Chapter Text
After Harmonic Convergence, everything changed for the better. Airbenders sprung up all around the four nations, finally getting the Air Nation back on its feet. It was when she was fourteen that she received her airbending master tattoos for not only helping teach the new airbenders about bending and history, but also for creating and mastering a whole new type of airbending- spirit projection.
She was young and excited at the thought of leaving Air Temple Island for something other than training exercises with dad and the other airbenders or a tour of the other air temples. But much to her chagrin, nothing of that sort occurred. She was stuck in the same routine of teaching new airbenders and watching her three siblings, but now with tattoos. It wasn’t until she was eighteen her dad assigned her on her first real solo mission- to capture a vigilante airbender who had been soiling the good name of the Air Nation for years.
While not all airbenders who gained airbending were a big part of the Air Nation, they still checked in every couple of years and occasionally helped in missions near their area of residency. Unfortunately, Harmonic Convergence hadn’t been picky about who they made airbenders, causing quite a few incidents at the time of convergence. Now that years had passed since then, all the outliers had been worked out except one. He had been nicknamed the Tempest Thief and was known for his trickery and quick getaways.
He had never been a super high priority of the Air Nation. They had been busy gathering and training their new members, as well as working with the Avatar to help any people in need. However, now the Earth Queen had placed a high bounty over his head and demanded his immediate capture. In an effort to not cause a global crisis, Jinora had been put on the job. As she was younger and less well-known, it would be easier for her to blend in for her espionage mission. Not to mention her spirit projection would be useful for tracking someone and looking in hard to access places.
Or at least that was how she convinced her dad to put her on the mission. In reality, she was a super big history and architecture nerd and she had always wanted to see the Earth Kingdom with her own eyes and if that included catching someone who was a thorn in the Earth Queen’s side, then that was a sacrifice she was willing to make.
“How come you had a bison and tattoos at fourteen and I am fifteen and I have none of that?” Ikki complained, as Jinora packed her supplies on her air bison, Pepper.
Jinora almost dropped her pack of food, startled by Ikki’s interruption to her daydreams of witnessing the architecture of Ba Sing Se with her own eyes. She recovered quickly though, plenty used to Ikki’s antics.
“Go complain to dad about it, not me. You know you have to master all thirty-six levels of airbending to receive your tattoos or invent a new airbending technique.” Jinora admonished. “Besides, as you can see, I am busy with official Air Nation business.”
Ikki sent her a pout as she slid down from where she was perched on Jinora’s bison.
“Are you sureeeeeee I can’t come with you?” Ikki begged, sending her a pitiful look from where she was sprawled out on Pepper’s tail. “Please, please, just ask dad one more time. For me?”
Jinora did truly feel bad for Ikki. However, she had been stuck watching her siblings her whole life, and she had worked hard to finally to gain some freedom and a chance to experience the world alone- with no overprotective dad or rambunctious siblings to distract her.
“Sorry, Ikki. Will you gather everyone so I can say goodbye? I don’t want to lose the only lead I have on him.” With that, Ikki got off of Pepper’s tail and slumped away, back inside..
Word had it that he was currently hanging around Ba Sing Se, part of the reason he had angered the Earth Queen so much. The Queen hadn’t specified what he had done to anger her, but knowing her, it could have been something as mild as messing up shrubbery. While she had never experienced the Earth Queen firsthand, Korra had and told her the stories. One of the perks of being related to the late Avatar Aang. Even though she hadn’t had many opportunities to experience the world herself, she could always live vicariously through Avatar Korra’s stories.
Unfortunately, she had to check in with the Earth Queen first in the upper ring before she was allowed to begin her search, which meant she had no time to waste. The Tempest Thief was unpredictable, after all.
Her thoughts were once again broken, but this time by the screaming of her younger brother, Rohan.
“Nora nooooooooo!” He cried out.
Her dad, Meelo, and Ikki brooded in the corner, pretending to be unaffected by Jinora’s departure, while her mom came running out with a plate of egg tarts.
“Sweetie, I made a last-minute snack for you since it’s your favorite!” her mom called out.
Jinora smiled as she observed her family and their mixed bag of reactions. As excited as she was about leaving, a pang of sadness hit her as she wished her family farewell. It wasn’t like she would be gone forever.
The ride to Ba Sing Se was a particularly uneventful one. She stopped a few times to enjoy the scenery and meditate while Pepper recharged. She had put on a more neutral green outfit along with a green headband to cover her arrow for her trip to better blend in with the Earth Kingdom. The way the wind tugged against her new outfit was a bit unsettling, but nothing that she couldn’t deal with to use her airbending moves.
Meeting the Earth Queen was an event, to say the least. As soon as she arrived, she was forced to hide Pepper, not even having an opportunity to praise her or give her water for faring so well on a long journey, because apparently, the queen hated animals.
Then she was immediately rushed along to her meeting with the queen. However, the queen spent half an hour lecturing her about how her grandfather Avatar Aang ruined the Earth Kingdom and the Air Nation owed her a lot more than just finding the Tempest Thief. Jinora, thankfully, had trained for this moment by dealing with her three crazy siblings and all the airbender trainees, so she managed to keep a polite look on her face as she kept quiet and nodded along.
Overall, the whole meeting was a waste of time, but Jinora managed to not cause any international incidents by keeping a cool head. She could only have imagined how her dad would have reacted if he had been the one on this mission. That in itself gave her enough strength to carry on. Thankfully, one of the queen’s secretaries actually debriefed her on the mission and gave her a helpful map showing some of the thief’s spotted locations.
Unfortunately, the poor service didn’t stop after the debriefing. Jinora wandered around the palace, abandoned by the secretary, attempting to make her way back to her bison. There was no one jumping to her help, but it probably was due to the fact she was dressed more like an Earth Kingdom commoner than anything else. If her arrows were exposed, she might have had more luck being taken seriously, but as this was an undercover mission, she wasn’t going to let the lack of a warm welcome stop her from doing her job.
“You look lost. Can I help you, pretty lady?” a voice called out. Jinora jumped. It was not often someone managed to sneak up on her, much less a low-paid palace guard.
She turned around to be greeted by a guard with hair that was floppy on the top, but shaved on the sides. His appearance was striking compared to the stuffy looks she had seen thus far. His messy hair starkly contrasted the tidy uniform, and she noticed his skin was a dark tan compared to the paleness most of the palace workers had. She attributes it to him being a guard, which probably required more time outside.
“My bad. I didn’t mean to startle you, my lady.” He smirked at her in a way that could almost pass as polite and not smug, but as someone who had multiple snarky teenagers in her household, she could tell. She struggled to keep the annoyance off her face. Even with his good looks and his piercing emerald green eyes, her patience was running thin after putting up a facade for the majority of the day.
“Thank you, kind sir. I was hoping you could point me in the direction of the stable.” Jinora chirped a bit too brightly from behind her neutral mask.
“I can show you the way if you like. I’m Kai, by the way.” He smiled with ease and he placed his hands behind his head as he began to stroll through the courtyard.
“Jinora. Nice to meet you.”