Winding Legacies: A 'The Legend of Korra' Rewrite

Epilogue

The Southern Water Tribe Palace halls were quiet. Despite the many years of her father's unofficial residence as the chief, Korra had not spent as much time in the palace as she had in the past few weeks. Most of that was attributed to Lemaya and the care they had taken to make the place their own. The rest, well, that was because Korra enjoyed the silence.

It gave her time to think.

She kissed Lemaya's cheek, pulling the covers over her bare shoulders to protect her from the draft in the room. Padding across the soft rug, Korra slipped on her robe and fastened it tight. The door creaked behind her, but Lemaya didn't stir as she ventured into the hallway.

Down long flights of stairs and a few dark corridors, Korra stepped into a round room. Tapestries draped the walls in beautiful colors, telling stories about people who lived somewhere in her mind. She used to think it was impossible to fix what Unalaq had broken, but lately she had been feeling optimistic. The dreams had returned, and with her connection to her Avatar Spirits restored, she figured it was time to learn what they meant. If she were right, it would be just the thing to help her navigate the new beginning the Spirit Portal had brought.

Korra ran her fingers along a row of shadow boxes. Inside, sitting on silky, plush cushions were the four Avatar relics treasured by the Air Nomad tradtition of identifying the Avatar. The hundreds of others she was presented with were long gone, leaving just the clay turtle, the pull-string propeller, the wooden-hog-monkey, and the wooden hand drum. Over the years, Korra often wondered where they came from, who the first Avatar was that coveted something passed down for centuries.

Maybe she would finally find out.

"I can feel you hovering."

She wasn't quite in the Spirit World, but she wasn't fully in the Human World either. Legs crossed underneath her, Korra pinched each of her fingers together with a small smile. For better or worse, her sensitivity to all things spiritual had been fine-tuned after she altered the fabric between the worlds. Now, it was like she could communicate with her spirits without even fully stepping into their realm.

"Hovering is all we do." Raava's voice echoed in her ears. When she opened her eyes, her spirits swirled in front of her, like they were projecting into the room from somewhere deep inside her chest. "Especially while waiting for you."

Of course, her spirits had jokes.

"Let me guess, you're going to say I have work to do?"

"Actually, you have impressed us, Korra. We are the ones with work to do."

It felt strange for spirits older than she could even understand to admit that she was at peace, that her soul was balanced enough for her to explore all that being the Avatar had to offer. But she welcomed it, hoping her next journey was half as fulfilling as her last.

"So, when do we begin?"

"Now, if you're ready." Their voices faded together as the rounded edges of the room slowly fell into the endless fields of the Spirit World. The bright light of her portal called to her from the edge of the horizon as Raava and Vaatu said what she felt she had been waiting a lifetime to hear. "Your past lives await."

THE END

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We're finally at the end of the road. To be honest, I was procrastinating on these last few chapters because I didn't want it to end. I even found myself with all the ideas and things I wanted to show you guys in this epilogue just so I could keep writing with these characters. But, the story started with Korra, and it only felt right to end it with her too, looking ahead toward her great future as an Avatar.

Thank you to everyone who came on this wild journey with me. I hope you loved this take on the Avatar world as much as I did. As always, I hope you guys are doing well and staying safe. And if the inspiration ever strikes, and I return to this world, I hope you'll be there to join me.

All the love,
JinxingGinny