PART 7: THE GIRL AND THE MASTER
Suki's fourth attempt to explain her association with Azula to Sokka was foiled by no less than General Iroh himself. The old grandmaster of the Order of the White Lotus came to congratulate Sokka for his grandiose plan of attacking the Fire Nation Capital during the Day of the Black Sun, and almost succeeding in ending the war with one fell swoop.
His interruption was really unfortunate and ill-timed, but Suki didn't want to push her own conversation against Iroh's, so she politely left the two to talk about battle plans, while she bean to explore the White Lotus camp a little bit more.
Between the white tents, the air was tense from the preparations for the arrival of Sozin's comet. People hurried left and right, or talked in small groups. They barely noticed her, and when they did, it was quite embarrassing for her. Some of them acted like they knew her, even though they never met before. A short, obese man wished her good luck, and a woman with the blackest hair Suki has ever seen expressed her sympathy for a certain 'Ilesh's' death.
Suki tried her best to manage the situation, even though she had no idea who these people were. Some of them felt familiar from the Commander's stories she used to tell to Suki between trainings in the Boiling Rock, but she never really paid attention to them, so she was still touching the unknown when she thanked or returned each gesture as it was appropriate.
Eventually, she found the tent she was looking for. It was easy to recognize as it had a hastily made practice yard and a rack of training swords in front of it. An older, stout man was in the middle of packing away some equipment, and when he noticed Suki, he quickly looked away and doubled his efforts to show that he had no time for her. So she simply walked past of him, right to the entrance of the tent and pulled away the heavy sheet that served as its entrance.
"May I come in?"
Her question remained unanswered. She took it as a 'yes' and stepped in. The inside of the tent was simple, with only minimal furnishing in exemplary order and no decoration at all. It was a warrior's place and Suki quickly became comfortable with it.
In the middle sat a dark-skinned man with short, black hair and a fitting beard. His grey eyes were wide open from surprise, and in his hands, he held a straight longsword and a whetstone. From the looks of it, Suki had interrupted his sword-sharpening, but it was quite evident that her appearance had much bigger weight than his current occupation.
Master Piandao looked at her like he was seeing a ghost. They had met briefly before, when the Order of the White Lotus revealed themselves to Suki and the others at the walls of Ba Sing Se, but this was the first time they were in private, and Piandao clearly wished to avoid this.
"How can I help you?" Piandao's voice was shaky from embarrassment.
Suki stepped closer and sat down in front of him.
"I just want to talk," she said defiantly. Piandao hesitated for a moment, but then he nodded.
"Well, I suppose we can do that." He put away the sword and the whetstone. "You are here with questions in your head." Now it was Suki's time to nod. "Then let's hear them. I will answer to the best of my ability."
"As you probably know I've spent some time in the Boiling Rock as a captive," Suki began, and Piandao nodded again. "During my stay there, I met with a woman called 'Commander' and she introduced herself as the leader of the Kyoshi Warrior initiates." A dark shadow passed through Piandao's face when Suki mentioned the Commander by name. "She shared many personal stories with me, and from them, I know that you two were lovers in the past."
"We were." His voice slipped maybe, but this almost sounded like 'We are.' Suki let it slip. She didn't want to dig into Piandao's private life.
"The Commander was nice to me, but I have the feeling that she wasn't honest." Now, as the time for the most important part approached, Suki could feel her determination wavering. She took a big breath, and with that, enough strength to continue. "You probably know her much better than I do. So, may I ask you to tell me who she is exactly?"
Piandao sighed, but in a way that made Suki think that he had done this quite a few times nowadays. His brooding expression as he lowered his head for a moment and massaged his temple signaled a much heavier story than Suki had expected.
"Everyone knows her just as the Commander," he began with a heavy voice. "Even I don't know her real name. She is the leader of the Kyoshi Warrior generation that precedes yours, and many see her as the supreme leader of the whole cadre. She is a strong woman and a deadly warrior, who bears terrible scars from a failed assassination mission." He took a brief pause to look right into Suki's eyes. "That's everything I know about her."
It was hard to admit, but Piandao was so bad at lying that even Suki could see through him. The anger and the disappointment rushing through her almost burst forth from her heart, but she beat back the urge to say something nasty in the final moment.
"What do you know about my family?" At this point, Suki was just pushing this conversation blindly, as it was obvious for her that Piandao wouldn't really answer any of her questions. "The Commander told me that my father did terrible things with my mother. Is this true?"
"They both did terrible things with the other," answered Piandao cryptically.
"And what's the Commander's role in this?"
The question confounded Piandao for a split second, but he quickly regained control over his emotions.
"She was the one who fought your father. Your mother… she only suffered the consequences of the Commander's actions."
Suki suddenly found herself running the same circles with Piandao as with the Commander. When Sokka had talked about the legendary swordmaster who had trained him, Suki had imagined a man much more sincere than this.
She decided to change tactics and go for a counter-attack.
"The Commander told me a different story." Her eyes narrowed as she tried to retain her focus so that Piandao would see that she was serious. "I have the right to know the truth. Please, if you don't want to talk about this, then just tell me. Just don't lie to me."
Piandao almost cut himself with his sword while sharpening it when the girl appeared in his tent. He knew that she would come - it was inevitable in the greater scheme of things – yet, it still felt like the scorching first rays of the rising sun for a traveler lost in the desert.
The following conversation wasn't much better either. He was expecting someone like the Commander, but instead, the girl proved herself to be very different from her mother. Yes, they resembled each other physically: the soft features, the strong lips, and of course the thick auburn hair, but the similarities ended there. The girl was strong and assertive, and not wily like her mother. The Commander would trick him to reveal the truth – the girl simply told him to do so.
This alone put the seeds of doubt into Piandao's head. The Commander's reliability hadn't been very good for quite some time, but her obviously wrong description of her own daughter made Piandao rethink his position in this story. Maybe it was just an oversight as the Commander had projected too much into the girl, but he couldn't shoo away the thought that it was intentional, at least to some extent.
Now, there he was, stuck between a rock and a hard place. The girl had spoken well: she had the right to know the truth. On the other hand, he had vowed to the Commander that he would never unveil the story without her consent. And the Commander sure didn't want it to happen, especially for the girl in front of him.
He knew that he would have only one chance with this. Piandao carefully weighted every possible outcome before he opened his mouth, being aware that out of all, he had to push this conversation towards the only good way.
"What I'm going to tell you now must stay between us." These words drew the girl a little bit closer. Her eyes opened wide from curiosity and excitement. "I was with your mother when all those things happened with her. She spent five months living in my mansion, hiding from her hunters. During this time, I watched as darkness consumed her, and turned a lively woman into an embittered creature of hatred. In her deranged state of mind, she even turned against the tiny spark of light that still remained in her." Piandao took a brief moment of pause to calm down as the memories surged forward, poisoning his thoughts with terrible images. "She was too powerless to achieve anything though, and over time, she became withdrawn and quiet. Unable to stifle the light that was slowly growing inside of her, she became obsessed with it. When you were born, this light left her with you, and darkness reclaimed her heart once more, making her abandon you."
"This is the story I know from the Commander," interrupted him the girl impatiently. "But what's the deal with her? How is she connected to my parents?"
"The Commander was with your mother all along. She became a tool of vengeance for her, and almost every day she snuck out to try to kill your father for what he had done. Later, as your mother's condition worsened, she too drew back to be with her. I must say, the Commander's influence wasn't… the best. Things would have worked out much better if their fates hadn't intertwined."
"Is the Commander the reason my mother abandoned me?" The girl's voice was shaky from the shock. She concealed her feelings pretty well, her face had been a display of determination ever since she had entered the tent, but small signs like her voice betrayed her constantly.
"No, not really. It was your mother's decision."
Upon hearing this, the girl moved a little bit closer to Piandao.
"What about my father?"
This question hit Piandao flat-footed. He should have seen it coming, but by some strange reason, it still made him shudder. Maybe it was just the personal nature of the topic, but for the first time during the conversation, Piandao had the urge to simply stay silent and not even try to answer.
"Sorry, but I don't know your father," he muttered eventually, and to his biggest surprise, the girl didn't push the topic.
"That's all I wanted to ask." She stood up, and Piandao did the same. "Excuse me for the trouble."
As she turned around to leave, Piandao couldn't help but try to talk with her a little more. Their little conversation had been short and rather gloomy so far, but he wanted more. Something more meaningful. Something that would offer answers for him.
"Wait! There is something else I want to tell you." This made the girl turn back instantly. She seemed surprised, but also eager to continue. "Maybe your story is far more complicated than you thought it was, but you must know that the people who cared about you back then still do, even after all those years. And it isn't just about your mother and the Commander. There were others, keen on watching over you and, perhaps, raise you as their own. Suki…" The name rolled down from Piandao's tongue with a weight that crushed his heart. Finally calling someone by this name again invoked phantoms of old memories in his mind, reliving all those good times in a single moment. "Even as you walk on a path that is surrounded by darkness and lies, you mustn't forget that you are not alone. You never were, and you never will be."
Suki gifted Piandao with a small smile.
"I thought that it wouldn't be that easy," she admitted. "The Commander prepared me for the worst."
Piandao returned the smile. He found her last sentence true in regard to his own situation too.
"She just wants to protect you."
"I know."
A heavy silence fell upon them for a moment. Then, like obeying a higher command, they hugged each other. It came naturally, as if they had been always meant to do this. For Piandao, it felt surprisingly intimate: holding her in his arms was the closest he had so far for a family of his own. For a second he could sincerely believe that he was holding his own daughter, even though they barely knew each other.
"Come on, you still need a few things for today's battle," he said eventually. "I've made the preparations; the eelhound is waiting for you just behind this very tent."
"An eelhound?" she asked back as they broke the hug and began to leave the tent. "Shouldn't we have some sort of air-bound transportation instead?"
"Sokka has told me that you are afraid of flying."
This made Suki frown, but her face quickly brightened up.
"He is in a serious misunderstanding."
"Aren't we all?" added Piandao to himself. As he stepped out from his tent after Suki, he seriously considered telling her everything, and just giving up on the Commander and her complications.
But the timing was inconvenient now, as soon both of them would be fighting a battle that would decide the fate of the world. He had no concerns about the girl, but she would need all her strength to succeed. Unsettling her with the full story would be unwise now, so Piandao decided to pass the opportunity for a time being.
He shook his head. Ever since that night with the Commander, Piandao had had a growing dubiousness about the whole situation. He didn't know whether he could trust the Commander with this. He didn't know whether he could trust himself either. And now, he was no longer sure whether he wanted to know the truth.
Setting things right after all those years was much harder than it sounded, Piandao could already give this one to the Commander. However, stretching it any further didn't help either. Suki was already much closer than she thought, only one obvious step away from the full story.
In many ways, one obvious step away from a disaster.
