Fire in the Sky (TLOK)

Chapter 32: There's a breeze in the air

Kira approached the courtyard. It had grown to be her favorite spot in the entire palace. It held many memories. Some more heavy than others, but they all happened here, the courtyard.

She was here on a different mission. Not to play with her grandchildren, or her great-grandchildren, not to share tea and Pai-Sho with Zuko, not to speak to Izumi on current affairs -no -this time was different.

It happened every year, for about twenty-four years now. Grief returned like a heavy blanket around Kira's shoulders every year.

She headed to a small temple. It had been erected that same year the incident happened. It was this day that Kira became more aware of who she was, her place in the world, her everlasting immortality that would carry her through time that began to grow more and more unknown each day.

Kira climbed the small steps of the temple, entering a shrine in which a stone tablet lay. No photographs -those were too painful still -just words and incense that scattered the area. His actual tomb lay somewhere in the cemetery that all royal members went. But Yuto, in memory, rested in the courtyard that Kira loved so dearly.

She knelt down on the ground, lighting more incense between her fingertips.

"Hello, my dear." Kira murmured, setting the incense in a holder. She had brought a basket of food, which she began setting out on a small table, "It's been a very chaotic year so far... many spirits." Kira chuckled, "I wonder if you've become a spirit somewhere. Perhaps you'll visit me?"

Only the wind met Kira's ears.

"Of course," Kira said, "Perhaps not."

Kira sat in the shrine for a while. She always did this, a week or so of just sitting and lighting incense. Zuko would come check on her, sit with her sometimes.

"Are you over it?" Kira asked one time, leaning against her husband, "Do you not feel sad anymore?"

"Sad?" Zuko held his wife tightly, "Of course I'm sad." And Kira recalled each photograph that Zuko kept in an album, all of their son, and how he'd spend an hour just looking over it, silently, while Kira could barely look at a picture before the world blurred. Perhaps they mourned in different ways, they remembered painful things differently.

Kira now stood up, legs feeling a little numb. She was counting her years, hoping the grief would settle, it would find its way to the corner of her mind and hide away. But for now, she would mourn, again and again.

Kira closed her eyes. The night could still be remembered through aching screams and mournful words, please stay with me, while the sounds of destruction filled the background. She gripped the hem of her robes, hearing Ryuki's voice once again,

Something rises.

Kira chuckled, eyes dark, "I don't like it when you speak to me these days, old friend."

~~~

Yuki landed back on Air Temple Island with a very tired Xing-Xing. Her mother and father welcomed her, Rohan happily waving his arms in Pema's hands.

"Welcome back!" Pema walked over to Yuki, allowing Rohan to try to wrap his arms around Yuki's head.

"Hello!" Yuki said cheerfully to her youngest brother, gently untangling herself from his sticky little grip. She looked at Tenzin with a cheeky grin, "I'm baaack, completely safe."