….
Wei-Li wipes the shelf clean and stacks her spices on it. The tea is brewing and the bread is almost done. Everything is set for breakfast and she even had some time to clean. Wich is very good, cause today is gonna be a long one. She really hopes that the boy that does the dishes will show up today, but her guests scares many workers away. For her fathers sake, she needs to work hard.
She hurries to the backroom of the kitchen for a quick change of clothes. She switched the loose black tunic for a nice, long kimono in red and gold. Over the kimono she hang a clean, nicer black apron and she carefully, re-arranged her hair so it would look more neat. She arranged the tea and the breakfast in different trays and started to walk.
They took their breakfast in the main dining hall. It was twelve of them, all in all. The Lord, the General, and ten guards that she didn't recognice. But they seemed nice enough. When she entered the room with the tea she put on her best smile for all to see.
"It smells of Jasmine" General Iroh remarks happily and smiles back at her. "Our own blend, General". She smiles and pours the tea. Heating each cup in her hand for a moment before serving it. Steam rises from the tea at each touch and makes the smell of the tea fill the whole room. She hands one of the cups to Zuko and carefully, meets his eyes. He recognices her but dosen't speak. These lords and nobles, they seldom care about the working ones, she reflects.
"That is a very productive way of using firebending, the tea smells wonderful" Iroh kindly remarks.
"By only using the touch of the hand, slightly before serving it, the tea gets an extra chance to blossom again, without making it bitter" She smiles, a true smile, glad that someone compliments her tea.
She bows and heads back to the kitchen to gather the rest of the breakfast.
"This hotel is famous for it's Fire Nation cuisine." Iroh says. "It's been here for years. I heard about it many times but never got the chance to visit. I look forward of trying the food myself" He smiles.
Wei-Li carries out the breakfast. It looks amazing. The bread is crusty on the outside and soft on the inside, sprinkled with spiced fire nation salts. There is a variety of condiments. There is also a simple soup with spring onions and broth, garnished with small slices of chili and lemon zest. She serves more tea and also refreshing lemonades. All dishes has a wonderful story, how it's been growed in their own garden, imported from the Nation or inherited by family ties. Everyone eats in amazed silence. It's the best meal anyone ever had. She crosses her hands and stands in the back of the dining room, as is polite as a servant.
"Tell me, Wei-Li, how many chefs do you keep employed?" He asks, amazed by the food.
"Due to my fathers affairs for now, I am the only chef for the moment. We have a bit of a problem with staff"
She bowed her head slightly.
"May I say you are doing a wonderful job dear miss Wei-Li" He said, humbly while bowing his head slightly.
She blushed a bit and nodded. Any compliment from a polite and happy guest really warmed her heart,
made her feel like it was worth it, after all.
The meetings began right after breakfast and continued during the day. Zuko was frustrated, he didn't really feel that they had accomplished anything useful at all. Yu Dao was a tremendous important asset to the Fire Nation and if things didn't resolve until the end of the week, they would have a conflict at hand. They returned late in the evening. A nice light dinner was already provided for in the dining room. Wei-Li was nowhere to be seen, but obviously, she was around. It was a well – made soup, in a beautiful soup bowl garnished with pictures of red phoenixes surrounded in yellow flames. The soup was pepper-spicy and tasted of broth, red wine and finely chopped crispy vegetables. Bread, the same kind as for breakfast, and hard bread, all with the familiar Fire Nation spices laid in small baskets neatly and conciously arranged on the table. There was also a generous amount of spiced wine. They all sat and enjoyed the meal, but Wei-Lis abcense puzzled Zuko. Half in the meal he stood up, his guards also did a effort of standing up with him, but he urged them to finish the meal in peace.
He walked trough the kitchen and trough the back door, into the garden. He saw her from afar.
She was in her kimono, tending the rose hip bush. She was whispering small prayers.
"Please, let father be well, the guests be happy, let the sun shine for me during the mornings and in my heart. Take care of my mother. I give her my love from afar" . A small light shone in her palm, the air filled with the faint smell of burnt petals.
She sighed and stood up. And met his eyes.
She looked surprised and her eyes were wide with tears. Fast, she composed herself. Her eyes looked different in the dark. He could have sworn they looked dark amber and green only this morning, but now they glistened in yellow.
"I beg for my forgiveness for so clumsily letting you serve yourself tonight. Is there anything you need? "
She asked humbly with a bow.
"No. Everything is in order. I was just...Out for a walk."
He hesitates briefly, then continues; "Maybe you would like to join me?"
"Of course." She smiles.
They start to walk the path silently.
"I usually train after sunset, if I have the time. The nights get very dark out here. It's like bending with your eyes closed. I heard that it's good for your instintcts." She says casually. Somehow the conversation goes more natural outside of the hotel. They walk the small path down to the beach.
"So your mother… Learned you the movements you usually do?" He asks.
"Yes. From when I was a small child, we usually trained together every sunrise, after tending to the fires in the house. After she left, I continued doing it alone. It's a small comfort."
They reach the beach. It's a cloudy night but the moon is full and shines bright on the dark lake.
"If you don't mind I would like to train" She says politely, but she dosen't wait for him to answer, it suprises him. It's like she slowly changes, from a servant to a bender, on the short walk to the beach. Maybe he's getting too accustumed to people catering too his every need and will. In the moonlight, she suddenly reminds him of Katara. So humble and adjustable, but still with the power of the raging sea inside her. He remembered when she with a wink of her fingers, bloodbended the captain of the ship. It froze him. It was a forbidden power, hidden in the depths of the human, the darkest of the sea. He could still have nightmares about it. He would woke and imagine, being powerless, how your own blood would rebel against you.
Lost in tought he silently watched Wei-Li slowly doing the dance of the dragons.
Her movements slow and calculated, no fire, but the air around her grows thick with heat. She trembles slightly with concentration.
He dosen't know what comes over him, it's like trespassing, but a part of him can't help it. He removes his coat, takes a deep breath and start doing the dance with her. Slowly, like she does it. It is meditative, he gives her that. He never liked dancing. It felt like a waste of time. And growing up, dancing was not allowed so he felt really awkward, giving in to your feelings like that.
But this feel more like bending and meditating so it works. He's breaking the rules, being close to a servant like this.
At the end of the dance, they suddenly face eachother. He sees her eyes are closed. Her face is concentrated, tense.
She opens her eyes, and they are dark amber again. They look at each other, and she smiles.
'Thank you' she forms the words with her mouth but does not speak them. She dosen't bow. She is sincere.
The walk back was silent. Before reaching the entrance to the house, she slowly turns and bows courtesly at him, she then exits.
He is relived that she don't talk. He didn't know what to say that would feel appropriate and not awkward for him or her.
Maybe it's the walk, or the new kind of meditation he just learned, but he feel more focused than he'd felt in weeks. He decides to do some paperwork. He opens the window to get some air, and sit down to review the documents and requests that the nobles sent him.
He can hear his guards talking and laughing in the room beside him. "Are they gamling again I swear I..."
Suddenly he can hear other, hushed voices coming from the garden below the window.
His eyes narrows, trouble?
"I said you couldn't come here no more!" Wei-Lis voice.
"Why? I never see you. You never come out anymore. Don't say we didn't have a good time!" A young mans voice.
"It's different now! My father would have my head on a plate if he knew I was even talking to you!"
"Ha ha, yes, he would know how to serve it. Come on, you don't even have to fight, just come and talk, I brought wine"
"Do you think I'm stupid? Thats the weakest excuse I've ever heard. Go away before anyone sees you"
"Seriously. I tried asking you nice. You still owe him money. One time and I promise, I will never bother you again"
He could hear her sigh. "One time. Tomorrow. And then no more. Now go!"
Zuko could feel himself stir. What was this about? Who was she? He could not trust anyone in this city except for himself and Iroh. But if he talked to Iroh he would have to admit about how he listened in on their conversation, maybe he even had to tell him about the bending she did in the mornings and evenings. And he felt that he shouldn't. No, this had to be dealt with in another way.
He closed the window and went to bed. Tomorrow would tell.
In the morning he walked before dawn, just like the day before, the now familiar path down to the beach.
She was down there, but she wasn't training. She was meditating. She sat with her face towards the lake, completely still.
He watched her for a short while and then turned back to the garden.
If he could see her, he would see her face wet with tears. Her eyes shut hard. Her posture calm, but her hands, trembling.