174 AG
Opal and Kai headed back to their rooms mostly in silence. A family on the outskirts of town had two empty beds and Opal and Kai had been staying there. By the time the airbenders returned the sky above their heads had darkened to night and the house smelled like the food that the family hadn't had before the Great Uniter came to their town. There was still food left over but Opal didn't feel like eating. She thanked the owners and wished Kai goodnight before walking into her bedroom.
As she shut the door behind her, she caught one last glimpse of the family she was staying with. Dinner was long over, but they were still gathered around the kitchen table, laughing and smiling with a lightness the Air Nomads had failed to bring to them. Opal was glad that the town was safe from bandits, that the people were fed, but she couldn't help but worry about the methods used to achieve this peace. She fell onto the bed and wrapped her arms around herself, staring at the ceiling as it flickered in the candlelight.
She'd seen how hostile the Governor had been towards the Earth Kingdom's army, she didn't understand how he could change his mind so quickly. She'd seen fear and pride in the older man. While he was desperate for aid she had doubted he would bend to the Earth Kingdom's military. There were other factors at play here and Opal couldn't figure out what they were. The Governer seemed ashamed but stubborn; he wouldn't give her any answers.
It didn't matter, really. Opal and Kai would leave soon, their job here . . . had been nullified. Bolin had talked about a puzzle-styled map of the Earth Kingdom in one of his many letters to Opal. The State of Yi was just another piece fitting into the map. Opal wanted to believe in what the army was doing. Kai had looked at her dubiously when she'd told him this as they'd walked back to their temporary home.
"Are you sure?" he'd asked, frowning. "You seem pretty . . . hostile towards the whole thing. I've actually never seen you so upset. It's not like they're doing anything bad, they're just helping people." Opal had still felt a little angry with him for convincing the governor to sign the treaty, but she bit down her feelings because she knew that she probably would've eventually convinced the governor to sign as well. She didn't trust the army, but she also couldn't compete with it.
"So far," had been her response. Still, she wanted to believe that it was all justified. It had been so nice to see Bolin again, to hold him after . . . after such a long time that she'd lost track. He'd looked happy working with the army, proud. She wanted her boyfriend to be on the right side. She knew Bolin enjoyed helping people as much as she did and he was helping. He wasn't helping everyone he could, like the Air Nomads were, but at least when he tried he actually suceeded.
The Air Nomads on the other hand were still few and far between; new airbenders were still being discovered and all of them were still learning how to bend and do their jobs. Armies had drills but the Air Nomads had no such luxury. Not to mention that there were more problems than there were Air Nomads to solve them. The Air Nomads were still trying their best but it was undeniable that the Earth Kingdom's army had more resources.
And Bolin was confident in what he was doing; Opal had seen his smile as he'd handed out food to the people of Yi. He'd wrote to her multiple times on how much he loved his job. He was good at it, he was helping people, and his old neighbourhood had prospered from his involvement with the army and its commander.
Opal had a sneaking suspicion that if she made him choose between his job and his girlfriend . . . he wouldn't choose her. She couldn't blame him for that, it just meant that he believed in his people and his cause as much as she believed in hers. Still, even with Bolin's assurance, Opal couldn't help but doubt the army. She had already seen one family torn apart by the 'Great Uniter'.
On their travels together, Kai and Opal had grown to become close friends. He eventually had detailed his experience with the Earth Queen to her. He hadn't grown up in Ba Sing Se but he'd felt the far-reaching effects of the Queen's greed and neglect that Opal, who had lived in Zaofu her whole life, hadn't ever considered. When Kai had gone to Ba Sing Se with the Avatar he'd been kidnapped by a secret police force and been recruited against his will into an army composed of the new airbenders.
He'd been forced to live underground, training to fight in what was called the 'First Airbending Regimen' and he likely still would have been there if the Avatar hadn't freed him. Opal had a very opinionated mother that made sure Opal knew how brutal the Earth Queen had been. Kai's experience with the Queen only made her more irredeemable to Opal but her death had launched the nation into even more chaos.
The Kingdom had been badly broken by the revolt. Food was scarce and the only useful transport system, the train, had had to be rebuilt and was now controlled by the Kingdom. Opal had been sure that no one could be worse than the Earth Queen, and felt that at least the total anarchy that the revolution had caused wasn't so cold and systematic. People were violent and greedy but they could be fought without having to destroy entire countries.
But then again, Opal hadn't done the best job in fighting the bad guys. In their numbers, the best the Nomads could hope for was little victories. In the beginning they'd helped enough to be liked and respected across the kingdom, but recently things were changing. Opal and Kai would fly to towns to find their job already done, banners proudly flying, missing Bolin by mere days. The inevitable military presence, which Opal knew was put in place to protect the people in the towns they visited, alarmed her. The kingdom didn't look united, it looked conquered.
No one else but she and the Governor seemed to feel that way, and even he had changed his mind. When she saw the Army's symbol, something that reminded her unbearably of Zaofu, rise above the state she didn't just feel disappointed for having failed the people there. She felt helpless. She felt scared. The situation was becoming one where only the army could help people, and she knew that that had never been the purpose of armies.
Bolin had left before the sunset and they hadn't even said goodbye. Opal had avoided him, but she wondered if they'd have said goodbye if she hadn't. She couldn't know. There was a chance that they'd said goodbye the other day when she'd yelled at him to leave if he was going to leave. He had left, after all, and while Opal had mostly been lashing out at him she was worried that him leaving would have consequences later on.
All the same, on a sneaking, selfish level, she was glad he was gone. She didn't want to talk to him. She knew he'd noticed the tension between her and Kuvira and wanted to ask her about it. The two of them hadn't really talked much about her life in Zaofu. Honestly, there wasn't much to talk about, he would've loved to listen but whenever the conversation steered to their pasts he always had something more interesting to say. Opal was the daughter of Zaofu's matriarch and never wanted to waste time talking about such a privileged life.
Besides, Opal and Bolin had always been more interested in the future then the past. A future they would share with each other. Or . . . they had thought that they'd share a future. That idea was becoming more obscure in her mind. It was just the distance, she knew that. They both knew beforehand that long distance relationships weren't easy and agreed to work on it but . . . it had been over two years. Maybe making it that long had been a success in itself, but thinking about it now she saw a flaw in their plan.
She was . . . an Air Nomad. She was an Air Nomad now, she and others just like her were travelling the world, trying to fix injustices. Opal suspected that Kai and Jinora would travel with each other when they were older, and she'd heard Kai talking to Jinora's projection the other day. But Bolin, would he ever actually have a place in her life if she stayed an air nomad? Would she have a place in his?
Tenzin had travelled a lot, and his lovely wife Pema didn't mind staying at home and taking care of their children. Would that be a kind of life Bolin would be interested in? Opal flushed. She was too young to be thinking about children, she wasn't even sure that she wanted any. But it wasn't as though she couldn't imagine it happening some day. Bolin would make a great father and Opal, no, it was ridiculous to think like this. Bolin dreamt of domesticity, but he also craved adventure, he'd never be still and she couldn't blame him for that. Even now, Bolin was traveling. He was travelling with Kuvira.
Laying on her bed her thoughts had kept circling back to the older woman, stopping just shy of actually thinking about her. Alone with her thoughts, Opal couldn't escape her forever. Kuvira, the Great Uniter. She was to be . . . Opal's sister-in-law? Opal sat up on the bed and undid her Air Nomad uniform, getting ready for sleep. She'd known Kuvira back in Zaofu. Or, she'd thought she had. Kuvira was unrecognizable now.
It had been years since Opal had spoken to her properly. Kuvira had changed a lot since that time. But then, Opal thought she'd changed as well, hopefully for the better. She was happier, having a better sense of purpose. Kuvira seemed like she'd found her purpose as well, 'uniting' the Earth kingdom. But, she didn't seem happier. But then, they'd talked to each other for less than a minute, Opal could hardly judge from that.
At a glance, Kuvira seemed the same - enigmatic, serious, slightly amused at best. But now, she seemed more lethal. Her long braid wrapped in a bun, her sharp face made sharper with harsh expressions, Kuvira's entire presence was angular and authoritative. But she could make her voice smooth as ever, a gentle tone Opal had felt when she was younger was reserved only for her. She guessed Kuvira spoke to Opal's brother that way. If she did, Opal couldn't blame Baatar for following her.
But he wasn't just following her, he was marrying her. Baatar was marrying Kuvira."You haven't heard?" Kuvira had asked, her voice light but her words were weighted. Thinking back on it Opal felt like Kuvira had been mocking her. "Your brother and I are getting married." Opal's mind had blanked. Bolin tried, and failed, to diffuse the situation in the background. And suddenly Kuvira's hand was on Opal's shoulder. She hadn't touched her since . . . had Kuvira ever touched her like that?
Her mouth was in a gentle smile, not exactly sad but there was something else there. She seemed earnest, and her gaze on Opal felt soft. Opal refused to look at her, it felt too risky. "I know things got heated with your family when Baatar and I left Zaofu," Kuvira had murmured. "But don't you think it's time to forgive, and forget?" And for a moment, with the feeling of Kuvira's warm hand on her shoulder, she'd wanted to.
The governer had interrupted them then, his voice coming snarling up from behind them. Opal and Kuvira had turned to look, and Kuvira's voice suddenly became very cold. Opal had looked after Kuvira, seeing someone she couldn't match up with the gentle, cajoling voice she'd heard seconds before. The Governer and Kuvira agreed to speak privately with each other. They did not come to an agreement but in the end he'd had no choice. He'd bowed to Kuvira and pledged his loyalty to her.
While she felt guilty for not succeeding in saving this town without anyone else's aid she felt even more confused about what had happened in those three years. She didn't understand why her brother had left Zaofu. She didn't know how Kuvira had risen from her position as guard captain in Zaofu to becoming the Earth Kingdom's interim president. She didn't know why Bolin was walking around with stiff, lifeless hair and speaking Kuvira's words. She didn't understand why, though they seemed to have the same cause, it felt like they were fighting against her. Without realizing it Opal had almost started crying. What had happened? Who had they all become?
These last three years, her mind had been darting around those questions. It was easier to do that when she there were hundreds of kilometres between her and the people she cared about. It wasn't so simple when she'd seen three of them in one day, and they all had turned away from her. When Opal finally fell asleep, tears sticking her hair to her cheeks, she dreamt about Zaofu. She wanted Bolin to be on the good side, but despite knowing better she wanted the same for Kuvira.