Chapter 56: Dangerous Exposure
A figure in black, dropped several large coins from his gloved hand into the servant's eager palm. The servant then vacated the usually unused wing of the estate. The dark figure strode wide easy steps down the abandoned corridor. There was no need to be concerned for discovery. No one ever really comes here. Also, the "Green Dragon", how very bloody presumptuous of the young man to call himself such a name, the "Green Dragon" was out very early this morning for training in the embarrassing Lower District dojo. He stopped at the door the servant had indicated the other day. At first testing, he found it locked with no locking or unlocking mechanism on the outside. How very interesting…. He removed some tools he paid much for from a Fire Nation contact last year. With some jiggling and sliding of his tools at the doorframe, the lock clicked open. Satisfied, he opened the door.
The floor mats were in a small martial arts practice area. The room was very clean with sunlight streaming in through the many bay windows, dappling the floor through the plants. He scanned the room to ensure it was clear, his dagger in one hand. Carefully, he closed the door behind him and opened one of the windows. He looked down out the window. There below was an overgrown and neglected garden in the west and back of the estate. Shame this family never held parties here, it would be beautiful if it had been tended. Just the same, it would give him cover for an escape in case the young noble came home early.
He sifted through the piles of papers and journals on the sitting desk, raising an eyebrow at the seals on some of them. This will be interesting information. He thought of taking them all with him, but the notion of leaving them here to be discovered by the Dai Li was too pleasing. It would mean the fall of this family in short order. Why was this noble so interested in the history of the city and its structures? Was he seeking the truth about Lake Laogai? OH! Mu-Tan's resignation letter. Wonder where that old dragon has gotten too these days, he mused. And notes upon notes of historical accounts about Sozen's Comet. That is a different handwriting. So, he has help. That is interesting too. When he came across the writs of Long Feng's arrest, he tucked them into the inside of his vest. "Little noble," he chided, "You really do not need those." He searched for the seal he was sure must be here. Something. Anything… anything at all to prove his theory. He shoved the scrolls about temples aside and started turning over books and bundles of notes in frustration. It has to be here.
Then he stopped. He looked back at the neat mats on the floor in the open space. "Sly noble." He walked over and stamped a foot. A small series of rumbles waved through a few tiles under the mats. "Ahhhh… so you do have hollow tiles under there. How foolish of you. Almost everyone does and uses them." He stamped a foot again to earthbend a couple tiles up slightly. He stepped off the mats and tossed them back to reveal the opened cubbies from the loose and shifted tiles. They were all empty. He snarled and smashed his fist through one tilted tile.
The door started to open and he snapped his head up. "Trav? Travahar?" came a young woman's voice from the slightly open door. The figure dashed to the window and dropped to the ground cursing quietly. He let the thick foliage swallow his presence. Then cursed himself more for not staying long enough to find out who this bold woman was to enter what was supposed to be strictly off limits to all.
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Hwa Lan peeks in. "Travahar? Are you here?" The door creaked open having not been securely closed, which is odd considering how carefully Travahar closed it before. She looks around. "Travahar?" Hm... she thinks to herself. This seems odd. She steps inside and takes a closer look, wary that maybe someone else might be in here. No one was. A bay window swung slightly open, the papers were a scattered mess and the tatami mat he meditates on was pulled up revealing different tiles from the rest of the floor. Some of the tiles were lifted and one was cracked.
She frowned. This is clearly not a good sign. She went over to the papers to see if any of the ones she remembered from her last visit were missing. The writs about Long Feng and his arrest were gone. Was it someone in his employ then that had been there? What was really going on with Long Feng and the Dai Li? She will have to ask Travahar when she met up with him. She debated cleaning this mess up or waiting here with everything like this. Travahar needed to know someone got in here. Her keen sight caught something tucked under a plant in the back behind the sitting table. It was a journal, Travahar's note journal, with the household crest upon it. It had several folded pages and loose sheets and tabs sticking out. It must have been missed by the intruder. Hmm… She put that back where it was, but will make sure to point out to him that it's not a good enough hiding spot. He's lucky it wasn't taken.
She moved to inspect the tiles next. Several were lifted and tilted, one cracked and a few solid in place. The cracked one was beside an uncracked one. She could see a hole on the side of the cubby leading into a cubby under the uncracked one. As she put her hand against it, she could feel a soft draft. There was space under the other tile. Is there a tunnel here? Some sort of secret passage? Maybe that's how whoever it was got in... but then why leave the door unlocked? Some pieces of this puzzle were missing. She lifted the broken tile, to see for herself. As her hand explored the side hole, she could feel metal clasps of a lock holding the untouched tile in place. They were locks on the inside of the cubby. That made no sense. How does one get it? How does one lock and unlock it? She frowned as her memory rose of when Travahar pressed his hand against the door and it locked mysteriously. Noooooo… Impossible. There was definitely a gap, she could feel the lock with her fingers and unlocked it. Curiosity spurred her to explore. She could not lift the stone tile. It must be locks on all four sides. She squeezed her hand inside the cubby instead. What was this guy after? What was Travahar hiding? What was so important? There was a metal box inside that she can feel, with a crest on top. Hm. How did the intruder know it was here? She'll have to ask Travahar about this, too. It was beginning to feel like an inside job. Someone who knew this cubby existed, but obviously not well enough to locate it. All this must have made some noise. Why didn't the servants notice? Oh yeah, this was the unused wing. Travahar needs to be more careful and think things through better or hire more reliable staff. While thinking, she ran her fingers over the crest. Eyes growing wide as what she felt was clear from an image she saw in last week's history class with Sun Fei. It was the royal crest of a dragon coiled around a blade that was embedded in the top of a rock or mountain. The royal house. So she knew it was true. He was royalty. Not just any royalty, but the rightful High King of the Earth Nation. She paced the room, thinking. Who could have done this? And why? Who might suspect who Travahar really was? Who are his enemies?
Then the rest of the history lesson came back to her and she slapped her hand over her face. Leu Long is an old old old name for the royal house, mostly forgotten and no longer used. She tapped a finger against her lips. Would that be the title he's working toward? That would certainly explain a lot of this. Not just King of Ba Sing Se, but King of the entire nation? Such ambition... And it would certainly get someone's attention that he's been doing all this research. It was mostly part of just legend, which was why she thought it would be an interesting name to give to Travahar. "Well! Call me psychic!" After a moment she slapped her brow again. "Call me STUPID!" If any of the nobles had a particular interest in ancient history, she just pegged him for assassination for them. And now someone wanted to confirm things. CRAP! And it was her fault. "I'll make it right. I'll fix it." She frowned.
So whatever Travahar's plans are, from those notes and whatever he has learned, it must be presumed that the enemy knows it too. Long Feng's letters being gone worried her. That meant the Dai Li were involved. If ancient history and legend was true, he who holds the true crest can claim lineage and right to rulership. So possession of that metal box was the key. Pages of the ancient book on the logs of the old city were all torn out, too. Also not good. Vital information is gone.
Sun Fei's crumpled letter to Travahar was uncrumpled, having been read. Sun Fei? What? This she had to read. Sun Fei tore many hideous strips from Travahar with her words for using her and putting her in danger and messing with "Lee." Lee was in quotes indicating that Sun Fei knew that Lee was not Lee at all. She blinked. "Never knew Fei had such a venomous streak..." And thankfully Fei had not signed the letter. At least the intruder would not know who had helped Travahar gather these notes.
She put the letter down and looked the rest over. Those scrolls with the seals? Someone was focusing on the older secrets and only made a mess of the scrolls. That's one less thing. However, possession of those scrolls would be big trouble for him. She spotted a bunch of notes and legal letters about the temples of Ba Sing Se and their closures. What did that have to do with anything? Huh. That was a very good question. What DID that have to do with anything? The registers of the personnel on the wall of the 600 day siege and the resignation of Mu-Tan were still there. She needed to talk to Travahar to understand how some of this is connected. Mu-Tan's resignation letter was signed "Mu-Tan, Dragon of the East, Silver Circle of Sakitsuoya Temple (Temple of Ancestors), Silver Circle Guardian of Pristess Zenshin." Protectors of temples... which maybe creates the link to all those temples being closed? What happened?
She decided to wait for Travahar. She started reading through the notes and organizing them into categories. She was learning more than she wanted to know about the intrigues going on in Ba Sing Se. Oh how she felt like she had been so blind for so long and only just opened her eyes. She wrinkled her nose. Travahar writes as badly as her father. She sighed and shook her head. Sun Fei's notes were mixed with someone else's... Zuko's notes maybe… with much of Travahar's notations. They were about the comet and what had happened when it had come. Circled was the date when it is expected to return… end of THIS summer!
Alright. So, all of this adds up to a civil war here, as well as a war to take on the Fire Lord. Too much all at once. Fun, she thought sarcastically. Only fun for a masochist. No wonder poor Travahar has seemed so stressed. So… was he planning a coup then? A coup could look good or ruin his reputation depending on when and how he does it. And at the moment, he doesn't have much of a reputation except as a Lady's Man. Then we need to improve his reputation, she thought resolutely. Winning this tournament coming up would be cute, but is not enough to make him into King of an entire nation.
While deep in thought the door clicked. The latch clicked into the locked position all by itself. Then unlocked and relocked. There was no way to do this from the outside. She knew this. She cursed that she had not locked it when she came in. Locked. It was locked… on its own with her inside. She rose and headed over to the door slowly. Why would someone go through locking and unlocking it, even without picks or even the possibility of a key… unless they were checking it? The door unlocked again and opened a crack where the person there could just see the tatami mats but not Hwa Lan. She remained tense and still in a fighting stance. The door slammed shut and locked again into a new latched position. What on earth?! This isn't good. She moved toward the door quietly, to try to listen to determine if there is someone out there in the hall. She tried the lock but it did not budge. The tiles slid on their own into their places again. Earthbending. She felt panic begin to rise in her. She was locked in and an earthbender was moving things in the room. What if the intruder was back and knew she was there and had decided to kill her? NO! She pressed herself against the door. A creaking noise and the metal bands from the sides of the bay windows bent into javelins all pointing in various direction to insure they impaled anyone in the room without fail once released... ready to nail anyone inside to the floor. Her breath came short. She was torn between pounding at the door to beg to be let out and staying silent. Whoever this is, they're very powerful. Metalbending. No known earthbenders for generations were ever powerful enough to metalbend. Her breath came in sharp gasps as the feeling of being sealed in closed in on her. The silence outside did not help her sense of panic and she gave in to pounding hysterically on the door. Better to be captured, maybe, then to be skewered alive. She yelled and screamed. Gasping for air in her claustrophobic panic, her shouts came more like whimpers. She sank to the floor in terror.
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Nothing moved. Nothing happened. The silence stretched on. Hwa Lan still did not know if she were going to die. Who was there? Who was bending? Was anyone outside? Could anyone hear her? She pounded again on the door, begging to be let out. Silence. She looked over her shoulder at the metal spikes from the window frames. Some pointed right at her. She buried her face in her arms against the wall near the door.
The lock on the door clicked.
Again she pounded hard and desperate on the door, screaming.
On the other side, Travahar braced himself against the frame. Sweat trickling down his back and chest. An intruder was in the room. They had overturned the tiles. Did they find it? He was ready to kill. Someone was still inside. He pressed his ear to the door. The intruder had pounded on the door. That was strange. Then the sweat turned to ice. The voice on the other side was Hwa Lan's. DEAR GODS! Had he hurt her? Had he already released the metal spikes? His mind raced. He was so busy he didn't know where he had stopped in the offensive moves to protect what was in that room. DEAR GODS! Hwa Lan…
It took him a few moments, long moments to get his breath and listen. He silently begged her to pound on the door again. If he killed her, he didn't want to open the door. It was so quiet. He had just found a woman who could match him and was not afraid to put him in his place, a woman who didn't care so much what his station was. A woman who just plain cared. He leaned his brow against the door. He prayed that the very first person he killed in his life was NOT her.
The pounding on the door recommenced. The screams were definitely Hwa Lan's. He pressed his hand to the lock and breathed. It clicked twice, unlocked. He carefully opened the door and stepped in. She threw herself into his arms the moment he kneeled down to her. Thank you gods and ancestors… thank you. He promised to make them an offering at the private family shrine once he sorted things here out. He surveyed the room from his position holding Hwa Lan. This was not her doing. Someone who could bend was here. And recently.
"Lan?" He pushed her to arm's length. "Are you alright?" He looked her over to see if she was hurt.
Shakily, she nodded. "Yes, I… I think so. I was so frightened Trav!"
"It's ok. I am here now." He was about to say more but she recovered most of her poise and blurted out what she discovered here when she came in.
"You HAVE to do this somewhere SAFER!" she yelled at him. And proceeded to yell more about how unsafe it was for him to leave this room unprotected with everything out in the open. How foolish he was to even have kept some of those documents this long. And that some were stolen already. He could hardly get in a word. He was stunned when she then slapped him soundly. "How dare you."
"What did I do?!?" He sputtered defensively.
"Don't ever scare me like that again!" He was stunned still by her anger, but saw it was still simply laced with fear and she buried her face in his shoulder again.
He sighed and held her. After a bit they gathered everything, including his journal and the box under the tile. Time to move somewhere else. Time to fire the servants and start again. With everything carefully bundled they walked through the halls. As they passed the family Pai Sho game, Travahar removed the white lotus tile from the board and pocketed it. Mu-tan could hide this stuff and provide a secure room to work in. He should have done that earlier. How much danger was he putting Hwa Lan in? How many pieces of the puzzles did his unknown enemies have? Were Sun Fei or Hwa Lan in danger? What about Faelin or Zuko? What does the enemy know? Who was the enemy? It could be anyone. And anyone close to him could die for simply being close to him. But he needed help. He could not do this alone. Maybe this would be a good time for some of them to distance themselves. Maybe not. Someone might die. Were they ready for that risk?
A figure stood in a nook, dressed in black watching Travahar leave the estate with a woman. Not just any woman, but he left with the woman that was kissing him on the balcony. Interesting. The figure slipped away with his news.
