CHAPTER 13

Zuko and Mizumi left the back room to find Shiu, Mei Ling, and Noblewomen Mai waiting for them. Mai bowed to them as they came into view "Fire Lord, Princess."

"Noblewomen Mai." Zuko gave a curt nod back and so did Mizumi. "Mizumi has just finished telling me what Nobleman Fu has been saying." The five of them walked out of the court room, into the hall and down the corridor. "And while I'm thinking about it Shiu, Mei Ling is 'Daiza' really gone?" The two nodded. "Then I wish to see for myself. Not that I don't trust you, it's just different when you see it with your own eyes." Shiu and Mei Ling both shrugged.

"Dad," Mizumi said next to him "Shiu, Mei Ling and I have a previous…engagement." When she said the last word Zuko raised one eyebrow. What was she up to?

"Well then I wish you luck." he finally said and Mizumi smiled then kissed him on the check and waved good bye. Shiu and Mei Ling bowed then hurried off after her. Zuko watched his only daughter leave.

"What ever she's doing I'm sure she'll be fine." Mai said reading his face.

"I know." He said with a sigh still watching her fading figure then the Fire Lord turned to face Mai. "She is her mother's daughter after all." They shared a moment of silence when Zuko smiled "You Always could read my face couldn't you?" She smiled slightly and nodded her head. There was another moment of silence "Is all that Mizumi said about Fu true? Did he really say such awful things?"

Mai lowered her head "As much as I hate to say it Fire Lord, it's true, he did."

Zuko nodded thoughtfully "Nobleman Fu has always been pro-war. I knew it wasn't a good idea to keep him on the counsel, but I thought it would be good to see how those who were pro-war are turning out."

Mai nodded thoughtfully "I can see your point, but, forgive me Fire Lord, you are to soft. You need to show the nobles that you are in charge not them. And don't let what Fu said get you down. None of the other nobles feel that way. We all think that you are doing a wonderful job."

Zuko smiled at his friend "Thank you Mai, I needed to hear that."

"Any time Fire Lord." The two turned the corner and Zuko remembered something.

"Oh, Aang told me about Haru. Did you know that he and his dad are in charge of creating the protectors?"

Mai smiled slightly "He sent me a letter. I'm really quite proud of him. Every time I see him it's really hard to think that I had a life without him." Zuko smiled too.

"Yeah I feel the same about Katara."

"Of course when we first meet he did not seem like the husband type for me."

Zuko chuckled "Yeah when he proposed nobody expected you to say yes."

"To be quite honest Fire Lord I didn't expect myself to say yes. My mind was saying something different then my heart…and my heart won. And I couldn't be happier." Zuko smiled at her happiness. Mai had once been his girlfriend and he thought that he loved her, but what he loved was not being the banished prince anymore. He loved having his father's affection. So when he left all of that he left Mai behind and realized that he did not love her.

"Have you heard from Ty Lee and Jet lately?" He couldn't help but ask. They were newlyweds and off doing something with circus in the name. Zuko thought of his youth and how different they have all become. Haru never even meet Mai before and if he did she probably would have bored him to death if she didn't stab him first from being annoying. Now that they were married Haru was and is helping Mai show more emotion then just indifference. Ty Lee had a crush on Sokka (from what Sokka, Katara, Aang, Toph, and Mai had told him) and Jet…well he was not the type for Ty Lee.

"Yes. From her last letter they were in the Western Air Temple. She said and I quote 'I love it here, but poor Jet doesn't seem to be having a good time, so we are going to move on the earth kingdom. He said he was going to show me where the freedom fighters tree top hide out was! I'm so exited!' end quote." The two had reached there destination and Mai turned to Zuko, bowed and said "I have to leave now. It was nice talking to you Fire Lord Zuko and good luck." With that the noblewomen walked away. Zuko watched her go and was very happy things turned out for the better.

Zuko walked a bit father and saw the big iron door being held open for him. The Fire Lord nodded his thanks to the two guards for their help and stepped into the high security tower. Zuko walked the few short steps to Haku's old cell and saw an old friend there. "Azain?" Azain lifted his head and saw Zuko standing there.

The young man moved so quickly that he fell into his chair two times. When he finally got to his feet he bowed low and formally, straitened up and said "Fire Lord Zuko. What brings you here?" Zuko watched this whole scene before him and when it was finished the Fire Lord could not help but laugh out loud at the stunned man.

Once Zuko had finished his brief laugh fest he wiped a tear away from his eye and said to the shocked man "I'm sorry Azain. That was just one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my entire life."

The uncomfortable Azain smiled shakily "I'm happy to have made you happy, sir." Azain paused for a moment before saying "I assume you are here because of me."

Zuko made a confused face "I'm here because I was informed that Daiza had disappeared. I didn't know that you were involved."

"Well I was assigned to guard him, sir." Azain said shamefully.

"Just you?" Zuko asked surprised. There should always be at least two guards at the high security tower cells.

"No sir, I had a partner."

"Had a partner? What happened to him?"

"He got hurt."

"How?"

"He got hit in the head. It was the same day I delivered that note from the Avatar to you, sir."

"When you came back to this cell was Daiza here?" Zuko asked concerned.

"No sir."

"Tell me exactly what happened from the time you got the note to the time you returned here to find Daiza gone."

"Well, I was guarding with Hintta when a messenger hawk came flying through the window. It had two notes attached to it sir, the Avatar's note and another note attached to the foot."

"What did the other note say?"

"When I saw the hawk I thought that it was new and got lost trying to find it's way to the messenger tower in the palace. I was about to send it off again when I saw that the note attached to the foot was for Hintta. I said 'that's weird why would they send a note to you Hintta?' he then said 'I don't know. What does it say.' I opened it up and started to read it out loud. It read:

'Hintta, there aren't enough messengers to deliver this note to the Fire Lord and it would be greatly appreciated if you would do this for us.

Messenger tower'

That was what it said. So I asked him if he wanted to run the note and he said no. so I offered for him. I left to go give you the note and when I came back Hintta was on the ground knocked out with a head injury and Daiza was not in his cell."

Zuko thought for a long moment then finally said "That letter…was a fake."

"Which one sir, the one from the Avatar or the one for Hintta?"

"The one for Hintta was a fake. That was defiantly Aang's handwriting. They must have intercepted that hawk, wrote the fake the note then sent it to you and Hintta. Obviously to spring Daiza."

"How do you know the letter was a fake sir?"

"Well there are never that many messages that the message tower runs out of people to deliver the letters. And even if they did they would get a servant to run it not a guard. And if there were no servants they would chose another guard to run it. Why would they chose someone from the high security tower and a guard that just happened to be guarding the most dangerous prisoner here? It was defiantly a setup. They wanted to get the most experienced guard out of the way so they could take Daiza and do what they did to Hintta to you." Zuko concluded with a glance at Haku's old cell.

"Well that makes sense. I never would have thought of that. It's a good thing that your Fire Lord and not me huh?" Azain laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head.

Zuko smiled understandingly "It's okay. I'm not mad at you. If I hadn't gone through what I'd gone through when I was younger I probably would've done the same thing." The two men stood there quietly for a moment when a thought occurred to Zuko "Do you still have that note?"

Azain looked at him for a second then said "Yeah." The young guard rustled through his pockets then pulled out a piece of parchment. "Here you go, sir." Zuko took the paper from Azain and read the writing in his head.

Zuko rolled the parchment back up and closed his eyes "sigh I was afraid of this."

The Fire Lord looked up at Azain and the young man looked puzzled "What were you afraid of sir?"

"I knew that this note was not from the head messenger, but this confirms my suspicions." As Zuko said this he closed his eyes to hide them from the truth.

"Sir?" Azain leaned in a little bit to try and see what the Fire Lord was thinking.

Zuko sighed and looked up at the young man again "This is Azula's handwriting."

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