2. Summer
The heat of Ba Sing Se's summer was not the most oppressive that Kai had ever felt since the southern Fire Nation, where he was from, was famous for its intense summer heat. In fact, after he had gotten used to it, the dry heat of the northeastern Earth Kingdom was rather comfortable to the Fire Nation soldier even though it was in sharp contrast to the humidity that Kai had grown up with. While he was not a firebender himself, the summer seemed to enrich him, keeping his spirits high as he patrolled his usual route.
To Kai, the patrol was by far the most unbearable part of the summer. It was long, boring, and tedious. He hadn't so much as heard the peep or seen the tell-tale green color of an Earth Kingdom soldier in nearly two months, and his battalion had been stationed in the same place near the edge of Fire Nation-controlled territory for the same length of time.
Still, as far as complaints went, Kai's were relatively minor. Sure, the work was not exactly exciting, but he was fed and sheltered. The same could not be said for his own childhood back in Shao Chen, when there were many a night he went to sleep with an empty stomach. Under General Iroh's command, he was as safe as any soldier in any war could be, and that was a comforting thought to Kai as he trudged on through the fields of wheat, carving new paths through his repetitive patrol route.
Mimi could see the tension in Lu Ten's back. It was in how he held himself – stiff shoulders, neck bent over as he wrote a report. Unfortunately, it was all too common a sight as many days and nights had passed with Lu Ten hard at work at his desk. She grimaced, knowing the pressure that had to be weighing on the prince.
In some ways, the war to take Ba Sing Se had stagnated. While they had surged through the breach in the Outer Wall with relative ease in those early days, the Agrarian Zone was a vast territory, and Ba Sing Se seemed determined to slow the Fire Nation's advance with all the power they still had available. After the first few days and weeks of open field battle where the Fire Nation won victory after victory against Earth Kingdom armies, the enemy had seemingly retreated and allowed Fire Nation forces to swarm over the prized and important agricultural hinterland of Ba Sing Se.
Unfortunately, without the manpower to fully occupy the entire Agrarian Zone, the Fire Nation army of General Iroh had to content itself with carving out its own slice of the pie, staging a siege now against the Inner Wall of the city. From what Mimi had heard over the past few weeks of guarding Lu Ten, the siege was not going well – or, at least, no better than the siege of the Outer Wall, which had taken many men, resources, and three hundred long days of grueling toil to finally break through.
"Mimi, we're leaving," Lu Ten suddenly said, gathering his papers into a folder and standing up.
"Yes, sir," she responded with a salute, holding open the entrance flap of his tent. Lu Ten quickly slipped past her, and she exited after the prince.
The two of them walked in silence, an increasingly routine characteristic of Lu Ten's as his days became busier and more grueling. In the months that she had gotten to know him, he had gone from quite talkative to almost wordless, and his expressions were seemingly becoming set in a permanent frown. After a few minutes, the two came to a halt outside the command tent, where both guards, recognizing them on sight after months of the same daily routine, let them through without a word.
"Father," Lu Ten intoned as he reached the back of the command tent where the commanders of the army congregated over a table. Mimi took her customary spot by the tent's wall as Lu Ten sat in the open chair to General Iroh's righthand side.
"Welcome, Lu Ten," General Iroh greeted, pausing to take a sip from his tea. The old general frowned, then quickly flickered fire out of his hands to heat his teacup. He then took another sip, sighing with pleasure as he drank.
"Now, to return to business," Iroh began, his tone shifting into that of a battle-hardened general's – steady, resolute, and without emotion. "Commander Lu Ten, what is your report?"
Lu Ten cleared his throat as he placed a stack of parchment on the table. "So far, it seems like morale among the troops is still relatively high. Our lack of progress in the last few weeks has been noticed by many soldiers, but they still have faith in their commanders. Additionally, according to the report I received from Captain Hao of the Supply Division, our granaries are adequately stocked for at least another six months of campaigning, assuming the throughput from our supply lines out of the colonies remain consistent and our daily intake does not change."
Iroh stroked his beard, subtly nodding as he listened. "That is good news. Commander Sheng?"
An older man, roughly in his forties, flipped open his binder of materials. "We're mostly having trouble trying to pin down Earth Kingdom forces. They don't seem to be willing to engage us in a pitched battle since they know we have the advantage right now, so they seem content to harass us at our flanks where we have the weakest defenses. It's nothing to be concerned about though."
Taking another gulp of tea, Iroh turned to face the commander speaking. "Are you sure? Ambushes can be the prelude to something worse if we're not careful. Is there a pattern to their attacks?"
Sheng flipped through a few sheets of parchment before shaking his head. "No, sir. Their attacks are mainly coordinated at the eastern flank nearest the wall, where we have mixed teams patrolling the perimeter. Most reports indicate that we're dealing with earthbending teams, though some of our patrol units have suffered moderate casualties. I'm told that it's under control."
Another man down the table snorted. "Your captains will never tell you that's not 'under control', Sheng. Commanding one-oh-one."
"I don't appreciate the jab, Jiang," Sheng snarled. "Handle your own troops, and I'll handle mine."
"Gentlemen," Iroh diplomatically said, raising his hands, "we are all on the same side here. I believe that Jiang's words have some merit – Sheng, you should head out and double check yourself to see what the situation on the ground is like."
"Yes, sir," Sheng begrudgingly intoned.
Mimi imperceptibly sighed as the exciting moments of drama and passion ended and the meeting returned to its monotonous patterns. Her knees were aching a little, but she put up with it as she mentally tuned the council out and stood as still as she could.
Kai wiped the sweat off his brow with a towel as he pulled off his helmet with the other hand. Plopping himself down on the dirt path by his tent's entrance, he tiredly yawned with his forearms on his knees. It was around midday, which meant that Kai got to take an hour for lunch – a most welcomed and treasured break after four hours of patrol. Taking a quick swig of water from his pouch, Kai stood up to get in line for some food, but a firm hand stopped him from stepping forward.
"Zheng?" Kai questioned when he turned around to see his friend. "What are you doing? I was just gonna get some grub."
Zheng pointed to the main courtyard of the temporary battalion camp with his head. "Commander wants to see all the guys that went on patrol this morning."
"You're kidding," Kai groaned, nearly dropping his helmet. "I'm starving."
"Well, you better hope it's short then."
Kai began to stomp off toward the tent before turning around. "You better get me a bowl!" He heard Zheng laugh behind him as he marched on toward the courtyard. Slipping in at back of a sizable crowd of people, Kai contented himself with having to squint to clearly see the commander on the wooden stage.
"I'm told all of you are the units that went on patrol this morning," Commander Sheng began. From Kai's perspective, he was quite the imposing figure – tall, broad shoulders, and fierce and immaculate armor. Everything he imagined a commander of the Fire Nation army would look like.
"In light of recent issues," Sheng continued, "we will be strengthening our patrols. From now on, we will be commencing double patrols, which means that you will all go out again this afternoon to increase our patrol strength." There was a collective mass of groans at this, as most of the soldiers were already exhausted from their morning patrol.
"Silence!" the captain beside Sheng yelled. The commander raised a hand, indicating he wanted quiet.
"This is a necessary step to ensure the safety of this army," Sheng boomed. "We of the command staff are counting on you all to provide security by being the eyes and ears of our perimeter defense. This is an incredibly important task and one I'm sure you will all conduct with the highest regard."
"That's some real Komodo manure," one of the soldiers beside Kai snickered. "This is about as important as sweeping the outhouses."
Sheng's eyes instantly flicked to that soldier, who found himself with a vacated circle of air as everyone around him stepped away.
"What was that, soldier?" Sheng quietly asked, his voice easily carrying over the completely soundless crowd.
"N-nothing, sir," the now-quivering soldier replied. "I-I-I was just h-honored to be taking a second patrol t-today."
Sheng's eyes narrowed. "As that's the case, then you'll be fine with a third shift tonight too, no?"
"Y-y-yes, sir."
"Good," Sheng finished, turning to his captain. He immediately walked off the stage, leaving behind a mostly quiet group of soldiers.
Kai despondently sighed. It seemed like lunch was out of the picture.
"At least I'm here to make it bearable, right?" Zheng whistled as he strode down the dirt path. Beside him, Kai, who had been assigned to a second duty of patrol for the day like everyone else, sighed, wearily using his spear as a walking stick.
Kai's stomach rumbled, reminding him of the lost lunch that he had not eaten.
Turning to Kai, Zheng pulled a small loaf of bread out of his pack. "Here," he offered the younger man. "It's not much, but it'll help."
With just a brief grunt of thanks, Kai snatched the loaf and ravenously dug into it, devouring the bread in just a few bites. He forlornly looked at his now-empty hands, wishing that he had a hot bowl of gruel and a few strips of dried and salted hippo cow beef to eat. It seemed quite unfair to him that those of the first patrol schedule block had been forced out onto an immediate second patrol, but orders were orders and it was Kai's place to follow them, not question them.
"What's that?" Kai asked a few minutes after finishing his pitiful snack, noticing a small convoy of strange animals about a hundred chi in front of them, some ridden by armored men and others pulling a carriage.
"Oh, that?" Zheng looked where Kai was pointing. It was a carriage pulled by ostrich horses, surrounded by other riders in armor. "I think that's Commander Sheng's convoy; he must be heading back to the main camp."
Kai kicked up a clump of dirt from the side of the path. "Figures. Comes down here like Agni himself and leaves after making us all work like slaves."
Zheng patted Kai on the back. "Welcome to the army."
Snorting, Kai contented himself with kicking forward a small rock every few steps. In a mildly self-amusing way, he noted how far the rock moved with every kick. Sometimes, even though he applied about the same force, the shape of the rock caused it to move further than usual, while other times it rolled less than before. There was a certain side of the rock that was relatively nonuniform, jutting out in a way that gave it a random chance of moving erratically. A small observation, one that a man with more important tasks at hand would not have noticed.
It was, all in all, an inane game, one designed solely to stimulate Kai's bored mind in the barest way possible.
"Kai, duck!" Zheng's yell suddenly pierced the air, startling Kai. Twelve weeks of Fire Nation army boot camp caused him to immediately and instinctively duck with the call, which caused the man-sized piece of earth to barely ruffle the top of his hair as it flew over him. The chunk of earth crashed into the ground dozens of chi behind him.
"Bleeding hog monkeys!" Kai swore, his eyes wide as he saw the chunk of earth sinking into the ground. "What's going on?"
Zheng roughly pulled Kai back up to his feet. "Look!"
Kai followed Zheng's finger and felt his stomach drop when he saw Commander Sheng's convoy in ruins. The carriage was overturned, and dead ostrich horses scattered the path. A few figures fought in the distance, with spurts of flame shooting into the air and pieces of earth flying at high speed. It was evident that there were considerably fewer firebenders than earthbenders.
"We need to help, now!" Zheng yelled, running off with his spear in his hand. Kai blinked a few times, but he also grabbed his spear and ran after Zheng.
The nearest earthbender – a lean figure clad in green and tan robes with a non-descript white mask – turned when he heard Zheng's war-cry, but was too slow in raising his arms to earthbend before Zheng skewered him with his spear. The earthbender's mask fell off as he was forced onto the ground by Zheng's spear, revealing a shocked expression as he spat out blood. Twisting his spear, Zheng pulled it out of the man's chest, running over the fresh corpse to another earthbender that stood about a dozen chi away.
Unlike the first earthbender, this enemy had turned to face Zheng and was already prepared. Raising his arms, the earthbender rose a wall of earth in front of Zheng, who quickly spun on its surface to get around it. However, as Zheng turned the corner on the newly created wall, a rock the size of his head smashed into Zheng's head, crumpling his metal helmet and causing him to fall backward with a grunt.
Kai's body shook with fear as he saw his friend struggle on the ground. Clutching his spear with both hands, he closed his eyes and roared as he ran forward toward the advancing earthbender. Hearing a chuckle in front of him, Kai opened his eyes to a flat earth column rising out of the ground and hitting his gut seemingly with the force of a dragon moose. His eyes wide and his mouth open, Kai was flung backward, and his chest heaved as he struggled to catch his breath.
Groaning as he rolled onto his side, Kai saw the earthbender stand over Zheng, who was futilely trying to reach for his spear that lay a few chi away. The earthbender simply stood still over the Fire Nation soldier, feet on either side of Zheng's abdomen. When Zheng's hand finally closed around the shaft of his spear, the earthbender rose a hand, and a spike made of earth pierced through Zheng's chest, lifting him slightly off the ground. Zheng screamed in pain and coughed blood out of his mouth as he was lifted, and his spear rolled from his suddenly limp fingers.
"No," Kai moaned, unable to stand up. He extended one arm toward Zheng, but it quickly fell as Kai felt his energy deserting him. Through his half-closed eyes, all he could see was the vague brown-red mix of earth and blood that the spike was colored as it extended into the air through Zheng's body.
With a flick of the earthbender's hand, the spike retracted into the ground, leaving Zheng's body on the ground as he walked over to Kai. Unlike his fallen friend, Kai was not inclined to reach for his spear and simply rolled onto his back as he watched, with a sense of impending doom, as the earthbender took long, confident strides toward him.
"Pl-please, I surrender," Kai spluttered, "don't kill me."
The earthbender scoffed before raising his hand. Kai cried out in fear, tears welling up and falling down his dirty face. Was this how it all ended? Before he was even twenty, was he doomed to die in an Earth Kingdom field an entire world away from his home? His tears mixed with the snot from his nose as his face scrunched up in sheer terror at the thought of imminent death.
Pitiful.
"Wait," another voice called out, higher and lighter than the first. "We can just tie him up, right? He's not a firebender, and our orders were only to kill Sheng."
"Are you serious?" the first earthbender responded, his hand still raised. There was silence for a few moments as the earthbender's brow scrunched up, his mind contemplating Kai's fate. The only sound was Kai sniffling as quietly as he could, barely daring to breathe.
"Very well." The hand dropped, but no spike rose from the earth to end Kai's life like it had for Zheng. Instead, the earth formed a flat surface that pushed Kai upward, as if he were leaning against a diagonally slanted wall. "But he's your mess to deal with and handle."
A fist slammed into Kai's face, and he knew nothing but darkness after that.
"Sir, I have a priority message for you," a voice announced from outside the ten t. Pulling the entrance flap open, Mimi poked half of her head outside the tent to see a messenger with a sack filled with letters and a hand holding a single scroll.
"I'll take that for the prince," Mimi stated with an impassive expression, pointing at the scroll in his hands.
"Y-yes ma'am," the messenger quickly stuttered, handing the scroll to her before quickly walking away. Pulling her head back into the tent, Mimi examined the scroll for a moment, noting the official stamp on it bearing the mark of General Iroh himself – whatever it was, it was important enough to warrant a direct letter instead of waiting for the general meeting that would occur later in the evening.
"What is it, Mimi?" Lu Ten's tired voice came from across the tent. She looked up to see his slightly hunched-over back as usual, the prince having not turned around during the entire episode as he worked at his desk.
"Just a letter from the general," Mimi replied.
"Bring it over, then. I may as well get it out of the way."
Striding across the tent, Mimi placed the scroll into Lu Ten's raised hand, which he put on his shoulder. He opened the scroll with both hands, breaking the wax seal that kept it closed and officially sealed, and quickly scanned the contents of the letter. Behind him, Mimi stood at a respectable distance to guarantee the prince the privacy of the letter. She was, however, not expecting the curse and slam that ensued as Lu Ten hammered his wooden desk with a closed fist. In his other hand, he had crumpled the parchment.
"Sir?" Mimi hesitantly asked.
"Sheng is dead. The battalion stationed on the outer perimeter has been functionally destroyed, and hundreds of men are unaccounted for, likely dead," Lu Ten replied in a neutral voice, not turning to face Mimi. "What remains is now retreating to the main camp."
A pause.
"Agni!" Lu Ten suddenly yelled, standing up and half-turning, causing his chair to fall over. "This is all that idiot's fault. If only my father had stationed me on the perimeter, I could've ensured a victory. None of those men would've had to die out there if an absolute incompetent wasn't put on the front!"
"I'm sure General Iroh had his intentions wh-"
"My father kept me back because he's scared of me out there!" Lu Ten screamed, striding up to Mimi. "If he didn't hold me back, I would be out there in the field with the men, fighting for victory. Instead, he keeps me back here with," he gestured around his tent, "mundane administrative duties. What's the point of all those meetings if I never even see the enemy? I want to be out there, fighting like every other soldier! How can I call myself a man, much less a prince, if I can't be out there to risk my life when others are laying down theirs for the nation?" The prince breathed heavily after his tirade, his golden eyes glaring.
Mimi was shocked. It was the first time she had ever seen Lu Ten burst out like this and the first time she had ever been on the receiving end of his verbal attacks. She unconsciously stepped backward, afraid of the anger of an enraged firebender.
Lu Ten must have noticed her fear, because when he looked into her eyes, he frowned and blinked a few times.
"No, no, wait, Mimi, I'm sorry," Lu Ten quickly said. "I didn't mean any of that toward you. I'm sorry."
Mimi silently nodded, still unsettled by Lu Ten's temper.
"No, really, I mean it." Lu Ten followed up. "It's just…" he trailed off, "you know, it's not been an easy few weeks."
"I… I understand," Mimi whispered. She had seen how hard he had worked – harder than anyone else in the camp. He was constantly walking around the camp, meeting with the command staff, keeping the morale high by letting the common soldier interact with both a member of the command staff and a royal, and working on mountains of reports. He was half of the lifeblood of the army, his father the other half. It was enough to drive a man mad, but Lu Ten had shouldered it for nearly a year and a half now, and that amount of stress had to be relieved somehow.
There was another silence, this one somewhat more comfortable as they both came to terms with Lu Ten's outburst and its root cause.
Lu Ten cracked a small smile. "You didn't call me 'sir' that time."
Mimi blinked. "Oh," she replied, not knowing what else to say. "Sir."
"I told you that one day you we would get you to not call me 'sir'. I'm glad that it came so relatively soon." Lu Ten sighed as he picked up his chair and sat back down in it, albeit this time facing Mimi. "Tell you what, I'll take the rest of the day off. What do you want to do today?"
"Excuse me?" Mimi quietly asked.
"The rest of the day is yours," Lu Ten explained as he leaned back into his wooden chair. "Get drinks? Cards with the men? Maybe a few rounds of pai sho? A good jog wouldn't be bad either."
Mimi was silent for a few moments as she contemplated the prince's words. Since she had been made Lu Ten's bodyguard, she had few chances for free time for herself. Protecting a prince was a daily, hourly job. Now, the prince she was supposed to be protecting was offering them to do whatever she wanted – it was a power and luxury she was unaccustomed to having.
What did she want to do? There were a myriad of relaxing things that she could think of, but none of them felt inherently satisfying – indeed, she still felt the call of her duty to protect Lu Ten, and having fun in the barracks with the other soldiers did not feel like something appropriate to bring the prince to.
Then, she realized what she was forgetting. The prince was giving her an opportunity to enjoy herself, but in a self-sacrificial way, he was letting go of the opportunity to take some time for himself. It was in that moment that she knew how to spend the rest of the day.
"I would like to listen to some of your poetry," Mimi requested.
Lu Ten's brow scrunched up. "Wait, really?"
Mimi nodded. "It's, uh, a hobby of mine to, er, listen to poetry," she shyly said. She paused for a moment. "You're the first person I've ever told that to.
The prince nodded with pursed lips. "Well, that's certainly… unexpected, I'll be honest. I don't know many that enjoy poetry." He suddenly smirked. "I'll keep your fateful secret deep in my heart, my fair maiden," Lu Ten dramatically exclaimed, posing as he did so. Mimi rolled her eyes at his antics, but inside she was happy to see Lu Ten seemingly relax for once.
"Now, let's see here," Lu Ten said, flipping through a folder he plucked from his desk. Mimi took a chair from dining table to the side to sit on, carrying it to about four or five chi away from Lu Ten's before taking a seat.
"Ah, yes!" Lu Ten declared as he nodded to himself. "This one is a nice starter." He cleared his throat as he began.
"The glory to win; what riches to gain! For us, the sun never sets."
Kai moaned as he felt the first tendrils of consciousness reach him. His head pounded something awful, as if he been bashed in the face by a slab of earth. Then his memories flooded in and he remembered the earthbender's fist punching his face, and he winced as he recalled it the painful sensation. The pounding in his head made sense now.
His surroundings were dimly lit – it was a crude, small room made of earth, and the only light source was a flickering flame that he could barely see from a small eye-level hole. There were no windows to natural light nor a door. It was a barebones but effective cell, and Kai could not see an easy or hard way to get out.
However, Kai could hear the telltale sound of feet shuffling along dirt. Standing up on shaky legs, he tried to peer through the small hole, but could not see much other than the torch opposite of his cell and shadows extending into both directions outside.
"How're you feeling?" a voice called out from outside the cell, startling Kai. He fell backward and landed on his rear, wincing at the pain that rattled his bones. "Um, are you okay?"
"Yeah…" Kai slowly began, choosing to sit on the ground and look up at the hole. "I'm fine." It was the voice from before – the one that had saved his life. Now that he was somewhat more clear-headed and no longer in danger of imminently dying, he could make out more details of the voice. If he had to guess, its owner was a woman.
"That's good," the voice replied. There was a short pause. "I have some dinner for you." Without waiting for a reply, a small chunk of the wall near the ground opened up and a tray of food was pushed in before it closed again.
Kai examined the food. It was basic – a cold bowl of rice, a few strips of dried meat, and a cup of water. Still, food was food, and the rumbling in his stomach reminded him how appetizing any food could be when someone was hungry.
"Thanks," Kai finally responded.
"You're welcome. Uh, enjoy." The sound of footsteps signaled the person outside walking away, and Kai turned to his tray, intent on filling his stomach. He had not eaten anything since–
–since Zheng had given him that loaf of bread.
Zheng. His friend.
His dead friend. Zheng's screams echoed in Kai's head, and the sight of the spike of earth rising from the ground and through Zheng's chest was indelibly seared into Kai's mind.
Suddenly, Kai did not feel hungry anymore. He pushed away the tray and fell onto his back, staring into the darkness of his cell's ceiling as tears began to roll down his face.
For a talented eighteen-year-old earthbender, Wen did not feel the steadiness that was supposed to be the calling card of those who practiced earthbending. She was hovering outside of the cell of the Fire Nation soldier they had captured, carrying a tray of food that was to be his dinner. He was not the only one they had captured during their successful attack on Commander Sheng of the Fire Nation army, but he was the only one that she, as per Da Gou's words, had to manage on her own.
Da Gou had been in favor of simply wiping out every Fire Nation soldier they came across, but Wen, along with some of the other younger earthbenders on their team, had been hesitant to apply the same deadly policy to non-benders as they would to firebenders. There was something inherently unequal and unfair about that to her. Da Gou had laughed at her supposed "naivety", a jab that she could not easily retort considering her own background. This was the first time she had passed the Outer Wall of Ba Sing Se, and fighting against real enemies of the Earth Kingdom was a far cry from the earthbending practices she had excelled at during her childhood. Up to the battle they had just fought, she had not even come face-to-face with an enemy soldier before, having always pummeled them from a distance with her earthbending.
Perhaps that was why, the first time she had come across a Fire Nation soldier that pleaded for his life against the might of Da Gou's powerful earthbending, she felt something resembling pity, or maybe even sorrow, in her heart. The way his face had contorted in absolute terror, the almost pathetic countenance of his expression – it was heart wrenching to watch, even though she knew he was the enemy. He was just as young as her, without the power of bending, and far from his homeland; who was she to say that he was not as scared as any of them?
That was another line of thought that she was sure Da Gou would laugh at her for. Sympathizing with the enemy – that was a new one.
A shuffling of feet inside the cell broke Wen out of her thoughts, and she quickly stepped back as she felt the captive Fire Nation soldier rise to his feet.
"How're are you feeling?" Wen asked, keeping her voice steadier than she felt. There was a stumble in the cell and a faint crash of someone tripping, causing her to quickly peer through the eyehole.
"Um, are you okay?" she followed up, not exactly sure why the captured soldier was now sitting on his rear end on the ground.
"Yeah…" his voice floated out of the cell. "I'm fine."
Wen sighed. "That's good." She paused, not sure exactly what to say next, but then remembered that she was carrying his dinner tray. "I have some dinner for you." She quickly raised one hand to make a small opening near the ground on the wall that separated him from the hallway. She pushed the tray through the opening before closing up the opening just as quickly as she made it.
"Thanks," the soldier finally said after a few moments of silence.
"You're welcome," Wen automatically replied. Her brain searched for a follow-up. "Uh, enjoy." She quickly spun on her heel and she walked down the hallway away from the cells.
For a prisoner of war, he was nothing like she expected. When she had been brought into the fold by being conscripted into the war effort, she had learned that the Earth Kingdom had been locked in a nearly century-long conflict with the Fire Nation, and she had been taught that Fire Nation soldiers were bitter enemies that would stop at nothing to kill her and destroy her country.
The man they captured, however, seemed completely devoid of any of those traits. He had pleaded for his life like any other person, and he was soft-spoken and rather calm. It was a far cry from what she expected. Now that she could put a real face to the enemy, it felt like the entire dynamic of the fight had changed as far as she was concerned.
The enemy… seemed a lot like her. And as Wen walked toward the rest of their underground complex, that was a somewhat disturbing thought to contemplate. What exactly made him different from her?
Why were they enemies at all?