Part 2

The next day didn't have any bandits, but it did have more roads that weren't going where they were supposed to, so it all broke even.

At least it was bright and warm and sunny. Azula could almost forget the cold.

She tried to track their progress, but none of the marked pathways lined up and she was starting to suspect that these maps were older than her real Grandfather. Certainly, there seemed to have been a lot more rivers whenever the things had been drawn. Perhaps they even predated Sozin himself. She could be lost in the wilderness holding some truly valuable relics, if she could find someone who valued antiquity more than knowing where they were going.

"Then we shall simply travel north, regardless of the will of the roads or the incompetence of the people responsible for informing travelers," Jeong Jeong pronounced. He turned off the packed dirt path and began stomping through a cabbage field that smelled freshly fertilized.

Azula sighed before following him. She would have to steal a new pair of boots after this.

They crossed farming fields. They forded muddy creeks. They climbed a few mountain ranges that Jeong Jeong insisted were just hills. They passed through bug-infested woods. And there was the rather hurried, accidental encounter with an armadillo bear who had been trying to get some honey from a nest of scorpion-bees; every creature involved with that one had already been in a bad mood when it started and were quite pleased to forget the whole thing once it was over.

By the time they found the temple, an hour before the sun was going to set, Azula was ready to be finished for the day.

They found its outer walls first, coming at it from the wrong side. Azula had thought it was a fortress at first and said so, but Jeong Jeong grunted and merely said, "Worse."

They had to follow the wall around to find the front gate and the road running in front of it, at which point the place's true nature was apparent. "That," Azula said, "is the second smallest pagoda I've ever seen. And is it just made of wood? I suppose Z- the Fire Lord's 'good-will endowments' haven't made it this far north, yet."

"Bribes," Jeong Jeong barked. "Rooting out the corrupt leadership has fractured the Sages, and now they demand gold for their loyalty."

Azula wouldn't classify the High Sages who had served Father as corrupt, especially when their would-be replacements wanted money as placation, but she wasn't inclined to argue the point. Especially with one of Zuzu's allies speaking so cynically about him.

Not that Azula had a problem with Zuko bribing people. It was actually a satisfyingly practical move on his part. Too bad he was wasting it on such a weak agenda as peace and balance.

A young Fire Sage passed by the gate carrying what appeared to be a basket full of red robes, and when he noticed the Azula and Jeong Jeong, he smiled and called, "Welcome, pious visitors! You look like you've had a long journey! Come, rest in our temple. We have food and bathes and beds for travelers!"

That sounded good to Azula. Just because she was highly capable at camping didn't mean she liked sleeping on the ground. Even a plank with a cloth spread over it would be better. She shook some of the mess off her boots and passed through the gate. In addition to the pagoda, she could see several building of what appears to be more practical purpose, an ornate well, and even a stable where some dragon-moose were eating. (Perhaps she would steal one when she left tomorrow.) A number of sages were moving about on errands as if they were common monks, but perhaps this far north they really were.

Then Azula noticed that Jeong Jeong had not followed her through the gate.

He was still standing in the road, his face twisted with a snarl. It was the first time Azula had seen him actually looking angry. Not counting how he growled everything he said. Or his constant disdain for everyone and everything in the world. Or how he walked like he was heading for a fight.

The sage with the basket of laundry put his burden down and waved to Jeong Jeong. "Come, grandfather! All are welcome here!"

"They are not," snarled Jeong Jeong, "nor should they be! This is a temple to evil, and I will not allow its roof to be over my head!" He stomped off down the road, leaving dark footprints which smoked briefly as he lifted his boots from them.

Azula hurried after him. When she caught up, she leaned and whispered so that the sage could not hear her, "Is it a trap of some kind?"

"Yes."

"Bandits? Slavers?" She glanced back at the confused sage with the laundry and noted his paunch. "Local Home Guard using an over-complicated scheme to trick fugitives they have no hope of defeating in a direct confrontation?" She cleared her throat and added, "Suspected fugitives, I mean, grandfather. Because we're not criminals! Aside from some possible trespassing we did today."

"What are you babbling about?!" Jeong Jeong turned and pointed. "That is a Fire Temple!"

"-yes? A temple with guest quarters and baths."

Jeong Jeong's nostrils flared. "It is a temple to evil! As flame and its masters burned the world, what did this temple do? It paid reverence to the very weapon of conquest! As the Fire Nation came to value war more than its own people, what did this temple do? It taught those people how to fight! As the nature of fire corrupted and burned the spirits of our people, what did this temple do?! It preached the superiority of our element! I refuse to have anything to do with it! I would rather sleep in the mud with the elephant-rats and the leech-worms than rest my body under its roof!" He pushed Azula out of his way and hurried away.

Azula watched him go.

What was that all about?

Well, it didn't matter. The only question was whether she followed him or stayed to enjoy the relative comforts of the temple. If she stayed, she wouldn't be able to keep an eye on a possible agent of her brother, and then-

Then what? If she just made sure she wasn't tracked as she left the temple, she would be in the clear. And it wasn't like Jeong Jeong was actually her grandfather or ally or master, or anything like that.

She spun on her heel and smiled at the laundry sage. "So, food and baths, you say?"

Despite actually having to take care of their temple themselves, the local sages apparently had enough time to make themselves truly accomplished hosts. The baths had access to plenty of warm water, and many of the dishes served for dinner were cooked in butter. She spoke to some of the sages about the fishing village where she could hire a boat, and they were able to draw her a map which might actually get her somewhere she wanted to be. The guest quarters had thick rugs and real mattresses and beautiful murals painted on the walls and ceilings.

Azula was laying on a mattress, staring up at an intricate painting of a flame spreading light to cities and farmlands and oceans, guided by warriors in elaborately patterned robes holding spiked swords, and experienced no rest.

Despite the thick rug covering the wooden floor, she had absorbed a chill from the room that wouldn't seem to go away. The mattress and the blankets did nothing to help, even if she covered her head. The darkness under the blanket seemed to bring its own coldness, so she swept it off to once again. She positioned herself so that whole body was in the light of the moon and the stars coming in through the window, but that illumination had its own frigid quality. She laid there for a long time, fighting the urge to shiver and unable to fall asleep.

She opened her eyes and looked again at the painting of the fire on the ceiling. Despite the extending lines meant to symbolize warmth and power and glow, it seemed to be drawing the energy right out of her body. The mural was painted in bright reds, but here in the dark of the night, it was as black as old dried blood.

She Azula tried closing her eyes again, but it remained in her vision like an afterimage, a reverse glow into which the last of her heat was drawn. She threw herself out of bed, kneeling on the floor and straightening her back. She breathed deeply and steadily, feeding her lungs the fuel of all life, giving her body everything it needed to become a furnace of elemental energy. She sought whatever warmth might still be in her body, calling it to rise and flare and fight back against the darkness.

But there was no energy. No warmth. No inner fire.

No light.

Just a hole deep in her center where before she always been hot and dangerous.

The air that entered her stole her warmth before leaving again, strong than her and so entitled to anything it wanted. Those who could not fight did not deserve to keep what they owned.

She opened her eyes, but the watery light of the moon revealed intricate painted images on the walls around her. It was a history of all the achievements humanity had made through the power of fire.

She made herself endure it. So many things, including Firebending, had come easy to her, but despite Zuzu's whining it didn't mean she hadn't worked as hard as she could. She had worked harder than most, in fact, and pushed herself beyond even what was expected of her. Beyond even Father's demands. Hadn't she been the only one to see a spark of something more in Zuko, something that could have been strong and helpful? Azula alone had found the key to unlocking Zuko's power and drive, and in doing so she had won a war that had stymied the rest of her dynasty for over a hundred years.

But that was a long time ago. Almost a decade. That had been the high point of her life, and she had been in decline ever since. She had failed to prove that it was more than a fluke, that she was more than a lucky child. More than a tool.

The void within grew even colder. Azula gave up on her meditation and stood up, looking for something to distract her. But all around her was a fanciful history of flame, and when she turned her gaze out the room's window, the red-roofed pagoda loomed in the moonlight.

But somewhere in the darkness beyond that, where the rolling lands met the sky, was a pinprick of warm light.

Azula dressed and packed her things and all but ran out of the fire temple. She returned only briefly to steal several days worth of food.

She found Jeong Jeong next to a creek, quite a way from the road. He was, despite the late - or early - hour, sitting cross-legged in front of a campfire again, his messy candles glowing in a semi-circle around him, still not managing to keep them burning evenly. He opened his eyes at her approach and watched her silently.

She gave him the same silence he was giving her. She dropped her backpack, curled up as close to the fire as she dared without risking injury, and started drifting off to sleep.

At some point, Jeong Jeong said, "I told you."

She felt around in the dirt for a rock but only found a small stick. She threw it at him anyway.

When it was time to get up and get going in the morning, neither one said anything about the night before. Azula just made some tea, graciously gave a cup to Jeong Jeong, and then didn't share any of the delicious provisions she had liberated from the temple when she left.

Now with a somewhat accurate map, they made good time by sticking to the roads. The only highway robbery they had to deal with were the prices at the various roadside merchant camps, which grew more frequent as the days passed and they got closer and closer to civilization again. The appearance of fish grew also more frequent at the stands, by whose not-quite-stink it was confirmed that they were going in the right direction long before they smelled the sea itself.

On the day they reached the fishing village - really more of a fishing hamlet with pretensions and too many people - they arrived near the end of the day, when boats were coming in and the men were all bragging about (what was hopefully) the sizes of their catches. Here, the smell of the sea was once again overwhelmed by the smell of fish. Fresh fish. Fish being fried. Fish being smoked. Fish being used for fertilizer.

"I expect this is all familiar," Azula said to Jeong Jeong as they wandered around and observed the activity.

He looked at her as if she was insane, an expression she knew well from her late teenage years. "Why would any of this be familiar? I am from the capital, not a village, and I never fished a day in my life."

"Well-" Azula remembered she wasn't supposed to know who Jeong Jeong was. Or maybe she was, because he was infamous, but peasants didn't bring up such matters to former admirals? She settled on, "Something about you makes me think you have an affinity for ships?"

Jeong Jeong snorted. "Those are not ships. Those are boats."

"-if you say so, grandfather. And do any of them look like something we want to hire for our voyage?"

Jeong Jeong waved a dismissive hand. "As long as it doesn't sink on the water, it will get us where we need to go. This is not a journey of comfort or convenience. It is a pilgrimage to the origin of Firebending, a reckoning with that which has brought mankind and the Fire Nation to ruin!"

Azula looked at all the fish-scented bustle around them. "Yes, a very busy ruin, it seems. So, let me phrase this another way, is there a particular ship here - sorry, boat - that looks like it won't sink and we can afford to hire?"

Jeong Jeong fold his arms across his chest. "Money is no concern."

Azula blinked. "What, you mean you really did have something worth stealing? We could have paid for food and inns all this time?"

"I do not think about money nor seek to accumulate it. We must demand passage, and the importance of our pilgrimage will find a path."

One fisherman, walking past them with an octopus in a bucket, laughed.

Azula was willing to give it decent odds that someone would eventually give in just to stop Jeong Jeong from yelling at him, but she had learned through hard experience that fear and intimidation only worked up until they didn't. And she would rather not be out to sea alone with a cowardly boat captain and an eccentric old man when that time came.

"Why don't you," she said as sweetly as she could manage, "use your conviction to get some dinner that I didn't have to steal for you, and I'll see to the business negotiations, hm? I mean- is that okay, grandfather?"

Jeong Jeong grunted and walked away. Azula wasn't sure whether or not that was agreement, but if it gave her room to work, she would take it.

She found a spot near the road that was clear of traffic and emptied her backpack on it. Perhaps she had something worth trading. There were her camping supplies, which she would probably need even at the Sun Warrior ruins- and likely wouldn't be of much value, especially the bits of dried wood. There were the various foods she had stolen from the fire temple, but as pleasingly flavorful as they had been, they also weren't going to go very far monetarily. Aside from that, though, Azula didn't have much- some spare clothes, a few good knives, and various trinkets she had been stealing during her travels in case they would be of use. Nothing that could compete with this fishy economy. She hadn't brought her crown, since it was too incriminating, and it had been a while since she had a decent set of armor. What could she possibly sell?

Then an older woman who was wandering by stopped and leaned over Azula's possessions with wide eyes. "Wow, those are some really impressive antique maps!"

Azula covered her face with her hands. "You are joking."

"No! You can tell they're pre-Sozin era, back when the style here in the north was to mislabel the cardinal directions and add fake roads so that southern nobs would get lost!"

"You don't say." Azula tried to tell herself that it was paranoid to suspect Zuko had somehow arranged to for these maps to come into her possession as a kind of especially cruel revenge. Mai, on the other hand, might actually be that mean-spirited and bored.

"Hoo yeah, they say Fire Lord Sozin really got a scorpion-bee in his bonnet about that when he found out! One of his first acts after being crowned was making inaccurate maps illegal on pain of death. Ha!" The woman grinned toothlessly. "They didn't cause you too much trouble, did they?"

"Oh, not at all." Azula gave a calculatedly careless shrug. "I can't even read a map. I just thought they looked pretty."

The woman laughed loudly. "That they are, that they are. You know, I wouldn't mind having a set of these to hang in the common room of my inn!"

It was something Zuzu had taken far too long to learn: act pleasant with people, and there was a chance you could get what you need from them without have to threaten or murder someone. Granted, it wasn't as fun, but adults criminals had to act responsibly.

Azula put on her sharpest grin and said, "How much is it worth to you?"

The woman turned out to have, in addition to an inn which gave her plenty of disposable income for maps of fictional roads, a fisherman son with a small boat and a willingness to sail to the island of the Sun Warriors. Azula spent the night at the inn trying not to think about how itchy the blankets were, and the next morning when she went to meet up with the son at his place at the docks, Jeong Jeong came out of nowhere to join her.

She didn't object.

Sadly, the maps weren't valuable enough to get the boat at her beck and call. She and Jeong Jeong would be dropped off on an eastern peninsula near where an old Sun Warrior city was supposed to be, and then two weeks later the boat would return to the same spot to pick them up. She wasn't sure how long, exactly, it would take to travel to the ruins, but she wanted to give herself as much time as possible to solve whatever riddle Zuko had. Two weeks was long as she could secure provisions for, so that was her limit for now.

She didn't know how long he had taken to come to his little revelation, and she found that she had no desire to learn. Better to focus on success itself, and worry about measuring up once she had her fire again.

And not worry at all about never getting her fire back.

The boat turned out not to be particularly quick, but neither was it a pleasure cruise. There was no other crew aside from the captain, since there wasn't room for anyone else along with two passengers, so Azula and Jeong Jeong had to work for their passage. Azula had no sailing experience whatsoever, leaving her the most ignorant person on the ship- on the boat. She was ever so fortunate to have someone like Jeong Jeong willing to yell at her whenever she did something wrong.

Eventually the waters ahead gave way to a blur which became a rocky coast.

"Okay," the captain said when they were still a little way off from land, "time to go."

Azula looked at the shore ahead. "Where are we making landing?"

The captain laughed. "Do you see any docks? I'm not bringing my ship any closer, not with these tides, not if I want to get back. This ain't no Water Tribe boat you can drag up onto the land and push back into the water. You want to get to land, you're gonna swim."

The tides were again troubling an important and life-defining quest. Only, this time, they were indeed the ones commanding the ship. But that didn't mean she was going to let them stop her. She could swim, of course. She'd learned as a child.

But it was harder when she couldn't propel herself with kicks of underwater fire.

They divided the supplies between two bundles and lashed them to floaters. Azula and Jeong Jeong then each tied one of the bundles to their waists with a long line. The bundles went overboard first, and then Jeong Jeong followed silently, diving in and coming up swimming. He didn't seem to be using his Firebending at all but made steady progress to the shore, the supply bundle pulled along behind him.

Azula took a deep breath and then hopped into the water feet-first.

It was freezing.

But that made no sense. These weren't the waters of the poles, and there was no ice. She hadn't even needed a coat back on the boat. But it felt cold, and it was all around her, pushing straight through her clothes and pricking at her skin and ripping the heat right out of her body. She flailed, trying to push the water away, but there was so much of it.

It was like when the Avatar's Waterbender had submerged and frozen Azula on the day Sozin's Comet returned. Except here even the light couldn't reach her. She needed to get out. She needed to swim to the surface. But she couldn't tell which way was up, couldn't make herself do anything but spin in place.

And the chill of the water wasn't the only thing bringing back memories she'd rather forget.

The need for air began pounding in her head, just like- just like the last time she saw Father. Her head had pounded then, too, and his hands had been cold around her neck as she struggled to breathe-

-couldn't breathe-

-drowning-

-help-

Something grabbed her the waist, and a warm body wrapped around her as they together rocketed through the water. Azula was so dumbfounded by the change in circumstances that she forgot to start breathing again after they breached the surface, but then Jeong Jeong barked, "Kick with me!" and the reality of the situation dawned on her. The only way anyone could move so fast underwater was with bending, and Jeong Jeong was no Waterbender. He had stepped in where her own Firebending had failed her.

She greedily sucked in air, kicked her legs, and began to swim. After a few moments, Jeong Jeong let go of her and swam beside her. The rope around her waist grew taut and pulled on her, but it didn't stop her; it merely slowed her down. She swam and dragged the floating supply bundle to the shore with her.

When Azula reached land, she found not the smooth black sands of places like Ember Island, but a pebbly and gritty ground. She allowed herself to collapse there, despite the discomfort, and just breathe for a while. She looked around and saw Jeong Jeong's supply bundle already dragged ashore, the tow-line untied. He must have come back for her only after completing his own landing. She looked over and found him kneeling nearby, just beyond the lapping of the waves.

She considered thanking him, but instead said, "Thank you, grandfather. I'm usually a better swimmer than that."

He stared at her, seemingly oblivious to the water trickling down from his hair to drip from his face. "This is twice now I have had to use my Firebending to save you. There will not be a third time."

"How unpleasant." Azula wiped the moisture from her own face and sat up. Now that she could breath again, the water didn't feel very cold at all, and the air had a warm, humid quality that was almost oppressive. How had she mistaken any of this for the Waterbender's ice? "And here I thought we were friends, grandfather."

Jeong Jeong gazed back at her with no emotion on his scarred, dripping face. "Why would I want to to be your friend, Princess Azula?"

TO BE CONCLUDED