Satchiko felt it before she fully understood it. Though the brims of their helmets concealed their eyes, the agents' bearing changed all the same. Nearly every Dai Li, save the instructor and the Autopsist, straightened with unmistakable restraint as a lone agent strode between their ranks. Several stepped aside without being instructed, ensuring his passage remained unobstructed.
Satchiko met the newcomer with the same burning hostility she had shown the others. Yet he was plainly different. A silken cape draped across his shoulders, flowing with measured elegance over the immaculate uniform.
"I suggest we end this entire charade, Inquisitor," the Autopsist remarked. "Perhaps you are the best to demonstrate to your fellow peers why there is no need to trade competency for unnecessary restraint."
The Dai Li clad in black and white opera face paint continued forward, not even the sergeant presumed to command him.
Before another word was spoken, the Inquisitor ordered the outer cordon of assembled Dai Li to be dismissed. The agents encircling the training grounds silently dispersed in uniform manner to resume their assigned duties. A lone trespasser, however troublesome, hardly justified drawing so much manpower away from matters of greater consequence to the state. Only those within the courtyard remained, preserved as witnesses should their superiors require a complete account of the incident.
"I do not recall inviting you here," the Inquisitor remarked, his gaze settling upon Satchiko's unwelcome presence within the heavily guarded grounds. "Though, I suppose I have learned the difficult way that your kind possesses a remarkable pertinacity for sowing discord wherever you tread. Perhaps I should not be surprised by your insolence. After all, even with the grave accusations of attempting to undermine our carefully preserved Earthbending techniques, you have already drawn previous attention upon you in another state." His words were not merely an accusation, but a deliberate provocation. One calculated jab meant to unsettle the Kyoshi Warrior. It was a tactic that would easily ensnare a less disciplined trespasser, someone lacking the restraint to withstand such carefully chosen barbs.
"Inform me," the Inquisitor continued, stepping closer with quiet authority. "Why does a supposedly noble and virtuous curator of our progenitor's island find herself wandering these courtyards like a common thief?"
Satchiko's eyes narrowed, immediately spat back.
"I don't need to steal your Earthbending!" The words escaped more forcefully than intended. "I never wanted any of it! I didn't even know just talking to those four would lead to this. What could be so important about your way of bending which demands such reprisal?"
The Inquisitor said nothing. Instead, his foot gently tapped the stone beneath him, prompting Satchiko to react on instinct and snapping the war fan before her face.
A needle-thin shard of granite erupted from the courtyard with terrifying speed.
Clang.
The projectile glanced off the steel ribs of her fan. Though scarcely larger than a pebble, the impact struck with enough force to drive her backward. Pain shot from her wrist through forearm and into her shoulder, nearly tearing the weapon from her grasp.
She quickly steadied herself with a sharp breath.
Until that moment, the Dai Li agents had been formidable. But this figure was something else entirely.
"I imagine," the Inquisitor continued, as though nothing had happened. "You understand the danger of allowing one's secrets and vulnerabilities to drift beyond trusted fact. Just because we descended from the same progenitor does not absolve my colleagues or me of our true obligation to Ba Sing Se itself."
His gaze lingered, now demanding how much the four aspirants have divulged the sensitive secrets of this city.
"Nothing!" Satchiko vehemently shot back. "They never taught me anything!"
The brows upon the black and white opera face seemed to lower.
"Then I would encourage you to be truthful," said the Inquisitor, words sounding more like an advice than hasty judgement. "I confess to struggle in understanding why you would be willing to spill blood defending four aspirants who have already demonstrated a dangerous disregard for their duties. They have grown too lax with how they interact with members of the greater masses, a quality that cannot be entrusted with the city's secrets. Yet, it would be prudent to determine just how much of the forbidden Earthbending techniques they have imparted upon you. After all, even the harshest of punishments must be measured carefully and given in proportion to the crime committed. I shall personally oversee this inquiry myself. And perhaps, if you are fortunate, your eventual comeuppance may prove far less severe than that which awaits the four individuals you are so fruitlessly attempting to rescue."
Defiantly, Satchiko refused to comply. The refusal was born not merely of stubbornness, but also out of bitter disappointment. To witness an organization founded by the very person she revered reduced to such merciless conduct was a truth almost impossible to accept.
So, she committed an act that unsettled even the seasoned Dai Li. Among those who watched in disbelief was Zhu Di, the very agent she had encountered before.
Without a word, Satchiko stepped forward and openly challenged the Dai Li Inquisitor.
"I have no need for Earthbending." Her lone golden war fan snapped into position as her free hand curled into a fist and lowered herself into a rigid stance, both weapons and personal will directed squarely at her opponent. It was an absurd display of defiance. Even the deadliest criminals knew better than to provoke the cultural authority so brazenly.
"Aside from the height," the Dai Li sergeant observed from several paces behind the Inquisitor. "She is not unlike the one who trained our first predecessors, and certainly inherited some of that vigor and boldness."
The Inquisitor answered that only with a faint, mocking sneer. "If the founder is so generous, why had she not come to intervene at this very moment?" His attention returned to the trespasser before him, a reckless teenager audacious enough to wander into forbidden grounds that even Ba Sing Se's greatest enemies approached with caution. If no consequences is prescribed today, their enemies would have perceived the authority of this city lightly.
"Since you've chosen this path, I am eager to discover how much your training is truly worth." The immense silk sleeves of the enforcer's robes shifted as he revealed the earthen gloves concealed beneath them. The anatomy of the pair is crafted with such refinement that it almost imitated actual hands.
Satchiko was not the only one who tensed. Several nearby Dai Li agents, despite the emotionless masks hiding their expressions, subtly stiffened. They knew precisely what their superior was capable of.
Remembering how small earthen tiles flew with the speed and lethality of arrows, Satchiko carefully sidestepped, ensuring the four restrained trainees were no longer directly behind her lest they become collateral causalities of the coming exchange.
The movement did not escape the Inquisitor's notice. Without so much as a flourish, he thrust a violent punch forward, beginning with his hand opened. In the middle of its flight, the Dai Li exerted his will from afar, grasping the palm and curling the earthen projectile into a rigid fist.
It hurtled not toward Satchiko, but right toward one of the helpless trainees, the main culprit himself.
Satchiko gasped, instantly snapping her fan shut and swung downward with every ounce of speed she possessed. The steel ribs struck the flying gauntlet at precisely the right angle, diverting its course only moments slamming into Ao Xiaofeng's neck.
The earthen fist smashed into the granite floor instead. Stone exploded outward as the slabs fractured beneath the tremendous force, the impact sending a light tremor through the ground that nearly toppled the Kyoshi Warrior from her stance.
Such display chilled the indignant intruder. Every movement of the Inquisitor was executed with terrifying precision and overwhelming force. From that moment onward, Satchiko scrutinized him with even greater concentration, refusing to overlook even the slightest twitch of his body.
The floor rumbled again as the Inquisitor quickly shifted his entire posture, the other gauntlet clenched into a stone fist before the glove surged out from his opposite arm.
He punched. Once again, the projectile sped toward the trapped trainees.
But this time, Satchiko answered differently. With desperate urgency, she swept both arms skyward, forcing crude sheets of earth to shield the captives themselves. The walls were uneven, jagged, and hastily assembled. Indeed, it is a pitiful imitation of the Dai Li's exceptional elegance. Even an inexperienced non-bender can deduce this is an underwhelming gambit that will never survive a real fight.
Still, it was an act of selfless instinct, and exactly what the Inquisitor had exploited.
The flying earthen glove veered at the last instant. Its true target had never been the trainees. It slammed squarely into Satchiko's lacquered armor, which managed to tank the tremendous blow but sent the Kyoshi Warrior crashing across the pavement.
A single cough of blood to the pavement was the only response mustered to that cruel maneuver by the Dai Li.
"Such a hideous construct," one Dai Li remarked while examining the crude barrier. Its rough, uneven surface bore none of the refinement expected of a true Earthbender. Utter impotence, almost akin to some natural impairment.
Others silently reached the same conclusion, and the four trainees did not hide their guilt in this entire ordeal.
Indeed, this is greatly the fault of brazenness of a rash youth who did not reasonably fear authority.
Satchiko gradually got back onto her feet, rubbing her mouth clean from crimson. Even without waiting to be offered a chance to surrender, the prospect that her foe has expended both earthen gloves did not lost on her. She seized the initiative and quickly exploded, surprising the spectators with a comparable speed without Earthbending. A shining piece of metal unfurled itself into a gleaming flash before slicing toward the Inquisitor's throat. The blade cut through the air with such speed it seemed capable of splitting the wind itself.
The Inquisitor leaned backward just in time. Glinting steel scraped across his helmet, sending it rattling and severing several strands of his hair.
He did not retreat. Instead, he tapped the floor, conjuring narrow pillar of stone to burst upward beneath Satchiko's wrist, intending to strike at that point.
To the surprise of many onlookers, she appeared to anticipate the attack as though experience had already taught her the rhythm of such counters. Satchiko pivoted quickly to her left. Her returning slash came within inches of carving into the Inquisitor's shoulder, only to be intercepted by a perfectly timed kick.
The Dai Li's earth-clad boot slammed against the steel fan with explosive force. Though the blow failed to disarm her, it created the distance he required. Even so, he found himself yielding several cautious steps as the flashing arcs of her war fan relentlessly pursued him.
Then Satchiko struck for his exposed face. At that very instant, the Inquisitor's right hand shot forward with startling speed, jabbing right at her. Thus, it forced Satchiko to instinctively opened her fan wider to shield herself, believing this to be a desperate bare-handed counter.
It was precisely the reaction he desired. The Dai Li's sharpened hands slipped effortlessly through the gaps between the metal fan's inner frame, piercing the weapon's defenses and stopping mere inches from striking her forehead.
Seizing a fleeting opening, Satchiko snapped war fan shut, trapping the Dai Li agent's wrist between the weapon's gaps and immediately twisted his arm in the opposite direction of the joint and forcing it into an unnatural angle. A merciless elbow strike then smashed into the painted face, leaving faint cracks in the immaculate black and white makeup. Her knee then shot toward his imprisoned wrist, intending to shatter his grip.
That strike never landed as the ground beneath her supporting foot suddenly liquefied into sinking earth. Satchiko sprang away on instinct, flipping backward quickly before the pavement could swallow her footing.
The relentless melee resumed.
Her steel fan snapped shut once more, transforming into a gleaming dagger. She lunged again and again, each thrust with the weapon aimed at a vital point. The Inquisitor yielded ground with measured precision, retreating only as much as necessary. Whenever the assault briefly relented, he bent the granite beneath his feet into a crude but effective coverings for his hands.
Far less anatomically refined than the signature earthen gloves of the Dai Li, the rough granite mitts nevertheless served their purpose. They allowed the Inquisitor to intercept every slash and deflected every thrust, allowing steel to do little more than chip fragments from the resilient stone.
With a powerful downward chop, Satchiko finally shattered one of the granite mitts. She immediately followed with a sweeping slash, only for the Inquisitor to seize her wrist before the blade could bite into flesh.
Rather than struggle, Satchiko executed a maneuver her sister had drilled into her countless times, a small technique reserved for opponents who captured the hand holding one's weapon.
Her leg whipped upward in a vicious high kick, aiming squarely and expected to strike the Dai Li's unprotected face. Yet, the Inquisitor reacted with unnerving speed. His painted visage remained as expressionless as carved stone while he leaned back by the smallest of margins. The sole of her boot sliced harmlessly through the air, missing his nose by barely an inch.
Satchiko cursed her tongue in frustration. Then she improvised with her own tactic after losing the other war fan. The hand gripping her weapon suddenly relaxed. Instead of losing the glinting metal, she deliberately let it fall, catching it cleanly in her free hand.
A blur of slashes erupted from an entirely different angle.
One strike carved a shallow line across the Inquisitor's shoulder before he managed to wrench himself backward, parrying the next cut with his remaining granite mitt. Without hesitation, he retaliated, driving a stone-clad palm toward her chestplate. But Satchiko merely slipped aside with practiced ease.
Then the Inquisitor attempted to ensnare her weapon hand once again with the granite material. This time, she feigned, allowing the granite mitt to close around her wrist, prompting her to snap the fan shut.
The Kyoshi Warrior twisted her entrapped hand, and hooked the folded steel around his wrist like an anchor before violently torquing his arm.
She expected a cry, which is the universal reaction to every wayward pirate unfortunate enough to become her victim. Instead, she heard nothing, not even a flinch or grimace. No matter how violently she twisted the limb, the Inquisitor's black and white visage remained utterly devoid of pain.
"Just what are you?" Satchiko asked out of irritation and disbelief.
His expression never changed, merely stared back with a face unmovable as stone. Calmly, he even released his granite mitt and let them crumble to the floor. Only then did Satchiko retreat several cautious steps, a chill creeping down her spine. The sheer tolerance to pain is something she never encountered before.
"I am impressed by your tenacity," the Dai Li said evenly, eyes drifting a few stray strands of severed green tassel dangling from his helmet. "You have accomplished more than most." His gaze returned to hers. "But there is valid reason our founder did not entrust the stewardship of this city and its palaces to non-benders."
With his remaining bare hands, the Inquisitor raised a narrow stone pillar from the ground just in front of him, only half the height of a person.
Then he struck at it, both hands punching back and forth. Each punch sheared razor-thin shards from the pillar's surface, sending them hurtling toward Satchiko in a relentless storm of stone.
The sudden barrage descended like a blizzard, but far more accurate. Satchiko's war fan became her only makeshift shield, even forgetting she is an Earthbender too. The glinting weapon batted aside as many projectiles while her feet danced desperately across the fractured courtyard floor. Any of the earthen shards she could not intercept forced her to shield her face with the armored forearm.
As for the armor, it bore the heaviest punishment of the ceaseless barrage. Shards of earth hammered into its lacquered surface, leaving fresh dents, scratches, and cracks with every passing second.
Then the Inquisitor adjusted his aim. Instead of targeting Satchiko, he focused entirely on her weapon. A concentrated volley struck the steel fan repeatedly until the impact finally tore it from her grasp. Before it could hit the ground, earth surged upward and swallowed the weapon whole, gradually entombing it beneath solid stone.
The teenager dashed towards it regardless. Calling upon the meager Earthbending she possessed, Satchiko barely managed to loosen the rock enough to wrench the buried fan free.
She retreated into a guarded stance once more, raising one fan above her head in a defensive posture while extending her other hand forward like the sharpened point of a spear aimed at her opponent.
"Intriguing," the Inquisitor remarked, a flicker of recognition crossing his gaze as he observed the subtle familiarity woven into her stance. Though she wielded no stone gloves, the foundation of the technique was unmistakable. "It would appear our mutual progenitor was quite the devoted teacher."
Satchiko paid no heed to the remark, though she had reached a similar conclusion herself. Every moment a Dai Li agent launched their two earthen gloves into battle, the resemblance in their stance had been impossible to ignore. All of which are merely proof to the lingering echoes of a common heritage passed down from Avatar Kyoshi herself.
But right not, closing the distance was no longer a safe option. If she charged again, she would simply be met with another merciless hail of stone, or worse, the Inquisitor could abandon restraint altogether and end the duel outright with Earthbending vastly beyond her own.
"You don't seem particularly confident in your innate ability," the Inquisitor suddenly said. "So much studying under that calligrapher, and he can't even elevate your skill above that of a child?"
Those words, when spoken so plainly and openly, cut deeper than any blade.
Satchiko clenched her teeth until her jaw ached, fury simmering beneath every breath. For the first time since this ordeal began, she truly felt the gulf between them. The bitter reality of being so utterly outmatched weighed heavily, compounded by the exhaustion and hardship that had defined this entire grueling journey. For a fleeting moment, a darker thought took root in her mind. Perhaps she would rather meet her end within this granite courtyard than return home empty-handed, with nothing to prove that her suffering had meant anything.
With a scream sharp enough to echo the massive courtyard's oppressive silence, Satchiko bend a shard of stone from the floor and hurled it toward the painted figure. A valiant effort, yet a hopeless one.
Curiously, the Inquisitor made no attempt to evade the projectile nor muster a thin earthen barrier for protection. He remained perfectly still, allowing the jagged stone to slam into his shoulder.
The impact was forceful enough to drive the Dai Li officer a single step backward.