Katara,

Happy birthday! Well, it's too much to hope that your birthday will land on the date this gets to you, but I hope you have a great celebration for fourteen. There's a cave of crystals here and I found one and made a necklace out of it, it's enclosed for you. Thanks for being my best friend.

I'm glad the trade agreements came through, that'll mean that communication and travel will only become easier around the world. At least your date was better than mine.

I can't believe Sokka fell for that! He's so intelligent and a great warrior but sometimes he can just be a bit of a strange kind of stupid . . . in a good way, I like him, he's not stupid! Kind of oblivious, I guess. He's the exact opposite of Azula. I wish someone had drawn that or something. I would tease him in front of his grandchildren. You better do that.

I met Princess Yue once when we were both very young, when she'd come to the Fire Nation and my grandfather was still on the throne. We didn't talk or play at all, either, because she was always reserved and had a lot of warriors around her. She's nice though, I could see why Sokka might like her, she would be the calmness to his crazy.

Lu Ten decided to lengthen our trip to the Earth Kingdom. We'll go to Omashu and through Gaoling and Kyoshi Island before going back home, although we're leaving Ba Sing Se in a week or so. After that day when Lu Ten and I went to the Lower Ring I've been sneaking down there a little bit. I think he knows but he hasn't said anything.

I haven't seen Jin again, thank Agni, but it's been nice to just exist within a group of people who treat me normally. Everyone in the Fire Nation knows me because of the scar, and even in your tribe everyone knew I was Prince Zuko. Everyone in the Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se just exists — sometimes I think that they might know that I'm me and just not care. It's definitely not as well-done as where I live, nearer to the king, but it's homely. It's full of tea shops and there are festivals and people dance on the streets without a care in the world. It feels so real.

I guess I have to remember to keep myself humble, to remind myself that no matter what the world has done to me I'm privileged in terms of wealth and standing. But at the same time it reminds me that wealth isn't everything, that the families I see walking together and the people who are having fun dates also have love in their lives. Love is what matters, more than everything else.

So much of my life has happened because of my nation. I wonder if we would have met if I was just a peasant in the Fire Nation. Probably not, and that sucks. It's a tradeoff. If I was really Lee, a traveller from the Fire Nation, life would be more simple. But I would also miss so much. And do I really deserve this life? Yes, I've had to deal with my father, but many others have to deal with much worse. How is it fair that I'll have money and food for the rest of my life just because of my blood?

I've been trying to make it a habit to try to help people more. Luckily, there aren't very many terribly poor people here, but I like to pay for people's meals if I can, and I tip extra at the tea shop, and I always leave gold coins on the ground during festivals. It's not a lot but it feels good to make people happy the only way I can like this.

This got away from me. Miss you as always, and once again, happy birthday!

— Lee :)