A/N: I'd hoped to finish this chapter last week but this election made it practically impossible for me to clear my mind and focus, especially on Earth Kingdom politics. On the flip side it also provided more inspiration than I had hoped for... but anyway, here it is, Chapter 2. Be sure to let me know what you think by Reviewing! I love to hear back from my readers and your comments mean a lot to me.
-Gongsun Du
Chapter 2: Empty Vessel
Lady Yun Beifong took a slow sip from the wine cup held delicately in her hand, desperately hoping it would drown out the pointless conversations of her guests. She was a tall woman with keen green eyes, smooth-faced despite her years, with light brown hair streaked with grey packed neatly in a bun beneath exquisitely crafted headgear.
A fake smile played on her lips as she half-listened to her guests prattle on and on about the latest fashion trend or whose husband was plowing whose wife. She nodded when appropriate and laughed when expected, but inside she was growing impatient.
"But really, darling, how can you go anywhere without a sea silk gown?" The youngest of them asked, desperately trying to be the center of attention.
"Sea Silk is for rich men's whores, my dear." The snobby Tax Collector's wife parried, "Best stick to the classics. Isn't that right, Yun?"
Beifong smiled politely, "I think both classic and new trends are equally important, Lin."
The Tax collector's wife nodded begrudgingly, not wanting to offend her host.
"But lately it's getting hard to get either, what with the Fire Nation blockades." Beifong added, pivoting smoothly to the topic that truly interested her. Her guests were not receptive. Quite to the contrary, the very temperature in the drawing room seemed to suddenly drop and an uneasy murmur of anxiety went through the crowd of wealthy women.
"Yes, quite." Lin snorted, abruptly cutting the tension. "Damn Fire Nation. What a nuisance!"
"Such dreadful people!" A grey-haired noblewoman cursed, silencing Beifong before she could expand on the topic any further, "So unappreciative of the finer things."
"Oh speaking of," the youngest one chimed in again, "Have you see the latest black jade earrings? I hear the Queen came up with the design herself!"
The other women gasped and chattered with delight, their momentary anxiety entirely forgotten and replaced with familiar dull topics of conversation. Genuine interests mixed with attempts to chastise, as the women battled over momentary dominance. All of it empty.
Beifong scowled on the inside, what air-heads they were, young and old both.
She had hoped that the most elite women of Ba Sing Se could stand to talk about something of substance during their afternoon luncheon, but they had proved her wrong yet again.
She sighed, hating the dull life of an upper ring socialite. Unlike most of her guests, she wasn't born in Ba Sing Se. Her family was from the smaller town of Gaoling and she had grown up wild and free, atleast for a time. Then came the tutors. They taught her everything a lady of standing should know: calligraphy, etiquette, dancing, ceremonies, earthbending, and history. The last two she enjoyed the most. They afforded her an escape, however temporary, from the boring reality that was expected of her. But in the end, like the air-heads who carried on with their empty conversations and empty smiles, she too was trapped in this world of tradition and finery.
Beifong took a deeper sip of wine and wondered if she should feign a headache to end this charade here and now. An afternoon of quiet might do her mind some good.
"My Lady," A servant stood at the entrance with a scroll, "A message just arrived for you from Gaoling."
The chatter ceased as Beifong rose from her seat. All eyes followed her nosily as she took the scroll from the servant's hands and dismissed him. The whole room waited patiently as she read, perpetually hungry for gossip.
As Beifong read through the message, the smile quickly vanished from her face and her eyes filled with an intense emotion that the guests struggled to understand. Lowering the scroll slowly from her eyes, Beifong fought to calm herself. Her heart pounded in her chest and shards of ice stabbed her stomach as the sudden wave of emotion rushed to the surface. She felt the tears welling up and it was only with the greatest effort the was she able to regain control and return to her guests in good form.
"Forgive me, ladies." Beifong said in her usual polite tone, "I'm afraid my head is spinning from all the wine. Let's call it a night, shall we? I'll see you all at lunch tomorrow."
"Is everything alright, Yun?" The youngest one asked.
"Of course, dear." Beifong managed a smile, "Why wouldn't it be?"
…
The delicate vase hurtled through the air and shattered into a million pieces on the floor. Beifong's outstretched hand trembled as tears ran down her face, ruining her makeup. Desperately she fought them back, wanting it all to be a dream, wanting to forget. But she couldn't.
Beifong felt her rational mind breaking through the surge of denial, forcing her once more to accept what the letter had told her: that they were dead, all of them. Nonetheless, she resisted with all her strength, trying to drown out the truth. It was hopeless.
Failing, she fell to the ground in a heap of agony, beating her fists against the marble floor again and again until it crumbled into a ruin like the vase.
It couldn't be true, it couldn't, her heart screamed out, but her mind silenced her cries as the truth rang clear in her mind.
The letter had been from her youngest brother Cho. His writing was sloppy and the ink was stained with tears, but through it all the message was clear: Her parents, her older brother, and her two younger sisters were all dead in a Fire Nation raid that had razed her ancestral home to a cinder. The Earth Kingdom garrison that was meant to protect the town had fled at the first sign of Fire Nation soldiers, abandoning the helpless villagers to the mercy of Sozin's ravenous hordes. Barely any made it out alive…
Cowards, Beifong cursed, the burning pain in her soul simmering down into a cool placid anger.
There would be a time for crying and grieving, Beifong decided as she picked herself up from the ground, but not now. She had played the part of an air-headed socialite long enough. The Earth Kingdom was burning and no one was doing a damn thing to stop it. Not the Earth King and certainly not his spineless officials. Those self-indulgent fools were good for nothing but wasting money and patting themselves on the back for all their nonexistent accomplishments.
And yet, despite her outrage, Beifong couldn't claim the moral high ground. Like the rest of Earth Kingdoms finest, she too was guilty of complicity in this corrupt world. She, like all the others, had been content with the status quo and had never bothered to care about the suffering of the rest of the people.
How many countless families had died alongside hers, she thought with dread. How many even now were screaming in misery with no one to hear them? In her own grief, Beifong heard them clearly. They didn't scream for mercy or useless words of comfort. They screamed for justice. And she would give it to them, no matter the cost.
Beifong wiped her red-rimmed eyes with the edge of her sleeve and straightened her headgear, slowly regaining her composure. There was work to be done, she decided, and she would need all her strength to do it.
…
Clothed in her most imposing robes, dark green mixed with silver, Beifong tapped impatiently on her armchair. It was late in the evening and the waiting room in the Ministry of Personnel was completely deserted. There was scarcely a sound to be head, except for the occasional assistant shuffling by with a stack of papers. It was clear to Beifong that the Minister's schedule was freer than rice crackers at a festival. Still she was made to wait.
It was protocol of course, she thought bitterly, but even traditions had a limit. How much longer was she expected to play along with this charade?
An eternity had gone by since she stormed in and demanded an audience with the Minister of Personnel. The terrified assistants at the door had shakily offered her a seat and assured her the Minister would be right with her. Of course that was a lie. Self-important, self-serving imbeciles like that loved to make people wait, even when the people in question had gotten them their jobs in the first place. Games like this made political scumbags feel important and helped them to forget just how utterly worthless they really were. Well she'd remind the Minister soon enough.
Beifong tightened her fists, wanting nothing more than to barge in there right now and beat that arrogant prick to the ground, but she knew better than that. In the world of politics, violence was never the path to getting your way. There were rules, both spoken and unspoken. It was an intricate game unlike any other, full of subtlety and patience, a game that she had mastered only after many years at court. Beifong smiled, remembering it all vividly.
She had been fifteen when her family brought her to court to be lady-in-waiting to the Earth Queen. Oh how she hated it at first, the bowing and scraping, the pointless rituals, the idle chatter, the never-ending lies. But over the years she grew to understand and appreciate the nuances. She learned that power, true power, wasn't something you were born with. It was something you took for yourself. On paper the King was the supreme ruler of the Earth Kingdom and stood above everyone else in the land. In reality he was nothing, just an empty vessel. True power in the Kingdom lay with the ministers and in the end that all came down to one man: the Grand Secretariat.
But it hadn't always been that way, Beifong mused. Once, the Earth King had held absolute power. Unchallenged, his will shaped every fabric of their society for centuries. That was, until the arrogance and debauchery of his successors plunged the Earth Kingdom into civil wars that ultimately culminated in a massive rebellion threatening to shatter the nation for good.
Then the Avatar came— Kyoshi. The 46th Earth King in his desperation had demanded that she destroy the rebels and save his reign, but the Master of all four elements would not be intimidated. Instead, she forced the Earth King to listen to his people and to relinquish much of his power in the form of a constitution which would forever curtail his authority. From then on, the Earth King would answer to the will of his people in the form of ministers led by the Grand Secretariat. His unlimited power a thing of the past.
What a short-sighted fool, Beifong decided; although the deal wasn't entirely one-sided. In addition to preserving the Earth King's reign, Kyoshi also created the Dai Li, a force of earthbenders trained in stealth and subterfuge that would ensure the populace remained loyal and never again threatened the Earth Kingdom with instability. Now, they too were corrupt and useless. Beifong could only imagine the past Avatar's outrage at the twisted turn her legacy had taken.
"My lady." A wiry assistant beckoned nervously, "The Minister will see you now."
About damn time, she thought in her head, but on the surface she smiled politely and followed him into the Minister's office.
"Lord Minister." Beifong said, bowing respectfully as she was ushered in.
"Lady Beifong." The grey-haired Minister glowered as he returned the bow, his dreary eyes hardening as he braced for a conflict. "I'm not sure why you came here so late in the day. Surely whatever questions you have could wait till—"
"They can't." Beifong said firmly, still smiling.
Then turning to the assistant she asked still very gently, "Could you leave us, please?"
The nervous assistant turned quizzically to the Minister who waved him out, leaving them alone in the large office.
"Now then, what's all this about?" The Minister asked with growing irritation.
"I've come here to ask you to resign your post, Lord Minister." Beifong saw the shock rush into his face and noted just how slow he was to regain control.
Amateur, she thought with amusement.
"My Lady…" The minister struggled to find the right words, still in shock. "I don't understand the meaning of this, but a Minister of the Earth Kingdom will not be treated this—"
"Please, Minister, spare me your politeness or any threats you can summon out of that empty excuse you call a head." Beifong said flatly, "I did not come here for a verbal sparring match with you. I came here to take your place."
"This is absurd." He managed over his growing fear, "I am an official appointed by the Earth King himself!"
Beifong smirked, "You forget, Minister, how you got this job in the first place. It was my family's money that bought you this appointment and it was our influence that kept you here despite your many indiscretions. I trust you haven't forgotten the Tea House incident?"
The Minister opened his mouth to speak, but the apprehension was clear on his face. With a shudder, he meekly lowered his eyes, the fight leaving him. He was broken.
Beifong nodded approvingly. The 'incident' in question had involved the Minister using government funds for rendezvous with various ladies of the evening. When he tried to stiff the bill for a particular night of indulgence the brothel decided to bring the embezzlement to light with the authorities. The entire case had threatened to spiral out of control and it was only because of her family's intervention that the incident was hushed up. Of course, things like that had a nasty habit of coming back to light and judging by the look on the minister's face, that of hopeless defeat, he understood that fact all too well.
"What do you want me to do?" He asked weakly.
"For now, nothing." Beifong commanded, "But in the coming week you will announce your resignation from your post and with your final act as Minister of Personnel you will name me as your successor."
"Y-You?" The Minister's eyes widened, "But you're a woman. The Earth King will never—"
"Oh don't worry your wrinkled old head about the Earth King." Beifong said, having already worked out the particulars of the appointment process: who to bribe, who to threaten, who to remove all together.
"Trust me, Minister." Beifong smiled reassuringly, "This is all for the best."
