"I got that sense! I suppose Mara's had success entirely because of the Avatar thing..."

"Almost certainly."

"I suppose our next step is to fully hobble the Fire Nation."

"'As their wheat falls from the scythe, so shall their peace fall from a sword'," Eliko quotes.

"You know, I never really got that quote," Mara pipes up from where she's doing exercises. "You want wheat to fall. That's the point. Can't eat it in the field raw."

"Only after you've planted it in the first place," Eliko replies. "Before the monasteries and the necessity of their gardens, the Air Nomads didn't practice any sort of agriculture at all. That the rest of us did was... emblematic of our corruption."

Mara laughs a bit. "Corruption's always been such a funny idea to me. Water's water, fire's fire, earth's earth, air's air, even if it sometimes has other stuff mixed into it. Moralizing about this or that being better's silly. You are what you are."

"People like categories. Makes it easier to figure out what you are."

"Doesn't mean you gotta go on about superiority, though."

"When has something being unnecessary ever prevented people from doing it?"

She laughs. "It should! People - there's something fulfilling, to everyone. Something they are. And they should pursue that, and have the freedom to pursue that, and not worry themselves about uninvolved people."

"A nice thought. Unfortunately, we all still need to eat."

"Well, some people quite like gardening, and it's easier to live on just what people feel like doing, if you have less people."

"Of course."

She laughs again. "Still, I'll help the balance as much as I can, now."

"And thereby set an example for us all, I'm sure."

"Maybe, maybe not."

Back to training, then.

And Hisame bounces off to find her girlfriend.

She's not exactly hiding. Especially not from Hisame.

Mmmmmm girlfriend!

"This world's so boring. The spirits wouldn't even talk to me. We should try to find somewhere more interesting, next time."

"How rude of them. Perhaps they were the wrong spirits."

"Perhaps. Though Mara says the only one inclined to talk to humans magically steals the face of anyone who shows emotion at him. Which, rude."

"Indeed. Yes, I think a different sort of world next time is called for."

Kiss! "Maybe one with some challenges."