Author's Notes: Edited a pretty big chunk of "Zhao of the Fire Nation" this time! I changed the locale and removed the nuns that were originally in the episode (because it didn't make sense to use them again), and put in other show characters who I haven't had a chance to showcase otherwise! It's not super important, but I hope you enjoy it!
Last time with Katara and Azula: After meeting Nini in Aniak'to, Katara resolved to get revenge on her father, grandmother, and everyone involved with her mother's disappearance. They arrived at the royal palace, where Azula runs into none other than Long Feng.
Last time with Sokka, Zuko, and Sangmu: After battling with Chit Sang and the Wolf's Skulls at the Southern Spirit Portal, the three of them decide to head to Aniak'to in the hopes that the scholars and alchemists in the city might have an answer to the merging worlds, because once Aang returned to the Spirit World and fixed the connection to his past lives it seems as if the floodgates have opened...
Book 3: Water
Chapter 15: The Aniak'to Alchemical Institute
Azula saw crimson, mostly. Like all of her dreams lately, the colors blended together at the edges of her vision, melting into the shadows at the corners of the room. Crimson fabrics draped over the four poster bed she knew to be hers. Scarlet stained the floors and the cushion of the chair upon which she sat. She could smell perfumes and the lingering scent of lavender soap from a recent bath. Azula felt something dark and dangerous here, but it felt familiar. A darkness and danger that was distinctively hers.
She sat in front of a mirror with a tube of lipstick - also crimson - and when she looked into it, Azula saw a different version of herself. One wearing Water Tribe blues; a tunic with white fur trim lining her shoulders. But when she looked down at her clothes, she only wore a robe in red and gold. A shadow moved in the corner of the room, draped over a bench, and Azula sighed.
"Please, Mai. Won't you show a little enthusiasm for my ascension?" Azula's voice came out clear, far clearer than she had ever heard it before in a dream. Usually it had been muffled or garbled, like she was underwater. "I know you're still upset about your boyfriend ditching you, but really. You'll get over it."
Mai's only response was a scoff of disgust at the mention of her ex.
Ty Lee appeared in the center of the floor like she had been there all along. She stretched with her leg pointing straight up into the air. "I'm happy for you, Azula! I can't wait for your coronation," she insisted. Her leg fell back down and she frowned. "But does this mean our friendship will change? Should we start addressing you as 'Your Majesty'?"
Azula turned back to her mirror, running a comb engraved with jewels through her hair. Normally, the servants would do it, but she wanted the time alone with Mai and Ty Lee. This would be one of the last times she had with them before she became Fire Lord, after all. "Well, maybe sometimes," she said, allowing smugness into her smile. "I'll have to attend more court functions, of course. And deal with matters of the Fire Nation. But I'll need both of you as my left and right hands - new official positions for the new Fire Lord."
"Am I the left hand or the right?" Ty Lee asked, staring at her hands. "I'm ambidextrous!"
"What do you think, Mai?" Azula asked, turning around to her other friend with a smirk. "Left or right?"
Mai waved her hand at them. "It doesn't matter. The 'Phoenix King' will be making most of the big decisions anyway."
Azula narrowed her eyes. Without looking away from Mai, she said, "Ty Lee, leave us for a moment."
Ty Lee nodded once and departed without a word or a breath.
"Do you mean to imply that my new position is useless?" Azula asked, her voice low and sharp. "That my new title is only that, a matter of decorum?"
Mai looked at her. "No, of course not. I didn't mean for it to come across that way."
Mai was backpedaling and Azula knew it. Of course Azula had noticed that she had been given the title she longed for her entire life, only for her father to turn around and make a new position even greater. But the way she saw it, he would be ruling over a world turned to ash while she kept the Fire Nation to herself. She would rule over the important parts while the Phoenix King would be away administrating the masses that managed to survive their baptism by fire.
But that's not how it happened. The voice in her head sounded exactly like her own. You got to burn the world, but then you spent most of your time keeping that hope extinguished, didn't you? How often were you really in the Fire Nation as the Fire Lord?
"I'll excuse you this time," said Azula. She turned back to her mirror. "I know you're not yourself right now."
"I heard about the Boiling Rock," Mai said after a moment. "About the prison break."
An annoyance, Azula thought. At least it had allowed her to follow Zuko to the Avatar's hiding place afterward. But she couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if she made it to the prison in time to face him there. "From your warden uncle, I assume."
Azula saw Mai's eyes fixed on her through the mirror. "How come the prisoners from the eclipse invasion weren't sent there?"
Azula locked eyes with her through the mirror and she saw the version of herself in Water Tribe clothes mouthing her words. "I had them all executed, of course. Father was thrilled at the suggestion. He liked the idea almost as much as the one I had to burn down the Earth Kingdom."
Mai averted her eyes. New Ozai was back in the hands of King Bumi after the eclipse. Mai shouldn't have had any hesitations with her family on the way back to the Fire Nation. "Ty Lee has no idea, does she?"
"Of course not," said Azula, placing the comb down on the tabletop. "According to all historical accounts of the Comet's arrival, the sky turns blood red. I'm sure she'll find that to be a pretty distraction."
Raucous howls and jeers echoed in the Whale's Belly as the members of Hakoda's court feasted on long tables set side by side. Serving boys and girls - the children of various clans - brought out plates of cuisine from the southern Earth Kingdom, the Outer Islands of the Fire Nation, the kitchens of Ba Sing Se's palace, and the fruits of the ocean and the seas and rivers in the Water Tribes. Azula had never seen so much food in one place, especially foods from all over the world, devoured with all the aplomb of victors who had seized it by force.
Hakoda sat at the end of the central table, observing the revelry around him with a calculating eye and a goblet in hand; he occasionally smiled or nodded along when one of his chiefs pulled him into conversation, but for the most part he sat on the outside of it. Separate, but superior. Azula couldn't help but think of how he looked like a normal man, even with the white pelt draped across his shoulders and servants waiting at his elbows, but when did monsters ever look the part?
Azula sat with Katara far from him, near the edge of the chamber at the end of a hard wooden bench. It was obvious to everyone present that the princess had been dishonored from the invasion of Ba Sing Se. After the drinks had started to flow, she had even withstood outright taunting by some of the warriors who laughed at the woman who dared to lead a battle. But Katara kept her head held high and her jaw clenched shut with the knowledge that she could overpower them any day, and Azula had to respect her composure.
She knows that they'll all pay for the disrespect sooner or later, the Fire Lord whispered in her ear. But if all goes well, sooner rather than later. A princess at a disadvantage has to know when to pick and choose her battles… and when to make things into an advantage.
I'm assuming she's doing all she can to picture the looks on their faces when she comes out on top, Azula replied.
If she has it in her to attain her revenge, anyway, her other self replied. And if she doesn't, you're going to be the one who has to pick up the pieces of her disastrous plan. Make up for her weaknesses.
Don't worry about me.
Azula bit into the hank of rabbit-fowl that reminded her inexplicably of home, of countless days hunting in the jungle with Zuko, but it had been marinated in spices and sauces that Azula had never known. "So who are the people lucky enough to share a table with your father?" she asked Katara.
"His inner circle," Katara replied, keeping her voice low. "Only his most influential chiefs and advisors." She gestured to the furthest end of the table at a large, surly man with braids and greying hair. "That's Chief Gilak of the Sloth-Stoat Clan. He was one of my grandfather's biggest supporters." Azula watched him tear at the carapace of a crab, scowling down the table. "I'm sure he'll air his grievances soon enough. He's always got something."
Azula's eyes went further up the table, toward one of only two adult women in the Whale's Belly. The other one was Hama, who had been introduced to Azula earlier as Katara's teacher. This woman was much younger than Hama, however, with an austere, distinguished face and high cheekbones that made her look almost like she had been carved from wood. "Who's that?" Azula asked.
"That's Inuna of the Narwhal Clan. Her husband, Chief Seyuk, is right next to her," said Katara. Seyuk looked just as severe as his wife, with two serrated machetes crossed at his back. Katara actually grinned. "I respect her, to be honest. She earned that place independent of her husband by joining him on his campaigns abroad."
Azula tilted her head. "I thought women weren't trained to fight here?"
"Inuna wasn't trained to fight. She was trained to kill," said Katara, with something like appreciation. "She's my dad's master poisoner."
"I see." Azula continued down the line toward an elder, a particularly grizzled warrior. "And that man?"
Katara's gaze darkened again. "Kuskok," was all she said. Azula nodded - that was Bato's father, patriarch of the Buffalo-Yak Clan. She could see the resemblance. He was on the list. "Next to him is Thod, Head Seeker of the Aniak'to Alchemical Institute. One of dad's favorites. And then a bunch of them are other old guys that are part of his council, but to be honest I bet even my father can't be bothered to remember all of their names."
Azula nodded. She recognized the clothing of a pale man sitting across from Thod. He wore a long, white silk robe with wide sleeves and an ice blue chrysanthemum pattern that clung to it like frost. "I remember that uniform," Azula said. Her lungs burned with the memory of her capture by Bato. "That's a Kokkan Samurai."
"I thought you might," said Katara, grinning as if it was a private joke the two shared. "That's their leader, Captain Shimo. He's the one who personally trained Yue back when she decided to become one of the Water Sages."
Despite Hakoda's seeming appreciation for the other cultures, Azula noticed that none of the representatives from the Earth Kingdom or Fire Nation sat at his table. At most, they occasionally approached him with tidings from their homes or gifts to curry favor. Azula wondered what kinds of lives they lived; if they spent all of their time here or if they instead journeyed home on occasion to pretend that they had never given their allegiances to the Water Tribes. As she looked around the chamber, she accidentally caught Long Feng's eye, but Katara grabbed her attention by standing.
"I'm going to speak with Hama," she said. "I need to catch her up on everything that's happened since I saw her last." Azula suspected that she only wanted to talk to one of the last people in the palace who seemed to retain any respect for her, but instead of saying as much she only nodded.
She rolled her eyes when she saw Long Feng stand up just moments later and make his way over to Katara's vacated seat. He wore heavy robes in a deep green and both his mustache and beard trailed all the way down to his waist.
"You're the Avatar's firebender," he said, sitting on the bench. "I never thought I'd see you here."
"And you're the king who bent the knee to his invaders instead of fighting back," she said. She held her cup of green tea between her hands, heating it up until it was almost scalding. "I never expected to see you here, either. I would have thought you'd be rotting in prison, but here you are enjoying a feast with your conquerors instead of suffering alongside your people."
Her words were a test of his composure; she wanted to see what kind of man she was dealing with. An arrogant king cowed into submission, a worm and a schemer who once sought to make the Avatar his assassin, or a man being led along on promises of wealth, glory, and power?
His mouth twitched with something like irritation. "Bold words coming from a teenage girl riding on the coattails of a disgraced princess." The first option, then. She had struck a nerve.
She smiled. "And what would a fallen king want with the companion of a disgraced princess? I haven't been with the Avatar for quite some time, if you were wondering how you might be able to use him again."
Long Feng sniffed. "I see you haven't changed. You still think so highly of your cleverness, don't you?"
"Oh, I'd say so," she replied. "The lie worked against you the last time we met, didn't it? The big difference is that now I really am a master firebender." She circled her hand under the table and a tiny blue flame sparked to life at the tip of her finger.
"It wouldn't be wise to make an enemy of me here," he said, leaning in close. She didn't flinch. "We could be allies. Both of us are capable of seeing the big picture, both of us are outsiders here in this nest of invaders and conquerors. If we play our cards right, you and I could come out of this with more than what we started."
At Hakoda's table, plates and goblets clattered when someone slammed their fist in anger. Azula realized a moment later that it came from Chief Gilak, who stood and pointed up the table, his face red with rage. "Kuskok, you old coward! Do you have any dignity left, or have you sold yourself out to those rock throwers by now?"
"Careful, Gilak," the older man rumbled, giving Gilak a fierce scowl. "Whatever you say to me reflects upon our emperor. You'd dare to disrespect him, too?"
Azula's gaze fell on Hakoda, who regarded Gilak with a hard expression and crossed arms.
"We are Water Tribe," said Gilak, fists clenched. "I've no interest in breaking bread with these self-interested elbow leeches." He gestured to the tables of Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation dignitaries, sages, governors, and merchants, who simmered with barely-concealed anger of their own. "What strength do they add to ours? We have no need for them - our people take what is ours by force."
Kuskok stood as well. "Our nation hasn't prospered so much in decades - not since the early years of Emperor Kvichak's reign! You're a bullheaded fool."
"To think you'd utter his name after soiling his ideals," Gilak spat. "I ought to challenge you to Sedna'a for that alone, but your frail bones and foreign sensitivities wouldn't even make it into your canoe."
Next to Azula, Long Feng let out a sigh. "I wondered how long it would take Gilak to burst."
"Katara said he'd have grievances to air," Azula said. "Though I don't think she expected him to let out this much. Why does Hakoda allow it?"
"The Sloth-Stoat Clan has plenty of influence in the South," said Long Feng. "Ever since the death of the Buffalo-Yak Clan's chief, Gilak's power has only been growing. But perhaps he pushes things too far now."
"Bato was one of the emperor's most loyal, wasn't he?" Azula mused. "I can see how his death would shake things up this much. And his father is far past his prime, no longer even fit to be a chief."
Long Feng raised an eyebrow. "Indeed."
By this point, most of the table had erupted into an uproar. Most took Kuskok's side, but some stared at their dishes of Earth Kingdom cuisine with distaste after Gilak's words. Even some of Azula's countrymen joined the arguing, and eventually things got so out of hand that Hakoda stood and everyone silenced.
"I won't allow such disrespect to our distinguished guests," he said. His voice was smooth and powerful, his words spoken with confidence. "They've all been promised a place in the new world we're going to build together. Gilak, if you continue to denounce them, to threaten those loyal to me, I'll have no choice but to declare Sedna'a on you myself. Do I make myself clear?"
Gilak scowled, but sat down and said nothing more.
Hakoda sat back down and gestured with his drink. "Now, let us continue to enjoy day one of the festival of the hunt."
After everything had died down and the people had returned to their meals, Azula glanced toward Long Feng. Part of her admired Hakoda's gravity, his almost regal presence, and she could understand why people would follow him. But then she stopped that train of thought, unsure if it belonged to her or the Fire Lord. The ruthless side of her thought Gilak should have been cut down on the spot for the way he acted - Ozai would have done that and more. "What did they promise you, Long Feng?"
The former king stood and passed behind her, but before he departed she heard his words through the din of the rest of the Whale's Belly, and that answer told her that her previous assessment of him was wrong. He wasn't just an arrogant king, a schemer, or an opportunist - he was all three. "Ba Sing Se, of course."
At the edge of the taboo-breakers' camp, Sokka constructed an igloo while Zuko and Sangmu kept their heads down. After arriving at Aniak'to, the three of them had decided to blend in with the taboo-breakers with their igloos and tents outside the city's walls, figuring it would be the safest way to remain in Aniak'to. With any luck, no one would notice them because taboo-breakers weren't supposed to exist. Sometimes, city guards even turned the other cheek when taboo-breakers entered the city as beggars, so Sokka counted on that happening when they needed to get behind the walls.
Since this igloo wasn't going to be as temporary as their usual ones, Sokka put it together the old fashioned way - waterbending blocks of ice and stacking them into the shape of an igloo with an opening for a chimney on top. It took him most of the first day there, and he weathered stares from their neighbors who regarded him with all the wariness of a stranger, but when Sokka finished he couldn't help but admire his handiwork.
Sangmu stood with him, her eyes wide with sympathy for their neighbors. "How come they don't all have igloos? I feel so bad for the ones in tents…"
"Waterbending taboo-breakers are the lucky ones," Sokka replied. Her comment stirred a deep memory of his mother and her sympathies for the downtrodden outside the protection of the city's walls. "Taboo-breakers are forbidden from using any tools or products made by another person, so the ones who can't waterbend are forced to build their tents and everything but the clothes on their back from scratch. Most won't accept our help, either, before you ask - many take the superstitions really seriously. They'd be afraid that the spirits would continue to forsake them through the winter."
A big man with broken glasses scowled at Sokka as he walked past with a makeshift spear. "Spoken like a fresh taboo-breaker," he said, slinging the carcass of a small, furry creature over his shoulder. "You'll learn the ropes around here - no one is too superstitious to avoid some help that could save our lives. It didn't take me long. We help each other survive because no one else will."
Zuko stepped in front of Sokka, presumably to prevent the man from looking closer at the exiled prince. "Uh, thank you for the tip," he said as the man continued on his way. Zuko turned to Sokka afterward with a hiss between clenched teeth. "Can't you get an eyepatch or something? Anything to change up your look so someone won't recognize you?"
Sokka scratched his head. The taboo-breaker's words almost stung. Maybe living among them for a short time would be enlightening. "Uh, I dunno. Maybe that'll work. Maybe it won't… doesn't change the fact that I'm missing an eye. I'm kinda hoping that people will be more distracted by the bright red clouds in the sky."
They compiled all of their things inside of the igloo. Chief Lirin had left them three sleeping rolls with the buffalo-yaks she'd given them and enough rations to last a couple of days. All of their other belongings had been left on Appa, who disappeared with Aang into the Spirit World. They had to ditch the buffalo-yaks when they arrived at the taboo-breakers' camp.
"At least we have this stuff," said Sangmu, watching both of the lemurs as they made themselves at home. Sokka figured Sabi would be content to sit quietly and stay hidden in the igloo, but Momo was far more restless and rambunctious. "But it's a shame we don't have more."
"We're just gonna have to do some rough living off the land for a while," Sokka said, grinning as he spun his shoulder. "It'll be fine. I'm used to it."
Zuko frowned. "Sokka, you're a prince. Somehow, I doubt that."
"Exiled prince!"
"Who still had his own ship and servants who cooked and cleaned and I bet even folded your underwear or something."
Sokka scowled. "They didn't fold my underwear!" he retorted. "My grandmother did," he said in a smaller voice.
Zuko poked their sleeping rolls. "Sangmu, didn't you have a pillow?"
She rubbed the tips of her fingers together as they all sat down. "Um, I sort of gave it away to someone outside. I thought he needed it more!"
Sokka groaned. "Ugh, okay, maybe don't do that, or we're gonna run out of stuff. Now you don't have a pillow and I'm not giving you mine."
She looked sheepish. "Sorry. So, when are we going to this institute? I know you're counting on people being too distracted by the red clouds to notice you but I'd really rather find a way to balance things out again. Especially before the Everstorm expands enough to cover the city."
"Soon," said Sokka. He turned to Zuko and braced himself for a talk he'd wanted to have for a while. "But first, I need you to tell me the plan for the invasion. If the new moon is tonight then the lunar eclipse is coming in about two weeks or so and if there's anything we can do to make it easier for your invasion force I want to do it. Or is the invasion going to happen before the eclipse? Timed just right so that they'll make it to the city just as us waterbenders lose our power?"
Zuko rubbed the back of his neck but didn't say anything.
Sokka sighed. "Okay, I know you guys didn't trust me for a while so you didn't tell me about the plan before, and maybe you still don't trust me, but obviously I know that there is an invasion being planned because I was at your dad's war camp for a couple weeks. And you know what? It's fine if you still don't, you can keep the plan really vague, I don't care, but I'd like to know when it's going to happen so we're not caught in the crossfire or taken by surprise or something." He paused to give Zuko space to answer. "Well? Er, if you still don't trust me at all, that's fine too, I guess…"
"It's not that! Uh, I wasn't really invited to my father's war planning sessions," Zuko admitted, blushing. "Azula's the one who snuck in to listen. And Aang didn't stay at the camp long enough for my father to have one and include him."
Sokka's jaw dropped. "So… you have no idea what's going to happen or even when? You never asked Azula? Did Aang?"
"Well, no!" Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Have you ever tried to get some information out of Azula when she felt special being the only one to know about it? I figured her and Aang would be here with us and that they'd deal with all of that."
Sokka's voice came out more high-pitched than usual. "Did you even try?"
Zuko grunted. "Listen, all I know is that the plan's for after the lunar eclipse. Ba Sing Se didn't want to mount an invasion with a narrow three hour window when the Water Tribes would be expecting it the most. Bumi suggested invading sometime after the eclipse, but before Seiryu's Moon… I just don't know when."
Sokka dragged a hand down his face. "You've got to be kidding me. Here I was thinking we could use this time to talk strategy. So what're we supposed to do? How are we supposed to communicate with anyone?"
"I don't know, okay?" Zuko shot back. "I didn't really think that part through. Our bigger focus was on rescuing Toph. I figured Azula knew about the rendezvous point with the invasion force and everything."
Sokka leaned back, throwing his hands up in the air. The lemurs chittered in irritation at his sudden motion. "Well, that's not helpful now, is it?"
Sangmu looked between the two of them with a frown as Sabi crawled into her arms. "Well, arguing won't solve anything. I think our best bet is to do what we can here and then wait for Aang to come out of the Spirit World. Hopefully he knows more, but if not, we'll figure something out. We're already here - I'd say that was the hardest part. Worst case scenario, they show up and we can just join them."
Zuko crossed his arms and grumbled. "Personally, I think the worst case scenario would be finding my sister and having to ask her. She'd rub it in my face that she knew so much more about it than I did."
The feast in Whale's Belly wound down without much fanfare after Chief Gilak's outburst. The drinks kept flowing longer than the food and some needed to be dragged out by their brothers or sons to the quarters reserved for guests of the palace. The fire in the hearth continued to roar and though Azula had found it pleasantly smoky at first it started to paint the chamber in a haze that began to sting her eyes as the night wore on. But she remained quiet and alert, and across the chamber Hakoda did, too.
At one point, after Katara had excused herself to the bathroom, Hakoda stared directly at Azula. Just when she averted her eyes to not appear disrespectful, he gestured to her. An invitation to come to him - or, more accurately, an order. She was under no misconceptions that it was a gesture for someone else, or that she could ignore it or pretend she never saw it, so she rose and made her way over to the side of the emperor of the Water Tribes.
She didn't know the protocol for addressing him. She wondered if she ought to feel afraid or intimidated, or even angry, but instead she felt curiosity. When she approached, she bowed and waited for him to address her before standing straight again.
"Every guest from the Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom tends to bow like that," Hakoda said. His voice had the lilt of easygoing humor in it. "Once, a man bowed so low that I thought his forehead would touch his toes."
She looked up. He wore a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "What is the proper way to address the emperor, then, if I may be so bold?" she asked.
He leaned back in his chair, which was rounded and draped in furs. Much softer and more opulent than the benches in the rest of the chamber. With his arms crossed, he shrugged. "Hm, maybe a salute or something? Most don't bother to ask and stick with the bowing. I don't know if that would suit you, though. There's lots of pride behind those eyes."
She hated to admit it, even to herself, but he'd caught her off guard. Azula expected a ruler that was cold, someone who demanded respect. She expected someone like Phoenix King Ozai. And yet, somehow, her defenses stayed high, her assumptions jumping to the idea that this must be an act, a tactic to get her guard down. Fire Lord Azula's heat burning in her chest told her that her other self agreed. "Far be it from me to decide. Here, in this city, I am now the Water Emperor's humble servant," she said finally, slowly drawing out her words.
He regarded her with a calculating eye and glanced toward the empty spot on the bench at his side. "Take a seat. Your name is Azula, right? I understand that you are my daughter's newest companion and the Avatar's former firebender?"
She sat down. Here, she had a view of the entire hall. Katara had returned from the bathroom and locked eyes with Azula, her eyes wide for a moment before they narrowed in something like anger. "That is correct," Azula said, tearing her gaze away from Katara.
Hakoda uncrossed his arms and reached for his goblet. "You can speak freely, you know," he said. "This isn't an interrogation. So tell me - what do you think of this place? This chamber, and the people in my court? I don't want a lie that you think I'd want to hear. Give me the truth."
Azula took a moment to consider her words, sitting with perfect posture. "Despite being in the middle of a frigid wasteland, this place has a certain warmth to it that I didn't expect," she said. "The revelry is overly raucous and the drunken louts are annoying, but considering how you don't directly participate it leads me to believe you are an observer and a thinker. Feasts like this are a way for you to keep the supporters loyal and weed out the dissenters and to reward and find opportunities to strengthen your alliances. And yet… you didn't punish Gilak for his insolence. Which leads me to believe you have another motive."
Hakoda regarded her with a raised eyebrow. "And what might that be?"
"You keep him as the voice of dissent. A scapegoat conveniently handy for when things go wrong. I saw the way the members of your inner circle regarded him - they were keen to keep their distance. Gilak is isolated here, despite the power his clan wields, and any whose loyalties waver would see that his way of thinking is the minority. By letting him make a spectacle of himself, others would see that he is a relic of a different age, a different reign."
Hakoda smirked; it was a wolfish one, befitting the namesake of the royal clan. "The Avatar lost a valuable ally, I'd say," he said. "Just one correction - I'm not simply an observer and thinker. Another title they've given me is 'the Speaker,' for I am the voice of the tribe. My word is the law, but also the strength of my warriors as they head into battle, the song that gets the blood rushing in their veins, the story of their bravery when they return home and the eulogy when they don't. When Gilak speaks out against me, he speaks out against all of the warriors who have fought alongside him."
"So you don't even need to shame him yourself," said Azula, nodding. This was a conversation she didn't expect; based on the way Katara and Sokka had made him sound, she had thought Hakoda would be colder than the blizzards outside his city. But she saw the same charisma in him that she saw in Katara. "They'll all do it for you."
"Indeed," he said, leaning back in his chair again. "You have a discerning eye. You know, Long Feng - from Jie Duan - mentioned to me that you should not be trusted. It is my understanding that, before coming here, you two were acquainted?"
"Long Feng is a self-serving man with too much ambition for his own good. He sees potential in me because I tricked him once and he doesn't want to be embarrassed by a teenager again." She pinched her bangs and smirked. "By that I mean he thinks he can use me."
Hakoda actually chuckled and leaned in closer. "But he won't succeed at that at all, will he? I have a confession to make - I haven't trusted him since he got here. He has his uses, though. Insider knowledge of Ba Sing Se, and all that."
Azula allowed a quick glance at Katara again, who sat at her table with clenched fists. She turned back to Hakoda. "It's a shame when you can't trust the people closest to you," she said. "You almost could have had Ba Sing Se at the end of the spring."
"You were there, too, weren't you?" he asked. A shadow passed over his face for a brief moment at the allusion to Katara, or perhaps just her failed invasion, but it vanished just as quickly. "The Avatar foiled the attack, didn't he?"
"He did. And I helped him," she said. She wasn't sure if he would take offense to the idea of Azula fighting against his children or just the idea of her fighting in general. "Though spirits played a big part in it, too."
Hakoda folded his hands. "They do like to meddle. Tell me about the Avatar. Why would you leave his side?"
"He's just a child in way over his head," she said. The words sounded like Fire Lord Azula's; they may even have belonged to her. "I recognized the losing side. I knew Sokka was weak. I'd already set out what I meant to do and mastered firebending. There was really nothing to it."
"I see," said Hakoda, and he had that calculating look in his eye again as he scratched his beard. "Now tell me. I'm sure you know that a lunar eclipse is approaching. Do the Avatar and the Earth Kingdom have an invasion planned?"
There it was. A test of her loyalties. She had her answer ready. "Of course they don't," she said. "At least, not for the eclipse. They know how foolish it is and how they have failed in the past. They expect you to be prepared for it."
"But certainly they don't plan to sit behind those walls and just wait out Seiryu's Moon."
"No," she said, tracing a finger along the lines etched into the wooden table. "They don't. The plan is to launch an invasion in the window between the eclipse and the second moon, precisely three days before your waterbending is scheduled to become empowered. It won't be a coordinated attack on the north and south - instead, they will focus all of their energies here. They might aim a token force up that way in an attempt to misdirect you, but the bulk of their forces will be headed for Aniak'to."
Hakoda smiled. "Not altogether unexpected, but it is good to know regardless. Thank you, Azula." He tilted his head. "Though forgive me for keeping my guard up when the eclipse comes, just in case."
Chief Kuskok cleared his throat and stood, rising slowly and heavily after coughing. "Hakoda," he said. "As we on the Elders' Council have been discussing, we have someone we would like to present to you before the night ends."
"Will this option be better than the first five?" Hakoda asked. He turned to Azula with a sigh. "Here we go - you better go sit back in your seat."
"We think she will be able to produce heirs for you," Kuskok continued, somewhat irritable. Azula passed by him, doing as Hakoda said, and returned to Katara's side. Bato's father smelled a little like pickled fish. "Strong sons. As you've specified in the past, this one is not too young. But she isn't too old yet, either."
Azula sat down again and Katara turned to her at once with an angry whisper. "Heirs? Wait a minute, do they really expect my dad to remarry?"
Azula expected Katara to say something about her conversation with Hakoda, but with this revelation that he'd been searching for another wife, it meant that Katara wasn't even being considered as an heir. Sokka and Katara both may as well have been dead to the tribe. "You know that he never intended for you to be the empress after he dies," Azula whispered back. "This isn't news."
"Yes, but this is a public acknowledgement of that! Ugh, this is gross."
"At least they're not trying to marry you off yet."
Kuskok gestured to the doorway and a woman walked in flanked by attendants on both sides, her parka a deep purple. Her hair was short - unusual for a Water Tribe woman, to Azula's understanding, and lighter than most, with smile lines just beginning to crease her face. But now her face was solemn as she stared straight ahead, only lowering her eyes when she stopped in front of Hakoda. Her attendants fell away, leaving her looking lonely and small in the center of the Whale's Belly.
"Emperor Hakoda," said Kuskok. "We of the Elders' Council present to you Malina of the Elkhare Clan, one of the North's most prominent families."
Entering Aniak'to had been as easy as Sokka hoped. A lot of it looked the same as he remembered - a blend of foreign and traditional, of ice and stone and wood bent and shaped into igloos and towers and squared buildings with high, straight walls; some even looked to be a mix of all three. He saw the banners of different clans and food stalls with Water Tribe meat skewers alongside fire noodles that Zuko said had been cooked and prepared the wrong way. Scaffolding helped some buildings climb higher and higher, almost like at Ba Sing Se. Steam belched from building-sized water heaters that provided warm water to the city and made bathhouses and hot yoga such popular destinations. Sokka hurried past the hot yoga saunas in particular since he'd known Katara to frequent such establishments.
The Aniak'to Alchemical Institute was one of the largest buildings in the city, rivaling even the palace itself. They reached it just as the sun began to set; even with the late hour, Seekers worked through all hours of the night, since they claimed that just as much work could be done under the moon. The front courtyard had a stone monument which consisted of a giant ring suspended in the air that enclosed an open space with a pedestal in the center. The outside of the ring showed the sun, moon, and stars, while the inside had human figures carved into it that demonstrated stages of meditation and enlightenment. From what Sokka knew, it was meant to be a representation of the pursuit of alchemy - the inner way and the outer way, whatever that meant. The pedestal in the center had an inscription speaking of the betterment of society.
Beyond the monument, the institute itself towered. It consisted of three towers in a straight line joined by a wall. The center tower was the tallest, built like a three-tiered pagoda with a dome at the top while the other two only had one roof each with matching domes. Sokka, Zuko, and Sangmu walked to the central tower with as much confidence as they could muster, hoping that people wouldn't look twice at them. Many kept looking to the distraction up in the sky - the vermilion clouds roiled, twisting and curling as if a storm churned up high that could break at any moment.
They ascended a short flight of frozen steps before passing through the door into the institute. Sokka's mouth dropped open once he saw the atrium inside - it looked like a palace of ice from the north, with a cavernous ceiling and pillars that reached all the way to the top, all sharp angles and reflective surfaces that shined like mirrors. It wasn't until Sokka inspected it closer that he realized it wasn't ice at all, but an unknown stone polished so well to be indistinguishable from ice.
"I've never seen this before," Sokka said, wishing very much that he took the opportunity to come here in his youth. He'd always dismissed the idea of alchemy back then, thinking of it as some kind of quack magic rather than a field of science. He didn't know why his father didn't look down on it; Hakoda generally preferred more tangible things, like his inventions and anything that helped with tactical warfare. Sokka supposed that his aversion to it also might have had to do with his father.
"You mean you've never been here?" Sangmu asked. "How are we supposed to know where to start?"
"When I was younger, my dad got this weird fixation on this place and all things alchemy," Sokka said, running his finger along the wall. It even felt cold and slick like ice. "Before that, the institute was only kept around because his father liked the spirituality of it, supposedly, so I never really wanted to come. It wasn't until later when I learned it's more scientific."
Sangmu brushed her braid behind her ear. "I never really knew too much about alchemy. I only knew about the belief behind it."
"It's not just about spirituality, but science, too!" said a voice from behind them. Sokka snapped around to the doorway to see a woman not much older than him with a long blue robe and a black silk hat, the clothing of a Seeker. A braid twisted over her shoulder and she had a wide, welcoming smile - she didn't seem to recognize Sokka, with his eyepatch and hair tied back at the nape of his neck. He also tried to draw a fierce warrior's marking under his eye to throw off suspicion more, even though Zuko claimed it drew more attention to him. "That's the amazing thing about alchemy and this institute, I think. Welcome!"
"Oh, uh, I'm a Seeker, too," said Zuko, fumbling over his words. Their plan was to claim that he was a transfer from another branch of the institute if anyone stopped them. "From the Jie Duan branch. Which got destroyed by the Avatar a few months ago."
"Jang Hui," Sokka corrected with a cough. He wished he would have been present for Aang's destruction of the institute's foreign branch in the Fire Nation - it sounded sort of fun.
"Er, the Jang Hui branch!" Zuko said. "Since I'm Fire Nation it took a long time for the paperwork to get approved. My name's Lu Ten."
The Seeker clapped her hands together. "Oh, I see! I'm Niyok, nice to meet you! Let me show you around - maybe we'll end up working on the same research. Who are your friends?" Like all women at the institute, her official expertise could never extend beyond healing, medicine, or botany. Sokka didn't think it likely that Zuko would have been assigned to the same place as her even if he was a real Seeker.
"Uh, this is my cousin Musang," Zuko said, gesturing to Sangmu. "I just wanted to show her around. And he's … Batoka. He wants to become a Seeker, too."
"We're just concerned about all the crazy things going on with the sky," Sokka said, after making a face at the quick pseudonym Zuko came up with for him. "And we might have some information of our own that can help."
"Oh, that would be amazing!" Niyok exclaimed. "All of this is really unprecedented. I'll lead you to where we're doing our research."
As Niyok led the way further into the institute, Sokka let out a breath of relief - so far, their ruse had worked. But even he couldn't resist the scoff and a jab at Zuko when Niyok turned her back to them. "Batoka? Really?"
"It was the first thing that came to mind!"
"So what do you know about alchemy already, Musang?" Niyok asked as she led them down a hall that branched off into many rooms. Sokka saw diagrams and trigrams on the walls within each chamber they passed; one had a clay stove that smelled of sulfur and another had a three-tiered cauldron on a tripod made of iron with a vivid red substance inside. He saw more Seekers delicately holding tiny stones between pincers while others sat in meditation below an image of the old concepts of yin and yang, the moon and ocean. He didn't think people followed those ideas anymore, at least not since the beginning of the war.
Sangmu folded her hands behind her back. "I know its purpose is to seek the betterment of oneself," she said, as they passed a chamber of adepts leading novices in the mixture of substances. "Through a combination of careful meditation, diet, and exercise, a person can care for the Three Treasures of Jing that are within our bodies - the Essence, the Breath, and the Spirit."
"Like positive, neutral, and negative jing?" Zuko asked.
"Sort of," Sangmu replied. "At least, I think so. Some people I grew up with practiced it. Through the unity of all those things, it is said that a person can live forever."
Sokka shook his head. "Hang on, I thought alchemy was magic potions and elixirs and stuff? Changing metals into gold and all that."
"You're both right!" said Niyok. "The study of alchemy consists of the inner way and the outer way. What Musang said is the inner way and what Batoka said is the outer way… though it isn't really 'magic.' By combining both schools of thought, it is believed that we can create all kinds of amazing elixirs and wealth for the longevity of our people. Water is the superior element that makes up all aspects of life, and thus it can be the catalyst for change and prosperity, just as it is such a necessary component for all of our experiments."
She led them to a juncture in the hallway where they saw an old man with his back to them, giving orders to a pair of teenagers that looked like siblings - a boy and a girl. Both of the teenagers accepted his words with discipline in their posture, as if they were used to this. The cantankerous old man spun on Sokka and the others when they approached and Sokka had to jump behind Zuko as soon as he recognized Thod, Head Seeker of the institute.
Thod looked at Niyok as if Sokka, Zuko, and Sangmu weren't even there. "Niyok! What are you doing lollygagging in the halls? You should be in the botany room with your sister! I didn't leave for the emperor's feast so you could slack off!"
"Yes, sir! Sorry, sir!" she said, keeping her head down. She hurried past him, ushering Sokka and the others with her. "Come along!" Sokka kept his head down as he passed - Thod would recognize him for sure if he looked closely enough. Just their luck to run into the Head Seeker himself.
He was able to breathe when Niyok led them into a room filled with jars of dried plant matter. Some bundles hung from the walls or the ceiling in a way that reminded Sokka of Spriggy the herbalist's hut. This chamber was smaller than many of the others, with one long table covered in potted plants or others that had been dried and chopped and juiced. The room had a window but a fire burned in the center of the room, providing light now that night had fallen. Another young woman with her hair in a braided bun sat at the table, grinding leaves with a mortar and pestle.
"I'm back, Nutha!" said Niyok. "Got that ginger root you asked for. Ran into Thod, though."
Nutha scowled. "Figures. Who'd you bring with you?"
"Some prospective Seekers!" Niyok exclaimed, much more excitable than her sister. "Lu Ten there is from the destroyed Jang Hui branch in the Fire Nation. Isn't that neat?"
Nutha didn't really look impressed, but she shrugged. "Looking to get into botany? It's not the most popular field here since we don't have a lot of plants to study in this frigid wasteland."
"We met someone a little while ago named Spriggy," said Sangmu. "She's an herbalist who knows so much about so many plants. She even had someone bringing her samples from all around the world."
Niyok and Nutha exchanged a glance and Niyok's face lit up into a grin. "Wow, no way! We owe a lot of what we do to Spriggy and the research she left behind. I'm glad to hear she's doing well! Though, um, Nutha and I never really met her. She worked here long before we did."
Nutha's hard gaze softened. "Yeah. Thod was pretty mad when she left." She pulled a pot closer and clipped its leaves with a pair of shears, her motions practiced and delicate. "I wish we could get samples from far away. We have a disadvantage that other naturalists in the institute don't - it's easy to study different weather phenomena, astronomy, medicine, and healing right from the South Pole. But not botany. That's why we started to study medicine, too."
"And yet we're expected to do the most," said Niyok, slumping onto her stool with a frown. With her chin resting on her hands, she turned to Nutha. "Did Thod give you his thoughts on that flavor of chi enhancing tea we came up with?"
"He said it needs work," Nutha grumbled. "It's not enough of an improvement. I swear, the man expects to see an increase to bending power on the level of Seiryu's Moon at any time. It just isn't possible."
"Whoa, whoa," said Sokka, holding his arms out for them to slow down. "Chi enhancement? Like to empower bending? You guys can do that?"
"Oh, yeah," said Niyok. "Chi enhancement, chi suppression, purification… all can be mixed from various ingredients. Remember what I said about water being the ultimate solution, a component of our experiments? Part of alchemy includes steaming, condensation, sublimation, distillation, and extraction techniques to bolster all the most important qualities of our potions. Nutha and I draw those out of plant-based materials and we combine our research with those who study the environment and animal parts, like ground up narwhal horns and stuff."
Sangmu blanched. "You mean people are expected to drink that?"
"Or inhale it," Nutha said. "It'd be easier if we had waterbenders to work with, but no, Thod can never spare any. Instead, he has them all working on ways to transform other elements into water. Total waste of time."
Sokka's head spun with the implications of everything they studied. How much more did they study here? How much knowledge did he lack? "I'm a waterbender," he said, raising his hand. Transforming other elements into water? He had no idea how that could have worked. "Can I help?"
"Wait," said Zuko, fixing Sokka with a stare that told him not now. "We came here because we wanted to ask about what's being done to fix the sky. We think it's the Spirit World crossing over into this one."
Sokka deflated. He'd gotten a bit ahead of himself, he supposed. "Right. Yeah. Spirit World sky, expanding Everstorm and all that."
"It's only a theory that it's the Spirit World's sky," said Niyok, tapping her chin. "They haven't been able to do much more than observe at this point, but there's a lot that's still unknown. Plants are dying, even those in our nursery. Animals are behaving out of the ordinary. Tides shift at the wrong times. It's all so bizarre. Not to mention the strange, oddly similar dreams a lot of people keep reporting."
Sokka exchanged another glance with Zuko. "How widespread are those dreams?" Sokka asked.
Niyok and Nutha exchanged a glance of their own. "Very," said Nutha. "We have them, too."
With Sangmu caught in the middle looking back and forth between the four of them, Sokka sat down at the table. "Well, here's what we know: it is the Spirit World's sky. It is merging with our world. It is potentially a world-ending issue. And those dreams? They're messages from another version of yourself, calling out for help. We know all this because we answered that call."
"I can't believe him!"
"You said that already, Katara. Three times now, by my count."
Azula sat on a cushion next to the hearthfire while Katara paced around her bedchamber, which felt like the inside of a particularly large igloo. For a princess, Azula thought Katara's bedchamber was sparse in its decorations and amenities. A black wolf pelt on the floor signified her clan, and unfinished textiles in the corners of the room collected dust. Tiny woodcarvings of animals sat on a shelf and many of them looked so crudely carved that Azula recognized them as Sokka's handiwork. Next to them, an amulet woven from thick fibers, multicolored beads, and bear teeth hung from the wall in a central position in the room, indicating to Azula that it was important to Katara. But as she looked around, she found herself missing windows.
Katara didn't seem to hear her, or if she did, she didn't care. "A new wife? Are they crazy? Ugh, this has Kuskok written all over it. The Buffalo-Yaks have intermarried with the Elkhare Clan for years. I bet this Malina lady is his attempt to control my dad and end up with more land and power. Those guys and their stupid horned helmets…"
"But why would Kuskok try to manipulate Hakoda?" Azula asked, leaning back with boredom. "He's already one of your father's most loyal."
"I don't know if it's a manipulation thing," Katara said, but at least the question had gotten her to stop pacing. It made her cool down. It made her think. "Kuskok lost a lot of power when Bato died. Now the Buffalo-Yak chief is technically one of Kuskok's nephews, but Kuskok calls all the shots."
Azula ran her fingers through the soft wolf pelt. "And your father knows that, obviously. But the wolf is still allied with the buffalo-yak. So he's fine with producing heirs with the Elkhare Clan, since it would forge closer ties to Bato's clan."
Katara crossed her arms and sighed. "Whatever. It won't matter soon, anyway." She looked at Azula over the hearthfire. "What did he talk to you about, anyway?"
"He was trying to gauge my loyalty to the Water Nation," Azula replied. "Questions about Aang. About any potential invasions during the lunar eclipse."
"And what did you tell him?"
Azula rolled her eyes. "That I'm loyal, of course. And that there's no invasion planned. The truth."
Fire Lord Azula was silent, but Azula sensed her presence regardless like a ghost in the room.
Katara turned toward the shelf with the woodcarvings, picking one up and turning it over in her hand. It had a sharpness to it, but from here Azula couldn't tell what kind of animal it was. "Loyal to him?"
"To the Water Nation," Azula said slowly. "To you. Those two concepts are not in conflict with each other. I don't need to remind you of our original mission, do I?"
Katara scoffed and put the carving back down. "Of course I don't need a reminder. Anyway, tonight I need you to go to your room and stay there. For the first step in our plan, it needs to be known that you were there the whole night after the feast. You're an outsider. People are still suspicious of you."
Azula recognized the dismissal. She stood. "Right. Good night then, Katara."
I'm glad she's not wasting any time, the blue dragon crooned in her ear. Though it's too bad you're not needed to do anything yet.
I'll have my moment, Azula thought. At this hour of the night, the halls through the palace felt as silent as a tomb. She felt reasonably confident she could make her way back to the guest chambers on her own, but she didn't know if she'd have to share that space with anyone and she dearly hoped it wouldn't be Hama. Katara had already mentioned that the old woman had a habit of snoring.
"Wait." The deep voice called to her from the shadows and Azula tensed, the torches on the walls turning blue. But Long Feng emerged from the darkness of an adjacent hallway with his arms folded behind his back, his face stony. "I hoped to speak with you."
"Were you lurking around here in the chance that I'd appear?" Azula asked, turning so that the wall was at her back. Her flames continued to burn blue and the dragon uncoiled, interested. "What is it?"
"Emperor Hakoda wanted to speak with you during the feast," he said. He didn't even react to the blue flames dancing in the torches. "What was it about?"
"Everyone wants to know, don't they?" Azula asked. She gave him a nonchalant shrug. "He asked for my opinion of Gilak and we spoke about his Sloth-Stoat Clan."
Long Feng's lips curled into a smile. "Excellent. I wanted to talk with you about precisely the same matter."
"Is this where you propose an alliance of sorts?" Azula asked, examining her nails. "Should I be honored that you selected me as your scheming partner?"
His smile turned into a scowl and his voice deepened. "You don't know what you've gotten yourself into, little girl. But I see potential in you. You're aware of the conflict between Gilak and Kuskok - I believe we can use this to our advantage."
"For what purpose?" Azula asked, eyes narrowed. "You said you've already been promised Ba Sing Se."
He stepped closer. "A Ba Sing Se that is free from Water Tribe rule. A Ba Sing Se that is mine. And, perhaps, since you're Fire Nation, you could take Jie Duan one day when you're old enough. I have no need for it."
She almost rolled her eyes. He was counting on the shortsightedness of a teenager. If he didn't underestimate her, he would have offered her more. "So there is something in it for me," she said. "Color me surprised. Well tell me, then. What do you propose we do?"
"I won't speak of it here," he said, looking down both hallways. "But keep your ear out for instructions in the coming days." He turned around and departed down the same hallway he came from, not even waiting for her to answer.
Azula could almost feel the blue dragon's scales beneath her fingertips. It's time for another game, then, I see. But I wonder, will he be good enough to be a player this time?
It was late in the night by the time Sokka, Zuko, and Sangmu decided to make their way back to their igloo in the taboo-breakers' camp. Niyok and Nutha kept the questions flying and Sokka and Zuko did their best to answer; they spent the night speaking of other worlds, dreams and visions, and the collapse of the world's order. But their minds churned for a solution, and it was Zuko who mentioned that the visions of his other self began in the first place when he'd been given a drink to induce them, which Sokka himself had forgotten. Perhaps another concoction would help.
All through the night, Sangmu stayed silent. It wasn't until their walk back that Sokka realized she might have felt left out. Or that she might have started piecing things together about Aang. Either way, it was a subject he felt uncomfortable broaching on their walk back.
"It's one thing to keep our world separated from the Spirit World," said Zuko, as they walked back through the halls toward the entrance of the institute. Their footsteps seemed to echo in the barrenness of the halls. "But once that goes back to normal, who's to say the people would do the same? We have no idea if our other selves will be stuck to us forever or not."
"Exactly," Sokka said with a yawn and outstretched arms. "We had a good start today. Maybe the key to fixing this is to focus on the small picture first - the individual level - rather than the big picture with the sky and all that. It's worth looking into."
"So you two can connect to versions of yourselves from another world?" Sangmu asked, frowning. "Did Aang?"
Sokka rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of how to answer that, but the motion made him realize that he had forgotten his boomerang back in Niyok and Nutha's nursery. "Oh! I gotta head back, I left my boomerang. You two go on ahead, I'll catch up."
He turned around and walked back in the direction of the nursery, his pace hurried. He hoped that Aang would come back from the Spirit World soon so he could tell Sangmu his secret himself. And maybe Sangmu would like having Yue around, or even Toph. Knowing Yue, she would probably prove to be more amenable to helping Sokka and Aang if Katara wasn't around. But what would Suki do? He didn't see the possibility of Yue and Suki ever directly opposing each other…
So lost in thought, he barely realized where he was going until he saw a pair of young teenagers walking down the hall toward him. It was the boy and the girl from earlier - Thod's disciples - and they both split so Sokka could walk between them. He kept his gaze forward; he'd never met them, so they had no reason to recognize him.
The moment he stepped between them, he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and his hand snapped up to catch the girl's wrist before she could hit him with her finger knuckles. But he didn't notice the equivalent movement on his bad side in time - the boy struck him in the shoulder, which stung at first until his entire arm went numb. Sokka lunged forward as they both tried to trip him up with a sweeping kick, but he jumped over it in time and pulled the girl's wrist in a sharp downward motion to knock her off balance. She let out a grunt as she bumped into her brother, but when Sokka tried to take an unarmed fighting stance he found that he couldn't move his left arm at all.
They were both chi blockers. "Not good," he muttered. He tried to draw his sword out of his scabbard with his working hand, but the boy jumped over his sister and aimed a high kick at Sokka's head that he barely managed to block with his forearm. The boy followed it up with an attack aimed toward his leg, but Sokka knew enough about chi blockers thanks to Ty Lee that he was able to dodge out of the way in time. In close quarters, he managed to shove his shoulder into the boy, pushing him back far enough that Sokka had the space to unsheathe his sword.
Before he could pull it out, the girl flipped over her brother's back, but with his good arm Sokka managed to uncork his waterskin in time and shoot a jet of water toward her. She weaved around the blow and jabbed toward his elbow, making the water splash to the floor, and when he tried to pull it up under her feet the puddle didn't respond to his call. Sokka cursed under his breath, but managed to duck low under her next kick and respond with a sweeping kick of his own. It unsettled her balance enough so a simple shove made her slip on the wet floor, finally allowing him to pull his sword from its scabbard.
"You're Sokka," said the girl, eyes narrowed. She leapt forward and aimed a punch at him once she recovered, but he swung his sword to dissuade her and edged his way around them back toward where Zuko and Sangmu were.
"And I have no idea who you are," he said, trying his best to keep them on the defensive. Unarmed, and in a narrow hallway, it would have been stupid for them to attack him with his sword out. "But a girl that can fight? Unusual around here. Not that I have any problems with it, really."
"Head Seeker Thod saw the potential in me," she replied, as if offended.
"What's going on?" Sangmu appeared around the bend in the hallway where Sokka had come from, but when she saw his sword out she caught on quick. The siblings both opened their mouths and drew in a deep breath to shout, but a puff of air swept through the hall and Sokka's ears popped and he realized that he'd been deafened.
The shock of their voices dying in their throats gave Sokka enough time to turn tail and run away from the siblings. Once he emerged from Sangmu's sphere of soundbending influence, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Good call muting them," he said, grinning. "Pull your hood up - it's too late for me, but hopefully they didn't get a good look at your face!"
Sangmu smiled as she ran, pulling up the hood of her cloak. "Thanks. I'll try to keep it on them so they don't raise an alarm."
Sokka looked over his shoulder to see both the brother and sister pursuing them through the hall, their footsteps silent and focus in their eyes. The sister branched off of the path down a different hallway and Sokka almost cursed - he didn't know how much of a range Sangmu's silence had, but he didn't think it could follow them down different hallways. Sokka let some more water out of his waterskin, letting it freeze in a puddle on the floor, but the brother saw it coming and leapt clean over the patch of ice just in time for the sister to emerge from the fork in the hallway in front of Sokka and Sangmu.
Zuko appeared behind the sister, grabbing her in a headlock so that Sokka and Sangmu could pass. The girl tried to shout again, but Sangmu's soundbending fell on all five of them again, and the girl managed to wriggle free from Zuko's grip to strike him in both arms. With his features hidden under his hood and a face mask, he ran along instead of staying to fight, his arms rendered useless.
Sokka didn't want to have to resort to Sangmu's airbending to deal with them, but he didn't know what else to do. Maybe once they made it outside he'd have more water to bend, and with his weapons he'd be able to fight even one-handed. But then his cover had already been blown, and now he wouldn't be able to come back to the institute to work on those experiments…
A scattering of alchemists working late barely looked up when they passed; perhaps they were too tired or it wasn't much of a disturbance to be a concern, but either way Sokka was thankful for Sangmu's soundbending. When they finally made it through the front doors and out into the cold night air and falling snow, he prepared to make a stand in front of the alchemy monument but instead all thoughts of fighting back or running away left him when they all looked up at the sky.
The heavens burned.
The crimson clouds that blotted the sky all throughout the day split apart before their eyes and gouged out a perfect circle, fracturing the inky blackness of night. The inside of the circle shone bright with the dawn, a rosy incandescence with motes of light that streaked within its brilliance. The golden sky looked alive, the streaks of white shooting toward the border of crimson at the edges of the circle until the white turned brighter and brighter and Sokka realized they were objects hurtling toward the earth.
Meteors fell and people screamed. The city erupted into panic as the starshower fell upon Aniak'to and Sokka felt his feet rooted in place, unable to tear his gaze away from the spectacle overhead. He found no words for the sky falling down around them, no plan to avoid it. The sight had rendered him speechless.
"Wait," said Zuko, letting out a breath. "They're not hitting the ground! Nothing is doing any damage!"
Sokka's eye followed one of the meteors as its trajectory took it toward the snowfields outside of the city, but the moment it crossed the horizon line it seemed to vanish as if it was never there. He didn't feel the ground quaking from any impacts, nor the destruction of buildings from columns of fire and the crashing of stone and ice. It was as if the meteors didn't exist, like it was all some big hallucination that the whole city shared.
Beyond the institute's entrance pavilion, the panicked crowds gathered toward the safety of the palace or the institute. But overlooking the city from a vantage point between the palace and the institute, a figure appeared with arms outstretched, the snow whirling all around him. He had his back to Sokka and the others, and despite the cold he wore nothing on his upper body.
"Who is that?" Sangmu asked, tearing her gaze away from the sky.
Zuko squinted. "That's… a Sun Warrior?"
The unfamiliar man's voice boomed. "Fear not the shadows of falling stars!" he said, his hands extending toward the gash in the sky above. "It is a sign from the universe - the harbinger of your true awakening! Let dreams become reality! Listen to the voices in your heart, and accept them as part of you! With your strength and resolve combined, humanity will be united in a way we've never been before!"
"What's he talking about?" Sangmu asked, looking back and forth between Sokka and Zuko. "What's happening?"
"We need to get out of here," Sokka said, looking around them. People started flooding toward the institute for answers if not the palace, and it was the perfect opportunity to get lost in the crowd. The siblings that pursued them through the institute had vanished but now they had a bigger problem. Spirits soared through the sky with the falling stars, made up of light and dark and everything in between, and when Sokka led the way into the chaos of the city he blinked away a sudden influx of memories and feelings.
He remembered the soot falling on a snowy village. Waiting in war paint while his father and the other men went away to war. An iceberg and a pillar of light. His first love fading away in his arms. A kiss. A reunion. Fighting and fleeing and losing everything, and a sky as red as blood.
They flooded into him, as vivid and painful as a wound being opened, and he wiped away tears as they escaped through the city and back to the taboo-breakers' camp, which was in just as much of a state of panic as the rest of Aniak'to. But even as Sokka tried to wrestle with the memories and feelings that weren't his own, he knew just as much that his other self struggled with the weight of Sokka's own memories of this world. When the three of them climbed back into the igloo with the cowering lemurs, Zuko relit the fire and sat back with a trembling hand held over his left eye.
"I feel it," he said, his voice shaken. "I feel his pain. More than ever before."
Sokka stared into the fire, the empty feeling in his gut widening like a great chasm. "It's like that Sun Warrior said. We're awakening to our other selves even more."
"I don't feel any different," said Sangmu, holding both shivering lemurs close. "Why? I don't understand why this is happening."
Neither Sokka nor Zuko had an answer for her. They didn't move the rest of the night. Sokka barely felt the warmth of the fire even as Sangmu eventually fell asleep and Zuko climbed into his bedroll. He tried to push past the maelstrom of the other Sokka's memories, tried to focus on their next move and how Zuko might be able to help with the experiments in his place, but he could only focus on the loss. The Sun Warrior had said they would be united - whole - but the other Sokka had no words to share, no insights into the feelings that pervaded, and all of it kept Sokka awake through the whole night.
He kept tossing and turning until he eventually gave up and grabbed his pillow to give to Sangmu in place of the one she had given away, but when he sat up he saw that she already slept on one - Zuko's. Feeling that he didn't need it anyway, he carefully tucked his pillow underneath her arm and on reflex she hugged it tight to herself, barely stirring.
Faraway sounds of the city resounded through the rest of the night, muffled only by distance and falling snow. But eventually even that died down as morning came, only to be replaced by a lingering sense of unease, like he stood over the ice of a frozen lake straining under his weight.
The Blue Spirit stalked through the shadowed halls of the ice palace in oppressive silence. Elsewhere, in the palace and beyond, people woke to the chaos outside. In the early hours of the morning, fear and panic ruled after the sky broke over the city. But the Blue Spirit didn't care. If anything, it made her job easier.
You don't need to do this. Don't choose revenge.
Katara made her way through the guest wing of the palace. Toward one set of chambers, a place of honor. I do need to do this, she thought. I'm doing this for you, Mom. All the people who took you away from me need to pay for what they did.
I'm not your mom. Please, listen to me. I know it hurts, and I know you're angry.
After the sky fell, Katara felt certain now that the voice belonged to her mother. It was a comforting presence. One that sounded like her, felt like her. She'd been so young when she lost her mother, but she'd never forgotten how it felt to be embraced the way only her mother could. It had been so long, but this presence felt so vivid. The fact that her mother had returned to her like this could only be a sign from the universe. That what she did was right.
She remembered soot falling with the snow. A sense of loss, heavy and overbearing. She remembered being angry, being weak, and finding her strength. The struggle of keeping her family together, of putting her trust in those who broke it. And that betrayal - that hurt worst of all.
I know what you've been through, Mom. I know this won't bring you back, but it'll bring closure. And justice.
Please, you're in a lot of pain. You need to let it out and let it go. I've been there and I know it isn't worth it.
But she couldn't. It bubbled up in her with the rage and when she arrived at her destination it came out when she ripped aside the animal pelts that marked the entrance to the bedchamber.
Chief Kuskok sat up in his bed, his eyes wide. "What is this? Demon!" He reached for the knife at his bedside but Katara held out her hand and pinned him to the wall. He let out a choked gasp and urns full of water next to his bed burst as he tried to reach for them too, but the water pooled on the floor.
Let him go! He didn't do it, he didn't take your mother away!
"But he was involved that night," Katara said aloud, her voice scathing. "He conspired with my father to take you away!"
Kuskok strained against the invisible force. "What are you talking about? Who are you?"
She pulled off her mask and it clattered to the floor. She revealed her face so he could look into her eyes, so he could see the pain and the rage behind them. So he would fear her, and know her. "I'm the little girl that you were perfectly fine with sacrificing to the spirits. The girl that you tried to use for your own gain! And you took my mother away from me, let her take the blame for a murder she didn't commit!"
"P-Princess Katara," he sputtered. The veins in his neck popped, straining against his skin. "You don't know what you're talking about. She… Kya committed regicide! She was a taboo-breaker! I was never going to sacrifice you!"
"Enough with the lies!" she shouted. Her eyes burned and brimmed with unfallen tears. Her hands clenched and Kuskok let out a breathless gasp, trying in vain to grasp at his throat. "I'm going to make you pay. All of you who were involved that night. All she did was try to protect me!"
You can't do this, Katara!
A sense of peace settled over for her as her resolve hardened. Bloodbending another person had never felt so good. "This is for you, Mom. I'm bringing you peace."
Fine, if you think I'm your mom - please, I don't want this, sweetie. There's no coming back from this. I know you've had to fight, and I know you've had to do things you didn't want to do, but you don't ever need to forgive him. But if you do this, you'll never forgive yourself.
I don't need to forgive myself. The tears fell. She twisted her arm and Kuskok gasped and groaned and with a snap of her wrist, another snap followed, and Kuskok fell back against his bed and lay still.
She turned and ran as the palace awakened in full, as the hallways flooded with people in varying states of panic and discord. Among them, Katara looked calm as she strode back toward the Whale's Belly. The voice withdrew, but she still felt her mother. She was scared and upset, experiencing Katara's feelings just as she experienced her mother's. Katara saw confusing images, confusing memories, she was a little girl again, but through them all she focused on one - on her mother in an igloo, on her knees with fear in her eyes, and strength. The last words she had ever heard her mother say, which she finally remembered for the first time.
"Go find your dad, sweetie. I'll handle this."
Hakoda was next. When the time was right, she would find him. And she would end him.
Author's Notes: Couple more comic character additions this chapter! As I mentioned when he appeared in "The Last Kyoshi Warrior," I don't own Thod. I also don't own Gilak, Malina, Niyok, Nutha, or even Thod's two disciples (though I might give them names). Lots of new characters in this chapter, but don't worry, they're not getting big parts.
Just a reminder - my profile has all the DR-related content you could want! The audiobook adaptation is continually updating every week so give it a listen, too, if you haven't already! Since my last update, Madame_Melon_Meow has gotten additional voice talent from arealpeople, and the two of them narrate it together! Thank you both again!
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