"During the ceremony, there will be Imperial Guards at every entrance, as well as on the roof," General Mak gestured at a map of the large ceremonial courtyard. "No one will sneeze without us knowing."
"Where will the Kyoshi Warriors be stationed?" asked Suki.
"Well, where do you think you are most needed?" replied Mak. This was why Suki liked him. Even though she wasn't even Fire Nation, he always asked her professional opinion when it came to her warriors.
"I'll embed some of my women in the crowd," said Suki. "To keep an eye on everyone." She looked over the map again. "Ideally, I'd have someone in armor standing in front of the Firelord at all times," she said. "But I'm aware the optics of that might be bad."
General Mak nodded. "Firelord Zuko has made it quite clear he wants this wedding to be a show of strength—both to the Fire Nation and to other heads of state. No offense, but I think the Kyoshi Warriors should keep a low profile during the actual ceremony. You are very obviously Earth Kingdom."
A show of strength? Zuko certainly hadn't said those words to her, but it did sound like him. And while General Mak's words were vaguely irritating, they did have a certain logic.
"All right," she said. "We'll pretend to be guests. And Mak—" Suki looked at her counterpart seriously. "I want you to know that we will defend the Firelord with our lives against anyone who threatens him. Even if the Earth King himself attacked, we will remain loyal to the Firelord."
Mak looked shocked. "I…appreciate that, Suki," he said.
"Zuko is the world's only hope for peace," she said aloud. She was still a proud citizen of the Earth Kingdom, but at the moment the best way to serve her country was to keep this Firelord alive. Without Zuko, Ozai could come back, or Azula, or some other Fire Nation noble who wanted to restart the war. She wouldn't let that happen. And...Zuko didn't deserve to die an early death.
"Well, that should be everything," said Mak. "Thank you for helping me plan this out." Suki smiled absently, but her mind was wandering as she left Mak's office. The greatest threat to Zuko's safety was obviously the New Ozai Society. And if Zuko wanted a 'show of strength,' it would be embarrassing to have the wedding derailed by domestic terrorists. But how could she find the New Ozai Society supporters?
What did they want? Well, obviously, to free Ozai and restore him to the throne. They had worked with Azula before. They would want Zuko dead, and Mai too, probably. And they likely wanted to return the Fire Nation to the way things had been—waging war, believing in the Fire Nation's superiority, keeping the engine of war production going. The Fire Nation had become wealthy off this war, and the nobles received most of the profits. Mai's family had been deeply involved, which meant other nobles probably were, too. Huh. Mai. That was a start.
Suki realized she had been meandering towards the Firelord's personal wing anyway, so she headed towards the quarters traditionally reserved for the Firelady and knocked. After a second, she heard Mai yell "Just come in!" All right then. Suki opened the door, and was unsurprised to see Mai focusing on her wooden model of a human on the opposite wall. Without a word, Mai flicked her wrists, and three knives fell into each hand. She threw the ones in her left hand, then her right, and reached into her belt for two larger knives. Mai grabbed them simultaneously, and before Suki had moved more than two paces from the door, Mai had sent her target toppling backwards with the force of the two blades.
"Hey Suki," said Mai, walking over to her wooden man. She pulled him upright and smiled at the spread. The large knives had caught him squarely in the chest, and six small blades impaled each arm. "That was impressive," said Suki. The Kyoshi Warriors didn't use knives often, but Mai's dedication to the weapon had paid off.
"My wedding is coming soon," shrugged Mai. Suki tried to work out what the connection between deadly force and Mai's wedding could be, but was at a loss. Unless Mai planned to kill people at the afterparty? Suki shook her head.
"Mai, do you have a minute? I need your help."
"Sure," said Mai. She jerked a dagger out of the target roughly. "What's up?"
Suki sighed. "I need you to identify some corpses."
As they descended into the prison below Crescent Lake, the air grew cool and moist. "After the battle by Ozai's tower four days ago, we took the bodies of the New Ozai Society members here," said Suki. She moved her torch slightly so she could see Mai's face, but Mai didn't react.
"You didn't bury them?" asked Mai impassively.
"No. We had a few Imperial Guards look at them, but they didn't recognize any of their faces. So Zuko ordered they be packed in ice and kept down here until further notice."
"Did he," deadpanned Mai. Suki swallowed. Even though she spent every morning doing training drills with Mai, considered her almost a friend, she still couldn't read her. "Yeah. He hoped that we would find some sort of use for them." Mai only nodded.
"Given that your family was…um…involved with the New Ozai Society, I thought that other nobles might be as well. And you know the noble families better than anyone else in the palace." It was true. Zuko had been away during the time when he would normally get to know the court. Mai hadn't.
They walked down a dimly lit passage, down more stairs, and finally reached a large wooden door with heavy iron handles. Suki handed the torch to Mai and grabbed the cold metal. "Ready?" she asked tentatively. She knew Mai had faced death before, but this could be disturbing.
"Do it," said Mai. Using all her strength, Suki heaved backwards on the door, and whoosh of freezing air escaped. Mai slipped inside with the torch, and Suki followed.
The room was long, lined with hundreds of blocks of ice. The bodies themselves lay on an extended metal table at the center of the room, a grey sheet thrown over them. Suki could see the grey toes poking out over the edge of the table, and tried not to shudder. Without ceremony, Mai picked up the edge of the blanket and threw it aside, revealing the first of ten corpses. It was the woman who Suki had thrown down the stairs. Akira had slit her throat, and the gash had turned an ugly purple-black in death.
"Do you know her?" asked Suki quietly.
"No," said Mai shortly. She moved on to the next person, drew back the sheet, and shook her head. As Suki watched, Mai moved methodically down the line, staring each corpse in the face.
"This one," said Mai unexpectedly. She pointed to the man in front of her. He looked young, with short black hair and a long nose. "His name is Yaru, of the Sugawara family. They rule one of the western islands. Rich family. But I didn't know they were big Ozai supporters."
"Maybe he's a rogue," said Suki.
"Let's hope not," said Mai fiercely. "Let's hope his entire house is in the New Ozai Society, and we can arrest them all and be done with it." She flung the sheet back over Yaru's face and moved on.
In the end, Mai identified four of the ten attackers, every one of them the younger son or daughter of one of the noble houses. Mai breathed heavily in large white puffs, but otherwise showed no sign of being shaken by the violent deaths of four people she knew.
"We'll have to search their family houses in the capital," said Mai thoughtfully as she pushed open the door to leave the ice room. "And interview their parents or siblings when they attend the wedding."
"I just want to keep you all safe," said Suki, thinking this was a little more than she had planned for when she moved to the Fire Nation.
"Yes, of course," said Mai seriously. "We need to keep Zuko safe. But that might require a lot more bodies packed in ice."
Suki wished she could disagree.