At Ba Sing Se University, a scholar carefully pulled a tome from a long collection and placed it gently on the table. After putting on gloves to avoid damage from contact, he resumed the research he had been conducting for sixty years on the kingdom's past.
"Where was I?" He skimmed through the date markers until he found the one he was looking for. "Ah, this is it." He took the papers and writing tools he had previously prepared and began taking notes as he read.
Records of Year 175 A.C.
(Five years after Korra first arrived in Republic City.)
His Majesty, King Jin Beifong, who succeeded the late Queen Hou-Ting after her unfortunate fate, has completed the great essential reforms of the Earth Kingdom.
The changes are astounding.
I, Jahn Moren Stephanopoulos VIII, was absent for only a few years during my spiritual journey around the world. Upon my return, I nearly thought I had arrived at the wrong place.
Ba Sing Se is my birthplace, yet I could not recognize it.
The Great Wall, which in the past was breached only twice in its history—an unshakable defense of blood, stone, and sweat—had been replaced by a wall of unknown alloy, completely solid and with an extremely polished surface.
How much metal must have been melted to construct such a monstrosity?
The agrarian zone was no longer merely a buffer area. I saw orchards rise toward the skies like the great towers of the cities, with levels full of sweet fruit, vegetables, and grains nourished by the sun and streams of water cascading down, driven by a hydraulic system I could not comprehend at all.
The lower sector and outer ring, once a filthy place with people sleeping in the streets and hunger a constant force bringing out the worst in people, no longer existed. Now, it had clean streets, with flowers and greenery lining the sidewalks and balconies. People seemed to struggle to contain the smile escaping their lips; children were reading in the parks with their parents, no longer looking like bones wrapped in skin.
At first I believed that the city's dark side had simply been relegated to the night. I expressly stayed at an inn to verify my theory instead of returning to my home as planned, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Patrols of metalbenders passed silently around me, constantly taking advantage of the shadows. Their lack of noise, and the fact that I could not notice them unless I deliberately raised my head, made my hair stand on end.
For a second, I thought they were the Dai Li!
How could they be so stealthy wearing armor as dark as theirs?
When the next morning I headed toward the middle sector, I couldn't help noticing that every business (and apparently every home) had a small altar for the photo of the royal family.
Yes, not only the king's photo, but that of the entire family.
If I didn't know they were real people, I would almost think the people were worshiping spirits!
I saw people cry while their hands trembled.
That look of gratitude…
It is the look of someone who was desperate and standing at the edge of the abyss—I know this because I once had that look too. It is not a pleasant memory, but it is part of me.
I stopped to eat at a restaurant I used to frequent in the middle sector before my journey. Eating in the lower sector was not exactly a good idea back then, due to the questionable quality of the food.
Perhaps that mentality wasn't as valid now, but I preferred to be cautious.
Unfortunately, I was told that old Lady Chen, who used to prepare those delicious crab-salmon dumplings with sweet-and-sour sauce I dreamed of so many times during my travels, had peacefully passed away in her sleep two months earlier.
Once I drop my things off at home, I will go visit her grave and leave some flowers.
Her granddaughter now runs the business and, though the dumplings are delicious, they are a world apart from the elder's. But I will definitely not tell her that. If she improves later and refuses to make dumplings for me, wouldn't that be a great loss?
While I ate, Kali (that is the granddaughter's name) asked me about my journey, and in return I asked her to catch me up on what I had missed while I was away. She was very understanding, and her words poured out like a typhoon as I struggled to keep my ears on pace.
Her grandmother's death, her clumsy adaptation to the situation, and the disparity in culinary skill had nearly driven her business to collapse, but just when she believed that the restaurant her family had run for three hundred years would close because of her… one of her customers consoled her and asked about her problems.
Kali held nothing back—she needed someone to hear her.
Once the customer listened to her and left, Kali felt better, but she decided that if the situation didn't improve in a month, she would have to make a difficult decision.
The next morning, the restaurant had such a long line that she had to close early—after only three hours of being open—due to lack of ingredients. Even after restocking triple the usual amount, she barely managed to keep up with the demand.
Kali suspected the customer she had talked to, and after asking several diners, she discovered that the person she had spoken with was none other than Queen Asami!
I nearly spat out my dumpling in shock, seriously.
Apparently, the royal family enjoyed traveling disguised or incognito to assess the situation in the capital—being closer to the people, so to speak.
"And she hasn't come back?" I asked her.
"Of course not!" Kali looked at me as if I were insane. "Oh, wait, you just got back and maybe you're not up to date yet. It was recently confirmed that Queen Asami is in her second pregnancy!" she said excitedly.
The scholar looked at the text, slightly surprised, stopping his writing for a moment.
"The people already knew about Princess Sona back then?" he reflected seriously.
Every scholar in the world knew that name, but little was known about her private life.
Sona Beifong, the Queen of the Tenth Sky.
"Blessed be her by the spirits," the old man murmured softly as he looked around carefully. "If it were not for her and the decisions of her family, my seven-year-old granddaughter, a waterbender, would be forcibly recruited at the Wall, fighting in every wave of dark spirits."
He returned his attention to the book, working tirelessly. Only three hours later, after pausing for a moment to drink and go to the bathroom, he found another important point.
…And then the world was bewildered by the news of Avatar Korra's pregnancy, for her wedding with Opal Beifong was recent, and evidently no one expected such a "round" outcome once they returned from their honeymoon three months later.
More bewildering still, neither woman was willing to mention who the father was, not even to their own families. This fueled all kinds of rumors, from a blessing of the spirits, to the strange powers of the Avatar, and even nonsense such as an immaculate pregnancy.
Avatar Korra herself openly laughed at the theories, clearly amused.
Immaculate pregnancy?
Who would be gullible enough to believe such a thing while sober?
"Avatar Korra had a child of her own?" The scholar checked a smaller book at his side for several minutes, ending with a dazed and confused expression. "Strange… there is no record of that." For a moment he doubted the veracity of the information, but something in his instincts told him it was not false.
Memorizing the exact page, the scholar fast-forwarded through the text, trying to find more details. Several details flashed past his eyes.
… the magnetic train makes its first journey…
… Ikki, the medical prodigy who changed an era…
… Jasmine Island tripled its size thanks to…
… Commander Meelo's victory against the Fire Nation invasion…
… the popularization of shirshus…
… Jinora takes her father's mantle…
… the deranged firebender who killed Wu was executed…
… the flagship product that brought Col Corporation to third place worldwide…
"Come on, there must be something." The scholar nearly reached the end of the pages when one entry caught his attention.
…due to the lack and need of a fatherly figure in the life of Avatar Korra's daughter, her partner Opal suggested they assign that role to the most capable man they knew: her great-uncle, Jin Beifong.
Thus, the couple's daughter grew alongside the children of Queen Asami (three daughters) and Queen Zhu Li (one daughter and one son). Though she was not part of the royal family, His Majesty was magnanimous with the Avatar and treated her daughter as if he were her godfather (a fact that was later made official).
"Is that all?" The scholar finished up to the last page and did not find the most crucial parts.
Suddenly, he wished he could travel back in time and throw the massive tome at the author's head.
What happened to Korra's daughter?
What was her name?
Why is there no record of her?
Wait, that shouldn't be possible unless…
"No, I understand the last part," the scholar shook his head.
After what happened back then, he could deduce that Opal or Jin Beifong had erased all written records to guarantee the safety of Avatar Korra's daughter.
The scholar frowned. Like so many others, he felt curiosity about who the father might be.
"What am I thinking?" he scolded himself, glancing at the clock on the wall. "I've been here too long, I need to go out, get some fresh air, and clear these chaotic thoughts from my head."
He gathered everything, returned the tome to its place, and left with his records in hand.
He opened the door and suddenly stopped in the doorway, turning his head to stare at the tome for a long moment, then at his notes, thoughtful.
It could be…
…
"Bah, no, impossible," he shook his head, laughing at the strange idea that had sprung at the last moment, closing the door behind him.
He was unaware of how a hidden and torn piece of paper slid behind the place where the tome rested due to the air current from the movement of the door, where there was only one word almost faded by time: In...asha.
END
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Another fanfic finished! Will I write a third part when Pavi comes out? Maybe or no.
Anyway, the usual. I'll leave the story for a few days so you can all finish it without any problems. Then the usual cutoff will be made, and if you want to read this fanfic again (or the others I've made that are completed), just join my Patreon as a free member. Of course, you already know this, because you probably read the notice at the beginning, right? Great, I hope to see you in future fics!