Chapter 10: Fragile Life
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Mai and Zuko arrived late to dinner. Mai was glowing, and Zuko kept running his fingers up and down her side.
"I'm glad you two are back on track," Katara commented.
"Me, too," Zuko and Mai chorused.
Ty Lee entered the room, looking confused. "Have any of you heard the rumors about Mai hating Zuko?"
"You miss a lot when you sleep in," Mai said with a shrug.
"We figured it all out, Ty Lee; it's all right," Zuko said.
"'Kay… Oh, but there's something you'll probably want to know about… I heard some court officials say they've been looking around for Earth Kingdom herbalists, and they finally found a specialist."
"That's their business." Zuko shrugged. He was far more interested in seeing how high up her side Mai would let his hand go.
Ty Lee shrugged and sat down. "So, Suki, when do you think we'll be heading home?"
"Probably sometime next week," Suki said with a shrug.
A servant came in. "Fire Lord, Fire Lady, Avatar," she smiled shyly. She offered them each a fancy cup of (watered down) sake. "Special for you," the girl said, blushing excitedly. "For the rest…" She smiled just as shyly as she served the rest off a tray. "I'll be back soon, promise!" She smiled at everyone as she backed out of the room.
"Star struck," Sokka concluded, making muscles.
His friends—even Mai—laughed.
"Katara… I don't drink sake," Aang whispered.
"It's okay. You don't have to," Katara whispered back.
Mai squirmed out of Zuko's reach, as he'd taken to tickling her. She took a drink of sake. A few seconds later, she was gagging.
"Mai?" Zuko took hold of Mai's arms. "What's wrong?"
"Don't… drink the… ah…" Mai doubled over, making hacking sounds. Her skin began to turn green, and there was a rash forming on each of her cheeks. Her hand flew to her forehead, and she gritted her teeth as she tried to fight her sudden head pain.
Zuko looked at Katara. He was unable to speak, but his eyes said it all.
Katara helped Zuko lay Mai on her back, and bent water out of her pouch. "It's going to be all right, Mai." Katara didn't sound so assured. She bent a glowing disk of water up and down Mai's torso and against her throat. "This poison is really powerful!"
Zuko looked up at her in horror. "Can you fix it?"
"Might take longer than normal." Katara bit her lip. "Mai, can you hear me?"
"Mm…" Mai wrenched her eyes open, but was unable to focus. "Hear." She forced the word out.
Sokka and Suki were frozen in shock. How had their friendly chatter turned into this? Would Mai even be alive in five minutes?
"Stay awake, okay?" Katara said gently, trying to keep her voice steady. She was beginning to feel Mai's heart beat slowing.
Ty Lee and Toph huddled together. Under normal conditions, they didn't usually touch at all, but now, each was so scared.
"Tired… Tara …" Mai grimaced. Her jaw was chattering, making it hard to make words.
"Stay with us, Mai!" Zuko squeezed Mai's arm.
"Not… Leaving." Mai tried focusing on the red patch in her view that had to be Zuko's scar. Everything was still so blurry. What was happening to her body? It was like it wanted to turn inside out! Why wasn't it letting her see Zuko? Her hand twitched toward the scar, the only point of clarity. "Z-Z-Zu-Zu!" Mai's body lurched, despite Katara's frantically healing hands.
"Katara!" Zuko shouted. His arms encircled Mai.
Katara sent a glowing stream of water down Mai's throat. She closed her eyes, spreading her fingers.
Mai stopped moving, and let out a heavy breath.
"Are you okay?" Zuko and Katara asked.
Everyone at the table held their breath.
"Yes." Mai offered a weary smile.
Zuko hugged her tightly. "I can't believe how close that was… Thank you, Katara."
"You're welcome." Katara sat back, kneading her temples.
Mai reached over and squeezed Katara's hand weakly. "Thanks."
"It's not over yet," Katara said with a sigh. "I'll have to keep checking up on you, make sure these things don't happen again… and I may have to give you another healing session."
Ty Lee hurried over now that the danger had passed. She gave Zuko a look requesting permission, and then hugged Mai. "That was scary. Do you think it was the same person who was trying to make Mai hate you, Zuko?"
Zuko stared at Ty Lee, conscious thought finally processing. "Maybe."
Mai shivered and hid her face in Zuko's robes.
"Who do you think they are?" Ty Lee asked.
"I don't know," Zuko said darkly. "But I'm going to find out."
"Maybe you two should eat in your room," Ty Lee suggested.
Mai and Zuko stared at her.
Ty Lee grinned. "That's not what I meant, but go ahead, anyway."
Zuko poked Mai, making her squeak. "Let's go," he said as he stood, bringing her with him. "Can we bring food from here?"
"Take some," Aang said solemnly. He piled up a couple plates quickly and with the help of airbending. "We'll figure it out."
"I know," Zuko said.
Mai convinced Zuko to let her carry her own plate when she pointed out he could hold her hand if both of them had one free.
Ty Lee excused herself afterwards, saying she had to go find Haru.
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Sokka watched Mai and Zuko leave. "Does the no pets policy apply once the royal couple isn't watching?" he asked Aang.
Aang half smiled, still trying to recover from the violent poisoning display. He opened his shirt, and Momo climbed out. "We should pour out this wine." He indicated the goblets meant for himself and Zuko. Mai's had been overturned.
"Wait, hold on!" Sokka grabbed Aang's wine before he could pour it out the window. "We could get someone to analyze it and figure out what kind of poison it was!"
"We don't want to know what poison it was!" Katara snapped. "Whatever it was, it almost cost us a friend!"
"But if we find that much out, we should be able to figure out if it's expensive or not—" Sokka was beginning to count on his fingers.
"An expensive poison means someone was either rich or really wanted to see the three of you dead," Suki added.
Sokka added another raised finger to his counting. "An expensive and rare poison means someone tried extra hard—"
"And had a lot of money to back it up!" Suki's eyes were getting wider with realization.
Katara exchanged glances with Aang. "That could be useful information, right, Aang?"
Aang nodded slowly, ignoring Momo's attempts to cheer him up. "I think this is very serious business. We need to know who was cruel enough to try to kill Zuko and Mai."
"And you!" said Katara, Sokka, Suki and Toph.
"Right." Aang shrugged. "And me. If we can figure this out, we'll be able to punish them and keep them from trying again."
Sokka began plowing through his food. "I'll begin the investigation immediately! Suki? Toph? You with me?"
"With you!" Suki and Toph got excited for a moment, leaving Aang and Katara the only solemn ones.
As soon as they'd finished their food, Sokka led Suki and Toph out of the room.
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Sokka, Toph and Suki entered the kitchen.
"Attention, attention, everyone!" Sokka called. "This is Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe! I want all of you to line up."
Grumbling, confused, and annoyed, the assorted kitchen workers assembled, including the girl who'd served the gang.
"I am here to inform you that Fire Lady Mai was just poisoned."
The collective gasp that resulted was loud enough to make the heroes back up a bit. People began to chatter worriedly to each other, and some ran up to Sokka, eyes wide and asking him to tell them it was a joke.
"None of them are guilty, Sokka," Toph informed him. "You can start questioning them in a friendly way."
Sokka nodded. "She was poisoned. However, my sister, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, has healed her."
Everyone sighed in relief.
"Finally," Toph said, "you've managed to be nice to their nerves."
"However, now the question remains: Who did it?"
The kitchen workers stood straighter. They looked at each other suspiciously.
"Don't go too far, Sokka," Suki said quietly, with a hand on his shoulder.
"Let me see where you get your sake," Sokka said loudly.
"Of course. But could you please try to be quieter?" It was the servant girl who'd served the sake in the first place.
"Lead on," Sokka said.
It was a completely normal sake closet, besides the fact that it was royal and full of expensive varieties. Sokka was disappointed. He still sifted around in the bottles. He did not find a thing.
"Sokka, I think this is a dead end," Suki said gently.
Sokka let out a sigh. "Suki, we just saw Mai almost die. There has to be something we can do to keep it from happening for real."
"I know," Suki said. "She's my friend. If she died…" Suki shook her head.
"Will you two stop being softies and tell me what this is?" Toph was holding up a strangely shaped… something. "It's made of metal, but I can feel this piece of paper attached to it…"
Suki and Sokka both grabbed it from her.
"It's poisoning instructions!" Sokka nearly shouted.
Suki and Toph crowded closer.
"You only need one drop for each glass. Make sure that the Fire Lord, the Fire Lady and the Avatar each get one. Only one need die; it doesn't matter which. Our point will get across quite efficiently. Immediately after the servants are fooled into serving the poison, vacate the area." Sokka's face hardened.
"Worms! I wish I could pummel 'em!" Toph said, punching her open hand for emphasis. "They had to leave this for a reason, right?"
Sokka nodded. "They're forgetful."
"Or they want us angry and unfocused," Suki offered.
"But what's the point of having us angry and unfocused but still on their trail?"
Nobody had an answer.
"We should try getting to the bottom of the political conflict," Toph said. "I'll bet that's where the problems are."
"We can't be sure," Suki said.
"You've never been involved in politics, have you?" Toph asked.
"No…" Suki said.
"That's what I mean. You have no idea how weird politicians can get."
Suki and Sokka looked at each other.
"Maybe we should pay attention to Fire Nation politics for the answer," Suki said.
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Many thanks to those people who took time out of their weekend to review: gloomy maiko lover, Kimjuni2, and Millie.