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Firewater Rose Arc 2 Chapter 3
Katara wished for the fourteenth time that day that she had a mirror in her quarters. She smoothed-out and arranged her robe for the thirteenth time. Every strand of hair was carefully arranged. Her robes fitted her nearly perfectly.
The deep cerulean robes fit tightly around her chest. An embroidered silk sash at the waist marked a line around her figure. Above the border, the fit was very snug. Below the sash, the robes draped in luxurious silk folds. The neckline was high enough to have been modest on her a few years ago. Thanks to the combined effects of puberty and child birth, it was a little more revealing than she was comfortable with, but not scandalous.
If
anyone so much as glances at my breasts, I will freeze them in
place, she vowed. Oh, who am I kidding?
I'm just a girl from the South Pole. I'm not royalty. I'm not
cut out for this.
She paced. She tried to smother the butterflies in her stomach. She went over and over what Jee told her in her mind. She would be accompanied to the Fire Palace by him and his officers. She would be presented to the Fire Lord. She would tell him... what?
What
do I say? 'Hi, how have you been since we escaped? What have you
been up to since Aang died in your arms? Oh, here's your
plate?'
She continued pacing, trying to find the right words. Everything was either entirely too personal to discuss in front of Jee, much less the complete strangers that were certain to be there. If it wasn't too personal, it was polite drivel that felt not only unnatural to her, but also seemed like an insult to all they had endured together.
She was still pacing an hour later when Jee came to collect her for the procession.
No one said a word as the unusual entourage made its way through the streets of Kuang-feng. Jee stayed close to her right elbow. As they disembarked the ship, she felt crowded by Jee's closeness, and the guards were walking in tight formation around them.
As they moved through the city, her claustrophobia was replaced with gratitude. Not one person on the streets had gone unaffected by the final battle. Every glance was an accusation.
You killed my brother!
You maimed my father!
You are the reason Mommy won't stop drinking!
Ghosts of that conflagration haunted every building and every face she passed. Scorch marks, collapsed shops and hate-filled glares met her everywhere she looked. She understood why Jee and the soldiers were sticking so close to her.
After miles of anger and pain, they were at the grand entrance to the Fire Palace. A pair of identically dressed young men hailed them with crisp salutes, then opened the doors. As they passed through, Katara used all of her restraint to keep from dropping her jaw in awe.
Black granite ran a line from the entrance to another set of double doors. Another pair of identically-clad young men opened these doors. Katara was skillfully guided down more granite-inlaid hallways, through more gold leaf-embossed crimson doors, until they came to a pair that was not opened for them.
An older man stepped out. He was dressed in a heavy velvet robe of black and red with stylized gold flames at the hem. He had a few words with Jee before giving Katara an appraising look. He stepped back through the door and shut it behind him.
On the other side of the door, a voice rang out. "Presenting Admiral Jee and Ambassador Katara of the Southern Water Tribe."
Katara's robe suddenly seemed to become unbearably tight around her chest.
Zuko was engrossed in the numbers in front of him. Akaj was a pasty-faced bureaucrat, but he was a shrewd businessman and economist. Half of Zuko's economic development plan had been plucked directly from the man's head.
Akaj's suggestions were responsible for thousands of jobs for discharged military personnel. Soldiers were put to work rebuilding the nation's neglected and destroyed infrastructure such as its bridges and aqueducts; they were applying their military discipline and efficiency to those tasks.
The economy wasn't fully recovered by any stretch of the imagination, but it was making admirable progress. That progress was reflected in the numbers in front of Zuko now. After months of staring at similar data sets, they were finally beginning to make sense to him.
His thoughts were disturbed by the sound of his herald tapping his staff on the floor. The noise echoed through his audience chamber. He looked-up and nodded to the herald.
The herald's voice rang out loud and strong. "Presenting Admiral Jee and Ambassador Katara of the Southern Water Tribe."
Zuko handed the scroll of figures back to Akaj. The door opened and the herald stepped quickly off to one side. Jee strode into the room first, his head high as he approached the Fire Lord on his throne. Following closely behind Jee was Katara.
I was right to pick those robes, Zuko noted. They were the perfect compliment to the color of her eyes. She glanced up to him for just a moment before the entire entourage dropped to their knees.
For a moment, Zuko was spellbound. She wasn't the spindly, gangly girl she had been when he had last seen her. She was a woman. Her figure had filled-out nicely and those robes were draping beautifully around that figure.
Then, Zuko remembered to breathe. Akaj surveyed the scene with an appraising eye. He scowled as he gazed at Katara.
Zuko rose from his throne. Where his father and grandfather had maintained a row of flame between themselves and their petitioners, Zuko had none.
"Rise," he said. "I trust your trip was uneventful?"
Katara rose smoothly to her feet. "Completely, Fire Lord Zuko."
"Well," Zuko smiled at the entourage, "I think now is a perfect time to adjourn for the day. Ambassador, you must do me the honor of joining me for dinner." It was not a request. It was a desperate plea, but Katara's spine still stiffened. She gave no response, and Zuko interpreted her silence as agreement.
Katara followed quietly behind Zuko as they walked to the dining room. He had not changed. Sure, his shoulders had broadened, his voice had deepened, and his hair had grown enough for a respectable top knot, but he was still the same boorish, selfish, demanding jerk as before.
She kept her chin up and her eyes firmly fixed on the back of his head. If he felt the ice she was glaring at him, he showed no discomfort. They passed a stone courtyard. In the center, a half-finished statue had been erected. Its sculptor had gone home for the day.
Katara stopped. Stopped walking, stopped breathing, stopped blinking. The head was the only finished part of the statue. Even without the telltale arrow on his forehead, she would have known Aang's face anywhere.
Zuko continued walking for a few more paces, but Katara paid him no attention. She forgot everything around her for a moment as she stared at Aang's peaceful likeness. She didn't see him turn back to her, but his voice at her right shoulder brought her back to reality.
"His last thoughts were about you," Zuko whispered. "There is something I have to tell you, but not here. Not now."
She stared at him for a moment. It would be so like Aang to be thinking of others at a time like that. She wanted to grab Zuko's arm and make him tell her the rest, make him give her a little piece of Aang back. The intense stare in Zuko's eyes and the firm set of his jaw led her to reconsider.
Later
"Come on," Zuko nodded to where the rest of his guests were waiting. "We will talk later. We eat now."
Katara tried to ignore the poisonous glares she was receiving from the crowd gathered around the fringes of the courtyard. Several of the women turned sharply as she approached, giving her their backs, and more than one advisor appeared to be smoldering in his robes.
Zuko resumed his position at the head of the procession and led them to a spacious dining hall. One table sat at the far end of the hall on a raised dais, the Fire Nation emblem emblazoned on the back of the chair in the center of the table. Obviously, this was Zuko's table and that was Zuko's chair. She and every other person in the room was shocked when Zuko directed her to the seat to his left.
Zuko took his seat next to her and immediately shoved his gilded porcelain plate out from in front of him. "Katara, I believe you have something of mine."
Katara blushed. She opened her travel pack and pulled out the Fire Lord's velvet-draped plate. He took it from her outstretched hands. She felt the temperature of the room rise when he placed it on the table in front of him.
The reactions around her ranged from unveiled anger to curiosity. She felt like the target of some secret joke and she wished someone would let her in on it, or at least explain what she had done wrong.
The courses of the meal passed in a daze. There was something that looked like ham, a vegetable dish with corn so small you could eat the entire cob in one bite, and enough bread to feed her tribe for a week. The man to Zuko's right spoke up during dessert.
"Well, it's not seal blubber or fish oil jelly, but I hope we can accomodate your Water Tribe tastes," the man said. A chorus of giggles echoed from the lower tables.
If you're going to fish for a fight, old man, you've got to be smarter than the fish.
"Fire Lord Zuko has been extremely gracious in seeing to my comforts," was all she said.
"If seal blubber and fish oil jelly were necessary to make the Ambassador comfortable, Akaj, we would all be eating it right now," Zuko stated flatly. The giggling stopped.
The remainder of the meal was finished without incident. Afterwards, Katara was led to her suite.
The suite was located in one of the wings not far from the Audience Chamber. It consisted of four rooms - a bedroom, a wash room, a sitting room, and another room that appeared to be an office of some kind. It had bookshelves, a desk, and several chairs, but she had no need for any of those things. She had done what she came to do. She was leaving as soon as she could explain this, "Ambassador," misunderstanding to Zuko. Her chance came sooner than she expected.
Zuko stood before the main entrance to Katara's suite. He took a moment to straighten his vest. He carefully brushed the silken sash belting his ebony pants, aligning the vest's opening carefully with his sternum and navel.
Satisfied with his appearance, he rapped sharply on her door. It slowly opened. Katara held it in place, open just enough to poke her face through the door.
"Yes?" she asked.
"I need to speak to you privately for a moment," he said. He tried to step forward into her sitting room, but she held the door firm.
"Here? Now?" she raised her eyebrows.
Of course here and now! I wouldn't be here if I didn't need to speak to you here and now! He was getting annoyed, and it showed.
"Yes, here and now."
"Then you'll have to give me a moment," she answered. "You can wait here, I guess." She opened her door and gestured at one of the chairs clustered around a low table.
She disappeared within her bedroom for a moment. Not being used to being instructed to sit within his own palace, he chose to stand. When she returned, her free-flowing locks had been bound in a neat braid that extended to the middle of her back.
"There was something I needed to tell you, as well," she said as she took a seat. Zuko realized she had absolutely no training in court behavior. He made a mental note to correct that before she made a critical error in public.
Telling me to sit! Sitting in my presence without permission! I can't have her doing that in front of witnesses!
"Let me get this out now," he started, "while the opportunity is still good." She gestured to him to continue. "The last thing Aang told me, after the light faded from his eyes, was, 'Zuko, you're a powerful firebender. Protect Katara.'"
Zuko could see the wheels turning in Katara's mind. She mouthed something to herself as if trying to get what Zuko had just told her to sink in. He was able to make out, "light faded."
Before she could speak, he stopped her, "It's a shame. My military doesn't appreciate Aang's sacrifice. If the fall hadn't killed him, I think they would have. An infant waterbending Avatar would be an easy target." He sent Katara a meaningful glance.
Understand me, Katara. There is a new Avatar and that child's only defense is that the world believes they don't exist.
As if she could hear his thoughts, she nodded very slightly. "I didn't realize you were so attached to Aang," she said.
"Your faith was well-placed. He was a great leader and he gave his life to end the war. Your people weren't the only ones dying. Mine were, too. I would give anything to be able to protect the Avatar," he chose the last sentence very carefully.
"I have sent Jee back to the Southern Water Tribe. One of our sages is helping to restore the libraries in your Water Temple, and Ambassador Iroh is staying with your tribe. Both need support. With you here, we can coordinate military support for the South Pole."
Katara remained quiet, as Zuko expected. He knew she would understand his meaning, would agree with his goals to protect the Avatar, and she could certainly be trusted to guard this secret on her death bed. She may have been born a Water Tribe peasant, but she was smart and clever.
"Now," he said, "what did you want to tell me?"
"Nothing," she answered. "It's not important."
Katara sat on her chair for a long time after Zuko left. Her mind was in turmoil. If nothing else, dinner had proven that she was far out of her league in the Fire Lord's court. The glares, the giggles, the acidic comments... Hand to hand combat, she could handle, but this was an entirely different breed of warfare.
On the other hand was the possibility that the Avatar had been reborn. Zuko had no reason to lie. If she had understood his meaning, and she was sure she had, the Avatar Cycle was unbroken, and somewhere within the Water Tribe, the new Avatar was defenseless against a vindictive mob.
Then, a terrifying thought struck her. What if the Avatar died before it got a chance to live? What if she was stillborn? Katara wiped a tear before it rolled down her cheek.
On the likelihood that the Avatar was not her daughter, the child she had failed to give life to, she knew what she had to do. She would stay. She would stay and help Zuko protect the new Avatar.
The ice stretched for miles behind him. Shyu adjusted the pack on his back as he climbed the stairs to the Southern Water Temple. At the entrance, a grey-haired man appeared, one arm curled protectively around a toddler girl sitting on his hip.
The old waterbender didn't move as Shyu and his entourage approached. Both the old man and the little girl bore the distinct dark skin of the Water Tribe, and though the man's hair had faded to grey, Shyu knew it must have once been the same brown that was sprouting from the girl's head in downy tufts. What was surprising was that even though the man had Water Tribe-blue eyes, the girl's were unmistakably Fire Nation-copper.
"What do you want, Fire Sage?" the old man stared at Shyu.
