Avatar: The Shadow of Kyoshi (The Kyoshi Novels, #2)

by F.C. Yee

Leave it to an Air Nomad to fall back on fun as the last argument.

“No one needs their rest more than the Avatar.”

You’re not going into battle. You don’t have to be constantly at war.”

“But you’re talking about conflict like an inevitability.” “Welcome to the Fire Nation, everyone!”

It had been a very long time since she’d connected to anyone her age. It was strange to think she could relax around a smuggling gang and the ruler of the Fire Nation, but nothing in between.

The sage pretender eyed her up and down. Kyoshi had the same uncomfortable feeling of being bored into that Tagaka and Lao Ge had given her. Older folk who would find her dark depths before she could herself.

“Enemies are enemies, but no one can shame you like your own family.”

Between the Flying Opera Company’s obsession with Pengpeng and Nyahitha’s grumbling that she hadn’t brought Yingyong, Kyoshi was beginning to think the world would be better off if the Avatar simply reincarnated as a sky bison from now on. At least then it would be universally beloved.

He explained that the distinction between the best Pai Sho grandmasters and those journeymen who were only mediocre was that the true geniuses simply played more games than their lower-ranked counterparts did. They never stopped learning. Jianzhu, Kelsang, Hei-Ran—they could make the Avatar better. They could make each other better. Constant challenge was the key to growth.

“You might be good at meditation, but you will never talk to Kuruk or any of your other predecessors in the Avatar cycle if you cling to your resentments this hard. Kuruk’s flaws aren’t keeping you from what you want. Yours are.

“You can have your past, or you can have your future. Not both.

She couldn’t simply fail along one path like most people; she had to be torn apart by her failures in every direction.

My daughter loves you. Which means you are also my daughter. For better or worse, you are a part of our family.

“I believe I have to make peace with my own choices, just like everyone else.”

She surged forward and grabbed Zoryu by the shoulders. Manhandling the Fire Lord was probably punishable by death, but right now Kyoshi could only see a scared young person whose weakness was going to get everyone killed. She saw herself. And she hated it.

it was the kind of sleep where she was afraid of tomorrow and what the morning would bring. Tears squeezed out of her shut eyes as she fell into the slumber of weakness. She simply couldn’t handle being awake anymore.

She didn’t have the right to lose herself in her rage and let it take her to oblivion. No matter what she’d been through. She wouldn’t allow herself to become a human scar, a compendium of personal loss. She had the obligation to be more than the sum of her grievances with the world.

“I gave each nation everything it wanted but only realized my error too late. People shouldn’t have everything they want. No one is entitled to their every desire. To live in balance, we must willingly decide not to take all that we can from the world, and from others.”