The Avatar's Master

25. Old Friends, New Friends

All was quiet at the Southern Air Temple save the for the rustling of wind in the late night. Most inhabitants of the temple rose with the dawn and lived more or less as modern monks.

Kuvira slept on her back in a humble room with curved walls and a small window with a view of the vast mountainscape. Its only furnishings were a cot for sleeping and a mat on the floor for meditating in seated position. There was space enough at the city-sized temple for everyone to have their own room, and for the first time in weeks, Kuvira had solitary albeit troubled sleep.

The door of her room creaked open and Bae tiptoed in, her hair and face obscured with a shawl to reveal the slits of her eyes, which were red and swollen from crying and glaring at the sleeping Kuvira.

On the floor lay one of Kuvira's daggers in its scabbard and Bae swiped it stealthily, inching her way toward the woman in the bed. The waxing moon spirit shone through the small window illuminating specs of dust floating in the wind.

Kuvira turned to her side, and Bae froze in place as the other woman flopped on her back again. Several minutes later, Bae stirred after making sure Kuvira's breaths were slow and heavy as that of a person in deep sleep. She found herself hovering above Kuvira with the dagger raised above the former Great Uniter's chest, the light of the moon glinting off the blade.

She looked at Kuvira's face again and softened before once again finding resolve in justice. She kneeled and kept her gaze fixated on the woman who was her friend and incidentally her greatest enemy – at the very least, she would give Kuvira the honor of her gaze, a living witness to the next life. She inhaled deeply, clasping the dagger with both hands and swung down hard toward the other's woman heart.

In a fell swoop, Kuvira caught Bae's wrists with one hand and held her second dagger's edge at Bae's neck with the other. Kuvira looked steadily at the other woman.

"I didn't think you had the gumption, but I'm impressed." Kuvira husked.

Tears streamed down Bae's eyes, collecting in the fabric that obscured her face, and it broke Kuvira's heart to see she caused someone she cared about so much pain. Still, she kept up her banter:

"You thought I was asleep but you would know I stir at the slightest sound if you weren't the heaviest sleeper I ever met, and heavy-footed to boot." Kuvira found herself egging the other woman on.

Bae remained silent -- the quietest Kuvira had seen of her since they met. She released her tight grip on Bae's helpless wrists and lowered the dagger. Bae fell back on the ground and unraveled her shawl.

Kuvira sat up on the edge of the cot so that she looked down at Bae on the floor. "What? That's it? You're not going to avenge your husband's death? I didn't take you for a weakling, but perhaps I was wrong."

"Stop it!" Bae's voice crackled. They were the first words she spoke since running away from the Hall of Avatars earlier that day.

Kuvira joined Bae on the floor and got down on her knees. She grabbed Bae's wrist, which still clutched the dagger and lifted it to her own neck.

"I've wronged you." Kuvira began. "Now serve me justice!"

The former Great Uniter could see the wild pain in the other woman's eyes, but in a few moments they changed from murderous to anger to something she couldn't place.

"I thought you were so wise. And cool. But now I see you're just a Fool. And I'm a lonely dreamer for following you, which also makes me a fool." Bae seethed. "I could kill you – but that'd just bring you peace. I see that now. It's not something I'm prepared to give you. Better you live with what you've done."