Promises
“You know, this is much harder when you’re around,” Kyoshi said to the Avatar.
She and Yun sat on the floor in one of the innumerable receiving rooms. The freestanding screen paintings had been folded up and pushed to the walls, and the potted plants had been set outside to make room for the giant piles of gifts that guests had brought for the Avatar.
Yun lay on his back, taking up valuable free space. He lazily waved a custom-forged, filigreed jian blade around in the air, stirring an imaginary upside-down pot with it.
“I have no idea how to use this,” he said. “I hate swords.”
“A boy who doesn’t like swords?” Kyoshi said with a mock gasp. “Put it in the armory pile, and we’ll get Rangi to teach you at some point.”
There were a lot of guesses around the village about what, exactly, Kyoshi did in the mansion. Given her orphaned, unwanted status, the farmers’ children assumed she handled the dirtiest, most impure jobs, dealing with refuse and carcasses and the like. The truth was somewhat different.
What she really did, as her primary role, was pick up after Yun. Tidy his messes. The Avatar was such a slob that he needed a full-time servant following in his wake, or else the chaos would overwhelm the entire complex. Soon after taking her on, the senior staff discovered Kyoshi’s strong, compulsive need to put things back in their rightful place, minimize clutter, and maintain order. So they put her on Avatar-containment duty.
This time, the pile they sat hip-deep in was not Yun’s fault. Wealthy visitors were constantly showering him with gifts in the hope of currying favor, or simply because they loved him. As big as the house was, there wasn’t enough room to give each item a display place of honor. On a regular basis Kyoshi had to sort and pack away the heirlooms and antiques and works of art that only seemed to get more lavish and numerous over time.
“Oh, look,” she said, holding up a lacquered circle set in a crisscross pattern with luminous gems. “Another Pai Sho board.”
Yun glanced over. “That one’s pretty.”
“This is, without exaggeration, the forty-fourth board you own now. You’re not keeping it.”
“Ugh, ruthless.”
She ignored him. He might be the Avatar, but when it came to her officially assigned duties, she reigned above him.
And Kyoshi needed this right now. She needed this normalcy to bury what Kelsang had told her. Despite her best efforts, it kept rising from below, the notion that she was betraying Yun and swallowing up what belonged to him.
As he lounged on his elbows, Kyoshi noticed Yun wasn’t wearing his embroidered indoor slippers. “Are those new boots?” she said, pointing at his feet. The leather they were crafted from was a beautiful, soft gray tone with fur trim like powdery morning snow. Probably baby turtle-seal hide, she thought with revulsion.
Yun tensed up. “I found them in the pile earlier.”
“They don’t fit you. Give them over.”
“I’d rather not.” He scooched backward but was hedged in by more boxes.
She crawled over to peer at the boots from a closer angle. “What did you—did you stuff the extra space with bandages? They’re ridiculously too big for you! Take them off!” She got to her knees and grabbed his foot with both hands.
“Kyoshi, please!”
She paused and looked up at his face. It was filled with pure dread. And he rarely ever raised his voice at her.
It was the second time today a person important to her had acted strangely. She forced herself to acknowledge the two incidents weren’t related. So he’d suddenly developed an intense taste for footwear. She’d make a note of it.
Yun sat up and put his hands on Kyoshi’s shoulders, fixing her with his jade-green eyes. She’d long since become inured to his flirty smiles whenever he wanted a rise out of her, his puppy-dog pout when he wanted a favor, but his expression of earnest desire was a weapon he didn’t pull out often. The way his troubled thoughts softened the sharp edges of his face was heart piercing.
“Spill it,” she said. “What’s bothering you?”
“I want you to come on a journey with me,” he said quietly. “I need you by my side.”
Kyoshi nearly choked on her surprise. He was offering a taste of the world that only an exalted few got to sample. To be a companion of the Avatar, even for a moment, was an honor beyond reckoning.
Flying into the sunset, huddled close to Yun, the wind in their hair—if Aoma and the other villagers were jealous of her before, they’d go foaming-mad with envy now. “What kind of trip is this?” she said, unconsciously lowering herself to his volume. “Where is this taking place?”
“The Eastern Sea, near the South Pole,” he said. “I’m signing a new treaty with Tagaka.”
Well, so much for fantasy. Kyoshi knocked Yun’s hands off her shoulders and sat back on her knees properly. The motion felt like it helped drain the heat out of her face.
“The Fifth Nation?” she said. “You’re going to sit at a table with the Fifth Nation? And you want me to come with you?” What was she going to do surrounded by a band of bloodthirsty pirates that was bigger than most Earth Kingdom provincial militias? Sweep up their ... cutlasses?
“I know how much you hate outlaws,” Yun said. “I thought you might appreciate seeing a victory over them up close. It’s only political, but still.”
Kyoshi puffed her cheeks in frustration. “Yun, I am basically your nanny,” she said. “You need Rangi for this mission. Better yet, you need the Fire Lord’s entire personal legion.”
“Rangi’s coming. But I want you as well. You won’t be there to fight if things go wrong.” He stared at his own feet. “You’ll just stand around and watch me as things go right.”
“For the love of—why?”
“Perspective,” he said. “I need your perspective.”
He pulled out a Pai Sho tile he’d nicked from the set she’d put away and squinted at it like a jeweler in the light.
“Is it sad that I want a regular person there?” he said. “Someone who’ll be scared and impressed and overwhelmed just like me, and not another professional Avatar monitor? That afterward I want you to tell me I’m as good as Yangchen or Salai, regardless of whether or not that’s true?”
He laughed bitterly. “I know it sounds stupid. But I think I need the presence of someone who cares about me first and history second. I want you to be proud of me, Yun, not satisfied with the performance of the Avatar.”
Kyoshi didn’t know what to do. This idea sounded mind-numbingly dangerous. She wasn’t equipped to follow the Avatar into politics or battle, not like the great companions of past generations.
Her stomach wound into a knot as she thought of the secret between her and Kelsang. They wouldn’t get the time they needed to figure that matter out. The world demanded an Avatar or else.
“It’ll be safer than it sounds,” Yun said. “Oddly enough, most daofei gangs hold quite a bit of respect for the Avatar. Either they’re superstitious about the Avatar’s spiritual powers or intimidated by someone who can drop all four elements on their heads at once.”
He tried to sound lighthearted, but he looked more and more pained the longer she kept him waiting in silence.
Then again, was it so dire of a choice? Jianzhu would never risk Yun’s life. And she had a hard time believing Yun would risk hers. Really, the situation wasn’t as grand or complicated as she made it out to be. Avatar business and the fate of the Earth Kingdom was for other people and other times. Right now, Kyoshi’s friend was depending on her. She’d be there for him.
“I’ll come,” she said. “Someone has to clean up whatever mess you make.”
Yun shuddered with relief. He caught her fingers and brought them gently to his cheek, nuzzling into them as if they were ice for a fever. “Thank you,” he said.
Kyoshi flushed all the way down to her toes. She reminded herself that his casual tendency to be close to her, to share touches, was just part of his personality. She’d caught glimpses and heard stories from the staff that confirmed it. One time he’d kissed the hand of the princess of Omashu for a second longer than normal and scored an entire new trade agreement as a result.
It had taken her a very, very long time after starting at the house to convince herself she was not in love with Yun. Moments like this threatened to undo all of her hard work. She let herself plunge under the surface and enjoy being washed over by the simple contact.
Yun reluctantly put her hand down. “Three ...” he said, cocking his ear at the ceramic-tiled floor with a smile. “Two ... One ...”
Rangi slid the door open with a sharp click.
“Avatar.” She bowed deeply and solemnly to Yun. Then she turned to Kyoshi. “You’ve barely made any progress! Look at this mess!”
“We were waiting for you,” Yun said. “We decided to burn everything. You can start with those hideous silk robes in the corner. As your Avatar, I command you to light ’em up. Right now.”
Rangi rolled her eyes. “Yes, and set the entire mansion on fire.” She always tried as hard as she could to remain dignified in front of Yun, but she cracked on occasion. And it was usually during the times when the three of them, the youngest people in the complex, were alone together.
“Exactly,” Yun said cheerily. “Burn it all to the ground. Reduce it back to nature. We’ll achieve pure states of mind.”
“You would start whining the moment you had to bathe with cold water,” Kyoshi said to him.
“There’s a solution for that,” Yun said. “Everyone would go to the river, strip down naked, grab the nearest Firebender, and—pthah!”
A decorative pillow hit him in the face. Kyoshi’s eyes went wide in disbelief.
Rangi looked utterly horrified at what she’d done. She’d attacked the Avatar. She stared at her hands like they were covered in blood. A traitor’s eternal punishment awaited her in the afterlife.
Yun burst out into laughter.
Kyoshi followed, her sides shaking until they hurt. Rangi tried not to succumb, clamping her hand over her mouth, but despite her best efforts, little giggles and snorts leaked through her fingers. An older member of the staff walked past, frowning at the trio through the open door. Which set them off further.
Kyoshi looked at Yun and Rangi’s beautiful, unguarded faces, freed from the weight of their duties if only for a moment. Her friends. She thought of how unlikely it was that she’d found them.
This. This is what I need to protect.
Yun defended the world, and Rangi defended him, but as far as Kyoshi was concerned, her own sacred ground was marked by the limits where her friends stood. This is what I need to keep safe above all else.
The sudden clarity of her realization caused her mirth to evaporate. She maintained a rictus grin so the others wouldn’t notice her change in mood. Her fist tightened around nothing.
And the spirits help anyone who would take this from me.