A/N: And here's the bonus chapter!
I'm just going to *slide* in the idea here that cremation is a common practice in the Fire Nation. It seems like it would be, right? Also I'm pretending there are lesser sages than the Fire Sages that find who the next Fire Nation Avatar will be. Nothing else is known about the Fire Nation's religious beliefs (besides witches, evil spirits, and patrons, like everywhere else in the Avatar universe) so I'll just have to go with this. The mood is a little different this chapter. I figured it fit well with wrapping up this storyline.
Thanks for reading :) Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Don't own.
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In a dark time, the eye begins to see,
I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;
I hear my echo in the echoing wood-
A lord of nature weeping to a tree,
I live between the heron and the wren,
Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.
What's madness but nobility of soul
At odds with circumstance? The day's on fire!
I know the purity of pure despair,
My shadow pinned against a sweating wall,
That place among the rocks-is it a cave,
Or winding path? The edge is what I have.
A steady storm of correspondences!
A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon,
And in broad day the midnight come again!
A man goes far to find out what he is-
Death of the self in a long, tearless night,
All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.
~'In A Dark Time', stanzas #1-3, Theodore Roethke
Zuko felt hesitant but schooled his features so it didn't show. He was becoming almost a master at doing that now. He walked – with his guards in a distant square assembly around him – to the cliff point where the funeral was to be held.
A small coupling of people were there, gathered around the sage initiating the ceremony. A gathering double the size was scattered in clumps beyond, near the tree-line that dotted along the coast in this largely uninhabited area. (If it was inhabited, these trees would be torn down so the people could see an uninterrupted and remarkable view of the sea.)
He skirted around the edge of the more intimate gathering, staying just close enough so his presence was known but not enough to intrude. He didn't want to intrude. The small gathering was Shinu's family. Zuko did not recognize any of them but General Shinu, but he knew they were family because he knew the names and descriptions of Kaol Lee Shinu's family.
A father, brother, sister-in-law, niece, and two nephews. His mother had died from a common sickness a few years prior and he never married. Kaol Lee was not even betrothed once, as far as Zuko knew. But that was something private so anything was possible there.
The sage spoke in a long, droning voice where the syllables were muted and the consonants came out like footsteps across a smooth stone surface. It was a sound that, when hear long enough, could drone someone to sleep. That was the purpose as it helped soothe those that were grieving. Or so Zuko was always told. Many of the people from the larger group (mostly military friends or colleagues from the past going to honor the respects from a variety of reason ranging from their presence was required, as the family remembers them, or they were friends with Kaol up until the end, and came because they wished to) huddled closer to hear the sermon.
Zuko felt like it could put him to sleep right about now. He didn't want to be here and wouldn't be, but for his presence being required. For now, though, he just watched. Watched the people and how little of them reacted, usually flickering their eyes here or there and doing much of the same discreet spying and studying of fellow comrades that he, Zuko, was doing. The family did not seem to be grieving much, which surprised him. It surprised him dully, almost like his subconscious was telling him that he should've expected it. The Fire Nation may be full of passion but everyone acts like a statue, Zuko thought idly.
He remembered his Father, then. When his Father would find something unsatisfying, annoying, or in any way remotely displeasing, he expressed it - clearly. If they were out in public or in front of someone important and that they must impress, then his nostrils would just flare, his forehead crease, and he would wait until they were at the palace again. And then he would let it rip. His voice boomed and echoed painfully off of the tall ceilings and slick tiles and walls.
Zuko thought about his own family turmoils as the one in front of him continued to pay respects and find peace.
I haven't thought of my Father in days; well, weeks. Ozai had been there at the Black Rock Prison too. He and Azula did not know it, because Zuko made sure they were completely separate. The first two weeks after his coronation, Zuko visited his Father nearly every day. No one else knew. Not even Uncle. He told the Avatar, Katara, and the others that he had meetings during those times. They left it at that.
It was true enough. He was meeting with someone – they just didn't know it was his Father.
He visited in an effort to discover where his mother was. The first week, Ozai didn't talk more than a few words. The second week, Ozai responded to all of his questions by stating how much his son would be just like him; how he, Zuko, would discover how hard it was, running a nation; how war was necessary to keep everything running smoothly and soundly and that it only worked when done with a tight control. The last day the new Fire Lord visited - the fifteenth day - Ozai snapped and finally admitted he had no idea where Ursa was. He never looked, did not care. He said other things too that Zuko blinked his eyes against the memories of.
Zuko never went again. Angry, pathetic old man, he thought with a frown. An insane, angry, and pathetic old man.
The sage finished and with the end of his voice brought a sudden startling realization to how quiet it was outside. A flock of some gray breed of bird cawed loudly overhead. The sage stepped forward and took a large vase from the oldest man in the intimate family group. The man largely resembled General Shinu. Zuko imagined, now, that he - the father - also shared many of the same looks or actions with Kaol Lee, too, but couldn't much remember the rebel's face. Whether he pushed the rebel's face out of his mind intentionally or by accident (because he did not care about the man enough at all to remember him) didn't matter.
The sage went on to murmur some blessings and dumped the ashes over the cliff edge. There was enough of a wind that they were carried for a little while before dropping into the sea, spreading out wide and far. The uttered words were of a promise of peace. How strange, for Shinu. Those back in Natsuno and Rhange would argue it was wholly undeserved.
Zuko watched on for a few more minutes, pretending to pay his own respects in his mind like everyone else was doing. But he was not doing that really because he didn't even have an ounce of respect for the man. Kaol Lee was a cruel and sullen person who was angered at his lot in life. Zuko knew far too many people the last few years of his banishment and then the handful of months traveling with the Avatar to know that many more people had it a lot worse off and they got used to it. A great deal of them even found more happiness than Shinu ever did with his small inherited fortune and guaranteed position in the military.
Zuko saw General Shinu approaching him, specifically, and waited. He locked eyes with the man after the General made a short, curt bow. "Fire Lord Zuko."
He gave a nod in return. "General Shinu. I am sorry for your loss."
"No you're not," the General said lightly. "And neither am I. Or perhaps I am. It's hard to tell." Zuko only nodded politely and understandingly, knowing the feeling. Sometimes the thought and stress of possibly losing someone hurt more than the actual act. Something he came to discover when Aang stripped his Father of his powers and then Zuko locked him up in prison. Zuko always imagined that, if the time came to make a break like that (because although he didn't want it, his mind still thought of it from time to time), it would be a lot harder and weigh heavier on his conscience than it did now. "My father thanks you for coming."
"It's custom."
"Yes, it is." General Shinu continued to glance about, here and there, into the trees and over the cliff, while talking with an air of ease Zuko did not expect. He unclasped his hands hanging in front of him and said, "If you'll excu-"
"You did a good thing, ending that War. Many of us in the military are more disgruntled about it than anything else – it's our life. War is all we know. But the people are much happier and it was only supposed to be for them," he shrugged. "Engaging in war with our fellow nations wasn't necessary. At least, not that war." Shinu smiled a little at that and bowed. "Excuse me."
Then he turned and walked away and Zuko, for the briefest moment, let the other man's words sink in before turning to leave with his little entourage.
General Shinu was right in what he implied – some wars his nation had engaged in, in the past, were necessary. To protect the people, the nation. But that War, the war his grandfather started, was not. And Zuko did not care one bit if some in the military were unhappy to see it end. Those few were being replaced every day with dozens of the more open younger generation. If those blood-thirsty men under his father hoped to keep their jobs, they would have to swallow their opinions.
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