Partners in Blades - 02 - Your Fault

Piandao the Swordsman sat alone in his bedroom, wrapped in the dark of the night, and pondered the future.

It was always a losing proposition to try to guess what fate (whatever that was) had in store. If Piandao had turned his thinking in this direction a week ago, it would have been a completely wasted effort, all his plans ruined by the arrival of the Avatar and the young man from the Water Tribe. Nevertheless, Piandao had come to a time of decisions, and he was too military to keep himself from making certain projections. No plan survived contact with the enemy, true, but having no plan at all was a good way to waste all your effort. As with all things, it was a matter of balance. You had to make plans, but be flexible when- when, not if- they went awry.

So it was time to make an old decision again. Compromise himself for the sake of survival, or risk it all, and become a personal dispenser of death.

Which one was more likely to lead to a lasting peace?


A whole two days before Piandao would secretly wrestle with a choice, Mai heard that Sokka was facing one of his own. Her 'husband' had decided that the boy was ready for his own sword, which had surprised the gloomy girl. It usually took a lot longer for Piandao to declare someone ready for a real weapon, and then it took even more time for him to let a student forge a new one using the swordmaster's secret construction techniques. (Once Mai had learned the proper way to construct a jian, starting with the three metal plates and the many iterations of shaping, she had asked point blank how Piandao was able to do it in a single day with a single mold. He actually had the gall to wink at her and say nothing more than, "Trade secret." Her 'husband' could be a jerk, sometimes.)

Of course, Mai wasn't at all bothered that it had taken her far longer to earn the same rite that Sokka was now experiencing. She was just worried that if news of this Express Education got out, they'd be swamped in visitors looking to see if they could earn a free sword just for surviving a day of lessons.

Sokka had gone off somewhere to find a certain unique material he seemed excited about. Mai hardly cared. "So, what's taking him so long?"

Piandao took a sip of tea. "Maybe he stopped for lunch. You haven't touched yours, yet."

Mai looked down at her plate. She was letting her fresh Fire Flakes get cold. She dutifully took a handful. "I'm just worried that if he starts too late, he'll be keeping me up all night working the forge. I need my sleep, you know."

"Of course," Piandao said. "But I think it will be worth a night of missed rest. He's a very special student, and I think he has more surprises for us."

Mai snorted lightly. "If you say so. I've been the one doing most of the training."

"Yes, and you've been doing a very good job of it." Her 'husband' smiled at her. "Yesterday, you impressed me quite a bit. As much as he seems to get my lessons and philosophy, when it comes to the actual practice, he needs some special attention to get him on the right track. You've done an exceptional job of leveraging his strengths and keeping him focused on the skills he'll need. To be honest, I didn't think you had the patience for something like that."

Mai kept her eyes on her Fire Flakes. "It's not a big deal. He listens to me, and that's that. He's your special student, after all. I'm just repeating what you taught me."

"It must be nice," Piandao said, "to have someone really listen to you, like that."

Mai didn't say anything.

At that moment, the knockers on the outer gate started sounding like a drum driving an old oar-pushed warship at ramming speed. "Ugh," Mai said, standing up. "Was that boy raised in a hole in the ground?"

Piandao didn't answer.

When they opened the gate, sure enough, Sokka was at the door, but he wasn't alone. "Who's this?" Piandao asked.

Mai kept her face blank. Great, more company. The taller girl was probably a close relative of Sokka's, given her eyes and skin tone, but the other two were odd mismatches. The colonies must have been getting rather strange, indeed, if a gang like this was traveling like family.

It suddenly occurred to Mai that her little brother might grow up with friends with green eyes. How lucky for him.

"Oh, these are my friends. Just other good Fire Nation folks," Sokka said. The group bowed. At least they could do that much. Mai and Piandao bowed in return, Mai keeping her dip fairly shallow. "So, do you think we can make a sword out of a meteorite?"


Piandao had to get back to his Fire Army students, so he tasked Mai with guiding Sokka through the initial portion of the forging process. She had grimaced, but didn't do any complaining, so based on the day he had already spent with her, Sokka decided that she was just mildly grumpy about the situation. "All right," he said. "Let's get some Fantastic Forging going on. What's first?"

Mai sighed. Of course. "This is the best part. We get Fat over here, and he swings a big, very heavy hammer. You get to hold the chisel against your meteorite and hope he's a very good aim."

Sokka felt his stomach do a little flip. "He's a good aim, right?"

She had the gall to smirk at him. "I guess he's all right. Not as good as me."

"Aaaand why can't you do the hammer swinging, if you're so good?"

She arched an eyebrow at a witheringly acute angle, and held out her arms so that the wide sleeves hung loosely on her frame. "That hammer is probably half my weight. No way am I swinging that thing."

Sokka looked her up and down. "And all those knives you're hiding weigh- ?"

"I haven't bothered to figure it out. But it's a lot better when it's evenly distributed. You have to compensate when people compare your looks to willow trees."

"Well, it's not a bad look, you know." Now, why had he said that?

Mai was still trying to figure out how to respond when Fat arrived with his very big, very heavy hammer. He must have been a pretty good butler, with great timing like that.


Sure enough, the moron was at it all night, working the forge, keeping the fires hot enough to turn his magic meteorite into a quick-running liquid that would assume the shape of a blade. Mai had to admit, though, that he was working hard at it. No matter what time she dropped by for a quick peak, he was still awake, pumping the bellows, shoveling coal, or just watching the fires. He was really into this. Mai had fallen asleep during her time on the forge, and Fat had earned a new level of ire by daring to touch her to shake her awake.

She stepped back from the forge, letting the relatively cool night air refresh her. When her eyes adjusted, she made out the forms of Sokka's friends sitting against the walls of the forge. "We have rooms for you, you know. We won't even make you sleep with the other students in the barracks."

They all made stricken expressions at that. Ooh, these kids were going to be fun to tease. "So, what brings you all to the homeland? Looking to pick up a little culture?"

Glances were exchanged. The older girl- Sokka's sister, it had turned out- shifted in her seat and spoke. "Actually, my father is doing some, uh, sailing right now. He's going to landing in the Fire Nation on some, uh, business. We're traveling to meet up with him."

"Ah." Mai removed her Sitting Cloth from her sleeve, laid it on the ground, and sat down beside the group. As long as she wasn't going to be sleeping, anyway, she may as well indulge. "I got married in order to get away from my father."

"Really?" asked the little blind one.

"No. Actually, he arranged for this marriage for me. I wasn't too pleased when I found out."

"They do that in the Fire Nation, too?" said Sokka's sister.

Mai shrugged. "Sure. Actually, I would have figured that the colonies would be more laid back about that kind of thing. I was surprised that my father could actually do that to me, legally. It seems kind of backward, considering how far we've come." She thought back to a young man she once held some regard for, and what his father had been allowed to do to him. "But we seem to be a nation of pretty stupid contrasts."

Everyone nodded at that.

"Does your family live around here?" the boy in the headband asked.

"No. We lived in the Capital City at the time. I actually knew the royal family." The entire group blinked as one. Rubes. "It isn't actually as prestigious as it sounds. They're kind of weird." They all grinned together. Peasants. "My father was appointed to be governor of Omashu, not too long ago. I get letters from my mother, sometimes, but I've decided that I'm still mad at her, so I don't bother replying."

The boy and Sokka's sister exchanged glances at that. Gee, it didn't take much to impress the kids, did it? The little blind girl ignored them, and sighed. "At least she cares," she said.

Mai let herself snicker. "If that's all you want, then sure, she cares. Listen, as long as you colonials are going to be squatting in my castle's courtyard, do you want some Fire Flakes? I'm hungry."


The next day, the sword was completed. Piandao took the time to personally hammer it into shape (however he managed to make a sharp blade by doing that), leaving his military students to drill by themselves in the courtyard. The swordmaster decided that he would present the weapon to Sokka in a small ceremony, in the mansion. "As his teacher, you should come," he said.

Mai kept her face blank. She hated ceremonies and speeches. "If you insist."

She put on a new set of robes, ones without any wrinkles, and retrieved all her best weapons to wear. She took a moment to look at the first sword she herself had forged under Piandao's supervision, and thought about its newest brother blade. Mai had been allowed to look at Sokka's sword, and it was truly a thing of beauty. It had settled into a dark color that still maintained a metallic gleam, and it was both light and strong in the way Piandao's works always were. There was a little something extra in this new sword, something that had piqued Mai's fascination with weapons anew, and she had felt a jealous desire to try to keep it for herself.

That was ridiculous, of course. And if someone else had to get the sword, she was glad it was Sokka. When she watched him move, she saw that he now bore the taint of her own deadly grace, a certain way of walking that called to mind her own style with the sword. He was partly her student, and it was fair enough that he should have a sword she could be proud of.

He didn't look proud at the ceremony.

"Sokka, when you first arrived, you were so unsure. You even seemed down on yourself. But I saw something in you right away. I saw a heart as strong as a lion turtle, and twice as big," Piandao said in the large, formal room. "And as we trained, it wasn't your skills that impressed me. You and Mai had to work hard on those, and you threw yourself into it with a diligence that I wish all my students were capable of. More importantly, you adapted those new skills to your own special way of doing things. Creativity, versatility, intelligence- these are the traits that define a great swordsman. And these are the traits that define you."

Piandao took the dark sword, slid it into its sheath for the first time, and handed it to Mai. She in turn faced Sokka, and offered him the sword while her 'husband' kept talking. "You told me you didn't know if you were worthy, but I believe that you are more than worthy of being Mai's first student."

Sokka didn't look like he felt worthy. He looked as down about the whole ceremony-thing as Mai felt, even though she was making sure she didn't show it. She felt like kicking him until he displayed proper tact.

Then he spoke. "I'm sorry, Master. You're wrong. I am not worthy. I'm not who you think I am. I'm not from the Fire Nation. I'm from the Southern Water Tribe. I lied so that I could learn swordsmanship from you. I'm sorry."

Behind him, his friends all squeaked, but Mai hardly noticed. She was experiencing a curious failure in her senses, with both her hearing and her vision being consumed by some kind of shadow. He lied? He was one of the enemy? The ones who were always trying to assassinate her family?

Her sword was out and swinging long before she recovered her senses.

Sokka blocked it with his own sheathed weapon, using the same quick reflexes she had twisted into those of a proper swordsman.

"Mai," Piandao said.

She ignored him. Instead, she drew the second sword she wore at her back, and swung it into a downward arc meant to cleave through Sokka's head.


Oh, yeah. She had mentioned that she studied the twin jian styles, didn't she?

Sokka twisted backwards and saw the blade pass through the air in front of his face.

"Mai, stop this!" Piandao barked from behind her. "I already knew."

If she heard her husband, she didn't give a sign of it. She pulled both of her swords back, and the brought them into an alternating attack that Sokka knew was meant to overwhelm his defenses.

Here's hoping she trained him well. Sokka gritted his teeth and pulled his sword out of the sheath.


Darn it, why had she worked so hard teaching this traitor how to stay alive? He was using both his sword and the hardened sheath to block her attacks, exactly like she and Piandao had instructed him. Mai tried stabbing one of the blades at him, but he deflected it off to the side and made her expand some of her strength to bring it back into line. She twitched the other sword at him, but he used his sheath like a club to bat it away and send shockwaves up her arm.

Fine. She was better with one sword, anyway.

Mai dropped the sword in her left hand, and twitched her wrist so that one of her prized razor discs fell into her palm. Sokka wasn't attacking, just staying on the defensive, so she stabbed her sword again, and then twisted the blade so that it locked against his when he tried to block. Stuck together, she stepped back as far as she could, and then raised the disc to throw it as his head. There was no way he'd be able to bring the sheath into line from the other side of his body to defend himself in time-

"Mai!" Katara shouted. "Sokka saved your father's life in Omashu!"

Huh?


Sokka listened with amazement as Katara related the whole adventure in Omashu, how the trade between the Fire Nation baby and King Bumi had been ruined when the local resistance double-crossed everyone for another attempt to kill the governor and his family. Dimly, Sokka did recall using his boomerang to take out one of the Earthbenders trying to target the governor himself, but that was because Aang and he wanted to honor the truce for the exchange. You couldn't go breaking your word like that.

"Aang here returned your brother to your family, after everyone got away safe. You owe Sokka for part of that," Katara finished.

Mai wasn't moving. "Um," Sokka said, deciding to venture a little of his traditional charm, "your little brother... um, Tom-Tom? He's pretty cute. For an evil Fire Nation baby."

She stared at him. "Whatever." Then she spun and left the room, her swords forgotten on the floor.

Okay. That was an improvement, probably. Nice that luck and coincidence were on his side, for a change.

So why did he feel so awful?


Mai had locked herself in her room for the rest of the day, and Piandao was fine with that. He had Fat keep a watch on the door to make sure she didn't take another run at the Avatar and his friends, but beyond that, she wasn't really relevant anymore. Piandao could let the Avatar go, and stay in his current life, in which case Mai would probably never trust him again, but he truly doubted she would betray him to the Fire Lord. It was all personal, to her, and she had no love for the Fire Lord as a person. On the other hand, Piandao could choose to not let the Avatar simply go.

He could go with the Avatar.

He wouldn't even need to face Mai. There was already a signed Letter of Divorce amongst his important papers, and Fat knew exactly where. Piandao had always been aware that it would only be a matter of time before the situation became unsustainable, and he didn't want Mai to suffer any more than she already had. Fortunately, the Fire Nation didn't place any undue value on the perceived 'purity' of its women, and given Piandao's lack of an actual relationship with Mai, the public perception was the only possible issue. He could up and leave at any moment, and she would only be free.

But should he leave?

The Avatar was planning, from what he explained, to invade the Fire Nation on the occasion of a certain eclipse, when Firebenders would be powerless. It just so happened to be the day after Piandao was to have delivered his latest batch of students to the hands of Princess Azula herself. Elite swordsmen were in very sudden and dramatic demand in the capital, these days.

So, what exactly could he do about that?

The next day, it would turn out not to matter. His plans didn't account for a Firebender who could make things explode with his mind.

TO BE CONTINUED