Chapter 9: Poison
We managed to board the Nayami (the ship that was taking us to Nanjing) without any problem. The Nayami was a Fire Nation cargo ship that had been converted to carry extra passengers. Judging by how few people there were onboard and how much cargo they put into it I'm guessing that very few people travel this way. This was fortunate since we didn't want anyone to know where we were.
Shortly after boarding Azula demanded that we take her to her room (the room she was sharing with Ty Lee anyway). Since we didn't want to carry our bags around the ship we all went below deck to our rooms. We came to the family room I was sharing with Toph and Suki first (any room with more than two beds was called a family room), so we went in while Ty Lee and Azula continued down the hall. As I watched them go down the hall I noticed Azula was slightly clutching her stomach as she walked (was she feeling sea sick, who'd have though Azula suffered from sea sickness). We then started unpacking and a short while later Ty Lee came in and told us that Azula was resting in her bed.
Though there's nothing wrong with a guy and three girls being in a room on a ship together when we were travelling from Ember Island to Dairen it did generate some unpleasant rumours. These were made worse when I decided that I shouldn't be alone with more than one girl, so I allotted them each some 'Sokka Time' and had whoever I'd finished seeing had to get whoever's turn was next (all we did during 'Sokka Time' was talk about what we'd being doing in Dairen). This caused most of the guys to hate me and some girls to ask for their own 'Sokka Time'. So after unpacking we went on deck and watched them load cargo.
At about half 11 the captain said we were about to depart, that lunch would be served at 1 and dinner at 6, and that unless we ran into rough weather we would arrive in Nanjing at 10 tomorrow morning. Since there didn't seem to be much entertainment onboard we just watched the ship sail away from Dairen.
Not only was my stomach still hurting but now I was having to prevent myself from vomiting. Why was this happening? I'd sailed in rough seas and storms without any problem, so why couldn't I handle this? What was wrong with my body?
Suddenly becoming ill for so long can't just be a bad luck, something must be making me ill. But what. All of the food I've been eating came from that inn so it could of been food poisoning … wait a minute poison. They've been poisoning my food. That's why I've suddenly became ill after they found me and why Ty Lee always wants me to eat. They're trying to kill me.
No that makes no sense. If they wanted to kill me they could have done it earlier, they had plenty of chances. So they want me alive but weak, why? The boy … Sokka mentioned that there was a bounty on me, it would be easier to for them to claim it if I couldn't fight back. But why take me to Nanjing, why not claim it in Dairen? Even if they didn't have the money to pay the bounty in Dairen they'd still hold me in a cell there while they waited for their money. What couldn't they do in Dairen?
The Avatar. For some reason we were meeting him in Hangzhou, rather than going directly to the Fire Nation. Negaeri had mentioned that the Avatar had taken my father's bending from him. The Avatar could do the same to me and if I was weakened I couldn't stop him. So they want me weak so I can't stop the Avatar. But why do they want to take my bending away, they know I'm not leading the rebel army or behind any of the troubles in the colonies? Even if they took my bending away it wouldn't stop them. Though if I couldn't Firebend it would weaken my claim to the Fire Nation Throne.
That's it. They don't want me dead, they want to break me so I can't threaten Zuko and no one else can use me to threaten him. Without my bending I can't defeat Zuko and he can do anything he wants to me. As soon as the Avatar steals my bending they take me to Zuko so he can show everyone I've been captured to weaken the resistance and strengthen Zuko's position. Zuko may even have executed to end any threat to him being Fire Lord. I have to escape.
However escaping will be difficult. Not only am I at sea but I'm not at my best. I can't beat them all together but if I fight them separately I'll have a better chance. Since Ty Lee is always alone when she brings me my food she'll be easiest to kill. Though if I kill her I'll have to kill the other three quickly before they can retaliate. Sokka and Suki can't bend but both use swords, so I'll have to keep my distance when I attack them, but they shouldn't be too much trouble. However the small Earthbender … Toph will be more difficult. I've heard from Fire Nation reports that she can bend metal, so she has a big adventage in this ship. Though if I use my lighting and kill her second it'll be easy to finish off Sokka and Suki.
This was a good plan but had one flaw. After separating and recombining my positive and negative chi I needed to direct the energy released to form my lighting, but because of the poison I was having concentrating. I then tested whether I could generate lighting and it blew up in my face. Annoying. Without my lighting I was at a big disadvantage. I'd need to play along until I've recovered my lighting. However to recover I need to stop them poisoning me.
Since Azula couldn't go out and get lunch I decided to bring lunch down to her (there was a small table in our room that we could eat off). As there wasn't any room service I had to carry it down to our room (though they did give me a tray). When I got to our room I knocked on the door with the corner of the tray and asked Azula to open the door for me (I had both my hands full). Azula opened the door and I brought the food and tea in.
Today Azula didn't make any objections and started to eat her Juk. Though she seemed more interested in watching me eat, than eating her food.
"This Juk tasted odd," Azula suddenly said.
"You can't expect food on a ship like this to be that good," I replied.
"Why don't you taste it and tell me what you think of it," Azula said in a friendly tone.
"It's probably nothing," I replied, Azula was too fussy.
"Eat it!" Azula shouted. She looked angry and pushing a spoonful of Juk towards me.
The look on Azula's face told me that this was not negotiable, so I ate the Juk. It wasn't that good but it didn't taste odd. Azula stared at me while I ate it.
"It doesn't taste odd to me," I told Azula, why was she doing this?
"Try some more then," Azula said coldly pushing another spoonful towards me.
I ate three more spoonfuls, each time telling Azula there was nothing wrong with it. After the third spoonful Azula wiped the spoon, then continued eating the Juk. She then watched me like a hawkowl almost all the time we were eating. Though I wasn't sure if she was watching me when went to answer the door since my back was to her (whoever knocked left before I could open the door).
When we were done eating I was going to take our dish back to the kitchen but Azula stopped me, saying that she wanted to hear about my time in Dairen (before she hadn't cared about this). When I told her that I'd tell her all about it after I returned the dishes to the kitchen she got very annoyed and demanded I tell her now (I don't know why she suddenly wanted to hear this story). I began telling the story but Azula didn't seem that interested in the story but seemed more interested in watching me (it was kind of creepy).
Part way through the story Azula stopped me and said she'd heard enough and that I could take the dishes back to the kitchen. I picked up the dishes and left. Why was Azula acting this way?
Later in the evening Ty Lee left our room and returned with dinner. As the easiest way to poison me would be to put the poison in my food or drink I would have Ty Lee test both. Just like at lunch I pretended to eat my Juk, then demanded Ty Lee ate it. If she refused this was proof that it was poisoned. However she willingly ate the Juk, much more willingly than she ate it at lunch.
Next I needed to test the tea. Since we were drinking from the same pot the tea wouldn't be poisoned but they could poison the cup. So I waited until Ty Lee had poured herself another cup (I needed to be sure her cup wasn't poisoned) then knocked on the underside of the table and told Ty Lee someone was at the door. When she went to answer I switched our cups round. Again Ty Lee didn't become ill by drinking from my cup.
From this I could conclude that either the poison wasn't in the food and drink or all the food and drink was poisoned and Ty Lee was talking an antidote to prevent her becoming ill. So I kept her behind after dinner and made her tell me about what she did in Dairen. If Ty Lee knew she'd been poisoned she'd become worried and would try to make an excuse to leave, so she could get the antidote. Unfortunately Ty Lee looked far less worried than she had at lunch and though she seemed a little afraid of me she didn't look like she'd been poisoned and needed to quickly take an antidote.
Eventually I let her go to take the dishes away. I'd need the quiet to figure out how they were poisoning me. What were they using?
After an uneventful trip we were finally in Nanjing. From the deck I could see all the way into the harbour. As the ship approached I could only see Nanjing and some Fire Nation ships. But as we got closer I could see sailors, a long line of people queuing to board a ship, and some Fire Nation soldiers standing by the line to maintain order. As I looked round I saw similar sights. People boarding and leaving ships, surrounded by Fire Nation soldiers. Then I realised what they were doing, they were searching everyone coming into or leaving Nanjing. This was very bad. I quickly ran below deck to tell the girls that we had a major problem.Notes:
I had some trouble writing this chapter. I had planned for Azula to attack Ty Lee but this caused major problems for the story since you can't go from travelling together to enemies and back to travelling together. So I had to rewrite parts of it.
1) Nayami is a Japanese word meaning worry or anguish.
2) Sokka doesn't realise there's a connection between Azula's 'illness' and her Poppy Tea withdrawal symptoms because his knowledge of Popy Tea's withdrawal symptoms comes from anecdotal accounts from village chiefs, rather than testimony from those who've become addicted to Poppy Tea or studies conducted by doctors. Thus he knows that addicts find it hard to quit Poppy Tea and constantly crave it but he doesn't know that it has other withdrawal symptoms.
Also since Azula has suffered malnutrition and is technically still an escaped mental patient; and Sokka isn't a doctor, nutritionist, or psychiatrist it's unlikely that he's be able to determine exactly what was causing Azula to act the way she does.
3) Who Negaeri is will be explained in a future chapter.
4) Azula doesn't know about the withdrawal symptoms of Poppy Tea, so she assumes her 'illness' is unrelated to it.
5) Juk is a rice corgee dish (Iroh made it for Zuko in Season 2, episode 18).