"I'm not sure I'll be able to return here. There's also a war ahead of me, and people tend to get killed in wars."
"Humans…" the Librarian shook his head. "Such enormous potential, wasted so foolishly. As for your death… you have already died once before, and yet you still ended up here."
"Fair point."
Though I had absolutely no desire to repeat the experience. Neither the sensation of blood boiling from electric current nor the agony of my chest being crushed by a heavy steel bar had been particularly enjoyable.
"Then until next time, Teacher." I bowed to the spirit.
"Until next time, student." The spirit inclined his head and dissolved into the shadows between the towering bookshelves.
Time to go.
My companions had long since copied everything they wanted and had been waiting only for me. Meanwhile, I'd surrendered completely to greed and absorbed knowledge like a starving man.
The Southern, Swamp, and Northern schools of waterbending. The Sand and Stone schools of earthbending. The Nomads' Breath and Wing techniques of airbending. And for my native element, the methods behind changing the color of flames and lightning generation.
Then there was lavabending, existing at the intersection of Earth and Fire — a discipline accessible only to the Avatar and true monsters among benders.
And of course, Energybending.
The problem was that all of it remained purely theoretical to me. I knew the movements. I could reproduce the forms. But there was no true understanding behind them; the knowledge lay inside my head like dead weight.
So I'd had to "pay extra" to the owl so he would personally train me in matters of spiritual energy and give me a push forward. By manipulating my own life force — Chi, as people here called it — I would eventually, sooner or later, reach colored flames and lightning for certain.
As for the other elements…
Tempting. Very tempting.
But where the hell was I supposed to find the time for all of it?
All in all, I'd learned a tremendous amount. Give me ten years, and maybe I wouldn't even fear facing a fully realized Avatar — or challenging the Fire Lord himself to an Agni Kai.
The problem was that I didn't have ten years.
So I'd have to cheat.
"And where to now, O greatest of bookworms?" Suki sounded displeased. She understood the situation perfectly well, but that didn't make her any happier about being practically abandoned for nearly a month — exchanging maybe a sentence or two with me each day before I collapsed face-first onto a mattress and passed out cold.
"I know, I was awful. But I promise I'll make it up to you!"
"Oh yeah? And how exactly do you plan to do that?" the lady of my heart asked with considerable suspicion.
"How about taking the girls and heading to Ember Island? I've got a house there (one that actually belongs to me, though I've never even seen it before, but that's a minor detail — worst case, we'll just stay at my father's place), and honestly, we could all use some proper rest."
"A vacation on the legendary resort island of the Fire Nation?" The girl narrowed her eyes. "What's the catch?"
"Can't I just spoil my girlfriend for once? Besides, I'm pretty sure I've committed a grave offense and must atone for my criminal neglect of your beauty!" Suki happily threw herself at me and captured my lips in a passionate kiss.
I felt a little guilty.
Back in the library, I'd visited the geography section and determined the location of the temple where the last pair of dragons supposedly lived. The Sun Warriors' island was only three days from Ember Island, and after returning from the resort I intended to pay it a visit.
But that would happen on the way back.
Before that, I genuinely intended to rest and enjoy life for a while…
Well, and continue practicing energybending. The Spirit of Knowledge had been right — some teachings from various martial schools overlapped with the basic practices of energybending, so I wasn't starting entirely from scratch. Even so, the training still devoured absurd amounts of time and energy.
We packed up fairly quickly. A couple of hours later, the sands were already far beneath us, while Ju lounged comfortably in the gondola, enthusiastically speculating about all the new and interesting things she'd be able to cook now.
"So, what new things did you learn?" I wrapped an arm around the girl happily snuggled against my side.
"A few interesting hand-to-hand combat techniques and… something else," she replied, blushing slightly before pressing herself even closer and whispering into my ear, "I'll… show you later."
A pleasant shiver ran down my spine at the sound of her voice.
"Promising," I murmured. Ah, life really was starting to improve!
Closing my eyes, I leaned back against the side of the gondola and once more focused on the flow of Chi within my body, carefully trying to slow it while simultaneously studying the energy system of the Suki pressed against me.
Those areas governed elemental affinity. In my case, only one node was "active," the one beneath the diaphragm. Hers, meanwhile, were all dormant. And what if… No. I wasn't experimenting on her. Better to capture a few pirates later instead. Nobody would feel sorry for them.
By evening we'd reached the Misty Palms Oasis, where we reunited with our companions without incident, loaded the flying machine back onto the wagon, and began the journey home.
Ahead of me awaited a mountain of reports and some much-needed rest.
Though first came the reports.
…Tragic.
(End of Chapter)
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