章 168: Chapter 168 - New Horizons

The horror and tension drains out of Zina. "Grandpa..?"

An old man leans his arm out of the window of the currently empty tea shop and takes a sip. He smacks his tongue in delight and says, "It's a lovely evening. Isn't it, Zina? Come in everyone. A little kindness goes a long way.. so please put the weapons away."

Zaheer heaves a sigh of relief, picks up P'Li onto his shoulder, and Ming Huwa raises Ghazan with her tendrils. All five of the young adults hurry inside the tea shop. The enemy leader does not make any move following Iroh's arrival other than turning to look at him. The other cloaked figures approach the shop until the leader raises his arm and makes a signal. They look at each other and put away their batons.

Soon, the 6 aggressors clad entirely in black are seated across 5 teens and Iroh. P'Li and Ghazan have also regained consciousness. A bronze-skinned man with glasses comes from the backroom with a plate of 12 cups, enough tea for everyone seated. Zina asks with even further confusion, "Uncle Aiwei?"

Aiwei replies with a smile in a gentle voice, "Hello, Zina." Then he ruffles Zaheer's short hair roughly, pulls a nearby chair out to sit in the adjoining table within earshot, and focuses his attention on the strangers. Whatever is going on right now, out of all the teens, only Zaheer seems to have any idea. Zina wonders, 'Is this the reason we had been going out to places in close proximity to this tea shop for the past week? Did Zaheer plan this with Grandpa Iroh and Uncle Aiwei? Or were Grandpa and Uncle always watching me?'

She concludes that it is useless to overthink. It is not her style either. If they want to watch her, they can watch. She picks up her tea and sips it. The warm fluid is positively refreshing, and the fumes give off a smell so pleasant that it feels like it is massaging her brain.

Iroh presses down a chip and says, "Fancy a game?" He pushes the chip towards the golden eyed man across from him. It is the White Lotus chip. Zina recalls her mother telling her about the Order of the White Lotus and how instrumental a role it has played in keeping the balance of this world.

The enemy leader addresses Iroh with a respectful tone, lacking the dismissiveness he used earlier when speaking to the teens, "Arbiter, thank you for the offer, but we do not play games." Despite the refusal, he posits a chip of his own across from Iroh's. This chip, however, is not from Pai Sho at all. It is pitch black, with a White Phoenix in the center.

Iroh takes another sip of tea and stretches his hand at the untouched cups, "My friends from the Order of the Phoenix, please drink." This elicits a series of flinches from the cloaked group. Zina jolts at the mention of Phoenixes yet also almost laughs at how her grandpa completely disregards their attempt at being low-key. Iroh continues, "Make yourselves at home. No need to be so uptight and gloomy."

The leader hesitates, but sips the tea.

Iroh continues, "The world is changing. Have you seen how much the City has grown? Rules should be flexible, in keeping with the times."

"Our rules are different from yours. They are tried and tested." The leader responds.

Iroh chuckles humbly, "If you say so." He asks directly, "What business do you have with my granddaughter?"

"We mean to.." the leader looks over at Zina and then back at Iroh, "Bring her to her people."

Zina sucks in a breath.

Aiwei taps on his coffee cup, a signal for truth, and Iroh shakes his head before saying, "If you have a legitimate reason, why have you resorted to kidnapping?"

"We do not want to stay longer than necessary and we did not want to make our presence openly known. The assurances we received that the boy would facilitate our efforts were apparently for naught.." he replies calmly. Aiwei taps the cup.

Zaheer grits his teeth and confesses, "It was my selfish decision alone. Do not blame the elders."

The leader scoffs and asks, "All that matters is.. Who will be the one to accept your punishment for treason?"

"You..!" the gifted teen shouts, "Fine, I will accept it!"

"Hooold on there, friends." Iroh sips his tea again. "Is there really a need for all this? Do you intend to harm Zina or keep her there indefinitely?"

The leader pauses for a moment and answers, "We don't intend to harm her or imprison her, but it's not that simple." Aiwei taps once.

Zina gets up and the chair screeches backwards as she heroically declares, "As long as you mean no harm and aren't imprisoning me, I will voluntarily go with you, but you have to drop everything you have against my friends!"

"This.." the leader says.

"That..!" Iroh shouts.

"..I can agree to." the leader concludes.

"..I won't allow!" Iroh finishes.

Zina looks at Iroh with affection and says, "Grandpa, look at me." She strokes her feathered arms where she had burnt the sleeves off. Her friends also look curiously. P'Li had not even noticed the uniqueness of it until now due to the tension.

Zina continues, "I don't know what's going on, but I want to learn more about myself. Who am I? What kind of future can I expect? Can I have a family? These are all questions that my mothers can't answer. When I learn the answers, I'll come back. OK?"

Iroh's fists unclench slowly and he lets out a sigh. With slightly teary eyes, he looks at her and says, "Very well. Go then and go with care." Turning back to the golden-eyed man, he demands, "I expect my granddaughter not to be harmed or wronged."

The leader looks down at his tea and replies flatly, "I can only promise she won't be harmed. You have my word on that."

Zaheer shouts, "Make him promise the other one too! He needs to! Uncle, make him do it! Before they take her-"

A soothing light fills the shop. Its source is the orb exiting Iroh's chest. The light washes over Zaheer and calms him down immediately. He hangs his head and sits back on the bench, understanding that he spoke out of line.

"I will hold you to that promise, young man." says Iroh to the leader, whose eyes widen slightly. They shake hands and look at Zina.

She smiles awkwardly and says, "Give me a moment." Individually, she starts to hug each of her dear friends. P'Li wraps her up in a bear hug and cries profusely. "I'll miss you, so much!"

Starting to tear up herself in the tall girl's arms, Zina says, "Hey.. when I come back.. Let's all make that pro bending team you keep going on about. In the meantime, make sure you guys practice or I'll be carrying all of our wins!"

P'Li bursts into a smile through her tears and shouts, "Yeah! She means you guys, Ghazan and Ming Hua! You both were useless earlier." The two look away with embarrassment.

Zaheer gets an especially tight hug from Zina. She doesn't know the underlying circumstances, but she knows that he tried his best to protect her. He whispers with guilt, "Sorry. I thought that with some help, we could turn the tables.. But in the end, I just made it worse."

All Zina says in reply is, "I forgive you. Take care of everyone and keep them out of trouble. Go to Auntie Ty La or Ty Li if you need money."

She leaves the hug, takes one last look at her friends and family, and says, "I love you all." Then she turns to the leader. Looking at the cloaked group with wariness, she follows them out the door of the shop hearing various exclamations of goodbye behind her. Two of the leader's subordinates take out some bamboo rods from their gear, lengthen them into poles, and affix the hardy bamboo poles to each side of the leader's back.

The golden eyed man looks at Zina and says, "We go. Hold onto the poles tightly." Then he presents his back. Zina objects, "Are you sure? I'm not slow."

"Yes, you are. We are traveling too far of a distance to cover with fire thrusters." he patiently explains.

Grumbling, she jumps up the leader's tall back and holds onto the poles. She rests her shoes in the two designated holes. The moment she grips the poles tightly, her surroundings blur and she feels an intense drag force trying to pull her off him. She nearly screams in alarm from that and how she can barely see where they are going. 'This guy is the absolute worst! I want to hit him, but I can't let go..'

Thus, Zina holds on for dear life as she is taken to unknown lands by unknown people. Her only impulse to do so being that all this has something to do with Phoenixes, 'her people' and Uncle Aiwei's truth-seeing confirmations.

After what seems to be hours of holding on for dear life, the wind buffeting her face finally slows to a manageable flow. It isn't trying to violently pull her off. She carefully opens her eyes to see a spectacular sight. Two brilliant, glowing red-orange wings are sprawling out to her left and right. All she can see in the background are stars and dark clouds below. Her earlier complaints are long forgotten.

~ ~ ~

+50k LEE, Total: 1925k LEE

Nuwa passes the next several chambers with minion fight scenes similar to the pre-Ares fight. Nuwa takes care of the enemies from Zagreus' back while he dashes around. There were no more Boons, only a few Darkness and Chthonic Key drops. When they enter the 14th chamber, they reach another iteration of Charon's Shop.

Charon's Shop always precedes the boss, and Zagreus isn't sure why. It's possible that Charon clears out the enemies in this area in advance to set up his store or Hades doesn't bother spawning enemies with Charon present due to some pre-established agreement. He would ask, but Charon cannot speak and he doesn't seem the type to write down stuff to communicate either.

They buy some food to heal Zagreus to full and a Pomegranate of Power, which Zagreus uses to upgrade his Curse of Agony, boosting the power of his normal attacks and the resulting Doom damage on them. Saying goodbye to Charon, Zagreus and Nuwa finally proceed to the boss chamber. Nuwa's nerves feel like they are going to fry. She is not eager to battle Megaera, especially when fighting is the intimidating Fury's specialty, after torture.

Nuwa holds Zagreus' hand while they enter the boss room, readying her bow. They agree that having her mounted might prevent Zagreus from exhibiting the full extent of his offensive prowess, so she is back on her feet. Both their health bars are full, and Zagreus is hyped up to defeat Megaera. He has a beautiful layout of Boons right now. With Nuwa's help, he'll be able to beat that dominatrix easily. Once they enter, they do spot Megaera, but next to her, they also see someone who resembles Megaera closely.