...

Nia Mua collapsed onto a stool in the back corner of her house where she could lean back against a wall for support. The stool was actually a little too far away from that wall for comfort but she was not prepared with the mental fortitude to scoot it back right now. All she really wanted to do right now was to fall into her bed and perhaps never wake again. But she still needed to clean her scrapes and cuts so she had a pot of water boiling over the fire she had clumsily coaxed back into life. Now she was just waiting. Luckily, she managed to find a rough brown bottle of some high-proof drink within reach of the hand that she had blindly thumped down off to her side in a questing search. The liquid burning in her mouth and throat at least gave her something to focus on and the promise of better things to come.

There was not much else that could do so now. The possessed man, those Masks, had taken everything she had left; her vengeance, her absolution, her last bit of hard-earned spiritual power. And if Chao Erliao had been targeted by the Masks that meant that that he had not arranged them to murder Chen after all. It had all been pointless.

As the bottle touched her lips Nia shuddered in a laugh, almost choking on the alcohol which splashed back into her mouth. She rested her head back against the wall with a dull thud as a bitter and tired smile played across her lips.

"I'm sorry Chen. I really tried. Ah guess that Ayika girl was right. Of course she was, ya knew she was smart when she worked for ya. You always could choose right, except when it came to me."

She closed her eyes to the dark room lit only by the glow of the low fire under the kettle. The neck of the brown bottle was still clenched in her fist.

"For me, Ah've got nothin more. Ah stayed away from you for too long and now...If your soul is stuck on the border between worlds Ah'll quiet your ghost if Ah can but...Ah can't fight those things, those Masks. Ya can't ask that of me."

Three sharp wooden knocks rang out. Nia opened her eyes to look at the front door that had supplied this unwelcome noise. She could not bring herself to be surprised or afraid. That could be the guards, although such a response time would be remarkable. It could be Public Safety but she did not think they would knock. Nia leaned forward to rise up off her seat with a great grunt of exertion. As soon as she stood, her palm spread open into a waterbending stance out of pure reflex. Then she closed that hand. With the energy she had left she had as much chance of fighting off anyone with bending as she did parting the broad ocean itself.

She walked over to open the door.

A young woman of the Kingdoms in an elaborate green costume was in the process of knocking once more when Nia was suddenly revealed in front of her. Behind the girl, two men were standing on each side of an older third man as if skeptical of his ability to continue remaining upright unaided.

The fancy girl piped up in a rapid Middle Ring accent. "Mama Mua? The healer? I understand that it is very late and a holiday as well but we have a man here who was attacked by some people who were...What happened to you?"

The Middle Ring girl had noticed Nia's scrapes and bruises. She appeared ready to launch into another flurry of questions but Nia held up a hand and just turned to walk back inside, leaving the front door wide open.

There was a brief moment of hushed and hurried conversation behind her.

"Are you sure we can trust her?"

"I think Ayika and Mizumi do. But the question is do we tell her it was the Masks?"

"Shush! What are you...Oh wait, Ma'er, mister, um if you...Well, I guess he made that decision."

Nia looked up to examine the injured man who had walked into her house and had only spared the briefest flicker of inspection for the clattering multitude of wooden spirit charms that hung from the ceiling. He was over fifty and rather grizzled from his greying hair to the faint scars on his jaw around the mouth. He held himself well but Nia's professional eye determined that he felt even worse than she did right now. The other three were just kids, if a strange mix of one rich girl with two harbor boys. Well, they knew Ayika and the Fire Nation girl. That could explain a lot of strangeness.

Nia cast her eyes up at the dark ceiling hidden behind the faintly clunking spirit charms hanging from the beams. Was this some message from Chen, or was it just another random collision in this massive living city? Did it even matter?

The kettle was almost boiling.

She turned to her new customers. "All right, you in the dark green who looks like ya lost a fight with a brick wall, show me where you're hurt. The rest of ya, sit down and keep out of ma way. And someone close the damn front door!"

...

Mizumi followed Ayika as the water tribe girl threaded her way past the last houses on the edge of old riverbank of the Kuang and over the lip of the street onto a set of stone steps that looked like they must have led down to water level in some long distant past. There were rounded granite knobs set into the stones that had been used to tie up boats centuries ago. Mizumi accidentally kicked one of these knobs slightly as she edged away from the drop that lay beyond. A bit of gravel slid over the edge and down into the dark. The water was long gone and the departure of the river had left a sloping half-paved bank that led down to the uneven waves of ramshackle houses built from splintered wood, cracked tile and crumbling brick that was the Bed. Ayika easily danced down the makeshift stairs which continued down along the bank is a haphazard assemblage of different materials. From time to time she turned back to reassure Mizumi to continue along in the descent. Mizumi did not want to admit that she was recoiling from the smell rising up from below so she hurried to press on.

When they descended to the bottom of the old riverbed their route struck out from the bank on a very narrow twisting path between rough, cramped buildings. This winding string of brick and planks was barely wide enough for three people to walk abreast and in places hardly had room for two. Then Mizumi noticed that they had not reached the bottom of the old river after all. These houses were built up on pilings or crude elevated foundations and all around and under them was a floor of dark and fetid water. They were in a riverbed after-all. Mizumi prided herself on bravery but as she threaded her way through these narrow uncertain alleys she could not help thinking that this was the kind of place in a foreign port where her father had assured her she would be murdered the instant she entered. And she was here wearing a gold headdress and silk.

She and Ayika were not the only people still out in the Bed tonight and others had noticed the finery the two girls were wearing. Mizumi pulled closer to Ayika as she felt the eyes on her from open doorways and crude balconies of the narrow houses and stacked apartments they passed.

One of the locals was the first to speak their mind. A woman with a dark skin tone, probably a tribal like Ayika, leaned her shoulder against a doorframe and called out, "Hey, you sure y'all in the right place with that metal?"

Mizumi's instinct was to ignore this jab and press on to whatever their destination was but Ayika stopped dead in the narrow street and planted her feet. She turned to look up at the woman and pointed firmly at the silver disk pendant laying above her own chest. This drew looks from the other alley-dwellers but they might have been looking in that area already. Then Ayika burst into laughter.

"This? Ha! Did you actually think this is real? Woman, I've never see this much steel to own and you think I'm walking around here wearing silver? Well, at least that's a compliment to my costuming and I'll be sure to tell the paint-seller he's got a good product."

Ayika's voice had changed again. The faint accent she usually repressed was out in full force now and she sounded as broad as any of the boatmen Mizumi had heard calling out across the Exclusion moat. The woman in the doorway looked embarrassed and irritated. Now that the target had revealed herself to be another resident of the Bed the other street-dwellers eagerly reversed the focus of their ridicule. However, Ayika was not about to let something like this go. Seizing on a strategy of camouflage by way of attention she grabbed onto Mizumi and yelled out at the woman again as she gestured.

"Hey, this look like gold too? My friend here's been freaking out that she messed up her painting and that's why none of the boys would dance with her up at the Dazhan square thing. Hey, come on, don't be like that! Come back!"

The woman who had called them out had now retreated back into her house as several men down the narrow street were starting to laugh. Behind her sparkly silver mask Ayika theatrically rolled her eyes with such force that her whole head followed their arc. She sauntered up to the laughing men with Mizumi pressing as close to her back as she could manage while stepping over the uneven transitions of the path from stones to wood to, in one place, just a gap down to black water that they stepped over.

One of the men clicked his tongue approvingly at Ayika's display and she just snorted dismissively in response. Then she gestured her head vaguely and said:

"So, Hasook's thing still going? There's something going on up in the town that's got guards shutting down all the festival parties we knew of."

The man smiled, showcasing teeth that were yellowed but strong. "Yeah, Hasook's should still be going if you're from those parts. You girls were up partying with the townies? What, hoping to snag yourself a citizen?"

"Ha! Well, we sure didn't dress up like this for you lot. Come on, Yaki. Lets get moving."

It took Mizumi a brief moment to recognize that her name was now Yaki but she caught on quickly enough and hurried after Ayika. Once they were away she whispered:

"That was clever but why did we not just remove and hide the jewelry before we came down here if it was going to cause this much trouble?"

Ayika looked at her with a smile and half a laugh. "In the dark these ornaments might be painted tin. But if we weren't wearing this lot then they'd be looking closer at the clothes and I've got no explanation there. You can't paint cotton into silk. Now stick close to me, if an outsider like you got lost here I'm not sure I'd ever be able find you again."

Mizumi saw the truth in that. No more devious maze had ever been devised than the winding alleys of the Bed. She also suspected that tonight made things even more complicated. The Festival of the Veils was a very different affair down in the Bed from what Mizumi had seen in the city above the waterline. The elaborate costumes were missing, and in fact many people did not even bother with the strips of colored cloth or paper that she had seen the poorer native residents wearing up above. Now that she thought of it, Mizumi might have expected a community of immigrants to completely disregard a holiday native to the city but it seemed that the Bed was not about to let any opportunity for celebration pass them by. Mizumi had to grin at this attitude.

Down here in this neighborhood what passed for city squares were barely the width of small streets above but tonight they were packed with residents celebrating with greater abandon than anywhere Mizumi ever had seen. The smells from the foul pools below were masked by the aromas of grilling meat and splashed remnants of of cheap liqueur. As the girls passed one such gathering, a hand snaked out of the press to grab Ayika's arm and tug her into the swirling ring of a dance. Ayika joined in happily.

There was a moment of anxiety as Mizumi lost track of Ayika among the dancers and realized to her own surprise that she had before this on some level been relying on Ayika's skin color to spot her in a crowd. But down here in this section of the Bed half the population were tribals. Mizumi even saw one or two faces that looked like they had come straight out of the Fire Nation. All the stray bits of the world seemed to flow down to collect here in this wild assemblage of a neighborhood.

Small drums were beating and their rhythm was infectious. Mizumi found herself clapping along as she watched Ayika twirl and spin in the middle of the dancing circle. Her guide had torn off her silver mask but none the confidence and commanding presence she had assumed behind it followed that disappearance. This was Ayika truly at home. She gestured over at Mizumi to join her in but Mizumi vigorously shook her head while laughing, sure that she could not match whatever heavy stepping, hip gyrating motions Ayika was joining the other Water Tribe women in.

When they broke free of this particular celebration a few moments later Ayika threw her arms around Mizumi's shoulders, laughing as the stress of the night had been forgotten even for a moment. Mizumi had to ask:

"What gods are you honoring down here?"

"Heh, the Bed doesn't have any gods. At least none we know of. For the City this place is positively new, only a few centuries. I guess sometimes people mockingly give thanks to the Kuang River for suffering imprisonment for our sake. But all these people left behind the spirits they knew in whatever homeland they came from." Now Ayika glanced up and caught sight of the corner of a vaulted aqueduct above the roofs ahead. Apparently, that was a landmark to her. "Come on, we are almost to my place!"

Ayika's home was at the very end of the Bed, at the edge of a half-moon pool of murky water that pressed against the foot of the river wall. Overhead in every direction Mizumi could see the supported pillars of canals and sewers that had been haphazardly extended to chase the departing river and now all converged above them towards the dam wall that marked the Kuang's reforming. There was less commotion here but there were still people out in the streets, sharing snacks and conversation with their neighbors in lieu of some of the more raucous parties. Now Ayika did remove her silver bangles and help Mizumi with her own pricy ornaments, muttering something about her family believing some stories more easily than others.

As they stepped onto the shaky walkway in front of those low buildings seemingly built half of brick and half of ship timbers Ayika abruptly slowed. Mizumi did not meet her face but she could sense that Ayika was seized with sudden embarrassment for the poverty all around her. Miuzmi wanted to say something that would tell her friend that none of this bothered her, but before she could open her mouth a darker voice in the back of her mind whispered that it really did. There was a sharp line dividing their life experiences, one that would not allow its self to be ignored.

Then some people sitting on benches up ahead spotted them and Ayika transitioned into yet another presented personality. There were Ayika's parents and this was now Ayika-with-family. A strong looking man, his skin tanned far darker than Ayika's, called out cheerfully to his daughter in a rather thick accent Mizumi assumed was that of the North.

"You're back already!"

Ayika's mother looked up from where she had been fiddling with something on the ground near the wall of the apartment. "Ayika, who's this? And where'd you get those clothes?"

Ayika said, "Yeah, this is Yaki, she works in the back of the laundry. Her folks are from the United Republic. Yaki, my parents: Kadat son of Makon, and Maekayae."

Miuzmi began to reflexively bow, catching herself as she transferred into the style of of the Kingdoms instead of the Nation's forms. A young boy began to giggle before receiving a sharp look from his father. Mizumi focused on hiding her accent as she said, "It is very nice to meet you."

Maekayae made a sound of unidentifiable meaning. Then she nodded and looked back at her daughter. "And where exactly'd these fancy things come from? You're not snagging are you?"

"Mom! No! Anyakya's gets lots of fancy customers too and those folks are so picky. Things get a wine stain or a candle burn and they're all ready to throw them away. Boss let us girls have a pick of the discards they turned out before she parts them out into normal clothes tomorrow. A little perk."

To Mizumi this story sounded very reasonable, but Maekayae had known Ayika much longer and only replied with a long, low "Hmmmm" of provisional acceptance.

Ayika hurriedly moved past that subject. "So what you all doing back here. Oakas get tired?"

Oakas piped up, "I'm not...!"

Maekayae gently but forcibly interrupted. "Hush, you are and you are going to bed soon enough. But right now we're doing the offerings for Grandma Aka. She always said the dead come closer on this night here."

Ayika was surprised. "What? You were going to do that without me?"

"You were the one who was out who knows where. We weren't going to keep Oakas up till whenever you decided to come back."

"Hey! I said I was..."

Ayika's father Kadat broke in between the bickering mother and daughter. "Come on, Ayika's got a friend here. Lets not keep ol' mum waiting."

Mizumi stood awkwardly back a pace as the family moved in together to what Mizumi saw was a tiny little wooden shrine that had been set on the front stoop of the apartment. It held several strange carved figures and the shortest clipped incense sticks that Mizumi had ever seen. She supposed the sellers might charge by length. Maekayae set down a little plate of dried fish on the alter and then let Ayika perform the lighting, a peace offering of sorts. Ayika performed the little ceremony, saying something brief in the language of the Water Tribe.

When Ayika looked up Mizumi noticed her glance around briefly, as if searching for something. Then Ayika had a look of sadness pass across her face. But she turned back to her family and the expression was gone. There was a sense of comfort around them all. It was a simple, unobtrusive ritual, but it had power because they believed it did. Then it was over and the family returned to their drinks and snacks, chatting, joking, and chiding. Mizumi did not know Ayika's grandmother, but she was pretty sure any dead should would have liked this.

Kadat made an effort to welcome Mizumi, under the name of Yaki, to join them in what remaining celebration there was. Mizumi tried to gracefully accept but Ayika had other ideas and instead drew Mizumi with her as they drifted off to the side, making an excuse of having already danced a lot. The little brother mimed drinking a bottle of something with a devious grin, which earned him another light tap from his father.

After a moment Mizumi saw Ayika gesture to her as she disappeared around the corner of the little apartment that bordered her family's. Mizumi followed to see Ayika climbing up some unevenly protruding boards that stuck out of the wall, taking care to direct her feet around the hem of her costume dress. Well, Mizumi was not about to let Ayika get away from her that easily. She followed Ayika up, hand over hand until she could lift herself up onto the roof. Mizumi saw Ayika casually walking across the battered and patched roof of tiles and planks.

Mizumi gestured down below their feet. "Are the people who live in this space beneath us going to appreciate us on this roof?"

Ayika laughed and her voice was soft and sweet.

"Nah, I saw them all down at the dance. And I used to come up here all the time when I was a little girl." She spun and sat down heavily as she leaned against a small plank propped up on the short chimney. She patted beside her and Mizumi picked her way across the roof to join her.

Ayika tilted her head back and looked at the few stars visible through the pervasive orange glow of the city. Mizumi sat beside her, shoulder to shoulder, trying to think of something clever to say. But then Ayika broke the silence herself.

"The Festival of Veils is a Kingdoms holiday. But holidays have power where they are believed in. The spirit world echoes that belief. We saw that tonight. My grandma always said that when the line between this world and the spirit world is thin sometimes the dead can come back. I..." She turned her head away from Mizumi. "After everything we saw tonight, I guess in the corner of my mind I thought that when we got back I would see her somewhere in the shadows. That this shaman ability would actually do me some good. I didn't even notice I was expecting that until I was disappointed."

Suddenly she forced a laugh, breaking the quiet wistfulness of her voice. "Ha! I know it was stupid. I had some ridiculous idea that she would have met up with Lizhen and fetched him to come tell me how to stop the Masks and...everything else. She was the one who knew about spirits and such. But that's not how dying works, and dreaming of putting this city right has only stuck us both in danger. Thanks for coming up here with me Mizumi, I..."

Ayika suddenly broke off as Mizumi put her hand down firmly on the other girl's thigh, twisting to look her straight in the face. In the yellow light that filtered up from around the edges of the roof Ayika could see her earnestness.

"Do not say that you are stupid! Ayika, you are...You are more brave, more determined than anyone I have ever met. The person responsible for all these horrible things will be caught and you will have done more than anyone! More than I ever believed was possible to..."

Mizumi found herself rapidly losing track of the motivational speech as she was leaning very close to Ayika's face. She imagined she felt the other girl's pulse beating in the thigh beneath her hand and she was suddenly very glad they had removed those stupid masks. Ayika was looking back at her with the same expression of mingled fear, excitement, and disbelief.

Mizumi mumbled, "You have done so much that I..."

Neither of them moved. The distant parties in the tiny neighborhood squares of the Bed were dying down to the quiet of long delayed sleep and still neither of them moved.

The loud crack of an explosion rang across the sky with a flash of green light. Both girls jerked in sudden surprise and Mizumi's hand slipped down off Ayika's leg, causing her to slide sideways and fall, her shoulder slamming into Ayika's stomach as her head clipped Ayika's jaw. Ayika burst out into mixed peals of hysterical laughter and pained groans as Mizumi pulled herself up growling all the curses she had ever learned in any language to cover the overwhelming embarrassment. Then they both looked up as a second resounding crack announced the blooming of another brilliant flower of light in the sky.

"Fireworks," said Ayika in the red and yellow flashes. "But Public Safety shut down the celebrations in the town. Who's shooting off fireworks?"

Mizumi groaned with sudden realization. "Trade Representative Tailang. He was sponsoring a display in the Exclusion and I suppose flaunting his superiority to local rules would simply be an additional bonus to him."

She returned to her position leaning against the chimney with Ayika, slamming her back into the board there with so much frustration that it almost bounced Ayika off. This set Ayika laughing again though she tried to hold it in. After a moment of stifled giggling Mizumi found herself joining in against her own will. They sat, each leaning against the other, as they watched the fireworks explode into life high above them.

...

Ayika had not returned Mizumi to the Exclusion until very late that night, after even the most disruptive elements of the town had started to retreat to their beds out of exhaustion. Ayika had managed to wrangle up a canal-boatman who, for an exorbitant fee, would transport Mizumi all of the five hundred meters from where his boat was tied to one of the Exclusion moat steps. It was possible that Mizumi's grandfather had given them up and her father was waiting to lock her up in a tower the moment she arrived at her mansion but at least she would be home and she would be safe. Ayika had watched the boat row its slow way down the canal toward the red spikes of the still illuminated foreign towers glowing in an orange shadowed haze. Mizumi was holding the wrapped bundle of Ayika's costume in her lap and she twisted her mouth as if she was almost about to say something but then decided against it. As they vanished around a turning on the water channel and Ayika abruptly felt all the weariness that she had been putting off come crashing down onto her heart.

When she had returned to the Bed her brother Oakas was long since asleep, his confidant declarations that he would stay up till sunrise having given way as they did each year. Ayika's parents were still awake, sitting near the black iron stove as it gave off its last residue of heat and they continued some quiet conversation. They must have been waiting for Ayika for as soon as she slunk through the door her mother picked up a single candle to light before they blew out the lamp in the main room. In the corner of her mind Ayika noted that her father seemed like he wanted to say something to her, but her mother just said they should all get to bed. Her mother was looking at her with some new expression of pity and attempted understanding that in her present state Ayika did not have the power to focus on. Whatever it was she had been sure that she would hear about it at great length the next morning.

She had not. In fact she had managed to race off early towards Mama Mua's without hearing more than a few words from her parents. Ayika was willing to take her victories where she could find them. Out of the Bed, on busy streets of the Harbor Town proper, Ayika heard a great many jumbled accounts of the events of last night. She heard that the Islanders had snuck into the Inner Ring and murdered a Minister of the King. She heard that Public Safety had summoned evil spirits to burn Kuang Harbor to the ground. She even heard some versions that sounded remarkably close to the truth as she understood it. However, even she had to admit that her understanding was likely just as far from the truth as all the other street-traffic chatter.

Ayika was risking getting fired by going directly to Mua's instead of to her job at Anyakya's laundry. The night after a costume holiday would have to be a very profitable day for a cleaning business. However, Ayika could not risk Mua doing anything foolish, or rather anything else foolish, so she would just have to put her faith in the city's collective hangover to protect her late arrival at work.

Once she finally reached the little square dominated by the lone tree under the looming City Wall, Ayika saw that Mua's blue and white front door was intact which was at least a good sign that Public Safety had not arrived to drag the woman away for attempted murder. This only made it more surprising when she pushed open the shaman's door and saw an earthbending Dai Li agent sipping a cup of tea by the fire-pit.

Ayika froze as she stared at Ma'er. "What are you doing here?"

From across the dim room Mama Mua spoke up. "This's still ma house, right? I'm afraid Ah don't see where ya get to ask that question of my guests." She was clearly still exhausted but she looked better than Ayika had left her last night. The fiery personality that had drained away after the dramatic events was back, or at least a portion of it.

Mua's objection was valid but still Ayika felt she had to mention her own issue with with the man.

"He threatened to kill me twice, you know."

"Ha! He did? I knew Ah liked him for some reason. And for the last time, come all the way in and close the door. I swear you, you and your friends are the worst about that."

Ayika complied but something about the way Mua had said that caught her attention. "Friends?"

"Yeah, another one of your rich girl palls and a couple wharf-rats. Brought this lunk in last night after he was apparently a lot worse at fightin' those possessed than we were."

Ma'er growled from his seat. "There were eight of them. And according to your own account you were almost beat to death by one."

Mua carelessly waved her hand. "Excuses."

A voice from the other end of the room spoke up. "Um, hi Ayika."

She whipped around, "Xiaobao?"

The large young man was indeed there, sitting in the corner away from the front door and looking as battered as Mua. He gave Ayika a worried look. "You aren't hurt are you? This woman wouldn't tell me what went down with you and her but it sounded like those Masks were involved too."

"Me hurt?! You look like you fell off a building! What happened? Wait, Masks 'too'? Why were you fighting the Masks? Where's Xinfei?"

Xiaobao vaguely gestured with his arm in reassurance. "Xinfei's fine. He went out really early this morning to guide Lili Gaoli back to her houses. I would have been out of here too if this one would let me." He pointed over a Mua.

"Shut ya whining. It's for your own good ya damn fool. The whole city is up in arms. The spirit world comin' this close is messin' with everyone's head, even if they don't notice it. And Ah still want to give ya another healin' session so ya don't go undoin' all of it again the first time ya sneeze or wipe your rear." Mua then whipped her head back around to glare at Ma'er. "And don't let me hear any of that from you!"

Ma'er had been completely silent but somehow Mua had still heard some amusement coming from him. Actually, as Ayika looked in the scarred man's eyes she might have seen a distant twinkle.

Then she turned back to Xiaobao. "Wait, why was Xinfei even out with Lili? What were they doing?"

Xiaobao's face darkened. "They discovered something, something you and your friend Mizumi should probably know."

...