Avatar Yinwei

Chapter 1

Act 1

“Yep, that’s a little weird, Yinwei,” said Jianzo, her short, curly purple hair sticking out at odd angles. “You’re basically mad at yourself. Your past self, but still yourself. And, your past self couldn’t even do much about it. She might have lost her connection to ten-thousand years of past avatars, but she saved the world.”

Yinwei groaned. “I know! That’s the worst part. I feel so conflicted. On the one hand, Korra saved the world and every time I’ve reached for the wisdom of my past selves she’s given me pertinent advice. Same for Avatar Zhiju and Avatar Landai. But on the hand that makes me angry, she lost the connection to the lives of all the Avatars who preceded her! Aang! Kyoshi! Kuruk! Yangchen! Ten-thousand years of experience! Lost!”

“Well, I mean, dare I say it again, maybe there’s a way to restore the-”

“How many times must I tell you!” Yinwei snapped, interrupting Jianzo. “Korra, Zhiju, and Landai all said the connection is severed. Permanently. Maybe that’s just what has to happen every ten-thousand years.” Yinwei sighed, took a deep inhale, and sighed again. “I’m sorry for snapping, I just…” they tailed off, letting their frustration dissipate into the air.

“I know, I know. I am quite patient, especially for a fire bender. You’re welcome. I just don’t understand why you’re on this mission if you don’t even believe you can find a way to reconnect.” Jianzo flipped the page in the book she was reading and looked up at Yinwei. They had their head in their hands and their eyes screwed tightly shut. They looked more like Avatar Aang might have when he was founding Republic City than a fifteen year old kid sent to study at Sato University. Jianzo noticed there was a very slight stubble on top of Yinwei’s head, giving a peach-quat fuzz texture to their sky blue air nomad tattoo.

—

Yinwei had been preoccupied with this idea of reconnecting with their past lives ever since Jianzo had met them on their first day at Sato University. She remembered their first conversation when Yinwei explained how they convinced the monks at the Northern Air Temple that sending them to Sato University and the physical world’s largest library in Republic City would be beneficial to their Avatar training, but they had really wanted to come to pursue information about how to reconnect with their past lives. Apparently, as Yinwei told it, since they had first conversed with Avatar Landai, the fire nation Avatar that preceded them, they had gotten into consistent ‘verbal altercations’ with the monks in their quest to rediscover the connection to their lives before Korra. The monks had been very hesitant to allow them to enroll at Sato University alone. But Jianzo knew first-hand how convincing Yinwei could be when it came down to it. She had watched them convince Professor Qaunak, their History of the Four Nations professor, not to assign homework for the entire semester on the first day of class. Later that day, Yinwei had approached Jianzo in the library and asked to sit with her.

“Hey, you’re in my History of the Four Nations course aren’t you? I recognize your hair,” they said. Jianzo nodded and Yinwei took that as an invitation to pull up a chair and plop a stack of books at least half their height down on the table. “I’m Yinwei, Avatar Yinwei. You can call me they or them. Nice to meet you.” Yinwei pulled out a roll of parchment and a pen before looking up and continuing to speak, “The monks want me to send them an essay every week to prove I’m taking full advantage of the library while I’m here. They even sent a babysitter for me.” At that they glared over at an older looking man in Air Nomad robes with arrow tattoos and a long, white ponytail sitting across the way, reading. The ponytail came out of the back of the monk’s head but there was no hair on top, just dark, shiny skin and the signature blue arrow. “Monk Yonten might just be the most boring babysitter on the planet. I mean, the Agni Kais have practically taken over Port Fangqi, there are rumors of disappearances happening within the Southern Spirit Portal, I can only connect with three of my thousands of past lives, and the only way for me to get away from the Northern Air Temple is for the monks to send me with Yonten to sit in a library for a year.”

“Wow.”Jianzo said, looking at Yinwei with a sarcastic twinkle in her eye. “Well, my name is Jianzo, it’s nice to meet you.” She extended a cautious hand and Yinwei shook it excitedly, knocking some of their books over and scattering them across the table.

“Jianzo! I love that name. And I love your hair. The purple looks great on you. I’m here to study history.” At this point Yinwei dropped their voice to a whisper. “I told the monks it would be important for me to study history in other places since I can’t connect with any of my lives before Korra, but I’m really doing it because I hope I’ll be able to find some answers on how to heal my connection with all of them.”

—

Jianzo looked down at her hands at the memory of the conversation and the reminder of Port Fangqi. She tried not to think about home too much while she was in Republic City. But with what her parents might have sacrificed for her… she couldn’t help holding on to a little guilt. The thought her parents might be in danger at any given moment would creep into her head unbidden upon occasion. Her dad was a mid-level accountant for the company that owned a majority of the docks. He was way too good at his job, but stuck at a dead end with a boss who had it out for him for some reason. Jianzo had told him several times over dinner at their dining table he should quit and look for a new job, but he always said the same thing, “Money is tight, Jianzo. Now is not the time to take a risk.”

Her mom, on the other hand, ran a mildly successful flower shop, and talked endlessly about “taking risks with her art.” Almost everybody in their little neighborhood in Port Fangqi bought flowers from Jianzo’s mom. But when it came to family dinner, and Jianzo brought up the idea of her dad looking for a new job, her mom would say, “There is an appropriate moment for everything, Jianzo, but this is not that moment for your father.” It frustrated Jianzo to no end that her dad was stuck at that dead end job that made him so tired and unmotivated, but she couldn’t quit for him.

Once she had made the decision she wanted to attend Sato University, it had taken her ages to summon the courage to bring up her desire, knowing how expensive it could be. Now, a year and half later, she could just worry about her dad, her mom, and the mysterious money they managed to find to support her while she studied.

“Whoa, look at this, Jianzo.” While she had been lost in thought, Yinwei had lifted their head out of their hands and continued reading one the books from the crazy stack they always had with them. Yinwei passed the book over to Jianzo. The title was The Era of Kuruk: A Biography of the Shortest-Lived Avatar, by Hopshet Beifong, Historical Advisor to the Earth Republic’s Council. Yinwei pointed to a specific line and said, “Start here.”

What we know of the full life of Kuruk is quite limited. It is true, there are probably thousands of eye-witness accounts of hedonistic behavior. Over-indulgence in the pleasures of the human body and the chaos that followed his early death are the two defining traits of Kuruk’s Era to most that have studied this time period, as have been detailed extensively in the previous chapters of this book, but new findings reveal this is not the full story. Found in Avatar Kyoshi’s journal (Kuruk’s immediate successor as the Avatar) are several accounts of meetings with an ex-fire sage by the name of Nyahitha, who was apparently Kuruk’s spiritual guide and partner.

What we can gather from Kyoshi’s journal amounts to this: Kuruk spent much of his time secretly delving into the Spirit World through cracks he and Nyahitha discovered between the Spirit World and this world. These cracks were like the spirit portals, but hidden and more difficult to get through. Kuruk and Nyahitha had discovered that malignant spirits were using these cracks to cross to the physical world and cause chaos, much like Leyaak did early during the Era of Avatar Landai or Vaatu did with the help of Unalaq during the Era of Avatar Korra at Harmonic Convergence. Based on Kyoshi’s journal entries, closing these cracks and preventing the dark spirits from entering the physical world was Kuruk and Nyahitha’s objective for as long as Kuruk lived, a task in which Kuruk apparently achieved significant success.

Crossing back and forth from the Spirit World through these cracks, closing them, and battling dark spirits, however, left Kuruk with dark spiritual energy gathering inside him, eating at him from within. Though Nyahitha was unable to stop the energy from killing Kuruk at the young age of thirty-three, he apparently had some success in extending Kuruk’s life by at least four to five years. Kyoshi wrote in her journal that Nyahitha spoke of using a special substance from the spirit world in an attempt to save Kuruk’s life, but that he was dismissive of its effects, “Nyahitha said today that, ‘What we did was necessary. I have no doubt we saved thousands of lives from fates worse than death. But in the end things must return to balance. Kuruk carried too much of the darkness within him. He was a bridge between two worlds trying his best to keep them separate. The sap was a last ditch effort. Even his last words were but a mumble. Something about Wan or One. I just hope the sap made his passing peaceful. He lived a violent life.”

“What do you think it means?” asked Jianzo after she finished reading. “Do you think this spirit sap will help you? It doesn’t seem like it did much for Kuruk.”

Yinwei thought to themself for a moment, “I don’t know. It doesn’t seem like much.” They let out a sigh. “But it’s something.” Yinwei watched Jianzo study their face for a moment, then continued, “Do you think any of those cracks still exist?”

“I don’t know,” Jianzo responded. “Maybe? It sounds like Kuruk closed most of them.” To herself, she thought this was among the less hopeful of Yinwei’s discoveries.

—

Later that night, Jianzo sat in her dorm room, wondering what special powers spirit sap might have while she opened a letter from her parents.

Our lovely Jianzo,

It is wonderful you have made friends with the Avatar. Do you think you could bring them home to Fangqi? We would love to meet them.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Jianzo stared quizzically at the letter. Usually letters from her parents were so long they were annoying to read, dragging on about fire lilies, peonies, moonflowers, and starpoppies. She turned the letter upside down, looked at the back, and held it up to the light. It was also written in her dad’s hand and her mom usually wrote the letters for both of them. As she looked at the letter through the light, Jianzo was reminded of the game she had played with her dad when she was little, passing each other secret messages written in a mixture of lemon and tomato-carrot juice. She glanced around to make sure she was alone in her little dormitory, took a deep breath, and produced a small flame in her hand.

Act 2

Lue heard whispering and peaked through the bookshelf behind him. He saw the fire bender girl with the purple hair who had been in his first class at Sato University and the air nomad kid she had been hanging out with. He noticed the fire bender’s hair was purple now. Lue always walked through the library between classes and had seen the pair almost every day, sitting and reading. He often wondered how they could just sit in silence as he walked past them, reading every single day. He stopped fiddling with the puzzle his uncle had made him as a gift before he left the swamp and held his breath, trying to hear what they were whispering about.

“Your dad,” the air nomad said, struggling to keep their voice down, “was forced to work for the Agni Kais?!”

“Keep your voice down,” the fire bender with the purple hair hissed. “Yes, it seems like it! And I think both my parents are in trouble! My dad wrote that he found some inconsistencies while doing his job for them and he wouldn’t have written in the invisible ink unless something was wrong!”

“What did he do for them again?” The air nomad had lowered their voice to a whisper now, and Lue had to strain to hear them.

“He was an accountant!” The fire bender whispered back, “I guess he found something weird with their money?”

“Isn’t everything about the Agni Kai’s money weird?” The air nomad hesitated for a moment and then continued, “Well, it doesn’t matter right now. We have to go help them. But first we have to figure out how to give Yonten the slip.”

Lue watched as they left the shelves and took a deep breath. He hurried after them. “Hey, um, excuse me.” He tapped the firebender and the air nomad on their shoulders. “I’m happy to help, if you need help.”

The air nomad responded quickly, “Help with what? What are you talking about?”

“You know,” Lue raised his eyebrows at them and gave what he hoped was a mischievous smile but convincing smile, “I can help out.”

The air nomad spoke even faster and grabbed the elbow of the fire bender, turning away as they spoke, “No it's okay, we don’t need help. I mean, I don’t need help. Thank you though!”

“Oh, jeez, no, look, I mean, I overheard you in the bookshelves over there. I want to help. I want in.” Lue tried to add some emphasis to his words, to really show he meant it. The two looked at him seriously, considering. He fidgeted with the wooden puzzle in his hands. Then, they took a step back and started whispering to each other. Finally, they smiled and turned back toward him.

This time, the fire bender spoke, “Okay, you can help.” At that she leaned in and whispered, “Here’s the plan. We’re going to shave your head and draw some tattoos on you. Then, you stay here and pretend to be Yinwei while they and I go to Port Fangqi. Sound good?”

“Ye-!” Lue started to answer and nodded his head vigorously for a second, “Wait, no, no, no. We can come up with a better plan than that! I’m great at plans! Come on. I promise you can trust me!”

“Ah-em.” All three of them turned their heads sharply at the sound of the librarian clearing her throat and looking directly at them. Lue smiled, waved, and pointed at the door before starting to nudge the other two that way as well.

As they emerged from the library, Lue turned to the other two again. “Look, I get it if you don’t want me. You don’t know me. Well, maybe you know me.” He looked at the fire bender, “You were in my first class here. I was sitting behind you, so I don’t know if you’d recognize me, but I remember your hair. It was orange. I really like the purple now, though. But anyway, I’m rambling. I’m Lue, he or him. I’m a pretty strong water bender, I can be really quiet, and I was going to skip my next class anyway, so please take me with you. Make my skipping worth it.” Lue smiled broadly and spread his arms wide, the puzzle in one hand.

The fire bender and the air nomad took a step back and whispered to each other again. Then, the fire bender stepped forward, “I’m Jianzo. And I think I do remember you from that class. You sat behind me, but you came in late pretty much every day. I go by she or her.” She smiled back at Lue.

“And I’m Yinwei. Avatar Yinwei. You can call me they or them. I hope you are a strong bender because the Agni Kai’s don’t play around. We’re going to have our hands full. Come on back to my dorm so we can make a plan.”

—

Early the next morning, Lue found himself standing next to Jianzo at the Sato University stables, suppressing a squeal. Yinwei had already slipped their note under Yonten’s door, and Lue whispered to Jianzo in a pitch slightly higher than normal, “We. Are. Riding. An air bison!! Ahhhhh!”

“Shhhh. Nobody can know we’re here!” Jianzo whispered back. “Be quiet!”

Yinwei turned around and pressed their finger to their lips. They stepped around the air bison, silent as a kangaroo-mouse, strapping the saddle in. In the dark of the pre-sunrise morning, Lue almost didn’t notice the Avatar’s feet seemed to settle on cushions of air rather than touching the ground each time they took a step, silencing every movement they made. Jianzo glanced over at Lue and tapped his shoulder, putting a finger to her lips as she noticed the excitement building in Lue’s clenched fists and eager posture. In a moment, Yinwei led the air bison to them. “This is Fuwafuwa. Or just Fuwa for short.” They turned to the bison, “Fuwa, they’re going to hop on, lean down to help them…” Lue was already scrambling up Fuwa’s fur. “...up,” Yinwei finished. Jianzo hopped about half way up, grabbing Lue’s extended hand and stepping lightly the rest of the way into the saddle. Fuwa licked Yinwei and looked at them expectantly. As they led Fuwa out of the stables, Yinwei leapt and backflipped onto the neck of the air bison and landed softly, taking up the reins. Once they were looking down at the massive complex of Sato University and the rest of Republic City beyond it, Lue let out a holler of delight that had been building for the entire night. “I’ve never flown before! This is so flippin’ cool!” He stood up and extended his arms, whooping and shouting. He fell onto his back in the saddle, looking up at a layer of clouds as they pushed into it and emerged beyond it, his head near Jianzo’s feet. “The moon looks so big from here,” he said.

When they saw Port Fangqi in the distance, the sun had risen well into the sky. “Alright,” Yinwei spoke rather loudly to wake up Lue, who was asleep right behind them. Jianzo had been quiet but awake the whole journey, looking anxiously at her hands. When Lue jolted awake, Yinwei continued, “Land ho! What’s the plan, where should we land Fuwa? Jianzo, can you point out where your parents live?”

Jianzo crawled up to the front of the massive saddle, and pointed to the eastern side of the city, away from the hustle and bustle they could all see going on by the docks. “Over there,” she said. “They live at the bottom of that hill.” Jianzo pointed to a small hill surrounded by quaint buildings that looked like doll houses from up above.

“Well, we’re going to land over there,” Yinwei pointed just outside the neighborhood at a big park, “It seems like that’s the closest spot with enough space.” Fuwa circled down to the park. From above, Port Fangqi had looked like many fishing towns. By the docks warehouses and other buildings were squeezed together, and as you got farther from the harbor buildings were more spread out and more residential. As they coasted closer and closer to the ground, though, they could see that Port Fangqi was falling apart in certain places. Between the docks and Jianzo’s neighborhood, there were swaths of the town that appeared empty and neglected. Houses had holes in their roofs, some were just four walls covered in vines and other weeds, and many windows and doors were boarded up and seemingly abandoned completely. Fuwa landed with a thump, and immediately started chewing on the grass and bushes. Lue, and Yinwei slid down the bison’s tail, following Jianzo.

Yinwei caught up quickly and grabbed her shoulder, “Don’t worry, Jianzo. We’re here and we’re going to help your parents.”

“Yeah, Jianzo,” Lue came up on her other side. “The Agni Kais have no idea what’s coming.”

“Okay,” Jianzo whispered and pointed up the street to a house on their left, “that’s the one.” The house, Lue saw, was a mixture of the styles of the Fire Nation houses he had seen pictures of and the Earth Republic ones he had seen in person. The slating of the roof was dyed red and had fanciful gutters while the walls and doors were a plain, clay style. Jianzo approached the house while Lue and Yinwei hung back, keeping a keen watch on the rest of the street. Jianzo put the key in the door and waved them up. The three of them entered the house on high alert, expecting to be attacked from the bookshelves, the kitchen stove, and the couch.

“Dad? Mom? Are you guys home?” Jianzo whisper-shouted. She led Lue and Yinwei through the four rooms plus a small washroom. Lue noticed Yinwei was, again, bending cushions of air underneath their feet, stepping as silently as a turtle-mouse. “Oh shoot!” Jianzo suddenly stopped in front of Lue and slapped her forehead with her palm, “They’re probably at work right now. Nothing to worry about. We should go to my mom’s flower shop. We can find her there, but Dad works across the city.” She led them outside and locked the door behind her.

Around the corner and a couple blocks down, Lue saw the sign. East Fangqi Flowers, it read. Below it, Custom arrangements and bouquets available. The smell was divine as Lue stuck his nose between the rosy petals of a plum blossom.

“Ah, that is a beautiful flower. A very good choice.” A woman in red robes looked down at him. Lue thought she looked shockingly like an older version of Jianzo, especially with how anxious she had seemed on the flight over. Jianzo didn’t have any wrinkles, but Lue thought if she did, they’d be the exact same wrinkles starting to form on this woman’s skin.

“Mom, this is Lue, a friend of mine from university.” Jianzo and Yinwei walked up behind Lue.

“Hi, it's…” Lue began, but was shortly cut off by Yinwei.

“And I’m Yinwei, Avatar Yinwei! You can call me they or them. Jianzo has told me so much about you! It is so great to finally meet you. Your shop is lovely!” Yinwei took the woman’s hand and shook it vigorously.

The woman, who was tall by any measure, looked down at Yinwei and then around the street with a frantic expression. “Shh! You mustn't go shouting that around here.” She let out a frustrated sigh, “Jianzo, I told your father not to send that letter. We’re all in trouble now.” She lowered her voice even more. “Go back to the house. Stay quiet. We’ll figure out what to do when I get home. Go!”

“Okay. Okay. Shoot. Is Dad okay?” Jianzo asked.

Her mom glanced anxiously about again. “Yes. Well, yes. For now. Go home. Stay out of sight.”

Once Lue noticed the anxiety that had been present in Jianzo’s body begin to take hold in Yinwei’s, he felt it start to creep through his chest as well. Jianzo looked back just as they were turning the corner, so Lue did too, and saw Jianzo’s mom watching them and scanning the streets.

“The streets are so…” Jianzo muttered.

“So…what?” Yinwei asked.

“So…quiet, Yinwei. This place feels weird. I’ve always known the Agni Kai’s have been trouble. But something…new…is going on.”

“Don’t worry, new friends,” Lue chimed in, “We’re going to sort this out. Do you all realize what this is? This is the debut of the new Team Avatar. Team Yinvatar. And we’re going to take down these Agni Kais.” He hoped he sounded more confident than he felt.

As they were walking up the short pathway to Jianzo’s house, Yinwei’s arms shot out, grabbing both Lue and Jianzo. They pulled them close and the look on their face made Lue and Jianzo hold their breath. “There are people in there. Preparing to bend. I can sense them.”

“What?!” Jianzo exclaimed, “Let's introduce ourselves to the Agni Kais then.” The anxiety in her had solidified into an intense drive and she started quickly toward the house. She wasn’t going to allow the Agni Kai’s to let themselves into her home. She pressed herself to one side of the door and pointed to Lue to do the same on the other side. Then, she held out the key toward Yinwei and made a motion like she was an airbender pushing air. Slowly, she moved the key over to the keyhole. In one motion, she put it in and turned it. The Avatar let loose a furious rush of air.

The door slammed open and Lue darted in, immediately followed by Jianzo. Between his hands, Lue’s puzzle started spinning rapidly and tendrils of dense, supple wood extended out from all sides like whips. A figure inside the house sent a gout of flame at him and he flicked the puzzle up, its spinning tendrils dissipating the blast. He pushed it forward and the sound of the wooden whips cracked against the opposing fire bender’s head, knocking them to the floor.

Behind him, Lue felt Jianzo rush in and saw the light flicker in his peripheral vision as she redirected a burst of fire toward its original sender. He was about to turn toward her, but the wind was suddenly knocked from his lungs as a hammer of ice smashed into his back. He staggered a step and turned to see Yinwei coming through the door, deftly ducking under the ice hammer swinging back toward their head. The water bender that had been hiding in the corner allowed the momentum of the missed swing to carry the hammer back to their hand. Lue saw them turn it into a bo staff as they began circling with Yinwei, but had to turn as another member of the Agni Kais stepped forward from the back room.

Lue sent his spinning puzzle of whips toward the newcomer, but they stepped lightly to the side, sending a gust of wind up from the ground to divert the whip past them. Lue was unprepared for how quickly the airbender closed the distance between them, but was able to duck to the side of the airbender’s first punch. On the second one, though, he wasn’t so lucky. The airbenders punch was incredibly powerful, driving into the side of Lue’s ribs. He thought he heard a crack, but managed to keep his feet. He brought the puzzle back to himself and split it in two sections as he did. One he formed into a circular shield of wood. He caught another punch on it that sent him back another step. The other section he left as a singular whip, snatching it out of the air. He pushed forward and up with the shield, swinging the branch-whip underneath and wrapping it around his opponent’s ankle. With that he jerked back, drawing the airbender off balance. Over his shield, he saw the airbender leap and send a blast of air out of his hand, spinning themselves horizontally in the air and swinging a heel kick at Lue’s head over the shield. Lue crouched low and stepped under the kick, yanking down on the whip and shortening it with his bending, slamming the airbender into the ground. Jianzo stepped on the couch and leapt over Lue’s shoulder, sending a blast of fire down at the prone airbender, who rolled out of the way and pushed themself up with a gust of air.

Across the room, Yinwei was dancing around the water bender as they swung their staff, repeatedly smashing it into the ground where Yinwei had just been. With each blow, pieces of the icy staff shattered off, but the water bender used the fluid movements of their fighting style to reform the staff. Lue saw as Yinwei stepped deftly behind the water bender and sent them crashing forward with a menacing rush of air.

Lue turned his attention back to the air bender he was fighting alongside Jianzo and extended his attention through the whip, lengthening and wrapping it around the air bender’s leg. The air bender started spinning their arms at full length, reaching up from the ground, bending the air in circles around Jianzo and Lue. On instinct, they widened their stances and lowered their centers of gravity. Jianzo sent a bolt of fire at one of the airbender’s hands and Lue shot a vine from the center of his shield at the other. The second vine started wrapping the airbender up as well, and soon they were constricted from their chest down by the vines.

“Phew,” Yinwei panted.

“I know,” stated Jianzo.

Lue returned his puzzle to its original form and jumped up, holding it in the air. “Dang you guys! We fought like a freaking team! Did you see me with the shield-whip combo! Yinwei, how did you know they were here?” The airbender groaned in his binds and Lue gave him a swift kick and put his finger to his lips to shush them.

“Well, a very advanced air bending move is called spirit bending, which is where you reach out of your physical body with your spirit. It’s kind of like going to the spirit world, but instead, your spirit stays here, in the physical world.” Yinwei replied, “This is kind of embarrassing, but I’m actually not a very strong air bender. Or fire or earth or water bender. But I am a really good spirit bender, and I can sense other people’s spirits too. Especially when they’re bending. When people bend, their spiritual energy becomes much stronger and I can sense them from pretty far away, through walls, disguises, and all that kind of stuff.” They looked down at their feet. “But I’m just so embarrassed, I’m the Avatar and I can barely hold a flame steady or hold water in my hand. I should be able to do that stuff already.”

“Yinwei, we never would’ve been able to get the drop on these gangsters if you hadn’t sensed them.” Jianzo told them, “And you handled that water bender pretty easily.”

“Yeah, Yinwei!” Lue cut in, “You were freaking amazing. With the spirit sensing stuff, wow! Like, the other stuff is easy, compared to that!”

“Well, well, well.”

Lue, Jianzo, and Yinwei spun around as a deep, menacing voice interrupted their conversation. Taking up most of the door frame was a large man in a red cloak with golden inlay and his hair tied in the traditional top knot of the Fire Nation. In front of him he held the terrified form of Jianzo’s mother. He stepped into the room and five more of his henchmen came in behind him.

“You want to know something funny? The Agni Kai Triad used to be exclusively fire benders. But then we were almost wiped out. We realized the world was too big to truly be any one thing or in any one place. So we found our balance.” The big man spread his arms wide, indicating the figures behind him, dressed in different combinations of clothes and wearing their hair and makeup in styles from all four nations. “And recently,” he boomed, “we found our spirit. It’s incredible what you can learn on a trip to the spirit world. Or when you interrupt a conversation with the Avatar.” The five figures moved forward, past the leader, and picked their fallen allies up. The leader exited last, pushing Jianzo’s mom forward as he stepped away. Over his shoulder he said, “Oh, don’t worry about Daddy, he won’t be joining you for dinner. I’m taking him on a fishing trip.” His laughter rolled through the air as he followed his cronies away.

Act 3

As soon as the Agni Kai roughians left, Jianzo’s mom ran to one of the back rooms. Yinwei and Lue followed Jianzo after her. They heard frantic movement around the room, and saw Jianzo’s mom tearing through things as they poked their head into the bedroom. “They missed one at least,” she breathed a sigh of relief. The mattress was flipped over and a slit had been cut in the bottom. Jianzo’s mom sat next to it, a small letter knife in one hand, a small vial in the other. She looked at Jianzo. “You know how you were always saying your dad was too good at his job?”

“Mhmm,” Jianzo nodded slowly, squinting at her mother. Yinwei and Lue stood to either side of her, quietly.

“Well, you were right. He discovered something amiss with the numbers for the dock company that he works for, which, as you know, was ‘acquired’ by the Agni Kai Triad a while back. He said nothing had changed until recently. They made a specialty fishing department, apparently, and started putting a lot of money into it. But they weren’t making anything off it. They hid it pretty cleverly in the numbers, but Zorim, he’s quick. He noticed. I told him not to do anything, that it was too dangerous, but he never listens. So he wrote you that letter and last night he snuck onto one of the ‘fishing boats,’ and brought home three of these.” She held up the vial. “We don’t know what it is, but this is what he found on that boat. I guess they found him out today.” She took a shaking breath and sunk back into the overturned mattress.

Yinwei watched Jianzo sit next to her mom, squeeze her shoulders, and carefully take the vial from her hand. Jianzo held it out toward Yinwei, who took it and held it up to the light coming through the window into the tossed room. They studied the vial closely, partially out of curiosity and partially due to not wanting to awkwardly watch Jianzo’s mom cry during what was essentially their first meeting. The vial itself was small, just about as large as Yinwei’s first finger, but the substance within it was eerie. It had a dark golden color, almost brown, but with a slightly sparkling sheen when Yinwei unfocused their eyes and looked at it as whole. When they focused on the sparkling elements of the liquid, though, it seemed to become as clear and pure as drinking water.

“Look at this, Lue.” Yinwei kept their voice quiet out of respect for Jianzo and her mother. They couldn’t stop staring at it as they passed the vial to the water bender. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Lue took the vial and held it in the light, too, just as Yinwei had. He raised his hand as if to try to bend the substance inside, but it didn’t budge. “Well, it isn’t water, I can tell you that much. I can’t bend it at all.” Yinwei flinched as Lue popped the cork, but he just held the vial up to his nose. “Smells kind of like honey,” he said. Before they could reach out to take it back, Lue had dipped his pinky finger into the stuff and into his mouth. His lips made a loud smack as handed the vial back to Yinwei, one pinky finger in his mouth. “Well, I will say it tastes good. It’s hard to describe though, sort of a…well…huh…”

Yinwei snatched the vial and put the cork back in it. “Are you crazy?!” They yelled at Lue, then flinched and looked over at the two figures on the bed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell.” They looked back at Lue. “But we have no idea at all what this stuff is! And you ate it?!”

“Swamp lychees! It tastes like swamp lychees!” A dreamy look formed on Lue’s face, “Oh, how I do miss swamp food.” He let out a sigh at the thought of the succulent berries that grew all around his home.

As Yinwei was about to continue admonishing Lue, Jianzo’s mom spoke, addressing the two, “I am so sorry, I’ve been such a dreadful host.” She cleared her throat and Jianzo reached over and grabbed her a handkerchief to blow her nose. “I’ve yelled at you and now I’ve cried in front of you and you don’t even know my name.” She stood and smiled at them. “I am On Ji, and I am going to make some tea, if you would like some.” She bowed in the old fire nation style, her left hand flat with her fingers extended perpendicular above her right fist, forming an abstraction of a flame.

“Hi, I’m Avatar Yinwei, you can call me they or them. It’s really great to finally meet you! Jianzo has told me wonderful things about you. I’d love some tea.” Yinwei gave a slight bow in return.

“And I’m Lue, nice to meet you,” said Lue, following suit and dipping his head.

While the water boiled and On Ji prepared the tea, she occasionally turned to hide her face as she sniffled or wiped a tear from her cheek. After pouring the tea, On Ji sat and faced Yinwei. She sighed. “This place used to be so much nicer. When we moved here, it was a flourishing fishing town. But then…” She took a deep breath, “But then there were a few bad seasons. Many fishers left. Those that stayed, there just weren’t enough to support the whole town.” She looked at Jianzo. “That happened when you were about nine or ten. There were a few tough years, but then things were starting to look up again. Some of the fishers who had left were returning, and the town started to bustle a little bit, like it had before. But then those rats that call themselves the Agni Kai Triad came. And you can see where that led…” she trailed off. “But I’m rambling. So, Avatar, the situation has escalated and now the Agni Kai have kidnapped my husband. What do you think we can do?”

Yinwei hesitated, their grey-green eyes darting around the room. They had never quite considered how they would be looked to in moments like this. Their eyes locked with On Ji’s. Her red eyes were glassy, filled with intent, honesty, and desperation that stripped Yinwei of the ability to form words. They had come here with so much purpose, excitement even, for their first real adventure as the Avatar, but now the full weight of the responsibility of the Avatar settled on their shoulders. A life, possibly many, was in their hands.

Yinwei stammered, “I… I think… there’s no time to find out what this is.” They opened the fist that had been clutching the vial. “Jianzo, your father, he’s in trouble. I think we have to go now.” Yinwei stood up, looking down at the vial.

Yinwei didn’t see On Ji reach out to touch their arm, but allowed themself to be guided back to a seat. “No, child, finish your tea first. The Agni Kai will undoubtedly have posted hidden watchmen and will know if you leave. You must wait and leave when the streets are busy in the evening, as the sun sets.”

“But you are right, Yinwei,” Lue added, “I’d bet the only place in town we can learn what that substance is would be from that big Agni Kai buffoon, so we won’t have a chance to figure it out before we go.”

—

As evening fell, the sun casting long, eastward shadows, On Ji escorted the crew of three out through the back. “Hopefully the sun in the west will cast shadows over your movement. Be quick, and be quiet. And stay safe.” She kissed Jianzo on the forehead. “Go rescue your father.”

Jianzo led Yinwei and Lue out of the house and toward the docks. As they crept through quiet gardens, it seemed like the shadows were slithering around them and Yinwei felt a chill go down their spine. They emerged from Jianzo’s neighbors gardens and went quickly down a quiet street. They turned a corner and continued, passing many of the abandoned houses they had seen from above. They passed one man sitting, asleep, on a stoop in front of a house with the windows smashed in the door hanging on one hinge. After about half an hour of weaving through the empty streets and alleys, Jianzo stopped Yinwei and Lue. “This is where my father works,” she whispered, pointing at a drab, two-story building across the street. The windows were covered in dirt and grime and mold was growing in spots on the wall. “But we need to find the fishing boat.”

The group pushed on, hiding in clusters of people, steadily closing in on the docks. As they did, they saw many ships tying up for the night, the fisherpeople unloading their catches as the sun shone its last hour of light for the evening. Yinwei pulled Jianzo and Lue into an alley from which they could scan the area. “Okay,” they whispered, “what now?”

“We need to find the ship that’s leaving,” Lue answered.

Almost immediately when the words left his lips, he pointed across the port to a ship that unfurled its sails as they looked toward it. Yinwei wondered if growing up in the swamp, filled with so many dangerous animals, helped hone Lue’s ability to notice where danger was. He at least seemed to have very sharp senses. “That one,” he said. “Come on, I know how to follow them.” Lue led Jianzo to the opposite side of the port. Yinwei trailed them, keeping a sharp eye on the ship Lue had indicated. As they crossed toward the water, a few people murmured and started pointing at Yinwei as they noticed their tattoo. Yinwei cursed the second withdrawal of the Air Nomads and grabbed a sack to use as a hood. They made a face and gagged as the smell of old fish from the sack hit them. They tossed the sack to the side.

“Where are we going, Lue?” Jianzo whispered with a force of intention. “The ship is that way. My father is that way.”

“Just trust me. We need to get to a spot where no one will see us get into the water,” Lue responded.

“And we better get there quickly,” Yinwei interjected. As they moved, the ship they thought held Jianzo’s father started coasting into the harbor.

The group of three walked faster, Lue searching for something as his eyes darted furtively back and forth. “Here,” he whispered and pulled Jianzo behind a smaller dingy. Yinwei darted behind them. “Don’t hesitate,” Lue said, grabbing both Jianzo and Yinwei by the shoulder, taking one final glance around, and pulling them with him into the water.

Yinwei held their breath and closed their eyes, expecting the cold water to hit like a block of ice. Instead, they felt the soft silt of the sea floor under them was, strangely, not so cold. When they opened their eyes, they saw Lue and Jianzo lying on the sea floor next to them. Lue was using his water bending to create a bubble of air for them to breathe. “Come on,” he said, “we’re going to have to move quickly to keep pace with that ship.”

“You have got to teach me how to do this, Lue,” Yinwei said as the three of them started crawling forward through the dirt and muck of the sea floor.

“No problem,” Lue chuckled, “you know, my uncle said my father invented this technique by studying the way catgators move through the rivers of the swamp.”

“Keep crawling.” Jianzo’s voice had an edge to it Yinwei had only heard once before, when she had told them about receiving the letter from her father.

So they crawled forward, through the muck and mud of the seafloor, avoiding venomous urchinfish and feisty snailclams, keeping their gaze focused upward, searching for the ship. After about thirty minutes, well past the end of the harbor, the group of three came to the edge of a forest of seaweed they had been crawling through. “Whoa, hold up,” Lue said, stopping in his tracks. “We can’t go much farther. There’s a massive cliff here. If we go down, the pressure will be way too much for me to hold up. We would drown.” Yinwei, panting from exertion, didn’t understand how Lue could keep this up for so long.

Jianzo cursed with frustration. “We haven’t seen the ship once. How are we supposed to help my father down here, Lue? This is stupid. I’ll go find my father and burn that ship to cinders.”

“And take on that Agni Kai leader by yourself? And all their cronies? I don’t th-” Yinwei interrupted Lue with a surge of new energy.

“Look! Up there! I see a ship! And what is that?”

As all three looked up, they could see the ship Yinwei had spotted. It was far enough away to appear small, but not so far that in the darkening evening waters they couldn’t see it. Then, from that direction, they saw a rather large bubble moving toward them. They pulled back so as to be hidden by the seaweed forest, but kept an eye on the bubble. As it drew closer, Jianzo gasped. “That’s him! That’s my dad!” She started to move forward, but Lue and Yinwei grabbed her.

“We can’t do anything under here!” Yinwei exclaimed.

“They’re right, Jianzo,” Lue added, “How are you going to firebend down here? We have to be smart about this, and, I surprise myself by saying this, but going head on is not smart right now.”

“Then what are we going to do?” Jianzo asked, wrenching her arms free of her friends’ grasps.

“Wait and see,” Lue said as he lowered himself deeper into the silt.

As the bubble approached, the three figures hidden in the silt and seaweed got a clearer view of what was happening. The massive form of the Agni Kai leader was next to Jianzo’s father, whose arms were tied behind his back. On either side of them were two water benders, creating the bubble for them to breathe and propelling them downward. They watched as they descended below the line of the cliff and out of sight. After a tense moment, Jianzo, then Yinwei, then Lue, poked their heads over the edge just in time to see the bubble disappear into the cliff face.

“They must have gone into a sea cave,” Lue said.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Jianzo still had her head poked over the edge of the cliff, eyeing the spot her father had disappeared. “Where they went in was only about thirty feet away. We can totally swim there if we need to.”

“I think we’ll need to. I don’t know if I can make the same kind of bubble those two waterbenders were making,” Lue responded.

Lue allowed the bubble to dissipate and the group of three began floating amongst the seaweed. Jianzo led the way, swimming down the face of the cliff, followed closely by Yinwei and Lue. Yinwei and Lue exchanged a concerned glance. They weren’t sure what they were going to be able to do down here either.

—

The cave was empty, but as soon as the three of them poked their heads down over the edge, Yinwei knew where they had gone. They could sense the energy leaking from the ominous, dark crack in the back of the cave. To the naked eye, it appeared to be a simple crack in the rock, though relatively large. Large enough, certainly, for a grown person to fit through.

“Urblghrr,” bubbles poured out of Jianzo’s mouth as she grunted in frustration.

Lue motioned for them to lower to the ground and put another bubble around them. When he did, Jianzo took a deep breath.

“Well. What do we do now?” she asked.

“Go through that crack,” Yinwei answered.

“Yinwei, you’re crazy.” Lue said, “It probably doesn’t go anywhere, and even if it does, going through passages like that can be super dangerous.”

“It might be dangerous,” Yinwei responded, “but I know where it goes. I can see the spirit energy coming from it. I think it’s a passage to the Spirit World.” They looked at Jianzo, “I think this might be one of the cracks I read about Kuruk trying to close. Once we get your dad out, we should try to close this one.” Yinwei took a big breath and crawled from the bubble, moving up to the crack. They stood there for a moment, considering how poorly this could go, how outmatched they would likely be if it came to a fight with that Agni Kai leader. Then they stuck their hand through the crack and climbed through.

—

Wherever they emerged, it was dark. So dark, Yinwei couldn’t see. But they could feel they weren’t under water anymore. In fact, Yinwei felt surprisingly comfortable in their blindness. They could sense the spiritual energy coming from every rock, every crevice, and the four figures around a bend in the tunnel. Then, a fifth figure, who seemed different, approached them from the opposite way. Yinwei felt Jianzo and Lue emerge behind them. Yinwei turned around and put their hands over Jianzo and Lue’s mouths, then grabbed their hands and pulled them quietly forward. At the bend in the tunnel, Yinwei stopped the group. The three of them poked their heads around the curve and saw the four figures silhouetted by the dim light of a flame emanating from the hand of the largest.

A low buzzing sound made its way through the area, growing until the entire cavern was vibrating. A massive swarm of insects emerged in front of Zorim and the three Agni Kai members. Zorim yelped in pain and Yinwei sensed Lue hold Jianzo tightly.

“Hush.” The Agni Kai leader pushed Zorim forward. The buzzing intensified, making it difficult to concentrate. Yinwei watched as the swarm spiraled up and up and the buzzing continued to grow in intensity.

Silence came suddenly. The swarm of spirit insects settled to the floor in the loose form of a human. It had two legs, but four arms, and the face was a twisted and warped combination of human and insect. It had eyes on its cheek and forehead, its chin, and where its ears would have been. Stiff, wiry hairs stuck out of the top of the spirit’s head. Antennae emerged from the back of the head. A proboscis-like appendage stretched from the center of the strange face where a nose might have been. In the flickering light of the Agni Kai leader’s singular flame, the visage of the spirit was straight out of a nightmare.

“I brought what you asked for.” The Agni Kai leader pushed Zorim forward and to his knees. “Now, the sap.” He held out three empty vials.

The spirit leaned forward. From its proboscis, a strange, amber substance dripped into the vials, filling them. The Agni Kai leader corked the vials and tucked them into a bag at his side.

The spirit then stepped in front of Zorim and a low buzzing began to fill the cavern again. On his knees, hands bound behind his back, Zorim was shaking with fear and the vibrations of the spirit.

There was nothing for it now but to rely on the element of surprise. Whatever else this spirit was, it surely spelled bad news for Zorim. Jianzo shouted and the three of them sprinted forward. Jianzo unleashed a bolt of fire at the spirit in front of her father, but it ducked under it and everything seemed to go into slow motion. Yinwei saw the proboscis enter Zorim’s forehead. They saw the Agni Kai leader uncork and drink one of the vials. One of the water benders sent a frozen dagger toward Jianzo, who batted it to the side with a flaming hand. The other sent shards of ice at Lue, who took his earthbender-like stance and bent his wooden toy into a shield to block the ice. Yinwei took a deep breath and unleashed a tornado of air concentrated on the spirit, pushing it down the dark cave hall. Zorim slumped to the ground.

Yinwei settled into a light footed stance as the massive firebender approached them. His fists lit up with blue fire, a flash of bright red-orange fire from Jianzo caused the shadows to retreat for a moment. Yinwei leapt nimbly, dodging the firebender’s first flurry of strikes, and throwing a blade of air beneath his feet that set him off-balance.

“Yinwei!” Jianzo shouted between dodging a strike from one of the water benders and throwing her own. “He drank it, I think you should too!” She dodged another blow and connected with an off-handed, fiery punch. As the water bender staggered, Jianzo stepped back and tossed the vial of sap On Ji had given them into the air. From the side, the other water bender flung a bubble of water that surrounded the vial, suspending it mid-air.

Yinwei’s attention was diverted from the vial by the large firebender, “Well, well, well. I underestimated you. But that won’t happen again.” The blue fire spread to cover the entirety of his arms and torso. Yinwei whipped a whirlwind into being around him, trying to put the fire out, but to no effect. The firebender laughed as the fire continued to spread until he was completely encapsulated in blue flame from head to toe. Then, with unnatural agility, he charged at Yinwei.

The blows came in a flurry, the bludgeoning impacts knocking the breath from Yinwei before they could even feel the sting of the burns. The blows were coming too quickly for Yinwei to dodge when suddenly a leg sweep took their legs out from under them. Yinwei struck a blast of air into the floor to keep themself horizontal above the ground, before swinging their legs around into a heel kick that connected solidly with the jaw of the Agni Kai leader. Yinwei closed their eyes and sensed the spiritual energy around them. They dodged to the left, narrowly avoiding an uppercut from the firebender before stepping back and planting a kick into his chest and springing into a backflip.

To their side, they sensed Lue engaged with their opponent, fighting to get the vial back. The Agni Kai waterbender had brought the vial back to her, but Lue had transformed the shield into a whip again and had control of one of her legs. Behind him was Jianzo, pummeling the other Agni Kai waterbender with raging blows. She was working her way closer to her father, who lay still on the floor.

Yinwei circled with the flaming fire bender, then stepped deftly out of the way as he sent three balls of fire at them in quick succession, none coming even close enough to singe Yinwei’s hair. They had never felt this way in any of their training. They felt quick, capable. And because of their ability to sense spirit energy, they were anticipating the firebender’s blows, ducking and side stepping almost before the blows were thrown. Yinwei sensed Lue land a concussive blow against his opponent and grab the vial. They turned, dashed toward him, and shouted, “Lue, quickly!”

The bolt of lightning came quicker than the fire blasts. It struck Lue’s wrist and with a cry of pain his fingers involuntarily opened, releasing the vial.

But Yinwei had still sensed the lightning coming, its direction and its power, and managed to catch the vial in a cushion of air. They dove and grabbed it, tipped it back, and swallowed it. Immediately, an unfamiliar sensation of power coursed through their body, expanding from their stomach and throat and out their mouth as Yinwei turned a gout of fire breath on the Agni Kai leader. They floated a few inches off the floor, their eyes and arrow tattoos glowing with white energy. Arcing across the room, Yinwei sent the water from the unconscious water bender’s waterskin to douse the fire bender, releasing a massive cloud of steam. The fire bender sent multiple bolts of lightning through the steam toward the space Yinwei had just occupied. But they were no longer there. Through the steam, Yinwei floated directly behind the blinded firebender, raising two stones from the ground to clamp around his feet. Then Yinwei scattered the steam with a burst of air and pulled two more stones which clamped around the firebender’s hands. Yinwei kicked the back of his legs so he fell to his knees, pulling the stone clamping his hands down behind him and fusing it to the ground, immobilizing the Agni Kai leader. He let loose a bellow wreathed in fire. With a snap of the wrist, Yinwei put a mask of stone over the fire bender’s mouth.

With a light step, Yinwei descended to the ground and the light faded from their tattoo and their eyes. They ran with Lue to Jianzo, crouching just behind her as she knelt in front of Zorim’s body. “Is he okay?” Yinwei and Lue whispered in unison.

Jianzo turned with tears in her eyes, “He’s breathing, but unconscious, I don’t know what happened to him. Look at him, Yinwei, Lue, can either of you do anything?”

“Swamp healing works best on poisoning, do you think he was poisoned?” Lue asked, shuffling forward a step.

“I don’t know, just try. Something, please,” Jianzo squeezed Lue on the arm.

“Okay.” Lue put his arms on the body of Zorim and closed his eyes. “Yinwei, can you check if there’s any water farther down the cave? I have some swamp water, which is good, but spirit water will be even better.” He lifted his hand and the swamp water from his waterskin rose to it, surrounding palm and fingers like a glove, and beginning to glow once we pressed it into Zorim’s chest.

Yinwei dashed down the cave tunnel, searching, listening, and feeling with their heightened spirit sense for water. They ran farther and farther through the tunnel, which spiraled upward ever so slightly. After about ten minutes, finding nothing, no tunnel branch nor a drop of water, they stopped, panting, and wondered if they should turn around. As they looked back over their shoulder, everything went black.

Act 4

Yinwei was young. Monk Yonten was instructing their class on the importance of maintaining history, telling the story of the past to future generations so the airbenders might never forget what had happened to them. Yinwei scribbled notes furiously. When they looked up to see what Monk Yonten had written, there was a hideous insectoid man in front of them, making a terrible droning noise, with eyes all over its face quivering, staring deep into their own eyes. Yinwei jumped.

Yinwei was outside in the training yard, facing off with Po Ten. Po dashed forward. Yinwei tried to send a stone at his chest, but the stone fell straight to the ground as Yinwei spun and struck it. Po sent a blast of air that flattened Yinwei on their back. Yinwei could hear the rush of air as he approached. When he knelt over Yinwei, though, it wasn’t Po. It was the insect-man again, with the shaking eyes all over its face. Pincers emerged from its back and pierced Yinwei’s sides.

Yinwei struck out blindly with a blast of swirling air. They opened their eyes and their tattoos were glowing. They sunk into a squat and the air swirled around them, pressing the insect-man-spirit into the wall. As the air bludgeoned it, pressing it tighter and tighter to the wall, it transformed into the swarm it had entered as and fled farther up the hall. Yinwei was about to pursue, but saw it had left a bit of the substance dripping down the wall. They raced back to Jianzo and Lue.

When Yinwei returned, Jianzo immediately grabbed her by the hands. “Did you find any, Yinwei? Did you find any spirit water?”

Yinwei didn’t reply, but went straight to the restrained body of the firebender and rummaged around in his pockets and bags, bringing out the two remaining vials. “I think we should feed this to him. I think it could help.”

Jianzo took the vial and walked over to her father. She removed the cork slowly. “Lue, do you think this will work?”

Lue looked at her hopefully. “It might. He’s relatively stable now, his heart beat isn’t fluctuating like it was. Maybe this is the kick he needs to wake him up.”

Jianzo opened her father’s mouth and poured the liquid in, then closed it, forcing him to swallow. The three figures of Jianzo, Lue, and Yinwei gathered around him and waited.

His eyelids fluttered open, and Zorim took a shuddering breath. “DAD!” Jianzo shouted. Yinwei and Lue both sighed, relief washing over them. Jianzo fell to her knees and wrapped Zorim in a tight embrace.

“Oof, ow, the ribs,” Zorim wheezed. Jianzo released the full pressure of her hug. Yinwei noticed a lost look in Zorim’s eyes. “Where am I?” he asked. “What happened to Father? Who…who are you people?”

“Aaaaaahhh!” Jianzo let out a frustrated scream and turned toward the Agni Kai leader. Yinwei grabbed her by the arm.

“Don’t,” they said quietly, “it won’t help. Let’s get him back to the surface, back to your mother. Then we’ll figure out how to help him.”

Zorim scooted back at Jianzo’s display of rage.

“Raaaaaaaaahhh!” Jianzo screamed again, then took a deep breath. “Okay. Okay. Zorim?” She turned back to her father, her tone dropping to a gentle, comforting level, “You have to come with us. We’re in the Spirit World, and we need to get you back home. Please, I promise we just want to help you.” She extended her hand.

Zorim hesitated, but after looking around took the only offer of comfort he could find, and the four of them stood. Jianzo made some fire to light the way back to the crack. Once they had all passed through, Yinwei touched their fists together and their tattoos flashed with light, forming a swirling ball of air that buoyed them safely to the surface. As the light faded from their tattoos, they drew a whistle from their pocket and blew on it. It made no sound, but after a moment, the form of Fuwa appeared against the darkening night sky, swooping down to the water.