Part Twelve: Kiss and Tell
They entered the formal meeting hall of the Fire Sages. Katara's eyebrows rose as she took in the other people seated around the long, low table. Not only were the twelve Fire Sages present, but several of Zuko's highest ranking soldiers—admirals and generals and even the head of palace security. But what really raised her eyebrows was the presence of all the leaders of the various delegations, including the Earth King and the leader of the Northern Water Tribes.
"I thought you said it was just the Fire Sages," Katara said to Zuko out of the side of her mouth even as her eyes continued to study the assembled group before them.
"I thought it was a good idea to let everybody know at once," Zuko replied in a murmur. He reached for her hand and led her to the head of the table.
Murmurs of surprise and consternation arose from various throats as he did so, but Katara, head held high, ignored the noise and just walked with Zuko. He sat her in the seat usually reserved for his Uncle as Regent. Iroh, for his part, merely smiled serenely and stood to Zuko's left, while Hakoda uncomfortably took his cue from the older man and stood by Katara's side.
"As you have already been informed," Iroh announced once the muttering and uneasy movements of the Sages and dignitaries gathered before them stilled, "the Fire Lord has an important announcement to make." He bowed and stepped back, nodding at Zuko, who immediately rose from his seat.
"Many have questioned what kind of Fire Lord I'll be, both within my kingdom and from outside." He allowed his gaze to roam over every face before him, civilian, military, foreigner and fellow countrymen before continuing. "That very question has been one that I myself have pondered. The answer is: I don't know. No one can know, until I've completed my service to my nation, what kind of leader I'll have been. History will make that ultimate judgement. All I can say for now is that I pledge, as I always have, to do my best to make the world and the Fire Nation a better place, to do my best to forge a lasting peace."
Complete silence greeted him; he had their full attention, although as many eyes were on his and Katara's clasped hands as on his face. "One thing that must change is the question of trust. There is a great deal of mistrust between our peoples, rightfully so, especially in light of the last hundred years of warfare and my father's recent attempt at genocide."
Another murmur arose at his blunt proclamation; he'd stopped short of the admission during his coronation speech, a speech carefully composed by the Fire Sages to acknowledge the expected changes in Fire Nation policy and peace overtures without overtly admitting any kind of guilt or apologies for the former Fire Lord's policies, and those of his nation for longer than living memory.
"One of the things that has to change is the insularity all nations have developed in response to the constant warfare. We all identify ourselves by our lands, by the way our Bending abilities have sorted themselves out into the four elements." He turned to Katara and tugged gently on their clasped hands to indicate she should rise as well. "Although I never thought to make a political marriage, it seems fate had other things in mind for me when I fell in love with Katara, Master Water Bender of the Southern Water Tribe." He smiled tenderly at her, an expression she'd never thought him capable of when she first met him, and one that sent butterfly-moths fluttering in her stomach. "Today, I am formally announcing our betrothal," he continued, still looking directly at Katara, who smiled and returned his gaze with the tiniest of encouraging nods.
Utter silence greeted this announcement, and the two turned to face the staring faces of the gathered dignitaries. Slowly, deliberately, Zuko looked them over with the same cool detachment with which he'd begun his speech. With equal deliberation he turned back to Katara, leaned forward, and kissed her.
The Finance Minister was the first to break the stunned silence. "B-betrothed?" he stuttered in shock. "But my lord, she's a foreigner…" His voice trailed off as he belatedly remembered he was in a room filled with foreigners, but the denouncing of Zuko's words was immediately taken up by another.
"She's not just a foreigner, she's a commoner," one of the elderly Fire Sages snarled. He rose to his feet, literally shaking with rage as he pointed a finger at Katara. "Worse, she's a Water Bender, a Southern Water Tribe barbarian! This is an outrage, we will never sanction such a union!"
"Then maybe I'll just appoint a new body of Fire Sages who understand that what this nation needs, what this world needs, is not just a bunch of old fools clinging to the past like it's the only thing keeping them alive!" Zuko exploded, steam rising from his body as he finally lost his temper. "Don't you understand, all this insularity and insistence that we make everyone exactly like us is going to destroy us?"
He locked eyes with his elderly opponent until the man gave one last glare and stormed out of the room.
As the door slammed behind the man, pandemonium erupted. Everyone was shouting for Zuko's attention, and Katara forced herself not to flinch as several inimical glares were shot her way—and not all from Fire Nation faces. She stole a glance at Zuko's bodyguards, encouraged by the way one of them gave her quick wink and by the surreptitious "thumbs up" the other gave her. She resolved to try and talk to them in private some time, find out more about them than their names…she'd need all the allies she could get to weather this particular storm.
Through all the noise and chaos, Iroh and Hakoda remained silent and watchful, not bothering to try and offer their support vocally, knowing it was best to wait out the storm. Once everyone had vented their anger or disbelief or whatever other emotion Zuko's announcement had aroused, that would be soon enough to try and offer a voice of reason.
The only other person who remained silent and still in their seat was Suni, the Kyoshi Island leader. She wasn't quite a queen and wasn't quite a governor, but something in between that Katara still had trouble defining. But she had a lot of presence and a lot of clout, and it was to her face that Zuko's eyes continuously returned.
Finally, after the uproar started to settle, after the doors had slammed shut on four other Fire Sages and the small portion of the Earth Kingdom delegation that seemed unwilling to listen further, after everything settled down to mutterings and whispers, she spoke. "Well, Fire Lord Zuko, it seems you have an uncanny knack for upsetting the balance of power in the world. Well done. And congratulations to you and your bride-to-be."
Before Zuko could thank her, she added: "And where does your ally, the Avatar, stand on this issue? Will he be weighing in at some point?"
A shrewd question, and one Zuko had been hoping to avoid. "The Avatar is not in the palace at the moment, but I can assure you, Lady Suni, that his input will be solicited."
Katara couldn't help the twitch that went over her, and she was sure everyone else noticed it. Just like everyone else had to have noticed how Aang felt about her. Another layer of diplomacy added to what she wished could be a simple situation: A proposal made and accepted, a date set, a marriage anticipated. But she wasn't just a simple Water Nation girl marrying the boy from the next village, and she'd have to get used to this sort of thing if she were going to prove, to everyone else and herself, that she was indeed worthy of becoming the Fire Lady to Zuko's Fire Lord.
That thought straightened her spine and lifted her chin. She knew she was worthy, Zuko and her father and Lord Iroh knew it, and soon everyone else would.
Elsewhere
"How did you know I was there?"
Mai had squirmed her way out of the hedge, cursing inwardly as she did so, but allowing none of her consternation and fear and, yes, annoyance to show either on her face or in her voice as she calmly brushed leaves and dirt from her clothing and hair and stood to face the Avatar.
Aang pointed his chin toward the cattle in the field behind her. "All the cow-bison in your field are crowding up to see Appa—except next to where you were hiding."
Mai glanced over her shoulder. Sure enough, there was a line of cow-bison next to the hedge—she'd been concentrating on the scene in front of her too intensely to notice how many of the animals had shown up. And even more obviously, there was a huge gap, just now being filled in, where she'd lain in hiding for so many uncomfortable, and ultimately unnecessary, hours.
"Plus Toph told me to listen carefully to the heartbeats around me," Aang added, immediately blowing his "All-Knowing-Avatar" image—and obviously not caring one bit. "Once I did that, yours stood out like a bonfire in the middle of a bunch of candles."
They regarded each other for a long moment before Mai took a single step toward the edge of the dirt road. "Why didn't she just point me out, then, if she knew I was there? Why just tell you, when they'd come all this way to make sure you didn't kill me?"
"Because Toph knows me better than that," Aang replied quietly. "She knows that no matter how much I hate you right now for what you did to Katara, for stabbing her and just leaving her there to die, I could never do the same thing to you."
That much was true; the Avatar might be as capable of losing his temper as the next person, but he'd reined himself in during a fight to the death with Lord Ozai, when the fate of the world was at stake. Holding himself back while fighting her, if it came to that, would be a piece of cake in comparison. Not that he going to forgive her for that action, Mai could tell. He was standing in a relaxed pose, his voice steady and uninflected, but his eyes gave him away, told her how angry he was. Angry, and perhaps, disappointed, although she supposed she could be imagining that much. All she could tell for sure was that he was so angry she was surprised steam wasn't pouring off him, that the dirt road wasn't rumbling beneath her feet or the clouds overhead drenching her in a sudden squall. "You still haven't said why you didn't just let them take me back to face my punishment."
"Because I might be able to keep myself from really hurting you, but I can't vouch for Sokka. He hates you even more than I do right now." And that was quite a bit, measured tones and deliberately calm façade or not; Mai knew all about the difference between what the heart felt and what the face showed, and Aang was nowhere near as good at hiding his emotions as she was. " One of you would do something stupid if Toph didn't get a chance to Earth Bend you into submission first," he continued, "and then someone else would just end up getting hurt. There's been enough violence lately, don't you think?"
"If it means anything, I didn't plan it," Mai found herself admitting. "I didn't even know I was going to do it until I pulled the knife out of her side."
Her voice was as flat and emotionless as his, but she knew her own eyes would never give her emotions away, that to Aang she must look as bored and cold-hearted as she always seemed. She watched as his fingers twitched, and a small curl of steam escaped from between them before he visibly took hold of himself and mimicked her earlier movement, taking a single step forward so he, too, stood at the edge of the narrow lane separating them. "They weren't even together, but now they are." She flinched at that statement, even though it was what she expected to hear. "By trying to kill them, you pushed them into each other's arms," Aang added, sounding bitter and angry and no longer trying to match her passivity. "And even if you didn't plan on killing Katara, you did plan to kill Zuko, using those poisoned cosmetics Iroh told me about. Didn't you."
She bowed her head, not bothering to deny it, or to try and explain how it had felt as if someone else had taken over her body, that she merely watched, as if viewing a stage play, from a distance. "That's why I can't let you take me back," she said in a low voice, once again meeting Aang's eyes. "I'll be put to death for my crimes. I'd rather go out fighting than face the humiliation of public execution."
She meant it, every word. Aang could hear the ring of truth in her words. She would fight him tooth and nail to avoid being brought to the punishment she believed herself to be facing. "Mai, the world's a different place now, and Zuko's not his father-"
She cut him off with a bark of disbelieving laughter. When she spoke, for the first time in a long time, Mai allowed her true emotions to show in face and voice. She looked and sounded tired, defeated. Lost. "Aang, I didn't just try to kill my boyfriend and his new girlfriend; I tried to assassinate the Fire Lord." She gave him a moment for her words to sink in. "I'll be tried for treason, and no matter how different a man Zuko is from his father, that's still a crime punishable by death. Face it; my life is over no matter what."
"I'll speak on your behalf." Aang looked as if he regretted the words the instant they left his mouth, but then his expression hardened into resolve, and he nodded as she stared at him incredulously. "I will. I'm the Avatar, and the world is different now. I'll plead your case and request permanent exile as an alternative to capital punishment." He held out his hand. "Just come back with me now. Please."
"All life is valuable. And I guess I kind of understand why she did what she did. I don't agree with it, I don't like it, but I kind of understand it." Mai considered his earlier words to his friends, words spoken before he knew of her presence. He meant what he was saying, every word; he'd be able to put aside his own feelings in order to plead her cause. And she was grateful for that, she truly was.
But not grateful enough to allow herself to be dragged back to the Fire Lord's dungeons. Because she knew, no matter how much influence the Avatar wielded, ultimately Zuko would have her put to death. Because a traitor of her magnitude couldn't be allowed to roam free in the world, to act as a possible rallying point for others who had their own agendas against the new Fire Lord. He had to show a strong face now, or deal with the consequences.
She took a step backward, away from the road, her hands dropping to her sides as she deliberately shook her head "no."
Aang lowered his own hand, defeat and disappointment warring for dominance on his face. "Please," he tried, one more time, but she shook her head again, and he nodded in reply. "All right, then, I guess we do this the hard way." He took up a Bending stance, but Mai was ready for the sudden upheaval in the ground beneath her feet and sprang lightly aside, throwing one of her deadly needles at him at the same time.
The fight had begun, and the Spirits alone knew how it was going to end.
