Fall Of The White Lotus

Chapter 7: Code

Music: The Beginning Of The Journey, Kenji Kawai (Folklore)


Without waiting for Zuko's response to her whispered thanks, Katara sent her ostrich horse down the path Princess Yue had pointed out for them to follow. Huddled in her cloak, she welcomed the driving rain as she tried to forget about what the moon spirit had told her. A disturbing little voice in the back of her head kept telling her that the other Water Princess had meant for her to reconsider the nature of her relationship with Aang. And that was exactly what Katara had been avoiding for a long time now.

Her breath formed icy clouds in the chill of the night, and cold water started to seep through the tightly woven cloak. She could have protected herself with her waterbending, but all she could think about were Yue's words as the cold began to creep into her stiffening body.

She only woke from her stupor when she heard Zuko's voice yelling for her to stop. Turning her head, she gasped in fear when she suddenly found herself gazing into a gigantic abyss as her ostrich horse started to slide off the edge. Only a slippery boulder separated the ostrich-horse and its rider from tumbling into the depths of darkness.

With a forceful jerk, she tightened the reins and two nerve-racking seconds later, the animal thankfully obeyed and let itself be directed towards the mountainside. When it ducked its head for some dry grass, Katara quickly dismounted and instinctively pressed her hand to her chest to calm herself.

Zuko had watched helplessly as Katara slowly but surely had been drawn towards the abyss, knowing that he couldn't possibly reach her in time from his position far behind her. It had been a cry of despair that had escaped him as he'd yelled for her to stop, fiercely hoping that it would wake her from her musings over what the moon spirit had said to her, which had clearly touched her deeply.

He couldn't describe the feeling of utter relief coursing through him when she'd followed his directions, dismounting and now leaning against the mountainside, her eyes wide with fear. It was as fierce as the agony that had taken possession of him earlier when he realized that he could be losing Katara to the Kolau Mountains.

Finally reaching her, he quickly dismounted from his ostrich horse and, suppressing the urge to pull her into a tight embrace, looked her up and down to see if she was all right. Her gaze was filled with gratitude when she looked up at him, and he thanked Agni that the troubled expression had disappeared from her eyes.

Knowing that she had to reach her ostrich horse but afraid to let go of the mountain wall, Katara began to shuffle along the rugged mountainside. Suddenly, she lost her shaky balance and fell backwards with a small yelp. To her surprise, she landed on dry ground. She heard Zuko cry out from outside, calling out her name in worried panic.

"It's all right, Zuko. I believe it's a cave," she called back.

He appeared a moment later, an expression of relief on his face which turned into a look of approval when he turned around in the small cave she'd just discovered. It was barely more than a crack in the walls, but it was dry and it would do for what remained of the night.

Their first priority was to dry their clothes. Zuko began to evaporate the rain from his until Katara protested because of all the steam he was creating in the small cave. Mumbling an apology, he let her bend the water out of their clothes. With an elegant flick of her wrist, Katara directed the glistening stream back into the night.

As Zuko turned his attention to the ostrich horses, which needed unpacking. Katara attempted to fold her dried cloak, but it was heavier than she thought and it slipped through her fingers. Instinctively, her hand shot out to grasp it before it hit the ground. As her fingers clutched at it and halted its momentum, she saw a bit of folded paper swirl down from the folds.

"A note!" Katara exclaimed, and Zuko turned around in surprise. The next moment, the cloak was dropped in his arms unceremoniously while Katara picked up the piece of paper from the ground.

"Looks like I got a present from your uncle after all." Katara's eyes shone excitedly as she unfolded the paper. "Could you make us some light?"

Zuko moved in closer, draping the cloak over one arm as he produced a small flame with the other and gazed curiously at the paper. The gentle flame cast a flickering golden glow over their tired faces and let their shadows dance across the dark cave.

Katara,

I ask you to understand this message before the end of fall.

Iroh

For a moment, Katara and Zuko looked at each other in confusion before they began to search the paper for the rest of the message. This couldn't be all of it. Fruitlessly, they turned it around, trying to find out if there was another layer to the paper or if a lighter shade of ink had been used. But they found nothing.

As the rain outside their small cave gained in intensity, something occurred to Zuko and with a frown, he lifted the paper to hover above the flame in his palm.

Katara's eyes widened in shock. "What are you doing? You'll burn it!"

The flame reflected in her eyes as she tried to snatch the paper from him, but Zuko neatly evaded her, his eyes not averting from the paper.

"I'm not burning it. Look, my uncle loves these kind of jokes."

To Katara's amazement, text slowly appeared in the margin of the paper. Carefully, she brought her face closer to the paper.

"Invisible ink," she whispered in astonishment. Her breath lightly brushed Zuko's hand, causing the flame to flicker a little.

Zuko suppressed a shiver as her glistening eyes fixed on the paper excitedly.

"Heat responsive ink, actually," he informed her as he pulled away his hand and let the paper cool down in the chill of the cave.

Then they both leaned in to see the result, heads almost touching in the process. Meticulously, their eyes searched the writing, only to find out that the text consisted of characters they didn't recognize. A feeling of disappointment again rushed through them as they found that they couldn't read the message.

"Of course he had to use some kind of code language," Zuko grumbled in frustration, lowering the piece of paper. "And he naturally expects us to decipher and solve the riddle before winter." He let out a weary sigh. "It resembles the ancient script of the Fire Nation. It's still in use with the Fire Sages, but this is still so different that I can't translate it."

It didn't surprise Katara that Zuko could read the ancient language of his nation. She figured it had been part of his royal education, momentarily imagining an enormous Fire Temple and a lonely little boy with a high ponytail sitting cross legged in the middle, surrounded by intimidating, silent Fire Sages and walls of fire.

After the near destruction of the Southern Water Tribe, their share of the ancient arts had been destroyed and could only be studied at the Northern Water Tribe. Education in general had become a task delegated to the elders. However, her Gran Gran, who had grown up in the North Pole, had taught her and Sokka a few of the ancient characters, and she thought she recognized one now.

"This one resembles the ancient Water Tribe character for winter." Katara's finger hesitantly came to rest upon the paper.

Zuko nodded, silently surprised she had been able to learn those things in an almost extinguished world. He pointed at another character. "This one vaguely resembles the ancient Fire Nation character for summer," he supplied, while absentmindedly rubbing his bad eye.

Katara suddenly noticed the hint of tiredness in his voice, which sounded raspier than normally, and that his left eye was almost entirely closed. She realized that he probably hadn't had a proper amount of sleep in at least two nights, to make sure he would arrive in Omashu on time - only to be sent away again by Iroh on the day of his arrival in the city of balance after he'd already been severely affected by the Southern Lights. Not a word of complaint had slipped past his lips, though.

A pang of guilt for not having noticed before shot through her stomach.

The following day she would blame it on her own exhaustion, but she gave in to the urge to lift her hand, her fingers slightly grazing his scar as she gently took his hand from his face.

Surprised by her unexpected touch, he stiffened. Silent, his eyes followed the hand holding his, and he blinked in confusion when he looked up and noticed how close her blue eyes were, watching him worriedly.

"I think it's time for us to get some sleep," Zuko whispered, eyes locking with Katara's as he closed his other hand and the flame disappeared. Darkness instantly enveloped them and, while they waited to adjust their eyes, Zuko let his hand slip from hers, folding her fingers around the paper instead.

Katara sighed and put the paper in her pocket as she allowed her own exhaustion to finally take over. "I liked your present better."


Katara was slowly woken from her slumber by an irritating brightness against her eyelids. Squeezing her eyes in protest, she became vaguely aware of the ray of light hitting her face. With a small groan, she turned away from the annoying light, only to be surprised by a light chuckle.

Startled, her eyes shot open, facing an empty futon next to hers and the rock wall of what appeared to be some sort of cave. It took some time for her to realize where she was.

"I had forgotten how much trouble you have with waking up early," a husky voice commented good-naturedly, and Katara frowned, pulling up her blanket to cover her head.

"You used to say that a lot more poetically," the blanket grumbled, but then a hand lightly touched her shoulder.

"Come, you need to get up. I've already packed everything. We're ready to go."

That made Katara look up. She noticed that the futon that was there only a minute ago was gone. The ostrich horses were packed and fed, and Zuko stood in front of her, a piece of bread in his outstretched hand, looking completely rested.

A pang of guilt shot through her as she sighed and got to her feet. "Why didn't you wake me up earlier? I could have helped you." She gave him a disgruntled look, though she gratefully took the bread from him.

He turned around and started to fasten her blanket to her ostrich horse.

"You were tired," he replied a bit curtly. "I thought it best to let you sleep a little while longer."

"You were tired, too," Katara mumbled in protest, and suddenly the events of last night came rushing back to her. Her eyes widened as she recalled the intimate gesture with which she'd taken his hand from his marred eye. And hadn't she at one point even caressed his face?

Her cheeks turned bright red and, for some reason, her traveling companion had disappeared between the two ostrich horses to fasten a blanket which already had been fastened.

Zuko's hard work this early morning somehow felt reminiscent of the dynamics within Team Avatar, when they were still together and striving to defeat Fire Lord Ozai.

Back then, she had always been the one to keep their little group organized, but when Zuko had arrived, he'd naturally started to help her or had taken over chores when she'd been too tired. Despite herself, she'd allowed it, silently feeling grateful for his support even though she'd never acknowledged his help, believing he'd only been after her forgiveness. But that had been before she'd realized he'd been feeling just as responsible for the group's well being as she had, a thing the others had never cared about. Not even Sokka, who, at fifteen years old, had been the eldest before Zuko's arrival.

Zuko, however, had helped her with obtaining supplies, dividing tasks, and settling arguments between Aang and Toph or Sokka and Toph. He had also used his frightening firebender attitude to get chores done whenever Katara had asked someone to do something. During that time, she'd come to trust that she could rely on him to give her solid backing and, knowing that she wasn't alone in this anymore, she had loosened up a bit, much to Team Avatar's - and especially Toph's - relief.

Now, Katara realized how much they had been acting like a father and a mother back then. Her cheeks began burning as she finally understood why Suki had often giggled all that time ago whenever she and Zuko teamed up again.

She was secretly glad that Zuko couldn't see her blush when she put on her cloak and led her ostrich horse outside.


The sun had already evaporated most of the rain from the rocks by the time the travelers continued on the path Yue had indicated. The peaks were already lower in this part of the mountain range, and they would reach the foothill in a few hours time. A few clouds rested high in the sky, not hindering the sun shining down freely on the ostrich horses and their riders.

The path was now broad enough to let the ostrich horses trot next to each other as the travelers used the time to discuss all that had happened to them in the last twenty-four hours.

"Do you think your mother is on Kyoshi Island?" Katara eventually asked thoughtfully as she sent Zuko a sideways glance.

He shook his head. "I can't be sure, but I don't think we'll find her there. Uncle said we had to start at Kyoshi Island, he never said she would actually be there. Somehow, I don't believe she would be living that far away from the Fire Nation. She loved the Fire Nation, and I expect her to be living as close to it as possible."

Although his face stayed impassive, the emotion in his voice betrayed who he really meant by this, and Katara gave him a sympathetic look.

"I understand," she said softly, "but what I don't understand is why your uncle would send us deeper south. He knows we have only half a season left to find your mother. Although, it'll be great to see Suki again."

Zuko was looking in the distance with a serious expression on his face. "It's a mystery to me, too. And I keep wondering what her connection is to the Order of the White Lotus and why they haven't attempted to find her sooner. Especially if my mother's that important to their existence."

Katara nodded in agreement. "And what I don't understand either," she continued his words, "is the nature of the Order of the White Lotus. I always thought it was some old men's tea group of your uncle's that my Gran Pakku is a member of."

Zuko quietly smiled to himself at her choice of words and said, "The Order of the White Lotus is actually quite a bit larger than just my uncle, your Gran Pakku, and King Bumi. When Uncle and I were on the run from Azula, he got in touch with lower ranking members in the Earth Kingdom. He used some kind of code word to get in contact with them, and they helped us escape from two bounty hunters."

The shiver that ran down her spine at his last words, Katara couldn't explain. The feeling lingered for a long while as they lapsed into silence.

A few hours later, they stopped to let their gazes wander over the desolate plains in front of them, their silhouettes black dots against the sandstone surroundings.

"I think we will leave the mountains in about two hours from now," Zuko said, his voice hopeful at the estimate.

The plains looked a lot like the Earth Kingdom desert up north, except for the brown grass waving in the wind as far as the eye reached.

In the distance, Katara could see another, albeit lower, mountain range. At least when they reached those plains, they could pick up speed to make up for the time they'd lost in the mountains. With a contented sigh, Katara raised her face toward the autumnal sun, for a moment basking in its warmth. She was startled when Zuko suddenly seemed to tense up, narrowing his eyes as he stared at a particular point in the distance. But before she could say anything, he'd already mounted his ostrich horse and spurred it on.

For the rest of the trip, he stayed remarkably silent, only speaking to her to point out a flying mountain-pig-squirrel high above them, which only seemed to make him even more withdrawn.

Katara didn't understand.

As soon as they reached the end of the mountain path, she grabbed Zuko's reins before he could put spurs to his riding animal.

"I think it's time you tell me what's the matter with you," she said sternly, making sure he couldn't avoid her demanding gaze.

His features darkened and he opened his mouth to brush her off, but one deadly gaze from Katara silenced him. Finally he sighed, pointing at a barely visible dot of dust in the distance. They were heading straight for it.

"See that village over there? I had hoped we wouldn't go through it."

Katara hadn't noticed it yet and wondered how Zuko could know it was a village. She could only distinguish something that looked vaguely like a watchtower.

"It's the Plains Village. I've been there before, when I..." He closed his eyes for a moment and then said hoarsely, "When I abandoned Uncle to travel alone."

Katara fell silent. She didn't know what she was expecting to hear, but it definitely was not this. She figured this must have happened somewhere around the time they had met with Toph, and clearly it was a painful memory for Zuko.

"There were these Earth Kingdom soldiers who were bullying that town, terrorizing it under the pretense of protecting the villagers against the Fire Nation," he told her with suppressed anger, clenching his fists. "When they turned on a young boy, Lee, and threatened him and his mother with making him a soldier, when he'd already lost his older brother and father to the war, I decided to...call them to account."

His ominous tone added to Katara's feeling of foreboding.

"But isn't that a good thing?" she asked tentatively. "You protected that boy. His mother must have been grateful. What happened?"

He didn't respond, simply kept staring at the dusty spot in the distance that was the Plains Village. Then, he unexpectedly pulled the reins to turn his ostrich horse into the direction of the village. His mouth had hardened into a bitter line as he held back the animal and threw Katara a dark look. "They discovered my identity."


A/N: Katara's grumbled response to Zuko prosaically calling her a sleepyhead of course is a reference to the, 'You rise with the moon, I rise with the sun.'

The Plains Village I think you will have recognized from the episode Zuko Alone. It's actually quite close to Omashu.

I would like to thank my beta Crimson Eyed Sakura for her wonderful suggestions.