Chapter 9

The Northern Air Temple Archives was a long, low, squat, long, hall that was completely out of synch architecturally with the rest of the tall, rounded, spindly, buildings that made up the Northern Air Temple. The reason for that was practicality. It was easier to preserve perishable goods in this sort of cool, dry, larder-like space. Bikki knew that because dried meats and fish were often kept in rooms like this back on Nagai Island and it seemed like the Airbenders had known in too and bowed to practicality, despite their otherwise odd architectural inclinations. Inside, the walls were filled with marble shelves, honeycombed with hollow sections where scroll cases were situated.

Bikki walked up and examined one of the scrollcases, here too he saw familiar preservation methods. Oilskin leather with a wax seal forming an impermeable barrier around where the cap of the scrollcase met the body. It was familiar mostly thanks to this being the method used to seal scrollcases back on Nagai Island. It should be, as the technology had been adapted from the scrollcases taken by Yonbanjin Raiders after sacking the town of Nop Chungmo during the Third Great Raid of Isonash. Isonash was the great-grandfather of Koshamain and the Greatest War Leader of the Yanbanjin. Isonash raided the Fire Nation, Northern Water Tribe, and Western Air Nomads in three great raids, sacking multiple towns and bringing back wealth and technology to Nagai Island.

His sack of the City of Iqaluit, one of the few true Cities of the Northern Water Tribe, brought the sailing technology of Cutter Ships back to Nagai Island, allowing the creation of the first, non-war canoes to be built, along with a wealth of goods and loot. His raid on Wano Port in the Fire Nation brought the secret of catapults and ballistae back to Nagai Island, which was iterated on by his son Sanyoaino to create trebuchets and other artillery, along with a hoard of weapons and looted wealth, while his raid on Nop Chungmo brought back the secrets of Ironworking and many other technologies found in the scrolls of the Library there, along with a wealth of goods.

"I wonder if they have any scrolls detailing accounts of those raids." Mused Bikki as he put the scroll that brought on such thoughts back.

"What? No, nevermind, come help me look for scrolls about the Avatar." Demanded Prince Zuko.

"All right." Sighed Bikki as he made to follow the Prince deeper into the Archive.

As he followed Bikki looked over at the shelves, wondering how Prince Zuko knew where to go. The writing on the labels were all written in the Windscript of the Air Nomads, with only a few having the characters of Firespeech on recently-applied labels to translate. Bikki noticed that the only scrolls that had Firespeech translations to go with their Windscript labels were all on technical subjects, things that might strike the fancy of someone like the Mechanist. Could Prince Zuko actually read Windscript? Was he just picking a shelf out at random to head toward? Bikki had to know in case they were heading in the wrong direction.

"Prince Zuko, can you actually read this Windscript?" Questioned Bikki.

"I can read, write, and speak all four major languages. Firespeech is my native, and Windtongue may be dead, but I had a lot of learning to do as Crown Prince." Answered Prince Zuko.

"I guess it makes sense. It would be hard to figure out what the enemy is doing if you can't understand Stonevoice. I can also see why you'd learn Wavetalk, since there would be diplomacy to do with the Northern Water Tribe and the Fire Nation is at war with the Southern Water Tribe, but Windtongue? All the Air Nomads are dead, and the non-bending population has already assimilated in their former territories." Pressed Bikki.

"Uncle seemed to think it was worth learning. Come on, we're getting to historical records." Responded Prince Zuko as he made a beeline for a group of shelves.

Bikki followed and soon found himself pressed into service as an extra set of hands. He couldn't read Windscript, since nobody had thought to give him lessons in a dead language, and from what Bikki had heard, even if they had, he wouldn't have gotten it. It was too different from anything else. That meant he was useless for anything aside from grabbing more scrolls when Prince Zuko pointed them out.

Frustratingly, it seemed that the more current events, for a given value of current, were higher up on the shelves. That was likely because as Air Benders, riding an updraft to grab something off the top shelf would have been trivial for the builders of this library. It was less so for Bikki, who wound up having to climb the shelves using the honeycomb cubbies as hand and footholds.

It took most of the day, but they finally found what Prince Zuko was looking for. At the top of the last shelf of the section was a scroll dated to twelve years before Fire Lord Sozin wiped out the Air Nomads. Apparently a nine-month-old Child in the Village of Ghongka in the lands overseen by the Nuns of the Eastern Air Temple correctly identified the four Avatar relics. The infant boy was taken to the Eastern Air Temple for confirmation. Unfortunately, that was the last record in the section. None of the others survived the destruction of the Temple.

"It's a start at least." Offered Bikki.

"It's another wild goose-eel chase is what it is." Scowled Prince Zuko.

"Nobody said that chasing the Avatar was going to be easy, Prince Zuko. If it was, I don't think the Fire Lord would have made his capture a condition of your return from exile." Pointed out Bikki.

"No, no. You're right, it's just annoying. This is the first hint of his wherabouts in a century and it's sending us to another Temple!" Grumbled Prince Zuko.

"Would you rather we go looking blind?" Queried Bikki.

"Of course not!" Snapped Prince Zuko.

"Come on, let's head back to the barracks. It's close to dinner time and food might cheer you up. It'll certainly cheer me up." Grinned Bikki.

"Of course It'll cheer you up, you're a Northern Barbarian." Scoffed Prince Zuko. There wasn't really any heat to the jibe, however.

Bikki just shrugged and started to head out, Prince Zuko two steps behind him. When they made it to the Barracks, however, the Captain on-watch, an older man with a clean-shaven face and bald head, told them that the General was staying in the Tower along with Major Toshi, Mayor Han who was the civilian administrator, and the Mechanist. They were expecting the Prince and Bikki to join them for dinner.

Bikki and Prince Zuko then headed for the Tower after thanking the Captain. At the top of the peak, past the inner wall, sat their destination. It was a single, tall, round, tower topped by a green and gold-tiled roof. Here was where the elders and the Abbot would have lived and worked, in a structure jutting into the sky like a tent pole holding up the roof of the world. A sergeant in the bottom floor told them they were expected in the Abbot's Dining Hall, apparently it was one of the fancier rooms in the temple, as no one had been in there when the attack happened so it had remained largely untouched. Unfortunately, it was on the fifteenth floor of the tower.

Grumbling at the annoyance of the lengthy ascent, Bikki and Prince Zuko began to climb the long spiral stairs hoping that the food at the end would be worth the trip. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, here we get some more worldbuilding, some more history, and the next destination in the hunt for the Avatar.

As you can probably guess, the Air Nomads are basically Magic Tibetans in this fic. They sort of had that already in the show, but I've tried to flesh it out a bit more, for instance, the Windscript used in their writing is the Tibetan Script of IRL. Tibetan script actually descends from the Gupta Script of India. It's an alphabetic script, not a logographic one like Chinese or Japanese Kanji, or syllabic like Korean or Katakana. That's the main reason Zuko knowing it is impressive aside from it being a dead language.

At any rate, the next chapter will involve meeting the Mechanist properly.

Stay tuned. . .