“For this case, I won’t intervene one way or the other. Besides, what kind of teacher would I be if I took my student’s examination for her?”
“A rich one,” Kyoshi muttered. Tutors swapping identities with the children of wealthy families so they could pass the government tests needed for prestigious administrative jobs was a common practice across the Earth Kingdom. Pulling off the con paid very well.
Lao Ge burst out laughing. “Oh, I do like our little chats. Here’s an assignment for you in the meantime.”
He jumped up to a higher level without the aid of bending and without much effort at all. The leap was higher than Kyoshi’s head.
“Many of Governor Te’s personal guard will die in Mok’s raid,” he said, disappearing past the edge of the stone, his voice already beginning to fade. “Soldiers who are simply doing their jobs. His servants will be caught in the violence as well. What will you do then, Avatar?”
Kyoshi hopped in place, her eye poking above the surface of the cube he’d landed on, trying to catch one last glimpse. It was empty. Lao Ge was already gone.
She slumped against the marble wall. The concept of collateral damage had lingered in the back of her mind, but Lao Ge had circled it in ink, made it ache, the same way Rangi pointed out flaws in her Horse stance. She had no idea how she was going to take part in this action, fulfill her promise to her newfound brotherhood, without getting her hands dirty.
The promise had been so easy to make at the time. She stared miserably at the opposite side of the mined-out gulf, sleep coming to her before a solution could.
She woke up, sprawled flat on the hard marble surface. She must have shifted during the night.
Four figures loomed over her, making an arc of their upside-down faces. “Oh, look,” Kirima said. “Our precious little student is trying to get away and shirk her training.”
Wong stomped the ground. The marble under Kyoshi tilted like a frying pan, dumping her to her feet. He proffered her fans, handles toward her. “I get you first,” he rumbled. “A warm-up before you start bending.”
“Topknot told us all about your little weakness,” Lek said, backing away with a look of superiority on his face. “That you can’t bend small pieces of earth.”
“I believe my words were ‘completely and utterly lacks precision,’” Rangi said, sniffing in contempt. She ignored Kyoshi’s glare.
“Don’t worry,” Lek said. “By the time we’re done with you, you’ll be able to bend the crud out of your own eye. Catch!”
He whipped the stone that appeared in his hand at Kyoshi’s face. Only the fact that Wong had her fans held out, right there, let her snatch one in time to protect herself. As the arms snapped open and she earthbent through the weapon, the stone stopped in midair. It reversed course at full speed and struck Lek in the forehead.
He doubled over. “Ow!” he screamed. “I was aiming above you!”
“Wait, so you can bend small things?” Kirima said, upset by the revelation. “Were you lying to us again? I have to tell you, I’m getting really fed up with the secre
ts.”
“I’m bleeding here! This is worse than Hujiang!”
“That’s not how you open the fan!” Wong roared indignantly. “You could have damaged the leaf!”
Amid the shouting, Rangi buried her face in her hands. She seemed to have a headache that rivaled Lek’s.
Kyoshi agreed with her. The official training of the Avatar was off to a great start.
PREPARATIONS
The journey to Te’s palace was a painful blur. Each moment spent on solid ground was devoted to training. The daofei adopted their new roles as her teachers with relish. Criminals liked their hierarchies, and the Flying Opera Company had just established a brand-new one, with Kyoshi at the bottom.
“No!” Wong shouted. “It’s fan open, fan closed, high block, dainty steps backward, big lunge forward, leg sweep! The fan is not a weapon! It’s an extension of your arm!”
The man had never been much for words before, but when it came to fighting with the fan, he transformed into a tyrannical stage director, with the ego and perfectionism to match. “I could remember the moves better if you didn’t make me sing the full works of Yuan Zhen while we do this!” Kyoshi said, huffing and puffing in the open field they’d landed in. The rest of the group sat in the shade of a persimmon tree overlooking an empty field, munching on the astringent fruit and enjoying the breeze while Kyoshi toiled under the sun.
Wong was highly offended. “The singing is breath control practice! Power and voice both come from the center! Again! With emotional content this time!”
No matter how difficult fan practice got, she toughed it out. The rewards were bounding leaps in progress with her earthbending. With her fans in hand, she could narrow her focus to kick rocks at targets and raise walls of stone like a normal Earthbender, albeit one with a sloppy, informal technique. Still, after all those years of fearing she’d destroy the countryside with the smallest act of bending, using her mother’s weapons was liberating. It was so effective, it felt like cheating.
“It is cheating,” Lek said as they volleyed pebbles back and forth at each other in the mouth of a cave while the others set up camp. “Sure, some Earthbenders amplify their power with weapons like hammers and maces, but what are you going to do if you don’t have your fans? Ask for a rules change?”
“How is someone going to steal my fans?” Kyoshi said. The flight of the pebbles picked up speed, their arcs growing sharper. “I always have them with me.”