The stillness of meditation held Aang like a tide, drawing him inward until the boundaries of time thinned to nothing. Across that vast, quiet expanse, he felt the steradfast presence of @sheairnomad.
“I… need to tell you something,” his voice carried across their connection. “I severed my tie to Roku.” The words rippled through the stillness, a confession and an explanation all at once. “I didn’t do it because I hated him, or because I didn’t care what he taught me. I just… I couldn’t follow the path he wanted for me anymore.” The truth sat heavy on his chest. The bond that once linked them —mentor to successor, friend to friend— was gone by his own choice. It wasn’t anger that drove him, but the moment Roku told him Zuko had to die, something broke. Roku was wrong about Zuko; about the kind of person he was, about the chance for peace that still lived in him. And if he’d been wrong about that, maybe he’d been wrong about other things too.
In the depths of the Spirit World’s timeless glow, his thoughts curled inward, brushing against memories of Roku’s counsel, his warnings, his disappointments. “It feels like I closed a door on part of myself,” Aang admitted quietly. “And now it’s just… empty where that connection used to be.”
But there was no taking it back. What was done was done, and Aang could only hope Yang Chen understood why.
