A/N: Apologies for the delay. Many things have happened and due to my present happy state of employment, my hours are no longer entirely my own and so my rate of writing has been correspondingly reduced. I will continue writing, of course, until this is finished, have no fear on that count. Thanks as always to Sylvacoer for editing work and enjoy the show.
"So, what happens now?" Reki asked her oldest living enemy.
"I don't know," Karida admitted. "I didn't think this kind of situation was possible."
The two women were sitting across from each other in one of the Zhang Ai estate's meeting rooms. The awkwardness was palpable.
"Let me put it another way, then," Reki said. "What will you do now?"
"I am honor-bound to repay your allies for their aid in my fight," the sandbender answered without hesitation, falling back on tradition. "So until I have fought at least once for them, I must remain in their company. And afterwards, I had thought I will return to the desert and try once again to unite the tribes. I doubt I'll succeed or survive the attempt, but when I was doing it the first time…I was a better person then, better than I was when my motives were fueled by vengeance. At least, I thought more clearly then. I'd like to be that way just once more before the end. But…well…"
"You do not wish to leave me and take the chance that the Blood Drinker will escape again and this time you will not be there to stop it," Reki finished the thought, and Karida nodded. Reki sighed.
"I do not blame you for fearing that. I fear it myself. I will make you a promise. If you will stay for a month and I have not found a permanent solution in that time, I will go with you to the desert and face justice for my crimes."
"Your cloud-on-the-horizon won't like that," Karida said, using the Si Wong term for a man engaged to be married and Reki rolled her eyes.
"He does not like any danger that threatens me. That does not change the fact that it is there and we must act accordingly. What is important is that he will understand, just as you and I do. Is my pledge acceptable?"
"Swear it properly and it is."
Reki, for once, bowed to tradition and spoke the words. It was the least she could do for one that she had greatly wronged.
"I, Reki of the Si Wong, swear by what honor is left to me, the blood of a warrior fallen, and the steel of a spirit unbowed, to do as I have said or die in the attempt. That is one of the few things I am glad I do not have to listen to any longer. If I had been someone to be bound by tradition, my teeth would have rotted from all the sweet words they would have me spout. Pointless tradition."
"It means a great deal to me," Karida said, bowing her head. "Thank you." She rose to go.
"One more thing," Reki said, her eyes narrowed. "if Jomei somehow learns any of our…epithets of endearment, you and I will have words."
Karida raised her hand to hide a smile. She had never thought this kind of thing would come up either. It was disconcerting to have a former mortal enemy make threats about her love life.
"If he asks, I am bound to answer."
"See that he does not ask. I am no one's moon-to-be-grasped."
Karida nodded and left, stepping to one side as Jomei entered, biting her lips and keeping her head down as she walked back to her room. Jomei entered a moment later.
The miner was still learning his way in this strange dance of theirs and stumbling quite a bit, but her tiny smile upon seeing him enter was something majestic even now.
"Hey," he said in greeting. "Siensao sent me to fetch you, we're about to go over the plan to get those Black Lotus types." He glanced over his shoulder. "I ran into that sandbender going the other way. Is everything all right with you two? She did try to kill you a few times."
"She would not be much of a warrior if she had not," Reki said, standing up. "Things will never be easy between us, but the matter is settled. She will oversee my death in a month's time if nothing can be done. Until then, she stays with us."
Jomei nodded, having no wish to argue again about their time limit and his own lack of ideas to resolve the issue.
"All right. Do you think she'd teach me sandbending as long as she's around? I know I still haven't done all those things you said, but there's no harm in asking, is there?"
"It is true, you have not saved my life in battle except from myself," Reki said thoughtfully. "I cannot swear a blood oath of kinship between us. And you are still not of Si Wong ancestry. But there is a third way in which you can become bound to the desert enough to be considered for a student."
"What's that?"
"Something not fit to be discussed when battle looms before us. Siensao's patience is not limitless and we should be on our way."
"It's time to deal with the Black Lotus," Siensao said, leaning forward and resting her hands on the table. "Once and for all. By approaching Reki, they've given us the chance to take out their leaders, the masterminds behind all the various assassins and death plots that have been coming our way lately. Here's the plan." She looked around at those gathered. Karida was among them, but Kei Dao was not. If there was a time for the assassin to turn his coat like he'd done with his previous employers, now would be the time, so he wouldn't get the chance.
"Reki, you take Kyuzo with a bag over his head out and get away with whoever they send. He and Zhu Liang have a similar enough build that they won't be able to tell the difference. You tell them that you want to be taken to the Burning Wind Gate, it's the southwest one and offers the quickest train ride to the Outer Wall and the ferry ride back to the desert borders. When taking you through the Undercity, the routes available are limited by regular guard and Daid Li patrols and gang activity. At one point, close to their destination, there's only one way for them to go and that's where we'll hit them. If they change tactics and go above ground, I'll have watchers ready to alert us in time to intercept them just outside the gate. There's a small reservoir that opens there that Spike can take advantage of. Any questions?"
"We are going to hit them without talking first, right?" Jomei asked. "I mean, I know you know that's the point of an ambush, but…"
"That's all right, Jomei, it's a valid question and yes, that's how it's going to go. They're too dangerous to attack any other way."
"Um, once the ambush starts, how do I avoid dying?" Kyuzo asked.
"You'll fall to the ground, burn off your ropes, and join the fight from there. Reki will help you get out from among them, and she'll be carrying your bombs."
"You will do fine so long as you do not talk and are capable of falling over when you hear fighting," Reki said. "So we have a moderate chance of success."
"Okay," Kyuzo said with a shrug. "I can work with that."
"Shouldn't we take more people?" Spike asked. "There are only seven of us and we don't know how many of them there are. Wouldn't they want a lot of people with the Blood Drinker around?"
"Not necessarily," Siensao said, a little smile playing about her lips. "The Blood Drinker's little display in front of Xin has made the rounds of the rumor mill, along with a few other stories about her from the desert and with some encouragement from the syndicate informants, I can assure you that no mercenary will want to go up against her and mercenaries are all they have left to augment their forces. Besides, having too many people packed into those tunnels is asking for a slaughter. I believe we'll outnumber them, in fact. Anything else?"
There was not, and Siensao nodded.
"Good. There's just one more thing I need to take care of before we head out. A…private matter – Zoukani, I'll need you to stay here. If all goes well, I'll be right back. If it doesn't, Zoukani can get you to the site of the ambush and you'll want to listen to Reki when the fight starts."
"Hang on just a minute!" Kyuzo protested. "What is it you need to do that's so dangerous?"
"I'm going to speak with my father," Siensao answered, "And it's possible either one or both of us won't exit the conversation alive."
The firebender's mouth hung open for a moment before he closed it and Siensao walked out alone.
"Do you think she was being serious or just messing with me?" Kyuzo murmured to Zoukani. The old soldier wasn't smiling.
"Great," Kyuzo said. "Just great."
Sun Shang Zhang Ai looked much as he had when she first returned to Ba Sing Se, ensconced behind his desk, keeping the syndicate running and maintaining his reputation as one of the most feared and merciless people in the city. He only glanced up momentarily when she walked in, then went right back to writing.
"What is it you need?" he asked. Quiet. Polite. That was his way and her own, calm and collected until someone tried to screw with you and had to learn the hard way why that wasn't done.
"Oh, nothing much, I'm just about to go off and quite possibly get myself killed on a dangerous mission and thought I'd come over and let you know," she said, a world of hateful sarcasm in her voice.
"You'll survive. I know that and so do you." He didn't even look up again.
"And what if I didn't?" she demanded. "Would you even care? Do you care about anything?!"
"We've had this conversation before and I see no point to having it again." The bastard still wasn't looking at her, but now he seemed even more intent on not doing so. Then he heard the sound of a sword being drawn and looked up. He found himself staring down the length of Siensao's katana, with the woman holding it looking very upset indeed. To his credit, he recovered almost instantly and carefully set down his brush, interlacing his hands in front of him.
"I agree," she said. "So instead we're going to have a conversation where you take me seriously for once or one of us isn't going to be walking out of this office alive. Now, I asked you a question and I expect an answer. Do. You. Fucking. Care? About anything?"
He sighed and said nothing.
"You don't get it," Siensao said, chuckling unpleasantly. "You still aren't taking me seriously. You think I won't do it."
"Not true," Sun Shang said. "I fully believe you will and I've prepared for the possibility. If you kill me, you'll either have to take over the syndicate or give it to your cousin Han Yi Zhang Ai and either option means it will still be in capable hands, so I have no regrets. I've taught you both well, or so I thought. You're making me reconsider."
"And why is that?" Siensao bit out.
"You're acting very irrationally right now. You should only want to kill me because it's for the good of the syndicate, not because you dislike me for teaching you how to be successful in running an operation like this."
"Oh, is that what you call that lousy excuse for a childhood?" she said in mock surprise.
"If you need to hear this again, I'll tell you," he said with a shrug. "Running a syndicate means you're automatically a target for everyone. It means you can't care about anything, ever, or someone will know and recognize it as a weak point, a method by which to attack you. If you ever have children, then you'll understand and you'll do the exact same thing I did. So I'm choosing to ignore the irrational part of your actions because some things can only be learned through experience and being a parent is one of them."
"No," she said, "that's wrong. Running a syndicate means you can't be seen to care, it means you have an image of ruthlessness that has to be maintained. It means you have to be careful beyond imagination not to show weakness of any kind. It doesn't mean it's impossible to care. So then, let me put this another way. If you were just some ordinary person, like the merchant you pretend to be, would things be different? Would you have cared then? I mean, it's not like I wanted much, I thought I understood what you meant, that it was only when we were absolutely sure no one was watching and then maybe you could…" She trailed off, frustrated and unable to find the words for once in her life. "Answer the question!"
For one of the few times since she had known him, Sun Shang looked uneasy and hesitant. He made no reply and looked down again. But that, of course, was in itself an answer. Siensao lowered her sword.
"Is this what grandfather did to you?" she asked quietly. "He made you this afraid?"
Again, silence prevailed. She put her sword away, shaking her head. She had the answer she'd wanted for so many years and all it did was make her pity her father. It was not remotely satisfying.
"I guess that's it, then," she said. "I'm so glad we had this talk." She turned and left. After a moment, Sun Shang picked up his brush and went on writing as if nothing had happened.
Jomei could be patient. He'd proved that in Teoro and again later on. But he preferred having something to do to occupy his time while he waited. Even swinging a pick again was better than just sitting around doing nothing. But then, the sign of a perfect operation, so Siensao said, was that it was boring. This had to be the best operation for them so far. At least the place was as good as Siensao had claimed.
The site of the ambush was a square room about fifty paces on a side, big enough for benders to fight but small enough that non-benders could close the distance fast enough to be effective. Two tunnels led out of it, one east and one west. On the south side was an old stairway, choked with rubble and debris. It had once led to the surface to allow access for those seeking the aqueduct on the north side of the room, running through a channel beyond a waist-high wall so no one had to bend over to fill a bucket or a jar. A handful of fading glowcrystal torches lit up the place, though a blocked-off skylight was visible on the ceiling.
Jomei and the others waited within some shallow alcoves he had carved out of the stone and blocked off with a thin layer of rock. It wouldn't stand up to serious scrutiny, but in the instant their enemies walked in, they'd be able to surprise them. Siensao and Zoukani were on either side of the eastern entrance, so that as non-benders they'd be as close as possible to the fight. Jomei and Karida were on either side of the west entrance to put then at optimal earthbending range. Spike was stowed away in an alcove above the aqueduct.
Karida had spent the time waiting profitably, dissolving much of the stone on all sides of the room, as well as the floor and ceiling, into sand, but making sure to keep it restrained behind a thick layer of rock so that it would look normal until it was too late.
The miner waited for what seemed like forever, but time had a way of warping underground and he knew it was probably less than an hour after they'd arrived when he heard voices echoing from the east. Slowly, they became audible and he heard footsteps as well, moving quickly but not hurried.
"You know, at some point I'm just going to assume you're leading me in circles and kill one of you." Reki's voice reached his ears, annoyed and flippant. "By the way, I am curious, how exactly did you come up with this whole stupid idea? Did the three of you just get together one day and decide you wanted method of suicide no one had ever thought of before?" Jomei winced. To someone who had been traveling with Reki a long time, the difference between her and the Blood Drinker was obvious, even though she was acting pretty well. There just wasn't the same mad joy slithering through her speech or the same mercurial, bloodthirsty presence. He hoped they hadn't noticed. So there's just three of them. Well, that's not so bad.
The person who answered sounded strangely familiar.
"I walked the path to the horizon once, long ago when I was young, and Thai Dei with me. We met Akycha here in Ba Sing Se, and the subject came up when we spoke of preserving the Order. It was a strange coincidence. Almost enough to make a man believe in destiny."
Then something clicked into place and Jomei had to stop himself from springing the ambush early. That miserable old bastard! Oh, this has been a long time coming. Get out here so I can kill you, you dirty traitor!
Their enemies entered the room, emerging into the dim light, and Jomei saw Reki had spoken true. There were three of them, plus the bagged Kyuzo and Reki herself, sword resting upon her shoulder and wearing the firebender's twin bandoliers of bombs. A Water Tribesman he didn't know preceded them, a swordsman he didn't know was in the middle of the group next to Reki, but in the back was one Master Dongzhou of Omashu. The elderly earthbending master looked worse for the wear, gaunt and bony, but not much less.
Jomei moved the instant Dongzhou cleared the entrance, bursting through the stone in front of him in an explosion of dust and rock shards. Remembering his lessons about controlling the battlefield, he brought his hammer down and sent a wave of thick, choking dust towards his opponents. Kyuzo fell over superbly and pressed the secret button that unlocked his cuffs – the same pair they'd used on Spike, while Reki fended off Thai Dei's heavy slashes. The eastern swordsman's blade was heavier than her own and he took full advantage of his greater strength.
Siensao and Zoukani were only a heartbeat behind Jomei in bursting out of their hiding places, but the dust cloud hit before they could move and before Spike could bend anything. Karida twisted her free hand, the one not holding a sword, and the floor under their enemies dissolved into sand. The enemy response was immediate and devastating.
Dongzhou proved that he had earned the rank of master. He used one hand to clear the dust from the air and the other to turn the floor to stone again in the same instant. Then he took hold of the stone armor Jomei was wearing and flung the miner into Karida, sending both of them tumbling to the floor in a tangle of limbs. The Water Tribesman demonstrated that he was a waterbender of some skill, dissolving the ice spike flung his way with a flick of his wrist. Then he summoned a mighty river of water from the aqueduct and froze Spike in place before she could move out of the way. Thai Dai showed his prowess, holding off Reki one-handed for a frantic few seconds while drawing a throwing knife and hurling the blade at Kyuzo with the other. In that instant, their ambush was within a split second of failing.
Then things turned around again.
As Dongzhou tried to crush Jomei and Karida with a column of stone from the ceiling, both of them joined their power to smash it into sand, and the attack left a wide opening out of which poured an avalanche of more sand, burying the two benders, and both of them swiftly tunneled away. As Spike was about to be crushed within the ice, Zoukani and Siensao moved in, forcing the waterbender to turn it back into liquid and swing a watery shield into place between them. Spike splashed into the aqueduct but managed to grab hold of the retaining wall before the current swept her away and dragged herself out. Kyuzo focused on the thought, the idea, the impossibility that these people were standing between him and Jura, and unleashed his best fire blast in weeks. Water flashed into steam and he definitely got the waterbender's attention. Reki and Thai Dei's duel was changing course, with Thai Dei now slowly retreating, playing defensive to keep the swordswoman occupied and hoping things went well with his friends.
A third second of combat dragged its way into reality, slow as molasses to those caught up in the fight.
Jomei burst up out of the ground in another burst of dust and bits of rock, next to the enemy waterbender, already swinging his hammer, while Karida turned the floor to sand again and carefully poked her head up above ground just enough to see. The waterbender was quick, interposing his element between them, but his shield was getting smaller. Kyuzo's next series of fire blasts boiled more of it away. The firebender was yelling for his bombs. Zoukani and Siensao switched targets to Thai Dei, keeping the swordsman busy while Reki shrugged off the heavy bandoliers and threw them at Kyuzo. Spike came after Dongzhou, throwing ice spikes as fast as she could. The old master was nowhere near as quick as he needed to be to block or dodge them unarmed and when he tried to pull down a wall of stone from the ceiling, he brought more sand down instead, which did block the spike but also gave Karida more power.
The tide had turned, and the battle would end soon. Both sides sensed it, but only one could seize victory.
Kyuzo scrambled over to his bombs, snatched one up, and lit it with a finger snap.
"Flashbang!" he yelled, lobbing it up in the air, and all his enemies closed their eyes for a split second. That was their undoing. Kyuzo snapped his fingers again and the fuse was snuffed out before the grenade went off. Then he threw a fire blast that burned away the last of the waterbender's shield. An ice spike took the Water Tribesman in the gut immediately afterwards. When Dongzhou opened his eyes again he found Karida's sword at his throat and he was standing with sand all about him. Reki made her move, a curious twist of her sword. Steel screeched and she disarmed Thai Dei, sending his weapon skittering across the floor. She and Zoukani kept him covered with sword and spear. The fight was over. Time began moving normally again and Jomei realized just how lucky they had gotten. We won because we prepared this place, we picked it, and we outnumbered them seven to three. And even then, we almost lost there for a minute. That was close, all right.
Siensao, sword still drawn, approached the old earthbender.
"So," he said wearily, "this is how it ends. I'm glad I won't live to see the Order destroyed. I have no wish to live in the kind of world you're creating or that the Fire Nation is making."
"Fine with me," Jomei said, raising his hammer for a deathblow, but Siensao motioned him to stop.
"I take it you didn't fare so well when Omashu fell?" she asked the old earthbender.
"I was warned, along with all the other White Lotus initiates, when the Fire Nation was within a day's march of the city, and most of us either went into hiding or got out. But as the master of the Zan Yu Earthbending Academy, I had a responsibility to my students, who stayed with their families. I stayed and didn't hide. Imagine my surprise when the Fire Nation didn't respect either my years or my station."
"I don't have to imagine," Kyuzo murmured quietly. He'd seen that flash of surprise followed by horror too many times to count.
"Oh, what, that whole peaceful standing aside thing didn't work out for you?" Jomei scoffed. "I told you that the first time we met. I guess some people need to be hit over the head with a lesson to learn it. I'd hoped you were at least better than me about that, but I guess not."
He found that his one-time teacher could still muster a look of supreme disinterest in his mockery and make him feel a little smaller for making it.
"Let me remind you, pupil Jomei, you underwent more or less the same experience as me, though I grant you I wasn't forced into months of hard labor. You lived in your little village, safe and more or less happy, ignoring the outside world, until the Fire Nation came down on you and they were not kind. In fact, they were even harsher than you'd expected. It took that experience to teach you resolve. But I'm too old for a war. The only lesson I learned was that my time and the time of the Black Lotus, has passed. We're too weak to maintain the sanctity of the Order and its place in the world. I don't regret what we did, but it seems our efforts were doomed no matter what happened."
"Well then, why were you trying to kill me at all?" Siensao wanted to know. "If that's what you came to think, why bother going to all this trouble?"
Dongzhou waved dismissively.
"As if you would have ever stopped hunting our organization. The only way was to make you think you had one, and then we could live out our days in what peace is left to us. But then that Dai Li agent got more involved than he should have."
"It wouldn't have helped you," Siensao told him coldly. "The syndicate, under my direction, has spent the last few weeks looking up those people who have entered the city through the gate you were taking Reki to and checking their stories. You and Thai Dei, under false names, are on record, and the only people I couldn't account for in some way. We were very thorough. I knew who I'd be facing before you walked into this room. I just found out yesterday, in fact. The waterbender was a surprise, but not enough of one."
Dongzhou sighed.
"Such is the fate of those who dare to dream, all too often. Are you going to kill me now, or keep talking philosophy? You do seem to enjoy the sound of your own voice."
"I have a fondness for intelligent conversation," Siensao said without missing a beat. "I'm not so foolish as to fall into that trap. I'd kill you right now if I thought I could get away with it, but you are fairly high-ranked within the Order and you'd be missed eventually. I'm not going to take the chance that the ensuing investigation would point to the syndicate and so to me. I can't possibly see how it could, but stranger things have happened and with people like you, it pays to be paranoid. You probably have a plan in the event of your death. I know I do. So I've arranged something better."
"How so?"
Siensao glanced over to their other two prisoners. Thai Dei had his arms crossed and his face betrayed nothing. The waterbender looked only a decade or so younger than Dongzhou and was more concerned with the new spike-shaped hole in his stomach than anything else. He looked like he was in shock.
"You two have anything to say?"
"I always knew that one day the spirits would suffer my violence no longer," Thai Dai said. "That day, it seems, is today. I made peace with this fact long ago."
"I have…nothing to say to the likes of you, woman," the waterbender said, pained but heartfelt.
Siensao rolled her eyes.
"This is the problem with final confrontations, no one takes the time to really delve into matters in any length. I so rarely get the chance to talk before I kill people, and you have nothing to say. Wonderful. Well, anyway, I let slip to a Dai Li spy this morning the results of my aforementioned efforts to hunt you down. I never said I wanted you dead, quite the opposite, in fact, which means that once they get wind of your location and identity, they'll be after you to use you as a bargaining chip with the syndicate." She tilted her head to one side, listening.
"Oh, that sounds like them now. About time, I was getting tired of talking on and on with someone like you. That was also my backup plan in case we started losing the fight, by the way."
The faint hiss of stone sliding against stone became audible in the silence that followed and Dongzhou went pale.
"You know what they do to people!" he said. "What if they find out what I know about the Order?"
Siensao smiled.
"Why, so I do. And don't try that line on me, they don't know you're an initiate so why would they think to ask? Places, everyone! Just step back a bit."
She put her sword away and suited action to words, taking a few steps back. Jomei, stone-faced, returned his hammer to its place on his back, Karida did likewise with her sword, and the rest of the group did the same, standing down from a posture of threat. Then the Dai Li arrived, sweeping into the room from the dark depths of the eastern tunnel, and stone gloves flew, grabbing hold of the three Black Lotus heads and yanking them away from Sienaso's group, who drew their weapons again.
"What is this about?!" Siensao demanded, putting on a fine show of outrage. "What are you doing here?"
"We're taking custody of these men," the agent in the lead informed her. "If you have business with them, you may contact us and we'll see if a meeting can be arranged."
"On what charges?" the merchant demanded.
"Sedition."
"Oh, you're not even going to be a little imaginative, just the usual blanket charge when arresting people for no good reason? This isn't over, you know. Do you know who you're dealing with?"
"You know who you're dealing with, so whoever you are doesn't matter. Enjoy the rest of your day in the finest city in the world, ma'am." And with that, Siensao's great enemies were at last neatly dealt with. A small show of defiance to prove the syndicate was still powerful and Long Feng would execute them forthwith to prove it wasn't, if only to the higher-ups who might know about Siensao's seemingly desperate search.
Karida, who had stayed silent throughout the conversation, at last spoke up again.
"And so my debt to you is paid, Siensao Zhang Ai. Let us speak as equals once more. I'm not proud of what we just did. I'm glad it's over."
"You and me both," Reki agreed. "Siensao, I will not act as the Blood Drinker ever again. This hour in their company was like nothing you have ever experienced. You owe me."
"I know," Siensao said. "I'll pay you back as soon as I can. What is it you want?"
"When I know, I will tell you."
"Um, can we talk about this later, after we get Spike to a healer?" Kyuzo asked, gesturing to the waterbender, who had retrieved a wad of bandages from a pocket and was busily binding up the gash in her side, her face set in a rigid mask.
"Of course, of course," Siensao said. "Come on, let's get out of here. Now that this whole mess is dealt with, we have an Avatar to meet with, though I have no idea how just yet."
Much to her surprise, Siensao found Xin waiting for her at the Zhang Ai estate and he looked very worried.
"What is it?" she asked without preamble. "What's wrong?"
"A few hours ago, Long Feng was just arrested by order of the Earth King," Xin said. "The Avatar broke the Silence and convinced him of the truth about the war."
Siensao swayed on her feet, one hand going to her head as she struggled to process the news. She fought off a wave of dizziness. I am not going to faint again!
The rest of the group was similarly affected, though perhaps not as much as her.
"Huh. I guess the little punk is good for something after all," Jomei grumbled. "I'm still going to punch him in the face, though. He's not getting out of it."
"What…how?!" Siensao finally demanded.
Xin raised his hands helplessly.
"Look, I can explain the details later, right now we need to deal with the fallout. We know the syndicates are going to jump on this and try to get into the Royal Palace and tons of people are going to try and talk to the Avatar. There's going to be chaos in this city while everyone tries to turn this to their advantage. I'm here because now that Long Feng is imprisoned, I'm not bound by his orders anymore and I know you're the best person to help contain the problems in the palace. If I can get you in to see the Avatar for a few minutes, can you convince him to recommend you for the post of Grand Secretariat? The Earth King's a fool, he'll do what the kid tells him so long as it sounds good. We need you to handle the plots of the noble families, the Earth King's relatives, and help stop the syndicates from going crazy and in the worst case, starting a war over this. Not to mention, but the Avatar really needs good advice on how to handle this city and you're definitely a good person to give it to him. I know it's sudden, but I need your answer now."
Siensao began breathing hard as her thoughts accelerated to blinding speed. From heir to the syndicate to the second most powerful person in the Earth Kingdom. Just like that. Oh, yes, and I'd instantly gain the enmity and mistrust of the Avatar, all the noble houses, all the syndicates, and probably Long Feng himself, even if I'm only doing the same thing he would in my place. The possibilities, though…the endless possibilities.
"I can do it," she said firmly. "I'll need a crash course on everything you know about the Avatar, his friends, their activities and histories, and the current situation within the palace. I'll spend the night studying and meet with him tomorrow morning."
"Thank you," Xin said, letting out a sigh of relief. "That eases my mind. I'll have a copy of their dossiers forwarded to you immediately."
The assassin wore the appearance and clothes of a common servant, not well suited at all for the company in which she now arrived. But as she stepped into the large, palatial room, she shed the face and mannerisms of a servant for her own and no one questioned her right to be there. She knelt before the occupant of the room's most prominent chair, touching her brow to the floor as befitted anyone in the presence of royalty.
"The Avatar and all but one of his friends have made plans to leave Ba Sing Se this afternoon, my lady, and are expected to be away for at least a week. A leading authority figure in the city has been arrested and the underworld is seething with chaos. The people are uneasy. If my lady will forgive my presumption, I must say that now is the perfect time to strike."
"You are forgiven," Azula said. Her smile was meticulous malevolence given form. "I agree, there won't be a better time to act. You've done well in your reconnaissance, Yukari. Once we've infiltrated the city, I'll have further tasks for you. We'll pass you off as a servant of ours and no one will pay attention to you. A healer, perhaps. For now, you will begin gathering information within the palace."
"And my target, Princess?"
"Will remain alive and well until I explicitly order her death," Azula said, growing stern and cold. "Do not ask again. If she is as great a threat as you claim, I will give the order in good time. Do you understand?"
There was only one answer to that question.
"Yes, Princess. I understand. This unworthy servant apologizes for her insolence." But inwardly, she was at peace once again. The time of waiting was almost over. Within a few days, she would at last face victory or death, and either way, the fate of Siensao Zhang Ai would be sealed. The assassin was content.