The Girl After

Chapter 42

Saki's POV

The ship settled on the coastline. The smell of salt water and incense gave me a sense of peace. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, the breeze kissing my skin ever so gently. I opened my eyes and was met with the face of Jiao-long, one of the new generation of the Order of the White Lotus. He was young, perhaps Iroh II's age. He approached me and Mika with his hands together, and bowed respectfully. 

As Mika and I returned the gesture, I said, "Thank you for meeting with us such short notice. I would not have done this if it wasn't urgent."

"We understand," Jiao-long nodded with a slanted smile. "Please, allow me to escort you to the others. They've been anxiously awaiting your arrival."

Once we'd entered the temple, I couldn't help but smile. The temple was a relic. A ruin, really. Pillars were chipping, vines growing around them and along the walls. A large fountain sat in the center, where all of the corridors intersected, with moss growing along the edges. Though the location was different, it gave the same feeling that the camp had given so many years ago.

"Right this way," Jiao-long instructed as he led me and Mika through a pair of very large doors. He stepped aside, and announced us into the room. He then took his set with the others at the roundtable, and Mika and I quickly followed suit. I said as we took our seats, "I can assume you are all aware of our circumstances."

Ju, an earthbender, looked to me with her soft brown eyes. "Yes, Master Saki," she nodded. "Wei was the one to deliver your message to us."

"And?"

"And we have had no sightings of Akira, Master Saki," Wei, the firebender said. She frowned, "We're unsure of whether that's a good or a bad thing." Her copper-colored eyes glanced at the others with a worried expression. "We have had a few suspicions, but they've led nowhere."

Mika let out a heavy sigh. "Try those suspicions again," she said. "Akira is out there, and we know that she is planning something. She always is." Her hands were folded over the table. "My son, Kong, will be joining this search. We need all the manpower that we can obtain."

"I strongly suggest that you get the Kyoshi Warriors involved," suggested Jiro, the waterbender — and the most hot-headed waterbender I had ever known. "They have the resources and skillset to find your daughter. With all due respect—."

I cut him off. "With all due respect, Jiro," I said sternly, hands folded, "I don't recall asking for your suggestions. The Kyoshi Warriors have already been notified, but they are not under Fire Nation jurisdiction. We cannot just beckon for them to appease to our needs." 

Mika frowned, a hand on my shoulder. "Saki, perhaps we should consider it," she suggested. "We only have so many resources left. The Kyoshi warriors seem to be our only hope at this point." I looked to her, then to the members of the Order of The White Lotus. Years of living by Zuko's side had made his stubbornness seem contagious, but I knew we were in desperate times. Mika added, "It would be nice to see Suki again. Wouldn't it?"

No, I thought. Our friendship had been extinguished years ago, but that was the least of my worries. "Fine," I said stiffly. "Let's not waste any time then."

Leinani's POV

"What do you mean you're in a film?" I asked, arms folded over my chest. I leaned against the vanity as a man and woman patted powdered cotton pads against Bolin's face. He was dressed in the gaudiest getup I had ever seen: a cheap interpretation of a watertribesman. With his chest and arms exposed like that, he wouldn't last even a fraction of a second in the tundras of the North or South Pole.