With tears streaming down her face, Leera climbed barefoot between the rocks on the beach. The front of her dress was heavy from all the stones she had collected. She knew that they were filthy and belonged in the ground, but for some reason, she felt like she needed them to honor Aelar’s death – the water was the enemy here, and the rocks were her enemy’s enemy. He would’ve laughed at her silliness. ‘Don’t soil your hands,’ was one of his favorite things to tell her. ‘Look at me, Leera,’ he’d say and levitate above her, ‘one day you’ll never have to touch the ground again.’

Andromeda shook, and her wooden keel creaked and complained in the face of the sudden impact. Leera rolled off the cot and hurried to the deck. With the sun trying to gouge her eyes out with sharp daggers of light, she wobbled over to Quick.

“What’s happening?” she said, shielding her face with her hands.

“Life,” he said and tapped a finger against his temple. “When you’re locked in visions of the past or dreams of the future, that’s when life happens. It passes you right by.”

Leera shook her head. “No, I mean, what was that tremor?”

“Oh, that’s my bad – been a while since I landed this thing.”

Leera lifted her hands and tried to blink away the sunlight. Andromeda was gently gliding along a glittering blue river. Old pine trees shot up from the banks on both sides and reached thirstily with their dark green limbs for the water. In the distance, a mountain peak dominated the skyline.

“Where are we?”

“River Asphyx,” Quick said. “The Ocean’s Long Arm.”

“Why aren’t we flying?”

“I told you, girl, we’re going to Brimport.”

“I know, but why can’t we fly there? I’m not very fond of water…”

“Water is the source of all living things,” Quick said and smiled patiently. “You’re an Iso-bender; you’ll need to learn to appreciate the elements in all their forms and compositions.”

“I am not–”

Her words were lost as the boat rounded an unusually large pine, which was struggling to hold on to a crag that was jutting out over the water. A mountainside came into clear view. The rugged cliffs towered over them, blocking out the sun. The river, much to Leera’s dismay, led straight into a fissure in the mountain. She would soon have earth on both sides, and water below. She shuddered. There would only be a tiny strip of sky visible.

Quick, on the other hand, leaned carelessly against the stone rudder. He appeared disturbingly at peace with the oncoming dilemma. Leera shifted on the spot. She was used to the open air of Jane’s Spire and the infinite expanses of Caeli’s glaciers – sky above, and sky below – and that’s how she wanted it to be.

“Brimport is situated inside the crater of a sleeping volcano,” Quick said.

Great, Leera thought, not only was she stuck on a claustrophobic river through a mountain pass, but there was also a possibility of being burned alive.

“It is said that the volcano was once a portal to the Ever Burning Forges – the homestead of Ambust, the patron deity of the Ignis Nation,” Quick continued.

“So, what happened? Why did the portal close?”

“The Battle of Brimport,” Quick said, pointing his cane at the rapidly approaching fissure. “Two armies in a grudging alliance laid siege to the Mountain of Fire. Many lives were lost that day before the benders of earth broke the mountainside, and the water folk of Unda brought the sea in to quench the fires. They say that it was the turning point of the fifth war.”

“Tell me when we’re there,” Leera said and escaped in under the deck.

It was the smell of incense and cooking food that brought Leera back up from her cot. The raw but homely sound of street musicians reached her ears as she stepped out in the early afternoon sunlight.

The entire crater of the volcano was a big lake. Houses on poles rested a few feet over the surface, and an armada of kayaks and other small boats and vessels competed for the space on a busy street made out of water.

Wide-eyed, Leera looked at all the people – she had never before seen so many different faces. She was familiar with the muscle-bulging dark-skinned earth folk of Humus and the Cealians hovering above the water. But the people with flowing azure hair, suntanned bodies, and lopsided algae green eyes, all seemed very alien to her.

How did everyone get along so well? Even without the encounter with the earth bender bandits, Leera’s experiences with the other folks had been exclusively bad. This was the strangest place she’d ever seen.

At a table in a floating restaurant, a fair-skinned man with spiky white hair was trying to lob a grape into the mouth of a giggling Humus woman. Leera narrowed her eyes. Were they in love?

“How does everyone here live in harmony?” she whispered to Quick.

“Carbon,” he said simply. “We’re all carbon.”

Leera kept staring at the couple in the restaurant and even craned her neck backward when Andromeda passed them by. She almost fell over when the boat hit a pier with a thud.

“Watch the boat,” Quick said and disappeared into the crowd on a wooden walkway.

Leera cursed under her breath and climbed off the boat as well. She did her best to tie it to the pier. She sighed and took a few hesitant steps. There were slits between the planks where she could see her striped reflection in the water below. Quickly, she looked elsewhere.

Her eyes found an exhibition of intricate drawings in the closest shop. They were all in black ink, but with a thousand different motifs. There were lions, hawks, and slithering vipers; there were stars and mountain peaks and setting suns; there were curling waves, palm trees, and women in indecent clothing. Despite not approving of some of the motifs, Leera couldn’t deny that they were all exquisite and expertly crafted. She ran her fingers over the image of a fluffy cloud.

“Hands off the merchandise, Caelica!” said a rough voice.