Jeong Jeong pulled his scarf closer against his face. Being a former admiral, it was better to err on the side of caution than assume he wouldn't be recognized on still hostile lands. It was easy enough to pass for an old man displaced by the war, but it was harder to see the propaganda of enlightenment somewhat justified.
The way to Gaoling so far was littered with bandits—former soldiers suddenly without work or purpose, two very dangerous things to be when one was already so desperate. Forged together by the presence of a common enemy, an enemy that was no longer there, the many peoples that made up the coalition now found themselves discarded by the corrupt nobles safe within their walls.
Injustice was a sword hanging by a hair above their necks, they just didn't know it yet.
It was also to his distaste that his mission now was to save one of those nobles—the Beifong family of Gaoling. New had spread about their dealings with the Fire Nation colonies, and with tensions so high, their head of house sought asylum.
Which the Fire Nation graciously agreed to. For a price. Gaoling was a valuable source of quality ore the new metal foundries needed, ore that was cheap and abundant and easier to extract in the Earth Kingdom than it was in the Fire Nation.
The specifics, however, of how they would keep their hold while being so far away was from a technicality in Earth Kingdom law where there were no provisions about the seizure of lands by the state—since they didn't have a true governing body. As long as they had their family seal with them, and no one challenged their rule, they would remain the rightful rulers of Gaoling.
Hence the need for a custodian that will manage their affairs for them. Though he doubted they would still have anything to return to after this. Not with the way things were going with the rest of the Earth Kingdom.
Jeong Jeong looked around, making sure no one had followed him, and roused his inner fire, stabbing his climbing claws against the sheer rock face next to him. The road onwards was a snaking path up the cliffside intended for wagons, and he would rather make short work of the climb.
He conceded the boy's gambit worked so far.
Earth was patient and enduring, but hunger and dissatisfaction had a way of breaking the strongest of wills. Those born and raised outside the prosperous walls were abandoned to the bandits who were likewise abandoned by their lords to their hunger. These were people who had known only of the conflict and never learned how to work the land—and suddenly they were expected to lay down their arms and grow crops.
He wasn't sure whether the Earth nobles truly believed the people could simply undo the changes wrought by their bending and return their encampments and battlements back into fertile land with a stance, but it sure seemed that way.
Which was baffling how such nobles were still in power after so long.
It was devious how the stop of the hostilities had been a bigger blow than any major offensive in the last ten years, simply by forcing the Earth that had endured and waited for so long to become the aggressors for a change. That is, if their leadership even realized they'd lost in the first place. He had no doubt those fools were already demanding for a post-war treatise in Earth Kingdom territory to discuss reparations.
The fools were waiting for a golden egg that would never come.
As for the people, the newer colonies would welcome them with open arms. Colonies that had their populations reduced by the repatriation of all who wanted to return to the mainland and would be allowed to join as citizens of the Fire Nation if they so choose.
To the desperate, morality was worth less than the next bowl of rice.
And what better blow was there to the morale of the Earth that their former enemies would be the ones defending them from a situation of their own making against the people who used to defend them.
Jeong Jeong could taste the venom in the predicament.
It was easier to believe in the idea of some greater struggle of good and evil compared to the shades of gray he'd found himself wading in lately. Yes, the Fire Nation was still technically fighting against the world, only the medium had changed from open warfare into one of ideology and perception.
'What was evil', was a question he found himself pondering on for the last year or so.
He had only planned to see for himself what had caused the Scourge of the South to change his ways, but fate had a funny way of subverting expectations. Where he expected some great clash of will or profound revelation, he instead found a broken old man brought to heel by the spirits and made aware of just how fragile his life and the lives of those around him were.
The Fire Nation Armies and Navies all knew of the famous temper of the royal family, but there was none of that when he'd faced the old man he thought lost. Where he expected to be burned for his insolence, he found, funnily enough, relief that someone had noticed all the drastic changes that had taken the nation by storm.
Jeong Jeong always believed how Fire was chaos given form, but the fire that burned behind that wisp of a man too scared for his son and grandson was a sublime truth that was lost to the war but brought back by a father's love.
Fire was not just pain and suffering. Fire was drive and passion but taken to the extreme would burn and consume those around it. And so it was that the boy argued for the good of what the war did, not forgetting the great evil it had wrought as well, it brought forth long overdue change in a stagnant world.
The one who'd died and came back spoke of a future that saw balance in homogenous coexistence as opposed to the rigid separation of the elements of old. Fire need not be feared. Fire tended properly, balanced against the elements around it and with them, cooked food, shaped metal, brought warmth, and lit homes.
Fire was not meant to be apart, but a part of the whole.
Jeong Jeong pulled himself the rest of the way to the top of the cliff overlooking his destination. It was only another half day away from the city, and Zhao's airship was scheduled to arrive at the bay in five days. If Lao was going to be reasonable, that was more than enough time.
He resumed his trek, thankful for the sun against his back against the cold mountainous wind.
There was much change to be ushered in, change that would not always be pleasant like the pain that was surely spreading within the Earth Kingdom right now. Problems that had always been there but suppressed because of the more urgent need to unite against a common foe. Without the war, all that was left was the gaping wound left by generations of an ironic lack of substance behind their claim as a proper nation.
The Earth Kingdom was a farce, it was nothing but a lie the nobles shouted enough times to convince the rest of their people how they were right all along. It may have started with good intentions, just like how Sozin's war had, but it had lost its way with time.
Change was coming, whether the Earth was ready for it or not.