Finally it was Hina's turn to speak. "Food production in the homeland will probably be down about 8% this year compared to last, due to war-related labor shortages. Too many farmworkers and day laborers have been conscripted. Those remaining often have old war injuries, or they are very young and inexperienced."

Zuko nodded, seeming unsurprised.

"We normally import some 30% of our rice from the Colonies. This year, there have been serious problems with rebel bands in and around the Colonies, as well as labor shortages like those in the Home Islands. Production will be down too, but I don't have hard numbers."

"Do we have enough to keep everyone in the Fire Nation and the Colonies fed?" asked Zuko.

"There is enough food, but prices will probably rise somewhat, and that will be hard on the poor in the cities. If the War is ending, perhaps we could free up some of the farm workers currently serving in the military to grow food?"

"That seems like a good idea," said Zuko. "Uncle wrote to me about the food situation in the Earth Kingdom. Ba Sing Se is staring likely famine in the face by spring, mostly because our retreating army decided that setting their fields on fire was a good idea. If I'm going to make peace with these people, not letting them starve would be a good place to start, but I don't want our people going hungry either."

Hina nodded, though her heart sank. "How much food are they short?"

"The official population of Ba Sing Se was just over four million people when I was there... they lost over half their main crop – they only get one per year. I don't know what the population is right now, it depends on the refugee flows. It was packed with refugees when I was there, and a lot of them were already poor and hungry."

"That's not good," said Hina.

"Fire Lord," said Yoichi, "why are we trying to feed the Earth Kingdom? They're always hungry – and they're our enemies. If they're hungry, they're not going to have the strength to pick a fight with us."

"Because the situation in Ba Sing Se is our fault!" Zuko's fists clenched, and the torches flared briefly. "We burned their fields!"

The torches stabilized, and everyone relaxed again. But this was obviously very important to the Fire Lord for some reason.

"The Earth King and his generals aren't the ones who will starve if we let this stand," said Zuko. "It is dishonorable to let children starve because we destroyed their food. I don't think we can build a lasting peace on the graves of children."

"We should be able to do something, though we may not be able to feed all of them," Hina said carefully, one eye on the now-calm torches. "If you can free up soldiers with farming experience, and get them to the farms, we can put more land under cultivation and make better use of the farmland we have. The next harvest should be a lot bigger. That would let us take some of what we recently harvested and redirect it to Ba Sing Se. It's a bit risky, if the weather doesn't cooperate and the next harvest is poor..."

Zuko nodded, leaning forward intently. "It's heading into planting season in the Colonies, so some of the farmer-soldiers should go there, too."

"If we released naval crewman from fishing families to return to their jobs, and repurposed some of the smaller warships, we could catch more fish," said Kaito. "It would lead to long-term overfishing if we don't cut back later, but we could do so for a year or two without major issue."

"That would help, yes," said Hina.

"Warships don't make good fishing boats," said Murasashi. "But something should be possible."

"If we had more seafarmers we could grow more seaweed and shellfish," said Kaito. "And Murasashi, the factories have been polluting the rivers for years, and it's wrecked the river catch."

"Well excuse me," said Murasashi. "for obeying the Fire Lord's orders to increase munitions and airship production at all costs. You can't fix this problem by shutting them down, anyway. Even if you shut them down right now, it would take years for the populations to recover."

Yoichi spoke. "If we're going to be depending on the factories to produce goods for trade, we can't shut them down. The goods produced are worth a lot more money than the river catch ever was."

Mayumi's stomach grumbled, and Hina felt for the sun. Nearly an hour past noon already. Wasn't the meeting supposed to have been over half an hour ago?

As Zuko opened his mouth, Hina spoke. "I can have more detailed plans ready in a couple of days, and we can go over them and you can pick." Oh dear, I almost cut the Fire Lord off...

He nodded. "That sounds good. Why don't you and Kaito meet with me, and we'll go over it together? And Kaito, if you could come with suggestions for increasing seafood supply?"

"Of course, Fire Lord."

The meeting broke up. Hina slowly and carefully got to her feet. Her bones protested. Someone was going to have to teach the new Fire Lord how to keep a meeting on track and on time.

Hina was at her grandaughter Taka's birthday party when Chan stopped by to retrieve his son and say a few words. Hina asked when the sailors with farming or fishing experience would be back in the Fire Nation.

"What are you talking about?" said Chan.

She stared at him, as she realized the Fire Lord must not have discussed the need to send soldiers home with the War Council yet. "Oh." That wasn't good. "We discussed needing to increase food production, and subject of sending some of the soldiers home to produce food came up." Hina explained.

Chan frowned. "The Fire Lord didn't say anything about this to us."

"I'm sure you'll be hearing about it very shortly," she said. "I suspect this specific idea was thought up during the meeting."

"But we should have been informed in the War Council meeting yesterday if there was a food shortage in the Fire Nation. I thought you said the situation this year was adequate?"

"In the Fire Nation, yes. Ba Sing Se not so much."

"What does that have to do with us? Ba Sing Se isn't even under Fire Nation control anymore."

"The Army burnt half their yearly crop production, and the Fire Lord wants to make peace with them. Being able to send them food would help."

"He said nothing about sending food to Ba Sing Se when he met with us yesterday."

"He likely looked at the two Council's areas of jurisdiction. You know the War Council's actual powers have changed. I doubt he meant an intentional slight."

"It's still going to cost him. He can't just cut the War Council out of the loop on important decisions. Qin already disapproves of him, and this is not going to improve matters."

"True."

Chan bowed, and took his leave. Hina went outside on the veranda. It was raining again, but she wanted to be alone to think for a bit.

Zuko was very young, and if he ruled unaided in the current situation, he was going to make much worse mistakes than this. Prince Iroh was in Ba Sing Se, completely ignoring his responsibilities AGAIN... Hina took a deep breath and let it out, letting her anger at the man who'd allowed the Fire Nation to fall into Ozai's hands go.

Qin did not want peace, and would not accept unwelcome orders from a 16-year-old easily. Add Zuko's inexperience to Qin's touchy pride, and it could put the governance of the country in jeopardy. If Zuko was alone.

The boy had potential. It was obvious he wanted to be a good Fire Lord. He needed help from someone with experience in politics. What if Hina offered that? She watched the rain for a while.

This situation was worth a little risk. Hina went back inside. She had a message to write.