In This Chapter: The travel party arrives at Yulong, where Sozin has to solve the dispute between Lord Kazu and Lady Yin before they start a war, and for the first time in his life, he finds himself facing a problem he has no idea how to solve.

Chapter Ten: Yulong

'What is this dispute about? Specifically, I mean?' Sozin leaned back into his seat and steepled his hands, hoping he was sounding authoritative. The tropical forest rolled past the carriage window. Somehow the landscape made the whole thing feel as inconsequential as any of the problems and questions he and Roku had had to solve throughout his education at the palace, when success would mean the approval of his tutors and the only consequences of failure would be extra work and a few rebukes. 'Property? Money?'

'A statue,' Bao said.

'A… statue,' Sozin repeated in a flat tone.

'Is it a ruby-encrusted statue?' Ta Min asked.

'I believe it is small, hollow, and inlaid with jade.'

'That doesn't sound all that valuable,' Sozin said.

Bao leaned back on her seat and tucked her hands back into her sleeves. 'It isn't,' she said in the tone of someone chastising a particularly slow pupil. 'Like many things in life, its true price has little to do with what it's made of.'

'What is its true price, then?' Sozin said. Ta Min looked at him from under her eyelashes.

His grandmother took a second to answer. 'I am sure the ruling families of Yulong would say it has no price.'

Sozin glanced out of the window. They were moving through a valley that gleamed with recent rain and smelled of damp earth. He could hear the motions of the second carriage behind them and Huan's snuffles as she trotted outside alongside them. He turned back to Bao. 'Isn't that the same thing as saying it has no value?'

Hearing that human life was priceless had always bothered him in a way he couldn't really put his finger on: it seemed that you ended up just accepting the loss of a parent as "fate" or as "being their time" but making a fuss about the loss of an expensive mongoose-dragon. A sudden memory bubbled up: him and Roku talking about the meaning of everything until the moon had vanished below the horizon. It was so vivid he could smell the palace gardens and see the white trail of a shooting star, and for a split second he was sure he would touch Roku's skin if he reached out with his hand.

The corners of Bao's mouth turned into something that wasn't quite a smile but which Sozin had learned indicated approval. 'I believe its commonly-agreed price is the rulership of Yulong and all its lands.'

'So it's just a symbol, then,' Sozin said, glad he was on firmer ground.

'Like the Fire Lord headpiece,' Ta Min added. Or the Crown Prince headpiece, Sozin thought.

Bao looked away. 'No. Not exactly.'

He brought up the subject again when he was travelling in his cousins' carriage; they took turns between the two vehicles to break up the monotony.

'I think they're all fighting over the city's single brain,' Ryun said, one ankle on his knee, lounging back in his seat like someone lying on a hammock.

'I read about it, actually,' Lu Ling said, pointedly ignoring her brother.

'You read about everything.'

'It's supposed to be from the Spirit World,' she went on, increasing the volume of her voice a little. As an only child, Sozin still found the dance between the two siblings intriguing, like a complicated mating ritual done by a kind of bird he'd never seen before. 'The city's founder came across a gate into the Spirit World in the forest and he did some sort of favour for the forest spirit. It's not actually all that clear what he did, you get one story in The Annals of the Era of Bright Abundance and a different version in the third volume of Rites and Records of the Zhang Province.' She picked at the edge of her sleeve as she warmed to her subject. 'I ordered that one specially from—'

They jostled in their seats as the carriage hit a pothole. Jaya's hand went to her stomach, its growing bulge just barely protruding through the folds of her clothes, and Ryun turned to her, a concerned look on his face. She gave him one of her polished smiles; he placed a hand on her shoulder.

'Anyway,' Lu Ling went on, 'the forest spirit then gave him the statue as a reward for his service, and with the blessing and the protection of the forest spirit, he went on to found the city of Yulong. From then on no one ruled in Yulong without having the statue in their possession.'

'I guess the forest spirit might come back to repossess it otherwise,' Ryun said. The drollness was back.

'And now his descendants are arguing about who owns the statue—and who owns the city,' Sozin said. Well, that was straightforward. It was no different from two siblings arguing over who owned a house, or a farm, or a gold necklace. All that stuff about the Spirit World made little difference. He just had to figure out who really owned the statue, or at least who had the better claim. He smiled to himself; it was good to be right.

'I'm—I'm not sure about that,' Lu Ling said, and pushed her spectacles up the bridge of her nose.

'Of course not,' Ryun said. The carriage rolled past a copse of trees and leaves and twigs scratched the windows. 'No one has written a book about it yet.'

'Maybe you can write one once we're done in Yulong,' Sozin said before anyone else could speak. Lu Ling let out a pleased chuckle.

'Ling-Ling is my little sister by marriage,' Jaya said, and even thought Bao was all blue fire and diamond edges and his cousin-in-law was silk and warm orchids, Sozin couldn't help but being reminded of his grandmother. 'If you're going to make promises to her, I'll have to make sure you keep them.'

'I always keep my promises,' Sozin said.

That evening, Sozin lost no time sharing the new information with Ta Min when they stopped for the night. 'I really don't understand why my father's ministers were making such a fuss about all this,' he said as they walked past the stables. The rain clouds were back, dimming the sunset. 'I just have to figure out who has the best claim to the statue.'

'What if they don't accept your decision?' Ta Min gave him her usual sideways glance, but this time it was completely humourless. 'I mean, if these people were good at compromising, you wouldn't be going there in the first place, would you?'

'Maybe they need to hear it from someone who has authority over them,' he said. They stopped by the path leading to the building's orchard and garden. A slurry of fallen petals and leaves lay at their feet. Huan nibbled on it delicately, then spat it out with a displeased snort.

'Maybe they need someone to send them to their rooms without dinner.' Her tone was a little jokey, but he knew she wasn't mocking him. Even in the cloud-thinned light, he could tell her eyes were tinged with worry.

'You know I have to solve this,' he said. 'I have to prove myself; that's the whole point of this trip. Just—' He laid a hand on her arm. 'You have to trust I can handle this. Well, that we can handle this. You're going to give me advice, aren't you?' He chuckled, but she didn't join in.

'It's not either of us I'm worrying about,' she said.

They arrived in Yulong under a sky bearing a flock of clouds the colour of faded charcoal. Seen from the road, the city seemed to reflect the weather: the building style was similar to what Sozin had seen in the other western parts of the country, a mix of the architecture he was used to in the capital and a style that reminded him a little of the Fire Temples. Here, however, the roofs were dark slate instead of red tile and the city seemed somehow guarded, as though it were a huge snail-sloth sunk into its shell, lying in the middle of a forest-ringed plain filled with orchards and rice paddies and flower fields.

The sun was blazing through a thin shower of rain when they entered the city proper, but that did nothing to dispel Sozin's first impression. The people in the streets barely looked at the carriages; mostly they hurried towards wherever they were going. Most people in the Fire Nation disliked rain, but even the plazas with parasols and covered terraces were almost empty. The only people that moved at a somewhat leisurely pace were—

'There are an awful lot of hired soldiers here,' Sozin said.

'Of course,' Bao said. 'Did you expect Lord Kazu and Lady Yin to have their little dispute around a Pai Sho board?'

'It would certainly be convenient for us if they did,' Ta Min said.

'They would probably find a way to maim each other with the tiles.' Bao's tone wasn't entirely dour. 'At least the provincial army is headquartered somewhere else. It would be rather distasteful if we had to pay for their little war as well as endure it.'

The skin on Sozin's shoulders suddenly felt too tight. A jumble of images: the tents at Shukai, the councils he'd attended at the palace with people talking until he was drowsy, Lady Mei holding a glistening cherry with her chopsticks, the Keeper of the Flame and his grandmother speaking with a single voice over a game board made up of constellations. Then a memory from his studies, all kinds of figures and numbers about Yulong and its role in the complicated pattern of politics and trade in the Fire Nation.

I can't do this. I'm only sixteen.

He took a moment to realise the thought was his own. Doubt was unfamiliar, down to its taste in his mouth, like bitter almonds and a handful of copper coins.

Of course I can do this. I'm the Crown Prince. He leaned back in his seat and tried to feel confident again. The Keeper returned, breath rippling a flame-coloured cloth. Firebending is will. A green-yellow sky where the stars were strange. He had been found worthy of learning something utterly important, hadn't he, even if he didn't quite understand what it was just yet.

Even if the memory sent a cold trickle down the nape of his neck.

Bao's voice jerked him out of his thoughts. 'Where are we staying, grandson?' The carriage had slowed to an almost somnolent pace.

'I'm sorry?' Bao had always taken care of their travel arrangements. Some part of him had thought of them like something that just happened, like sunrises and the weather.

'You heard me,' she said. 'You are in charge of this entire… operation. I may advise, I may offer suggestions, but you have the Fire Lord's authority, and therefore you will make the decisions.' Her tone belied her statements a little. 'So, first point of order: where are we staying?'

He thought for a moment. 'We can't stay with either of the families. The other would take that as an insult and a declaration of favouritism. We need to stay in neutral territory, like an inn. One that isn't owned or connected to any of them.'

Bao laid her hands on her lap and the corners of her mouth curled into the thinnest sliver of a smile.

That was enough for Sozin. He popped his head out the window and told Shou to keep going until they found a decent-looking inn, where, if worst came to worst, they could at least ask for directions to a more suitable establishment. Then he drew back inside and leaned back in his seat.

This is going to be a piece of sun cake.

The day after Sozin's party arranged for their accommodation at The Scarlet Parrot-skink, he answered the welcome messages Lord Kazu and Lady Yin had sent him once he had arrived in the city. He thanked them for their attention, casually mentioned the dispute about the Jade Dragon as though it were an argument about whether or not to have stewed sea-prunes for lunch, and expressed his hopes that he might aid with a quick resolution of the matter. He finished with an invitation to join him so that they might discuss the issue in confidence.

He neglected to mention that he had scheduled both invitations for the same time.

So now he was looking out one of the windows overlooking the inn's entrance, waiting for the two parties to arrive. Bao sat behind him, working on some embroidery. She had kept a constant eye on him while he had written the letters, saying nothing but making him feel like she was noting down all his mistakes for future reference. 'Here they are,' he said. 'They don't look very happy.'

'Were you expecting them to rush into each other's arms?' Bao said behind him.

'I wasn't expecting them to barely avoid coming to blows in the middle of the street.' He looked down again. The two groups had managed not to start a fight, and the few bystanders, realising there would be nothing to either see or flee from, went back to what they'd been doing.

'What are they like, grandson?'

Another test. That had been another of his grandmother's lessons, even if she hadn't voiced it out loud yet: everything was a test, but that didn't make its consequences any less real. He looked out of the window at the two groups entering the inn's courtyard, making a point of standing as far away from each other as possible.

'They don't like each very much,' he said.

'Understatement,' Bao said. 'And self-evident; we wouldn't be here if they were paragons of love, friendship and understanding.' She peered over his shoulder. 'They are almost inside. Get better fast, grandson.'

'I meant that this isn't just politics,' he said with another look out the window. 'It's also personal.'

'Of course it's personal,' Bao said. 'Few people in this world can be fully dispassionate. You are supposed to be one of them, incidentally. Carry on.'

Sozin looked down again. The two groups had almost reached the place where one of the slate roofs would block them from view. He turned back to the room. 'Lord Kazu is only a little younger than Lady Yin. He's of a higher class than her, but she's wealthier.'

'I believe she controls most of the manufacture of Yulong's perfumes,' Bao said. 'A very lucrative business.'

'You know all this?' He couldn't keep a note of annoyance from his voice.

'Of course I know all this,' Bao said, focused on her embroidery again. 'The point is whether you know it or not. Please continue.'

'Kazu has a limp. From his stance I'd guess it's a childhood injury and he's worked very hard against it; he doesn't even use a cane. He's a well-trained firebender. Those two younger men with him are his sons. And his entourage doesn't include any servants or attendants, just hired soldiers. Same with Lady Yin, except for her daughter.' He couldn't suppress a little chuckle. 'Actually, the daughter looks a little bit like—'

Oh.

No wonder it was personal.

Bao's face was unchanged, but he could see smugness in her eyes. 'You also knew this part,' he said. It wasn't a question, and he wasn't surprised. He tried to remember if he'd ever learned anything about Lord Yoshi apart from the fact that he was one of the land-owning nobles and he ruled the city of Yulong. He must have vaguely supposed the man had a family, but he was sure he had never wondered about it.

'You can learn all kinds of interesting things when you're having one of those very dull teatimes. Or writing letters to enquire about everyone's children and health.' Sozin was sure it was a rebuke, but he didn't have time to be bothered by it. 'Come, child, we'd better attend to our guests.' She rolled up the fabric and stood up. 'And, Sozin? That was reasonably decent work.'

A few moments later, they were sitting in one of the inn's parlours, which had been reserved for the occasion. After the greetings—Kazu and Yin must truly be on a knife's edge, Sozin thought; they were the most scrupulously polite people Sozin had come across during the whole trip—Aki glided silently through the room, serving tea. Bao pulled out her embroidery again. Lady Yin's daughter, whom her mother had introduced as Yoon, cast a suspicious glance towards Ta Min and Sozin's cousins.

'You may speak freely in front of my relatives and the Lady Ta Min,' Sozin said. The ginseng-scented steam rising from the teapot and cups made the air heavy. 'I trust you both wish to resolve this matter as quick as possible.'

'There is little to resolve,' Lord Kazu said. His voice was gravely, as though purposefully designed to go with the granite-grey streaks in his hair and features that looked like they'd been chiselled from a rock face. 'Lord Yoshi was my father. The Jade Dragon was given to his forefather. It has remained in the hands of our family for generations, from the time the city first existed. When my father died, the Jade Dragon should have passed to me. There is no question of that.'

'There is every question of that,' Yoon said. She set down her teacup on one of the tables hard enough to spill a few drops. Her braids shook a little. Her mother raised a hand and she sat back on her heels. Her eyes were still narrow with anger.

'I was Lord Yoshi's wife,' Yin said. She was a large woman with powdery features, black hair peppered with silvery white, and swaddled in richly embroidered silk; like Kazu, she was still wearing a few strips of mourning white. Had she really built a fortune on scent? Sozin had never thought much about perfumes and scented oils. They were just something servants at the palace rubbed in his hair and skin after his bath, laundered into his clothes and bedding. He hadn't even made the connection when he'd learned about the trade in sandalwood and flower oils and grey amber. Now Lady Yin's face gave it the stamp of reality. He put the thought away as she spoke again. 'When he married me, he brought the Jade Dragon with him to our household. He meant for Yoon to have it.'

Kazu let out a snort of derision. 'He took the Jade Dragon with him because the Jade Dragon goes where its keeper goes. He never meant to deprive his son of his rightful inheritance.'

Sozin cleared his throat. 'That is the question here, then, isn't it?' He set down his own teacup and laid his hands on his chair's arms. He wasn't sitting on one of the cushions on the floor mats; the Crown Prince and envoy of the Fire Lord had to be above everyone. 'Who can claim rightful inheritance.'

'Mother already told you,' Yoon said, not bothering to conceal her irritation. 'Prince Sozin,' she added hurriedly, and dropped her gaze. 'My father—'

Kazu rolled his eyes. He didn't make a sound, but Yoon whipped her head towards him like a snake-owl spotting a field mouse. 'You wouldn't dare.'

He ignored Yoon and addressed her mother. 'Dare to do what? Talk about whatever your mother did to convince my father to marry her?'

Sozin was sure that if Yin hadn't put a hand on her daughter's arm, Yoon would have jumped straight at Kazu's throat. His whole party tensed. Now the air was thick not with tea steam but hostility.

'I did nothing,' Yin said. Her voice was as hard and flat as a paring knife. 'I assure you he married me of his own free will. Or are you going to add deceit or blackmail to the list of your ridiculous accusations? It won't make your case better, I assure you.'

'No, the fact that I am Lord Yoshi's oldest child is what makes my case better than yours,' Kazu said, clearly unimpressed. 'The fact that he was fool enough to fall for the patter of someone young enough to—'

'Ah, we finally come to the real point,' Yin said with a bitter chuckle. 'You can't bear the fact that—'

They started arguing over each other. 'Quiet,' Sozin said. They stopped and looked at him, and for a moment he was sure they weren't going to obey him, that the only thing they saw was a child forty years younger than themselves. What could he possibly know about their problems? Then they quietened, even if it was reluctantly. 'Your personal issues are not my concern, and arguing won't solve anything.' He thought for a moment. 'I take it neither of you would like the Fire Lord—or me, rather, as his representative—to simply appoint a ruler for Yulong.'

'No.'

'Certainly not.'

Well, at least you agree on something, Sozin thought, rather tartly. 'The rightful owner of the Jade Dragon has always been the ruler of Yulong,' Kazu said. 'It carries the blessing and protection of the spirits. It has always been that way, and it will be that way for as long as Yulong endures.'

'Really?' Sozin said. 'What would happen if someone were to lose it?'

'Lose it?' Yin sounded like she hadn't understood what Sozin had just said. He glanced over at his cousins. Lu Ling was picking at the skin around her fingernails and Ryun looked like he was biting down a particularly nasty joke.

'No rightful owner of the Jade Dragon would lose it,' Kazu said, and cast a withering look towards Yin and her entourage. 'I can't really speak for anyone else.'

Yoon opened her mouth, but Sozin spoke before she could get out what would no doubt be a yell or a challenge. 'That's enough. If you'd like to fight, I suggest you do it outside, and for the statue's ownership. But that's not what you want, is it? If you were willing to fight an Agni Kai for it, you'd already have done it and I wouldn't be here right now.'

'None of us are going to fight over something that is ours by right,' Kazu's oldest son said. It was the first time he had spoken since they had exchanged greetings.

'What he means is that none of them would dare to go up against Yoon,' Yin said, her tone still flat. 'Isn't that the truth,' her daughter muttered. Sozin jumped to his feet before another argument—well, a worse argument—could break out.

'I said that would be enough,' he said, and walked between the two parties. All of them looked as taut as drawn bowstrings, and the air had that subtle bubbling quality that preceded a firebender's strike. For a second, Sozin felt as insubstantial as a scrap of rice paper, one they would burn up and trample underfoot in their eagerness to get at each other. Then he was Crown Prince Sozin again and the feeling was gone. He kept pacing, hands behind his back.

'Let me summarise the facts,' he said. 'Lord Yoshi inherited the Jade Dragon, and with it the rulership of Yulong.' He spun around. 'Was your mother his first wife, Lord Kazu?'

'Yes.' He could tell Kazu wasn't pleased with having to answer to and obey a sixteen-year-old. Well, that was too bad.

'So you were in line to inherit the Jade Dragon. Did she die?'

Another bitten-off answer. 'She did. Thirty years ago. Almost five years befo—'

'Yes, thank you, Lord Kazu. Then Lord Yoshi married Lady Yin and took the Jade Dragon with him to her household. Is this correct, Lady Yin?'

'That is correct. He didn't want to—'

'That is not important,' Sozin said. He turned around to Lu Ling. 'Lu Ling, you must know the answer to this. What does Fire Nation law concerning inheritance say in these cases?'

Lu Ling startled a little. 'Oh. I—well, as a rule, the oldest child inherits.' An angry mutter rose from Yin's party, but Lu Ling pushed her spectacles up the bridge of her nose and carried on. 'But the intentions of the parent can supersede that.'

'That's what we've been saying—' Yoon said, but her mother quietened her again before speaking. 'My husband brought the Jade Dragon with him to our home. I think his intentions in the matter are fairly clear.'

'I don't have to listen to this nonsense,' Kazu said. He turned to Sozin. 'Prince Sozin, I have already explained that the Jade Dragon goes wherever—'

'Where its owner goes, yes,' Sozin said with a dismissive gesture. 'Even so, I think Lord Yoshi's decision to join Lady Yin's household and take it with him is certainly… suggestive. I take it there is no will,' he added before anyone could protest.

'No,' Yin said. For the first time, her tone wasn't completely devoid of emotion. 'He slipped into a coma all of a sudden and he… well, he didn't really regain consciousness again.'

Kazu made a sound of derision. 'Yes, you would say that, wouldn't—'

'I have already asked for your silence twice, haven't I?' Sozin said. He didn't sound angry; he sounded like his father when he sat on the Dragon Throne and issued an order, and for a moment he didn't feel annoyance, or uncertainty, or apprehension, just a stray glimmer of pride.

Kazu and Yin turned to polite acquiescence and reassurances. They weren't being sincere, but Sozin appreciated it nonetheless. He walked back to his seat. 'I believe I have heard enough for now.' He laced his fingers under his chin. 'We will discuss this matter further very soon. Please understand that the Fire Lord wishes to see this matter resolved in the most satisfactory fashion possible for your city and our nation.' He made sure to emphasise the last few words; let them know what his priority was.

His guests started readying their exit. 'Thank you for your invitation and for gracing us with your presence, Crown Prince Sozin,' Lord Kazu said. 'And for taking the time to help us with our problems, even though they are unworthy of your attention. Of course, I am sure you agree there is only one possible outcome.'

'Yes,' Lady Yin said. 'There is only one possible outcome.'

The air in the room almost hummed.

'That could have gone better,' Sozin said once Kazu and Yin's parties were out of the inn and out of sight.

Ryun leaned back against a wall and laced his hands behind his head. 'In the same way that setting yourself on fire is a sign that your firebending could have gone better, yes.'

'Now, now,' Jaya said, and stood up to retrieve the teapot. 'Sozin did his best with a hard problem. It was hardly that bad. Who would like some more tea? It's such a lovely brew it seems a shame to waste it.'

'Actually, it really was that bad,' Bao said from her corner. She began putting her embroidery away. 'Oh, I'm not blaming you, grandson. There's only so much even the best firebender can do with little air. Even if you do have to learn how to work with it.'

Sozin remained in his spot. 'What would you do in my position?'

'Be unhappy that we suddenly found ourselves in your position?' Ta Min said. She had one of her usual amused looks on, but she managed to make it sound sympathetic.

'Thank you for your honesty, child,' Bao said, and folded her hands on her lap. 'But you are right.' Her gaze, flat, turned to Sozin. 'Unfortunately, no matter what you decide, I doubt the other family would accept your judgement. I do not envy your position, grandson.' Something in her tone made Sozin wonder if she had the solution and was just waiting to see how long he'd take to figure it out.

'They wouldn't dare to go up against the Fire Lord,' he said. His words rung hollow even to himself.

'Certainly. Civil wars and assassinations are completely unheard of in Fire Nation history,' Bao said. Everyone fell silent. It was the first time Sozin had heard her use that sort of sarcasm. When she spoke again, her tone turned a little mellower. 'No, they probably won't risk going against the Fire Lord directly. But whoever does not get that statue will not accept your decision. They will fight the other family for the Jade Dragon. And then your father will wish to send the provincial army to deal with them, but he will have to wait until doing so outweighs their other obligations and the downsides of having the army intervene. And even then both families will fight for the statue for as long as they can. Which means that when all is over bar the shouting, the casualties… well, that is a good question, isn't it, grandson? What kind of figures do you think we're looking at? Mid-hundreds? High-hundreds? Something in the low thousands?'

Sozin didn't answer.

'Surely, it won't get to that point?' Jaya said. 'Are they really more willing to start a local war than to reach a compromise?'

'Yes,' Ryun said. He got up and helped himself to a cup of tea. 'Yes, they are. Do any of you really think this is all over some trinket? No, the statue is just an excuse. It might as well have been Lord Yoshi's imaginary friend.'

'Well, obviously the rulership of the city—' Sozin started, but Ryun interrupted him once he'd downed a gulp of tea.

'No, no, it's not the rulership. That just makes them more dangerous. But they would still be fighting if one was a clerk and the other a cook. That's what people are like.'

'I find that hard to believe,' Sozin said. Ryun laughed.

'You're something else, you know that, little cousin? No, no, I don't mean it's something bad,' he added once he saw Sozin's expression. 'It's just that you think that everyone else is as noble as you—'

'I don't—'

'Or at least as reasonable as you.'

'That's new,' Sozin said, and walked to one of the windows. 'I've never been accused of being reasonable. Naive, yes. Full of myself, yes. Reasonable is a new one.' He ran a hand over the sill. He wasn't sure what to think, so he thought nothing. He was still reeling a little from the meeting, he supposed.

'But you think they can talk it over, that they can compromise,' Ryun said as he paced around the room, teacup still in his hand like a bottle of wine. 'That would be the reasonable—the sensible thing to do. But that's not what people want. They just want an excuse to fight. Statues, power, jealousy, bad blood.' He drank down the last dregs of his tea. 'If you give someone a choice between gaining something or losing something but getting one over someone they dislike, they'll pick the latter every time. Trust me. Sometimes the world is like a bad joke. You just don't see it for what it is.'

Sozin shook his head. 'I'm sorry, but I can't believe that.' It might even be true. Maybe he didn't see the world as it was; but how could anything get better if you didn't see it as it could be? 'Lu Ling, what do you think about this? Who should I give the statue to?'

'Oh, I don't really know,' she said with a sigh, and twirled a lock of hair around her fingers. Clearly this was going to be a day of firsts. 'I think—maybe if you found something, some piece of evidence about who really owns the statue. Something that no one can argue with. Or… something,' she added feebly, then sunk back into uncharacteristic silence.

'Oh, nonsense, Ling-Ling,' Ryun said. 'They wouldn't accept any kind of evidence, up to and including the statue racing down from its pedestal, kicking its rightful owner in the butt and then reciting a rhyming epic about it all.'

Sozin didn't reply. He didn't even smile. Something that no one can argue with…

Ta Min got up from her seat and stepped up to him before he could address his question to her. 'Come on,' she said. 'Let's go for a walk in the city. Maybe that will help you think.'

'Do you really think so?'

The sideways gaze and smile again. 'It will certainly help me think.'

There had been a little rain in the morning, so a lace of glittering water drops clung to the magnolia and lanhua leaves, to the moss hanging down like grey-green beards. Sozin and Ta Min walked down streets and plazas full of widows shuttered against the damp and the sweltering afternoon heat. The air smelled of wet greenery and of flowers starting to decay.

'This doesn't look good,' Sozin said as they walked across a plaza where a few people were buying things from stalls and hurriedly storing them in their baskets. An elderly man glanced at them and pulled a little girl closer to him before walking away.

'I know. Do you think your grandmother was right when she said all that about casualties? No, never mind, of course she was right. She wouldn't have brought it up otherwise.'

'I didn't mean that,' he said. They moved into an avenue lined with trees, the foliage so thick it made a green tunnel high above them. A carriage rolled past them, its noise muffled by the heavy air. 'Not that that looks any better; but I was talking about the city.'

She gave him a sideways glance. 'You don't think it looks good?'

'I don't think it feels good. It feels… scared. Wary.' He wiped a little sweat off his forehead. He was a firebender and had never been out of the Fire Nation, and was therefore used to heat, but this was unlike any he had ever experienced, even the swampy heat in the heart of the tropical forest. It wasn't all that intense—it was the rainy season, after all—but it made the air feel like it had been locked indoors for too long. 'Like everyone is sure something awful is about to happen. I mean, there was plenty of bad stuff in Shukai, but that was just because they were still recovering from an earthquake. But this… this is the difference between a dog with a broken leg and one waiting for the next blow.' He thought of Huan, left behind in the inn. He couldn't really feel her like usual at this distance, but she was a feather-touch in his mind.

'It just seems so stupid,' he went on. They walked past a fountain and he splashed a little water around. 'This whole place is edging towards war and all this over some stupid statue.'

Ta Min led them towards a winding street. 'Actually, I think your cousin has a point about that.' She tucked a stray strand of hair back into her topknot. 'No, I'm not saying I necessarily agree with what he thinks about the world. It's just that—look, you saw what they were like. Lord Kazu thinks Lady Yin married his father to get her hands on the city—and he'd probably say something involving the words "feminine wiles".'

He turned to her. 'Does anyone really say "feminine wiles"?'

She chuckled. 'Don't you think Lord Kazu is the type to say it? "Wiles", at least.'

'Good point.'

The street opened into another plaza standing at the intersection of a number of roads. There were several shop fronts with plucked turtle-ducks, jars of molasses, boxes of swamp eels. 'And Lady Yin thinks Lord Kazu is just acting out of jealousy and the fact that he disapproves of his father marrying someone only slightly older than his own son.'

'I know,' he said. He walked towards the road on the western side of the plaza. 'You'd think they'd be able to get over it, though. Put it aside, I mean. For the sake of the city. Can't they see what they're doing to it?' He paused. 'Who do you think I should give the statue to?'

She shrugged. 'Maybe you should just cut it in half.'

'And then Lord Kazu would want it cut width-wise and Lady Yin would want it cut lengthways.' They chuckled, but when Ta Min spoke again her tone was serious.

'Maybe you should give it to someone else entirely. A third party who'd be loyal to your father.'

'It wouldn't work,' he said. The road was narrowing into a warren of alleyways. 'You heard them—Kazu and Yin would never accept it. They'd just gang up on the poor unfortunate. Either way, we'd still have war. Then again, the same can be said for everything else. It might be worth a try.' He sighed and threw his hands in the air. 'I wish Roku were here.'

There was a wryness to her face, even though she didn't smile. 'He could knock some sense into them with his Avatar powers, I'm sure.'

He stopped by a stone alcove set into the alleyway. Above them the roofs on each side of the alleyway almost touched, and the afternoon's humid heat pooled over the paving stones. 'It's not that,' he said, and leaned against the alcove's corner. 'I'm not saying that wouldn't help. I'm sure it would. But I'm not talking about him being the Avatar. It's just… he's really smart, you know. He sometimes doesn't think he is, but that's not true—he's one of the smartest people I know. And…' He looked at the ground, where the tip of his shoe was busy trying to dislodge a stone. 'I think better when he's around. I know it sounds silly, but it's true. When we were being tutored and we were given a problem to solve, just having him work with me made me think… oh, I don't know. It was as though I could think faster. Better. Do you think that can be true, or am I just imagining things?'

'No, I don't think you are. Sometimes other people make us better.' She pulled on his sleeve. 'Come on, we should probably head back to the inn.'

'Yeah,' Sozin said, and all of a sudden he realised two things: the first was that he had no idea where he was.

The second was that there were footsteps close behind them, and they didn't sound like people just walking somewhere; they sounded like the footfalls of a cat stalking a spider-mouse.

He stayed perfectly still.

'Don't move,' he whispered to Ta Min, his heartbeats almost louder than his voice. 'There's people almost right behind us and they don't sound—'

The tip of a blade touched his lower back. He sensed at least two people right behind him, large and heavy.

—friendly.

'Give us all your money and there won't be any trouble,' said a voice that sounded like the kind of trouble that involved broken bones and missing fingers.

A flash of steel so fast it nicked one of the muggers and sprayed a little blood on the ground. He didn't even have time to wince. 'Gentlemen,' Ta Min said. The tip of one of her butterfly swords was a few inches away from the throat of the man nearest to her. 'You will unhand us.'

Sozin spun around with a kick that knocked the assailant's blade away and blasted him with a small fireball before the man even had time to react. The man stumbled back with a groan and patted down the fire on his midsection. White-hot flames burst from Sozin's hands and he dropped into an attack stance. 'No one needs to get hurt,' he said. At his side, Ta Min held her swords professionally low, ready to strike.

'Fuck this,' one of the men said, and the duo ran off, vanishing down one of the alleyways. Sozin didn't even have time to get a good look at their faces. He let the fire in his hands go out. Ta Min sheathed her swords.

The whole thing had only lasted two seconds, but they were both panting, he realised. As much as firebenders could pant, anyway. His heart thudded against his breastbone.

'That was… new,' Ta Min said, and pulled a stray strand of hair away from her face. The air in the alleyway was full of the acrid aftermath of fire.

'Are you all right?' he said.

'Yeah.' A deep breath. 'You?'

'Sure. Well,' Sozin said, and he couldn't help but look down to see if all of his body parts were there and accounted for, 'at least I got to see how good you are with those blades.'

+/+/+

To Be Continued...

Notes: The bit with Sozin thinking about the implications of saying human life has no price borrows from another character's similar considerations in one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. The scene where Sozin and Ta Min almost get mugged (and really, is there a better example of the Mugging the Monster trope? ;)) is loosely based on a similar scene involving Dan and Laurie in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' graphic novel Watchmen.