Not much to say about this chapter, other than that it's the end of "Act One," so to speak, and takes place during the very end of "The Earth King."
There's nothing in this one that might offend or trigger readers either, so without any further ado...
After he'd finished telling his brother about the increasingly horrible events of the day, there was no further reason for Zai Tian to hang around any longer. So, after both Yan brothers had solemnly exchanged the fists-clenched Dai Li salute, and then a slight bow, Zai Tian had performed an about-face and strode off, hands held behind his back.
"Whatever might come next, don't let it catch you napping," were his last words before leaving, Hong vaguely wondering if both he and his younger brother would be weighted down in chains and shackles and wooden mitts, boots, the next time they saw each other, if at all.
And Hong certainly didn't have the most relaxing evening, or get much sleep that night. While he wasn't outright panicked by these developments-that wasn't in the typical Dai Li agent's nature-he was equal parts cross and tense, pacing the halls whenever he could stand to do so, fidgeting and shifting whenever the healing sword slash in his lower leg and his bruises demanded that he sit or lie down.
Although he knew that he needed to get a good meal in him, in order to help his calf muscle knit up as quickly as it could (By now, although Hong knew nothing of such physiological concepts, his bodily processes and metabolism, shaped by over ten millennia of natural selection, had responded to his injuries by speeding up fourfold compared to their typical rate of operation), he ate only sparingly of the various courses placed before him and Mingxia at dinner, before he eventually left the table early, brooding and preoccupied.
The sting of defeat, the grinding uncertainty, the unbelievable fact of how their carefully hidden, masterful plans had just been exposed to the Earth King, and probably the entire city at this point-it all combined to make Hong highly moody and irritable.
And his servant staff recognized it. Even his concubine, despite their generally amiable relationship, and the obvious expression of pained concern on her rounded features as she checked in on her owner from time to time, was wise enough to keep quiet and keep her distance.
Xiangsheng made a token attempt to distract Hong from whatever woes were eating at him as he followed his master down one of the halls at a discrete distance, even commenting in playful sympathy that he never liked it whenever a woman who'd just proven herself to be lots of fun in the sack was away at her place either-only to find himself scrambling away from Hong in shock and alarm as his normally indulgent boss suddenly yanked the stone floor out from under his feet with his bending, before turning and actually rushing down the hall at Xiangsheng, earth-skating over the floor for several paces, his head lowered, before finally stopping himself short.
His jester yelped in terror and promptly made himself scarce, green eyes wide.
But Hong couldn't really bring himself to care about how he'd given the poor dwarf such a scare.
His mind was going a mile a minute, speculating in circles about all types of potential, probable futures for both him and the Dai Li as a whole, now that they'd been exposed.
Anyone with half a brain could surmise that the formerly naïve, trusting Earth King had to feel terribly hurt, frightened, and betrayed by the Avatar's revelation of the war, of his once trusted advisor's treachery-emotions which would very soon shift into anger, a desire to lash out at somebody.
Thankfully, from what Hong had read in reports or occasionally directly seen of his behavior whenever he was truly mad, Kuei wasn't really the type to call for beatings, execution, forced exile, or other harsh punishments for someone who'd gotten on his bad side.
Instead, he normally disciplined the offender by giving them a tongue-lashing, subjecting them to a stern talk, shouting at them to get out of his sight while he then proceeded to either sulk or have a screaming fit like the overgrown spoiled child that he was, that sort of thing.
Or he might strip them of their title and/or throw them in jail.
Which was exactly what he'd done to Long Feng.
That was only to be expected, Hong supposed. What was really making him practically tear his flowing hair out from worry tonight was the unknown question of just how far both the Earth King and the Council of Five would go in their urge to retaliate against the Dai Li.
Long Feng was obviously going to get raked across the coals big time, assuming that any attempts by his subordinates-which Hong was more than ready to participate in at a second's notice-to either persuade Kuei to let him off lightly-or failing that, storm the palace dungeon and bust their leader out-ended in failure.
Commander Quan too, would most likely end up being arrested and forced to stand trial in the very near future. And while he had a sense that the outcome would depend on the Earth King's mood, Hong didn't doubt there was certainly a reasonably good chance that the Dai Li captains would also find themselves in similarly hot water.
So, where did that leave a rank-and-file-as if any member of the Dai Li could ever truly be called as such-agent like him?
He really had no idea. Logically, the Earth King and the Council of Five would view punishing the people at the top of the pyramid, the members of the Dai Li who'd actually been directing and planning out this insidious conspiracy behind Kuei's back for all these long decades as more than sufficient. That was most likely.
But Hong knew better than to blindly trust in maybes. The concept of being deemed guilty by association could certainly have some truth to it as judgement calls went, after all, and even if the problematic things he'd either done or condoned on a weekly basis as an agent of the Dai Li had been in the name of Ba Sing Se's greater security and peace, Hong was also under no illusion that he was blameless here.
He would've given nearly anything to know for certain just what the Earth King intended to do next on this tumultuous night.
And then there was the question of, now that the Earth King knew the naked truth about the "hidden" war with the Fire Nation, how far that knowledge had spread through Ba Sing Se's populace.
Graduates of the Stone Fist Training Academy didn't reach that point by being morons, and all the Dai Li knew that in spite of their best efforts, a good percentage of Ba Sing Se's residents knew about the war's existence anyway-especially the refugees and defending soldiers. Of course, most of those people knew better then to ever speak about it out loud.
But the majority of people in this vast city-Rajata among them, from what Hong could discern-truly were completely oblivious to the fact that a conquering army was currently doing its best to break through the Outer Wall.
If the Earth King-or a spokesman acting on his behalf-had publicly announced today that the seemingly peaceful world all those people were convinced they lived in was all just a cruel deception-an awful lot of people in the Impenetrable City were going to be very displeased with the Dai Li, to put it mildly.
Rajata would certainly be enraged to the point of being fit to be shackled next time he saw her, if that was the case, and Hong spent much of that summer evening fully expecting to suddenly hear an irate mob trying to storm his siheyuan at any moment.
But as the hours crept by, and the stars came out, with no sounds of conflict or anger in the streets, no guards scurrying down a hall to warn him, that possibility seemed increasingly-and reassuringly-unlikely to Hong, and he allowed himself to slide into a state of guarded relaxation.
It seemed as if the Earth King was either too busy still coming to terms with the reality of the war's existence himself, or had had enough sense in his royal noggin to keep it under wraps for the time being, realizing that no good could come of telling the greater public about it.
Eventually, Hong decided to risk getting whatever sleep he could manage, at least be vitalized enough to face whatever tomorrow might bring for him and the rest of the Dai Li when he awoke.
In his bedchamber, Rajata's scent still hung heavy about his futon and sheets as he took the tie out of his queue and slid underneath the covers again, a rich, sensual, feminine perfume. The odor was both exciting and reassuring, and it helped Hong slip more easily into the darkness of sleep. But it also made him feel rather lonely.
He had a dim dream in which the Fire Nation drill featured, implacably boring through the main gate to the palace grounds. Then it began to rumble across the vast plaza in the direction of the Imperial Palace itself, imperial guards being flung aside like dolls by the power of the huge machine as the Avatar approvingly watched from above on his sky bison. It made Hong jerk awake in alarm.
He fell asleep again, and this time he dreamed that the Water Tribe siblings transformed into a pair of snarling wolves with piercing blue eyes-who then used their agility and greater numbers to drive and herd Rajata (despite all her efforts to fight them off with her earthbending) into the Earth King's throne room, nipping and lightly biting her until she screamed to Kuei that the Fire Nation was their enemy. That one jolted him awake too.
At last, though, Hong passed into a sleep deep enough that it was beneath any level which his troubled, aggravated subconscious mind was capable of touching. The only movement was that of his rounded barrel chest as he breathed, and his softly flaring nostrils, still seeming to savor the lingering odor of Rajata's hair as he rested his head on the same pillow she'd slept on mere hours before.
When Hong woke the next morning, remarkably, it was only the call of a cuckoo-shrike and the chirps of the local finches, jays, and buntings which greeted his ears as the soft light filtered through the stiff paper windows of his bedroom, not the incensed bellows of a lynch mob or a band of royal guards sent to arrest him. Nothing struck him as being amiss in general, for that matter.
His leg had healed even further during the night, and on testing it, he discovered that it could certainly bear more weight now, as he donned a russet brown linen robe with jade green borders, securing it with a dandelion yellow sash over a pair of tan pantaloons, before leaving his bedroom and bending the door shut behind him.
He clapped his hands and cried out for a servant as he walked down the hall. Yuxuan came scurrying over in response, listening attentively before leaving to relay Hong's wishes for breakfast to the cooks. His expression and stance were respectful and attentive while he did so, but not noticeably ill at ease, which reassured Hong all the further.
Midway through his breakfast of millet porridge with brown sugar syrup and flaky scallion pancakes, interspersed with swigs of green tea, Fen showed up.
"Lao Yan, an important letter has just arrived for you," she told him as she lightly bowed, spreading the hems of her sleeves apart to display the sealed scroll. "I'll wait until you've finished breakfast to hand it over, of course."
Hong nodded. A sealed scroll. Already, a suspicion was starting to arise within him, and he inwardly tensed.
After breakfast was finished, and the servants began to take the dishes away, Hong sipped at one last cup of green tea as he extended his hand to Fen.
"So," he asked casually as he accepted the letter, "is this another letter from my favorite gal?"
Fen lightly laughed. "No, it's from the Imperial Palace actually. Even if you're one of His Majesty's elite defenders, that still counts as quite an honor, to have him personally write to you!"
But Hong had already seen the royal seal, and an alarm gong rang in his head as he comprehended. Oh spirits and Guanyin have mercy, he thought, even as he kept his expression impassive, save for a widening of the eyes. This was actually the furthest thing from an honor. But it was also hardly unexpected.
In his study, taking slow sips of tea to calm himself even further, Hong spent a few minutes just staring at the rolled up scroll he held in his free hand, both bracing himself for and dreading to read its contents, all sorts of possibilities flashing through his mind.
Most of them weren't good.
But whatever Kuei's judgement upon him might be-if that was what the letter contained-Hong resolved to stand firm and deal with whatever might come as best he could.
Certainly, he'd earned his prestigious position as one of the Dai Li, earned this two-courtyard house and his salary, and there was no way in hells that he was going to just surrender them without fighting glove and boulder first, whether in a court of law or with every bit of his physical strength and bending prowess. And a mixture of well-chosen, flattering words, intimidating behavior on his part, could still win the day.
He took a slow, fortifying breath. Time to quit putting this off, he thought, as he broke the golden seal, in which the characters of Kuei's name were embedded.
The letter's contents turned out to-well, both match and be wildly different from what Hong had anticipated as he read through it.
From the pen of His Majesty Kuei, to Agent Hong Yan, the letter began.
First of all, as a member of the Dai Li, you are currently in deep disfavor with me, along with all your other duplicitous fellow agents who worked to undermine my authority for so many years.
I am both seething with fury and saddened beyond what words can express to have learned -from the lips of the Avatar and the ghastly sight of the Fire Nation's mechanical terror-that all these years, my most trusted advisor, the man who I regarded almost as like a wise, dependable uncle, with a loyalty and judgement in matters of governing I viewed as beneath questioning, was actually a conniving opportunist who thought nothing of manipulating me as he saw fit, and even worse, keeping me ignorant of the worst danger that MY city and people have faced in at least three hundred years-and make no mistake, a sizable amount of my anger and anguish is also directed at the Dai Li in general, for supporting and assisting him in his schemes.
And yes, that includes you, Hong Yan! How dare you so freely and treacherously aid your leader in subverting the Mandate of Heaven I rule under, of the Earth Goddess and Avatar Kyoshi!
I truly am tempted to disband the Dai Li entirely after this, and strip every one of you of your assets for good measure. However, the willingness of one of your captains and a fellow agent, respectively, to arrest their own revered, long-time superior on my direct orders has made me feel differently when it comes to regarding your collective loyalty towards me as a lost cause-and I am also wise enough to keep in mind that the actions of a group's leader are often not reflective of their underlings as a whole. So, I have decided to allow the Dai Li to remain, to give all of you a second, cautious chance.
But perhaps the most important factor in my decision to ultimately overlook any of your misdeeds and continue to personally view you favorably, Agent Yan, is the memory of when the Grand Secretariat and I, accompanied by Bosco, happened to encounter you while you were showing your lover Rajata around my magnificent menagerie.
As we both know, despite an initial bumpy start with Bosco attempting to eat the flowers out of Miss Puri's hair, they still soon took a liking to each other as our excursion continued-and anybody that my beloved Bosco views as a friend quickly becomes a friend of mine as well.
Now, how does this relate to you? Well, your beautiful, charming girlfriend, Agent Yan, strikes me as a very good judge of character, someone who is far less easily deceived by outward appearances and smooth words than I have proven to be-and since Bosco likes her, and Rajata likes you in turn, then I can only conclude that you are still loyal, steadfast, and honorable in your character, at a time when those qualities have proven to be severely lacking in your brothers among the Dai Li.
This is why I have selected you to have the distinction of joining three other agents who I have judged to be equally upright and loyal at heart to assist me in greeting a trio of female warriors at noon today, who hail from far-off Kyoshi Island. No doubt you're highly eager to meet some of your spiritual sisters.
His Gracious Highness,
King Kuei Jinzhu.
P.S. Remember, I want you at the palace steps, facing the Northern Gate, by noon of this day, in full attire.
As he read through the letter, Hong's measured reactions to its words shifted like wheat blowing in the wind. The initial so-called scathing rebuke was something that he'd already seen coming, and while part of him was rather startled to be on the receiving end of such sharp, direct, words from his ruler, he wasn't terribly impressed by the "Monkey King's" written rant.
If anything, it just made him indignant, and increased his loathing, his resentment towards the blasted Avatar and his brat friends for meddling in their affairs, for giving the entire game away-not to mention indirectly killing one of their own. Except this wasn't a game.
The mere mention of disbanding the secret police all but made Hong's heart stop. His breath caught in his brawny throat, even as his resolve to resist until the bitter end increased-up until he read the rest of the paragraph.
Under his mantle of russet linen, his wide shoulders slumped in pleased relief as Hong gave a wide smirk. Then he began to laugh like a hyena-mastiff there in his study, briefly allowing the scroll to roll back up as he gave the desk a solid slap with both bare hands and threw back his head, a laugh that was scornful and grateful and incredulous all at once.
Surely, he'd read that wrong, a skeptical part of him insisted as he opened the scroll back up and read the words again. Kuei had to be joking.
Even someone as sheltered and naïve as he couldn't be that Koh-damned idiotic, to continue to even marginally trust, to tolerate the exact same people which served under the very man who'd just been shown to have spent years upon years coolly lying to and manipulating him. But it looked like that was the case.
Certainly, Hong had been dumbfounded to hear from his brother last night that after seeing the drill at the Outer Wall, not only had the Monkey King ordered the Dai Li in attendance to arrest Long Feng-instead of the perfectly capable Imperial Guards he'd brought along with him on the flying mutant cow-but taken their actions at face value as proof of their basic loyalty. He almost felt sorry for the poor stupid man.
But this was also a stroke of nearly miraculous luck, and Hong found himself suddenly, immeasurably thankful for Kuei's lack of common sense, that he was still proving to be as profoundly ignorant as an eland-ox. After he finished this letter, he was definitely going to burn some nice-smelling incense and throw himself in supplication before the figures of Wu Sheng, Hou-Tu, and Lady Kyoshi on his household altar, offering up every chant of gratitude he could think of.
And Hong found himself laughing even harder as he read how Kuei had apparently decided that he was still a good, honorable agent just because Bosco liked Rajata, and Rajata liked him, Hong. Yeah, that was pretty much how his train of thought would tend to go, Hong thought, rolling his eyes.
Still, he made a mental note to give his girlfriend an especially affectionate hug and kiss next time they met, and take her to see something special on the town-a play, maybe, or an Upper Ring kickboxing match, where the well-dressed crowd roared and sizable amounts of money were placed on the outcome-for her unknowing role in keeping him out of the doghouse with the now mollified Earth King, even if he could never tell her why.
Just like when she'd spotted the Blue Spirit rushing up behind his back on that patrol and bravely engaged the bandit, Rajata had saved his ass again-if only by proxy this time-and he lightly smiled.
The last paragraph galvanized Hong Yan with amazement and excitement. Yes, he most certainly was highly eager, to see and greet and speak to his "sisters" in Mother Kyoshi. It had been at least fifty years-certainly far longer than he'd been alive-since any members of Ba Sing Se's elite secret police, and Kyoshi Island's all-female squadron of defenders, famous for their fans and face paint, had laid eyes on each other.
If nothing else, he was rather looking forward to maybe seeing demonstrations of just what the trio could do with their fans, and how skilled they were at ambush tactics. Of course, they would need to be taught the rules concerning speaking of the war, even if the Earth King now knew. Hopefully all three girls were the compliant type, for it would be a terrible shame if his fellow Dai Li ever needed to make them be that way.
But what exactly had brought the delegation so far from their native island? Why were there only three of them, traveling through huge areas of Fire-Nation controlled territory, during a time of war and uncertainty?
Hong dimly recalled that Kyoshi Island's official political stance towards the conflict was said to be a neutral one, neither allying with the Southern Water Tribe or the Earth Kingdom, nor welcoming the Fire Nation in-although from what reports that his fellow Dai Li had intercepted claimed, the Fire Nation's military didn't seem to have much interest in either the island's strategic value or its resources to begin with.
But perhaps the community's leaders had changed their minds. Or the Fire Nation had decided to cause trouble at last.
At any rate, Fire Nation troops didn't take kindly to the sight of strangers bearing weapons and wearing armor within their seized territories, and Hong had a hard time seeing how the trio had made it this far without conflict.
It all added up to generate a dim, vague sort of suspicion within him, although he had no idea why.
Well, misgivings or no, he had to start getting himself presentable, get into uniform, and then get his ass to the Imperial Palace's front porch, so to speak, to make a good impression on the Earth King and their esteemed guests alike.
He leaned back in his chair and briefly closed his green eyes as he ran his fingers through his long hair. This was a bad, bad situation for all of the Dai Li, a clusterfuck that by rights should never have happened to them. But it wasn't beyond salvaging either.
Long Feng might be in jail, but he was still as clever as ever and far from defeated, if Hong knew him. His second-in-command, the captains, were also all still being allowed free run of the city, as far as Hong knew, free to fill his vacant role and continue to direct them in his absence.
Although the Earth King's trust in them was badly shaken, and it was going to be a lot harder now to nudge him in the directions they wanted, it hadn't collapsed entirely. And Kuei now had a particular confidence, to some degree, in Hong himself. Because of Rajata.
Hong dared to grin as he left the letter on his desk and pushed his chair back before standing up. They just might come out of this okay.
And even still finish first.
But right now, it was time to look good and show up.
The noonday sun, hanging in a cloudless sky, made Hong sweat in his dark green and black cotton robes as he stood exposed to its full glare, and his healing leg still itched and throbbed. Spirits above, if only there were some nice big clouds passing overhead! But he made no sound of complaint or gesture of discomfort as he stood at attention, his expression impassive, stone-gloved hands held behind his back.
He was stationed on the left side of the ceremonial stone platform that generations of Earth Kings had greeted important guests from, Agent Jinhai doing the same behind him.
Even as he'd started putting his uniform on, it had flashed through Hong's pragmatically paranoid mind that Kuei's letter, despite the man's distinct lack of guile and its apparent authenticity, could actually be the first step in a complex plan-probably by the Council of Five-to coax him into a position where he could be taken by surprise and arrested by members of the military, lying in wait.
It was just the sort of thing that Hong would do himself, after all.
Not surprisingly, he was very much on his guard when he arrived at the Imperial Palace, looking for any signs that other earthbenders might have bent tunnels right down into the plaza, or the sides of the massive encircling wall. If they were aiming to bushwhack him, he'd see to it that the outcome wouldn't play out nearly as neatly as they'd imagined.
But no sneak attacks had come as he'd paced through the Northern Gate and into the vast palace complex, constantly ready to whirl around and let fly with his stone gloves, kick out with his feet. The presence of so much stone around Hong had helped to set him somewhat at ease.
So had the arrival of three more of his fellow agents, all four of them instinctively, warily grouping together to better watch each other's backs.
They were noticeably outnumbered though, by the group of Imperial Guards that showed up in their ceremonial garb. Hong had fully expected the worst as they'd approached, Kuei at the group's forefront, all four agents giving each other slight, knowing, sideways glances under their hats, prepared and committed to fight their way out of this together at a moment's notice.
But much to the private shock of all four men, no charge came, no attempt at arrest. Instead, there were only stiff, formal greetings, a short, mild lecture from Kuei about how upset and disappointed he was with them as Dai Li, but he felt they were rare exceptions, all the same-and then, a strange, almost spooky truce between secret police and royal guards alike, one that seemed too good to be true as the former arranged themselves into a pair of regimented lines.
Oh, they sometimes gave Hong barely contained, light rumbles of anger through the stone paving, and shot him a good deal of disgusted, hateful looks. But it was nothing that Hong wasn't already used to receiving, and his response was to coolly hold their gaze as he gave them a confident, restrained, faintly malevolent smile-until they turned away.
Everyone was managing to behave themselves though.
At last, with the blazing white disc of the sun at its zenith, three small, dark figures appeared in the far distance, obscured by the shimmering heat haze, seemingly no bigger than ants. But as they came closer, they became larger, more distinct.
By the time they'd crossed the central bridge over what was called The River of Joyful Sapphires, they'd revealed themselves to indeed be the three Kyoshi Warriors Kuei had said he intended to greet, the girls sweating in their heavy opera makeup and battle outfits.
This was wonderful, Hong thought. It really was almost like meeting long-lost sisters again, and he had the strong sense that the other three agents felt the same way as the city-state's monarch brayed in welcome from his pedestal, "In our hour of need, it is with the highest honor that I welcome our esteemed allies, the Kyoshi Warriors!" jubilantly flinging his arms wide.
Yet, even before the three girls kneeled, and touched their foreheads to the stone, Hong suddenly had the overpowering feeling that something wasn't right with this picture.
When the leader of the little group raised her head, her voice was mature beyond her years and came out as a sultry, serpentine lisp while she met the Earth King's eyes.
"We are the Earth King's humble servants."
One glance at those eyes, and Hong Yan just knew, even though he displayed no outward reaction.
The eyes of Kyoshi Island's inhabitants were supposed to naturally be blue in color. But this girl's irises were a piercing golden bronze.
She had Fire Nation blood in her veins.
No sir, he didn't like this.
But on the other hand, this could also present some interesting opportunities…
As you can see, shit is about to get serious for our couple now, and a lot more fast-paced then Hong especially would like.
Jinzhu="gold" in Mandarin.