Howdy, folks. Thanks for the response to my first chapter! I hope you enjoy this one, but don't expect me to publish them every day in the future. I'll try my best though!

Hands clasped behind his back, his cloak flapping magnificently, Zuko swept into the royal council, fashionably late as always.

There was a rustling of fabrics as his advisors stood to bow.

He waited until most of them had already stood to speak. "At ease, gentlemen, no need to strain yourselves."

There was a mumbling of assent as his advisors sat back down.

"What's on the agenda for today?" he asked.

Ling, a balding man with a stooped physique and a quavery voice, spoke first. "My lord, the Earth Kingdom is buying our oil in massive quantities. It appears they are attempting to impose a monopoly."

Zhao, a portly middle-aged man with a neatly trimmed beard, was quick to respond. "My lord, I would suggest an increase on our current tariff from five percent to twenty percent. This would deter them."

Zuko nodded sharply. "I think a twenty-five percent increase would be more apt." The number was unimportant, but asserting his authority was.

There was much nodding and scribbling.

He looked around. "What else?"

The council looked at each other uneasily. Jiu, the youngest of his councillors at thirty-two, a skinny, constantly nervous man that was already balding despite his age, hesitantly spoke, with the air of one about to detonate a bomb. "Well, there is still the issue of establishing foreign relations with the water tribe."

This was met with general groans and sighs of displeasure. Jiu looked as though he wished to never speak again.

Water tribe relations was the royal council's most prickly issue. After the war, Zuko felt it was his duty to reestablish diplomatic relations with them, but some of his more conservative councillors heartily disagreed, wishing nothing more but for those "damn water savages" to be left to themselves. It was one thing to trade with the Earth Kingdom, whom they had occupied, and, as a result, the two nations already been living in harmony in certain villages, their two cultures intermingled, and unfortunately the Air Nomads had met their sticky end, but the Water Tribes were just too different, and it was just too unorthodox to start relations with them.

Zuko was more prone to let his councillors debate over the topic than involve himself. That was his style- cold, detached, but at the same time authoritative and demanding of respect. Perhaps odd qualities for a firebender, the reckless people more accustomed to throwing fiery tantrums than settling for reason. But he was never ablaze with anger, rather keeping it smoldering beneath an icy exterior of cool collectedness. His temper was present, but would not erupt for mere squabbles or hardships. No, the tectonic foundations of Zuko's world would have to be shifted in order for the volcanic mount of his being to spew forth molten fury and liquefied wrath, which would desecrate the lush green landscape to a barren waste, and remind the world of his potential for destruction. But given time, life would return to his side, tempted, as always, by his insurmountable power.

Zuko had become dormant, had not felt the embers of his rage glow for years.

With this void came an ever-increasing difficulty in his firebending. It was becoming harder to grasp for the power to shape flames, and when he found it at last, and held it clenched in his fist, it would wriggle away from him like an eel, splashing away in a trickle of his frustration. Firebending is no gentle art requiring finesse, but borne from a river of passion for which Zuko searched in vain. Someone like the energetic Katara was more adjusted to tap into that spring of feeling.

Katara had been on his mind ever since the introduction of the issue of Water Tribe relations… and on that thought, Zuko withdrew from his pool of reflection and shook images of Katara from his head like stubbornly clinging drops of water. The broad Zhao was in the midst of shouting down Li, a rather greasy man with slicked-back hair and an elegant goatee. "… and they just don't mix right with us folk, it's just not the way of things!"

"Really, Zhao, I'd have thought you'd be less narrow-minded on account of the width of the rest of you. The Fire Lord's suggestion is very fair, and we ought to abide by his decision." Li shot furtive glances at Zuko as he spoke. He very much wanted to be promoted to general.

Zuko abruptly rose. The noblemen fell silent. He spoke.

"Tomorrow, I'll send a diplomat to the North Pole Water Tribe. They will send one in return, and I'll behead anyone who tries to interfere."

Still silence.

"And now I shall retire for the afternoon to hear petitions. Good day, gentlemen." And he left.

He was, after all, the Fire Lord.

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