Work Text:
It’s night when the temple begins to glow, Agni has long since sunk below the horizon but still, the Sages pray.
Azasu has never seen it glow, neither has he ever heard of it glowing, but the light permeates the sky, blocks out the stars, and for a moment, Azasu can see every detail in the prayer room he kneels in.
The light is warm and red, and it touches his skin like a gentle hand, but it keeps him tied to the ground where he kneels. He doesn't think he would be able to rise if the Fire Lord himself ordered him too.
He can't think, he can't move, all he can do is stare in the direction the light is coming from, the room that holds the temple's Avatar, and then he realises what that means.
The Avatar has returned.
The words wash over him gently, like Agni on his skin in the fresh dawn of the morning, except she has yet to rise for hours to come.
Then: the dread. The Fire Lord will be notified and efforts will be made to hunt the Avatar down, and Sages will have to move along with the motions.
He does not forget the kiss of the Avatar's return, even as the light dies down and the darkness returns to the hall, nothing but the soft light from the candles in front of him and the quick footsteps of panicked Sages.
For him, this is hope, but he is lucky. He is few of the Sages left that strive for their original purpose, guided to the Avatar thanks to his mentor, and many, many hours spent convincing him of the many truths that Fire Lords over the last 100 years have done their best to bury.
Azasu takes a breath, lets the candles rise and fall with him but does not yet let them extinguish. The Sages must obey the Fire Lord's orders, or wish the consequences down upon them, which would be nothing less than execution. But the Fire Lord is not older than the Order, and the Order, created centuries before Fire Lord Sozin's era, cannot be eradicated in three generations, when it has stood and worked for so many more.
Azasu is lucky that his mentor stood for what she did, and taught him the truth, showed him the truth in the depth of the catacombs where the untouched literature remains, protected by those who still hold the Order's original purpose.
He's ashamed to admit that he did not join the Order for this purpose, that the propaganda pumped out of the Capital had infected him, but he is thankful he understands now, the war crimes committed by the previous and current Fire Lords, the irreparable damage inflicted on the world.
Azasu breathes out, lets the candles die along with it. He stands in the darkness for a moment and knows that hardships lay ahead for him and those of the Order who have prayed for this day to come will be great, will be endless. But it's a battle that he and his mentor and her mentor before and those before him have fought for. Azasu will not let them down.
The Avatar has returned. Azasu has work to do.