...

The following days were some of the worst Inspector Yang had ever experienced. The final toll from the Festival of Veils was worse than he could have feared. The Sub-Minister of Culture and Worthy Expression was gone, targeted by a masked assailant in the middle of his crowded Inner Ring mansion. This attacker had displayed incredible power that led to him blowing through the Noble's gate like a full military bending squad. At the end of the rampage three tram station guards had disappeared, just walked out into the night as far as could be told. More of these masked people had clashed with Yang's own forces in the Kuang Harbor as they attempted to burn down a foreign owned factory. Yang had seen their power first hand. Even with a perfectly executed surprise attack three of the assailants had managed to escape the grasp of Public Safety and had placed one of the pursuing agents on medical leave with four broken bones.

The rest of the news was no better. Yang's men had scooped up several members of the student nationalist protest group but after that night it was now clear even to his superiors that the boys were an inconsequential element. While that had occurred, there were more break-ins, fires, and mass untargeted violence across his entire sector. The fires were a separate problem of their own. So many guard reports noted odd behavior in how quickly the fires spread in the Lower Ring that over fifty people had been arrested under suspicion of being Fire Nation provocateurs. It quickly became obvious that none of them were firebenders, but that left the Agency searching for answers as to the strange behavior of the fires. None of the other radial sectors reported such severe increases in violence and destruction. It was only Yang's territory that had gone mad, though the neighboring sectors had noted slight increases in their own incident rates.

Yang pressed a knuckle forcibly between his eyebrows to relieve some of the stress building there. He had always prided himself on personal control, but now such ticks were starting to slip through. He needed to get sleep soon. But a crisis was spilling out of control and his division held responsibility.

The dreadful truth was that the Agency for Public Safety only held control by virtue of the pervasive belief that they were in control. There were approximately forty thousand souls living in this radial sector alone, with a margin of documentation error that reached up to fifteen thousand. The government was outnumbered to a ridiculous extent. It was the fiction of invincibility that allowed the maintenance of any level of order and now those Masks were putting the lie to that.

And still Yang had no answers. They had seized several of these masks in addition to the ones Ma'er had provided them earlier but attempts to get information from experts at the Royal University were being met with resistance. The professors and administrators did not appreciate the mass arrest of the student nationalists. Those black robed academics liked to believe that the University and all its inhabitants were under their exclusive control. They also did not appreciate the Agency's need to clamp down on anyone spreading rumors of the spiritual possessions. All that Yang's agents had been able to gather was that the masks looked to be some sort of shamanistic artifact from the eastern Fire Islands or the west coast of the continent in those lost territories now called the United Republic. Apparently, cultural influence across the Sea of Fire had been extensive even before the conquest. That made precise identification of an origin of the masks difficult.

The one thing that could be agreed on was that if the shaman spirit-possession rituals invoked by these masks were even true they were never supposed to initiate such a drastic change. The wearer was never supposed to lose control utterly or exhibit inhuman levels of power. However, that is what was happening. It had taken a long time but Yang was finally convinced of that. If those men they had captured at the Miohuito factory still protested their ignorance after all they had been subjected to, then they truly did not remember. And when they had cracked and began to wildly confess, none of their accounts matched the eyewitness statements or indeed their fellows. As impossible as it was, those who had perpetrated the crimes were themselves ignorant of them which meant all Yang's experts in interrogation were useless. He was left with no leads.

There was a large book sitting on the inspector's desk. The author's signature marked out the name of Chen Lizhen. It was clear by now that these mask-wearing insurgents had struck at this disgraced professor first for a reason more than his political letters. However, the man's published work was unhelpful. Yang had flipped through long pages of descriptions of foreign funeral rituals with barely a single mention of the spirit world and none of possession. But the information must be out there somewhere. Someone always knew.

In the meantime he had unpleasant tasks before him. While his researchers were off attempting to wrest anything helpful from the impotent city priests, all bought and paid for positions with barely a drop of spiritual power between them, Yang had to oversee coordination with the city guard on the crackdown response. It was vital that order be restored to his sector. Those who were spreading damaging information would be the first targeted, hopefully the fear that display provoked would spread to out through the restive city. If that did not work than the response would be widened. A solution had to be found quickly. The alternative was give into the rising tide of chaos.

...

Trade Representative Amantza Tailang was the mysterious sponsor behind the Masks.

Pacing the main room of her third floor apartment in the family mansion, Mizumi could barely believe it, but from Lili's story she had little option if she did not want to assume the Earth Kingdom girl was willing to completely invent such a damaging lie and get Ayika's friend Xinfei to go along with it. Not only was Tailang organizing the nationalist resistance against his own people but he had also supplied the mask artifacts and so was responsible for the powerful spirit possessions who had rampaged across the city. Well, that explained why that Mask had targeted Erliao. The minister had been one of Tailang's most vocal opponents.

After much cajoling, her Kingdom citizen butler Fong had told her that the rumors in the town said that Sub-Minister Erliao had indeed been killed. Public Safety and the City Guard were up in arms, and striking out against the city's population at every chance to show that they were still in charge after the Masks displays. Two of the local maids had not come in today after their Lower Ring neighborhood had gotten swept up in mass arrests. Out here in Kuang Harbor it was now common to see beaten men huddled in alley mouths nursing their wounds received in equal likelihood from natives of the opposite political faction or from the badged agents of their own government. The other people on the streets were afraid to help them for being seen to take a side. And Mizumi's countryman was behind all of it.

Her fingernails bit into the palm of her hand as all her muscles tensed up in anger. Large swaths of the city were being turned against her race while inhuman powers beyond all their understanding were rearing their heads and Tailang had been behind it all. Why? As some sort of political power game as a play for the ambassadorship after Aza Naruhama's death? That was the reason Teacher Lizhen had to die? Because he knew something about it and was going to tell Mizumi's father?

But no, as terrible as those crimes were, they were no longer the sole important matter. Mizumi had seen Ayika speak to two powerful spirits last night, and they had both emphasized the harm that was being done to the border between worlds. If Mizumi's nation was behind that, then it was her honor-bound duty to repair it. Ghosts were gathering as the rituals of death were disrupted and with them powerful spirits eager to cross over to the human world. She might not have the spiritual talent that Ayika had but she still knew how to get answers. Perhaps Fire Sage Huitzlan's proclivity for long-windedness would do her service for once. She would be able to prove herself to Ayika and maybe make up for last night on the roof.

However, if her father and grandfather were any example then the residents of the Exclusion did not believe in the news of spirits and masks. Her father was too concerned with recovering from the potential disaster of the fire at his factory. He was pulling out every stop and putting every bit of effort towards securing permits for a full scale demonstration of his train engine on the city tram tracks, even if that meant he had to lift the locomotive up there himself. He and his father did not pay any mind to what they deemed "native superstition".

Mizumi snuck out of the mansion without incident, only being seen by a single servant who agreed to not volunteer notice of her exit to her father. He had been furious with her late arrival back home after the festival but luckily she had managed to convince him that she had been within the bounds of the Exclusion at a party that had gone on longer than expected. And even if she was being punished, surely a trip to the temple was within any definition of acceptable behavior. Still, two trips in three days would double the number of visits she had made in a year. Her father would rightly note this newfound piety as suspicious, thus the need for secrecy.

The energy on the narrow streets of the Exclusion was different. People here had heard some version of what happened last night. The death of Erliao was common knowledge, and the attack on her father's factory was seen as the beginning of a larger retaliation. There was no talk of the Masks having powers but for laughter about superstitious Earth Kingdom natives that was drew unnoticed dark looks from the same Earth Kingdom natives who filled every menial job here. The people of the Fire Nation were so comfortable in their knowledge of the world. They wearily sighed at how much they still had to educate the people of this country. At least the Fire Sage was not likely to dismiss possession as impossible out of hand. Spirits were his field after all.

As Mizumi approached the towering red and gold pagoda structure of the temple she felt the strength of her burning anger wane a bit. The two black iron brasiers still had their fires stoked on each side of an entrance that looked unsettlingly empty in contrast to the deification ceremony yesterday. But a thought of the monstrous howling of that possessed Mask mixed with the memory of Tailang's smirking face reignited her righteous fury and she confidently stormed up the temple steps.

Mizumi had come here prepared to begin the first fight of a long battle through the many hurtles of bureaucracy that would lie between her and the information she sought but instead she was met with an almost disorienting lack of resistance. The main temple room only held two old women praying to the central fire pedestal, but as soon as Mizumi entered the halls a junior priest noticed her searching demeanor and appeared at her side to take her question. A few scarce moments later and Mizumi was being led to the upper levels where Fire Sage Huitzlan kept his offices.

As they made their way through corridors lined with dark tropical wood, imported at great expense from the Nation, Mizumi noticed something odd about some of the activity she saw on this level. It looked like red robed junior priests were hanging up strips of spirit charm paper on the walls. Now that was not unusual in a temple, even Mizumi knew that the influence of the spirit world waxed and waned in mysterious ways under the best of conditions and temples were supposed to be nexuses for their influence, but this was day after a major spirit holiday. They should be taking down extras not putting more up. That is, they should if they shared the mainstream Exclusion dismissal of the rumors of a building spiritual crisis. But she had heard of no such announcement from this temple that had always been eager to offer pronouncements on every other topic.

After only a few moments of waiting in an exterior antechamber, Mizumi was welcomed into the office of Fire Sage Huitzlan. An acolyte or clerical worker passed her as she went through the doorway. The small man in a dark suit had an unreadable guarded expression as he slid by with the barest flick of his eyes to take in her face before he departed. Inside, behind the large desk at the end of the room, Huitzlan's expression was less guarded.

The Fire Sage's face was lined and weathered over his pointed grey beard. He was tired and worried, but at the same time curiously cheerful. At the moment he was not wearing the full finery of his office and instead was dressed only in a simple dark robe of a red so deep it was almost black. He blended into the expensive red leather of the chair-back behind him.

"Yes?" Then recognition flitted across his brow. "Ah, the daughter of Tetzamatl Miohuito." He gestured to a rather hard and uncomfortable looking chair of polished wood in front of his desk. "Yes, come in my dear. What is it you wished to talk about?"

Mizumi gingerly lowered herself into the offered seat. "I am sorry to bother you."

"Not at all. Of all the forces bothering me at the moment you are a welcome distraction." He then grumbled to himself, "If that Tailang upstart continues to assume he is entitled towards my temple he will learn that he is the one who..." He caught himself and returned his attention to Mizumi. "I am sorry for that. As one gets older it becomes easier to see the grand picture but sometimes you lose track of the people sitting in front of you. What is troubling you, my child?"

"It is actually sort of about Representative Tailang."

Huitzlan raised his eyebrow suspiciously as Mizumi backpedaled. She had to be careful about what might get back to Tailang.

"Er, no, I mean about his sort of politics as a whole. And about spirits."

Now Huitzlan was on the hook. Where as before he had been regarding Mizumi with dignified politeness, now he was studying her.

In the absence of interruption she continued, "I have been listening to people talk about the protests the natives are conducting against our people, particularly with what happened last night. The thing is, when I talk to the native servants and vendors they mention with fairly strong confidence that the disruptive forces are using the power of spirits. Tailang and the rest of the Trade Mission have publicly denied this but from what I have heard the Earth Kingdom government has not denied the involvement of spirits. They have just said nothing. And well, it is terrible to say of our government official here but it is possible Representative Tailang does not know as much about spirits as he pretends."

Mizumi resisted the urge to smile triumphantly as Huitzlan took the bait. "He certainly does not! However, of course I would not be surprised if the native officials knew even less. They have allowed their traditions and institutions here to decay to a ridiculous extent. Their people have finally began to recognize this decline even if this awareness has merely manifested its self as a superficial interest in the surface aspects of our culture as they slowly abandon their own. At least Amantza Tailang has shown a sporadic interest in the deeper mysteries." The man was careful that in his contempt of Tailang he did not accidentally indirectly compliment the Earth Kingdom, and so included a safe number of insults.

"Sporadic interest?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing that will do him the good he expects. That man had so many plots and schemes bandying back and forth with the native conservative ministers that everything he does is seen through that lens. He never could understand the true scope of the power of the spirit world even if he thinks to use the belief of others."

"But then you agree that there is spiritual danger at work."

Huitzlan gave her a look that was likely intended to be full of gentle wisdom but instead simply looked very superior.

"Of course there is spiritual trouble here. Ba Sing Se has long since forgotten to truly honor their gods. In the Nation our guardian spirits are honored above all else as an integrated part of our royal government. The Fire Lord himself occupies a position elevated from the ancient orders of Fire Sages. Here priesthood is position bought and paid for. During the long war the earth people lost all faith in their priests, in their government, and in their spirits. I hear that out on the streets the common folk honor the imports and fashions we bring in more than they honor their own temples. Is it really any surprise that their local spirits are spilling forth, transformed into something strange and terrifying at a time when hungry ghosts also linger on the edge of the veil?"

"Hungry ghosts?" Mizumi was surprised. "You have heard about that too? And you say Tailang has been interested in your teachings on spirits, but I thought you and Tailang...did not exactly see eye to eye."

It occurred to Mizumi that Sage Huitzlan did not seem like someone who would normally be so forthcoming. She recognized what was going on, though. She was an unmarried woman and thus expected far enough removed from true importance to be safe to talk to in an abstract way. The position of women in the Nation might be much better than here in the Earth Kingdom but old habits lingered, particularly among the older generations.

Huitzlan waved an hand that was thin and wrinkled but still strong. "He has asked for my advice from time to time, when he can be bothered to lower his eyes enough. Not that he hears the truth of what I say. He just demands and takes, blind to anything other than his own plans. Honestly, I think the only reason he remembered the importance of the spirits was his renewed conflict with that local minister, that Deputy of Culture and Expression or whatever they call the position. That one used to come down here to the temple years ago with his teacher. That teacher requested audience with me a few times, very studious for a native, though they both spent more time talking politics with Aza Naruhama...but that is all long ago." That teacher must have been Teacher Lizhen. He had come here years ago when he and Erlaio were still friends. But Mizumi had already known that. Still, she noted Huitzlan was clearly very frustrated with Tailang, no matter how much he put the other man down.

So, Muzumi's assumption had been correct. Tailang had wormed spiritual information out of Huitzlan and used it for his political ends. But he had not understood everything, and that is why things were getting out of his control. She took a chance:

"My apologies if I am speaking beyond my turn but you said something that sounded like Representative Tailang had taken something from the temple." Huitzlan's expression grew dark. This went beyond having an audience for him to vent too. The implication of theft was an important political accusation. But Mizumi had not gotten this far in her life by being cautious. "There are those who have connected him with...a certain artifact. Something of spiritual power." She took a breath. "A mask."

Huitzlan's eyes shot to his office door and returned in a brief instant. It was an involuntary gesture but Mizumi had seen it clearly. A bolt of lightning had just landed in the Fire Sage's heart though he hid it well. She leaned back slightly in her chair. She had made note of how Ayika knew how to effortlessly walk blindly through these situations of unequal power. It was enough now to leave Huitzlan in silence.

Soon enough he elected to speak first. "I do not know what you are talking about. The ambassador's funeral mask was burned on schedule, of course. Who told you otherwise?" He snapped at her, covering sudden anxiety with anger.

Mizumi kept her face perfectly still. Ambassador Naruhama? What? That was not the mask she had been referring to. She had certainly gotten a reaction, but she now was completely lost as to what the sage was talking about. But she had to continue anyway. How was the dead ambassador involved? She pressed on anyway, hoping to glean some clue.

"People have been investigating the sudden appearance of spirit masks for months. And then a particular example got out of the hands of those who had been using them. It was brought to a teacher at a native school I attend. I believe you referred to knowing this man, Chen Lizhen he was called."

Huitzlan inhaled sharply. "Naruhama's ghost mask was in the hands of Chen Lizhen?! But...! Oh no, of course. I had heard of his death. I forgot that for a moment." He narrowed is eyes as he looked at Mizumi. "You know a lot more than a girl your age should. More than anyone should. There are dangerous powers at work."

"Powers which attacked and set fire to my father's business. Powers who are repeatedly assaulting his business partners. As heir I have a great deal of personal stake, and when my father is so consumed with these worries, it falls to his family to seek any aid that may appear. To do any less would be dishonorable. Justice must find the perpetrators, before they can do more damage."

Huitzlan snorted faintly in derision, but a twinkle in his eyes indicated that he was not altogether unmoved by this speech. Indeed, he seemed to make his mind up about something. He gave a long sigh, though Mizumi thought that it might be more artifice than genuine reluctance. "You are right, Amantza Tailang has been abusing the power of his office towards this temple. I regret now that some time ago I made a careless lecture to him about the shaman masks of the Nation's Eastern Islands. I mentioned my private academic collection here at the temple and before long I noticed that examples were being stolen. I was infuriated of course that the Trade Representative had managed to turn one of my workers here but I was comforted in the thought that Ambassador Naruhama would dispense justice. But then the Ambassador tragically died and I suppose that put the small thefts left of my mind. Really, those artifacts are very weak under normal circumstances."

Huitzland took a deep breath as if arranging thoughts in his mind. There was a small twitch at one corner of his wrinkled mouth. "But then the Ambassador's death mask was stolen in the night by disguised bandits, before it could be burned. Tailang must have listened to me more than I thought."

Mizumi's memory raced back to attending the funeral of Teacher Lizhen in the mist shrouded necropolis, his body's face covered by a sheet of linked jade squares. Ayika had talked about masks and clay disks on dead eyes. What was it she had said? They were used to bind and neutralize the ghosts of the dead. "Naruhama's funeral was interfered with?"

"Yes, his mask remained unburned. Regretfully I only discovered recently that this was the true target of their robbery and not the few trinkets we had initially thought. This discovery came only after the deification ceremonies had been progressing for weeks."

Suddenly the pieces of knowledge Mizumi had absorbed from Ayika and Mama Mua began to click together. Improper funeral rituals allowed ghosts to linger in this world and the spirit world instead of rejoining the soul in reincarnation. Ghosts could gain power from offerings made to the dead. The entire Exclusion had been making prayers and offerings to raise the soul of Aza Naruhama to godhood.

"Oh, no. The ghost..."

Huitzlan's faint eyebrows arched up. He was surprised. "You received a good religious education in the Nation. Your family is from Kasai Island? It is not important. Yes, you have seized on it. Amanzta Tailang has disrupted the deification ritual and the resulting spiritual disturbance of empowering a ghost to godhood has caused the stolen shaman masks to gain incredible power. Even before death Naruhama was a powerful firebender and if the reports of the rash of fires in the city are to believed his connection to the element also still persists, even as the barriers between here and the spirit world are breaking down. But until today I have had no definitive proof of Tailang's involvement, only the man's vague gloating. Yet I believe you must have something, or else you would not have spoken so boldly in accusing the Trade Representative."

Mizumi leaned back slightly, pushed by the intensity of Sage Huitzlan's stare. "Yes. Er...that is, I know of natives, erm, city citizens who have witnessed Representative Tialang inciting criminal acts. I just didn't know..."

The Fire Sage interrupted, his voice losing what little softness it had possessed as he now considered that he did not need to guide her to the conclusion any more. "Unfortunately, the Ambassador's death also means that Tailang is of supreme political power in this enclave. The Fire Lord will soon appoint a replacement ambassador but it will take months for such a person to arrive. We do not have that time. Though if the native government were to act...But of course your father has more experience there."

The old man trailed off suggestively. For one whose attitude towards the native residents of this city was barely above distain, the thought of putting a Fire Nation citizen under their control had to be distasteful. But he was right, in the absence of an ambassador there was no authority of the Nation in the Exclusion above the office of the Trade Representative. It would be risky to involve the Ba Sing Se government in seizing a Fire Nation citizen, but if Huitzlan was right about what Tailang had done then it was a risk worth taking.

Mizumi stood up, "I think you are right. I will...tell my father." If the old man wanted to think that she was sent here by her father then she could allow him to continue that misconception.

Fire Sage Huitzlan stood up as well. His expression was guardedly triumphant. The hostility between him and Tailang must have been growing for a long time if he was able to look so enthusiastic about this very shaky plan. At least once Tailang was in chains, Huitzlan would be able to appeal for calm in the Nation's response.

As she turned to exit the office, Mizumi noticed something else. The inside of Huitzlan's door was plastered with a thick coat of spirit repelling paper charms. The man was more afraid than his confidence suggested. He feared retaliation both human and otherwise.

...