before the sky split [ninjago next generation]

an elemental inheritance

To find his elder brother, Xiyin followed his nose. The heavy scent of incense perpetually hung about him like a cloak, deeply steeped into all his clothing from years of careful meditation.

"Wu," Xiyin called out to make his presence known as he entered the monastery's growing library collection. As New Ninjago City had begun to phase out physical books, Lloyd and Zane had undertaken a project to find books and store them in an archive within the Monastery of Spinjitzu.

"Hello, Uncle Xiyin," Lloyd said warmly as he hoisted a heavy box of books into his arms. The young man looked even younger in the golden light that made his faint goatee nearly disappear. "Come to help us reorganise? Or perhaps to read about..."

Lloyd fumbled with the box, supporting it on one knee as he struggled to keep his balance on one foot in order to pull out one title which was bound to return to the gaming room's bookshelves, one step down from the noble station the books of the library archives occupied.

"... Introductory Topics in Middle Metalonian Architecture at the Dawn of the Edo Period ?" Lloyd continued.

"I need to talk to Wu," Xiyin said levelly. "Preferably just the two of us."

"I don't see why Lloyd can't stay," said Wu. He leaned heavily on the aid of his staff as he made his way to the lectern to make a note in their directory tome. Xiyin bit his tongue as he watched the way the heavy winter robes weighed on the fragile shoulders of the man fifteen minutes his senior. He tried to shake the feeling of not belonging in the antiquated atmosphere of his own childhood home when he wore his modern clothes.

"It's about father. I don't think you'd contribute much, Lloyd. Why don't you have a break? Every time I've looked in here, you've been working."

"I just like the work," Lloyd said, his voice shrinking down to the scared son of Garmadon who Xiyin had met all those years ago. "It keeps me focused."

"Have a break anyways. I'm sure they need help with Samurai X in the bunker."

Lloyd sighed in defeat and set the box down, stretching his back before he slowly left the archive and slid the door closed behind him. Wu sat, spine straight as always, in a chair as Xiyin leaned against the bookshelf.

"What about father?" Wu asked.

"His elemental power," Xiyin said. He left the bookshelf and began to pace the floor as he spoke, recalling the way he had rehearsed to speak, the way he now felt compelled to since Wu had taken to looking so much like their father. "I have a theory that the creation of new elements is directly connected with activity among the realms themselves. When father created Ninjago, he also put the base elements in place to be taken up by human elemental masters and redesigned Creation, Destruction, and the Balance as elemental powers. What I haven't been able to identify is, did the creation of elemental powers cause the split of the realms, or did the split of the realm cause the creation of new elemental powers?"

"Why do you ask this, brother?" Wu's tired eyes sought Xiyin's. Perhaps it was a trick of the shadows of his thick eyebrows, but his golden eyes looked so slightly more dull than they did in Xiyin's memories of a blond boy playing with wooden swords.

"A conversation with Maiya made me question it," Xiyin said. He pulled a second chair to face his brother seated. "Then, I gave it more thought. We know that the exercise of my element directly affects the very landscape of the Ninjago islands, and vice versa, to a limited extent."

"Yes, that it does."

"So is it not sensible that the nature of the other elements might be in some way affecting the nature of the realms?" Xiyin asked. Wu stroked his beard, admiring the way the light leapt through the room.