down into her fish to hide her smile.
“Apologies, Headmistress, for not coming to see you sooner," Panuk soldiered on. "I was in the Earth Kingdom, confirming the new Avatar. I believe you are acquainted with her?”
"How is she?" Rangi asked quickly.
It amused Hei-Ran that Rangi's question probably sounded like a curt demand to the ambassador, when it really was a breathless, vulnerable entreaty.
"She was able to produce both earthbending and firebending, which is more than the previous claimant could say, but she certainly lacks his, well, tact. She looks more like a warlord than a spiritual figure. After losing so many of its sages, the Earth Kingdom's a mess, and having a brute for an Avatar certainly won’t— "
"Careful how you speak, Ambassador," Hei-Ran said fiercely. "Avatar Kyoshi's swift handling of the Yellow Necks proves she is a worthy successor to Yangchen. Any slander against her will be taken as a direct attack on my honor."
Rangi's eyes shone in gratitude. To bring her own personal honor into the equation was to put Kyoshi in a circle usually reserved only for close family.
"I meant no disrespect, Headmistress." Buried in fur as he was, the man was still visibly shivering.
"Don't go challenging people to duels just yet," Atuat said, slapping her on the back. "I'm a miracle worker, but you need some time before you're ready to stand, let alone fight."
"I would take her place," Rangi said, smiling. Hei-Ran smiled back.
Atuat threw her hands up in the air, far less moved by the gesture. “Fire Nationals! At this rate, you’ll end up personally funding a new wing at my hospital.”
Era of Kyoshi 6,365
Hei-Ran shivered as the arctic breeze hit her face, but it was well worth it to finally walk the streets of Agna Qel'a. She and Rangi were one of the few people awake at the summer predawn hour.Being able to shuffle through the icy streets without enduring stranger’s pitying glances was one of the advantages of firebenders rising with the sun. Hei-Ran stopped at the top of the canal, resting her hands on her cane, and they watched the early morning qajait cross the waterways below them. Trapped in the healing huts and their private quarters for most of the year, Hei-Ran had forgotten how beautiful the magnificent, sprawling city truly was.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rangi straightening up, her mouth firming into a thin line. It was the same movement Hei-Ran made right before battle.
"Mother, I haven't been entirely forthcoming about everything that happened while I was on the run." Rangi took a deep breath. "Kyoshi and I…" She paused, as if trying to find words that didn't exist. "I've always cared for her, worried after her. And while the worrying has only increased tenfold, so has the care. She is, aside from you, the only person that has touched my hair since I was able to grow a topknot. When you no longer need me by your side, I will be by hers." Rangi’s words were formal, and she looked anywhere but at her mother.
"Your heart has always been your most admirable quality. I am glad you have found someone so worthy to keep it safe," Hei-Ran said, and it broke her own heart a little to see the relief in Rangi’s eyes. How could Rangi not have known Hei-Ran had always loved her for exactly who she was? "I look forward to meeting her properly. Soon."
"Soon," Rangi repeated, determined.
They silently watched the sun peak through the ice.