"Again!? We've been here for all of two days and this is the second time someone's tried to kill you! I'm so sorry Korra. I wouldn't have asked you to come with me if I knew things like was this were going to happen." Asami had simply listened while Korra had recounted the disaster that her seminar had turned into but she hadn't been able to keep quiet when hearing what Ifuago had done.

"It's not your fault Asami. You couldn't have known that people were going to try to kill me. I still don't understand why Machi attacked me but I think today might have been my fault. This guy Ifuago, I didn't explain what I was going to do to him beforehand and he must have taken it personally. I was embarrassing him in front of a lot of people and it pushed him over the edge."

Asami folded her arms and shook her head in disbelief. "You can't be serious Korra. He attacked you with lightning, most people would have died from that and now you're defending him? I know you're trying to be more compassionate and all but justifying the actions of someone who was trying to murder you?"

Korra threw her hands up in the air. "I know it sounds crazy when you put it like that but I just feel like I drove him to it for some reason. What does being without honor mean anyways? I know honor is a big thing for them but I didn't know it could be some kind of legal punishment in the Fire Nation."

There was a long pause before Asami answered in a low voice. "Is that what happened to him? It's an old means of punishment in the Fire Nation established by Fire Lord Sozin, I didn't know they still did it. This is going to sound awful but you might have been better off letting Iroh kill him."

Just stand by and letting him die would have been the better alternative to being deemed without honor? "Why? What does it mean?"

Asami sat herself down on the couch and covered her face for a moment. "Being considered without honor means you're an outcast in the Fire Nation. You're effectively considered dead to everyone, including your family. Everyone just ignores you, they won't speak to you, look at you or do anything whatsoever with you. You can't buy or trade for anything. No food, no water, clothes or anything else. You don't exist anymore. People this has happened to usually killed themselves when they can't take it anymore or they died of starvation on the streets."

Korra frowned as she pointed out the obvious flaw to this punishment. "So he should leave. If the people in the capital won't have anything to do with him then he should go to another town. Or Republic City where people won't treat him like that."

The Avatar watched Asami shake her head sadly as she explained the consequences of that particular act. "He can't. If he leaves the capital then he'll be hunted down and... tortured to death or so the history books say. I don't actually know if they would still do that and frankly I'd rather not find out."

Asami sighed softly as she rubbed at her temples. "What do you want to do Korra? I came here to see what Izumi's offer was but that's off the table now. This whole thing hasn't been what I was expecting. I thought this would be another vacation but people are trying to kill you and there's the whole sex mover to boot. I want to go home, what do you say?"

She rubbed at her arms as she considered the idea. Everything Asami had said was true and part of her did want to leave this place behind. And yet this was her first visit to the Fire Nation and another part hated the idea of it being completely negative. Korra's head swiveled to the side when she heard the chef setting some foodstuffs down on the dining room table in the other room. "Hang on a second Asami." She hurried into the other room before he had gotten back to the kitchen "Excuse me just a second sir."

The chef came to a halt and predictably bowed at the waist keeping his eyes on the floor. "How may I be of service Avatar Korra?"

It was still something of an irritant but Korra didn't see any point in railing against the obeisance right now. "Asami and I are looking for something to do tonight, ideally within walking distance of here."

"Something to do?" Korra wasn't trying to put him on the spot or anything but the sudden sheen of sweat on his forehead was disquieting. "There are Noh plays that take place not far from here if that would interest you. My cousin is making his debut tonight. I can give you directions if you wish..." He bowed even lower if that was possible "...but you will have to write them down for I am unable to."

By the time Korra had found her way to the theater with Asami the sun had set and the shadows of night were settling over the city. The city's citronella lamps were being lit but the darkness still gave her enough cover that people couldn't recognize Korra unless they were close at hand. It was a refreshing change of pace to be somewhat anonymous and not have people making a fuss over her.

The theater was a raised platform with spherical lanterns made of stiff paper hanging from the peaked roof to illuminate it. Rows of seats had been placed on the grass in front of it and there were folded programs giving a brief rundown of the characters and plot from the play they were about to watch on each one. Korra grabbed the program and began perusing it as she sat down on the wooden chair. Asami sat down to her left as the first of the actors took the stage. All of the actors were draped in some rather outlandish looking garb, to her eyes at least. Voluminous robes as colorful as the koi fish at their villa but the masks were almost plain in comparison. The program told her that they were made from cypress wood and each had been carved into the visage of whatever character that the actor was playing at the moment, be it human, animal, spirit or demon.

As for the play itself well... Korra was glad she had the program or she wouldn't have been able to follow what was going on. There was some singing but the majority of the play was silent and relied instead on the exaggerated movements and body language of the performers to convey what was happening. Korra snuck a peek over at Asami who hadn't touched her program but appeared engrossed in what was happening on stage. At least someone was enjoying the show. She tried to follow the show for a few more minutes but by now Korra was helplessly lost in what was going on. Asami probably could have explained it if she asked her but truth be told this theater was rather boring.

The seconds slowly passed by as they became dull minutes that felt far too long for her taste. Korra fidgeted a bit in her chair, earning a sidelong glance from Asami and what seemed like a tiny grin at her discomfort. Up on stage the actors were taking a bow and Korra looked at Asami in surprise. "Don't plays usually take longer than this? That couldn't have been more than ten minutes."

Asami shook her head and pointed to what must be a changing room that the actors were entering. "A Noh program has five different plays that they put on. There'll be a brief break before the next one begins."

Korra's eyes followed Asami's finger towards the changing room as the realization of how far into this she was. One play out of five with four more to go. After another couple of minutes, the actors came out and one began adjusting the lanterns above him or her with a long pole with a hook on the end of it. As he adjusted the lighting Korra felt something hit the back of her neck. The Avatar lurched forward and turned around in her chair but there was no one behind her, just an empty patch of grass. Her eyes narrowed, suspecting a prank, as she scanned the area for the person responsible. And then she spotted him in the distance, on the edge of a dim lantern's radius of light.

A figure wearing a mask she had never hoped to see again. White and yellow with a red sun in the middle of its forehead. A man who still twisted her dreams into nightmares despite how long it had been since his disappearance. As the unchanging face stared at her Korra could hear his cruel voice whispering to her across the years like it had in the shadows beneath the statue of Aang. "I received your invitation young Avatar."

One of her hands clenched into a fist, the nails digging into her palm as she knocked the chair over while standing up. "Amon." Korra spat the name out like an epithet and a spear of fire lit the night in ghastly hues as it soared towards the bloodbender who had once haunted her dreams even after disappearing to never be heard from again. Amon pivoted on one foot letting the attack fly past him to sputter out against the building behind him. He stood still for another moment, his gaze never leaving Korra before turning and disappearing into an alleyway nearby. Asami grabbed at Korra's arm to try and stop her but the Avatar was already out of reach as she sprinted after him without a second thought.

The alleyway was full of trashcans and dumpsters that smelled like vinegar but no Amon. Korra came to a halt, fists level with her chest, as she searched for any sign of where he had gone. She didn't see anything at first as she inched forward, eyes sweeping for anything and everything when she spotted a door that was still swinging to and fro but only just. Korra took another look around the alley just to be safe before slowly pushing the door open and cautiously entering what looked like some kind of cafe. Korra took a few steps further in and there sitting on the top of a barrel in the middle of the room was the mask Amon wore to conceal his identity. Confused she reached out to pick it up only to realize her mistake.

At a distance the mask appeared identical to the one Amon had worn but only at a distance. Korra had seen the bloodbender's mask up close far too many times for her liking and that unwanted intimacy was enough to know that she was holding a fake. An imitation. Whoever had made this had done so in a hurry as pieces of partially dried paper-mache were breaking off just from her picking the mask up. It was obvious to Korra that she had been played, that she had been lured here but the question was why. She dropped the mask back onto the barrel and turned her head to look around.

A cord ran across the floor from the barrel in the middle up and over the top of a counter off to one side of the entranceway. She leaned over the counter only to see more barrels with identical cords connecting them to some kind of small box. It took a few seconds to she had seen a setup like this once before in the city of Zaofu in Aiwei's house. There was a clicking sound from the small box as she threw her arms out to the side. As she formed a protective sphere of air around her the barrels shuddered violently and a blindingly bright display of fire and debris erupted from them.

The sphere had done its work and spared her from the blast but clouds of smoke billowed all around her obscuring where the doors had been. But just as Korra picked a direction to go Asami appeared in the haze, mouth covered by one lapel of her jacket and she was quick to grab the Avatar's hand and pull her out to the street. Asami gently guided Korra to rest her bottom on the curb before kneeling to check her for any injuries as best she could while the screams of man and machine filled the night air.

Before long emergency vehicles had arrived on the scene and people jumped out of them. Some appeared to be medics but the others must have the Fire Nation's equivalent of firefighters. But rather than using water like the Water Tribes or Republic City would, these firefighters used their bending to pull the flames away from the building and dissipated them in midair. In short order, and faster than their counterparts could have managed, the flames were dispatched leaving a charred shell where a tea shop had once been.

Asami let out a sigh of relief after thankfully not finding any burns or broken bones from the explosion.

She took one of Korra's hands in her own and pulled the Avatar up to her feet "Come on Korra, let's get back to the villa. We'll get our things and leave tonight. I don't know why we didn't leave earlier to be honest."

When the two of them arrived at the villa, they found a limo and several unmarked cars blocking off the street in front of it. A number of men, the driver who had taken Korra to the Forgotten Dragon among them, carried flashlights as they searched the ground for something. The front door appeared to have been broken from what looked like the blows of an axe and it hung loosely off of one hinge. The inside wasn't much better, the heads of the tiled dragons on the floor had been shattered. Shards of glass had been flung all about while the furniture had been hacked away at, their cloth guts and wooden legs spilled onto the floor. Worst of all was the things painted in red on the walls, crude messages and slurs every one of them, things anyone with a modicum of decency would never say in public and in private on the rarest of circumstances. As for who they were aimed at, that was quickly obvious as half singled out Asami and more specifically her father while the rest scathingly derided Korra's efforts as the Avatar.

Asami started to walk out the door there and then even without their things but a mother and son duo brought her up short at the entrance way. Fire Lord Izumi and the Crown Prince Iroh. The two of them sank to the ground and kowtowed towards the Avatar like the rest of the people who ranked beneath the two of them in the Fire Nation had done before Korra had ordered them to stop. Without raising her head Izumi spoke in a contrite tone "I have just been informed of what has transpired these last two days. All-"

Korra shushed the Fire Lord with a sarcastic laugh, her face was red and back rigid as she stared at the woman kneeling before her. "Oh you mean the assassination attempts? Asami and I came here at your personal invitation and people have tried to kill me three times already. That idiot Machi in the restaurant, Ifuago at the seminar." She pointed in the direction of where that tea shop had been as she continued to yell at the Fire Lord. "Or maybe it was the people who just set off a bomb five minutes from here! Is that what you're talking about!?"

Izumi exchanged a sideways glance with her son before looking up at the Avatar in confusion. "A bombing? Where?"

Asami pointed in the same direction as Korra for a second. "Somewhere over there, I think the street name was Salamander but really you just need to follow the sirens."

The Fire Lord's eyes followed Asami's finger for a moment and she looked back at her son. "Send one of your lieutenants to deal with that then return here." Izumi took a deep breath before continuing. "As I was I was saying earlier, allow me to express my deepest apologies for how your stay here has gone. The honor of the entire Fire Nation has been tarnished by the actions of a few renegades. Let me assure you that I'll do everything in my power to ensure that those responsible will be punished for their crimes if they already haven't been." Izumi lifted one hand into the air and beckoned at someone behind her. One of her guards, a man standing at the doorway, came further inside and held a familiar looking folder out to Korra. "I understand if you choose not to forgive the crimes committed against your person Avatar Korra but consider this an attempt at making amends."

Inside the folder were all of the contracts that had been offered to Asami when they had visited the palace. The same contracts she had refused because the price for obtaining them had been too high. Korra looked up from the papers in surprise. "You're giving these to me? I don't understand what's going on here."

Izumi lifted her head to look at Korra and for the barest of instances there was the hint of a tiny smirk on her face. "You are the Avatar and a personal guest of mine at the moment. There have been multiple attempts to kill you, three times if what you just told me is true. Not to mention what has happened to this villa here. I have failed in my duty as a host and the Fire Nation has been disgraced by what has happened. As such I am obligated to make amends however I possibly can. Gifting these contracts are a part of that but if it's not enough then please let me know." Izumi bowed her head once again.

Korra looked down at the papers in her hand for a moment. She had looked through them after that meeting and fully understood how valuable they were. But not to her. Korra handed the folder over to the woman standing next to her. "I think you're better suited for these than I am Asami."

Iroh returned from the phone call he had been sent to make and started to kneel once again but his mother stopped him with a look and outstretched hand. "If the Avatar gives these contracts to you then they are legally yours Miss Sato. But allow me to make a suggestion here. My son is not a lawyer but having the Crown Prince working with you will greatly aid with the difficulties Future Industries will face as a foreign company working in the Fire Nation. If you accept then I would ask you to take him with you when you return to Republic City."

With that she bowed her head once more before leaving the villa. An hour later and Asami's airship was headed east with one more passenger than it had carried upon their arrival to the Fire Nation.