Chapter 3:
Zuko stared at the map, carefully planning his next move. Having studied the colonies and their political administration carefully, Zuko now needed to line this information with the location of the Fire Nation Colonies. Phase 2 of his plan was beginning soon – his trading of the boat and escape into the Earth Kingdom. This, of course, was the most important part of his plan, and his most precarious. A plethora of things could go wrong, and the possibility of him being executed for treason if discovered was larger than Zuko wanted.
Zuko continued his observation of the Fire Nation colonies. He had decided the previous night to engage the transfer in one of the newer, but still relatively pacified colonies, and now needed to plan his route on the map in order to make sure the plan worked. A newer colony was key, as the power structure of each colony usually took several years to set in stone, with the oldest colonies being almost directly under Firelord control. The colony, however, could not be too new. This was because he needed to sell the boat, which required a large settlement to not draw attention to the transfer.
This, coupled with the need to be close to the Earth Kingdom, caused Zuko's options to be extremely limited. Very few colonies were in the administrative window Zuko needed for an unnoticeable and secure transfer of the boat for Fire Nation Money. Zuko grimaced, thinking of the step after that – transferring it all into Earth Kingdom Currency. This would require Zuko to spread out the transfer among several currency officers – clerks who were almost always directly under centralized Fire Nation control.
Zuko traced the breach point, the name he gave the point where he would travel from The Fire Nation to The Earth Kingdom, with his finger, and again looked at nearby colonies. After striking down six, four for being too small and two for being too centralized, he saw two potential options. Both were port cities, near the breach point, and had a sizable population. The first had a larger population and a larger port, but because of this it had been centralized and had been put under viceregal control a few years before.
Zuko only considered the colony due to the complicated, asterisk loaded managerial state of the colonies. Not every colony contained the same bureaucracy, due to the complicated administrative structure of the Fire Nation. While not as complex or extensive as the Earth Kingdom's, the Fire Nation was not in any way simple when it came to managing itself. At the very top, of course, was the Firelord, but how he ruled was a complicated and layered system of administration. This was true before the Hundred Years War, but the war had greatly complicated the system, causing it to restructure itself into an asterisk laden mess of complications and administrative zones. The mainland Fire Nation and its historic islands were part of the Core Administrative Region, which contained relatively similar bureaucratic models, with the governors being directly underneath the Firelord's supervision. The conquered colonies fell under a myriad of administrative zones and special administrative zones (some of which overlapped), with each bureaucracy different due to the inherent need for specialization when controlling and dealing with the issues presented by each colony. Due to this, his books did not cover the details and intricacies of each bureaucratic system, as the systems often restructured due to new needs and concerns.
Zuko decided to rule out the larger city, as leaving things to chance was too dangerous for the most precarious step of his plan. That left the other city, which contained a port large enough that would make his transaction noticeable, but not salient to the others. It also had either one or two currency exchange posts, which would make the currency transfer suspicious. However, the risk that the transfer would be denied was far lower than that of Zuko being recognized or monitored at the other colony. There was also a simple solution if a currency officer decided to deny Zuko's currency swap – bribery. Most currency officers in developing special administrative regions were corrupt due to them not being monitored by the bureaucracy in place in more concrete regions and because currency officers were often extremely low rank and, as such, were not paid much attention to.
Zuko calculated the adjustment needed for the ship to travel to the colony he had selected. Zuko stretched upward, straightening his posture after bending down to observe the map. Feeling a slight draft, he shot a burst of flame from his hand into the fireplace. The wood caught on fire, the fire slowly spreading across the logs. Zuko looked at the fire humorously, feeling his chi sapped and his fire bending severely weakened. Though he had never been an exceptional fire bender, this was pathetic, and worryingly so.
Zuko took a deep breath and remembered his many, many fire bending lessons. "Fire bending is the greatest form of bending, the purest, the most powerful…" Zuko rolled his eyes and tried to find the kernel of information from that lecture. Though most of his lectures were mainly fluff, there was always a small kernel of truth buried within. "Our ability to fire bend is directly correlated to our drive. Our drive is our anger, our fury, and our tendency to serve our glorious, honorable, and venerable Firelord." Zuko dismissed that portion as fluff, as his willingness to serve the "glorious, honorable, and venerable Firelord" was currently at an all-time low quantity of zero. His mind rewound, however, focusing on the first portion, "Our ability to fire bend is directly correlated to our drive." He knew he could discard anything they said about the drive, as that part was surely propaganda – he should know, he was tutored on propaganda creation and had created some himself, but the drive part seemed correct. "Perhaps this is why my fire bending is weak," he thought, "my previous "drive" is now gone. I'll just have to select a new one."
Zuko thought long and hard on what his "drive" should be. He could not base it off something temporary or fleeting, as then his fire bending would mirror. He thought about it deeply for a few minutes before coming up with an answer. "I want to prove myself. I want to prove to myself that I am just as good, or better than Azula and Ozai." Zuko knew it was a good start, but he also knew that he could not weigh it down with benchmarks of others, he must derive his drive all from himself. "I will be great, I don't care what it takes, I shall be great," Zuko decided, taking a deep breath. He shot another gust of fire out of his palm, one which was far greater than anything Zuko had done without extensive practice before. "And it looks like I'm one step closer," Zuko joked to himself, feeling immensely proud, before running off to adjust the ship.