"Ideas can free the mind, they say," the Inquisitor remarked, his gaze lingering on the dangerously worded plaque suspended above the gate. "As far as I am concerned, one hardly needs religious superstition to descend into delusion."
The calligraphy above the door seem to echo phrases not too dissimilar to the mannerism espoused by those who hailed from the west. Mayumi asked him about the nature of the place. Its unassuming exterior betrayed no hint of clandestine gatherings. It is far too exposed, too ordinary, and more a public academy than a refuge capable of concealing a vast underground congregation of cultists.
"We are not here to deal with those religious dregs today," the Inquisitor replied coldly. "We have come for a breed of people I find far worse than any enemy."
A few Dai Li agents behind them strolled pass and eased open the doors leading into the courtyard. The stone floor within bore the painted symbol of four, an image that suggested nothing auspicious, only deliberate intent. The air itself seemed to recoil from it.
At once, Mayumi understood. There existed a kind of adversary that even the Dai Li in their silk and stone found troublesome.
Beneath the pallid moonlight, a solitary figure sat in the courtyard. Nearby, two agents lay sprawled upon the ground, their brocade uniforms crumpled and unmoving, mute evidence of an earlier encounter.
"If only the likes of you had demonstrated such competence while guarding the senile Queen Hou Ting," the Inquisitor began while entering the courtyard, his voice edged with disdain. "Perhaps the stench of incompetence would not still cling to our name."
The figure remained still for a long moment before finally raising his head to meet the Inquisitor's gaze. Rising to his feet, he declared their intrusion unwarranted. In response, the Inquisitor offered what he clearly considered a lesson in reason.
"Many in this world, particularly those from the western reaches, are fond of insisting that torture yields no truth. On that point, I agree. Under agony, people will say anything to silence their suffering." The painted lines on his face curved into something resembling a smile. "But if one seeks a location, or a person, then sacrificing even a hundred uncooperative mouths is a small price to pay. And somehow, many of them seem to spoke of this place."
Why would members of a fanatical cult, drawn from scattered secret enclaves, direct the Dai Li toward such an unremarkable school? Nothing here spoke of absolutist dogma or the eradication of rival traditions. Earthbending alone seems to be taught within these grounds.
Along one side of the courtyard, Mayumi even noticed a modest ancestral shrine, offerings laid for departed kin. It was a clear sign that the man before them is no adherent of that malignant faith that sought the destruction of temples and so-called idols that are so common in the world.
"I suppose the profits from this humble school were insufficient for you," the Inquisitor continued, stepping closer to the lone figure within the courtyard. "Given how much wealth my colleagues seized during our last venture, it seems those seditionists possess an impressive treasury for bribery. Isn't that right, my dear former instructor, Zhao Jingzhong?"
Zhao Jingzhong. Former Dai Li agent of Queen Hou Ting's era. Once a personal guard to the Dowager herself and inevitably a relic of the failures that haunted the city's recent past.
"Your accusations are without foundation, young one," Zhao Jingzhong said, refusing to cower before the younger men clad in silk. "All I see are naive servants of the state, trespassing upon a citizen's home without cause."
The Inquisitor dismissed the insult without acknowledgment, the words of the disgraced had always been of little consequence.
"One would think your seniority taught you which lines ought not be crossed," he warned. "Especially if you value that neck of yours, it is indeed rash to divulge what is meant to be secret."
The Inquisitor bent the earth beneath him, fashioning a crude seat, deliberately disregarding the owner's claim to the ground.
"I am certain we can be reasonable," he went on. "You have stood where I stand now, countless times. And dissidents who resist are always the most inconvenient." His gaze drifted toward the main residence of the school. "Unless of course, there is something or someone that compels you to foolishly defy the will of the state."
"Not all things in life should revolve around servitude to those above you," Zhao Jingzhong replied evenly. "You are young. Time will teach you the futility of your station. Decades of service will not be repaid with honor, titles, or estates."
Yet, that did not even sway the Inquisitor or the six Dai Li agents that came with him. Nor was it effective on the earlier pair that tried to apprehend this renegade.
"My colleagues and I find such rewards rather arbitrary," the Inquisitor sighed, surveying the school that also served as Zhao Jingzhong's home. "Perhaps our predecessors, such as yourself, were inadequately compensated. But it is quite telling that me and my peers have likewise receive little more than subsistence. Then again, my generation were born with nothing, and considers the opportunity to toil in the line of service as a sufficient enough privilege." His gaze hardened, stripping Zhao Jingzhong of name and past alike and reducing him to a blemish, a traitor and a reminder of weakness. "But you," he continued, voice sharpening. "A mere Earthbending instructor dare to preach virtue while endangering the masses. To consort with adherents of heterodox beliefs and to barter away the city's most closely guarded secrets, such unsightly creatures deserve nothing less than a fitting reprisal."
As if to test the traitor's resolve, the two Dai Li agents flanking the Inquisitor snapped their wrists in unison, hurling steel chains of ensnarement through the air. They knew better than to rely on crude stone alone, no mere Earthbending would suffice to bind such an opponent.
Yet the chains were halted all the same, though not in the manner they expected. Slender pillars in front of the renegade erupted from the ground with surgical precision, snaring the flying cuffs mid-flight and locking them fast. The sudden reversal yanked the two agents off their footing. They were flung forward, and beneath her disguise Mayumi winced at the faint, brittle sound of cracking bones, undoubtedly agonizing.
"You are merely delaying the inevitable," the Inquisitor declared, striding past his fallen subordinates without so much as a glance.
The mere act to retaliate against the Dai Li is already a sentence unto itself. Now that the renegade has committed this treason openly, no further proof is required.
The Inquisitor turned to the other four Dai Li still standing. "I need him alive. Alive enough to speak."
The remaining Dai Li surged forward at once, overwhelming Zhao Jingzhong in a relentless storm of earthen pellets.
Strangely, the former cultural guardian did not move. He stood rooted in place, as though inviting the flesh-piercing projectiles to end him. Before they could strike, the ground before him buckled and rose, unfurling into a thin, intricately layered sheet of stone. The shield caught every blow, dispersing them harmlessly.
A ripple of surprise passed through the agents. Such precise Earthbending did not escape the Inquisitor's keen eye.
Their attention shifted toward the entrance of a nearby building. A woman stood framed in the open doorway, feet planted, arms poised in a form unmistakably at odds with the brute-force doctrines favored by most Earthbending schools.
"Such precision."