spark || lin beifong

Chapter II - Introduction Part 2

The books and drawings in the South Pole's libraries will never bring justice to Republic City, Leia thinks as she sees the outline of buildings pop up from the horizon.

The sun was approximately 45 degrees at the east side from the center of the sky, so Leia gathers it's probably maybe 9 or 10 in the morning. She'd been awake since maybe 3 or 4 in the morning and was giving meditation a try inside her temporary sleeping quarters. It wasn't really doing much for her since questions of what were to happen when she arrived at the city bounced around in her mind. Thoughts that ranged from school bullies and unkind instructors, to giant machines, and rogue navy fleet bandits attack the city.

She shook her head and simply proceeded to lay back on her hammock for a while. Then, she looked at the waterskin strapped to her side and thought hard. A few seconds passed before she stood up and walked to her metal door to lock it. She opened up her waterskin and let a small sliver of water flow out before closing it again. She directed the water to spot on her shoulder that was exposed due to the style of her tunic and with a quick motion of her hand, the water came in contact with her skin and sliced it, producing a clean cut. She let the now bloody water drop and seep through the wooden floor boards.

Concentrating, she let herself feel the flow of her blood for a short while and quickly motioned both of her arms to draw the blood from the wound. The setting moon assisted her by giving her the power boost she needed and the red liquid was quick to follow her command. It formed a sword, quite similar to a dao sword, and it solidified on her command. It was not quite frozen, but it wasn't quite liquid either. She mastered this trick behind Katara's knowing eyes in the compound throughout the year she spent in there. It was a risky move, but she couldn't simply ignore the potential it held, no matter how morbid the premise of the weapon was. Her rationality sided with her, seeing as though it was an loophole in the statements of the law. Her morality was just scared that she would get caught bloodbending in the very room of the person who illegalized it. She took it slowly, of course, careful not to lose too much blood that it would cause Master Katara to be suspicious of her. She did it nearly once a month, and every time, she seemed to adjust and get used to the feeling of losing blood each time. It seemed as though her repeated action of drawing out blood caused her bone marrow to increase the rate of production of red blood cells. With that observation, she maintained a regular schedule of drawing out blood to wield as a simple blade and nothing fancy like she did the first time. (She really was confused why her younger self had thought it was a good idea to make a scythe that took out nearly a sixth of the total amount of blood in her body.)

She then took a breath and practiced wielding it, swinging it around and imitating the images of books about sword-fighting that she had ingrained in her mind.
Treat it as an extension of yourself, simply like a longer version of your limbs. That piece of advice came from a copy of the biography about the legendary swordsman Master Piandao.

Visions of his various stances echoed in her brain and before long, her imaginary sword sparring session was interrupted by a series of knocks at her door, a voice informing her that breakfast was being served. She responded with a shout that she'd be right there. She quickly opened the circular wooden window on the wall next to her hammock and bent out the blood that was formerly a blade into the ocean. She quickly closed it and opened her waterskin to retrieve clean water and heal the wound that was at her left shoulder. She did so sloppily and the glowing water was only able to mend the skin thinly. She mentally shrugged at it, muttering something in her mind along the lines of "Oh, well, we can't all be winners" and drew the water back into the waterskin. She walked to the wall where her purse for general use was at and pulled out a roll of wrappings and proceeded to wrap around it.

Once she was satisfied with her work, she changed into another tunic with long sleeves to hide her wrapped arm. She gave herself a once-over. Yep, that's it.