Title: Fortunate Son

Author: overlithe

Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender

Summary: A few weeks after Roku leaves the Fire Nation to begin his Avatar training, Sozin's grandmother Bao tells her grandson that, as the Crown Prince, it's time for him to travel around the Fire Nation and get a taste of dealing with his country and its problems. Bao, Sozin, and Sozin's guest Ta Min set out on their journey, during which they are plagued by strange accidents, meet a reclusive order of firebenders, and find themselves in the thick of a political dispute about to edge into war. After Sozin returns to the capital, tragedy befalls him and he is crowned Fire Lord, a few months before his seventeenth birthday—but he is soon targeted by a mysterious adversary and he finds that the palace may prove to be the most dangerous place of all. Action/adventure in the first half, mystery/political intrigue in the second half.

Characters/Pairings: Sozin, Ta Min, Roku, OCs; the fic is gen, but I am a Roku/Sozin and Roku/Sozin/Ta Min shipper, and let's just say it shows.

Prompt: fanfic100 prompt 001. Beginnings

Rating: T; one chapter may edge into M due to violence

Warnings: Some moderately graphic violence; character death; minor references to sexual situations; oh, and if you really object to Sozin being portrayed in a sympathetic light, this is *so* not the fic for you. ;) (Note that individual chapters have their own warnings as needed.)

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and concepts created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, and owned by Nickelodeon and various other corporations/people. I'm not one of those people, and I'm not making any money and do not intend any copyright or trademark infringement.

Acknowledgments: Many thanks to my wonderful beta joyeuses, who provided endless suggestions, comments, and encouragement, and without whom I would never have been able to whip this behemoth of a fic into shape. I'd also like to thank bobangk for the wonderful art she created for the fic and shadowsong26 for her input on an early version of the plot. messageredacted helped me out with my outline and muffinbitch and btsxbeta not only provided many helpful comments on some of my chapters, they also put up with my endless chatter about the fic. This fic was originally written for the avatarbigbang fest and I'd like to thank the mods for putting the challenge together.

Author's Note: Along with Hama, Sozin is my favourite one-shot character in A:tLA because, while I find cardboard cackling villains very, very boring, I love moral complexity/ambiguity and I tend to find characters who are firmly convinced they are acting for the greater good to be rather interesting and thought-provoking (especially if they are very charismatic—I find that far more unsettling than villains who are obviously, over-the-top evil). And yes, my reading of the canon is definitely that Sozin ends up as a Utopia Justifies the Means sort of character. So this fic and its sequels are an attempt to show Sozin's development from the goofy teenager we see at the start of his episode into someone so utterly convinced of the brilliance of his plans and rightness of his actions that... well, he does what he ends up doing, and to show this progression in a (hopefully) convincing and compelling manner.

Links: You can find links to fanart by bobgank and to the fanmix I put together for the fic in my profile page.

++Fortunate Son++

Chapter One: Grandmother Bao's Advice

He sat under the ginnan tree, his mind as still as the pond and as drowsy as the day's heat. A few baby turtle-ducks swam close to him in a gaggle of quacks and splashes, but he barely noticed them. There was a rustle of footsteps in the grass behind him, but he didn't turn around. Above him, a bird flew towards the horizon, a little dark speck in the summer sky.

'A hawk in mid-air, two red-white wings turn to the sun.' His grandmother, then. He stood, turned, and bowed to her in a rather perfunctory fashion as she finished. 'How it flees the dullness.' The bow was not returned.

'I've never heard that one before, grandmother,' Sozin said.

'That one what?' She looked at him quizzically, then sat down and patted the bench. 'Here.'

He sat down, feeling awkward and hoping she didn't notice. Grandmother Bao seemed to spend most of her time receiving the occasional visitor or writing reams of correspondence while drinking too-sweet tea, and it was not usual for her to come into the gardens just to talk to her grandson. Worry flared inside him. 'Is anything wrong?' He didn't mention what might be wrong. He didn't have to.

'Oh, no. You weren't at your lessons today.' She stared at him, unblinking. Her hair had long since turned white, but her eyes still looked as young as his, the same shade of fine amber.

He couldn't suppress a sigh of boredom. 'I know all that backwards and forwards.' Besides, Roku wasn't around any more, to pass notes back and forth when they grew tired of listening or studying, or to laugh with him as Sozin joked his way through a problem they'd been assigned, or to test their latest firebending lesson.

'And, of course,' Bao said, the words cutting through his thoughts, 'your friend isn't here any more. And now the palace is just unbearably boring.'

He didn't answer. She folded her hands on her lap and her gaze remained fastened on him. 'Besides, it's not fair, is it? He was supposed to be your companion, to be always by your side.' Her tone turned a fraction softer. 'And all of a sudden he turns out to be the all-powerful Avatar, chosen like you weren't chosen, and you were no longer the one who always knew what to do and what to say. Off he went to do and learn things you can't even begin to understand and you had to stay behind. You can't even send him your letters.' She paused. The ginnan leaves whispered above them and the smell of sun-dry flowers wafted down. 'What a shame.'

Sozin felt his face grow hot. He thought of the letters he'd written, a small but growing pile he kept in his bedroom because he had no idea of how to get them to Roku. Then a memory bubbled up, as though pulled to the surface by his grandmother's golden gaze: a magician at his and Roku's tenth birthday, revealing the exact Pai Sho tile Sozin had picked, somehow transported into an empty teacup; something about the trick had bothered him, and he had spent several days trying to figure it out, only reluctantly giving up when Roku had said he was tired of hearing about it. 'How do you—?'

'Know all this?' Bao said. 'It's rather self-evident, wouldn't you say? It doesn't take a great intellect to figure out you miss your friend. Even if he weren't your doushun, you two boys were so joined at the hip I'm surprised people didn't start mixing your names up. Or didn't do it more often. Even your mother has called him son once or twice. As for the rest, well, it is a matter of simply knowing how to read. People, situations.' She paused and her eyes focused on him again. Some part of him wanted to turn away: her gaze lay as heavily on him as the sweltering heat and he could almost feel her rummaging about inside his head. The rest of him told him it was nonsense, and to hold firm. After a while her eyelids drooped again. 'Which brings me back to your lessons. Call for the koi.'

'I'm sorry?'

'There is a very old and very large—well, large for a regular koi, anyway—koi in the pond, isn't there?'

'You mean Old Mr Yu?' His grandmother's request was so absurd Sozin didn't even remember that he and Roku had come up with the name and it was almost certainly meaningless for Bao. They'd been ten and Sozin had ended up wading into the deeper part of the pond—he couldn't remember why, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time—and all of a sudden something even darker than the water had glided past him: a koi, old and huge like the world. Its head moved past Sozin and for a moment the barbels and eyes had looked like a wizened human face. Then the fish had swam back under one of the overhangs where the koi shielded themselves from the sun and birds of prey.

'Yes, that must be it,' Bao said. 'Call it.'

'You want me to call for a fish.' It wasn't a question. Sozin couldn't help but wonder if his grandmother was senile, but it wasn't a word that went well with Bao. She looked as composed and sharp as a swordmaster's blade, tucked away in its sheath.

'Yes. If you can't do it, I'll be happy to demonstrate.'

'I can do it,' Sozin grumbled, and kneeled on the grass. What was this for? He dipped one hand into the cool water and splashed it around a little. Some lesson in obedience, or— 'Hey, Old Mr Yu,' he said, his voice nearly cracking with embarrassment. The heat in his face was back, spreading all the way to his ears. 'Come here, fish.' The adult turtle-ducks turned doleful eyes towards him, but nothing else happened. Oh, this is stupid. He got up. Cold water dripped from his hand onto his clothes.

'Yes, thank you. You can sit down again,' Bao said in a neutral tone, as though she'd just seen her grandson demonstrate a firebending form. Sozin sat back on the bench, and told himself he was just being polite. 'Why did the fish not come when you called it?'

The words tumbled out of Sozin's mouth before he could stop them. 'Are you serious?'

'Very.'

'Because it's a fish.' He managed not to roll his eyes. 'They don't come when they're called.'

'Don't they?' Bao's hand retreated into her sleeve. When it emerged again it was holding something wrapped in a silk handkerchief. She undid it on her lap, revealing a few chunks of bread and slices of melon, glistening in the sun.

'Let's test that, then.' She flicked the bread onto one edge of the pond and the turtle-ducks rushed towards it, quacks and splashes growing more urgent as the ducklings tried to pick up the morsels. Then she threw the melon slices onto the water, where they bobbed for a few seconds before a cluster of colourful shades glided to the surface and began gobbling them up. A moment later the koi scattered again as a much larger shape ascended: an oversized black fish, its bulging eyes making it look rather mournful as it ate what was left of the melon slices with slow deliberation. It was even bigger than Sozin remembered.

'It seems you were wrong and I was right, grandson.' The fish finished feeding and sunk out of sight.

'That's not really fair. You told me to call it, you never said—'

'I never said what methods you could employ. So why limit yourself to the most ineffective?' She folded the handkerchief lying on her lap. 'And, again, back to your lessons. I fear one area of study has been sadly neglected.'

Sozin stared at the pond and tried to sound nonchalant. 'Yes, I never learned much about the feeding habits of koi. Go figure.'

A flick of the golden gaze, and again the feeling that she was rummaging through his mind. 'Rulership,' she said.

'That's not true. I know all about our nation's history, and its administration, and—'

'Yes, yes,' Bao said with a shrug of dismissal, 'and if I asked you, I am sure you could recite the names of every single Fire Lord from every single dynasty, and draw a map of the provinces and their boundaries and capitals. It would be very detailed and very accurate, I have no doubt. You have a fine hand.'

I know, Sozin thought, but didn't say it.

'But those are only dates and maps,' she went on, 'and dates and maps aren't enough. When you become Fire Lord, who will you draw on for support? Who will you be able to trust?'

His answer was prompt. 'Roku, of course.'

'Of course. I'm sure it will prove very useful, to be so close to the Avatar.' He wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or sincere. 'Even so—if two governors squabble, how will you solve it?'

'I'll find out which one is right.'

'And if they both are, or neither is? And how will you be sure the information you get is accurate? And what if the dispute is between the Fire Nation and, say, the Earth Kingdom? Or the Northern Water Tribe?'

He was starting to get annoyed. 'Then I'll figure something out. You make it sound like I've never sat in a council before. And what's all this about, anyway?'

She tucked the handkerchief back into her sleeve. 'As I said, rulership. The difference between calling things from the depths and making sure they come when called.'

'Just add melon,' he said acidly, but Bao seemed to take it in stride.

'Quite so. And I think it's time you got some hands-on experience. As in firebending, theory is no replacement for practice.'

She folded her hands on her lap, and for a moment the only sound was the din of the cicadas. He recalled Roku waving goodbye outside the palace gates until he vanished from sight. What was he doing right now? Learning some arcane knowledge meant only for Avatars, in some place above the clouds? 'How am I going to do that?'

'Your aunt Iruza has written to me. Her children would like to visit the capital again and stay with us a while. Frankly, I'm surprised they haven't done it earlier; they're a royal Princess's children, after all.' Sozin thought of his father's younger sister, a bluff woman with the same boundless enthusiasm of a lion-dog. He had last seen her when he was little, but she wasn't the sort of person you forgot easily. 'I have written back to tell her,' Bao went on, 'that you'll stop over at Obsidian Island when you go on your tour of the Fire Nation.'

He wondered if he'd heard correctly. Maybe his grandmother's words had been distorted by the song of the cicadas, restless in the heat. 'Did you say my tour?'

'It's a long-standing tradition for children of the royal house to travel around our nation. Knowing one's country better, understanding the responsibilities of one's rank and all that. Did your tutors skip that as well?'

'They didn't skip it,' Sozin snapped. He had only been outside the capital twice, once when Roku's mother had remarried—again—and the two of them had been among the guests, snugly enclosed in a layer of Royal Firebender Guards, and another time when he was very little and his parents had taken him to Ember Island. He had trod on a broken seashell and the cut had healed into a scar that reminded him of the stroke of a calligraphy brush. 'They made it sound a bit—'

'Old-fashioned?'

'Something like that.' It did sound like something that required a time of warlords and earth-wandering spirits rather than theatres and indoor plumbing. 'Did my dad go?'

'He certainly did, and so did your aunt, just before your father married your mother. Back then I was talking to Fire Lord Ren about betrothing my daughter to his son,' she added with a glimmer of pride. 'That's when he went. He was older than you are now, but—' She trailed off. Sozin required no explanation of that "but". He had lain cheek and jowl to it since he was old enough to walk. 'And now it's time for you to go,' Bao added quickly. 'Would you like that?'

'Sure! Do you think I'll run into any pirates—or maybe bandits? Time for some real firebending.' His grin waned and he looked down at the ground. 'Only I'm not going to go, am I?'

'And why is that?'

'My parents are going to say I'm too young. Or maybe too inexperienced or—'

'Don't put blocks in your own path. That's other people's job.' Bao leaned back against the tree and half-closed her eyes again. When she spoke, she sounded gnomic. 'Besides, if you want to know what your parents will think, why don't you ask them?'

Sozin was about to answer—with what, he wasn't sure, but he had to say something—when voices wafted from the other end of the garden. He got up and hurried towards them, his grandmother and etiquette forgotten.

'Dad!'

'There you are,' Fire Lord Yunjin said, with a lopsided smile. His right hand was on his cane, but he raised his left arm a little and winked at his son. 'How about a little help for an old man?'

'Nonsense—you're not old at all,' Sozin said as he took his father's hand and slipped under his arm. Even through the layers of fabric, he could feel the twitches in his father's muscles, reminding him as always of the time he had wound up a clockwork toy too much and its wooden limbs had jerked and flopped until he couldn't stand it any more and pulled out the gears. He squeezed his father's hand, just enough to help him keep it still. The fingers didn't squeeze back.

'I know,' Yunjin said. 'I'm just very lazy and enjoy taking advantage of youth.'

'Son…' Fire Lady Sora said, then trailed off, golden eyes lit with worry. Two of the ministers flanked her, one of them carrying a pile of scrolls that rose nearly to his chin. Sozin couldn't help but feel a little annoyed; it wasn't as though he didn't know just how he had to handle his father. Hadn't he learned it from the time he was old enough to notice the way his father's hand shook around a pair of chopsticks, or to wonder why he had to rest so often?

'It's fine, mother,' he said.

'Sir, it is imperative that we revise this lending schedule,' the minister with the scrolls said. He punctuated his words with a thrust of his chin and the uppermost scroll rolled down, unfolding towards the grass. Sora snatched it up before it hit the ground.

'We have already agreed on this,' Sora said as she rolled the scroll back up after a quick skim of its contents. Sozin felt his father shift a little of his weight onto him and he put his arm around his back to support him better. 'Three years should be more than enough.' She glanced at her husband.

'I wouldn't say more than enough,' Yunjin said, 'but it's reasonable. I don't think we can do more.'

Another glance passed between him and Sora, a lighthouse signalling a ship. 'The Fire Lord wishes to be with the Crown Prince,' Sora said. 'I'll handle this.'

The ministers lowered their gazes and Yunjin nodded to Sozin. 'Come on, dumpling. If you don't mind propping up the nation for a few more steps, I'll tell you all about the year of the Great Comet and how we couldn't sneeze without setting things on fire.'

They moved laboriously towards the square pavilion standing a few yards away. 'Grandmother Bao was telling me about your tour of the country. Before you became Fire Lord.'

'Oh, yes. That was a long time ago.' He chuckled at some memory, then the smile turned into a wince as he moved onto the bench, even with Sozin's help; he covered it up quickly with another, stiffer smile. 'During the Second Western War.'

'That was when you toured the nation?' He couldn't keep the excitement off his voice. He had learned about the Western Wars, of course, and the knowledge that his father—

had been

—was the greatest firebender in the world was something so utterly ingrained in him that he couldn't even remember when and how he had first learned it, just like his own name or the fact that the sun rose in the east. Even so, it was a little hard to put the two things together in his mind. Especially the part where his father had been only a few years older than him.

'It sounds a lot more interesting than it actually was,' Yunjin said. 'For a start, the only reason it's called the Second Western War is because the Second Western Skirmish wouldn't sound good in the history books. It probably doesn't even rhyme with anything, and every war needs its war song.' His smile—a real one, this time—turned wry. 'It's to remind the people who missed out of how much they'd have enjoyed the war.'

'How about the battle of Kaze? That was then, wasn't it? What was it like?'

'Surprising. I mean, there we were, having just spent our whole trip dealing with the occasional bandit and thoroughly testing the quality of fire wine, and suddenly we were in the middle of a battle. Luckily, we figured out it wasn't a real battle when we noticed the koala-sheep. I'm sure you're not allowed to have those in a real battle and this one had at least a whole flock wandering around.'

Sozin laughed. 'So it wasn't the fearless Crown Prince against the mighty warlord of the Western Islands?'

'Well, it eventually got to that. If by "fearless" you mean "drunk", and if by "mighty" you also mean "drunk". When you are Fire Lord, do your best never to negotiate with an opponent who keeps offering you drinks. Not if they're long negotiations, at any rate. And if you can't avoid this, then at least try not to challenge your opponent to an Agni Kai at the end. Unless he is even more drunk that you. Then you'd be a fool not to exploit the strategic advantage. You'll know you have it if your opponent can no longer say "strategic" and you still manage to say at least half of it.'

'You're right,' Sozin said, in the most serious tone he could muster. 'The version in the history books sounds much better.'

'Now, now. What would your tutors say if they heard you impugn the Fire Nation's honour like that?' Yunjin's hand lifted to brush a lock of hair away from Sozin's forehead like he had done so many times before, but the hand stilled mid-gesture. The fingers shook, then the arm flopped down onto Yunjin's lap like a dead fish, the muscles jerking a little. Sozin placed his hand over his father's, a familiar hot pebble in the pit of his stomach. At eight, he had asked his father if it hurt. Yunjin had said "of course not", and then his expression had changed and he'd added "not enough to notice".

'Grandmother Bao also said I should go on the journey myself,' Sozin said, suddenly absorbed in the floor's lotus pattern. When he spoke again it was in a comically exaggerated version of his grandmother's voice. 'She said I've gone for too long without lessons in rulership. And also fish taming.' His voice turned back to normal. 'Yeah, I didn't get that part either.'

'Of course you're going to go. You must. In two or three years…' His voice trailed off, and then he glanced back at his son. For a moment Sozin looked into his father's eyes, the same golden-brown as Roku's, then he looked back at the pavilion's floor, the thing in his stomach now covered in an icy layer of misery.

'Grandmother said this year is best because of Aunt Iruza's letter,' he said. 'She wants her children to come to the palace, so maybe I could go pick them up. I'm not too young, really, I'm not.'

'Minister Guo wants something,' Yunjin said, with a slightly shaky nod of his chin. Sora and the two ministers were stepping up to the pavilion. Sozin took his hand off his father's, ready to help him stand up.

'I'm sorry,' Sora said softly when she got close enough.

Guo stepped up to the Fire Lord. 'I beg your pardon, sir,' he said, 'but I must inform you of the situation at Yulong.' He was holding a messenger hawk scroll with the leather ribbons still attached.

'This must be about Lord Yoshi, if I am not mistaken,' Yunjin said, and right now he was the Fire Lord again, his voice subtly different than when he had been talking with his son. Sozin was sure that even the faint trace of poppy smoke that seemed to cling to his father's clothes all the time had faded a little.

'Yes, sir,' Guo said, and unrolled the scroll in one neat gesture; everything about him was neat, like a well-oiled clockwork mechanism, and Sozin suddenly had an image of the minister being carefully packed in a box by his servants and then retrieved and wound up again every morning. He bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from laughing. 'Lord Yoshi is not likely to last the year, and when he does die, well.' He handed the scroll to Yunjin. Sozin reached out for it and placed it on his father's lap. 'I think there's trouble already brewing in Yulong, sir.'

'There's always trouble brewing in Yulong,' Sora said. The look of worry had been replaced by a frown of displeasure. 'They seem to have a knack for it.'

'Even so, I expect we'll soon have to send someone,' Yunjin said.

'Father, send me.' Sozin paused for a second, then spoke again, this time with conviction. 'I should be the one to go. I'm the Crown Prince—I have to be able to handle this. And I'm supposed to travel through the Fire Nation anyway. I'm supposed to prove myself, right?'

'We'll see,' Sora said, her eyelids drooping just like her mother's. Sozin was very familiar with that tone; it immediately preceded a "no".

He got up. 'Why shouldn't I go? I should have a good reason, at least.' He had never thought all that much about his tour, but something about his grandmother's words had struck a spark, a fever.

'Prince Sozin, please remember yourself,' Sora said. Sozin felt like glaring back at her, but looked down at the ground and bowed to his mother.

'I am sorry, mother. It was not my place.'

'Minister Xiao… Minister Guo,' Sora went on. 'Please leave us.'

Sozin looked up from under his eyelashes. The two ministers turned to his father, who nodded, then bowed to the Fire Lord before walking away. Once they were out of sight, Sora let out a sigh and put her hand on Sozin's shoulder. He felt like shrugging her hand away, but knew that would just be childish. 'I'm sorry, son, but I don't think sending you to Yulong would be a very good idea. I don't think you have enough experience—'

'Mother, I'm sixteen. Roku is the same age as I am and he's off to do Avatar things.'

'He's off to train and study,' Yunjin said, with a smile that managed to be amused without being mocking. 'I don't think they're having him face angry spirits just yet.'

'I have to train too. And I have to get to know my country. How am I supposed to become Fire Lord if I haven't even left the capital?'

Sora took her hand off her son's shoulder. 'Of course you're going to leave the capital and go on your journey. In a few years' time…'

Why do they all say that? Sozin thought, before his father cut in.

'Sora,' Yunjin said. 'Maybe he should go now. Under other circumstances, I'd make him wait. It's just…' Another lighthouse-to-ship glance passed between his parents, but this time Sozin knew exactly what it meant.

'But he's so young.'

Yunjin was about to reply when his cane slipped from his grip and thudded onto the stone floor. His right hand slumped onto his knee, suddenly as useless as his left, and a shiver ran through his shoulders. 'I think I should lie down,' he said in a dry whisper.

Sozin moved towards his father but Sora was already at her husband's side, gathering everything and leveraging him up. 'It's all right,' she said. Yunjin looked back at Sozin, his golden skin blanching. 'I'm sorry, dumpling.'

'Do you want me to call for—' Sozin said, feeling useless. Even getting the words out was hard, each one sticking in his throat.

'I'll handle it,' Sora said, and in a few moments his parents were trudging out of the gardens and he was alone again. He sat down on the ground next to the pavilion and started pulling up blades of grass. For what seemed like the thousand thousandth time, he wished Roku were there.

'No luck, grandson?' Bao again, her shadow blocking out the sun. He looked up and for a moment all he could see was his mother and himself, round-faced and solid where his father was slender. Then she stepped closer and the effect was gone.

'Dad isn't feeling well.' Again. 'And they told me I was too young,' he said, and got up, wiping grass off his clothes. 'Well, mother told me I was too young.'

'Of course she did.' Bao reached forward and picked up a blade of grass still clinging to his sleeve. 'Do you think she did it just to annoy you? You don't know what kind of things she's been through.'

That was the other thing they never talked about: the three little altars in the alcove off the main shrine, under the figurine of the chubby, smiling spirit who was supposed to guide the souls of babies and the never-born to where they could be reborn under a luckier star. It wasn't a secret—he had been there more than once—but his mother always visited the altars alone, and when it was time to go to the main shrine and pay one's respect to the ancestors, she never even looked in the alcove's direction. 'I know she thinks she has to protect me. But I'm not a baby anymore. Can't she see—'

'Like I said, grandson, you don't know what kind of things she's been through.' She twirled the blade of grass in her hand. 'To have married the dashing young Crown Prince in the year of the Great Comet. How lucky. How fortunate. And then she was Fire Lady and with a child on the way, luckier still. Then your father started getting ill, and her child was born dead and nearly killed her in the process. Then it happened again. And again. I think three dead children is too much for anyone to bear.'

'I know it must have been hard for them,' Sozin said, but he was aware he didn't know at all. It was like trying to understand the first half of a play when he'd only come in after the break. 'But I'm not just going to keel over and die. I've been practicing firebending since I was three and—'

'No need to convince me, grandson. I'm the one who put the idea in your head, after all. But what did I show you just now? You have to give people what they want, or at least what they think they want. Otherwise you're just splashing about and talking to fish.' She twisted the blade of grass in her hands. 'See? Like this. Force just makes it bend. But if you apply the right pressure—' She started peeling strips off the blade. '—the right motivation, the right word at the right time, just so…' She wiped away the pieces of grass. 'Leave the matter of your parents in my hands. We'll soon be heading off to Obsidian Island.'

Oh. 'We?'

'Certainly. I'd like to see Princess Iruza again and you weren't expecting to go off without any guidance at all, were you?'

Actually, yes. Gone were the images of pirates and bandits; now all he could think of was trudging along at a snail-sloth's pace from governor's household to governor's household, growing more and more bored as his grandmother filled every well-appointed room in the country with chatter about mutual acquaintances and the smell of lotus tea.

'Thank you for the vote of confidence, grandson,' Bao said. 'It is overwhelming.'

He blushed. 'I'm sorry, grandmother. I—'

'You don't want to travel with your boring old grandma.' Her voice grew diamond-hard and suddenly her gaze was unfathomable, all-knowing. He nearly drew back before she blinked. 'You may find it less dull than you think. Now, practical matters: you must invite a guest to accompany us. Someone your own age. Do you have anyone in mind?'

'Sure—Roku,' he said. At least this time he had remembered Roku was gone before blurting out his name; he still often found himself instinctively turning towards or talking to a friend who was no longer there. 'But he's not around anymore.'

'Then think of someone else. And choose wisely—anyone who travels with the royal children in their tour of the country is a companion for life.'

'I already have a companion for life,' he grumbled.

'Yes, yes, chosen by fate on the day of your birth and whatnot.' She made a dismissive gesture. 'The thing about people on your side is that you can never have too many of them. Let me know how you decide, grandson.' She turned on her heel and walked away, white hair and pale red silk shining in the sun.

Sozin was alone again, the sound of the cicadas growing thicker in the mid-afternoon air. Who was he supposed to invite to travel with him? He had met plenty of the Fire Nation's most important young people, at parties and state functions, but he hadn't really got close to any of them, other than Roku. He pictured the two of them going off on this trip together, crossing the jungle and racing to the top of mountains. Then he pictured himself going up to one of the scions of one of the noble houses. 'Hello, you're Admiral Kung's son, aren't you? Would you like to come with me on my tour of the Fire Nation? Also, what's your name?' He kicked a pebble away. It was true what Bao had said: Roku said that he always knew what to say and do, like when—

He stopped and walked back inside. A few moments later he was leaving the palace.

His destination was a ten-minute walk away from the palace, but since it was an official visit, he let himself be carried in a palanquin, with two guards flanking it. Soon after he arrived, the door was opened by a haughty-looking butler who took one look at the golden trim on Sozin's clothes, the palanquin, and the royal guards, and promptly turned obsequious. Sozin might have given the Crown Prince headpiece to Roku, but the rest sufficed. 'It is our honour to receive the Crown Prince.' He drew back from the door, still bowing, to let Sozin pass.

'I'd like to speak with Lady Ta Min, if I may.'

The butler, who had just finished his first bow, bowed again. 'Certainly, my lord. I shall summon Lady Ta Min straight away.' He clapped his hands and a few servants came into the hallway. 'Please attend to the Crown Prince.' Another bow and he was out of sight. Sozin found himself wishing he had an order for the bevy of servants, just to give them something to do. At least they weren't bowing like someone with a nervous tic.

'You wished to speak to me, Prince Sozin?' Her manner was formal, but she had on the sideways glance Sozin remembered from his and Roku's party, the one that made it look like there was something amusing only she knew.

'Did I come at a bad time?'

'Not at all.' A pause. 'Would you like some tea?'

They moved wordlessly to a room decorated with several screens showing exquisitely detailed nature scenes. In fact, everything in the house was exquisitely detailed: the lacquered boxes, the vases, the tooled lamp stands. Even the wood polish smelled expensive. They sat at an Earth Kingdom-style table and Ta Min ordered some jasmine tea, after which they exchanged the usual wishes for each other's family's continued health. Like always, Sozin shared some polite lies about his father.

For the next few moments the only sounds in the room were the ticking of a mechanical clock and the distant chatter of birds.

'To what do I owe this honour?' she asked.

'Nothing in particular. I just wanted to speak to you.'

She raised her eyes towards him. 'I see,' she said, then went back to being as polished and silent as the objects decorating her home.

Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

'That's a very… interesting clock,' Sozin said when the silence grew heavy enough to squeeze something else out of him. What was he doing here, anyway? He was only speaking to Ta Min because Roku had had a crush on her, back when everything was different. As though Roku had transferred something to her by sheer force of blushing whenever she was in the vicinity.

'Yes,' she said, glancing at the corner of the room taken up by golden gears and spun glass. 'The figurines are from the Earth Kingdom. You can't see them right now but they come out when it strikes the hour.'

Sozin felt a sudden urge to take it apart to see how it worked. 'Have you ever been there?'

The charcoal eyes turned quizzical. 'I'm sorry?'

'The Earth Kingdom, I mean.'

'Oh. No. But my parents trade with the Earth Kingdom a lot. Those figurines came from Ba Sing Se.'

'The figurines I'm too early to see.'

A slight smile. 'Yes.'

The servant from before approached the table in silence and poured them their tea. Jasmine-scented steam rose from their cups. 'I'd like to go to Ba Sing Se,' he said when they were alone again. 'Stand on the outer wall and see if it's as tall as they say. I bet they're all exaggerating. At least a little bit.'

'Some people always exaggerate the size of their walls,' she said, deadpan.

He wasn't sure if he was supposed to laugh. 'You know, I'm going to travel through the Fire Nation soon. This year, I think.'

Ta Min's look of studied politeness turned into one of interest. 'Really? That sounds wonderful. I've never been outside the capital, not really.'

'I'm supposed to pick up my cousins at Obsidian Island. But I'm sure I'll stop at plenty of other places along the way.' It wasn't really a lie, he told himself, just a truth awaiting confirmation.

'I bet you'll see all kinds of things,' Ta Min said. Sozin wasn't sure if she was talking to him. Her eyes were focused on some point above his shoulder and he thought she felt like those clock figurines of hers when the hour struck, suddenly awake and lively. 'Like—the animals in the jungle. They must be amazing.'

'And all those cities. You know, when my father went on his tour he had to stop a warlord in the Western Islands. He told me all about it.'

'Really?'

'Yes.'

'That sounds—' She ducked her head and for a moment he thought she was going to say something like "frightening". '—Exciting.'

'I know.' Their eyes met over their cups of cooling, forgotten tea. 'Would you like to come with me?'

+/+/+

To Be Continued...

Notes: A doushun relationship is something I made up for my personal canon, and it's based on various real-life forms of contracted non-kinship relationships; there will be more about it in the rest of the story, but basically its purpose is to provide life-long friendship, companionship and emotional support without the dynastic and economic constraints of (upper-class) marriage. The word itself is something I made up and doesn't mean anything in RL, as far as I know, but I based it on the Mandarin Chinese tóng/仝 (same) and hún/魂 (soul, spirit) and also the Japanese prefix dou/同 (same). Bao's line about making sure things come when called from the depths, I borrowed from Henry IV ("I can call spirits from the vasty deep."/"Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them?") In our world, a lion-dog is a Chow Chow. In AtLA-land… who knows? AtLA biology means never having to say you're kidding. :) The idea of Fire Nation royal youngsters travelling through their country proving their worth and so forth was something stated by the show's creators in an interview. The fact that Sozin's immediate reaction when the Fire Sages gatecrashed his party in The Avatar and the Fire Lord was to worry about something having happened to his father was what made me think that his father was chronically ill. Yunjin's illness is what we'd call a neurodegenerative illness (like, for instance, ALS or Huntington's) in real life. In his world, all he knows is that no one has been able to cure him and it will get progressively worse until it kills him. Regarding the clock at Ta Min's house, with the level of technology the Fire Nation has one hundred years later, it's impossible that they don't have clocks. I mean literally impossible, since you can't really accurately calculate longitude at sea without a clock, and in the series the Fire Nation navy doesn't seem to have any trouble with that. Also, yes, it's true: Sozin is a total dork. Come on, we're talking about the teenager who decided Dance Dance Revolution moves were just the thing to cheer his BFF up. (Yeah, I know they were supposed to be bending forms. I call them as I see them. ~g~)