Wang Shi Tong (Part 2)

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- Good. I think we have a deal. It's a good and fair deal for both of us. Try not to think about anything...''

Raising a wing, Wang Shi Tong eclipsed my gaze.....

For a moment, I felt something strange, incomprehensible, unusual, indescribable... and then I began to realise, Wang Shi Tong was pumping information and his own knowledge into my mind.

The sensation was unaccustomed, as if little centipedes were crawling into my head. I can't explain how, but I was beginning to remember and know things I couldn't know before! Deciding not to resist, I relaxed, letting the new knowledge take hold in my memory. There was a lot of knowledge, but all of it was structured, and gradually the knowledge I had learnt lay perfectly on top of what I had already learnt. It was as if I was learning the history of the world from the very beginning, or rather the starting point was the birth of Wang Shi Tong, but he was not much younger than the world and the oldest spirits.

History... the first thing the spirit began with was the history of the world. Intelligence originated in the world over twenty thousand years ago. The first spirits, incarnations of the elements, realised themselves at the dawn of the age, followed by the spirits of places, states, and phenomena. Among them was Wang Shi Tong, who didn't hesitate to pass on his memories of those times to better absorb the information. His memory carried happy memories, he considered those times to be some of the best. The first and most powerful of the spirits were Rava and Vatu. Light and Darkness, Creation and Destruction, Order and Chaos, peace and motion, masculine and feminine. As soon as they appeared, they clashed in an eternal struggle... And so it went on until humans appeared in the world.

About 11,000 years ago, right in the middle of the ocean, turtle lions appeared. They were giant ocean-dwelling creatures with huge forests growing on their backs. It was they who brought humans to this world on their large shells, where the first human settlements were located. Where from and why was unknown even to Wang Shi Tong. Even though he guessed that those had crossed the void. After their sudden appearance, they had scattered around the world and existed peacefully with nature and the spirits inhabiting the world. The turtles themselves were unreasonably friendly to humans. It was from them that humans learnt the magic of the elements, though the turtles themselves possessed more than that.

Magic, it was in this world before the elements, and invariably exists now. Energy magic. This is the original magic that allows you to control any kind of energy. In essence, this magic is the beginning of all other types of magic. Because it was thanks to Energy Magic that the lion turtles passed elemental magic to people, and it is thanks to it that I am receiving all this information now. Elemental magic itself carries all the same essence of energy magic, and it works according to the same laws. This magic existed even before the Avatar appeared, before the four major magics were created and before the four major states were formed, and even before the first spirits appeared. This was something that Wang Shi Tong was absolutely certain of.

Back when humans first appeared, they didn't possess any magic. Only what was temporarily provided to them by their protectors. By the way, there were four turtles, and each turtle granted power over a different element. This was the first elemental magic with the first conquerors. People temporarily received magic to protect themselves from an aggressive world full of animals and spirits, not all of which were friendly to unknown invaders. Territory on turtle shells was not enough for mankind, and to satisfy their needs, new mages often went hunting in the aggressive world, temporarily armed with magic.

Why temporarily? I don't think the gift for magic had no consequences. Energy conflicts, inappropriate bodies, I was familiar with it all. Surely their bodies had to get used to the power to minimise the damage and not just get used to it! The ability to do magic must have been in the genes. Which is exactly what happened afterwards. People got better and better at using their abilities, generation after generation.... and it went on for hundreds of years until the avatar appeared.

None of the people at the time were interested in how it happened, how it worked, or why the turtles did what they did. Only the spirit of knowledge, after talking to all the turtles, learnt about the existence of energy magic and put this knowledge in his library. And many, many years later, lucky people reached Wang Shi Tong's library and discovered this knowledge for themselves. Only, even he could not find out what the purpose of these mysterious creatures was. Having learnt all this, I began to suspect the existence of some unknown force comparable to a god, which thus moved people from one planet to another. But I was prevented from thinking about the possibility of such a thing by the following packet of information about energy magic....

Funny enough, I noticed that some of the energy magic training was very similar to the training Tai Li went through. I was on very good terms with the circus girl, so I knew a few things from her past, including some secret information. She must be a descendant of the people who got that knowledge from the owl. In any case, all the accumulated knowledge of energy magic and other types of magic, including the rarer subspecies like lava, blood or sand, appeared in my mind. The names, last representatives, and stories of how these types of conquests were forgotten by the nations. Due to wars, time, distrust, and an era not particularly disposed to sharing and preserving knowledge, much has been forgotten, re-created, and forgotten again by mankind. However, Wang Shi Tong remembered every such discovery perfectly, just as I do now.

But let us return to human history. After a few hundred years, when many generations had passed and magic was getting better and better, the Age of the Avatar began. A series of coincidences followed each other, and in the end, thanks to simple luck, coincidence, and the intervention of a foolish man in the struggle between Rava and Vatu, the Avatar appeared. And his story, the story of how he gained his powers, is a fascinating one. The process of learning the four elements, energy magic, and merging with spirit, it was all very entertaining and informative.

Wang Shi Tong was also interested in this case, and he found the answer to the question of why all humans couldn't learn other magics. The answer was quite simple: genes, time, and the enormous difficulty of rebuilding the energy structure without the help of a strong spirit. People simply didn't have enough of their lifespan to learn it all, nor did they need to. The easier magic they were related to simply made the more difficult energy magic unpopular, and without it, it was impossible to conquer the other elements. Oh, and with Energy Magic itself, one had to try very hard to begin to represent anything in terms of combat. Elemental magic could be learnt in a much shorter time and become a formidable force, which was more advantageous for a person's short life.

The best example I've seen with my own eyes is Tai Li and Azula. The former loses to the latter in terms of destructive power by a landslide. For these reasons, energy magic simply couldn't become popular. If faced with a choice between elemental and more complex, the choice was in favour of the easier version of magic. There were also few people who knew about it, and this also played a role. The most knowledgeable were the air nomads, and they had a good grasp of it, but over time, almost all people forgot about the existence of Energy Magic. Almost... Fire Healing was a mixture of Energy Magic and Fire Conquest, as was Water Healing, the nomads' special sensitivity to air movements, or the ability to see through the earth for earth mages.

But something has me thinking too much about magic.

Avatar Wang is the first mortal incarnation of the original spirit. Funny enough, the first Avatar was a fire mage. With his appearance, everything changed, a new era began. The Age of the Avatar... and it began with the sealing of Vatu, the separation of the material world and the spiritual world, as well as the settlement of humans on the continents and the disappearance of the Skull Lions. No, they were still in the world, but they had less and less contact with humans, until they disappeared from human history altogether. At first people simply settled in the new lands, which they did very quickly, because there were no more spirits protecting nature, and they coped with animals by magic. A hundred years later, the first major states, elemental countries, were formed, and with their appearance the first wars for territory and resources began.

And here again the aged avatar played a role, that in pursuit of his own goals, intervened in the wars and reconciled both sides in his own way, usually giving both sides a good beating. And so it went on until one of the armies overpowered old Van. He lived, of course, much longer than he should have, several hundred years. The first avatar himself was somewhat inadequate, his actions and decisions at least questionable, and if judged impartially, even stupid and shortsighted. The merger with Rava must have affected his judgement in some way. And he himself, before becoming an avatar, was a common criminal, sentenced to exile and execution.

He was not a man worthy of the great power of the primordial spirit. He did shit, had a huge ego, appointed himself the guardian of both worlds and the bridge between them, acted impulsively, didn't think about the consequences and ended up doing a lot of not so good things in his life, thinking he was almost a god. The following avatars after him were more adequate, but they also acted according to their upbringing and their sense of justice. The world entered a new era that lasts to this day.

People fought each other for everything they could and for nothing. Charismatic and powerful mages often created full-fledged empires out of a feudal and fragmented system, which were quickly destroyed by the avatar. The chief guardian of order often killed the emperors who attempted to encroach on the lands and resources of other nations. And after the death of the king, his descendants and cronies drove his subjects back into the era of feudal fragmentation, illiteracy and chaos, with a war of all against all. All the avatars had strange notions of justice and harmony among the peoples, some more than others, some less.

When wars occurred between one people, most of the time the Guardian of Worlds simply ignored them. But whenever a united people of earth, fire, or water wanted to invade another's territory, he always intervened. With a familiar ending. Thus, and ten thousand years passed, empires were periodically born and died, knowledge was lost and created again, and the new social order of a united nation could not be fixed for a long time. The system of feudal fragmentation was unnecessarily delayed in time. It is still present among the peoples of land and water. Internal competition for a place under the sun is favourable, for then overpopulation is reduced by frequent disease and wars among themselves for bits of power and resources.

Separate from all stood the air nomads that did not develop materially, but developed spiritually, not claiming anything and not in conflict with anyone. With the current level of technology and knowledge, no one needed their mountains and temples. And they were the ones who had the most to gain from such events. Therefore, they helped each avatar in every way possible, guiding the keeper of the balance on the true path. By the way, among the air nomads, everyone was a mage. This was because of the proper upbringing and the particularly "spiritual" lifestyle of the monks. At least that's what the nomads themselves believed, and Wang Shi Tong believed so as well.

But to me, as someone who grew up in a very technological world, it all seemed like pure madness. The same events were repeated over and over again with the same ending, dozens and hundreds of times, years, calendars, names, dynasties, clans... the result was the same for everyone. Everything was so predictable that I didn't pay attention to most of the names of the rulers and avatars that replaced each other. It went on like this for a very long time, millennia.

A vicious cycle of violence, stagnation and destruction, but things have changed! Not since the Fire Nation started the war. It was from the rise of the first Fire Lord as ruler, Azula's very distant ancestor.

The Fire Nation also had feudal fragmentation and various empires. Back then, most of the power belonged to the Fire Sages and the feudal lords who were constantly warring with each other. Back then, the Fire Master was only the leader of the sages. But about six hundred years ago, there was a war that resulted in all power falling into the hands of one person.

It was the standard story of the formation of a standard empire. But that ruler was clever, instead of invading other people's territories, new wars and other things... he established a cult of power and showed and proved in every possible way that he was for harmony with the world. Humans continued to compete within their own people, but were no threat to the rest of the world. The Avatar accepted such changes in the power structure and did not interfere. And the first Fire Master, as the leader of the entire nation, was busy consolidating his power and that of his family, and his descendants did the same. Unification into one big country, though not immediately, but it gave a strong impetus to progress in mechanics, medicine, science... Many reforms and changes took place, compulsory schools for the whole population appeared. The people still had many difficulties, lack of food, resources, territory... but thanks to the cult of strength they became better and stronger, gradually building up their superiority over the other nations. People learnt about lightning magic again, invented mechanical ships, tanks, factories.....

Hundreds of years later, Sozin, a descendant of the first Fire Lord, saw a moment, a chance, an opportunity for himself and his people. In his desire to bring progress to all other people, driven by the idea of a unified humanity, he betrayed his childhood friend Avatar Roku. Soon after, the Fire Nation started a war.....

I knew everything well thanks to the memory of Azula, who had studied diligently in school and knew the history of the world and in particular the history of her country. Wang Shi Tong just gave me some alternative points of view, filling in all the white spots of history. That was the end of the historical references and the present day.

As I finished recalling this, I smoothly began to realise in my memory the presence of techniques, stances and training methods of other types and sub-species of magic. Fire, earth, water, air, sand, blood, plants, explosions.... Their creators, strengths and weaknesses, techniques, peculiarities, secret methods, in other words, everything that the great spirit of knowledge knew about it. For ten thousand years, people have invented many things, and much forgotten in the heat of countless wars and conflicts, but Wang Shi Tong possessed everything that has ever invented mankind. And now this knowledge is also possessed by me.

Separately after that, I began to recall the documented life of Kyoshi's avatar. From her birth, to her rise, to her death, to the ups, downs, trials, and famous events involving this tall woman, such as the creation of a new island with her name on it, or a special squad of Dai Li land mages. The woman was one of the strongest avatars of all time, strength, speed, skill, wisdom, she had it all. She had mastered many things in her long life and was extremely wise, but that was not what interested me. The secret of youth and immortality, yes, Wang Shi Tong knew it. It was simpler than I thought. Energy magic and a special meditation based on it, that's all. These two factors allowed one to live forever young and never age. Useful knowledge, but for me, the next packet of information from the spirit was of paramount importance.

Stories of spirits becoming humans and humans becoming spirits. One of the most romantic and one that still remains on the lips of mankind was the case of Lady Tienhai. A spirit began to live among humans, turning into a human and dying as a human because of her love for a prince of one of the kingdoms of the earth. Of course, there were other similar cases, love, an extremely dangerous feeling. Even for immortal creatures. But romantic stories didn't interest me much. A way for a spirit to become human, that's what I needed! And I recognised it...

I thought I'd be happy, I'd feel something positive, but when I realised that I couldn't take it on my own and make myself human again, I felt something strange. It was as if I had been rudely plunged into harsh reality, plucked from the wet dreams I had convinced myself of. An unpleasant feeling.

The fact was that I had a terribly small amount of spiritual power, had trouble replenishing it, and was slightly stronger than the weakest spirits on earth. The Poupsenai (the smallest earth spirits that look like little men made of clay with leaves on their heads). I simply couldn't handle such a miracle. And that wasn't the only problem. I would lose a lot of my spirit abilities when I became human, and I would have no problem with the mother of faces, so fuck it if I got magic. The problem was different. Even if I managed to snatch a second life for myself, it wasn't certain that during its time I'd be able to attain the power to become human on my own. After all, a human might end up suddenly mortal, and bargaining for my third life.....

- How interesting... So much knowledge... Amazing... Prophecies or coincidence? These cartoons, anime, everything is so interesting...'' Wang Shi Tong's calm voice brought me out of my musings. I didn't notice that he had already finished with the knowledge transfer, and now he was probably digesting the information he had taken from me.

- How long has it been? - I turned to Ari, while Wang Shi Tong continued to mutter quietly to himself under the impression. The vixen sat in the same pose I remembered, giving me the false sense that only a few moments had passed.

- An hour, I think. It would be best to consult the stars for more accurate information.

- I see," I reply to Ari, stretching my neck.

Owl was right, I was feeling unpleasant feelings. A headache, it's been a long time since I felt you. And Wang Shi Tong is suspiciously quiet, has he already learnt everything he knows? I'm surprised. But I think I should hurry back to my princess. I've already got everything I need. My next target is the Mother of Faces, there's nothing more for me to do here, I shouldn't abuse the great spirit's hospitality.

- In that case, I think that concludes our deal in part. May I ask you a small favour? - I turn to the OWLs, who stood like a statue, staring in front of me, obviously thinking about something.

- A favour? - The spirit answered me with mild interest, focusing its black eyes on me again.

- Yes, it will be somewhat difficult for me to get to... shall we say, the place from which I came to you. I'd like to ask you to let Ari escort me.

- No," was the spirit's immediate reply.

- No?! Why? - I was a little taken aback by this abrupt response.

- I cannot allow you to leave my domain. Your knowledge... is too dangerous to the world and the creatures that inhabit it. I dread to imagine what the humans would do to the planet if they had the knowledge you possess. I know of your plans, and I cannot allow that to happen. You'll stay here, forever," the spirit's every word, spoken in a calm voice that condemned me to death, made me feel my soul go to my heels.

"Fuck!!!" - flashed through my mind.

After a moment, hearing a strange sound upstairs, I realised, there was no way out anymore, it just disappeared.

"I'm in the shit!"