Ukano sat together with a dozen others in faceless masks against the low candlelight. The low lights around the table prevented all of them from seeing each other's silhouettes. A safety measure, more to protect himself so the others couldn't point their fingers back at him should things not work out. Voices were so easily misheard, but faces were harder to wish away.
"The former Fire Lord's display of power was long ago," said a faceless mask. "The new Fire Lord has yet to prove himself capable."
The Dragon of the West was a decorated general, but he had never achieved anything worthy of notice. At most he was a general that never saw defeat, but he had also no great victories to his name either. Azulon's sudden change of heart was a blow nobody foresaw that undermined the glorious purpose of the War.
"But his father is still behind him," said another mask. "Where are we to find someone strong enough to challenge the royal family?"
"The Prince had always been ambitious," said the same mask the first time. "It shouldn't take much to convince him."
Ozai was the only real option they had, was left unsaid. Azulon was still very much in his prime and the Dragon of the West was rumored to have been strong enough to defeat the last dragon. He did indeed not have any military victories of particular notice, but that didn't mean the man was weak.
"We cannot be too hasty," Ukano said through his mask. "Their new policies continue to garner support with most of the peasants now happily eating their own fill, but their strictness with implementing the integration of the Earth and Water continue to cause friction among the former farming territories."
The Fire Lord was letting their proud nation be diluted by impurities, letting fire burn against wet mud. They should have kept them all in the colonies where they came from and never let them out of their cages. Earth and water benders both were simply more useful than fire benders when it came to growing crops, and it was only a matter of time when fire benders lost their place in the arms. Fire benders were no better than their less blessed countrymen when it came to toiling away at the soil. And what happened after that? The farms were just the start, and more for them meant less for his people.
And that was not the way.
"Too many of our own farmers have been displaced from the lands they and their fathers and forefathers belonged to, and now they are being told to find something else." The masked man stood up. "Are we to allow them to keep on taking livelihood and lands from our citizens away?"
Ukano grimaced beneath his mask. Such was mere sophistry. Peasants never truly owned the land since it was always their local lords who simply let them live and work there their entire lives. But that accursed Department of Agriculture dared seize the lands around the capital, and it was only a matter of time before it did for the rest of the Fire Nation. A royal family who had full control over all the land was too ambitious for a general who wasn't even strong enough to deliver the finishing blow in an already won war.
Ba Sing Se was the last real bastion of resistance because of how deep their coffers and cupboards were, but the next biggest city of Omashu could barely support itself and the surrounding villages, let alone raise another wall as the same impenetrable fortress. It would have been better if the Armies had forced the Earth into their little hiding hole and the animals never left at all.
"And to let our own people out of the safety of the nation?! To make them live in the dirt mounds of the colonies! This is too cruel to our people!"
And yet those same people all chose to leave after being given the choice, misled and coerced, just as those from the colonies were asked whether they wanted to go home. All of those from the colonies. A proper Fire Lord didn't ask but commanded. And a good Fire Lord put his people above all. Not made them play nice with the rabble. Iroh had somehow convinced Azulon, Sozin's son, of the travesty and lived to tell the tale.
Which meant Azulon was just as guilty.
"And what of the rumors of the prince?" said a somber and sullen voice.
"Nothing but lies," said another mask too fast. "Are we to believe that a boy was truly the herald of some great spirit? That was just an excuse for the royals to do anything they wanted after without having to explain anything."
The great spirit Sephiroth was the hushed dirty secret of the court for so long already, with no one true account apart from the experiences of the former Fire Lord and the supposed affliction of the Prince. Ukano wanted desperately to believe it was all a lie, but it was better to keep himself safe. Instead, let the foolhardy wield the flames that would burn the forest so that he may reap from the fields that will follow.
And it was hard to deny the pitiable state Ozai had been in all those years ago.
"And what did the Sages have to say about the great spirit?" Ukano fanned the flames all the same.
"The Sages have no record of such a name in any of their records, but it is not impossible for a Spirit to have given a false name or to only reveal themselves now." A mask with an unfurled scroll said. "We have no evidence of Sephiroth's existence before his revelation. And I have also tried having a… colleague try whether he can anger the spirit by cursing at his name."
Cursing the spirits was not done lightly. There were many stories of the slightest afront to a spirit meriting unjust and often cruel retribution. And if that spirit had gotten wind of any names from that sacrificial koala sheep, then it could have put everyone related to that fool in danger.
"And has anyone else ever felt this so called 'chill of death'?" said the same blasphemous mask with a snide laugh. "None of the Sages had records of any fire bender ever in the history of our nation ever having sway over the inner fire of others, and neither have any Avatars been mentioned capable of such either. Are we to believe the ramblings of an old corrupt man? Or the facts laid out before us?"
Silence descended around the table.
"The royal family has clearly lost touch with the roots the great Sozin left behind. And we must return our Nation back to the right path. We should be the masters, not humble neighbors. The sun sits above all the world, above the land, air, and sea."
Ukano would have said the same of the moon, but now was not the time. Here he only needed the right word for his puppets to act, though not always to the same proper dance, still they danced all the same. He'd learned long ago that the court was more a mindless beast that was better led with a subtle hand than a stick out in the open. A weapon was a threat, but a gift or an offering, often better of the sort that appealed to the better nature of others, went further.
And to this little band of miscreants, all they really needed was a place to feel safe amongst those that happily fed off the Fire Lord's uncalloused hands.
"The foolish rebels are doing their part for us," said another mask, this one with a feather. "They are still concentrated on routes where shipments are delivered over land but the production of airships will soon make starve them all out and they will need to resort to getting everything from the villages."
Except they were already being hunted down by their supposed best chance at a coup.
"And by then it will merit a proper campaign," Ukano finished for him.
Another awkward silence. Everything else they'd said so far had been treasonous or could be construed as such had there been witnesses. But what was implied after that was the first step over the cliff. Even an indirect act against the Crown, even if it were for the greater good of the Nation, or at least was motivated by noble intentions, was still an affront that merited the ultimate price.
Ukano could only wait now whether these fools still proved useful.