Chapter Text
Zuko beheld an enormous stone door, carved with a symbol that resembled a tree, or perhaps a crown. It was weathered with age, and near the bottom of the door, there was great rent in the stone, creating a hole just big enough for someone of his size to squeeze through. It was odd though, that the hole looked like it was made by someone smashing the stone in from the other side…almost like something broke through from the other side and escaped.
Belatedly, he noticed a large egg-shaped stone tablet beside the door. When he neared it, a series of white, glowing glyphs lit up its surface. Before he could even begin to examine the markings in detail however, they dissipated into thin air. Let behind, though, was an imprint of a voice in his mind. Wispy and ethereal, the voice was barely a whisper and he had to strain to hear the words clearly.
"Our pure Vessel has ascended. Beyond lies only the refuse and regret of its creation. We shall enter that place no longer."
What that meant, he had no idea, but it certainly sounded ominous. As he continued to examine the tablet, he noticed a series of odd black stains that bore great resemblance to the glyphs from before, it was almost like the writings were made by two different individuals, like handwriting. However, there was no voice when he attempted to decipher them, this time. Instead, the markings seemed to rearrange themselves into readable script before his eyes! Intrigued, he began to read, but only became more unsettled the longer he continued.
Rebuke onto you, Pale King!
Your refuse cries out with ten thousand shrieking voices!
Your regret is our grave, your denial is our tomb!
Forever restless, for you denied us our peace!
There will be no forgiveness for your sins!
Your soul will be forever stained black with the blood of the innocent!
Our shells lay scattered forever, dashed upon the rocks by your hand!
May the Light take you, and damn you to a thousand burning deaths!
Tis a better fate than we would grant you!
To all those seeking refuge from that cursed burning light,
Leave this forsaken tomb to its still silence
It is the only peace we shall ever know
Despair, despair and lament the burning fate your King has abandoned you to
For only the Void awaits you now
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here
Now thoroughly creeped out, he turned to leave, but hesitated. This was the most interesting thing he’d found in the temple, sequestered away behind a series of twisting cavelike passageways, which were themselves hidden in the basement. While the language was slightly off, maybe the tablet was describing the Fire Nation and the Avatar forsaking the Air Nomads? What lay behind that great stone door? Was it the skeletons of the Air Nomads? The temple had been suspiciously laking in corpses, especially taking into account the amount of bones he found in the other three temples.
“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” he muttered, and with a squaring of his shoulders, Zuko gathered his courage and climbed through the hole at the base of the door.
Now Zuko hadn’t really known what to expect, but near absolute darkness wasn’t it. He could hardly see his own hand in front of his face! He lifted a palm and prepared to call flame to his hand as a light source, but then he felt an odd sensation. It was like he was being watched by many eyes and it was unsettling. We wondered if it was the spirits of the Air Nomads scrutinizing him from beyond the grave. He figured if it was the spirit of the Air Nomads, fire probably wouldn’t be very welcome. He decided against using his fire to light up the surroundings, and all of the sudden, the ambient light level inexplicably rose. Not by much mind you, but enough to see a small ways in front of him. Zuko startled slightly at the sudden change in visibility, but told himself it was just his eyes adjusting.
Now, contrary to popular belief, his vision wasn’t overly impaired after his accident. While his scarred eye was set in a permanent squinted glare, he could see out of it just fine. While his father had banished him from the Fire Nation, he was sent off with one of the best burn specialists in the Capital as his ship’s doctor, and so while his recovery was long and painful, he was never in life-threatening danger. His father had wanted to teach him a lesson, not kill him!
(Unknown to Zuko was the fact that his uncle had pulled many strings to acquire such a skilled surgeon, instead of being left with the greenhorn medical student his father had arranged for.)
Zuko looked around and blanched upon realizing that there was only a tiny ledge on the other side of the door, and past that was a sheer drop off into the darkness. Cautiously, he peered over the edge, and caught sight of a small outcropping just above the endless dark expanse below. Strangely, it didn’t appear to be attached to anything, it was seemingly just floating midair.
Probably just the top of a small hill , Zuko reasoned.
It wasn’t that far down from the ledge he was on, and so he tensed his legs and dropped down onto it. When he looked up from the platform, he could barely make out the faint light shining through the gap in the door from the ledge above him. When he looked down, he could make out a second platform further down from him, but again, it appeared to be floating in midair as well.
Alarmed, he dropped to his stomach and crawled to the edge of the platform before leaning his head over the edge to attempt looking at the underside. To his horror, he found that the platform was indeed floating on nothing but air. He quickly scrambled back from the edge and attempted to rationalize what he saw.
H-how is the platform floating?! It must be some kind of spirit thing...oh Agni, did I accidentally cross into the Spirit World?!
Now, normally this would not be the first conclusion that someone would jump to, but Zuko's uncle had famously made a trip to the spirit world in search of the spirit of his dead son, Lu Ten, so Zuko didn’t discount the possibility. Against his better judgment he quickly stood up and called fire to his hand. Immediately he could tell that this was a mistake. The presences he had sensed earlier became fearful and agitated and Zuko could feel the force of a much larger presence begin to stir. The darkness that had let up earlier quickly returned in full force and the temperature plummeted. Zuko's breath fogged in the air around him and he shivered at the abrupt temperature change. Zuko immediately extinguished the fire in his hand and hoped it would be enough to calm whatever spirits he had angered.
“I’m sorry!” he cried out, “I meant no disrespect!” he continued on, babbling a bit in nervousness. “I just wanted to see, it’s too dark in here!”
Almost immediately, the larger presence seemed to retreat or perhaps go back to sleep, and the smaller ones seemed to calm down. Then, the cavern lit up more brightly than before, and Zuko could now see a fair ways down. He still couldn't see the bottom but he could make out a few more platforms, at least. The cavern was much bigger than he ever thought it was; there were many platforms leading downward, but he still couldn't see the bottom.
“Do you...want me to go down there?” he asked, tentatively. “I will leave if that is what you desire, I don’t wish to upset you,” he said, and it was true, for after hearing the spirit tales of his uncle, Zuko had a healthy respect for the spirits and had no desire to end up on one’s bad side, especially ones that seemed to have power over his surroundings.
The small spirits’ agitation appeared to recede after Zuko’s declaration, and instead they felt curious. Zuko swallowed nervously and began descending deeper into the pit, hoping that he’d get to go back to his ship alive at the end of the day. He sent silent apologies to his uncle during his descent.
The smaller presences only grew stronger as Zuko went further down, and he began to make out a voice in the distance. At first it was too quiet to understand, but it gradually grew clearer the further down he went. It echoed in his head, much like the tablet voice from earlier, and he soon realized it was actually many different voices speaking over one another. They were children’s voices.
What is it? Does it come to play? Tall thing! Strange thing! Bright thing! Tastes like fire! Warm!
The voices became louder and Zuko nearly let out a shriek at the sight of a dozen pairs of white, glowing eyes peering at him from the darkness. He immediately went very, very still as the eyes drifted closer.
They emerged in pairs, always pairs. Strange dark ghosts floated out of the endless expanse of black outside of the small bubble of light he was in. The ghosts were clinging to each other, like they were terrified of being alone. Zuko understood that feeling intimately.
Zuko examined them further, trying to place why they felt familiar. They seemed to consist of a fairly round, featureless head with some combination of horns jutting from the sides. Their bottom halves appeared to be tattered tendrils or perhaps a cloak of some kind? They kept their distance and merely observed him, whispering.
So tall! It wears armor! Is it a knight? A noble knight? Is it on a quest? No mask! Where is it’s mask? Is it a Faceless? No, it's got a face, I think? Strange face! Soft face!
The ghosts whispered excitedly and some drifted closer to peer curiously at his face. Zuko felt self conscious about his scar, but strangely, for all their talk about how weird his face was, they never mentioned the scar. They seemed more curious about his armor and why he didn’t have a mask on. As they didn’t seem malicious, Zuko decided to answer some of their questions as he continued to descend even further down. He could no longer see the entrance.
“No, I’m not a knight, we don’t really have those anymore, but I am on a quest to capture the Avatar to restore my honor,” he stated. “I do have a mask, but it’s just for theater, and it's back on my ship, anyway,” he continued. This only seemed to excite the ghosts more.
What is theater? Is it fun? What is an Avatar? Can you eat it? Is it tasty?
Zuko had finally reached the bottom of the pit, but was distracted by the ghosts. He nearly laughed out loud as he heard the last few questions, but his mirth was cut short when he realized that these spirits didn’t know who the Avatar was. Then, he had another thought.
These spirits look and act like small children, maybe they haven’t been taught about the Avatar yet? The other presence feels much older, it definitely doesn’t belong to the children, maybe it has more information?
Zuko’s musing was again cut short when he finally reached the floor of the massive pit he was in. He was about to look around for the source of the powerful presence from earlier, when he accidentally stepped on something laying on the floor of the pit. It made a dull snapping sound. Zuko froze. He knew that sound. That was the sound of old bones being stepped on.
He cast his gaze around the pit and when he finally realized what he was looking at, it took all his willpower to not puke. The bottom of the pit wasn’t covered in white stones like he’d originally thought. They were skulls. The shapes matched those of the ghosts’ heads. Those were children’s skulls. They were not human skulls perhaps, but that hardly mattered to Zuko. The ghosts were clearly children of some description before they died, and now Zuko was standing on their grave. Tens of thousands of skulls were piled everywhere. The floor, up against the walls, packed on top of each other. There was no bare floor. He was left standing on them, for there was nowhere else to stand. Tens of thousands of empty pleading sockets stared out blankly into the darkness.
When he froze and gasped in horror, the ghosts seemed to freeze as well. Slowly, one by one, the eyes dimmed before the ghosts curled up on themselves and retreated into the skull-covered ground. Zuko was left alone in the darkness, suddenly terrified that he had been tricked and was now going to die for accidentally desecrating a mass grave.
“Wait!” he cried, “Don’t leave me alone down here!” his cries echoed into the suddenly empty cavern. He could faintly make out the children’s voices, only this time they spoke as one.
Find the sea… they want to meet you… biggest sibling wants to meet you...
The sea? What sea? He was probably miles underground! And who was ‘biggest sibling’? Were all the ghosts siblings? That would make sense, the skulls looked very similar to each other.
Suddenly Zuko was overcome with a strange feeling. Everything else seemed to fade away except for the need to find this mysterious sea. Another voice seemed to call out to him, dark and powerful, but without words. Zuko was helpless to resist it.
Zuko mechanically made his way forward, oblivious to the snapping of tiny skulls below his feet. As he made his way forward, the voice grew louder until it echoed like thunder in his head. He felt like he was in a trance, powerless to stop himself from doing what the voice commanded. This was the voice of the presence he felt earlier, unbelievably powerful and ancient beyond his imagining. In the fog of his mind, he wondered if the spirit knew anything about the Avatar’s whereabouts. He’d disappeared almost a hundred years ago, and the spirit certainly felt old enough to have been around before then.
He suddenly felt himself stopping and his mind cleared from the fog. Zuko was immediately on guard, frightened by what he had just experienced. He was like a passenger in his own body, but not fully awake and aware either. Zuko found it strange that he had stopped before drowning himself in the not-water of the black sea he’d found himself standing before. In the spirit tales, the men always walked into the water and drowned themselves so the spirits could eat them.
Zuko looked out on the shore of an unbelievably black sea. It wasn’t water, he knew. Water didn’t ripple like that. Off to the side he noticed an immense structure of whitish stone. It looked like a lighthouse, but the top had been destroyed with extreme prejudice. It was almost completely torn off the rest of the building, and it looked like it had been ravaged by a wild beast. There were great rents in the solid rock and they resembled claw marks, but ones so massive Zuko couldn’t imagine what sort of creature could make them. He had a sinking suspicion he was about to find out, though. That’d be just his awful luck.
Suddenly the whole chamber seemed to shake, the clattering sound of tiny skulls shifting behind him, and the dark sea churned furiously. It seemed to ripple violently before suddenly rising up, up, up…
Eight white eyes the size of Zuko’s entire body opened upon a massive horned face. Immense shoulders were adorned with equally massive spikes and four long arms slammed into the floor near him, knocking Zuko to the ground. He gazed up on the massive being and tried not to wet himself, absolutely sure he was about to be crushed or eaten or both.
The massive, multi-horned face moved closer to him quicker than anything that big had any right to move. It’s head was mere feet from his before a many-layered voice shook the cavern, although no audible noise was made. Foreign and alien words drilled themselves into his skull as the being interrogated him.
[Query.] [Purpose?]
They were not words, per say, but thoughts or concepts that were being shoved into his brain. They were so loud. Louder than anything Zuko had ever heard before, even though his ears were only detecting the steady drip, drip, drip, of the black not-water flowing off of the massive creature before him. He took several moments to collect his thoughts, but the being seemed very willing to wait as long as it took.
“I w-was investigating the t-temple f-for clues about the Avatar,” he managed to get out, gradually getting his breathing under control. It wouldn't do to show too much weakness in front of such a powerful spirit , he thought.
The spirit retreated a small bit, no longer right in his face, and it seemed to peer at him in confusion.
[Confusion.] [Query.] [Embodiment?]
Immediately Zuko became angry. He’d ventured all the way down here, hoping for clues on the Avatar, and here he was, about to be eaten by a giant, ancient spirit monster that didn’t even know what the Avatar was? Momentarily forgetting himself, he yelled at the spirit. “What do you mean you don’t know what the Avatar is?! He’s the World Spirit, the bridge between the mortal and spirit realms! I have to capture him to restore my honor!”
Zuko immediately regretted his outburst and prepared to beg for his life (again), though he didn’t think the spirit would be as merciful as his father.
Unknown to Zuko, the Shade Lord was reminded of memories acquired many human lifetimes ago. Memories of curling up in front of a TV with their father and watching a show called Avatar: The Last Airbender . For before the Shade Lord, there was Ghost the Vessel, and before that, there was a young human, barely out of teenagehood, with a big heart and a head full of dreams. The Shade Lord had mostly forgotten about their life as a human, which had been tragically cut short by a drunk driver with not enough sense to call a cab.
They had first gained access to these memories shortly after they had Ascended, but at the time had not deemed them important. They could barely remember that life or being human for that matter. Until the memories reminded Ghost of who Zuko was, they’d entirely forgotten what a human even looked like! They had spent so much more time first as Ghost, and then as The Shade Lord, God of Gods.
Their previously forgotten memories suddenly seemed much more important, now. They tried to recall all they knew of the once-beloved show. Strangely, the more it tried to grasp onto memories of the show, the other, more personal details of their human life seemed to fade. But their memories of previous acquaintances and preferences as a human still held no importance now. They needed knowledge, facts, details! They let the other extraneous personal memories flow from their mind and be forgotten forever.
The Lord of Shades returned their attention to Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, Son of Ozai and Ursa. They had plans. Many plans. But first they needed to get Zuko to stop bowing face down in the dirt, begging for his life that they had no plan of threatening anyway. Oh, this would be the most fun they’d had in literal eons!