Observant was one word that both her father and uncle would use to describe Azula, and they had good reason to do so; she found enjoyment out of observing and learning from the various situations she found herself in, something that was diversifying as she got older and took on more and more formal duties as a Princess of the Fire Nation. One thing she had been observing for quite some time was her brother's rather interesting behaviour; publicly, he seemed like a rather stoic, withdrawn young Prince, with little to say and not much to say of him.
That did suit Azula well, given she would prefer the attention of the court and the Fire Nation public on herself rather than her elder brother; she wanted to be Fire Lord some day, and she could only become so by gaining a favourable public image and personal ties with the elite of her nation. She had met a few generals, ministers and industrialists who had come to the palace, usually introducing them to her uncle, who had, for quite some time, effectively been running the Fire Nation, at least in regards to domestic policies.
Zuko on the other hand, hadn't even seen a single war council, let alone done much formal duties in his official position, and that was despite the fact he was older than her, and clearly capable of doing the same trivial things she did. She assumed that her father had something to do with that, given he didn't think that Zuko was competent enough to represent their family, or more specifically, himself, in an official manner.
So, she wasn't surprised when she did a little snooping around and came to find out that her brother had been attending some meetings between her father and guests in the palace, as well as the meetings of the Fire Lord's cabinet of ministers. Of course, nobody actually knew Zuko was there, as he had taken it upon himself to disguise himself when attending, rather than to ask for their father's permission. Since he had access to the royal armoury, as a Prince, he was able to dress himself in a manner where he could fool others into thinking he was an Imperial Firebender; as a sixteen year old male, he was clearly tall and well-built enough to appear like any other adult male, as long as he altered his voice enough.
Azula's observations were now solid enough that she could ask her brother about his activities without a certain rebuke; she could tell him his schedule to his face, and there'd be no way for him to deny it. She wasn't trying to bully him, as he might assume, as she simply wanted to understand the situation better, and if possible, act to ensure it wouldn't harm herself, whether immediately, or in the longer term. Her brother was a cold and spiteful young man, the danger he posed to the weak peace in their household was only to increase when considering that her father was soon to become Crown Prince when Fire Lord Azulon inevitably passed.
When she arrived at her brother's room, she wondered whether she ought to barge in, or perhaps, to lean into a conversation and reveal her knowledge. The former approach would be a little too harsh, and probably would just aggravate him, while the latter might make him more nervous. So, she decided to go with the latter, and hoped that he would be forthright. When she knocked on his door, there was an awkward silence for a few moments, but he did eventually respond.
"Who is it?"
"Your sister." she bluntly declared her presence, and she could hear him huff, before he stepped toward the door; when he opened it up, she could already see the suspicion in his eyes.
"What do you want, Azula?" he asked her, trying to sound all cold and serious.
"Oh, I just wanted to have a little chat." she played innocent, making him roll his eyes.
"Yeah, a little chat." he skeptically repeated her words back to her, "Is this about Mai?"
"No." she assured him, "I'm not here to advise you on your personal life, Brother."
"Good." he simply accepted her words as truth, before he stepped back, "Uh, I guess you can sit down, if you're going to be here long." he gestured to the table at the front of his room.
She shook her head, "No, this won't be long." she clarified, striding over toward his bed, leaning up against one of the tall bedposts. "What do you think of proposed plans to take Omashu?" she decided to ask him, knowing that that was the most recent and important policy discussion going on in the war chambers.
"Why would I have an opinion on that?" he asked her in return, flatly denying he knew anything about it.
"Now, now, brother, I know you know things." she tried to play to his ego, "You're not an ill-informed Prince, are you?"
"I'm no fool." he stressed, before crossing his arms, "There's a little too much emphasis on surrounding the city." he simply gave his opinion, "What could be done with five thousand men and some siege engines is being done with twenty."
"Hmph." she mumbled, considering his opinion.
She did agree that there was a lot of men being set out for the siege, far more than was probably necessary; all they needed to do was find a way to cross the difficult terrain effectively, and then they would be able to take the city with ease, at least, as easily as they could beat the earthbenders defending the walls.
"So, what do you think should be done?"
"War Minister Qin has more war-machines on the way. If he could be invited to some of these meetings to provide his insight on the technology that he will soon have ready to deploy, perhaps a more efficient siege plan could be drawn up. I am sure there's easier ways to take out a city than simply starving it out." he explained his thoughts on what ought to be done, the Princess nodding.
"Yes, I believe you're right, Brother." she nodded, his expression shifting to one of surprise.
"Wait, really?" he asked her, Azula giving a resolute nod to assure him that she wasn't saying that in jest.
"I'm not joking around, Zuko." she assured him, before raising a finger, "But, may I inquire... why haven't you brought these things up with Uncle?"
"Why?" he raised a brow, "Because he'd ask how I know about War Minister Qin's new technologies." he simply explained his reason, something she had already deduced; revealing his stealthy observations would perhaps aggravate their father, or even Fire Lord Azulon, given it was rather unseemly of a Prince to be going about to private meetings he wasn't invited to.
"And how is it that you know about them?" she asked, the Prince narrowing his eyes at her.
"I have my methods." he simply told her, not wanting to reveal himself.
"That was a trick question, Zuzu." she warned him, before chuckling, "I already know you went to his meetings with our father."
"Wh-what..." he gasped, before glancing around, as if he were afraid their father was about to enter the room, "Does he know?"
"I assume not." she guessed, though she couldn't be certain, "I just noticed you were putting on uniforms in the armoury, so I decided to investigate... and lo and behold, you're listening in on our father's meetings as a guard."
"And what does that mean to you, Azula?" he asked her, sounding suspicious of her intentions in bringing the issue up.
"Nothing really." she acknowledged, "I understand you require access to knowledge and the experience that Father has been unwilling to provide." she described his intentions as plainly as she could, "But, Brother, I must warn you, it would be dangerous to continue this for much longer. Father might find out, and he might get the wrong idea."
"What kind of idea, Azula?" he asked her, though she was sure he knew the answer to that question.
"I know you don't seek to undermine him." she acknowledged, "But he mightn't see it that way."
"So, what do you expect me to do, sit around while you get to enjoy all the privileges of being the heir without even being it?" he retorted, now more agitated; she held no desire to bring ill will between herself and her brother, knowing that it would simply be worse for them in the long term, though Zuko himself didn't make it easy with his conflictive attitude toward her.
"Perhaps you should just ask Uncle if you could go to more meetings." she suggested, "That's better than waiting for Father to find out you've been snooping around, and think you're actually spying on him for some incredulous plot."
"I mean..." he began to respond, before turning his eyes away; he obviously agreed with her, because she had come up with a far more straightforward and harmless idea than him disguising himself to go to their father's meetings, "I can speak to Uncle."
"Good." she simply nodded, before turning her heels, "Have a good day, Brother." she gave him a simple pleasantry before walking on out of his room.
"That's it?" he asked her, "You just came here to warn me like you're my-" he cut himself off, "Why did you tell me that, Azula?"
"I want a family that's not at each other's throats. That would just be unhelpful to the governance of the Fire Nation." she explained, "And when I know things, I seek to use my information to my advantage."
"What advantage do you get from me going to war meetings?" he asked her a hypothetical, the Princess chuckling as she raised a finger up.
"Well, nobody would speak about how useful War Minister Qin's inventions might be in destroying the last bastion of Earth Kingdom resistance." she reminded him of what he had told her only moments earlier, "You aren't useless, Brother." she simply explained what she knew to be true, which seemed to make him more confused, rather than less so.
"Uh..." he mumbled, blankly staring at her for a few moments, probably trying to think of a response; perhaps a thanks for the advice she had given him, "Don't tell Father."
"Did I say I was going to?" she retorted, the Prince tensing his fists as he stared her down.
"You... no, no you didn't." he accepted her innocence in that regard; her brother certainly thought the worst of her, though she knew she would just have to work with it for the time being.
"Precisely." she snapped a finger at him, "Now, if you don't mind, I have some firebending sets to attend to." she excused herself, before pacing on down the hallway, leaving her brother standing there; he didn't say another word, and a few moments, closed the door of his bedroom.
Whether he'd take her advice, she couldn't be certain, but she hoped that he would do so instead of stubbornly continuing his stealthy tricks; she was sure that if he wasn't careful, they'd come to bite him in the butt some day.
Sokka didn't like the Fire Nation, yet despite that, he certainly wouldn't wish upon anybody what he was looking at; a campsite in tatters, injured and unconscious men being dragged away from sites where the crazy assassin had sent his explosions. He wished things hadn't gone the way they had, despite how his captors had treated him; he was relieved, and a little surprised that the Princess was willing to have him freed to help her fight the assassin, and was more surprised when the Fire Lord himself intervened and killed the man himself. He knew nothing about the Fire Lord, though he would admit that his introduction only made him afraid of the man; not because he thought he was an malicious or cold individual, but because he was ready and capable of fighting with such fury that it made the Princess he faced on Kyoshi Island seem relaxed.
He was made nervous, however, by all the soldiers looking at him, and he didn't know how to feel; part of him wanted to try and help them, but another part was screaming at him that he would be a traitor to his people to even consider such a thing. He had helped Azula fight the assassins, though that was less because he actually wanted to help her personally and more so having to do with the fact they almost killed him a week prior. His thoughts were all over the place, wondering if Aang and Katara were still going to come and rescue him, and if that was a good idea at all; the soldiers were probably all on edge, and he didn't want to see another fight happen, especially one where his sister might end up getting hurt.
He didn't know exactly where the Princess and her uncle were, but he guessed they were at the tent he had been taken to earlier to get his weapons, that being the general's tent. He wondered whether he ought to try and escape, but decided that cooperating might be better in the long-term, given that if Azula wasn't lying, he would be going back to the others soon enough. He didn't want to trust her, but he knew his options were rather limited when he was surrounded by Fire Nation soldiers. So, with no other real options, he made his way through the encampment, toward the large general's tent. When he arrived, he noted a few men standing outside, who glanced toward him with slight confusion.
"Uh... is the Princess or the Fire Lord around here?" he asked, the guards glancing amongst themselves.
"Aren't you their prisoner?" one of them asked, the Water Tribe teen cringing, before he nodded, knowing that was his situation, whether he liked it or not.
"Y-yeah... I am." he confirmed, before pointing toward the tent, "Are they in there?"
"No, they're at the infirmary." one of them explained, the Water Tribe teen narrowing his eyes, realising that made a lot of sense, given the burns both the Princess and the Fire Lord had received.
"Ah, okay." he nodded, before glancing toward the tank-train, which was still smouldering after the explosion that had rocked it, blowing up a good portion of the mid-section of the vehicle, "Where am I going to sleep now?" he mumbled to himself.
He turned his head around, before realising he didn't actually know where the infirmary was, "Where's the infirmary?" he asked the guards, one of which stepped forward, before he gestured off to Sokka's left, pointing out a few tents off in the distance that were notably longer and wider than the other ones.
"There." he clarified, "Don't run off, or somebody is going to drag you back in chains." he warned the Water Tribesman, who nodded, understanding that already.
"Yeah, I got that." he assured him, before he began to stride off toward the infirmary.
As he walked on toward it, he saw a few soldiers moving by, some armed, while others were presumably firebenders, heading in the direction of the hillslope; he assumed they were going to deal with the remaining assassins, who he guessed were now captives of the Fire Nation Army. He didn't really care for their fates, given they had come out of their way to go kill them. He assumed that the men who had attacked them were intent on hunting down the Fire Lord, though he had no idea why.
Sokka continued to walk along, and hunched his shoulders as he tried to avoid the suspicious glares he received from the Fire Nation soldiers; he could see the infirmary ahead of him, and noted how many people were standing outside of it, bandages covering their arms and legs, along with crutches for some who must have hurt or even broken their legs. He realised that he'd gotten off lightly, though that was because he hadn't been that involved in the fighting, only showing up at the last minute to assist Azula and Iroh kill the most dangerous assassin. There were some guards by the entrance of the tent, and they eyed him suspiciously.
"Are you the Princess's prisoner?" one of them asked, the Water Tribesman nodding, and they moved out of the way, letting him inside of the tent.
There had to be dozens of men all lying before him, laid out on beds, all of them injured, and most of them unconscious; he could see a few guards standing around a bed, and assumed that was where the Fire Lord would be. As he approached the bed, the guards turned around to face him, and a moment later, somebody turned around; he hadn't recognised her out of her armour, but it was the Princess, sitting beside her uncle. She didn't look like she was in the best of moods, nor did she seem to approve of his presence, but the Fire Lord himself rose up slightly from his bed, and gestured for him to approach.
"Sokka." he spoke his name, "Are you alright?" he asked him, the Water Tribesman nodding.
"Uh, yeah, I'm fine." he assured him, before glancing at the bandages the Fire Lord had over his arms, covering the burns he must have received when the tank-train was destroyed, "Um... are you okay?"
"As good as I can be." he admitted, before gesturing to a table beside him, "Would you like some tea?"
Sokka blankly looked at him, before turning his eyes to the Princess, who seemed annoyed by his presence, "Uh, I guess I could have some." he accepted his offer, the Fire Lord picking up the teapot on the table beside him, before he poured the hot liquid into a ceramic cup, which he gave to him.
He smelled it, and made a small smile, thinking it was probably the best thing he'd consumed all day; there were only a few dry rations that he was offered while he had been chained up, so he appreciated the cup of fresh tea.
"This is nice." he admitted, the Fire Lord nodding.
"That it is." he agreed, "It helps me calm down... after things like this."
"Are you hurt?" he turned to the Princess, who shrugged her shoulders.
"The physicians say I'm concussed." she simply responded, "So, I can't sleep."
"Not that we have any beds to go to." Iroh admitted, before sighing, "This does set us back a bit."
"It does." Azula agreed with him, before turning her eyes back to the Water Tribesman, "You'll be back with the other two soon enough." she clarified, "We just have to wait."
"You shouldn't stay here for too long." the Fire Lord spoke up, before he glanced over toward the guards that were surrounding his bed, "Could I have a little privacy?" he asked them, "I just want to speak with my niece."
They nodded, and strode away from the Fire Lord's bed, taking up positions around the entrances into the infirmary, to assure that he was protected; Sokka sipped on his teacup, before he realised that he might have to leave as well, if they were about to have a private conversation.
"Uh, do I have to go?" he asked Iroh, who shook his head.
"No, this involves you." he acknowledged, "You will be going with my niece to find the Avatar."
"So she can teach him firebending." he recalled, before his eyes widened, realising that was what he wanted her to do, "What do you want with Aang?"
"For him to do what he was born to do. He's the Avatar. He is meant to protect the balance between the nations, and uphold peace." he explained it rather simply, before turning his eyes to the Princess, "My niece ought to teach him and help him... because I believe it is her destiny."
"Destiny's made up, Uncle." she retorted, crossing her arms, "I don't need to do it."
"No, you don't, but you should. You are the heir of Roku, and only you and your brother can redeem the Fire Nation." he explained rather bluntly, the Princess blinking a few times as she stared at him with a blank face, seeming unsure how to respond; Sokka was more confused, having heard about Avatar Roku, but had no idea about what they were talking about.
"Sorry... the heir of Avatar Roku?" he asked, "What do you mean?"
"He is her great grandfather." he clarified, "That is why she is a prodigy, and why she must help Aang. It is Sozin's fault Avatar Roku died." he explained, the Water Tribe warrior narrowing his eyes.
"Wait..." he mumbled, recalling that Aang must have been frozen just before the war started, "So, is that why the Fire Nation attacked the Air Temples?"
"Yes." Iroh confirmed, "My grandfather had gotten rid of the Avatar already, and he knew that he had been reincarnated into the Air Nomads. Your friend Aang, he is the only one who could have stopped the Fire Nation."
"You're the Fire Lord." he acknowledged, looking at him with a suspicious glare, "How can you want Aang's help? Don't you want to continue your war?"
"No." he shook his head, "The war is over." he simply put it, "Now that I am the Fire Lord, I can set the world on the right path, but I need Aang's help to do it."
"Huh." he mumbled, surprised that the Fire Lord held such an opinion; he thought that the man leading the nation that had conquered the world would be more inclined to continue to the war, and the Fire Nation's domination of the world, "I guess... that's good."
"In your opinion." Azula retorted, suggesting that she wasn't of the same persuasion as her uncle.
"Then what do you want?" he asked the Princess, who crossed her arms, snidely looking his way.
"What I want doesn't matter. The Fire Lord is the one who decides where to lead our country, not me." she retorted, Sokka blinking a few times as he wondered why she just flat out refused to give her opinion.
"I... uh, get that, but you must have an opinion." he noted, "So, what is it?"
"Why do you care?" she questioned in return, not sounding very pleased about where he was taking the conversation; Sokka knew he could shut up, but decided that he wanted to know, given what Iroh wanted her to do.
"Well, if you are going to teach Aang firebending, I want to know what you think about the Avatar, and what he should be doing."
"I am not going to decide what the Avatar does. That is for Aang to decide." she argued, pointing a finger toward him, "I will do what is best for my nation."
"Hmph... you people are weird." he mumbled, "The Fire Nation invades the world, and then the Fire Lord ends up being against it."
"Well, you have to understand war to judge it, and I understand it well." the Fire Lord explained himself, "Azula, you've learnt a bit in your time looking for the Avatar. Do you think we should continue fighting the other nations?'
She blankly looked at him, as if the question was too absurd to even ask; Sokka leaned forward slightly, wondering if she actually did have an answer, "Do you?"
She pointed a finger toward him, sparking a blue flame on the end of it, "You, shut up." she demanded, before turning her gaze toward her uncle, "What happened to the Air Nomads was absurd, and unnecessary." she admitted, "The invasion of the Earth Kingdom... well, it has made our country more prosperous."
"And caused the deaths of millions." Iroh acknowledged, "People have lost loved ones, livelihoods and themselves in this war."
"Y-yeah." Sokka nodded, agreeing with his point, as he personally understood what he meant; he realised that his expression suggested that he had lost people as well, and he didn't feel comfortable asking about it, "You can't agree to that."
"I..." she mumbled, her eyes darting between the two of them, before she crossed her arms, "I don't need to answer your stupid questions." she decided, "It's not like I can do anything about it. The war is done, you said it yourself." she reminded her uncle, who glanced toward Sokka, seeming a little saddened and frustrated by her response.
"Did your question get answered, Sokka?"
"I see she doesn't want to answer it." he simply concluded, "It's bad." he acknowledged, "Nobody likes confronting this kind of stuff... I sure don't, even if I spent all my time preparing to fight, if that was what it came to." he acknowledged, remembering what it had been like to train those little kids to face the Fire Nation.
In hindsight, it seemed scary to just consider the fact children needed to be given that training, and he could only hope that Aang might be able to make sure the war ended, and that those little boys wouldn't grow up with the same worries he had.
"I'm sorry if he has made you uncomfortable, Azula." Iroh addressed his niece with a sympathetic face, "These kinds of questions are the ones we will have to deal with in the coming months and years... the war is coming to a close, and I will make sure we are not remembered as those who disregarded the suffering our nation has brought upon the innocents of the world." he acknowledged, the Princess turning her gaze toward him.
"So, are you going to come with me, or am I going to have to find Aang myself?" she asked him bluntly, the Fire Lord letting out a sigh.
"It would be better if I stayed here and gathered my strength... both personally and in support. I know we will need it when the time comes. Until we can ensure your brother's safety, and the Avatar is safe from your father's grasp, we cannot make our moves." he admitted, the Princess nodding; Sokka was a little confused as to what exactly was going on.
"So, let me get this straight, you want to-" he began, before the Princess raised a hand to shush him.
"No." she warned him, "We aren't going to speak about this. The Fire Lord's life is still in danger, even if those assassins are defeated. There is a plot rooted in our nation's leadership, and I do not know who we can trust."
"Neither do, I, Azula." he agreed with her, "But hopefully, the Order of the White Lotus will provide the intelligence we require to choose our allies."
"So... uh, I'm going to go with her to find Aang." Sokka realised, the Princess narrowing her eyes at him.
"Do you have a problem with that, or will I have to chain you up again?" she questioned, the Water Tribesman shaking his head.
"N-no... I'll cooperate." he assured her, before turning his gaze to the Fire Lord, "Is there anything you want me to tell Aang, seeing that you're the Fire Lord and all?"
"To remain cautious. There are many people in the Fire Nation who want to see him dead or in chains." he acknowledged, "But that's why my niece will be going to assist you in keeping him safe. That's what you want, I assume."
"It is." he nodded, before cringing, "They're probably really worried about me."
"They might be." he conceded, before turning his eyes to Azula, "You both should leave as soon as you can."
"We will sleep, and at first light, we will leave on whatever steeds we can muster." she decided, the Water Tribe teen raising a hand.
"Just, uh, one question." he requested, the Princess gesturing for him to speak, "Where do I sleep?"
"Find a blanket and sleep." she simply told him, the Water Tribesman face-palming.
"Your thingy got blown up. Where do I find a blanket?" he bluntly asked her, the Princess shrugging her shoulders.
"How would I know?" she retorted, the Fire Lord sighing.
"Please... be a little considerate, Azula. He did help us defeat him."
"Urgh." she rolled her eyes, rising up to her feet; she turned around, and picked up what had to be the upper layer of her outfit, which was a kind of light armour that covered her upper torso, before putting it back on.
Once she turned back around, she gestured toward the entrance of the tent, "Follow me, or you'll be sleeping on the cold ground." she demanded, the Water Tribe teen making a small smile, appreciative that she was actually going to help him, even if it was essentially at the prodding of her uncle.
He took back whatever bad thoughts or images he had of the man, the Fire Lord was saving him from an even sorer back and sleep deprivation; he turned to face Iroh, and smiled at him.
"Uh... thanks." he acknowledged his efforts, before turning to the Princess, "You too."
She shook her head, obviously not caring for his thanks, and continued to pace on out of the tent, "I don't care." she retorted, making the Water Tribesman chuckle; even though it wasn't much better than being a prisoner of the Fire Nation, it was better to cooperate with an apathetic and agitated Princess than with bigoted and spiteful Fire Nation soldiers who held no issue with him being chained to a post all day.
Prince Zuko really hoped the First Mate wasn't about to kick them off of the ship; he knew that Mai had given a few sailors quite the beating when they harassed her the night prior, and that they had lodged some serious complaints with the First Mate and the Captain. So, they were waiting by the First Mate's office, knowing they were about to start working on loading the ship full of goods from a port they had just reached. They weren't that close to Shu Jing yet, but he knew that getting off the ship might give them a chance to gather some information about what exactly was going on, especially with his uncle, who they hadn't heard about for over a week, since before the assassination attempt in the capital.
He truly hoped his uncle was alright, knowing that if he was in danger, he mightn't be able to protect himself; he imagined Iroh out in the Earth Kingdom wilderness all alone, and that by itself made any grievances he had about working as a cleaner on a ship seem trivial in comparison. Mai seemed more annoyed than he was, though that was probably because she thought herself completely justified in what she had done to the sailors. He was more neutral on the matter, though he personally just wanted to avoid trouble; trouble was what would get them attention, and attention, if from the wrong people, would get them killed. His father's conspirators could be anywhere, and if his father was cautious enough, he would have already sent out warnings about Zuko being alive and a threat to his plans.
"If I have to stand here any longer, I'm just going to walk off the boat and not come back." she warned him, the Prince raising a hand, thinking that wasn't the best idea.
"I'm annoyed by his tardiness as much as you are, but that's a bad idea." he warned her, "We just need to keep on this ship until we get close to Shu Jing."
"Master Piandao better have some decent accommodation." she warned him, "I cannot deal with another week of lying on hard wood and crappy mattresses."
"Piandao lives in a manor house. I am sure we will be fine." he assured Mai, before his attention was drawn by the door opening.
"Ah, you're here." the First Mate addressed them.
"We've been waiting for ten minutes. We're meant to be working on the deck, but instead we're just wasting our time here."
"I'm sorry... there were a few things that needed to be double checked on the books. We thought we were going to run out of space in the brig, but I think we can work it out." he explained his reason for being so tardy, before raising a hand, "I know you're not here to talk about the logistics of fitting cargo into this ship. You're here because you stabbed some sailors."
"I did." she confirmed, "Do you know what they were telling me to do?"
"I believe they wanted the mess hall cleaned up." Jishang recalled, "But... I don't think that's all that happened."
"They kept prodding me, and made suggestive comments." she explained, before raising a finger, "I warned them, and they did not heed my warning. When one of them tried to touch me, I cut him, and then when the rest attacked me, I fought them off and beat them."
"Unruly behaviour is quite common amongst sailors." the First Mate admitted, "I will have to give you a reprimanding, but... I will not be too harsh. They were obviously going to attack you, if their own stories are true." he acknowledged, "They did not provide a strong defence on their own behalf."
"So, what?" Zuko raised a brow, unsure exactly what he was going to do, "What does she need to do?"
"I'm going to have her duties moved to cleaning dishes in the morning, when there are no drunk sailors." he explained rather simply, the Prince blinking a few times, surprised that his reprimanding wasn't really that harsh, and was more just a solution to avoid a future fight.
"Well, that's... kind of you." he acknowledged, surprised by the man's attitude; he expected something a lot harsher, though perhaps, he was just used to dealing with his father's authority, and he was perhaps the harshest when it came to the most trivial of mistakes.
"You will have to do more work, and I would ask you don't bring a knife with you to the kitchen. Stabbing your fellow crewmates will not get you any love on this ship."
"I don't care about them liking me." she retorted, crossing her arms as she snidely raised her chin, "I won't do it again if they don't harass me."
"Hishu, please." Zuko addressed her, obviously wanting her to just go along with what he was saying, "Just don't bring the sai along. You can beat them without it."
"I can." she confirmed, before nodding, "Fine, I won't take my knives with me." she accepted his request, "Can we go get to work now?" she asked Jishang, who nodded.
"Uh, yes, you can." he confirmed, the two of them immediately taking their leave.
They paced on down the hallway, heading back to the doorway that led out onto the deck, where they'd need to go to help with the moving of goods onto the ship; where possible, it seemed that they preferred to use labour rather than cranes, given it was a fair bit quicker to move smaller boxes and bags around that way, and thus, make it easier for them to get everything onboard. When they got to the door, Zuko pushed it open, and was forced to raise his hand up from the glare of the morning sun shining down upon the deck. He glanced over his left, and could see sailors picking up crates and bags, taking them up the planks between the ship and the dock beside it, while a crane dealt with the larger crates, placing them in the large opening in the hull.
The Prince paced up over to the nearest plank, and paced on down it, walking around the sailors going the opposite direction, bringing up crates and bags of goods. When he got down onto the dock, he glanced around, deciding which crate to pick up; he leaned over, and grabbed one of them, before eyeing around, checking where the port supervisors were; if anybody was going to have anything to say in terms of news, it would be them. He tilted his head toward them, getting Mai's attention; she nodded, and understood they needed to get closer when they came back around to get some more goods.
He began to climb up the plank once, more now with a crate of what felt like bottles of some kind of oil, given how he felt the weight slosh around as he took each step up the plank. When he reached the deck of the ship again, he made his way down into the hull of the ship, taking the stairs down into the holding area, where he could see about a dozen men, all putting crates and bags down in place.
One of them turned around and noted Zuko's arrival, and pointed to the ground in front of him, "Just put the crate down there. We'll find a place for it." he explained, the Prince giving a resolute nod before he heeded his request, putting the crate down in front of him.
His arms hurt a little from the weight, though now he was far stronger than he had been earlier in the week, where he had struggled to walk without it hurting his legs and back. He knew, however, that his pain was a minor distraction from the task at head; he needed to do his job, so he kept his place on the ship, and to gather any information he could from the outside world. As he made his way back to the stairs, he walked past Mai, who pointed her finger to the men who were just about to walk about the stairs; he realised she wanted him to listen to their conversation, and he drew closer to them, enough so that he could clearly hear what they were talking about.
"You know, they might be letting us go out to the taverns and stuff if we're quick enough." one of the sailors told the other, who beamed at the suggestion.
"Oh, really?! Great." he grinned, "I can finally get some nice food, and maybe a drink. You wanna go get some?"
"We still need to do our maintenance work, Yong." the other warned him, "Do you think Jishang's going to be happy if the engine isn't in tip-top condition when we set off later?"
"No, he'll give us even grimier work to do." he conceded, "Maybe just one or two drinks."
Zuko narrowed his eyes, a little frustrated they were talking about trivial stuff, instead of news, though he hoped they might as they moved to go down the plank; he kept after them, and Yong pointed toward some crates.
"Let's get those. I'm pretty sure they're just crates of clothes. Really light."
"Ah, good idea." his fellow sailor nodded in approval, obviously wanting to find a way to be lazy without avoiding carrying crates and bags onboard.
Zuko shook his head, knowing that as they went off to pick up those crates, their conversation wasn't going to help him; he paced off in the direction of the port supervisors, deciding to go pick up a crate nearby, and hope they had something interesting to say. Asking about things like whether they knew about the Fire Lord's condition would be a little too blunt, and perhaps come off as suspicious. When he neared them, he picked up whatever they were talking about.
"Ah, so... you think we'll be seeing more navy ships any time soon?" one of them asked the other, who chuckled.
"Oh, well, there's a lot of men needed to take that city in the Earth Kingdom... uh, what's it called? Ubashu?"
"Omashu." the other supervisor corrected him.
'Yeah, Omashu. There's gotta be more ships coming to send food their way. There's a few armies there. Nothing like Ba Sing Se, but there's a lot of mouths to feed." he explained, Zuko raising a brow; that was where his uncle was going, or at least, intending to, before he had gone missing.
He picked up a crate quickly enough, so he didn't get their attention, and turned back around, wondering what might be going on in Omashu, and what that might have to do with his uncle; he guessed that news would come in if anything serious happened there, but he doubted anything was going to happen yet. His Uncle had been rather constrained in the orders he'd been giving out in surrounding and starving out the city; eventually, it would have to fall to the Fire Nation's armies, but could take months if they had enough food to ration out.
When he reached Mai, who was about to go walk over to the supervisors and pick up a crate herself, he simply whispered to her as he strode by, "They're talking about Omashu."
She nodded, and went on her way; he hoped that she found something else, as it might give them a better idea what was going on with his uncle, or even Azula, who according to the last proper conversation he and his father had, was going to go stop the assassins and find Iroh. If anything new was heard about either of them, it would be good news, even if the news itself wasn't positive; he just needed to know, so he could plot out his next moves. He and Mai weren't just going to holiday at Piandao's manor until Iroh just showed back up, and challenged Ozai for the throne; they would go find his uncle, and Zuko would o everything he could to make sure his father was defeated, and the horrific plans he had could never become reality.
Making his way back up onto the plank, he checked around for other sailors who might be conversing; he didn't see anyone, and with nothing else to do, he paced on down the staircase, back down into the hull of the ship, where he could see that the men were still putting all the crates into position. He placed the crate down on the ground, nearby them, and one gave him a thumbs up, before the Prince moved back to the staircase; he paced on up the stairs, and noticed that as Mai was coming toward him, she had a slight frown on her face. He knew for certain that meant she had learned something, so he waited by the top of the stairs for her; when she arrived, she let out a frustrated sigh, and looked him in the eye.
"I found something... important." she put it simply, tilting her head toward the superstructure, suggesting for them to move to the side so they weren't overheard.
"What is it?" he asked, trying to hold back his restlessness; he had been anticipating some kind of news, and it seemed that finally he would hear it.
"It's us." she clarified, with a completely straight face; she wasn't one for jokes, so he understood what he meant.
"So that vacation, it went somewhere, right?"
"We're dead." she bluntly admitted, "Everyone thinks we died in a shipwreck just south of Ember Island, three days ago."
"Wh-what?" he mumbled, before glancing around, making sure nobody was listening, "So, this is Ozai's move." he concluded, the stoic girl giving a resolute nod.
"It has to be." she agreed, "What should we do now?"
"Hope that Ty Lee gets our letter before she finds out about us 'dying'." he acknowledged, "I'd prefer if a civil war wasn't unintentionally started by a girl who's just worried about her best friend."
"So, do we stay the course?" she asked, "We could continue sailing on... maybe try and get to Ty Lee, or your sister."
"We can't be sure. I'm guessing my father's backers are looking for us right now." he admitted, "We should go to Shu Jing. I know we'll be safer there than getting off in some big colonial city." he suggested, Mai nodding to clarify her comprehension, before she glanced toward the staircase.
"I think you're right." she admitted, "We can't do anything stupid."
"That's why I'm glad you're here." he admitted with a smile; he didn't just like Mai, he trusted her to be a better arbiter than himself when it came to the dangers he faced- he already knew he was reckless, and he had to compensate for that with somebody who was cool-headed and ready to plan a way out of their situation.
She didn't seem to agree with him, and sighed, "Are you forgetting I was the one who got into a fight?" I am not as good a role model as you might think I am." she warned him, before pacing over to the stairs, "Get back to work, Kamen."
"Yes, ma'am." he assured her, the stoic girl pursing her lips upward at his jest.
"It's my lady." she corrected him, "At least pretend to be a commoner correctly." she chided him, before she made her way down the stairs.
"I'm just not that good at acting." he mumbled to himself, knowing that there was one kind of act he was good at; the calm, silent and dead-serious kind of person.
Though Zuko might want to say that he was that person already, but his volatile nature meant that was a little bit of wishful thinking on his behalf. He was not the Dark Water Spirit, at least not really, but just a Prince with a knack for swords; he'd need to figure out how to become more like Mai in that regard. She wasn't really a mean person, but she could sure intimidate people with well-timed comments and her skill with knives; if he could be half as intimidating as she was without a mask, then he wouldn't even need to worry about mastering firebending- he could just scare his opponents away.
That wouldn't work for his father, however, and he knew that sooner or later, he'd have to learn what Master Longchi didn't think he was ready for; he mightn't have been ready yet, despite what happened to him, but Zuko didn't care. He'd need to master more advanced techniques if he wanted any hope of defeating Ozai if it came to that; once he could generate lightning, he would only have to fast enough, and then, victory would be his, no matter how feeble his father might have thought him to be.
The bright side of the so-called Sanyan being dead was that Azula no longer felt that dread in her gut whenever she stood outside, wondering if the assassins were tailing her; though she was unsure if all of the assassins had been caught, she was sure that if it came around to it, she could fight them. However, to her frustrations, she was not driving back to port in her tank-train, but rather, riding on mongoose lizards; the creatures weren't terrible to ride, and they were rather agile and good at moving over obstacles, but given she was going along a rather unremarkable road, and didn't expect to be fighting anyone, that didn't give her any advantages.
What was more annoying was that she had been forced to bring along the Avatar's Water Tribe friend, the annoying yet somewhat competent Sokka; he was rather impolite, and didn't seem to care for her rank or the fact he had been effectively her prisoner. He didn't seem to trust her much either, and that feeling was mutual; she didn't know what he'd go back and say about her to the Avatar and that other girl they were travelling with, but she didn't have the highest hopes.
Her guards kept to themselves, and were forced clearly on reaching their destination, that being the port where she had left her Royal Barge, though she was intent on getting Sokka back to his friends, so they wouldn't think she was just keeping him prisoner to try and lure them out. She didn't really care for him in the slightest, and knew that the Avatar, if she wanted a prisoner, would be far more useful. He had asked her a couple times about getting to Aang and Katara, the latter she assumed to be the name of the girl they were travelling with; she assumed that was his sister, or at least somebody he knew well, given they were travelling together with the Avatar.
"Why is the food so spicy?" he asked her, another one of his stupid, unnecessary questions, "I mean, it doesn't even taste that good."
"And why do you eat... seals, or whatever it is your people are forced to subsist upon?" she asked in return, not actually wanting an answer, but to simply offend him, and prod him into shutting up so she could continue riding in peace.
"Because there's a lot of them, and they don't taste bad. You can use their blubber for fires and pelts for clothes." he explained, before narrowing his eyes, "You don't really care, do you?"
"Not in the slightest." she confirmed, turning her gaze back ahead of her, "Am I going to have to listen to these stupid questions all day, or will I have to have my guards gag you?"
"Hey, you can't do that, I'm not your prisoner anymore." he argued, the Princess rolling her eyes, deciding to take another approach to the issue.
"Fine, you're my guest. Do you think it's polite as a guest to continue to ask your host unnecessary and pointless questions, when you could just stay quiet and appreciate the fact you're not in chains?" she asked him, the Water Tribe teen looking at her blankly for a few moments, before scrunching his lips up.
"I mean you did feed me, and gave me something to sleep on." he acknowledged, "Okay... fair enough." he accepted her proposition.
"Brilliant." she smirked, "Now shut up."
She turned her head forward, and just glanced off into the distance, eyeing the landscape that lay before her; it was pretty enough that she could just glance at it and let her mind wander for a bit, not having anything better to do, and certainly not wanting to talk about trivial things with the Water Tribesman. She didn't know why her uncle wanted her to be friends with him, but she guessed it might have had to do with the fact she was going to teach Aang firebending, or at the very least, she was going to persuade him to let her teach him.
Achieving that would be a little easier with a foot in the door, so she could see why her uncle might think it tact to strike up some kind of camaraderie with Sokka; she, however, didn't really care for doing that, given she had already achieved what she would call camaraderie by fighting the assassins together, freeing him from his binds, and killing Sanyan, who she recalled had tried to kill him and his friends just the same as he had her. So, Azula concluded that befriending him was not necessary; he probably respected her enough that whatever goodwill could have been achieved she already had.
"Okay... I've got a better idea." he spoke up, after what must have only been a minute's silence.
"Enlighten me." she sarcastically quipped at his words, Sokka frowning for a moment before he raised a finger.
"You obviously don't want to hear about random things, or want me to ask you random questions, so I guess I could just talk about something you'd like to talk about."
"And what would that be?" she asked him, now a little curious as to what he wanted to discuss.
"Well, you've been chasing down Aang, so I guess you'd like to hear about what we're going to do." he suggested, "Or, what we've already done."
"I already interrogated Aang on my ship." she reminded him, "I doubt you have anything of substance to tell me that I don't already know."
"Well..." he mumbled, glancing off into the distance as he thought of something to say, "Aang's really childish." he acknowledged, the Princess scoffing.
"I already know that." she retorted, remembering his behaviour, and how despite trying to act serious, he was still just a twelve year old boy.
"No, no, I don't think he would have told you about his sightseeing tour." he clarified, making her narrow her eyes.
"Sightseeing tour?" she asked, "What kind of tour?"
"To see all these weird creatures and ride them. Giant koi fish, hog monkeys, hopping llamas." he listed some creatures off, "That's what he was concerned about when he first got freed from the ice. Going to have fun."
"Well, he obviously didn't know anything about the war." she deduced, "He probably just thought he was going to go back to the Southern Air Temple."
"Yeah, we did." he confirmed, his expression becoming more solemn, "That place... urgh. It was terrible. And we didn't tell him, until... well, he found out." he explained, sounding rather regretful about his actions.
"So, he had no idea his people had been wiped out." she concluded, "And telling him would have been a little dangerous." she added, "Well, there's nothing anyone could have done about that. It happened a hundred years ago."
"I wish there was a better way he could have understood." he admitted, "He ended up walking in and seeing the skeleton of his mentor... this guy who was pretty much his father." he explained, "It must have been terrible."
Azula turned her eyes away, recalling how she felt when she thought Iroh had been killed; that was the kind of emotional turmoil that could activate the Avatar State, and she understood why. She then realised that despite her feelings of anger and fear over her uncle, she was following her uncle's command, now set to help him defeat her father. She didn't know how they'd confront him, but she had a feeling that one of them wouldn't make it out alive.
"I know that feeling." she admitted, "Or... something close to it." she clarified, before tightening her grip on the reins, knowing she should just shut up; she couldn't talk to who was for all intents and purposes a complete stranger about her inner thoughts when she barely discussed them with anyone to begin with.
"Uh... okay." he nodded, before turning his gaze away, "Would that have anything to do with your uncle?"
"We're not talking about this." she retorted, "So, shut up, or talk about something else."
He grimaced, before forcing out a nod; even if he wanted to delve into the secrets she was unwilling to tell, he obviously understood that it was a touchy subject, "Yep, got it." he nervously complied with her request.
"Do you know where your stupid friends are, or am I going to have to go all the way to the North Pole to find them?" she asked, the Water Tribesman cringing.
"Uh... I don't know, honestly. I thought they might have followed me, but, you never know where they might be." he acknowledged, the Princess sighing with frustration.
"That's just brilliant." she sarcastically quipped in return, "We're still at least three days from reaching the port, and that's if we ride all day." she added, raising a hand to her forehead, "This couldn't get much worse."
"You could have to walk." he suggested a worse scenario, the Princess narrowing her eyes at him.
"And if you don't stop it with the questions and commentary, you'll have to walk." she warned Sokka, who raised his hands up.
"Okay, okay, got it." he assured her, the Princess turning her gaze ahead, not wanting to continue their conversation; she, for one, didn't think discussing her inner thoughts with a stranger was a good idea, and he was an annoying stranger at that.
She kept her focus ahead of her, eyeing the winding road as it led them down into a valley, which was covered in woodland and fields, where she could see some pig-cows browsing; she assumed they were drawing closer to a village, though she was unsure how far away it was. There wasn't any smokestacks, given the time of the day, where nobody was cooking, and neither did they require heating. The day was actually quite fine, with a little cloud voer keeping out the sun's glare while they rode along, the breeze pushing toward her lightly.
She noted in the distance something she had grown to recognise as she travelled on her Royal Barge; it was a messenger hawk, flying right in their direction, and it made her furrow a brow. They had taken the messenger hawk coop with them, placing it on the back of one of the mongoose-lizards they brought with them, given, like on all her operations, she needed it to be able to receive any useful intelligence. However, the message was coming from the west, meaning it was most likely from either her ship, or the homeland; it could have been a report of the Avatar being spotted, which would certainly help her, though she was uncertain if that's really what she would be messaged about. For all she knew, it could have been a letter from her father, detailing whatever he wanted her to do, given she had lost the Avatar, and she wouldn't be surprised if news had already reached him. As the hawk approached the coop, the guard riding said mongoose lizard came to a halt, and Azula pulled on the reins of her own; she turned it around and moved to approach the coop, where she could see the guard had retrieved the letter, and had checked its stamps and bindings.
"Where's the message from?" she asked, the guard handing it to her.
"It's unmarked. Maybe it's just from the ship." he suggested, Azula taking the rolled up message, untying the pieces of fabric tha bound it together.
She turned her mongoose lizard around, and unfurled the letter out, holding it in her left hand so she could direct her steed with the right; her eyes widened when she scanned to the bottom of the letter, and realised that who was the sender, before even reading it's contents: Ty Lee.
"Well, that's a surprise." she mumbled to herself, recalling that she was intending to go find her friend, so she could seek out her assistance with protecting her uncle; that didn't seem as important a reason, given she was now travelling with just her guards, and her uncle's assassin's had been all but defeated.
She turned her eyes up to the top of the latter, and began to read it out in her head, "Azula, I hope you're alright. I've missed you, and really everyone, even my sisters, mother and father too. The circus has been fun, though I don't think you should have tried it. Acrobatics is hard, and they keep saying I'm too eager. Well, I disagree, because I know it won't kill me. I do miss it when it was just us girls. I don't know how Mai's been. Your brother Zuko too. I've been wanting to see you for a while, and I heard you're searching for the Avatar now. That sounds like it would be interesting." she read out the first portion of the letter, finding its structure rather confusing; it was written like Ty Lee had just rambled out onto a piece of paper.
"What's the letter?" Sokka asked the Princess, who raised a hand to signal him to shut up.
She continued to read along to the next section, "I know you're busy, but I'd like you to come to the circus. I'm sure you don't like being alone too. I hope so. So, if you're in the area maybe you could come and see me." she read off the rest of the letter, after which came her friend's name.
"That was a weird letter." she admitted; her friend was usually a lot more straight to the point when she wrote things; she couldn't expect her to waste ink on writing such a long letter when she could have simply said it all in a lot less words.
"What kind of weird?" the Water Tribesman asked another question; she sighed, knowing that she couldn't just be overthinking it.
"My friend Ty Lee has just sent me a letter. It's unnecessarily long and winded. She's not usually the kind of person to write so much. She just wants me to come to the circus she's been working at. I think it's somewhere in the Fire Nation colonies." she explained, Sokka narrowing his eyes.
"Hmph." he mumbled, crossing his arms as he considered what she had said, "It's a letter." he stated the fact, "But are you sure you were reading it the right way?"
"What do you mean?" she questioned, "Are you saying she's trying to tell me something else?"
"A hidden meaning." he clarified himself, "I mean, all your letters must get looked at by the people on your ship. That's how it got here, right?"
"Yes." she confirmed, realising the Water Tribesman was rather good at deducing things, "So, what, are you saying she's trying to hide a message from peering eyes. That doesn't sound very much like Ty Lee."
"I dunno." he shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know your friend. Maybe she's just really excited and wrote way too many words."
She narrowed her eyes at the letter once more, scanning over the words; there didn't seem to be much of a pattern. There were just a bunch of lines, of varying lengths, and she was unsure, if there was, how a secret message might be encoded in the letter; deciding she couldn't figure it out, she reached out toward the Water Tribesman, offering him the letter.
"You want me to look?"
"Well, you're not an idiot. If you think there's a message, find it." she suggested, the Water Tribesman taking the document into his hands.
"Well... let's see... every second word? Nope." he decided, before scanning down it, "Maybe every third... Azula, you're, missed, everyone... no that doesn't sound right." he mumbled to himself, "What about every first word. Azula, I've, the, acrobatics, I'm... no, maybe the final word." he proposed another solution, "Alright, too, it, eager, me, girls, been... nope." he sighed, raising a hand to his head.
"So, there's nothing." she decided, the Water Tribesman narrowing his eyes.
"I'm stubborn. There's still more solutions." he decided, before scanning his finger along the letter, "Second word?" he mumbled, before dragging his finger down, before he shook his head, "Second last word." he decided, before running his finger along; a moment later his eyes widened, and he gasped, "Shit."
"What? Sokka, what is it?" she demanded to know, the Water Tribesman handing her the letter.
"Read out the second last word of each line." he suggested, the Princess tracing her finger to the first line.
"You're... father... tried... to... kill... us!" the volume of her voice rose as she began to read, raising a hand to her mouth; she didn't know what to say, but she realised that Sokka had read it all, and that meant he knew what was going on now- she and Iroh had tried to keep things as under wraps as possible, as to avoid sparking a civil war, but it seemed that was going to get a whole lot harder.
"There's more." he pointed to the letter, and she continued to read along, "Mai... Zuko." she read their names out, and realised that they were the true writers of the letter; he wouldn't put it past Mai to come up with something so dastardly, "Avatar... be... the... alone... hope... see... Ty Lee."
"Shit." she mumbled, not having anything else to say on the matter; Mai and Zuko had obviously survived some kind of assassination attempt, and seeing who her father had sent after Iroh, she imagined it wouldn't have been very pretty, "This isn't good." she bluntly acknowledged, before her eyes widened, "If Zuko's not... well, that's it then." she decided, at that instance, that she would send a letter back to her uncle; she turned her attention to her guards, who were all looking her way after hearing the contents of the hidden message, "You never heard that. This letter is just a friendly request from Ty Lee, got it?" she requested, the men all nodding to assure her that they would follow her request.
"What are you going to do?" Sokka asked her, obviously understanding the seriousness of the message, "And who are Mai and Zuko?"
"My friend and my elder brother." she clarified, and she turned her attention back to the mongoose lizard carrying the messenger hawk cages, "I need to send a letter to my uncle. This proves that we've been waiting too long. We need to act now."
"Act?" he raised brow, "Your dad tried to kill your brother. So, what are you doing?"
"Stopping my father and whatever he intends to do with the Fire Nation, that's what."
