Tales of Henwa Island

Azula and the Assassin: Part I

"How come the heat never bothers you?" Azula sat on the couch and sorted the mail. "Henwa Island summers could melt pure tungsten."

Karo stood over the coffee table and watched Azula sort the Monday mail into piles for bills, junk mail and letters that merited reading. "If I give my straight up answer to that question – you'll slug me for being a smart ass." Karo picked out a letter from the junk mail pile. "I have hay fever and my back acne acts up in the summer so between snorting, sneezing and itching; I have much to complain about but putting up with you has stiffened my resolve. Why did you put this letter to Katara in the junk mail?"

"Suki's going to have a child." Azula ripped open a gas bill. "I have only Katara's best interests at heart and the poor girl doesn't need to know her brother's been breeding."

Karo wore a puzzled look and held out the letter. "Do you read all of the mail?"

Azula looked up at Karo. "You get nothing interesting but I have to rig your game of postal chess you have going with your old high school math teacher because you are embarrassingly bad. I change his moves so they suck too." Azula had the look of someone who had no idea violating the mail amounted to a problem. "Without me, how would you guys protect yourself from any bombs you get in the mail?"

Katara entered the front door with her arms full of groceries. "Has Azula read my mail yet?"

"I don't read your mail!" Azula lied but made an effort to sell her indignity.

"Be that as it may," Katara looked at Azula. Karo? Could you help me with the groceries."

"Congratulations!" Karo remained sitting on the couch. Azula had drilled him in the skills required by all socially incompetent nerds. "I hear Suki is going to have a baby. Ow! What?" Karo rubbed his shoulder when Azula slugged him.

Katara dropped the bags of groceries on the floor. Egg yolk ran along the floorboards.

"Suki sent you a letter." Karo handed the pink letter. "Azula may have accidentally read it."

Katara opened the letter while Mitsumi not being the sort of lemur to pass up a good thing crawled across the floor and began lapping up the raw eggs.

"I'm going to be an aunt!" Katara wept. "I so want a child."

Azula slapped her hands together as she hatched a plan. "The hospital maternity ward probably has lax security."

"When will you and Karo have a child?"

"Not a chance in hell," Azula snapped back. "I love Karo and he's my best mate but our offspring would either wind up as retarded as him or as anti social as me or a lovely combination of the two traits." Azula stood up. "You have the loving nature required to care for children. I place them as possible members of the food chain. I never like getting into the baby sock knitting conversations with you so I think I'll go for a walk."

"Off to read our neighbor's mail?" Katara asked sarcastically.

Azula pointed in one direction. "The neighbor on this side has some kind of poodle monkey from hell that barks as loud as an air raid siren and has such an acute sense of hearing that I swear it can hear photons hitting glass." Azula pointed to the other side. "Karo may have played a role in killing our other neighbor's peach tree when he got lazy and decided to use Kill – All herbicide to knock the grass back. So we may want to try to keep on his good side."

"I find it amazing how your memory works." Karo snorted. "I remember you asking if that stuff could kill a tree and evidently the answer is yes." Azula waved her hand dismissively and walked out the front door with Mitsumi the lemur following her.

Katara sat beside Karo on the couch. "Have you wanted a child?"

"With Azula?" Karo shivered. "Having Azula around kind of reminds me of having a kid around the house. A very smart, cunning child who likes to play with fire."

Karo looked at the lawn mower. "I hate you!" He growled. He hated the physical effort of mowing the lawn and he had noticed the tropical sun had turned his few faded freckles into many small dark freckles. "I hate you because I hate sweating and..."

Azula whistled. "Nice shorts!"

"The catcalls." Karo turned to Azula.

"I have more chest hair than you." Azula said for no reason. "I find that plain freaky. Your dad was a hairy man and come to think of it so is your mom."

Karo pulled the lawn mower out of its living space under the front porch. "Abuse?"

"Not my best effort," Azula countered. "Is Katara still home?"

"She went with my mom to buy eggs."

"I took a long walk along the beach to avoid her." Azula said. "A teenage boy made fun of my clothes and hinted I didn't have a body worthy of the tight swimwear."

"Oh dear Lord!" Karo muttered. "You didn't kill him did you?"

"Of course not!" Azula exclaimed. "I merely beat him up."

"I see you value restraint."

Azula held up her hand and two of her fingers stood at odd angles. "I broke my fingers on his face and need to see a doctor."

"I notice that." Karo said calmly.

"Get dressed and hurry because I feel a good deal of pain." Azula urged. "This kind of pain hints at something kind of big."

"Why didn't you go to Dr. Murata's clinic at the end of the block?" Karo said as he walked in the house with Azula.

"I received a round of applause for punching the guy out." Azula explained as she sat on the couch. "I didn't want to show any sign of weakness."

"I'll put on some proper clothes, stifle my laughing and take you there." Karo laughed as he climbed the stairs.

"Men are scum!" Azula yelled out. "You know that!"

"What's so funny?" Lady Zhao entered the house with Katara.

"I beat up some guy and broke two fingers on his hard head." Azula held up her hand. "Karo thinks it's hilarious and he's getting dressed and taking me to the doctor."

"I can fix it." Katara offered. "Let me see."

"You know," Azula stood up and backed away. "One can't have too many X-Rays and while I have no problem with traditional Water Tribe healing methods, you lack a medical degree and if you really botch this up I can't sue you for malpractice. You have no money and no assets." Azula looked up and shouted. "Karo? Katara has offered to heal my hand!" She listened to Karo laughing as he got properly dressed. "Shut the hell up you obnoxious laughing bastard!"

"I remember her being of some help when you burned your eyebrows off during The Sodium Incident!" Karo shouted back from the upstairs bathroom.

"Lithium!" Azula winced as Katara held her hand. "Do it yourself fireworks could have saved us a lot of money."

"I healed my brother's broken leg." Katara assured as she drew water from her leather pouch and make it cover Azula's injured hand. "This won't hurt."

"Life has many great lies like this won't hurt. You can save money by doing it yourself. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again? A spoon full of sugar helps the insulin go down and..." Azula winced. "You said this wouldn't hurt! That bloody well hurt. Ow!"

"Modern doctors are to analytical and don't see you as a whole person." Katara lectured. "You have a mind, body and soul. A doctor needs to see with X-Rays and tests but I can heal using all natural water bending and as you can see it doesn't cost a thing!"

"I like getting X – Rays." Azula answered back. Ow! I like high energy photons that can pass through two inches of flesh like nothing." Azula had the urge to snap her fingers but passed on it. "I feel like I'm getting value for money. What makes you think I have a soul?"

"We have argued this before and got nowhere." Katara stepped back. "It may be a bit tender."

Karo came down the stairs. "How did it go?"

"Sarcastic and ungrateful." Katara smiled at Karo. "If she avoids cold cocking guys it should be fine."

The next day Azula fetched the mail and received a small parcel about the right size to be a book or box of chocolate wrapped in string.

Karo came home from working at the newspaper at half past four and walked up the street and found the front door in the driveway. The Sodium Incident came immediately to mind as he looked at the gaping wound that had once been the door but now merely gaped. Shards of glass stuck into the bark of the Jacaranda tree and Karo slowly approached the front of the house. The couch known as Big Red had sustained no damage but lay in the middle of the front lawn.

"Shouldn't we have a door and glass and stucco!" Karo half feared finding Azula lying dead next to some piece of scientific looking apparatus. Mitsumi ran out of the house and up Karo and sat behind his head chattering loudly and showing a good deal of fear.

"Do you know that saying," Azula came out through the front hole in the house with her hair done up perfectly and her gold hairpin set perfectly in place. "Through – whatever – snow and sleet and rain the mail always arrives?"

Karo looked at her in astonishment. "What the hell happened to the house? If you did this my mom will have you beheaded and then she'll get nasty!"

"The odd thing about bombs," Azula shook her finger. "They should explode predictably but this little bugger waited until after I opened it to go off. It didn't do so right away so I fiddled with it, cutting this, tapping that. It waited until I had gone to take a bathroom break then KABOOM! You should be grateful I didn't wind up as nasty goo all over the couch."

"Why didn't you call the police!" Karo shook Azula's shoulders. "You don't know how to defuse bombs! You could have been killed."

"The police did come and I do know how to defuse bombs." Azula put her arm around Karo's shoulder. "It's just that bombs aren't trustworthy."

"Where's my mom and Katara!"

Azula led Karo through the window into the shattered house. "They went to do some errands and haven't come home yet." Azula picked up a piece of glass. "The police couldn't find anything to tell them who sent me the bomb."

Karo held a piece of wood broken from the window frame in his hands. "I feel the cold hand of fate vomiting in our direction again." Karo noticed that the couch had remained intact despite being made of wood and fabric but the heavy wood and stone coffee table had simply disintegrated.

"We have no windows except for the one in the bathroom. We can't use the gas and the bomb destroyed the radio." Azula patted Karo's shoulder comfortingly. "We'll give it a good burial."

"Why do the good die young?" Karo complained bitterly. "How will I follow hockey now?"

"Hockey season ended months ago." Azula said.

"Which one of you broke the bloody house!" Lady Zhao shouted at the top of her lungs before Karo could continue. "What happened here!"

"Someone sent me a bomb and not the theatrical kind." Azula explained meekly. "I got a parcel in the mail and opened it and it kind of exploded." She handed over a police report and gave it to Lady Zhao. "The police have no leads and so does our insurance cover this?"

Lady Zhao shook her head as she read the uninformative report and wondered how the bomb could have kind of exploded given that it took out half the front of the house and broke every window.

"Nice house dude!" A cyclist called out from the street.

"Sod off and die you pointless piece of humanity!" Azula yelled out as she lay on the couch which still lived in the middle of the yard (the city had sent a by law officer to enforce The No Outdoor Couch by law and Azula had the ticket). This made the cyclist the second person she had told to sod off and die. Azula wondered how the city found out about the yard couch only a day after the incident.

Azula pulled the daily paper over her head and let herself relaxed. She found the experience of having a bomb explode quite traumatic.

"You look comfortable!" The mailman said happily. He looked portly which struck Azula as odd since he walked a good deal as part of his everyday job but he had an affable personality "What happened to your house?"

Azula spoke through the newspaper. "Someone sent me a bomb in the mail. What do you have for me today? A flask of cyanide, foaming chlorine gas? A dead rat perhaps?"

"That happens a lot." The mailman dropped the mail on the couch next to Azula. "Couples go through a bitter divorce and one sends the other something revolting or dangerous. Lawyers get bombs from disgruntled clients and no one needs to mention how often insurance companies get bombs."

Karo had heard the conversation and because he could hear outside – a novel experience – he couldn't resist stepping outside to investigate. "Hello Mr Kaku. We had a bit of an incident."

"You have a Ba Sing Se hockey jersey on." Azula pointed at Karo's shirt.

"I'm in mourning! I can't get hockey news and exhibition games begin next week." Karo said sadly. "I wonder if we could get a hockey team here?"

"Have a nice day!" The mailman waved a handful of letters as he walked away and whistled a cheerful tune.

"Some kegger?" A bearded man walking his poodle monkey shouted from the street.

"Has your mom put in the insurance claim?" Azula said with some irritation.

"She went next door to call the insurance company," Karo picked up the mail. "Until he tells us how much they'll cover, we're stuck with the couch in the yard." Karo found only two pieces of mail. "My mother got a letter from Friends of the Orchestra. Should I check it for explosive English Horns? Katara got a letter from her dad and I can't smell gunpowder just some vague fishiness."

"Why would I get a bomb?" Azula mumbled through the newspaper.

Karo sat on the couch and put Azula's feet on his lap. "You made no friends during the War and some of them might have the motivation to send you a bomb. Some people with grudges also are cowards and have no problem sending bombs to places."

"We have no evidence." Azula pulled the newspaper off her face. "The package had no return address but it had an Earth Kingdom postmark from a town near the Seewong desert. I thought someone like a book club or Reader's Digest had sent a parcel with an International Reply Coupon because our address was stamped on and not handwritten. I have no clues. The bomb got destroyed. The thing I don't understand is that the bomber didn't send a note. Most people would send a note to explain their gripes or political grievances."

"I spoke with our insurance company," Lady Zhao came out through the hedge and Karo knew from her look of great annoyance she had not enjoyed her conversations with the insurance firm. She held a bent metal serving tray with a red tea pot with a broken spout and she set it down on the lawn. "We have no tea cups so I rinsed out empty tins. The adjuster will show up tomorrow and my rates went up again!" She stood up and wagged her finger at Azula. "We already pay extra for the chemical couple and their ability to burn metal! Our deductible for bombs comes to about two hundred gold and you two will help me pay it."

A royal Fire Nation carriage rolled up to the foot of the drive. Like all Fire Nation carriages it had red paint with gold but unlike a full decked out for the royal family Fire Nation carriage, this one had only two ostrich horses.

A short man with strawberry blond hair stepped out of the coach. He slammed the heavy wooden door with an authoritative thump.

"The insurance adjuster came early." Karo said as he reached for a tin of tea.

Azula had three words. "Oh Dear God!" She said each word slowly and spoke as if chewing glass.

"Hello," Lady Zhao bowed as the man approached. "How can I help you?"

"Someone in the former secret order of the Dai Lee wants to kill the princess," The man said formally as he bowed. "As this concerns Fire Lord Zuko immensely, I have been sent to investigate!"

"Eduard?" Karo leaned on the back door off the dining room and it fell of its hinges. The heavy metal door hit the cement porch at the back with a thump. Karo had noticed the door had no glass but had not taken too much time to analyze the possible consequences of that small fact.

Azula looked own at Karo. "What can I say? After all these years, he still blames me for his unhappy life."

"No one told me the hinges on this door were busted," Karo could feel his back aching as he lay on his back on the door. "Did you actually stab him in the eye with a knife?"

Azula helped Karo to his feet. "An elite Dai Lee agent had him imprisoned in solid rock. Despite what you may think of the guy, he's always kind of scared me and at the time I thought he was plotting with my brother. The Dai Lee came to work under my regime and worked to intimidate my prisoners. I had him blindfolded and he couldn't move and I began interrogating him. He refused to answer and so the Dai Lee guard stabbed out his eye." Azula brushed off Karo. "I never heard him scream or yell out."

"I told you this before," Karo patted Azula's back. "You were a child of only fourteen."

Eduard had heard none of this conversation as he examined the remains of the living room. He had dispatched his driver to their hotel and decided to stay at the Zhao's to investigate.

"Chemical fused bomb with a clockwork mechanism." Eduard looked at Azula with no small amount of hatred in his green eyes. His glass eye showed great workmanship but Eduard would have wished to have his real one. "When you opened the parcel..."

Azula spoke some annoyance. "I know. The police know but that doesn't answer the real question which is – who wanted to blow me up?"

"Half the world?" Eduard grumbled. "You made no friends during the War. You humiliated the Dai Lee by doubting their loyalty and firing their sorry asses out the door after they had pledged loyalty to you. They say verbal insults hurt more than physical pain. 'They' have never had their eye poked out."

"Anyone want another can of tea?" Karo said loudly from the kitchen. "I can do some fancy fire bending and my mom cleaned the cans."

Eduard held up a piece of metal he found on the ground. "I keep hearing rumors of a wedding between you and the young son of Admiral Zhao. Do I get an invitation?" Eduard tossed the metal piece to one side.

"No!" Azula said sharply. "Are you here to track down the mystery bomber or to torment me?"

"Part of the blame for this rests on you," Eduard said calmly. "You decided to write that science fiction story, have it published and that raised your public profile. If you had stayed here, stayed quiet and worked at a local college training teenagers to add; then none of this would have happened. Most of the world thinks you went insane and vanished from the public scene and until that story came out, preferred to believe that." Eduard paced the room gathering his thoughts.

"Did you like the story?" Karo came into the living room holding a tin of tea.

"I skimmed over it but I'm not a literary critic." Eduard wrapped his hands around his back. "I didn't even know about the story until yesterday evening when I got news someone had tried to blow you up. Our intelligence service had a copy of it in your file so I glanced at it. Zuko dispatched me to provide security and to have this all sorted out as soon as possible. This means a coverup of course. I have taken the liberty to have the contractors come over today and repair the damage so the place is, at the very least, habitable."

"So?" Karo had a tea service consisting of cans and a battered tea pot sitting in a fruit crate. "If I boil all this down, Azula should have used a pen name?"

"We have windows!" Karo chirped. "Eduard is an insufferable and unhappy bastard but he can make things happen. Except for the painting and a few plaster repairs; they have fixed the house! They even put back Big Red into it's spot of honor. I have a radio! I can listen to sports! They started before noon and finished before seven in the evening!"

"Shh!" Azula held the black ear piece of the new phone in her hand as she sat on the couch. "I need to talk to my brother."

Karo sat down on the couch and leaned in to listen.

"A collect call?" Lady Mai said dryly. "Azula?"

"Can I speak to Zuko?" Azula said in a sickeningly sweet voice.

Karo heard a moment of silence. "They answer their own phone?"

"Azula," A deep voice answered. "I expected this call. What can I do for you?" He paused to collect his thoughts. "The Lord High Executioner position has been filled," Zuko answered blandly. "Eduard has taken the position because of his invention of the guillotine."

Karo stood back from the phone receiver.

"You fired the last one because of some mistaken belief that capitol punishment was wrong." Azula said. "Why did you send him?"

"He has a dedication for duty and will find our bomb sending traitor. He will not give up or leave until his task is completed." Zuko said firmly. "I find him an insufferable person on all but the best of days and so I thought I would spread the joy."

Karo heard the phone line go dead.

"Remind me to lop off my brother's head when I become Fire Lord," Azula growled. "Where did Eduard go off to?"

"I thought he left for his hotel with his driver." Karo said.

"Eduard's doing something on the front lawn." Lady Zhao spoke over a large framed picture of the Fire Nation capitol. "Katara and I decided to take the opportunity to redecorate." She looked at the walls contemplatively. "I like Katara's choice of light blue but I would like to borrow Karo and his artistic talent when we make our final choice."

Karo decided to break with Fire Nation tradition and actually talk. He approached Eduard who had made a habit of pacing the lawn back and forth looking for the tiniest clues and decided to talk to him.

"Eduard?" Karo said as he approached in trepidation and waved meekly. Azula had described Eduard as a man capable of cutting anyone down with a well placed insult or smart remark. Karo had his own gift with words but his pleasant attitude and happy approach to life made it hard for him to think of a cutting insult.

"I read your comic faithfully." Eduard said as he paced the lawn making notes. "Your drawings are beautiful – especially the Sunday features – the writing has a peculiar kind of ingenious humor. You have no equal among your peers." Eduard jotted a few notes in a notebook with a short pencil. "You think with your eyes. If you had to draw this lawn in great detail; what would you notice?"

"Uh?" Karo didn't feel comfortable in the company of Eduard. "I see a pattern of thin lines? They go out from a center point about where the coffee table in the house used to be."

"I found this." Eduard held up a bronze piece of metal. "I found dozens of them in pits in the ground and lodged in the tree."

"An old penny from Ba Sing Se? During the Fire Nation blockade, they minted them out of mild steel since they couldn't get enough copper. Everyone in Ba Sing Se has a jar of those old War Pennies holding up the broken legs of couches or sitting somewhere collecting dust." Karo instantly recognized the bent piece of metal and looked at Eduard. "I know nothing about bombs but finding old Earth Kingdom pennies in one seems weird."

"Azula had great fortune." Eduard held the penny in his hand. "The bomber knew his work. He knew when the bomb went off that it would send out these coins at ballistic speeds and cut anyone in the way into ground round."

"All right!" Azula walked out the front door. "The decorating team of Katara and Zhao want to have Big Red reupholstered a light blue green!" She pointed back through the window. "Big Red has to be Red!"

"We may never solve this mystery," Eduard said to himself as Azula approached. "Everyone who has met that insufferable woman wants to kill her."

Karo merely grinned.

Eduard held up a bent coin. "You nearly died yesterday."

"I know." Azula said as she walked up to the tree and pulled out another bent coin. "They packed the bomb with loose change and I've found dozens of these things in the ceiling, in the tree and in the couch." She whispered in Karo's ear and spoke between her teeth. "Make him feel welcome and he'll want to stay. We don't want that do we?"

"We won't accomplish much tonight." Eduard had heard that and decided to call it a night. "I left my driver in Room 207 at the Emperor Hotel and I fear he may run up the bill ordering room service if I don't verbally abuse him. This is a nice evening so I think I will enjoy the walk back to the hotel. We'll continue this tomorrow and I think aqua is a very nice color for a couch."

"What would you do if I kicked you in the shins?" Azula said as she glowered at Eduard.

"Kick you back." Eduard waved as he walked away.

"He seems like a very nice man." Karo admitted to Azula as they entered the front door. "Why do you hate him?"

Azula massaged Karo's shoulder roughly. "I haven't enjoyed my life lately. If Eduard tracks down our mad bomber and becomes the hero then I will owe my future health and safety to that man." Azula looked at the couch. "At times getting blasted to atoms seems like the lesser of two evils."

The next morning Eduard returned. He walked in through the unlocked door which remained unlocked since no one had installed the lock on the door.

He found Azula in a foul mood because Katara and Lady Zhao had gone off to the paint store first thing in the morning to find the proper shades of blue to repaint the house. She lay on the couch in her full Fire Nation uniform and growled out at Eduard. "Barge right in! You arrogant shades of blue green loving Son of a Bitch!"

"Good morning?" Eduard said cautiously.

Karo stepped down the stairs. "Welcome Eduard. You should have knocked and waited for me to answer the door." Karo looked at Azula. "I could have told you to avoid Azula as she may rip off your head." Karo blushed. "I would bow in greeting but pissing my fiance off may not be wise."

"I want to spend time with my old couch before they change it into some Water Tribe interior decorator's idea of a couch." Azula brushed her hands along the dirty red velvet.

"I've made tea." Karo offered. "We have not replaced the tea set."

"Thank you. I have to talk to Azula." Eduard said carefully as he paced the room. "Do you recall Long Feng?"

Azula sat up. "Long Feng wants to kill me?"

"Yes...but he can't because he's received a life sentence." Eduard said solemnly. "They tossed him in prison for war crimes and murder and sundry other nasty crimes. He hired an assassin he met in prison and the assassin has come after you because Long Feng promised him fabulous wealth in the form of gold stashed in the catacombs of Ba Sing Se. The Earth Kingdom authorities have not told the Fire Nation anything about the name of this fellow and probably won't."

"Why not?" Karo asked as he sat down on the coffee table.

Eduard raised the eyebrow over his false eye. "They wouldn't mind seeing the Princess dead. They could enjoy the news of her death knowing they had no active role to play in it. The War has ended but they still don't like helping the Fire Nation." Eduard scratched his head nervously. "This assassin knows Azula can hold her own in any battle. Rather than face her directly, he's decided to do his dirty work from a distance with a bomb. He nearly succeeded and his bomb showed a great deal of cleverness."

Azula wanted to say something or simply kick this annoying man but the telephone rang. She plucked the earpiece off the receiver mounted on the wall next to the couch. "Hello?"

Kozon the Receptionist for the Mathematics Department spoke in a measured voice. "Our mailing room has a parcel for you. Do you know why anyone would send you a bomb?"

"A bomb?" Azula pushed back Eduard who had leaned in to listen.

"We screen all our mail since some students are not happy people." Kozon said. "We had to call the police to disarm it."

Azula hung up the phone and looked at Eduard. "What? The math department gets bombs all the time."

The phone rang again. Azula answered it and held out the receiver for Karo. "Your editor is on about something!" She yelled out to urge Karo to move.

"A package sent to you contained a bomb!" The newspaper editor yelled in his high strung manner. "The police had to disarm it but told me it would have taken out half my building! Explain to me in five words or less why anyone would send a bomb to you!"

Eduard turned to Azula as the newspaper editor chewed out Karo. "I have made up my mind!" He said sternly. "Until we apprehend the assassin, you and your family and friends have to go into hiding."

Omyakan Castle suited Eduard and Azula realized she had utterly underestimated the strawberry blond haired man she had once commanded. This castle had held her mother during her banishment. The Fire Nation had built it to house soldiers after they had destroyed the Northern Air Nomads to act like a nail to hold the land down. It had once housed soldiers and served as a starting point for military campaigns. It stood on the brooding shores of a fjord named Karazan Fjord on a mighty mountain of solid gray granite where it commanded the whole bay and the country around it.

Eduard and his guests traveled on the small but well appointed yacht named The Aurora. The ship had a Water Tribe feel to it in spite of the flag it flew. The fore and aft decks had light colored wood decking and the interiors made use of light colors, brass accents and delicate decorations wherever possible. The accommodations while not roomy were comfortable and oddly enough for a Fire Nation ship, the Aurora made good time in the open ocean powered by the latest in diesel engines which could make twenty four knots at cruising and yet could dash at thirty in favorable winds. The Fire Nation destroyer had to struggle to ten knots. The ship needed only six crew to run efficiently. Azula had explored the ship without opposition and she had explored the mechanical room. She had taken much time to study the twin twelve cylinder marine diesels and all of the polished metal to her had a look that said the world had changed. She wondered if Eduard had any say in the design: the twin propellers could turn the ship in its own length, bring it to a stop in ten seconds and then reverse to twenty knots.

When the War had ended, Eduard had claimed the castle as his. He hated the Fire Nation capitol and preferred the cool pine forests that lay around the castle. Azula watched as the Royal Yacht slowly steamed along the bay and watched the gray skies which hinted at rain. She felt some jealousy at the thought that Eduard had the power to have his own castle. Eduard had suggested and Zuko had approved the plan to house the princess and the Zhao family in the relative safety of his estate. Azula knew Zuko trusted him not because Eduard had proven himself honest and of high moral character. Eduard didn't house a truly evil heart, just a rather evil one when it came to matters of money, graft and theft. Eduard had a healthy dose of paranoia and mistrust which made an assassin's task even more difficult.

The hard granite had served the castle builders well. The castle stood on top of a huge granite hill that barely allowed a mere human to scale it. The countryside had provided the raw materials to make a strong fortress and yet the gloom pervaded the place. She could not fathom what could have drawn Eduard to such a place.

Azula leaned against the metal rail of the main deck and felt cold and damp.

Eduard walked out and leaned against the railing. "Your family cares about your welfare. You don't seem grateful about that and have behaved like a complete bitch in the entire week we have taken to sail up here." Eduard half expected a rude remark but continued when he didn't hear it. "You and your family will be safe with me while the Fire Nation and the local police keep an eye on things. We'll catch your assassin but in the meantime think of your family and friends. How would you feel if Karo died?"

"He can hold his own in any fight," she lied as she pretended to ignore Eduard. Azula looked at the black lead roof of the castle. "Do you have central heating?"

"I have all the modern amenities." Eduard answered as he grabbed the rail while the yacht slowly turned to dock. "I had a power plant installed to provide heat and power. I have brought in a cooking staff – paid for by Zuko – to provide for your food needs. We have regular supply runs to the Fire Nation and can bring the best food and drink in as well."

The yacht slowed down as it docked at a wide stone dock.

"You could have let me die." Azula said as the crew rushed around and cast off the ropes. "You could have let the assassin do his dirty deeds." Azula slyly said. "You have no reason to care about my sorry hide, so why bring us all here?"

"Your brother asked me to do this." Eduard said bluntly.

Azula said nothing as the cable car slowly rose from the stone pier at the fjord and climbed up the steep hill on a set of steel cables. Eduard had the cable car installed since the only other way to gain access to the castle was a narrow stone road carved into the hillside and Eduard decided he needed a more modern and swifter means of transportation. The car had a bright red coat of paint on the bottom and glistening white set off by the shining metal of the support that the car hung off. Tall, slender steel towers poked above the cedar trees that grew on the damp side of the mountain and held it thirty meters in the air. Karo found the Nordic beauty of the mountains stunningly beautiful. Something about the rugged mountains, the fjords and the always nervous, gray skies and gray rock made for a dramatic landscape.

The clouds closed in as the car ascended into the sky with Lady Zhao looking nervous, Katara wondering if a cable could hold them all in the air and with Karo watching the trees slip by. Azula spotted a grizzly bear running along the ground deftly swerving between the trees and pointed that out to Karo who wondered if the castle would provide enough protection to keep out a half ton bear. Karo felt damp and cold but something did draw him to this landscape.

The cable car held between eight and ten people and supplies comfortably and had nice red leather seats to make Eduard's passenger's feel comfortable. The cable car had wide windows that opened and let passengers enjoy the scenery on the days when the clouds didn't obscure everything in damp fog. This day the cable car had to make its way through the gray skies. The tall cedar trees poked up through the fog and gave rise to the illusion the car would soon slam into them. The cable car had a path cut through the trees and the gondola slid between them as it rose.

Eduard sat at the front in case the cable car needed to stop. A red and green button comprised the sole control system for the cable car so he had nothing of any real skill to do. He said nothing as he rode up to his new home in the sky. His guests had become caught up in the severe scenery and he didn't want to deprive them of the near mystical experience this place afforded him.

Water fell off a sheer granite cave and off the steep slopes below the cable car. Azula had only ever heard about this castle and never visited it. Her mother had sought banishment here because of the remoteness. The scenery struck Azula as the very thing to attract tourism and cruise ships. She looked up and her eyes followed the line of the cable and she could see a large hole carved into the solid rock and above that, a vast fortification made of granite. The cable car slid in through the hole as a huge steel door slid back to admit the cable car into the vast room made to accept passengers into the castle.

"I will serve dinner at five." Eduard announced as the cable car lurched to a stop. "In the meantime, feel free to explore and if you need anything, our servants are here to help."

The black steel door that formed most of the floor of the room slowly slid back into place and the electric lights came on.

Karo followed Azula as she inspected the castle. "Stay with me on this." Azula walked down a large, arched hallway which once held portraits of various Fire Nation lords, nobles and other knobs and now held pictures of scenery Eduard had acquired. "What does Eduard see in this squalid dump?" She passed a small slit of a window. Castles had served as major military fortifications and she knew the design of the place revolved around making the place as much of a pain to gain access to as humanly possible which meant large glass windows through which a rock could be heaved was definitely out.

"He has something to compensate for?" Karo added less than helpfully as he stared up at an unfortunate grizzly bear that had long ago fallen victim to a taxidermist. "He has a dining hall which has more room than a high school gym and God knows how tall the ceilings were. I never had roast beast in a hockey arena before."

Azula shrugged. "He get lots of guests? Of course this is Eduard which means he must have more than his charm and good looks. He must use this place to offer hideouts to lots of people who fall afoul of assassins." Azula held an old iron skeleton key and faced a heavy, dark brown wooden door banded by steel. "This is our room. Eduard said we had the room just opposite the stuffed bear."

"He's trying to depress me." Karo said bitterly. "This room has a slit for a window and a fire place with huge two meter thick rock walls."

"Complain to Eduard that you can't hang posters." Azula walked inside the room. The room had a fine red carpet with the Fire Nation logo, two large four poster beds with poles carved like slender dragons out of some tropical hardwood that looked black and expensive. The fire place took up one side of the room, while a huge bookcase filled the other side. Two slits provided the only natural light but one of Eduard's lackeys had left a fire going in the fire place and a pair of lamps on night stands made of the same wood as the beds gave off a feeble light. A large desk made of a red wood stood between the two slits. It lacked a bathroom as remodeling a castle cost money and proved fairly difficult but Eduard made sure they had a bathroom two doors down the hall. Azula noted with some irritation that it looked neat, posh and perfect. "Before we leave, remind me to steal the towels and trash the room."

"He has the Krazy Kat collection!" Karo pulled a large bound book from the collection of books provided for his guests.

"He has a radio on the mantle as well." Azula sat on the bed closest to the fire place. "He means to keep us comfortable and amused for a long time. I imagine he doesn't mind enjoying my helplessness and he gets to play the hero. He can show off his power and prestige and also serve as the hero for saving the poor princess from the cruel assassin."

"As long as he helps." Karo sat on the bed with his new found cartoon book.

Azula got off the bed. "Enjoy your cartoon books." She opened the door. "I'm going to explore this place."

The castle had a square outer wall made of solid stone blocks two meters thick. The wall had a ten meter top and high railings to allow men and weaponry to move. Azula could see fortified buildings with walls but built beyond the outer walls but had no idea what they once did. The taller inner wall had a solid concrete foundation and stone walls just as thick as the outer wall. It had the living quarters built in stone buildings against the inner walls. The courtyard had once had stables for ostrich horses, a blacksmith and a foundry but these had all gone and a simple open grass yard remained.

Azula had an instinct about building layout and soon found herself in a network of tunnels beneath the whole fort. The castle looked old except for the armored electrical cable and some furnishings added when Eduard moved in. As she went into the tunnels, the stone gave way to square concrete tunnels with water and steam pipes. This made sense given the effort Eduard had made to retrofit the castle to have all the comforts and the tunnels acted as service ducts for modern heating and lighting.

She emerged from the tunnel into a circular room which she judged to be many meters below ground and looked down at her feet to see a heavy looking cast steel lid painted danger yellow. The room looked about the same size as a large living room in a house and the ceiling had a steel cover that looked equally impressive in terms of its mass. A polished chrome rail ran around the outside of the yellow circle but opened at the four quadrants of the circle. A wide tunnel made of steel led away from the room in the opposite direction she had entered.

"Hello?" Eduard said as he walked around the room. "What brings you to the power house?"

Azula looked around trying to make sense of the room of steel. "I went for a walk and wound up here." She replied candidly. "Where is here?"

"I spend a good deal of my time at the castle and I need electricity and heat." Eduard tapped his hand calmly on the rail. "I need power to haul my food and pump water up to the castle so I needed a power system that didn't need a constant supply of coal or wood but would always provide power on demand for the cable car system and the comforts I need."

"What am I standing on?" Azula stood in the yellow circle. "Have you tapped into a hot spring?"

"I decided to use some of my past knowledge to good use." Eduard pointed at the floor. "I came from a world which made use of the nuclear power you have been so critical of. I decided to make use of it on a small scale and built a nuclear reactor. Quite a tame beast by the scale of those I knew. I had to work within the limits of this world but on a small scale it works well."

"Oh," Azula had expected an sarcastic and angry answer not a scientifically intriguing one.

"I have to use natural uranium for fuel and so came up with a graphite moderated gas reactor." Eduard said proudly. "In our world, these gas reactors were the first type ever built and didn't use exotic materials. I found building it it akin to a kit project where enthusiasts built their own race boats. I knew enough to find the parts or have them made and then hired skilled craftsmen to assemble my final design."

Azula knelt down and felt the floor and the steal beneath the yellow cover felt cold. "How does it work?"

"The graphite makes the uranium undergo fission," Eduard began. "Nitrogen gas under pressure runs through the heated reactor and takes away the heat through pipes to a boiler filled with water to drive a generator. A pump returns the cool gas back into the reactor and the cycle continues." Eduard had a look of great pride on his face.

"What about the danger?" Azula had the sound of a jealous woman in her voice. "What if the gas stops circulating? How do you control the reaction so the thing won't melt through the mountain? What do you do with the radioactive fuel?"

"A meltdown occurs in reactors which make use of densely packed fuel in a small area. When they shut down, the fuel still has latent heat from radioactive decay and can melt if the heat doesn't have anywhere to go. Meltdowns happen when reactors that use light water lack coolant or steam bubbles form and trap heat." Eduard walked onto the yellow circle. "A gas cooled reactor has none of these problems and this runs on a small scale so I can't think of any conditions under which a meltdown could occur."

"What about the radioactive fuel?" Azula crossed her arms. "If I pulled a fuel rod out of a reactor, we would die in seconds."

Eduard smiled smartly. "I would imagine we would; so don't undo all the bolts on the lid of the reactor and take out a fuel rod." Eduard tapped his foot on the steel floor. "Allow me a moment to explain? I never intended the reactor to be refueled given that the fuel inside can run this place for two or three decades without a problem. The reactor takes up little space and so when finally at the end of its life, we can take it out and dispose of it and install another reactor complete with fuel like one replaces a battery."

Azula didn't like that solution. Eduard looked at his little nuclear plant like a kitchen appliance. Azula knew a toaster couldn't hurt those toasting a bagel for breakfast but people stuck forks in them. She didn't believe Eduard that nothing could go wrong. His people may have made it safe or had safe designs but someone had tried to blow her up and a carefully placed bomb among the plumbing would have nasty consequences and she didn't see any security to protect the reactor.

"Can I look around?" Azula asked.

"Feel free!" Eduard said as he stood up. "If you follow that tunnel," Eduard pointed to the tunnel that entered from the opposite side she had entered. "A spiral stairwell on each side will lead you down and you can see the reactor vessel in the middle of a circular room about this size. You will find the control room and the generators at the end of that same tunnel."

She had no trouble finding the reactor. Another circle of yellow paint, a circle of sturdy bolts that poked out of the heavy steel floor marked the top of the test tube shaped vessel that held the reactor core. She had imagined a roaring beast but this thing made only a light hiss. A set of steel rods stood partway out of reactor – the control rods – linked to some kind of motor driven hoist that hung from the roof. A pair of two inch pipes rose up out of the reactor on either side with a red metal sign and a kind of red cage to prevent accidental contact with the hot pipes. They ran along the ceiling and exited in the direction of the room where Eduard told her the controls resided. Another metal rail kept her from standing on the reactor lit where the shiny control rods stood. A hatch in the floor lead down to the bottom of the shiny reactor vessel which had its own collection of pipes filled with cool air. It had no lock and opened when she turned the handle. She followed stairs down and stood at the rounded bottom of the beast. Thick steel beams held the whole thing in the middle of a round concrete cylinder while huge blocks of steel and concrete held it in place on a massively built concrete floor. Eduard may have borrowed foreign technology but no one but Fire Nation engineers could have built the massive looking thing. The reactor vessel had insulation and yet was warm to the touch and Azula felt very uneasy running her hand along the side.

"Eduard built a AGR?" Karo said as he climbed into the hatchway. "Advanced Gas Reactor?"

Azula looked up with a disbelieving look. "How would you know that!" She barked out.

"They stamped that on the side of the metal cylinder." Karo answered calmly. "Piangdao Steel Fabricators: Product of Fire Nation. So what does this do? Make beer?"

The assassin had done much detective work to find out where Azula had fled to. She had instilled fear in the princess with bombs and the Fire Lord had sent her to the most favored site of those he wished to hide: the old fortress of Omyakan Castle – the Chancellor's estate. Fire Lord Ozai had banished Lady Ursa in that place. His odd Chancellor had taken to the place and made it his estate.

Chancellor Eduard never traveled by sea: he preferred airship travel and when he departed Henwa Island on board the Aurora, the assassin had no trouble guessing who else traveled with him and where they were going.

She stood and watched the castle from the hidden camp she had in the woods, dressed in the loose fitting black uniform of an assassin. She had the look of an assassin: she was tall, with thick beautiful black hair done in a braid and she had a katana. Under her loose clothes she looked shapely and exotic which fit the stereotype of exotic assassin – very few had pimples. This helped her make a living as few feared a beautiful dark haired tall woman. She could water bend and she had knowledge of bombs, traps and of fortresses. She could study a fortification and find a way in without detection.

When she saw the cable car make two trips to the coast, she knew for certain the princess and the Chancellor had arrived. Omyakan Castle once had been a mighty fortress, it had now become a country home with every comfort. She had picked a wet forest clearing in the valley to the east with the ocean fjord lay to the north and castle mountain to the west. She made her camp a in a dense group of trees some distance from the sheer cliff that lead the final five hundred meters to the wall of the castle. She watched everything but saw little through the dark drizzle and mist. She didn't expect to see anything happen. The castle had no guards wishing to pour boiling oil on her. She could see light through the narrow slits of the windows. She relaxed in the drizzle and studied the problem. She didn't specialize in brute force and had conducted a series of strategic thefts to obtain the final plans to the castle including the modifications Chancellor Eduard had made.

She had studied Eduard and his castle. Chancellor Eduard had half a dozen staff and two guards when he stayed at the castle. A few Royal Fire Nation Engineers paid a visit every spring to maintain the cable cars, check the electrical and heating systems and make repairs on things that needed repair. The castle once supported hundreds of soldiers, craftsmen and prisoners. Now with less than a dozen inhabitants barely counted as inhabited. She could wander around without anyone even knowing.

She had stolen the plans for the castle from one of the engineering firms in The Fire Nation. The old castle had a physical layout with inner and outer square walls and two compounds opposite of each other. One once held an armory, the other held supplies and barracks for extra troops. The armory served to house a complicated facility called the powerhouse. The barracks had refrigerated food stores, a wine cellar, the water works and a machine shop. Tunnels lead to each part of the castle and to two entrances on opposite sides of the castle connected to trails down the mountain. These had massive stone doors one could only open from the inside but Eduard and his staff never used them since the construction of the cable car line.

She knew the cable cars gave her a place to begin her attack. She could place time delayed bombs on the slender posts and damage the system so the inhabitants of the castle would have a hard time leaving. Even if they did leave, she could confront them on the dangerous and narrow paths that wound through the forest along the steep mountain. A rustle in the distant woods distracted her from her plans. In her line of work, safety lay in remaining hidden so she dare not move. She heard a dull, earthy thump in the forest and then nothing. She remained motionless for many minutes until she was absolutely certain nothing posed a threat.