VII: Inner City
They reached the inner wall, and Katara declared: "I can't believe it that we've made it to Ba Sing Se!"
"Hey, don't jinx it! We could still be attacked by some giant, exploding Fire Nation spoon. Or find out the city's been submerged in an ocean full of killer shrimp." Sokka exclaimed.
"Have you been hitting the cactus juice again?" Toph asked.
"I'm just saying that weird stuff happens to us." Sokka stated. Not a moment later a strange man sucking on a corncob with a weird look in his eyes sat between Sokka and Zuko. Zuko made an effort to slide away from him.
Aang looked out the window, is eyes sad, but Katara assured him that they would find Appa. Without looking at her, Aang spoke: "It's such a big city."
"He's a giant bison, where could they possibly hide him?" Sokka asked, but as the train entered the city, his eyes went wide with awe! There was the kingdom of Omashu, but this was a whole different scale! Ba Sing Se spanned almost as far as the eye could see with many buildings and roads, it took them a moment for the sheer size of the kingdom to simply sink in, even for Zuko. By that time the train came to a stop and they disembarked.
"Back in the city, great." Toph said dryly.
"What's so bad about the city? We'll have warm beds waiting for us instead of dirt to sleep on, and we'll be eating hot and fresh food!" Zuko told her.
"Yeah, and this place is amazing!" Sokka declared.
"It's still full of walls and rules, you'll get sick of it, just give it a few days." Toph replied.
Aang looked over the rails of the station and blew his bison whistle, promising Appa that he would find him, and he told his friends that he could feel that Appa was somewhere within the city. Katara placed a hand on his shoulder and asked him: "Well then, where would you like to look first?"
Before Aang could answer, a woman with a wide smile, almost unnatural, approached them and introduced herself as Joo Dee, put in charge of showing the Avatar and company around the city.
"Shall we get started then?" Joo Dee asked.
"Yes; we have information about the Fire Nation army that we need to deliver to the Earth King immediately." Sokka told her.
"Great, let's begin our tour. And then I'll show you to your new home here. I think you'll like it." She replied. Sokka gave a quizzical glance to his friends and then got up in Joo Dee's face to tell her: "Augh! Maybe you missed what I said. We need to talk to the King about the war, it's important."
"You're in Ba Sing Se now, everyone here is safe." Joo Dee told him, still holding that odd smile. She then showed them to a carriage awaiting them, and Zuko was trying to conceal his excitement. To be chauffeured around a capitol city in a carriage made him almost feel like a prince again!
They started riding and Joo Dee began speaking: "This is the Lower Ring."
"What's that wall for?" Sokka asked.
"Oh, Ba Sing Se has many walls. There are the ones outside protecting us, and the one's inside that help maintain order. This is where our newest arrivals live, as well as our craftsman and artisans, people that work with their hands. It's so quaint and lively."
They saw a few shady looking characters in an alley, and Joo Dee added: "You do want to watch your step though."
"Why do you have the poorer folks blocked off from the rest of the city?" Katara asked.
"This is why I never came here before. I heard that it was so different from how the monks taught us to live." Aang stated.
They reached another section of the city, and Joo Dee told them: "This is the Middle Ring, home to our financial districts, shops, restaurants, and the university."
"Yeah, we met a Professor from Ba Sing Se University. He took us to an ancient underground library where we discovered information about the war that is absolutely crucial for the King to hear!" Sokka shouted.
"Isn't history fascinating… Oh look, there's one of our oldest buildings in the Middle Ring! Town hall!" Joo Dee told them. The carriage stopped and she stepped out for a while.
"Is this woman deaf? She only seems to be hearing every other word I'm saying." Sokka spoke.
"It's called 'being handled, get used to it." Toph told them.
Zuko looked out the windows from each side of the carriage and told them in a hushed voice: "I'm well acquainted with this tactic, it keeps important secrets away from us, and hidden well. If you want the information that you're looking for, she's going to do her best to keep it away from you. There are two ways of getting her to talk: one would be to break her, two would be if she lets something slip and you catch her, but a third option would be to just look for someone else with the same information, and you may have to go as far as to threaten their life in order for them to start talking."
"Well we're not going to do that!" Aang exclaimed, but kept his voice hushed.
"If that's your choice, then fine, stick to it, but you do have to ask yourself how badly you want to find Appa." Zuko told him.
Joo Dee returned to them and showed them the palace, the Dai Li, and brought them to their new home. The house was quite charming and upscale! When they stepped outside, Joo Dee told them that their request for an audience with the Earth King should be put through in about a month!
Well, if this was going to be home for a month, they might as well would make the most of it. Aang told them that they might as well use the time to look for Appa, and Joo Dee not only offered to escort them wherever they pleased, but refused to leave them alone, saying that leaving them alone would make her a bad host.
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They searched all over the city, asking about the war and a flying bison, but no one gave them a good answered, in fact they seemed to have put all of their effort into avoid the questions, no matter how much they tried to press the questions. Even Zuko tried using his intimidation tactics to the point where Iroh almost had to hold him back before he started drawing his dual swords! Luckily, Zuko managed to keep enough cool without fully blowing up in someone's face. However, something caught his eye, it was a hawk, one that could be trained to carry messages!
Still, they returned to their house empty-handed, but while Iroh and Katara were trying to fix something for dinner, the others got settled in, and after that Zuko found a place to just recline for a little while, he was actually smiling and Momo curled up on his chest.
"Ha, you seem to really be in your element, Zuko." Sokka remarked, saying his name at a softer volume.
"This is finally a nice place we can call our own for a while! If there was some red to break up all of this green, I'd really feel right at home here." He replied.
"Red, as in Fire Nation red?!" Sokka exclaimed.
"If that's the case, are you trying to blow your cover, Zuko? And after all the misery the Fire Nation put you through, do you really want to be reminded of it?" Aang asked. Zuko sat up for a moment and asked them: "Aang, wouldn't you be more comfortable if this house was modeled after the Southern Air Temple and had some fresh fruit pies waiting for you to eat them? Sokka, wouldn't you like to see some animal pelts strewn across the floor and have the scent of cooking seal meat wafting in the air?"
Aang and Sokka exchanged looks, and Aang replied: "Well it might look better if one of the walls had an Air Nomad-style mural on the wall, and I could go for a fruit pie right about now."
"Exactly, because that's what would remind you of your home. Now my home may not be the happiest place in the world, but it's still my home… despite my exile." Zuko replied.
Toph's face took on a more sympathetic expression, and she asked him: "What're some of your happier memories from home?"
Zuko looked as if he was searching for some distant memory for a while before telling them: "When I was just a kid, I'd enjoy sitting under this blossoming tree in the royal gardens, feeding bread to turtle-ducks. Then there were times when I'd play games with cousin Lu Ten, though I'd hardly play a round of Pei Sho with him, his teacher was too good."
Iroh chuckled in the background.
"You've never told us about your mother before." Sokka stated. Zuko sighed and replied: "She's gone."
"Oh, I'm sorry… Katara and I lost our mother to a Fire Nation raid."
"Oh, my mother's not dead, or at least as far as I know; but I woke up one morning and just found out that she'd gone off somewhere, never to be heard from since."
"Sokka, Toph, I urge you to back out of that discussion soon! Such topics are sensitive for my nephew, and you're bringing a gloomy mood into this house!" Iroh told them.
"Sorry!" Sokka told him. They grouped together for a hot meal made of noodles, crushed nuts, eggs, spices, a thin sauce, and little bits of hog-chicken meat thrown in (it's like pad thai). To drink, Iroh brewed them a tea from oranges. They ate in almost silence, until Sokka asked: "Iroh, can you tell us what makes your older brother tick?"
"No, because I don't have an older brother."
Sokka looked at him as if he'd gone crazy.
"Fire Lord Ozai is my younger brother."
"If you're the oldest, then shouldn't you be in power then?" Toph asked, knowing the rules of succession quite well.
"I did aspire to inherit the throne, but with the loss of my son, I would have no heir, but my brother does, and his children are also descended from the Avatar. Not long after I quit my siege here, I've heard news that my father had passed on, quite suddenly, and that it was his last wish that my brother would take the throne."
"Uncle, is that all you know about your father's death?" Zuko asked.
"What more is there to know?" Iroh replied.
"The day before Grandfather Azulon passed, soon after hearing about Lu Ten, father asked your father for your birthright. Azulon was furious with him, and after Azula did some eavesdropping, she told me that father was going to kill me. I didn't truly believe her, but the next thing I knew, mother had disappeared and grandfather had passed away."
Iroh closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, he told Zuko: "I do not wish to dwell on the sins of the past. What's important right now, is putting our effort into ending this war."
"How is it that you two are as sane as you are?" Toph asked Iroh and Zuko. They chose not to answer.
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The next morning, Iroh dragged Zuko and Sokka over to the Lower Ring, where it turned out that the jobs that Iroh had told Zuko about would have them be tea servers. The tea shop owner gave them aprons, Iroh's was too small for him to tie.
"Well you certainly look like official tea shop clerks, how do you feel?" The owner asked them.
"Ridiculous." Sokka and Zuko replied.
"Does this come in a larger size?" Iroh asked.
"I have some extra string in the back. Have some tea while you wait." The other told them. Iroh took a taste from the pot and promptly spit it back out, declaring: "Ugh, this tea is nothing more than hot leaf juice!"
"Uncle, that's all tea is!" Zuko told him.
"How could a member of my own family say something so horrible!? We'll have to make some major changes here!"
Zuko looked over to Sokka and found him trying to keep from laughing, he shook his head and followed Iroh into the kitchen and showed them some of his secrets to brewing tea. The owner returned with string and asked them: "What are you doing in the cupboards?"
"I've been known for some fine brews in my time. Just you wait until you have a taste!" Iroh told him. When his first pot of jasmine tea was done, he served it to the owner, and the taste brought delight to his face!
"This is delicious! Mushi, you're going to be the master brewer!" The owner declared. Once Iroh had a few pots going, he opened the shop, and then he quickly made a sign to stick in the window that read 'Improved Recipies'.
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Later on in the afternoon, Jet came into the shop and sat down at a small table and looked the menu over.
"Hello, Jet, are you staying out of trouble?" Sokka asked.
"Oh, so you're working here now?" Jet inquired.
"Yeah, my uncle got us these jobs." Zuko told him, and then he asked: "What about you?"
"Well, thanks for asking, Lee. The Freedom Fighters and I found this little old lady running a flower shop. So far we've already helped to fix the place up, we spent a fair amount of time giving the shop a fresh coat of paint, and she also has us tending to the plants and making flower arrangements."
"It sounds nice." Lee stated.
"Yeah, it is. Old lady Kai Li really took us under her wing." Jet replied.
"So, what do you do when you're off work?" Sokka asked him as he gave an older man his order.
"Well since the living conditions in some parts of the Lower Ring aren't that great, we sometimes sneak into the Middle Ring to bring some comforts back to those who need it; be it blankets, healing herbs, or a new shirt for someone. Maybe sometime you guys could help us out."
"Sorry Jet, but that's not our business." Sokka told him.
"We know how hard life can be, so I'll tell you this: I'm not going to help you with those matters, but I'm not going to rat you out either, just don't get yourself caught." Zuko stated.
"I understand, thanks anyway, Lee." Jet replied.
"Before I leave you, would you lie to order something?" Zuko asked him.
"Well what's good today?"
From the kitchen, Iroh called out: "I take you for a young man who likes something spicy and floral!"
"Hey, that sounds great!" Jet called back, he looked to Zuko and told him: "Hey Lee, thanks for understanding me."
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At the end of their work shift, they went home, and upon arrival, Toph took Zuko by the wrist and dragged him to the back yard. Using her Earthbending she moved a boulder and revealed a hole underneath it.
"Get in." Toph told him. Zuko climbed down the hole, and found that it led to a large chamber, lit with glowing crystals.
"Toph, what is this place?" Zuko asked.
"It's an arena I've made. Here we can train to our hearts' content! It's even got ventilation so fire's smoke has somewhere to go." She told him.
"Toph, how would you like to duel a Firebender sometime?" Zuko asked.
"A rumble between earth and fire?! You can count me in!" Toph replied.
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More to come soon!
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