Gladiator

by Seyary-Minamoto

In a world where the Avatar wasn't found, the Fire Nation took over two nations and they strive to overcome the last one. Water Tribe warrior Sokka seeks to fight for his people's rights, but he's captured by his enemies. His life is no longer in his hands as he fights as a Gladiator, and his fate will eventually depend on the Fire Nation Princess, who needs him for her own ends...

212. Chapter 212: The Spirit Library 3

Any moment now, he'd wake up to find himself in Ba Sing Se still, preparing for their trip to the desert. Or maybe they were still in the Race, and this was part of the Swamp's delirium, and his brain was still addled by whatever weird water they had been given while resting overnight. Or perhaps everything had been a dream altogether, all along, and he would wake up a child in the South Pole, in a world where a war's outcome still appeared difficult to determine…

He didn't expect his subconscious mind could have cooked up the countless hardships and ordeals he had endured over the past years, let alone the bliss he had experienced with Azula. But it was much easier for Sokka to believe everything so far had been a dream than to accept that the twelve-foot-tall barn owl before them had not only spoken intelligibly, but claimed to be a guardian spirit, the protector of the Library.

Still, time ticked by, and nothing happened: he hadn't woken up, and those creepy eyes still studied all of them, finding them unworthy and unwanted guests. The more he pondered it, the less he believed it was possible, and yet…

"A-a… A-a…" he managed to blurt out, hoping to call for his partner, but Azula was frozen cold behind him, her eyes wide as plates… just like his own were, he knew.

"Did you not hear me?" the owl spoke again, and once more they flinched.

It wasn't that the voice sounded particularly dangerous, or ominous… if anything, it sounded quite like that of an annoyed librarian who had no patience for disrespectful visitors. Which, it turned out, was exactly what the owl was supposed to be, yet that notion failed to register in the Princess and her gladiator's minds altogether. Only Xin Long seemed to give his eyes credit, and his every instinct begged him to scoop up his riders and flee the way they'd come…

"It's… an owl. A talking owl" Azula finally blurted out, and Sokka gritted his teeth.

"Y-you sure we should be telling the talking owl what it is? I mean, you know, that could sound insulting…?" he said, and Azula shot him a quick scathing look, with more than enough panic sprinkled into it.

"Foolish mortals" the owl said next, and if it had been human it might just have shaken its head in a disapproving and dismissive gesture "I am Wan Shi Tong, he who knows a thousand things. And I advise you do not make me repeat myself any further: you are not welcome in this Library"

"And it's threatening us now" Sokka said, with a trembling grin "Azula…"

"I… excuse us, please" Azula said, swallowing hard as she averted her gaze from the creature… only for it to land on its feathers, and then its large, ridged talons. A shiver rushed through her body: did she seriously just speak to a massive owl? A spirit owl? This defied all logic, everything she had ever understood about her world… but if she didn't do it, the creature before her might just lash out and attack, by the sounds of it "We… we came to your Library to search for some information, but the truth is… we didn't quite expect to find it"

"Then you aren't a very skilled searcher, if you expect to fail on the quest you set out on" Wan Shi Tong declared. Now the shiver that rushed down Azula's spine was accompanied by an emotion she was quite familiar with: irritable pride.

"Perhaps I ought to rephrase my words, then" Azula said, and she raised her eyes at the owl once more: her surge of annoyance at the creature's judgment was overriding the blend of genuine terror and utter disbelief that had taken over her when the creature had first presented itself before them "What we didn't expect was… for this Library to truly be a spiritual location, if that's what it is. But, I mean, it… it has to be. You're… you're a spirit, aren't you?"

Sokka whimpered beside her: the notion of real, tangible, physical spirits did away with whatever grasp he thought he had on reality. For all these years he had assumed spirits were but cultural fabrications, old folktales meant to explain the workings of the world that science wasn't advanced enough to unravel yet. But science certainly had advanced a fair share… and he highly doubted it would ever explain a massive library buried in the desert, guarded by an owl that doubled Sokka's height, if not tripled it. He hadn't yet picked up the first book, and the Library's contents had already changed his understanding of the world completely…

"Of course I am" Wan Shi Tong confirmed, and Azula swallowed hard "Do you truly need to ask? Judging by your reactions, you've seldom encountered any beings such as myself in the surface"

"'Seldom' would imply we'd encountered any before…" Azula mumbled, but she shook her head "Well, very well, we… we'll have to process all this, true, admittedly both me and my companion here spent a long time believing spirits didn't exist at all, so this is… it's quite a shocking discovery"

"You sought out this Library while not believing in spirits?" Wan Shi Tong asked.

"We did" Azula nodded "Because… well, we were told that, if the knowledge we need is stored somewhere, it'd be here. And as we had free time, we flew to the desert to search for the Library indeed, though it didn't look like we'd find it…"

"We actually thought this was some old watchtower or something" Sokka chimed in, with an awkward grin. Oh, how foolish he felt, speaking to an owl… and surely the owl would feel foolish too, if it was an all-knowing spirit indeed, speaking to ignorant humans such as them.

"We were hiding from sandbenders who came after us, and… well, out of sheer curiosity we decided to investigate what hid underneath the tower" Azula continued, biting her lip "It's not quite easy to find a Library that's nearly fully buried underground, you must realize…"

"It was easier in the past" Wan Shi Tong declared, and his voice grew darker now "But humans wore my patience thin. It was bad enough that many would visit the Library to seek knowledge merely for warfare and strategic purposes, anything they could use to defeat their enemies… but the last human visitor dared set fire to an entire section of my Library, so no one else could gain knowledge to exploit about his nation. After such an unforgivable affront against my Library, I sank it into the desert. My Knowledge Seekers continue their quest to expand my Library's contents through whatever new knowledge they may yet learn of your world… but I won't allow any other human to browse my collection for nefarious purposes"

Azula blinked blankly. Sokka swallowed hard and lowered his head: did that mean he'd have to forget about the bombs he had hoped to build? It was, after all, something he was doing to defeat Toph. If the spirit owl were as strict as it seemed, there was no way it would allow him to look up that kind of information… but the same couldn't be said for Azula's purposes.

"Wait a moment" the Princess raised her hand, staring at the owl sternly: somehow, it was growing easier to accept she was speaking with an owl the longer she did it "A visitor set fire to a section of this Library? Can I ask which section…? Or, better yet, was that visitor a, well, a Lieutenant in the Fire Nation's Armed Forces?"

"Why… indeed, it was" Wan Shi Tong answered, and although his expression hardly shifted, it almost felt as though he were as wary of Azula now as she was of him.

"So I assume… he burned the Fire Nation section, so no one could find out about our weaknesses, just as he found out whatever weakness he'd discovered of the waterbenders" Azula finished, gritting her teeth "And it's his fault that you're casting us out now?"

"He was but the last straw… yet he certainly convinced me of my decision to bar entrance to all but my Knowledge Seekers" Wan Shi Tong declared "Many humans have come and gone, however, and I have yet to meet any who might be worthy of browsing this collection"

"Really? No one came in here just to read a nice novel or…?" Sokka asked, earning himself a skeptical grimace from his secret wife "What? Had to ask…"

"Well, if you truly did have to, no. No one did" Wan Shi Tong finished "And I must say, the fiction section is of utmost quality. It would almost be a shame that no humans approached it, if it weren't because humans are unworthy of it, just as they are unworthy of every other section of the Library"

"Is there no way to change your mind on that particular matter?" Azula asked, frowning "Or, well… perhaps you don't have to change it at all, come to think of it. Perhaps we're indeed as unworthy as you think. But… one of us isn't human"

Her words startled Xin Long, who flinched and shrunk in his frame further. Azula turned to smile reassuringly at him, but the dragon's eyes were wide with fear.

"This is my dragon, Xin Long" Azula explained "And he's the first dragon to be found in over half a century. We bonded many years ago, and he has searched for other dragons to no avail up to date… I've always promised him that I would help him find others of his kind, if there are more dragons left to be found at all, but I hadn't had the chance to do so until now. And while I doubt your Library hosts any dragons of its own, I do suspect that, if any place across our world has enough information about the likely locations where dragons might nest or where they might have left an egg, perhaps… it would be this Library"

Her words gave Wan Shi Tong pause, and Azula was relieved for it. The owl held its silence briefly, its dark eyes bearing into the Princess and her dragon… but before long, they shifted towards her alone.

"You have completed a bonding ritual with this dragon?" Wan Shi Tong asked, and Azula nodded "You are, then, a firebender. Is this why you're acquainted with the Lieutenant who burned my Library's section on the Fire Nation?"

"Indeed" Azula said, nodding "Do excuse that I haven't introduced myself yet, this entire discovery has been… well, quite groundbreaking. At any rate, I'm Azula, Crown Princess of the Fire Nation"

"Crown Princess?" the owl spoke… and this time, his voice was tinged with unrepentant curiosity.

"I won't deny my nation has committed no shortage of cruel acts and dreadful crimes" Azula said, lowering her head towards the spirit "What Zhao did in your Library is but one more sign of… of what's well and truly rotten within my culture. No apology I speak will suffice, especially if you don't believe humans can be anything but deceitful and cruel… but, if you'll allow it, I have come up with an offer that I hope you might find agreeable"

"Is that so? Do speak your mind, then" Wan Shi Tong encouraged her, and Azula's heart raced inside her chest.

"I cannot promise to make up for all the knowledge that was lost by Zhao's actions… but if you would like to replenish your knowledge on the Fire Nation, I will share everything I know, everything you may ask about" she said, bowing her head towards Wan Shi Tong. Sokka gasped beside her, and she hoped once his initial shock receded, he would be proud of her decision "I've spent years learning all I can about my nation, ranging across a myriad of subjects… history, geography, arts, music, and of course, bending: I can speak to you about all of it. And, if all goes well, and I become Fire Lord eventually, as I'm supposed to be… then I would offer something better than that: I could have copies of all the most important books and tomes of our culture sent to this Library, enough to make up for those you lost and then some. If… if you'll have that, of course"

"You offer this freely?" Wan Shi Tong mused "Humans, venturing information rather than vying for it by any means necessary?"

"Well, it's an exchange of sorts" Azula admitted, with an awkward smile "I suppose that, while I share everything I can with you, my gladiator would be browsing-…"

"Your gladiator?"

Her own slip of tongue petrified Azula where she stood. Oh, dear. Well, by the time she made her offer she had as good as assumed she would have to speak of the world's current developments, such as slavery and the Gladiator Business, but somehow it had slipped her mind entirely that the spirit wouldn't know anything about gladiators until now. Perhaps it would be less agreeable once it knew about Sokka's standing in Fire Nation society, understanding their relationship as one where she exercised a forceful, violent authority upon him…

"Uh, yeah" Sokka chimed in, stepping forward and nodding. Azula tensed up, watching him as she failed to find words to answer to the creature herself "I'm the Princess's partner. My name's Sokka"

"What is this… gladiator matter?" Wan Shi Tong asked, pointedly "The word escapes my knowledge. Is it a derivate of the word 'glad', perhaps? Are you… the Princess's jester?"

The Princess's concerns weren't quite swept away by the spirit's question… yet they certainly were put on hold when she heard it: she laughed so loudly her voice echoed all through the Library. The owl, naturally had little sense of humor and watched Azula's laughter spree with the same curiosity he had born in his large eyes when she introduced herself, but Sokka was frozen solid with embarrassment now, his face heating up as he shot a sharp glare at Azula. She was bending forward as she laughed, her arms squeezing her stomach.

"I'm not her jester!" Sokka exclaimed, his voice cracking as it ever did when his pride was injured: the sound did nothing to slow down Azula's laughter spree "I'm a warrior who fights for her, or alongside her, whatever's needed! So…!"

"A warrior?" Wan Shi Tong said, and now he seemed to judge both Sokka and Azula far more harshly than before "And why would you have need to bring a warrior with you to this Library?"

"U-uh, wait, it's not quite like… like what you might be fearing" Azula said, his tone sobering her up quite quickly. She raised a hand and breathed deeply "I will explain, well, the course the Fire Nation has taken over recent years. A lot of it is ugly business, why deny it, and the Gladiator Business is amongst the ugliest of them all… it will certainly look that way to you, I suppose, considering your stance on humans. But the truth is, while I may have initially hired Sokka for my own ends, for the sake of having him fight for me when I couldn't fight for myself, by now we have a partnership that transcends everything either of us took for granted in our world. I… I have learned so much from him, and well, he may have learned a thing or two from me…"

"More than just that, but it's still pretty mean of you to laugh at the idea of me being your jester…" Sokka pouted, and Azula chuckled again, despite the tension of the situation.

"Well, in all fairness, I've laughed more with you in these past years than I did in all the years before we met, so even if you're not a jester, you sure have made my life far more lively" Azula smiled.

"Heh, well, that's kind of flattering actually" Sokka conceded, with a grin of his own now "Anyways, Spirit of Knowledge, as much as Azula is supposed to be superior to me in just about every sense, she has always treated me as an equal even if we're supposed to be natural enemies. And by now, well, she and I are, uh…"

Azula raised an eyebrow as Sokka blushed and glanced at her with uncertainty. Was their relationship something they wanted the Library to record forevermore? Chances were the owl would find the information utterly irrelevant anyhow, but still…

"You are what?" Wan Shi Tong asked, curtly.

It wasn't like it could hurt, could it? No humans had visited this place for decades, at least. Wan Shi Tong wasn't likely to change his mind and stance on humans completely, not even if he miraculously got along with them, so… why not confess the truth? As they held each other's gazes, it was easy to tell they were of one mind as to how to answer that question.

"We are… secretly married, actually" Azula finished Sokka's sentence, breathing out as her gladiator grinned at her "We've been in a clandestine relationship for a few years. It's clandestine because, if it were known, my father, the Fire Lord, would never accept it and would likely demand to execute Sokka for tainting me and whatnot…"

"But that hasn't stopped us anyhow" Sokka declared, stubbornly "We're better together, always have been!"

"A relationship, you say" Wan Shi Tong spoke plainly, utterly impervious to how Azula and Sokka's hearts were racing after acknowledging the true nature of their bond out loud as they had "Marriage, even. By your appearance, I would surmise you are of Water Tribe birth?"

"Uh, yeah?" Sokka said, nodding "Southern Water Tribe, actually"

"Then your nations are at war, or were, the last I knew" Wan Shi Tong continued "Yet you claim love has bloomed between you?"

"Well, yeah. You don't believe us?" Sokka asked, grimacing "Heck, that's harsh… but, come to think of it, as we didn't believe in spirits before, I guess spirits don't believe in us?"

"Weird way of putting it" Azula said, biting her lip as she awaited the owl's judgment.

"Either you are attempting to earn my goodwill by lying about a relationship that doesn't exist between you… or you are truly honest and risking your very lives by being involved with each other" Wan Shi Tong announced, finally. Sokka scowled "The latter would be a rarity, all things considered, coming from humans…"

"Really, now? You think we're pulling your… uh, feathers? Do you need a demonstration of how much I love her, right here and now? Because I can kiss her for hours on end if you insist…!" he exclaimed, wrapping an arm around Azula's shoulders and drawing her closer

"Sokka!"

"I mean it though! I mean, it would be fun to do that no matter the situation, but if he needs proof…"

"Surely there's better proof of your closeness rather than physical displays" Wan Shi Tong said, a hint of judgment in his voice again.

"Oh! Our scars!" Sokka exclaimed, grinning as he removed his glove and offered the owl a glimpse at his right palm "See that? That's my scar from our wedding ceremony! If you do know everything, then surely you know that for weddings, Water Tribes…!"

"Have a handfasting ceremony, yes" said Wan Shi Tong, studying Sokka's scar before turning to Azula "Where's yours?"

"Uh… under these bandages" Azula said, with a dry grin as she showed her hand to the owl "I fractured this wrist recently… but I suppose I could use a change of bandages, right? We brought some in the pack, didn't we?"

"Oh, yeah. As long as Wan Shi Tong here doesn't decide to chase us out immediately if we displease him, we can change them now" Sokka said, grinning as he reached for Azula's hand, helping her undo the bandages slowly.

After a few moments, the bandage was fully peeled off, and Azula's hand was exposed after Sokka undid the splint carefully. Wan Shi Tong eyed the scar on her hand with the same keen curiosity as before.

"So… is that enough proof?" Azula asked, with an uneasy smile "I mean, there's more things we can share to prove it, if you truly need to hear that. Such as… ah, I suppose you mustn't know anything about gold firebending, or do you?"

"Such research, if it was to be found anywhere in the Library, has been burned along with everything to do with your nation" Wan Shi Tong retorted bitterly. Azula grimaced.

"Well… chances are there was no such research in the first place, seeing as I've been told this particular firebending technique hasn't been recorded in history before" Azula said, raising her left hand.

"Hey, wait though!" Sokka exclaimed, and Azula pouted at him.

"I'm using my left, there's no need to be twitchy about me using my bending now…"

"No, I mean, show him the blue fire too! Maybe he hasn't seen that either!" Sokka said, with his childish giddy grin. Azula blinked a few times before smiling back and nodding.

"Well, that's possible. Alright, my usual firebending looks like this" she said, stretching her middle and index fingers to produce a small plum of blue fire.

Wan Shi Tong remained silent as the flame danced elegantly within Azula's perfect, tight control. She breathed deeply before closing her eyes, ignoring the owl's unresponsiveness.

"And if I evoke the love I feel for Sokka…" she whispered, now spreading her hand fully so the fire would dance on her palm instead.

By the time she opened her eyes, the Library was bathed by a golden hue. Sokka smiled brightly at the less restrained fire: he turned his grin at her moments later, and the Princess's heart surged with pride for it.

"This golden fire is affected by your emotional state, then?" Wan Shi Tong spoke, and Azula nodded.

"Technically, all fire is affected by its bender's emotional state" she said "But this gold fire… I only developed it after I realized my inner fire flared differently whenever I thought about him or spent enough time with him. It has several uses too…"

"She saved my life with it once. Cauterized a bad wound I had, I can even show you my patched-up skin…" Sokka said, solemnly, and Azula gritted her teeth as unwanted memories returned to her mind.

"Yeah, I… I did. And I'd rather not have to do it again, but it's a good thing I could use gold fire for those purposes anyhow" she said, before pressing her lips into a tight line.

"Ah! There's another thing we can show him!" Sokka said, grinning at Azula "Indirect bending!"

"O-oh… that" Azula said, smiling awkwardly "Well, let's hope it works this time too"

"The situation isn't anywhere near as dire as it always is when we use it, so it shouldn't be a problem…" Sokka pouted.

"Might be that tense and dire situations are the real key to this technique, rather than how physical our relationship may be" Azula laughed, placing her left hand on his armored shoulder: Sokka had turned, so he stood with his back towards the Princess "Put up your fist"

"Ready!" Sokka said, breathing out as Azula's left hand tightened around his armor plates.

She breathed deeply too, focusing on ensuring the flame would appear at the level of Sokka's hand. With a surge of energy, she unleased the impulse of firebending… and within moments, a small blast of orange-blue fire surged out of Sokka's knuckles.

The gladiator shivered: the sensation was ever foreign, no matter if they had done it enough times for him to know exactly what to expect. Still, he smiled: being part of Azula's bending was always exhilarating, strange as it might be to experience bending in this way…

"I suppose you mustn't have seen that either, but…" Azula started, with a proud grin, but Wan Shi Tong interrupted her.

"I never thought I would see Sheng Weiyang's theory proven true, but it seems he was correct"

"Uh… who, now?" Sokka asked, blinking blankly.

"I've never heard that name before" Azula said, with an awkward smile "But, uh, I take it it's a scholar who looked into bending's boundaries, perhaps?"

"Sheng Weiyang wrote fiction, actually. Erotic fiction" Wan Shi Tong spoke plainly, and as well-versed on the subject of eroticism as they might be, both Azula and Sokka blushed profusely at the spirit's words "His most notorious novel was published in the Yi Wen era. The protagonist is a male firebender who, in the throes of passion, firebends by accident through his non-bending lover's body without harming her"

"U-uh… huh?" Sokka said, his voice high-pitched "That… sounds really dangerous"

"Much controversy was sparked by the contents of the novel" Wan Shi Tong continued "Not only over its themes, but over its portrayal of firebending, of course. Some scholars wrote of the futility of testing the novel's proposed theory, citing several unpleasant accidents in the private alcoves of firebenders as proof that Sheng Weiyang's story was but a story… it is, admittedly, quite interesting to witness otherwise now"

"Heh, good to know. Does this mean you believe us now?" Sokka asked, with an awkward grin.

"Because of a dirty book?" Azula said, her eyes unfocused. How many people had read that damn book? Hopefully not her thrice-accursed uncle… no, surely not, otherwise he would have taken their indirect bending attack during their confrontation in the Race as proof of their transgressions. Other than him, the only person to remark on their joint skill had been the Head Sage, who had told them that indirect bending had only been known to happen between people in intimate partnerships…

Oh. Oh, crap.

"I'm more inclined to do so" Wan Shi Tong admitted, and Sokka sighed in relief, ignoring Azula's twitching beside him "But there will be much for the Crown Princess to explain before I'm satisfied. Nonetheless… your intentions don't appear to be as nefarious as I feared. That is, as long as you do not seek dragons for your own benefit, and only for your dragon's own. Is that the case, Crown Princess?"

"W-wait, sorry, what?" Azula said, grinning awkwardly "I was just… spaced out for a moment"

"Azula?" Sokka leaned closer, eyeing her blushing cheeks with curiosity.

"It's nothing, I'll… I'll tell you later, if anything" she said, gritting her teeth.

"He's asking if you have any nefarious purposes in mind for the knowledge of dragons that we're seeking" Sokka recapped, and Azula turned towards the spirit owl again.

"Nefarious? Huh… well, all things considered, I had thought to bring any newfound dragons to the Fire Nation. It seemed, well, fitting, as dragons are supposed to be one and the same with firebenders, as per the Book of Fire, but…"

Azula glanced back at Xin Long. He had stopped trembling, though his unease hadn't fully receded yet. He returned her stare, whiskers twirling in midair, his face an unusual mask of innocence.

Dragons had been hunted to almost extinction upon Fire Lord Hizuo's command, all of it to sate his son's ego. Said son, Azulon, had encouraged even his prized son Iroh to slay the last of the dragons… as much as her father had disapproved of that particular course of action, she remembered the words he had spoken once she and Xin Long made their first grand entrance in the Capital:

"With dragons by our side again, we truly shall be unstoppable"

The words were easy to evoke, as well as her certainty, that day, of her father's view of dragons as useful tools to win further wars. Later on, she had hoped to offer him a discovery of more dragons to dissuade him from developing the bombs he had wanted to use in the war… but she had been looking for solutions to save Sokka, thoughtlessly planning to use that discovery to appease her father's greed for violence and warfare. Comparing majestic creatures like her own animal companion to mere weapons like those bombs was a misguided mistake she had only made out of a blind, reckless need to keep her lover alive. In the end, the bombs hadn't been made and dragons hadn't been found… and perhaps both things were for the best, for many reasons beyond those she had pondered until now.

Her shoulders rose with the deep breath she took before turning towards Wan Shi Tong again. Her voice rang with honesty once she offered him her answer: she could only hope that would be enough to convince the spirit that she spoke the truth.

"I won't misuse this knowledge, if we do find the locations of other dragons" Azula said "I won't reveal that truth to anyone else. My dragon deserves to reunite with his kind, and that's what guides me. If we're successful, and those dragons wish to bond with other humans, I won't discourage it… though I will hope to convey to them, through Xin Long, that they might be better off waiting to find riders until my father is no longer Fire Lord. Once I have enough power, I can ensure dragons won't come to harm by Fire Nation people ever again. Until then, I'd prefer it if they're safe and sound elsewhere, protected and hidden as they have been so far, presumably. I only seek them because I vowed to my dragon that I would help him with this task, and for no personal gain"

"And what of the knowledge about this Library?" Wan Shi Tong asked "Will you vow to protect it as well?"

"If we don't, you'll kick us out…?" Sokka asked.

"Naturally" Wan Shi Tong determined, bluntly.

"Well… I suppose Professor Zei won't be happy, but we could keep the truth to ourselves. At least for a time" Azula said, biting her lip "Perhaps, once the world is better and the Fire Nation section is bustling with all the books we'll bring the next time we visit, you might feel better about humans? But, until then… if it's how you wish it, I'll hold my silence. And I take it you'll hold yours too, Sokka?"

"Yeah, I'm not going to tell people about this place if you don't want us to" Sokka said, raising his hands defensively "Promised thing"

Wan Shi Tong remained silent briefly, weighing their words carefully. Azula clenched her fists – then stretched her right hand when a burst of pain reminded her that her wrist was still healing – and waited for judgment. It seemed that everything would hinge on this moment, and if that was the case…

"Very well. I may not trust you fully yet, but if you prove true to your word to share Fire Nation knowledge with me, I may change my mind for the better" Wan Shi Tong declared, and both Azula and Sokka grinned in unabashed celebration.

"Yes! You won't regret this, you'll see!" Sokka said, throwing a fist in the air "Azula is the biggest Fire Nation nerd there is, she'll tell you so much about it you won't even have room to stuff all that information!"

"I'm… the biggest what?" Azula repeated, hands on her hips, but Sokka was most unwilling to take back his words, grinning goofily at her as he was.

"You heard me, and you know it's true! It's hardly something to be offended by, you know…"

"Honestly, speaking to your wife this way… shame on you" Azula huffed proudly, as Sokka snickered "Anyways, setting aside that now it seems I'm a nerd and you're a jester…"

"Apparently we've been both those things for a fairly long time" Sokka chuckled. Azula couldn't hold back a smile at his assessment.

"Well, you'll have to borrow some of my nerdiness for a bit. Not that you're devoid of it yourself, but still…" Azula said, biting her lip "While I share what I know with him, you should devote yourself to finding whatever information you can on dragons. Rui Shi only gave us three days for this trip, and I'd much rather he doesn't have to barge into this desert again, if possible, so…"

"Got to save time, huh?" Sokka bit his lip but nodded "Well, okay then. Though… before I go scour the endless library, we were going to change your bandages, remember?"

She had forgotten about her splint by now, even after the burst of pain she had experienced when making a fist by sheer instinct. Still, as usual, Sokka hadn't: he took care of her when she wouldn't take care of herself, just as she often did the same for him. If that didn't convince the all-knowing owl of how genuine their love was, Azula didn't know what would.

"Do tend to your injury, Crown Princess" Wan Shi Tong said, as Sokka searched their packs for their medical supplies "You may not have much of an opportunity to do so later. I expect we will be busy for many hours as me and my Knowledge Seekers register all the information you share with us"

"Uh… you keep talking about those Knowledge Seekers?" Sokka asked, returning to Azula with a roll of fresh bandages "Are they owls like you? Or are they other kinds of spirits, by any chance?"

Wan Shi Tong's silence worried Sokka briefly – had that been an offensive question, for some reason? Was it wrong to question a spirit about its choice of words? Yet those concerns were quickly appeased when a small creature appeared, further down the corridor: had they been anywhere else, Sokka might have thought the fox approaching them was a stray dog that had found its way into the building by mistake. But they had been speaking to an owl for all this time – and whenever he allowed himself to ponder that, he wondered if he truly was hallucinating this whole event, frankly – so it hardly seemed out of place for its helpers to be creatures, too.

"This is one of my Knowledge Seekers" Wan Shi Tong declared, as the fox trailed elegantly towards Sokka and Azula "This one shall be guiding you, gladiator, in your quest for information on dragons. The rest shall be working with me and the Crown Princess, in my private study"

"Wait, what? You'll take her elsewhere?" Sokka asked, dismay plain on his face just as he was starting to bandage Azula's hand "Hey, now…"

"What's with that face?" Azula smirked "Come on, you literally spent hours holding me just now as we traveled all the way here. And you'll spend hours doing that again once we're on our way back to Ba Sing Se, so don't start brooding as though we won't see each other for ages…"

"Might as well be the case…" Sokka pouted, focusing again on the bandage. His hands worked deftly as he laced the fabric across her wrist and hand, tightly enough to discourage Azula from moving it too much, but not to the point where it would hurt her "You know I hate being away from you. Ugh, but fine, fine. I guess I'll endure it"

"You'd better" Azula smiled, reaching with her left hand to cup his cheek "We're doing this for a troublemaking dragon after all, aren't we?"

Sokka grinned and nodded: Azula pushed herself to the tips of her toes when she stole a kiss from his lips. As much as Wan Shi Tong didn't seem to need or want any demonstrations of affection, Sokka wrapped an arm around Azula's waist to press their bodies together as he readily, greedily returned her kiss. He could feel her lips curving into a smile against his own, and it brought a grin to his face just the same. The happiness of a loved one was rather contagious, more so when their relationship was as tight as theirs was.

Azula smiled still as they parted, stroking Sokka's cheek gently before leaning down to speak with her still cowering dragon. Xin Long seemed slightly less scared, and a little more hopeful now… but not enough that he would return to his playful, frequently arrogant self just yet. Azula reached a hand to stroke his hair kindly, but at the dragon's soft whimpers she couldn't hold back a soft chuckle, ruffling the hair between his horns.

"No need to make such a fuss, okay?" she said "You'll stay with Sokka, and you'll help him with everything you can… well, if you can, that is. I'll be back as soon as possible, so no need to be such a scaredy-cat anymore, okay?"

Xin Long's playful side made a momentary return only to assure her that he was a scaredy-dragon, if anything, and Azula laughed and shook her head before rising to her full height again. Wan Shi Tong waited for her silently, and as much as the creature was daunting, confusing and flat-out weird, the Princess decided to trust it. It was, without a doubt, a strange first-time encounter with a spirit, but she wouldn't cower from the opportunity to discover more about dragons merely because the owl was creepy.

"I'll see you in a while" Azula told Sokka again, smiling and squeezing his hand gently with her left. He offered her an encouraging grin of his own before she stepped forward, towards the massive owl.

Wan Shi Tong moved gracefully for a creature of its massive girth. It seemed to observe Azula quite keenly, and Sokka hoped, deeply, that the Princess would outdo the spirit's expectations, as she ever outdid people's expectations. He smiled wistfully as he watched her go, disregarding the two sets of eyes that were focused on him until Azula was gone from sight.

"Eh, well, there she goes… and we have work to do too, don't we?" Sokka said, smiling at Xin Long before turning towards the fox. Its tail swayed from side to side in a playful manner "Alright, you're pretty cute, I'll give you that. Want to give us a hand finding any useful information about dragons, foxy?"

He didn't need to ask twice before the creature bounded off in the opposite direction towards where Azula and Wan Shi Tong had left. Sokka shot one last glance towards the corridor they had vanished through; he only hoped Azula would figure out where to find them when the time came. They'd need to eat dinner eventually, and she sure shouldn't spend all night awake, sharing all her knowledge on the Fire Nation with the knowledge spirit and its fox friends… he sighed, hoping Azula would have enough sense to take a break once it was late, and he followed his assigned fox, with Xin Long by his side, dragging his paws and keeping his head ducked still.

"Well, now, sure the big grumpy owl was a shocker, Xin, but are you sure you should be so paranoid and mopey?" Sokka smiled, bumping the dragon lightly with his hip "It doesn't suit you, you know…"

Xin Long growled, lashing into a rant that Sokka couldn't quite comprehend fully, despite understanding the sense of what the creature was saying. He laughed in response, patting Xin Long's head as the dragon pouted in an awkward way.

"Come on, come on, lighten up, buddy" he said "I know spirits are kind of creepy, but there's no need to… u-uh, no, I didn't mean you, foxy, you're nice and pretty! I said so earlier, didn't I!"

Naturally, the fox guiding them had given Sokka a reproachful look, ears downcast at his unintended insult. Sokka sighed, shaking his head as they continued on their way to the Library section they were looking for: perhaps he ought to shut up and only talk about their investigation.

As they had noticed while still hiding within the spire, the dim light of green crystals bathed the Library. Their natural light, akin to that which had guided Sokka and Azula out of the Cave of Two Lovers, was nowhere near as strong as that of fire or the sunlight, but it would suffice for Sokka's upcoming reading spree. He had certainly picked up more reading speed over the years he had spent in the Fire Nation, but not enough that he would be able to read through the full contents of the bookshelf the fox guided him to in a single night. He swallowed hard as he took in the numerous tomes, most of them dusty, as they appeared to have seen little use.

"Good thing he didn't stash dragon knowledge with the Fire Nation books, huh?" Sokka breathed out through his mouth as he reached for the first book, one with a thick spine, fashioned in brown leather "Okay… let's get started"

The book appeared to be an extensive study of a group of dragons somewhere in the Fire Nation. That wasn't particularly promising, but Sokka continued to read it in case it yielded any useful information anyhow. The old pages were raspy to the touch, and his hands felt prickly after passing several pages, but he did his best to ignore the feeling as he scoured the highly detailed report on the dragons' activities.

"Seems like this particular herd… uh, gang, or, um… cluster? Well, you know, whatever a group of dragons are called, were living at the heights of a really tall mountain" Sokka told Xin Long "But you've been out and about in all the mountains of the Fire Nation and found nothing yet, right?"

Xin Long nodded and Sokka sighed, closing the book.

"Maybe another one will do" he said, stashing the book where he'd found it and reaching for another volume.

It was only after he had scoured three books that he realized there was a common pattern in all the texts he'd read so far: every depiction of dragons had something Xin Long lacked.

"Winged dragons" Sokka said, frowning "They're all winged. But you… you're of a different species, right? I don't have anything against your winged cousins, but all these seem to have been sighted or found in the Fire Nation. Which makes me think… that these might be the ones that were hunted by Azula's shitty grandpa"

Xin Long huffed, shaking his head as smoke poured from his nose. Sokka guessed the dragon wouldn't have been against setting any portraits of Azulon on fire if he had the chance to… though, going by Wan Shi Tong's grievances with Zhao, it looked like, if the Library had any such portraits, the Admiral had burned them long before any of them even knew the Library existed.

"There, there" Sokka sighed, patting Xin Long's head "My point is, though… there have to be books about wingless dragons, right? I'd think, anyhow… makes sense, right?"

Xin Long nodded, and Sokka breathed out as he put away the book he'd just scanned quickly. Now he was more selective: he looked through the books, putting them back on the shelves when he only glimpsed winged dragons depicted on the artworks. At last, he found one that depicted a wingless dragon, even if it wasn't a highly detailed drawing.

"Aha! Here's one! Let's see what this book has to say, huh?" Sokka grinned, sitting next to Xin Long. He felt the dragon's warm breathing on his lap as Xin Long snuck closer, to read the book alongside Sokka.

The book was quite old, Sokka realized, perhaps older than the rest he had seen. That didn't bode so well… yet he didn't allow dark thoughts to deter him. Xin Long was alive, here and now. If that was the case, surely other dragons like him could have survived over the centuries and millennia: his kind couldn't possibly have gone extinct even before the winged dragons had, could it?

"Sooo…" he said, speaking out loud so he could interrupt his pessimistic thought flow "Seems like your ancestors were huge, huh? Look at this one… says he was about a hundred meters long? Isn't that insane? He definitely wouldn't have fit in this library, not through that tiny window… ah, and look, you guys have all these different horn patterns! Fancy that, huh? I think the other ones didn't have horns like these… so maybe you guys are the horned dragons, and they're the winged dragons!"

Xin Long nodded promptly, pleased by Sokka's simplistic classification. The winged dragons did have horns of their own, but by the depictions Sokka had seen so far, their horns were mostly straight, with one protruding spike halfway across it. Xin Long's horns were uneven, two-pronged: the wingless dragons, like himself, often seemed to have multiple spikes in their horns. There were some whose horns weren't pointy and sharp, their ends blunt instead. Some had more ridges than Xin Long did, some had less… the variety was quite curious for Sokka, who smiled as he studied the many different aspects of the wingless dragons.

He was enthralled with the book for its contents, rather than for his research: only when he was halfway through a page on dragon eggs did he realize that the information he was reading might prove highly useful.

"Hey, hey! Look at this!" he exclaimed, grinning as he pointed at the depiction of a dragon egg "See what it says here? Horned dragons, like yourself, often protected their eggs from being poached by predators by laying them in deep caves within mountains, as close to the earth's mantle as they could possibly get…! Uh, the earth's mantle, huh? I think that's… a layer of lava underneath solid ground, you know? Like in the Slate. So… I guess if the egg is close to the mantle, it's more likely for it to hatch, huh?"

Xin Long whimpered, and Sokka turned his eyes on the dragon with a sudden realization…

"Wait. Is that… what happened to you?" he asked "You… you were in a cave, deep down, as low as possible, right? So… maybe your mother lay your egg in that cave? Then took off elsewhere, perhaps… and you were born there?"

Xin Long shrugged awkwardly, the only way dragons could, by lowering his head most of all. He wasn't sure: he didn't know, didn't remember the earliest stages of his own life. He didn't sense the passage of time while he had been in the cave, after all… and by the time they had first found him, the dragon hadn't met any others of his kind. He had, most likely, been born alone…

"Maybe there's others like you, Xin" Sokka's voice trembled, and Xin Long turned his eyes on Sokka with unabashed anticipation "I mean, eggs, that old dragons lay somewhere within big mountain caves! I know it's not as easy and straightforward as finding grown dragons, but you could be their adoptive father or so! And you could show them the world, and…! I shouldn't get ahead of myself now, should I?"

Xin Long nodded, but it seemed to Sokka that the dragon's usual pride was returning at last. A fire, not unlike Azula's own, burned in his eyes. He stared at the book intently now, waiting for more information, longing to find out more…

"Okay, okay" Sokka chuckled, scratching the dragon's mane "Let's see if there's anything else of use in here"

The book yielded information in occasional, casual kernels: dragons of Xin Long's species had been glimpsed more often in the Earth Kingdom, and it helpfully provided with several examples and locations of such glimpses. Sokka smiled ferociously at the news, searching quickly through his bags for the papers they had brought with them. With any luck, there would be a map of the world somewhere within their packs…

The Knowledge Seeker had been waiting silently, patiently, so far, but he stepped into Sokka's field of view as he was elbow-deep in one of the backpacks dangling on Xin Long's saddle. Sokka blinked blankly as the fox tilted its head to the side…

"You want to help?" he asked "Uh… any chance you have a map of the world I can borrow? And, uh, free parchment to write on, too? I'm not sure we have enough of it, and if we do, I can't seem to find it, so…"

The fox was gone in a hurry, and Sokka returned to his search right away. If the fox was successful, great, but in case he wasn't…

Xin Long groaned only ten seconds later, and Sokka's jaw dropped when the fox reappeared before him: it carried several folded scrolls in its snout, and it deposited them delicately on the ground before rushing off anew.

"T-thanks? Uh, I guess I'll say it when you come back" Sokka grinned, closing the backpacks as he spread the scrolls open.

He gasped in amazement at the map before him. He couldn't remember seeing a more detailed map of their world so far: there were labels at all the major settlements, even small depictions of some cities and important locations… even, to his surprise, of the four Air Temples. The brush strokes were elegant and light: around the map, encased in a golden decorative frame, were the symbols of each nation… but within that golden frame he spotted swirling shapes, the particular symbol of one specific nation.

"This is a map of Air Nomad make" he mumbled, blinking in disbelief "No wonder it has the temples… damn. This is amazing. This Library is amazing…"

He swallowed hard, thinking twice now about carelessly doodling over the map, as he had initially intended to. Instead, once the knowledge seeker returned with ink and brushes for his use, Sokka copied the map to the best of his ability into a new parchment. The process took him the better part of an hour – at least, he suspected it had been around an hour. It was difficult to tell if time had passed at all or not when they were submerged underground, unable to check what time it was by merely glancing out a window. Nevertheless, once he was finished with his copy, he returned to the book about horned dragons. He followed each indication, marking circles and exes in every location relevant for their quest…

To find the bulk of them were in the northern Earth Kingdom's mountain range: the same general area where they had found Xin Long.

"Huh… that makes things, well, complicated but interesting. Might be you were neighbors with other dragons and never knew, huh?" Sokka smiled uneasily at Xin Long "If they were like you, born in caves, deep underground, and never stepped out into the light… it's not impossible, is it? Happened to you, so…"

Xin Long nodded, smoke pouring from his nostrils in an emotional, excited display. Sokka chuckled, reaching a hand to pet his armored snout gently.

"Calm down, buddy. We're making progress: if there's more to learn, we'll learn it, I promise" he said, breathing deeply.

The maps and texts beckoned him, and he knew he had to keep researching. The mountain range where they had found Xin Long was massive, as he and Azula well knew… for it was the area where they had tried to track down the Rough Rhinos, and where they had lost their way for a whole week, unable to find civilization until Xin Long flew them out of the forest. It wouldn't be easy to figure out where, out of all those mountain ranges, would they find caves where dragons dwelled, or eggs…

"It had to be caves, though. Again. As usual" Sokka sighed, shaking his head "I ought to get over my issues with them, really. I mean, yeah, what happened to Rhone was dreadful, but we did find you in a cave, huh, buddy? And… heh, I've done some really fun things with Azula in caves as of late. Really fun ones. Heh. Hehe… I should stop thinking about that now, shouldn't I?"

Xin Long huffed and nodded, scowling at Sokka reproachfully. The gladiator chuckled and raised his hands protectively before his face, defending himself from the dragon's playful, teasing attacks.

Still, another glance at the map brought one more detail to his attention: at the northernmost end of that mountain range stood the Northern Air Temple, the only one he had visited so far. And that brought thoughts of his personal mission to mind… he grimaced, eyes darting away from the map as he pondered what to do: the fox had been rather generous so far, venturing forth information and supplies as soon as he had asked for them. Would it be, perhaps, too much to ask if he dared request any information about chi-blocking? Would his intent to use the information for nefarious means be obvious for the creature? If it were… would it convey Sokka's activities to the owl? He certainly didn't want to antagonize the large creature, especially when it was alone with Azula right now. Who knew what sorts of punishments it might come up with if it were slighted… and Sokka had no doubts it would feel slighted if he used knowledge in this Library for self-serving ends.

Still, wasn't it actually good, both for himself and for his opponent, Toph, if he developed less violent chi-blocking methods? In a way, this was a more humane approach to defeating her, if he really thought about it… though, did the fox, or the owl, need to know why he was looking for this information to begin with? Couldn't he simply ask for it and, if the fox questioned him wordlessly, say he was merely curious about the subject? It wasn't as though he planned on defeating Toph right in front of Wan Shi Tong so the creature would find out that Sokka had abused his Library's knowledge… and if Zhao had succeeded at setting an entire section of the Library on fire before the owl could put a stop to it, it meant it wasn't omniscient, conscious of everything happening in his Library at any given moment. So Sokka surely could get away with finding some information, however insignificant, about chi-blocking without the owl's awareness…?

He hoped so, at least. Though he feared Azula wouldn't let him hear the end of it if he squandered their opportunity to discover countless things about dragons only because his thoughts had been distracted by the possibility of finding the ideal tool through which he might defeat Toph… he'd make sure to gather as much about dragons as possible before starting his investigation into chi-blocking. Still…

"Say, uh… foxy?" he called the creature, unable to muster any expression other than an awkward grin. Great, that'd certainly convince it that he wasn't up to anything evil… "Do you think you could, uh, fetch some books for me? If it's not much trouble, I mean…"

The Knowledge Seeker had been sitting a few paces from him, and it rose elegantly when he spoke to it. Again, its lop-sided head seemed curious and welcoming of any petition Sokka might have.

"Well, uh… do you have any information on chi-blocking? To be precise, chi-blocking that can be induced by means other than punching someone or jabbing their chi paths in any way…?" Sokka said, licking his lips.

The fox raised an ear suddenly, as though he had a most momentous realization through Sokka's request… and then he dashed off at haste. Sokka watched it go, a foreboding feeling nestling in his gut. Beside him, Xin Long grunted softly.

"I-it's okay, I mean, it's got to be" he mumbled "Even if the owl finds out, I can say I was just curious about the subject, not that I planned to use the knowledge in any way, right…?"

His own words were hardly tranquilizing, and Xin Long's disapproving huff didn't help either. But Sokka breathed deeply and focused on the books once again, hoping to jot down any new information he unraveled that might help with tracking down dragons.

"Okay… seems like maybe if you roar a lot, you might get a few responses from actual, fully-fledged dragons?" Sokka said, tapping his lower lip with the brush as he studied the information on the book "Says here humans often thought loud dragon roars were thunder that heralded a storm, but it was actually just you guys having a fun chat. It wouldn't work with eggs, of course, but it's still something to try… you didn't travel the Fire Nation's volcanoes while roaring and shouting, did you?"

Xin Long shook his head; Sokka had the distinct feeling Azula would have scolded her dragon if he had made such a fuss everywhere he went. He chuckled and patted the dragon's head before focusing on the books again. The fox wasn't back yet, which, he hoped, was a good thing… if he had reported to Wan Shi Tong, surely they would already feel the owl's wrath by now, right?

It was ten minutes later – after confirming information they already knew, such as the favored meat-based diet of dragons – that Sokka caught movement from the corner of his eye: the Knowledge Seeker had returned… with a book between its jaws.

"You… you did it?" Sokka said, grinning in amazement as he reached to take the volume "Yes! Thank you, buddy! That's really…! Uh, foxy?"

The fox had been quite pleased with his praise, but now he had raised himself up to stand only on his back legs. Sokka sighed but smiled, recognizing the gesture as the same as those of the trained wolf-dogs Nanuk had often kept him away from in his Tribe. He reached through one of the many packs on Xin Long's saddle until he found a nice chunk of jerky – a favorite of his, which he had packed despite Azula had little taste for it. He tossed it at the fox, and it gobbled down the snack with delight.

"Well… don't you worry, Xin" Sokka said, grinning at the dragon "We'll finish your research first. Mine's a secondary thing. I'll only do it if we have time to spare for it, okay?"

Xin Long growled approvingly, closing his eyes before leaning close to lick Sokka's cheek. Sokka gritted his teeth at their gesture, but he smiled a little regardless… he'd probably have to splash his face clean later if he hoped Azula would want to kiss him again at all. She never seemed too keen on doing that after Xin Long licked him – which was, of course, the main reason why the troublemaking dragon would lick him at all –, claiming she couldn't quite enjoy kissing him with the stench of dragon breath clinging to him. Still, as long as everything went well now, Sokka hoped she would be so delighted by his success at unraveling more information on dragons that she would care little for whether he stank or not…

It was inevitable for his thoughts to stray towards her constantly, whenever he read anything of note that he would have loved to share with her. He smiled brightly upon finding a book that chronicled a list of known dragon riders… and he was tempted, despite his better sense, to jot down a note at the end of the list with Azula and Xin Long's names. Amidst the last names, however, he found a few he recognized: Azula's ancestors, of course. Yet the list wasn't limited only to those of the royal branch of her family…

"Hmm, Avatar Roku had a dragon, looks like" he said, smiling a little "I guess Azula takes after her great-great-grandparents in that sense, if no other…"

Did she know, he wondered? Would she be interested in finding out? She was hardly a fan of the Avatars, he knew as much… but maybe she would approve of this side of Roku, even if of little else.

He breathed deeply and set the book aside, looking for another one. They wouldn't be apart for too long, he knew, and she'd have to come back for food eventually, at the very least, so he should stop worrying… and he should get back to work. He had no doubts Azula was completely devoted to doing exactly that, holding up her end of the bargain with the all-knowing spirit.

"… and Fire Lord Kozuen was crowned in the year 180 before the comet. He was a careless Fire Lord, far more given to pleasures than to work, so when his younger brother, an accomplished Agni Kai duelist, defied him for the throne, in the year 153 before the comet, Kozuen not only lost the battle but he also lost his life. This younger brother, who was then crowned as Fire Lord Azuren, was Sozin's grandfather, and thus, my direct lineage begins"

Azula took a deep breath: she felt as though she had been talking for hours, and so far she had only spoken about the Fire Nation's history… or, rather, its politics. She could make a list of all known Fire Lords without too much trouble, though remembering the exact birth, defunction and crowning dates of all of them grew more difficult with those of many generations ago.

She hadn't quite understood, at first, how the owl expected to record any of the information she offered him. But with several Knowledge Seekers assisting him, by changing papers and organizing them into different categories while the owl waved its wing slowly over the parchment, it seemed they were genuinely writing down everything she was explaining. Whenever the owl's wing swept away from the paper, Azula would notice many ideograms written across it… it had startled her the first time it had happened. By now, she was growing used to the strange rhythm of their work, where she had to do nothing but sit on a stool, sharing all the knowledge she could remember while the owl transcribed everything through some mysterious, spiritual method.

"And what of Fire Lord Azuren?" Wan Shi Tong asked: he was quick to finish writing everything down, far too quick, perhaps. Azula swallowed dryly, wishing she had thought to bring a waterskin with her.

"He was a more militaristic Fire Lord. You could say that's where our warfare philosophies began, though they only gained the importance they still have to this day in Sozin's time. Azuren promoted the use of Agni Kais as methods to resolve any disputes, and he strengthened our military as best as he could. Which, of course, meant he had to strengthen the economy too, or else he couldn't possibly fund and finance all the equipment soldiers needed… So he took to doing that too, financing and funding farms to ensure the nation as a whole would have more than enough food to get by. Fire Lord Azuren's reign ended in the year 110 before the comet, and he was succeeded by his son, Fire Lord Ryozu, born in the year 124, the firstborn son of Azuren's with his second wife, after the first one passed away without offering Azuren any male heirs, only several daughters who would be relegated to marrying into branches of nobility. At any rate, Ryozu reaped the benefits of his father's policies and enjoyed the ease of an era of peace and prosperity in the Fire Nation. He wasn't quite as keen on violence as his father, and it used to be said that, despite the perception of him as a lazy Fire Lord with little impact on our nation, things were never better than they were in the years of his rule and his son's early years on the throne.

"Said son was, of course, Sozin. He was born in the year 82 before the comet's arrival, and his father Ryozu died in the year 58. Sozin ruled the Fire Nation after his death, just when the age of prosperity was threatening to reach its end: this prosperity meant that the Fire Nation people had more children, and the balance within the nation would be tipped unfavorably once those children grew, striving for social advancements and progress that would be impossible in a stagnant society relegated to the territories of an archipelago. Without going into the details of our economy just yet, though I will say it was becoming far more erratic at the time, Sozin decided to branch outside the Fire Nation to obtain more resources, as the available ones within the archipelago wouldn't suffice for his growing people. On one hand, he certainly wished to make use of the armies Azuren and Ryozu had built up for him, but on the other… he had cause for concern regarding the growth of the nation. Of course, his way of going about resolving the Fire Nation's incubating problems was far from ideal, and it seems he and Avatar Roku had a falling out over the first colony Sozin established in the Western Earth Kingdom. Fear of Roku apparently stayed Sozin's hand after this, for he established little to no other colonies afterwards… that is, until Roku's reported death, in a volcanic island. Afterwards, Sozin ramped up his conquest and took control of many more territories in the Earth Kingdom until his comet arrived: he used its power to attack the Air Temples… at least, three of them"

"Three of them?" Wan Shi Tong repeated. Azula nodded.

"I have strong suspicions he only unveiled the location of three. The Northern one… it must have been a victim to some other kind of tragedy, but I can't venture more than guesses as to what caused their demise. Either way, Sozin's purpose in attacking the Air Nomads with the force of the Comet was to wipe out their people and culture, in hopes to nip the potential threat of a new Avatar in the bud. Considering no Avatars have been known to be born to any nations since then, I suppose he was successful, to a fault. Perhaps the Avatar could only be reborn properly after learning and mastering all four elements? I read that theory once before, but…"

"Wrong" Wan Shi Tong stated, startling Azula "The Avatar would be reborn once again, regardless of having mastered all elements or not. The reincarnation of souls is not conditioned by the achievements of individuals during their lifetime: only their enlightenment is"

"Enlightenment?" Azula repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"A soul that achieves genuine balance may find its way into the Spirit World permanently" Wan Shi Tong said "Spiritual enlightenment enabled humans of many ages past to cross into the Spirit World. I have received no information of any achieving it in recent times… then again, I have received very little information on human endeavors after I sank my Library into the desert. My Knowledge Seekers seldom venture out of the desert, certainly not nearly often enough for me to keep up with the changing times in your mortal world"

"I see…" Azula said, frowning "Then… reincarnation is real? I suppose it should be no surprise anymore, as spirits are, but…"

"It is. Yet discovering who your past life was is a time-wasting ambition" Wan Shi Tong declared, and Azula smiled "Only the Avatar may reconnect with their former lives. None of the others who have tried have succeeded"

"That's a shame, then. Would have been nice to speak with my earthbending past life…" Azula said, playfully. The owl turned his head towards her with confused curiosity.

"You are a firebender. It seems unlikely you would have bent any other elements in your past life…"

"Yet, if there's no way to track down who my past life was, objectively, I suspect it means there's no evidence to the opposite either. I'll continue to trust in what I believe, if you don't mind" Azula smirked "Either way, we were talking about Sozin's conquest, so… yeah, it seems he may have killed the Avatar. But if the Avatar was reborn, a new one hasn't been found either. Perhaps my grandfather dealt with the matter effectively with his policies against the Water Tribe, but I wouldn't know for sure…"

"You've skipped a generation" Wan Shi Tong pointed out, and Azula nodded.

"Sorry. Fire Lord Hizuo, Sozin's heir, was born in the year 49 before the comet. He took over as Fire Lord when Sozin died in the year 20, after the comet. Hizuo continued Sozin's conquest, but he focused his efforts on maintaining the colonies already established at the coastal territories of the Earth Kingdom. His first son, Fire Lord Azulon, was born in the year 3 after the comet's arrival, and Hizuo raised Azulon to be a grand military leader once Azulon showed his prowess at strategizing and firebending. Hizuo, like Sozin before him, was a dragon rider… and he hoped to ensure his son would have a dragon of his own, too. But when the dragon ensnared and chosen to become Azulon's partner rejected the Prince's flame offering, Hizuo flew into a rage and… and declared all dragons enemies of the Fire Nation, even his own partner. This is how the Fire Nation's systematic hunt of dragons began, as many great warriors and nobles hoped to please both Hizuo and Azulon by slaying dragons and bringing back their heads as evidence of their deeds, to show their loyalty to their liege lords. As far as strategizing is concerned, that particular decision certainly spoke quite poorly of Azulon's allegedly clever mind…"

"And this is why dragons have nearly gone extinct, then?" Wan Shi Tong asked. Azula nodded.

"We believed they were extinct altogether: my uncle, Azulon's son, claimed to have slain the last one. There was no reason to believe he had lied, despite he didn't present the mandatory evidence of the kill, until I found Xin Long many years later. Either way, Hizuo only ruled for nineteen years: in the year 39, upon Hizuo's death, Azulon ascended the throne and he took the war to new extremes. While Hizuo had certainly waged war on the Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom alike, the conflict was at a stalemate during his rule. Azulon, instead, focused the bulk of his forces on conquering the Earth Kingdom. He only sent raids to the Southern Water Tribe, raids where he took waterbenders as prisoners and dragged them to the Fire Nation somewhere, probably to die there. My understanding of it was that he wanted to cut off the threat the waterbenders posed to the Fire Nation, but he also must have wanted to find the Avatar, in case Sozin successfully killed the previous Air Nomad Avatar, as suspected. And as the last Water Tribe Avatar, Kuruk, I believe, was born in the Northern Water Tribe, the next one was most likely to be born in the South. So, if that was his intent, he may have killed the next Avatar too. Meaning, the next one might have been born to Earth Kingdom heritage already, if they didn't die sometime in the war, and…"

And then, perhaps, a Fire Nation Avatar. What on earth would that entail? The thought was distressing, without a doubt. What wouldn't her father do with an Avatar born and raised to follow Fire Nation ideologies…? Somehow, the possibility hadn't crossed her mind until now.

"Perhaps. But this is only true if the Avatar was not killed in the Avatar State, back during the Air Nomad Genocide or in later incarnations" Wan Shi Tong said, startling Azula.

"Is that a fact, then?" she said "I've read about this Avatar State, though it sounded so fantastical I wasn't sure it could be real. It's highly powerful and destructive, enabling even half-trained Avatars to wield elements they haven't quite yet mastered. Is that right?"

"It is. The Avatar State allows an Avatar to channel their past lives' power" Wan Shi Tong explained "So, indeed, it means they can control all elements with ease, at the same time, even"

"That's… huh. And I can't even wield gold and blue at once" Azula said, with a weak grin. It wasn't every day she felt her bending came up short… but it hardly seemed strange that it would, when compared to that of someone with thousands of past lives, whose power they could draw from.

"The theory pertaining the death of an Avatar in the Avatar State had never been tested, not for good, for obvious reasons" Wan Shi Tong continued "But the principle of the matter makes it clear that, while a formidable weapon, the Avatar State leaves the Avatar at their most vulnerable just as well. If killed in the Avatar State, the connection between the Avatar and their past lives would be severed, breaking the reincarnation cycle for good. Only then could we speak of a world without an Avatar"

"Do you think that might have happened, then?" Azula asked "That perhaps an Air Nomad, cornered, took to the Avatar State… but an officer of the Fire Nation army killed them? Perhaps the soldier died in the attempt, too, which is why there's no record of it happening at all…"

"It's a possibility. A dark one, but these are dark times" Wan Shi Tong said "Why would it be any surprise? Do return to your family history now, if you would"

"Of course" Azula nodded "From what I heard, Azulon continued those raids on the South Pole for thirty years until all waterbenders had been captured. Then, when my gladiator was young, another raid was launched. It seems it was meant to find his younger sister, who had exhibited signs of being a waterbender by then, the first bender born to the Tribe in decades… yet his mother was killed instead in that raid, and the Southern Raiders, sent by Azulon, left the Water Tribe alone afterwards. Going by the evidence, Sokka and I have guessed maybe… maybe his mother pretended to be the new waterbender. She may have sacrificed herself, kept her daughter safe, and the Tribe was left alone for several years after that"

"Is that so?" the owl asked, his voice once again filled with curiosity. Azula gritted her teeth.

"I take no pride in the actions of my forefathers, if you must know" she said "It may sound like empty words now, but… the man I love most has been hurt by the wrong that has been done by my nation. While I didn't always understand it, I certainly do now. And there's truly nothing to be done to amend the past… all I can hope for is that the future may not be as bleak as the present, if I do something about it"

"I suppose we shall discuss your plans for your nation after you're finished with the rest of these explanations. We're close to the current times, are we not?" Wan Shi Tong asked, his wing gliding across the new details he had added to the Fire Nation's historical timeline. A knowledge seeker retired the scroll while another fetched him a new one.

"Alright, alright" Azula said, nodding "My uncle, Iroh, the one who allegedly killed the last dragon, was born in the year 40 after the comet. My father, Ozai, was born in the year 55. Iroh took a wife sometime in his mid-twenties, and fathered a son, Lu Ten, in the year 73. My father married my mother, a descendant of Avatar Roku's, in the year 82…"

"A descendant of the Avatar?" Wan Shi Tong asked. Azula nodded.

"My father didn't reveal that to me until I after my brother was banished, but yes, it seems Fire Lord Azulon sought to cross his bloodline with Avatar Roku's, in the hopes of strengthening the firebending legacy of the Royal Family" Azula explained "I suppose he would have had my mother marrying my uncle instead, if only he hadn't taken a wife as young as he did. I think his wife died sometime after my father wed my mother… I never knew her, so I can't say anything for sure"

"Curious" said Wan Shi Tong "Strengthening the bloodline of the main branch would have been the priority, ordinarily. When was your mother born?"

"Uh… I believe in the year 58 or 59" Azula said, crooking an eyebrow "She must have been around three years younger than my father, if I'm not mistaken…"

"Was your cousin too young, then?" asked Wan Shi Tong, next "Ideally, the Fire Lord ought to have had your mother marrying into the main bloodline if he meant to strengthen the firebending potential of the family. Odd that he wouldn't think of it"

"I suppose my cousin's youth may have had something to do with it, yes…" Azula said, swallowing hard. That the conversation would drift into these subjects was a given, but the owl spoke with such conviction she found herself questioning why she existed at all, all of sudden. It was true, wasn't it? That her mother probably should have been promised off to her cousin, but perhaps Lu Ten indeed had been too young… the mere notion of her mother marrying Lu Ten sounded sickeningly wrong "She was around fifteen years my cousin's senior, so it makes enough sense…"

"I see" said Wan Shi Tong "I suppose that gap could be risky. By the time the young man was in fertile age, she wouldn't be quite as ripe for bearing children anymore"

"Right" Azula said, swallowing hard. Whatever discomfort she'd experienced through this conversation was nothing compared to discussing her mother's fertility, of all things… "At any rate, my brother was born a year after my parents married, and I was born two years after him, 83 and 85 respectively…"

"Your brother is older than you, yet you're Crown Princess?" Wan Shi Tong inquired.

"Our father… he always favored me. And he disliked my brother profoundly, despite he was his firstborn son" Azula shrugged. Had he been able to frown, Wan Shi Tong certainly would have.

"Curious. Your father is a strange man" he said. Azula smiled awkwardly "Is it, then, that you showed more promise as a firebender? If the marriage between your parents was established for such a purpose…"

"Yes, I… suppose that's it" Azula said.

Once, speaking the words would have filled her with pride. Now, however… that her bending might be the only reason why her father had chosen her over Zuko proved unsettling. It wasn't that she truly had expected Ozai to be emotionally attached to her… but even now, after everything that had gone wrong between them, she could acknowledge she was emotionally attached to her father, still. Yet what mattered to him was her potential as his top-notch firebending heir, wasn't it? Any steps out of line, any mistakes she couldn't take back… and all her privileges, granted to her by her proud father, would vanish in thin air. All that pride would fade away into nothingness.

She had known as much, all along. It didn't hurt any less just because she had been aware of it, though.

"My uncle and cousin fought in the Siege of Ba Sing Se, one of the most important battles in the Hundred Year War… technically, my uncle was the commanding officer in the field" Azula continued, struggling to regain her focus "My cousin died, however, killed by the enemy. My uncle fell apart, abandoned the siege and the entire operation crumbled for it. Around the same time, my grandfather passed away… in, well, dubious circumstances. There's a fair amount of rumors, most of which point at either of my parents as the artificers of Fire Lord Azulon's death…"

"Is that so?" Wan Shi Tong asked "Shall I write them down, then?"

"Probably not. Wouldn't you rather record facts for certain?" Azula said, sighing "Either way, my father was crowned that day, despite my grandfather had been most against naming him his heir the day before his death. It further suggests that Azulon's death wasn't, well, natural. As for what points at my mother as a potential culprit, I heard Azulon, with my own ears, demanding for my father to kill his firstborn son so he understood my uncle's pain… and as my brother is still alive, and my mother, his staunchest defender, suddenly vanished by next morning, my suspicion is that she had something to do with Azulon's demise. But who knows, truly… if I figure it out by the time I return with all the books I've promised to bring you, I'll be sure to tell you what truly happened that night"

"I would appreciate that" Wan Shi Tong said.

"So, my father became the next Fire Lord, despite my uncle had been meant to inherit the throne, and… well, he's the current Fire Lord. In the fifteen years he has sat on the throne, he has certainly achieved a lot of the ambitions of his forefathers. With Sozin's Comet's return, he sent his soldiers, armed with a massive, mechanical, metal drill, to tear down the walls of Ba Sing Se. From there, the new commanding officer, General Tiang, guided the firebending forces into wrestling control of the city from the Earth Kingdom, aided by the Comet's influence. Omashu had already been conquered by then, their king had surrendered easily… after that, the entire Earth Kingdom fell to shambles, you could say. Ragtag bands of resistance fighters rose here and there, but they were quelled without fail over the years that followed. As more problems promised to arise over the rebels, though, my father came up with a solution, meant to break the spirit of the proud Earth Kingdom folk. He created two systems: one was the Honorary Citizenship system, which allowed the wealthier citizens of the Earth Kingdom to buy their way into being fully-fledged citizens of Fire Nation society. The other… was slavery. So, instead of murdering everyone, the way Sozin did, my father chose a more humiliating route, I'd say. It was also meant to be more economic for him too: he didn't kill all those people, he forced them into servitude so they would harvest crops and fields, work the lands they knew better than the Fire Nation invaders could…"

"And you disapprove of these decisions?" Wan Shi Tong asked.

"I do now. I didn't before" Azula admitted "I… I've learned a lot over the years. I know it sounds stupid, but… the truth is, I, well, I turned Sokka into a slave. My gladiator, I mean"

"He was a slave?" Wan Shi Tong asked, confused and distrustful now.

"Our first encounter was far from friendly. I was a diplomatic envoy for my father to the South Pole, where the Fire Nation had established a settlement once the war against the Earth Kingdom was over. Sokka led his warriors to storm the place when we were in the midst of our meeting, and… well, I fought him. He helped his men get away, but I captured him and… and turned him into a slave. Back then, I didn't think twice of it. By now, I… I can't help but hate myself for it. For putting him through the hell that slavery was, all because I couldn't give a damn about anyone but myself"

"You put him through hell?" Wan Shi Tong repeated "Were you that cruel to him?"

"No, well… not me. Not directly, anyways" Azula mumbled "I had my guards drop him off at the slave market of an unpleasant town, Hui Yi… and I forgot about him for a whole two years until I needed a gladiator for myself and I found him anew. By then, he… he had seen more than enough of the worst of the Fire Nation. That he ever changed his mind, believing we weren't too far gone to correct our course in the future… I honestly don't know how he ever came to think so. But he's certainly stronger in heart, mind and soul than a lot of people would be. Than I ever could be"

"Why did you seek him out?" Wan Shi Tong asked, sweeping his wing over the parchment still, recording the information on slavery. It was strange that he seemed so calm when hearing of the very worst facet of the current Fire Nation, when he thought so little of humans and their violent ways as he did…

"I needed to do away with a suitor, whose only achievement was sponsoring a gladiator in the Superior Gladiator League" Azula sighed "I didn't wish to marry, let alone so soon. My brother had been banished for ten years by then, but even so, I wasn't quite acknowledged as…"

"Why was your brother banished?" Wan Shi Tong asked.

"Well… the official reason is that he spoke out of turn in a war meeting" Azula answered "The truth, however… is that our father took advantage of the first excuse he found to get rid of him. Like I said, they had a bad relationship. Still, Zuko did return, if only for about a year or so… he left again after confronting our father over the reasons of his banishment, from my understanding. He's been taking refuge… well, somewhere beyond our father's reach. After he left, our father made me his official heir. But before that, I had to earn the approval of the people, something Sokka helped me with, as he has become a remarkably popular public figure… and I earned the approval of the Head Sage too, by performing the Ceremony of the Sun. It's something I'll explain better later…"

"How, though, could a slave help you attain any renown?" Wan Shi Tong asked "You say he is a warrior who fights for you, but if Agni Kai duels are the method through which firebenders settle their conflicts, as you explained earlier, no Water Tribe non-bender ought to afford you any leverage over your enemies. Therefore, I must ask: what exactly does it entail for this man to fight as your gladiator?"

Azula took a deep breath and nodded. She had the feeling the spirit wouldn't like this particular side of things… but it was a necessary explanation all the same. Hopefully, the possibility of bolstering his knowledge further yet would win him over before long.

"Slaves were forced to undertake different tasks, in different levels of society" Azula said "Some were merely doing the jobs of maids, or cooks… some were forced into prostitution. Others into gladiatorial combats. My nation, like I said, has… has a penchant for violence, which I can tell you disapprove of. There's no point in pretending we're better than we are, so I'll just admit outright that there's a strange, disturbing kind of bloodlust to the Fire Nation people. Even I used to buy into the cultural notion that… that tearing your eyes away from carnage was a sign of weakness. That relishing in violence was, instead, a sign of strength. That being capable of crueler, harsher things, meant you were superior than others who weren't. We were indoctrinated to believe this, and for far too long, I believed it too.

"Gladiators, though, are the ones who pay the price for some of my nation's worst practices. There are two different kinds of gladiatorial combat: the Amateur League and the Superior League. The latter are the fights I currently am involved in, with my gladiator: the Superior League is comprised by five hundred fighters who vie for the top spot, fighting each other while representing their sponsors in, generally, non-lethal fights. The Amateur League, well…they were established in low-income towns, commonly known as crime dens. The fights between slaves used to be staged until either or both gladiators died, all be it for the entertainment of the people watching at the stands, who paid actual money to watch fighters killing each other. By now, however, they're forbidden from holding fights to the death…"

"And why is that?" the owl asked, surprised by her latest claim.

"Because I… I took advantage of my power recently" Azula said, biting her lip "A close friend has a gladiator of her own, and she got involved with him romantically as well. He was a slave, he has become an Honorary Citizen by now because she paid for him to become one… at any rate, his father had been worked to death in the Prison Rig, a place where earthbenders were forced to fix and build ships for the Fire Nation's navy. After discovering that, I… I knew I had to do something. I had often promised Sokka I would, so… after that, I wrote laws to regulate slavery, to the slaves' benefit, if possible…"

"And why would you do such a thing?" Wan Shi Tong asked.

"Why?" Azula said, raising her eyebrows "Here I thought you'd be pleased to hear it happened altogether…"

"I'm not displeased. But I will be more pleased if your reasoning is sound"

"Well… it's because, after I found Sokka again, hired him as my gladiator, the two of us clashed a lot" Azula started "But I kept learning important things by his side. He challenged my view of the world, and it seems I challenged his, too. Things between us were complicated, made worse by our attraction, especially since we started to feel it before we genuinely trusted each other… but eventually we learned how to work together. And once that happened, we fell in love for good. Afterwards, well… we began a relationship, in secret, and we continued to help each other, influencing one another however we could. We continued to fight in the Superior League, and we've certainly progressed in that ranking… but ultimately, our journey has transcended far and beyond the League. He's wise in ways he barely realizes, and no one has ever understood me the way he does. So… the truth is, I couldn't help but love him. And the more I did, the more I wondered how many people like him could have loved people like me, if only our world hadn't been quite what it was. If there had been no war… if there had been no such set boundaries between nations, too.

"He taught me why balance matters, without quite meaning to. Thus, I told him what I'd understood about balance, and he agreed with me: I realized, with him, that my country's supremacist views made no sense. That we weren't superior to others just by virtue of being born to the Fire Nation… and why would we want to be superior, anyhow? Isn't it just better… to walk side by side with those you love?"

Wan Shi Tong was silent now, and Azula breathed deeply.

"I wrote the slavery laws when we found out about my friend's gladiator's father, but I was inspired by my partnership with Sokka, keeping in mind all he had told me about slaves in Hui Yi and everywhere else. I hoped to be fairer to them… I'd like to think I succeeded, despite I know there's still a lot of work to be done. My father rejected the project at first, but he accepted it some months afterwards. So, by now, the Fire Nation has a new group of armed forces, called the Enforcers, who see to it that the slavery laws have been respected as they should be, all across the Fire Nation mainland and all colonial territories. It's not perfect, I know… but I do have every intention to abolish slavery once I become Fire Lord. I'll have to ponder how exactly I'll go about it, how to help released slaves properly… but once it's done, I hope the world will begin marching in a better direction than it has so far"

"You came to this Library to honor a promise to your dragon" Wan Shi Tong said, and Azula raised her head to nod weakly "If you've made it this far with the first promise… there may be reason to believe, perhaps to even hope, that you might succeed at ending the garish slavery matter that has plagued your nation for… how many years?"

"Oh, uh, about ten, eleven. It started on the year the comet arrived" Azula said. Curses, she had damn near forgotten what she was supposed to be doing with the owl in the first place…

"Very well, then" said Wan Shi Tong, waving his wing before the empty papers: they were full of annotations right afterwards "This is a promising start for our joint work. If you wish, you may take a break now. I can see the whites in your eyes are reddening, the typical sign of exhaustion in humans. You won't rest for very long, for there are many subjects to cover yet… but I must supervise the cleaning and reorganization of the Fire Nation wing for whatever else you may share with us next"

"Right… right" Azula said, nodding and smiling "Then… you're satisfied so far?"

"Not nearly. An all-knowing spirit that doesn't know everything isn't quite an all-knowing spirit, is it?" Wan Shi Tong said "But by tomorrow we should have enough time to cover everything else, or the bulk of it, at least"

"We can't stay for very long, I'll say" Azula gritted her teeth as she took to her feet "We would do best to take off in two days, at most we could stay three nights here, but I'm not sure that would be wise. At any rate… perhaps determine whichever subjects you'd like to prioritize and, if they're within my area of expertise, I'll speak to you about them. Everything else, we can explain when I visit this place again… and of course, by the time I'm Fire Lord, you'll have access to actual books and fully researched information on the Fire Nation. I promise you this"

"Then there are many promises for you to keep, Crown Princess. Make certain to honor them" Wan Shi Tong said, as a spirit fox approached Azula "This Knowledge Seeker shall guide you to your companions, if you'll follow it"

"Right. Thank you" Azula smiled at the owl, turning the grin on the fox that panted softly beside her.

It was fortunate that the owl had offered her this respite, no matter how brief it might be in the end. Azula nearly dragged her feet as she followed the Knowledge Seeker, exhaustion weighing inside her, her throat unbearably dry. Spirits most likely had no trouble bearing with the dust and stale air inside the Library, but being cooped up in that small room for too long certainly hadn't been fun for her.

After climbing a few flights of stairs and taking several turns across halls and rooms full to the brim with bookshelves, Azula finally caught sight of her dragon's tail, lurking right out of a small corridor. Tired as she was, she smiled and strode purposefully towards them, outpacing the Knowledge Seeker with the burst of speed provided by her newfound enthusiasm.

"… Now, now, don't be shy! Might be you'll find a nice girl dragon, and you'd have to know how to hit on her if that happens, or else…" Sokka's voice drifted from the corridor, and Azula hardly held back her chuckles at his words.

"Are you seriously trying to give Xin Long dating advice?" she spoke, even before Sokka came into view.

Xin Long's tail twitched and tensed up: not even a moment afterwards, a loud clatter of papers falling on the floor reached Azula and Sokka stumbled clumsily into the open hallway, eager anticipation glowing in his blue eyes.

"You're back!" he exclaimed, beaming as he jumped forward.

He enveloped Azula in a hug so tight she nearly lost her breath. Still, she laughed and hugged him back, only letting go of him when Xin Long stopped beside them, greeting Azula with a gentle groan.

"Sounds like you two were busy" Azula grinned, stroking her dragon's hair with a hand "Though I'm not sure if mating information is what you ought to be focusing on…"

"Hey! It might just come in handy!" Sokka squeaked, his arms still around Azula even if she was caressing Xin Long now. Azula laughed at his reaction, pressing her head against his chest for comfort.

Xin Long groaned and smiled at Azula: without having to wait for him to convey everything they'd found, Xin Long's mood was already the absolute opposite to what it had been a few days ago, when they had landed in Ba Sing Se. Azula couldn't have been more delighted for that.

"Say, you can share all about what you discovered while we have dinner, right?" Azula asked "I'm thirsty and famished, so…"

"Oh, awesome! It's hard to tell what time it is in here, but food sounds about right" Sokka grinned.

After paying the Knowledge Seeker who had guided Azula with another chunk of jerky, the three partners sat by a bookshelf, eating and drinking together – though Xin Long was disappointed by how small his food rations were, despite he ate twice as much as Sokka did. The gladiator explained everything he had found to Azula so far, and she listened attentively, grinning at the more promising bits of information.

"Sounds like we have a really good chance at succeeding at this now, doesn't it?" Azula said once Sokka was finished. Xin Long nodded enthusiastically at her words, prompting his rider to laugh once more.

"He's been pretty pleased with most of what I've found" Sokka chuckled "Hey, there's also a list of known dragon riders! I considered vandalizing that book briefly, to write down your name and Xin Long's in it too, but…"

"Don't be silly" Azula laughed, dropping her head on his shoulder "How could you only write mine and Xin Long's? Yours needs to be there too"

"W-wait, that's what makes me silly, not the vandalism?" Sokka raised his eyebrows, smirking at Azula, who laughed still.

"Of course" she said, taking his hand in hers "We're a team of three, have been since the first moment. Still, I can probably ask Wan Shi Tong if he can modify a book's contents, he seems to write with strange ease, so…"

"He kept you talking for a long time, huh? You drank a whole waterskin on your own" Sokka asked, stroking her bangs gently with his free hand.

"Yeah, well… I had a lot to say, and the worst part is I've barely just begun. Still, I told him we can't stay forever" Azula clarified "We'll either take off in two days or by morning, if we choose to spend the night in here. He can have more information if we visit again in the future"

"How much did you tell him, though?" Sokka asked "Did slavery come up yet, or…?"

"Yeah, it did. I thought he might react poorly to it" Azula admitted "But I guess maybe his problem isn't violence, outright… but violence done at the expense of his Library's knowledge, maybe? He takes offense over the misuse of his books and scrolls, I guess…"

"Then we'd better not misuse things…?" Sokka said, before sighing heavily "I, uh… kind of asked one of the Knowledge Seekers to look for a book on chi-blocking, and he brought me one. I haven't quite started reading it yet, but… I figured it might help"

"It should" Azula conceded, biting her lip "And you're worried Wan Shi Tong will think you're up to no good?"

"More like, I'm worried he'll decide to take out his rage on you, if he decides I'm up to no good…" Sokka mumbled, pouting "I don't know what to do, not for real. But if you think it's too risky, I'll return the book and…"

"No need to do that" Azula said, closing her eyes as she rested against him "We can talk things over with him, if he finds out. He has been unexpectedly reasonable so far"

"Yeah… yeah" Sokka said, biting his lip.

Once more, his eyes traveled to the book the Knowledge Seeker had brought to him. Instead of being with the pile of books about dragons, it was on its own, standing out like a sore thumb, with a cover of a fully different color than those of the dragon books, the obvious giveaway that it didn't belong in this area of the Library…

Should he really do this? Was it wise to go forward, or was it stupid? Perhaps what was wise was to hold back instead? He could see the arguments for either side, and thus he hadn't dared touch the book so far. Azula seemed confident that the intimidating creature would do them no harm… and Sokka couldn't help but wonder why.

"You're sure he'll be reasonable, then?" he asked. Azula shrugged.

"Not really. But I don't think we've given him much cause not to be" she said "I told him all about the Fire Nation's political formation, from the earliest days to the current times. He seemed to appreciate that I was offering him all that information as good as freely…"

"Good, then. I hope you can keep him happy" Sokka said, biting his lip.

"I may have talked a bit more about us than I intended, though" Azula admitted, with a sad smile.

"Oh? What did you say?" Sokka smirked, his concerns fading into the background at Azula's new revelation.

"Nothing you haven't heard, or witnessed…" Azula said enigmatically, and Sokka pouted before leaning close to steal a kiss from her lips.

"You troublemaker, you… if I've heard it before, what's the problem with hearing it again?" he smirked.

"If you've heard it before, why would you ever need to hear it again…?" Azula replied, returning his smirk as Sokka laughed.

"You know what? You've probably talked too much for today, so you win" he chuckled, pressing a soft kiss to her brow "I love you so damn much, no matter if you're being mean or not…"

"The latter's not that frequent" Azula chuckled, cuddling against him. Their backs rested on Xin Long's body, cushioning them from the hard marble floor.

"You look exhausted, though" Sokka whispered, his hand seeking her bandaged wrist "Your hand feels okay?"

"Yeah… so far, so good" Azula nodded, eyes closed already "I haven't needed to use it much… just talking the owl's ear off, I don't need to use my wrist for that…"

"Huh, the owl's ear. Do owl's have ears?" Sokka smirked "I suppose not as big as ours, but…"

"Not as big as yours, for sure. Niece Wen had dreaded she'd marry you because of them, remember…?"

"Hey!"

Azula couldn't hold back her laughter as she embraced him with her uninjured arm. Sokka shook his head in playful disapproval before kissing her brow softly.

"I guess she'll be damn jealous of me… I married a man with big ears" Azula said, grinning "And what a good, patient listener he is because of them…"

"Uh-huh, compliment me now, why don't you…?" Sokka smirked, prodding at her face with his nose. Azula chuckled again.

"I love you" she whispered "Big ears and all. I mean it"

"You'd better. It's not like I could shrink them for your sake, if you disliked them" Sokka chuckled.

"At this point, spirits are real, so are reincarnations and the Avatar State, so… I'd say maybe shrinking someone's ears isn't so impossible" Azula said, before interrupting her words with an inevitable yawn.

"Uh… huh? I think you have to share quite a few revelations of your own, huh, Princess?" Sokka smirked teasingly. She chuckled and nodded.

"Tomorrow, or… maybe when we're on our way back to Ba Sing Se. If that's okay" she said.

"'Kay, you really don't look like you're in any shape to explain things anyhow" Sokka admitted, grinning softly.

"Night, Xin" Azula said, raising her hand from Sokka's waist to reach back and pat her dragon's scales softly. He inched closer, wrapping his body around Azula gently so his head would rest on her lap as he gurgled a good night of his own.

"Yeah, good night, Xin" Sokka smiled, before kissing Azula's lips "And good night to you too, Azula"

"Hmm… Good night, Sokka" she said, with a thread of a voice and a groggy smile on her face.

He held her closely, smiling too as he watched her dozing off in his arms. It was amusing that Xin Long's eyes would close just as Azula's did… Sokka had the distinct feeling they had fallen asleep at the same time. With a soft chuckle, he rested a hand on the dragon's head and settled against his secret wife, all three of them cuddled warmly together as they drifted off into a comforting, silent slumber.