“But you saw what’s coming for us,” said Yaosen, brushing ash and clay dust from his gi, “How can that still be your decision?”

Rook strode purposefully back into her reception hall, where Fenri and Halvard were chatting. They no longer occupied opposite ends of the room, but Rook didn’t spare more than a glance toward the two before whirling on Yaosen.

“Because this is our home,” she said, “These are my people. I am their chief. If I drive them out of their homes at the first sign of trouble, then my promise of protection means nothing and they have no reason to listen to me anymore.”

“But you saw what the Earthbreakers left in their wake. There won’t be a home to protect when Lu Gun’s army gets here.”

“Rook?” asked Halvard, worry creeping into his voice, “What’s going on?”

Rook ignored him and addressed Yaosen instead. “If the Earthbreakers get here. I took down those flying things because that’s the only way they can spot us. Otherwise, we’re just one mountain among hundreds of miles of glacier.”

“The Boneshifters found their way here.” Yaosen shot a quick glance to Fenri, who pointedly looked away. He seemed too frightened of Rook to get involved. Yaosen didn’t blame him, but that meant the monk was on his own here.

A dark look was in the shadowbender’s eyes as she too considered the Boneshifter in their midst, “And they didn’t find their way back out.”

It was a struggle to maintain composure, especially when Yaosen felt he was losing the argument. “You’re underestimating them, Rook. You can’t hide here forever.”

Yaosen’s last ditch effort was to needle Rook’s pride. Back home, that statement was grounds for an Agni Kai, if aimed at your typical firebender. But Rook was no typical firebender, and Yaosen’s words didn’t have the same effect.

Rook threw herself into the nearest chair, a frustrated sigh hissing through her teeth like steam through a volcanic vent. She pressed a hand over her eyes as if shutting the monk out. She stayed that way for a long time. The only sound was the fire crackling in the hearth.

Rook dropped her hand suddenly

“I don’t have to hide forever,” she said, “I only have to hide long enough.”

“Long enough?” asked Yaosen, “For what?”

Rook opened her mouth to speak, but flicked a glance at Halvard and shut it.

“To commune with the shadows,” she said finally, pushing herself to her feet, “And you’re coming with me.”

She began to stride out the door again, this time in the opposite direction of the ashraven’s roost. Halvard caught her by the arm as she passed.

She whirled on him, but there was only kindness and concern in the musclebound man’s face. Rook’s face softened when she saw it.

“Rook, talk to me,” said Halvard, “What’s going on?”

Rook looked down at the hand on her arm for a moment longer before the dark mask of authority returned.

“Just be ready for when we come back.”

***

Rook led the foreigner deep into the tunnels beneath the amphitheater, where she had first met Yaosen. The foreigner followed her silently for a long while. Yaosen was nothing if not patient, but it unfortunately left her to her thoughts.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

She couldn’t help but replay the hurt look on Halvard’s face over and over again, when he had realized that he had been shut out yet again.

The “communing with shadows” routine was wearing thin, Rook knew. The more people that came to Shadow Ridge the more times she had to reassert her position of authority. And she had to maintain her position of authority, because there wasn’t a single person among them – Halvard included – that could keep them all alive.

The simple fact was that the people of this land weren’t used to listening to others, or making decisions that affected anyone other than their immediate kin or companions. Any one of the villagers could have kept most of them safe. Any one of the fathers or mothers or elders could have made the decisions that kept a handful of them alive.

But they had long since passed the point where everyone could be satisfied and the compromises were obvious. One wrong decision in a group this large, and people started dying.

It had started simply: where to dump refuse to keep springs clean and where to discard bones to keep scavengers away. But it had gotten so much more complicated with every group that found their way here.

She had gotten lazy, tired of explaining herself even if the decision was the right one, tired of forging consensus from so many disparate voices every time something needed to be done. They needed more than just her voice.

The shadows were the easy answer, but it wouldn’t be easy for long.

All the more reason to trust this “monk,” and learn what he knew.

“What do you know of the shadows?” Rook asked as they descended deeper into the warrens of darkness beneath Shadow Ridge.

Yaosen snorted, “Only that they’re petty and spiteful. They aren’t helpful, and they certainly don’t mete out justice for crimes they know nothing about.”

“Oh, well you’re wrong in that,” said Rook, “They’re very helpful. Half the people that come through these caves never find their way out. The shadows give directions but they’re wrong. They confuse people who might even know the way. More than one band of raiders has heard of our village and made the journey, only for their screams to echo in the dark.”

The monk had a small ball of fire burning in his hand. He seemed reluctant to let the darkness too close. He seemed reluctant to let Rook too close. “I thought your village welcomed any and all who would agree to your laws. Do you expect me to believe that the shadows can sort the good from the bad.”

It was Rook’s turn to snort, “Hardly. But I can’t exactly worry about the whole world. You have to draw a line somewhere and for me that line is the mouth of those caves. If you make it to Shadow Ridge we’ll look after you. If not…”

They passed a trio of corpses, desiccated by the earth’s heat and untouched by scavengers.

Rook turned to evaluate the monk’s expression. He was making an effort to remain impassive, but the horror showed through.

“Whatever you’re thinking, say it,” said Rook.

“I’m just not sure what I should have expected from you.” There was accusation in the words.

“That’s the thing. Your expectations are all wrong. Where you come from with your cities and laws, you seem to take for granted how hard it is to survive when the person next to you is trying just as hard. I’m not the only one to find safety in numbers, and I’m not the first to offer safety to those who can’t offer much in return. In this place, if you let too many people in, it always, always, ends in bloodshed.”

Yaosen opened his mouth to refute that. But hadn’t he just spent the better part of an hour persuading her of the exact same thing? Hadn’t he been trying to say that there was no scenario in which the Earthbreakers didn’t try to kill her and her entire village, all because they posed some minor chance of harboring the avatar and obliquely opposing their quest for greater dominance?

And the Earthbreakers were hardly an exception. There wasn’t a single one of the Four Nations that didn’t have their history of coups and conquests. Even the air nomads had a few tales of a self-interested few trading the lives of their kin and companions for power, or a better chance at survival. And when Republic City rose to power, essentially forcing all the cities and nations and tribes and temples into one great civilization… the world plunged deeper into darkness than it ever had before.

Just as they were plunging deeper into darkness now.

Yaosen looked over to see the yellow-haired woman regarding him with a smug look. It was as if she had read his mind, and was satisfied with his line of logic, and the conclusion he had ultimately come to: when power congealed, violence bubbled over.

So much for Yaosen’s cold mask of purity.

He grimaced and asked, “So where are we going?”

Rook was a long time in responding. When she did, she simply said, “A place of power.”