Chapter 13: Plotting

Bhan stewed as he dragged the princess off to the guest room where she would be held until the Governor had decided what to do with her. This was a servant's task his uncle had given him, not something fit for the old man's heir. It was because he had spoken out of turn, he knew, claiming that Janxing was his and the Governor's shared domain. The fact that no one else would be trusted enough to be alone with someone known for her slippery cunning registered on some level, but for now Bhan deliberately blocked it out.

At least Azula seemed to have accepted her captivity, he thought. If she'd fought him all the way through the palace, he'd come off looking like he'd just been on the receiving end of a particularly vicious platypus-bear's attentions. Fortunately she hadn't tried using her fire, either. Bhan, like his uncle, was no bender; it didn't always run in families, he knew, but still, their line didn't seem to have the knack. It was a pity, though, that she was so bad-tempered- the girl was quite attractive, and adding a princess to his collection of conquests would certainly raise his status in the eyes of other up-and-coming noblemen. Of course she was also almost ten years younger than him, but Bhan had never been one to let other peoples' standards of decency get in his way.

Finally they arrived at the room that was generally used for such purposes, as the Governor wanted those he held for ransom to be in good condition, and had long since deduced that dungeons were not conducive to one's health. Bhan opened the door and roughly shoved the princess inside. "Stay here until my uncle sends for you," he said. "As long as you cooperate, you won't be mistreated- we aren't monsters, after all. You'll be fed three times a day, too. But don't think you'll be able to escape easily if you want to- the only way out is into this hallway, and the palace is always patrolled by guards, including elite firebenders. Do you understand?"

Azula nodded. "So, are you going to untie me, or am I supposed to eat this food you'll be bringing with my hands behind my back?"

Bhan sighed and rolled his eyes. "All right, but understand that if you try anything I'm a trained fighter and the guards are in earshot."

The princess smiled. "Wouldn't dream of it," she said. Bhan slipped behind her and quickly undid the knots. When Azula's hands were free he stepped away from her and stepped back towards the door, still facing her. He wasn't about to turn his back on this one.

Just as he was about to step back into the corridor, she looked up at him and spoke. "It's Bhan, right?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "Whatever you have to say, say it quickly. I have a rather important letter to write, and my uncle won't be happy if I'm late."

"Yes, well, about your uncle." Azula threw herself down on the room's bed, but her eyes never left Bhan's face. "I can't help but notice that he doesn't really seem to appreciate you."

"What do you mean?"

The girl shrugged. "It's just that you got the drop on me back at the market- not a lot of people could have done that. I'm impressed. But what does that old man have you doing? Writing letters and escorting prisoners? Servants and guards could do that. He's wasting your talents, Bhan. And you're supposed to be his heir? Seems to me he thinks you're a glorified servant"

"What the Governor does or does not do with my talents is none of your concern, Princess," Bhan snapped.

"I'm just curious," Azula said. "Could it be that he doesn't realize what a competent nephew he has? Or maybe," she sat up again and her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, "he does know, but he feels threatened. He's old- maybe he's afraid he'll lose his grip and someone younger will come in and take his place. So the Governor takes the person he's afraid of and makes him his heir, while using him on menial tasks. Keep your enemies close, and all that."

"I won't listen to any more of this!" Bhan snarled, and he stepped out into the hallway, shutting the door behind him. As he did so, however, he heard her voice behind him.

"But there are those who appreciate talent, Bhan. I'm one of them."

As he hurried down the hallway towards his study, where he would compose his letter to Zuko, Bhan tried to keep the princess's words out of his head, but they kept coming back to him. She was right- she had to be. The Governor was afraid of him. Perhaps he might even decide that Bhan's usefulness to him had come to an end, and then their relationship would undergo a fatal shift. The Governor of Janxing was not such a family man that he would balk at killing a relative to protect his own interests!

But perhaps Bhan could beat the canny old man at his own game. Then he would have the Governor's seat all to himself- and perhaps he would have a certain princess as well.

/

The girl whose name was not Yujin lay back on her bed and smiled tightly at the ceiling. She'd been better at this sort of thing before, she knew, but not even losing her identity had stripped her of all her skills. Some things, a little voice in the back of her mind whispered, had always just come naturally to her, and it would appear that manipulating a prideful young man with more ambition than sense was one of them She'd seen the look in Bhan's eye- her words had struck a nerve, even if he didn't want to admit it. Give her a few more chances to talk to him, to work the barb in deeper, and… well, she wasn't sure what he might do, but she did know that the horrid old governor wouldn't be pleased by it at all.

It was such a happy feeling whenever a plan was working out.

/

"I knew we should have kept a better eye on her!" Ling snapped as he and Joti wound their way through Janxing's streets.

"I'm sorry, Ling," Joti replied. "I didn't mean to- I just… got distracted."

They had left the Lion Turtle inn quickly after asking some of the other patrons if they'd seen where Yujin had gone. One old sailor pointed the way he'd seen a girl who matched her description going- back into the heart of the city- and they were off.

"But how do we even know we're going the right way?" Joti asked as they passed another side street. "She could have gone down any of these. Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"I'm just following my gut, okay?" Ling said.

"I guess, but I'd rather trade in your gut for a good shirshu right about now."

"What in the name of Agni is a shirshu?" Ling asked, then remembered who he was talking to. "Don't answer that!"

Joti sighed. "I guess I'm just wondering why you're so determined to find her? I mean, Yujin is wandering alone in one of the biggest cities in the Fire Nation and could get into all kinds of trouble, but I thought you didn't even like her?"

"I don't, particularly," Ling said, "but I made a promise to help her, and I'm going to help her whether she likes it or not!"

"So it's an honor thing, huh?" Joti looked at her brother sternly, then brightened. "Great! That means that helping Yujin is our quest, like finding the Avatar was Fire Lord Zuko's, and he's a hero!"

"If you say so," Ling sighed. "Let's just get this over with."

They passed on through the city streets without incident, but also without any sight of the missing Yujin. Finally they arrived at the marketplace they had passed through earlier.

"All right," Ling said. "There have to be dozens of merchants here selling all kinds of things- I think there may be a good chance one of them has seen Yujin. Let's split up and work our way around the market, see if we can find anything."

"Sounds like a plan," Joti agreed. The siblings separated and began working their way around the market. Several of the merchants told Ling that they'd seen a girl matching Yujin's description walking around, but none of them could remember where she'd gone.

Finally, however, a dealer selling quite an impressive assortment of blades- ranging from swords to a large display of throwing knives- had something more concrete. "I saw the girl you're looking for," he said, his eyes darting nervously. "She seemed to find my wares to her liking- and I would like to point out the overall quality of my products compared to my competitors- but she didn't seem interested in buying anything. She just wanted to look. And then…" his voice trailed off, the nervous look in his eyes growing.

"What happened?" Ling asked, getting closer to the merchant's face than the older man would find comfortable. "I need to know."

"All right, all right, you win!" The merchant said. "Bhan took her."

"Who is Bhan?"

"He's the Governor's nephew," the merchant said, "rumor is he's going to succeed him when the old man finally goes. He thinks the whole city belongs to him, and he takes whatever he wants. He saw your friend earlier, and seemed to take an interest in her, but then he ran off. When he came back, he and some of his friends ambushed her and dragged her off!"

"And nobody did anything to stop it?" Ling said through clenched teeth.

The merchant threw up his hands. "What could we do? He's the Governor's nephew. The old man won't convict his heir of something so petty."

"Where would he have taken her?"

"I don't know!" Ling glared at him, and the merchant seemed to melt. "All right, he probably took her to the palace."

Ling glanced up at the Governor's home where it loomed over the city. "Thank you," he said, and turned to walk away.

"Are you sure you don't want to buy something?" came a frantic call from behind.

"No thanks," Ling said without looking back. He hurried across the market and found Joti, then led her over to a bench. Brother and sister sat down, and Ling told her what he'd discovered.

"Whoa," Joti said. "This is just like some old legend- the valiant heroes must rescue the fair maiden from the clutches of the evil ruler. Let's do it!"

"We have to think this through, Joti!" Ling said. "We can't just barge into the palace and strong-arm the Governor into making his nephew hand over his prisoner."

"You're absolutely right," Joti replied thoughtfully. "Thankfully, I have a plan."

Ling rolled his eyes. "Let's hear it."

Joti explained it to her brother, leaving him staring at her like she had just undergone a metamorphosis into a sea serpent. "You're crazy, you know that?" he was finally able to say.

"Sure do!" Joti said without missing a beat. Ling groaned.

/

Heads turned in shock as Mai rode her stolen rhino into the Fire Nation capital at top speed. Ignoring the staring crowds, the girl moved in a direct, unwavering line towards the palace. When she finally arrived on the grounds, she allowed the exhausted beast to sink to the ground in a stupor and slid off its back.

General Akai, who apparently had yet to personally take command of the pursuit of Azula, and several important ministers were waiting for her on the palace steps. "Lady Mai," the general said with a slight bow, "we hadn't been expecting you back yet. And where is Fire Lord Zuko?"

"Azun betrayed us," Mai said without preamble. "He killed our men and took Zuko."

Akai scowled and clenched his hands into fists. "Tell me where the traitor is," he hissed, "and I will lead the army there myself!"

"I don't think so, general," Mai said. "You might go, and your men might follow, but do you think the more ambitious members of the court will send their troops to rescue someone they don't much like from the Obsidian Citadel?"

"The Citadel?" Akai stared at Mai disbelievingly. "Azun has taken over that accursed place?"

"He has, and I think this calls for bigger weapons than you have, General. Weapons that don't have to play by the rules of Fire Nation politics"

Akai turned to ask Mai what she meant, but the Fire Lord's betrothed had already hurried into the main building of the palace.

"You wouldn't always think it to look at her," the general said, shaking his head, "but that girl's got spirit."

In the room deep in the palace that had been given over for Mai's use after her engagement to the Fire Lord was made official, the girl in question now sat, staring at the sheet of paper she had laid out in front of herself. For a moment she considered writing to Ty Lee, but shook her head. She needed someone powerful enough to take on Azun's army, and who didn't share Fire Nation prejudices. With all her talk of auras and spirituality, Ty Lee probably wouldn't set foot within a hundred miles of the Obsidian Citadel because of 'bad vibes' or something to that effect. No, the person Mai had originally planned to write to was by far the best option.

Strange as it might seem to someone who had once been one of Princess Azula's closest 'friends', the only person who could help Mai now was he who had once been the greatest enemy of the Fire Nation, who wiped out Zhao's fleet and brought even the mighty Ozai to his knees. She needed the Avatar.

Mai dipped her brush into her inkpot, and began to write.

/

Even without her firebending or most of her memories, Azula is not an opponent to take lightly. Being backed into a corner and stripped of all her other weapons gives what's left of her manipulative nature to come to the fore, and she has a ready environment for it to work in. She'd be in no shape to take on Long Feng right now, of course, but Bhan's not exactly a complicated or subtle person; in a way he's a negative reflection of both Fire siblings, Zuko's brashness without his sense of morality, and Azula's ruthlessness without her cunning.

Of course, Azula doesn't have to rely entirely on her own devices here. Joti loves all the tropes she's found herself involved in, of course; she'd probably get along with Elan from "The Order of the Stick" pretty well (though I created her several months before discovering OOTS). Ling, for all his protestations of being the Only Sane Man, is Fire Nation enough to believe in honor before reason, a way in which he does, admittedly, resemble Zuko, and so both siblings are getting sucked deeper in.

And of course, bigger events are in motion now too, with Mai getting ready to contact Aang, but that won't come to fruition for a while yet…

-MasterGhandalf