"This is bad, bad, bad, bad, bad." Xinfei was muttering in an almost silent murmur, conscious of the fact that they were crouched in the bedroom of a dangerous man who might be the leader of a violent secret society. A man who was a few meters away talking about garden designs. "I thought you were just trying to make yourself feel better by pretending to inve...Ayika, this guy can kill benders!" He was clearly terrified.

Ayika tried to collect her thoughts. She whispered back, "Wait wait wait. I remember you telling me about a Society of the Mask yesterday when you were selling matches. You said that they were involved in the anti-Islander protests. I thought the Society was just another rumor about normals having the power to fight benders?"

"There's a room full of masks and maps of the city with X's on them tacked up next to leaflets of nationalist propaganda! There were knives! That's a pretty firm rumor!"

"I know, I know. Just give me a chance to...think," she hissed. The guards at the school had mentioned the significance of Professor Lizhen's killer wearing a mask. Ma'er and the murderer might both be members of this secret society? That linked them! Although, the white faced figure in the black room, he had not felt like just a man in a mask. Without thinking about it she gently felt her sternum where the blow had struck her.

But rumor and confused memories were not enough to bring justice for Professor Lizhen. She asked Xinfei, "How do you know they are masks from that Society of the Mask? Would the guards recognize them as evidence if we brought one out?"

"Why build a secret room for your festival costumes?!" Xinfei said, halfway into a quiet panic. "We already know this guy was connected to Lizhen right before the murder. It is not a lot of dots to connect! You haven't heard what I have down at the docks. The guy in the mask is the real force behind those stupid protesters against the Fire Nation and all those who support them. There is a real danger, and anyone who looks to closely into his men ends up dead! Those university brats with the posters are one thing, people are afraid of the Mask! People are dead! And you have us sneaking through his...Ayika no!" He grabbed her arm as she made to open the secret room again. "Please, we have to get out of here." He begged, sticking out his hand to seal the room with a click.

Leaving now felt like running, like failing the professor again. But as much as she could not stand it he had a point. The strange windfall of Mizumi's cooperation could only last so long and they had achieved more than she had honestly expected. Discretion could trump valor for now until she could come up with a plan to use their advantage. With one last look longing to pluck forth the masks and seek instant justice, she nodded.

The descent was as heart-stopping as their way up. She prayed to the bedroom door to open silently, then timed their passage down the hallway with an upswing in office conversation, knowing at any minute the mysterious Ma'er or his skittish assistant could step out and discover them. Ayika swore she passed through the veil of death several times before they got down to the kitchen and were free to dash back across the garden. Only back in the alley did they feel free to indulge in the panicked gasps their pounding blood demanded. Xinfei insisted that they get back to the Bed immediately, looking over his shoulder for cultists or Public Safety agents as he did so, but Ayika knew she had to wait for Mizumi. She had to know what role that girl had in all this.

They did not have long to wait, though it felt like an eternity as Xinfei continued to tell her about stories of shops smashed up in the night, imported machines destroyed, and people who supported the Islanders being found beaten or worse by a man in a mask. Eventually the green door opened and the foreign girl was guided out while the assistant stammered pleasantries. Mizumi seemed preoccupied and replied sparsely to each of the thanks and entreaties to return. She received the assistant's final bow with a nod of her head and seated herself in her palanquin. She only gave a slight start with a strangled squeak when she saw Ayika and Xinfei lurking in the crowd of the street traffic, which Ayika again though was a good example of a controlled reaction. Mizumi gave her final wave to Ma'er's assistant while wearing a frozen smile but he appeared too preoccupied in his own worries to notice. When Ayika heard the gate slam shut she rushed forward into the street but as soon as she got next to the palanquin Mizumi called for the bearers to hoist her up. She hissed at Ayika. "Follow now! Talk later!"

Ayika let the chair move away as she stood there in the middle of the street. She now realized that it might be wise to be less public. Fortunately it would not be any trouble to trail behind at the speeds such a chair could manage through these crowded Lower Ring streets. Trying to act casually, she waved Xinfei out to her and turned for one last look at the gardener's house. The house of the leader of the Society of the Mask. There was a figure in the second floor window looking out in their general direction, but she and Xinfei were camouflaged by the milling street-folk. Still, she walked a bit more quickly than usual as they set off after Mizumi.

They caught up to the chair by the first square but Mizumi met Ayika's eye from her seat and waved them off so Ayika and Xinfei trailed behind at the infuriatingly slow pace the porters could mange in this constant flow of foot-traffic. Mizumi finally had her chair set down at the edge of the large square by the Gate-side Transport Terminal where it was sliced in half by the great city wall's shadow. Ayika's frustration with Mizumi's refusal to speak to her had been growing for the entire walk, and as she was forced to watch the girl casually and oh-so-slowly pay the chair bearers she felt ready to explode with questions. She crossed that line of shadow from sun into shade with righteous indignation on her side but before she could open her mouth she was beaten to the punch.

"What were you two doing there?!" Mizumi yelled, suddenly much closer than Ayika really felt comfortable. The Islander threw up her hands as she continued. "I mean, what...?! Do you realize what could have happened?!"

That tone of accusation, even in amusingly mispronounced words, was much too accusatory and Ayika abruptly stopped caring about drawing stares from the milling people around them. She yelled back, "What was I doing there?! What were you doing there?! And why did you lead them upstairs to where we were searching when I asked you to help me?!"

Mizumi's eyes boggled. "You went upstairs? Why were...? I was trying to draw them away from you so that you could sneak out!"

"Well...all right then! That makes more sense!" Ayika finished lamely. Both of them deflated slightly, realizing there was not really a reason to be yelling that loudly.

"Girls, we might want to..." Xinfei began until Ayika cut him off with a hand. She was not done with anger quite yet.

She held eye contact with the Islander girl. "Still, what were you doing there at all?"

Mizumi held her palms open like it was obvious. "I was investigating the man you told me about last night! The one who had been visiting Teacher Lizhen when you found me in the adjacent room. Father still has your government looking closely at him despite what Trade Representative Tailang could do." Now her voice lowered in remembered fury. "The so called authorities of law do not know who did the crime so they satisfy their superiors by accusing the Fire Nation man. If they had another suspect they would be able to admit they have nothing on him." She looked worried, frustrated, and angry at her helplessness before a world which had capriciously decided to be cruel to her and her loved ones. Ayika could understand feeling the need to take action.

Ayika made a decision. It was possible that it was unwise but at this point she had little to lose. She needed help. "Well you may be in luck," she began. "We discovered that the so called gardener Ma'er is actually..." Here she was interrupted by Xinfei dramatically fake-coughing with significant looks towards Mizumi. He clearly did not want to let Mizumi in on their findings. Ayika elected to ignore him. "Is actually part of the Society of the Mask!"

This did not elicit the reaction she expected, that being any reaction at all. Mizumi stared blankly waiting for more. After a moment she said, "I am sorry, am I supposed to know what that is?"

"What? But it is in all the rumors! It is the...Actually yeah, Xinfei, I'm not completely clear what this society is either," Ayika abruptly admitted. There had been a lot of information in the last two days and in her mind it was becoming jumbled into one massive and indistinct conspiracy. "Yesterday I thought you said the Mask was fighting the Public Safety benders, but then there was that anti-foreigner stuff at Ma'er's place?"

Xinfei sighed, having by now resigned himself to the fact that no one was listening to them discussing highly dangerous subjects in the middle of a crowded square, and that neither of the women in front of him seemed likely to stop soon. Releasing his pervasive suspicions was a great effort for Xinfei; he had a mind that made its own excitement out of his routine life. In addition, he did not know why Ayika seemed to be trusting this Fire Nation girl he had never before said a single word to. So he turned to Mizumi herself.

"I'm sorry," he began and he might have conceivably meant that as an apology. "I am sure you may be a good person. But I don't know you. You can currently hold witnessing us breaking into a citizen's house over our heads. In this power imbalance I don't know why we should be trusting you just because you showed up today."

Ayika looked sharply at him. "Xinfei!"

"No," Mizumi said, her accent adding a few extra vowels to that simple word. "I understand that you would have caution." She looked down and as she spoke her hands clenched and unclenched into fists. "I...Before my father moved me here to the Kingdoms, I often did not see him for months. My grandfather looked after me and he was a soldier in the war. I suppose that I alway imagined that if I got the opportunity, I would be brave like him. But then last night I heard something odd in the night and I only hid. And a man who was one of the greatest friends to my people died a few meters away from me while this water tribe girl tried to defend him. I guess...I guess I just want another chance to be brave."

Ayika looked at Mizumi with new wonder and saw fierceness burning in her eyes. She turned to Xinfei. This was someone who understood why she needed to find answers for Professor Lizhen. "Well, I think that is a good enough answer." She raised her eyebrow at Xinfei.

He shuffled uncomfortably, but reluctantly consented and began to lay out his thoughts. "Look, I've pretty much only heard about this stuff working at the docks..."

"You've missed half your days for the last two weeks. Xiobao said."

"Not the time, Ayika." He nervously ran his fingers through his hair and tried to gather together half-remembered gossip. "Look, there's been a lot of anti-foreigner noise lately, and not just from the university boys putting up their posters and yelling at people on the street. Some are saying that the king's ministers are in the Exclusion's pocket and they are selling us out to the ashy dogs. No offense," He said to Mizumi who looked more amused than offended by this slur.

Xinfei caught hold of his train of thought and continued. "The Mask is who they start muttering about when they say 'somebody ought to do something about that'. The society is the elite arm of the conservatives who are fighting to limit the incursions of the Islanders; smashing businesses, terrorizing collaborators and all that. This puts them at odds with the parts of the government who get heavy pockets from the foreigners. So they say. In one of the clashes recently rumor has it supposedly a Public Safety earthbender ended up dead." He poked his finger into his palm dramatically. "Anyone who can do that is not to be messed with."

"Great!" Ayika said, slapping her fist in her palm. "I mean the information not the dead guy. The government will love to connect Professor's murder to an antigovernment group. Ma'er will be down in Public Safety's secret tunnels ten minutes after they find out!"

Mizumi interrupted. "Hold on please. I have not heard of any of this mask affairs from my father's importer and industrialist friends, and they talk about politics issues and their fight against the conservatives at every occasion. Why have I never heard of this The Mask?"

Xinfei acquired a quietly manic gleam in his eye. "Of course it is being kept quiet. Public Safety would never admit the existence of a group they can't stop. That is if they are actually two different groups." He glanced around for eavesdroppers. "This could all be a conspiracy from the old Dai Li themselves. See, what you have to know is that a false-flag operation is when..."

Ayika shoved a hand across his mouth. "And this is about where I've learned to cut him off." Mizumi laughed a bit over her confusion and Ayika grinned. "Ok," She said, raising her finger. "The guards think the Mask might be involved in Professor's death, but Public Safety wont let them mention that. That Inspector would rather just blame Mizumi's father because they have been getting yelled at for not being hard enough on Islanders, and if he mentions the Mask then he will get in trouble for not knowing enough about them." Mizumi was nodding along while Xinfei scowled slightly and looked like he wanted to say something. Ayika continued, "So just telling them about Ma'er's secret room full of masks, oh by the way Mizumi we found a secret room full of masks, might not be enough to get them to do anything about this so called gardener."

Mizumi nodded, quickly getting into the flow of things. "Yes, we would need to give them much more information clearly showing that the Mask would target Professor Lizhen for his moderate views. Then gardener Ma'er's threatening visit to the professor the day of his death will replace all suspicion of my father." She turned to Xinfei. "You said the Mask represents the radical wing of the protester groups. Perhaps we could infiltrate one of the more visible conservative groups find out more from them about the Mask's activities. The radicals have to have some sort contact with their foot-soldiers."

"I like how you think," Ayika said grinning. Mizumi nodded coyly, spreading her hand to accept the praise. Ayika continued, "And I already have an idea. There were those University boys with the posters who were flirting with me down at the harbor a few days ago. They are down there nearly every day looking for trouble."

"Wait, who was flirting..."

"Not the time, Xinfei. I think I've seen them enough that I think those guys are organizing the anti-import propaganda in Harbor Town."

"Yes!" said Mizumi, excitedly. "We can pose as agitators and find out everything they know. Or at least get more leads from them."

"You are going to pose as an anti-Islander?" Xinfei interrupted. He vaguely gestured up and down her body. "And how exactly is that that going to work?" Ayika had to admit that he had a point.

"Why, I'll just say I am from the old colonies that now call themselves the Republic and act really angry." Mizumi said as if this was a very obvious answer.

"And that will work with your accent?" He asked mockingly.

She shook her head to dismiss his concern. "I sound close enough to half the Republic people I have heard. I am from the east Islands anyway, it is not as if I have the Shuto, I mean Jingdu accent."

"Yeah, come on," Ayika broke in. "Those student protester types are always recruiting more people to 'the cause'. They will let us in like that." She snapped her fingers.

...

"Well, we can't just let you in like that."

This teashop they found themselves standing outside of was like many that filled the old quarter of the harbor town, crouched on the lower floor of a residential building near Temple Street. Its ground-to-ceiling wooden shutters were thrown open to expose its main room to the street traffic that ambled by. On one side of the shop two grey-haired men sat across from each other over a table of game tiles while the server boy sat on a bench nearby leaning against the wall and absently watched the old-timers fiercely click down each move. The boy also spared the occasional glance at the far corner where another group of customers had set up camp. This was the unofficial planning headquarters of the Poster and Publications Voluntary Subchapter of the Loyalist Movement for the Expulsion of Foreign Influence. There were three of them and in Xinfei's opinion not a lick of sense between them.

The University boys were installed at their table in this low-price teashop, brushes and papers filled with block character propaganda covering every remaining surface. The three were all dressed in the black and white uniforms of Royal University students. The shiny haired pretty-boy in front was making eyes at Ayika as he spoke grandly of patriotic resistance, the big tall fellow whose chin was polluted with the whisky strands of a failed attempt at a beard scowled at all of the newcomers equally but Mizumi in particular, and the heavy boy on the other side had nearly walled himself off from the rest of the table with a stack of books. They did not look like a promising lead to a secret society of powerful and influential shadow warriors. The shopkeep had their teacups chained to the table.

Currently the big lunk with his wispy chin brush had his arms crossed in a show of affront, while his pudgy friend looked up over a small red volume entitled Freedom and Pride. The boy in front had introduced himself with a sickeningly charming smile as Zhangyi, student at the Royal Univeristy and first amongst equals amongst this particular patriotic cadre. He had managed to not notice Xinfei involuntarily rolling his eyes as the self professed leader bowed to the two girl with exaggerated mock courtly manners.

Ayika kept smiling sweetly though Xinfei assumed she wanted to kick someone, the prime target likely being the lead figure of the university student agitators who were proving to be unhelpfully intransigent. There was no way she could be genuinely taken in by this want-to-be revolutionary with his dark black hair and bright green eyes. He and Ayika had returned down to the harbor town, joined by their unlooked-for foreign tagalong. At least the Fire Nation girl had paid for their tram rides and saved them the walk through the Harbor Gate. Xinfei just wished Ayika did not seem so eager to include this foreigner in her mad personal quest. And now he had to watch Ayika flirt with these idiotic toffs. A man could only deal with so much and after last night's encounter with the guards his ribs still hurt when he moved.

Xinfei would have thought that anyone could see through Ayika's act of the sweet, ignorant poor girl so impressed with the big smart university student but this guy was eating it up. He was perfectly ready to treat a pretty woman to a lecture on how the lack of support for domestic industry was crippling the working class. However, he was showing now sign of giving them what they really wanted; a line to someone higher up the political food chain who might actually know something about Ma'er or the professor's murder. The big guy who had been introduced as Chonglong was particularly suspicious of Mizumi, eyeing her distinctly Islander features until to his surprise she joined the conversation by letting loose with the vilest string of anti-Fire Nation invectives Xinfei had ever heard after spending his whole life among sailors and dock workers. The third student in the corner, Jiang he was called, had turned beet red and managed to stammer confirmation that the few details about life in the United Republic Mizumi had slipped in amongst her ear-blistering vocabulary were correct according to what he had read. This appeared to satisfy Zhangyi and Chonglong though Jiang still looked slightly suspicious. He raised his little book again as if to ward off any more bursts of cursing.

"Oh, I am sure you are just being modest." Ayika pressed Zhangyi, searching for more information than the customary exhortations to support native culture at the expense of creeping foreign influence. "Anyone who talks as well as you would have to the main speaker at all your secret meetings. I just wish I could speak like you! You know I got fired from my job today because I was late after those Islander invaders shut down all of Temple Street for the funeral procession of their ambassador? What country is this!"

Zhangyi smiled at this and Mizumi picked up on Ayika's tactic. The Islander added, "And what do the guards do about it? Nothing! Of course when every official from the port to the upper ring is taking bribes from Fire Nation merchants it is not exactly surprising that the ambassador of the Fire Lord gets more respect than ordinary citizens of this city."

Chonglong slammed one of his oversized fists down on the table in agreement. "The half-blood has got that right! And yet when we want to get everyone to mess up that barbarian death ritual all those so called Initiates at the meeting shut us down! 'The funeral rights must not be disrupted', what is that?! It is so like the old way of doing things it is as if leadership never changed."

Pretty-faced Zhangyi shot his friend a serious look that included a lot of silent synonyms for shut up. "Hey, calm down. We don't know everything that was going on. I mean that meeting did not exactly finish in the normal way, there could have been a different plan in the works. We have been given a task today, and I don't think I need to remind you that we have not exactly made great progress towards it."

Ayika caught hold of this hint and hoped to use it as a crowbar. "Oh, a task? What new task did you get after last night, er, today?

Mizumi leaned in too, but missed some of the points of subtlety. "Does it have something to do with word of the killing of teacher Chen Lizhen last night? I heard he was an outspoken opponent of the cause."

The student in the back suddenly dropped his book to the table. "Professor Lizhen was killed?"

Ayika turned to meet his eyes, wide above newly pale cheeks. Jiang seemed genuinely surprised and distraught. "Yes, last night, in the school where he was teaching. Public Safety says they are investigating it. You've heard of him?"

"Yeah, I mean I took one of his classes at the University before he was kicked...he's dead?" Jiang shook his head, wiping a bit of sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief. "Lizhen was way too enraptured with the mysticism of the foreign cultures he studied but he was smart and a great teacher. I mean, I guess not smart enough to not get sucked in by the pro-Fire shills but...What happened to him?"

Ayika noticed the suddenly guarded reactions of the other University boys as well as Mizumi's disguised but visible discomfort at the possibility of the accusations against her father being brought into discussion. As a result she decided to play it cagy. She shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know. I, er, we just work as maids at the Legacy School near Daqiang square where he worked. I don't really know the details."

Chonglong was clearly less interested than his fellow in hearing of Lizhen's fate. It was unlikely he had payed enough attention in his classes to remember his professors. Instead he jabbed his finger at Xinfei. "What about you, boy? You a maid too?" There was a faint smirk above his stupid wispy beard.

Xinfei narrowed his eyes slightly, "No, no I'm not. I work down at the docks." Well, he could show Ayika and that foreign girl that he could play a role as well. Ha! Fed up with foreigners, that would be a very hard part to play. "I'm with the longshoremen off-loading merchandise for the Gaoli family. And what do you know, it's all foreign made stuff. I'm sure you've heard that big merchant man talking about us citizens improving our own nation, what with his stupid gas-lamp project up in the Middle Ring and all that. But when I go to lock up his warehouse at night do I see any of this so called domestic innovation in his merchandise? No, just more Fire Nation crap."

Something he said resonated with the leading student Zhangyi. "Wait, you lock up the Gaoli warehouse each night?"

Well, I locked it up one night when Xiaobao and everyone else were miserable with the flu, Xinfei thought. "Of course I do." he said. No need to explain my life story to these guys.

Zhangyi and Chonglong shared looks. The leader elected to speak, "That task we were talking about earlier? I actually made it sound a little more mysterious than it really is. We have meetings at night where the different patriotic cells can coordinate their activities. There is one scheduled for tonight and I would love to invite you three, however we had a bit of trouble with our old meeting place two nights ago."

Chonglong snorted heavily, "A little trouble?"

Zhangyi gave him another hard look before returning his smooth elocution to Xinfei. "Like I said, we are looking for a new temporary meeting space, just for one night. They said a harbor warehouse should be big enough and out of the way enough to fit the bill perfectly. What do you say? Could you open it up for us tonight?"

Before Xinfei could open his mouth Ayika jumped in. "Of course he can! Anything to help the brave people safeguarding out city. Maybe I could make my request to join your group to one of these Initiated themselves!"

"Maybe." Zhanyi said diplomatically with a smile, though Xinfei thought he might not like her talking about people higher on the ladder than him. "You will certainly get to hear more about our cause. You and your friend from the Occupied Territories are welcome to come. Just be ready to open the warehouse by moonrise."

Zhangyi spoke like he was ending a formal meeting but from behind him Jinag had something to say. He addressed Mizumi, "Professor Lizhen...Do they know who killed him?"

Mizumi met his eyes and shrugged, "The agents of the Public Safety Ministry did not know. As I saw they were just trying to pin the crime on someone quickly."

Jinag grumbled deeply in his throat, "Of course they were. Benders." That last word came out like a slur. "No effective mechanism for them to be brought to justice."

Ayika grabbed Mizumi's shoulders as she met eyes with Xinfei and gestured with her eyebrows that they should be off. "Thank you so much for helping open my eyes," She said to Zhangyi. "We will see you at the meeting tonight!" Then the three of them were off down the street leaving the student protesters to paint their big black characters on big white signs.

As soon as they turned a corner Xinfei grabbed Ayika's arm. "What was that promising the warehouse? You know that I don't actually lock up! I don't have the keys."

Ayika shook herself free. "Yeah, but your brother does. Come on Xinfei, you heard them! There is some group called the Initiated who shows up at these meetings and gives orders. One of them could be the Mask! We will be able go confirm it is Ma'er. And then we can slip word of the next meeting to the guards!"

Mizumi came up behind them. "I am not sure I am following your thoughts. Are we going to be able to deliver as we promised or not? I am not convinced those boys are masterminds."

Ayika waved a dismissive hand, "No, but their leaders might be. All that garbage about eliminating foreign influence is just the stuff professor Lizhen was preaching against. They have to be pretty happy that he's gone, and they were probably behind it."

Mizumi did not look so confidant in that interpretation. "The heavy boy seemed very upset."

Xinfei had heard enough, "Yeah, I doubt these fools could do anything themselves, but our bigger worry right now is getting Maolin on board. He is not usually cooperative with these 'little brother schemes' as he so respectfully calls them."

Ayika came in between the two of them and placed her hands in the middle of their backs to push them forward. "Well, this time it is an Ayika scheme, and I have a few ways to get him to fall in line."