Chapter 3: Ticket 471

A middle-aged woman exited Fen's Sweets and Goods and fumbled to cross Gansu's busiest street, barely escaping a run-in with a yakhorse-drawn carriage. She rushed past the Women's Center and barged into Wang Fire Metalworks located at the corner of the block. "Sensu," she panted, tumbling inside, "You in here?"

"Yes, Lady Fen," a young man nodded in greeting, "How are you this morning, ma'am?"

"In a rush. Where's Metal Man?"

"Wang's out back at the forge. What do you need?"

"I've got a favor to ask him. Call him out if you will, I'm not going into that filth."

"You're not allowed to go in even if you wanted," the man smiled in amusement before disappearing to the back. A minute or so later, he came back out, accompanied by another man who was much wilder in appearance. The man's hair was long and messy, barely held together with a ponytail tie. His beard and moustache were overgrown and unkept, seeming to nearly swallow up his face. He took off his dark face shield and brushed his hands against the sides of his tunic, which was covered in charcoal and soot.

"Day by day, you're turning into a boarcupine-bear, Wang," Fen frowned in disapproval at the blacksmith, "Spirits, why can't you just shave like decent men? You're twenty-six, not fifty-nine. If you were my son, I would've dragged you to a barber years ago." And upon catching a whiff of the intoxicant that reeked from his shirt, "Ugh, and that stench. No respectable woman would wanna marry a man like this."

Uncaring, Sokka rumbled in his deep voice, "What can I help you with?"

"A couple of things. I'm going to see my daughter and grandbaby, and the bakery's going to be closed for a few days. There's a woman coming to Gansu with her newborn daughter tomorrow night. She's going to start working at the bakery with me after I get back. According to my knowledge, she'll be getting off at the monorail station at around eight hours past noon. It's her first time in the lower ring, so it would be ideal if you sent someone to receive her or went yourself. She doesn't seem to be a fan of gang shit, and who knows what the Night Wolf could be up to now."

Sokka said nothing, casting his rugged look elsewhere.

"I'm leaving these with you," Fen gave him a pair of keys, "Be sure to give her these keys when she gets here so she can get through the back door of the bakery. She'll be staying in the back room."

"Is someone coming later to pick her up or something? Her husband, maybe?"

"No, she's a single mother. Not married."

"So how long will she stay in the back room?"

"As long as she pays rent."

Frowning, "Wait, she's living there?"

"Yes. She's not in a very good position right now and can use some financial assistance. She's willing to take anything she can get." Shrugging, "She apparently came from a rich family. Even went to Ba Sing Se University for a time, can you imagine that? But she lost everything."

Sokka felt a sharp pang tugging at a highly sore spot in his heart. He tucked his discomfort away, Plenty of rich people go to Ba Sing Se University. That building's a behemoth in the upper ring. "And you're sure that tiny-ass back room is convenient for the mom and her baby?"

"Maybe she'll move out later, who knows," Fen shrugged, "I offered it at a discounted rent, and she wrote back to me saying she accepts."

"You don't seem to get what I'm saying," he persisted, annoyed, "You're saying she has a newborn. It probably hasn't been long at all since she had the baby. It won't be convenient for her to be climbing up and down those hideous steps all day. She shouldn't be doing strenuous activity—"

"Why do you care? And if she's consenting to stay—"

"Does she even know what conditions she's getting herself into to consent properly?"

"Keep your britches up," Fen glared, "We'll know just how desperate she is when she gets here. If she has no other place to stay, then she'll have to stay here, and I can't be pampering her right now, especially after agreeing to all of her requests. She said she wants to tutor kids in math and science in the afternoons, so I'm letting her use the shed in the backyard, too, for that purpose—"

"That shed is literally rotting as we speak!"

"I've been generous enough. Don't paint me as the villain here." Gesturing to the keys, "Keep them safe and give them to her—"

"No thanks," placing the keys back in the older woman's hands, "I'll get Suki to find her some other place near the bakery to stay and offer lessons. Ty Lee can sponsor everything else she might need."

"Well good luck with that," Fen huffed, "And do remind that woman that she'll start working only after I get back. Though that might appeal to you since I'm not making her do anything else that's strenuous." Reaching into her pocket, "Give her this. She can use this for her expenses in the meantime."

"Two hundred copper pieces?"

"Tell her I'll deduct the amount from her salary later on—"

"Are you out of your mind?" Sokka snapped, "This won't last anyone half a day!"

"She'll be grateful that at least I'm giving her something—"

"Well you're better off giving nothing 'cause this is an insult! She's a new mom, she's gonna need a lot more than this. She needs to feed her kid and eat more herself. You have a daughter and a grandkid, don't you know these things—?"

"Wang, maybe calm down a bit?" Sensu approached him, perplexed. "Let's take a deep breath—"

"Your job is to just give her the money, and she'll figure the rest out," Fen said. "I don't have time to be charitable right now. If you feel like taking care of a new mom so bad, get married, have a kid, and pamper your wife like a queen, and no one's gonna say a damn thing about it. You don't have to go around preaching, and you definitely don't have to go around making parallels between that stranger and my daughter. At least my daughter has a husband and a child born in wedlock."

Sokka glowered, "I wish I can say I'm surprised but I'm not. Ba Sing Se's full of this crap."

"Well get used to it."

"Please, Lady Fen," Sensu intervened gently, "I apologize on his behalf. You know how it is. His poor mother had supposedly raised him mostly by herself before her passing. Wang is only being sympathetic—"

"But his mother was married, as far as I know. She was honorable." Placing the bakery keys in her purse, "Tell him to keep his sympathy under check."

With a frustrated huff, "I'll give that lady extra cash. Just say you're the one who arranged it."

"Fine. And if you do decide to go receive her at the station, fix up your horrendous look. She's gonna flee the entire country if she sees you like that, and I'm not having you chase off my employees."

"I'll get one of the Kyoshi Warriors to go—"

"Thank heavens." Handing him a scroll, "And here, she sent me her ticket number and other details. Pass it on to whoever's going."

Sokka unfurled the scroll and skimmed over the crucial contents in curiosity. Ticket number: four hundred seventy-one. Passengers: Yue Taqqiq and newborn daughter, Ummi Taqqiq.

The universe seemed to stop for him all at once.

"Umaani is dead, sir."

Hahn took off his crimson mask and leaned against his seat, eyeing his informant, "Is she really?"

"We obtained some information from an abbey in the Earth Kingdom. She delivered a girl and passed away due to blood loss and some other complications. Yue was with her, too."

"And where is Yue now?" Hahn demanded.

"We checked records and documentation of nearby transports. The Makapu monorail system recorded ticket number four hundred seventy-one with passengers listed as Yue and Ummi Taqqiq."

"She thinks she can just rob my spawn and get away with it," Hahn huffed. "Arnook created those trust assets twenty years ago. With interest, his proceeds have likely accrued to ten million gold pieces already. And without that kid, I won't be able to touch any of it."

"Your sister-in-law gave away her share of assets so your wife wouldn't be adversely affected," spoke another Snake-Blood. "I don't think she'll hesitate to transfer this share, too, so long as she gets to keep the kid for herself. You don't want the kid anyway, and she feels strongly about it. All we really need to do now is arrange for a business meeting of sorts, right? Make it so she can keep the kid if she transfers the money over to you—"

"If it was that easy, I wouldn't be so hell-bent on capturing and finishing off that tiny brat, you idiot," Hahn retorted. "Yue has no right to transfer the assets. She can only withdraw funds to take care of that brat and afford her education in the future. And even if Yue could transfer the money, why would she do that being in her right mind? She needs the money right now, and they're practically in the streets. If any valid transfers of ownership have to be done, it's by the brat herself. She's gotta reach marrying age to competently transfer the funds, and no one here has the time or patience to wait sixteen years."

But waiting was not an option if Water Tribe law was on their side anyway, Hahn had stressed.

"If that brat dies, the property in the trust goes to immediate kin. As the father, I get the proceeds. The law prioritizes parents over aunts and uncles in the succession line."

Another Snake-Blood piped up, "Maybe we have one less thing to worry about if we just keep the kid instead of killing it? Withdraw the funds any time we want to 'care' for the kid—"

"Why would we go an extra mile when we can just get the money at once? I'm not raising anyone. I understand that many of you might strongly oppose killing a child, but to be a true Snake-Blood, you should have no mercy."

"This isn't about mercy, sir. This is about advantage," the Snake-Blood said. "If I may, can I suggest something?"

Hahn nodded.

"I really don't think killing her is necessary. It may be beneficial if you don't harm her, actually, and take legal action instead. That way, we don't need to have blood on our hands. If she crosses any lines following that, law enforcement will take care of her."

"Are you being serious?"

"This can be advantageous for us. We can threaten to kill the kid and blackmail your sister-in-law to testifying to the barristers that Umaani's kid died. Those barristers have never seen Umaani's daughter. They don't know she had a daughter. It will be very easy to spin a story that the mother and child did not make it past childbirth. The conditions they were in as they traveled caused an adverse impact on the health of the mother and the child."

"And what if they actually see the kid with her—?

"Then she can testify that the child that's with her is her own and not yours. Born out of wedlock. Arnook's provisions once included her and her children as the beneficiaries, but she voluntarily extinguished her rights and transferred her shares to you. The trust cannot go back and provide for her and her children, so this statement will not adversely affect you."

"And do you think the barristers will believe all of this?"

"Why not? Weren't there rumors that your sister-in-law was seeing a tribesboy many years ago when she went to university?"

"They haven't been in contact for many years—"

"But we can make her testify that she reconnected with him. Spin it like this: You, Hahn, were a loving husband to Umaani and a caring brother figure to Yue. You wanted only the best for Yue and sought to marry her off to a wealthy man. But Yue, still having feelings for her old lover, finally reached out to him. They were having an affair in secret, and she fell pregnant, but he abandoned her and the child. To preserve her honor and to prevent others from finding out about this, she purposefully set the manor on fire and escaped with her already-expecting sister, and she is seeking to justify her actions by claiming you were being abusive to her sister and that she needed to get Umaani out of there to "protect her from you." Umaani played along because she valued her sister more than you, but Umaani and her child ended up dead. Yue is in the streets with her baby with no financial assistance whatsoever, and that's why she's claiming that her child is actually your child. In reality, she whored herself out to a man and is saying the child is yours so she can claim you were an unfit parent. That she, as the 'aunt' who can actually care for the child, can have access to the money. Water Tribe courts will find this story believable, trust me. Crazy shit happens when it comes to succession and kinship determination."

Hahn rubbed his head, "Maybe shit like this happens in other people's lives, but why would we go through all of this legal stuff if I can just kill off the brat without anyone knowing? There's nothing she'll be able to prove."

"Think about it. If you kill your kid, she's going to push that fact in court. The prosecutors will be after you, and if you have someone constantly on your tail, that is not beneficial for the well-being of the Snake-Bloods and the secrecy of our activity. If she really is that desperate to keep the child, she will agree to anything. Even if it means screaming to the world that she's a whore. And because your kid is dead, you can receive your kid's proceeds. Even after you have the money transferred over to you, it's not like you will make her walk out of your life. You will still benefit from threatening to really kill the child. After all, you've been wanting to get information about the inner workings of Gansu and Ba Sing Se's deepest, darkest secrets about the Night Wolf. Maybe you can force her to be an informant for the Snake-Bloods. You're going to need the kid to be alive and well for this to work, and there's no point you finish her off in one sitting."

"Yes…" Hahn folded his arms, calculating the future, "Yes, you're right."

"Think of it this way, too, sir. You'd been wanting Yue for a long time now, but she put up quite a fight. Burned down her own childhood home so she could flee with Umaani. But now, you can bed her so easily. Just keep a dagger at the baby's throat; she'll do anything to keep the kid alive. Even if it means dancing to your tunes."

Hahn sighed, "Well need to find her and that brat for this to work. We might have elaborate plans in place, but we can't do anything unless we capture her and bring her before a Northern Water Tribe court. We need to begin the hunt more seriously."

"We'll have posters hung up if—"

"No, that's not a good idea," Hahn mused, shaking his head. "If we notify the world about this, the Hounds will know, too, and they will offer her protection. They will use her to extract information about us."

"She's headed to Gansu, too. Once she sets foot on Gansu soil, it's over." another uncertain Snake-Blood mentioned. "Stepping into Gansu is basically suicide, sir. The Hounds—"

"Who said anything about stepping into Gansu?" Hahn said. "The monorail is going to stop at the Gansu-Ibbein border. We will have our men ready at Ibbein—"

"But sir, Ibbein is also under the Night Wolf's control as a bordering province even if it's not as—"

"Just do as I say!" Hahn roared, the fiery dance of the torchlight bringing into view the symbol of a black, hooded snake tattooed onto his wrist. "This is a risk we need to take! I'm getting a hold of that woman, and that's final!"

Long hair, silken white. A smile that sent adrenalin racing. A walking glimmer of light. Yue Taqqiq.

A dazed Sokka idly wandered the streets beneath the scorching Gansu sun, lost in a storm of unresolved tensions and buried passions, his gaze wrecked by tsunamis of softness and cyclones of chaos. Palpitations raided his chest, every pore of his being singing the same name: Yue. The painful void that she left with her sudden disappearance many years ago now ached to be filled with her presence again. Even the rustle of the leaves seemed to humor him in their whispers: Yue, Yue, Yue…

How long had it been? All those years ago—an entire decade. He could still picture that fateful night: the image of the smoldering eastern corner of the university campus, the aftermath of a raging fire that had consumed the women's residential unit because of a faulty street lamp that fell and crashed into the dormitory. Timely interventions, thanks to the Spirits, had left all students unharmed, but to everyone's horror, Yue was never found. The vicinity of her room, too, was tragically where the street lamp had crashed and started the fire; hence, her room was the first to be consumed.

Sokka could never forget the dread that paralyzed him the entire three days the inspection of the Upper Ring Fire Department dragged on around campus. He could never forget the juxtaposing tides of relief and sheer panic when the department confirmed that no human remains were found in the destruction, indicating she had not been in her room before the fire started. She could've snuck out and left a note, but it would have definitely been consumed in the accident. Maybe she was taken— anything could have happened from there.

Yue never did return, her disappearance causing sheer madness. The last time Sokka saw anything having to do with her was her portrait that was attached to a missing person's report, filed by Ba Sing Se University with the Department of Upper Ring Investigations. For several days, Sokka was rattled, devastated, sneaking out of the campus to conduct his own searches, not caring to appear for classes. And less than a month later, he was summoned back home, confronted with the harsh reality that his parents were gone.

It was easy for him to shed his ability to heal with Yue having disappeared, with his mother gone, with Katara kept away from his vicinity, with the investigations behind Yue's disappearance later discontinued.

"I'm sorry, young man, but there is nothing we can do."

The fire in Sokka's eyes threatened to burn down his igloo as he glared daggers at the investigation officers, who had trudged along to the Southern Water Tribe all the way from Ba Sing Se to tell him exactly what he didn't want to hear. "So you're giving up?!"

Trying to pacify the hot-blooded nineteen-year-old, one of the officers said, "Look, son, if we were the type to give up so easily, we would've spent all the resources we used to come down here on finding your friend instead. But we have no choice but to close this case. It has been three years. We have checked every nook and corner of Ba Sing Se and got no information whatsoever. We used her address on file to reach the Northern Water Tribe, and our correspondences were sent back to us for improper address. We even had a few agents scour her hometown and province in the North, but we have no information where Mr. Arnook Taqqiq is or whether she is with him."

"Even before she went missing, Mr. Taqqiq had moved away from that area, and his whereabouts were unknown," another officer supplied. "He was suffering from ill health, and his son-in-law had shifted the business to another location. No one knows where in the North they are, and they apparently have not contacted the university regarding their daughter's disappearance. One explanation can be that she went home, and they didn't reach out because she was with them, but one would expect someone of their class and sophistication to reach out to officially terminate her time at the university or formally revoke her enrollment. We don't know what the situation is. She didn't transfer her credentials or formally declare herself as a dropout. Her enrollment terminated due to lack of attendance."

"And even if she enrolled in another university, her credentials would have to have been transferred, but that did not happen either. We are unable to contact them. And if we cannot contact them…there is nothing else we can do. We just don't have any clues or leads in this case."

The female officer in the trio was more gentle and careful in her explanation, "And we also need to think about the harsh realities regarding race and gender violence in Ba Sing Se, Mr. Urumiq. I understand you have a sister you're currently providing for. She's at Whaletail Island, yes, for healing school? And I understand your mother had wanted her to go there because it was Water Tribe territory. It was safer for women and had a large Air Nomad population."

Sokka nodded.

"You see, these are factors that the family members of any young woman would have to take into account. I'm sure Miss Yue Taqqiq was sent to Ba Sing Se under privileged conditions so she would be safe, but…increasingly, Ba Sing Se's upper ring women have become unfortunate victims of kidnapping and violence committed in lower rings. And it also does not help that the environment in certain parts of the Earth Kingdom, such as Ba Sing Se, is especially tense for Water Tribe diaspora. If we're talking about a young Water Tribe woman living in the upper ring dorms… and based on Miss Yue's portrait, she is a very beautiful young woman, no doubt…" Sighing, "I don't want to have to say this, but…anything could have happened. We're finding more and more upper ring women discarded in lower ring slums without an inch of clothing on their bodies—" And she had to abruptly stop at the horrific look unfolding on Sokka's face, "I don't mean to distress you further, Mr. Urumiq, but just last year, even the city of Gaoling, which does not have a crime rate as high as the lower rings of Ba Sing Se, found a Gaoling graduate student raped and her body abandoned in a ditch—"

"NOTHING'S GONNA HAPPEN TO YUE!" Sokka cried, "She's safe, and she's out there somewhere, I can feel it!"

"I understand you have emotional ties to her, but you have to admit that even your personal investigations haven't led you anywhere—"

"You just don't care!"

"Son, we understand you are still grieving—"

"You just don't want anything to do with us Water Tribe savages!" he hissed, his tears boiling.

"No, son, that's not—"

"You could care less! Either that or you're all failures!" he choked out, trapping his sobs in his throat as the officers stared at him with utmost patience, "You're all failures with no respect for the life of an innocent woman!"

To think he had lived a lifeless life all these years in the wake of these frustrations. His rage and fury for the Snake-Bloods consumed him. He had become like his father, neck-deep in violence — maybe not a monster, obviously not a respectable saint but definitely unfit for a normal life, undeserving of approaching Yue in his disheveled state.

Yet today…Warmth and relief replaced cold, hardened uncertainty. For the most part, Yue was okay. Of course, he still had his fears; she was a mom and was raising a child on her own— what piece of yakshit could have abandoned her like that? She wasn't in a financially stable position— What even happened? Though these were only some of several questions bubbling inside of him. WHERE did you go? WHY did you leave without notice? Where have you been all this time? Didn't you feel like reaching out to me at least once in these ten years?

Do you still remember what we had?

And moreover, would she recognize him like this? Probably, probably not. He was no longer the boy whose voice cracked, no longer the boy who cracked jokes, no longer the boy who spent hours in the dormitory bathroom for a simple clean shave before meeting up with her for classes. Even he had forgotten who that boy was; did she forget, too? What was she like now? Of course, women don't undergo radical facial hair changes, but did she still laugh at poorly made jokes? Were her smiles as demure as he remembered them to be? Did she still obsess over the moon and stars each night?

And…would she hate who he has become now?

But why did it matter? He could never approach her anyway.

"He is dedicating his life to this cause."

"Under no circumstances are you to communicate with anyone other than fellow Hounds."

"To further the Hound Philosophy, you must be heartless. To destroy the Snake-Bloods, you must be heartless."

Sokka tore at his bottom lip, seized by caution. He was not supposed to traverse this path if he didn't want people getting hurt because of him. He hadn't reached out to Katara in years despite her attempts at contacting him, only sending gifts for his sister's ever-growing family every year through Piandao. Sokka couldn't afford the fatal flaw of giving away the identity of his loved ones, and as such, he was not supposed to insert himself into this no matter how he was dying to approach Yue.

It was forbidden.

But at this very moment in time, he was feeling a rush of ardor, like a persistent hand was squeezing his heart in all kinds of ways. It woke within him a tender burden from long ago: he never did get the chance to tell her how he felt about her. And suddenly, the dull world around him became more colorful in a mere few seconds. There was an energy in his step, rivalling the usual lethargy in his blood. He felt younger, more vibrant. The drumbeat in his chest picked up, reminding him that he was a living being. For a brief speck of time, he became a teenager again. Luckily, his smile muscles hadn't atrophied. His grin stretched wider and wider before he burst into a joyous laugh that was so foreign to those around him.

Yue is coming to Ba Sing Se!

He could not explain his feelings, nor could he categorize the little beams of wonder and delight that ebbed within him. And the next thing he knew, he found himself standing at a maternity stall in the bazaar several blocks away, tugged by inexplicable instinct. His befuddled state caught the attention of the old vendors, who gave him a kind, wrinkly smiles and offered to help him out.

"Alright, we got the diapers and the blankets and the yakmilk cans. What size clothes for the baby, sweetie?"

"Uh…newborn…"

"Boy or girl?"

"Girl."

"Does Mama need anything?"

"I don't know… Can you pick out what might be helpful…?"

"Maybe some loose robes would be a good start? They'll be comfy for nursing moms. Nursing pads are good, too."

"Yeah…" blinking, scratching his head, "I, uh…I don't know which… Can you pick those out, too?"

"Okay, sweetie, don't wear yourself out," the other woman chuckled, heading to the back where her co-vendor was packing additional supplies. "First-time dad, I think."

"Would be nice if he shaved. He looks hideous."

"Eh, he's probably stressed, cut him some slack." She turned to see that his attention was now on the toys laid out to the side as he held onto a collection of bibs in one hand. "That baby's gonna have him wrapped around her finger."