A/N

What?! I'm still alive?! Damn, miracles do happen.

Before you start wondering why I'm babbling nonsense to you instead of giving you the last chapter, I'll tell you. I'm rewriting the entire story. I've already posted the revised version as a separate fic, and I'll be deleting this one soon. You can find fic on my profile with the title "The Ocean of Flames (Revised Version)". A detailed explanation of my decision process is below if you're curious.

There's an old saying in my language that goes like "Whenever you turn away from loss, there is gain." That's basically the principle behind this decision.

I was unhappy with a lot of things in the old version of the fic (imagine how bad things were for me that I went on hiatus for 2,5 years lol). My mental health was in a terrible state when I started this fic, and I realized a little too late that I couldn't do justice to the "Katara's sexual assault" plot. It's just too important of a topic, and I didn't want to belittle its magnitude or anyone's personal experience by doing a half-assed job of it. There were other major stuff I wanted to change/remove too, and I also couldn't do those without completely messing up the plot. The final reason was that I just didn't like my overall writing and the speed of the narrative. I like to think I've improved upon them now :)

What I'm trying to say is, I essentially wrote myself into a corner. That's why I wanted to rewrite the entire fic — to start anew with a clean slate and tell a better story, one that didn't overwhelm me while writing. I genuinely hope you can understand my situation and that this inconvenience won't discourage you from continuing this journey with me. I just couldn't see a way out for this fic with its old version.

My original plan for the revised version was to post all chapters at once as a gift for your outstanding patience and empathy. The first 8 are already written — I just have to proofread them before posting — and I'm currently on chapter 9, but I'm feeling the writer's block creeping in again. Instead of leaving you hanging for even longer, though, I thought that sharing the finished chapters would be a better choice.

Whew that turned out to be a lot longer than I expected lmao. I guess that's what happens when you hold all that in for several years.

If you're still reading, thank you for being my confidant 3 I'll hopefully see you on the other fic :D