The bodies lay swathed in immaculate white shrouds as the Dai Li agents assigned to their preservation drifted silently through the dim chamber, arranging the dead with practiced precision.
Of course, Ba Sing Se possessed no shortage of shadowed rooms. Yet few existed for a purpose as singular as this one. Every attendant wrapped thick cloth across the lower half of their face, not out of respect, but to shield still living lungs from the stagnant air that seeped from the resting corpses. The Dai Li were feared as the city's supreme Earthbending enforcers, but even they must remain healthy in both flesh and blood.
At the head of the detail walked the Autopsist, the superintendent entrusted with duties few envied. It lacked the danger of hunting seditionists through the Lower Ring streets, yet there is a peculiar tranquility in overseeing their final destination. Few people ever experienced the quiet aftermath of extinguishing the reprobates who had dared stand against Ba Sing Se.
"So, this is the one who nearly killed our diligent Inquisitor?" the superintendent asked.
"Yes, Autopsist," another Dai Li replied, consulting the catalogue in his hands. "This outlaw possessed exceptional skill, including the exceedingly rare ability to suppress another's bending."
The corpse stared back with lifeless eyes that somehow still carried the echo of defiance, as though resentment had lingered after life itself had fled. The Autopsist gently drew the burial cloth over her face.
"Though she never sought open conflict, together this outlaw and my detestable former colleague have aided those who attempted to defile Ba Sing Se's cultural heritage." The Autopsist's voice remained the same, almost instructional. "Whether she belonged to that deluded movement is irrelevant. Concealing their crimes and attempting to imitate our safeguarded techniques warranted only one outcome."
No one offered a word of sympathy. However formidable this former outlaw had proven close to defeating one of the Dai Li's finest, she had trespassed into knowledge forbidden to outsiders. The bodies would remain here for the foreseeable future, discreetly preserved should the city ever require them again. Whatever purpose they might yet serve, the guardians of Ba Sing Se tolerated no loose ends. Anyone who learned their secrets without sanction are to be erased with meticulous efficiency. Only the boldest criminals or the most spectacularly foolish would dare pry into the affairs of the deadliest Earthbending masters alive.
With a measured and rigid sweep of his hands, the Autopsist bent the stone beneath the chamber. Hidden compartments rumbled open along the walls, revealing rows of narrow recesses carved into the earth itself. The agents lowered each shrouded body into its allotted chamber before sealing the stone once more. Wrapped in pristine cloth, the dead became little more than carefully catalogued evidence, preserved for whatever future necessity the state might imagine.
Another ordinary duty completed.
The Autopsist emerged from the subterranean vaults and dismissed the agents beneath his command. Alone, he wandered through the winding alleys and quiet courtyards surrounding the Inner Palace.
Compared to the stale depths below, the air here felt wonderfully clean. It carried the scent of trimmed hedges, polished stone, and distant blossoms instead of decay. Even one long accustomed to death could appreciate the simple luxury of breathing without rot invading every breath. He allowed himself the rare indulgence of savoring each step.
"Autopsist."
He turned at the familiar and younger voice, finding two Dai Li agents approaching. Of course, those who aren't responsible for managing the deceased behave slightly different, even in the subtle manners of speech. "You two."
"Our interruption comes at an unfortunate time," Zhu Di said with formality. "Several of our aspirants have been implicated in communicating with forces beyond Ba Sing Se. Your attendance at today's sentencing would be… most appropriate."
The Autopsist's lips curved into a faint smile. It held neither warmth nor mockery, only weary amusement. "You youngsters remain soft-hearted as ever," he replied. "My presence is hardly necessary for what amounts to routine discipline. Nevertheless, I shall indulge your concern. Those children may not possess the resilience that years of our profession have cultivated."
Such people embodied a curious contradiction. Those most intimately acquainted with broken bones, severed flesh, and death itself often became quite capable of tending grievous injuries. Familiarity with suffering had not made them compassionate, it had merely taught them exactly how much the human body could endure.
"Besides," the Autopsist continued, "I enjoy watching. Creatures incapable of obeying the simplest instructions rarely become useful servants. Better they learn while young than sink deeper into the mire."
Zhu Di concealed his upper face with the brim of his helmet, wisely kept personal reservations to himself. Together with several agents whose schedules had unexpectedly cleared, they proceeded toward the sentencing grounds. Mere delinquents should not have warranted such attention, yet the Dai Li viewed even youthful dissent as a seed from which treason against Ba Sing Se might someday grow.
In truth, it was not an unreasonable assessment.
"It seems the disciplinary officer intends to be lenient today," the Autopsist observed as they entered a massive courtyard. "How thoroughly disappointing."
The courtyard had been reserved exclusively for correcting wayward youths amongst their ranks. To reinforce absolute obedience, each offender's own instructor had been chosen to administer the punishment. The condemned, mere teenagers, were immobilized beneath heavy wooden cangues fastened around their necks and wrists. Even these simple restraints had been subtly modified, forcing each prisoner to kneel in an unnatural posture that gradually bent the spine into agonizing submission. It was a punishment designed not merely to inflict pain, but to cultivate obedience through relentless discomfort.
There is also a wooden ladle lying right beside the accused. Only this time, there is no water. By all accounts, there are worse fates. The prospect before them was agonizing enough. But it is still preferable to being torn limb from limb beneath the wheels of chariots, which is something that this city's armies do often perform onto armies from neighboring states that 'wandered' into Ba Sing Se territory.
"Autopsist, the aspirants are being subjected to excruciating pain," Zhu Di said with measured composure. "The punishment is deliberately severe. Such lessons cannot be imparted through gentle means."
The Autopsist remained unmoved. In time, the day's chosen instrument of discipline was unveiled. Steel thumbscrews, grim devices once reserved for disorderly Earthbenders who had profaned their innate gifts by turning their own hands into weapons. Yet a more discerning observer, particularly one possessed of detached indifference, might perceive an unspoken mercy hidden within their cruel design. Unlike the lash, thumbscrews yielded entirely to the will of the one turning the handle. Every agonizing increment was a conscious choice. What can stop a disciplinary officer from tempering justice with the slightest measure of compassion toward his own pupils?
"As promised," declared the Dai Li sergeant presiding over the courtyard. "These are the consequences of your asinine endeavor." The yellow tassels draped from his conical helmet marked his seniority over the two silent agents flanking him. "Perhaps suffering will teach you what reason could not."
Like any sentencing, the accused would try to speak their way out of the plight, to no avail.
"But I didn't do it!" one of the aspirants cried. "Ao Xiaofeng was the one who suggested it!"
The one accused stood shackled beside him named Ao Xiaofeng offered no protest, nor did he seek to shift the blame. His gaze remained fixed upon the stone beneath his feet, burdened by the quiet resignation of one who understood that his own folly had dragged three other companions into ruin.
"He shall receive his due," the sergeant replied, voice cold as the carved granite that paved this massive courtyard. "Disappointed though I am in such a promising aspirant, the state has never regarded inaction as an acceptable refuge from treason."
His attention shifted toward the three trainees routinely assigned to sweep the abandoned shrine area alongside Ao Xiaofeng. The ancient penal code enshrined plainly. To witness possible sedition and remain silent is itself a crime. Failure to report treason invited punishment little kinder than committing it.
There was unmistakable venom in the sergeant's words, directed less toward the instigator than toward those who had chosen silence. To cede any of the state's secrets to outsiders was after all an offense worthy of death.
The assembled spectators watched in silence. Their expressions formed a curious tapestry of indifference, quiet amusement, and uneasy concern as the instructor continued to denounce the four reckless youths whose actions had endangered Ba Sing Se itself. As the unseen eyes and ears of the Earth Kingdom, the Dai Li are expected to prize secrecy above all else. Those who so carelessly forfeited that advantage earned only disgrace.
Among the gathered, maybe a few do quietly lament the tragedy of seeing the youngest among them condemned to such overwhelming contempt so early in their service.
"Zhu Di," the Autopsist said at last. "Do not insult me by concealing the true reason you brought me here. Unlike the vast majority of you lot, I have served since the reign of Dowager Hou-Ting and have watched each generation cast aside the senile and the incompetent in pursuit of greater efficiency. Yet I sometimes wonder whether that the director's pursuit has come at the cost of certain conviction lost since my generation. Ruthlessness has sharpened, but discipline has grown… strangely lenient."
Without hesitation, Zhu Di raised both hands into a fist-and-palm salute, every movement carefully measured to convey the utmost respect. "Our youth are the future," he replied. "Their disregard for our iron laws will not go unanswered, I give you my word. The Director himself was incensed by this disgrace. That is why these four have been condemned to our harshest disciplinary measures to preserve order, and to ensure they never again invite such travesty."
The heavy thuds of wooden canes echoed across the courtyard. The Autopsist watched impassively as an aide to the sergeant strike the bound youths. Some blows landed across exposed faces, splitting cheeks and opening noses in sprays of crimson.
"The scars will endure," Zhu Di continued, instinctively brushing the weathered wound hidden beneath his own immaculate makeup. "But youthful recklessness can still be reforged into loyal service." Without the cosmetics concealing the deep scar etched across his face, even the simplest interaction with the public would have become immeasurably more difficult.
The older Autopsist merely returned his gaze to the center of the courtyard. He was the eldest among those assembled, one of the few surviving relics of Hou-Ting's era whose unique competence had preserved him through decades of political purges. Every newcomer including the director would eventually learned the same lesson, the stubborn old guard yielded to no one. A dry smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "If I wished to expand my collection of taxidermy, I would hardly waste my efforts on such inferior specimens." His eyes lingered lazily upon the condemned youths. "It is amusing how many within these walls mistake my unconventional understanding of mortal flesh for the talents of a healer. If superficial wounds concern you so greatly, perhaps consult the celebrated physicians of the Northern Water Tribe instead of squandering my time."
Such words offered neither reassurance nor refusal. In a curious way, Zhu Di found himself both relieved and disappointed. The Autopsist evidently considered the punishments survivable, yet only because they paled beside atrocities outside the walls too dreadful to acknowledge openly.
As the Autopsist turned to leave the courtyard after declaring the proceedings too mundane to warrant further attention, Zhu Di bowed deeply while the sentencing is about to continue.
The sergeant raised his hand. At once, the two aides discarded the canes and switched to the next set of tools.
Ao Xiaofeng, now bound in heavy steel chains, was forced to his knees before his teacher. Without ceremony, the instructor seized the young man's trembling hand, spread his fingers apart and locked the thumb into the waiting jaws of the polished steel thumbscrew.
The teenager, though frightened, refused to let fear betray him. Despite their brazen transgression, these youths are no ordinary delinquents. Apprentices to some of the world's deadliest Earthbenders were not raised to cower easily before pain.
"Remember this," the instructor said, voice devoid of emotion as he looked down upon the boy. "Harmony compromised by the whims of personal whims is no harmony worth preserving. Considering your role in all this, you will set the example for the other three."
Ao Xiaofeng, the promising trainee who had scaled the great bastion faster than any of his peers, closed his eyes in quiet acceptance. Yet they could not remain shut for long. The sentence began as iron jaws clasped around his hands, each merciless turn of the thumbscrew tightening with deliberate precision.
His cries rose gradually, beginning as restrained groans before swelling into agonized screams. Every sickening crack of splintering bone rippled through the courtyard, chilling the three other condemned trainees. They found little comfort in knowing that this punishment ranked among the milder disciplines the Dai Li imposed.
Perhaps if the four had been slightly older, the spectators would have an easier time justifying the punishment. As Zhu Di and his partner silently observed the proceeding, the Autopsist suddenly halted mid-step, as if his departure was interrupted by someone either courageous beyond reason or hopelessly foolish enough to disrupt the sentencing surrounded by dozens of Dai Li agents.
"It seems yet another soul has come to announce how little they value their own life," the Autopsist said.