Years at Sea: Chapter One
The screech of the messenger hawk sounded through the evening sky above the Fire Nation colony of Yu Dao. The hawk circled the walled city twice, then dove in towards the green rooftop of the imperial city hall. On its right limb was a band of scarlet cloth.
Mayor Morishita stood on the steps in front of city hall, garbed in the Fire Nation robes befitting a government functionary. He looked out at the dark, matted clouds that hung in the dark sky over the Fire Nation capital in the West.
His wife approached him gently. She was a slightly pudgy woman, clad in the simple green cloths of an earthbender, and her hair was tied back in a simple bun.
"You should go home and rest," she said. "Today has been a long day for you.
Morishita smiled at her. "Yes, it has. The Equal Rights charter was at last approved by the city council. Former members of the Earth Kingdom will now be guaranteed a measure of rights by the government."
His wife smiled back, but the small crease around the corner of his eyes did not escape her.
"You still look troubled," she said gently. "What's on your mind?"
Morishita looked out at the storm clouds swirling above the Fire Nation capital.
"Passage of the law here is only the beginning," Morishita explained. "The opposition will fight its implementation every step of the way. In the debate earlier today, Lieutenant Shukang threatened that if the law passed, he would personally reach out to the Colony Overseers and recommend years of hard labor to any supporters of the charter. Furthermore, I fear developments in the capital could spell doom for the charter."
Morishita's wife touched his arm. "Our supporters have always had courage in the face of great adversity, and the happenings in the capital have always been beyond our control. Let's just focus on what has been a great victory for us here in Yu Dao. Let's go home and get some rest."
"You're right," Morishita smiled, turning towards his wife once more.
The messenger hawk screeched again as it neared its target. Morishita looked up and raised his arm to the sky. The hawk landed on his forearm, and his wife's eyes went wide.
"The red band on the hawk's leg," she whispered. "The message is from the Fire Nation palace."
Morishita took the scroll from the hawk and opened the scroll. He read it once, then a second time. Something registered, and the color drained from his face.
"What's wrong?" his wife asked.
"Prince Zuko, heir to the Fire Nation throne, has been exiled from the Fire Nation," Morishita explained. "This means that great changes will come to the power structure in the capital. We must postpone the rollout of the Equal Rights charter until this affair blows over. I must contact General Iroh at once."
"The Dragon of the West?" his wife whispered. "What for?"
"No time to explain," Morishita said. "Tell Kori when you pick her up from earthbending lessons that her father will not come home until very, very late tonight."
His wife nodded. The mayor dashed into city hall with the tail of his robes trailing behind him.
...
Lightning illuminated the swirling storm clouds outside the window of the Imperial Hospital.
"I request permission to see Prince Zuko," Iroh spoke to the head nurse, in the warm firelight of the hospital.
"General Iroh," the nurse bowed. "I really don't know how your nephew received burns this severe. He won't say a word about how he got them."
Iroh looked away. "How is he doing?"
"He hasn't complained for a second about the pain, if that's what you're asking," the nurse replied, "though it's been less than two hours and he's already anxious to leave. Maybe you can convince him to stay and rest. Come, I will take you to him."
She led him through the hospital wing to Zuko's bed, which lay behind a maroon curtain. He lay there on a metal stretcher, a surgical-white eye patch covering the horribly burnt flesh that constituted the left side of his face. Iroh grimaced. That was the one sight he had turned away from seeing, in the sickening Agni Kai that he had forced himself to attend.
"Uncle," Zuko said, sitting up suddenly. "Why have you come?"
"I've come to see how you're doing, Prince Zuko," Iroh replied. "I'm concerned about you."
"Don't be," Zuko replied curtly. "Do you have news from my Father?"
Iroh sighed. "He has given some details regarding your exile. Your father has declared that you must pick a crew in four days. You must set sail from the Fire Nation by midnight of the fourth day."
"Midnight of the fourth day?" Zuko asked, his right eye wide. He jumped out of the stretcher and scrambled to put on his robes. "I'm going to find a crew right now. I have no time to waste."
"Zuko," Iroh said, placing a hand on his nephew's shoulder. "It's quite late tonight. Most of the people you are looking for have retired to their chambers already. You should take a rest; you've been through a lot today."
"I can't," Zuko replied, brushing his uncle's hand off his shoulder. "I've got to act quickly. If news of my disgrace hasn't spread too far yet, there's a chance I'll be able to get a good crew."
Iroh nodded. "I will be here for you, Prince Zuko, always."
Zuko turned to face him. "I've thought about this a lot," he said, "and I've decided that I'm not going to take you on my crew. I need to grow up and become a man if I'm going to catch the Avatar. And that means being fierce, aggressive, and ruthless, like my father, grandfather, and great-great grandfather were.
Zuko continued. "I don't ask for your help, and I don't need it. What I need right now is to capture the Avatar. That means being more like my father and Azula, and less like you."
Iroh's face remained carefully impassive. Zuko searched for a reaction in his uncle's expression and opened his mouth as if to say more. Then he seethed, turned away, and stormed out of the hospital wing.
As the entrance swung shut, the nurse shook her head. Iroh glanced at the storm outside and stroked his beard in contemplation.
...
It was well past midnight when a hawk from Yu Dao bore its message into the capital city. It flew above the well-paved streets, bypassing the aeries where most of the messages to the Imperial Palace were delivered. Instead, it flew past the Western end of the palace, beyond the Firelord's throne room. The soft hum of cicadas masked any sound of the hawk's wingbeats.
The storm had passed, and the crescent moon hung overhead, casting its soft candlelight beams upon the rain-soaked streets outside the Imperial walls. Great snoring could be heard from Iroh's sleeping quarters, which were located outside the palace boundaries at Ozai's express order.
A jet of blue fire streaked through the hawk's heart, killing it instantly. The ball of brown feathers tumbled through the sky. A pair of amber eyes gleamed from a nearby rooftop, following the corpse as it fell.
Azula shimmied down a pipe onto ground level and stayed low to the ground in her search for the hawk's body. She tracked down the wet ball of feathers not too far away, its message intact. A brief spasm of disgust crossed her face.
Parchment lightly burnt, she noted distastefully. And wet.
Carefully, she pried the damp message from the hawk's limp talons and opened it up. The ink was mostly intact, and she recognized immediately the message's implications. Her eyes flickered with satisfaction.
Azula tucked the message into her golden belt. Then she incinerated the bird's corpse with a burst of blue fire, leaving a plume of black smoke that rose silently into the sky.
Iroh's loud snores went on, and Azula snuck back towards the palace walls. She smiled: the rats were being flushed out of their holes.
Inside her uncle's quarters, Iroh continued to snore. But his irises glinted in the dark, glancing sidelong through the open window.
...
Zuko: He knew the consequences I would face if I entered the war room. But he couldn't refuse you anything, could he? Not even when my life depended on it. I don't need that kind of _with me on my journey.
I will train every day until I am ready to face the Avatar and bring the coward to justice. Then I'll regain my honor, and I can finally be accepted back home, in my country and in my family.
Azula: This is the perfect chance to do away with my uncle and the people he has been protecting. With Iroh out of the way, a generation of moderates can easily be destroyed; from the Yu Dao governor up to some of the highest ranking generals in the Fire Nation court.
To be continued.