Book II: Earth
Chapter 2: The Bride Price
Omashu - Ten Years After Sozin's Comet
Mai and Haru's wedding really was a modest affair. The guest list was short, since neither of them had any family in the city - Haru's friends, mostly fellow stoneworkers, and a few neighbors made up the groom's side, while Ty Lee had been allowed to stretch the bride's side to include her fellow Kyoshi warriors, Sokka, and of course, Zuko and Katara. The bride herself clearly would have been content with even less, evidently more concerned with marrying the man she wanted than with the attendant ceremonies.
Mai wore green like an Earth Kingdom bride, though it didn't seem like she and Haru could afford much gold. There was no procession, just the ceremony at a small neighborhood shrine followed by the wedding banquet, graciously hosted by the master stonemason with whom Haru had been apprenticed until recently. Katara quietly noted the absence of any Fire Nation traditions. Zuko replied just as quietly that the couple might have felt Mai's heritage was a sensitive issue to some of their guests. Or, just as likely, Mai simply didn't care.
There was dancing at the party, though after the obligatory first dance with her new husband, Mai stayed out of it. She never had liked dancing, though Ty Lee of course loved it. Zuko had quickly figured out that most of the details of this wedding party, including his own invitation, must have been Ty Lee's idea. She was certainly the most enthusiastic dancer, though most of the other Kyoshi warriors were also quick to find partners - Suki being the notable exception, sitting far away from Sokka, both of them looking rather morose.
Katara took in her brother's pathetic appearance with a frown. "Go ahead," Zuko told her.
She gave him an apologetic smile. "You won't mind if I ditch you for a bit?" she joked.
But before she got the change to do so, the bridal couple finally made their way over to thank them for coming, Haru's politeness as warm as Mai's was cool.
"Don't look now," Katara said, looking past Haru. "But I think Ty Lee wants you for the next dance." Sure enough, Ty Lee was making her way towards them, the bright pink dress she had worn for the occasion unmissable.
"Then I'd better find another partner quickly," Haru replied. Ty Lee's idea of dancing was akin to her idea of hugs, and Zuko didn't blame the man for wanting to get out of it.
"Don't look at me," Mai said, sitting in the vacant place next to Katara as if to emphasize her unwillingness to return to the dance floor. "Why don't you dance with her?" she suggested, with an extremely unladylike jerk of her thumb in Katara's direction. Katara's eyebrows shot up.
Haru gave a good-natured shrug and offered Katara his hand. "Would you?"
Katara agreed, letting Haru lead her to the dance floor. Ty Lee looked disappointed only for a split second, before she turned her sights on one of Haru's friends instead.
Zuko, now left alone with the bride, took the opportunity to study her carefully. Mai was every bit as guarded as he had ever known her to be, but there was something a little less dour about her attitude. On the surface, she was as cold to Haru as to anyone else, but her new husband seemed to take it in stride, as if it was just a game between them. Zuko couldn't say he understood, but then, when it came to his sister's former friends, he never had.
"Well, congratulations," Zuko said, to fill the awkward silence. "It's a nice wedding."
"Thanks," Mai replied, watching the dancers disinterestedly. "I hate parties." That much, at least, had not changed.
"You shouldn't have let Ty Lee plan it then," Zuko said.
That actually got an amused snort, also very unladylike. If Mai's mother could have seen how her daughter was behaving at her own wedding to an Earth Kingdom peasant, she probably would have fainted.
"I would have liked to see you try to stop her," Mai defended herself. Zuko glanced at the young man Ty Lee was vigorously swinging around the dance floor and had to admit she had a point. He could have argued that Ty Lee had not taken over his wedding, but then, he had been marrying Katara, who was herself a force to be reckoned with.
Not that Mai couldn't put her foot down when she really wanted to, Zuko knew. As the lull in the conversation stretched on uncomfortably, he decided to risk bringing up that subject. "So what made you change your mind about helping the resistance, if you don't mind me asking?"
Mai gave him a sideways glance. "I do mind, actually."
"Okay. Sorry." Zuko suspected anyway that the answer was currently dancing with his wife. If either of the happy couple was a positive influence on the other, it had to be him. "Well, I don't know if Sokka has told you about his plans for the next campaign…"
"He tried," Mai cut him off. "I didn't want to hear it from him either."
"So that's it?" Zuko asked. This probably wasn't the best time or place to discuss war business, but it wasn't like he and Mai had loads of other things to talk about. "You helped us take Omashu and now you're out?"
"That's the idea," Mai said, folding her arms. "I've done my part, haven't I? I'm not giving my whole life to this damn war. And if you were smart, neither would you."
"Okay," Zuko said, taken aback by her ferocity. He definitely shouldn't have brought up the subject. "Obviously you feel strongly about this."
Mai looked at him blankly for a moment. When she spoke again, the usual edge to her voice was blunted. "Ty Lee said you and Katara have a son."
"Yeah," Zuko said. He could already see where she was going with this, and was regretting having started this conversation even more. "Arvik. He's three."
"So don't tell me this," Mai said with a vague wave of her hand, "is what you want to be doing with your life."
"Of course it's not," Zuko agreed. Of course what he wanted was to be left in peace with his family. "I just...don't think I can back out with a clear conscience at this point." How had this become about him anyway?
"Well, I can," Mai argued. "Not all of us have some grand destiny to fulfill, you know."
"Yeah, well," Zuko said as the current song came to an end and the dancers paused. "Enjoy it then." His own destiny was once again a touchy subject these days, in spite of how he had thought the question settled three years ago.
Before Mai could respond, Ty Lee came hurrying over, scolding Zuko for hogging the bride and whisking her away. Katara glanced over at him, and he nodded in Sokka's direction, encouraging her to see to her brother like she had wanted to earlier. Haru rejoined his own wife, who was now listening patiently as Ty Lee spoke animatedly to Suki. Mai discretely slipped her hand in his when he came to her side.
Zuko honestly wished that he could take her advice and just go home, leaving the war to be fought by other people. He and Katara had certainly tried to do that before, and look what had happened. Once again, forces beyond his control had their own ideas about the direction his life should take, and they didn't seem to care what he wanted.
Gaoling - One Year Earlier
Seated in front of the useless mirror of her vanity, while her mother brushed her hair, Toph Bei Fong fidgeted with a jade bracelet, bending the smooth stone into smaller pieces and then fusing them back together. Her mother gave her a pert tap on the shoulder with the hairbrush. "Stop that," she scolded.
"Would you rather I play with the silver?" Toph asked innocently, obediently setting the bracelet down whole on the vanity and picking up a pair of earrings.
"You know that I would not," her mother replied, dragging the brush through her hair one last time. Setting it aside, she picked up a comb instead and began separating Toph's hair into the different sections the elaborate style she had planned would require.
Toph put the earrings down as well. Getting caught breaking her mother's silver jewelry while trying to practice her new-found metalbending capabilities was how Toph had first been drawn into the game of negotiations that had led to this day. A bit more freedom to earthbend here, a bit of forgetting to tell her father about certain incidents there, and Poppy Bei Fong had herself a compliant and attentive daughter.
As her mother twisted, rolled, and pinned her hair into place, Toph began picking at her fingernails. They were already cleaned and manicured, but she needed something to do with her hands. Of course, her mother soon scolded her for that, as well. "Honestly, Toph, I've never known you to be so nervous," she said, sliding a decorative comb into the twist of hair on top of her head.
"Well, I've never gotten married before, have I?" Toph replied sarcastically.
That had been the final round of their negotiating game - with the Earth Rumble long ago shut down by the authorities, Toph had agreed to go along with her parents' plans to arrange a suitable marriage, provided she got to make the final selection from among the candidates they chose. Ironically, she knew the man she had chosen was precisely the match her mother had wanted for her - and that her uncle had wanted as well. It was amazing how even her own family sometimes seemed to forget that she was blind, not deaf.
But while Sanjay was the marriage market triple threat - heir to a fortune, land, and a title - he was also honest, clever, and a fairly skilled earthbender. Not as skilled an earthbender as her, but then, who was? And he hadn't blushed about propriety when she'd challenged him to a secret bending battle, nor had he been bothered when he lost. Toph actually liked the guy.
Still, that didn't mean she was totally unconcerned about marrying him.
"I've told you, you have nothing to worry about," her mother reminded her. "When I married your father, I'd never even laid eyes on him before…"
"Technically," Toph interrupted, "I've never laid eyes on Sanjay, either."
"You know what I mean," her mother said shortly. She pinned the final twist of hair into place, then added one more ornament. "There. You look lovely."
"I'll take your word for it," Toph replied. There were footsteps in the corridor heading towards her room, the distinctive light tred of one of her mother's attendants. "Basma's coming."
"To help you dress," her mother said with a nod. Toph would have preferred to have her own maid assist her, but Basma was the oldest woman in the household, and that was supposed to be good luck for a bride, as if some of her longevity would rub off on the marriage. Toph stood, her posture perfect lest her mother's hard work on her hair be undone, and twisted the ties of her dressing gown in her hands. "Relax," her mother admonished her, taking hold of her hands to still them.
Basma reached the door and knocked lightly, and her mother bid her to come in. Basma slid the door closed behind her and bowed. "You look lovely, miss," she said, echoing her mother's compliment. At least Toph knew they were both being sincere about that.
Her mother gently tugged the dressing gown off of her while Basma fussed over the ornate and intricate dress that Toph would wear for the ceremony - all green and gold, she had been assured, not that it made any difference to her. Layer after layer of fabric was draped over her petite frame - in spite of all her adolescent hopes for more height, at twenty-one she remained shorter even than her mother, who was not so tall herself.
"How is that?" Basma asked as she tied the stiff material of the broad decorative sash around Toph's waist.
"It's a little tight," Toph complained.
"It's supposed to be tight," her mother said.
Basma chuckled. "Well, miss hardly needs help looking any smaller," she joked.
"It encourages good posture as well," her mother replied sternly. She never liked it when the servants joked.
"Miss hardly needs help with that either," Basma muttered under her breath. But in obedience to her mother's wishes, she left the sash as tight as she had tied it, finishing off the ends in a bow. Toph smothered her own argument, knowing it wasn't worth it. After today, her mother would have no more say over how she dressed. Her new husband would, but it was hard to imagine him caring how tightly she wore her sash.
The jewelry was the last step. Her mother hooked the silver earrings she had threatened earlier through her ears, and Toph shook her hands free of the wide sleeves of her dress in order to slide the jade bracelet and its twin onto her wrists. There was a pair of gold rings as well, set with emeralds, that had been included with her bride price. They fit perfectly on the middle finger of each hand. Privately, Toph thought of them as the price of her freedom.
Her father also commented on how lovely she looked when he saw her. There was unmistakable pride in his voice, and Toph knew that being able to marry off their daughter so well was something both of her parents had once feared would be impossible, due to her "fragile" condition. She had proved them wrong in that much, at least. Her mother and father held her hands as the bridal procession made its way from the Bei Fong estate to the villa where Sanjay was staying, one of his family's more modest properties which was still on par with the finest homes in Gaoling. Oh yes, her father had every reason to be proud of her.
She did resent that people would think she needed her parents' escort, the blind bride unable to find her own way. But Sanjay would know better, and that was what counted, so she submitted to the tradition. They would only hold her hands for a little while longer.
Her bridegroom was waiting for them outside the gates of the villa, with all his own attendants. Toph could feel his heart beat faster as they approached. Perhaps he was nervous, too. There was a formal exchange of ritualized phrases between him and her father, and then Toph's parents said their last goodbyes to their daughter. Her mother, at least, did not have to work hard to summon the tears that were expected of her.
But when her mother finally let her go, and her father placed her hand on top of Sanjay's, Toph felt nothing but elation. Together, the bridal couple led the procession towards the shrine where the ceremony would take place, and her parents, for once, followed her lead.
Omashu - Ten Years After Sozin's Comet
After she thanked Haru for the dance, Katara looked back towards Zuko to see Ty Lee whisking Mai away from him. He gave her a nod of encouragement, and she went and sat next to Sokka, who was still by himself, resting his chin on one hand and watching the dancers with an absent expression. He was far from the life of the party she knew he once would have been.
"Nice wedding, huh?" Katara prompted, leaning her elbow on the table to mimic Sokka's posture.
"Huh?" Sokka said, eyes still far away. "Yeah, it's nice."
Katara decided to broach a subject she had wanted to talk to him about for a while. "You know, if you had asked me whose wedding I'd be attending after we took Omashu, I really would have guessed you and Suki."
Sokka grimaced. "Yeah, I would have liked that," he admitted.
"So what happened?" Katara pressed. She doubted Suki had simply turned him down, given how evasive and moody they both were whenever someone brought up their current relationship status. "And don't just say it's complicated. Is it because her mother doesn't approve?"
Sokka shook his head. "You know Suki wouldn't let that stop her. And actually, I think Sachiko might be relieved if her daughter got married." He folded his arms on the table and glanced sadly over to where Suki was now talking to Ty Lee and Mai. She, at least, seemed to have been cheered up by her fellow Kyoshi warrior. "Dad was the one who said no," Sokka added softly.
"What?" Katara said, letting her own hand fall to the table as well. "Why would he do that?"
"Oh, something about how he thinks the future chief of the Southern Water Tribe needs a respectable Water Tribe woman for a wife," Sokka replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. The sarcastic tone almost made him sound like his old self again. "He suggested Minak."
"Amaruk's daughter?" Katara asked incredulously. "Has he lost his mind?" Her father, who had been sailing all over the world for years rather than actually governing their tribe, was hardly in a position to lecture Sokka about the responsibilities of the chief, and if the only interest he was going to take in his own duties was matchmaking for his son, he could at least be more sensible about it.
"Well, it would pretty much be her or Lagora at this point," Sokka reasoned, defending their father to her as he had done so many times before. "Ania's too young for me, and Keela's too old." He sighed and slouched in his seat, leaning his chin on his folded arms. "Doesn't matter anyway. I'm not marrying any of them."
Remembering why she had come over here in the first place, Katara tried to put her old issues with their father's judgement aside and bring a little more levity to the conversation. "Who would have thought Dad would object to you marrying a girl from the Earth Kingdom more than he did to me marrying a firebender?" It still came out sounding bitter on her brother's behalf.
"It's not just Dad," Sokka said tiredly. Katara was really doing a terrible job of cheering him up. "I could have fought him harder, but…"
"But your spirit thing?" Katara guessed. She would have been more than happy not to press him for details there, but after everything that had happened at the North Pole and since, she had a feeling the spirits weren't going to leave her alone either. Was this what it had been like for Sokka the last few years, this quiet dread of what the spirits would say or do next?
"Yeah, the spirit thing, basically," Sokka confirmed. "What I know now…" He shrugged. "I just know it won't work out for us. So no point leading Suki on or fighting with Dad about it."
"Sokka," Katara said carefully, putting a hand on his shoulder. "If you knew something bad was going to happen, you'd tell me, right?"
Sokka looked up at her, considering. "Yeah," he said at last. "Yeah, I would, if I thought it was something really bad." He sat up straighter, pulled her into a side hug, and suddenly her big brother was the one comforting her. "Don't worry about it."
Well, that was easier said than done, Katara thought. Of course she was going to worry. "Do they really show you the future?" she asked, not sure what answer she was hoping for.
"Not exactly," Sokka said, letting go of her shoulders and making a wobbly gesture with his hand. "There's never much detail. But I know what I have to do, and I know...certain possibilities, if other people make certain choices." He folded his hands under his chin, leaning on the table again. "But I don't know if they will."
"If you know," Katara said, "couldn't you...convince them to?" There wouldn't be much point in the spirits giving her brother this knowledge if he couldn't do anything with it, after all.
"What do you think I've been trying to do?" Sokka said with a grin. At least he no longer looked so glum. "Believe it or not, 'you have to do this because the spirits told me so' isn't a winning argument for most people."
"It wouldn't have been a winning argument for you, once," Katara pointed out.
Sokka fixed her with a piercing look. "And once, for you, it would have been."
Katara frowned, not liking the turn this conversation had taken. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked indignantly.
Sokka was unwavering. "You don't like what Yue told your husband," he said, his tone not accusatory, but firm nonetheless.
"Did you talk to Zuko about that?" Katara asked, scooting away from him a bit on the bench. But she didn't give him a chance to answer. "No, of course not, your spirit friends told you," she concluded bitterly. Sokka didn't try to argue with that, but he did look away from her. "Maybe you should ask them to give you a little more clarity about your own life, and less gossip about other people."
"Katara, there are some things we can't run from," Sokka said. "We're born into them."
Katara followed his gaze, and saw he was looking at Suki. Ty Lee had pulled her to her feet and was dragging her towards the dance floor, while Mai and Haru spoke to another one of their guests. "You sound like Gran Gran," Katara observed, looking back at Sokka.
That at least got a genuine smile out of Sokka. "She's a smart woman."
"You know what else she would say?" Katara said, grabbing her brother's arm and hauling him to his feet as well. "That it's rude to sulk at a party. Come on, dance with me."
Sokka obliged, and joining the festivities did seem to draw him out of the funk he had been in. When Zuko cut in to claim her for the next dance, Sokka found one of the Kyoshi girls to be his partner instead, and that was the end of his wallflower act. Though Katara couldn't help but notice, as the celebration wound to an end, that he had never danced with Suki.
Gaoling - One Year Earlier
The first three weeks of Toph's married life were everything she had hoped. The traditional three days of feasting were reduced to just two, on account of her husband's father not being there, and once the receiving of guests and their congratulations was done, the newlywed couple was left in peace. For Toph, this meant that for the first time in her life, she didn't have to worry about her mother or father looking over her shoulder.
She had duties, of course, as the mistress of the household, but the villa was smaller than her family's estate, and the staff needed little oversight from her. If she got up later than the crack of dawn, no one complained - the mistress set the pace for the rest of the household. If her dresses were plain or her hair hung in her face, no one cared - a married woman could present herself how she chose, so long as her husband approved. And Toph's husband seemed to approve of everything she did.
On some days, they would leave the villa - through the front gate, no sneaking around required - and hike into the rocky hills that surrounded the town, just the two of them. There Toph could earthbend to her heart's content. Sometimes Sanjay would join her, sometimes he would just watch. Occasionally they would spar. While he had definitely learned a thing or two since their first match, she still beat him every time, and he still didn't seem to mind.
When the morning dawned hot and humid on their three week anniversary, promising muggy summer weather even though it was still only spring, Sanjay announced that they would be making another trip today, to someplace special. Toph dressed lightly - a short-sleeve tunic and loose-fitting, knee-length trousers, which were technically a Fire Nation style, though she had been assured that these were an appropriate Earth Kingdom shade of green. As usual, she opted to go barefoot.
Sanjay led her by the hand away from their usual mountain trails - not because he thought she needed it, but just because he wanted to hold her hand. "There," he said triumphantly as they came over a ridge, apparently reaching their destination. "What do you think?"
"It's...a lake?" Toph replied uncertainly. She couldn't sense water the way she could her own element, but wet earth had a distinct feel, and something was making gentle waves against the sodden ground ahead of them.
"Not a bad way to deal with the heat, right?" Sanjay said, leading her down towards the water.
"Right," Toph agreed, letting go of his hand. She tested the water with her toes, and found it deliciously cool. Heading back a few paces onto dry ground, she stripped off her tunic and shorts - her mother would have been scandalized, but that was too bad, wasn't it? She felt Sanjay's heartbeat quicken, and wondered for a moment if he was nervous about her going in the lake - odd, since it was his idea - before she realized what else that could mean. Well, she thought with a shy grin, it was hot. She was going in the water.
She waded in up to her hips, keeping one foot firmly on the muddy bottom at all times. Her sense of the world around her shrank to a much smaller radius, but it was still good enough to feel Sanjay following behind her. He grabbed both of her hands, and pulled her further into the lake, but when the water was up to her waist she dug her feet into the mud. "That's far enough," she said.
"Don't you know how to swim?" Sanjay asked.
"And when do you think delicate little Toph Bei Fong would have been allowed to go swimming?" she shot back, sarcasm covering what definitely was a flutter of nerves in her stomach. They were already at the edge of her comfort zone.
"Well, maybe Miss Bei Fong wasn't allowed," Sanjay teased, tugging on her arms playfully. "But you certainly are." He gave her more deliberate tug, and her shaky footing in the mud broke. She stumbled forward gracelessly, instinctively wrapping her arms tight around Sanjay's middle when she collided with him.
"You don't get it," Toph said, scrambling to find her footing again. Sweet, spirits-blessed mud squelched between her toes, and something of the world came back into focus. "I can't feel anything in the water."
Sanjay was quiet for a moment. His heart was still beating fast, and she didn't let go of him, afraid he might try something else. He had stepped back when she crashed into him, and they were in water up to her armpits now. She shivered, no longer feeling the heat of the day at all, and Sanjay settled his arms around her shoulders. "You can feel me, can't you?" he said softly. "Do you trust me?"
"Of course," Toph replied. She trusted him enough to marry him, enough to put her long-sought freedom in his hands, and so far he hand only proven himself worthy of that trust. But this felt bigger even than that, a level of total dependence that frightened her. In deep water, she would be every bit as helpless as her parents had once thought her.
"Then trust me," Sanjay insisted. "We don't need to go any deeper for now. The first step is just learning to float."
"Okay," Toph said, her voice shaking. "I'll try floating."
Sanjay bent down and hooked one arm behind her knees. The world disappeared into nothing more than the cool water of the lake, except for the feel of her husband's hands supporting her and the sound of his voice encouraging her as he helped her lie flat on her back on the surface. Floating, as it turned out, wasn't so bad after all, as long as he didn't let go of her. She could still feel his pulse, when his wrists pressed against her back, or when he held her close to his bare chest, and it beat quick and strong - not, she was sure, from nerves, and she was beginning to suspect not just from desire either.
The following day was just as hot, and Toph thought they might return to the lake. But she found the household in a state of frenzied activity, and her husband going through papers in his study, already dressed for more strenuous travel.
"What's going on?" Toph asked. They were supposed to stay in Gaoling until the end of the summer, before moving on to Sanjay's personal estate further east in the fall. As far as she knew, there was no reason he should need to travel far before then.
"A letter came last night," Sanjay said, pointing at one of the papers on his desk. There was a hardness in his voice she had never heard before. He sounded resolute. His heartbeat did not quicken.
"You know I can't read that," Toph reminded him impatiently. "What did the letter say?"
Sanjay sighed, rolling up certain documents and packing them into a box. "My father is dead," he said bluntly. "A sudden illness. The Phoenix King wants me to go north and take his place as governor."
"You're not going," Toph said, a statement, not a question. Politics had not been a consideration in the arrangement of their marriage, but she couldn't believe he would want to work for Ozai, even if his father had. He'd said he had left Penkou Province and come to the south to get away from all that.
Sanjay shut the lid of the box with a snap. "If I don't, they'll...take my family's lands away." She didn't need to hear the hesitation in his voice to know that wasn't the whole truth.
"You wouldn't do it just for that," Toph challenged him. "What else did the letter say?"
"Don't worry about it," Sanjay brushed her off. He opened the top drawer of his desk, then shut it just as quickly and tried the one below it. Toph could hear servants scurrying back and forth in the corridor outside, packing up their things for the trip and preparing the villa to stand empty once again, ahead of schedule.
"You expect me not to worry?" she asked incredulously. "I'm not a child, you can tell me what's really going on."
"You are my wife," Sanjay said, slamming the lower drawer shut. "What I expect is for you to follow my lead." He grabbed the box off the top of the desk and stormed out of the room, quite sensibly, before Toph could recover enough to earthbend him through the floor. He had lied to her. He had never lied to her before.
By the time she joined him again at the gates of the villa, now dressed for travel herself, Toph was considerably more composed. "My lady," one of the servants said, bowing in deference and holding back the curtain of the palanquin that would take her to the harbor, where a ship was waiting to bring them north to the colonies. Without complaint, she accepted her husband's hand to help her into the awful contraption. Being on a boat would surely be even worse.
"I am sorry," he whispered, his hand now the only thing she could feel outside the cushioned box. Without a word, she let go of even that. He was right. She was a governor's wife now, Lady Moravid, and it was time for her to start acting the part.
Omashu - Ten Years After Sozin's Comet
The day after she and Zuko attended the wedding, Katara gave Aang the day off from waterbending lessons, saying she had things to discuss with her father before his band of warriors left Omashu to return to the South Pole. Aang thought at first that she meant he was going to train with Pakku or Chief Huu instead, but she just smiled and told him to have some fun in his free time.
Well, Aang didn't have to be told twice. Heading to one of the neighborhoods he had frequented during the new year's celebrations, he found a group of kids playing earthball. It was a rougher game than airball, but it didn't actually involve bending, which made it more inclusive. Some of the kids recognized him and were happy to have him join in.
When the game broke up a while later, Aang was approached by one of the girls who had been on the opposing team. She was the daughter of a baker, and Aang had met her at her father's pastry stand during the new year's festivals. She had wide brown eyes and dark curly hair that she wore in pigtails, which she tossed confidently over her shoulders as she came up to him.
"Hey! Aang, right?" she greeted him eagerly.
"That's me!" Aang replied. "What can I do for you?"
The girl faltered just slightly. "I'm not sure if you remember me," she said. "I'm…"
"Nadeera, of course I remember!" Aang cut her off. "Your dad makes the best custard tarts in the whole city!"
Nadeera smiled proudly. "You bet he does," she boasted. "So, I told my brother what you said about how you and King Bumi used to ride the mail chutes, and he said that story sounded bogus."
"Oh no, we definitely did it," Aang insisted. He stood up a little straighter and tapped his own chest. "You're looking at a veteran mail chute rider."
"Well, I was wondering," Nadeera said, flicking one pigtail back in front of her shoulder and bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Could you show me?"
"Alright, come on!" Aang agreed. He grabbed the girl's hand and ran up the street, towards the top of the nearest ramp in the mail delivery system. He had actually been dying to do this again ever since they'd settled in to Omashu, but the thought of mail surfing alone wasn't as much fun, and he didn't think he would have been able to talk Zuko or Katara into it. Maybe Sokka, now that he thought of it, but if Nadeera was ready and willing then that was good enough for him.
They reached the mail station at the top of the ramp, and Aang peeked in to find it empty, the earthbenders who worked it apparently on a midday break. "Perfect," he said to himself. He looked back at Nadeera, who was sporting an excited grin, and realized he was still holding her hand. Hastily he let go, and cleared his throat. "Let's see if we can find an empty cart."
They checked on opposite sides of the small storeroom. "Here's one!" Nadeera announced, and wheeled it over to the archway opening onto the ramp.
"Great, climb inside," Aang instructed her. She did, and he took up a position behind the cart. "Sit towards the front. I'm going to hop in the back once we're moving." She shuffled forward, and Aang grinned in anticipation. "Alright, ready?"
"Ready!" Nadeera confirmed, sounding just as excited.
The ramp they'd chosen wasn't the tallest in the city, but Aang pushed them off with a burst of airbending before vaulting into the cart behind Nadeera, and they picked up speed fast enough. Wind whipping in their faces, they both laughed and whooped as the cart rattled down the steep incline and sharp banks of the ramp, until it reached the next mail station at the bottom and slammed to a halt, and both of them tumbled out of the cart onto the floor.
Their laughter came to an end as they took in the stern face of General Kwon standing over them. "I've been looking for you, Avatar Aang," the General said as he and Nadeera got to their feet. "I have something important to discuss with you and your guardians."
"Okay," Aang said, giving Nadeera an apologetic look. Her eyes had gone wide at the sight of the General, and her lips were pressed together nervously. "I guess I'll see you around?" Aang ventured.
"Oh, yeah, see you," Nadeera replied. "I'll just be getting home then. Sir." She gave a hasty little bow to the General and hurried out of the mail station. Aang was sorry to see her go.
General Kwon led Aang higher up into the city, towards the building where he'd set up his new offices - not in the palace, which Aang guessed was a deliberate statement that he still answered to the would-be Earth King Gaozu, and not Goren, the King of Omashu. This building had served some municipal function under the Fire Nation occupation, but the large flame emblem over the door had been quickly replaced with the Earth Kingdom's coin-shaped emblem instead.
"It is good to see you've made friends here," the General commented as they headed down the busy corridor towards his private office.
Aang shrugged. "I make friends everywhere I go," he said. At least, that had always been the case before the war, and still was anywhere he went that people weren't trying to capture him.
"Yes, I have heard that," the General replied, pushing open the door to his office and ushering Aang inside. Zuko and Katara were both waiting there, and looked around to see him enter. "I found your wayward airbender hurtling down one of the mail chutes," the General informed them, though he sounded more amused than stern now.
Zuko shook his head, though Aang could see that he was smiling, and Katara gave him an unimpressed look. "Reliving Bumi's greatest hits, huh?" she said.
"What can I say?" Aang replied, taking a seat in the empty chair on the other side of Katara. "You knew him as a king, I knew him as a mad genius."
"Undoubtedly, he was both," General Kwon said, taking his own seat on the other side of his desk. "But that's not what we need to discuss at the moment. What concerns us now is Avatar Aang's future training." Aang's shoulders slumped a little. He wished the General wouldn't address him as the Avatar all the time. But General Kwon was looking at Katara now. "Do you share King Goren's opinion that he is ready to begin earthbending?"
Katara exchanged a brief glance with Zuko, and Aang got the impression the two of them had already discussed this. "I do," Katara answered. She looked at Aang with an encouraging smile. "You really have made very good progress with waterbending."
"Thanks," Aang said, his heart skipping a beat. If she was done teaching him, then…
"Very well," General Kwon said, folding his hands on the desk. "Let me make it perfectly clear to you that I do not think it would be advisable to take King Goren up on his offer to teach the Avatar to earthbend." Great, now he wasn't even Aang anymore, just the Avatar.
"So who should it be?" Aang asked irritably, even though he didn't disagree with Kwon's assessment. "One of your people?"
"No," the General said, looking back at him. "Having one of my men as your instructor would be seen as throwing your weight behind Gaozu, as much as learning from Goren would be seen as throwing your weight behind him. It would be best if you could find someone neutral."
"Respectfully," Zuko spoke up, "it will be hard to find a highly skilled earthbender who has not taken a side already. The only ones who have entirely stayed out of the war in the last ten years are benders of modest ability, not cut out for the job."
"True," Kwon agreed. "But I think it's worth trying, even if we have to be...unconventional. Perhaps more than one teacher." He pressed his palms flat together. "Now is not the time to provoke internal strife, when we need to finish clearing the last of the Fire Nation troops from the southern provinces." He looked from Zuko to Katara to Aang and back again. "I wonder, will finding him a firebending teacher be so difficult, when the time comes."
Aang frowned. He hadn't even thought that far ahead. Zuko was a great firebender, obviously, but if he and Katara were going home…
But Zuko sighed. "You're asking if I'll do it," he said. "Of course I will."
"Really?" Aang asked, pleasantly surprised. "That's great! Will you teach me how to do that thing with the..." He mimed punching his fists in rapid succession, a move he's seen Zuko use to generate a barrage of fireballs.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Katara cautioned. "Earthbending has to come first."
"Indeed," Kwon agreed. "And we have other immediate concerns as well. Katara, it is my impression that you were planning to return to the South Pole with your father."
This was the first Aang had heard of that plan. So Katara was leaving him after all. He supposed that was her right, to go back to her son. And at least Zuko was staying. Or was he planning to go home and come back?
"I...hadn't decided on that yet," Katara replied, glancing at Aang. Well, that explained why she hadn't told him about it, at least.
"Then I'm afraid what I'm about to tell you might make up your mind for you," General Kwon said, opening a drawer in his desk and removing a scroll. Though the seal on it had been broken, Aang could see it was a familiar flower, five petals, with the characters for "justice" on either side. The wax was red, rather than Earth Kingdom green.
"Lord Moravid wrote to you?" Aang asked.
"Officially, he wrote to my sister, Poppy Bei Fong," the General explained, unrolling the scroll so they could see the message. "Since Lady Moravid is my niece, he is simply asking his mother-in-law to send certain servants whom his wife has requested to join their household." Kwon tapped the last paragraph of the letter. "But notice how he mentions that these servants are actually my retainers, on loan to my sister?"
"Let me guess," Zuko said, studying the parchment carefully. "You haven't actually loaned any of your servants to your sister."
"Precisely," Kwon said. "Perhaps you can see where this is going."
"The message is a code," Katara said. "He knew your sister would show the letter to you when she couldn't figure out who he was talking about."
"Wait a minute," Aang said, trying to keep up. Just when he thought he'd gotten his mind around the Goren versus Gaozu situation, the General sprang this on him. "If Lady Moravid is your niece, why couldn't she just write to you?"
"Because Lady Moravid has had no contact with her disreputable uncle since her husband took the governor's seat," Kwon replied with a wry grin. "Suffice to say, this is a connection that has not worked out as I had hoped. But now that her husband is reaching out to us, that may be changing."
"He's asking you to send a liason," Zuko said, still studying the letter, eyes darting from word to word out of sequence, probably working out the code for himself. He looked up sharply, catching the General's eye. "He's asking for us, isn't he?"
"'A young couple from the colonies of mixed heritage, and their nephew, a charming if somewhat flighty youth,'" Kwon read aloud from the letter. "Yes, I do believe that's the three of you."
"He's asking for all three of us, specifically," Katara said softly.
"Correct," Kwon agreed, setting down the letter. "He doesn't give any indication, naturally, but my theory is that one or more of the partisans you aided in Gaipan must have escaped to report to him, so he feels he can trust you at least."
"And it has to be all of us?" Zuko asked. He moved so subtly, Aang almost didn't see how he took hold of Katara's hand. "It can't just be me and Aang?"
Aang had pulled the letter towards himself and read it over again. "Listen to what he says here," he said, coming to the penultimate paragraph. "'If it is not possible for all three to come, of course we do not want to break up the family.'" Well, that was ironic, Aang thought, seeing how Katara was frowning at a nondescript spot on the surface of the General's desk.
"We could try sending just the two of you," Kwon said sympathetically. "But given how Lord Moravid has been skittish about reaching out to us in the past, I would prefer if we could follow his instructions as closely as possible. He would potentially be a pivotal ally." He took the letter back from Aang, and rolled it up again. "It is, of course, your choice, Katara."
Aang didn't think that was a very fair choice, but there hadn't been many of those to go around lately. Katara did not protest, but she did lift her eyes from the desk to share a meaningful look with Zuko. Aang looked away from them, almost embarrassed to see the wordless exchange.
"Well," Katara said at last. "It looks like we're going back to the colonies."
Toph has officially entered the story. How many of you guessed where she was?
The next chapter, The Governor of Penkou Province, will feature yet another long-awaited character in the present day, while things will be getting complicated for Zuko and Katara in the past. Look for it on Friday, November 9th.