The Legend of Ba Sing Se ○ ATLA

2 ○ Her Home

The sun had just started to peek over the Middle Gate by the time Kiiya made it home to her mother's apothecary in the Middle Ring.

Having just moved there recently, and having a limited budget to buy a new home, their shop was situated close to the gate that divided the Middle and Lower Rings. Noise from the monorail was common here, and the grinding sound of stone against stone in the distance greeted Kiiya as she made her way around the back of the shop.

She jogged along the edge of the fence behind it and vaulted over it into their garden. It was a lush and full, and the light from the sun above reflected off the glowing green leaves, illuminating the space. Kiiya silently slid past rows of vegetables, grains, and dragon bushes to a small man-made pond that was hidden from view by a willow tree.

She looked around to make sure the coast was clear and she was out of view of any possible passerby's. The farther up the Rings you went, the more nosy people became.

Kneeling down, Kiiya held out her hands and split the water in the glistening pond down the middle. Separating the halves with one hand, she reached down to lift a hidden plate at the bottom of the pond. She opened up the metal grate and tucked her broadswords carefully inside a secret hole under the pond.

After she was sure that the plate was secure and wouldn't leak water onto her precious blades, she released the pondwater from her grasp and it crashed together in a miniature wave.

Now she could breathe.

Kiiya unhooked her money sack from her belt and tossed it in the air as she walked through the palatial garden and into the back door of her home.

"Morning, Mom," Kiiya called through the house as she entered. Before her mother appeared, she opened their money drawer and dumped in some of the silver and gold from her sack. She had to be careful with how she presented her "meager" wages, and how she re-distributed the rest of what she truly earned.

"Gran-na kept you quite a while today," Kiiya heard a voice from the staircase above her. "Did something go wrong? Or was San just that lonely?"

"Stop it with that," Kiiya groaned back. "You know that's disgusting, right? San is literally just a kid. You should not still be teasing me about that."

Kiiya's mother stepped into the room, shaking her head with a light laugh. "So argumentative, just like your Dad."

Sura was Kuari's lover. The woman that he had saved and nursed back to health from the unforgivable streets of the Lower Ring. Over time, she had become a more quiet individual since her husband's capture. However, Kuari's daughter-- her daughter-- was the one light in her life that was able to fill the void that his absence brought.

Just months after Kuari was taken from Sura, she discovered her pregnancy. She was never able to marry Kuari, so she urged her mother to keep her baby a secret from the rest of the world, knowing such a scandal would surely ruin the life of her child. A child born out of wedlock, the blood of a criminal running through their veins.

With an obvious pregnancy being pretty much unavoidable, Sura's mother did the best she could to help and make life a little brighter for Sura while she was with child-- up until her dying day.

Sura losing her mother just after Kiiya's birth felt like a betrayal-- something that was undeserved, yet still felt like a long time coming. Payment for bearing the bastard child of a convict. Yet, there were people who came to comfort her in her sorrow. People like San's family, who had been her biggest supporters for all of Kiiya's childhood years.