Chapter 10: Admiral Jun
Katara squinted against the stark sunlight as she ascended the stairs from the cells below, up onto the deck of the barge.
Ha ha!
Katara faltered at the sound of Azula's voice.
Zuzu is alive! Alive and well! So it seems now, the dead can come back to life!
And yet… There was no ebony-haired Fire Lord in front of her, no crazed lupine eyes.
She whirled around, narrowing her eyes, trying anywhere to find a glimpse of the woman. But there was nothing. There was only metal and smoke and herself.
"Get out of my head!" Katara pleaded, pummeling her temples with her fists. "Leave me alone! Just let me…be…"
Hm, you mean I'm not good enough for you? You're hurting my feelings.
"No more games, Azula!" Katara screamed, bending a sheet of ice and throwing it against the wall; it clashed against the metal violently, instantly shattering into tiny flakes and razor-sharp points of crystalline shards.
How many more false ships, how many more decoys must Katara break through before coming to finally rest in front of the beloved Fire Lord? How many more men must hurt until she could save the only family that had never left her?
There must have been something, before she was taken to the Spirit World, that prompted Azula to hold Sokka over her head. Did…did she do something? Did she take the wrong side?
Or was it all just a game?
I bore very easily, water peasant. Keep looking and look fast; if I get bored, Sokka gets to experience my temper.
Katara sank to her knees, heaving in fury. Was it possible for someone to take over the mind? Was there enough meditation, enough practice in the world that could allow someone passage to another's thoughts?
Or, you know, I think you may just be crazy after all…
Like me!
Katara snarled, whipping a heavy stream of water out from the ocean, throwing it brutally against the metal wall of the control booth. The wall instantly caved inward, as though made of nothing but feeble cloth. She made to bring her arms back down to her side, but the water, it ignored her wishes, it had forsaken her commands and instead it rushed angrily around the small room, ripping levers and lanterns from the wall and finally, wrapping itself around the wheel and yanking roughly, sending it flying through the room. Katara ducked as it cracked against the deck behind her.
And then, the water was still.
She looked down at her hands. She could feel her blood boiling, pulsing within her veins but there was something else; her arms trembled. She felt the desire to bend more, to destroy more, to let it run rampant without a second thought but the logical mind within her told her she was losing it: control.
Katara backed out of the room slowly.
What is Azula doing to me?
For what could she accomplish when she was devoid of control and surrounded by only a sea that refused to listen?
She heard the screeching sound she had before again – the low hum, the vibrating of the ship itself. Katara ran around to the deck, for her position in the control booth left little that she could see outside of the room. She stopped abruptly at the sight of the first ship she had taken, drifting up to the side of the royal barge. Katara straightened, alert and suspicious. She had left it anchored; she made sure every soldier on board was below decks in the coolers where their veins of fire could not light!
She squinted suspiciously. She saw no one on board; she heard not a sound, save for the occasional seagull that shrieked overhead.
Katara pulled the wolfhelm over her head, her warm, moist breath circling back into her face.
It was the other ship, the bow of it gently nudging into the stern of the royal barge, sending Katara lurching forward slightly from the light impact. Again, the screech of metal on metal.
She glowered.
Either the escapee had never seen the wheel of a ship before, or they were attempting to sink her. She regained her footing as both ships pushed against one another until there was no more movement. There was nothing.
But then: footsteps.
Katara neared the railings, peering suspiciously onto the empty ship. The sunlight was beating down on her helm, making her skin sweat terribly, the saltiness dripping down onto her lips. She began to back away towards the stairs leading back down to the cells – there's someone here trying to save you, bastard lord, but who, I wonder? – when a shadowed figure rushed out of the control booth of the ship. Its feet were moving alarmingly fast, skidding up along the metal wall and making a great arch before pounding away from the wall, spiraling through the air and flame erupted from the feet, coming towards Katara at ferocious speed.
With only a brief moment to react, Katara jutted her arms out, palms facing the ocean and as she pulled back, a large wall of water followed suit, shielding herself the moment the flames collided with the sea in her grasp. When the fire was gone, she sliced the wall in half, cycling the water around and around until it formed two large shackles of ice. Before the figure's feet came back down to the ground, she had raised two small pillars of ice on the deck of his ship and as he touched the floor, she bent she shackles around his wrists and connected them to the pillars, pulling him down to the deck, imprisoned in her icy grasp.
The head dropped low in surrender – Disappointing; couldn't we at least have had a better fight? – and she bent a quick water-whip up against the side of the figure's temple, knocking the Fire Nation helm from its head.
He was panting heavily, glowering up at her through a loosened, disarrayed topknot, the strands wet against his face. The helm had cut his lower lip as it was ripped from his head and now he was spitting out blood, his teeth bright and red.
Katara crouched, a solitary stream of water in front of her, should he decide to try and escape.
I would like to see that.
"Who are you?" she hissed.
He was struggling now, desperately trying to break free from the ice shackles, but it was futile and he gave up after a moment, his breath short and labored. He was grimacing as he looked up at her, his eyes the same sickly amber of those who belonged to the Fire Nation.
"Who are you?" she repeated once more.
His lips were quivering in anger and she thought he might never give in and speak, but finally:
"Jun," came the strong but defeated voice. "Admiral Jun."
"Are you trying to sink my ship, Admiral Jun?"
He smiled mockingly, retorting, "I only wanted an invitation to the party."
"A cheeky Admiral, hmm?"
Katara gripped the railing of the royal barge and, pushing away from the deck, flipped herself over the side of the ship onto the deck of the other, coming to a standstill in front of the Fire Lord's beloved Admiral, offering him a glorified smirk.
"You're high up on the military chain," Katara said, pacing around him. He refused to meet her gaze, his jaw set in fury. He is strong. I will give him that.
"What is you want?" he growled, spitting blood onto the deck once more.
"You tell me," she responded dryly. "Where is the Fire Lord?"
"What are you on about?" he panted. "Go back downstairs. See for yourself."
Katara allowed her lip to pull up into a coy smirk. She wagged a finger at him, chuckling as she said, "Now, you are funny!" She leaned forward, lifting his chin to force his eyes to look into her own, their noses just about touching. "I have checked every room on both of these ships. I peered through every crack, looked under every rug – I know she is not here. You cannot trick me, though I applaud you for trying so hard."
She backed, hands on her hips, and she breathed in the sea air, sighing happily.
"So," she said, turning back around, her hair flowing against her back. "This is what is going to happen. You are going to steer this ship to the Capital, Admiral, since you so cleverly escaped me before. You are going to take me to the Fire Lord. And you are not going to be a problem."
Another angry spit, followed by, "I would wait to be too cocky, pirate. Those men you threw into the coolers – well, I have the key. I will melt your ice and I will release them like bloodhounds and you will be taken down."
Katara's first instinct was to laugh, but the second instinct, the one she decided to follow, was of a more poisonous sort. She came to rest before him, pushing her fingers into his tunic until they grazed his bared skin. He shivered, scowling, and she spoke quietly, "Shall I freeze you the way I had frozen them? Would you, too, like to know that pain?" She cocked her head to the side, the nature of the ravenous wolf in her eyes. She let drops of water roll out of her pouch, up her arms and finally to the tips of her steady fingers against his chest where she condensed them into shards of ice, pushing them out into his skin, watching as it began webbing over, freezing all that it touched. He was trembling, his teeth bared as his head fell backwards, but he would not make a sound of pain.
"My men will destroy you," he gritted through his teeth.
"You're bluffing," Katara replied, the web spreading out farther and farther, his skin turning blue.
"Try me, wolf."
His amber eyes were starkly bright in that moment.
You're desperate.
Katara sighed, straightening up, letting the webbing of ice fall into limp droplets of water. He shuddered from the release, his eyes closing gratefully.
"Very well, then," she spoke. "I can offer you a present, Admiral – I hope you do not refuse it. In fact, I believe it will force your cooperation.
"But here," she continued, producing from another pouch on her dress a small vial filled with a greenish liquid – the same tea she had so gracefully offered the bastard lord below decks. She bent it out of the vial and the Admiral watched with apprehension as she pushed it towards his face, the greenish hue catches the blue of the sky, and in one, fluid movement, the tea struck forward like a serpent and into his mouth, forcing its way down his throat. He spluttered and coughed, his face contorting with the quick effects of the tea leaves, and Katara could see, with satisfaction, the sickness rising up within his stomach within moments. She gently touched the side of his sweating face, smiling briefly as she said, "In case you try to leave."
And she hopped the railing, bending water beneath her feet as it carried her swiftly across the deck of the royal barge and down to the cells.
Rise and shine, my lord.
Your turn.
"Avatar Aang!"
Earth King Kuei held out his arms amorously, beaming one of the widest smiles Aang had ever seen, and his glasses seemed to magnify his eyes, making them look buggy and all-seeing.
Oh boy.
Aang bowed low, replying with a formal, respectful, "Earth King Kuei. I am here at your request."
"Oh, yes, yes!" Kuei clapped excitedly, standing from his throne. "You can't imagine how much Bosco here missed you!" The bear half-yawned, half-grumbled lazily from where he lay.
Aang blinked.
"But I just saw you the other day," he said pointedly.
"Nonsense! I see you have also brought the infamous Blind Bandit," he exclaimed happily, as if he was awestruck to be in Toph's presence. Toph was absently picking her teeth behind Aang, but she looked up awkwardly when her title was stated and tried to hide the old food she had wrestled out of her teeth on her finger.
"What is it you need of me, Your Highness?" Aang asked. The Earth King was feeding Bosco treats, to which Momo eyed them enviously, but Aang shot him a look and so the lemur behaved. Kuei was…interesting. It seemed as though years of operating under Long Feng's "influence" had produced within him a dire need to prove to the world just how capable and manly he was. It made sense; Aang did not blame him one bit, however it did make him a bit anxious as to why the Earth King had immediately requested his presence – "no" not being considered as an answer.
"What I need of you…Hmm…" Kuei started, tapping his chin. It was obvious he knew what he was going to say, but he insisted on drawing it out like some comical skit and Aang had no choice but to play along. And so the Avatar waited, but he was not prepared for the sudden exuberant outburst of, "We are going to throw you a party!"
"What?" Aang replied incredulously. He's lost his mind! Or maybe…
Bosco ate it! This Kuei is a clone!
"We'll have rows and rows of delectable pheasants, wild boar, smoked salmon-"
"But I'm a vegetarian-"
"And anything else you might wish! There will be singing and dancing and marvelous entertainment from Bosco here – I had his own costume tailored for him this morning! It must be grand, Avatar – almost as grand as my re-inauguration." Kuei winked. "Perhaps we might even be graced with a presentation from the Blind Bandit herself."
"Your Highness," Aang pleadingly cut in, being sure not to sound too curt or interruptive, "All of that sounds great, but why is a party necessary in the first place?"
The Earth King blinked. Bosco lifted his great head, sniffing the air for a moment before snorting in derision and letting his massive head fall back down to his pillowed floor.
Kuei laughed almost nervously, awkwardly, as though explanation was entirely unneeded.
"Such humility! Such modesty! I love it, young Avatar. Why, of course, to celebrate your official support of the Harmony Restoration Movement!"
Aang froze.
When did I sign any official charters?
Aang and Toph exchanged looks of confusion, which went unnoticed by the Earth King in his happy state.
"Please, Your Highness," Aang spoke, treading carefully, aware of the dozen guards surrounding them in the King's court. "I mean no disrespect, but I don't recall ever officially taking any side in the movement. I need to speak with Fire Lord Zuko personally first."
Kuei came forward, clasping an amorous hand onto the Avatar's shoulder, squeezing tightly.
"There is no need, young Avatar!" he exclaimed brightly. "What you did for me – for the entire Earth Kingdom – will not be forgotten. You have demonstrated your alliance and your support of your Earth King. You have proven yourself to be a trustworthy friend in these uncertain times. When you contacted the Northern Water Tribe and requested a pirate to overtake the Fire Lord's royal barge – very clever, I must say – you pledged yourself to me! Scare tactics, who knew? I would have never thought to take the ships of the Fire Lord, oh, I didn't want to face his wrath, but you, Avatar, handled it diplomatically!"
Aang's heart stopped.
A…pirate?
He had no news of the North since his arrival in Ba Sing Se. He had been moving too often, whether to the rebels or the colonies, to hear the full stories accompanied by the swift, short rumors that passed over his head wherever he passed through.
What do I say? Yue, what do I say?
He could feel Toph's unseeing gaze burning into the back of his head but though he wanted to, he could not move nor turn to look back at her. He could not think; rationalizing seemed an impossible feat in that moment.
"I-I'm not following…" Aang started slowly. The hairs on his arm rose when he saw a guard shift, but it was not towards him, no, his paranoia was acting up. That was all. The guard was simply shifting on his feet.
"Of course you are!" Kuei hammered on, pacing back and forth, arms flailing about. "This is perfect – more than perfect. The Northern Water Tribe has officially declared its support of the Harmony Restoration Movement, just as our young Avatar has. Your actions have given us the strength and support the Earth Kingdom needed – I shall move forward with my movement! The Fire Nation colonials of Yu Dao shall be gone by the end of the month. The Fire Lord can't possibly hope to stand against us now; I am expecting him to surrender. We have the Avatar and the Water Tribes backing our cause! You have done it, Avatar Aang, you have saved my movement. You have saved the Earth Kingdom from our hotheaded rebels!"
The ground was unsteady. Aang's eyes were blurring over, his gaze swimming and he felt sick, so sick and nauseous but he couldn't breathe, not even if he wanted to! Momo's tiny, quick breaths sounded too loud against his ears, his tunic felt too hot…
There's no way! I didn't…I didn't send anyone.
Hakoda, Arnook…Even Pakku, none of them would have done this. It must be a lie, it must be a lie!
He could feel Toph's tenseness through the vibrations in the ground. She was seething.
And through her emotions, Aang could feel another: Kuei wasn't lying.
It was true. The Water Tribe committed treason against the Fire Nation.
And the Earth King thinks it was my idea…
Aang forgot where he was. He forgot he was standing in the court of the King. He scarcely noticed Bosco or the other guards. Everything swam in circles until it was all a blur and he was one, solitary figure at the center of it all, unmoving but hardly in control.
He blinked, catching the last of Kuei's raving excitement: "Where's Yanwu? I need Yanwu! I want tapestries, I want goblets and plates of gold, I want instruments and dancers and jesters! Yanwu, we need to get started on the preparations! We have a party to plan and not enough hours to do so – tonight we shall dine with the Avatar and rejoice in his actions. The entire world will know: The Avatar had sided with the Earth Kingdom! The Fire Nation must go back behind its walls!"
And he went on and on and on, seemingly never breathing, the smile never wilting, and Aang was a pillar but a weak one, a terrified one.
It was all over. Peace was but a dream now.
No…
Zuko was awoken by a hand violently trying to rip his arm out of his socket. He groaned in pain, swatting at the air like a pesky fly, but his action was responded to with a sharp smack to the head. He sat up, glaring into the darkness, dots and colors swimming over his eyes until they adjusted to the low light.
"Get up."
He looked up, her face above his, her locks of hair cascading down over his face. He wanted to sigh in relief. She looked the same: blue eyes and a determined sea.
His heart tightened. Maybe it was all a dream! Maybe everything…
Do you remember me?
Is it everything as it should be now?
But then she reached out, pulling him roughly to his feet and he fought the urge to retch all over her chest and he was reminded, no, nothing was as it should be.
"You're coming with me."
His head was bobbing up and down as she dragged him up the stairs, mostly supporting his weight in his stupor. She didn't snap at him or complain or let him go and watch him fall back down the stairs like he was expecting her to. She was focused on something else entirely.
Blush colored his cheeks with the closeness of his face to her chest, her rough tunic scratching his unshaven skin.
The metal door swung open. The brilliance of the sun was entirely excruciating. He wanted nothing more than to cover his eyes with his hand but his limbs were too heavy and so he resorted to feeble squinting, but it did nothing to lessen the pain of the light.
It took him many seconds to realize the other ship was so close.
It took him longer to notice the body of the man, encased in shackles of ice against the deck, but when he did, a heavy sense of dread filled his stomach, making his body feel like lead.
"Here's your present, Admiral," Katara spat.
She feels so cool.
So cool…like water and rain.
Do you remember when I told you about the turtle-ducks?
He let himself sink against her chest as she held him up, breathing in her scent, feeling the softness of her neck against his burning forehead.
But then she let go. He dropped forward heavily, face-first onto the deck. His nose was aching from the impact and he hoped it was not broken, but any other thoughts he had eluded him in his delirium.
"Your precious cargo is alive and well. I have not harmed him. It will stay this way if you give me what I want."
"To take you to the Capital?" came a lower voice. Zuko could see who was talking, but he recognized the voice…perhaps… She had called him Admiral, hadn't she? Then maybe…Jun! Jun had gotten away!
Yet not for long; she had gotten to him like all the others.
He damned her. Zuko tried to lift himself up, but his limbs betrayed him, the sickness in his belly betrayed him, the damn suppressant betrayed him and he was forced to lie still, good as dead.
"Take me to the Fire Lord," he heard her speak.
Again! Asking for the Fire Lord! Katara look at me and see I have been here this whole time…
"Look down, crazed wolf," he heard Admiral Jun spit. Zuko felt Katara's foot nudge him roughly in the back.
"This?" he responded curtly. "This bastard lord guarantees your cooperation. Nothing more. I have no need of him after you give me what I want – take me to Azula. I will not ask again. When I have your word, I will release you and you will captain our ship to the Fire Nation."
"Oh, dear. I just don't know how to steer a ship," he said petulantly.
"Inconvenient for the job as a sea-faring Admiral, don't you think?" Katara glowered. "Do not lie to me! You were in charge here."
"You iced everyone who was in charge." Jun spit again.
He's hurt.
Zuko watched Katara shrug out of the corner of his eye.
"Very well." She straddled Zuko's back on the deck, grabbing a fistful of his hair and yanking his head up painfully. He spluttered, a wet, choking sound, and he saw the glint of a blade in her hand right before feeling the cold teeth of the metal against his neck. He tried desperately to squirm away from her grasp, but the bile rose up his throat. His gaze met Jun's, whose gaze widened alarmingly.
"No!" the Admiral Jun breathed, struggling against the shackles. "Don't touch him!"
"How sweet," Katara cooed, her grip tightening against Zuko's neck. He closed his eyes, his heartrate rising and rising without pause, without relief and for the first time in years, he sent a true prayer to whatever god might help him: Help me.
Iroh's face came into his mind at that moment; the infuriatingly wise old man was, of course, holding a cup of tea, his great belly shaking with every laugh. His uncle would tell him to fight, to persevere; his home needed him, his people needed him. The death of the Fire Lord would allow for decades of the chaos he worked so long to undo. His death would not be one of a martyr, it would be a pointless sacrifice.
And then there was another face, one he never expected to see: Mai.
He could not leave her alone.
Not when she gave up her life to take care of his own.
"J…un," Zuko stammered, spit flying from his lips with the difficulty of speaking.
"She will ruin our home," Jun insisted, and for a reason Zuko could not pinpoint, the look on his Admiral's face near broke his heart. "She will destroy everything you have built."
Katara sighed, ripping Zuko's head back even further. He groaned from the pain and the blade bit deeper until he felt the razor sting of cold metal and a warm liquid dripped down his neck.
This is it.
This is your choice, Jun.
Zuko kept his eyes close. He could not watch the blueness of the sky, the emerald glittering of the sea, the painfully furious eyes of Jun. This…yes, maybe this made him a coward, but no amount of pleading would change Jun's mind if-
"Alright!" came a shout. "You win. I will take you. Son a bitch. Let him go! Let him go."
The bloodbender's hand instantly released the Fire Lord's head and he sank forward, blissfully, heavily, wonderfully and the deck had never felt so soft.
It went without saying Katara destroyed the steering of the ship. She could, of course, bend the water as the ship's coal burned and turn it herself but royal barge was massive, she was tired, the sun was unceasingly hot and it was, at the very core, just so much effort.
So, she opted for something different instead: so-called Jun could captain the smaller scout ship and, when needed, she would use her abilities to propel the ship faster en route to the Capital.
But…There was a hesitation within her.
Could she control herself?
Her training with Suki centered around strength and endurance; her biggest fear was being too weak. She had never anticipated her fears turning to lack of control.
Don't think of it.
She pushed the muddled thoughts from her mind and crossed her arms, breathing the salty water deep within her lungs, filling herself to the brim before letting it out in a satisfying sigh. Upon further negotiations, she had agreed to bring those imprisoned below decks on the royal barge. Fortunately, the ship they were on had much more formidable arrangements for a larger group of dozens of Fire Nation soldiers. It had taken some time, and nearly all of the man named Zuko's tea leaves, but by late afternoon they were all powerless and in chains.
Power is tempting. Katara curled her fingers into a fist, watching her knuckles fold and straighten and fold once more. She felt strong, yes, but she also felt different. Different – as though this new balance she found was not one of true balance, but more of a delicate hanging of the in-between. Somewhere between force and will was where she now stood – of course, every waterbender's philosophy concerns the ability to utilize the changing of the tides, to breathe in this curling movement of change and apply it as an extension of the body, but what was the point of carrying this change in the palm of one's hands if one could not use it whenever it was needed through force? Perhaps everything her people had learned was wrong.
My people.
Did she truly have anyone?
Katara bit her lower lip, fidgeting slightly from her troubling thoughts, but a ragged cough from Admiral Jun pulled her out of the muddled pool of her mind and her gaze met the unclean, unshaven face of the Fire Lord's naval leader, her eyes focusing on the dried blood around his mouth and the deep cut across his eyebrow.
"Does it hurt?" she asked. Katara swung herself up onto the railing, holding out her arms for balance and she walked back and forth, back and forth, her eyes flitting from the crying birds overhead to Jun, whose knuckles were taught and white from gripping the wheel so hard.
"Like a bitch," he replied stoically. Katara paused.
She turned to him, plopping down on the railing, pulling one leg up and letting the other dangle over the water. The sea breeze was cold and sent her skin prickling, but in her lungs it felt like a warm furnace, giving her clean, serene life. There was a sense of nostalgia that rose within her. It was if this feeling pushed down all of her wrongdoings within the past few days. If there was regret within her, it was quieted now and replaced by calmness, by peace. But even she knew peace was a façade; there was always something more, there was always something sinister deep within that, without fail, came clawing away at the surface.
Her eyes narrowed.
"Should I kill your mother?" she asked quietly, refusing to move her gaze from the waves that slapped against the hull of the ship. "I could take everything from you – your home, your family, your name. I could do to you what you did to me and still…It would not hurt as much as it did me. I was only a child."
Careful. Don't say too much; leave some surprise for when the end is near.
She scowled at her thoughts but in truth, she was secretly sighing with relief, for these thoughts were hers. They did not belong to Azula. They did not belong to the spirits. Whoever she was now, these thoughts were hers and that was enough. It was enough.
Katara slid off the railing back onto the deck, avoiding the eyes of the admiral, which were digging into her skull. She had said enough; he would hear no more of her story. She did not want pity. She wanted vengeance and she wanted justice.
There was one notion that came to her that, not matter how hard she tried to quell it, rose up and up like a geyser readying itself to blow and reach towards the sky. For what would she do once she arrived at the Capital? Surely nearly the entire vanguard of the Fire Nation would be waiting.
Could she draw Azula out?
No, only a fool would leave their walls.
Yet, there had to be a way. But if there was, it eluded her and Katara was left with nothing.
"What do you remember?"
Katara was snapped back to the metal deck, the gray walls, the ebony-haired admiral steering the ship. He was younger than she would expect for a naval soldier of his experience – barely thirty, maybe even late twenties it seemed. Yet, for his bodily youth he made up for in his grumpy demeanor of that of an old man. It was odd to see, yet interesting. Nothing was ever interesting anymore.
"What makes you think I don't remember things?" she asked, alerted. What are you trying to pry from me?
Jun shrugged.
"I see the way Lord Zuko looks at you. He knows you. You know him…It's why you didn't kill him, right?"
The flashbacks of Katara's nightmare hurtled itself into her mind's eye – the way she had killed him with Azula's laugh echoing forever within her ears.
"I thought I already did," she responded quietly.
She absently reached down over the railing, pulling up a sparkling stream of the sea and winding it around her hands.
"I used to be different, you know," she muttered. "At least…That's what I've been told."
There was a part of her…yes, a part of her that regretted all she had done in the past week. She could imagine the looks on Aang and Suki's faces when they found all she had been doing. A pang of guilt reverberated through her, sharp and unrelenting. But she had to do it! They stole her mother, her brother… She had to do it. It wasn't fair!
And then suddenly, as though graced with a very important thought, she straightened up, turned, and descended the stairs down into the cell below decks. She had some words to share and these words needed to be heard by a certain raven-haired, scarred man.
She found him slumped in a corner, his stubble dark against his pale skin. She knelt in front of him, offering him the bowl of water next to his cell. Let this be my act of kindness to you, lord. Then we may bargain for the Fire Lord.
But first…
She had to know.
"How did we meet?" she whispered.
In the darkness, she could see the opening of his eyes, his amber irises glinting like gold.