Chapter 7: The nature of spirits

"Here, this way." 

"Inside this tunnel?" 

"Hmm, that's the shortest route and not many people know about it so there is hardly a time when guards are present." 

Yue and Asahi chatted while I remained on guard, making sure we went unnoticed. 

We exited the cave to find ourselves in a secluded garden. In the north, finding growing trees, grass, and bushes would be impossible except for this place as far as I am aware. 

Beyond the garden was the tall wall of ice that separated the city from the rest of the north pole. 

From the wall, there was a natural stream falling into the spirit pond in front of us.

Midway through the route, the water of the stream was changing temperature, from icy cold to lukewarm, most likely by the will of the Ocean Spirit. 

The temperature here was more similar to a tropical forest rather than the harsh bone-chilling cold of the north that I have grown accustomed to. 

We advanced toward the spirit pond at the behest of Princess Yue after we were done admiring the landscape.

"There! These are my friends." Princess excitedly told us while pointing at two koi fish in the pond. 

But the moment my eyes fell on them, I lost consciousness. 

"Arisu!!!!" I faintly heard Asahi screaming. 

.....

*Rustle Rustle* 

*Whisper whisper* 

*Poke* 

"Don't do that. What if he woke up?" I woke up to someone poking my toes. 

As I slowly sat up while clutching my head, I found two kids staring at me. I was still in the vicinity of the spirit pond. 

The only thing that changed was that before losing consciousness I was with Asahi and Yue but now I am with a pair of twins. 

Both looked like half-elves with their pointy ears. Not the ones with big ears. Their ears were smaller, more like a fairy would have.

They looked at me with awe and excitement as I arose entirely. 

Only then did I notice the change in myself. Half of my upper body was constantly disintegrating into sand that flew into oblivion. 

I was not in my mortal shell right now, I was in my personification form. Injured I may be, but the aura that a being like myself produces hasn't faded one bit. 

"The spirits of the ocean and moon greet the Ancient One." They spoke in unison, bowing their hands.

The Moon was a girl around 6 years old while The Ocean was a boy around 6 years old. 

Both were identical to one another if you ignore their genders and clothes.

The Ocean Spirit wore deep blue that turned black the lower it went while The Moon Spirit wore a silver-colored dress with a glimmer of yellow in it. 

"Ancient One?" I questioned them as the image of a certain bald woman came to my mind. 

"The more powerful a spirit is, the more ancient it is. We haven't seen anyone more ancient than you since the moment we came to be. Since we didn't know how to address you so we chose this way to greet you. Oh, the great spirit of unknown origin." The Moon replied respectfully. 

"You haven't seen a spirit more ancient than me?" I asked incredulously, "You're both primordial spirits right? Surely you must have seen other primordial spirits or such during your time in the spirit realm."

"Yes, we have encountered many, such as The Mother of Names, Vaatu and Raava, and other spirits of primordial many times in ancient times when we still resided in the spirit realm but none comes anywhere close to you." Moon shook her head resolutely.

"If this wasn't the human realm but was instead the spirit realm, you would have become a hub that gathered all the spirits around you. But because the portals are closed, spirits cannot come into the human realm easily which is why they aren't encircling you." Ocean told me.

"Why would the spirits gather around me?" I asked, confused due to my lack of knowledge about spirits. 

One of the reasons why I was so thrilled about the idea of meeting them was because I could gather some knowledge from them about the affairs of spirits. 

"Whenever a spirit dies of natural causes, it slowly turns its body into spirit particles that work as nourishments for other spirits and if a spirit is worthy and compatible, it could replace the role of the ancient spirit that died." Ocean explained.

"Depending on how powerful and ancient the spirit is, the time varies. But if the spirit dies of an unnatural cause, it instantly turns into spirit particles." Moon added. 

"And from 7 years ago, the capital city where we live is constantly flooded with my spirit particles released by you. Normally, primordial spirits like us do not absorb particles from other spirits as we are much older than them and cannot gain anything by absorbing their essence."

"But it was different with you. We thought a great spirit must be dying near our vicinity at first but to this day, the amount of spirit particles in the air hasn't diminished one bit."

Meaning I haven't died yet. Am I dying? Can I even die in the correct sense of the term?

"Is that why I can't bend elements?"

Yue as a half spirit also couldn't bend the elements. Though completely opposite to it, the avatar also is the union between a mortal and the spirit of Raava and yet they could use them perfectly fine. 

"The problem there is the way you are trying to do it. Using human techniques will not give you any results, while they are more refined and highly perfected, it is the primordial way of bending that will give you control over the element." Ocean glanced at Moon.

"The way humans use bending is not a direct process. The primordial spirits play a part in it. When a water bender bends a form of water, what they do is only half the process, the other half is done by Moon. Only a few beings could bend elements without the help of the primordial spirit of that element."

"They are other spirits, the lion turtles and the original benders themselves."

"Why is that?"

"It is because it is not the elements that we bend, it's the energy itself. Elemental bending is just one of the end products from it. In all of human history until now, humans never learnt to bend energy which is why they need the help of primordial spirits to bend the elements."

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"Meanwhile spirits have the option to do both, either manipulate the energy directly or ask for the help of primordial spirits. But there is a fixed hierarchy in spirits, a lower-level spirit cannot become a medium for a higher-level spirit." 

"And we haven't seen any higher spirit than you. The only option you have is to use the old way. To do the energy bending. It will not be as refined as the human way of bending but in return, it will be more powerful." 

"Why are you so forthcoming with me? What if I was an evil spirit?" I was curious as to why they so easily replied to all of my enquiries. 

"Because there are no truly evil spirits or good spirits. Everything is necessary in a sense. Only the extreme of one thing is what is truly bad. The world needs a balance. Chaos and order, fire and water, freedom and restrictions." 

"Plus, this is the least that we can do after we gained so much of your spirit particles. They helped us regain some of our old powers that we gave up with the spirit realm."

"We do not know why like us you have a mortal form right now but everything has its reasons." 

"It looks like our meeting has to end now," Ocean remarked looking towards the palace. 

And my vision started to turn foggy before I once again lost consciousness. 

....

"Screaming at me won't fix anything, Pakku. I already checked him thrice. There is nothing wrong with him... At least physically." 

"What do you mean? You can't fix him up? Is that what you mean? The greatest healer in all of the north pole and all you can give is reassurance?" 

"Yes!!! That's what I mean!! All these years of fighting have made your brain dull. Whatever happened to him, it happened inside the sacred spirit pond. Who do you think resides there? Do you think my measly healing art can fix him from whatever that the spirits of the ocean and moon afflicted him with?" 

I woke up to the ongoing fight between pakku and Yagoda. 

"Mngh" My head hurt from disorientation and both quickly noticed the change in my state. 

"He's awake." 

"Young man, what you did today was well beyond your usual mischief that I can tolerate. You are grounded for the next three months and I won't be listening to any arguments." 

I was in no position to argue with him, especially with my head-splitting headache growing by the second. Leaving my mortal shell for such a long time has drained me of my mental energy and now that I am back in my body, all the consequences are attacking me at once.

My body was completely drained of any strength so to speak and all I could do was lie down and wait for this headache to pass away. 

"*Sigh* These things can wait. Right now I need everyone to go out and let me do my work. Your grandson is in no position to listen to your lectures right now." 

Pakku relented and left me in the care of the professional. 

"I never thought that Pakku of all people could get so attached with a child." She muttered before applying her healing arts on me to relieve me of my bodily pain. 

...A week later...

I was alone for a change and finally rested enough to continue my schooling from next Monday. 

That reminds me, with all the differences in this world, the calendar is still mostly the same except for some changes in the names.

7 days a week and 265 and 6 hours a year. 

I righted myself on the bed and then jumped down from it. After which, I did some stretching before leaving the room for the garden. 

While I did call it a garden, it should be noted that there are no trees or bushes in it. It is just a block of ice in the back of the house. 

"Energy bending huh?" I pondered to myself. 

Energy manipulation is nothing new to me, I have dwelled on much tougher subjects before. From reality manipulation to reality creation. 

But things have changed. Right now my own abilities are elusive to me.

I sighed before steeling my will to bend the energy around me and inside me. Inside the ice below, and inside the water that is below that ice. 

I will not limit myself, or my potential by feeling sorry for myself. I cannot give up, for giving up means losing everything. Including the expectations that people have of me. 

I closed my eyes and let my body flow into a basic water-bending stance. 

What is water? 

One atom of hydrogen and 2 atoms of oxygen? 

No, that's not it. It isn't that simple. I need something more abstract. 

Water is the cradle of life. Bringer of swallowing darkness. 

Everything came from water and in the water, everything will return.

Force of change. Calm and yet terrifying

Looks calm on the surface and yet there is always a storm churning in the depths that could rise anytime and bring a change to the world.

Shapeshifter. Natural imposter. 

Capable of turning itself into all 3 types of matter. Solid, liquid, and gas. Capable of easily taking the shape of any vessel it is put into. 

Its way of moving is chaos and in that chaos is its unique order of doing things. 

When I finally opened my eyes, I observed that a circle of water was floating around me. 

I heaved a breath of fresh air and relaxed my stance and with it, the water calmly returned to the surface. 

"Now, how do I tell grandpa about this?" 

Edited by GrimHræzlyr

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