we all want love/we all want honor
Part 13: we should all burn together
"I hope that you remember me."
- Ed Sheeran, "I See Fire"
Toph walked into the seedy bar that apparently served as Yu Dao's gambling den. She walked past several tables of people playing cards, pai sho, and various other games, until she reached a small table in the back. An empty pai sho board sat on its surface, but the old woman sitting in front of it seemed intently focused on the scroll in her hands and didn't appear to have noticed her visitor.
Toph gulped.
Last chance to walk away.
She didn't have a clue if this would work. Uncle had told her what to do if she needed help, yes, but at the time, she'd been living in the Fire Nation Capital, and had assumed he'd meant someone there. What were the odds some random old woman in Yu Dao would be able to help her?
It can't hurt to try.
"May I have this game?" The old woman lifted her head from her reading.
"How kind of you to offer," the woman replied, putting down her scroll. "Have a seat." She handed Toph a set of tiles. Toph felt the surface, then frowned.
"I'm sorry, would you mind if I used my own?" Toph asked, handing them back. "I need to be able to feel them."
"That's fine," said the woman. Toph stomped her foot on the dirt floor, and fifty-four stone tiles rose up from the ground, etched with various symbols. "Fascinating. By the way, you may call me Mirei. Might I have your name?"
'Call me Mirei.' Not 'my name is Mirei.' Under normal circumstances, it might not have meant much, but this wasn't exactly normal.
"Call me Lin Yu," she replied. Better safe than sorry.
"The guest has the first move," Mirei said, and Toph could hear the smile in her voice.
Carefully, remembering Iroh's instructions, she picked up one of her lotus tiles and placed it squarely on the center of the board.
"I see you favor the white lotus gambit," Mirei said, surprise evident in her voice. "Not many still cling to the ancient ways."
It worked!
"But those who do can always find a friend," she replied, cupping her hands.
The two of them continued placing tiles, Toph recalling the precise order Iroh Uncle had drilled into her. Wheel, Boat, Rock, Knotweed, Rose, Chrysanthemum, Rhododendron, White Jade, White Lily, Jasmine, White Dragon... She couldn't tell if the smooth wooden tiles Mirei was laying out were the right ones, but the locations seemed correct.
I'm a doofus. It's a lotus blossom.
"Welcome, sister," said the old woman. "The White Lotus opens wide to those who know her secrets."
"I don't really know too many secrets," Toph admitted. "But my uncle's missing, and he told me to save this for my 'hour of need.' Any chance you can help me find him?"
"I'll see what I can do, young initiate," Mirei said.
Within hours, Toph had her bag packed and was on a boat headed south, captained Mirei's friend "Fuyu." (No doubt another fake name.)
Toph had spent three years at sea. She knew how fast sea travel was. An older steamship like Zuko's, at a fast pace, might have been able to make it to the South Sea in about a week, weather permitting. A wooden boat like this one (she was reminded of just how much she hated boats she couldn't see on) should take at least three weeks, if not longer.
They reached the mouth of the Nan Shan river in three days.
(She hadn't noticed Fuyu doing any obvious waterbending, but she hadn't noticed much of anything that went on beyond the end of her nose. She was so glad she'd invented metalbending.)
(She didn't know how many people were involved in this little pai sho club, but wow they were good, and could get news across the country quickly.
The last official communication any of them had received from the old man was from somewhere around Gaipan.
However, someone near Chin had heard rumors that the Blue Spirit was in the area, and a guy in the southern plains had seen a scarred boy claiming to be Prince Zuko using firebending. Toph was somewhat concerned that neither of these reports mentioned Uncle, but chose not to dwell on it.)
She jumped off the boat (bag in hand), reveling in the feeling of earth between her toes.
"Thank you!" Toph waved to Fuyu, who she could hear sailing away.
She spent most of the night (she was pretty sure it was night, anyways), slowly following the river north through the woods, walking in the general direction of the Xishaan Mountains. Toph didn't know exactly where Sparky and Uncle were, but this region was where the last of the reports had come from, so it seemed like a good place to start. Eventually, she started feeling tired, so she unpacked her pillow, bent a small stone tent, and fell asleep.
When she finally woke up, she felt more refreshed than she had in years.
How long was I out? (Nine or ten hours, at least.)
She kept walking.
An hour or two later, she frowned. There was someone hiding behind that rock. Is that...? She crouched and stomped her foot, releasing a wave of dirt to dislodge the boulder.
"Ow," Uncle Iroh yelped. "That really hurt my tailbone."
"That's what you get for being a pain in mine," she said, scowling. "You owe me some answers, old man."
She agreed to let him make some tea, first.
"Why don't you start by telling me what happened at the North Pole, and how you ended up as fugitives," she said as soon as the teacup was in her hand. "Then we can talk about where in Szeto's name Sparky is, and why you two decided it would be a good idea to forget that I was waiting to hear from you guys- and don't tell me you didn't have some way of getting me a message, because you know I can tell when you're lying."
So she sat and listened as Uncle told her all about the Northern siege, interjecting at the more insane parts.
"So, he had the Avatar, and then he decided to drag the two of them into an actual blizzard?"
"What do you mean, Zhao tried to kill the moon? I can't even see the thing and I know it's important! Not to mention that everyone knows that messing with the spirits is a bad idea."
"The Ocean Spirit sunk the navy?"
"A princess died?"
"Wait, you're telling me that, after all that, instead of chasing the Avatar, Sparky decided to lay down and take a nap?"
When he finished, recalling how the two of them had spent a few weeks drifting down the Su Oku river, she held out her cup for more tea.
"That's a nice story, I'm still not seeing where you two became fugitives and dropped the idea of coming back for me."
"While we were staying at the spa, we had an unexpected guest," Uncle said.
"Wait, the ice princess came to capture you herself?" Toph gaped at him. "Has she ever even left the Fire Nation before?"
"Doubtful. My niece is many things, but a global traveller is not one of them," Iroh said. "In any case, she invited us to return to the Fire Nation with her, and we gratefully accepted." (There was a lie in there somewhere, but nothing major- Uncle tended to understate and oversimplify things.)
"Let me guess, it was a trap." That sounded like something Azula would do.
"Something like that," Iroh said. "We managed to escape, but we were declared criminals and fugitives."
"I got that part," she said. "And why, at this point, couldn't you just, like, get a message to me in Yu Dao?"
"Lady Toph, we were being hunted," Uncle explained. "We thought you'd be better off without us."
"Well, that was a stupid decision," Toph replied. "Remind me to punch Sparky for coming up with it."
"What do you-"
"As if I'd let you guys become wanted criminals without me," she said. "Haven't you figured out by now that you're not allowed to have fun adventures without me?"
Uncle laughed.
"You are right, Toph," he said. "I apologize for ever forgetting."
"Thank you," she said. "But you'd better not do it again. Where did you say Zuko is now?"
"I've been tracking him," Uncle explained. "He decided he wanted to go his own way."
"Wait, what?!"
"So let me get this straight," Toph said a few minutes later, after the former general had explained the chain of events that had led to him and Zuko parting ways. "You told Sparky capturing the Avatar wouldn't solve your problems, he decided you 'didn't have anything to gain by traveling together,' and rode off before you could stop him?"
"That would not be an incorrect assessment," the old man said, refilling her tea again.
"Jeez, Uncle, I thought you were supposed to be the smart one in this family," she said.
"I'm afraid I don't understand." Iroh sounded puzzled.
"We're talking about Zuko here," Toph said. "The guy who thinks that anything that goes wrong ever is somehow his fault. Lightning strikes the ship? His bad luck. Getting banished at the age of thirteen? Obviously, he must have deserved it. The Avatar got away again? Clearly, his bending wasn't good enough." Knowing Sparky, he's probably managed to convince himself that his mom leaving and the deaths of the 41st division are also somehow his fault.
"That... is a valid point," Uncle said, considering this. "But what does that have to do with-"
"So, if the two of you had arrest warrants issued while on his banishment quest, of course he thinks it's because of him," she explained.
"You mean-"
"He wasn't saying that he doesn't want you around," said Toph. "He was saying you'd be better off without him."
"They say there's no fool like an old fool," Iroh said, sighing.
"Did you ever think to tell him that you two need each other?" Toph asked.
"Did you?"
She didn't respond, just took another sip of her tea.
Suddenly, she stood up.
"We gotta go, now," she said.
"Is something wrong?" Uncle quickly packed up the tea.
"You said Sparky's around here, right?"
"Yes, I believe so," Uncle said. "Is he in danger?"
"It's too far away for me to figure out what, exactly, is going on," Toph explained. "All I know is, I'm hearing what sounds like a lot of crashing and exploding. It could be nothing..."
"Or it could be Azula," Uncle finished.
"Exactly."
In unison, they raced towards Tu Zin.
"It crashed into this lonely town."
- Ed Sheeran, "I See Fire"