Chapter 1: Chapter I

I felt cold air stabbing me at all sides and an unbearably bright light drilling into my eyes. Dozens of voices all around me in a confusing cacophony. I felt like I was being lifted up and felt the strength to voice my displeasure only to find my tongue felt too thick. I blinked and let out a wail at the tre-

Wait.

No. No way was this happening.

Where was my peaceful oblivion you lying so called god!

I blinked my eyes open again looking at the overly bright room only to find myself looking up at a man with a neatly managed goatee.

“Hello there Tenya, Its wonderful to finally meet you.” That unimaginative, lying, bastard! I clenched my fists and let out a frustrated scream!

“Strong lungs, she is a healthy child.” And I was a woman again! Honestly at this point I was used to it but it was the principle of the thing!

“I can’t wait to see if she is an Airbender!” Wait that was new?

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“Again.” I danced back allowing myself to fall into a rhythm that I hardly needed to even think about. My feet dancing across the worn stone as I manipulated the air around me into a raging tempest. Soon the conflicting currents in the uneven mass of howling wind began to pluck sheets of thick paper laid out across the ground.

When the air was filled with the fluttering sheets I shifted away from the last form and dove into the next feeling a smile form on my face as I forcibly cut though old currents with blades of air with a rhythmic grace.

I spun about and bowed my head letting my hands come together under my chin as my manipulation of the air ceased. Slowly the paper drifted into place to form a semi neat stack at my feat. Falling exactly as I intended.

“Magnificent. Y-you are truly ready.”

“Thank you Father.” I gave him a warm smile as his voice cracked and he looked ready to burst into tears. It was an important event for him and I did not want to ruin it by not appearing excited. Well, that part was not particularly hard. I was excited to get recognition for my hard work after all.

“I am so proud of you.” I rubbed my eye and shifted in place to look around at the tranquil garden we were using for the demonstration. It had not been easy getting along with him over the years but he was a good man. I will confess to having my own mild bouts of childishness but to be fair I was technically a child at the time. It was a much healthier environment this time. Plenty of food, tranquil estates, loving family and lots of hard work, this life was shaping up to be much more peaceful then the first few.

All the guards around never hurt either.

“Without your help I would not have managed any of this.” I said honestly. Creating a new airbending technique had taken years of experimentation and a long time to work out a means to present the technique itself.

“Tenzin! Tenya! It’s time for dinner!” I turned towards the sound of Pema calling out and smiled as Tenzin quickly called out that he was coming. We shared a look at being interrupted before rushing off to see what had been prepared for today.

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As it turned out Pema was feeling experimental and had attempted a Fire Nation dish with the meat removed. It was an interesting attempt but I had tried the full dish in secret and honestly without the honeyed turtle duck it felt like half a meal despite the portion size.

“Congratulations Tenya! I hear you did amazing today.”

“Thank you Pema.” I gave the woman a polite smile as she reclined holding her midsection. I could hardly imagine what was driving her to fuss about a kitchen as heavy with child as she was.

“Are you going to go bald like Dad now?” I smiled at Ikki and shook my head. The girl was a bit of a chatterbox and had exactly none of the grace that would no doubt come with time.

“I fully intend to grow my hair back after the ceremony.” I said with good cheer. I had come to appreciate longer hair over the years after all. I had considered quite seriously if I was interested in becoming an Airbending master and come to the conclusion that the lifestyle was agreeable given I could bend a few of the rules and it was a small price to pay in order to prevent a culture from disappearing from the world.

“It’s going to be a busy few weeks getting things ready.” Tenzin said setting his bowl down. I turned towards him with a frown.

“A few weeks? You have to travel south soon Father.” The White Lotus at the south pole had finally requested airbending training for the Avatar, that of course meant that Tenzin had to put his current position in the city council on hold.

“We can push things back to make sure you get the full ceremony.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary.” I began. “A smaller ceremony with would be fine you don’t need to push things back for weeks just for me.”

“Tenya. You are becoming an Airbending Master. This is a great achievement and it should be celebrated.”

“How about we have a small family ceremony now and then have a big one later!” Jinora put on her big girl face as she rushed to provide a compromise to the situation. She was just ten years old and was as dedicated to the Air Nomads as our shared Father. Speaking of Tenzin, he looked conflicted so I quickly pushed for a somewhat desirable solution.

“That sounds like a very smart solution Jinora.” The girl seemed to inflate with the slight praise and soon it was decided. There was of course the elephant in the room when it came to inviting family but I doubted said elephant would show up with Tenzin and Pema both being present even if tempers had cooled considerably.

Well, I would make the attempt at the very least, it gave me an excuse to go to the city and eat something with meat in it.

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“Tenya come forward.” I resisted the urge to scratch my head as I contended with a hood that fell so far forward it obscured everything but my mouth. The small shrine we were using had several small bowls of incense lit with pillows scattered about for the dozen or so people in attendance. One gloomy soul was in the back leaning against a bust of some ancient Airbender.

“Today we welcome the first Airbending master in a generation. Tenya has distinguished herself in the ancient art of our people and has gone far beyond what previous generations required for mastery. There is a time for humility and a price for pride but you have more than earned the right to stand tall for all you have accomplished.” There was clapping and cheering after that short speech, mostly from my half-sisters and brother as I stood up and pulled back my hood to display the prominent tattoos upon my head.

“Thank you Master Tenzin.” It honestly felt a bit overwhelming looking at the smiling faces that had become so familiar over the course of this life. Mastery had been a goal I had the time and peace to slowly work towards. I had been slower than most with Aang having accomplished this in just ten years and Tenzin having earned his mastery at thirteen. It seemed even in this life I was mostly average but seventeen was still an acceptable age. I had in fact passed the basic requirements for mastery years ago but Tenzin had seen flaws in my understanding of the art and had put off my promotion until I had corrected them.

“Now that you are a fellow Master you will learn just as all the masters before you that you have just as much to learn as you do to teach. As Monk Gyatso once said, there is only a fool who thinks they have learned enough. Well, I for one can say I have learned so much from you Tenya, I can’t wait to learn more.” I mirrored his bow as the crowd quickly stood up and begin chatting now that the ceremonial stuff was over with.

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I quickly extracted myself from having my siblings rub my temporarily bald head and made my way over to the figure at the back.

“Congratulations kid, honestly I was waiting for when they would get it over with and stick an arrow on your head.”

“Thank you for coming, I know that you might feel a little awkward…” She shook her head.

“Its fine, I got over it a long time ago.” She glanced over at me then decided to reconsider what she said. “I mean, as long as you were happy.” Ah it was that again.

“You don’t need to feel guilty, you know I have a high quality of life and Republic City needs you.” She scrunched up her face and rubbed the back of her neck.

“I don’t feel guilty I just… Ugh, I just want you to know I am proud of you for reaching enlightenment or whatever.” No point needling her I supposed.

“I don’t think I have reached enlightenment just yet.” I said with a laugh, at least I was closer than a certain spirit playing at godhood.

“Well, if anyone was going to it would be you.”

“Speaking on more material matters, since I am a master now, I will be sitting in on the council meetings on Tenzin’s behalf.”

“What? Why? What is that old goat doing pushing his work onto you?”

“Don’t you know?” Honestly, she should have known weeks ago. “He is going south to train the Avatar in Airbending. You should have been informed of this by now.”

“I was never informed, honestly with my workload at the moment a shakeup like this is a terrible idea. Tenzin for all his faults is good for the council, I hope you are up for the task kid.” That was odd.

“What do you mean? Is there a crimewave or something?” She winced and looked around for an exit strategy.

“I don’t want to bother you with complaints about paperwork today. Sorry kid.” Well, I could take a hint. Honestly, she could be so awkward to talk to sometimes. She did not join the rest of us at dinner but I hardly expected her to go that far all things considered.

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The island was quieter then normal with just some security milling about. The entire estate was filled with gardens and shrines designed to allow a thoughtful Airbender to reach enlightenment but It seemed more apt to say that the place was simply comfortable. Decorated walls raised in the right places to catch the sea winds and turn it into a gentle breeze combined with carefully managed treelines to segregate sections of the estate created one of the must luxurious homes in the entire Republic.

It was only somewhat hypocritical that its owners were meant to voluntarily cast-off earthly possessions. Well, that was the perception but the culture was actually a lot more sensible than that. There was of course an expectation that gurus and monks live selflessly for the community but the Air Nomads were an entire culture. Masons, blacksmiths, farmers, craftsmen, scribes.

Ownership over things was expected and protected even if there was the implicit communal economy. You could own what you liked but if someone needed it you were expected to share with disputes being solved by the monks who were thought to be a neutral third party. Honestly the Air Nomads were quite clever, earning influence and resources by offering blessings, guidance and acting as a messenger service or diplomatic core for the other nations. The Air Nomads were very wealthy when the Fire Nation attacked.

I looked out over the calm sea of the Yue Bay, it was rare to have something that was not named to celebrate Aang and the Avatars or the fact that it was a Republic. That it was a republic and more of an international project that only the rich parts of the city had any real say in how things would happen. Still the council were highly competent and had allowed for an incredible amount of economic growth by curtailing the guild monopolies that plagued the rest of the Earth Kingdom.

I rolled my shoulders and tapped my glider staff against the stonework before throwing myself into the air. The thundering excitement that built up inside of me as the world became small and distant and I became a distant speck in the sky made the years of slow mastery over Airbending worth it.

It was not quite as free as flight in my second life. I could not dance about the sky with as much grace as I could but it was a good substitute and I could relax as I slowly worked air currents up into the glider. It was the best way to start a day and I felt pity that so many people could not experience this.

I had plenty to do today otherwise I would have spent longer in the sky. I allowed myself a gentle decent into one of the many parks that dotted the city. It seemed that even as early as it was there were enough people milling about to take notice of an Airbender dropping out of the sky but no one seemed to want to bother me. I carefully returned my glider staff to its staff configuration and let it rest on my shoulder as I strode forward though the park.

“Are you tired of the benders looking down their noses at you?!” I looked astonished as a man stood on a stage with not a single soul listening but continued his impassioned speech though a Cabbage Corp “shout speaker”.

“For too long the bending elite have looked down their noses at non benders and treated us like lower class citizens!” I had to give him a point for dedication, there were still people sleeping and he was out and ready to spread his message.

“YOU!” Oh no he wanted audience participation. I looked around and found I was the only audience he had, poor guy.

“I bet you want to use your airbending to knock me off this platform for speaking the TRUTH!”

“No, I don’t” Why would I want to start a scene and help him ‘prove’ that benders were oppressing him?

“Oh yeah? Talking about your FAKE pacifism miss airbending master! You get to live in tranquil gardens and meditate all day while the rest of us have to work for a living!” He was read up on bending if he knew what the tattoos meant, honestly this entire situation was unwinnable given that his attacks against me had drawn somewhat of a crowd.

“Every day this city grows richer with new technological developments and industries that are bringing an unparalleled quality of life for even the most poor and downtrodden in our society. Downtrodden who include not just non benders but struggling benders too, there are so many people who work hard every day to earn a living and we should focus on bringing everyone up not just dragging one group down.” He let out an exasperated sound and jabbed a finger at me.

“So now the Air Nomads support industry? Just like benders to change positions on a dime! What happened to ‘Cabbage Corp and Sato Corp are polluting the very air we breathe’ huh?!” That sounded very much like Tenzin, I needed to wrap up this conversation or I was going to be late.

“Airbenders are not a monolith and there are many things we disagree on, but my fellow master is correct in that Industries need to be careful to not pollute the water and air in order to preserve the health of the citizens. A balance must be struck between progress and conservation.” With that I turned on my heel and marched off as he shouted out behind me.

All in all, I think I did okay in my first public appearance.

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Airbending Master Promotes Industrial Development!​

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