A week later, Lu Ten and Ayeshi left for their journey in the fuzzy pre-dawn darkness. Looking back at the noodle shop, Lu Ten felt dread collecting in the pit of his stomach. He wasn't sure when and in what condition they'd be back.

He and Ayeshi had packed just enough to sustain them for their trip. There were spare clothes and food, weapons, and a tent Chin Lao had lent them. They'd told him about Lu Ten's family and he'd been surprisingly calm about it when he offered them his old tent. Even a staunch Earth Kingdom man like Chin Lao could find sympathy in his heart for a banished enemy prince. Lu Ten had his old army sword, a map tucked in his front pocket, and his father's white lotus tile, now threaded on a string and worn around his neck. Ayeshi carried a few knives and a teapot, since that was essential for a long hard journey.

The first light of dawn was beginning to peak over the eastern sky behind them as they boarded the first ferry out of Ba Sing Se. The people around them were stiff-jointed and tired, rubbing their eyes and stretching tired backs as they gathered their bags about them. There weren't too many people leaving Ba Sing Se these days; most of the traffic was still refugees coming into the city.

"We're really doing this." Lu Ten muttered, watching Ba Sing Se shrink behind them. "What if this doesn't work? What if this turns out to be just a wild goose chase?"

"Let's not think like that." said Ayeshi. "Let's just say we're gonna do our best. If we find him, we find him. If we don't, then we don't."

"That's a very open-ended way of thinking about it."

"Yeah. I hate open-ended thinking. But what else can we do? I think we'll just have to go with the flow this time."

Clouds were gathering overhead, and before the ferry had crossed Full Moon Bay it had started to rain. Lu Ten tugged a waterproofed cloth from his bag and they huddled under it, squinting at the blurry gray sky. "Hardly an auspicious beginning." Lu Ten grumbled. "We're heading for the South Pole, so I guess we should get used to it. Ugh. It'll be nice to leave Ba Sing Se behind though."

Ayeshi nodded. "I guess you've been around more than I have. Do you know the area?"

"A lot of the land between here and Omashu, I came through on the army campaign to Ba Sing Se. I was with an overland unit, though, so I never really saw our navy in action. Maybe if I had been a sailor we'd have an easier time of it."

"I've been to Omashu once." said Ayehsi. "It's like a smaller version of Ba Sing Se. Very orderly, with a place for everything and everything in its place. But instead of trains they have stone tracks that you use earth bending to ride."

"Right." Lu Ten had taken out the map and gazing at it. "Looks like we'll just cut through this forest down towards the city. After that we cut around the Si Wong desert."

"Cut around the foggy swamp too." Ayehsi adjusted the cloth over their heads. "I've heard stories about that place. People say the swamp's got strange powers."

"Avoid the swamp." Lu Ten muttered. "Right. I've been in the Si Wong desert before. It's a nasty place."

The ferry was slowing now, and they both straightened up and prepared to disembark. The land beyond the ferry was a gentle forest. Lu Ten's brow furrowed as he stepped off the ferry, and his steps slowed as he gazed at the land around them.

"What is it?"

"I came this way with the Fire Nation army on our way to capture Ba Sing Se. Look, you can see the burn marks on the trees here and there. We weren't very careful with our fire bending. That was the last time my father and I really spent time together. After the siege began I was on the front lines and he was mostly in the camp running correspondence. I didn't even see him the day I . . ."

"He must have really torn himself up when you died, if he wasn't on the front lines with the rest of you." Said Ayehsi. "I keep saying you died. I mean, when everyone presumed you dead."

"I might as well be dead." Lu Ten muttered. "Fat lot of good that's done. Look at my family."

"You had your reasons for being dead, remember? To protect the city we grudgingly call home."

Lu Ten nodded. "To protect Ba Sing Se. And to be fair, my family's had its issues for a long time. It starts with a genocidal maniac for a great-grandfather, and then everyone's dysfunctional. Hey, maybe we should move away from Ba Sing Se. Neither of us seems to like it very much."

"I don't want to leave Mom." Said Ayehsi. "Han and Wei will both grow up and move out and start their own families, and she has no husband to grow old with."

"You make a good point." Lu Ten took out a sword and began using it to beat away branches that blocked their path. "Urgh. I forgot how much I hate camping in forests. At this rate it'll take us forever to reach the south pole."

Despite Lu Ten's dislike of camping in forests, he soon fell back into his old soldier habits and went back to pitching tents and building fires. He and Ayehsi would cook what they could hunt in the forest, then brew a pot of tea and hold each in the warm light of their campfire. Many times Lu Ten looked at her gentle form asleep on the cold hard ground and wondered if they shouldn't just go back to Ba Sing Se, where everything made sense, but each morning they rose in the fuzzy pre-dawn darkness and she reassured him that they were on the right track. They made good time, and before too terribly long they had reached Omashu.

"Well, this is Omashu." Lu Ten gazed up the citadel. "It's . . . compact.

Ayeshi nodded. "It's not like Ba Sing Se. It's smaller, and like you said, more compact."

Lu Ten nodded. "Come on. I can't wait to not have to cook for a day, and to sleep in a real bed."

First the weary travelers stocked up on supplies, then turned their sights to a little cafe where they could sit down and get some lunch. The little cafe had an excellent view of the stone tracks the people here used to transport things, and after so may days of traveling in the forest Lu Ten and Ayeshi laughed with delight to watch all the little stone cars zooming up and down the tracks.

After almost an hour they'd eaten their fill and had finally tired of watching the little cars go by. They were just about to get up and find lodging when dark shadow fell across them. Lu Ten looked up in shock to see a very buff old man leering over them, a crazy light in his eyes and a too-wide smile stretching his wrinkled face. The old man looked them up and down, squinting at the white lotus tile around Lu Ten's neck. Lu Ten wondered what kind of drugs this man had been doing.

"You're Lu Ten." The old man finally said.

"Do I know you?"

"No! But I know you. You're Iroh's boy."

"Don't shout it like that!" said Lu Ten. "Yes, that's me. How do you know me? How do you know my father?"

"I spotted the Pai Sho tile around your neck. A white lotus."

"Yeah, it's a white lotus." Lu Ten looked down at the tile. "A gift from my father. But what does that have to do with me? And who are you?"

"A good question." The man cackled. "For another time! Do you two want to come back to the palace and get lunch with me?"

"Err . . . no?" said Ayeshi. "We've just had lunch, you see."

"We'd be happy to." Lu Ten stammered. He didn't want to cross the old man.

"Excellent." The old man took Lu Ten and Ayeshi by the scruffs of their necks and dragged them up the street. Lu Ten had no idea where they were going through the maze of twisting streets, and soon enough he'd lost track of the turns they'd taken and how they would get back out. He seemed to be steering them towards the center of the city, where a great palace was perched at the top of the hill. Its outer walls were solid stone, but with one simple movement he bent them aside to bring Lu Ten and Ayehsi inside.

"I know who you are!" said Ayeshi. "You're King Bumi of Omashu!"

"King Bumi?" Lu Ten asked.

"Quite right, child!" Bumi cackled. "I am he."

"How are you king of Omashu?" Lu Ten asked. "Last I checked, the Earth King ruled. Why are you a separate king in Omashu?"

"Another good question!" Bumi cackled. "One day, I put a crown on my head, and nobody ever told me to stop!" He dragged them into a banquet hall and sat them down at a table spread with a grand feast. "Sit down, eat!"

Lu Ten and Ayeshi began quietly eating, both feeling vaguely uncomfortable as King Bumi stared them down. Lu Ten swallowed the last of his tea and decided to ask King Bumi some more questions. "How do you know my father, your, um, earthiness?"

"You would like to know, hmm? I'm quite sure Iroh would like to know why his dead son is in Omashu right now!"

"Could you not tell him? I wanted to tell him myself."

"That's an odd way to do things." King Bumi squinted at Lu Ten. "But we all have our quirks I suppose. Me, I like a little Fire Nation hot sauce every now and then."

"That's your weirdest quirk?" Ayeshi asked. "Really? The hot sauce?"

King Bumi raised an eyebrow. "As for how I know your father . . . the white lotus, boy, the white lotus. Now will someone get these two travelers chambers to stay in?"

Lu Ten spent the rest of the day relaxing in a fancy chamber at the royal palace, trying to work out what King Bumi had meant by it. Ayeshi quickly got tired of hearing Lu Ten talk to himself and took a long nap in the afternoon. It wasn't until evening that Lu Ten finally remembered something he'd once read in one of his schoolbooks.

"The White Lotus! Ayeshi, the White Lotus! From my old history book. They're an organization of fighting masters whose duty it is to help the avatar! That's what Bumi meant! He and my dad, they must be members! That's why Dad gave me the white lotus tile! He knew I'd figure it out eventually."

Ayeshi sat up and yawned. "That's fantastic. What does that have to do with anything?"

"It means there's still good people out there, and my dad is one of them! Bumi, and Dad, and anyone else out there who's in this group . . . Piandao! Piandao had a white lotus motif at his training center! There's good people out there, babe, and they want to help stop the war!"

"See, I told you we were on the right track. You never would have known about the White Lotus if we hadn't tried to find Zuko."

Author's note: not my best writing but I really wanted to get another chapter up. The title for this chapter is borrowed from Alison Bechdel's graphic novel Fun Home.