I'm visiting a Councilman's home for dinner to discuss future business plans in the Earth Nation, but it seems this dinner was planned with a different agenda. I look down the table to the young woman silently keeping to herself, elegantly lifting a fork in a square-like pattern. My eyes narrow for a moment as the councilman's voice snaps my attention back.
"You know, she never really did anything wrong." My head turns towards him. "She only followed the orders of her superiors." From the corner of my eye I see Mai leave her fork on her plate as she turned towards us, her face stone solid with no emotions detectable. "Her mother died when she was young, too." He suddenly said, much to my surprise. What was this? Some attempt at relating us?
"Did you murder her like my father did?" I say bitterly, calmly bringing a roll to my lips to take a bite out of it, his mouth slacking slightly. He's speechless, and now racking his brain to do damage control, suddenly sweating as though I'm threatening him with death, though I suppose my tone had implied it.
"My father meant no disrespect." Mai says calmly, her head bowed low. "You have to excuse him for talking on my behalf, as we all know you were not expecting to see me." My eyes narrow again as I set the roll down, after realizing I wasn't really hungry. "Were you even aware of my being here?" She asks frankly.
"Yes. I knew you were in the city, though it had slipped my mind that councilman WuTeng was your father." I admit, narrowing my eyes further. "It must have slipped his mind to mention it, as well."
"I apologize, Lord Zuko." I hear the old man say, but my attentions stay on Mai, who had adverted her eyes to the plate in front of her.
"So just what am I doing here?" I demand, instinctively checking to make sure her hands are on the table, the table knife lingering dangerously close to her masterful fingers.
"We would like to ask that you pardon my daughter." WuTeng sputters as I look to him for only a second.
"And why couldn't this have been brought to my attention at the Palace?"
"I'm too ashamed to show my face in these streets. The locals know what I have done while traveling with Azula, and they spit at my feet before slewing curses at me." Her voice is quiet as she quickly relates this, though my mind drifts to Katara's hardships in the city. Troubled are my citizens when they frown upon people of the war and people of peace. "If I could beg for the Nation's forgiveness, if you could publicly pardon me and what I've done, I would forever be in your debt." For a moment, my teeth grind at the trick they have pulled on me to get me into this house. I feel betrayed by WuTeng for his own selfish reasons, but Mai, her head bowed so low she might as well rest her forehead on the table itself, looks to me with hopeful grey eyes, the most expressive I've ever seen her, and I feel my own soften. I can hear Katara's voice in my head 'everyone deserves a second chance.'
Silently, I only nod once, then stand. "I'll make the pardon tomorrow during the council meeting. I suspect you'll be available to make it." She nods as her father stands, reaching his greasy hands out to grasp mine, my jaw tightening as I try not to physically cringe.
"Thank you, Sire. You are a benevolent and forgiving Fire Lord, destined to be a great leader!" I nod slightly as I finally get my hand back, reaching down for the napkin on the table to wipe it off.
"I'll take my leave, then." They both are standing and bowing low when I exit the room then the house, finally standing in the streets breathing fresh air. I scoff slightly as I begin to think how much one person could change me so drastically. If I had never met Katara, would I have given that girl another chance? Would I have this little angel with tawny skin and blue eyes telling me all the right things to do inside my mind?
Looking to the sky, the stars sprinkling the indigo canvas, I smile at the moon.