The Search
Chapter 56: The Way Home
The rush of vertigo tumbled Zuko's stomach as Appa made his descent to the palace grounds. Some of the guards nearly flinched at the landing, thinking themselves under attack until Zuko hopped off the saddle, leaving them stumbling over themselves in apologies.
"We only recently got word of your arrival," the captain said.
"This was a rather sudden development," Zuko replied.
The Fire Lord and his entourage came out to greet them at the door. Hugs, handshakes, and hellos were exchanged between both parties.
"It's good to see you, Zuko," Iroh said. "Come. Dinner will be served soon enough, and this would be a good time to catch up. I understand you had quite a bit of excitement since we last saw each other."
"Yeah," Zuko replied. "But I think we're approaching the other end of the storm." For better or worse, he mentally added.
Dinner turned out to be a relatively private affair, restricted to the four of them. Seeing Toph exercise high-society manners was surprising, but made sense given the recent happenings in her life.
Much was discussed about the local happenings, both the immediate reconstruction efforts and plans for future developments in the Fire Nation.
"I've been thinking of a new holiday," Iroh said. "Something to celebrate in peacetime."
Zuko raised an eyebrow. "Really? What do you have in mind?"
"I was thinking about National Tea Day."
Zuko smirked a little. "Why am I not surprised?" Poking at his plate, he frowned. There was no easy way to broach the subject. "Uncle, I know I never asked you about our family, but…"
"You want to know how it all came to this." Iroh supplied.
Zuko slowly nodded, and Iroh took a deep breath.
"My father had to carve out a path on his own at a young age," Iroh began. "Barely a teenager, and he had been forced to assume a leadership role in the war. He had to master firebending as moved from battlefield to battlefield, instead of learning from the comforts of home as his forbears had. He took to his duties well, and possessed the potential and necessary talents to make him great."
"I was the heir, the oldest by far, and I had made a name for myself as early as my father did, even if I was not quite the natural firebending talent that he, Ozai, and Azula were. As far as Azulon was concerned, with myself and Lu Ten, the Fire Nation was secured."
Iroh sighed, thinking back while his audience watched him intently.
"Part of my brother's greatest flaws are a result of being left with so little direction at a young age. Ozai was…eager for recognition, and as a result, he pushed himself well beyond what was expected of him. His lack of acclaim in court, even when he outperformed his peers, only served to fuel his drive to better himself, quite possibly beyond healthy limitations. At the time, I respected his efforts. But now? Now I think that was when he first started down the path he did."
"And my mother?"
"That is a subject I never heard much of. Ozai suppressed any mention of her since her banishment, and I never did find out why it happened. What I do know is how they met. Azulon had sought to mend ties with between our family and that of Avatar Roku's. I barely made it back in time for the wedding as it was, and no one ever elaborated on anything beyond that."
"Where do we start?"
"There are some storage rooms in the lower levels," Iroh answered. "It's where many of her belongings were kept after she departed. We only recently uncovered it when we were renovating the palace."
"Can we get our hands on those, by any chance?" Zuko asked.
"I will have them brought out. They might be dusty, though."
"While we're working on that, did anyone ever search her quarters?"
"Oh, I'm certain Ozai had her quarters torn apart at some point."
"We ought to check it out. Just to cover all our bases."
"Then I'll have the materials sent there."
Zuko still had the route to his mother's personal quarters memorized. The place had sat dormant for the intervening years, only periodically cleared of dust. Beyond that
Toph prodded the walls. "No hollows in here," she said.
"Right. I suppose it would be safer to hide it elsewhere."
"Avatar Zuko, we have the items you requested."
"Thank you. Mai, can you help me out?"
After a moment of quiet, she nodded. "Of course."
While the trio sifted through the chests of letters. Toph's role was limited to sorting the letters as the other two finished them, arrange the whole collection in chronological order. Secretly, Zuko was worried that there was some hidden cypher he was missing through the whole process.
By the end of the day, they had properly ordered each and every letter, but had gotten no further in uncovering any clues.
"Your mom is really good at talking a whole lot about nothing," Toph said. Blowing her bangs out of her face, she flopped onto her back. "She seems really quiet about anything relating to her past. She talks about early days in the palace, her marriage, some events here and there, but there's no one addressed specifically."
"It does paint a rather boring picture," Mai agreed. "I'm wondering why your father would hold onto these. I thought he would have gotten rid of nearly everything about her."
"Trying to remember happier times?" Toph offered.
Zuko shrugged. "Maybe," he replied. "But he never struck me as the sentimental sort. And Mother never talked much about her past, even with me and Azula. My guess is that my father had any letters she might have sent intercepted, and had forbidden her to speak of her past."
"It would explain the lack of detail," Mai said. "Is there anywhere else she might have hidden special treasures? Places that father might not have looked?"
Zuko mulled it over for a minute. "She always did love the gardens."
[-]
It was as peaceful as always. Perhaps a little too peaceful. The gardens were one of the few places untouched by his battle with Azula, something he was supremely grateful for, now more than ever. Striding alongside the pond, Zuko flung some strips of bread to the turtle-ducks, who were less skittish around him than before.
Watching the ducks gobble their dinner down, Zuko Despite everything being restored, if not improved, the aura of tranquility that used to permeate the grounds was still shattered, as if reeling in shock from the earlier fighting.
"Any idea where your mom liked to hang out?" Toph asked.
"Usually around here."
Mai peered into the pond. "It doesn't look like there's anything down there."
"It would be obvious to hide it there. But we can't be too careful. Toph, would you check-"
"On it," she replied, tapping her foot on the ground. Her head twitched to the side, and she walked over to the northeastern corner. "It's not down there, but I think I've got something."
Toph dug up the corner of the gardens, pulling out an old chest. Time and nature had taken its toll on the container. The iron bracings were rusting and wood was wearing down, but appeared to be intact.
"Here," Mai said as she knelt down and picked the lock.
"So," Toph drawled. "Either this is your mom's, or somebody else decided to bury treasure here. Who wants to roll the dice?"
A click indicated Mai's success, and she popped the lock off. The contents, a collection of letters, poems, and a journal, were still perfectly dry, with little sign of aging.
"Either someone did a remarkable job sealing this, or hasn't been here for much more than a couple of years."
Zuko picked up the journal, flipping open the first few pages, and froze.
"This is her handwriting," Zuko murmured. "Looks like something she kept before she came to the capital." Standing, Zuko closed the chest. "Let's get this moved up to the rest of our clues. We can work on the rest in the morning."
"I got it," said Toph, grabbing the chest and plopped it on her shoulder.
Trailing after the earthbender, Zuko sank into deep thought. Something that did not go unnoticed.
"What's on your mind?" Mai asked.
"It's what my father said," Zuko replied. "Right before he died."
Toph's steps faltered slightly. "About what?" she asked.
"According to him, and grandfather had ordered my death, and that my mother had intervened to prevent that."
"Are you saying your mother killed Azulon?" asked Mai.
Zuko furrowed his brow "I don't know."
"Are you sure he wasn't leading you on?" Toph asked.
"The timing of it all makes sense. Grandfather dying and mother leaving the exact same time. Why all mention of her name ceased the same day my father assumed the throne, and why no one really talks about her even now. All I really know is that any answers – if there are any at all – my mother is the only one who might be able to provide the necessary closure."
Morning started bright and early. Zuko had elected to occupy his mother's old room, and as a result, his wakeup call was brought about by Toph essentially kicking the door open. Mai was not far behind.
"Hira'a," Mai said.
"What?"
"This letter mentions Hira'a."
"Well, that's more than we had earlier. Where did you get that?"
"I took it from the top of the stack in the chest."
"Were any of these ever sent?"
"Probably not, especially if our other theory holds true. She probably wrote those other letters as a cover for these."
"Very well. Might as well get a start on the day."
Zuko's eyes immediately went to the ear-worn journal, flipping the pages to the beginning.
Hira'a again.
"It looks like your mother was a Magistrate's daughter," Mai said, browsing through the letters once more. "Lots of references to flowers, too."
"Makes sense," Zuko replied. "Apparently there was a massive garden in her childhood home. Even some rough sketches of the place."
As much as he wanted to leave no stone unturned, it was balanced by a pressing lack of time to do so. Making a promise to come back and read the journal in its entirety at a later date, he began browsing the contents.
It didn't take too awfully long to find something of relevance.
There's some rather big news today. Fire Lord Azulon visited with Prince Ozai, proposing an arranged marriage. This was apparently an address to the friendship between Fire Lord Sozin and Avatar Roku, hoping to mend ties between both families. I was allowed some time to speak with Prince Ozai in private, and he's so awkward! I asked him about his hobbies, and his responses came out stiff and formal.
Still, my persistence in the matter yielded some results. His skill in portraits is striking. We've hardly known each other for a day, and he's captured a remarkable level of detail. It was like looking into a mirror.
Evidently, his mother had kept the picture. Strange as it was, he couldn't help but see the resemblance to Azula, only lacking the malice and plotting lurking behind her confidant smile.
I am leaving home tomorrow. In all likelihood, this will be the last time I see this place. I will certainly miss mother and father, and I doubt Lu will be home before our departure. I'm sure the theater and the troupe will keep in my absence. I haven't seen Ikem since the announcement. I hope he's doing alright.
I really wished I could have stayed long enough to by the Dragon Empress. I had worked hard for that role. But alas, destiny calls, and a new stage requires my presence.
After that, all mention of mention of her home seemed to vanish, focused solely on her life within the palace, including her early married years, some moments of which Zuko sorely wished he could scrub from his memories.
But he soldiered on, up to the point almost eighteen years ago.
It was a trying ordeal, this birth. I'm told that this is not entirely unusual, but after a few harrowing minutes, the baby is deemed healthy. We decided to name him Zuko, Prince of the Fire Nation. Even when Lu Ten assumes the throne, Zuko will still have that.
He has his father's eyes. Ozai is concerned about his ability to firebend, but I convinced him that his talents would surface in time. He seemed skeptical, but he agreed in the end. I imagine some his concerns were rooted in his own experiences, and Ozai had triumphed in the end.
Zuko shifted, uncomfortable at the comparisons made between him and his father. In a bid to ignore the feeling, he turned through the next few pages, all of his early days. Soon enough, he reached the entries about his sister.
The new princess is lively. Already we have had to have another firebender on hand to douse and fires she starts. Ozai is taking better to being a father.
Moving along, he caught on to one of the family's vacations to Ember Island. This particular entry detailed something Zuko could only vaguely recall, and the memory was fragmentary. As the story went, he had apparently tried to ward off a hawk from attacking a turtle-crab.
It was strange, imagining Ozai showing concern, or even stepping in to save his son's life. Apparently, Zuko spent the rest of the vacation at his father's side.
Despite the apparent unity within the family for a time, Zuko could only imagine how things got worse from then on. Times his father seemed distant, growing colder towards everyone around him. His mother's efforts in keeping peace in the deteriorating relation between her children.
Entry by entry, Zuko could see the days counting down to the event. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until the day they received news of Lu Ten, after which, all normal entries ceased.
Before the expanse of empty pages, was one final line that, unsurprisingly, gave nothing as to where she might have gone, or even what she had done. What it did have was a final remark.
When did the man I fell in love with turn into a monster, and how was it I never realized it until now?
Closing the journal, Zuko frowned. Never once did she indicate anything other than a fairly normal life within the palace, raising a family without any serious crisis. What's more, she never left any indicators as to where she might have gone.
"So it looks like Hira'a is our next stop," Zuko announced.
Mai looked up from her own readings. "According to this, she hadn't been back in years. If she was really on the run, she wouldn't have gone to the first place anyone would look."
"True, but this is still the only lead we have at the moment."
A/N: As much fun as it would be to go through the whole thing like I did with Kuzon's Tale, time and pacing constraints (in-universe and out-) demanded I cut down the exploration of Ursa's journal and letters, abbreviating it to what you see here.
