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Azula Quest Repositorium; In which is gathered the HISTORY OF THE WORLD, or just the relevant posts.
Topic Started: Feb 8 2013, 11:32 PM (4,474 Views)
Chibi-Reaper
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Likely to what by a wha?
[ * ]
Azula.

15 years old.

Fourth month, fourteenth day, of year 100 ASC

Master Firebender [23/6]
-"Butterfly Wings" Fire-flight [3/???]
-"Rocket Boost" Advanced flame propulsion [1/???]
-"Dragon's Breath" burning exhalation [3/???]
-"Advanced Fire Stream" focused fire spout [2/???]
--"Hunting Dragon" Flame Spout Seeking Missile [1/???]
-"Flame Wall" basically that. [1/???]
-"Pinwheel Shot" distance projectile [1/???]
-"Butterfly Swarm" razor-fire butterflies [1/???]
-"Lava Bending" Fortress Killer [1/X]
-"Inner Fire Reinforcement" Self-buff [2/???]
-"Edge Enhance" Sword-buff Flames [1/???]
-"Voice of Command?" ...not what it says on the tin? [1/1?]
Air Bender [4/?]
-"Cold Sky Fire" Lighting manipulation(bending?). [4/???]
--"???" Force Lightning Taser? [1/???]
--"???" Electro-Net. [1/???]
Advanced Etiquette [2/2?]
Spiritualism [3/3?]
Leadership [6/???]
Politics [6/???]
"Agressive Self Defense" [3/???]
-Unpleasant Surprises [2/?]
Strategy [4/???]
Logistics [2/???]
Second Child Arts [1/???]
Somewhat Cultured [4/???]
Basic Trading Knowledge [2/???]

Creepy child.
Praise the Sun.
Fire Good.
... Jealous. So jealous.
Once burned, twice....?
Tea-sipper.
Ruby Butterfly.
Divine Right of Kings?
Cap'n Jin.
Toph Customer, or some other pun.
Old Man of the Mountain: Not Your Buddy.
Lotus Initiate.
Raijin Approves. Fuujin... not so much.
Edited by Chibi-Reaper, Feb 15 2013, 09:22 AM.
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Chibi-Reaper
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[x] The story.

"Toph." You call, even as you're moving out of the room. Confirmation of truth could be useful, if they try to slip anything by.

There's silence in the room, as you cross your arms.

"Well?" You demand.

"... You're in charge of fixing Gaipan, or something?" the scruffy girl asks. "I can tell you about the guy who planned out the dam-busting."

Zuko almost lurches forward as he leans, suddenly intent and with all the focus of a dragon catching sight of a wounded armadillo-lion. A fight to take, sure, but several meals worth of meat...

"From the beginning." He instructs.

"... His name is Jet. He's... passionate. Charismatic, intense. And he hates the Fire Nation with everything. That's not uncommon, but we didn't realize how far he would go, and how far he would drag us all down with him. He believes that everything he does, as long as it hurts the Fire Nation is right, and he's just so.... he makes you want to believe the same as him."

"But you've started to doubt." You point out. "When did that start?"

"... It was when Jet caught an old man walking through the forest. And we all ganged up on him, and beat him to death, because he was wearing red." She says, bluntly. "Jet claimed he was an assassin afterward. I don't know. Maybe he believed it, and he showed off a poisoned knife... but that old man, all he did was beg for mercy, and he never even tried to fight back. I mean... if he came to kill, Jet was right there with everyone else. Why wouldn't he even try, especially if the knife was poisoned? But like I said... charismatic. You wanted to believe that he was right, that he was telling the truth, and that you were doing the right thing by fighting the oppresive invaders wherever they showed up, whether or not they were looking to fight you."

Zuko looks very upset. But this isn't the end of the story.

"And then he decided on a plan to wipe out a number of fire nation soldiers all at once. Probably with some grand rhetoric, like dousing a wildfire." You muse aloud.

"He called it 'washing the filth away'. And none of us stopped and stepped back to think about the details of what he was saying, because he was so good at focusing on how it would hurt you, that we never thought about who else was going to be in the way when it happened. We caught a less guarded shipment, slipped in without being noticed, and slipped out with a few barrels of blasting jelly. Just enough, when put at just the right spot, to crack a hole in the dam. And once it started, there wouldn't be any stopping it. We could have done it sooner, but the rains were slow over Full Moon Bay this year. We had to wait for the water level to rise to its highest point. But when it did?"

"I fired the arrow." The boy whispers. "I was the one that fired the spirits cursed arrow that set it all off."

"... Yeah. Like I said, he always kept us moving. Always on the attack, and never stopping to think." She says. "Sure. There was a garrison. There was also Gaipan. Farms, built on the rich soil below the water line, logging outposts, a lot of people who just decided to build their houses outside of the walls of the town proper... And none of that registered until we looked down at the flooded areas, and all of the bodies that the fish were nibbling at. There were some in red, yeah, and in armor. But there were... there was so much more green, and brown, and they were floating as far as you could see, and you couldn't help but think 'Not even the Fire Nation killed this many of our people, when they went through'..."

She shakes her head.

"... Couldn't help but think it. Unless you were Jet. Because he was laughing, and happy, about the great victory. It was all fine for him, as long as some of the corpses floating out to sea were Fire Nation, it was acceptable. And the Earth Kingdom people that got caught up in it, that was a shame, but they were the next best thing to traitors anyway, or so he said, because they hadn't fought to the last man to keep the Fire Nation out, and never mind that most of them didn't even live anywhere near where you set up the garrison by Gaipan anyway. The flood covered a lot of area. No, the only thing that upset Jet was that, since some people survived the flood, there was a chance that some of the Fire Nation survived the flood. That was all he cared about."

"A true fanatic." You say, considering the story.

"Not the sort of person you trail in the dark." Zuko says, grimly.

"... there's still a part of me that wants to go back, pretend that everything is fine, and keep following him." the girl admits. "But I can't. There's too many people that have died, and if he's left alone, he'll just do something like this all over again. So when we saw that flying boat of yours... and he was pissed to see that something like that even existed... I told him that me and longshot were going to slip in with the refugees, try to get a ride back to wherever it came from, and rig the engines to blow before we got off. And I don't know how he believed it, because damn it, I don't know if longshot knows anything about machines and I don't know shit... but the idea of blowing that thing up was just so beautiful to him that he ate it right up."

She sighs.

"And so, now I'm here. And I can lead you right to where he's holed up, before he starts to think about how many of us are just deciding to go somewhere else all of a sudden, and before he starts to think that maybe he should move on himself."

---

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[x] Details and onward.

The conversation... light, tactful interrogation... does not stop there.

Jet had nearly four dozen followers, leaving aside these two. All of them younger than he was, looking up to him as something of a big brother, all of them having lost, in some way, whether it was parents or siblings who took up spears and fought, or simply stood firm and said 'no, our crops will not feed your troops' and threatened to torch their own fields before letting the army buy rations, and so had their farms siezed and the previous owners disposed of through either execution or simply turning them out and placing guards...

Bujing's work, to be sure. The man never hesitates to consider a kind and political way to do things, when there is a need, and a way to fix the problem, if you just cut right through it.

Currently... there are more than a few who seemed to have the same realization these two did. Not to the point of betraying their leader to the Fire Nation they all hated, true... but the estimate is at most twenty who will remain with Jet, if that many. The rest have already started finding reasons to scatter.

Like rats from a sinking ship, if he would stop to consider it. Probably not. Most likely, he's still caught up in basking in his victory.

The campsite moves regularly, to keep out of the way of patrols. They sometimes get the drop on lone guards... the girl shows no hint of apology for this... traveling through the woods, but they were smart enough to know that a soldier dying means to the commanders that there was something in that area that needed killing.

The current campsite is just a little north of the flooded zone, with a clear vista of Gaipan, in the distance. He apparently chose it so that he could watch, when the water crashed down to sweep everything away.

Toph doesn't register any lies. It doesn't mean they might not be trying to hide anything... they just haven't lied about anything they've said. Or they don't know anything is different from how they described.

You can think of all sorts of unpleasant surprises an individual who dreamed up a scheme like this might have, keep one last barrel of jelly in reserve, set arrow traps in your roof to wait for a trigger, always on the lookout for betrayal.... but most of them would be hard to pull off, if the campsite changes even so much as once a year. From what they say, it happened far more often than that.

It's done, then.

No guards from Omashu, they're needed here. The refugees of Gaipan...

At Jin's count, there are between one hundred fifty and two hundred gathered, with a few soggy farmers and woodcutters still coming in, collecting and slogging through the woods to warm fires and shivering people with nothing left, just like them.

Those are the ones still there, anyway. The request of this longshot and, of all names, smellerbee, prompted a small flood of people who just wanted to get away. They weren't the only return passengers.

And you can't let them off, not entirely. Not when the played some part, even a critical part, in the act of sabotage and terrorism.

Instead, you sentence them.

"... The city guard of Yu Dao?" Smellerbee says, frowning.

"You would prefer a brief year or so in Boiling Rock?" You wonder aloud. "I am sure my father would be more pleased with that, but even a brief stint at that maximum security facility would be... unpleasant. And you have done me a service. Better to have you performing valuable work for the people. I will write you a letter of introduction, when I return. And... I would be most displeased, you understand, if you were not to arrive at Yu Dao, or if you were to resign from this position, or be dismissed, before the age of retirement from service."

A risky gambit, of course. If they decide that their days of freedom fighting are not over after all, they could cause some trouble before the rest of the guard brng them down.

But it promotes an image of... mercy. Though perhaps, nepotism, as well. But it's hardly a bad thing to be known as merciful, encouraging people to turn to your side, knowing that they will not simply be executed as a danger after all the knowledge that can be wrung from them, has. No more than allowing rumors to spread that the engagement between you and Zuko is a... warm relationship, is a bad thing. People like to know that the heir is pleased with whatever situation they put themself in. It reassures them.

For now, though, you leave the informants in Omashu. You can arrange their transit to Yu Dao later, or leave them to see to it on their own, either way.

.... you give careful instructions to Captain Jin. Half speed, on the approach. Full stop on all but one of the propellors. Occasionally, have some of the crew launch flame out from one spot on the side, the same spot every time.

A show, for this Jet. Make it look right. Like the informants tried what they said, and nearly succeeded... leaving you limping through the sky, wounded, after they just barely failed.

Zuko seems to both approve and be annoyed at how this will delay the hunt.

"This is horrible." Katara whispers, looking down on the flooded village, rooftops barely visible beneath the waves, some bodies still caught in place and not drifted away yet. "How could anyone-"

"This is why I asked what I did." You say, frowning. You've changed out your fire Red for an outfit of shimmering emerald green, for now. It might be enough to distract him from you for a moment. Zuko seems to fit all too well in plain and passable peasant brown, and the rest... Toph never really took to red anyway. And Mai prefers shades so dark as to be nearly black. Ty Lee.... well, it's probably fortunate you don't plan on crossing paths with Benders, so she'll be remaining here and helping with the relief.

"Hate me, that's fine." You say, waving a hand. "It's amusing, and I enjoy it, frankly. If you think you have a shot, then I welcome your attempts to kill me. You have nothing to lose but the lives and livelihood of your tribe, after all. Strike at my people, and I will grind you to red dust beneath my boot. Like the poor fool we hunt now."

She shakes her head.

"If it were just your people-"

"These are all my people! Mine, ever since Gaipan was taken, whether they like it or not." You snap. "Even if the world hates us for it, we are making the world a better place, making the lives of everyone who survives better, even if they struggle and kick and scream as we drag them out of mud and stick huts, and give them better options than grubbing in the muck with the barnyard fowl to feed themselves."

You breathe, deeply.

".... Ty Lee will be watching you. I trust her to do so, while I'm... busy." you say, once your tongue is under control again. "Help with the relief effort. Unload crates, help make food for the hungry, see to the temporary shelters, or work with the wounded and sick. Or not. Do as you please."

"... You are horrible, you know?" she scowls.

"With luck, I may manage to continue being just horrible enough." You say in turn. "Captain Jin, bring us down."

.... You're off at almost the moment of landing. Not through the air again. That would give you away. Around the new water lines on foot, and through the woods, and north...

There are less than twenty people at the campsite when you finally get there.

Jet, just as described, with his hook swords, and chewing on a bit of plant. A couple of drawn looking young men.

Six tall men in brilliant green and straw hats.

And one widely, painfully smiling woman, who's every subtle movement jerks, just a bit, like she's not completely familiar with how her own body even works.

Her head turns at a strange angle to focus on you, smile never wavering or changing in the slightest. Eyes dead. When she speaks, it rings with hollow and false cheer.

"I am Joo Dee." She says, brightly. "Greetings from Ba Sing Se."

Mai breathes in, sharply.

---

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[x] Brief period of excitement.

Heartbeat.

And everything surges into motion. Zuko's dao clash against Jet's hook swords, and Mai draws something from her sleeve, deflecting a testing blade tossed from Joo Dee.
Not a throwing knife. Longer, and heavy, curved slightly and serrated, even a little ugly. A parrying dagger, so that she doesn't need to waste ammunition on blocking shots from the enemy, and every one loosed from her own hand can be meant for a fleshy target.

Heartbeat.

And sparks crackle around your hands as you bring them in a circle, the two final hangers-on of Jet's scream and take the opportunity to scramble away, the last shreds of loyalty to him failing. Rocks sail through the air, and Toph's hands clap together, before pulling apart, launching them away.

"Think you can match me in blades, Fire Nation scum?" Jet snarls.

"Doesn't matter." Zuko says, as flame glitters along the edge of his Dao, and they suddenly slide through the metal of Jet's hook swords, and tips drawing red marks into the flesh of his chest as he howls in shocked fury. "I don't plan on fighting fair."

Heartbeat.

And lightning flies right for Joo Dee. Who is already dodging, but that doesn't matter, because one of the men in green is also throwing himself in the way, bringing up a wall of stone and reinforcing it with all his might.

It doesn't help him one bit, as the bolt passes through his stone as though he had simply bared his chest in offering.

"Ever did the earth hate those of Air, for while sheltering stone could turn aside the wrath of water and ice, of burning flame, and of other stone, Air would be the one to force them to give up their braced footing, their connection to the earth below, and force them to move or die."

... Not the time for a history lesson-!

jet tries to swing the remaining stubs of his ruined swords, but Zuko twists his grip, bringing the butt of his Dao up and through the terrorist's guard, slamming into his chin. He drops like a sack of potato-chokes. A solid kick to the head makes him stay down, as Mai and Joo Dee continue to exchange blades.

Zuko on the offensive, cleaving through stone and flesh alike with his blades, whenever he can get close enough. Toph on the defensive, shutting down the attacks of other Earthbenders. Mai locking down Joo Dee... and as your inner flames flicker, it is almost painful to look at that... thing, that was a person once. There is no inner fire, to respond in any small way. Joo Dee has no inner anything. Winds stilled and dead, waters drained away to emptiness, fires stamped out, stones ground down to dust, leaving barely anything behind. ... You dimly realize that you have never truly felt pity before. But for this... you almost wouldn't be able to bring yourself to kill this Joo Dee, except that it might just be the most merciful thing you could do.

Your role.

Longer-ranged artillery. Time to fill it.

The Hunting Dragons coil out of your palms, draining, but setting to the attack against Joo Dee. Tiresome, but not so much so as lightning. A pair of earthbenders draw up walls, learning as they go and not standing behind them, but blocking the path to Joo Dee.

It distracts them enough that they don't notice the pinwheels focused on their necks. And while those are weaker, and would glance off of stone walls like a simple throwing star, you can call them almost instantly, with an opening such as this. And though their necks may be muscled, stone they are not.

A pair of surprised heads fly into the air, as Zuko grimaces and his Dao pierces the chest of a third.

Two benders remaining. Joo Dee. You focus on the latter, leaving Zuko to the former, alongside Toph, who is taking a more active role with less to defend against.

Steel clatters against itself.

And you throw a net of lightning, dragging Joo Dee out of the air and to the ground. There's a crunching noise behind you, and the sound of burning steel carving through stone and flesh. You don't bother to look.

"I killed you..." Mai hisses. "... No. Not you. But-"

"You killed one of me." Joo Dee says in response.

She never screamed, is held in place but doesn't even seem to register the injuries she's suffering at all. She sticks out her tongue.

... No, it's not an act of contempt, but-!

Stone fills her mouth. Preventing her jaw from snapping shut, biting off her tongue, to drown in her own blood. There's just the slightest spark, with that, of something real. Anger. Just the barest ember of an inner fire, before it goes cold once more.

You let go of the net, and she is wrapped instead in stone.

So.

Jet has been captured. Along with an extra. And there are six dead earthbenders lying on the ground.

You don't think that even a full minute has passed.

"..... Hey." Toph calls. "Earth kingdom bury our dead. I don't know what these guys were here for, but I can do that much. I don't know what to put on the stones, though. They might have something on them, if someone who can read off of paper..."

Mai sighs, and puts her knife away, then steps forward.

It only takes a few minutes. Several times longer than the fight. You can spare that long, though.

Jet doesn't begin to groan and shift in his bindings until you've nearly returned to the refugee encampment.

---

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[x] Justice.

You send Mai with the Joo Dee towards the Butterfly. She can wait, until later.

Jet, you drag right up to the fire in the center of the encampment as he starts to figure out where he is and what's going on, and throw him to the ground, forcing him to his knees.

"Jet." You say, voice ringing with authority as crowds gather. "Leader of the rebellious terrorist group calling itself the Freedom Fighters, you are here today to face the penalty for your crimes."

"Fuck you, ash-making whore!" he spits.

Toph cracks him one across the jaw. You think you see a tooth go.

"... That should be enough." You say, as he shows a little bit more of his disorientation. You think he's concussed. Good. He won't be able to think straight enough to lie.

"You face the accusation of sabotage and theft from Fire Nation supply lines. Do you deny this?"

"I hope that those missing barrels mean some of you bastards die screaming." he seethes.

Toph starts to raise her fist again.

"Enough, I said." You interrupt. "Justice will be dealt."

She doesn't seem pleased, but she lowers her hand, and just spits at jet's knees.

"You filthy collaborator-"

"Jet. You are accused of conspiracy against the fire nation rule of the colonies of Gaipan, and of fomenting rebellion and inciting others to follow in your acts of terrorism."

"You're all filth. Filth of the worst kind. Get out of our lands and rot in a cold grave-" he rants.

There are murmurs through the crowd.

"You are accused of willfully collaborating with the actions of a group known to have assassinated the head of the Bei Fong family of Gao Ling, and his wife, seeking to upset the peaceful accord of surrender reached between Gao Ling and the Fire Nation." You continue.

"The hell are you talking about?" He snaps. "Though it's not like the death of Fire Nation sympathizers matters."

"You deny this accusation? We found you red handed."

"... That creepy woman? Fuck you. Never seen her or any of the others before. They just showed up a minute before you did. I guess they know something I didn't... shame they were too late."

"Then you had not previously been in collusion with this group, but would not have been averse to allying with them." You clarify.

"If they're against the Fire Nation? Hells yes." He spits. "I'll take any ally I can find against you."

"I see. And finally, you stand accused of conspiracy to plan and enact the willful and deliberate sabotage and destruction of the dam east of here, causing in its fall the death of over one hundred of the two hundred garrisoned Fire Nation soldiers, and nearly two thousand of the citizens of Gaipan and the surrounding regions."

He grins at this, savagely. The look in his eye... it's not quite sane.

"Tell me. Do you feel no guilt or regret, in the face of your repugnant and monstrous crimes?"

".... Yeah." he says, smugly. "I regret. A whole lot. ... That the flood didn't drown every last one of your ash-making pieces of shit!" he finishes in a snarl.

The mutterings from the crowd are dark now, and you can see the look in the refugee's eyes, crying out for blood. For vengeance.

He doesn't seem to recognize it at all.

"You were a fool to bring me here, you stupid bitch." he says, smugly. "I've killed dozens of you trash by now. I'm a hero, damn it! You can't seriously think that these people are just going to stand by while you murder me in cold blood, huh?"

.... he's clearly insane. If he can't recognize that they're desperate to see him die. That they crave his painful death, to sooth their loss. That you could turn him over to the refugees right now, and they would rip him limb from limb themselves. Zuko's knuckles are white, as he restrains himself from reaching to the handles of his dao.

---

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[x] Verdict.

"They will not allow it? You think yourself a hero?" You muse aloud, and wave Zuko forward.

He seems almost eager, like he usually isn't at the prospect of death. You don't want to let him be the one to do this, not when you could spill the blood across the dirt yourself... but you restrain yourself.

"... I do not appreciate those things you've said about my fiancee..." He whispers, just softly enough to carry to jet's ears.

"People of Gaipan!" You howl. "Survivors of Gaipan! What say you?"

There is a howling roar in response, many voices united, calling for death. Jet flinches, seeming honestly, foolishly, surprised.

"... What is wrong with you all?" He howls back, filled with deranged fury. "We have to fight the fire nation! We have to fight them at every turn, force them out of our lands! No cost is too high!"

"No cost, when you are not the one to pay it..." you say softly. As the crowd howls again, now in many voices.

Wives screaming out their sorrow for dead husbands, fathers for children they could not save, the young crying out for the sake of the old that could not fight the currents.

"Traitors!" Jet howls in turn. "Wretched turncoats! Weak minded fools! Kill me then, but know that I die a hero, that people will praise my name for fighting to the end, and curse you for joining the Fire Nation! May you all die traitors' deaths, and go unmourned into the abyss below the earth, and worms feast on you!"

"Enough." You say flatly. "I have heard your verdict, Survivors of Gaipan. May justice be served."

Zuko moves his arms, and Jet's head rolls across the ground, to a muted cheer from the crowds. He twitches them once, shaking off the blood, and sheathes them again, setting sun reflecting off of the steel.

He looks a little tired. .... sometimes you forget, for a few moments, that this sort of thing doesn't always come easily to others.

---

[ ] ???

[x] onboard.

What is left to do here?

... little. Another load of food and supplies has come off the Butterfly, and will keep the refugees that remain here fed and alive until supplies come through by more traditional means.

Those that remain here in the wooden shanties and stone shelters that are being thrown up, in any case. Many will, these are a hardy people. But already, more of the refugees are making inquiries about traveling back to Omashu in even the now mostly-empty cargo holds.

You'll leave it to Jin to sort out, just like you'll leave it to the local and surviving commanding officer to deal with things here. You've done your part, brought the needed food and supplies to keep your people alive, hunted down and executed the one behind this act.

Yes, you're done here. You restrain yourself from burning the corpse, as one last insult to the deranged young man. Let the people of Gaipan disrespect it, or not, as they will.

You retreat back to the Butterfly.

Once out of sight of everyone, Zuko sags a little bit, groaning.

"... I hate having to kill people." He mutters.

".... I suppose one of us should." You muse aloud.

He looks a little stricken as he turns to you.

"No, I didn't mean..." he begins.

You silence him with a finger against his lower lip.

"It's fine. Really." You say. "Even... cute. That you're going against your nature for me, just because of something a young madman said."

".... he shouldn't have said that about you. Any of it." He grunts, looking away.

There's a little pink in his cheeks~

.... And then Ty Lee squeals from across the decks, in confused disgust. Duty calls, you suppose. Pretty much as expected, she's cringing back from the bound Joo Dee, strapped to the wall and staring blankly forward, gagged to prevent her from biting off her own tongue.

"What is that?" she asks, shrilly, as Katara looks confused, dismayed, and uncertain about everything proceeding. "It's, it... that can't be human right? It's aura... there's, almost nothing is left, just a thin bubble."

"I don't know what was done to her." You admit. "She called herself Joo Dee. It seems like there are probably more like her, from Ba Sing Se."

"... I don't see what's wrong with her." Katara says, slowly. "Just burn marks, from that thing you do. ... maybe if I...?"

There's a flask at her side that she didn't have before. She draws water out of it and into her hand. (What?) Then she holds it against one of the electrical burns, which fades away into smooth and unblemished skin. (What.)

That done, she moves it up to Joo Dee's head. And flinches back, horrified disgust all over her face.

"Oh... Oh Moon and Ocean..." She says, slowly. "There's... there's something really wrong in her head, I don't even know where to..."

".... I was under the impression you were untrained." You say, slowly. "You might have mentioned that you knew how to heal."

"I didn't. Not until today." She says, as though there isn't anything wrong at all with what she's saying.

... No.

"Bison shit." You say, flatly. "How?"

".... well, it happened like this." Katara says in response.

---

"Moon and Ocean!" you howl to the heavens, standing knee deep in the murky waters. "Spirit of the river! Please, answer my call! Help me help the people you have spared! PLEASE!"

You strain out your energy into the waters, a little bit of desperation in your clutches. You've never tried this before, after all. You never needed to, and Gran Gran always handled sick and injured people back home. But there's so many here that need help, and even if that crazy bitch says they're hers, they're still in earth kingdom brown and green, and even the soldiers that survived had to have been spared for some reason.

The water gathers slowly into your hand, then glimmers, seeming to approve.

---

"... And then I healed as many people as I could before I wore out and fell over, and someone carried me back here." She says, matter-of-factly.

No. Ostrich horse dung, komodo rhino feces, you don't just re-invent healing techniques in five minutes with no idea what you're doing and no training at all.

That doesn't fucking happen.

"I was a little surprised, I guess, but it must have been just natural waterbending talent shining through." she says, and smirks slightly. "... Is something wrong, Azula?" she asks, voice sickeningly and falsely sweet, like poisoned honey.

Argh.

That doesn't happen, it shouldn't happen, you hate this stupid tribal brat so much...

Breathe. Breathe.....

"Well, at least you've discovered something to be useful at~" You purr, and if your eyes are a little more narrow than normal, and there's just a touch more venom than usual in the byplay, it isn't as though that matters.

---

[ ] ???
Edited by Chibi-Reaper, Feb 9 2013, 02:09 AM.
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[x] Wild blue something or other.

You consider just letting this go. But you can't. Does the little b... does she realize how much danger she put the truce in? What are you supposed to do if she goes and gets consumed by something? Send a hawk to Hakoda and say 'oops, it looks like your daughter died on my watch, my sincerest apologies'?

"... Relatively safe. Entreated, but with the force of Tui and La, and the weight of chains of destiny holding strong, nameless spirit of the river could not have taken her if it had tried." the butterfly muses.

It was still stupid.

"In honesty, of course, I don't see why you are taking such pride in reckless foolhardiness and not stopping to think. My goodness, those are even the failings known of Fire, aren't they."

"I knew what I was doing! I didn't call on the River Spirit by name, and offered nothing." She snaps.

"That's even worse than making a foolish bargain!" You spit back. "At least you would know the terms, then. If you specify nothing, then the spirit gains the right to choose whatever recompense it pleases, if any."

She looks shocked for a moment, then scowls. Looks like she didn't study spirit tales deeply enough...

"Waterbenders are favored by the moon and ocean. No lesser spirit would dare-"

"As Firebenders are favored by Agni, and as Earth and Air benders are favored by... whoever. Perhaps this will slow down a spirit of your own element, make it hesitate to take full advantage of the situation. Perhaps it will stop it. Perhaps not." you say.

"What do you even care?" she snaps, throwing her hands up in frustration and turning aside.

"I care, because if you get yourself killed through sheer stupidity, what do you think happens regarding the southern water tribe?" You rant, grabbing her by the throat and forcefully holding her against a wall so she has no choice but to listen to you. "Do you think your father is really going to believe it, if I have to write him a letter about how you were possessed by something that forced me to destroy what remained of you? What do you think happens then? Hakoda will go back to war, and this time he will give us no choice but to burn your tribe off all the maps."

You release her, letting her rub at her throat and glower at you.

"Do not make me regret giving you the numerous freedoms I already have." you say, voice laden with threat. "You are still a hostage, and that means you are not expendable. It means that people may decide that the risk involved is worth it, not to free you, but to kill you, putting the blame on us for not keeping you safe, and forcing us to divide our forces a little further as the southern water tribe remnants enter the fray again. Having you deliberately risk your own life on top of that? Don't tempt me. If it comes to it, and it looks like I cannot keep you alive through your antics normally, I will take drastic measures. I doubt, very much, you would take as much of a shine to your sarcophagus as Bumi has to his."

"... You wouldn't." She hisses, slowly.

"Do you really want to find out, Katara, about what I will and will not do? In person, and in detail?" you ask, very carefully and deliberately.

She mutters something, under her breath, that you could easily mistake for the words 'crazy bitch' if you were in a mood to punch someone in the liver.

.... there's a shouted announcement from the bridge. Everyone has boarded that is going to, they're lifting off. Projection is that you'll be back at Omashu and touching down before midnight.

You think you've made your point, anyway. You spend a couple of hours toying with the Joo Dee, trying to vent a little bit of your frustation. She is annoyingly unresponsive. Just about the only time you can get any kind of even a faint response from her is when you have the gag removed, but then put it back before she can bite through her tongue.

It's mildly unsettling that the only traces of something real come from anger that she's failed to kill herself.

.... Well, you have time to work on this. Crack this leechi nut, sooner or later. Or just give up and let her die, since she seems to be so desperate to do so.

You go ahead and go to the ship quarters. Superior in every way to the guest rooms at the Omashu palace. And if you're annoyed enough that you don't feel like settling into cold sheets, and head somewhere where they're already warmed up without having to bother with tempering your flames just enough that you don't scorch your bedding, that's really nobody's business but yours.

You rise with the dawn, anyway.

... It seems like the refugees disembarked during the night.

---

[ ] ???
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[x] Well.

.... Huh.

What. Exactly. Are you looking at, here?

You close your eyes, and rub at them softly, then open them once more.

Nope.

Still a hundred-plus year old Earthbender in a metal box, with a stone ball... thing, clamped down on the bottom, rolling freely around as he pleases. Cackling like a loon.

Still a bunch of soldiers watching like it's a show, with a dumbfounded sort of a look like they have no idea what is going on and what they're supposed to do about this.

Still Mai's father, chasing him and screaming that he can't be doing this, he's not supposed to be bending right now, he surrendered and he shouldn't be able to bend.

"Aw, shaddup." Bumi barks. "I've got houses to build and a district to expand. Little birdy told me there were refugees in my city with no place to sleep."

"Stop! Halt! Cease and desist!" Mai's father howls, just a few steps behind the box on a ball, snatching at it with both hands as if that will do anything. Mai has buried her face calmly in both hands.

"..... The refugees will need to find some sort of work to fit in." You call after them.

"Always work in Omashu!" Bumi cackles, ramping up off the ground and onto the mail chutes of the city, with Mai's father still sprinting after him from below but starting to fall behind.

---

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[x] overboard.

"... Wait. That was?" Toph asks.

"Bumi. Yes."

"And he was?"

"In the box, yes, still."

"And he's...."

"Yes, seems like it."

".... beating me!" Toph finishes with a snarl. "Not gonna stand!"

... She sits down, stone throne rising from the street to meet her. A stamp of the foot and it lifts off, a jerk of the elbows forming propellors in the back.

"Be right back. Winning." she says, flatly, arms crossed over her chest.

... You seat yourself on an armrest as it lifts off in a cloud of dust, and careens forward and after the cackling mad king.

All the rocks in their head seems to make earthbenders in general crazy, from what you've seen. .... So what does that say about you, considering you're just going along with all this?

"Hey! Knucklehead! You and me!" Toph barks, as the chair floats in a cloud of dust stretching out in every direction to the sides, behind it, and to the ground.

"Oho. Think you can take me on, little girl?"

"Make it a fight, and you'll wreck the city." You point out, inspecting your nails. "Make it a contest, instead?"

"Right! Until noon. Whoever builds the most, wins!" Toph barks.

"Hahahaha~" Bumi cackles. "I was throwing up houses before daddy gave his first flower to mommy, little girl. Get ready to be humbled."

........

It's actually mid-afternoon, and both sides of things have lost count and gotten bored and hungry, before the city renovation grinds to a halt.

There's over three times as many new houses as were actually needed.

And now, the next mountain over has been reconstructed into a fun-park, with tiny trains and spinning rides and a grand lotus wheel perched at the very peak.

You're not sure that just sitting back and giving the both of them free reign in this was a great idea. It was like watching two pieces of flint grind against each other, striking sparks in every direction and flaring up a wildfire in tall grass.

The citizens of Omashu take the whole thing in stride. Used to it, apparently. Or something.

---

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[x] Lunchy dinner food times.

"On the plus side, this will move the idea I've had of an earthbending construction force ahead... well. Quite a bit." You muse.

Bumi grunts through a bowl of noodles. He could probably have bent the earthen bowl and chopsticks up to his face, when it came down to it, but instead he pried the lid of the sarcophagus off with earth, so he could sit down on a stool, modesty, such as it is, only protected by a rag dangling down from a bit of twine around his midsection.

"In any case, there was something I wanted to ask." You continue. "We have captured a woman who calls herself 'Joo Dee'."

Bumi stops eating.

"... Hoo." he says. "Now there's something I don't think a lot of people would mind if Wan Shi Tong stole and sank into the spirit world. Shame it never got written down by anyone who knows all the details."

He wiggles the chopsticks in the air.

"Near as we can figure, it was a technique reserved for use on the worst sort of criminal, at least at first. You know the kind. Steal, kill, murder anyone with no hesitations and no regrets. The sort that would have to be locked up in a cage for the rest of their life, if they weren't killed outright. It would do something to... not rehabilitate them, but to take them apart, and build them back into someone else, that could be used in society."

"I see." You say, scowling. "How do I fix it?"

Bumi doesn't answer with words.

Instead, he draws a delicate orb of thin crystal out of stone, flecks glistening and fusing together into a perfect sphere. He holds it in his hand for a second. Then he tosses it carelessly to smash it to tiny splinters on the ground.

"Fix that, if you can." He says, idly. "Without a bit of earthbending. It can be done, sure. But it will take a long time, and what you will end up with is never gonna be the same as how it started. It's been done. But while some of them could still pass, some... would've been kinder to just cut their throats instead of wasting the time."

"There you are!" Mai's father gasps, lurching around a corner. "Found you..."

"Hullo guv'nor~" Bumi cackles.

"This is, this is an outrage! Get, get back into your containment, get back into your cell." He coughs, still catching his breath. "Order, order has to be maintained-"

"In a minute, governor, once I've finished my noodles. Don't you have some paperwork to be filling out?" Bumi wonders. "Gotta say, I've been trying to push all of that off onto some sucker, ah, no, skilled scribe for decades now. I can tell you, it's doing wonders for my free time."

"You... making a laughingstock..."

"You get used to it, bucko. Pretty sure you're going to have a long time to learn-"

Mai's mother coughs, delicately.

"Perhaps, darling, you could allow me to do the talking from this point?" she says, politely pretending that it is a question. "Bumi. I am afraid that while my husband is a skilled enough strategist, and bureaucrat, he does not adjust so well to rapidly changing circumstances. You have made it quite clear that you cannot be held through normal means, either. So let us speak plainly."

She smiles, coldly.

"Aid us, and you will be provided with all the comforts and fripperies which you are accustomed to as king of this city. Dancing girls, sponge baths, fine foods, and more, provided from willing volunteers of the local population. Work against us, and I will have your testicles mounted on a plank with heated nails, and hang them over my fireplace as a trophy. Have we reached a suitable agreement?"

Bumi cackles.

"Fiesty~" he croons. "I do what I want. Always have, and that's not going to change. Don't get in my way, and I'll try to remember not to get in yours."

"I suppose that will be suitable for now." Mai's mother says, dryly.

"Oh, and I'm keeping the box." Bumi adds.

"Very well."

---

[ ] ???
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[x] Letters, letters everywhere.

... There's little more you can talk to Bumi about right now. About Joo Dee, Ba Sing Se, the White Lotus... anything.

You don't think that he's the one you should ask, anyway, if you consider initiation. This group could be... useful, even with a polite non-interference agreement between members, even if they do not share everything with one another.

But Uncle Iroh is the one you should be asking about that sort of thing, you think.

You bow, and make your excuses for returning to the ship rather than taking up space in one of the palace rooms again, and once back on the Butterfly you begin composing letters.

Reports, to Uncle and Father, detailing the situation and everything, with subtle reading that Ozai can interpret to understand that Katara had concealed a limited level of healing capability, and Iroh, that she has done something very foolish.

After a few moment's reflection, you pen a note to Hakoda as well, detailing exactly what Katara got up to. And a polite, but thinly veiled demand that he knock into her head exactly how bad of an idea it was, because you would hate to see some difficulty come to the arrangement through her actions.

Then, after a long period of thought, you write a letter for the Avatar.

He can't keep a secret. You know that just from interacting with him. So you cannot send him any important information that might get out, you can't ask him if he can think of anything to do to help a woman that seems to have most of her spirit ripped from her, as though she had been carved apart, everything scooped out from inside, and had some bits of the outside stitched back together into something close.

You can't tell him about it, and have possible spies learn you've taken her alive, or send him charging off to Ba Sing Se to do something... foolish.

But you can suggest that Bumi-Land has just been constructed, and while it's not ready for operation just yet, it looks like the sort of... inane, childish, and timewasting, though you don't say any of that... thing that he would enjoy.

You have enough hawks to send off all of those. And then you contemplate Joo Dee.

"... He said, it might be kinder to just let her die." Katara speaks, having apparently thought on the matter herself.

"No." You reply, flatly. "... She has information I need. And she won't let it go while she's like this. Therefore, she must be cured."

"... And nothing else goes into it?" the tribal spits.

You glower.

And then you turn and leave the room, knowing that your intent is clear, and that she won't do anything foolish. If she knows what's good for her. And you make some orders to your crew.

You've seen scrolls in the palace, amidst heaping piles of... well, just outright junk. Broken toys and stained artwork and smashed apart chairs and statues.

But you want those scrolls. All of them. You have no idea what Bumi decided was fine to keep stashed in nooks and corners here and there, but you're going to find out.

Joo Dee can wait for a little while. Toph has stepped in to work a stone gag carefully until thin, cool soup could be poured carefully and directly into the woman's stomach, and then moved it back. You're not risking her starving, dying of thirst, or drowning under your care.

And you sleep.

...

It takes three days before the scrolls have been collected. In that time, only your letter to Aang has returned. And it's fortunate that you didn't put anything sensitive into it, because it has been read...

But not by him.

The elders of Kyoshi Island regret to pass on that the message did not arrive until several hours after the Avatar left their care. They don't know where he planned on going, he didn't say.

Damned Nomad wander-lust....

But in any case.

You've melted a little stone to bubbling slag, here and there, outside of the Butterfly. But the butterfly hasn't piped up with any further information in that vein. May well have forgotten she suggested it in the first place. Still, it's a decent way to relieve frustration.

You don't seem to be getting much from Joo Dee yet. Not when you work alone, not when Katara attempts to do... whatever she does, to heal what's been done to not her brain but her mind.

In conjunction with one another, however.....

It might not be what you're trying for. Fire and Water don't seem to work together smoothly, the Joo Dee thrashes and hisses as much as she can, and the water douses the embers sparking up just as those boil off the few drops that sink away into cracked and parched earth.

Everything so ruined, except... air. The air isn't removed. Just stilled. If you can get it moving again, that would be somewhere to start. You hope.

It doesn't change the fact that you have no damn idea what you are doing. And the crackling net of lightning didn't seem to help much when you had her in it before.

Ugh.

Still, you have three crates full of scrolls, by this point. All unread, and only awaiting sorting. You would have hoped that the crew would have at least enough sense to glance at what they were collecting... no, it would have made the collection take longer and, if there's anything Bumi might not want you to have, for any reason, give him more time to hide it away.

So you have to sort through them on the Butterfly. Magnificent.

---

[ ] ???
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[x] Home again home again

You set orders to head back for the capital. You've done enough here, and there have been some reports of Fong's scouts coming uncomfortably far north. You don't want to hear a sudden crash at any point, and discover that some earthbending soldier has managed to damage the Butterfly enough that you can't leave by it.

It gives you time to go through the scrolls, in any case.

A lot of them are just compiled poems and tales of heroes and spirits and adventure both on land and the high seas, and pirates, and any number of plot points woven into grand stories. Mostly related to people of earth, but you see that there are some of Fire and Water as well.

These you can set aside.

Several are... well, you can guess why Bumi would be hiding these particularly graphic and lurid illustrations and bedroom tales.

You'd almost like to just throw them out of the ship and into the ocean below. But you hesitate. Then set them in a different pile. They can be burned later if there isn't anything hidden in them, ciphers or codes, with distracting eye-catchers.

There are a few instructions that simply involve things. A swordmaking manual, one that goes over how to craft clay pottery. Stuff. You set it aside for now.

This leaves you with a solid dozen scrolls going over Earth techniques, which are of more interest. A full eight relate, in some way, to bending. The rest involve spearwork and odd tricks.

There are another two that go over common master-level firebending techniques. One that covers the basics of Yu Yan archery training, and you would very much like to know how he got his hands on that.

And two last scrolls.

One covers, in detail, a basic airbending form and movement, emphasizing freedom of motion over striking the enemy or defending against their blows. The monks did a lot of dodging, it seems.

The other covers a basic airbending sword form, and looks much older. What you can make out from the faded illustrations is a little odd. The demonstration pictures... the man in them is not holding a sword. Just the hilt, and no more. How do you train for a sword style without feeling the weight of the blade you will be swinging? How it feels when the blade bounces off of something, or sinks into it...

The Butterfly touches down in the evening, and you consider the matter, as you leave the scrolls in place in your ship-quarters. You have other things to check up on, before you sleep.

And you consider them in the morning, with a fresh mind.

The avatar doesn't seem to have stopped in any one place for any length of time yet, judging by the reports and how it seems like a new one is sent off back to you before the previous report of where he was has made its way to the capital.

Father is... unhappy, that you've been running around with the hostage, Katara. But he doesn't speak up about it.

That aside....

.... It looks like nothing really official has made its way to you, interesting or important enough to be brought to your attention. Everything is proceeding as per normal?

Well, you can send off instructions for that earthbending construction group. Actually, that only takes five minutes to draw up the rough plans and get Ozai's cursory 'do as you please in the colonies, I have more important things on my mind' stamp. Actually, reports have mentioned in passing the earthbending school and rumble of Gao Ling, and why did nobody mention those details to you directly, it might have been important to know that those prisoners had surrendered to Fire Nation interests at some point... In any case, you just go ahead and do that, since it takes hardly any time at all, and the orders can be sent off to Yu Dao and Gao Ling with hawks.

Father seems annoyed, but you can still poke after the waterbending captives if you want, though it might still not have been enough time for the tribe to settle and start returning them. That.... might have to wait until after the comet, you think.

Iroh didn't mention anything directly, when you pressed him about wanting to discuss Pai Sho and the white lotus gambit, but he did imply that the tournaments at Shu Jing have become more of a regular matter, and perhaps it would be best to discuss some things there, and practice, if you planned to participate again. Or simply watch one.

----

[ ] You still don't know where that letter fragment came from. Someone in the palace could be in contact with Ursa... the trail may have gone cold after so long has passed...
[ ] Do some sort of personal training. Youve been slacking. What will you do if you start to gain weight? (Train what, where, with who, if anyone? Specify amount of time devoted.)
[ ] Look into waterbender prisons, with Ozai's wary blessing and presence.
[ ] Plan a month at Shu Jing. See the sights, have a dinner or two at Master Piandao's castle, watch or participate in a Pai Sho tournament. Discuss the White Lotus Gambits and variations with Uncle.
[ ] You know? Maybe someone else has a better idea of things to do. [Write In Action]
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[x] White Lotus.

Iroh keeps his silence, as you leave Katara behind in her quarters and in the care of the servants, not wanting to press your luck too far.

Rin is definitely showing by this point, and you cannot ignore it. You note before you leave that seems that she will be expecting sometime in the fifth month. She only smirks slyly, when you question her about the father.

... You aren't certain you wish to dig too much deeper.

Zuko frowns at the scroll on airbender swordsmanship, and takes it to look over in more detail. He doesn't venture any guesses on it through the trip.

But in any case, Iroh does not speak on the Lotus matter even up until you have reached Piandao's castle. And now that you're looking for it, the White Lotus tile symbol seems to be carved everywhere...

"You carry a sword these days, I see. Have you learned how to use it?" the Master swordsman inquires, politely.

"I have never had much talent in that regard." You admit, a little stiffly. "My fire will suffice for battles against men. I carry the blade for other battles."

"Fine Yu Dao iron, yes. Show me, anyway."

... You can't really refuse a request for an exhibition of your skill, even if it's hardly existent. You draw the blade, in the courtyard, and lunge and swing and swipe and slash, and Piandao's longsword is always there first on the block, as he considers.

You nearly give in to the impulse to cheat, and light up the edge of your blade. But there would be no point... and you suspect that Piandao would effortlessly disarm you anyway, and while you might be able to stomach being humbled in an effortless sparring and, theoretically, training demonstration... you don't think you could handle it if you went seriously and were still defeated by someone who wasn't even a bender at all.

"... Well, if you were a soldier, I would despair for you and suggest trying your hand at archery." Piandao admits, a little later. "But as you said. There's other reasons to have a good length of sharp iron at your side."

Iroh is drinking tea within, and contemplates you all.

"It seems that Bumi has told you much, that some might not approve of passing on to those not already prepared and readied to join with the White Lotus." He says, after a long moment. "And many more of you have come than I expected."

"Sounded interesting." Ty Lee chirps, even as Mai frowns.

"Outside of other instruction, I am Azula's shadow." She says flatly, and Iroh nods.

"I see. But do you wish to join our ranks, is the question." he continues. "Do you feel an interest in seeking knowledge for the sake of knowledge, and spreading it through the world?"

Both hesitate, and Toph snorts.

"... I'm gonna level with you." She says. "I have held books and scrolls before. But they don't really do much for me. I'm mostly here to listen to the tournament tile clicks."

"I'm considering the matter." Zuko says.

Iroh sips his tea.

"... And you, Azula, who have called for this discussion?" he asks. "You, I presume, have some interest in our membership. If I may ask... why?"

The question is simple, and he seems honestly curious, more than anything else.

"I will admit." he continues. "I would feel it a personal victory, on some level, if you, or Zuko, or both, were to join into the Lotus. But I would hear your reasons, before anything else."

---

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[x] Why?

You take a moment to think. There are so many reasons....

"... It seems useful. It furthers the ideals of Sozin. What I have heard of Wan Shi Tong... troubles me. Simply put... there is no one, simple answer. I want to." You reply.

Iroh nods, slowly.

"That is enough." He says. "If it is your wish, and it so remains your wish, then after this month has passed and certain items have passed through hands to this location, I will induct you into the order of the White Lotus. As Grand Lotus, I may do this at my discretion, without calling a vote from other members."

As what, Iroh is-?

"I will also induct any of the rest of you who truly wish, of your own volition, to join." He continues. "Not because you feel it is your duty to do so, or because you must follow in another's footsteps, but because you desire it. The White Lotus can always afford a few new members. Misfortune seems to claim us so readily..."

Iroh shakes his head.

"And Azula. You are not the only one to have successfully bargained with spirits, by far." He says. "Part of what I send for will be records, of the last time that one struck a bargain with the Ruby Butterfly, but took less care in words, and the acts committed thence for simple relief of boredom and amusement, and the lengths to which then-Avatar Yangchen was forced to go to end the threat."

The butterfly hisses softly within your mind at the name, word sparking burning hate for just a few brief moments.

"... You will read them." He continues. "And you will understand the risk that you took, even for the noblest causes. But the White Lotus is... in the end, more understanding about such matters than, for mere example, the Fire Sages. Any lessons which you might be given will be more wary by far, of course. Still. While many spirits are actively malevolent, far from all are. There are those, as well, which are benevolent to humanity, or simply neutral. It is simply that those who are a threat to humanity are more well known, as those are the spirits which people warn others of."

Iroh stretches and groans, before finishing his tea and speaking again.

"Until the month ends, spend your time as you wish. If something truly desperate occurs, that word is sent to the capital, it may be forwarded here, to you." he says, calmly. "The excuse for this outing is the Pai Sho tournament. Participate, perhaps. Or simply watch. Or not. Crowds are generally just thick enough that your absence will not be noticed or speculated upon."

---

[ ] There's 1001 things to fill a month on Shu Jing! ... Okay, maybe not. Still, you have options.
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[x] Fires internal and external.

Days pass, as you spend them in working with fires. Even stone will burn, will melt, from a heat and fire intense enough.

You don't get very far with the slag, though. Eventually, you can make it ripple a little bit. Respond, just a little bit, as Toph watches curiously, though not with her eyes.

But it's not enough, yet. Or rather, there isn't enough of it. It's molten rock, it's close, and the fire is giving it some life and motion.

But there's just too little of it. It cools, almost faster than you can heat it back up, returning to now curious patterns of stone, where it has melted and solidified once more.

You might get further with naturally molten stone, figure out the trick to it before you start working with smaller amounts. Shu Jing, unfortunately, is not one of those regions with an active volcano, or lava pits for your convenience.

Perhaps another time.

Working with the Voice proves little more helpful. Though it seems, for just the briefest of moments, to spark... something in the Joo Dee, even when you don't say words meant as commands, or questions, or even as conversation in her presence.

"Live." you say, testingly, in her presence. And for just the briefest moment, she is a mindless, snarling, and chained beast behind her bonds, as her inner nothingness sparks for just a heartbeat into a flame. And then, is gone, and her eyes go dead once more, and empty.

The month passes. And you do not participate in the tournament, on consideration, but you do watch, and Zuko mutters things about perhaps the Air not needing blades for their swords, and you continue to try and fail to get anywhere.

"Why?" is one of the words you speak, as you consider how Zuko, and Toph, and even that Katara seem to only have begun to have everything come more and more easily to them, from all eyes, while you... do not fail in your talent but you progress at only the same rate, fighting to continue to match Zuko as he has reached a talent and rate of progression suddenly matching your own, after seeming to have been blocked his whole life, somehow.

"Will you play a game with me?" An old man, with a long mustache and beard asks, seated at a table near the cliffs.

He's not familiar, you note. Not here for the tournament, that has just been and gone, and you didn't see him anywhere. Maybe one of the villagers who dislikes crowds....

"Do you know of the chains of destiny?" The man asks, philosophically, as you play. "There are those who would say... there are a certain number of events that are meant to happen by nameless spirits of fate, charting a course and steering a boat through the tides of history through a foggy and starless and moonless night. Arranging matters as they think they should be, but bound by the free will of humans, and limited in the scope of matters they may fix. Certain people must meet, whether to become fast friends or savage enemies, certain battles would take place if at all possible. If someone is meant to be a great general, or a mighty swordsman, or a skilled healer, that events would simply fall into place to arrange for this path to be taken more easily."

The concept is very annoying, somehow.

"I like to think I make my own destiny." You say, placing the final tile.

"Oho, many do. And many prefer to lean upon the crutches of destiny, to shrug and say 'there was nothing to be done, it must have simply been fate'. It seems you have defeated me, in this game. Well done."

You allow yourself to feel a little smug, as you bow, and turn, and start off.

".... One such as you, Azula, would give any such spirits of destiny a terrible headache. For every opportunity would have been set in place for the shaping of a grand battle of good and evil, the climax of a destined battle in which Good inevitably triumphs over the forces of Evil, and yet at every turn you refuse to allow yourself to become the villain that you could so easily be molded into."

You stiffen. And you turn on your heel, but the strange man is already gone. Over the cliffs. Far below, you can hear a splash.

When you make it to the side, to look over, the ripples are already fading from the river below. But there is something in the waters. Something large, and long, and rapidly moving away.

..... You aren't quite sure what to think about it. So you try not to think about it at all. Because it burns, it sears you to consider the possibility that it could in any way be your destiny to lose.

The induction into the ranks of the White Lotus, in the face of this, is startlingly normal and simple. You drink a cup of tea flavored with rare, mildly toxic but safe in such diluted and miniscule portions, flower extracts. You say a few words. And you take a spare White Lotus tile. And that's all.

Zuko follows your lead. After a few long moments of consideration, so does Ty Lee.

Mai and Toph choose to abstain.

And that is that. And then Uncle hands over a sheaf of tied-together papers, and you read, as the fairy in your head hums in something like nostalgia over all the things she did. And it's not all bad. There was a time or two that she would destroy a pirate crew, or a band of brigands, just because she was of a mood, and redistribute the wealth among the poor and impoverished, or at least the poor and impoverished street walkers in districts of red lanterns, but at the same time she would, and did, throw people off of roofs because she was curious about the sound they would make when they hit the ground, or try to help people break records in sprinting competitions, or win races, by putting a bucket of water at the end and then setting them on fire so they would run faster, and she would pursue carnal relations with anything, whether the target consented or not, and of course she saw nothing wrong with eating the people she ended up killing because she was never human to begin with and it was a new and interesting sort of meat....

There was a lot that the Ruby Butterfly ended up doing, before Yangchen killed her.

"Four times did she try." The fairy huffs. "She came pushing the wind and fires with her, not knowing that she only fed my flame, and fought well, and amused me, so I continued on. And she came with earth, and made to crush me between boulders of stone, and I seared her and tore at her robes, and found her comely, and she fled. And she came with the waters, and dragged me beneath the waves, and sank me into the depths of the ocean until I boiled away the surf around me and rose up once more and she had fled. And then she came a final time, and she knelt and bowed against the ground, and said that she understood now her weakness and failure to defeat me, and claimed that she had become tempted in the face of my passion, and offered that I make her my sweetest prize. And there was much drinking and merriment to be had, and when I tired and gave in to the urge of stolen flesh to experience slumber, did she grind me beneath stone and iron, and sow me with salt, and burn of the flesh while I was weakened and scatter the ashes through the wind over the waves, forcing me back to as I had been before. She LIED, cursed blood of the skies, wretched spawn of the wind nunneries...."

She sinks into angered and... mournful, almost, mutterings, seeming less offended that she had been destroyed than that the then-Avatar had lied to her to do it, and struck when she needed rest.

In any case, it's significantly more information than the papers, which say that Yangchen had needed four separate attempts to win, but not how any of them had gone.

In any case. A month has been and gone since you landed the Butterfly on Shu Jing.

---

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[x] Another section of time.

You're already trying something different on the way back to the capital. Though you have a brief talk with a few people on the side.

Uncle does the arm thing, mumbling something about spirits having much to answer for.

Zuko appreciates the information about Lightning having once been air, but he balks at the idea of shaping it into a sword, or even trying to use it in the same way as fires on his dao.

"Using lightning...." he tries to explain. "It just doesn't... feel 'right'. Like I'm doing something I shouldn't be. You and father don't seem to have a problem with it, but... I don't think I want to push too deeply into lighting."

... There has been little news through the month. Aang has been on the move through all the world, it seems, both in and out of the Earth Kingdoms and away from places scouts can follow. At times his trail is lost, though it picks up again soon after.

It seems he's picked up a tagalong along the way. But he just doesn't stop anywhere for more than two or three days at once.

You leave it aside, as nothing else is going wrong anywhere. Everything is proceeding according to schedule, it seems. A letter has come in from the Yu Dao guard on your defectors, it seems they are fitting in well enough, though not entirely comfortably with the mingled peoples of Fire and Earth in that old colony.

You focus, instead, on your training, when you aren't saying Words, to see what the Joo Dee does.

By the time a month has passed....

Well, it's not the hundreds of butterflies that you first thought of, moving completely freely and independently, but you've gotten somewhere.

Only a dozen or so, can you call up at once. But you can launch them, either one at a time or all in one go, and they proceed on their trajectory in a straight line, or slight curve.

It's not really the Pinwheel shot, any more. Certainly not the Hunting Dragon. But it has, and will eventually have, elements of both. Burning, sharp butterflies, floating about you while at rest.

It's a new technique in its own right, most likely. You're relieved and a little smug to see that you still got it.

It counterbalances different news, on the Avatar's trail.

At some point, during the month, of all the places he could have decided to go....

Fong. General Fong's fortress. He just flew right in, like there was no reason he shouldn't be there, the stupid... ugh.

Obviously, you don't have any information on what happened inside there. Only that after about a week inside, the place erupted into a pillar of white light similar to the event at the Southern Air Temple, and when Aang flew out and northward he was alone.

After a day or two of hurried activity, followed by no activity, troops scouted closer and into Fong's ruined fortress.

The Avatar's tagalong was eventually identified, half buried in a courtyard. The construction of the fortress was, quite simply, smashed apart.... though no other bodies were left behind. In the depths, they found a tunnel heading east. Wisely, the scouting group did not pursue.

You can't imagine what that idiot Fong thought he was doing, but clearly it backfired right in his stupid face. In any case. Fong and his troops seem to have slipped out past the siege. Most likely, they have retreated, or are retreating, to Ba Sing Se. The Avatar is doubtless very upset over things, but all that you know is that not long ago he entered the Northern Water Tribe territories.

They're starting to be a little bit of a problem too. They don't have the experience that Hakoda did on the offensive, though, the worst of it aside from the standard harrying of your ships and sinking of theirs has been an attempt to infiltrate a garrison wearing armor more than eighty years out of date... yes, clearly no Hakodas are at their disposal. And with the comet fast approaching, they cannot get the experience needed for anyone to become a new Hakoda fast enough for it to matter.

Troops press forward, of course, and you're taking all of the land to press up against the very outer wall of Ba Sing Se... ignoring the desert. There is little to be had there, and taking it will be more of an afterthought than anything else, when the Impenetrable City inevitably falls. That fool general's retreat has let you focus more of your forces on the one location.

There aren't so many places left to bring under the Fire Nation's sway, now. Ba Sing Se and some of the surrounding area. The desert. Chin village, though you think that Bujing has been contemplating accidentally giving a 'burn it to the ground' order instead of capturing it. Kyoshi island, though they are still neutral. They have to understand that they won't be able to just stay out of things, when all the rest of the Earth Kingdoms have fallen.

Foggy swamp was a logistical nightmare, you understand. But with the inhabitants being fairly peaceful and taking it being more of a headache than pushing troops through, one of the commanders just catapulted a flag into the swamp and declared it Fire Nation. The leaf and moss clad peoples lurking in its depths haven't yet seen fit to object.

Then, of course, the North Pole continent... where all of the scattered tribes have helpfully consolidated themselves into one massive city of ice for the simplicity of besieging them.

Yes. If the war isn't done by the time the comet leaves, you dan't see it lasting much longer after. The avatar still has not come out in opposition to you. A good sign.

... It's just that there seems to be a lull, at the moment, in which nothing is really happening, or at least nothing important enough for you to deal with.

The physicians have implied that Rin can expect twins sometime in the fifth month. She is starting to look it.

You've recieved word that the trading post is up and running, too....

---

[ ] Do some sort of personal training. You've been slacking. What will you do if you start to gain weight? (Train what, where, with who, if anyone? Specify amount of time devoted.)
[ ] Look into waterbender prisons, with Ozai's wary blessing and presence.
[ ] You know? Maybe someone else has a better idea of things to do. [Write In Action]
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[x] To Prisons.

You pass along a message to Ozai, that he'll let you know when he is ready, and then...

You descend.

There's many old passages beneath the capital. And though it has been quiet and dormant and slumbering for time immemorial, it is for good reason that the majority of the city is known as 'the Caldera'.

Even so, you can't get too close to the magma. The bottoms of the pits glow, far below, but unique currents of underground wind, here, whisk much of the heat away and through other tunnels, eventually out to sea.

Much. Not all. The peoples of Fire endure heat, in ways that other nations would simply die trying to attempt, but even so. The only reason you are not slick with sweat is that the heat is great enough to dry your skin and clothes before you become damp.

You have brought water. You have brought a large cask of water. You do not linger in places such as this without need, but you know how to survive lingering in them.

You reach your chi down, far below, and you bring the lava up.

And you begin to understand, as even in this oppressive and sweltering heat, heat that would have long since dried out the member of any other nation, left them falling to the floor and slowly dying... as the lava pulls away from the rest, and even in this terrible heat, it begins to cool and fall away back into the pits.

You can not create less than a certain amount of lava at a time. It will cool and become immobile, useless.

The heat you need is greater than a hundred forges, to the point where simply drawing too close to the molten rock can kill even you. You cannot move it in a tiny trickle or flow... no less than a cascading river of molten stone will do, to remain in a form you can move at all.

This is not a skill that can be used in a friendly sparring match.

This is not even a technique that you can utilize to capture a city.

This, you can only bring to bear when there is something which must be destroyed, no matter the cost and loss of life. It has no other utility.

Not yet.

Not until you can keep the heat from leaving the stone, keep the lava impossibly hot, and yet usable like ordinary fire.

You leave the lava pits behind, with a mostly emptied cask of water dragging behind you, and thoughts spinning in your head.

It is not for another two days that Ozai can set his duties aside and leave the Capital for inspections through the country. He chooses to use your ship for the travel. Probably for the best, though it does not land too close to your ultimate destinations in any case. Even loyal as Jin may be, Ozai will not permit him to know more than the general locations. Jin alone to captain, and minimal crew. Everyone else left behind, with Toph minding the Joo Dee, and Mai calmly learning what she has to look forward to if she ever becomes pregnant, with Rin.

There are three prisons, all on the main island of the Fire Nation, all carved all but entirely and subtly into the sides of active volcanoes, where water is hard to come by, and with carved ash-terraces to grow most of the food needed year-round, for both prisoners and guards.

If arranged on a map, and lines were drawn between them, they would form a triangle.

The first two hold nothing out of the ordinary. A couple dozen captive waterbenders in the cells inside, rigid and formal guards... some remind you, just a bit, of Ty Lee. Not in how they look, but how they move. Chi blockers, ready at hand for any more escape attempts, such as Hama's.

The prisoners are disgruntled, of course. Unhappy with their confinement. But not oppressed or beaten into submission, simply... tired. Having, as far as you can tell, tried everything they could think of to escape, and failed, and continued to fail until they simply gave up and began to simply sit quietly in their cells.

Yes, there doesn't seem to be anything you did not expect in the north or southwest prisons.

In the one to the further south-east, the next day after travel and resting, you are greeted by the sight of an aged, brown-skinned man, tending the crop terraces alongside one of the guards and a pair of youths with equally browned skin.

The guard freezes at your inspecting gaze, and that of Ozai. Slowly, the old man raises empty hands.

"Peace." he says, simply. "If you order me back to the cell, Fire Lord Ozai, then I shall go willingly. I have no intent to try your patience, and my good fortune, and attempt to leave the prison. And neither of my children are water benders."

The guard... she is nearly as old as he, and looks worried. You were not expected to arrive, nobody sent warning, of course, even those stationed in one prison do not know the location of the other two, and cannot contact them.

The youths, though. They stare back at you and at Ozai, unflinching. The boy, only a couple years your senior, with hardened blue eyes. And the young woman, in her twenties if she is a day, staring you down with eyes of dragon gold.

Ozai has not spoken, yet. You, yourself, are not quite sure of your tongue.

---

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[x] Deference.

No. You have to speak. You only have moments to spare the lives of the poor fools before you.

"Perhaps you do not understand who you stand before..." you say slowly, stressing the word.

It seems to finally, finally click. The boy looks down, bowing sharply. Stiffly. The young woman much more grudgingly turns her gaze aside.

It's not going to be enough-

... the old man drawing water up out of the ashes, catching his children by the neck to force them down to their knees. That just might be.

It's enough to turn Ozai's attention away from the blatant disrespect they have been showing. Even if it does make his spine stiffen, even as the water returns down to the crops.

"I beg no forgiveness. Order me, Lord, and I will fall on my sword before you for this lapse in my duty-" The guard says, quickly.

"Mother!" the young woman hisses.

Very slowly, Ozai raises his hand.

"You will explain how this has come to pass." He says, flatly.

"... Lord, before Azulon died, he had not stepped foot in any of these prisons for thirty years." The guard says. "It had become my belief that we were all to remain in silence here forever, until the day came when prisoners and guards both were fallen from age."

"This does not excuse such blatant dereliction..." Ozai continues, eyes narrowed.

"... It does not. As I have offered, Lord. Order me, and my heart's blood will spill out upon the ash."

And Ozai would be well within his rights to make such an order.

And it would indeed be carried out.

And after that, you have no doubt, two burning ties of ingrained duty, service to the Fire Lord will fail to outweigh three hearts' howls of your woman, your mother, lie dead beside you.

You can see white knuckles and stiff shoulders that promise it.

"I." You say, calmly stepping in in a desperate bid to ease the tension. "Would very much be interested to hear of the story which has brought a waterbender of the southern tribes to this point in time."

".... We are water. There are many who would forget, that we are all water, and focus simply on the water we know the most, frigid, rigid, and unyielding, chilled by the winds into ice. And they forget, that when ice is heated, it will flow once more, and adapt to new situations." the man says in turn, very carefully. "If water... not frozen and jagged ice, but water, is poured from a pitcher and into a bowl, it will shape itself to fit its new situation."

He seems just as eager to defuse the situation as you. His next words prove it, whether they are truth or a convenient lie.

"Fire Lord Ozai, for decades now it has been my wish, that upon the very next visitation of the seated Fire Lord, I might... display allegiance, and allow the Fire Lord to make of my humble services what he wills."

It does not satisfy Ozai. But he is considering, now, and not focused on the blatant... those poor fools should have known better. Showing disrespect to the fire lord is justification for Agni Kai, after all. If you are a firebender. If not, immediate execution. The result, either way, is likely much the same.

It's obvious they never expected for anyone to come visit once again.

---

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[x] details.

The guard, it seems, is the warden of the prison. Which explains at least a little of the situation, if grandfather had really not returned here for thirty years.

And none of the other captive waterbenders are so willing to bend the knee before Ozai. In point of fact, while they show some of the exhausted submission of the other prisons, the sight of the relatively-free old man can still rouse them to heated words and angry looks. And the sight of the daughter, dragon's eyes set in Water features, sets them into an outright fury.

Paradoxically, rather than incensing Ozai further, this calms him somewhat. At least the prison is mostly as it should have been.

With, admittedly, a few very prominent outliers.

"Kezzik. Zuul." the warden says, softly, as first the boy and then the young woman stand straighter. "See your father to his cell, and wait there for now."

Objections start to rise, and were quashed, in the wake of a sharp look.

"... You have still not explained." Ozai says, flatly.

"It was my hope that Azulon would return, so that I could petition him directly. But never did he." She says, wearily. "In the end, with his only instruction after the Hama escape and prison restructuring being that none of us, prisoner or guard alike, were to be allowed to leave the volcano for any reason... Duty weighs heavier than a mountain, but as the last scion of my family line, the pressure to bear heirs was also present. And Keyik was pleasing to the eye and the heart. I weakened, as years passed, and never has he attempted to go further than the ash-terraces."

"State your heritage." Ozai continues.

"Zeris. Daughter of Zouge by Rinzo, son of Azora by Zetsen, daughter of Azuka by... the parentage is not confirmed, but it is known that then-Fire-Lord would offer political favors to the lady Azuka in exchange for her own favors of another sort. Her memoirs imply that, prior to her banishment from the capital in the wake of grave insult to the wife of the Fire Lord, she accepted these exchanges a time or two, and took no other lovers through her life."

Memoirs may make outrageous claims. You don't know if it's the truth, but it can obviously at least be confirmed to be in the writings, even if legitimacy of the claim may be in doubt. But it is a cunning enough move, to claim that the disrespect is partially a symptom of royal temper flaring up, even in a bastard line.

To some degree, at least. Some slight degree of excuse for the children. For herself...

"And you bring upon your family line such dishonor, by fraternizing with your prisoner?" Ozai questions, sternly.

"I offer no excuse lord." She replies in turn, head bowed.

---

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[x] Punishment.

You get halfway through a thought of comparing the situation to Toph, before you dismiss the idea entirely.

You took the southern coasts with no instruction or orders from anyone higher in the chain of command than yourself. Nothing you could have done, from burning every square inch of land and turning it into coasts of ash, to simply and outright purchasing the loyalty of the coastal villages with gold, could have earned more than disappointment in the coming years' budgets. Certainly not punishment for disobedience, because you had no orders that you could have acted against.

By contrast, if the warden's words are to be believed, the orders of Azulon had been clear... and, actually, followed to the letter. Even if the means trampled and spat all over the spirit and intention of it, an implied 'keep them in their cells' that doubtless neither side of things had thought needed to be spoken.

The guards aren't much pleased with the warden's actions either. In many cases, they feel the same as the prisoners, only... somewhat more tactfully, to their commanding officer.

A waterbender serving willingly could be a strategic asset. Even if it's just as a demonstration of what to expect, for the troops, and even with the war itself ending soon. And you murmur as much, though it doesn't seem to be what Ozai wants to hear.

There is much you could suggest, that would solve nothing and not sway Ozai's own decision one bit. Though, one possibility steps forward as having at least a little bit of promise.

"The southern seas are as chilled as the ice floating in them, and the winds cut to the bone with frost, if those who have been there can be believed." You say, idly. "Naturally, the trading outpost must be manned. But it may be more... convenient, to reserve such unpleasant duties for those who have earned your disfavor."

"Perhaps." he says, slowly.

".... I have only one request. My daughter must not come so close to the southern tribes." She says, somberly. "I am given to understand that, no matter what reason they would have not to attack, her mere existence is not something that the tribe can simply ignore."

"I will consider it." Ozai says, flatly. "For the time being... perhaps the trade outpost would be a suitable relocation. I can be merciful, if required. However. I will not be satisfied with less than blood. Forgiveness carries its own price. You must remember your folly."

.... You tried. There is nothing more you can do, as Ozai stares down at the warden's bowed head.

"One." He says, after a long moment. "The left. You have a blade close at hand, I presume."

"Of course, Lord." She returns, stoically.

You watch, as she withdraws a short knife, and stretches the fingers of her left hand out on the table. She sweats, and her teeth grit.

But the knife goes up. And then comes down.

She cries out sharply, as Ozai remains impassive, clutching at the blood.

"Display." He orders simply.

Her hand trembles as she stretches it out, displaying the bleeding remnants of her smallest finger. One of Ozai's own springs into flame... and he grinds it painfully into the stump.

Then he pulls it away, bleeding having ceased.

"You are forgiven." He says, simply. "See the physician on staff. We will discuss further matters, after."

The warden rises and bows, jerkily, before rushing out of the room. There is a lump left behind, on the table, in a puddle of red. With a wave of his hand, Ozai burns it all to ash.

---

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[x] Talking.

The room remains silent for a few moments.

"... The waterbender could be of use both here and at the outpost. As could the son."

"I will consider their use." Ozai says, flatly, in a tone that strongly suggests that he would just as soon kill all the annoyances.

"In any case. ... I would like to inspect the daughter's talents and ability." You continue.

Ozai starts to speak. Then stops. Then for a few moments looks... discomfited? Before he actually speaks.

"Azula. You must understand, there has already been a great deal of quiet... talk. About your habit, of collecting young women. It troubles me, and has for some time."

... wait, what.

"Of course, it is your right to do as you please, provided Zuko gives his blessing, however... some selections are already concerning."

"Toph." you say, flatly.

"Ty Lee." He corrects, frown stiff.

.... You are given pause.

"Before, it was not so large of an issue. You were, after all, my second child. I was a second son. But now, you are heir to the throne. And while the Nation makes good use of scorpion wasp venom at times, it remains foolishness to clasp one to your breast."

"Speak plainly..." You snap, then hastily follow it up with "... if you are pleased to do so? I am afraid I have difficulty understanding what you are driving at."

"Azula. What will you do, if Ty Lee betrays you?" he asks, frowning deeply. "If she turns her arts against you. Or worse still, if she begins training others in those arts, and attempts to raise up for herself an army to make war on those who bend the elements to their will, as the ancient histories plainly state has happened. Not once, but many times. What will you do? Will you be able to give the order for her execution?"

"That will not happen." You say, voice flat.

"... I hope, for your sake, it does not." He says, simply. "Though, while your choices have been at times questionable in the past, they are yours to make. Regarding the girl, do as you please."

You will.

You stalk out of the room, on the hunt. When you find her, it is in a large room with grates above and below, venting air in from above, and displaying a glowing orange very far beneath you. Too far to reach for, even if you tried. She is peeling a small piece of fruit with a thin, finger-length steel blade, and eating it with loud crunches. Becoming more so at your presence, including smacking of lips and obnoxious grinding of teeth.

"You are... Zuul." You say, calmly, ignoring how your eye-level isn't even at her shoulders, and crossing your arms. "It takes a very brave person to show such blatant disrespect before the Fire Lord and Heir. A brave person... or an incredible fool. Which, I wonder, are you?"

Her eyes narrow, as she swallows the last bit of fruit, dropping the peels down through the grates below.

".... And you have a lot of time on your hands, palace brat, if you want to waste it picking a fight." she snaps back in return, eyes flaring with all the burning pride and arrogance of a dragon recieving a snowball to the snout.

"I will have an answer." You promise, your own building temper restrained with regality. "No matter how I must claim it."

Zuul does not so much smile as she bares her teeth at you, implied insult clearly present, and filling your veins with a pulsing song of kill kill kill her now.

"You still fail to show any form of respect." you spit.

"... You want my respect, palace brat?" Zuul says, fingers slowly curling, just a little bit like claws. "Then come. Take it, if you dare-"

Well.

This is an invitation that you have no intention of refusing.

Blue fires flicker to life, and Zuul has only a moment for her eyes to narrow once more at the unique coloration. Then they are upon her, the initial salvo.

And she weaves and slides through the attack as though it is nothing. Which you find very interesting.

You have only a brief moment to contemplate how you are going to grind this bastard-line offspring of a derelict prison guard and a weathered piece of driftwood on the surf tribal barbarian into the ground before you will have to put it into action.

---

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[x] Making Acquaintance.

This fight is...

Too even, for your comfort.

Part of it is simply that, with the single style of firebending practiced by all firebenders, with variations only coming in techniques learned after mastery... there are some expectations, of what is to come in battle with a firebender.

And Zuul fits none of them.

She bends fire, to be sure, as you quickly discover. Someone has, at the least, taught her of firebending. The barest basics, that everyone knows, how to breathe....

But she has not been taught firebending. At first, it seems with her wild movements and fires trailing in the wake of her claws, rending and burning with the same slash, that she hasn't taught any bending at all.

But that's not quite right.

Eight clawed and hooked tendrils of fire, stretching out from herself. Thicker flames swatting butterflies out of the air. That is not a firebending technique that you know of. It looks like waterbending, if anything.

If you had not been completely on target, taking this opponent totally seriously in spite of her unworthiness, you think that you might have been caught off guard when she switched from simple bestial aggression to something more calculated and refined... but still far from your expectations.

You refuse to believe you could have lost. But it would have been... startling.

In the end, she doesn't fight like a firebender or what you understand a waterbender should fight like, but some hellish combination of all the advantages of both, rushing straight into things and inviting assault, but punishing it heavily. Your fight is on the defensive. You've been pressed, this whole time, into fighting defensively. It won't stand. Even so, fighting like fire won't do. You keep tight hold on your instincts to press the assault, match her blow for blow, knowing that she's goading you into that, into handing over the advantage.

All the best parts of the battle, and all the worst facets of personality, from both sides of her heritage.

And with her constantly in close quarters, claws trailing fire in their wake, crawling along and leaping off the walls like a great cat even as you fly, the room simply not being quite big enough to take all the way to the skies and rain down destruction without reprisal, you simply don't have the instant of concentration, at any point, to prepare anything with lightning.

Your fires against hers. Both burn brightly.

But where she is taking the teachings of Water to heart, you have to be as Earth.

'One crushing, utterly unstoppable blow, right when she cannot dodge...' the fairy hisses, slowly.

.... In the end, while her style of battle is surprising enough to give her a slight advantage at the start, it is also her undoing.

No matter how much she tries, she cannot perfectly mimic the forms of Water with Fire. That is not how fire works. At very worst, if you wrap waters around yourself, you will simply get wet. Try it with fire, and you beg for the flame to sear you. So it cannot be a perfect adaptation, not the full mimicry of advanced Water techniques that she is trying.

And when it comes down to it, she is not experienced in battle. The worst fight she's had, you suspect, is possibly a scuffle or two with her sibling. She is every bit your match in casual viciousness, as fine lines of red along both of your skins can attest, but she cannot get a solid blow, even as she flails, without catching you completely by surprise.

And while swinging her claws about haphazardly might provide assault that you aren't familiar with, through simple unpredictability... it is not long before an opening reveals itself.

You reinforce yourself as fully as you can, and strike in for the finish. Your fist crashes beneath her ribs like a thunderbolt.

And with that moment of hacking vulnerability, you grab hold of her shoulders and force the pup to her knees, your jaws almost immediately sliding down to latch onto her tender throat, just breaking the skin near the veins... but careful, measured, controlled, and no further, as you hold her arms out and away.

..... You taste blood before you quite realize exactly what you are doing.

But, it makes sense. You're sure it does, somehow, resonating with.... something.

It feels right.

And it must have been the right thing to do, even though you can't quite hear words as more than noise right now, as the impudent puppy goes limp. Surrender. More, submission to your dominance.

Words start, slowly, to make sense again as the pounding heat of battle fades from your veins.

You have an audience, you begin to dimly realize.

Ozai is standing there, in one of the doors.

The girl's family is watching as well, the son seeming far more distressed over what is happening before his eyes than the mother... or, strangely, the father, who looks merely resigned to the situation. Like it's something he had seen coming for a long time... expected.

You pull away, swallowing the last few traces of blood, and choose not to focus on how, for a few more moments yet, the Zuul girl's face is darkened beyond its normal hue.

".... S-so fine. I get it. You're the boss." she stumbles verbally, not quite looking directly at you.

---

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[x] An Accord.

"Good. Mine. Remember." You say, managing to force your tongue to form at least one word at a time.

Back. Into the box.

You breathe, and see that the father is displaying his hands once more, perfectly dry and in such a way that any movement to draw water would be blatant, if it were even possible in the hot air inside, here.

"Peace. Peace, dragon's blood. I would no more attempt to steal what you have taken than to bind a wolf stolen from its pack in the far tundra." he says, simply.

Anything to change the subject...

"You have some understanding of traditional beliefs of our nation." You say.

"In some ways, they are similar to, though very different from, the old stories of the tribes. If it pleases you, I will tell the tales of the most well known of those, of Krusik, who was more deeply touched by the ocean than most, and in his waning days swam down into the deepest and coldest depths to join it more fully, and of Sorik, who was much loved of the moon and ran to the wolf's hunting calls. I have known, long, that my daughter could not be brought to heel, save by..."

He pauses, for just a few moments, as Ozai stares in casual and extensive disbelief.

"... a greater predator than she." He finishes, simply. "There will be... something lost, in simply the telling of the words, without a full tribe to play and cast scents into the bonfire, as the tale is danced and sung."

... You remain silent, for a few moments.

"Have you come to a decision, father?" You ask.

"..... The boy and bender will join the gracious warden at her relocation to the trade depot. Do as you please with the daughter. It seems you have come to a mutual agreement, to which there is no objection."

---

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[x] storytime.

One way or another, the whole group is coming back to the capital for at least a little while, before boats are prepared for the voyages. Ozai has already promoted one of the more senior guards, to take the warden's place.

It looks like there is just enough time on the return flight to hear the stories.

You hear the tale of Krusik, a great healer, though never a chief in spite of being offered the position, who swam waters too deep and cold and treacherous for others to venture into. Near the end of his mortal life, as many waterbenders who are touched and called by the ocean do, he crafted himself a garment of sea serpent skins, slipped beneath the Ocean waves, and slithered away into the depths.

And then Keyik tells the tale of Sorik, who would scream blood lust to the very moon when it shone in fullness. Who ran in packs with the arctic wolves, and would fall upon and slay unwary warriors who were not swift enough to fall to their knees and beg for their lives, but at the same time would do battle with the dark spirits of winter's eternal midnight, bringing some comfort to lone and weaker campsites, so long as their fires were kept fed enough that the wolves and other beasts would not approach.

A tradition you had not heard of before comes up in the stories. The taking of scalps.

In most cases, the Water Tribes do not kill one another, though they would, and still do, battle against other tribesmens. Usually it is just a show of superiority, shaming the weaker warrior and giving them a few good wounds to crawl back home and lick for a while.

Though sometimes, it comes to pass, that there is enmity and hostility enough between tribesmen that one side of things is going to die. When that happens, the collecting of a slain warrior's scalp is the final mark...

... of respect. And honor to the fallen foe, before they are consigned to the ocean's depths.

It is not a practice that really happens, of recent decades, with all the tribesmen consolidated and gathered to focus on the outside threat of the fire nation, rather than squabbling and baring teeth and fangs against themselves, like rival packs of wolves or feral hounds.

And of course, it is not used against the fire nation, because nobody wants to respect and honor the foreign invaders, not even tribesmen. Soldiers will be killed, but... a fire nation topknot is not worthy, it seems, of being taken as a warrior's trophy. Though, of course, they only throw the bodies into the ocean so as not to draw scavengers, as well, and being sunk beneath the waves will hardly quiet an angry spirit of the fire nation.

It's interesting enough, in any case.

And it is not long after the questions die away that the Butterfly lands outside of the palace walls.

Toph got bored, you see. There's an airship docking platform here now, built of stone. Design prominently features skulls and horns. You kind of like it, you think. The sun is beginning to sink down towards the ocean, and give the whole construction this sort of interesting orangey hue.

---

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[x] Waaaay back. Waay back. Home.

Zuul seems, oddly enough, somewhat skittish inside of the palace. You suppose it comes of living all of her life in a place where there were, in total, less than fifty people, and then suddenly walking through halls which might have you meet nobody, or might have you cross paths with more than fifty people, servants and officers and nobles, in less than fifteen minutes.

... You shoo her off for private time with her family. They'll most likely be leaving in the morning, or the next day anyway. You'll send a tailor along in the morning.

Zuko is out, at the moment. Visiting one of Uncle's... associates, among the Fire Sages, and not expected to return until late at night. He apologetically admits that even he cannot force them to teach you, directly. And there are some things that can't really be taught, second-hand.

But there are options.

For the time being, though, Zuul is what you want to discuss.

"You bit her?" Toph guffaws. "Nice."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." you say, before pausing and restating that. "Was a good idea, even. All the fight went out of her, once I had made her submit..."

"It might be better to send her away." Mai speculates. "If being in her presence taxes your self control..."

"Not so much, actually." You reply, thoughtfully. "Not now, anyway. Not like at first, definitely."

"Even so. It might make things... simpler, if you alloted her some number of troops, and kept her busy helping with the march to Ba Sing Se, or trying to catch sand blowing on the wind in the Si Wong desert." Mai notes. "Probably not Kyoshi Island. She doesn't strike me, from what you've said, as the sort to keep a diplomatic tongue in her head. Maybe giving the North Pole a headache."

"... I myself am not certain this is a wise idea." Iroh admits, sipping his tea. "It must be considered, if... unusual matters are affecting discipline, and social hierarchy. You, Azula, have already brought her to heel. Sending her elsewhere risks simply leaving her uncontrolled and burning in the wind, or becoming hostile once more, and refusing to submit to authority unless forced. Which could naturally end very poorly for any number of people, especially if, as you say she is an unconvential and yet powerful firebender."

"You could make her submit." you point out, reasonably. Toph chokes a little, on the snickers.

".... Perhaps I could. But you have implied that doing so requires that I... how was it described? Ah yes. Hold restrained in place a young woman of less than half my age, in a manner such that she cannot struggle to break free of me at all, most likely either against the ground or a wall, and press my teeth into her throat until she surrenders. Azula, I am afraid that such actions would be... far from seemly, you understand."

.... You don't get it at all. If it worked, it worked, right? Why are they harping over the details....

"And what do you think, Ty Lee?" You ask.

"..... You've never bitten me." She frowns sulkily.

You have a bare few moments to be caught completely flat footed and with no idea what to say, before her eyes light back up and she giggles.

"Teasing~" she chirps, poking you in the forehead.

Grand. Now if you can make your heart stop hammering in your chest, that would be dandy.

"... Thank you, by the by, for the docking station, Toph. Though generally, dragons or phoenix would be somewhat more classically tasteful in decoration. I do like the horns, though. I consider them a... nice touch."

Iroh sighs into his teacup, at that.

The discussion doesn't last much longer after that, as Mai seems to reluctantly admit that Iroh has a point, and there is no reason to risk other soldiers when you can be fairly sure that just keeping her here keeps her, relatively, safe to be around.

So you go to bed.

Not your bed, though. Zuko seems to be fairly tired from the day, though, he doesn't seem to fully register your presence before he's totally asleep.

.... His feet are much warmer, in a plush and heated fire nation bed, but still cooler than you would prefer. You will have to remember, in the morning, to have that tailor deliver a pair of koala sheep wool sleeping-stockings. That will make this more comfortable for both of you.

Going through the memos....

Avatar still at the north pole. Everything progressing, still, as planned. And with nobody knowing that the eclipse is even going to happen, particularly given that the period of time in which you will be fully cut off from Agni is going to be very brief, there probably won't really be any losses to take back in the next few days before the comet...

Yes. There really isn't anything at the moment that seems to demand your personal attention. Compared to the glut of things to do near the start of the year, it seems... almost startling, to have a clear schedule, to be filled as you see fit and not with things that desperately need to be taken care of, immediately.

You send that tailor along, then lean back into a comfortable chair and consider...

---

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[x] Girl talk.

.... You would like to start off by simply putting a bounty on knowledge. Pay a lump sum for every scroll or tome that you do not already have a copy of, and sift through them for items of use.

But it would be going too fast. You would pay, and pay, and get swamped in more scrolls than you could ever read, both old and so very new that the ink was not even wet, and you would actually be driving away some of the things that you might consider interesting.

The best instructors, after all, cannot be bought for mere money. You think uncle, and many like him, would actually be insulted if you tried to pay for tutelage. No matter.

You can still ask for him to be on the lookout for things. And even if they aren't techniques of martial utility, visiting a glass blowers', or having another trip through the Yu Dao metalsmiths, might turn up something you had missed, or not thought deeply on before.

All of it is thoughts for later, though.

Right now... right now, you think you want to train, and to speak with Ty Lee.

Maybe just a nip. No. No, you think not, whether or not she was joking. It wouldn't mean the same thing, anyway, and you don't need to make her submit.

And it could be, you suppose, interpreted as the sort of invitation that you really don't feel comfortable offering to anyone, when it comes right down to it. Some calm consideration on the subject has forced you to admit that that much is the case.

... If you did, you suppose Ty Lee would be as good as any. Far better than most, even.

You shake the thoughts out of your mind. Unimportant.

Even so.

"Are you.... all right, with things?" You ask, politely. "I understand that you loved your time with the circus. But you haven't even mentioned the possibility of returning to them."

"... Well, no. You need me here." Ty Lee says.

... Don't you? goes unspoken. You should quickly move to reassure her, there.

"I am greatly relieved and comforted by your presence." You say. "I merely... would like to know."

"... I don't really like the new girl." She admits with a sigh. It's a little surprising, because as far as you know, Ty Lee likes everyone, and easily.

... no, not quite everyone. And something...

"You didn't like Toph either. At... not at first. The first time you met was brief, at the circus, but you were pleasant. It wasn't until coming back..."

"And I saw that golden band around her neck." Ty Lee confirms glumly, sending a new spin on things that you had not even considered. "It just... I'd never even thought about it before, but when I saw it, something went thump down into my stomach, and... I was jealous. That sort of thing is... important, formal, nobody gives those out any more, walking in on some girl you hadn't known for even a year with one, it..."

"... I did not mean you harm." You sigh.

"No, no, I understand that. It just... if nobody else was going to have one, that would have been fine, but once I saw that someone did and I knew that no matter what, you could never make me...."

You frown, not quite understanding.

".... we're important. The nation needs to have some chi-blockers." She says. "That doesn't mean that we're well liked, or respected. You didn't notice, in the Academy... I was still half trained, but it got out, and you were the only one interested in being friends? Benders think what we do is an insult, not being able to bend is... its way worse than just getting paralyzed for a little while. They can kill us, if they know, or think, we're going to, and they move quickly, but if we touch them then we make them feel helpless. Like a normal person. And they hate that. And normal people don't want to get close either, because if it starts looking like we're getting too friendly, that we might pass on little tricks and techniques... never against our own benders of course, but just in case they're caught in close quarters with a waterbender or earthbender out for blood... it's still the sort of thing that has people dying in their sleep before age twenty."

... You've heard very similar sentiments from Ozai himself, not long ago. Come to think of it...

"... I asked you to teach me, once." You recall.

"Yeah. I was... really worried about that, for a while." Ty Lee admits. "But it looks like they let it go, and it's even true that you can't bend and move your chi in a way that disrupts bending. So it wasn't a problem. Not like..."

She winces, and shuts her mouth.

"... So, you were somewhat starved for friendship." You conclude. "You couldn't associate with other..?"

"... No. I don't think anyone but the Fire Lord has a full list on who can block chi. I only know three names. The man who trained me, and gave me assignments, before I ran off to the circus, and... the two others, who didn't make it through his training."

She shakes her head.

"Shin probably wouldn't have made it in the first place." she reflects. "They only keep the best student, most suitable, and the rest... they die in training, usually. Can't risk even letting a half-trained student running loose. Shin was good, but... we were just better. One day he went out with the Instructor and... just didn't come back, when he did. Then it was me and Sora. And... for a while, I was pretty sure that I was going to go out on a walk, one day, and not come back from it. Because I'm good. I'm really good. But... she was just better at all of it. On the other hand... she had one sister. I had six. So the Instructor had a lot more holds on me than on her. More possibilities for... for examples to be made, if it came to it. But the raw talent just wasn't the same. .... But then, Sora tried to teach her sister, without permission, when she heard that she was joining the army. Just a secret card hidden up the sleeves. .... the Instructor found out about it. He executed her sister, then brought Sora back to the training room and demonstrated... why it was a bad idea."

... You can see why she ran off to the circus.

The whole story burns at you. Ty Lee is yours. Yours to keep, or yours to break and how dare some old man... you can just barely hear the tremble in her voice. And that's not right.

Yours. It's not right for her to be afraid. She shouldn't be afraid of anything in the world, except possibly for you...

"And so you fled to the circus."

"Yeah. I was just... starting to crack, a little." she admits. "Looking back, I was really lucky to get away, it shouldn't have worked at all since I'd already mentioned it to anyone. But I went to the circus. And it was really fun! Everyone would cheer and laugh, and if I smiled at someone or kissed someone on the cheek, it was just because it was part of the show, and nobody took it seriously... Not like here. I barely have to smile, and people think that just because I think they look nice, they might be able to push for more and... they just get so irritated when I try to make them understand that I just smile at people a lot, and it doesn't mean any more for them than it did for the last person, or will for the next, I wasn't really interested, and I don't want to talk about making arrangements... it was fun. But I didn't really get away. You can't really escape from this sort of training, once you've had it. There were a couple people... I don't know them, but they were watching. They watched every performance, and they were always at the new location before we were, just waiting in line to be the first to buy a ticket. The Instructor hadn't given me anything to do for a while, by then, but still... just waiting to see if I was really going to just be an acrobat in a show, or if I was going to do something they would have to drag me back for. Technically, legally, I shouldn't have been in the colonies at all, but just that wasn't quite enough, if I showed anything off, or used it on someone, or tried to fight one of them or just cracked and ran again, then..."

"Ty Lee." You say, sharply, something creeping out of the box with scaled claws. "Mine. I won't allow anyone to take you away, for any reason. I can think of no-one, between you and Mai, that I would sooner mark with my esteem, if that's what you need to hear."

She looks startled. Then a little flustered, and shrinks back.

"... You shouldn't say things you can't-" She starts, uneasily.

You interrupt, taking hold of her arms, and rapidly invading her personal space, pressing her against the wall.

".... Go on." You whisper into her ear. "Keep telling me... what I can, and can't, do. I love it when people do that..."

She shivers in place, and...

Back. In the box.

... you press lips gently into her forehead, arms wrapped around her, as her breath hitches for just a moment.

"I won't let anyone take you away from me, Ty Lee." You say again, before pulling away. "... ah. And you have heard, I presume, what the gossips speculate my reason for collecting beautiful young women around me might be?"

"Ahaha.... Kind of heart, hard, to miss, I mean." She stammers. "It's funny, though. I mean, it doesn't take long to tell that any kind of physical intimacy without a lot of lead-up to it makes you shiver... and, uh, usually not in the good way. Sorry."

Well. It is the truth, after all.

No matter. Ty Lee doesn't seem to want to leave just yet, though it doesn't make much difference. You plan to spend today in training, or at least in beginning to work things out to determine how much effort it will take to achieve the desired results.

---

[ ] Train what, with who, and how?
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[x] Sparring and ideas.

For now...

Combat. You manage to get ahold of Uncle, even. To be perfectly honest, you've been really curious about how you match up against Iroh.

He doesn't move much, always just barely enough to get out of the way, but he's always right where he needs to be to not be hit.

It's incredibly frustrating, even as you take into the air, and then launch Hunting Dragons.

You'd like to see him dodge that.

In the end, he doesn't need to. He just holds up his hand, and then closes it into a fist. And all the fires you're using just go out, like he had pinched at a candle wick. Your wings, even, gutter out, a shocking enough development that you start to fall poorly.

Iroh catches you. By the neck, sure, but he does, and sets you more evenly on the ground.

"Most refreshing, Azula." He says, cheerily. "You show a great deal of promise. But you seem to have forgotten, as many do, that one of the very first lessons in firebending is how to put fires out. Snuffing a flame burning with another's chi is a significantly more complex matter than dousing a campfire or burning house, but it is far from impossible. Ah, but these old bones could use a short rest. Perhaps one of the servants could bring tea?"

The Zuul girl isn't present. You aren't sure you want to know how she would have responded to the old man just shutting you down with such casual ease. You're still feeling rattled.

You take a rest yourself, recovering. Fire's strength is not endurance. That's earth, and Toph's thing. She just takes one fight after another without stopping, casually displaying rough caricatures of men ripped up from stone that she had apparently been working on 'to make training more interesting, 'cause just pulling up a pillar and then letting people throw fire at it gets hella boring after a while'. Her stone men will shatter and be cleaved apart easily as any normal stone, but it gives her an opportunity to put people through their paces while seated in a stone throne.

The little showoff.

By noon, you're working with other matters, and Ozai has arrived to hold a heated, though quiet, discussion with Iroh on some matter of political importance. Ty Lee and Mai are having a break, and Zuko just cuts through stone men as fast as Toph can bring them up out of the ground.

You have a few minutes to play with things.

You've already seen how making fire behave as water works out. You'll have to dissect Zuul's battle style before you work it out much further, or try anything on your own. Similarly, earth doesn't seem to behave much like flame at all. it doesn't move much, unless there is enough fire in it to flow....

You've memorized that airbending form, though. You haven't attempted to practice it, but now would be a decent time.

Air is freedom. Call the fires, but... not restrained and tightly controlled. Let them.. go. You can put them back out, if soemthing happens.

Flashy.

Lots of flash. Little substance. Distracting, is how it works out. But you don't think that it would be hard to endure and punch through them. Maybe if you needed to make a blatant show of 'power' to cover your escape, or draw more attention to yourself.

Hrm.

.... Well, you don't have just fire to use, though. And initially, a circular motion is required to call the lightning.

You draw it up, and gather it into your hands, and spin into a whirling dervish of mayhem, crackling arcs catching and licking into everything within range, exhausting you a little as they come to a stop.

No. As you come to a stop.

They keep going, crackling and arcing around each other and gathering together, to-

"Azula!" Iroh howls. "Get away from it!"

it's an echo of what the butterfly is screaming.

But too late. A great blue hand has already emerged, and you have only managed to draw the sword of iron, recognizing it for if not who then what it is, spirit, huge damned spirit, before it clasps hold upon you.

An enormous head peers out of the widening hole of lightning. You recognize it... not by name, but the being is featured in plays and drama through both Fire and Earth.

The Blue Spirit, horned and fanged, in more or less the shape of a man.

Ozai's lighting bolt strikes square between its eyes, and sparks only laughter. You drive the sword into the fleshy portion of hand between finger and thumb, and seem to only amuse it further, as black smoke rises from the wound.

"Little dragon whelpling. You have done... much, to seek my attention." it booms, thunderously.

---

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[x] Welp.

Polite. Very polite. But not submissive, or inviting or implying deals or agreements. Difficult. If you tell it to 'be welcome', it could decide to stay welcome.

The fairy isn't much help, mostly just whimpering at the back of your skull. Which bodes very well for everything that is about to happen, of course.

Well, the sword is just creating more gouts of smoke at this point. You tug it loose and hold it carefully away.

"Elder Spirit..." You begin, mind whirling in the search for words. Damn. Can't ask what it's doing here, or you weaken your own position. As much as it can be further weakened, with you clutched in its hand like a tiny doll. "... I would hear your name."

"I am. Raijin. God of all storm-cast lightning and crashing thunders, all fallen within my dominion. You. Have trespassed."

Well.

It was a good life, you suppose, while it lasted.

"You will earn my favor. Or you will die in the attempt. Seek me at the peak of the mountain of eternal storm. Attempt to flee this trial... and there are others, waiting and most eager to cross your path."

The arm starts rapidly withdrawing through the portal.

Zuko does... something, swinging his swords. Cuts the air in front of him? And passes the distance between himself and the portal twice as fast as anyone else, still stunned and just rousing to action, or in Ozai's case, white faced and uncertain at the utter failure of his opening blow.

The dao come down on Raijin's forearm, with a snarl. It laughs, mockingly, as they fail to even scrape against the skin.

"Impudent little wretch." Raijin booms, almost, but not quite, fondly. You are within, now, and the portal shrinks down to nothing just hairs away from Ty Lee's leaping, grasping fingers. "But you, I have no interest in. Begone, little insect, and crawl your way out of the darkness or die in despair."

"Zuko!" You yell, as Raijin brushes him carelessly aside, and his wings fail to come. In the end, you have no choice at all. This is the spirit world, without bending, and with dao crafted of steel, Zuko has no defenses.

You sling your sword through the air, and it spirals down before he snags it by the handle. Then both he and the swords disappear into the murky darkness below.

You snarl, a bit, before Raijin flings you aside as well.

And then, without traveling the distance in between, you're in an outcropping of stone at the base of a tall mountain. The fairy is sitting on your shoulder and groaning, clutching at her head, and rain isn't so much pouring down as 'there's just enough air between all this water for you to breathe, barely'. She looks significantly larger than you recall from your first meetings... and markedly less incandescent. Could do with some clothes.

Not like your own are doing much good. You had basically an eyeblink's time before you were as sodden as if you'd dived into the ocean.

The crashing booms of thunder and lightning above are deafening enough that you have trouble even thinking.

.... Cold. The chill of the rain is already seeping into your bones. You huff out a bit of flame, warming yourself as much as you can, but are left contemplating the much diminished and damped down fire that results.

Oh boy.

This is certainly going to be... fun.

---

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[x] The climb.

---

You pant, in the darkness, gripping Azula's sword tightly.

Iron. You had your doubts, you'll admit. You hadn't ever seen an honest spirit before, unless the Avatar counts. But there shouldn't be anything that iron can cut, that good steel wouldn't bite just as deeply into.

And yet, where this sword bit deep, fine steel just... glanced off, without finding any sort of purchase.

... It's so dark, here.

The fires just won't come, and you can hear skittering and chittering in every direction.

".... Agni." You say, softly. "Bless and aid one of your favored. Please."

A thin beam of sunlight pierces down through the gloom. You almost wish it hadn't from the things that are revealed. Some of them as simple as just oversized wriggling and crawling insects, some... you feel your mind clawing at itself, just a little, from the sight of them.

... The fires still do not come.

'Even Agni cannot protect you everywhere, boy. Especially not here.'

You breathe.

And then you spin, blade swinging in an arc and cleaving something apart mid-leap, as the surroundings hiss, angrily.

---

"Focus." you snap at the fairy, shaking her lightly.

.... She doesn't look good. All of this rain is making you wet, and cold, and miserable, but her... she's not a strong enough fire, yet, to avoid being doused by a rain like this, you realize. She'll be put out.

You snarl angrily and stuff her into your shirt, hunching over as you start off. You can't do much to keep her totally warm and dry, but you can at least let most of the rain run off of your back. It's not even sentimentality. If she is extinguished, then your own fires are going to go with her. And then you'll be stuck here, alone, in the pouring rain and cold wind, with not even a chunk of edged iron to use in your defense as you slowly die of exposure.

Or maybe you'll be hit by one of the bolts of lightning that crackle through the clouds like catapult shot crashing towers to the ground, sometimes smashing down into boulders. Yes, that's just the sort of end to the perfect day this is shaping up to be that you would expect.

You start walking.

... Everything vibrates, with every crash of thunder. And you have only a moment for your ears to start ringing from one boom before the next begins.

Stone is slick and treacherous from the rain. Dirt is mud, and the slightest unwary footstep draws you down past the knee into the nearly fluid muck. And of course, you cannot fly. The rain does not douse all of your wings at once, but the constant pouring tears great holes in them, shredding them apart and wearying you as they try to reform only to be constantly shredded back into nothing.

You are very quickly starting to hate the rain.

All things considered, it seems to take you hours to carefully move a distance that should have taken... not even minutes, but only moments.

The power of fire is not in its endurance. Even with everything you can do, you are starting to get dangerously cold yourself, and you can only burn so much chi before you have to stop, and sit, and rest to recover it.

... A campfire beckons from a stony alcove, hardly even a cave, merely a small space in the stone walls sheltered from the rain. You stumble in.

An old man awaits, clad in feathers and stirring something in a great pot. He smiles warmly and welcomingly at you, as you lean against the wall, breathing deeply and exulting in being, once more, warm.

"Do you hunger?" The man asks politely. "Flesh pot holds much. Eat."

"... no..." the fairy whispers limply, from the vicinity of your chest. Just barely enough to hear. "... taste not, trap..."

Senses sharpened by the warning and on the alert, you look more closely at the contents of the pot.

For just a moment, before it sinks back below the bubbling surface, you think you see a hairy toe. The being before you has already scooped out stewed and unidentifiable chunks into a stone bowl.

One bowl. He does not serve himself, but presses it forward and onto you.

"Eat." he says again, less politely, and with more of the force of a demand behind the word.

---

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[x] Little scuffle

"... Not interested." you say flatly.

"Eat, or I will kill you and cast both you and the tiny flame you carry out into the storm." the thing says, points of red forming in his eyes as his skin and flesh begins to... shift, just a little bit, melting into the consistency and appearance of molten tar.

"Why?"

"I hunger." Is the response. "I only may feed upon those who have tasted flesh like unto their own flesh. Eat."

So, your choice is either to be killed and thrown out to wash down the slope and into muddy puddles, or to partake in cannibalism and then be eaten yourself.

You don't really like these choices.

You'll make another one.

You reach down and take up the bowl... then fling the contents into the creature's leering and waiting face.

It howls, and you blast it with fire... such as you can manage at the moment. Lunging and twisting.

Your palms burn from touching the thing, but you shove. And it topples over, still yelling angrily, into the great pot. Fluid and flesh splash over the sides as it takes the place of some of the contents, rising up and screaming as there is a sizzling noise. You bang it in the head with the lid, dropping it for a moment back beneath the surface, and then slap it down, flipping up catches to hold the lid in place.

It shakes angrily, and you are worried that the latches will not hold, for a moment. So you take rocks and weigh the lid down, before you blast fire at the base of the pot, heating the alcove many times more than it was before.

The pot shakes violently and falls over, popping open to reveal the tarry thing, screeching like a wounded animal and scrabbling its way out into the rain. There is hate in those eyes, before it is gone.

The stone pot is broken, now, and the fire the thing had made has gone out, with stew and bits splashed all over it. From the light of occasional flashes in the clouds, you can make out...

Unpleasant things, about the stew's composition.

The fairy groans weakly. If human, you would wonder if she were sick.

---

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[x] Rest and Recovery.

---

There seems no end to them. Cut one down, and two more drag it away from the light to consume it, and a third takes its place.

They don't seem to be so eager to be the next to jump out at you, though, after the fates of the last dozen or so. Doesn't hurt that they can really be hurt, here.

You're afraid, sure.

But it seems as though the little darklings aren't immune to fear themselves.

.... between one breath and the next, the chittering and noises of insectile armor scraping against itself becomes both softer... and louder.

Oh.

This is a big one. Outmasses a pair of komodo rhinos, easily. Crawling along the ground, pincers, stinger raised overhead.

Looks kind of like a scorpion wasp. Only without the wasp. Scorpion spider as well, only still not quite right.

The smaller ones retreat as it approaches. It catches one that is slightly too slow, and tears it apart with those claws, consuming it.

"I am the shadow of a moonless light, filling the dreams of men with fright. I am the who, when called 'who is there?', I am the strange breeze that chills through still air."

"Save it for someone who cares about poetry." You grunt, shifting the grip on Azula's sword.

"Cast aside your sword, human, and your death will be swift, and I shall see to it that you are not fed upon... until after."

You bare your teeth in a savage grin.

"You want it? Take it from me." You hiss, readying yourself.

Smoke rises from the chitinous tail, as you turn the stinger's thrust aside with Azula's sword.

---

You scoop what you can of the... mess, into what is left of the pot. The little alcove doesn't really contain anything else, just craggy stone and dampened wood. One dropped feather, from the head-dress.

You spark that into flame, and do what you can to get the fire going again. Let your clothes get dry again before venturing into the storm once more.

The fairy is shivering in place against you, with an unnatural cold.

"... too much wet..." she mumbles blearily. "... nearly doused. Burn. Need to burn...."

Wordlessly, you drop her into the fire, then feed it up further, waiting.

It's not too long before she rises up from the flame, looking, at the very least, healthier than she had been. Also, on fire.

"Doesn't that hurt?" you wonder aloud.

"I am flame." is the response given. But the licking fires fade back beneath her skin, though you might have preferred they stay. They at least provided some form of coverings. While you are hardly unfamiliar with forms, there is a difference between attire acceptable in the baths, and elsewhere.

"... diminished, much..." she croaks, hinting that that was not entirely by choice. "Eternal storm is death, for one such as I. Need.... flesh of men holds some of power of men, which cannot be brought outside of the flesh. But consumed... the Tamanous would prey upon you. Wendigo, were they here, would make of you one of their own. I hold no such vulnerability."

You idly wave her to it. You know you aren't going to touch any of it. You politely turn your head aside as well, smell of spiced meat lingering in your nostrils as crunches and meaty noises fill the alcove.

Your stomach twists. You somewhat resent the hunger, to tell the truth. Damn. Breakfast was light, and you hadn't stopped for lunch quite yet when all of this...

"Cannot escape alone." The fairy says, wiping the back of her hand against a clean mouth. She doesn't look much different, save maybe a slight growth in size, not nearly enough to account for all of the... meat, that is now gone. "Eternal storm will douse all but the brightest and hottest of fire. Great Wind Spirit Fuujin laments, greatly, the loss of his monks."

"Raijin, not so much..." you muse, focusing on what the fairy did not say.

"Not much." the fairy agrees. "Weak are meat. Strong eat. Grand Raijin does not lament the deaths of those who would not struggle to live. Some. Not all. Not so deeply as Fuujin."

She frowns, contemplatively.

"Will not survive to the peak." She decides. "Fires must be fed, to live. Humans recover. But humans need rest, and food, to recover. Not so direct as power given, returned, or used up. Wrath of Fuujin has made the storms greater than before, by far."

There is a slightly speculative glint in her eyes. Considering. You suppose you can understand why. Her situation, much as your own, is... grim. If you don't make it to the peak, she's alone, and dies in the storm. If you try to leave, you're fairly sure that there are those eagerly waiting for you to try. She might survive that. Or they might destroy her as well. You don't think you'll make the attempt. Either way, she cannot leave this alcove without your aid, or the driving rain will put her out as readily as any torch.

You wish you had thought to strap your pouch of stars back on, after gathering them in the wake of your bout with Mai. It would make things a little simpler for you. At least a few extra weapons, no matter how small.

---

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[x] Inspection.

The stone pot and lid were huge. Now they're fairly well shattered and broken apart into much smaller bits.

There aren't really any bits that would suit the purpose of keeping the rain off even the fairy, though some look sharp-ish. But still fragile.

Your fires, as you test them, don't seem like they're hot enough to melt stone just at the moment.

"Stop, stop. You must not, without need." the fairy hisses. "My powers grow, but even were you to burn all your life away, I would not survive an attempt to leave this place."

... Well, that's more focused on her problems, you guess, but you can't deny that you're starting to really want some food and a quiet place to take a nap. Not that either can really be trusted in this place.

"We won't survive alone. I need all of the power and knowledge you can give me, if we want to get above the clouds." You manage, after a moment.

The fairy exhales in a soft and slow hiss.

"You ask... much."

---

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[x] Negotiation.

"You are useful. And need is great, for both of us." You reply, blandly. "If you have ideas, I would hear them. We are, after all, not prone to accidental deals. I advise you speak very forthrightly and honestly."

"haaaah..." the fairy muses slowly. "To take your body for my own... I would survive the rains, but the contract would be broken, and my existence would be in peril. For us to become one... it is much the same, though not quite. All that is I would become you, and all that you are would be joined with myself. Devoured, you would be, as utterly as a drop of the ocean in a vast desert. My power is diminished, but there is weight behind me. The contract... may not be broken, perhaps. But I feel it doubtful that you would agree to this."

The fairy considers, seated in the low fires. ... She looks slightly uncomfortable.

"... Yes, your body could stand between the storms and I, through one means or another. But I am not powerful enough, and yet too powerful. All that is is not as it seems: my flesh might feed you as the meat of beasts, and reduce myself in stature. I am loathe to progress along this course, though I would likely survive, provided you traveled at great speed and disgorged that which remained with all haste. Unpleasant. But survivable. Though... one does not consume such without risks. That which thou art will to some degree change. And though my power will return through our compact, and I heal, I am... hesitant."

You can understand why. In a choice between certain and merely likely death, likely is the safer bet, but you would also hesitate if forced to make such a choice.

"Even so. To diminish myself... I am equally loathe to cast aside my own power, a portion of my very Self, without the gravest of need. ... though given to you, it will not sate hunger, but it will restore your energies, and more. And that which remains between that which will be required and that which must be cast out to reduce my Self at need, to hide myself from the falling waters with a shield of thy flesh.... thy beloved one would indeed be grateful for such a boon, in time of need."

You grow still.

"... Time of need?" You say, slowly. "Is Zuko in trouble? How do you know-"

"This world is not like unto thine own. That which is is not as it might be, and that which appears may not be that which is here, but that which is elsewhere. You wish to see? Turn your gaze away from here, and look there."

The instruction makes no sense.

Only somehow, it does. You turn your head, and instead of an alcove amidst the pouring rain, you seem to be looking out upon...

Darkness. Zuko, in the center of a ring of... creatures. Fighting powerfully against a thing very much like a massive, black scorpion spider.

"It would be more suitable, in thy eyes, to send my power to one in need of it, correct?" The fairy says, as the world fades back into the place where you are. Or where you think you are? "Though with no contract, still it would not return to me. But such might be endured. Though, in turn, should we both live, I would ask of thee a small thing."

---

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[x] Further negotiation.

"... Exactly what manner of small thing would you request?" you ask, slowly.

The fairy is, after all, still a known danger even if she is reasonably... friendly. If that is the word to use.

She hems and haws, but slowly wilts under a stern glare.

"When first you become joined with a man." she says. "Then shall I take my fee of thee."

"I did not ask when, Yosei." You say, flatly. "I will not consider a deal, without having it explained in full."

"Have you the time to mince words, whilst thy beloved one is in peril...?" The fairy asks, speculatively.

You scowl.

"... I trust Zuko. Enough to not get himself killed, at least in the brief time it will take for you to be clear about what it is you seek."

She pouts in turn. But after a long moment, answers.

"I shall be there, when thou art joined. And from thy coupling shall I craft a body of flesh for my own, to use as I please."

"Denied." you say, flatly. "I will not stand aside as you kill an infant, even unborn-"

"Thy misinterpretation of my words cuts deep." The fairy says, sorrowfully, or in an admirable affectation of it. "I would craft it for myself of the tiniest portion of thee and thy lover, indeed. But I would not be destroying the life of another to create my own. If there is no child meant to be born of that union, than I alone shall form a body in thy womb. If a mortal child results.... I am not so jealous as to deny it. And I shall not spring forth from thy womb alone. And thy contract shall not be denied. Ever still shall I be with thee... merely shall I have a form of flesh for mine own use."

.... you are uncertain about this.

"Can thy time be afforded, to consider the cost? Thy beloved one's might already dims." the fairy says, pointedly. "Is thy certainty so sure, that he cannot fall in battle, no matter the odds arrayed?"

---

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[x] Further hashing of details.

"I could build you a shrine." you suggest.

"Peh. Wood and stone markers. A shrine, I already have. You have seen it."

"... Not that sort of a shrine." You correct, recalling the lump of carved stone. "More of... a small temple. You should know that the Fire Sages will not appreciate further bargains with you in any case, and they-"

"Think you that I have not walked, before, brushing shoulders with even the most spiritually adept of men? There is much which is concealed by flesh. They think that such a thing would be obvious. Only if I were fool enough to make it so, before my power had grown enough to defend myself. In any case, I have no need nor desire for such a thing."

.... well, that's one reasonable argument for denying her, shot.

"... I will offer you similar to your own offer, a chance, for a chance."

"A body for a life is what I offer." The fairy corrects. "Spirits of shadow and night and fear are... most vulnerable to heat and flame and fury. My power will ensure that your beloved one escapes the darkest depths and returns to where the light of Agni may shine a little brighter, and guide his path to escape. Chance enters not into matters. Upon that gift, the survival of thy loved one to escape from his current peril is guaranteed, may my fires gutter out and die if I say falsely."

.... You are given pause. She seems very certain of that. Enough, at least, to wager her own existence on it.

".... I will offer you the opportunity, before I die, to offer the binding we now share to another, agreed between us both. One offer. If they refuse, there will be no other." You press on.

"I reject this offer." The fairy says flatly, crossing her arms. "It is as I have said, my power is a surety. A certainty. I will not offer a certain thing against an uncertain possibility."

Your teeth grind.

"I have learned some little of mankind during my time walking among you. I am eager. But I will not be so desperate as to agree to an offer which can easily bring nothing to me." She continues. "..... I will not be born first of your womb. Second, instead."

You take a moment to consider.

"... I will offer those born of my line the opportunity to form a compact with you, to draw upon your flames and empower you as they do Agni, as you watch and feel through them, but do not speak or attempt to take any bodies for your own, or make any deals other than this."

The fairy closes her eyes, seeming to deeply consider the offer. Then she opens them.

"I will be thy seventh child." she counter-offers, slight grin present. "And your word I will have, that you will bear six children before me."

You have to stop to consider this.

If you have seven children, the youngest is almost certainly going to have no chance for the throne, with six elder siblings.

Six.... Ty Lee has six elder sisters. There is something different about her, that she can see Auras, where none of her siblings, nobody else you have ever met, can say the same.

There is something important about being a seventh child. Something that the fairy considers almost as good as being the first or second in line to inherit the entire world after you.

You balk, a little.

"No." You say, flatly. And think for other ideas. Unfortunately, few readily come.

.... There is no way you are going to offer for her to be born a dragon. Which reminds you of further clarification and conditions.

"Third human child. After the elder two are determined healthy and are assured to live to childhood. Should one miscarry, or simply fail to survive infancy, as they sometimes do, then another human child will be born until there are two healthy children before you."

The fairy is nodding, eagerly. But you hold up your hand and contnue.

"You will not, at any time, be eligible for the throne." You say, flatly. "And if you desire to walk in the world of men? You will act as a human, and not as a spirit in human form. You will obey the laws of humans, and you will listen and heed all of my commands and instruction. You will not, under any circumstances, reveal yourself to be what you are, any more than a normal child. Further, your mortal body will die after a span of... no more than eighty years, or until I myself die, whichever comes first, and you will return to as you were before."

The fairy is scowling, now, at all the restrictions. But still considering.

"Last." She says, after a few long and uncomfortable moments. "Until eighty years from my birth, or your own death... whichever comes last. With that correction, your terms are.... acceptable." She finishes, grudgingly.

You don't see that that is a big issue. If you live less than eighty years, after, then there is still a fixed time limit, and if you live longer, then she still dies at the moment you do, and there will be no risk of people trying to make her inherit. In any case, with your commands unquestionable, there should be no chance of her getting up to the sort of casual atrocities she displayed without need.

Of course, there is always a chance to vent such impulses, in war or the hunting of brigands. And so long as any mischief gotten up to is legitimately childish and excusable...

You steeple your fingers, considering, and try not to think of how Zuko is currently faring.

---

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[x] Finalization and agreement.

"Whichever comes first. I will hold my ground." You say, sternly.

The fairy scowls, darkly. ... Then she smiles.

"It is not my desire to take... gross advantage of the clash in bargains." She says, slowly. "I will offer an adjustment. Not one thing or another, but I shall have the body unto the very moment of your death. And I will do what I may to defend your life... as a dutiful child."

"Without interfering in my personal business or freedoms." You stipulate, harshly. The last thing you need is to be locked away in a nice, safe basement dungeon somewhere...

"... Indeed. As thy sheild, and not as they jailor. It is only good sense. The longer, then, that you live... the longer I continue to walk in the land of men. A reasonable compromise, is it not?"

You muse over it.

"And then... with your end come, and your death passed, and our business of your life concluded. Perhaps I will thence call upon your shade, that we might discuss business once more?" the fairy muses in turn. "Thou art... a prudish sort, and vexingly loathe to amuse thyself in interesting ways. Even so. I find thy company agreeable enough. Perhaps once thou hast lost thine grip and purchase upon thy flesh, it need not be the end of our... companionship. Think you that it is a simple matter to leave this place, once lost the ties of flesh to find the path back? Were it so easy, not so many ancient bones would yet rest in thy halls of Fire Lords past."

You frown, not certain about what she's driving at.

"... Even so, this be a discussion for other times." The fairy decides. "All previous limitations, to end upon thy death as my body passes with thine. And I will go so far as to say that thou shalt not be held at fault for failure to uphold thine part of the bargain should you fall in its pursuit, so long as thou does make the attempt, and plan, to follow through with thine side. Other spirits, they who have not walked in the realm of men... would not be so understanding as I, that sometimes the world of man is not kind. Should thy end come before my flesh be born, I will even protect thine spirit, such as I might... from the consequences of that failure. Thou art fortunate indeed, that it is I with whom thou art bargaining."

Something crawls along your spine like ice at the words. You'd actually been considering, in the back of your mind just... going ahead and not trying any more, after the first two.

You had half realized, though, that that was a bad idea. This simply confirms it.

"Then we have an accord? Speak you the words." The fairy says.

.... you take a deep breath. Then, three times, you declare your intent to bargain, and the fairy answers the call. You say the terms, outlined specifically and as agreed, with no loopholes for either of you to take advantage of. The third child, and obedient, and all the rest.

She agrees, and you feel a subtle weight seem to settle into place.

Then she breathes, deeply, a few times... and begins to scream in the most gut-wrenching agony you could have imagined, as her own power starts to rip and shred its way painfully and nauseatingly out of her form. She shrinks, as the mass grows, then splits.

And she collapses, barely able to move, and breathing raggedly, as one mass shoots away, elsewhere, to Zuko... and one comes to you.

... hot.

So warm, burning, you feel like there is a fire within you, flickering along every length of nerve and you can see your hands, the skin is turning subtly red, and darker, as though you had been too long in the sun.

"Protect what remains of me... heh... mother..." The fairy rasps. "... swallow not... what is left, I would not long last..."

You pick up the tiny figure, faint remaining glow no longer to be able to be contained beneath her skin as she hangs limply from your fingers, and you drop her into your mouth, where she will be safe, as your whole body trembles.

She clutches tightly at your tongue as you step out into the rain and steam rises from your skin as water evaporates almost on contact with you.

It feels like you're burning from the inside out. One patch of your wrist does erupt into flame, for a brief moment, before the falling waters douse it and then steam away from the heat of your skin.

You have to move. Quickly. You can suddenly take the mountain at much greater speed, burning off the overly-packed load of power as you shoot across the ground, and kick off against stones that steam dried and relatively safe as your feet approach.

It seems to be merely an eyeblink before you've reached the level of clouds.

Though, already, you are starting to tire somewhat. Fire is not endurance. But you need only to clear the cloud levels and you have reached the home stretch.

The pain seems to have not entirely left her body, as the fairy continues to twitch, and squirm, and then spasm wretchedly within your mouth as echoes of it surge through her limbs, before she returns once more to limpness.

Your tongue burns, as it so happens. She tastes of intense spice. No matter. You can't focus on another's misery right now.

You have to focus on dodging lightning.

There is the briefest crackle from the end point, just an eyeblink's time before the bolts crash out of the clouds around you and into the mountain stone. That brief forewarning is usually all you get to get out of the way.

It's enough. Barely. But enough, for you to pass by as long as you keep moving. You can't stop. If you stop before you reach your destination, you're dead.

Your limbs are already starting to ache and tire.

But the world grows bright around you, as you crest through the highest points of the clouds, and break through, to above.

The air is suddenly thin, and breathing is difficult. But it is bright, and it is dry, and before you are steps leading up to carved stone structures of the peak, rather than the slippery and treacherous goat paths that you would have been delighted, a moment ago, to have had.

You spit the fairy out into your hand, and watch as she twitches, covered in slight wetness. Nothing you could have done about that. Though it doesn't seem to have harmed her, as the rain would have.

".... that as I am is not the same as the flesh of man." she murmurs to herself, a tone of annoyance in her rasp. "not close enough. Not enough... kkh..."

True, you suppose. The rain would not have simply rolled off of her back, as she is.

---

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[x] Grand Raijin.

---

You're sunk. You can already feel an aching in your legs and arms that suggest it isn't long before you fall down. You've trained until you dropped enough times, on the Phoenix Flower.

And the iron hurts it.

There's a little puff of smoke and chittering hiss, every time the blade glances against the chitin.

But it doesn't hurt enough, and the natural armor is too strong, the blad refuses to sink through... might be just as well, it could catch, and then you're really f-

Damn.

Damn.

The thing has caught the blade in one pincer. A twist, even as it smokes, brings a loud crack...

And you barely manage to twist away from the stinger again, as you pull back a few fingerwidths of blade attached to a handle.

Well.

'Your flesh will be all the sweeter for the struggles you have made, all the more tender...' the... just scorpion, you suppose, croons, as the rest of the blade clinks and spins away into the darkness.

Everything seems to stop.

And then a bolt of light and flame falls from the heavens, crashing into you with all the force of a swooping dragon behind it, or so it seems.

'Your beloved one sends a gift, in need...' the whisper echoes through your head, as...

Yes.

You can feel the fire.

What's left of Azula's sword erupts into flame, as the scorpion screeches in sudden mortal terror, and it cleaves through the tail and drops the stinger to the ground as though it was never there at all.

It freezes in place, seeming undecided about whether to rush to the desperate attack, or skitter away in fright as its underlings are doing at the sight of flame.

You make a few quick estimates. You think you see the way out of here. ... What is beyond?

You guess you have enough... power, for a solid five minutes of firebending. After that, you're a man with a broken sword.

You have to conserve that strength for as long as possible. You don't know what else is out there.

Which means....

... Sorry, Azula. You can only hope that you don't screw this up. You're not good with words, and people, like she is. ... of course, that might not hinder you much, here.

"Now that the pleasantries are out of the way." You say softly, fire glimmering and then going out, conserving your energy for as long as possible. "We can begin to bargain in earnest."

There is a long moment of silence, before the black scorpion hisses once more.

'I will hear your words, mortal. You have proven yourself... dangerously worthy of my time.'

You smile, grimly.

---

You tear a bit of sleeve off and wrap it around the little fairy, before igniting both.

"... Much obliged." she croaks, floating up to collapse on your shoulder again.

You continue to climb through the thin air. Breathing remains a little difficult... how did those monks stand it? Maybe the temples weren't this high. There's a thought. Jin usually flies fairly low, though that's more for reassurance that if something goes wrong, the ship would have less of a distance to fall, and more of it might be scavenged and the ship might be more easily rebuilt from the wreckage.

Booming voices sound from ahead, as a pair of old men with spiked clubs argue with one another.

"She is of the blood that have killed our nomads." The one clad in red snaps.

"Nomads. Feh. Monks and pacifists." the blue robed man snorts.

"Our monks and pacifists!"

"It is the law of nature. The weak are meat! And the strong eat well. I do not mourn those who will not take lives to extend their own."

"Some did."

"Aye. So some did. Few, far too few. Those, I mourn. The rest? Pah. Dared they to appear before me and beg aid, I would have slain the lot myself."

"Bah. Ever were you a fool who would not consider the counsel of others. Do as you please, brother. But she shall not have my blessing."

"Then let her go without it! I care not. The winds will answer the call of my power just as well as to yours, they are so accustomed."

The red clad man waves an arm angrily and stalks off. His glare, when his eyes set upon you, is poison and death.

But he does not raise hand against you as he stalks past, and you feel as though you were a small vermin being passed over by a great and slavering polar bear.

It is the man in blue who clasps his hand upon the top of your head.

"You have survived. Good. Good. And so have you earned my favor. That of Raijin, the thunder and lightning of the storm!" The old man booms.

And electricity crackles angrily through all of your very veins.

You gasp, as his hand pulls away.

"Agni's grip upon you is deep. The children you bear... perhaps not." Raijin says. "You, I will allow that I cannot wholly claim as one of mine. Those who follow... Perhaps they will be of Agni, or of Raijin, or of both, or neither. It is... greatly unlikely that we shall agree once more to share one of your line, who we both take interest in."

You aren't sure what to say. Maybe "Thank you?"

"Where would you go, from here?" Raijin asks.

---

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[x] Homeward bound.

"... Zuko. Then home." You decide.

Almost immediately, stones to the side shift, forming a stair. You glance at Raijin.

The.... don't cut any corners, God is a good enough term, and he definitely has the power to back it up... just snorts.

"You think I did that?" He asks. "This realm is... mutable, and in many ways, both convenient and a constant source of vexation, for those who travel in it from one place to another. Decide your path, and go. You will probably reach what you seek."

Well. That is, to a degree, reassuring.

You guess you just have to trust that the nonsense travel accomodations will either work or deposit you in a simple fight to the death. Really, you'd be fine with either at this point. This trial has been markedly aggravating, with barely the one opportunity for violence to be enacted.

You walk along the stones, and they dip down into the clouds. But not into a storm. Into fog, and then out the other side....

You are nowhere near any mountains. Just a ridge near a massive hole in the ground filled with black gloom blocking any form of light, and a pathway leading down into the depths.

Zuko steps out of it, and pauses at the sight of you, then holds up the iron... what's left of the iron sword.

You politely touch it, and his shoulders relax a little when no black smoke rises from the contact.

"I have... a couple of confessions to make." he begins.

"Save them. We can discuss matters later. For now, it would be wise for us to leave." You reply.

"Yeah. ... how?" He asks.

You take a moment to think.

.... Well. It makes no sense, but on the other hand, things apparently don't have to make sense here, so that might well be a mark in its favor.

"Lightning brought us here. Lightning will bring us out." You say, and move your hands.

Arcing white crackles in a loop, forming into a circle before you, and expanding as you push it forward.

It doesn't make sense, particularly given that you have no damn idea what you're doing, but you can see the castle courtyard on the other side of that loop.

You take Zuko's hand and step through.

"Mind the edges." You call back. They're live voltage, after all.

The door winks shut behind you.

And then Ty Lee tackles you to the ground, sobbing, and accidentally toppling Zuko as well. The hilt scrapes across the stone, away from him.

"... I'm okay, too." he points out dryly, after a long moment of wretched and inconsolable blubbering nonsense.

"Don't look at me." Toph says, as Mai waves a hand. "I'm not ultra-affectionate."

"I don't think she can hear a thing right now." You admit. "Get over here if you want. And someone get me an Agni-blasted sandwich, or I'm going to have to shoot down a bird."

---

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[x] foodenings.

You pat Ty Lee hesitantly on the back, even as she...

Oh, good. This outfit is thoroughly ruined. More-so than just tearing off the sleeve left it, anyway.

"... That cannot have happened." Ozai is groaning, softly and horrified, as though the world had turned all upside down, and he'd woken up in the morning to discover that monks and nuns had invaded the nation in force, and were giving no quarter. "That thing... it made no sense, came from nowhere, left to nowhere. I don't... spirits don't exist-."

"The Fire Sages are talented in their work, to keep the world of men and the world of spirits separate, as much as they can." Iroh soothes. "And for the most part, it is effective. Lesser spirits cannot interfere, save in ways and places that are either too subtle to be noticed and defended against, or where and how they do not think to erect defenses. Of course, if a greater spirit feels the interest and need to make its presence known... well, even the most mighty of human defenses may only prove to slow it down."

....

Apparently, they think you were joking.

A crackling bolt of lightning spearing through the heavens, and a flash-cooked sea raven falling from the sky to impact the stone near you, disabuses them of that notion.

They don't let you eat it, though. But while you have to wait a little longer, food prepared by chefs is more easily palatable.

It seems that, in the real world, you were gone for less than five minutes. Startling, as Zuko would have guessed an hour or two had passed, and you of course would have guessed at somewhere between five and seven.

Ty Lee just doesn't seem to want to be pried loose. She ends up falling asleep with a grip of steel, and you sort of... end up having to drag her around, like a limpet or barnacle. Until Rin draws a finger along her spine and loosens her shivering grip.

Ozai shifts off sharply, giving the impression that there are some things that he has to now contemplate, deeply. Certain political stances that he had taken, that he was now going to have to think about revoking, or reversing entirely.

You suspect that, in some ways, the Fire Sages are going to recieve a whole lot more freedoms to act, and at the same time be more heavily monitored and scrutinized than before.

Well.

You're exhausted anyway. Nothing stopping you from getting an early night.

"... About those confessions." You mumble, when Zuko arrives, rousing you from light slumber.

"I lost my dao. Broke your sword, accidentally. Sorry about that. Also..." He begins.

He bites his lower lip, then plucks at the shadow beyond the candle-light. Some of it pulls between his fingers, as though he had grabbed fabric.

"Can't really tell the Fire Sages about this." He says, quietly. "They're already upset enough about you... they really don't like dealing with spirits in any way, except for making them leave."

"... Hereditary?" You ask, simply, as the fairy listens with keen interest.

"It.... yes, no. It's complicated. I didn't give it an outright grasp." Zuko says. "It has a link to me, but anyone else.... they have to go through an involved process. Carve their name into a stone under the light of the full moon, then fill the carving with their own blood under the new moon, when it hangs black in the sky. Not the sort of thing that happens by accident. They'd have to really want to get ahold of it in order to."

You're a little relieved by that.

But it makes what you're about to say a little harder.

"... I had to make a deal as well. Beyond just Raijin... well. You... wanted children, right?" you ask. Slowly.

".... Oh. Tell me you didn't give-"

"No." You say, flatly. "But... some of my descendants are probably going to be airbenders. And after two children.... I've mentioned the fairy. She'll be building a body of her own... with a little bit of help."

Zuko squeezes your shoulder, gaze a little distant. Then he sighs.

"I really hope." He says. "That you know what you're doing."

Sleep is a little hard to reach, a second time. But Zuko is wearing his socks.

Dawn is refreshing, when it comes.

---

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[x] Business as usual?

Ty Lee grabs you the moment you see her, sniffling again, but mostly having gotten past the previous day's events.

She seems to be unwilling to let you get more than a few steps away from her, though, for any reason.

By contrast, Zuul...

She simply isn't here. There's a message left in her quarters, along with some smeared blood that hasn't yet been wiped up, nailed to the table with what takes you several long moments to recognize as a scalp between it and the wood.

Grand. Either lady Xin's replacement, or someone of similar temperament, chose to welcome the newcomer to the capital in style, you see.

The message is short, but simple.

Tailor didn't have anything she liked. She's going to handle the clothes problem on her own. Going to the large wooded island just outside of the harbor, across from the water gates. She'll be back... 'soon', apparently.

The message is written in still slightly-sticky blood. Wonderful. At earliest, she left sometime early last night, then. Still more than plenty time for someone really determined to get out of the capital by train, and across to that island, whether by boat or just swimming. You can't recall the names of the nobles in charge of sections of it.

Hopefully, nothing unfortunate is going to happen. You're fairly sure that the island houses one of those villages that aren't marked on maps, though you cannot be perfectly certain. What you do know is that one of the nobles imported wolves as a curiosity, having heard that they were somehow related to dogs, and attempted to domesticate them. In fact, he just accidentally set them loose on the island. You believe there's still a few packs roaming about it.

.... You don't seem to be able to get ahold of Ozai or Iroh at the moment. They are very busy, it seems. Somehow the conversation with Rin ends with you holding a hand on her belly as... something weakly attacks from the inside, desperately struggling for freedom, as Ty Lee coos.

You find it frankly disturbing, to be honest. Mildly alarming, even. But both of them are so excited and happy over it that you can't bring yourself to say anything.

You end up working things out on your own, for the moment. You recall the airbending form.

The trick is to make it so that you're bending, but not calling fire or lightning.

You don't need to call air. Air is already there. You just have to... move it.

And at the same time, not move it.

It's not like fire, which almost has to be violently throttled and choked into submission in order to be useful at all, and presents an ever-present danger, or lightning, which behaves similarly in many ways.

Air just... is. And the harder you try to clutch at it, the faster it slips out through your fingers.

It's frustrating, and even after a good couple of hours working at it, with the occasional accidental eruptions of flame or electricity, you can only barely force a slight breeze to blow. You thought you had managed more, but realize after coming to a stop that you were mistaken, it had actually been a natural and normal wind.

---

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[x] Air.

You don't really get what you're doing wrong. You spend all morning at it, before breaking for lunch, only to see no real greater effect in the bending.

Well, of bending the air, anyway.

Lightning, by contrast, seems to come forth twice as quickly and easily, with the drain from creating it simply slashed.

So you're good, there.

But the air... there's something you're missing. How is it that that nomad brat can effortlessly summon and control the winds to his whim, when you can barely make more than the puff of air that would come from swinging your arms?

The best result you get is one instance where you nearly blow yourself into a wall.

But that's not controlling the air. That's the wind controlling you. And that is unacceptable, you can't allow it.

You take a break over lunch, and then contemplate matters as you return to a few tentative experiments.

There seems to be nothing, really, stopping you from bringing forth fire and lightning at the same time, though both seem to be weakened by doing so.

---

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[x] Interesting things

A few further tentative experiments with the less draining and more responsive lightning show the beginning of some results, but you're definitely going to have to focus for longer than an hour or so to get after any of them.

The trick to dousing fire....

It's not even a technique. It's the barest of basics, inflated far and away beyond what it begins as. To put out the fires of another bender, you have to first overpower their own chi, that the flames feed on. And then you douse them as any other flame.

From what you can tell, there is no 'trick', or special maneuver to make it work. You just have to be.... stronger, massively stronger, than the person who's fires you are snuffing. It actually seems kind of useless for most purposes, on initial inspection. If you are already that much stronger, then you can effortlessly crush your opponent, and if they are strong enough to make such a technique worth the effort, then it won't work on them at all.

Really, it seems like it's only useful for people massively weaker than you are, who you don't want to hurt in...

You don't really feel like pursuing this thought much further, actually.

In any case.

You can't really blame Zuul for killing an assassin. Really, at that point, one of the involved parties dying is just tradition. Sometimes the assassin wins, sometimes the target does.

You should still have a talk with her.

... Whenever she gets back.

In the meantime... Avatar seems to have left the North Pole with a young woman in tow, at the most recent report. It looks like he's heading towards the northern air temple.

From what you recall, that one is inhabited. There is a rather skilled mechanist there, who has come to an agreement with the Nation and the war minister to trade his services in exchange for being left alone.

Well, at the very least, you can in theory send messenger hawks there without one of the northern tribesmen shooting it out of the sky, throwing the message into a campfire unread, and eating a well trained and reasonably expensive bird for dinner.

Swords are just a matter of giving a servant a list, and sending them down into the capital.

They won't be of the high quality you can expect from Piandao blades of Shu Jing, or Yu Dao weaponry, unless they are fortunate in the stock they come across, but they will serve.

....

Hm, as far as the prisoners go, releasing the ones from the two prisons Zuul wasn't at would probably be more likely. They were down into a quiet sort of apathy, having not quite given up on life but certainly on escape. The ones from the last prison, however, were easily roused into a fury just by her presence.

In any case.

Mai seems relieved to see you are well, as much as she ever does look anything, and Toph is handling feeding the Joo Dee right now.

You've carted Katara along for this, much to her annoyance, and think for several long moments how to go about this.

She seems.... a lot twitchier in your presence than before. The Joo Dee, not Katara. Katara is just in a bad mood. The Joo Dee, by contrast, seems to jerk a little bit every so often, where before she was perfectly still in her restraints.

... You check, and see something interesting. The 'air' you can check on is... stirring. Just a little bit of breeze.

Whatever mental conditioning, that you haven't been able to do anything for, or about, is starting to crack just from being near you, now, as an airbender?

---

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[x] Deprogramming. Well, magic deprogramming.

If just being near an airbender...

Well, it does seem to make sense. If Air is in opposition to Earth, and what had been done to her was an Earth natured ability of some sort.....

Yes. Much like having lightning trapped within herself for months and fighting against her own inner earth seems to have strengthened Toph's chi greatly, though with dangerous means...

Maybe airbending outright could help.

Though, just a little bit of drafty air doesn't seem to help much.

.... You have to think further. You can't control enough air...

No, not quite right. There is a little bit of air that you can control, more easily than all the rest.

You inhale, filling your lungs as much as you can, and gather chi. Focus.

"Air is Freedom." you whisper softly, blowing chi out on your breath, but not into flame.

The Joo Dee's pupils shrink down to pinpricks, and she starts spasming beneath the stone, breath of her own becoming strange and irregular. Inside...

Inside, winds have begun to blow, whipping traces of cloud. You wave at Toph, and the gag shrinks away as Joo Dee starts... babbling. Unfocused, and incoherent, switching seamlessly from the start of one sentence to the end of another, sometimes changing words partway through pronouncing them.

"What. Did you do?" Katara whispers harshly, drawing water up and placing it against the Joo Dee's head. "I... I don't even know where to begin understanding what-"

"Stop. Hold it there." you say, holding up a hand and watching intently. Wind whipping, gathering traces of water into clouds and dropping from the sky. "Don't try to... do anything, just. Hold it there."

Minutes pass, as the babbling settles down into incoherent murmurs and the Joo Dee's eyes glaze, and she passes out, before you are satisfied.

She's... different. Not completely ruined, as she was. There's wind, and some water, and given time to settle...

Probably not going to be the same as she was before. But she might mend.

You think.

Maybe.

.... Or you've just driven her irrevocably insane. You guess only time will tell.

---

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[x] Insight

Air is freedom.

You're freed from your impulses and true nature... by keeping them tightly bound and locked away, so you can function like you're a normal person.

Release them, and you're free to act as you please!

.... And you will be a slave to your whims and true nature.

You... seem to be stuck in a conundrum. As they say, damned if you do, damned if you don't. You don't think you're going to have much, if any, luck with traditional airbending.

Ty Lee's response to the Joo Dee's aura is to cringe, at first. But then she explains what she's seeing.

Rather than a hollow eggshell, it's now forming into something resembling a geode. A thick outer shell of stone, with fragile crystal inside, extending from the interior of the shell towards the hollow center. Toph seems interested by the description. Ty Lee can't say for sure if it's going to fill all the way, but it is, in theory, better than before.

Katara doesn't understand anything you're discussing, and eventually throws her hands up in disgust to stalk off to her room.

Zuul.... you can send a letter to the avatar by way of the mechanist, but tracking down Zuul will be... difficult, particularly if she's in a forested area. You're probably stuck waiting for her to come back on her own, however many days that will take.

---

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[x] Prepare.

You send a letter, inviting Aang, if he wishes, to visit.... you pause, considering, for several minutes. Omashu is newly taken, but has that... fairgrounds that they erected. He would doubtless find that amusing. Yu Dao would be a more direct display of unity beneath Fire.

You have to think.

... Omashu. Keeping the nomad... hopefully entertained enough that he doesn't wander off before you have a chance to speak with him is more important, and somehow you don't see him as being incredibly fascinated with people beating metal into shape.

You send off the letter, then wait.

Uncle has some free time towards dinner, and hums thoughtfully as you describe your issues.

"In truth." He says, somberly. "I would not attempt learning airbending as you have seen young Aang do it. From what my studies have revealed, they begin teaching their bending... early. Very early. Ten years ago, you would already have been considered far too old for what they would call 'proper' training, with the student brought out to a mountaintop far from anything that might be accidentally damaged, and allowed to run wild with the winds. As I have said before, as one ages, chi begins to settle into paths it is accustomed to."

He strokes his chin.

"I am informed, however, that Avatar Kyoshi learned her airbending through a non-traditional style, as, born of earth, the traditional one was simply too different in nature for her to grasp. I believe her signature folding fans were involved. I shall put out a request for further information? In the meantime, from what I have determined, it seems that Sozin either had never written down any instructions to bend heat, or they have not yet been found. Personally, I cannot say which I hope for. What is lost may yet be found, but that which is written may be stolen... it is ever the complication of the white lotus. To write down information eases its spread, but allows thievery. The best defenses are to spread the knowledge far and wide, or simply to never write it down at all."

You nod, slowly.

"In the meantime, other routes... there are suggestions that it is similar to a lost metalworking technique, passed down from master to apprentice, in the city of Ramask." Iroh says, taking up a slightly lecturing tone. "Unfortunately, we have not found details, only descriptions from an outsider's perspective, and the city itself was ravaged by plague over one hundred and fifty years ago. Most of the inhabitants died, and sadly to say, the few who survived were not their famous metalworkers. Even now, Ramaskine steel is considered the equal, and in some ways, superior, of Yu Dao steel. If it can be found, and properly maintained."

You see.

Pity. That had seemed like it would be a surprisingly simple way to learn that....

No matter.

Four days pass, as Ty Lee's distress slowly calms, with the Joo Dee awakening only for bleary moments, to haltingly and raspingly request food and water, before losing consciousness once more, before Zuul returns.

She's wearing a wolf.

The head is stretched over the top of her own, with golden eyes peering out through empty lupine eye-sockets, and teeth pointing down in a menacing desplay.

Strips of fur are woven around themelves to conceal her chest, and the rest is carved down into a furry loincloth loosely resembling a skirt, with the tail hanging down behind her.

She smirks, as one of the servants point her your way. You don't believe she's wearing anything but the furs. You can't imagine how she finds that comfortable...

---

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[x] Not just Dragon.

The furs are irrelevant. If she wishes to dress up as some cave-dwelling barbarian, and endure the draft from breezes with so much bared skin, then by all means, she can do as she pleases.

Technically, she has done nothing wrong. Technically, beyond father's allowance to associate with her, or not, as you please, she owes you nothing, much less leaving a letter behind to notify you of where, approximately, she was and what she was doing.

But she's annoying. That's enough. And it vexes you, greatly, when you are not in absolute control of everything. Seeing her gone, when you had presumed, assumed, that Zuul would be a good girl and wait patiently until you decided to grace her with your presence...

You miscalculated. She had no particular reason to remain, when there was something she wanted nearby, and the mystical hogwash of predators... she might hunt at your call, but it seems that this does not make her your servant, obligated to be at your side and ready to see to your interests at every moment of the day.

Still.

She manages to keep you from singing the furs, but you still spill a little blood across the flagstones.

"In the future." You say, sharply, dominance reinforced. "Kindly attempt to do more than simply leave a letter for me to read after the fact."

"... Know what they say." Zuul leers, airily. "Easier to ask forgiveness than get permission, and all that."

... In point of fact, she has not asked forgiveness. Nor does she. Well, she's not obligated, given that she's not done anything wrong, but...

Damn it. You're a princess. People are supposed to be falling all over themselves to keep you happy, or else. She just doesn't seem interested in bending to how the world works.

It's like she thinks she's the main character in a spirit tale.

But there isn't enough room for two protagonists.

No matter.

You see no need to urge Iroh to continue doing as he is already doing, much as you might like to reaffirm yourself in the face of this blatant breach of your control over those around you...

No.

You send ahead to Bumi, instead. You haven't recieved a report, yet, of the Avatar leaving the north temple, but it could well be in transit.

That done, you prepare the butterfly for the trip. You will leave in the evening, and be there by morning.

---

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[x] Calm.

For a moment, you're prepared to say something stupid to Zuul. Something about how if she can't follow orders, then she can just get out and do whatever she wants elsewhere.

It is, after only a heartbeat's reflection, the most imbecilic thing you might do.

For one, as you remind yourself, you have never actually made any kind of orders to the half breed. It's hardly as though you ever become wroth with Toph, or Mai, daring to go and attend to their own interests in the absence of your instruction. Though, of course, they have always timed such things so that they're still easily located if you require them.

Really, despite that she seems to delight in scuffles with you, she doesn't even seem particularly disobedient.

It's just that, somehow, it feels like there is some black impulse ordering you to crush what you can't control, or throw her out so you don't have to deal with her, that you haven't noticed with the more familiar girls.

Yes. Leave a potential bastard line of the crown to their own devices. That has always ended well. Particularly in situations such as these, where elements of spirit tales get involved.

No, if there is one thing you cannot afford, particularly when you are fully aware that there are a number of spirits who would happily see your nation fall, it is to drive off a bastard line of royal descent.

Worse still if you just try to have her killed. If you do kill her off, well and good, but if she gets away... and you have no doubt that spirits will aid her flight and hinder the pursuit... then she has reason to take offense, and she'll either start up a rebel movement of soldiers or otherwise make an actual nuisance of herself.

Agni, there are plays about how much of a headache bastard lines can become, with provocation. The last thing you need to do is give that provocation, because wearing a wolf and not being as absolutely attentive and slavishly devoted to your whims as you want is nothing in comparison.

Technically, if she was anything like normal, just picking fights with her and spilling blood on the stones would be more than enough to give her just cause.

You almost can't help it, though, as it seems like many tiny and shrill voices cry out in your head, indistinct and faint, exact words lost but meaning maintained, to get her gone, and jump onto every little excuse they can to try to justify it.

No matter.

You'll just continue to deal with her as you have before. It seems to work well enough. When you have to deal with her. They seem to shut up about it when she isn't present.

For now, you'll just drop her off at Li and Lo's beach-house on Ember Island, with a letter of introduction and instruction to refine what she's doing. What isn't waterbending forms are just the flailings of a wild beast, and dangerous, but easily taken advantage of.

Ty Lee, Mai, and Toph will come along, to Omashu. Zuko... you offer, but he turns it away. It seems there are things he feels he must do in the Capital, right now. Katara, of course, remains behind. You aren't in the mood to amuse yourself with her presence, with the headache brewing from your apparent incapability to just let sleeping wolves lie.

... You feel much better in the morning, with the butterfly having put down outside of Omashu, even if your bed was otherwise empty.

---

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[x] Joo Dee Benten?

Bumi squints speculatively at the Joo Dee as she stares back at him, wide eyed, every movement... still wrong, but a better-ish sort of wrong.

"So you're less cracked in the head, then?" He asks.

... The Joo Dee reaches up, frowning, to contemplatively feel at her skull.

"Benten feels all right?" She tries.

"That your name then, girl?"

"... Naaame?" she says slowly, crossing her eyes for a moment, before nodding. "Benten was called Benten! Benten is a good girl~"

Bumi pats her on the head.

"Aaauuu.... Benten isn't a kitty..."

"Is there anything you can tell me about the Joo Dee, and the people controlling them?" you ask, shortly.

Her eyes grow comically wide. And her pupils shrink to pinpricks. Then she begins rocking in the corner, knees up to her chest, muttering desperate insistence that she's a good girl, Benten is a good girl, as she clutches at her head.

"Well, not what you'd call sane." Bumi notes. "But she hasn't bit her wrists off nor killed anyone yet, so there's a start right there. Probably recoverable, even if her brain is like someone's stirred it up with a butter churn."

That doesn't help you out now, does it?

Well, no matter.

"Has the Avatar chosen to visit, yet?" You ask. You're fairly certain that you would have seen his massive beast floating about somewhere if he had, but even so.

"You're expecting 'im, then?" Bumi asks. "Well, you see Aang, let him know that he's got a free ticket waiting for the rock-e-coaster train ride at Bumi-land just waiting, kehahaha~ His ride'll be an experience."

---

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[x] The Waiting Game.

"You know the Avatar by name." You note, speculatively. "You are old enough, I suppose."

"Do me a solid, lass, and don't pass along my name, eh?" Bumi asks, squinting. "Aang never was the brightest glow crystal about. I'm planning on seeing how long it takes him to figure out who I am, if I half know him at all, he still thinks I look just the same as a hundred years ago. kehehehehe~"

.... You guess you don't see the harm in that. And so you leave him to it as you go through some routine inspections, to discover that everything is proceeding acceptably enough in Omashu. A few grumbling dissidents make noise, but they're mostly shut up by the refugees from Gaipan.

And then, towards noon, that giant furry beast floats through the sky and you immediately regret your leniency with Bumi as 'The Evil King of Omashu' rides a stone along the mail delivery system to ramp up into the air unexpectedly and kidnap the Avatar's companion, before descending, cackling, to the ground.

You can feel a mild headache brewing, as Aang tries to follow, but has to pull up short of hitting the stone, where Bumi just splashes through it like water.

---

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Chibi-Reaper
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[x] Worthy of Ember Island. B-list. Poooosssibly C. Maybe.

"Oh dear." You say, voice flat. "The mad king is abducting women. What ever shall we do."

"You have to help me save Yue!" the avatar insists, grabbing you by the wrist.

You barely manage to keep yourself from taking his hand off for him. You feel something of a headache building, as you're pulled along behind him like a flag flapping in the wind. Argh.

The girl, Yue, is suspended from the mad-king's hand in Bumi-land. Aang doesn't even spare a moment to glance at the signs, as Bumi leads you both on a merry chase through the mountain and along the railway, standing and fighting on the train.

"Argh... ye got me with that one." Bumi grunts, as a blast of air almost knocks him off, and Aang's eyes widen at the Yue girl's squirming.

He leaps down to a flat outcropping of stone, Aang just a moment after. You are begrudgingly forced to follow.

"Hohoho... earth endures, young Avatar. Can you truly face the might of the king of Omashu?" Bumi cackles.

"I won't let you hurt Yue!" Aang snaps.

.... The old man sends an expectant look your way. You sigh wearily.

"Yes, aang. We will defeat the mad king. With the power of friendship. And airbending. And stuff."

"You could stand to put a little more oomph into it, girl." Bumi notes, tsk-ing.

"Do you really need me to explain why I'm vexed with the whole situation, here?" You grumble through grit teeth.

"Hey! Yue!" Aang insists, surprisingly thick-skulled and tunnel-visioned, here. "Help me!"

---

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