17th Day, Peach Moon, Year of the Tiger
Ty Lee

She had asked and asked and asked, but nobody knew anything about the bird-dock symbol that Ty Lee had seen on the man at her neighbor's. Not even Auntie who was one of the City Guards and knew everything there was to know about criminals and gangs and everything like that had any idea what the bird-dock meant.

Azula would have been able to find out, Ty Lee knew, because Azula could do anything. She would probably have worked out not only what the bird-dock meant but also what the men were doing with Ty Lee's neighbors if she had been able to investigate. But Azula was lost at sea– just lost, because Azula could do anything and that definitely included surviving a shipwreck and making it back home (eventually)– and she wouldn't be back for days, if not weeks.

Ty Lee hoped that, when Azula got back, she would actually help instead of just declaring the whole thing stupid or laughing at Ty Lee for not being able to figure it all out herself. Azula did things like that sometimes, and she seemed to do them more and more often the older she got.

"Did you find anything out?" Ty Lee asked after she had explained all of this to Mai– except for most of the stuff about Azula maybe not helping because Ty Lee didn't really want to think about that and besides Mai probably didn't care.

"Are you sure your aunt isn't just lying to you?" Mai asked, which Ty Lee took to mean that Mai hadn't managed to learn anything about the bird-dock symbol. "Sometimes grown-ups lie to little kids about things they think we aren't old enough to know."

"Auntie wouldn't lie to me," Ty Lee said, her voice rising in volume and causing Mai to wince. Ty Lee winced herself. She was supposed to be being quiet, because they were at Mai's house and Mai's parents were very strict about things like little girls being quiet. "Also I would know if she did."

Ty Lee might not, because sometimes people's auras changed when they lied and sometimes they didn't and Grandmother had said not to rely on them too heavily to determine truth from lies because auras changed in response to people's emotions (as well as to other, more complicated things that Ty Lee did not understand quite yet) and if Ty Lee got in the habit of linking nervousness and falsity she would start pegging people who were simply nervous as liars.

"Sure you would," Mai said. She sounded almost– almost like she was trying to hold back a sigh and Ty Lee suspected that she didn't believe that Ty Lee would know if Auntie Zy Lan was lying about something. "At this rate we're going to have to go down to the docks ourselves if we want to find out anything."

"That sounds exciting!" Ty Lee chirped, at a loss to understand why Mai– ordinarily colorless Mai who needed excitement to get any color at all in her aura– didn't sound thrilled by the idea of wandering around the docks all by themselves. "We could go right now! Do you think your parents would miss you?"

"Yes." Mai's tone was completely flat, but there was a flash of green in her aura, so quick that it was gone as soon as Ty Lee could identify it. "And we're not sneaking out on the way home from school. They'd notice that too."

"What about on the way to school?" Ty Lee asked. Mai's parents might have a servant walk her there, but surely the servant didn't stay for the entire school day and even if they did, one servant couldn't possibly watch all of the ways to sneak out of the Fire Nation Royal Academy for Girls. "Or during lunch break?"

"I already told you: I refuse to cut class for this." Mai's voice rose just a little, even though she was obviously trying very hard to sound bored. "We could go tonight, after it gets dark."

Ty Lee shivered. She was not very fond of the dark. It made people all auras and no bodies and that had always given her a creepy feeling, as though she were walking around with the disembodied creatures from spirit tales that Ty Lin said ate little girls who didn't go to bed when they were told to.

"Come on, Ty Lee. The moon's almost full tonight," Mai said. "It'll be exciting."

Ty Lee shivered again. Exciting might be enough for Mai, but Ty Lee thought she would manage just fine without the kind of excitement that people in spirit tales had. "I don't think that's a good idea Mai."

Mai frowned at Ty Lee, and for a moment Ty Lee was afraid that she would sneer and demand to know if Ty Lee was scared the way Azula would have. But Mai only sighed.

"I know! I could invite you over to my house and then we could sneak down to the docks from there." Ty Lee's parents probably wouldn't notice she was missing, not if they weren't gone for too long and Ty Lee told someone that she was taking her friend to see the puppet show.

Mai frowned, and for a moment Ty Lee was afraid that she would come up with some reason why they couldn't sneak away from her house. "Your parents really wouldn't notice if you left?"

"Nope." That was one of the– very few– good things about having so many sisters that looked just like Ty Lee: if she wandered off for a little bit her parents wouldn't notice she was gone unless they decided to do a head count.

Mai's head tilted to the side, and flickers of purple lit up the edge of her aura. She stared at Ty Lee as though her friend were some sort of interesting puzzle that needed to be solved. It made Ty Lee's heart start pounding, the way she imagined that a rabbit-squirrel's pounded when it found itself facing the scrutiny of a hawk.

After twenty-eight heartbeats (Ty Lee counted) Mai finally looked away. "I can't decide whether that's better or worse than my parents."

"Better." Ty Lee said. "If my parents were like your parents, we'd never have a chance to sneak down to the docks."