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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Randy Ribay
Read between
August 11 - August 15, 2024
FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BUILT AND LOVED THIS WORLD
After all, what was there to celebrate? Sure, the Fire Nation had its first Avatar in centuries, but all that meant to Sozin in this moment was that his closest friend was leaving in the morning.
The story of Roku’s predecessor was an anomaly, though. The Earth Kingdom had identified a powerful Earthbender of humble origins named Yun. But they’d gotten it wrong. The real Avatar would turn out to be Yun’s maid, Kyoshi.
Kyoshi would go on to become one of the greatest Avatars in history, living for over two hundred years, while Yun would go on to be forever known as the False Avatar who descended into madness.
during which time he discovered their benders had powers a thousand times stronger than any he’d ever seen before. Waterbenders who could control the weather. Airbenders who could command typhoons. Earthbenders who could produce—or sink—islands. And Firebenders who could move the sun.
Relief that he had survived came first. Then, a hollow horror snaked through his veins until both his body and mind went numb. Though unintentional, it was the first life he had ever taken.
The air temples were built in notoriously difficult places to reach, accessible only to those riding animals that could fly or scale the steepest of cliffs.
Like a fire revived from ashes, Roku’s longing for a different life flared, burning brighter than it had even in his first few days at the Southern Air Temple.
Roku realized how much he missed the cutting sarcasm of his homeland. The Airbender sense of humor was like that of small children, laughing at simple, straightforward amusements. Word play. Breaking wind.
They didn’t make jokes at the expense of others, even in jest—with the exception of Gyatso.
Kyoshi lived to be two hundred and thirty years old,
They couldn’t let the Earth Kingdom steal territory or resources. Besides the issue of pride, land was scarce enough in the Fire Nation. Every island mattered, even if symbolically—
It was commonly understood that to master bending, one’s spirit had to be attuned to the qualities of one’s bending element. Firebenders had to stoke their determination, their will. Airbenders—from what Sister Disha had taught him so far—needed to relinquish their will and accept the openness of freedom.
Roku had trained for years until he mastered firebending. He didn’t understand how he was expected to hold a contradictory ethos in his spirit to master another element—not to mention, go on to do that with two more elements.
Gyatso said. “And besides, we’re not just flexible when it comes to airbending—Air Nomads can move temples if their understanding of their own gender shifts.”
Transgender Air Nomads.
If he couldn’t trust his closest friend in the world, then whom could he trust?
I hope your empathy does not fade with time as often happens as we age. But empathy can cloud our judgment more than the fog clouds our island. Never let it blind you from seeing the truth, from doing what must be done at the most critical moment.”
A cemetery worker set to sealing the tomb with an engraved marble plate as the High Sage began the funeral ceremony, which passed in a blur, Roku feeling as if he had left his body and was watching from the clouds.
They didn’t deserve summary executions. Oh Wen and his companions probably didn’t even know the full truth, and—as Sister Disha had often reminded Roku—people were not their governments.
A shaft of sunlight spilling over his shoulders revealed the end of a towering shelf crammed with scrolls.
can an artist ever become a true master if they do not learn how to use every brush, every color, every technique?”
He learned that there were methods of channeling his energy into lightning, and methods for defending such strikes that borrowed from water-bending redirection principles.
the next time the Great Comet passed wouldn’t be for another forty-four years.
though a Firebender could learn to heat rock until it transformed to lava, the ability to bend lava belonged to skilled Earthbenders.
Ashō had gotten it all wrong. And Roku’s life was in danger. For nothing.
INFESTED WITH SUCH DECAY
unsurprised to uncover yet another one of Ulo’s lies. It was like coming upon a tree that looked perfectly fine on the outside only to discover it was rotted and lifeless within. And then realizing the entire forest was infested with such decay.
In the world that had raised him, the Four Nations were a given. Yes, at some point in the past, the different lands and peoples were unified and there had been conflicts and power struggles along the way.
There was an undeniable spiritual energy in the cavern, but from what he’d read, the spirits didn’t work like that. They didn’t answer human requests, and they didn’t strike deals to parcel out their power in exchange for praise.
They were incomprehensible, their motivations and reasonings unfathomable. They regarded humans as humans regarded ants: only concerned when the collective—and often unintentional—actions of the ants impacted some corner of their own world.
Despite the fact he’d shared that he struggled to use his airbending except when Roku’s life was in danger, it seemed to always work around her.
The simple truth was that he did not know what he would do without Roku. It had been difficult enough to move past Yasu’s death. And though Sozin had struggled to adjust after Roku had abandoned him to begin his training, imagining a world without his closest remaining friend shook him to his core.
amazed at how Airbending could be as soft as a cloud or as sharp as a knife.
“You ask too many questions.” “And you don’t ask enough.”
They would certainly not be the first or last people in the history of the world willing to trade a pile of bodies for their own safety.
The justification of murder was a slippery slope.
He had come across something in an Air Nomad meditation scroll at the Southern Air Temple about how once someone devalued a single life, they devalued all life. At the time, he hadn’t agreed. But he was starting to see how death invited death.
She lowered her arms, let the sticks fall from her hands, and looked around as if waking from a nightmare.
with his cold blue eyes and face contorted with a rage that had always been lurking behind the façade of calm.
“You don’t trust me? I’m an Air Nomad.” “Exactly,” Sozin said. “As my father always says, never trust anyone who won’t eat meat.”
The confluence of energies was as raw and pure as a tidal wave or typhoon or earthquake or wildfire. As destructive as any of those events could be to humanity, none of them were inherently bad. They were natural processes meant to relieve pressure and restore balance.
“You did what you had to do to save others. It will not be the last time you must strike down the lost for the sake of the greater good.”
the center of his torso was its own pit scorched black.
He’d have to find a way to help people understand the essential truth that nobody would be safe until everyone was safe. That was the real task that lay before him as Avatar.
He had never considered forgiveness as a matter of transaction. One forgave by letting something go that might otherwise sever an established relationship.
“We must let ourselves feel that pain, greeting our grief like a
blessing. Like the unexpected arrival of an old friend at our doorstep. Do not keep the door closed—invite them in. Have some tea and spend some time catching up. Then, when it’s time, let them be on their way.”
The essence of airbending is not about thrusting your will through the world as it is in firebending—it is about sensing and responding and adapting.”
Avatar Roku acknowledged his self-doubt, recognized its source—then set it aside.
allow the criminals to face justice in the Earth Kingdom—as if such a thing as justice could be found anywhere in that sprawling, sloppy patchwork of poverty-stricken states they called a nation.
