Knives

Mai had never been one for early mornings, and thankfully Princess Ursa wasn't a crack-of-dawn type, either. As unpleasant as it was to be marrying Lu Ten in just over a year, at least Mai knew that when her time as a lady-in-waiting was over and she officially became a princess, she'd get to sleep longer than she had been able to for the Royal Academy for Girls.

Then one morning she was shaken from sleep before the sun was up.

She had a knife in her hand before her eyes were even open, but a voice cried out, "Prince Lu Ten summons you!"

Mai opened her eyes, just enough to see what was going on. The lamps had been lit, shedding enough light to reveal a servant girl looming over her- one of the personal staff who attended the Royal Family. The servant girl, only a few years older than Mai, was staring with wide eyes at the knife poised at her throat.

Mai moved the knife back. "W's goin' on?"

"The Prince! Lu Ten! Requests your gracious presence at breakfast! You have an hour to prepare?" The servant girl took a step back and glanced towards the door.

Mai blinked in the dim light. "'e can do 'at?"

"He can! You're a lady-in-waiting. And, um, he's the son of the crown prince?" She took another step towards the door, and when Mai didn't immediately say anything else, made her escape.

Mai sighed, put the knife away, and sat up. The least they could have done was send some tea.

An hour later, she was dressed and styled and made up so that no man would have to endure the sight of her in anything less than all her artificial glory. She went upstairs to the floor of the palace reserved for the two remaining princes in residence; Iroh's rooms were empty while he was commanding the Second Great Siege of Ba Sing Se, and Zuko's suite was on the lower floor with the rest of the family. She expected to see no one but guards and servants on the way to breakfast with her betrothed, as usual for the palace.

So she was brought up short when she turned a corner and nearly collided with Prince Ozai.

Mai hopped back as quickly as she could, avoiding the crash and removing herself from Ozai's path. His eyes flicked to her and she bowed low at the waist. Should she apologize or maybe just wish him a good morning? But then his rapid footsteps proclaimed his exit. By they time Mai raised her eyes again, he had turned the corner and was lost to sight.

Well, this was shaping up to be a delightful morning.

Mai traveled the rest of the way to Lu Ten's suite without further incident to find the door open. A servant was waiting in the suite's foyer with a cloak just her size. He said, "His highness awaits you on the balcony."

Mai took the cloak and whipped it over her shoulders as she made her way deeper into her betrothed's rooms. She had been here frequently since she moved into the palace, at least once a week for their regular 'dates,' but this was the first time without Princess Ursa as a chaperone. She recalled how uneasy she had been meeting Lu ten here instead of one of the ground floor receiving rooms, despite Ursa's presence. Now, she found herself wishing for her mentor. Lu Ten had been polite enough so far and almost certainly wasn't planning anything untoward, especially with their marriage just about a year away, but-

Well, it wasn't like Mai had suddenly started having a choice about any of this. She inhaled, removed all expression from her face, and passed through the empty bedroom to the large balcony.

Lu Ten had already pulled his wheeled chair up to a small table, with an empty chair exactly opposite him. He was looking out at the rising sun, not yet having touched the various foods laid out for their breakfast.

There was a chill in the morning air, making Mai grateful for the cloak. As she approached the table, she wondered at the protocol here. Lu Ten seemed to prefer more informal interactions with her, but this was a summoning. She had only ever been summoned by Azula before, and that was a meeting between friends of the same age. How to greet the man she had essentially been sold to? She elected to lower her head and say, "Good morning."

Lu Ten turned to her and smiled. "Good morning! Thank you for joining me. Please, be seated and help yourself! I wasn't sure what you like, so I requested a bit of everything." He poured tea for the two of them as Mai took her seat.

Lu Ten didn't hesitate to fill his own plate now that she was here. Mai had never been a fan of Mother's philosophy that a girl shouldn't eat much in front of a man, so she compensated for the early morning and cool breeze by being just as generous to herself.

She had no sooner taken her first bite of a sweet roll than Lu Ten burst out with, "I received another set of letters from my father and Zuko. The latest attack did not get past the Outer Wall, sadly, but they think they've dealt significant losses to the enemy's elite Earthbending teams, so future opposition should be less intense. Zuko is sure they'll be having tea in the Earth Palace within a year. Perhaps they can bring back wedding gifts for us!"

Mai had no idea what could possibly be in the Earth Palace that she'd want to own and didn't already have two of, but elected to let that go. "That would be nice. Prince Iroh hasn't been able to visit in a while. And-" She nearly dropped the thought, but quickly realized that doing so would only be more suspicious. "-Zuko has never been away from home for so long, so I'm sure he'd like to see his family again soon."

Lu Ten nodded. "The war has been hard on everyone. Destiny can sometimes be a burden."

"Destiny?" Mai felt like she was missing some context.

Lu Ten grinned. "My father had a vision in his youth of conquering Ba Sing Se! Clearly, he's destined to end this war with the Fire Nation's victory and finally bring peace to the world."

"Wow." A vision, huh? Mai put about as much stock in that as Ty Lee seeing auras. Maybe Lu Ten should marry her instead. Mai tried to look impressed, but she didn't have much practice at it. She hoped she was doing it right. "I've never known anyone with a destiny. Aside from the usual Royal Family stuff, I mean."

"Yes, it must be a special thing to know where life will take you. To have the guarantee of a happy future." Lu Ten turned to once again look at the rising sun. "As you noted, I have a kind of destiny. Becoming Fire Lord, marrying you, overseeing our empire, and so on. But- well, with my injury, it's hard to tell what kind of a destiny all that will be."

She had been wondering something similar. Just before the assassination attempt at the Capital Opera House, Ty Lee had even questioned if Lu Ten was still in the line of succession. So Mai had no reassurances to offer him, if she wanted to be the comforting type.

Instead, she decided to share some hard-earned wisdom. She sipped her tea and said, "I find that worrying about destiny is wasted effort. Destiny doesn't give us a choice, so we just have to work to deal with it."

"Really?" Lu Ten's turned back to her. "And yet La-La has spoken about your great ambitions several times. Surely, someone as skilled as you in combat has to be chasing some future?"

Mai dreaded the context in which Azula could have been talking about her supposed ambitions, but there was little she could do about it now. "Believe it or not, it's mostly been a hobby to fill the time. People don't like to see kids lounging around reading books or seeing if their socks will fit over their heads, but becoming a Flying Daggers master makes you look industrious, and it's entertaining enough."

Lu Ten laughed. "Well, it was certainly a good investment of your time, but I might be biased." He finished with a wink, but then let out a breath and sobered. "I know- well, it's been a bit odd for us, hasn't it? You being so young, my injury, all this intrigue- and you barely know me, compared to Zuko and La-La. I admit, I wasn't enthusiastic about the idea when Grandfather first ordered our marriage. But you've saved my life twice now, and you're always good company. Grandfather thinks you're almost perfect, aside from not being a Firebender, and I don't believe any of those superstitions about Bending bloodlines. I want you to know that I appreciate your support, and I'll always try to make this as easy as possible for you."

Mai had no idea what that promise was supposed to entail, but she knew how she was expected to take it. Flattered and flustered- that was the ideal state of a cute girl. But Mai did not consider herself cute and usually had no desire to appear that way. So she solemnly dipped her head, said, "Thank you, my lord," and looked back at up him with what Azula had sometimes called her 'creepy knife eyes.'

Lu Ten's smile twitched but stayed in place. "You're welcome, of course. And, actually, there's a specific matter I wanted to discuss with you. And- and a request."

Mai sat back. "A request?" Perhaps he was going to ask her to stop making the creepy knife eyes at him?

"One of the assassins we captured has talked."

Ah! This was more in line with Mai' interests. She pushed her breakfast plate away. "Go on."

"Naturally, none of them know who, ultimately, is behind this. But our interrogators got this fellow to reveal the person who hired him. It was a professional broker named Shui, someone who apparently specializes in this kind of 'talent.' We've had the name for a while, actually, but this Shui seems to operate in both the Homeland and the colonies, and she's been out of the country for a while. But we recently got word that she's back here- right on Capital Island, in fact. Our spies say she's in Harbor City, staying at one of the nicer pleasure centers at the edge of the city."

That was surprisingly close. If Mai had failed to kill a prince, she would have stayed on the other side of the world. Unless- "Perhaps she's still working on your case? She could be here to arrange another attempt."

Lu Ten grimaced. "It's definitely possible. So Grandfather isn't taking any chances. A team of soldiers is going in tonight to apprehend Shui. A whole platoon of the Crimson Guard, and more army soldiers as support. They'll raid the place and find Shui."

Mai sat back. "And so we sit up all night waiting for word about whether Shui was found or the spies were wrong?"

"Well, that's my plan for tonight." Lu Ten gave her a sly look. "I was hoping you could go along on the mission and pin Shui to a wall with your best knives. For me."

Well.

Mai wanted to think of this as Lu Ten asking his underage betrothed to act as his personal assassin. (Not that he wanted Shui dead; capturing her would help find the true threat.) Wording it in her head to make it sound as awful as possible.

But if she was being honest with herself, this was the best part of the whole betrothal so far.

"Good thing I had a hearty breakfast."

Mai was almost expecting to be denied this chance for fun, but instead the people running the mission merely asked if she had brought her knives and insisted on putting her in armor.

"But I don't have armor," Mai complained. "The only metal I wear is my blades. And earrings on formal occasions."

Her audience - Princess Ursa, the Royal Combat Instructor, a pair of hard-looking servant women carrying baskets, and Azula leaning against the room's doorway - did not look impressed, and no one displayed any interest in her earrings.

It was actually Ursa who had the scariest expression on her face. "Mai, none of your wit today, please. These people are here to help keep you safe. If you insist on doing this, and Lu Ten insists on sending you, you will conduct yourself professionally. Is that understood?"

In the back of the room, Azula made a sound that was almost approving.

Mai sighed, but nodded to Ursa. It wasn't an unreasonable request. It just felt like one.

The Royal Combat Instructor gave a hand motion, and one of the servants stepped forward to lift the lid off her basket. A full set of black armor with royal golden trim and blood-red padding gleamed at her. The Instructor said, "This set was made for Fire Lord Sozin's sister, Princess Zeisan, when she was about your age. I think we'll be able to make it fit."

"Oh." Mai picked up a gauntlet. "But my knives-"

"Zeisan wasn't a Firebender," Azula said from the back of the room. "For that and other reasons, we don't talk about her much."

The Royal Combat Instructor raised his eyebrows at the younger princess, but merely added, "Accommodations were built in for bladed weapons." He turned back to Mai and cleared his throat. "Now, my primary duty is keeping you and the Royal Family safe, which would normally compel me to forbid your participation in activities like this. But Prince Lu Ten insisted and the Fire Lord has given his agreement, so I will do my best to help you succeed and survive. It is my strong professional opinion that the armor will be worth its disadvantages is this situation."

Mai started to say, "But-"

That's when Ursa grabbed Mai's hands. "I know, you're going to say you're one of the greatest warriors in the world right now. Or something like that. But you are just fifteen, and believe me, what you're going into tonight is not like a session on the training grounds. It's not even like a duel at the academy. There's going to be lots of people and everything is going to be completely chaotic and it will be impossible to keep track of all your enemies." She turned to the Instructor. "Right?"

He nodded. "Also, things might starting exploding without warning. Shrapnel can kill. You will wear armor or I will ask Princess Ursa to petition the Fire Lord to forbid your participation."

"I have my own set," Azula added. "I'd wear it tonight and offer to come, but it seems I wasn't invited. Too bad."

Ursa turned to her daughter. "The Fire Nation has enough soldiers, Azula. We don't need to send our children into battle."

Azula snorted. "Tell that to Zuzu." She straightened and walked out of the room.

Ursa actually wiped tears from her eyes before turning back to Mai. "Please. Wear the armor."

After that exchange, Mai wasn't sure she had the guts to refuse. Besides, she had been asked not to be witty, and there was no way to say no to this without at least some snark. So she just sighed again and squeezed Ursa's hands. "Okay. But the armor will impede my movements."

"Thank you!" Ursa actually grabbed Mai in a hug.

The Instructor grunted, "Yes, we are most grateful for your cooperation. Now, I will step out while Och and Od help you put the armor on. Then we'll work on your disguise."

"Disguise?" Mai patted Ursa's shoulder in what she hoped was a signal to let go for her.

"Oh, yes." The Instructor's lips quirked in something that might become a smile with a few more decades of practice. "As long as you're going on this mission, you're going to be put to use." He turned away and marched off, leaving the two servant women to dress her.

She suppressed a shudder as Ursa finally released her.

That evening, Mai was sitting the back of a cargo cart with a dozen armored Crimson Guard Firebenders. They all had their helmets off, but there were no relaxed expressions on anyone's faces, not even the ones who were napping. No one spoke. Most likely, the three other cartfuls of Crimson Guards assigned to this mission were the same. Maybe, hopefully, one of the teams of regular soldiers had a card game going or were telling jokes.

The cat didn't even have any windows or openings where Mai could see Harbor City passing by outside. Although she lived in the volcano just up-slope, she had seen very little of this place, taking it on everyone else's word that it was half-city and half-workyards. Hey, for all she knew of the world outside the cart, she could have been on Ember Island by now. That would be just her luck.

But it was just as well she couldn't see anything, since she already had a job to do. She was holding a piece of paper that the Royal Combat Instructor had given her, memorizing the face sketched on it. The drawing was of a thin-faced woman, lined around the eyes and mouth, with her head shaved bald except for a bushy mohawk down the center. There was also a sketch of a left hand with the fourth finger missing, as well as a note that sometimes its owner wore a prosthetic, along with drawings of examples.

This was supposedly the assassination-broker Shui, assembled from accounts of people who knew her but (presumably) didn't know that she was currently the Fire Nation's most wanted criminal. And Mai had to memorize this face, because she was the one tasked with walking into Shui's favorite pleasure-house and finding the woman before the Fire Nation's elite Firebenders burst in looking to take a prisoner. If Shui had an escape route, it was Mai's job to ensure it went unused.

To that end, her antique royal armor was hidden beneath robes that would let her blend in with the not-poor-but-not-at-all-sophisticated clientele pleasured by the pleasure houses of Harbor City. Although that gave her a few more opportunities for keeping blades at hand, no one had given any thought to ventilation, especially not in a closed cart full of armored Firebenders. Maybe the pleasure house would be cooler.

But not likely.

Mai ignored her dampening brow and underarms, staring at the face on the paper and wondering if she dared to cut her hair into a mohawk. She probably needed both her parents' and Lu Ten's permission. After she was officially an adult, she'd likely still need Lu Ten's. Maybe even the Fire Lord's.

Eventually, the cart lurched to a halt. One of the Crimson Guards opened his eyes and looked at Mai. "Go. We can't wait here too long without drawing attention, so you'll have fifteen minutes. Find Shui and climb on top of her head if you have to, and get our attention as quickly as possible. We will let nothing stop us from getting to you. Count on that."

Mai absolutely wouldn't, but she at least appreciated how solid the guy was making his voice sound when he said that. No wonder other people ran to their deaths at his command.

Soon she was slipping out the back of the cart, hurrying up and down a few alleyways to cover her origin, before emerging into a main lane formed by a hodgepodge of fenced properties that only vaguely lined up. Lee's Pleasure House stood out as the only one with an open gate, and a nearly blinding quantity of lanterns spilled their light into the street. Once Mai passed onto the property (and blinked her way through the glare), she picked out the various buildings that had been covered in her briefing, but she headed for the biggest in the center, the one that boasted the main casino. That was Shui's favorite spot, according to the same sources that had contributed to the sketch folded up in Mai's sleeves.

(And if Shui had instead opted to enjoy a private poetry recital, musical performance, or massage in one of the other buildings- well, it was going to be a very long and stressful night.)

A bouncer at the door eyed Mai briefly but apparently didn't see anything of interest, at least not compared to some of the other new arrivals. So either she was adequately disguised, or everyone around here had a secret layer of armor under their robes. She also wondered about the lack of interest in checking her for weapons, at least until she entered the main casino building.

Because everyone was wearing at least one knife openly, and quite a few people had full dao broadswords handing on their backs.

This was her kind of place!

Well, aside from the heat, the smell, noise, the jostling, and the dice games with such terrible odds that it was like throwing money away. She should probably get this done quickly. She weaved around wobbly patrons and crowded dice pits, scanning faces as discreetly as she could for a woman a little older than her mother with a truly 'flameo' mohawk, as that generation supposedly used to say.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of people here. The main floor was entirely devoted to various forms of dice games. Instead of full second and third floors, two large balconies ringed the entire space along all four walls, one on top of the other and held up by regular columns running all the way from the floor to the roof. Revelers on each of the balcony rings could look down across the whole space. Lanterns were hung everywhere, including some dangling above the main floor from the ceiling.

Mai could see that the second 'floor' hosted tables for card games, but she couldn't tell what was eliciting such shouting and cheers up on the third 'floor.' Of course, every level of the casino had various bars and stands where people could buy drinks, and servants moved around fulfilling orders for those couldn't break away from their games.

She tried not to linger without looking like she was hurrying. Should she spend some of her precious time getting a cup of wine so she'd blend in better? Shui might be hanging out at one of the bars, anyway. But what if she was playing on the third floor? Would it be more efficient to just confirm that there were no ways down from the balcony levels which didn't pass through the main floor? Should she check if the shutters over the windows actually opened? Why was she on this mission again?

Then her brain started to work again.

Oh, of course!

Mai moved through the crowd to the stairs and ascended to the second level. She slinked around the card and tile tables where people were playing majong and kanhu and madiao and tien gow, moving to the balcony walkway's edge, where she could look down at the main floor. From here, the space was no longer a forest of bodies; it was a collection of dice pits around which people gathered like feeding minnows. Most of them had hair, but bald heads were well represented, too.

Shaved heads with puffy mohawks? Not so much.

In fact, Mai spotted the only one leaning over a pit where chance sticks were being thrown. As she watched, the outcome of the latest roll had most of the crowd leaning back with a chorus of groans. Shui - for it had to be her - turned out to be dressed in what was a fancy way for this place, with a burgundy jacket and a black shawl tied at her waist. Mai allowed herself a small smile. She'd completed the first part of her mission. Now she just had to-

What was she supposed to do?

Work her way back downstairs and position herself near Shui? Just grab her? Stay up here and try to direct the soldiers?

Then a scream of pain rang out over the crowd and the bouncer went flying into the crowd backwards, eliciting more sounds of discomfort. Those voices became much more alarmed as a flood of Firebenders in crimson armor poured in through the front door, and then metallic barks of, "Get on the floor! Everyone on the floor, now!" added to the cacophony. Despite the guards' orders, someone screamed, "RAID!" and everyone immediately began pushing and moving away. Some tried to slip past the Guards through the front door, while most headed deeper into the building for what were presumably alternative exits. More than a few stopped to grab coins and promissory notes. Dice and chance sticks were trampled to dust.

And Shui and her mohawk were pushing along with the crowd of would-be escapees.

So she had run out of time. Well, at least Mai had finally decided what to do. Instead of joining the flows of people on the second story and trying to fight her way to the stairs, she grabbed the railing and vaulted over it to drop straight down on Shui.

This turned out not to be as smart as she might have expected.

With all the people around, Mai didn't end up landing fully on Shui. Instead, she brought down several people around Shui, too, distributing the force of of her weight, even with the armor she was wearing under her robs. Everyone went down together in a tangle, crying out in pain and outrage, and then several other people were dragged down by flailing limbs to land on top of Mai. She wanted to claw her way free and get away from any possibility of more human contact, but her mission was to hold on to Shui. She just had to find her-

An eternity of shoves and slaps and kicks and twists and bumps later, Mai found herself rolling out of the tangle to land in a dice pit. She pushed herself up, lifting her head, and found Shui attempting to crawl past her.

Their eyes met.

Shui glared and said, "You."

Mai arched her favorite eyebrow. "Me?" Then she grabbed for the former assassin.

This, too, did not work out for her the way she hoped. Shui rolled away, and Mai did manage to get her hands on Shui's shawl, but with practiced ease, it was untied and whipped away with enough force to send Mai rolling backwards until she smacked the back of her head on the edge of the dice pit. Biting down on a word that had nearly gotten her disowned five years ago when she brought it home from school, Mai snapped both feet into the air and arced her body so that gravity landed her in a standing position, only to find Shui finishing the same move. The crowd pulled away from them, more concerned for the moment with their antics than escaping or fighting the Crimson Guard.

They were now facing each other in the little space like pit fighters. Willing to go with it, Mai flicked a knife out of her own sleeve and lunged in for a stab, something debilitating but not life-threatening and hopefully very painful.

Shui whipped her jacket off as easily as she had the shawl and used it to catch Mai's arm at the wrist. Shui twisted and pulled the coat to lock the wrist in a knot, trapping Mai, and then lifted her leg to snap out a kick. Mai took it on the hip, the armor beneath her robes blunting the still-painful impact of Shui's boot, and then produced a knife with her left hand and quickly slashed her other arm free. She and her two knives turned to face Shui again, only to find the former assassin making a hand gesture.

It was Shui's left hand, and instead of being a pointlessly obscene insult, the fourth finger - gleaming bronze in the lamplight - flipped at the tip and shot something out at blurring speed.

The dart struck Mai right in the chest, the small glass vial in its center proclaiming its poison nature.

She had a moment of panic before she remembered the armor she was wearing. She plucked the dart out and threw it to the floor. Then, deciding to go for the full Azula-level intimidation effect, Mai took off her outer robe to reveal her antique royal armor.

Shui said, "Huh." Then she turned and sprinted.

And the chase was on.

The crowd was thinner on the main floor now now, the gamblers either well along with their escape or actively battling the Crimson Guard raiders. Shui snaked around every obstacle at a dead run, and Mai was soon following. She couldn't wear her wrist-launchers with this armor, but she had enough razors at hand to pin Shui to a wall if she could just line up a good throw-

But Shui leaped, catching the bottom of the second-story balcony, flipping herself up to land on the railing, and then hopped down onto one of the second floor's majong tables and then down to the floor and started running, having neatly bypassed the traffic jam on the staircase.

Where had this woman come from?! Growling, Mai put on a burst of speed and made a leap of her own, sinking her knives into one of the columns holding up the balcony walkways, and climbed her way up one stab at a time. She didn't stop at the second story, but rather climbed almost up to the third story. There, she stopped, curled her body so that her boots were pressed against the column, and then let go her knives and kicked.

She went arcing across the empty space in the very center of the building, somersaulting in the air so that she was upside down. She spotted Shui obliviously dashing in the direction Mai was now jumping/falling, and took a moment to unleash a flurry of razors with both hands. A moment was all she could give them, though, because now there was just a single hanging lantern between her and a bone-crunching landing on the main floor.

The lantern was dangling from the ceiling by a chain, and Mai grabbed it as she passed by, turning her fall into a swing. She didn't use her hands to hold on, as her fingerless gloves didn't provide enough protection for what was coming, and instead hugged the chain to her armored chest with her armored wrists. As the hanging lantern swung, her enhanced weight dragged her down the chain with enough speed that it would have ripped the skin off her hands. Instead, it just took some paint off her armor. At the bottom, she collided with the lantern with enough force to knock it off, and then she lost the chain completely-

-she was weightless for forever and a moment, her momentum carrying her through the warm and smelly air-

-and she crashed onto a majong table on the second-story balcony with enough painful force to knock the breath out of her, snap the table in half, and scare away the people who had been cowering around it.

Ty Lee probably would have landed on her feet ready to fight, but Mai's respect for gravity didn't translate into any kind of working relationship with it. The armor she was wearing was probably the only reason she hadn't broken bone instead of just furniture. Once she was sure she could breathe again, she sorely got to her feet and managed not to slip on the scattered majong tiles.

Not far away, past the people who were trying to find some other way off the second floor with the Crimson Guard now fighting their way up the stairs, Mai found Shui pinned by her sleeves to the wall-

-just as Shui shrugged out of her shirt to reveal a vest underneath with all kinds of knives fastened to the front. Shui immediately grabbed a pair and threw them, forcing Mai to take cover behind a podium topped with a collection of drink bottles. The podium had shelves underneath where even more bottles were stored, and Mai considered them as throwing weapons before deciding that their weight would be too unbalanced for accurate flight. Instead, she waited, counting six 'thunks' of Shui's knives being blocked by the podium. Then the sound of breaking glass heralded a rain of pungent intoxicants splashing down all over her.

Gross! Shui was going to suffer for-

Then something big hit the podium hard enough to knock it over onto Mai. Bottles rained down and shattered against her armor, further soaking her. But she ignored it and leaped behind an overturned gaming table.

A collection of gamblers were also taking shelter there, and they all stared wide-eyed at Mai as she landed in their midst.

She took a moment to catch her breath and waved to them. "Hey."

One man said, "Are you here to shut the casino down?"

"Nope. I'm thinking of come back when I have a night off, actually."

That didn't seem to mollify anyone. In fact, the man who spoke peaked out over the table and said, "The other knife-throwing lady is doing something weird with her hand."

What? Mai risked peeking over the edge of the table. She was just in time to see Shui throw her detached bronze finger in a high arc towards Mai.

Why? True, it wasn't big enough to hold more than one dart, but it was still a weapon and-

The bronze tube began sizzling and emitting red sparks as it flew.

And the floor - and Mai - were soaked with cheap drinks.

Where had this woman come from?!

Mai tried to scramble away at the same time her fellow table-refugees did, running into each other and getting absolutely nowhere just as the sparks hit the carpet and flames surged up from the floor to engulf them. The others were able to flee with singes and patches of their clothes smoldering, but the alcohol that soaked Mai gave the fire a path to cover her entire body. Her voice joined with the screams echoing across the casino as the fire quickly spread.

The lessons of her childhood immediately came back: she screeched, "I need a Firebender!" and rolled to try to smother the flames.

(She never thought she'd be grateful for those classes back at the Academy where the teachers lit the kids on fire, but here she was, dressed in flaming antique armor and rolling across a casino floor, just like she'd been trained- and given a 'Barely Adequate' grade.)

That said, it didn't seem to do much good and everything was hot and her skin was starting to sting where the heat was coming through the armor's padding and she thought she smelled burning hair and she bumped into something heavy and furniture-like and it took a moment to realize she had to roll the other way and her skin was really stinging now-

And all at once the flames snapped out of existence. A hand grabbed her arm (she hissed at the feeling like sandpaper rubbing against her skin) to haul her upright, and she found herself facing a pair of Crimson Guards. One helmeted head swung so that it filled her vision, and a voice echoed from within, "Where's the target?!"

Mai looked around. Shui was nowhere to be found.

But-

Shui had been trying to go up, and there was a set of stairs within sprinting distance of where her shirt was still stuck to the wall by some of Mai's razors.

She motioned to the Guards, biting back a wince at the feeling like a rug-burn all over her body, and ran for the stairs. She still didn't know what kind of games they had up there, so the layout was unpredictable, but Shui could be setting an ambush with whatever throwing blades she still had. So she slowed a bit and let the two armored Firebenders with helmets and faceplates go first-

And just before they reached the third floor, a stampede of arm-length four-legged hissing lizards ran into them. The Guards stumbled, and then the lizards all converged on them and attacked with mouths full of teeth and swinging club-like tails. Both Firebenders fell and rolled down the stairs with the lizards following, and Mai had to hop over them on her own way up.

She found that third floor was a largely empty space, broken up by shallow circular pits filled with sand, and all along the walls were stacks of metal wire cages. Many were unoccupied, but some contained various panicked animals trying to break free. Mai spotted Shui by a set of smaller cages, and before she could get a knife into her scorched hands, the former assassin got the cages open to unleash a flock of komodo chickens and spurred them towards Mai.

Oh, come on!

It turned out that being at the center of a swarm of hostile scaled chickens was its own special kind of hell.

Fortunately, Mai was still wearing armor, so her instinct to put her arms over her head and cower actually provided her some protection. It felt like going out in the rain without an umbrella, except it smelled a lot more lizardy. But the tapping quickly tapered off, the komodo chickens apparently not thrilled with pecking at metal plates. After a few moments, they decided to move on and left her in a sore peace. A little snow of green feathers (and a white smelly something sticking to her left shoulder) blew around her in memory of the experience.

This might just be the worst night of Mai's entire life. She decided to make someone suffer for it.

Shui was just around the corner of the balcony walkway, skittering up the far side of a ladder that she had swung down from the ceiling. Mai didn't have a clear line of sight and the angle was all wrong for arcing a razor disk, so all she could do was continue the chase as Shui disappeared up the ladder. Mai half-expected a whole dragon to drop down on her when she reached it, but she managed to climb the whole thing and emerged into the night air without incident.

She was on the roof of the casino. The smoggy, scaffolding-spiked vista of Harbor City sprawled around her.

And Shui was standing at the far end of the roof, above what would be the building's entrance, tying a rope around her waist.

Mai immediately threw a knife that cut the rope just short of Shui's hands, leaving her with a very unfashionable belt completed detached from the pile of coils beside her.

Shui sighed. "I don't suppose you're looking for a job?"

"I think I already have one." Mai filled her hands with razor disks and began approaching, one cautious step at a time. "Speaking of which, you're tricky. Why are you just working as a middleman when you're probably a better assassin than the ones I fought?"

Shui gave a laugh. "You're obviously inexperienced. Running away is a lot easier than killing a specific target, even with all my tricks. Try it some time." She tilted her head. "I could arrange for a very nice payment, if you want?"

"I don't really need money." Mai shrugged. "I only ever touched coins to learn how to throw them with deadly force at people. And I think, once I'm married, royalty can just take whatever they want without paying? I'm not sure how it all works, but I suspect taxes are involved."

"Is that why-" Shui pulled a pair of her own throwing knives from her vest. "-you're so ashing dedicated? You want to be Fire Lady that badly?"

Mai considered her seared skin, the komodo chicken poop on her shoulder, and- yes, her hair-tails seemed to have burned off. She was going through a lot, here. And Shui raised a point worth considering. Mai had no idea if she wanted to be Fire Lady. She wasn't even certain if Lu Ten would get to be Fire Lord, so she had seen little point in considering her own position beyond all the practice-princessing she'd been doing. It's not like she had a choice. Her parents had made that clear years ago.

Did she have one now?

But what kind of a choice was that? Letting Lu Ten die? Just because she had no desire to marry the guy didn't mean she wanted him dead. The idea of letting him die - letting anyone die - for her own gain put a shiver on her tender skin. She had no trouble hurting someone who was asking for it, but she was no predator, consuming others so she could thrive. That was more Azula's thing.

Well, that answered one question. Shui had definitely asked for it, and Mai was happy to unleash a little violence in this specific case.

She took another step forward and truthfully answered, "Maybe I just really, really hate assassins. Especially the ones who throw chickens at me."

"My mistake," Shui said, taking a shallow stance and brandishing her knives.

Well, that was that, then. It was going to be a fight.

Mai was within leaping distance of her opponent, now. That wasn't ideal, as her preferred form of fighting involved plenty of distance, but there were no walls here to pin anyone to, and Shui was light enough on her feet that pinning a shoe would be difficult. But Mai needed Shui was a captive. Brawling on a rooftop was a good way for someone to fall off. So a quickly-delivered debilitating but not life-threatening cut or stab was her only option. Also not easy, given Shui's skill.

And the former-assassin had no such restrictions.

Great.

Mai spun in place and flung out her razor disks, sending them on different short arcs that would converge on Shui, crouching after she finished and pulling out a pair of long knives she could stab with. She'd see which way Shui dodged, and then jump in to-

Shui kicked the nearby coils of rope straight into Mai's face and jumped backwards off the roof.

Mai never got to see if her target had just killed herself or had another trick, as her vision filled with tangles of old rope that sprawled across her head and shoulders. She let go of her knives and tried to grab and throw the obstruction away, but the coils were already tangled. She pulled her right hand free and grabbed one of her knives again, intending to cut her away out, but then there was a sound behind her and Mai spun and yanked enough of the rope out of her face to see Shui - back somehow?! - grinning and looming over her. She must have caught herself and climbed back up-

Then Shui kicked Mai in the face.

When reality returned, Mai was lying face-up on the roof, rope still tangled around her head, the seared skin on her back screaming at the pressure of her weight. She rolled onto her hands and knees, shaking her head to dislodge the rope and also clear the ringing from her ears, but then someone sat down on her back with enough force to collapse her.

"Good night, sweet princess," Shui whispered. She grabbed some of the rope and tightened it around Mai's neck.

It was very rough material, scraping against her skin, but soon that was secondary to the fact that Mai could no longer breathe.

She pulled at the rope, but it was digging so tightly into her throat and she couldn't even work her fingers beneath the coils. Her head became tight, like the throbbing headaches that came with a horrible illness, but this was worse, like her eyes would going to pop out of their sockets from the pressure.

Mai kicked and twisted and bucked, but nothing dislodged Shui from her back or the garrote from her neck. She scratched at her own throat to try to get a grip on the rope, but she couldn't even feel her own fingers anymore. She had to-

She couldn't-

-air-

-breathe-

-do something-

-her head-

-get off get off get off get off get off get off-

-Zuko-

-no-

The ability to breathe came back to Mai so suddenly that it was like being dropped into a freezing river. She gasped at the sudden lack of pressure around her neck and immediately began coughing so hard she started spitting out blood. But - despite that experience and the raw feeling inside her throat akin to the scorched skin beneath her armor - she had air. For the first time in her life, she realized just how fundamental that element was. Her head lightened and her lungs filled with wonderful breath and the coughing meant her body was fighting to live.

Speaking of which, there seemed to be a huge brawl not far from her head.

Still gasping and coughing, Mai looked to find that no less than five Crimson Guards were wrestling with Shui right there on the roof. Mai listened to the grunts and orders to surrender and a suggestion where surrender could go stick itself and a scrape of metal against metal and a cry of pain and the roar of flames and one last scream from Shui.

And then there was a moment of silence (except for Mai's hoarse panting) and the Guards all began disentangling themselves. When they were all standing, Shui's body - the head still smoking and no longer recognizable as human - was laying still in the center of the gathering.

Mai's body decided that was a good moment to vomit.

Mai spent the rest of her visit to Harbor City seated in the back of a wagon, feeling like garbage and being attended by a medic. She'd had her armor cut off of her, leaving her wearing the scorched remains of her padded undersuit and a blanket someone had found for her.

Meanwhile, everyone else was handling the aftermath and cleanup of her little 'adventure.'

Well, the Crimson Guards weren't cleaning anything up. They had retired to the carts that had brought them into Harbor City, just like her, sitting down for a rest and jugs of water and some bean-paste buns. Two were being treated by medics for animal bites, but the rest didn't seem to require any immediate care.

It was all the other soldiers stuck processing the gamblers who hadn't managed to escape the casino when the raid started, questioning them and either arresting them or throwing them in the street. More soldiers were searching the casino itself for clues or additional suspects. A local group of the Home Guard had even gotten in on the fun, forming a barrier against all the citizens who had come to take a look, and beating up any who objected to their favorite pleasure house being raided.

"Um, you'll have bruising on your royal throat for a while. My apologies," Mai's medic stammered, crouched in front of her. The woman was from the Home Guard, not the Crimson Guard, because they apparently didn't have any women in the latter. Mai didn't know how both the local police and the elite royal protectors ended up with such similar names, and the medic didn't seem to find any comfort in the shared title. "But, um, there are no broken bones or arteries, thankfully, and I'm sure that's a reflection of your skill and upbringing?"

"Yay," Mai rumbled like she'd inhaled too much smoke, and then had to cough.

The medic winced. "Sorry, my lady. It's, um, hard to tell the full extent of the damage. If you have trouble breathing, or- or maybe you can get someone to watch over you for a while? Um, please? In case you pass out or have a seizure or have trouble swallowing or strange thoughts or- er, and you can take medicine for the pain. Okay?"

Mai decided to just go ahead and nod, although the idea of being watched all night gave her the creeps. She'd be fine. Probably.

The medic took one of Mai's arms and examined the burns. "These aren't bad. I'll look you over (um- with your permission, of course!) to make sure there's nothing worse anywhere, but your padding saved you from direct contact with the hot metal. Heh. The type of hooch they serve in these places doesn't burn very hot. It's too watered down." The medic met Mai's eyes for a second and then went pale. "Of course I wouldn't expect you to know such corrupt things! I'll, uh, give you some salve to apply yourself, since of course I wouldn't presume to touch a lady of your class more than necessary. I'm sure the palace will have a supply of sparkbee-honey balm, and putting that on the burns will make sure you don't get any scarring. Heh, with that stuff, it won't be any worse than getting a sunburn on Ember Island!"

Mai nodded her agreement, although she'd never actually gotten a sunburn on Ember Island.

The subsequent examination didn't turn up any worse injuries. The medic stamped a piece of paper with the treatment she'd administered and gave Mai a jar of the salve for people who didn't live in palaces. "Anything else? Uh, my lady?"

"How were half a dozen Guards not able to take one woman alive?"

The medic stared at Mai for a long moment, and then shrugged. "Sometimes, in fights, things get complicated. Um, my lady. The guys in the fight said the target got her hands on a weapon, and someone had bring out the fire. It's not always possible to aim to injure in close quarters." With one last bow, the medic left.

Well, so much for that. Mai couldn't help wondering, as she began rubbing the salve on her hands and arms, if any of this had been worth it.

Shui had to have been working for someone else. And now that she was dead, there was no way to find out who. On the other hand, with Shui dead, maybe it didn't matter. There probably wouldn't be any further attempts on Lu Ten's life until a new broker could be found to arrange them. Maybe there wouldn't be much of a rush to fill that particular position for a while, not with the threat of the Crimson Guard and a cranky teenager now established. Unless the mastermind would hire some assassins directly? Just because Mai didn't know how to do that didn't mean the whole Caldera was as ignorant.

So they had maybe bought a little time. And there was no way of knowing how much.

Great.

Mai had another little coughing fit.

When she finished, cleared her throat, looked around, and spotted Prince Ozai standing around drinking from a waterskin.

Mai blinked. Prince Ozai?

He was wearing Crimson Guard armor, his helmet casually held under his left arm and his hair plastered by sweat to his head. There were some scratches on his chestplates and gauntlets. He was standing near where one of the squads was resting and talking, but a little apart from them and completely silent. As Mai watched, he took another sip from his waterskin, as casual as if he went on raids to Harbor City every day.

Prince Ozai had come on the raid.

He might have sensed Mai's utter bewilderment, because he turned his head to look right at her. A shiver worked its way up Mai's spine as their eyes met, and she braced herself for him coming over to talk to her.

However, after a moment, he let his gaze drift back to the activity around them, and he took another sip from his waterskin.

Mai wanted to go home.

"I'm never," Ursa sobbed an hour later, "letting you leave the palace again." She moved as if to inflict a hug, but then looked at Mai's bruised neck and backed away, clutching her hands together instead.

Mai hoped that the princess didn't actually have the power to imprison her, but decided to leave the point alone for now. She had been all but carried by the servants up to her bedroom, dressed in her most comfortable robes, and propped up in her bed with more pillows than she owned knives. Sparkbee-honey balm had indeed been found for her burns, so now she smelled like a dessert, and the Royal Physician had double-checked the medic's work before giving her something to swallow that took away a lot of the pain.

It was more pampering than she'd gotten in some whole years of her life, and the arrival of Ursa and Lu Ten hadn't improved the situation. At least Azula and the Fire Lord hadn't shown up to tell her how important she was to them. Besides, it wasn't terrible to have people concerned for her health.

So Mai just dropped her gaze to her lap and said in a voice like a goose-monkey's hiss, "The healers said there's no real damage."

"Actually," Lu Ten countered from his wheeled chair on the other side of the bedroom, "I made a point to talk to the physician, and he said he couldn't detect any damage. We need to keep an eye on you."

Ursa gave a firm nod. "I'll sit up with you tonight."

Mai needed all of her power to not let her reaction to that show on her face. "Um, thanks?"

"There's no need for thanks. You're part of the family, and we love you." Ursa reached out to stroke Mai's hair, and she made an annoyed sound as she touched some of the strands that had been burnt short. She turned to Lu Ten. "And you! What possessed you to ask her to go out tonight, anyway? She's a fifteen-year-old child. She's too young for you to marry yet, so you send her off as your personal assassin?!"

Lu Ten blanched. "I- uh-"

But Ursa didn't even wait for him to get his words together. She put her hands over her face and mumbled, "I just hope this is finally over."

It was the same question Mai had pondered, but she still hadn't come up with any answers. At least, no definite answers. But perhaps she had the start of one.

Mai cleared her throat. "Um, Prince Ozai went on the mission, too."

Both Ursa and Lu Ten whipped their heads around to look at her.

Mai nodded. "He was armored like a Crimson Guard."

No one spoke for a moment.

Then Lu Ten smiled. "Wow! I didn't know he cared so much." He looked at Mai, must have seen her confused expression, and added, "It's not unheard of for members of the Royal Family to join the Crimson Guard on missions. Not everyone- well, there wasn't always a war, of course, and Uncle Ozai couldn't join the army at the same time as my father- and we have to prove our skills and get some real combat experience somewhere, and- anyway, it's nice to know Uncle Ozai is so concerned about me. He can sometimes seem a bit cold."

"A bit cold," Ursa repeated with a tone as complicated as a spider-fly's weaving.

Mai took that as a sign that the next part might not get her sentenced to death for treason. "You- you don't suppose he- he had anything to do- to do with Shui?"

Both Ursa and Lu Ten stared at her.

Mai felt her face warming. "It's just- there was a big pile of people, all in Crimson Guard armor, and Shui was the only one who didn't come out alive."

Ursa and Lu Ten continued to stare at her.

"And I- well, I asked on the way back- I asked who actually killed Shui." Mai felt the need to run her hands through her hair. "And the commander said- well, he said no one was sure."

Lu Ten narrowed his eyes. "Was Uncle even on the roof when the broker died?"

Mai could only shrug. "We could ask him?"

Ursa sighed. "Are you really suggesting that Ozai is trying to have his own nephew killed?"

Mai shook her head adamantly, which was the only way to answer such a question, regardless of the truth. "That suggestion would be treason."

"Then what are you saying?"

"I- I don't know?"

Lu Ten cleared his throat. "Well, it's been a long night. I'll leave you two to rest." He gave a significant look to Ursa, and then wheeled himself out of the room. Mai heard his chair rolling across her suite, and then the sound of a closing door brought silence.

Mai bowed her head to Ursa. "I'm in trouble, aren't I?"

"No, you're not." Ursa circled the room to where a painted stool stood decoratively in a corner- and had been there, without being touched, since Mai had moved in a year ago. "I can completely understand why'd you'd suspect Ozai."

"You- can?"

"Under the circumstances." Ursa picked up the stool and carried it over to the bed. "I understand how you can think you know this family. We practically helped raise you. And you've been living with us now, preparing to be Lu Ten's wife." She let her shoulders slump and sat down on the stool. "You might as well be one of us."

Mai looked at the princess through the fringe of her hair. "Thank you?"

"If you consider that a compliment, then you're welcome. But trust me, you barely know what's really going on with this family." Ursa gave a little laugh. "Even living with us, everyone has been putting on a front for you. Especially Azula and Ozai. Even me." Before Mai could say anything to that, Ursa took a deep breath and continued, "You think my husband is cold enough and power-hungry enough to eliminate someone in between him and the Burning Throne."

Mai wanted to avert her eyes, but she made herself hold Ursa's gaze and nod.

Ursa nodded back and sat up straight. "Well, I think you're right- mostly. But not with his own family."

Mai kept her skepticism off her face. "You're sure about that? Even with- well, whatever you alluded to with when you had to marry him?"

"Yes. That's one of the main reasons, actually. You see, Ozai can't actually bring himself to go against his father, no matter how much he wants to."

Mai blinked. "The Fire Lord?"

"That's right. I have seen it in action. Ozai thinks he wants everyone out of the way so he can take the throne, but when it comes down to it, Azulon commands his heart. I can't imagine what it would take to push Ozai to actually commit that level of treason." Ursa offered a wan smile. "And Azulon is still very fond of his grandson. Hiring assassins and going out to kill the broker seems like the type of thing that would upset the Fire Lord, don't you think?"

"I guess." Mai tried to wrap her head around the concept of Ozai as Daddy's Boy, but couldn't quite manage it. "If you're really sure?"

"I am. He might not be a good husband, but Ozai is a loyal servant of the Fire Lord, even if Azulon doesn't always agree with his methods." Ursa folded her hands in her lap.

Mai supposed, as long as they were having a heart-to-heart about treason and forced marriages, she might be able to get away with one more provocative question. "Will I someday know Lu Ten enough to tell whether he's arranging murders or not?"

Ursa blinked, and her eyes went cold and hard. "Do you want to know that?"

Mai had no idea how to answer.

Ursa's coldness melted, and she rubbed at her eyes. "I'm sorry. It's late, and I'm still more than a little upset about your condition."

"Um, it's okay."

"To answer your question, marriage is about learning the good and the bad about people. But Lu Ten is a good boy - a little air-headed about his sense of entitlement at times, like when he sends his fifteen-year-old betrothed to stab people for him - and I think he'll try to be an agreeable husband. At the same time, his father is perhaps history's most successful warlord in history's greatest empire, and that means the enemies of this family often die. How knowledgeable of that - or involved - you want to be is up to you."

Mai thought hard about it. "I think I want to go to bed now."

"Good. You need rest to heal. You'll have tomorrow off, and probably the next day as well. I'll be here tonight, watching in case you need something." Ursa went over to the lamp and lowered the light until it was barely a glow. "Good night, Mai."

"Good night, Princess."

And so Mai settled herself down and closed her eyes, having gained some wisdom through pain, and tried very hard not to think about how she was still sure Ozai wanted Lu Ten dead.

TO BE CONTINUED