Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender.


1, healer

At first, when the mysterious old innkeeper-cum-healer and her equally mysterious companion asked for complete, unrestricted and unsupervised access to the Avatar, the Fire Lord laughed.

When he realized that she was indeed serious, his laugh morphed into a roar of refusal.

The old woman bowed, her grey hair falling into her eyes even more, completely obscuring her face - and its expression - from his view. "Then there is nothing we can do for him."

She had hardly taken two steps when the clash of spears barred her path. Her companion had not moved at all, her long veil swaying in the hot breeze that fanned the Fire Lord's chamber.

"You dare defy me?" He demanded.

"Who am I," she replied, her voice croaking in tune with the whisper-whisper sound her skirts made as she turned back to him, "to defy the Fire Lord? I am only a vessel. The spirits that use me to heal will only work in a specific manner. If I were to try to heal the Avatar in any other way, it would be in vain."

For the first time since the strange pair came before her husband, the Fire Lady spoke, "Who do you think you should fear the most, your Fire Lord or your healing spirits?"

Scarred fingers rushed to cover the wizened lips. Perhaps the woman was shocked, or horrified, and was trying to compose herself.

Or perhaps she was just laughing.

There was a tremble in her voice when she spoke that could have been either.

"The Fire Lord holds all the world in the palm of his hand. If he wishes my death, he has only to say. For only a fool who does not know how much the Avatar means to my Lord, will raise his hopes only to dash them to the ground."

He could feel his wife's eyes boring into the side of his face, demanding that he not let this woman be rewarded for her defiance. But every moment they spent deliberating was a moment that reduced the chances of Aang ever waking up again. If this Hama's plans were to kill Aang, she would only be hastening the inevitable.

In the end, Zuko did not really have any other choice.

"It shall be as you have said, old Hama," the Fire Lord declared. "But by my throne, if Avatar Aang dies in your care, you had better die with him."

Her hands fell from her face as she mumbled her thanks, her faith in the spirits, her devotion to the Fire Lord, to the Avatar…

Her companion raised her hands a little, and blue eyes darted out from the veil, like the quick flash of knives, before they vanished again.