F. C. Yee

Plagued by the voices of Avatars before her for as long as she can remember, Yangchen travels to Bin-Er in the Earth Kingdom where she partners with an informant named Kavik and soon learns to rely on her own wisdom and continue her journey from uncertain young woman to revered leader.

The Dawn of Yangchen

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She thought her heart would burst. Over the hills of the Spirit World, a pod of great winged whales, translucent and jellylike, slowly floated through the sky. Nearby, a bouncing mushroom released a cloud of spores, which turned into twinkling fireflies.

As if Yangchen needed another reason to worship her older sister. Jetsun wasn’t related to her by blood, or maybe she was in the manner of fourth or fifth cousins, but it definitely didn’t matter. The girl who cut up fruit in a stupid way but at least gave you the symmetrical pieces was your sister. The girl who showed you no mercy on the airball court and laughed in your face as she kept you scoreless was your sister. Jetsun was either the person who would listen to Yangchen cry with utmost patience, or the one who’d upset her in the first place.

“She would eavesdrop on their discussions about her, air spouting herself under windowsills, hiding behind pillars.”

I can only imagine the amount of pain that is carried by someone who has lived multiple lives & to relive them? Remembering people your soul loved but not knowing them as /you/.

And the conversations were pleasant, frequently enough. She would laugh with her friends in towns that had been renamed, provinces that no longer existed. Jetsun had watched her leap from her bed and bellow at the success of legendary winter hunts, sit on the floor and meditate with someone else's inner peace.

But occasionally she would have waking nightmares. Bouts of sorrow and rage that threatened to tear her apart. She wouldn't mutter names but scream them as if she'd been betrayed by the universe itself.

By accident, they discovered she could sometimes be calmed by figuring out the past figure she was talking to, when it was possible, and speaking back to her from that perspective. The deeper they could dive into the role the better, like parents reading a bedtime story, doing voices and parts.

Familiarity was the best balm they had, and they acted their hearts out for her.

The Dawn of Yangchen

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