Kindred Fires

Neither Avatar: The Last Airbender nor The Heralds of Valdemar series is mine.

A/N: This was written for a crossover fic challenge at the ATLA Land community on LiveJournal.

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><p>Somewhere out in the misty haze where the realms of gods and spirits were found, two such realms were slowly being drawn toward each other. One was Sunheart, the realm of Vkandis Sunlord, patron god of the theocratic kingdom of Karse and its sister country, Iftel in the world of Velgarth. The other was the Palace of the Sun, realm of Agni, the Spirit of Fire and patron spirit of the Fire Nation.<p>

Though neither god nor spirit knew it, they had much in common. Both of them were the patrons of fire and sun oriented nations that had perverted their teachings for many years and used those perversions as an excuse to wage war on the other nations of their world. Although both Karse and the Fire Nation had recently been steered back to the right path, both god and spirit found that it was a constant struggle to keep their nations there and were sorely in need of a kindred spirit they could talk to about their struggles. It was this need that was drawing the two realms toward each other.

The conjoining of the two realms startled both of god and spirit, as it was not smooth. If Vkandis and Agni had been actively guiding their realms toward each other, it might have been, but since they were not, the conjunction started with a jarring bump. This was followed by a loud rumbling noise as the two realms pushed against each other before finally merging their boundaries at the point of contact. This merging was accompanied by a burst of light and a loud _woosh_ as the atmospheres of the realms came into contact.

Going to the source of the disturbance, both god and spirit were surprised to see not only a realm that was similar to their own, but another being with an appearance slightly similar to their own. Agni was a tall, handsome man who glowed with an inner fire, almost seeming to be made of fire, and Vkandis was similarly tall and handsome, but instead of displaying the glow of an inner fire, he was crowned by the sun.

"Who are you?" Agni asked.

"Vkandis Sunlord, patron god of the nations of Karse and Iftel in the world of Velgarth," Vkandis said. "Who are you?"

"Agni, Spirit of Fire and patron spirit of the Fire Nation in an unnamed world," Agni replied.

"Do you know why our realms came together?" Vkandis asked. "It's not normal for two realms to join without the guidance of their owners."

"It's not normal, no," Agni said, "but I have heard of it happening when both parties had a similar hard-to-obtain interest or desire without knowing about the other. So I have to ask—is there something that you have been desiring recently that has been hard to get?"

"Actually, there is," Vkandis said. "Karse has recently been returned to my true teachings after nearly six centuries of war and corruption, but none of my fellow gods are truly able to understand how much of a struggle it is to keep it there. I've been wishing for someone that I could talk to about it and maybe get advice from."

"That would explain it, then," Agni said. "I'm in a similar situation with the Fire Nation, although it was only corrupted for a century. Some of the other spirits are unsympathetic to the troubles I'm having with steering it in the right direction and none of them can really understand the problems."

"Maybe we could help each other, then," Vkandis said. "Would you care to join me for tea and conversation?"

"Of course," Agni said. "It would be my pleasure."

Several minutes later, god and spirit were settled in a room in Vkandis' palace, teacups in hand and a pot of tea on the table between them. "So do you want to start or shall I?" Vkandis asked.

"You can go first," Agni said. "You've probably been having more trouble than I have, given that Karse was corrupted for longer."

"That's both true and untrue," Vkandis said. "Part of the reason it was corrupted for so long was that once I realized how far my Sunpriests had strayed from my true teachings, it took quite a while to find one who truly believed in the old ways and would make a suitable mortal mouthpiece. I finally found one in a female Sunpriest named Solaris, but I had to wait for quite a few years before I was able to install her as Karse's leader, the Son of the Sun. And even then, I've had to be more active than normal in showing my hand in support of her."

"I was in something of a similar situation," Agni said. "It was obvious from the beginning that the Fire Nation had strayed from the right path, but the one person who had the worldwide authority to stop them, the Avatar, disappeared right around that time and wasn't able to return for a hundred years."

"The Avatar?" Vkandis asked. "Who is that?"

"He—or she—is the mortal incarnation of the spirit of the planet," Agni said. "He's also the only being who can bend—manipulate—all four elements. The Avatar Cycle is a cycle of reincarnation through the four bending—you'd call it magic—nations. Sozin, the Firelord who corrupted the true meaning of firebending, started the century-long war by wiping out the Air Nomads in an effort to eliminate the new Avatar, having caused the death of Roku, the previous Avatar, twelve years earlier. The current Firelord, Zuko, is the great-grandson of both Sozin and Roku and is best friends with the current Avatar, Aang. He also taught Aang firebending and both of them learned the true meaning of it from the dragons, who were the first firebenders."

"In my case, the corrupted Sunpriests started by denouncing the use of magic as something 'evil'. Then they attacked Valdemar, the kingdom to the north of Karse, under the pretense that the Valdemarans were 'demonic' magic users," Vkandis said. "It's true that the Valdemarans use magic, but so did the corrupted Sunpriests. They just hid it behind claims that it was really miracles granted by me."

"Sozin did something similar," Agni said. "He claimed that the war was to benefit the other nations and that once the Fire Nation had won, all the nations would benefit from the Fire Nation's leadership. He actually believed that, too, but his successors, especially his grandson, Ozai, were more interested in conquering the other nations, even though they continued to claim that it was for the benefit of the other nations. There are still many people in the Fire Nation that believe in the ideals that Sozin claimed and they have been causing a lot of trouble for Zuko. Has Solaris been facing trouble from Sunpriests who liked the old ways?"

"Not really," Vkandis said, "but that is at least partly because I have not been at all shy in showing my support of her."

"How have you been doing that?" Agni asked. "I might be able to help Zuko with some of his problems if I know."

"Well," Vkandis said, "I started by crowning her as the Son of the Sun on the holiest day of the year in Karse and accompanied that crowning with several genuine miracles. I've also been providing her with a constant symbol of my support in the form of a Firecat."

"What's a Firecat?" Agni asked.

"A Firecat is the spirit of one of the previous genuine Sons of the Sun who has accepted rebirth into a mortal body in the form of a large cat," Vkandis said. "They also bear some degree of magical power themselves. In this case, the Firecat that I have provided her with is Hansa, who was one of the earliest Sons of the Sun. This constant and visible support has quelled many objections to the changes she has made."

"Hmm," Agni said. "Maybe I should have my Fire Sages advise Zuko to display that he has the support of the dragons. They are still highly respected as the first firebenders and since most people believe that they were wiped out, the fact that some are still alive could also work as a boost for Zuko. Thank you."

"I'm glad I could help," Vkandis said. "Do let me know if it works out."

And with that, god and spirit said their goodbyes and parted ways for the time being.


End file.
