A/N: Part of the reason for the delay is that this particular bit of the story is critical, so I wanted to make sure all of it fit together as neatly as possible before putting it up. It seems that it does, so updates will be a bit more frequent until I run out of reserve material. As always, kudos to Sylvacoer for editing work and enjoy the show.
Siensao had never been so thrilled and terrified at the same time. The suffocating blanket of the Silence and the oppression of the Dai Li were cracking, even shattering in places. Ba Sing Se, on the surface a stagnant lake, but with deep, powerful currents below, was growing stormy. It was moving again, beginning to manifest its true strength, darkness, and complexity in very visible ways. Chaos and opportunity went hand in hand and she was going to be one of the focal points around which events flowed and bent. And every moment of every day, her life hung by a thread.
Right now that thread took the form of Xiahou Xin, trailing behind her by a few steps, wearing the humble clothes of a scribe and carrying a writing board, paper, and charcoal stick. The Dai Li Agent had gotten himself assigned as her minder – it having been his idea to put her up as the placeholder for the Grand Secretariat until matters were resolved – and he was insurance against Long Feng's game piece (for so he undoubtedly thought of her) trying to think for herself. To her right was Zoukani, looking official for once in the armor of an Earth Army soldier of the palace guard. Jomei, to her left, was supremely uncomfortable in another set of armor. He'd had to leave his warhammer behind, as an earthbender of that division was not expected to need a weapon beyond what the spirits gave them. Reki, Karida, Spike, and Kyuzo were simply not able to pass as official within the Royal Palace by any stretch of the imagination and were not present.
The group of four was on its way to a meeting that would mean life or death for them and their friends. Long Feng had decided and Siensao, for once, agreed, that it would be foolish for her to talk to the Avatar directly about her appointment. A careful selection of what information was discovered when they raided the former Grand Secretariat's study had sent the Avatar and most of his friends off on various errands, leaving only one of them here in the city. Besides the Avatar himself, the Dai Li's files picked her as the most susceptible to manipulation, optimistic and naïve, but intelligent enough to think she could take care of herself. So now, here Siensao was. If she could convince this person she deserved the post, all was well. If not, her remaining lifespan could be measured in minutes.
They halted before a varnished wooden door, beyond which was the room where the Avatar's friend was currently housed.
"Good luck," Xin said, not without a certain kindness.
"Ah, you'll be fine," Jomei said, grinning. "Knock'em dead."
Zoukani merely smiled.
"Thank you," Siensao said, nodding. She took a deep breath, then knocked on the door. After a moment, it swung open, revealing what lay beyond.
The interior of the room was decadent beyond even the richest rooms in the Zhang Ai estate. A thief would have a seizure at the thought of how much just the ceremonial tea set on the corner table was worth and an artist would swoon upon seeing the artwork adorning everything. For her part, Siensao hid how impressed she was at the strategic layout of the room and the provisions for secret doorways, listening spots, and peepholes. The designers of the palace had thought of everything. But by far the most important feature of the room was the person she had come here to meet.
"Greetings, Lady Katara," Siensao said, bowing low. "There are some important matters which require your attention. May I enter?"
"Sure, come in," the young Water Tribeswoman answered. She had the faintly embarrassed look of those not born to privilege, who disliked the subservience of others. Well and good. Siensao entered, closing the door behind her, studying the girl without appearing to do so.
She looked much as the reports had described. A teenager, Water Tribe, blue and white clothes as they preferred, a pouch of water on her back. The only sign of wealth about her was a silver necklace.
"So what is it?" Katara asked. Sienaso detected a certain hesitance, the resigned politeness of someone who was getting tired of work but was determined to see it through as best she could. Also good. Siensao took her life in her hands and prepared to disobey her orders.
"I have something to say and a request to make of you," she said, shedding the 'humble servant' persona and straightening up, speaking as one equal to another. That got Katara's attention, breaking her out of the 'routine servant thing' mindset.
"Okay," Katara said, frowning slightly. "What is it you have to say?"
"I am a criminal," Siensao said, imagining the Dai Li watchers behind the walls trying to suppress their conniption fits upon hearing that. "I am the heir to and a participant in the activities of the Zhang Ai Syndicate, one of the four largest syndicates in Ba Sing Se. Our collective crimes encompass virtually the entire code of law of the city and until now, I have wholeheartedly supported what we do. I still do, for that matter, crime isn't going to organize, regulate, and otherwise control itself and it's surprising how much more order there is when we're involved. That's what I have to say."
Katara looked shocked, to put it mildly.
"What-are you crazy?! Why are you telling me this?! You just walk in here and say something like that and you have a request to make of me? How does that work?!"
"I'm telling you this," Siensao said calmly, "so that if anything I do displeases you, you may have me executed. I was not ordered to tell you, this is my choice. I was sent by the Council of Five to make this request of you: Recommend me to the Earth King for the post of Grand Secretariat. With Long Feng imprisoned, the post is vacant."
She held up a hand to nip Katara's next outburst in the bud. "Wait! Hear me out before you say no. You've seen how Ba Sing Se was before you and the Avatar came, it was a tyranny of oppression and silence and a certain kind of order. Long Feng kept all the factions in the city balanced, busy, and sometimes at each other's throats to keep that order intact. Now he's gone, and that order isn't going to last until the end of today unless we act. The syndicates will think this is their big chance to infiltrate the Royal Palace and exert more control, or start another round of wars between themselves. The noble houses will start scheming for power and the royal family might just decide there's one of them better suited to sit on the Jade Throne than the current Earth King. The commoners might see this as their time to regain their lost rights, by force if necessary. The last time that happened, it took Avatar Kyoshi to restore peace, and these days, they outnumber the military garrison a thousand to one at least. To put it bluntly, Lady Katara, you and this fledgling movement for good you've created need help keeping what you've won. I'm here to provide it to you."
She fell silent and let Katara absorb all that she had said and its implications. The best part was, it was all true. Eventually, the waterbender came to a resolution.
"What's in this for you?" she asked, her frown deeper now. "If you're such a criminal, why are you offering to help? Is this about money? Are you just going to use your new power to do the opposite of what you say you will?"
"Lady Katara, I just handed you my death sentence, if you ever suspect I'm not doing what I've promised," Siensao said, letting a little of her fear bleed into her performance. That wasn't hard. "This was the only way I could think of to make you understand the situation I'm in! As soon as you or your allies find someone you think is better qualified for the post, I'll resign! I don't want to be here, cleaning up the Avatar's mess! I'm here because the Council of Five told me to be here or else. They'll deny it if you ask them, it would be a terrible loss of face for them to admit to even speaking with a criminal like me, but they're why I'm here. So I'm giving you the same leverage they have on me, because, hey, why not?! I'll do the best I can to keep this city from dissolving into all-out chaos and war because I like it better that way. If you'd rather take your chances and pick someone else, fine! They'll have me executed for not doing my job and convincing you I'm the right person for the post, but it's not like I had much to live for anyway. So go ahead, just get it over with. I'm…" She swallowed hard, looking down. Her voice grew very quiet. "I'm tired of being afraid all the time ever since they told me what I had to do. Just end it, please." That was it, that final crack in the shell, that vulnerability that would snare Katara. She was a healer, she needed to believe that people were good at heart and they could be redeemed. And it was true, she was taking an enormous risk. This wasn't at all what she was supposed to be saying and even if Katara agreed, she might well be in a lot of trouble. But what worked, worked.
"Wait, wait just a minute, I don't want you to die!" Katara said, recoiling at the idea. "It's just..."
"Just what? What more do you want from me?" Siensao said bitterly.
Katara got another unique look on her face, one that brought a secret joy to the merchant's heart. That was the look that she'd seen on Jomei's face many times and Kyuzo's as well. That was the look that said I'm going to regret this somehow. The waterbender sighed.
"Look, I'll tell the Earth King you should have the job. Aang and Sokka will be back in a week anyway and we'll figure something out for you then, something that doesn't involve dying. Okay?" She tried on a kindly smile and Siensao made a sad attempt at imitating it.
"Thank you, Lady Katara. I truly appreciate this. You're too kind to someone like me."
"I don't think so," Katara said confidently. "I think you're better than you think you are. Maybe this job will be what you need to leave this syndicate of yours. It's never too late, you know. Is there anything else you want to say?"
Sure, Siensao thought, there's plenty I'd love to say except if I do, they'll kill me. Execute Long Feng now, not two weeks from now! Do a background check on these 'Kyoshi Warriors' wandering the palace that claim they're your friends whom I'm specifically not supposed to investigate! Do not, for the love of heaven, tell the Earth King anything about whatever plans you have for the war!
"No," she said aloud, "I guess that's it. If you'll write out your recommendation – there's a scribe waiting outside – then I really should get to work, I suppose."
And a minute later, she was off along the corridors again.
"You owe me a silver piece," Jomei said to Xin. The Dai Li agent dug the coin out of a pocket and handed it over, chuckling.
"What was the bet?" Siensao asked.
"Xin said it'd take you ten minutes to convince her," Jomei said. "I said you'd do it in five."
The assassin finished her report and awaited orders. Said orders were not long in coming.
"Now that order is being maintained, we need to begin preparations to break it when the time comes for invasion," Azula said. "Scout out the syndicates, the noble families, the royal family, and any commoners that might pose a major threat to stability, and lay the foundations for a moment of chaos that the Fire Nation can step in and calm. Find out what it will take to start a war among the syndicates. Identify which nobles are ambitious, how to encourage their ambition, and how to kill them as swiftly as possible. Come up with a plan to kill the Earth King's immediate relatives and capture or coerce the rest into compliance. And find out what it will take to spur the commoners into violent action, though that may or may not be necessary, depending on our success in other areas. And lastly, keep an eye on your target. We don't want her exceeding her mandate. If she does, you have my permission to eliminate her. Make it look like an accident, if possible. If not…I'll understand. You may make use of the Dai Li for your work so long as it doesn't conflict with my own efforts."
If the assassin could have felt anything, she would have felt pride at serving one such as the princess. Her plan was as good as anything the assassin herself could have come up with.
"It will be done, Princess," she said. "May this humble servant be permitted a question?"
Azula arched an eyebrow.
"One question. And it had better be a good one."
"What will you be doing while I carry out your orders? I ask so I may better coordinate my activities with yours and avoid duplication of effort."
"Very well, I suppose I'll answer that. I'll be taking care of the military and government forces within the palace. The palace guard, the Council of Five, the various ministers and officials who might make trouble, and the Earth King, of course. Now then, you're dismissed. You have a great deal of work to do and little time, and I will not accept excuses, not even from you."
Jomei listened to the earth. It was quite possibly the most frustrating, interminable, task he'd ever attempted as far as earthbending went. He was sitting cross-legged on the stony ground of Xin's makeshift training arena in the caverns under the Royal Palace, trying to feel everything about the rock all around him. What he got in return was more or less silence and nothing more than the general presence of his element, which was the same as normal, but there were hints of something else beyond that, just at the edge of his awareness.
Maybe once in a half hour, like a faint whisper, he sensed a particular aspect of the earth, a miniscule fracture line, a difference in the type or thickness of the rock in a certain spot, one of the voids a miner sometimes ran into when tunneling down into the depths, things like that.
This time, he tried something else than just listening. When he sensed a fracture line that ended nearby, he raised one hand and slammed it down right on that line. With a sound like a thunderclap, the fracture line broke all the way along its length, and the stone in front of him practically exploded as a fissure opened up in a rough variant of the Teeth of Stone form. It was probably the best result he'd ever gotten from that form.
"It seems you're beginning to understand how perception and spiritual understanding can give you power," Xin noted. Getting to his feet, he repaired the damage with an ease that belied the effort he put into fusing stone together. Then, tucking his arms behind his back in his usual lecturing posture, he went on. "A master earthbender is always conscious of every detail of the earth around him. I've heard the greatest earthbenders can even attract the attention of local earth spirits and that's why some of their techniques are so powerful, but it isn't something I can attest to. Regardless, knowing everything about the earth you have to work with is of immense value, no matter what bending technique you use. You can break it easier, you can make the stone you work with more solid and move large quantities faster, and so on. The list is a long one. Of course, in order to perceive all of this, you must by necessity open your mind to spiritual matters. You become more patient, perceptive, and strong of will and mind. Though sometimes you might not like what you perceive." This last was said more quietly, almost as an afterthought.
Jomei listened carefully. And he did notice something. Xin didn't seem like his usual self. He seemed…worried. Jomei knew he was worried, with him and Siensao being neck-deep in trouble and enemies, and surely Xin had good reason to be worried too. The Dai Li were finished if things kept on as they had been. And that led back to the reason Jomei was suspicious. He knew they were planning something to get back on top, so Xin shouldn't be worried about that. Which at last led to the important question…what was he worried about and why?"
"Something wrong?" he asked. Xin sighed.
"Many things are wrong these days, pupil Jomei. I have no wish to add my troubles to your own."
"Well, you've helped me out a lot," the miner pointed out. "Seems like I ought to return the favor somehow. I'm no good at giving advice, but I can tell you what I think about something."
Xin considered this a moment.
"Let's say that you were working as a steward of a lord's estate. You do your job and you do it well, and your lord respects your work. All is well. But then, your lord is murdered and his foolish younger brother takes over. You know he has never liked you and plans to dismiss you from your post, possibly even imprison or execute you out of fear. Then, one of your old lord's enemies speaks with you and offers you life and service, as well as continued respect, if you will only serve them once they take over the estate. You have only two choices, to chance the foolish lord's displeasure, or betray the trust your old lord placed in you. Which do you choose?"
So, Jomei thought, someone in Ba Sing Se is going to back the Dai Li if they're made Earth King. Well, that's about what Siensao expected. She'll think of something. I hope.
"That depends on whether or not this new lord is going to fight the Fire Nation," Jomei said. "I don't really care who gets to be Earth King so long as they get off their ass and do something about the army outside the walls."
Xin sighed.
"You're not even going to go along with the metaphor for even a minute? Really?" But there was a wry smile on his face. "Siensao has been teaching you too well."
"Thanks. So, are you going to answer my question?"
"I think you've answered mine, so there's no need." Xin was as he had been before. Calm. Confident. A Dai Li agent secure in his power and determination. Jomei hoped he did the right thing with that, and the smart thing. As Kyuzo had made so painfully clear, they weren't always the same.
Siensao staggered into the Grand Secretariat's quarters, which were, oddly enough, very much to her taste, sparse without being severe, elegant without being ostentatious. Either Long Feng and I are more alike than I thought or he has a good interior decorator. She slumped into a chair, rubbing at her temples, where the beginnings of a thundering headache were starting up. It had been a long day indeed. And I thought helping run the syndicate was tough. Let's see, what's the count now…fifteen regicide plots headed off, twenty-three conspiracies or coup plots among the noble houses dealt with, thirty-seven possible sparks for a syndicate war snuffed, one hundred and eighteen infiltration attempts by various people into the palace discovered, six riots in the Lower Ring quelled before they had a chance to grow too large, and one idiot Earth King saved from himself too many times to count when holding court. You'd think Long Feng could have at least had a plan in place for when he died or retired so that whoever took over wouldn't be a complete incompetent. But no, it was all about him, wasn't it? So, the busy work is done. And I still have my real work to do.
Steeling herself for a few more hours of work yet, she stood up again and began sorting through the low-priority messages awaiting her attention. One scroll, tied with a white ribbon and marked with the obscenely boring title Monthly Fire Watch Reports, Anzhou District, was the one she wanted, that was the code of the first message from Kei Dao. The little bastard had almost refused to continue working for her because she'd 'gone legit,' but a hefty sum of gold had settled that complaint. Assurance that he'd be arrested and executed if he got caught, like any other criminal preserved the 'thrill of the job', so to speak. Unrolling the scroll, she picked out the complex cipher with practiced ease. It was bare bones, but infinitely more interesting and dangerous than anything else she'd seen today.
Kyoshi Warriors involved Dai Li. Not sure how. No progress identify. Avatar blind friend prisoner, left yesterday bound southwest. Your reports filtered, naturally. Sent soldiers after, expect them overtake jailers three days, maybe more. Made contact Smiley, conditioned, get results tonight, will send word tomorrow, if I live. Reki, Karida, Spike in place. Fire Nation intelligence reports filtered, Fire Army massing at west Outer Wall, waiting for something. Fire Navy task force gathered near Chameleon Bay, have broken off engagements with East Earth fleet. Will overrun Water Tribe defenders within week if nothing done. Have found loyal commanders/officials and arranged contingency plan for Dai Li overthrow, code phrase 'Tainted Jade.' Not many, though. Think enemy agent at work, good one. Am trying to avoid notice, not sure success. End report.
Siensao scoffed as if in disgust for the benefit of the watchers and tossed the scroll into the fire burning in the fireplace. That was what it was there for, much more so than heating the room. She procured a blank scroll and a brush and began composing a reply disguised as a note to the head of the Fire Watch complaining about the lack of detail in his reports, using a different cipher than the one she had just read. If this note was read by her enemies, as it would be, they wouldn't have any basis for comparison. A Grand Secretariat's work is never done. I hope Reki and the others are doing all right.
Old Ba Sing Se was the stuff of legends. Older than earthbending, maybe even older than the Avatar. Its vast chambers, caverns, and passageways had been hacked out of the bones of the earth by the sweat and labor of the ancients. The tales claimed that this was done to protect mankind's greatest stronghold from the wrath of the spirits above and the demons below, for in those times, the Spirit World and mortal world had not yet separated completely. Vast and ancient, it had lain empty and silent for thousands of years, until it was forgotten entirely by most of the world. Even the people of Ba Sing Se itself mostly knew nothing of it aside from the name. This made it the ideal place for those who did not wish to be found or observed, and knew of the secret paths down into its depths from the Royal Palace far above. Kei Dao should have felt right at home. But he didn't, not one bit. Something was wrong.
He crept silently down the dark halls without even a glowcrystal chip for light, relying on his other senses and his excellent memory to guide him back to the blanket-lined hole in the wall he was using as a hideout these days. He was more and more certain someone was on his track. It was the sort of thing you came to notice after years in his profession, the things people didn't say when you were busy persuading, bribing, or intimidating them, a kind of intent you could sense from a determined pursuer, a dozen things you saw but didn't know you saw making themselves manifest. He was being tracked and wander as he did through the dark, the feeling wouldn't go away.
He made a spur-of-the-moment decision, abandoning his plan to return to his bolt-hole and instead began making his way up towards the palace. He had a servant's outfit in place for this eventuality. If he couldn't lose his pursuer in this maze, he'd lose himself in the veritable army of other servants scurrying about the halls. He knew if he were up against himself and the other him did that, he'd be very lost. He would bet on his ability to blend in and outlast his follower's memory and endurance any day. Then the sense of wrongness spiked abruptly and Kei Dao broke into as quick a sprint as he could, no longer caring for silence. Now was the time to run or die.
So he ran, back into the lighted hallways to increase his speed on the uneven ground. There was a place nearby in the Crystal Catacombs that held a large, square-cut river channel full of fast-flowing water. He could dive into it and let it carry him away. He knew where it came out and he could hold his breath that long. All he needed to do was hold it a little longer, let his pursuer sail on by in the pitch black water, and claw his way back out the way he'd gone in. That would lose anything or anyone.
The sense of wrongness was overpowering now but he was grinning, for he was in his element and no one outwitted Kei Dao on the move. He burst out into the wide, brightly lit cavern, practically flying across the ground towards the river channel. I can make it, I can make it! He was fifty feet away. He was thirty feet away. Twenty. Ten! Five! But as he gathered himself to leap the last few paces, a stone wall shot up in front of him, fifteen feet high at least, too high to jump and too wide to go around in time. He whirled about, drawing poisoned throwing knives and found himself facing a masked woman in dark clothes similar to his own, a sword in one hand.
"You have me at a disadvantage," he said breezily. "Have I killed someone you cared about or something? I sort of lose track after all these years but if you can give me a few details, I'll try and remember."
"You serve Siensao Zhang Ai," she said calmly. "You've been very busy. I want to know what you've been up to."
"Well, let me see, I do seem to recall running a few errands for someone of that name. I dusted the bookshelves, swept the floors, and made off with a very nice Song Dynasty hair pin that nobody was using. Does that make me a criminal?"
"Tell me, Kei Dao," she asked. "Why do you deserve to live?"
He rolled his eyes.
"Oh, you're one of those types, eh? What, do they stamp you people out at a factory or something? One of those killer-slash-poets, icy professional, who can never just stab or poison somebody, you have to spend five minutes waxing eloquent first." As he spoke, he began pacing back and forth. "As one professional to another, it's very bad form to let a victim talk. Quite aside from the security risks, they might prove to be very boring conversation." He flashed a grin. "With me, you might wind up doing quite a bit more than that. I can be very persuasive and there's room in my bunk for two if we squeeze."
"Answer the question, please."
"What, you're just going to stand there and keep asking me that? What if I don't want to answer? Or what if I lie? For that matter, what if I answer your question with a question? Why do you deserve to live?"
"If you refuse to answer my question, I see no reason to answer yours."
"Oh, so you want to trade questions? Well, seeing as how you do have the upper hand, I think you should answer first. I don't entirely trust a woman who wears a mask. I can understand why you'd want to kill me, of course. You know, one of my former clients spent five years trying to have me killed? I suppose I should have worded my breakup letter a little better, but I was evading a bounty hunter at the time and wasn't thinking too clearly. Probably should've sent flowers, at least."
"Bragging about your experiences with women isn't going to make it any more likely I won't kill you," she informed him.
"Who said it was a woman?" he answered, entirely too smug for his own good. "So, about my question…?" His pacing was taking him closer and closer to the edge of the stone wall behind him. All he had to do was get to the water and he was home free.
She raised another stone wall to the side of the first.
"Very well," she said. "I'll ask the question again once the Dai Li are done with you." She dropped into her fighting stance again and he raised his hands, throwing knives still in them.
"All right," he said with a shrug. "I surrender. Come on over and cuff me. I deserve whatever I get."
She tried to sink him into the ground and he was forced to jump to the side, hurling the knives in midair, then sprinting for the end of the stone wall. She dodged one knife and blocked the other with her sword, buying him a little time. He was almost there when a massive sheet of stone burst upwards in front of him, rising at least thirty feet high and cutting him off from any chance of getting to the river. So she was just holding back to make me feel like I had a shot. Bitch. I like her!
He whirled about and drew more knives, throwing them one after the other as he charged towards her instead, keeping her too occupied to bend again. Drawing his sai, he closed the last few feet separating them, aiming for her head with his right blade whilst attempting to trap her sword with the left. He was almost immediately disabused of the idea of winning there as she nearly took his hand off in the first few seconds of the fight. But so long as he maintained a precise distance, she still couldn't stop to bend again, so it was a test of endurance and positioning. He tried to force the fight to move towards the river, but she was having none of it and maintained her position, pinning him in place. It was a test of endurance now. Who would slip up first? If she'd been trying to kill him, though, he knew he'd be dead by now. She wanted him alive, if possible, and that made survival possible as well.
Well, I guess it's finally time for the big gamble. Probably it won't work and she'll just lop my head off. Well, I had a good run and Min Liu will inherit quite a bit of gold. But if I survive, oh, then we have possibilities.
He reached up behind his neck and drew out a particular knife, one that he'd kept ready for a long time, and slashed himself across the forearm. Then he dropped his weapons. He could already feel the cut burning as the poison raced through his veins.
"Sorry," he said, still smiling. "But this is a proprietary mixture. I'll sleep for a week and be lucky if I wake up again. Nothing personal, you understand. At the end of that time, I'm guessing you or Siensao will have settled things and I'll work for whoever survives." He yawned. "Wow, that really works…fast…g'night….beautiful…"
He toppled over and everything sank into oblivion.
Yukari pondered her options. He was being truthful about being willing to work for them, and she was always disinclined to waste valuable resources, particularly when the Dai Li were there to ensure his loyalty regardless of what he claimed. But on the other hand, his absence one way or the other would let Siensao know his part in her plan might have been discovered and she would surely spare no effort to find wherever they held him before he could betray her. Short-term security versus a long-term resource. In the end, though, even if he was conditioned, some minds had a way of being slippery and circumventing the limits placed on them. And once the Fire Nation was victorious, he might at some point switch sides again. If victory was not assured, she wouldn't be adverse to making use of imperfect resources, as Princess Azula was not. But with Ba Sing Se and the Earth Kingdom ready to fall, they had no need for an assassin of dubious loyalty, not when there were others who would know whatever information he possessed. It was decided.
Yukari lifted up his unconscious body on a stone slab to waist height, leaving no support under the head and neck, and raised her sword.