Book II: Earth
Chapter 3: The Governor of Penkou Province
Fire Nation Colonies - Ten Years After Sozin's Comet
The capital city of Penkou Province was located at the mouth of the river from which both the city and the province took their names. It would have been a short journey there from Omashu if they could have taken Appa, but their cover story that they were servants being sent to join the governor's household meant that the bison had to stay behind. Even bringing Momo would attract too much attention, since the winged lemur was a rare if not all but extinct species. Aang had been disappointed to hear that, but Sokka had assured him that he would look after both Appa and Momo while he was gone, which made him feel a little better about it.
They had to dress the part as well. Zuko had exchanged his Water Tribe clothing for a long, dark green tunic, and Katara wore a dress made of similar material. For Aang, they had found a lighter green shirt with long sleeves and a high collar, along with fingerless gloves and a hat to hide his tattoos. General Kwon had suggested that he should let his hair grow out as well, but while Aang saw the sensibility of his advice, he was reluctant to follow it. While they were in Omashu, he had just started to get back into the habits of meditation and prayer he had once been used to, and he felt bad about giving up other aspects of the Air Nomad life now.
So as they journeyed on foot to Penkou City, Aang asked Zuko to wake him at dawn each day so they could meditate together, and keeping his head clean-shaven remained part of his morning routine. Neither Zuko nor Katara commented on it.
Crossing the mountains and bypassing the military fortifications to get into the territory still controlled by the Fire Nation was the most difficult part of their journey, but once they were actually in the colonies they could travel openly. Zuko carried with him Lord Moravid's letter, which effectively acted as their passport the one time they were stopped on the road. The bored-looking soldiers took one look at the seal, skimmed the text, and waved them on.
"Doesn't Prince Zuko have a scar like that guy?" Aang heard one of the soldiers ask as they walked away. Zuko, to his credit, did not visibly react, though he did place a hand on Aang's shoulder, which he often did when he thought they were in a tense situation.
"Nah," the other soldier replied confidently, his voice already fading into the distance as they got farther away. "His scar is on the other side."
Zuko still didn't react, but it sounded like Katara had to suppress a nervous laugh. And to Aang's surprise, that was the closest they came to being recognized. Wanted posters for the Avatar had started appearing in most of the towns they passed through, but while they mentioned he might be travelling with a man and woman, there were no specific warrants for Zuko or Katara. And while Aang's image did appear on the posters, it seemed that in his Earth Kingdom clothing and with their solid cover story, people only saw what they expected to see - a pageboy, no one of consequence.
But if they had been lulled into any sense of security by the time they reached Penkou City after a week of traveling, they were quickly disabused of that notion by what they found there. Approaching the dark tower that loomed over the western end of the city was a stately airship with a golden prow, the Fire Nation emblem prominently displayed in black on its broad red side. Aang knew right away this was no ordinary warship, and Zuko soon confirmed his suspicions.
"That's the Fire Lord's ship," he said in a low voice. Both Zuko and Katara were pressing close to Aang now, drawing him off to the side of the road that approached the southern city gate. The other travelers going to and from the city paid them no attention.
"Do you think it's a trap?" Katara asked, her eyes darting around for any sign of danger. "Did he mean to bring us here at the same time as her?"
"That can't be!" Aang insisted. Admittedly, if Azula was on that airship, that did sound pretty bad, but he knew Lord Moravid had not intentionally lured them into danger. "Smellerbee said we could trust him. And remember my vision?"
"No offense, but we barely know Smellerbee," Katara argued, her hands on her hips. "And we still have no idea who the woman in your vision was at all."
"So we should just abandon the mission at the first sign of trouble?" Aang challenged her, gesturing in frustration towards the distant airship. "Do we go back and tell the General we gave up because we were too scared?"
"You don't understand," Zuko said calmly, his hand on Aang's shoulder once again. "Azula being here is not a little wrinkle in the plan. If she finds us, we're all dead. Or worse."
"If she finds us," Aang insisted. He doubted the Fire Lord would be personally inspecting every peasant who came in and out of the city. "But if we turn back, we give up one of the greatest potential allies for our side."
Zuko sighed, letting his hand fall, and looked to Katara, considering. "Maybe one of us should go ahead while the others wait outside the city."
Katara shook her head. "You know the governor said it had to be all three of us," she reminded Zuko. "Either we all go ahead, or we all leave."
"Well, I say we go ahead," Aang said, not backing down. "Our disguises have worked so far."
Katara looked at Aang for a moment, then reached out and straightened the collar of his shirt so it stood flat against the back of his neck, but he batted her hands away before she could adjust his hat as well. He knew it was a nervous gesture, and his tattoos were already well hidden.
"Alright," she finally relented. "We'll try it. But the first sign of Fire Nation soldiers, we all go the other direction, got it?"
"Yes, Aunt Kya," Aang replied with a grin, and dutifully followed as she led the way into the city, Zuko trailing protectively behind him.
They did end up taking a more circuitous route to Lord Moravid's house, avoiding the center of the city and twice taking unplanned turns to avoid crossing paths with patrolling soldiers. But the city didn't seem to be on particularly high alert - from what they overheard in the streets, it sounded like the Fire Lord's visit was a surprise, and there was speculation as to whether she would even be making a public appearance.
In some ways, Penkou City was a lot like Gaoling, only bigger. Most of the buildings were of the same style, though the green roofs were not so bright, where they hadn't been painted over in a neutral black or off-white. There was newer construction here and there that obviously reflected a more Fire Nation style of architecture, with steeper roofs and spires instead of the Earth Kingdom's more gently pitched gables. The airship station tower was only the most obvious example. As in most Earth Kingdom cities, the streets were nearly all straight lines rather than curved or meandering, but banners hung throughout displayed a black flame over the golden circle of the Earth Kingdom emblem, surprisingly set on a field of green rather than red.
"That's the older insignia for the colonies," Zuko explained, seeing how Aang eyed one such banner as they passed. "It's used for the provinces that are considered fully integrated into the empire, which can be governed by civilians rather than directly by the military."
"Like Governor Moravid," Aang said. And indeed, when they reached the governor's house, the same banners were hung on either side of the main gate. Aang recalled that while Smellerbee had assured them the Moravids were a respected Earth Kingdom lineage, the current holder of the title also had a Fire Nation mother. For the first time, he questioned his conviction, just a little. But they had come this far.
Zuko presented the letter again to the guards at the gate, who wore red and brown uniforms similar to those that had been supplied to Smellerbee's Freedom Fighters. The guards directed them to the servants' entrance at the side of the large house, which Aang noted with approval still had its green roofing tiles. Each nation had always favored its own colors, but it was strange how much more significance these things seemed to take on in a time of war.
Entering the servants' passage, they found the household staff in a state of frenzy. When they finally located the majordomo, showed the letter once again, and explained that they were the servants Lord Moravid had requested, the majordomo sighed in annoyance.
"Of course you would turn up today," the old man complained, rolling up the letter and tucking it into a pocket of his robes. "His lordship has been called away unexpectedly by the Fire Lord's arrival, and we don't know when he'll be back. He was supposed to host a dinner tonight and now the whole thing's up in the air." He glanced over the three of them again, running a hand over his white mustache and beard thoughtfully. "Well, my understanding is his lordship wanted you for her ladyship's service, and since he's not here, I guess I'll send you off to her."
Katara and Zuko exchanged a nervous glance as the majordomo summoned another servant to bring them to Lady Moravid. Aang was puzzled by their concern at first, until he remembered that their cover story claimed they were previously employed on the Bei Fong estate, and that Lady Moravid was the Bei Fongs' daughter. From what Smellerbee had said, the governor's reclusive wife had nothing to do with her husband's efforts to help the rebels, and if she recognized their story as a fraud, it could put their entire mission in jeopardy.
But Aang also realized, and Zuko and Katara must have as well, that there was no way out at this point, so they dutifully followed the maid assigned to escort them through the servants' corridors to Lady Moravid's rooms.
The first of these rooms that they were brought to was a small sitting room. It had large windows, but they were curtained, leaving the room dimly lit. The maid instructed them to wait there while she informed her mistress of their arrival, then disappeared through an ornate double door that presumably led to more private rooms.
"How long ago did Smellerbee say Lord Moravid married?" Zuko hastily whispered when they were alone.
"I think about a year?" Katara replied. She looked to Aang, but he shrugged, studying the pattern of red flowers woven around the edge of the cream colored carpet. They were the same flower, with five petals, that was in Lord Moravid's seal, the flower that the woman in his swamp vision had given him.
"Okay, then General Kwon sent us to his sister eight months ago," Zuko said, improvising on their cover story.
Aang looked up, noticing the same flower pattern repeated in the painted woodwork moulding, with the stems and leaves gilded. "How would the governor know to request us specifically if he never met us?" he asked.
"I don't know," Zuko said shortly. "We're servants, it's not our place to know things like that."
Before they could discuss the matter any further, the door opened again, and the maid reappeared, with her mistress behind her. Zuko and Katara bowed politely as Lady Moravid entered the room, but Aang let out a gasp, completely forgetting all pretense. Katara nudged him, and Aang quickly bowed as well, but his heart was pounding with excitement.
Lady Moravid was a petite woman with dark hair and a round face. Her expression was haughty, and her dress was a pale lavender rather than green, but she was unmistakably the same woman who had appeared to him in the swamp. Whatever she had been referring to when she had told him "not yet", it seemed the time for it had finally come.
Eastern Earth Kingdom - Eight Years Earlier
Summer was nearly over, and still the drought continued. There had been one day of sudden rain to get everyone's hopes up, but the squall had lasted no more than ten minutes. It wasn't nearly enough to replenish the depleted wells and cisterns in the refugee camp, and still the porters going to and from Chameleon Bay could barely keep up with their daily water needs.
Zuko wondered about his little valley in the wilderness - had the bandits who had chased him out made it their permanent hideout, or had they moved on by now? Was the stream completely dried up? But it was pointless speculation. When he was finally able to leave the camp, he didn't think he would go back there. Probably he would try heading further south.
Katara was still the only person he saw consistently. He had offered to do some chores around the camp, hating to spend his days so idle, but Katara had insisted there wasn't much work he could do until his shoulder healed. Zuko suspected this was only partly true, and that really she didn't trust him enough to let him roam about the camp and mingle with the other refugees.
She certainly kept up her unsubtle interrogation every time she came to work on his shoulder. She would ask him about where he was from, what kinds of work he had done in the past, how he had gotten here - and, of course, made regular inquiries about his name. Zuko wasn't sure why he didn't just give her a pseudonym - insisting on remaining anonymous was obviously suspicious behavior - but even though he would occasionally give vague, harmless responses to her other questions, that one he refused to answer at all.
Zuko's birthday was two weeks before the autumnal equinox, and it was somehow on that very day that Katara chose to ask him how old he was.
"I'm nineteen today, actually," he replied. Nineteen years old, and it had been five years, six months, and eight days since he had left home.
Katara glanced up briefly from the glowing water she had pressed to his wound, her eyebrows raised. "Well, happy birthday?" she offered. Zuko didn't respond.
"That's about how old I thought you were," Katara went on, adjusting the position of her hand a little. The cool, tingling sensation of the healing water seeped further below his skin. "You're the same age as my brother." Still focused on her healing, she shrugged, a gesture that looked a little self-conscious. "I'll be seventeen this winter."
"Hopefully it will rain before then," Zuko muttered.
Katara gave a tight little smile, almost a grimace. He knew there really wasn't anything amusing about it. With the drought, this year's harvest was going to be poor, and getting grain from elsewhere didn't seem likely, since so much of the Earth Kingdom's best farmland was now charred and abandoned. They would soon be facing food shortages even if water scarcity was no longer an issue. Just one more reason for him to try his luck far away from here, as soon as he could.
Katara replaced his bandages once more, and gave him the usual admonishment to go easy on his shoulder. Zuko rolled his eyes. "I haven't done anything to reopen the wound yet, have I?" he pointed out. He wasn't that stupid.
"Well, no," Katara conceded. "So let's keep it that way."
The sharp blaring of a horn cut off any further protest he might have made. "Oh no," Katara said under her breath, hurrying out of the tent. Zuko didn't have to have heard this particular horn before to recognize it as an alarm. Hastily pulling his shirt back on, he followed her.
Soldiers and refugees alike were running in all directions. Apparently the attackers had already breached the main gate of the camp. Zuko heard someone shout that they were going after the food stores - the only thing of value they had here.
"Help get people inside!" Katara shouted to him over her shoulder, water already in her hands as she chased after the bandits. Knowing he was unarmed and couldn't bend, Zuko realized that was the best way for him to help, and quickly did as she had said. There were few permanent buildings in the camp - the infirmary, the officers' quarters, the kitchens and mess hall - but Zuko tried to round up as many people into the relative safety they provided as he could. He'd never realized before how many children were in the camp, and how many seemed to have no parents looking out for them…
He was leading a pair of boys by the hand towards the mess hall when one of the bandits came round a corner with a large sack of rice over his shoulder and collided with him. Zuko let go of the boys' hands, shouting for them to keep running, as the bandit grabbed the front of his shirt. "You," he growled in recognition. It was one of the thugs who had attacked him in his valley not so long ago, the bald one with the bad teeth. He shoved Zuko away, and he fell onto an empty tent which collapsed around him.
The bandit had dropped his sack of rice and hefted his hammer with both hands. Zuko tried to roll out of the way, but the blow still caught him on the shoulder - the same shoulder Katara had just warned him to go easy on. He let out an involuntary cry of pain as he felt the tender flesh tear once again.
Stepping on Zuko's right wrist to still his attempts to squirm away, the thug raised his hammer again. Zuko kicked his legs, but they were tangled in the canvas of the collapsed tent. Pain radiated from his shoulder down his left arm, and his right was pinned under his attacker's boot. He had no choice. He called on his breath of fire.
His attacker screamed as the flames engulfed him, stumbling away and freeing Zuko to scramble out of the wreckage of the tent. The boys were nowhere to be seen, hopefully having gotten to safety. The other bandits were retreating now, seemingly having gotten what they had come for. Most of the soldiers pursued them.
Two did not. Zuko recognized them as Bo and Shuren, two of the men who had found him and whose tent he had shared when he first came to the camp. They bent the earth into sharp spikes, pointed at Zuko's throat. Still on his knees, Zuko raised his left arm in surrender. It hurt too much to move his right.
"Stop it!" a voice cried out. It was Katara. She was running towards the soldiers, but there was no water in her hands now.
"He's a firebender!" Shuren shouted back at her. Zuko closed his eyes, focusing on steadying his breathing. He knew what was coming next, and he didn't think he could fight his way out of it now. He hoped his uncle wouldn't be too disappointed with him.
"The only person he's hurt is one of the thugs who attacked us!" Katara argued. Why was she still defending him? Maybe she was afraid he would say something, give away that she had been keeping his secret.
"It doesn't matter," Bo said darkly. "He's the enemy. He can't be trusted."
"Then let the captain decide what to do with him," Katara insisted.
Zuko heard the earth shift again, but the stone didn't touch him. He opened his eyes just as Bo and Shuren grabbed him roughly by the arms and hauled him to his feet, apparently having listened to Katara. He hissed in pain as they moved him, but Katara didn't admonish them to be careful of his shoulder.
Penkou City, Fire Nation Colonies - Ten Years After Sozin's Comet
The Fire Lord's airship reached Penkou City a little before midday, and Azula disembarked at the tower that bore her name. Built just three years ago for the specific purpose of making the colonial city more accessible from the Fire Nation, the Fire Lord Azula Airship Station was one of many such minor municipal structures throughout the empire named in her honor - though of course, there were far more named for the Phoenix King himself. Azula could not lay claim to an entire city as her namesake, but then, since the rebels had retaken and renamed Omashu once again, neither could Ozai, anymore.
But she wasn't here to dispute naming rights or even to conquer cities. She was here on a far more important mission - the hunt for the Avatar. Whatever her father's intent had been in giving her the quest, it was no longer a fool's errand, but was now a chance for her to succeed where others had failed. And she would succeed, of that she was certain.
Azula had little interest in the provincial capital itself, and wouldn't bother to venture beyond the tower for now. She only wanted to speak to the governor, and there were rooms in the airship station she could appropriate for that purpose. She would not go to the city hall or Lord Moravid's estate seeking an audience. He would come to her.
The stationmaster's office was neither large nor grand, but it would do. The nervous stationmaster hastily cleared out of her way, and forgoing the dark leather chair, Azula seated herself on top of his desk. Let it never be said that she needed a golden throne or a wall of fire to intimidate people into doing what she wanted. Her talents were many and varied, and being terrifying all on her own was certainly one of them.
The governor answered her summons promptly, kneeling before her awkwardly on the cheap carpet. He was a young man to hold such an important post, not much older than Azula herself. He came from noble Fire Nation blood on his mother's side, and Azula thought that was about all there was to recommend him. Of average height and a medium-brown coloring, his overall appearance was so unremarkable that his robes of state almost looked out of place on him. They were, at least, a respectable red.
Azula let the heavy silence stretch on, the young Lord Moravid on the floor unable to speak until spoken to. She was glad to be dealing with him, rather than his predecessor. She had never trusted the late Lord Moravid, the current governor's father, no matter how many oaths of loyalty he took. He was from the Earth Kingdom's old guard and should have been removed from power, though the Phoenix King had ignored her suggestions that he do so. The young man patiently kneeling before her now seemed far more bidable, if inept, likely as not to fail in his duty but never to betray his superiors.
"Governor Moravid," she finally greeted him, without bidding him to stand. "I have some questions about how you have been administering this province lately."
"I am at your majesty's disposal," Moravid responded evenly, showing no outward sign of distress. He either felt supremely secure in his position, or else he was an idiot. In fact, he might have to be the latter in order to be the former.
"There was an incident two months ago in the town of Gaipan," Azula said, leaning forward so one arm rested on her crossed knees. "What happened?"
Still kneeling, the governor could not look at her without craning his neck. He chose to speak to the sole of her boot instead, as she'd intended him to do. "That town had been plagued by fractious insurrection for years," he explained. Azula knew this, of course. She had done her homework before she came here, read reports on Gaipan's so-called Freedom Fighters dating back well into the governorship of the previous Lord Moravid. But she was curious to see how this fresh-faced lackey defended his failure.
"In an effort to quell the fighting," Moravid went on, "I gave official support to the faction whose leader had shown herself willing to work with us, to remove her more radical opposition."
"But she turned on you," Azula prompted.
"I had promised the town would be spared military assault if they cooperated, but Zhao did not heed my orders," Moravid said, his haste to cast the blame elsewhere evident. "It seems his attack united both factions against him."
Azula frowned at the mention of her former admiral. "Yes, Zhao did have a way of being overzealous. I suppose that is not your fault." She uncrossed her legs, her foot swinging close enough to Moravid's face to get him to flinch, and leaned forward. "But tell me, Governor. What do you know of the Avatar's role in the incident?"
The governor's eyes fell back to the floor. "Only that it was rumored, your majesty."
"You didn't get confirmation from your erstwhile rebel leader?" Azula asked sharply. "It was my understanding she was arrested after the resistance was crushed." Surely he wasn't so incompetent he hadn't thought to have her interrogated.
"She, ah, escaped shortly after," the governor explained. Finally he had the good sense to look nervous.
"I see," Azula said, sitting up straight again. She was aware of the problem of the overly porous prisons in and around the capital of this province - some sort of vigilante they were calling the Bandit had made a habit of liberating political prisoners. But while it did suit her purposes for the governor to be reminded of this failure now, it was not actually the reason she had come here. "That is...unfortunate," Azula remarked, the last word laden with enough displeasure to make the governor wince. "So you know nothing of the Avatar's movements after that?"
"I had heard he took part in the siege of New Ozai," Moravid said tentatively. He knew it was not the answer she was looking for. "But I am sure your majesty is aware of that. Would he not still be with the rebels there?"
"That is the very thing I wish to determine, Governor," Azula said sternly. "We know the Avatar was sighted several times the colonies prior to the attack on New Ozai, and that one of his traveling companions impersonated a royal official on at least one occasion. It is possible they could try such tricks again." Truthfully, she doubted it. The Avatar's journey through the colonies had most likely been a mission to recruit the Northern Water Tribe forces that had unexpectedly join the siege. He would have little reason to come back now. But it couldn't hurt to press the governor a little to make sure. It would ensure his vigilance against enemies of the Fire Empire in the future, if nothing else.
"I have no reason to suspect anything of the kind, your majesty," Moravid replied. It was almost a plea. He clearly couldn't wait for this audience to be over.
Azula smiled, satisfied. "You will notify me immediately if you ever do," she commanded. "You are dismissed." She waved her hand, shooing him away. She had never given him permission to stand, and so he was forced to shuffle out of the station master's office still awkwardly hunched over.
She returned to her airship not long after, gave her orders to the captain, and went to the observation deck as the ship pulled away from the city, heading back towards the coast where she would rejoin her naval ship. Penkou City really was a dreary provincial town, she thought disdainfully, looking down on the ugly, mismatched buildings. Earth Kingdom cities had none of the grandeur of the Fire Nation's capital. They could only do so much to civilize these places. If only the Ba Sing Se solution were feasible more than once every hundred years.
But that was also not the reason she had come to the colonies. She had an Avatar to catch, and she had a feeling she knew exactly where he was.
Eastern Earth Kingdom - Eight Years Earlier
The captain in charge of the refugee camp was not pleased when he heard what Bo and Shuren had to say about the unnamed stranger they had been harboring. On top of the losses from the attack on the camp, now he had to deal with a firebender in their midst. But, Katara hoped, he might be more willing to see reason than his soldiers were.
Unceremoniously penned in a stone holding cell made with earthbending, the boy had clammed up, refusing to respond to any of the captain's attempts to interrogate him. Suspecting he was too dazed with pain, Katara had offered to heal him, but the captain had refused to allow it. Finally, she had drawn the captain aside and confessed to knowing he was a firebender, hoping the captain would take her word for it that he was not a threat.
"He told you this?" the captain asked suspiciously. Two soldiers ran past them, carrying a wounded comrade on a stretcher towards the infirmary. Nivi could probably use her help.
"No," Katara admitted. "I found out. But he told me he wasn't working for the Phoenix King, and I believed him."
The captain was unimpressed. "That's just what a spy would say," he pointed out.
"Who would send a spy to infiltrate a refugee camp?" Katara asked, growing frustrated. "And those children who had the fever, and miraculously got better? He was the one who did that. How would that advance the Phoenix King's agenda?"
The captain sighed, rubbing his temples. "Even if that's true," he said, in a tone that implied it wasn't, "he may be an enemy agent who wound up here by mistake. He's still dangerous, Katara."
"He's been here for weeks," Katara insisted, trying to keep her voice low lest their argument attract too much attention. But everyone around them was busy dealing with the aftermath of the attack. "He hasn't done anything to hurt anyone in that whole time."
"That may be," the captain conceded, folding his arms. "But too many people saw him bend. The refugees here have suffered too much at the hands of the Fire Nation to trust a firebender among them. It will cause unrest, which we can't afford. He has to leave."
Katara scowled at his pronouncement. It was better than what Bo and Shuren had wanted to do to him, but not by much. She hadn't had a chance to examine his shoulder thoroughly, but even a cursory glance was enough to tell her that his recovery had been severely set back. And she knew he was prone to infection. "If you send him away in that condition," she warned, "that's practically a death sentence."
The captain looked a little sympathetic at that, but Katara got the impression he pitied her more than the firebender, and his pity rankled. "You may clean and bandage the wound," he allowed. "Then he goes. That's final."
He barked an order at Shuren, still standing guard inside the cell, to bring her the supplies she would need, then he turned to leave them, undoubtedly to see to other pressing matters. He paused, giving Katara one last glance over his shoulder. "In the future," he said pointedly, "save your compassion for those that deserve it."
Katara marched back inside the stone cell to keep watch over its prisoner while Shuren went to get the bandages. The boy was slumped against the rough wall, all the muscles in his face drawn tight with pain, but his good eye was wide open. He was breathing heavily.
He didn't say a word as she stared at him, and wondered why the spirits seemed to have conspired to make this firebender her problem.
Penkou City, Fire Nation Colonies - Ten Years After Sozin's Comet
Lady Moravid, as a general rule, did not receive visitors, and seldom made public appearances. Her private rooms were off limits to the servants outside of her personal staff, a small group of attendants brought from her father's estate in Gaoling. Even Lord Moravid's visits to his wife's apartment, while regular, were brief. The excuse given for the reclusiveness of the governor's wife, to the point of negligence towards her duties, was her fragile health that left her easily exhausted. And when she did show her face at state functions, the guests would find her so quiet and timid that this was easily believed, and so uninteresting that she was not greatly missed on other occasions. Like a wilted flower, she had once overheard someone describe her.
It was not how Toph had hope her married life would be, but at least this time the façade was one of her own construction. She knew it frustrated Sanjay, but he hardly had grounds to protest that she had failed to live up to his expectations. Meanwhile, her mother wrote to her frequently, and if Poppy Bei Fong had heard that her daughter was not quite the ideal society wife, she seemed more concerned by the fact that she had not yet given her a grandchild.
But regardless of what anyone else thought or knew, Toph had her own concerns. Years of practice at slipping away unnoticed for adventures in the middle of the night were not being put to waste after all. It was a step backwards, in many ways, but at least she was on familiar ground in that respect.
When her maid gently knocked on the door of her bedroom that afternoon, Toph had actually been resting, rather than using that as a pretense. Even she needed her rest sometimes, though true sleep was often hard for her to come by. So her tired annoyance at the interruption was not feigned, this time.
"Sorry to disturb you, ma'am," Ling said with a bow. Most of the servants didn't bother to bow to her when her husband wasn't around, assuming she wouldn't know the difference. But Ling, who had come with her from Gaoling, always bowed. "Three new servants arrived today, sent by your mother, and since his lordship is not here…"
"Right, of course," Toph cut the girl off. She knew very well where her husband had gone and whom he was meeting with. He had come to tell her himself before he left, another in a year's worth of stilted conversations that made it abundantly clear where his loyalties lay. She got up from the bed, pulled the outer layer of her dress back on, and reached for her fan. "Who are they?"
"I'm not sure," Ling replied. "I don't recognize them."
Toph frowned. She hadn't heard anything from her mother about sending servants to join their household, and if Ling didn't recognize them, they must have been agricultural laborers on her parents' land, or perhaps gardeners on the estate. An odd choice, either way. Flicking open her fan, Toph crossed the room and followed Ling to the sitting room, letting the maid open doors for her.
The sitting room had a tile floor, but the three people in question were standing on a carpet, which muffled their impressions in Toph's seismic sense somewhat. She could tell they were a man, a woman, and a boy, but she couldn't get a read on their heartbeats. The two adults bowed when she entered the room, but the boy had to be reminded by the woman to do so.
"Ling," Toph said in her softest, most demure voice. "Have them come closer." She fluttered her fan as the maid beckoned and the three strangers approached, finally stepping onto the bare section of the tile. Toph hid behind her fan and coughed delicately to hide her surprise - the two adults were definitely nervous about something, but the boy must have been downright terrified, judging by the frantic pace of his heart.
"You were employed by my mother?" she asked.
"We are your uncle's retainers, ladyship," the woman responded. Her accent was colonial, and convincing, but clearly affected to Toph's ears. She was definitely hiding something - but not lying outright.
"Well," Toph replied disdainfully. "My uncle's disloyalty to the Phoenix King is quite the open secret. I don't know if I want any of his servants around."
That got a reaction out of all three of them. These were not good little colonials, of that much Toph was certain. The man recovered first, and his response revealed a perfect colonial accent that would even have fooled her, had her suspicions not already been aroused. "His lordship sent for us," he said, bowing his head in deference at the mention of her husband. "We are only here in obedience to his wishes." Like the woman, he was telling the truth, but with enough discomfort for Toph to suspect that it was not the whole truth.
That Sanjay had asked her mother to send them was also odd. Toph wondered if they weren't meant to spy on her. She frowned at the thought.
But before she could question them any further, the door from the corridor opened, and Sanjay himself entered the room briskly. He was certainly agitated about something, though whether it was his recent meeting with the Fire Lord or the odd new arrivals, Toph of course couldn't say. She didn't flatter herself that she could guess what he was thinking anymore.
Ling bowed to the master of the house, and the three new servants hastily turned and did the same, but Sanjay did not cross the room to join them. "Ling," he said curtly. "Show these three to my office. I'll be there shortly." The servants complied, leaving Toph alone with her husband.
Silence stretched between them. It was not often she spoke to him twice in one day anymore. "You're stealing servants from my traitor uncle now?" Toph finally asked.
"They were sent to you by mistake," Sanjay replied, folding his arms behind his back. "I'm sorry for the disturbance."
"Not at all," Toph said with an insipid wave of her fan. "Managing the help is supposed to be my job, but I guess I'll just follow your lead." A hint of the bitterness she had tried to keep in check crept into her tone. Across the room, her husband tensed.
"I had meant to spare you some of the effort," he shot back. "I know how taxing your responsibilities can be on your delicate health." There was sarcasm and accusation in his voice as well, which only further frustrated her. He was the one who had dragged her here, had put them in this position. If he was disappointed with her, it was his own fault.
But Toph was past spite now. "That was very thoughtful," she said with a deferential nod.
Sanjay hesitated a moment before he spoke again. "I am always thinking of you," he said softly, and damn him if he didn't sound very convincing. But she couldn't afford to trust him so easily anymore.
"Go see to your new servants," Toph said, letting her voice sound frail and tired. "I'm going to lie down." Then she retreated back to her bedroom, feeling Sanjay reluctantly take his leave as she shut the door behind her.
But she didn't go back to bed. Tossing her fan aside in disgust, Toph flung open her wardrobe and reached for the dark clothes she knew were hidden at the back. Her suspicions about the odd new arrivals were far from allayed, but she had other things to focus on for the time being. One of the leaders of the Gaipan rebels had been freed, but the other was still being held somewhere else in the capital. The Bandit had her work cut out for her.
Next Chapter: The Bandit
Look for it on Friday, November 23rd.