7
A year before the comet. Southern Guang Si Province.
The Academy. My classmates. Professors. The sleek stone cut and laid centuries ago. Those airy hallways and vaulting rooms. The mountains surrounding us, hiding us away. Trapping us.
The Fire Nation chose the Summer Solstice to attack. Our school was positioned near exact to the equator, so that on that day, the firebenders' power was unmatched. What they didn't account for, what they would have known if they had done the most basic research, is that they weren't the only ones holding unusual power.
The fire bombs came at noon, the sun direct above us. First, they hit the watchtowers, then the mess hall, then the infirmary. It was as if they knew the exact placement of each building within the walls. The Academy had taken root in an old fortress from the days of Chin the Conqueror, and its reinforcements were great. And yet, the army had arrived with a two-ton, mechanical battering ram. Within minutes, the Fire Nation breached the doors, flooded the courtyard, and I, my hundred-some classmates, and a liege of master benders, did our best to fight them off.
And still, we lost.
An arrow to the heart took down Master Yi. Ten firebenders cornered Grandmaster Tao, and with a strike of lightning, he disappeared. He didn't try to save us, because he knew he couldn't. Hua—sweet Hua—was taken along with the rest. I only escaped capture, when the battle was all but done, by scaling the southern wall, sprinting toward the nearby river, and diving. The waters carried me away from tragedy, away from heartache, and into the untamed world.
All of this is to say that, two weeks later when I came across a young firebender wreaking havoc on a small village, I was in anything but a forgiving mood. I was incensed, bitter, looking for retribution. I heard the shrieks, saw the splashes of flame from a mile away. Steaming for a showdown, I bolted in that direction without a second thought.
"I know he passed through. Tell me where he headed and I will spare the remains of your squalid shanties," the boy threatened. He was sixteen, sleek black hair in a high top-knot, face stony and eyes flickering.
A teenager, scowling and over-confident. I could see from my place behind one shanty that he was no foe to cower from. And so, as he reared his leg to blast yet another home, I sprung out and took him to the ground.
It was only as I sat on top of him, pinning his wrists, that I recognized him.
In that moment, I froze, the memory taking a moment to clarify. He pushed me off and lashed fire toward my face.
The Academy had instructed us in hand-to-hand combat free of bending, and during that tussle I refrained from bending. I was gunning to prove myself again. To remember that I was not the helpless girl I had been years before, when my village was destroyed.
Through our swift movements, we strayed from the village and into the dense forest surrounding it. Water lay heavy in the air, and low-hanging branches whipped our faces raw.
"Imperialist pig," I shouted, landing a hard kick into his stomach.
"What could a lowly peasant know about me."
I slapped him and he grabbed me by the ribs. With unexpected force, he flattened me to the ground.
"I am to be your ruler one day." He wrestled my fists to the dirt and his frantic words flung spit in my face. "You will not make a fool of me."
I don't know what it was. Perhaps it was my mother, the kind of trauma passed down through blood. Perhaps it was primal. I had only occasionally felt this fear, this particular horror, of the body and all the hateful things that could be visited upon it, ripple through me before. In those short seconds, he recognized that fear, too. Had my mind and heart slowed, had I waited to act, I might have seen this recognition and known he was not out to hurt me in the way I expected. Instead, I erupted.
In a fury of heat and cinders, I blew Zuko off of me. I singed the nearby trees. A boundless rage finally unleashed, I spouted flames from my mouth and charged him.
Surprised, confused, terrified, that boy ran. He didn't even try to subdue me. His men spotted him shrinking away from the village and followed after him, and in the aftermath, I helped the village rebuild.
I came to believe this encounter, so contrary to the first time we met on that storm-wracked shore, was destined. That it had granted me the direction I so desperately needed. My Academy was gone. My masters and friends dead or imprisoned. But as long as I was free, I would send that vile nation scurrying back to its islands.
Back at the village, I pressed a palm to Hei Bai's nose and thanked him. I returned to the scorched earth where Zuko had shielded himself against the spirit, and searched for footprints. His marks were deep, the heavy steps of the injured and beleaguered. The night was long, and so I made camp in the chief's home. In the morning, I would begin my search again.
