Myobu walked calmly beside Zuko as the caravan rumbled forward. The Spirit-Fox was constantly plagued by the smell of mortal around him, of strife and pain and regret, and on the outskirts with the firebender his discomfort was eased. That, and ever since taking a piece of the Emperor away with him, the Fox had taken to limping occasionally from the weighted sin and mortality of Long Feng. It was a spiritual ailment more than physical, as by taking part of Long Feng, Myobu had also lost part of himself - a much graver sacrifice than any mortal man was apt to understand.
Zuko had noticed Myobu's limp, but had not yet risen the courage to ask the Fox about it. At the moment, the heir of Agni was astride a sweeping black stallion that had the vague look of a camel in it's face, and wide, two-toed feet. It was a fire-spirited creature, but it had been subdued its former masters, harsh and unforgiving as the heat of the Desert. It was a true beast of Acchai, a true mount for barbarians, having braved the wars and terrors of the Lords - and beneath Zuko it had eyes that burned for battle, and it often shook its mane impatiently if they walked too long. It's name was Randhir, which meant "steady in battle" - and if Zuko was lucky, he would be.
Zuko's eyes were now half-lidded with daydreams, as the walk was particularly long this day. He was not wearing his panther-skin, though Song had finished it for him; it was far too hot for the thick, black fur, the helm of the panther's skull. How Jeong-Jeong and his soldiers were able to wear their furs nearly all the time would astound Zuko, even as a firebender, who enjoyed the luxury of heat.
Your mind is far away.
It took Zuko a minute to realize Myobu had spoken to him; he had been sliding Katara's necklace through his fingers distractedly, feeling the cool blue surface of the stone. The Fox actually awoke him from a very pleasant thought about the waterbender.
"There's - there's not much to think about right now," he tried. Myobu turned one cold, disinterested eye upon him.
There is much for you to think on. Do not begin to hope, because these two men have joined your service. They have had ill-luck with Lords, and are unlearned still. They will be little use against the forces you will soon face.
Sen Su was a little ways behind Zuko, riding a red horse. He had tied the long lengths of his black hair in a pony-tail, but unlike most men of Acchai he was clean-shaven. Zuko himself had forgotten to shave for the past few days, and there was scruff on his chin, growing steadily into a beard not unlike Hakoda's. They had not yet formed any tight bond, the firebender and the brother of Lee; but Sen Su stuck to his convictions, and at every command was willing to obey the heir of Agni. Lee may have had something to do with that, seeing as he regarded Zuko more god than man, having saved him from an undeserved punishment. Pipsqueak, Zuko guessed, did not follow him so much as he followed Sen Su - but that was all well and good, as long as he could keep Sen Su loyal.
"You don't give them enough credit," Zuko defended his soldiers. "Sen Su has a good head on his shoulders - and Pipsqueak... he's strong as a mountain."
You give them too much credit. Sen Su has a delicate heart. Pipsqueak has a weak mind.
Zuko groaned unpleasantly at the Fox's words. It was one thing that the Spirit-Beast felt it his duty to interfere in Zuko's task; it was another that he would instill doubt just as soon as Zuko was starting to gain hope on the situation.
"You don't instill much confidence, you know," he said a little bitterly. Myobu turned his cold eye away, started to limp a little.
I would not have you enter Fong's court without knowing the weaknesses of you allies. A troubled friend can defeat you easier than any enemy.
"It won't matter when I enter Fong's court. I will take him down so quick he won't have room to breathe -"
"We are not going to Al-Abhad."
Jeong-Jeong rode by swiftly on his tiger-stallion, too fast for Zuko to respond.
"What does he mean? I though we went first to overthrow Fong!"
"There's been a change. We're starting with the Lord Jee."
"The Lord Jee -?"
Zuko had to spur Randhir to catch up with Hakoda, who had brushed by the firebender almost as swiftly as Jeong-Jeong. Fury had found its way into Zuko's heart, faster than poison; the Lord Jee owned the smallest, most useless lands in all Acchai, which was the only reason no other Lord deemed him worthy of conquest. The General had been schooling Zukos steadily on the Lords of Acchai over the past two weeks, in between his firebending and endurance training. The Lord Yung, for example, was a vicious earthbender who'd soon as sacrifice his own men before letting go of his seat of power; the Lord Mongke, a firebending weapon's specialist, would torture rebels before crowds like it was his birthday; and the Lord Bonai, a drunkard, who was not so much to be feared as his ruthless first wife, Lady Kwan. They all had savage reputations, though none quite compared to the colorful descriptions of Lord Fong. The Lord Jee, however, was a joke, and even Zuko knew enough to know that.
"Jeong-Jeong has told me of Lord Jee, Chief!" Zuko barely caught up to Hakoda. "He is a pest; he hardly has a coin to his name - !"
"And Fong possesses the strongest Lordship in all of Acchai. Do you really want to start there?" Zuko was suddenly glaring straight into the firebender's eyes, with such ferocity that Zuko's protests were instantly lost. Hakoda kept his eyes trained on the heir of Agni for another crucial moment, before slowing his horse to get side-by-side to him.
"Gather your temper, and your men, and meet us at the head of the caravan," he whispered sideways at the firebender, and a rush of insult went through Zuko. He had half a mind to gallop angrily after the Chief, but even as he went to spur his horse, he thought better than that. He remembered his appearance now meant something to the soldiers around him, and for all purposes he had to appear collected and confident - especially before Sen Su and Pipsqueak.
Lee wanted to come along with his brother, when Zuko rallied him and Pipsqueak (who had to ride a rhino, he was so big), but naturally it was not allowed. He stayed behind with Song as a the three men galloped the way Hakoda was gone. The caravan was grinding its slow way up a flat ridge of rocks, that stood an obstacle before passing into the main realms of Acchai. It was dry and windswept, and all that grew on the red stone was coarse bush and cacti; they were close to the Desert here, and scorpions and camel-spiders still roamed among the rocks. Hakoda and Jeong-Jeong were waiting at the sunlit peak, but none of Jeong-Jeong's men were there. This was a closed discussion between the three men, and none of Jeong-Jeong's soldiers seemed of high enough rank to gain access. The fact that Sen Su and Pipsqueak were given an invitation was something they did not overlook, nor take advantage of.
"Do you see the towers on the ridge?" Hakoda gestured to a barely visible row of towers against the horizon. Zuko nodded vaguely in the direction Hakoda pointed as the caravan rumbled by behind them, slow goings on the ridge. Moybu sat down beside Randhir, raised his leg, and scratched lazily on one side of his head.
"We can reach the Lord Jee's by tomorrow. Then we can cut a path through the Bloodvale, and take on the Lord at Al-Unagi. If we conquer them both, we may have enough men to strike a more powerful estate."
"So how does this work?" Zuko leaned forward on the saddle, looking out at the far, distant pillars of the Lord Jee's estate. They were tiny and unimposing on the horizon, nothing at all like the great towers of Al-Abhad. "I mean, are the General and I going to rush in, fists blazing, and all that?"
"No. The General does nothing. Nor do I," the Chief said flatly, and Zuko looked at him like he'd gone insane.
"What do you mean? You want me to do it alone?"
"You are the one destined to unite Acchai. The General and I will follow you, but you are the one who must demand the Lord's allegiance - that, or take his life. These are the only two ways to conquest in Acchai."
A very cold feeling crept up Zuko's spine. He was lucky that only Hakoda was looking at him in that moment; the dread on his face would have made Jeong-Jeong scowl, and placed doubt in the hearts of Sen Su and Pipsqueak. Luckily he corrected himself before anyone (besides Hakoda, who was the only one capable of understanding the firebender's fear) noticed his fallen face, and he straightened up immediately, if a little unsurely, on his saddle.
"Pipsqueak, announce our change in direction to the caravan. Tomorrow we reach Al-Omid."
Pipsqueak nodded obediently, and turned his rhino around with one swift, powerful motion, taking off up the ridge. The General took his leave after that, and with him the Chief and Myobu; Jeong-Jeong paused only to remind Zuko of his training that night. It would be an unusually rigorous training session, in case Lord Jee had something up his sleep they were not aware of. In the blinding sunlight, then, only Zuko and Sen Su remained on the cliff-ledge. The two men, still awkward around one another, seemed to sit in uncomfortable silence for a minute, before Zuko found something to say.
"What do you know about the Lord Jee, Sen Su?"
"Not much," Sen Su leaned forward on the saddle just as Zuko had done, a moment before with Hakoda. "He's supposed to be nothing, really. They say he was a strong warrior in his younger years, but he inherited poor land from his father. He's older now - he won't be difficult to take down."
"Would you think me weak, if I told you I wasn't excited about the possibility of killing him?"
Zuko had said it on a whim, perhaps some internal wish to be unlike the callous Jeong-Jeong, unlike the iron Chief. As he spoke, he turned to look Sen Su in the eye, and was surprised to find a glimmer of a smile on the man's face. In respect Sen Su lowered his gaze a little from Zuko's glance, but the smile stayed on his lips - a proud, hopeful sort of expression.
"You've changed my mind about the Lords of Acchai," admitted the blacksmith's son. "You showed mercy on my brother, when any other would have hacked off his arm. And you place high value on a man's life. But my father taught me that a man must not be afraid to kill - and for all your traits, I know you aren't."
--
"...I'd a have her fuckin' head by now, and you know it..." Smellerbee as rambling a little again, which sometimes happened right after Ty Lee numbed her with a few quick jabs around her hip. It was to keep the still lingering pain in her leg at bay - the Rebels had their share of healing waterbenders, but most of them had abandoned the Fighters home base to join in Azula's Civil War. Her call had been loud and forceful, and an answered prayer to many underground rebels of the Union, itching for a fight. Their eagerness to join the daughter of Ozai would be their downfall, as it overstepped their better judgment.
"Is she always like this?" Haru asked Longshot with a raised eyebrow, as Smellerbee continued to mutter about the thousand ways to kill Azula. Longshot grinned at the earthbender before taking his place beside the warrior woman, her small frame lit eerily by candlelight.
The fortress of the Rebels, and of those who called themselves the Freedom Fighters, was founded on the ruined, abandoned shell of iron once known as the Boiling Rock. The people there knew only of its original name because of the half blotted-out, imprinted characters on the metal above the main gate. It had been the strongest prison in the world, at one time or another, surrounded by the ever-churning, sulphurous waters - but years and wars had ceased use of it, and it had been left to cook in the midst of it's boiling lake. It was an eerie, haunting place, with fingernail marks and blood splatter still staining some of the walls, reminiscent of prison riots, slain guards. Four floors of empty prisoner cells, and the quite animosity of the watch-towers, was enough to keep many at bay, simply on superstitious fears. The rumor of the rebel base being upon this island was not unknown - but for many years no visible path had ever been discovered to the prison. The gondola had fallen apart countless years ago; the only way the rebels made their own way in or out, was by a long, dark tunnel bent down straight through the island and underneath the lake, coming up on the far side of the island. Haru had made this tunnel, and sealed it's entrance, so no one had yet discovered it location.
Ty Lee was a circus-acrobat who, upon meeting the delightfully rugged earthbender during one of her shows, had chosen to pursue a life of criminality. Her skills in kyusho-jitsu made her a crucial ally and a formidable opponent, and a pink aura to balance Haru's uncertainly dark green one. The earthbender had lost his father to the Union not many years ago, imprisoned for being part of the Rebellion. Ty Lee had left her family at age 13, and never once looked back. There was a rumor that something had gone wrong in her household, and she avoided the subject of her parents rather briskly - but her all her traits she was positive and glowing, and dazzling to Haru.
"I think they're adorable," she claimed delightfully, sitting on the ledge behind him so she could wrap her arms around his shoulders. Haru sent her a fleeting, amused grin.
"You think everything's adorable," he reminded her, and she smiled a wide, superstar smile for him, before planting a kiss on is cheek.
"Which includes you, of course. Do you have any news from the others?"
The smile faded from Haru's face as he looked at the desk across the room, covered with half-open letters and maps and damaged communications. The Union was tightening its grip on mail, as was Azula; it was hard for anything to get by nowadays unless it was thickly coded, and you never knew it it was tampered with.
"Yes, but none of it's good. She'll make it all the way to the sea by the end of the month, at her rate," Haru walked over to the desk, leaving Longshot and Smellerbee alone for a few moments. Ty Lee followed him, arm linked around his.
"Do you think they've told her about the Boiling Rock?" she asked.
"I'm not sure. But we'll find out when she gets to the Crescent Isles."
"... You mean, if, don't you?" Ty Lee tried to correct him. Haru's startling green eyes were hard as iron. "If she gets as far as the Crescent Isles."
"No, Ty Lee. I don't," he looked at her sadly, resolutely.
Longshot was fluffing Smellerbee's pillow, as ridiculous as it seemed to Smellerbee, who never would have allowed anyone to do such a thing previously. Longshot had also been her guide as she tried to begin walking on her still-broken leg - but her healing was far from complete, and at most she could only go several dodgy steps a day.
"It's so dark in here," Smellerbee noted, as their room in the Boiling Rock was lit only by candelight. It was also nighttime outside, but she overlooked this, even though there were windows off to the right showing them a view of the stars.
"I'll start a fire, if you want," Longshot suggested. Usually she could read him, and he hardly needed to speak a word; but she was so far gone and numb and wounded that he had to adjust this strategy. Ty Lee had sent a subtle jab to her neck earlier, to help her relax and drift her off to sleep. The effect was taking now, and she gazed up with half-lidded eyes at her love, Longshot looming over her desperately, protectively.
"No. Let's...make love," she said dreamily, putting a hand on Longshot's cheek. Longshot turned his head so he could kiss the inside of her palm, letting her fingers slide up and rummage through his growing hair.
"...I don't think that's the best idea, right now," he sad softly, regretfully. She groaned and wriggled a little, but her broken leg was in a tight splint, and it severely impaired her movement.
"Damn... bum leg... I hope you put an arrow in Jet's... ass..."
She grinned to herself, and Longshot stifled a smile as her eyes closed, gently, dark lashes above her red war-paint. He laid her hand on the bedside as she drifted off, his dark gaze distant but angry. Then with one smooth motion he leaned over her, placing a tender kiss on her sweet mouth.
"I'll put an arrow in his throat for you."
He whispered it again her crimson lips, but she was already asleep.
--
The house of Lord Jee, named Al-Omid by its founder countless years ago, was in a decrepit state. Of the same style of Al-Abhad, the house was hardly a tenth its size, barely enough room for the Lord's family themselves - and there seemed no immediate hope of expanding. The foundations were crumbling into ruin; one tower was already half-collapsed from neglect, the windows were dark, and the road was washed away. Paint peeled from the walls, and went untended; iron rusted, wood swelled and shrank, windows were broken and boarded over. An entire section of the roof at the back end of the house ad collapsed inwards, leaving a massive pile of debris to consume three rooms. It was in such poor condition it was a wonder anyone could manage living there at all, much less the hundred or so living beneath Lord Jee. Its gates were guarded solely by wind and dust and the bleached, white ribcages of dead camels and goat-mules. There were no archers on the ramparts, and no soldiers to greet them; the banner of Lord Jee was faded and torn.
The walk to the front gate, however, was what threatened to break Zuko's heart.
The surrounding lands of Al-Abhad had been plush orchards and fields, green land in a sea of Acchai'd bleak landscape. But here everything was brown and withered, dry as the Desert; rice fields had failed, and they stretched like brown scars on the earth, symbols of the Jee's poverty. The servants and peasants beneath the Lord, it seemed, had succumbed to growing even baser crops in an attempt to survive - potato and wild onion fields, still not even half the size for a working estate, scattered the surrounding lands of Al-Omid. There were no fruit trees, and no river flowed by through the property to signal any prosperity, as it had near Al-Abhad.
Peasants worked tirelessly in these dead fields as Zuko's caravan passed by. Their efforts, even Zuko knew, were nearly futile. The ground was hard as stone, cracked and dry and lifeless, suffocated by a lack of river and rain. The peasants themselves were dirty, unkempt people, and thinner than any beggar. Women with arms like sticks worked alongside their sick husbands, trying to till the rock-hard ground to make the brown potato stalks grow. Their children (and there were very many) helped if they were old enough, skin tanned dark by countless hours in the sun. The youngest simply clung to their mothers knees, sickly thin aside from their round, protruding bellies. With all of the men, Zuko could see their ribcages, clearly defined beneath thin coverings of skin, shoulder blades popping from their backs, heads seemingly oddly large on their bodies.
It chilled Zuko to the bone. They were starving, feeling the slow decay until death finally overcame them, in a year when even their most meager crops would not grow. He understood now why no Lord had ever attempt to conquer this estate; to even walk amongst its people, one felt the sting of despair and desperation, and it repelled them. Many of the peasants looked more like walking corpses than men, and even as they neared the gate, Zuko was horrified to see a body lying in the street beside them; a man with white hair and sun-bleached skin, and buzzards picking at his disemboweled innards.
The gate was swinging open, half off it's hinges. Myobu remained outside, to keep their exit from being blocked, in case things went very ill. Zuko managed to cast one glance at the General before they entered, but Jeong-Jeong's expression was stone. It was times like these, Zuko learned to hate the iron will of the General.
The soldiers remained outside as Zuko entered the courtyard with the Chief, the General, and Sen Su. The assembly awaiting them was pitiful, when Zuko remembered the grand (if rather unhappy) welcome of the Lord Fong: the assumed Lord Jee - an equally small, malnourished man with wild grey hair and a long, drawn sort of face - was backed by only ten or so soldiers, all of them looking unfit for battle. The robe Lord Jee wore, even Zuko noticed, was dull and out of fashion. It would have broken his heart to know that this was the Lord Jee's most fashionable robe, and he'd worn it as soon as news had reached him of the party's arrival.
Zuko himself had no true armor yet, as Gow had not finished it. Instead, he had borrowed a suit of Acchain armor, and with the vicious scar and the ruthless General at his side, was looking all the more the part of a Mongol ruler. Yet in his golden eyes there was hesitation, and conflict, and the persistent sight of starving innocents in the fields.
"Are you the Lord Jee?" Zuko was almost afraid to ask. The grey-headed man bowed stiffly, fearfully before him.
"I am."
The man's hands, Zuko noticed, shook a little, as though he had some neural defect. The three or four men behind him looked hardly younger than he, with beards as grey as their Lord's, their grips weak on their spears. Against the regiment of Jeong-Jeong's men, the soldiers of Al-Omid looked like a jokel; none of them were properly armored - in fact, none of them had any metal plates, and their leather armor was worn with age and use, in total disrepair as the rest of Al-Omid.
Zuko knew what his next move was supposed to be - to demand the Lord's estate, and all his wealth and holdings and loyalty. But the words could not get past his lips.
He thought of Jet, suddenly, born a miller of Hu Shin. Remembered how often they talked about the starving peasant man, the callous lords of the estates. How little those rich, well-fed nobles knew of suffering, of strife, of starvation - how Azula had incited them to anger, to rebellion, because of the neglect of their masters. How strong the working man was, when compared to the delicacy of the nobles.
"How long has your estate been in this disrepair, Lord?" he asked, abruptly - and for all the world, Zuko truly wanted to know.
But the Lord Jee seemed to double-take at Zuko's words. Suspicion entered his eyes like a shadow, but it was quickly replaced with a much more honest form of confusion.
"I... as long as I have been Lord, sir," he replied. Randhir tossed his mane, shifted its weight beneath the heir of Agni.
"Why haven't you made any repairs? Why are servants and soldiers so ill-looking?"
"The - the land around my estate is not good land, my Lord," the Lord Jee looked more confused each moment. "We have no good source for water. We are... just lucky to have enough to survive."
"And do you still eat well, Lord?" Zuko's eyes were intense. Remembering the dead man in the road. The starving children with round, bloated bellies.
"No, my Lord," and there was an honesty about it in his eyes, in the thin workings of his frame.
"Don't you have private stores?"
Sen Su had finally turned to look at Zuko in this moment, bewildered by his Lord's questioning. While still in awe of Zuko's seeming contradictory convictions, he was nonetheless beginning to doubt where this line of reasoning was going.
"... Communal use, Lord," Jee finally replied, and there was shame in his face.
Hakoda let out a noise that sounded like a mix between disbelief and admiration. Zuko studied the failing Lord, noting Hakoda's reaction; for if indeed this man so sacrificed his own stores to help feed the peasants responsible for growing it, he was a noble man indeed. For a long while silence reigned in the courtyard, as the Lord Jee awaited the next question from Zuko, eyes full of doubt and fear and pain. Zuko saw it like remembering a bad dream - and then Uncle was before him, inside him, speaking through him -
"General? Bring me a map."
Jeong-Jeong stiffened instinctively, eyes fixed on Zuko. There was the rumor of a threat in the General's iron gaze, inquiring to the firebender's game. Zuko did not give him the pleasure of looking him in the eye, though, and so the General had to content himself with bringing the firebender what he wished.
With a swift motion, Jeong-Jeong acquired a map from his saddle-bag and handed it to Zuko. Without hesitation or offence, Zuko inclined his head to Jee before slipping down from the saddle. A low table as standing over to the right of the courtyard; Zuko made for it, gesturing for the Lord Jee to follow him. The tension in Al-Omid, at the coming of the new Lord, was beginning to ebb away, at least in Jee's heart. Intrigued, he followed Zuko to the table, as did Sen Su, equally perplexed and interested. Jeong-Jeong would have followed too, but Hakoda persuaded him otherwise with a single look. The General settled uncomfortably into his saddle as Zuko spread the map on the table, the Lord Jee at his left hand, Se Su at his right.
"Your lands are here, Lord Jee?" Zuko pointed to a very small part on the map of Acchai, and Jee nodded. The firebender took a moment, then, to study the surrounding land; then he took Jee by the shoulder (an absurdly friendly gesture, which made Jeong-Jeong even more uncomfortable, and caused a smile to drift across Hakoda's lips) and pointed to a nearby portion of the map.
"I can re-route this river for you," he claimed, pointing to a blue lined labeled Sulak. "There are earthbenders and waterbenders beneath my General. I can have it flow right past your gates - in a few months, yours lands will all be green."
Lord Jee looked at Zuko like he was both stark-raving mad, and an angel sent down from heaven.
"With all due respect, I have already tried that route, my Lord. It cannot be done."
"Why not?" there was veiled anger in Zuko's voice at this defiance.
"It is just - there is another Lord in this territory -" said Jee swiftly, to avoid his wrath. "- and he will not allow us to use it."
"Does he own the land on the river?"
"No. But he is far stronger than I. His name is Qin, and he has... seven Generals beneath him."
The desk rustled suddenly as Sen Su stepped back. Zuko turned to see why he retreated, and saw only madness in the man's eyes. Something in Jee's words had sparked a memory, and a hatred, in Sen Su's being; his hands shook at his sides, and he stared at the map a though any moment he might draw his sword and shred it apart.
Zuko stood slowly and walked over to where Sen Su stood, seething. Jee looked uncertainly between the two men, the dark-haired warrior shuddering with restrained fury, and the calm, but dangerous aura of the firebender. Jeong-Jeong's eyes narrowed on the young soldier in a disapproving way, but Hakoda's eyes were unreadable.
"Do you know the Lord Qin, Sen Su?" Zuko asked quietly, so that not even the Lord Jee could hear. Sen Su hesitated, chanced to look Zuko in the eye.
"Yes," his words were dripping with fury, with vengeance. "He is... the Lord who killed my mother."
A rush of displeasure went through Zuko. However much he had hated the stingy Lord before, now it was doubled tenfold - but Zuko was also learning the value of fury here in Acchai, and Sen Su's face was riddled with it.
"You know his Generals?"
Sen Su nodded mutely, still staring at the map. The distant call of a buzzard, like the ringing bells of destiny.
"If you arrived with me Sen Su, and supported me, would any of the Generals come to our side?" Zuko asked. Sen Su took a moment to collect his thoughts, to try and grasp what the Lord was asking him.
"I know of... three, who will without fail. Another two I am not sure... but two are dead loyal."
"Can you recognize those two on sight?"
"Of course," Sen Su's words were more confident now.
"Good. When we enter Qin's court, I want you to kill them immediately."
Zuko nodded encouragingly to an astounded Sen Su, and then turned back to face the Lord Jee, waiting apprehensively. Without the black panther cloak around his shoulders, Zuko himself seemed less imposing than the blood-god that was Jeong-Jeong, or the legend that was Hakoda - but there was purpose and spark of destiny within him that merited attention and admiration, and even the sickly Jee knew to respect him.
"I will swear this to you now, Jee. If you pledge your allegiance to me - Lord Zuko, of Agni - and obey my authority, I will not only move this river for you - but I will give you all the lands and property of this offending Lord. Do you understand?"
At his words, a mutual whisper of surprise went through the courtyard. Jee, a bit taller than Zuko despite his malnourishment and age, stared at the Lord incredulously.
"You... will kill Qin?"
"He has wronged you and he will be punished," the resolve in Zuko's eyes was terrifying.
The Lord Jee stared hopefully at Zuko, then doubtfully, then a combination of the two; but in the end, there was no denying the conviction in the firebender's gaze. In a hesitant, but all too willing fashion, Jee looked back cautiously at his soldiers, who were staring at Zuko with high regard. Jee's doubts slipped away like water, and he turned back to the firebender.
"If you can do this, My Lord, then - then my allegiance be pledged!"
Zuko did not wait for the Lord to fall to his knees and bow, as was custom, as was tradition; he bowed graciously to the Lord before he could debase himself, and this sent another wave of whispers rippling through soldier and starving man.
"You are now Lieutenant Jee, a step below my own General Jeong-Jeong," Zuko held out his hand and clasped Jee's, who was still staring in wonder and elation. When Zuko unclasped their hands, however, he turned swiftly from the new Lieutenant to return to his steed. "You must send your own Generals to spread word of me -"
"I - I have no Generals, my Lord," Jee rushed after Zuko as he returned to Randhir, awaiting him impatiently.
"Who are your highest ranking officers?" Zuko said it as he lifted himself into the saddle. Sen Su did the same beside him, beaming with the glorious idea of revenge.
"I have a few Captains..." Jee stuttered.
"Send them, with two soldiers each. Have them ride all over the land, to ever Lord's house, bearing a banner of flame. They will bring news of what has happened here, and the truth that the Avatar has returned. Then they will give my greeting to every corner of Acchai."
Zuko and Sen Su turned back towards the gate, and with him Hakoda (grinning visibly now) and Jeong-Jeong (looking in the midst of a fury). As they spurred their horses into a canter, Jee stumbled awkwardly, after them, still hardly able to believe his ears.
"The... the Avatar...? Wait! What is your greeting, my Lord?"
Zuko turned and stopped in the gate, Randhir letting out a desperate neigh and throwing its head gracefully. The golden glow in the firebender's eyes was all-consuming, unquenchable. He looked down, and smiled at the blue necklace at his wrist, before answering the Lieutenant.
"That the Lord Zuko of Agni is here. And he has come to unite the war-lands."