Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Mai was lying in her bed and throwing knives in the target hanging on the wall. It used to bring her amusement and relief from boredom. Now it just helped to pass the time. She got up every morning, ate something, helped Auntie Mura with the store, helped mother with Tom Tom, but still there was too much time left before she could fall into oblivion of her sleep. Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk – her knives obediently flew wherever she sent them. Then shuriken. Then she had to get up and pick them up, plonked back into bed and idly wondered whether she should start practicing with a boomerang so she didn’t have to get up ever again.

The hardest thing was to accept her own stupidity. Mai knew she was not brilliant – brilliant was Azula, and the difference was obvious. But she has always considered herself pretty smart. Well, getting over two breakups at once proved to be pretty stupid.

The plan seemed so solid – Kei Lo was a decent guy, he liked her a lot, she didn’t mind him much, what could go wrong? The answer was obvious: everything. Starting with Zuko, ending with her. As per usual.

Would it be different without Zuko? It was useless to wonder. The whole thing was about Zuko to begin with. First, trying to help him, then trying to get over him, then him helping her with Tom Tom’s disappearance, then her helping him with Kiyi’s… And involvement of her father and Azula didn’t help, either.

Kei Lo was plainly out of place there. Maybe the timing was wrong? She wanted something uncomplicated, something normal people get to have. Was she not normal herself?

At the end, it was unclear which of them broke up with whom first, she or Kei Lo. She managed not to cry until she got to her room, face down into her pillow. And to be honest she cried not about Kei Lo at all.

Now she spent her days in a sort of daze, wondering how her life got so stupid and what she was supposed to do with it.

Some commotion downstairs returned her to reality, and Mai sat up trying to figure out what was happening. Happy and relaxed voices clued her in that it was her best friend, doing her best friend thing. And well, Mai was eager to be distracted from her mood right now.

Ty Lee came in, looked around, and dropped on her bed. “Are you going to go outside your room?”

“If you want to buy a flower arrangement, you should come during working hours. I’ll be there.”

“I don’t care about flower arrangements.”

“You are a girl after my own heart. Maybe I should be dating girls?”

“You should be dating nobody, Mai. It’ll all end the same way for you.”

“Thanks, you are a great friend...” Mai hoped Ty Lee could her sarcasm.

“Speaking as you friend, you really need to get out of here. And I mean not just your room – the city, and possibly the Fire Nation.”

“Haven’t you heard? My father wasted all the money on his and Azula’s stupid schemes. I probably could go hide in the mountains somewhere.”

“Why don’t you take the money from the royal budget?”

“Are you insane?” Mai asked. “How do you imagine I go to Zuko and ask him for money?”

“I am talking about the country, not the boy. You keep confusing the two. Again.”

Mai crossed her arms and looked at Ty Lee angrily. Ty Lee didn’t pay any attention to that display. “As you know, I am a part of Kyoshi Warriors, who after the war adjusted their mission statement to helping the current Avatar keep the world peace and balance. Currently the best help we can do is to keep the Fire Lord alive. But there are also other things. Suki and I were thinking about a covert mission in Earth Kingdom for which a pair of cute and clueless noble Fire Nation girls would be perfect.”

Mai looked up, interested in spite of her mood. “Fire Nation Girls? Wouldn’t Earth kingdom people be more suitable for a covert mission?”

“We’ll need to investigate several disturbances connected to old Fire Nations military bases that were supposed to be empty by now and some disbanded colonies. Being Fire nation nonbenders is perfect, and in case of need we’ll always can pass as Earth Kingdom folk, you know that well.”

Mai considered the idea. “What do they exactly want us to do? And why Earth Kingdom doesn’t want to do it?”

“The idea is – if it’s Earth Kingdom criminals and such, we’ll get them to the proper authorities and let them deal with it. However, there is a big chance that it’s some our leftover troops, old deserters, folks unhappy with the end of the war and new Fire Lord, and in this case we are supposed to deal with them quietly ourselves to not let new diplomatic tensions arise.”

Mai started pacing the floor, her arms still crossed. “Deal with them. What do you mean exactly? Kill all deserters? Drag each one back to Capital city?”

“I don’t think we should kill them. I don’t want to kill anyone, and I don’t think you want, either. There are still several our official military bases that oversee the troop withdrawal. They will give us all necessary help and they will be dealing with Fire Nation miscreants if we get them.”

“Still, two girls against hordes of deserters or whatever?”

“Pfft, we captured Ba Sing Se with just the three of us.”

“It was Azula, with her military genius, charisma and luck. Now it’s just us. And with our luck, Azula will be the one inciting those deserters.”

Ty Lee considered that terrifying idea. “That would suck. Still, don’t you want to find out what we can do without her?”

“You know what? I really do.”

Ty Lee smiled her happiest smile. “Then pack your things, my friend, we are leaving as soon as I arrange money and transport.”

“And I need to arrange someone to watch over Tom Tom. I can’t trust my mother with him.”

Mai went to see Ty Lee out and told her mother and aunt about plans to leave.

Aunt Mura beamed. “That’s a wonderful idea! Just like the old times, before the war!”

“What was before the war and how do you know that?”

“I read it, of course, somewhere – it was a Fire Nation tradition to have young noble boys and girls traveling the world a bit before settling down. It was called The Big Tour. I was sorry we couldn’t do it when we were young – of course there was option of joining the military and seeing the world that way, but it’s not quite the same.”

“No kidding! “ Ty Lee exclaimed. “When we were traveling with Azula we hardly saw anything interesting. Didn’t even have time to meet people before we had to fight them.”

“Well, I hope you’ll have a lot of fun, girls!”

“I hope, too!”

“yeah, what could go wrong with that?” Mai mumbled under breath, but in truth she felt a surge of energy and excitement when thinking about their future adventure. May be nothing will go wrong. And may be everything will, but it will be new.

Chapter Text

They arrived in a merchants’ ship to a small harbor town. Two girls, just visiting a random place for no good reason. Bearers unloaded their luggage - several bags and boxes and a cage with a standard issue military messenger hawk Ty Lee renamed Tufty. Ty Lee looked around the dock, breathed in and smiled. It was springtime and the aroma of blossoming trees wafted in, sweet and tender, promising pleasant time.

Mai scrunched her face. “Blah… I hate this smell of rotting fish and old ships. Why did we choose this town again?”

Ty Lee signed. “It’s the most conveniently situated harbor town. We’ll spend here a couple of days, then move on. Mai, remember, you don’t have to pretend to be so gloomy, you have to pretend you’re enjoying yourself.”

“Very funny.”

“We are going to enjoy ourselves: that’s our duty to the crown.” That got her a tiny smile from Mai. Nice to have a friend with a strong sense of duty.

“So, what do we do next?”

Ty Lee consulted her maps. “There is an old Fire Nation stronghold somewhere close. It’s supposed to be abandoned, but there are strong suspicions it’s not empty.”

“So, are we supposed to just march in there?”

“No, I think we’ll start with our accommodations.” They picked their personal bags – Mai’s full with extra weapons, hers mostly with money and things and directed the bearers to the best inn in town. Unfortunately, being in a small harbor town, their choices were pretty limited.

After securing a room in the inn, dropping all their luggage and the placing the cage with Tufty, they could start their work.

“Are you sure it’s the best one?”

“Pretty sure. It’s not a big place, but they hardly have any travelers these days. Let’s go find something to eat and people to listen.”

They ate downstairs at the same inn, but there were no people beside them and their server. Mai slumped in her chair deep in her thoughts. Ty Lee sighed and turned her most brilliant smile on the server.

“Tell me, please, is there anything interesting to see around here? Pretty castles? Ruins of pretty castles? Nice lakes with ice-cold water and strange creatures haunting its depths?”

The server, boy who looked slightly younger than them, was taken aback by the idea that they might have anything so interesting. So he just stumbled and shook his head and disappeared.

The innkeeper was more talkative. Apparently he took them for clueless fire nation girls without any effort on their parts. He suggested some ancient ruins, ancient herbalists’ institute, Fire Nation stronghold, several villages that he called “picturesque”, and a flea market on the outskirts of the neighboring town tomorrow. All the items were already on their agenda, except for the flea market. Ty Lee made all the expected exciting noises, and asked whether they can buy some mounts to help them carry things and get from place to place. The innkeeper was pleased to direct them to place where as he assured they will me able to get the most beautiful animals they could ever see. He even offered to help them choose, and Ty Lee had to tell they will come there later. She didn’t want to argue and ruin their image in his eyes. When in doubt, smile and play dumb. This strategy always worked wonders with unfamiliar men.

Right now they had to have a look on their own. She left the inn, dragging Mai behind. She knew Mai needed time to get into the spirit of things but didn’t anticipated any problems there. After all, Mai thrived in action and not being bored was one thing Ty Lee could promise her on this trip.

Right now they needed some animals. The market was found easily, its noise and smell unmistakable. The girls moved around the stalls, looking for something they could ride and put their possessions on.

“I’d rather not buy a lizard like we had last time. Useful, but uncomfortable.”

“Maybe an eel hound? They are pretty fast.”

They came to the stall that had a giant eel hound in it.

“Do you see another one?”

Ty Lee looked around but there was no other eel hounds in sight. “I guess we both could ride it.”

“We could but it’s not going to be very efficient. Right now we’ll need to be more stealthy than fast. I do like it. May be later when we’ll have to move much further? And I’d rather have two, if we have budget for it.”

“Our budget is pretty nice. Remember, we are secret agents on the royal service.”

Mai grumbled something unkind about royal service, but looked around with a renewed interest.

The merchant finally noticed them and strutted closer offering his help in choosing the finest beast. Ty Lee explained that they are looking for two sturdy animals comfortable to pack and to ride for a long journey, and he cheerfully moved them towards some strange creatures.

“What are they?”

Giant awkward-looking animals all covered in bright colorful feathers trailing the longest tail Ty Lee has ever seen slowly chewed hay in front of them without paying any attention to surroundings. Mai rolled her eyes and a weird face. Ty Lee smiled at her and pretended to be excited.

“Peacock-ox! You won’t find the prettier – look at his feathers – bright reds and blues and greens. Only 500 coins each! Only for you, you’ll love it, and you’ll look gorgeous riding it.”

“Thanks… What about ostrich horses? Those are pretty, but look too big for us.” Ty Lee could see his desire to get as much money out of them as possible and decided to smoothly steer him to something they could actually use.

“Of course, if you prefer!” He moved to another side where several ostrich horses waited for their fate.

“Look at this gorgeous mount!”

Ty Lee came and examined the teeth of the sad-looking mount he pointed. It was really old and possibly beyond retirement age.

“What about those two?” Ty Lee pointed at two animals in the corner that looked more alive.

“You have a good eye, me lady! You won’t find finer ones on this side of Earth Kingdom. Only 400 gold each for you.”

Mai came and examined the black one. The black one examined Mai just as thoroughly. The other one had a brownish coat. Ty Lee came closer. The teeth were good, the eyes were calm but lively, everything was perfect. But 400 gold coins?

“I think they are going to be ok. I’ll pay you 100 gold.”

“No, impossible, I got them for much higher price, and all the expense of caring for them, I can’t possibly lower the price. Well, since you are so nice and polite, maybe I can yield to 350 gold a beast. To my own detriment, may I add.”

“Well. 100 gold each then. It’s a pretty good price, and you won’t suffer any more expences. Who’s going to pay you more?”

“Ladies, if you really want these ostrich horses, but can’t afford to pay more, we could come to an alternative arrangement. Allow me to invite you to a private dinner and we can discuss it.” Ty Lee sighed and met Mai’s eyes. Mai nodded, moved to an animal next to the ones they chose and patted it’s back in the right place. The ostrich horse dropped on the ground softly.

“Oh, no! What’s happened? Is it sick? Are are all dying?” Ty Lee exclaimed with concern. The seller started panicking. Another animal ended on the ground.

“Here, have you money, we’ll take those two before anything happened to them.” She gave him 100 gold pieces, and helped Mai lead the two ostrich horses out.

“I have a bad feeling that after such trade one has to get out of the town.”

“We paid enough for his trouble. But really, I was hoping to hone my haggling skills. I thought we could agree on 200, but he just had to make a move.”

“He got what he bargained for then. I don’t think we could do it very often.”

“I don’t want to do it very often. Let’s go for a walk, get to know the place, get to know the horses… How are you going to call yours?”

Mai looked at her jet black mount and frowned.

“How about Starry Night? Look, it has a little star on its head! I am going to call mine Rainbow Sparkle. How do you like it?” Ty Lee turned to the ostrich horse, but it was Mai who answered.

“Really?”

“Sure! I’ve always wanted a pet called Rainbow Sparkle, I just couldn’t find the right pet.”

Rainbow Sparkle snorted.

“See? She likes it already!”

Mai gingerly patter the black’s neck. “Starry Night? You ok?” Starry Night sighed loudly.

Ty Lee laughed. “It’s like you two are made for each other.”

A day in the harbor town didn’t bring any new intelligence about possible fire nation deserters. There wasn’t also much to do for the bored girls they were pretending to be. Ty Lee and Mai bought the supplies for the journey to the stronghold and the ruins and decided to try flea market in the next city tomorrow.

They left Starry Night and Rainbow Sparkle in the care of stableman at the inn. Mai stayed to learned how to care about their ostrich horses and to make sure they are all right, and Ty Lee went to check on Tufty and feed him.

The next morning Ty Lee was surprised to see Mai out early.

“Anything happened?”

“I went to check on the ostrich horses. They are fine. I was worried that guy decided to steal them back.”

“I guess it would have been too obvious. And why? We paid fair price for them.”

“I will be glad to be mistaken.”

After a long and lazy breakfast the girls moved out of the town.

The road went along the sea, turning and twirling, Rainbow Sparkle and Starry Night trotted happily, Tufty flew above them, and Ty Lee allowed herself to feel joy. Life was pretty good so far. She glanced at Mai. Mai wore her quiet, slightly sad expression that meant she was fine, too. Smiling Mai – in the absence of Zuko, anyway – was much more suspicious.

The road narrowed slightly and the copse of trees appeared on one side.

“Not a bad place for an ambush.” Mai noted.

Ty Lee noticed a fallen tree at the next curve and nodded. But is it really an ambush if we are expecting it?”

“It is. For them.” Now Mai was smiling. Their attackers should have taken it as a sign to run, but they haven’t seen it.

Girls dismounted and led their horses behind them. Sure enough, the ambushes didn’t make them wait, and sure enough, soon three men were on the ground, flapping and moaning.

Mai collected her knives and looked closely. “They all seem local folk. I wonder whether if there are more of them here.”

“Probably. I doubt they sent their best forces for an easy ambush. We’ll report them to the local authorities as soon as we find whom to report.”

“I hope we won’t have to deal with them again. If I have to find same highwaymen several times I might reconsider the no-kill rule, just for efficiency.” Mai said loudly enough for everyone to hear.

After having made sure no one is going to pursue them, Ty Lee and Mai continued their journey, slightly faster. Starry Night and Rainbow Sparkle ran happily ahead, and soon enough the travelers reached the next tiny town.

Chapter Text

The next town was just as small and unimpressive as the first one. Several streets running away from the piers, houses, small, smaller and tiny, people who threw unhappy glances at them. Mai felt bored just by looking at them; she couldn’t imagine live a whole life in a place like this.

“Who do you think is the proper authority here?” Ty Lee wondered aloud.

“Mayor or someone like it. It doesn’t like big enough to have separate forces.”

“Yes, I agree.”

After some wondering about and a couple of wrong turns, they found whatever passed there as a townhall. It didn’t look imposing or even neat, but then neither did any other building in that town.

The mayor looked quite delighted to see them until Ty Lee said they wanted to report a crime, and could someone please apprehend the robbers.

He looked at them sadly and asked, “So are you saying you were robbed?”

“No, because we managed to defend ourselves, and left our attackers there to be apprehended.”

“And how can you prove that they are robbers, then? No damage is done either to yourselves, or to your possessions. And if I go there what will I find? Nobody? A couple of guys who just wanted to introduce themselves to ladies, in an awkward fashion? Or maybe they didn’t bother anyone, were having a quiet picnic and you assaulted them?”

“Really?”

“You are the Fire Nation, that’s what you do.”

He was kind of right on that one, but they were not about to admit it aloud.

“But we were about to robbed!” Ty Lee pleaded.

“I am not about to listen to Fire Nation girls without a smidgen of proof! What do you think, you can just come and tell me what to do? No, you can’t! It’s the Earth Kingdom, and I don’t care about your problems. When you robbed, then come, bring proof, and we’ll think what we can do! When you are killed, you come, and we’ll find who did it! That’s how justice works!”

“If I am killed I am definitely going to come and talk to you about it.” Mai said with as much sarcasm she could muster, but the efforts were lost on the mayor. Ty Lee didn’t have anything to add, looked at her friend, sighed and lead her away.

“That’s not what we expected.”

“But he was right about us having no proof.” Mai conceded.

“Suki, I am afraid, overestimated willingness of the Earth Kingdom authorities to listen to us. What do we do with local criminals then?”

“I guess she didn’t have much experience with Earth Kingdom government herself.”

“Only a little, when they tried to help the war effort, as she told me. She didn’t like it, but she thought the further they are from Ba Sing Se, the more helpful they could be.”

“To her, maybe. But this area had much more fighting going on during the war.”

“No wonder they don’t exactly like us.”

“War’s over. But damn, it was so easy – people attack you, you beat them up and go on your way.”

“We should just move on our way, too. Let them deal with their own criminals by themselves. We’ll just be more careful next time. “

“I guess. So our goal now – strictly looking for Fire Nation leftovers, leaving local folk to their own devices.

“Pretty much. Don’t forget pretending to be bored rich girls! Remember, there should be a flea market today!”

They went on and found the flea market just outside of the town. They didn’t have to pretend to be excited. Well, Ty Lee didn’t have to. But even Mai found herself fascinated by all the random stuff that was on sale there – clothes and weapons and carpets and dishes, and scrolls and animals, and everything else.

“Wee! Look!” Ty Lee leaped to the stall with jewelry and was trying on some kind of huge crown. “It’s almost like the one I was wearing during my circus acts! Just bigger and from actual gold! isn’t it amazing?”

Mai looked at her critically. Ty Lee did look amazing in that crown. Gold flames gently framed her face, showing off Ty Lee’s eyes. “It’s pretty good. I think you should take it.”

“250 gold pieces.” The seller sounded pretty emotionless, as if he didn’t really care where he sells anything.

“It’s a lot...” Ty Lee started taking off the crown.

“We saved some money yesterday, and you can write it off as medicinal purposes or something. You need it after the earlier fight and disappointment.”

“Hm. You are right. I take it on one condition: you’ll buy something for yourself that’s not a weapon.”

“Fine. What if I won’t find anything?”

“Let’s get looking!”

“Just buy the crown first. I promise to find something.” They paid, without haggling this time, and Ty Lee in the crown proceed to look around, with Mai following, each leading their ostrich horses behind them.

The clothes were all in Earth Kingdom colors. Mai passed them first, then returned. “You know, we probably should buy something like this. Occasionally we might want to pass as locals, judging by today.” They looked through the garments, but didn’t like anything. “How old is all that stuff?”

“It’s a flea market. Pretty old, I’d say.”

“I can’t wear it. it’s horrible.”

“I keep imagining how many people died in it.”

“Probably just one in each.”

“Oh, look! Fire Nation uniform!”

“Also pretty old. I think my grandfather had something like it.”

“I wonder who do they think is going to buy it?”

They moved to the weapons’ stall and Mai did buy some new interesting stars to throw. Nothing really enticed her as much as Ty Lee’s crown. Then they got to the books and scrolls. Ty Lee started leafing through books without much interest, and Mai went to see the scrolls. The maps were all the same as they already had. Then there was one earthbending scroll. Mai looked at it with interest. Toph made earthbending look effortless, but regular benders apparently had to work through a lot of weird movements. She knew of course how much work firebending took even from a prodigy like Azula – she was always up at dawn going through the fire forms, perfecting her control over fire.

Mai started looking through the scrolls – maybe she would find a firebending one? Or something she could use herself or give Kyoshi warriors – the girls were always eager learn something new. One scroll caught her attention. She peered in, uncomprehending at first, then it dawn on her.

“Oh, no, it really not bending at all!” Mai felt herself blushing.

“What is it? Ty Lee came closer, curious. “Oh. I see. Do they really do all that?” She studied the pictures. “It does look like bending though.” The were multiple pictures of two little figures, mostly male and female, sometimes two females or two males in various contorted poses doing what could, on the first glance, be construed to be weird type of bending or acrobatics, but wasn’t.

“hm. Eh...” Ty Lee started.

“Don’t ask whatever you are thinking of asking.” Mai cut off any possible awkwardness, but privately noted with some fascination a couple of pictures as more intensely familiar.

“We must buy it and bring to Suki and the girls! You know how Kyoshi warriors love new knowledge!”

“That is certainly very… educational. Have you found anything interesting among the books?”

“Yep. Earth Kingdom poems that are sad and depressing. I thought you’ll love them.”

“Really, Ty Lee?”

“Here, have a look!”

Mai moved after her friend and picked up the book titled “Wilted Peonies”. She leafed through it without expecting anything, but some poems did draw her attention.

I sigh—so many sentiments crowd my heart with sorrow,
even as the wind and moon fill the autumn courtyard.
The bedchamber—so close to the watch-drum’s sound.
Night by night before the lamp my hair grows white.

She looked at the book with more interest, skimmed through and said. “Ok. I’ll take it. I’ve just had another idea, let me take a look here.” She searched through the books until she found one very battered tome.

“But that’s an old schoolbook!”

“Yes. Do you know anything about history of Earth Kingdom?”

“Nope.”

“Me neither. Might be useful. Especially if we have to pretend being locals.”

“Good point.”

They paid for books and the scroll and moved on. While they enjoyed shopping, the real purpose of their trip was gathering intelligence, and so far they had none. They were walking along the stalls, stopping and examining the merchandise, without hearing anything interesting except unhappy murmurs and grumbles that might have been about them or about unknown menace that worried people. Finally, after they combed through the flea market several times and hasn’t heard anything useful, the girls left looking for a place to eat. Mai put her purchases in the saddle bags, Ty Lee walked proudly in her crown.

Finally, after sitting down to eat hot steamed dumplings they heard two men talking on the street. “Curious, how one keeps seeing same things turning up again and again at the market. I know I saw that thing being sold a couple of times already. Almost greeted it as an old friend.”

“You’ll get that chance the next time.”

“Probably! Thank spirits, we still get strangers and passers-by. Otherwise the merchants would have gone out business.”

“No such danger.” And the voice laughed cheerfully.

Ty Lee looked at Mai significantly. “How do you feel about not staying for the night here?”

“Wonderful. I see nothing here worth staying for. Stronghold?”

“We’ll need a couple of days to get there, I think. Let’s buy food and move on.”

Soon enough they were on a road out of the town. A different from the one they came in, just in case. The road led them among the green meadows and pastures, then they reached a river and started following it up the stream. Rainbow Sparkle and Starry Night trotted, glad to exercise after hours spent in the town. Tufty sat on Ty Lee’s shoulder, seemingly napping. Closer to sunset they started looking for a place to spend the night until found a small clearing on a high riverbank with enough space for the tent and their mounts.

“Tufty, will you be our lookout?” Ty Lee asked and Tufty obediently flew up and started making circles.

“You are pretty good with animals.”

“Another circus trick, so to say. Messenger hawks are scarily smart, and people rarely give them enough credit for it.”

Mai gathered wood and sat down with matches to start the fire.

“Wait! I bought the crystal things people here use, I want to try them.”

“Sure.”

After several tries the spark flew and the fire started. “OOF! Sometimes I think having a firebender close by is handy.”

“Matches are much easier to use. Besides, most of the world make do without firebenders. We got spoiled.”

“That’s true. On the other hand, earthbenders have easier time building stuff.”

“And waterbenders have their cool healing thing.”

“And we, nonbenders, just have to be smartest of them all.”

“And how are we doing?”

“You know the answer.” Ty Lee giggled, and Mai found herself smiling as well.

The sun set, the sky grew dark, and the bright flames rushed towards the sky. Mai and Ty Lee sat in silence for some time, looking into red and orange tongues of the fire. “It’s a common fascination with fire, benders or not, that we all share as a nation.” Mai thought. “Having power over something deadly dangerous and making it useful. Do other people stare in the flames as if hypnotized?”

Ty Lee brought out the food they bought before and put in on pan for reheating. Mai started making tea.

“You make decent tea.” Ty Lee said sipping from her cup.

“It’s a necessary skill for a proper lady. I was drilled at school, then at home. Wasn’t you?”

“At school, of course. And then I ran away, and learned other stuff. Does Zuko make a good tea? He should, after all the Iroh’s lessons.”

“He should, but he messes up in half the cases.”

“As per usual.”

Mai made a hand wave in agreement. “He is good at tea theory. I actually picked up some tips from him.”

After the supper Mai picked up a poetry book and started reading. Ty Lee went on to check on their ostrich horses then came back and sat across her.

“What do you think, Mai?”

“I think it’s nice here – two traveling girls by the fire at night. It feels like time doesn’t exist, and the world doesn’t exist, only this fire.”

“You are weird.”

“Like you didn’t know.”

They sat for a while listening to the fire crackling and watching the sparks flying up, up and disappearing among the stars. Mai’s thoughts wondered in several directions at once. She enjoyed the night and quiet and comfortable silence. The river’s splashing, burning wood’s crackle, some animals’ noises far away – all the sounds underlined the deep quiet surrounding them. Mai remembered the scroll. Truth to be told, the figures there looked more ridiculous than enticing. The reality – her reality – was much simpler, much more awkward and much sweeter. The pang of longing that she tried to get away from shot through her. “It takes time to forget, isn’t it?” - She told herself. “And time here is endless.”

The cry of a cuckoo owl somewhere beyond the river sounded like laughter.

Chapter Text

It was a brilliant morning. Ty Lee woke up in the best mood and stretched. Mai was still asleep, burrowed in her fur covers like a giant caterpillar, her face relaxed and serious. Ty Lee remembered their childhood sleepovers and smiled.
She got out of the tent carefully, not to wake up her friend and looked around. Everything was in order. Their ostrich horses napped tied to tree, Tufty was sitting on one of her saddle bags with a bored expression. They probably should have slept in turns, Ty Lee thought guiltily, since they were expecting to be robbed, but so far nothing happened.
The river ran in front of her, wide and slow. They would have to cross it later on to get to the stronghold. Sun was raising beyond the mountains at the east, coloring them and the forests in bright colors. Ty Lee breathed in the cool air and felt being filled with silly joy at simply being there and seeing that morning. She did some regular stretches, and then, out of blue, performed her old circus routine, fell on the ground and laughed out loud. At fourteen it was so much easier than at sixteen, even if she felt so much stronger.
Still, she still got it – the wonderful feeling that her body can do anything she wants. Ty Lee started fire for their morning tea and skipped to the river to wash up.
When she returned, Mai emerged from the tent and stood yawning and stretching.
“Good morning!” Ty Lee went on to make tea.
“Too good to be good. I’ve got a bad feeling about it.”
“Just wash up, have tea, and it’ll get better.”
Mai sighed and followed to the river. When she was back, combing her hair and deep in thought, Ty Lee already was enjoying her tea and breakfast made of remnants of the dinner.
“So the plan for today is to walk to Pohuai Stronghold, see if anything goes on there, and report?”
“Pretty much. As we noticed, we hardly can do anything about it ourselves.”
“But we already know that there is a robbers’ band around these parts that nobody does anything about. And if the stronghold still stands, it’s a perfect place for them to hide.”
“I suppose.”
“So maybe we should skip the visit and report it?”
“May be. But remember, we are looking for connections with Fire Nation military that might be left over here. We have to check.”
“Ok, the next question: how are we going to figure out there are Fire Nation? Unless they start firebending at us, of course?”

“Please, Mai, we all had the same military training, more or less. It doesn’t go away that easily. Of course, we can be mistaken, but we’ll have to see them, anyway.”
“Fine. But it still doesn’t sit right with me.” Mai finished putting her hair back into the usual shape, and started on breakfast.
They rode their ostrich horses along the beautiful road between the forest and the water. Mountains were raising from the forests on both sides of the river. No sounds of human life could be heard here – just splashes of the fish, cries of the birds and rustle of leaves made by wind or my animals.
They went up the river for another couple of hours until found a place convenient for the crossing.
“Now I think we should have bought those lizards that walk on water. It would be a bummer if ostrich horses can’t swim.” Ty Lee muttered unhappily. “Why didn’t we cross with the ferry downstream?”

“It would have been too close to stronghold, and we are supposed to sneak in?”
“So, Rainbow Sparkle, how are you about a little swim to the other side of the river?” Rainbow Sparkle sighed noisily and shook her head.
“I know, I know, we’ll carry the bags ourselves.”
Mai rolled her eyes, but whispered something in Starry Night’s ear and took the saddle bags of her.
Ty Lee carefully led Rainbow Sparkle into the river. The Ostrich horse was highly suspicious of water surrounding her, but decided to trust her human with this folly. Step, another step, and following Ty Lee’s pulling, she swam to the other side of river, using her strange tiny wings as paddles. They got out, Ty Lee tied the ostrich horse to a tree and returned for the bags.
“It’s not bad! Now it’s your turn!”
Both Mai and Starry Night regarded her with a heavy look and entered the river.

After crossing the river was successfully accomplished, the girls made a camp to rest and dry up.
“We really have to think the logistics through beforehand the next time.” Mai noted.
“We can try. I still think we did the best we could – was there any other way to get close to the stronghold without being seen?”
The road down the river was easier, but they kept close to the trees and off the road, just in case. Soon enough, they saw the heavy walls close. Now it was time for being stealthy. Rainbow Sparkle and Starry Night with all the luggage were hidden in the forest, ready to run as soon as need arises. Ty Lee with came to the forest edge and peered across the large empty space.
Pohuai stronghold stood before them – a dark, imposing structure, even in the bright sunshine.

“I don’t see anyone. Do you?”
“No. I keep asking myself though – why is it here in the first place?”

“Why was it built?”
“No. Why wasn’t it destroyed – or turned to the King Kuei’s forces – when our troops withdrew? What was the point of leaving an empty castle behind?”
“It is weird, I agree.”
“let’s just be extra careful.”
They came close the outer wall. It was a very impressive wall, tall and thick, covered with metal sheets to make it indestructible by earthbending. Some metal panels started to come off, but overall feeling was of impenetrable gloom. That feeling was disturbed by the doors open wide though.
“It’s really, really strange.” Ty Lee look inside, but there was nothing there between this wall and the next with similarly open gates.
“What I particularly dislike is the feeling that we are invited to enter with nowhere to hide.”
“It is pretty defensible as strongholds go. Makes one proud.”
“And yet, who and why left it empty? Do you know who commanded the withdrawal?”
Ty Lee remembered her notes about this place. “Colonel Shinu, I believe.”
“He is a decent mid-level commanding officer, but not very bright. I think he did what he was told to do, no more.”
“Let’s lust try to be as stealthy as we can for now.” Ty Lee looked around and noticed another metal sheet ready to come off. “Help me with it.”
Together they tore the sheet out – it wasn’t big enough to cover them completely, but she felt a little bit more comfortable.
They walked through the second wall, and the third, finding them and the space between just as empty. Ty Lee started feeling the eeriness of apparently abandoned place. She brought the map in her mind trying to figure out the best way to sneak into the central tower. It looked empty just as the walls, but there was a strong feeling that someone is waiting for them inside.
“There is an underground entrance at the end. It’s not much, but it’s a bit of cover.”
Mai nodded and they silently moved around toward the back of the tower. There indeed was the large rectangular hole in the ground that probably was used for moving supplies.
They entered the narrow corridor and stood there, listening into the quiet. Soon enough they heard voices. The girls looked at each other, Mai sighed, and Ty Lee shrugged at her unsaid question. They started moving forward as quietly as they could.
After passing several corridors they started hearing voices more clearly. Ty Lee paused trying to listen to the words, but no other information beyond that indeed was a gang of criminals she couldn’t discern. She tried to count the voices – three male, one female, but maybe others didn’t say anything. Mai started gliding towards the room with the voices. Ty Lee showed her four fingers, indication the people she counted. Mai frowned and replied with six fingers up. Ty Lee moved closer. Trying to see what was in the room. They really had to check whether the gang was Fire Nation. Was there a good way to ascertain it? She wasn’t sure. Pity they weren’t looking for Water Tribesmen. Ty Lee took deep breath and looked inside the room.
And immediately decided that it was a mistake. First, it was neither four, nor six people, but more than a dozen. None of them looked to be Fire Nation at the first glance, all looked extremely dangerous. Worse, they saw her. The conversation stopped, the leering smiles started.
“Hello, little girl! Come closer, don’t be afraid.”
“No, thanks, I thought it’s empty, sorry to bother you.” Ty Lee tried for cheerful politeness.
“What were you trying to find here if you thought it’s empty?”
“Nothing, just, you know, pretty castle, I wanted to have a look. Out of curiosity.”
“Curiosity killed an armadillo bear, haven’t you heard?” Another unkind voice from the corner.
“That’s not what I’ve heard. Sorry, I’ll be on my way.” Yielding to Mai’s angry pulling at her, Ty Lee stepped back. “We could take them, you know” she whispered.
“Yes, maybe, and then what?” Mai mouthed back at her.
“There are some papers on the table, I want to see them.”
“Fine.” Mai agrees soundlessly and rolls her eyes. “In and out”.
“Who are you talking to? Invite them all in” A large grizzled man rose from the floor and moved towards her.
“My friend is shy and doesn’t like to talk to strangers.” She felt Mai’s glare without looking back. Another deep breath, and Ty Lee jumped in. It's a routine not unlike her circus one, practiced more often in past years. Kick, jab, somersault, strikes at the pressure points, feint, kick, hand stand, strike, move to the next, feint, kick, strike...diving under, kick, feint, strike. Mai's shuriken flew to pin the rest of the gang to the wall. Everyone in the room soon was motionless. Ty Lee grabbed the papers that attracted her attention and got out.
“Let's run!”

They ran the dark corridors again, this time trying for the main exit, for speed. Out of the tower and to the innermost wall through helpfully open door, almost away, and this was when the arrows started to fly from somewhere above them.

“Where is that metal sheet we used?” Mai screamed, turning and throwing knives in the direction arrows flew out. A muffled angry cry proved her excellent aim. Ty Lee realized that they left the sheet at the back entrance. She ran out of the inner gates and tried to close it and tear out a new sheet, but they held too well.

“We’ll make it out without faster!” she screamed and they dashed through the courtyards to the exit. There were steps behind them, but Ty Lee and Mai were already behind the walls, now for the final dash to the forest, and then the arrows flew again, and Ty Lee felt pain piercing her leg. She stumbled.

“Are you serious?!” Mai screamed to nobody in particular, turned, hit someone with her knives, temporarily stopping the arrows, then grabbed Ty Lee on to her shoulders with a groan.

“You are insane, I can walk!” But in truth, she probably could only hobble with an arrow piercing her leg.

“You are way heavier than you look, but it still going to be faster. Try not to bleed too much.” Mai ran slowly to the forest with Ty Lee on her shoulders.

They reached the forest without any more problems, except for Mai grumbling that they sucked at stealth. The seem to be no pursuit visible, and as soon as they could hide in a ravine, Mai let her down carefully. They looked at the wound. Arrow tip went through the shin and was sticking out on the front.

The pain was bad, but with the arrow inside there was little bleeding so far.

Mai considered the injury. “Well, as arrow wounds go, it’s a good one.”

“Thanks, Mai.” Ty Lee tried to sound sarcastic, but she actually agreed with Mai; they had the same survival training and not dealing with the arrow tip stuck inside was a boon. “I have a first aid kit in the bags. I can walk from here to the horses.”
Mai nodded. “Ok. I’ll cover if they are still after us.” But the robbers were not heard or seen and they got to their ostrich horses in good time.
There, Ty Lee sat with her back to a tree and let Mai take care of her wound. Mai broke out the tip and examined it.
“No sign of poison.”

“Yay”
“Yay. But it looks like Yuyan Archers’ arrow. Ready?”
“Ready when you are.”

Mai carefully took out the arrow, stopped the blood, cleaned and dressed the wound. The broken arrow and the tip she packaged into her bag.

“Can we go now?”
They mounted Rainbow Sparkle and Starry Night and walked back up the river.

“So you think there were Yuyan Archers there?”

“No, they are the best archers in the world. These guys shot randomly. I think Yuyan Archers left their ammunition and it’s even more surprising.”

“I think we should try for abandoned Fire Nation colony up the river.” Ty Lee suggested, thinking of the map.

“No, thanks, I had enough of abandoned places for one day. I am not ready to explore it now. Let’s just cross the river back and get to the ruins of Taku. The should be a medical institute there.

“And Taku is not abandoned?”

“It’s abandoned long ago. Hopefully, it will mean less surprises.”

Ty Lee didn’t agree with this logic, but she was too tired to argue. At the moment she didn’t care which ruins they were going to make their camp.
Crossing river back was slow but without interruptions. Mai had to swim back and force, helping Ty Lee, horses, and moving their bags.
“I hope at least those papers have something important in them, not just a collection of cooking recipes.” She muttered darkly, but otherwise was silent, worriedly looking at Ty Lee and back, expecting someone trying to come at them.

It was already dark when they got to the ruins of Taku. Ty Lee looked and the giant steps in front of them, then and Mai, and fell of Rainbow Sparkle. Rainbow Sparkle didn’t react. Mai sighed and started making their camp near some ancient statue.

Chapter Text

Mai didn’t sleep that night. Well, almost. She jumped up several times to check on Ty Lee. Her wound didn’t bleed anymore, but was still hot to the touch, and Mai was worried. She went and filled with water everything she could, she cleaned the wound, again, and changed the dressing. She walked the perimeter of their little camp, listening intently into the night quiet. She adjusted Ty Lee’s blankets and fell nearby into a fitful slumber filled with worried dreams only to wake up again and again and walk and listen and worry.

The morning came, cool and bright, and Mai can no longer pretend that she is trying to sleep. She made fire, boiled water for the tea, prepared breakfast and sat to write a report for Suki.

Ty Lee woke up with grown and limped, wincing, to sit by the fire.

“Morning. Are you ok?”

“Not quite, but I’ll get there.” Ty Lee took the proffered cup of tea and sighed inhaling the aroma. “That was pretty stupid, to get shot like that, wasn’t it?”

Mai shook her head. “Accident.”

“Never happened when we were with Azula.”

“I’d rather be shot.”

“You weren’t shot though.”

“True. Did you check your loot at least?”

“Damn. Forgot in all the excitement of being shot.” Te Lee reached for her bag and turned back with a bunch of papers. She looked through them, then read more carefully. “Looks like letters, but I cannot figure out what they say. Jumble of words. Might be a code, though.”

Mai took the papers and peered at the writing. “I agree, the text should make more sense. I’ll send it to Suki with my report, she’ll find someone to solve this puzzle.”

“Oh, you have a report written already? Can I have a look?”

Mai passed her report to Ty Lee.

“What’s wrong with you?” Ty Lee demanded after she finished reading. “ “Ty Lee was injured in the line of duty?” Has all that poetry gone to your head? Give me ink!” She grabbed writing utensils and wrote underneath: “Don’t mind her, I’m fine.”

“I am in charge of reporting and if you don’t behave yourself, I’ll write something about honor.”

“That’s a dirty trick, and you know it!”

“Yes. And you’re not fine. Where is that herbalism institute? I want to go there and show them your wound.”

Ty Lee sent her evilest glare to Mai and started looking through the maps. “Well, on the map it’s there, the question is where are we?” she looked around.

“Right by the statue...” Mai walked up and looked at the large old statue in the shadow of which they made their camp. “Lion Turtle? Definitely looks like a lion turtle. There are ruins up there and ruins up here.”

“Ok, I figured it out! Our goal is on that mountain.” Ty Lee pointed a large building up high with the long stairs leading to it.

“Wonderful” Mai said showing that she didn’t consider it wonderful at all. She looked at Starry Night with a tiny bit of hope, but Starry Night proved to be a smart beast, and shook her head vigorously letting Mai know her feelings on going up the stairs.

“We’ll climb it, don’t worry.”

“And what are we going to do about ostrich horses and all our stuff? I loath leaving them here.”

“Yeah, this is where a flying mount would really come handy. Sorry, Rainbow Sparkle, I love you, but I’m trying to figure out how to keep you safe.”

At the end, they discovered a winding path around to the top, sent Tufty with the report, papers and the pieces of arrow to fly to Suki, and cleaned up all the traces of their camping. Then they started climbing the path towards the herbalism institute.

It was a long and tiring, but not particularly complicated path. Rainbow Sparkle and Starry Night walked steadily if not cheerfully, and finally they arrived to the top and saw a large ramshackle structure that probably used to be an architectural marvel of a greenhouse many decades ago. A large white cat was sleeping by the entrance.

Mai gingerly came to the door and knocked.

“Come in, just be careful!” an elderly voice invited them in.

They came in treading their way between old flower pots, broken tiles, strange pans and things Mai didn’t know the names of. Ty Lee limped first, Mai close on her heels.

“Hi, can we see someone about an arrow wound?”

“You can see me, I hope. Can you see me? I am not so sure these days myself. I should look like a beautiful lady of advanced age.” The lady was indeed of a very advanced age, and, Mai guessed, could be called beautiful by a generous person.

“Yes, I can see you, madam..”

“Shususng, herbalist Shusung.”

“Is there anyone else here?”

“Just me and Miyuki these days.” She pointed at the cat. The cat didn’t react.

“So can you have a look at Ty Lee’s leg? She got hit yesterday. We managed to take the arrow out, but I am worried.”

“And how a nice Fire Nation girl like you managed to get hit by an arrow? The war is over, they told me. Or is it still on?” Her look turned cold and worried.

“No, it’s been over for a couple of years. We were running away from some robbers and they shot at us.” Ty Lee smiled trying to project as much friendliness as she could. Mai didn’t even try.

Herbalist Shusung sighed. “Let me have a look. It’s dangerous to take an arrow out by themselves, don’t you know about it?” She moved close, motioned Ty Lee to sit and checked her wound with confident, precise movements. “But overall you did a decent job cleaning and dressing the wound. Let me see what I’ll need.” She muttered about as if counting on her fingers. “Plum blossoms - and ginger root. You’ll find them just outside the greenhouse.”

“I’ll bring it.” Mai said and left. After an hour of looking for ginger root and plucking plum blossoms, she came back only to find Ty Lee sitting comfortably with a fresh clean dressing on her leg, sniffing something from the large pot and chatting amiably with herbalist Shusung.

“Do you still need all that?” Mai asked unsure of what she needed to do.

“Oh, yes, it’s going to be a fine dinner for Miyuki.”

Miyuki meowed, whether in agreement or disagreement, Mai couldn’t say.

“You change the dressing every day, put the salve on to the wound, on both sides, and try not moving much for a week at least for it to heal properly.”

“I wonder if Katara could heal it faster.” Ty Lee wondered aloud.

“Who is that Katara person and why would she heal it faster?” Herbalist Shusung asked rather astringently.

“She is a waterbender and she heals with water. Pretty amazing results.” Mai explained.

“Come to think, it would make sense that water tribes should have bending healing technique. No many herbs grow on the North and South poles.” Ty Lee said, to no one in particular. “I wonder, is there an earthbending healing techniques?”

“No. Anyone can do massages and pounding with rocks and acupuncture. Some benders could do it better, but I haven’t heard of anything bending-specific. Not sure about airbending. They probably had something interesting that didn’t require achieving enlightenment first. Probably all lost forever.. oh, well, so many things lost, one more, one less. You lose count of the losses, that’s what you do.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of firebending healing, either, but maybe fire sages...”

“Actually, I did.”

“Really?” Mai turned to Ty Lee, surprised. And even herbalist Shusung was pulled out of her angry reveries and looked at Ty Lee with interest.

Ty Lee gulped and started her story. “When I was a circus performer, there was an old man, we called him master Liang. He used to have a great juggling act, but by the time I was there his hands shook too much to be able to juggle. So he cleaned and fed animals and told stories to whoever listened. He told me that when he was just starting there, a young man, there was a lady firebender. She was very, very old, she looked unusual – large wide nose, darker than usual skin, dark eyes, and a dragon tattoo all over her body. She was called, naturally, Madam Dragon. Her act was firebending pictures – fire danced around her in circles, spirals, becoming shapes of flowers or just beautiful patterns. And she also had what they called “hot hands” - the whole troupe lined up after performances for her massages – two minutes in her hands, and everyone felt like new. She set dislocated shoulders and knees; wounds, torn muscles, broken bones – all healed faster after her hands were done with a patient.

One day, she made her last performance, just for the troupe. It was a moonless night, in the middle of nowhere. Under the starry sky, her fire danced like it never danced before – flowers, animals, dragons, spirits, scenes from legends – the most wondrous pictures that each lasted for a moment only. At the sunrise she disappeared – no one saw her leave, she was just gone and was never seen again.”

“You never told it before.”

“Well, you all regard my time in circus as an embarrassing youthful indiscretion. It wasn’t! It was great and I am proud of it.”

“But you never went back.”

“Things have changed, and I’ve changed. Circus is in the past, but it’s important for me past.”

“I am sorry.”

“Well, that’s all very fine and interesting, but I’ve done all I could with you, and now you have to leave.”

“But you said she shouldn’t move for a week.”

“Yes. She should get out of here, and then don’t move for a week. I am not stupid. These robbers will come here – either looking for you, or asking to heal THEIR wounds. And I am not going to protect two Fire nation girls with my life.”

“We’re sorry. We’ll leave. But what does it matter that we’re Fire Nation? War is over, we’re not your enemies. We want to live in peace as much as everyone.”

The old lady came closer to Ty Lee and kicked her wounded leg. Ty Lee screamed in surprise.

“Why are you screaming? You hurt your leg yesterday. Today is another day.”

Without waiting for an answer, she moved away, “The wounds need time to heal, and even then scars are left forever. And those are very old, deep wounds. You probably are too young to be at war themselves, so you imagine it to be some brave warriors meeting on battlefield, fighting and moving on. War affects everything and everyone, no matter how far away from battlefield they are.”

Mai clutched Ty Lee’s hand, trying to stop her from speaking up, and Ty Lee, it seemed had the same idea about Mai. Mai wasn’t about to admit that they were not too young to fight in the war. Herbalist Shusung continued.

“That city – Taku – was a great city, rich and busy before the war. I am not old enough to remember it, when I was born, it already lay in ruins, empty. This institute though – survived. I came here at fifteen to study medicine, to help people, to heal the world. It was the best medical school in Earth Kingdom, maybe in the world.”

“What happened?”

“Life. War. We were never attacked. But both sides came and took the healers away – to heal the wounded. Until only I left. Old, crazy lady, too dangerous to move, to feeble to care about. A healer can kill just as efficiently as warrior. No wounds, no traces, just dead body, full of peace… of course, a healer can be killed more easily than a warrior, that’s true, too. But sometimes it’s worth it, isn’t it – to die for a good cause?”

Mai was taken aback slightly. Well, some causes were worth dying for, she wouldn’t argue with it, but the herbalist’s passion made her unsettled. “Thank you for help, herbalist Shusung, we’ll be leaving now.” She tagged at Ty Lee to help her up.

But Ty Lee stopped. “Why don’t you take new students?”

“Where from? The only people who remember that I am here are robbers and weird Fire Nation girls.”

“Well, we can ask around. If someone comes, will you be willing to teach them?”

“If someone comes and asks, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Ok, that’s settled then. Thank you for your help so very much!”

The old lady didn’t answer, but turned to her cat and started to berate her for one thing or another. The can meowed lazily.

Mai helped Ty Lee to get up and move away from the old angry herbalist.

The road down turned out not to be any easier. The ostrich horses walked slowly and carefully, and the general mood in their party wasn’t very joyful.

“We probably can find some ruins to hide for a week in.” Mai suggested.

“And what about food and water – for ourselves and the horses? Beside, if we are found in the ruins, we won’t be able to do anything. No, let’s try to push for our next point.”

“Makapu?”

“Yes. I don’t plan anything exciting there. Just hide for a week or so and move on.”

“Are you going to be ok?”

“If I don’t have to walk or run? I think so.”

Chapter Text

They traveled to Makapu for days, crossing the river, again, avoiding obvious roads. The food they bought was all eaten, and they had to resort to hunting and looking for edible plants, scarce at that time of year. Mai turned our to be good at hunting, since she actually could stay really still and then kill some unfortunate bird with one good throw. Cooking those birds proved to be much more complicated – none of them were any good at it, but they managed something passable, especially with the spices brought from home.

Mai kept fretting about Ty Lee’s leg and trying not to show it. Ty Lee thought it hilarious, and sweet. Her wound didn’t bother her unless she was walking, and she felt her pride was more wounded than her flesh. She really did grow to think herself invincible, think about that. Anyway, she liked being cared for, and Mai, it turned out, had a nice and practical manner of caring. She meticulously changed dressing, cleaned, put the salve, without saying anything. Made sure Ty Lee didn’t have to walk much. Did all the work around their camp and fed and cleaned Rainbow Sparkle and Starry Night, leaving Ty Lee as little as possible to worry about.

She did worried about the robbers and their mission. Have they failed it already? No help from local authorities was a given by now, but they also made a mess of all the intelligence gathering they could.

“Do you think Tufty will get to Suki?”

“Of course he will. It’s what messenger hawks do.”

“But what do you think she will do?”

“There is a big mystery of why that stronghold was given to robbers’ gang instead of the proper military forces. So they can find out from the colonel Shinu what orders he had exactly and how he executed them. And she can contact local authorities – she is not Fire Nation, after all. Or through diplomatic channels that we don’t have access too.”

“I am just getting so worried about all that.”

“It’s annoying, not to be able to do anything. But we need to focus on you getting better.”

“Easy for you say! I have nothing to do at all!”

“Do you want to read?”

“Ok, fine.” She took the poetry book she suggested to Mai and tried reading it during their camp breaks.

Some poems were fine, but generally she found that poetry annoys her just as much as it did when she was at school. “How can you read it?” Mai did read poetry with attention and, seemingly, pleasure.

“Well, it gives a certain rhythm to one’s feelings. Helps to relate to the world. I don’t know how to explain.”

“But most of them so depressing!”
“Well, I read and think – at least my life is so much better than this!”

“Arrgh! I can’t bear it anymore.”

“We’ll see if there is a bookstore in Makapu. And I am sure there will be one in Yu Dao where we could find something happier.”

Ty Lee started reading the Earth Kingdom history book.

But beside reading there wasn’t anything to do for but talk. And she talked. Of course, Mai preferred to do her fretting in silence, but even she couldn’t be silent that much.

“I keep thinking about that old crazy lady.” Ty Lee said one night.

“Which one?”

“The herbalist.”

“She didn’t seem that crazy to me. Well, maybe a little. She fixed you up really well.”

“Yeah, but still. She was unsettling. What she said about old wounds…”

“You think that was crazy? The wounds are there. I have mine, you have yours. Makes sense they all have theirs, too. “

“No, that all makes sense, but it’s still unsettling. Will we always be their enemies? That’s what troubles me. I don’t want to be anyone’s enemy. I want world in peace and us be friends with everyone.”

“Sometimes you sound like Aang.”

Ty Lee raised her palms. “Maybe.”

“We’re not entirely blameless there. We didn’t want war, but we were raised in it, and believed the only way to end it is to win it.”

“We even thought we did.” Ty Lee chuckled bitterly.

“We did capture Ba Sing Se, even though it was mostly Azula, and even she got incredibly lucky with the circumstances.”

“You know, weirdly it makes me feel better. I prefer to be hated for something I did, than for something my parents and grandparents did. At least this way I can do something to improve things. Or.. I don’t know… The world is a mess.”

“It is. I wonder was it really that nice and peaceful before the war? Or is it just how Aang remembers it?”

“The world is never peaceful. Before the first firelord our islands were a mess. Earth Kingdom history is full of strife and war. No Avatar can make people all be friends.”

“If anyone could, it’s Aang.” If he befriended them, after everything, Ty Lee believed his magic of friendship was limitless. The conversations about war were depressing, since there wasn’t anything any of them could do, but her thoughts kept turning back to them every time she stepped and felt the pang in her her wound.

One day Mai suddenly asked her, “Can you tell me about the circus?”

“You don’t have to care, you know.”

“I know very well that I don’t have to care about anything.”

“There are really not that much of story. There was a circus performing near Capital city. We went to see the performance with my family. I was struck by an idea that I can do anything their air gymnast act was doing, and even better. So just before they left, I sneaked in, and said I was going with them. Showed some moves, and I was in.”

“How was it?”

“Different. From home, the Royal Fire Academy, palace playdates and everything. It was a kind of weird family, really big, not very happy, but it was good for me. I learned a lot, I met a lot of people, some were nice and kind and awesome, some of them were horrible and creepy. Chi blocking really was really helpful. A lot of work, a lot of fun, a lot of strange stories. A lot of sadness, too. I am glad I had in my life, but I feel so much more at home with Kyoshi warriors, I don’t regret not going back.”

“You know, I really loved that story about a strange firebending lady. If you ever want to tell anything again, I’ll be happy to listen.”

“We’ll see.” But Ty Lee was pleased. The stories wanted to be told, to be passed on and not forgotten. And she couldn’t find a better listener than her best friend.

Her leg was doing better and better, but still it was hurting when she walked and put her weight on it. Finally the thought occurred to them to make something to put the weight off the wounded leg. Mai spent one night cutting the crutches out of large tree branches, measuring them to fit Ty Lee and cutting and fitting again and again. She did in severe silence, and Ty Lee could see that all the words Mai wanted to say were most likely swearing. Her remaining knives were not suitable for cutting and carving wood, and Mai had no experience and hardly a clear idea of what she was doing, but she kept at it until all the future improvements seemed futile. The finished crutches were ugly and knobbly and full of splinters. But they worked. Now Ty Lee could move around without help and without hurting.

Finally they arrived at Makapu.

“We are truly horrible at logistics, aren’t we?” Mai said with a sigh.

Ty Lee couldn’t help but agree.

Makapu looked much better than everything they visited before. It was a nice town, full of life and bustle, despite of volcano Mount Makapu towering beside it. Of course, Ty Lee was used to seeing volcanoes around, but she was also used to be wary of them. For Earth Kingdom folk being that nonchalant about possible danger seemed unusual. The inn they found looked clean and hospitable and their room was large and light, with a great view on the Mount Makapu. The next order of the day to get new Earth Kingdom clothes, and Mai left her alone in the room, saying that now she really must stay put for a week unless absolutely necessary and went out shopping. When she was back at the end of the day with full bags of stuff, Ty Lee seriously considered killing her.

“You left me with only a history textbook for entertainment for the whole day! And your taste in clothes is absolutely horrible!”

“If you hate it, you can buy something for me later that I will hate. Just have a look first. And I did buy us more stuff to read. Not sure whether we like it, of course, but… it’s not poetry. I did buy a poetry book, you don’t have to read it.”

The clothes Mai brought were light green linen and wool and not as horrible as she feared. For herself Mai chose similar clothes in darker green.

“I feel like cabbage.” Mai complained looking herself over in the new clothes.

“At least it’s not sweet potato… Do you think we can now pass as locals?”

“We managed before, haven’t we?”

She stayed several days in the room, only leaving when necessary. The books Mai brought were not depressing, but not very satisfying. One was an adventure story about two warrior friends, who were too stubborn and manly to admit their feelings for each other. It amused her to read Mai aloud the most egregious examples and pretend it was about them – after all, Mai was stubborn and manly. And then it ended with everybody dying in a particularly stupid way, which annoyed her to no end. The second one was a story of a great romance between a great warrior and a great beauty, and it was unbelievably sweet and vapid. Mai found it even more annoying and vomit-inducing, but they got some amusement of reading aloud and acting out the worst parts.
The leg got better, and Ty Lee resumed light exercises and stretching to get back to the form faster. Finally, she said that her situation cannot be improved any more by sitting in the room, and she has to get out before she starts killing things.
Ty Lee didn’t seriously plan to go to the fortuneteller, but it seemed she was the main local celebrity apart from the volcano. And after days of piece and quiet at the inn she really wanted some low-key entertainment.

She dragged Mai with her despite all Mai’s protestations.

The strange thing was – she liked Aunt Wu. She didn’t precisely believe in predicting the future, but her aura was beautiful purple with sparkles and Ty Lee couldn’t help but admire a person like this. Aunt Wu wasn’t very impressed by Ty Lee’s aura admiration.

“So, you girls want to know whom you are going to marry?”

Mai sniffed with derision and didn’t say anything.

Ty Lee exclaimed, “Oh, no! Not at all! You see – my friend has recently broke up. So she absolutely doesn’t want to hear that they’ll get back together. And definitely doesn’t want to know that they won’t! As for me – I’d rather discover it by myself. It would be horrible to think I am with a person just because you said I should.”

“What DO you want to know then?”

“Something, I guess? Maybe about our road trip? Or life in general?”

Madam Wu shrugged and let them choose a bone each and then threw her fortunetelling bones in the fire.

“You’ll make a mess. You’ll get lost. You’ll find yourselves. You’ll prevent a bigger mess. Widen your definition of success and you’ll find your mission successful. Keep hope infinite. Same about your lives.”

“Was it really all written in the bone cracks?”

“Maybe. I’m not telling you how to do your job, you’re not telling me how to do mine.”

“Sounds like a bunch of nothing.” Mai was determined to be a difficult customer.

“Oh, yes. Doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

“No, Mai, it does make sense when you think about it! I’ve got such a thrill down my spine. I think it’s all true. You are just totally non-spiritual person. You don’t believe in auras, you don’t believe in anything.” Ty Lee turned to Aunt Wu and said, “Thank you! That’s exactly what I needed to hear!”

“You are welcome, my dear. It is my job, you know – to tell what people need to hear.”

“I believe in people, why do I need to believe in crap?” Mai murmured to no one.

There was nothing more to talk about, but then Ty Lee had an idea.”

“I have the last question. Do you know the Herbalist from Taku?”

“I’ve heard of her. Is she still alive?” Aunt Wu looked wary.

“Yes, and a great healer. But she doesn’t have any students, and if something happens to her, all her knowledge will just disappear. Do you know if someone here might want to learn from her?”

“Ask around, maybe somebody wants.”

“People won’t listen to us, but they will to you.”

“Hmmm It’s a good point.” Aunt Wu seems to finally consider her words seriously. “I’ll see if there are some young people who don't’ know what to do with their lives and suggest this calling. We do need more good healers here. But you also have to keep asking, if you want to do something useful.”

They left Aunt Wu being vaguely unsatisfied.

“That was certainly an interesting experience.”

“She didn’t say anything.”

“But that’s what we wanted, didn’t we?”

Mai sniffed again and refused to talk about their fortunes any more.

At the inn they discovered that Tufty returned with a letter from Suki. The letter said that they are checking all the information and working on deciphering the robbers’ papers, and also that their certain common friend was very much freaked out by all the danger they found themselves in, and almost threatened some rash stupid actions, but got better when she talked to him.

“That certain friend needs to learn to calm down by himself already.” Mai muttered.

Ty Lee rolled her eyes. “Do you think we are going to be in a lot of danger?”

“We are going to Yu Dao next. Do you think not?”

“I have hope.”

And they left Makapu the next day and started for Yu Dao.

Chapter Text

***

The road to Yu Dao ran between the sea and mountains through forests and hills and meadows. There were not many settlements and hardly any people, which suited Mai very well. It was springtime in that part of the Earth Kingdom, which meant cold nights, new bright green grass and leaves, and lots of birdsongs in the air. In several days to Yu Dao nothing much happened, and Mai enjoyed their boring but relaxing journey. She discovered that she wasn’t really bored much – with all the simple routines she ans Ty Lee developed along the way.

Rainbow Sparkle and Starry Night ran ahead quite cheerfully, Ty Lee’s leg didn’t bother her much, and Mai grew fully comfortable even with small discomforts. They picked up enough food supplies in Makapu so she didn’t have to hunt animals for dinner, but she still occasionally did it, for practice and added variety to their diet. Cooking also got better with practice.

Mai also found herself talking more than she ever talked before. They discussed the weather and their journey, the books they were reading, Earth Kingdom history they had read just now. Fire Nation history they knew even less about, and Mai’s annoyance with all the Firelords who kept it hidden. Often the conversation moved to Ty Lee’s circus days, or to their school years.

“Remember our survival course at the academy?”

“Yes. I think the idea was to learn all this,” Ty Lee waved her arm at the forest surrounding them. “How to survive in hostile wilderness or in extreme conditions.”

“In our case extreme condition was princess Azula.”

“If we could survive her, everything else was easy…”

One night, a think fog moved down from the mountains, and they started their camp earlier when they still could see where to put the tent and make fire. The campfire went out several times, but finally it was burning merrily, and the girls huddled together, trying to fight off the feeling of wet paws on their backs. The gray fog surrounded them, turning the forest into weird milky walls. Mai couldn’t see their animal but could hear the noises they exchange. Probably just as uncomfortable between the fog and the smoke from the fire as Mai herself.

A sultry low female voice called from somewhere “Can a lonely uncomplicated girl join your campfire?”

“Anyone who calls themselves ‘A lonely uncomplicated girl’ is likely out to get your money.” Ty Lee answered primly, trying not to show that she just jumped after being startled so.

“Or your capital city” Mai added. “But sure, you’re welcome to join.”

“Or yourselves.” The tall lanky woman appeared from beyond the trees. “Thanks. My name is June, I am the bounty hunter.”

“Mai”

“Ty Lee. Just two uncomplicated girls traveling the country.”

“Yes, that just what I thought,”

“Are you after us?”

“Why would I be after two uncomplicated girls? No, not at the moment. I am between jobs as they say.”

“Just in case, if you are ever hired to get us, ask for a lot of bounty. And all of expenses paid. There might be a lot.” Ty Lee stretched, still uncomfortable with their guest.

“Duly noted. So, what are two uncomplicated girls from Fire Nation doing in the forest in the middle of Earth Kingdom?”

“Just traveling. Seeing new places, meting new people, having fun.” Mai offered her tea and bread with cheeses they were having for dinner.

“Thank you. And that fun is supposed to get bounties on your heads?”

“It’s a complicated world.” Mai shrugged.

Ty Lee was frowning and glancing to June and beyond her in the dark, and then her face lit up “Oh, I remember now! I’ve heard about you!”

“Oh, you’re friends with Prince Pouty then?”

Ty Lee laughed “Prince Pouty! That’s so perfect! Except it’s Fire lord Pouty now. But yeah, we’re friends, and he told us that he found his uncle with your help.”

“The creepy uncle is still out there?”

“In Ba Sing Se, to our knowledge, but why do you call him creepy?”

June looked them over with unreadable expression. “Ok, Maybe he has some moral standards. Or you are too young. But here is an honest free advice from me: keep a save distance and pay attention. He might be a kindly grandfather or uncle or whatever, but he is also a sleazy old guy if he can get away with it.”

They couldn't really say anything to it, so they drank tea in silence.

After some time June got up and stretched. “Thank for the tea and a place by your fire. Time to get moving. Nyla!”

A giant beast jumped into the clearing near them. Their ostrich horses shied and neighed. Tufty screeched a warning.

June caressed the ugly snout of her shirshu, jumped on it, and said “good luck with your travels, girls!” and disappeared.

“That was an interesting meeting.” Mai looked in the direction June left, but there was nothing visible but the fog.

“She really seemed to dislike uncle Iroh. So strange, everyone else loves him.”

“We don’t actually know him all too well. But yes, I like him. Hm.”

***

The rest of the way to Yu Dao went just as quietly, without troubles or adventures or strange meetings, and soon they saw white walls of the former colony with red and green rooftops of many buildings behind the walls.

“You know what I dream of?” Ty Lee closed her eyes in anticipation. “A Spa. Hot bath, massages… What do you think?”

“I think I don’t want to leave our things at the inn or spa. Do you have any trusted contacts?”

“Well, there are Aang’s Air Acolytes chapter here, and Toph’s Metalbending academy.”

“I don’t think any of them are going to guard your gold crown. It’s a big city, there should be a bank, let’s go there first.”

They got into the city and rode along wide clean streets. The people were generally busy with their lives and didn’t pay any attention to Mai and Ty Lee. However, from time to time they saw small groups of people screaming or arguing about something rather angrily. Mai didn’t think they were interesting enough to worry about, but a small feeling of discomfort settled in her bones. She was apprehensive to Yu Dao to begin with, didn’t expect anything good from their time here, and honestly knowing it’s her own personal issues tried to give Yu Dao a fair chance to impress her.

They found the Bank of Yu Dao on the main square – a beautiful imposing building. It used to signify imperial might of the Fire Nation and had the décor to show it off, and now it effortlessly moved to be the pride of the first independent city, trying to find its own way with the Fire Nation money generously given by current government and held in the bank’s vaults.

There were more people on the square. Some were protesting something, others just hanging out, watching people or showing off themselves.

Mai and Ty Lee entered the bank, and after a polite talk with a bank person, left, their possessions to wait for their return.

“How about we start with lunch?” Ty Lee suggested.

“Definitely a good idea.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t suggest it first.”

“These crowds are distracting. I wonder do they do it all day?”

Ty Lee shrugged. “I don’t know. What do people generally do all day?”

“Usually not protesting.”

“Well, you were lying in bed and throwing knives at the wall, you are not one to judge.”

“Fair enough.”

“Or, look, a restaurant that doesn’t look dingy! Let’s check it out” Ty Lee pulled her to a place that did indeed looked pretty decent both outside and inside.

They were immediately given a table and a menu. Mai read the menu apprehensively: it seemed some kind of fusion of Fire and Earth cuisines, and she didn’t trust it. Of course, that was basically what they did themselves – added familiar spices to Earth Kingdom dishes, but it didn’t exactly taste right, or even well, so she was hoping for something familiar. Finally, they made their orders and settled to wait.

The room was pretty big, with a large table in the middle and smaller tables around the walls. Most of the smaller tables were empty, but a large company occupied the table in the middle. Ty Lee turned on her bubble-head persona, just in case, and Mai let her attention to wander around. They still might hear something worthwhile, even though Yu Dao, according to Suki’s list was in “low priority” zone.

Through the window Mai could see a wide clean street, people hurrying back and forth, people loitering about and seemingly having a good time, people arguing cheerfully, carts being pulled by various animals, chicken pigs flying by. Her ears adjusted to the noise and she started picking up on the conversation at the big table. There was some kind of business being discussed. She turned to have a better look at the people there. They were all men, some looked Fire Nation, some Earth, some seemingly gave on all distinctions, and a couple were obviously Water Tribe. Mai tried to listen with more attention and noticed Ty Lee was listening, too. So far it was unclear what business they refer to, but given that the appearances were not very respectable, she guessed the business probably wasn’t either.

Their food arrived, and she turned her attention to the meal, continuing to listen.

“So, another day or two, until the final component arrives, and we’re ready.”

“Day or two! It’s not how things should be planned! It’s a large enterprise, we need a solid detailed plan.”

“It’s a solid plan. But we should be flexible, that’s how we account for our success.”

“Yeah, people say we ‘re lucky. Nah, we’re just flexible. And that’s why we win.”

“Occasionally, you lose.”

“Pfft! it’s a high-risk trading. There are always going to be some loss, but the bigger the risk, the bigger the gain.”

“Yeah, remember that stupid little fire prince? We blew him up really well – I mean what kind of security that ship had? None! And yet, look, he still running around. Some might say it’s a loss. Nope! We got paid and did the job as agreed. For all we know, we just might get paid to kill him again.”

Mai didn’t realize she started moving until she felt Ty Lee’s steely grip on her hand. She looked down and saw knives in her hands ready to… what?

“And what do you think you’re doing?” Ty lee’s voice was impossibly dry and annoyed.

Mai had to breath deep several times before she could answer.

“I guess I didn’t think at all.”

“That’s what I thought.”

It took an effort to turn her attention back to the meal. She finished it quickly and couldn’t even say afterwards what it was they were eating.

Ty Lee paid the bill, exchanged some pleasantries with the owner, and lead her out on the street. They got their ostrich horses and walked, pretending to enjoy the scenery.

“We are going to walk around until you are sane again.”

Mai didn’t answer. There was nothing she could say except to marvel at her own stupidity. And thank Ty Lee for being there.

They walked in silence, moving through the crowds on the streets, with their horses in tow. Ty Lee kept looking around, Mai mostly looked at nothing.

“Oh! Panda Lily Spa! Let’s go in.”

Mai silently followed Ty Lee inside.

***

They got out in several hours, Ty Lee happy and cheerful, and Mai… she had to admit she enjoyed it just as much. It was pretty nice to get a decent massage and to finally feel properly clean for the first time in weeks. Just as they hoped, here them being Fire Nation wasn’t remarked upon, though they got curious glances from the girls working there. Mai didn’t risk asking them about the protesting groups, but she caught several pieces of conversations that they were, indeed, a recent development after months of quiet. It was a puzzle, and the one she didn’t like. Her mind kept turning back to the pirates. They were expecting something. High risk. Could it be connected? She was afraid to talk about it with Ty Lee just now – may be she just really wanted to it to be connected. They needed more evidence. Hopefully, people in the Beifong Metalbending Academy would be willing to think with them.

Ty Lee sent Tufty to the Metalbending Academy as soon as they arrived in Yu Dao, and now they hoped for a place to spend the night there.

They mounted their ostrich horses and rode up the hill to the school building.

There, they were indeed, welcomed – but only by Toph’s oldest students. Oldest in a sense that they started learning metalbending a year ago, and already could metalbend somewhat. Age-wise one was a little girl Penga who looked them over critically and questioned their fashion sense, a large boy older than her, Ho Tun, who didn’t say much and another boy, probably slightly older than Mai who introduced himself as The Dark One, then under the mocking gaze of his fellow students told his actual name, that of course was so long and ridiculous that the Dark One seemed a sensible alternative.

“Is Toph not here? I was hoping to talk to her.” Ty Lee asked

“She went from Cranefish town directly to her home town Gaolin. You probably could catch her there, if she won’t have to go somewhere else.”

“Oh, maybe we will”

They were cheerfully allowed to stay and spend the night at the school. The students were obviously bored without Toph around to command them.

They ordered dinner for all five of them, demonstrated their metal bending skills to Mai and Ty Lee and settled talking about all kinds of things.

The Dark One was speaking in such flowery language that Ty Lee asked, “Do you write poetry, by any chance?”

Of course, he did. It took little persuasion to get him to show his works. Ty Lee skimmed through it and thanked politely, but Mai got curious. She wouldn’t admit it aloud, but she liked reading poetry, and even though she didn’t perceive a particular talent in herself, on occasion, when she was exceptionally bored, she liked to play with words, trying to put them in just the right formation.

So she read with attention. Most of it was atrocious. “O horrible life! Why? Why am I here? Years of suffering be ahead suffering normalcy” Was it anything but a mess of words trying to express a feeling?

“Do you want an honest opinion?” She looked at the Dark One (she already forgot his other name) and saw the intense hope on his face.

“Yes. It cannot be worse than everybody told me already.”

“They were right, I am sure. But I like this one “in dark abysses of my soul a zebra lily grows...” I mean, it’s not a masterpiece, but it’s a strong image, memorable.”

“Or this one:
‘Rain, snow, earthquake
I persevere
but a ray of spring sunshine
leaves me undone.’
a bit more work can turn it into something decent.”

Intense hope turned into rapt delight. “I hope you won’t steal this poor boy’s heart.” Ty Lee murmured in her ear.

He heard it and laughed sadly,”No worries. I have a lady friend who is dear to my heart. But she doesn’t like my poetic efforts yet. It’s nice to find a kindred spirit, so to say, a mind we could speak the same language with.”

Mai doubted any closeness of their spirits, but she didn’t argue. She had some sympathy for his need to be appreciated, and, after all, they were here to make friends, and they really needed these ones.

Little girl Penga was more interested in Fire Nation fashion, and that was the topic that Mai was not prepared to talk about at all. She only wore something different from her usual favorite clothes in extreme circumstances – like being undercover, or in prison. Ty Lee did try her best to indulge Penga’s interest.

What Ho Tun cared about they couldn't figure out, but when Mai asked about goings-on in the city, it was he who talked passionately about the doom that surely awaited them all.

Apparently, after the riots and violence that marked creation of Yu Dao as a city independent from both Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom died out, they had several months of of civic bliss. Everyone seemed happy and in high spirits and full of hope for their bright future.

However, a couple of weeks ago, the murmurs started around the city. Someone heard something, and nobody knew the source of rumours, that that independence is going to be very short-lived. Some said, Earth King ordered to take it all back, others believed Fire Nation is planning something evil. There were supporters of both nations in the city, and those who would fight against any of them. The murmurs got louder and louder, and people grew more and more agitated and suspicious of each other. Plus, it seemed as there were more people in the city these last days, people that no one has seen here before. So, the horrible doom was certain and inevitable, in the educated opinion of Ho Tun.

Both Penga and The Dark One nodded their heads in agreement.

“Do you have any plans what to do?” Mai asked.

“I hope Toph will be here, she’ll know what to do.” Penga said confidently.

“I guess, we could contact the Avatar. Or his Air Acolytes can.”

“Well. At least we can tell you that Fire Nation is not planning anything sinister. Fire Lord probably doesn’t want to think much of Yu Dao any more, he has enough problems at home.” Ty Lee was musing aloud “And I don’t think the Earth King is planning an attack, either, though I can’t be as sure in his case.”

“But there is something.” Mai started. “We overheard a conversation in a restaurant, about some kind of big scale operation between pirates.”

“Pirates? What would pirates have to do with Yu Dao? We are not a ship!” Ho Tun was incredulous.

“That’s a really good question, and I am sure if we think hard, we can come up with an answer.”

“Well, obviously, they want to steal something. That’s what pirates do.”

“And stealing during riots is much easier than during peaceful times.”

“Is it?”

“Well, everyone is busy protecting their own, or rioting, and nobody is paying attention.”

“But maybe it’s unrelated – pirates have their plan, and riots are just happening.”

“Maybe. That’s what we all have to figure out, haven’t we?”

The metalbending students unhappily agreed, and left Mai and Ty Lee for the night alone.

***

The next morning, after breakfast, Mai and Ty Lee walked down to the city to try to figure out what exactly the pirates were planning to steal. Starry Night and Rainbow Sparkle together with Tufty were left in the tender care of Penga and Ho Tun who showed up just after the sunrise with food for everyone. The Dark One didn’t show up at all.

Yu Dao in morning light seemed bright, busy and welcoming. There were no loitering crowds on the streets yet, just merchants with their wares, or people walking or riding about their business, occasional kids playing around.

Mai started to enjoy their walk and looked at the shops on around her wondering whether she wants to buy something. Maybe even fashionable? That would never ever wear again, back home.

“Hey, beauties! Allow me to accompany you? The streets could be dangerous for such beautiful ladies.”

Mai turned her head and saw a handsome young man from the Water Tribe smirking at them. Now, she wasn’t averse to smirking young men in general. Zuko had a pretty cute smirk on occasion. But this smirk was… unpleasant. Besides, where did she see that man before? She had no idea who he was but was sure she saw him already. Ty Lee, though, turned on her flirting mode.

“Hi! We don’t talk to strangers.”

“Of course not, but let me introduce myself, and I won’t be a stranger anymore. Name’s Yakone of the Northern Water Tribe. And you are?” He grinned what was supposed to be his most charming grin, but he looked like toadwolf to Mai, and she said through her teeth

“Just passing by”

He blocked their way slightly, determined to be charming. Mai could see that Ty Lee shared her unease, but still clang to her flirtiness.

“Nice to meet you, Yakone. Are you new to the city? It’s so pretty in the morning, isn’t it!”

“Not as pretty as you are, surely.”

Ty Lee smiled and tried to pass. Yakone, exuding helpfulness, followed them. Suddenly, Mai remembered. She turned and whispered in Ty Lee’s ear. “We saw him at the restaurant with the pirates yesterday.” Ty Lee nodded still smiling happily.

“Thank you, Yakone, we are just walking around, maybe some shopping or whatnot.”

“Then you absolutely need my help.” He did not give up, seemingly oblivious to the discomfort he brought with his presence.

“No, we really don’t. Thank you for your generous offer, we’d rather continue on your way ourselves.”

“Ooh, you are too good for me, aren’t you? Two little Fire Nation girls think that they are all above me?

Mai glanced around. There cheerful morning crowds were still out there, somewhere, but now a different type of crowd was closing in. The mood of the morning changed rapidly.

“What exactly are these two Fire nation girls doing in our city?” Yakone proclaimed loudly. “Are they on their way to incite violence? Are they spies?”

Knives were in her hands, but before Mai could use them, both she and Ty Lee were locked in ice. Yakone’s grin made him looked a satisfied predator. Damn waterbenders. They tried to fight the ice off, but the crowd was closing in on them.

“Spies! Fire Nation Spies! Lock them up!” cries surrounded them, and the crowd was picking them up and carrying somewhere. The ice started to break, but still there were no place to run.

***

Somewhere turned out to be the city prison. Figures.

“That was not a very good morning.” Ty Lee stated the obvious. Mai closed her eyes and tried to think.

Chapter Text

“Together in prison. Just like good old times.” Ty Lee tried to keep the team morale up with appropriate jokes, even when her heart wasn’t really into it. Old habits kept creeping out at difficult times.

Mai snorted and didn’t answer anything. Ty Lee didn’t mind. The whole experience was ridiculous. One moment they were having a perfectly normal uncomfortable encounter with a creepy guy, the next moment they were in prison. Accused of being Fire Nation spies. Well, they were, but that wasn’t a reason for prison. Ty Lee giggled at the rhyme.

“Reason for prison! May be I should be a poet, too! I can’t possibly be worse that that guy!”

Mai still didn’t answer.

“Are you ok?”

She finally turned her head. “Huh? Yes. Reasonably. Just thinking. They are planing a huge robbery, and they wanted us out of the way? They have no idea who we are, even though they are right about us being the Fire nation. Obviously they wanted us in prison but why?”

“Should we make a break for it and figure it out on the way?”

“Maybe. Let’s try official route first. I doubt they can just grab and imprison anyone from the street, and there was no reason to imprison us.”

They called for guards or anyone – nobody answered. Half an hour later an elderly guard came, apologizing for the delay and brought steaming dishes with him. Ty Lee couldn't figure out whether he was Fire Nation or not.

“I’m sorry, ladies, lunch is a bit late today. My wife got stuck in the commotion in the city this morning, and started cooking later.”

“Your wife cooks lunch for prisoners?”

“My wife cooks lunch for me and whoever is also there. Before all the prisons were under military command of Fire Nation, but now it’s just us ourselves, and we haven’t had much use for prison yet.”

“I can see that. It’s the most un-prison-like prison I’ve ever been to.” said Mai.

“And you’ve been to many? You don’t strike me as a hardened criminal type, young lady.”

“My uncle’s been serving as a guard or warden in prisons all his life. He enjoyed giving me educational tours now and then.”

“Oh.” The guard nodded, his face clearing up from the confused frown.

“He’s been a warden of the Boiling rock prison for the past several years. Loves his work.”

Now the guard’s face lit up in recognition. “I’ve heard of it! So that’s your uncle, huh! Can we have a little chat about it later on? I really would love to know more about prisons.”

“I hardly can avoid it.”

He chuckled good-naturally. “Sorry, my ladies. I can’t just let you go like that. But as soon as the Mayor, The Fire Nation envoy and the sheriff are all back from the conference in the next former colony, this thing will clear up to your satisfaction.”

“Are they all away?”

“Yes, they’ll be back in a couple of days, don’t worry. I can promise to make your stay as comfortable as possible. Best food my wife can make, I’ll bring some better bedding, too, and maybe books to read?” He nodded towards the food. “You try it, it’s really good. My wife’s famous for her noodles with chicken ears in garlic sauce.”

He left. Ty Lee tried the food – noodles were really delicious, and she enjoyed them. Mai was still in her thinking mood. So Ty Lee had to poke her friend and remind her to eat.

“It’s a perfect opportunity, isn’t it?” Mai said suddenly after finishing her meal.

“What is?”

“All main authority figures are away, nobody’s keeping order. Someone is going to rob something.”

“But why wait and make it so complicated? Plus, during all those riots?”

“They will have easier time to pull the robbery during the riots. It fact, they might have organized them specifically to make it easier to rob.”

“The pirates organized the riots?”

“Why not? People here are easily excitable – it’s been just a little time since they all were rioting and received their independence for that. Might as well start rioting again – I am pretty sure there are a lot of unhappy people.”

“My head hurts. So you suggest, that the pirates – or whoever is it – organized riots in order to rob… what?”

“Something really big.”

“But what can be that big? The governor’s mansion?”

“No. I mean, it’s big, but I doubt there are enough treasures to make it worthwhile such a serious operation.”

“Then there is only the bank of Yu Dao. It has all the money The Fire Nation left to cover starting the independent city, and all the tax revenue...”

The guard returned, took away their plates and cups and brought clean blankets. After he made sure Mai and Ty Lee were as comfortable as he could make them, he started questioning Mai about prisons in Fire Nation. Mai answered with as many details as she could remember, and Ty lee just tuned off. Mai’s family was weird. But it was more fun to think about Mai’s weird family than of her own. Ty lee tried to pictures her parents, her sisters, her more distant relatives that she hasn't seen in years… All were shadows. Well her sisters were not really shadows, more like reflections – not of her but of each other? She wasn’t sure. They were all happy together, Ty lee wondered whether she could be happy there, too? If she made more effort? If she focused on more positive sides on begin with them? As if was, it was much easier not to think about them at all.

But listening about prisons while being in prison wasn’t any fun either, and she started mulling on Mai’s idea that the whole thing was invented to rob a bank. It was crazy. Unbelievable. Too much. And it felt true.

Of course, Mai latched onto those pirates who tired to kill Zuko. She was probably even right, except for trying to assault them in the restaurant. But Zuko was where Mai’s reasoning became… not to say wonky, but changed priorities. Definitely. Ty Lee privately rolled her eyes – those two were cute together, miserable apart, and more of a family to her, than her sisters ever been. She studiously avoided thinking about OTHER weird found family member instead focusing on Kyoshi warriors as her new sisters.

Ok, back to robbers.

“You know, we think that someone is trying to rob the bank of Yu Dao. Can you do something to prevent it?” Ty Lee decided to check their idea against the only rightful Yu Dao authority that could help with it.

That stopped the guard.

“All the order-keeping forces that we have are out on the streets, protecting the people from disturbances and riots. But the bank is pretty well secured – from earthbending and firebending. I don’t think waterbending can get any money out, and as long as it not the Avatar who wants to rob us, we are safe from airbending, too. So, they might want to rob it, but I cannot imagine what they might do. Ok, I’ll leave you for now, ladies. I hope you are comfortable, and as soon as any of my higher-ups are back, you’ll be out of here. I’ll bring you dinner in a couple of hours.”

He left, and Mai lay back on her blankets looking exhausted.

“You were very nice to him.”

“Familiar territory. I do know way too much about prisons. Might as well use that knowledge for something good.”

“So we think they’ll rob the bank.”

“Nothing else is big enough to justify all that effort. No authority in town, all the police forces are busy on the streets.”

“But what could they do? You heard that the bank is protected against all bending?”

“What about non-benders?”

“Everyone forgets that non-benders can be just as dangerous, didn’t they? Still, I am not sure what their exact plan could be.”

“Yes, but whatever they planned it must be for tomorrow, and that means we can’t do anything, since we are here for another couple of days, sleeping on fluffy blankets, chatting up the guard and eating dinners prepared by his wife.”

“We could break out.”

“But should we? It’s not our city.”

***

The day was done, another guard was on duty now and asleep somewhere our of Ty Lee’s line of vision. Mai fell asleep in her nest of blankets. Ty Lee couldn’t sleep. As prisons go this one was nice, but still it was a prison and not conductive to rest.

When she heard strange noises in their cell door, she looked up but only saw a shadow disappearing. She went and tired the door. - it was unlocked. She opened it a little got out, checked on the night guard – it was a young guy, quite gormless, fast asleep in his corner.

Ty Lee went back and woke up Mai.

“Hey, the door is open, we can go.”

“Did you do anything?”

“No, I’ve seen someone disappearing but that’s it.”

“Some unknown rescuers? I don’t trust them.”

“But we can prevent the robbery!”

“Yes. And yet there is a part of me that would rather just stay here and wait...” Mai stood up and left the cell, Ty Lee following on her heels. The guard didn’t wake up.

At the doors they lingered. It was night already, the streets were empty and silent and dark, some fires burning in the lanterns above their heads without giving much light.

Suddenly the sound of running steps thundered in the silence. Ty Lee and Mai were startled and ready to fight two figures appearing in the dark. However, it was just that ridiculous boy from Toph’s academy who wrote horrible poetry, and a girl that looked like she was an airbender. Except of course she wasn’t.

“Hi! We’ve heard you are in trouble and came to break you out of prison!”

“We are out of prison, and we need to think about it. It doesn’t seem right.” Mai sounded sleepy and grumpy. Ty Lee knew Mai hated being in prison as much as she did, so the grumpiness was probably attributed to being woken up.

“Let’s go to the Air Acolytes’ house. My name is Xing Ying, I am the head of Yu Dao Air Acolytes chapter.” The airbender fashion girl said.

Ty Lee looked at Mai, nodded, and they ran together.

The place they ended up was a neat little house decorated in what Ty Lee supposed was an Air Nomad style. Lots of cheerful yellow and orange colors that brightened the space even in the middle of the night.

“The Dark one told me about you, and then we’ve heard that two Fire Nation girls where accused in being spies and imprisoned, and we thought it’s unfair, and waited for the night to break you out.”

“But you didn’t, right?”

“No, as you could see we were too late. You said you did it yourselves.”

“Not quite. Did anyone else knew that you wanted to break us out?”

“No, probably. Of course other Air acolytes might mention it to somebody, or Penga and Ho Tun… But really, I don’t think so. Why?”

“Because, the door to our cell was unlocked by someone, and the night guard was very soundly asleep. Someone really wanted us to get our of prison by ourselves.”

“And just now. In two days everyone important is back, and we’d be out of prison, anyway.” Mai, still grumpy, added.

“But we’ve figured out that a group of pirates and their friends are planning to rob the Yu Dao bank tomorrow. We told the guard about our suspicions, but he didn’t believe it possible.” Ty Lee wasn’t sure whether she should have called the potential robbers “pirates and friends”, but they didn’t have a better name for them, anyway. Maybe there were friends.

“And now someone let us out of prison.”

“I guess, it would be easier to blame you on that robbery if you were not in prison.” suggested Xing Ying.

“Exactly.”

“So, do you want to go back in prison?”

“No, I think, since we are already out, we should just prevent the robbery.”

“How are we going to do it?”

“Well. We know who and when are going to do it. But not how.”

“We tried to tell the prison guard about our suspicions, but there is no police available to do anything, everyone is either away or too busy.”

“That means we have to watch the bank and see what is happening there.”

“It’s supposed to be secured from earthbenders and firebenders. What about the others?”

The Dark One considered the question. “There are not that many metalbenders. Only the three of us can somewhat bend metal, but hardly enough to do anything to the vault doors or walls. Of course, Sifu Toph can bend anythings she wants, but she won’t be making complicated plans to do it.”

“Avatar Aang could probably do it, being the Avatar, but I doubt he’ll be robbing a bank.” Not surprisingly, Xing Ying had the highest opinion of Aang.

Mai said, “Pirates boasted they blew up Zuko’s ship. Which is made of metal, of course, and none of them are firebenders. So they have something that can destroy lots of metal.”

“And they expected a shipment to arrive yesterday! It might be a shipment of explosives.” Ty Lee realized.

“It must have been a lot of explosives to take down thick layers of stone and metal.”

“I wonder, how much of the city it will ruin?” said Xing Ying.

“And with all the people on the street it will cause a pretty panic.”

They went and walked around the bank, but didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

“Do you think explosives are not there yet?”

“No idea”

“Why don’t do they do right now? It would be easy to stop them.” The Dark One said.

“Maybe that’s why?”

“But to set up explosives in the middle of the day, with all the people around?”

“And then blame it on two fire nation girls why ran away from prison.”

“Spirits’ crap! that’s why you were set free!”

“I felt it was all wrong… They don’t want just the money. They want to make it look incidental, so nobody thought it was all to rob a bank. That’s why the disquiet, and small rioting, and crowds on the streets. So then stuff explodes, everyone panics, people dead, buildings in ruins, and nobody notices the money are gone.” Mai agreed.

“Hm. They couldn’t possibly plan to use us from the beginning, can they? We didn’t know ourselves we’ll be here just now.”

“They probably planned to use someone else. There are a lot of people who can be accused in being spies – either for Fire Nation or Earth king, we were just too convenient to pass.”

“What do we do now?”

Xing Ying led them back to the Air Acolyte house. “I think Air Acolytes and I can work on public order, we have experience already and people know us. We probably can manage driving everyone away from the center of the city without causing panic.”

“The metalbending students will help what they can. The new ones will help you with the people, and the three of us who can actually metalbend should go with you two to stop the robbers.”

“I would feel more comfortable if Ho Tun and Penga don’t try to stop robbers. They might be great metalbenders, but those guys are really nasty.”

“You know, there is a chance we might need a quick escape. And our stuff is in the bank and animals are at the Beifong academy…”

“We might be able to come up with something.” The Dark One said.

Xing Ying added, “My cousin works at the bank. If you write a note he’ll give me your stuff. I am going to talk to him anyway – we need to let them be ready to run or hide and be on a lookout for the trouble.”

“Thank you everyone.”

“It’s our city, what did you expect?”

“Not being believed.”

“After meeting the avatar...”

“And Toph Beifong!”

“...One starts believing in all kinds of things.”

“We need to watch over the bank now.”

“No, go to sleep. I’ll find someone else to take over the watch duties for the night.”

“You know what?” The Dark One said, “I think we should find Sneers.”

“Oh, yeah, I don’t like their group much, but maybe a bit of violence will be helpful, and they care about the city. His Freedom fighters’ friends are gone though, aren’t they?” Xing Ying obviously wasn’t excited about inclusion of those unknown Freedom Fighters but deemed them useful.

“Yes, I haven’t seen Smellerbee and her team for a while.”

“Ok, it’s decided. I’ll go talk to Kori Morishita, as the mayor’s daughter she should know about all this, anyway. And you talk to Sneers, and you two have some sleep.”

Ty Lee recognized the name of Kori Morishita and glanced at Mai, watching for her reaction. Mai’s eyes narrowed a little, but otherwise she didn’t show anything. Which of course didn't mean much with Mai.

Anyway, the plan seemed workable, or as good as they could come up with. They all agree to meet again for breakfast and discuss the new developments if there are any.

The Dark one and Xing Ying left, and Ty Lee found a cozy spot, put a blanket around her and fell asleep, hoping Mai would follow her example.

The morning came way too early.

Suddenly it was bright, and noisy, and everyone was there – all the people they didn’t know.

At least someone made them breakfast and soon after Ty Lee and Mai were up, introductions were made, and everyone say down to eat and drink and discuss the latest news.

The major news to be discussed was that Sneers – a large round kind of guy – while standing his night watch shift saw the unknown people hiding something around the walls of the bank of Yu Dao. He used to have experience with explosives, as Ty Lee understood, during the war – he mumbled through that part rather incomprehensibly – and he recognized the stuff quite definitely.

The main argument went whether to get the explosives out just now or wait. Sneers argued – and Ty Lee agreed that if they just take the hidden explosives away, the robbers won't be caught, and they’ll just bring new batch of explosives the next time. Xing Ying was against it, explaining that they are facing a great disruption of city life, destruction and possible injuries, and if they can prevent them, than they should.

Kori Morishita said that if they prevent all that destruction now they might not be able to prevent it the nest time, as the criminals will be waiting for another moment. And the argument went on and on, until suddenly Xing Ying gave up, saying that at the moment they are not doing anything at all and that was unacceptable.

Then someone came with the idea to spoil the explosives - at least some of it, so they would look the same but wouldn’t explode. And it was agreed to be a brilliant idea. Ty Lee wasn’t sure it was any better than the others, but maybe it was just different enough.

After that the flurry of activity renewed itself on a much larger scale. Ty Lee found herself very impressed with the way Xing Ying was managing people and things around her. Nobody admitted she was the leader, but everyone did whatever she told them to do, and everything was settling to be perfect.

Mai was quiet. Of course that was pretty much the same as saying the night was dark, but she was quieter than usual, and Ty Lee decided that she knew the reason. So when Mai slipped after Kori Morishita, Ty Lee immediately followed.

Sure enough, she found Kori pinned to the wall just outside of the house, and Mai lecturing her.

“What were you thinking, assaulting the fire lord?”

“He doesn’t care about interests of Fire Nation! He is a disgrace!”

“And what do you think killing him would have accomplished?”

“We never had these problems before!”

“We were at war with the whole world, believe me we had quite a lot of problems. And do you think Ozai cared about interests of Fire Nation colonies here? Hah! He didn’t. Or maybe you think princess Azula would be the one to care about you?”

“What’s you problem, anyway?”

“My problem is with people who try to kill Fire Lord Zuko, especially for the stupid-ass reasons like you did. If you want his attention, write him a letter! He loves letters!”

Ty Lee tried hard not to giggle at that. Mai noticed, glanced at her angrily and continued with her lecture.

“Or ask for an audience, or just come by and demand to talk to him. He’ll probably listen. But assaulting him at night? That’s disgusting. It won’t solve anything.”

“It did.”

“You got one free pass. Enjoy it. Next time you try something like that, I’ll kill you personally.”

“Yeah? Who are you to make this threat?”

“Just a girl who works at a flower shop and a loyal Fire Nation citizen.”

Kori laughed, but that laughter was rather worried. And Ty Lee decided to intrude.

“We need to start working. And working together.”

***

The streets seemed even more crowded, and people even more agitated than the previous days. Ty Lee thought it was a perfect day for explosive bank robbery, nobody probably even notice several robberies.

The Xing Ying and her forces of good started to work, though, and as they walked closer to the bank, the streets were slightly more empty.

A young man came out of the bank with a bag and waved to them. Ty Lee waved back, he approached them. “Hi! My name is Jian. Xing Ying told me about possible robbery. Is it really happening?”

“I am afraid so. Please take care, there are explosive around the bank, and we are not sure whether they might go off.”

“Do you know where explosives are?”

“Our friends do, and they are trying to disable them.”

Jian nodded. “Here is your stuff, please check that it’s everything.”

Ty Lee looked in the bag. “Yes, thank you. Can you get it to the Beifong academy?”

“Sure.” he left and started back to the bank, talked to someone there and gave the bag to a young boy who immediately ran away with it. Ty Lee didn’t have time or energy to wonder about it.

Time slowed down. The two of them were hiding in the neighboring building close enough to see what was going on. Sneers reported that he and his friends managed to disable explosives without making it obvious that they were disabled, which should have thwarted the robbers without making it obvious that they are discovered. Sneers and Kori and their friends and The Dark One were all hiding nearby, ready to arrest or fight unsuccessful robbers.

The noises from the city seemed muffled, but those were not regular city noises, there were screams and shouts and things breaking loudly. Ty Lee wondered how Air Acolytes were planing to quiet everyone down peacefully. On the other hand, she thought that Xing Ying probably could personally pacify a small riot.

The appeared the guys from the restaurant. The would-be robbers. No Water Tribe guy in sight. The three of them tried to set fire on the rope leading to the first batch of the explosive. The rope burned, but nothing else happened. They went to investigate. Lots of swearing and cursing and waving of hands. Two guys ran somewhere and came back with another two bags. Ty Lee felt like cursing herself. She looked at the rest of her group.

Sneers said. “They just want to put those bags against the vault. It’s probably enough to make a big hole and get some money out, not enough to destroy the city around it. We can just let them do it, and then arrest them.”

Everyone seemed to agree.

The three guys under the command of the forth were setting the new explosive. More robbers came to talk, including the Water Tribe one -Yakone? - then went back to wherever their posts were.

Suddenly Mai moved. “I’m going to talk to them.”

Before Ty Lee could ask whether she was crazy, Mai was out on the street. Ty Lee followed, screaming internally.

“I’ve got this.” Mai turned to look at her, nodded, and stood before the four robbers with explosives.

“Can you please stop it?”

“What? You think you ruined our plans?” The one who was obviously in charge laughed.

“Half of Yu Dao knows you are trying to rob their bank right now.”

“No, my dear, they think somebody is trying to rob the bank, and that somebody is you and your friend. We’ll be far away with the money, and you’ll stay in prison from which you shouldn’t have left, if you ask me. Fire Nation is evil, and you have to pay.”

He finally got the sparks flying and rope connected to the charges started to burn.

“Fine.” Mai had knives ready.

Then the screams started with more cursing and threats, and Mai grabbed Ty Lee’s hand and pulled her with her away from the burning rope, leaving four people pinned to ground trying to get free.

The girls hardly made around the corner when the walls shook from the explosion. They fell down.

“These guys… They didn’t make it out.”

“Most likely.”

“Mai…”

“I did ask them politely not to start the fire, didn’t I? You heard them. They knew what they were doing.”

“Yes, but…” Ty Lee sighed. “You knew what you were doing, too.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s run to the Beifong academy.”

And they ran through the city amid the fires and screams and sounds of fighting. And someone, of course cried “Fire Nation spies! it’s their doing! Grab them!” Ty Lee hoped that the Dark One had a really good escape plan.

And he did: in front of the Academy a giant air balloon with the sign of “Earthen Fire industries” was waiting for them, ready to fly.

Ten minutes later, Yu Dao was below them, and soon after they left it behind, and Ty Lee wondered whether they’ll be able ever to come back.

Chapter Text

The bright green aircraft was rising higher and higher and taking them away from Yu Dao. The smoke was still visible, but Mai was sure the fire would be contained fast – after all, the explosion was small relatively to what was planned and only took buildings on one side street.

Mai turned and looked over the insides of the aircraft – such a far cry over first war balloons! Large enough for all their possession including ostrich horses, it was also lavishly comfortable, made not for war, but for enjoyable travel across the world. She mentally thanked the metalbending students for arranging it for their escape and putting all the stuff and animals – and supplies – in beforehand. She really didn’t want to stay in Yu Dao any additional moment, even if they did save it.

Ty Lee was chatting up the guy operating the aircraft, whose name was probably Deng, but Mai wasn't entirely sure. The guy was old, wrinkled and visibly unhappy with everything. Mai could relate. She sat in the corner and twirled a knife in her hands. It was a rather small elegant knife, just as she liked them, with slightly curved blade made out of the best steel she could buy. It fitted so well in her hands and made such pleasant twirling movement. It should have been relaxing. It wasn’t. Mai prided herself on precision. Her weapons flew exactly where she willed them to. The blades were sharp enough to pierce wood, earth, metal. They could pierce skin, too, but she never let them. Not if she could help it. She believed that in all the time she was fighting she never killed anyone. Of course, she never checked. Maybe it was all a self-delusion.

Maybe it would be more honest to send the knives into heart, or throat, or eyes. To kill swiftly and surely, not to pretend to be anything but deadly. She thought of Azula. For all her skills, her fire, her lightnings, her ruthlessness, had she ever killed anyone? Probably not, if not for the lack of trying. And Mai did. And it was remarkably easy. They deserved it, too, but why was she on the verge of puking this whole time? Why did she want to go back in time and undo it all? If they survived, they’d probably just try to blow up that city – or any other one – again. She probably prevented deaths of innocents. But it didn’t make her feel any better. Suddenly she, with perfect clarity, understood Aang. She’d never thought much about his decision not to kill Ozai. She personally would have been fine with seeing Zuko’s father dead, and it would have a positive effect of cutting the number of conspiracies to return him to power, but now she knew that Aang wasn’t doing it for Ozai or anyone else, but for himself. And he was right.

She glanced at Ty Lee – Ty Lee sat at the other side and was looking at her. Mai was worried she’ll try to cheer her up and even more worried that she wouldn’t, so she closed her eyes, curled down, and tried to get everything out of her head.

When she opened her eyes it was already dark, and they were lowering down for the night. It was a place similar to all the places she and Ty Lee passed on their way north, but Mai couldn’t recognize it. It was for the best. She wasn’t sure whether she was asleep or not, but she didn’t feel rested. Just numb and heavy and tired. Without saying anything she busied herself with setting the camp and preparing for the night. Ty Lee had the task of making dinner, though it was more of the matter of taking the food already prepared and setting it on plates and making tea.

Deng grumbled something about evils of Fire Nation. Ty Lee did her best to be polite with him, and Mai mostly filtered out all the words.

She did not remember the night. The next morning they continued their flight. Ty Lee gave up on trying to converse with Deng, and didn’t even try to talk to her, so she was mostly standing by the edge of the balloon and enjoying the view. Mai didn't care about the view. She sat and purposefully didn’t do anything. She had a pretty good practice.

***

Eventually they arrived to Gaoling. Ty Lee and Mai emptied the vessel of all their possessions. Ty Lee bowed again to Deng, who mumbled something incoherent and left. Then Ty Lee turned to Mai, and slapped her.

“Hey! What was that for?”

“Snap out of it, will you? Stop behaving like a martyr. You did something really questionable, and you need to move on.”

“Whatever.”

“Whatever! You can punish yourself in your free time, even though I think it’s stupid, and there is no reason to punish the world around it.”

Mai didn’t answer.

“Let’s go. We are supposed to meet Toph.”

Beifong house was really a small palace, surrounded by impeccable formal gardens and full of servants who moved around slowly, looking more self-important than many of fire nation smaller nobles they knew.

Ty Lee looked around, visibly pleased by the serene beauty of the gardens. “Does it surprise you? That Toph’s come from this upbringing?”

“No, why? I guess rich and powerful people screw up lives of their children in similar ways.”

“True. Although mine was special.”

“Should I envy you?”

“No, I just like to feel special.”

“Don’t worry, you are.” They had similar conversions before, but Ty Lee never tired of hearing it.

The ostrich horses nibbled at the perfect lawn they were standing on, then Starry Night came and bumped its head at Mai. Mai learned by now, after several bruises, that it was a sign of affection from an ostrich horse. Mai scratched Starry Night’s neck surreptitiously and felt much better. The life went on. They saved one stupid city. And now they were far away from it and didn’t have to go back possibly ever again.

Ty Lee squeaked and started waving like crazy.

“What are you doing? She won’t see it.”

“Oh, yes!” Ty Lee started jumping up and down instead.

“Hi Toph!” Mai said.

“Hi airheads. You are in luck to get me there.” Toph appeared before them amazingly fast, moving with the earth, without paying attention at the state of the garden in her wake. Except she did pay attention, since when she stopped the ground settled after her more or less the way it used to be.

“Being busy?”

“Too many asses to kick. Why people just don’t behave themselves?”

Neither Mai nor Ty Lee had any kind of answer to that question.

“How did you know about our arrival?”

“Well, a messenger hawk was sent here, and I happened to be here, so… someone told me.”

“What do you do these days, beside kicking asses?” Mai asked as they followed Toph back into her house.

“Mmm... kicking more asses? I don’t know, there is always going on something that requires my involvement. Either as a best earthbender, of Aang’s friend, or my dad’s executive partner - I don’t even have time to win at the Rumble Earth tournament. The Boulder became the champion in the last one, because I was too busy to participate. I am happy for him, but that’s just wrong.”

They settled in the richly decorated room, and servants brought tea and snacks. “So, how are you guys doing?” Toph asked. “What exactly happened at Yu Dao? The way I’ve heard you helped to save it but overall the message was confusing. My lily livers seemed very impressed but couldn't tell a story straight.”

“Your students are great, actually! We’ve enjoyed meeting them.” Ty Lee said. “But I am sorry to say, The Dark one, of whatever his name is, now totally devoted to Mai. On account on her agreeing to read his poetry and liking it.”

“I can’t believe it. That’s doesn’t sound like Mai at all.” Toph laughed.

“Because it’s not true. I admit to being curious about state of modern poetry, but I only said one of his poems is not totally horrible. Which is true, it wasn’t as bad as the rest.”

Toph snickered. “It’s way more than he ever got from anyone. I’ll have to go and talk some sense into him. He should put more effort into metalbending instead of poetry.”

“Sometimes poetry just happens to people.” Both Ty Lee and Toph had very suspicious expressions on their faces, and Mai decided to kill this topic. She stuffed her mouth with the delicious bun and didn’t say anything else.

Meanwhile, Ty Lee recounted their adventures from their arrival at Earth Kingdom to escape from Yu Dao. Toph was rolling from laughter hearing about their mix-up with bandits, and occasionally frowning. Come to think, some of it was indeed hilarious. Mai sighed: she still had to write an official report about progress of their mission. She imagine writing “Dear Zuko! Remember the pirates that you hired to catch the avatar and who blew up your ship later on? I killed them. No need to thank.” and almost smiled. Then she remembered that she really killed them, and the smile disappeared.

“So what are you girls up to?” Everyone was finished with their food by now, and the girls made themselves comfortable. For Toph it meant sliding on the floor, for Ty Lee – perching on the back of the armchair, and Mai lay down on a sofa.

“Well, it was supposed to be a fun stealthy trip where we find out whether leftover Fire Nation army is stirring trouble here, and help avoid any diplomatic incidents.”Ty Lee explained.

“But so far we fail both at fun and at stealthy.” Mai added.

“Stealthiness is overrated, in my opinion. I like to solve my problems head on.”

“I thought you for years pretended to be a helpless little girl?”

“Only to protect my parents. And it was a mistake. That I learned from.”

“So, you are back to living with your parents?”

“I wouldn’t say that. I reconciled with my father by forcing him to admit that his daughter is the greatest earthbender on Earth. Which he did when I saved his life. Now I am an official executive partner at our family business. And get to enjoy all the wealth, and all the freedom. One without the other is not fun. Though I’d take freedom without wealth any day, it’s nice not to have to con people out of money.”

Ty Lee thought about it. “I thought all the big fortunes are made by conning? I mine family’s wealth had some weird origins, to be honest.”

“Mine started with the land. They probably didn’t bother with deception and took it by force.” Mai kept wondering who were her ancestors in that Kemurikage story the old paper told, but the truth was that most likely they were the evil warlords there.

“I think Beifongs were very rich for so many centuries, that no one really remembers how it all started.”

“Did the war affected your family?” Mai asked, suddenly curious.

“Honestly? We got only richer. Sure, some property got destroyed or was lost to you, guys, but all the military contracts were so profitable, my family hardly noticed the losses, as I understand. My father is lucky I can’t read, I am really wondering about all those contracts.”

“What about your mother? You didn’t say anything about her.”

Toph shrugged. “Nothing to say there. She is severely disappointed in me, my father, and everything else. Whatever. If I am ever in mood to be mothered, I can always spend time with Katara. She’ll order me around for my own good, hug me, and fluff my pillow. And when she is done we can laugh about it together. My actual mom… is touchy. And I have to be touchy with with, and I hate being touchy.”

“Really?” Ty Lee seemed genuinely surprised. “I thought you are all.. touchy? What with walking barefoot and sensing earth?”

Toph make a face. “Different touchy. I cannot sense my mother in any kind of sense. Would be easier if I could touch her with my feet.”

Mai preferred not to comment on mothers. But she did it, anyway. “I’ve just stopped, you know. Stopped wanting anything. But she stopped trying wanting anything from me, too, so we are good. Took several disasters to reach this point.”

“What about you?” Toph asked Ty Lee. For all her chattiness Ty Lee masterfully avoided talking about her own family. She kept doing it even now.

Ty Lee shrugged. “I haven’t seen them in years. They probably didn’t even noticed I was gone.”

Mai added for Toph’s benefit. “She has six sisters. Identical.”

Toph considered it for a while. “Good thing Sokka doesn’t have six identical sisters. I am fine with one Katara, but six of them would be too much for this world.”

Ty Lee laughed. “Just imagine six Kataras against six Azulas!”

Mai couldn’t help but laugh at the horrible ridiculousness of that vision. At least Ty Lee’s sisters were noisy, not deadly.

“I wonder what my life would be if I had a sibling. Maybe he or she would be a nice normal baby, and they would forget about managing my life?”

“No.” Mai and Ty Lee said in unison. Mai continued, “You would still be their asset, not Toph the Great earthbender. I still had to be the perfect daughter when Tom Tom arrived. And then I realized I had to be responsible for his well-being, too, because he is not one to sit still. And I hated it.”

“You hated everything.”

“Yes.”

“So, what are you next plans? Where are you going the make havoc next?” Toph wisely moved on.

“We have to check several points south from here, then eventually get to Ba Sing Se. And then we’ll see.”

“Why don’t you want ask me or Aang and Katara and Sokka to help you?”

“I thought you have enough asses to kick without us bringing in more problems? Anyway, we’re supposed to deal with Fire Nation folk specifically, leaving the rest for locals.”

“But you can figure out why Pohuai was converted into outlaw hideout when Fire Nation army left.”

“I think destroying it would be easier.”

“It’s covered in metal.”

“A good practice for the lily livers, then.” Toph smirked menacingly. “As to why? Bribes and corruption on the local level. Earth King is too far away to care, and generally... you’ve met him.”

Mai and Ty Lee both nodded in understanding. They indeed met King Kuei under… various circumstances and didn’t form a high opinion about him.

“Do you need a transport to Ba Sing Se?”

“No, we’ll take the slow route and go through villages here to check for trouble.”

“Pretty sure you will find some. Send a hawk here, I’ll leave instructions for Deng to wait for you with the airship. If you need it, he’ll fly and pick you up.”

“He really dislikes us.” Ty Lee noted.

“Yeah, but he really likes my money. Stay away from the Si Wong desert, if you can. Misty Palm Oasis is the most boring and depressing place on Earth, and that including Ba Sing Se.”

“And what are you going to go?”

“Stay here for a couple of days. Recharge, relax, visit old friends, maybe win a battle or two if someone is willing to fight me… In fact, I think you should stay with me for a couple of days, too.”

“You have old friends here? I thought you were lonely and over-protected?”

“Toph Beifong was lonely. The Blind Bandit, the earthbending champion, had a couple of friends on arena and beyond. And then it’s back to the gang. Keep the world saved.”

“That’s an interesting turn of phrase.”

“I am rather proud of it myself. I mean, we went to so much trouble to save the world, it would be a pity if it immediately went back to destroying itself. I occasionally want to kick the whole world’s ass so it would stop being so stupid.”

It was a good sentiment, and Mai wondered whether the world could really just be – peaceful, safe, trouble-free. Like a Beifong mansion. It was a lovely fantasy. But extremely boring and unrealistic.

“I guess, we should take time to enjoy quiet before going back to look for trouble and keep the world safe.”

Chapter Text

They left Gaoling after three carefree days. Toph took them to the Earth Rumble place, and while the championship itself had just finished before their arrival, they saw some practice matches, and generally approved the sight of earthbenders beating each other without any visible lasting injuries or mortal wounds.

Ty Lee almost wanted to try her skill against the earthbenders. She was sure to win against at least half of them, may be more, but then she remembered that most likely she would have to fight some actual battles soon enough, and spent an afternoon with her regular training routine instead. Mai joined her without saying anything.

They slept well, they ate a lot, they chatted with Toph and walked around Gaoling - just the two of them. It was nice – they were dressed in Earth Kingdom clothes, and nobody thought to bother them for any reason. May be it was because of their perceived connection to the Beifongs, but Ty Lee didn’t care. She needed this reprieve.

They sent some of their stuff, including Ty Lee’s golden crown and newly written Mai’s report about events in Yu Dao, back home. And some of stuff was sent ahead to Ba Sing Se, to the Jasmine Dragon, so that they can travel lightly.

Finally, they said goodbyes to Toph and Gaoling and moved on, their packs on ostrich horses, Tufty the messenger hawk soaring above them, all eager to continue their journey.

“Don’t go to Misty Palms Oasis! It’s the most boring place on Earth! And don’t drink cactus juice!” Toph’s goodbyes were ever practical.

They did have to go to Misty Palms Oasis eventually, but Ty Lee saw no reason why they would ever want to drink cactus juice. Anecdotes of Sokka’s imbibing it grew more elaborate and ridiculous with every his visit.

According to map, it was the territory they covered during their travels with Azula. There was never time to stop and admire the scenery then. They hardly slept most of the time in their drive to catch Iroh or the Avatar. When Ty Lee thought back about that time, she was amazed they managed to do anything well – on the other hand, the other guys were in worse circumstances and without Azula’s resources.

Ty Lee mentally mapped their journey: it looked like they made a crazy detour. She sighed “I think the plan to go to Gaoling wasn’t optimal logistically.”

“We didn’t have another plan, beside being stuck in Yu Dao.”

“Well, yes. We probably will be going through a lot of places we were with Azula here.”

Mai winced. “Whatever. I don’t remember much scenery from that time, so I am pretty sure I won’t recognize it now.”

Their ostrich horses ran steadily, being happy to finally get decent exercise, and they managed to cover a lot of ground in their first day of travel. There were reports of suspicious activity in the little towns on their way, but the towns looked happy and thriving, and nobody heard of anything like the reports said.

Ty Lee glanced at her friend. A couple of days of peace and leisure seemed to quiet Mai’s mind. It’s not that she liked Mai’s actions, but she wanted her friend back to normal. For whatever normal Mai could be. And if Ty Lee was perfectly honest, those people created their own end, and it was for the better. But. It also felt wrong. The whole thing made her head hurt, and she was glad to put it all behind her. A perfect remedy would be a conversation.

“I like the scenery here. So pretty.”

“Yes.”

“Earth Kingdom is so weird – so many different places, and how it’s all one kingdom?”

Mai shrugged. “Earthbenders. They like their stability.”

“I don’t know. I mean, they do, but they also perfectly happy to disregard Earth king that far away from Ba Sing Se.”

“You mean, unlike us?”

“Of course, we can’t possible disregard our fire lord, can we, Mai?”

Mai snorted and didn’t say anything.

Ty Lee felt satisfied. A good joke at Zuko’s expense was guaranteed to lift Mai’s spirits.

“Mai, what do you think would happen if we caught Iroh and Zuko first?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t know.” Mai answered perfectly seriously. “I cannot imagine catching Zuko and bringing him as a prisoner, the way we did with Iroh…”

“I know, it’s weird. But what did you hope for when you joined Azula?”

“I didn’t hope for anything.”

“Really?”

“Well, to run away from Omashu and my parents was incentive enough, even if we really had a choice to go with Azula or not.”

Ty Lee didn’t say anything. Sometimes she still pretended, for herself, that it was her own choice to come with Azula on her mission. If she pretended hard enough, she could believe that the princess did chose her to befriend. That they were really friends at some point. But she also remembered the burning net and her understanding how easily the whole circus could catch fire… She remembered everything pretty well.

Mai continued. “Of course, I wanted to see Zuko. But we haven’t seen him for three years. I had no idea what to expect even in best circumstances.”

“We were lucky, I guess that things happened the way they happened.”

Mai contemplated that from some time, then said, “It’s so strange to think any of us were lucky. I don’t think I would have change anything, though.”

They had to look for Fire Nation army stirring troubles there, but there were no signs of any trouble. Looking like any other Earth Kingdom girls, they hardly attracted any unwelcome attention.

The further they were moving away from Gaoling, the poorer little towns and villages were getting. The surroundings were beautiful – lush forest and clear rivers, and the gorgeous mountain chain to the north of their road. But the towns grew smaller, and people there looked more wary and tense. Nobody would talk about their problems with them – so Ty Lee had no way to figure out whether their problems were imposed by lingering Fire Nation Army, local bandits, memories of the war or something else.

The forests eventually became thinner and more sparse, the towns small and dingy, and the looks they got became more wary and suspicious.

“What do you think they suspect us in?”

“Being rich.”

“Oh, in that case they are right.”

In one of the tiny towns Ty Lee finally heard something that caught her attention. People were talking about rhinos. And as far as Ty Lee knew, there were no komodo rhinos in that part of Earth Kingdom. Or any other rhinos. Could they be talking about animals or that Fire Nation Rough Rhinos squad she heard about? She looked at the people who were talking – regular Earth Kingdom peasants, men and women, chatting in the town square near the stall where she was buying food.

She was not sure they would talk to her, so she kept listening. People talked about rhinos with annoyance and distaste, but as a thing of the past, not an ongoing problem. She made a mental note to find out about komodo rhinos and their whereabouts during the war and now.

The next town was the one where they got in trouble. It wasn’t much different from any other tiny town they passed, maybe slightly more dingy. They moved through it, bought feed for Rainbow Sparkle and Starry Night, then noticed on the wall an old piece of paper with familiar faces on them.

“Hey, is it really them?” Ty Lee came closer and peered. Mai followed. There definitely was a wanted poster with Iroh’s and Zuko’s faces on it and the significant reward sum promised to whoever catches them. Iroh looked his usual self, and Zuko…

“Hmm, I didn’t quite believe Azula when she said Zuko looked like an angry egg with a tail when she first met him, but she was right. He does look like an angry egg with a tail here. Good thing he changed it by the time we saw him in Ba Sing Se. I really don’t care about this style. What about you?”

Mai shrugged and didn’t say anything, still intently watching the poster. “I think it was an old tradition to shave the hair off while leaving the top knot.”

“Yeah, he is dramatic like that.”

Mai came closer and carefully removed the poster from the wall, then packed it in her bag. “I doubt anyone needs it now.”

“Sure, Mai.”

Nobody paid attention to them, but as soon as they left the town, they were ambushed. ‘In our defense,’ Ty Lee thought, ‘we got used to easy travel’, as she was fighting off her way out of the pile of bodies. Starry Night and Rainbow Sparkle ran off to the side and eyed the battle with visible irritation. They didn’t like piles of bodies.

There were about a dozen men, looking mean and haggard, all without any experience in close combat, so soon enough they all were carefully chi-blocked and tied and lain down by the road.

“Damn rich girls!”

“Is that why you attacked us?”

“Flaunting your gold, and riches where no one had seen a decent meal in years!”

“I am sorry, maybe we can help you? Buy you some food?”

The men laughed. It was a particularly unpleasant laugh.

“Where would you buy food, pretty girl? There is nothing here to buy.”

“Well then what do you want from us? You don’t want money, since there is nothing to buy, you don’t need food, what’s the problem?” Mai asked in her bored monotone. Ty Lee thought it was a wrong choice of tone, but wasn’t sure which tone could possibly work.

“You are the problem!”

“Maybe.” Mai was annoyed, but looked just as bored outwardly.

“Excuse me.” Ty Lee still wanted to try diplomacy. Maybe they can do something to improve the lives of these people, and undo some wrongs. “Please tell us how we can help you?”

“Help us? We are going to help ourselves. By taking everything!”

“So you object to our sharing money with you, but you want to rob us?” Mai rolled her eyes and went to get the ostrich horses.

“You are filthy rich rich girls, I don’t need you damn charity. We can take what we want in our hands.”

“If you don’t want any charity, we are not going to insist on it.” Ty Lee gave them her cheeriest smile and left the ambushers alone.

She and Mai soon mounted their horses and left the scene of their small inglorious battle forever. The road ahead was clear, and Rainbow Sparkle with Starry Night happily trotted ahead to the new adventures.

“I feel bad, you know” Ty Lee said later.

“About being ambushed or about being rich?”

“About not being able to help.”

“They obviously didn’t want our help. I am pretty sure you could find some people you’ll be able to help, here, or at home.”

“I guess. I mean, I don’t feel bad about being rich, even though I never was that rich compared to other. I feel – it’s probably our fault that this town was so pathetic. Fire Nation, right? It would be nice to do something good for them.”

“We are doing something good for them. We’ll check on those rhinos. We’ll clear these places of other Fire Nation army remnants if we find them. What else?”

Ty Lee shrugged. “Give them money?”

“They told you that have nothing to buy with money. If they just managed to rob us, they would fight among each other until one got all of, and then he would hide the treasure and that would be it.”

Ty Lee knew Mai was right. But it also felt wrong. “There should be some other way.”

Mai sighed. “You cannot come in and make everyone happy, not even by throwing money at them. Talk to Suki, she knows Earth Kingdom better than any of us. Maybe she’ll have some ideas. Talk to the others. I’ll just focus on our mission.”

“Funny to hear it coming from you.”

“I might agree that the town needs help, but I am not in a mood to help people who just tried to rob us.”

That was also true, and Ty Lee put the thought about all the poor towns away, to think about later. The road kept going straight ahead. As they rode on, unhappy thoughts pulled at her, clouding her head. She tried to reach for the optimism, familiar and comforting. Maybe they can undo some wrongs. Maybe Suki, or Toph, or Aang could come up with ways to help people here. And elsewhere. Maybe it’s all going to work out somehow. Some time in the future. Future was going to be great, now that the war was over and they all were doing their best.

The next morning they came through another tiny town. People there looked at them with wariness and suspicion. Most of them were women or elderly men. When the girls stopped at the well to replenish the water and let their ostrich horses to drink, Ty Lee asked a woman who was also filling her buckets, “Where are the rest of the men? Are they working somewhere out of town?”

The woman looked at her sharply. “They are at war, of course.”

“But it’s been over for a couple of years! Fire Nation has left!”

“A pretty lie. We would have known if the war was over, wouldn’t we?”

Ty Lee helplessly looked at Mai. Mai looked kind of lost.

Chapter Text

“What?!! We are telling you that the war is over, and it’s been over since the Sozin’s comet when the Avatar defeated the Fire Lord Ozai!” Ty Lee was visibly taken aback by the absurd insistence that the war was still going on, but she fought valiantly.

The women, however, couldn’t be swayed. “Yeah? And what proof do you have? Wouldn’t our lives have changed?”

“I don’t know. Many people’s lives are changed. People came home, started something new, or returned to the old lives.”

“Nobody’s returned here. Nobody! So maybe our men are starting their new lives somewhere else, of maybe there is nothing to start… Or maybe you are lying for some reason, and the war keeps going and will be going on when my grandkids are old.”

“I am sorry about it. But didn’t anyone else come or pass by in two years? Tax collector maybe?”

The woman looked at them with derision and didn’t say anything. Mai felt lost for words. The world that seemed full of obvious things just a little while ago, now was uncertain. Uncertainty, this much of it, was worrying. The opening of possibilities was good, but some things should stay certain. True, they were living on an ancient volcano, but they were reasonably certain it was dead, and Mai wanted to continue be certain about it, among other things.

Ty Lee noticed another thing and tried to steer the conversation away. “Sorry, you said ‘your men’… weren’t women earthbenders fighting, too?”

“Women are not drafted to army. Earthbenders are needed home, to work in mines or constructions. War is for men. Waiting is for women.”

Ty Lee looked helplessly at Mai. But Mai had no idea what to say to make it better. They joked about being veterans of the war, and were even kind of proud, despite fighting on the wrong side of it, but nobody enjoyed being at war, neither men, nor women. And the women of Earth Kingdom were just as ready to fight as anyone else, the ones Mai knew – Toph, and the Kyoshi warriors, and the ones in Yu Dao, and even the bandits in the Pohuai Stronghold had women fighting annoyingly well… But there was no point about convincing this woman – after all, the war was over and building was more important than fighting.

“What can convince you that the war has ended? A letter from the Earth King? The Earth King himself?”

The woman snorted. “Don’t tell me that he is going to come here and change our lives for the better. This town has always been forgotten by the powers until they needed something – minerals we could mine, taxes we could pay, people they could take away… If they are not coming, it only means we have nothing to take away. Let it be that way. Maybe the war is over. But it didn’t change anything here.”

“So, do you want us to tell someone to come here? With the proof?”

“No. Because all the changes we saw were for the worst. Let us be. Hurry up on your way.”

There was nothing left to say. They filled their water bags to the capacity, drank what they could, let Starry Night and Rainbow Sparkle drink and slowly made it through the town that believed it lived in the past.

Their way now went through the valley, across the mountain ridge, and to the dreadful Misty Palms Oasis. According to their calculation it would take them two days through boring land to the boring town. Mai sighed. On the sides of the road there were rocky hills and sandy hills and scarce plants of weird shapes and colors. The heat started blazing in earnest and Mai made sure her sun hat is firmly tied. She and Ty Lee now looked like mushrooms on ostrich horses.

“The Earth Kingdom people find new and exciting ways to be stubborn. I guess it’s the element of Earth. Even nonbenders are as bad.”

“Sure. And we re full of fire.” Mai said in the bleakest tone she could master.

Ty Lee laughed out loud. “But we are, Mai, even you. You just love to pretend otherwise. But we also can be as stubborn as the mightiest earthbenders.”

“And you are as flighty as Aang.”

“It would be nice to discover an airbending talent.”

The sun kept blazing. Mai was familiar with the heat, and generally it wasn’t too bad here, but now they traveled the area without any shade, just dirt, and clay, and rocks, and sand surrounding them. The heat haze settled in and everything took on some half-alive quality. Mai glanced at the rocks they were passing by. She knew it was possibly just wind and rains and whatever, but they looked like the monuments of a forgotten world, or spirits enchanted to look like stones. One of them winked at Mai.

She threw a careful look at Ty Lee. Her friend rode on, looking ahead, mumbling something like a song. There was no need to tell her, then. She looked around again. Heat and inescapable sunlight made everything slightly hazy. As if the world around them was melting. The rocks were grinning at Mai. She felt feverish. She bit her lips. It’s probably just a heat stroke. The ostrich horses kept running in their favorite rhythm. They were quite used to this climate, but faster gait would have tired them too much. Mai peered ahead. The was a road between rocks, endless road and nothing more. ‘Hopefully they didn’t accidentally stumbled in the spirit world,’ she thought. ‘The map is right, and we are getting out of the valley by the end of the day.’

Mai stubbornly decided nothing was happening to her, but she couldn’t help it – she felt the rocks looking at her. Cold sweat covered her face and her body without bringing relief from the heat.

The heat transmuted the surroundings turning unremarkable rocky landscape into a spirit world dumpster.

The sun kept blazing. The ostrich horses kept running. The rocks kept smirking at Mai. She stared ahead trying to get through the valley as fast as they good without overtiring the animals.

At least the smirking rocks had a good sense to stay where they were, so Mai didn’t have to worry whether she hallucinated them or not.

A small ball of pain started to grow inside her. It grew and grew and turned into a wave of pain that washed all over her. Then another one started growing. Mai cursed. “Not now, how is it a good time for this?” But her body decided that it was a perfect time to start its monthly annoyance of pain and blood, and there was nothing to do about it. Mai clenched her teeth and rode on.

The sun was slowly moving down, the shadows grew longer, the smirks she saw from the rocks grew more irritating. Finally, as the interminable day was close to twilight, they saw a town ahead. Mai worried that it was a hallucination or a product of the heat haze, or a mirage, but according to Ty Lee’s map it really was a town, just an abandoned one.

They found an old well and let Starry Night and Rainbow Sparkle drink and splash while they set out the camp.

“I don’t think I can go anywhere else today.”

“No kidding, it was the worst part of the trip so far, and that’s counting time I had an arrow in my leg!” Ty Lee said. “I thought I am going crazy with all those rocks.”

“Oh?”

“Please don’t laugh at me. But I thought the rocks that we were passing by were watching us… and making faces...” Ty Lee looked at her with worry.

Mai looked back, “I thought they were smirking at me. You were singing, so I thought it was my hallucination.”

“I was singing to keep sane. You looked normal, so I thought… but it was silly of me, right?”

“Those were really weird rocks. I am glad that we are both sane. Or both insane.”

“Do you think it was the spirits?” Ty Lee whispered suddenly.

“I’d rather not think about them. We can write it in the report, I guess… Or just write to Aang, let him figure it out.”

“Gah… If we are so bad at traveling here, I don’t think we can just ride from here to Ba Sing Se. I suggest we write to Toph’s aircraft pilot. That guy Deng was supposed to pick us up when we ask.”

“We probably should wait for him at the Misty Palms Oasis, it’s our last stop before Ba Sing Se, and I’d rather wait there than here. On the other hand, we must wait for Tufty here… I am not sure I am ready to go anywhere at least for a day.”

“Yes, good plan!”

Ty Lee went to look around the town, while Mai stayed and made herself herbal tea to calm the pain, then rummaged in her bag and found a root that one of Kyoshi girls gave her for the same purpose, cut off a piece and started chewing it, feeling much better.

Ty Lee returned with firewood. “You know, there quite a lot of scorch marks on the buildings around here – this town saw some firebending.”

“Makes sense, I guess, with the war and everything.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Better. Most of all I am glad I am not insane.”

“You don’t think they can come for us here?”

“I prefer to believe that they are just rocks and not going to move anywhere. Do you want to hide in any of the building?”

“Not really. They look depressing and ready to fall down. I don’t want to be inside. Got some old wood out, and that’s it.”

They settled for the night under the open sky. Mai felt all the horrors of the day dissipated when she looked up at the stars. Even the pain, after another cup of medicinal tea subsided to mild discomfort. She couldn’t remember when it was last time she saw so many stars. Not in the forests they were traveling before, not back at home.

Mai thought of last time she spent the night at the palace. Maybe a month before the break-up? She had a bad day at home, argued with Father, and Mother glared at her, as if she was the source of biggest disappointment in their lives. It might have been the last time her parents were united in anything, actually. She stormed off to the palace. But Zuko was busy with something or other, and she couldn’t deal with waiting patiently for her turn, so she proceeded to his bedroom and locked herself there, and lay in the bed, pretending she she didn’t cry, and then fell asleep. When she woke it was well after midnight, and she was embarrassed for the whole thing. She opened the door and saw Zuko sleeping on the cot by the bedroom door, a table served with her favorite food, including fruit tarts. She felt even more uncomfortable and ran away home.

Overall she hated to recall it, because of the intense feelings of unhappiness and embarrassment it brought, but right now it seemed almost sweet and dreamlike. Mai thought about Zuko sleeping, and looking so painfully young and normal, and smiled. She turned onto her side, cuddled under a blanket - the day heat gave a way to the night chill, and was asleep.

First thing Mai and Ty Lee saw in the morning, was Tufty. It brought letters from Suki, regarding their adventures in Yu Dao.

“Well, Suki writes that everything is fine. She managed to stop our firelord from doing anything stupid after he read your report.” Ty Lee announced reading the letter.

Mai snorted.

“Only a dozen of chairs were destroyed before she explained that he didn’t have to do all stupid things by himself, and we managed very well without him.”

“Maybe he is just envious. Here we are, having all kinds of fun…”

Ty Lee giggled. “Definitely envious.”

They fed Tufty and petted him, and sent him to Gaoling with message to Deng, asking to meet them outside of Misty Palms Oasis and take them to Ba Sing Se from there.

Then left, hoping they won’t have to wait there long.

The road to Misty Palms Oasis proved to be less cumbersome than the road on the previous day. Maybe the heat calmed down. Maybe they got used to it.

The next night the girls spent outside in the open. There were several cacti growing near by, and Ty Lee remembering Toph’s advice, collected some of the cactus juice into a flask.

On Mai’s unspoken question she shrugged. We know what it does, right? We might need it later, that’s it. I am not planning on drinking it alone.

Chapter Text

They were at Misty Palms Oasis in the morning. It looked exactly as dismal as everyone said. Why did they have to be there, again?

“Why do we have to be here, Mai? My mission notes say it’s yours.”

“Bleargh. Suki made me promise to play a game of pai sho here. And pass a letter.”

“Oh, she got into that White Lotus stuff, didn’t she? But I thought they are not a secret order anymore.”

“I guess that’s exactly why we are asked to be here. Because there not so secret now. But I still think they don’t announce their existence to the world as a whole.”

They reached the rundown tavern, and Mai immediately saw a large pai sho table at the side, with an elderly man looking forlornly at it. Ty Lee went to the tavernkeep to ask for food and drink, and Mai, sighing, went to play the game.

The old guy was delighted to see her. Mai wondered idly whether he only sat there in case some passing White Lotus connection needed to play with him, and felt in her bones the horribleness of such life. It was scarier than smirking rocks.

They started playing. The old man probably expected her game to have some kind of meaning, but Mai just tried to win, at the best of her abilities. And for a bit of time it seemed that she might win, but then what she thought was some weird ritual positions turned out a winning combination and she was defeated. She didn’t care about losing – pai sho was a fine game, nice to pass the time, but she didn’t think much of her playing abilities and had no ambitions to become a great player.

The old man congratulated her. “It was a valiant effort, my girl, to win the game without playing it. You must practice more.”

Mai sighed. She had to patience for obscure nonsense from random folk. But she promised Suki, so she didn’t say anything and tried to pass the letter Suki gave her. However, nothing with these White Lotus old folk was ever easy. The pai sho man, who never introduced himself, smiled and took them outside instead. She and Ty Lee were walked to a small outpost just outside of oasis. Much to Mai’s surprise, it was a flower shop. Despite her better judgment, she started appraising the plant collection and other wares. It wasn’t as good as Auntie Mura’s shop, but there were several plants, most likely local, that she would loved to have.

She finally managed to hand in the letter to yet another old guy, and waited with Ty Lee at the flower shop for the answer.

“Do you think your aunt’s flower shop also serves some mysterious purpose?” Ty Lee asked after examining everything there was to examine around her.

“I would be surprised. Auntie Mura is the lest likely person to serve any mysterious purpose, beside herself.”

“Maybe that’s what makes her so good at it!”

Mai winced. “The most secret thing she does is selling contraceptive herbal solutions. A lot of noble ladies feel more comfortable to shop there, than to go to midwives or actual herbalists…”

Mai learned to notice those kind of customers right away. They looked slightly shifty and too haughty for the occasion and demanded – or asked politely- for Mura specifically. Even though Mai could make and sell all that stuff just as well herself. But whatever. It was not a topic she wanted to argue with anyone.

Everything else Mura did was remarkably open – meetings with friends, lovers, conversations that skirted dangerous topics without actually posing any danger. Auntie Mura enjoyed being safely scandalous. All the disasters her stuck-up younger sister experienced were a boon to her, even if she was kind to her sister and her family. No, Mai didn’t believe Mura could be a part of White Lotus.

Ty Lee shrugged. “May be you are right. I think she is the right material. I mean, she is no worse than King Bumi, who is both extremely old and extremely weird.”

“He is Aang’s actual age, right?”

“Yeah, just imagine, Aang could be the same by now… Do you know that Avatar Kyoshi lived more than two hundred years?”

“Really? Sounds scary. Everyone you ever knew is long dead.”

“That’s pretty much Aang’s reality, right?”

Mai nodded, not having anything to add.

A person emerged from the door and bowed to them politely. “Please take this package to Ba Sing Se, and this letter back to the Fire Nation capital. Please also don’t hesitate to choose and flowers in the shop to take with you. I am sure your aunt will be delighted to receive them.”

At the mention of Aunt Mura he smiled, and Mai gave him a stink eye, just in case he deserved it.

“Are you planning to ride to Ba Sing Se from here? Do you need help in arranging the transport?”

“No, thank you, sir for your kind offer. An aircraft from friends should wait for us back at Oasis.”

“Wonderful. If there is any trouble, don’t hesitate to ask for assistance.”

He bid them goodbye, and the girls soon were outside. Mai chose a couple of cactus plants she hadn’t seen before, and a flower with large meaty leaves she was sure her aunt would like.

They were at the oasis back, but Deng with the promised Earthen Fire aircraft wasn’t there yet.

“I hope he received our message in time.” Ty Lee sighed. “Tufty is usually very fast.”

“Maybe he wasn’t able to get flying at once.” Mai didn’t cherish idea either to wait here for indefinite time, or to ride through the desert.

“Oh, well. We’ll sit and wait.” Ty Lee went back to the tavern, chose a small table in the dark corner, and Mai joined her there.

“Do you think we’ll know when he arrives?”

“Aircrafts are noisy.”

They settled for the wait. Mai’s eyes started to close, and her head to droop, and she put her head on the table and nodded off. She heard noises around her muffled as if through heavy blanket. Ty Lee was reading something and the paper rustled, people walked by, bowls and cups clunked, someone talked, someone grumbled, it all combined into an almost comforting lullaby.

Then Mai head voices nearby, talking and laughing, men’s voices and Ty Lee answering them in her chirpy overenthusiastic manner that meant she wanted to avoid any unpleasant confrontation, which also meant that there was something to avoid. Mai woke up but didn’t let anyone know and continued to observe. There was still no signs of Deng, so they had to wait there for longer.

The men (judging by the voices, two or three of them) seemed to believe Ty Lee is good company. It was true. They also seemed to believe they were good company as well, and in that they were mistaken.

Ty Lee made a good effort to keep busy and try to extract some useful information in the process. The Misty Palms Oasis was not a place where people lived, but it was a place where people met, looked for jobs, looked for news and companions, or just trying to get some rest before or after crossing the great Si Wong desert.

The men that Ty Lee was talking about were looking for money. An honest job would suit them, but a dishonest one would too, just as well.

As much as Mai hated to talk to them, she couldn’t leave Ty Lee alone, so she made a show of waking up, and smiling at everyone in polite confusion. There were indeed three guys of indeterminate age trying to make themselves comfortable by their table. Apparently, they had nothing better to do, and nowhere else to go, and so they considered two young girls to be a gift for them personally. It would be easy to fight them off, but the problem was that she and Ty Lee also had nowhere to go until damn Deng showed up. So they should make a nice conversation with those guys till last possible moment, and then think of something else.

So Mai joined in the polite conversation, and caught a grateful look from Ty Lee. Well, she could be charming if she had to – as proven by the disaster with Kei Lo. All those years of training to be a perfect courtier’s daughter were paying off by entertaining random thugs in the middle of nowhere.

She talked about the weather, and about the vagaries of their travel (according to Ty Lee, they were waiting for the chaperon that her father sent. Mai cringed at the idea that they needed a chaperon, especially from Ty Lee’s father whom Ty Lee hadn’t seen in years, but it provided an easy explanation for these types, so, ok, fine). Then they talked about beauty of Earth Kingdom and hopes to see the amazing sights of Ba Sing Se. When one talked a lot, with a smile and a pleasant expression people rarely thought one had anything to hide. Ty Lee had this mastered to an art form, but Mai could play this game as well.

In the course of babbling nonsense for an hour they found out that nobody heard of Fire Nation presence here for a year, since Rough Rhinos left for a well-paying job on the West Coast. And generally nothing was going on around the Si Wong desert, so some people were thinking of changing that. But there was something brewing on the East coast, not appropriate for pretty young ladies to know, but worth checking out for smart men, if no money could be made right here. In Ba Sing Se, as everyone with some working brain agreed, there was nothing to do for a person with ambitions. Ba Sing Se was already overabundant with ambitions people, and nobody had heard of them and their ambitions.

It was all well and good for a day’s work, but everyone was tired of talking, and Deng still wasn’t here. The men got bored with talk, and tried to insist Mai and Ty Lee drink with them to celebrate the friendship. Mai prepared for the fight, just in case, but Ty Lee said,

“Sure, bring your drinks! I love friendship!”

Mai threw a surprised glance at Ty Lee. Ty Lee smirked and whispered “Just distract them from the mugs, please.”

Sure enough, soon the guys were back with drinks, and more guys who also brought drinks decided to join them.

Mai asked “Can anyone teach me to throw a knife into a target, please?”

Everyone was eager to teach her hit a target, and so Ty Lee was able to take out her flask and drop cactus juice into everyone’s drink save for hers and Mai’s. Mai did a good show of hitting anything but the target which proved to be a very good distraction.

After everyone turn their attention to drinks, Ty Lee announced “For the friendship!” and drank her mug. Mai followed suit hoping for the best. The drink inside was disgusting, but didn’t seem too strong. However, the cactus juice in everybody else’s drinks started working immediately. The girls slipped out of the tavern without many people noticing, and only the old man at the pai sho table followed them with a piercing look and a small bow.

They sat by the wall, and then immediately jumped – in the empty blue sky there was a rapidly growing spot – an aircraft was approaching.

In a matter of fifteen minutes they were on the aircraft with Starry Night, and Rainbow Sparkle and all their belongings. Deng grumbled and went to stretch and get some rest, but returned soon after, with more grumbling.

“Whatever happened to them there? Attack of spirits? Sudden insanity? An honest man can’t even have decent food and a bit of rest without being harassed here any longer.”

Mai didn’t ask what happened. Ty Lee promised Deng that they had enough supplies and food to last them to Ba Sing Se, and soon enough they were all up in the air. The city of walls was waiting for them.

Chapter Text

Ty Lee looked at the approaching city of Ba Sing Se with great fascination. She has never seen it in all its glory, the way she could see it now, from the Earthen Fire aircraft operated by perpetually grumpy Deng. The several rings of largest walls anyone could ever see, and the colorful houses inside them, and all the green gardens closer to the center – her breath

This was arguably, the greatest city on Earth, the site of their (Azula’s of course, but still theirs) most mind-boggling military victory, but she has never actually got a chance to see it. At first they were too busy conquering it, then they spent their time at the palace with the bear, then securing Fire Nation’s command over it… Then they left.

At least Mai had a chance to walk the street of Ba Sing Se on her famous date with Zuko and then she visited a couple of times after the war, again with Zuko. Ty Lee had never been back. Now it was her opportunity to finally get to know the city.

Everyone talked about its fame and glory in abstract, but when pressed to tell about their experience here, they were less exuberant. Zuko hated to talk about Ba Sing Se and the weeks he spent here, and when pressed usually cringed. Mai shrugged and said there was nothing to talk about. Suki said it was a complicated city and not easy to describe. And Toph said if she had to choose between Misty Palms Oasis and Ba Sing Se she would definitely choose Misty Palms Oasis, right after she called it the most boring place on Earth.

The aircraft landed on its designated spot near Earthen Fire offices. Ty Lee thanked Deng profusely and gave him a large tip trying to make up for the inconveniences of saving them from a long and exhausting trip. Deng grumbled something uncharitable about Fire Nation, but without any familiar passion. Mai lead their ostrich horses out, and started to take all their luggage. Tufty circled around them and landed on Ty Lee’s shoulder.
“We are finally there. I feel as if I was in the desert for months instead of days. So looking forward to sleeping in a decent bed and going to spa, and not having to cook for ourselves!”
“It would be nice. At least here we don’t have to look for the remnants of the Fire Nation forces.”
Ty Lee giggled. “Of course not! We already know where they are, and we are going right there!”

They walked to the Jasmine Dragon enjoying the views of the Upper Ring. Beautiful houses and mansions, cheerful gardens, well-dressed people on the streets - everything demanded Ty Lee’s attentions and admiration. Finally, they got to Iroh’s tea shop and were greeted by Iroh with effusive joy. Ty lee returned the joyful greeting, but Mai… was at her Maiest. Her greeting was impeccably polite but awkward and dry.

“Do you have a timetable? How much time are you planning to spend here?” Iroh asked as they all sat at the table, drinking hot delicious tea and eating sweets he set up with happy generosity.

“As long as needed. We’ve saved a lot of time by flying here.” Ty Lee was ready for a short break from travel, then another thought occurred to her and she asked anxiously, “We didn’t mess up by not walking through the desert, did we?”
“No, of course not.” Iroh waved off her concerns. “Nobody expected you to to visit every single town and village in the Earth Kingdom, and definitely not traverse the Si Wong desert.”
“Ok, then I want to start with some rest.”
“That is absolutely the right choice.”

So they rested. The went to spa, then had a dinner at a restaurant close by, and had a good night sleep.
The next morning they went through their findings with Iroh, or at least Ty Lee talked to Iroh about what they saw and heard, and Mai sat and wrote her report. Iroh grumbled and sighed and talked how many various unhappy consequences the war had brought. It was all rather awkward. They were talking about the war, in abstract, when in fact if was them who were responsible. Iroh more than them, but they had their share, even if neither she nor Mai wanted to harm anyone, and mostly just went along with whatever Azula came up, Azula would hardly have taken over Ba Sing Se without their help in the beginning. Maybe they didn’t harm anyone directly, but that didn’t mean they didn’t bring harm at all… The thought had to be thought some more.
Mai had finished with her report and handed it to her. “Do you want to add anything?”
Ty Lee read it over. “No, it’s fine. Unlikely to cause a major commotion or agitate the Fire Lord too much.”
Iroh looked up. “Can I read it, too? Did your other reports caused commotion?”
“Sure.” Ty Lee handed him the letter. “You know our Fire Lord: we had a bit of an adventure in Yu Dao, and he had trouble to delegate having adventures to other people...”
“Oh, yes, I’ve heard about your adventure. I think you did a wonderful job there, and nobody could have done it better.”
“The Avatar might.”
“Probably, but even he cannot be in all places at once.”
Mai suddenly stared directly at Iroh and asked, “Why are you here? What are you doing?”
“Running tea house and making good tea for the people of Ba Sing Se and my friends.”
“Instead of running Fire Nation?”
“Some one had to make good tea here, and Zuko haven’t managed to learn it.”
“And ruling the Nation doesn’t require any skills, any teenager can do it!”
“He is learning all his life to do it right.”
“He is eighteen, and this life is breaking him every day a little.”
Iroh looked directly at Mai and smiled. “He is lucky to have people that care about him so passionately.”
Mai turned away, still angry.
Iroh looked into his tea, his amused smile having disappeared. “I understand your frustrations. The decision not to take the crown myself, but give it to Zuko with all the powers and burdens associated with it was not taken lightly, I assure you. I am not here in happy retirement as much as I pretend to be.”
Mai looked back at him, intently, and Ty Lee couldn’t tear her attention away. “Alas, my role in the war was too large and too obvious for everyone, and my couple of last acts cannot negate or change a lifetime of fighting. Lots of lives were lost because of me. Lots of tragedies happened because of me. And to take the throne, even with the best intentions, would undermine out efforts to make stable peace and change the world to the better. Zuko is not entirely free of blame…”
“None of us are” Ty Lee couldn’t stop herself from saying
Iroh nodded acknowledging her point. “But he is a new beginning for the Fire Nation, and his pure heart and sincere hope is what needed for the world right now. And if he believe he must change the Fire Nation, he will change it.”
“even if it kills him.” Mai grumbled.
“even if it kills him. But it won’t kill him, because he is not alone. He has good friends who support him, and ready to help, but not afraid to tell him when he is doing something unwise.” He smiled again at her and Mai.
Mai snorted.
It is a heavy burden, but he is better at carrying it than I ever would. And there is another aspect of what I am doing here. As most of our military was stationed in Earth Kingdom or around it, it was much easier to oversee successful withdrawal from here, and for someone who is much better known to the generals and admirals that a new Fire Lord. Plus, keeping an eye on doings of people surrounding the Earth King is much easier from here, than from our Capital city.”
It all made perfect sense. Why didn’t it occur to her before? Ty Lee wondered, and then another thought stroke her. “but it must me awful to live among people who would hate you if they knew who you are, and where you lost your son.”
“Oh, yes, it is.”

They went for a walk in the city later on, both slightly unsettled by the conversation with Iroh. Mai seemed morose and restless at the same time, and Ty Lee tried to recapture her own fascination with the magnificent city. Thy went to walk through the middle ring, allowing them a glimpse of the University and other fascinating places, then Mai seemed to reach a decision, because she pulled Ty Lee to the train station where they boarded the train going to the outer ring.
“Is there anything interesting?”
“Sure. Lots of quaint little places, tea shops and fountains, you’ll like it.”
“I probably will, but I didn’t notice your particular love for quaint little places.”
Mai shrugged. “I am trying to find a person.”
“Whom?” The fact that Mai knew someone here was even more surprising.
“A girl that dated Zuko while he lived here.”
“Are you starting “the ex-girlfriends club”? Mai didn’t answer, and Ty Lee shook her head in frustraion.
The surroundings meanwhile could be called quaint only with a certain pretentious irony. More realistically they were shabby and ramshackle and lousy with poor people who looked at them with frowns and scowls.
“I can’t believe Iroh and Zuko actually lived there.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I mean, they are.. were... princes. it’s just so hard to imagine them here.”
Mai shrugged. “You traveled with the circus for months. And I… well, right now our finances….” She didn’t finish, but Ty Lee knew what Mai couldn’t bring herself to say aloud. After leading an unsuccessful coup and helping Azula to kidnap kids, Mai’s father left his family without money.
Suddenly a girl jumped at them. Ty Lee and Mai prepared to fight, but the girl stopped in short distance from them and said, in a singsong voice, “Welcome to the marvelous city of Ba Sing Se! Finally you are free, allow me to be your guide here, my name is Joo Dee, and you can talk to me about everything.”
Well. Ty Lee remembered Joo Dee, the Dai Li girl that Azula left in charge of Ba Sing Se when they went home. And it was a totally different girl.
“Sorry, we’ve met Joo Dee. Are you sure that’s your name, as well?”
The girl gave a feeble nervous laugh. “Of Course I am Joo Dee, there are no other Joo Dees here.” She looked odd. Her dress was well-made, and of good quality cotton, but old and frayed, and not very clean. There was also something “off”, both about the dress and the girl who wore it. Some details didn’t add up, Ty Lee thought.
“Do you need help?” Ty Lee asked the strange girl.
The girl let out something between a sob and a giggle. “I am Joo Dee.”
“That really doesn’t answer the question though.” Mai noted.
The girl stumbled off without glancing at them and disappeared behind the corner.
“That was kind of disturbing.” Ty Lee whispered to Mai.
“I’d say it was very disturbing. But I have no idea what we could do about her.”
“Me neither. Let’s go. Are we far?”
“Not sure. I have only a general idea, and it might be wrong.”
Soon enough they came to a small circular space, almost entirely occupied by a fountain. Mai stopped and frowned, clutching at her chin.
“This is where you wanted to go?”
“This is the starting point, yes. I know that girl loved it, and often came here. One could hardly expect she is here at all times, of course, but I hope she still lives nearby. Let’s walk around and wait.”
There were days when she could hardly understand how Mai’s mind worked, and it was one of theses days. But they had nothing else to do, and she wanted to see the city, so she followed Mai in random walks around. They passed small shops, tiny eateries, street vendors selling all kinds of stuff, mostly food. Ty Lee started to feel hungry, but none of the places seemed to satisfy Mai. At least, Ty Lee, hoped, they are not going to come knocking on the doors.
“Mai, we’re exactly where we started.”
“So we are.” Mai stopped and looked around. “Let’s go back to the fountain.”
Ty Lee rolled her eyes. “This girl could be anywhere.”
“I don’t plan on looking anywhere. I want to risk our time today, that’s all.”
“I think you are being ridiculous.”
“I know I am.”

“Fancy meeting you here, of all places!” a bright sarcastic voice made Ty Lee jump a little. She turned around and saw a girl with hair in two bushy braids. Mai greeted her.
“Hello, Jin. I was actually looking for you.”
“You found me, then. How exciting.”
“Is there a place around here we can get decent lunch and talk?”
“Sure, I am heading there myself for my lunch break.” She turned and went to the next street where a small place on the corner was spreading delicious smells of food.
Soon enough they sat in the dark corner of the small eatery, Jin ordered food for everyone, and looked at them with a little interest.
The girl was pretty, in Ty Lee’s opinion. Lots of hair and large eyes, and a poor quality dress of a dusty green color that was popular in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se and poorer villages they passed on their way here. Well, probably not so much as “popular” as “available”, she mentally corrected herself. Still, thinking about her as Zuko’s ex-girlfriend was just as weird as thinking he used to live here and work at a tea house.
“Jin, I am Mai, and this is my friend Ty Lee.”
“Let me guess, also from the circus?”
“Yes! How did you guess? Did you see me? No, you couldn’t...” Well, the girl was definitely sarcastic, and… what did it mean? Ty Lee looked at Mai.
“Zuko – Lee- pretended he was a juggler at a traveling circus.” Mai explained.
Ty Lee couldn’t keep from giggling. The whole idea of Zuko being a juggler in her circus was even more absurd than him working at a tea shop.
“I am not an idiot, you know. I knew he was a firebender.”
“How?” Ty Lee was under the impression that Zuko and Iroh were pretending to be regular Earth Kingdom folk witch meant avoiding doing firebending.
“This fountain, she knows which one, is very beautiful at night, then several dozen of lanterns are lit on it. Except the night I brought Lee there to show him, they weren’t lit. I got upset and he lit them up for me. In a couple of seconds. Can you do it without firebending?”
Mai hid her face in palms.
Ty Lee sighed. “Yes, that’s our Zuko.”
“I thought it was kind of cute. I mean. There was no war in Ba Sing Se, not officially. Nobody would talk about it, but there were a lot of refugees coming it since I remember myself, many of them with badly healed burns, all with secrets. Here, in the lower ring, there was a place for everyone, even if it was a tiny and very crappy place.”
“I am sorry,” Mai said.
Jin was silent, busying herself with food in front of her. Ty Lee followed her example. After a long silence Jin looked straight at them. “He is your Fire lord, isn’t he?”
“Yes. How did you know?”
“You just said his name. And I added it up. Just my luck – met a cute dorky boy, he turned out to be an enemy prince with a weird girlfriend. At least I knew he didn’t want to kiss not because I am ugly.”
“You are totally cute!” Ty Lee assured her and glanced at Mai just in time to notice a tiniest smile.
“And after I met you with him, Fire Nation took over Ba Sing Se. That had to be connected somehow.”
“Yes, it was us. Mostly princess Azula, but with our help. The three of us took over your city. Spirits, that sounds awful. I am so sorry!”
Jin continued to eat.
“I don’t really know how sorry I am, to be honest,” Mai said poking at something that was either a dumpling or a prawn with her chopstick. “I mean, I know we were on the wrong side of the war, and didn’t bring anything good to anyone. But, hey, when three girls take over an impenetrable city without killing anyone, it still feels… not bad.”
“Well thank you for not personally killing anyone! Forever grateful for you being so nice! It was bad! And people did die!” Jin was now visibly angry. “Why are you here now? What else do you want?”
Now Ty Lee had no idea what to say. It was Mai’s idea, after all, to come here. And Mai took a deep breath, and started “there is no way saying we didn’t want any war and didn’t want to be there, and sorry about the whole thing will change anything, but…” she stopped and looking out at the street, whispered, “Wait, is that fake Joo Dee girl?”
Ty Lee and Jin turned in the direction Mai was pointing to. That strange girl who believed she was Joo Dee was led away by two Dai Li agents, and it didn’t seem she was very willing to go.
Jin sighed. “Yes, we have now a bit of the Joo Dee problem.”

Chapter Text

Three girls sat at the table, in front of the steaming bowls of noodles and glared at each other. Mai enjoyed the sight of Ty Lee glaring at someone who wasn’t Mai. Ty Lee didn’t glare often, which made it ridiculously effective. Jin, however, hold herself very well under the scorching glare and answered with her own, full of bitterness and challenge. And, for herself, Mai thought she has a good, if understated glare. Of course, her glare mostly worked on Zuko, as the Earth Kingdom politics did not inspire her quite that much. She was genuinely surprised at Ty Lee getting so worked out.

“So we should do nothing?” Ty Lee scrunched her nose menacingly.

“Yes, things are way better when you do nothing in Ba Sing Se” Jin answered it in a measured voice, not forgetting to eat her noodles. Healthy appetite, Mai liked it in people.

“We really want to help, that’s all.”

“You came, you conquered, you felt really bad about it.” Jin said in a mocking singsong voice.

“But we do feel bad about it!” Ty Lee was really into the debate. Mai felt she has nothing to add there.

“That’s because Joo Dee is not your problem. It is a problem of our own making, so you might feel good about solving it for us.”

“Is there anything we should do, Jin?”

“I really don’t know.” Jin actually thought for a moment. “May be conjure a powerful spirit to make our lives perfect? Except better not because then we’ll really hate you. Nope, there is nothing.”

Mai decided she needed to say something, “Ok, I don’t really want to have anything to do with politics here. It’s just weird seeing that girl disappeared in front of our eyes.”

“Girls disappear all the time. Especially if they don’t have family or friends powerful enough to protect them. That’s life.”

“How can you say it?” Ty Lee’s outrage was quiet but palpable to Mai.

“I say it as I see it. Not because I like it, not because I don’t want it to change… you know, can we just drop it? It is seriously not your business.”

“But… “

Jin continued. “After the war, a bunch of girls showed up on the streets. They were well-fed, well-dressed and confident. Each one of them believed her name was Joo Dee, and was confused that she wasn’t the only Joo Dee in town. Some of these girls were recognized and taken by their families. Now they have different names and are only slightly confused. Some remained on the streets, slowly disappearing. Maybe it is the best that could happen to them. I tried once to talk to one, then to others, but it was impossible to get through.”

“You all are so stubborn here.” Ty Lee muttered with an air of resignation.

“Well, thanks! Anyway, if you want to help, why don’t you focus on something lady- appropriate? Like planting some flowers in the middle of the street, or buying quaint souvenirs.”

Mai knew all about things, appropriate to ladies. “Lady-appropriate, you say... Have you ever practiced that throwing move I showed you?”

Jin shrugged. “Sure, every day.”

“Well, we could continue with more lessons. They are very lady-appropriate.” She felt Ty Lee’s wide grin. She also knew a thing or two about being a lady.

“I can show you some lady-like moves as well.” Ty Lee laughed.

Jin looked at them with genuine interest. “Sure, why not. You mean like now?”

Mai thought about it. Not that they had other plans, but starting practice immediately after the long and filling lunch was not done. “Can you come by the Jasmine Dragon tomorrow morning? It’s in the Upper city.”

“No.”

“Why not? Any other time would be better?”

“Time is fine, I cannot go to the Upper Ring. Nobody’s going to let me in there.”

Mai was taken aback. “Oh.” Another or those random Earth Kingdom shit. “Can you meet us by the train station then? We’ll go wherever, you pick the place.”

The lunch was finished in the silence.

“Thanks, it’s been fun to meet you guys, I need to go back to work.” Jin said with less expression Mai saw anywhere besides her mirror. “See you tomorrow. Or never, whichever works for you.” And she left.

Mai and Ty Lee looked at each other. “I can see now why wanted to find this girl so badly. She is a ball of sunshine, just like you.”

Mai rolled her eyes and moved the conversation away. “Do you think poor people can easily come into Caldera?”

“Nowadays, I think anyone can. Before… I think so? If they have a good reason, like work or something. I mean, the security was always pretty tight, anyway.”

“So, what do you want to do today?”

“I was hoping for a break in action, to be honest. No running away from bandits, no fighting pirates, no moving through the wild places with no results. Maybe we deserve some regular fun time, do we not?”

Mai considered the question. “I have no idea what we deserve, but we should have some regular fun time, whatever that is.” What did they deserve in the city they helped to conquer? She was sure that she wanted some easy and fun to do.

They paid for lunch and left, slowly walking among “quaint” buildings and people of the Lower Ring towards the train.

“Did you get what you wanted from that girl?” Ty Lee asked.

“I don’t know. We are still meeting tomorrow to some training.”

“Why did you suggested it, anyway?”

“It was something that she wouldn’t refuse if she is smart, not matter what she thinks of us. And she is right. We shouldn’t involve ourselves with their affairs.”

“I don’t even want to. But seeing a girl disappearing in front of our eyes just like that and just letting it go… just seems wrong…”

Ty Lee was right, and Mai was torn between feeling disturbed and annoyed, “I know what would I do at home, but here? Talk to Dai Li? Most likely they know, even if they are not the ones behind this. I mean, Joo Dee that we knew was part of Dai Li, makes sense they know all about it…”

“Let’s talk to Iroh?”

“Fine.” Mai was sure Iroh hadn’t had all the answers, but he might have more than they had now.

There was still a lot of time to waste, and no sense in going to Jasmine Dragon and sitting around watching how Iroh makes his tea, so when Ty Lee suggested they checked out what the Middle Ring had to offer, Mai had no reservations.

The Middle Ring was indeed very middling. No spacious parks and beautiful streets of the Upper Ring, no poverty and squalor of the Lower one. Neatness, small clean houses, clean streets, tiny gardens – all seemed pretty boring to Mai until a vast expanse opened before them. They came on the territory of the University of Ba Sing Se.

Ty Lee exhaled in amazement and grabbed Mai’s hand. It was indeed an incredible view. Mai was almost ready to forgive Ba Sing Se for being so boring. On a huge open area they could see a lot of young men and some young women standing in groups and talking animatedly, or sitting and reading scrolls or books, or strolling apparently deep in thought. There were several large and mid-sized buildings surrounding the square, and the people were going in and out.

After minutes of stunned silence Mai managed to express some of her feelings. “This is certainly… a large university. I assume they study here.”

Ty Lee glanced at her with unspoken accusation and clutched hands under her chin. “This looks amazing. Don’t pretend you are not amazed. I wonder what do they study here!”

“I am amazed. Happy? But we got the best education we could get at home, I don’t feel envious.”

“Yeah, I am sure none of them can finish our survival course, and they are all pathetic at military tactics. I mean we have the definite proof of that. But also… You were the one who always complained how shallow our studies were. No history beyond Sozin, only a little bit of classical literature about honor and glory, ‘oh so boring’, nothing about other Nations beyond their natural resources and their usefulness to us…”

“Yes, I was.”

“And be honest, do you honestly think it was that good?”

“May be, may be not.” Mai took a deep breath and reevaluated her thoughts. “It must be improved. But I also have no idea it is even a little bit better here.”

“Let’s go and find out. But I can see already – it’s much bigger, students are older, and they have boys and girls studying together.”

“Please, boys and girls study together in most schools in the Fire Nation, nothing is special about it.”

“You just want to be contrary right now, don’t you?”

Mai shrugged. “I do not. May be I do. So?”

Ty Lee rolled her eyes in exasperation. “I don’t know why I put up with you. I mean it’s good that you are not afraid to express your feelings, go on, please. But some of your feelings are stupid.”

“At least only some of them, unlike...”

“Do continue”

“I don't want to.”

“Fine.” Ty Lee strode away, her braid swinging, her steps light and angry.

Mai could recognize anger in many forms. She knew that she herself felt angry and annoyed, too, and she shouldn’t have antagonized Ty Lee but whatever.

Ty Lee was talking to people here and there, laughing, asking questions, reacting with delight. Mai found herself drifting through the crowds, alone, unwilling to engage. She felt dissolving, becoming invisible among others- most of whom looked about her own age, slightly younger and slightly older. She found herself wondering what it would mean, what it would feel, to be a part of it? Studying something much more useless than siege strategies and fast assault tactics, being around normal people, maybe making friends with some… Studying something because it seemed interesting, not because she had to, or because sharp knives felt so good. Could she still do it?

Mai shook herself out of her reverie. No. What would she study? And what would she do with it afterwards?

“Hello, are you lost?” Pleasant voice asked her.

Mai looked up. A man, young, but older than most students, dressed in the same green as everyone here stood before her. “No, I am fine. Visiting our uncle in Ba Sing Se, admiring the views..”

“It is a lot to admire, isn’t it?”

“I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“University is the true jewel of Ba Sing Se, and Ba Sing Se is the center of the world. Metaphorically speaking of course.” He smiled at her, obviously very proud of himself.

He obviously took her for another tourist from Earth Kingdom, and well, Mai was not going to relieve him from this misapprehension. She looked back, where Ty Lee was enjoying herself and drawing in adoring crowds, then turned to the man in front of her and smiled politely.

“It really is overwhelming. What exactly do all these people do here?”

“Oh!” It was apparently the right question to ask, because the man beamed and started a long speech about all kinds of sciences they pay most careful attention in this hallowed walls and rooms that welcome various spheres of knowledge and art, and cherish young impressionable minds, and… He spent a lot of words and a lot of minutes to say nothing, Mai thought, trying desperately not to yawn.

Good thing that Mai’s upbringing prepared her well to listen to interminable speeches of pompous men, so she kept smiling while searching in her sleeve pockets for her least favorite knife. Having found it, she used it to stealthily pin man’s long dress to the ground, just to reward herself for her patience.

“So how does one get in, in this hallowed walls? To study all those things?”

“Oh, through the entrance exam, of course! Once a year we have the most rigorous entrance exam that anyone can take, but only the most knowledgeable can pass.”

“And that’s it? Pass exam and study?”

“Naturally! As soon as you pay all your tuition fees, of course.”

“I see.” Mai nodded showing her understanding. “And what do people do, once they finish their studies?”

“The knowledge is infinite, and one can never truly finish acquiring it! Of course, some people leave because of family commitments or other reasons, but I don’t concern myself with it.”

“Thank you, sir, this conversation was most educational,” Mai bowed and left man standing there entranced – and pinned to the ground.

She felt the enchantment of this place had left her, so she came to find Ty Lee and go somewhere.

Ty Lee looked genuinely happy though. “Hey! I learned a lot from all these nice people! Among other things – there is a secret cafe with the bookstore on campus, let’s go check it out!”

They were on their way from that lunch place to Jasmine Dragon, but secret cafe with a bookstore seemed fun, and Mai needed some fun – and some tea - to wake up after her conversation. The cafe was cute, and tea and cakes were rather decent, so Mai felt herself slightly more alive. Ty Lee told her what she found – the University studied Art, literature, language, history, geography, law, philosophy, engineering and medicine. Mai told her that she found the most boring person she could, and about the exam. The inevitable lull in the conversation was filled with tea and thinking. Mai was trying to imagine such a set up back home. What would she like to study? What would she do with the knowledge acquired? The idea to spend life studying geography or law or math sounded both horrifying and strangely enticing at the same time. It’s not that the prospect to spend life selling flowers was any good, but it was one Mai could understand.

Ty Lee seemed to be fascinated by the bustle of the University more than the perspectives of spending one’s life studying. And well, the bustle was… not unpleasant. People were coming in and out, talking, laughing, buying tea, sweets and books, arguing about weird stuff, winking at Mai and Ty Lee and leaving before the girls could hurt them. Mai felt comfortable, relaxed, and invisible in a good way. Ty Lee just enjoyed the crowd.

They left, eventually, having spent a lot of time and money quite pleasantly, and made their way to the Jasmine Dragon, with all the books, scrolls and curiosities they had bought at the University traveling behind them in the arms of Ty Lee’s new admirers.

Iroh welcomed them mirthfully, talking about two young ladies conquering the city with their charms. It was not the most tasteful or hilarious joke, but, Mai suspected, it was not intended as such. She was used to jokes not intended as jokes and the unexpected familiarity made made her snort.

“I am glad to amuse you, my dear.”

She looked straight at him. “I’ve just never realized before, general Iroh, how much Azula is like you.”

That worked well. She got a sharp look not from a genial old man, but from the general. “We are a family, after all, and have not only good looks in common.” Mai had just wanted to get an honest reaction, but now she felt a pleasant jolt at being noticed.

Ty Lee discharged her adoring escort, and brought all the purchases inside.

“Do you want it all shipped back home?” Iroh asked with polite interest.

“Most of it, yes. There are some gifts to send here.” They found some waterbending scrolls that Katara might want to get, and they had no use for, and some other stuff for their friends. It was nice to operate an indefinite budget and spend it on presents.

Mai was thinking about Iroh. She’d found she didn’t give him much thought before yesterday. He just was – an important presence that she personally had almost no contact with. She didn’t see much of him when she was a little girl, and he was a beloved prince and the general – her mother had a nice engraving of him in her personal study, and so did her aunt, and even her uncle. Her parents also had an official Fire Lord portrait, too, but it was different, more personal. After the Ba Sing Se disaster the Iroh portrait was well hidden, but not discarded. Aunt Mura mentioned once that of course all the girls were in love with young prince Iroh. Mai didn’t see Iroh until after the war (the glimpse of him in chains when they were going home with Azula didn’t count), but being with Zuko, she was feeling Iroh’s unseen presence. Zuko was either ranting angrily about his uncle, or was silent angrily about his uncle. It was all equally annoying. After the war, Zuko talking more about how good his uncle was and what would uncle do, and no, he wouldn’t ask advice from his uncle because his uncle deserved some rest. Enough for Mai to start being silent angrily about Iroh herself. Their real meeting was in Ba Sing Se during the postwar talks that Zuko and his friends had with the Earth King. She kept her distance from the politics and from Iroh, trying to navigate the world in her new position. She did perceive a certain wariness from Iroh, as if she were a strange and suspicious addition to his beloved nephew’s life. Later, when she and Zuko broke up and were dealing with her father’s stupidity and Azula’s insane plans, she and Iroh worked a bit together, and she felt no wariness from him, just cheerful respect for her fighting skills.

Mai guessed that Iroh hadn’t thought much about her before, either. Well, there was no need to start now, but still, she was pleased. She thought about what he said the other day. His life in Ba Sing Se was indeed more penance than pleasant retirement. And the White Lotus things were probably easier to manage from here. And the intelligence. And Mai had to admit that Fire Nation did need Zuko as the Fire Lord, as much as she personally wanted Zuko to have easier life. But also, Iroh was a master in manipulation, the way Zuko would never learn to be, and Azula already had.

There was a lot to think about.

Later that night the three of them were sitting chatting pleasantly. Or, at least Ty Lee was chatting pleasantly with Iroh, and Mai drank her tea in silence trying to process all the new thoughts and information. It was a strange feeling, all your life to think one thing, and then something shifts and you saw a totally different picture. She wondered whether Iroh could say the same now. She thought about their arguments with Jin, the University, the many faces of Iroh – including the one less pleasant, judging by the warning given them by June the Bounty Hunter several weeks ago. Mai believed her, even though she trusted she and Ty Lee had nothing to worry about. Mai felt overwhelmed and held on her teacup to keep herself together.

A knock on the door interrupted the evening.

A messenger, in the Earth King court livery, presented Mai and Ty Lee with letters and announced, “Lady Joo Dee, the King’s fiancee, is expecting you tomorrow afternoon to have tea with her at the Palace.”

Chapter Text

The next morning, according to plan, Ty Lee with Mai went to pick up Jin for some training. She wasn’t sure what good it might accomplish, as Jin obviously had no desire to become their friend. And as much as Ty Lee loved new friends, there was no point of pushing the issue. But some fighting training could be useful for anyone, especially a non-bender girl, so she was ready to indulge Mai’s fancy. It seemed Jin had similar thoughts on the subject.

It was slightly eerie to watch Mai being the most excited and energetic of the three of them. Of course, she didn’t look particularly excited to an outside observer, but Ty Lee noticed telltale signs: less flat voice, a tiny smile, a blink in her eye. The way her knives flew. Well, this trip was supposed to bring Mai out of her funk, so that was good. Just surprising. Ty Lee wished Mai was able to actually talk about what was really on her mind. On the other hand she wasn’t quite at peace since yesterday’s invitation for tea. What did it mean? What did it mean for them in particularly? The three of them spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what that meant, with Mai grilling Iroh about situation in Ba Sing Se, Iroh being honestly puzzled on the whole Joo Dee problem, and her just feeling totally frazzled. She and Mai also had to go and find Earth Kingdom dresses suitable for having tea at the palace. And of course, Mai had to go with the most depressing option she could find, no surprise there. But at least Ty Lee herself was able to find something in sunny green, sure to keep her aura bright throughout whatever this day will bring them.

Meanwhile, it was Ty Lee’s turn to show basics of chi-blocking. The technique was rapidly stopping being half-forgotten ancient secret art. She had already taught Suki and all the Kyoshi warriors, and even Mai had finally decided to learn it. She sucked at close combat, which was screamingly obvious now when they were all sparring. In actual fights, of course, Mai managed to stay at the right distance to be terrifyingly dangerous.

Jin was the worst student Ty Lee had so far. Part of the reason was that everyone else whom Ty Lee had to explain chi-blocking were already trained warriors, and Jin was not. She was a random girl who didn’t want to have anything to do with them. Ty Lee thought she should have paid more attention to what Mai was doing when Mai explained her knives, but she tuned out Mai’s droning voice at the wrong time.

Well. It was a challenge. And challenges were fun.

With three light pokes Ty Lee rendered Jin unable to move. “Jin, I don’t give a dead rat-turtle whether you hate me or not. And I don’t even care if you manage to learn anything today. I have enough things to fret about, honestly. But it is probably the most useful technique anyone will ever teach you. Knife throwing is spectacular, and dangerous, and can come very handy in various situations. But it takes a lot of free time, and a lot of knives to master it. Whereas, learning one the most basic block will take you one day, and will give you a chance to escape many dangerous situations.” And she gave her paralyzed student her happiest smile. At the corner of her eye she noticed Mai smirking at her tirade.

After that, the training went somewhat better, and by the lunch time she was pretty satisfied that Jin managed to learn what they started to call “one emergency poke”.

Jin looked unhappy throughout all their practice and said very little.

At the lunch they went to eat together, she finally talked. “Thank you. It probably will be helpful.”

Ty Lee was exhausted, so she shrugged without even trying to fake cheerfulness. And then was surprised when Mai started to talk in the unusually bright voice.

“It is just the beginning. You can’t expect to master anything in one day, but if you keep practicing even a little bit, even from time to time, you’ll get there. I’ll leave you some knives for practice, though of course, you can try and throw anything.”

Jin nodded. “Can I teach anyone else this… ‘emergency poke’?”

Ty Lee shrugged again. “You can, but… It is really a tiny bit of this art, and when you really figure out how to do it so it works, sure, pass it on. Just keep in mind that it is a glimpse at the large picture.”

“Sure, thanks.”

“What do you think about the university?” Mai asked

“Nothing. I don’t think about it at all.”

“We didn’t think about it, either, but we visited it yesterday afternoon, and it seemed to be such a wonderful place.”

Now it was Jin’s turn to shrug. “Maybe. So what? I can’t pass the exam, I can’t pay for study there, and I don’t even know what would I want to study and what for.”

“Do you have any dreams?”

“And you are what, benevolent spirits that came in the mortal realm to grant them? Stop it, girls. I am thankful for the lesson this morning, I really am. But I don’t need your help, and I don’t want it.”

Ty Lee found herself agreeing completely. The morning was fun – the practice, the teaching, but what was to do next? Keep trying to befriend Jin? Ty Lee had plenty of people who actually wanted to be their friends, even despite being on different sides during the war. She could see Mai came to the same conclusion, but a certain stubbornness couldn’t just let her go.

“Sure,” Mai shrugged. “Just, you know, don’t disappear. If you need help, please come or send a message to Jasmine Dragon…I…” She checked herself and continued “Old man Mushi will be happy to help.”

Jin laughed. “Oh yes, he was so excited to send his nephew on a date with me. May be he still harbors dreams of our successful romance.”

“Maybe he does.”

They awkwardly bid each goodbyes and went their separate ways. Ty Lee and Mai had to hurry now to get ready for their tea party.

“Why were you so set on befriending her, anyway?” Ty Lee asked when they were on a train.

“I wasn’t set on befriending. It’s just… She was the only Earth Kingdom person I actually had a conversation with, during the war, you know? And I liked her. And it felt wrong to leave things as they were. I don’t know.”

“One can’t make an unwilling friend, you know,” Ty Lee said, then abruptly stopped herself. After a heavy pause she continued, “I guess, one actually can, but...” She bit her lip.

“Neither of us were totally unwilling friends.” Mai touched her shoulder. “But I know what you mean. And it is not about making friends, really. Maybe it was just to make myself feel better.”

Ty Lee snorted. Her best friend was a mess.

“When we met last time in Ba Sing Se, she seemed so normal.”

“Wow! A perfectly normal girl! What a curiosity!”

“Well, yes. We are as far from normal as we can get, without being an Avatar or something.”

“Where does your sudden fascination with normal come from? Jin, Kei Lo...”

“Who?”

“Small mercies, you’ve finally forgotten about that poor guy.”

Mai huffed and didn’t say anything.

“You do have friends, I just don’t see a point of you going out of your way to chase people that don’t want to have anything to do with you. Are you in love with pain?”

“No. But it’s my pain, and I do what I want with you.”

Now there was nothing to say in response, so Ty Lee just rolled her eyes, and turned her mind to the problem ahead. They finished their way to Jasmine Dragon in silence, and neither said anything when Iroh started asking about how pleasant their morning was.

In the appropriate time a carriage stopped by the door, ready to bear them away to the King’s palace. They were led with the utmost respect into an elegant room with the tea set on a low ancient table.

Soon after, Joo Dee came in. It was the same Dai Li woman Azula had left in charge of Ba Sing Se when they were going home, only now she was dressed with opulence better suited Earth Kingdom royalty. With the same disturbingly polite grin Ty Lee remembered, Joo Dee greeted Mai and Ty Lee now as if they were her dear friends and inquired about their health and disposition.

“And how is Princess Azula? We only get vague rumors here, you know. I have heard strange things about her health.”

“She is fine.” Mai said without betraying any emotions. “The last time we saw her, she was in good health and robust spirits.”

“I am truly delighted to hear that.”

They drank tea for a while without saying anything, but looking at each other and smiling politely. Being a Fire Nation noble woman meant perfecting all the possible tea rituals. And the art of having the perfect tea party was beaten into them at school as well as at home. Metaphorically beaten, but just as severely as the word implied. Since Joo Dee was the one who invited them, it was up to her to start.

“The recreating good working relationships between our countries is so important, is it not?”

“Yes, absolutely!” Ty Lee agreed with the warmest grin she could master.

“I hope your trip is adding value to all the important work the Avatar and his friends are doing in restoring balance and harmony to the world.”

“We are trying, yes.” Mai smiled and nodded slightly.

“Forging friendships between ordinary people is an important part of the healing process.”

Ty Lee blinked. Did Joo Dee hint at their meetings with Jin? Or was it in a general sense of big polite words people said when they had nothing else to say to each other?

Mai stepped up in her best monotone haughtiness. “It is, indeed.” And then said nothing.

Joo Dee smiled.

Ty Lee sighed and asked one question she really needed to know the answer. “We saw a girl while exploring your beautiful city who was convinced that her name was Joo Dee. She didn’t look well, and seemed not in a right mind, you know. And then we saw some people took her away. I am a little concerned for her safety. Do you think we should inquire somewhere?”

Mai added. “We obviously don’t presume to get into it, it is an internal affair, and I am sure Ba Sing Se is more than well equipped to deal with it, it is just.. it was a really disturbing sight.”

“I understand you perfectly.” Joo Dee’s smile disappeared, and the solemn expression appeared in its stead. “We are dealing here with the unfortunate consequences of the corrupt Dai li system. We are trying to mitigate these consequences most ardently, but sometimes it may look disturbing. I assure you, it is not.”

Ty Lee exchanged glances with Mai.

Joo Dee continued. “Dai Li collected girls from the streets for its nefarious purposes and convinced them their names were Joo Dee.” She took a deep breath. “Yes, some days I am not quite sure myself that it is my real name, but as it is a name I am used to, I keep it. However, there can be only one Joo Dee. Nobody wants crowds of confused girls running around calling themselves Joo Dee and being miserable.”

“So? Can you return them to whoever they were before?”

Joo Dee barked a bitter laugh. “Those who could remember who they were had already done it. Those, who had families they could return to, had already done it. ‘Joo Dee’ that left are the ones nobody needed. So I am using my current influence and resources to help them.”

“So… they are ok, are they not?”

“It makes you look great, to be concerned with lives of simple girls here. They are fine. They are well cared for, in good health, and have good lives ahead of them. They are totally fine.”

Ty Lee wasn’t assured, and our of a corner of her eye she saw Mai looked slightly dubious, but there was nothing really they could do right now. At least the mystery wasn’t much of a mystery.

“These poor girls.” Joo Dee continued. “They try. They try so hard, but they have no recollection of who they were. And we are trying to help them, to re-educate them in being productive member of our society. We all have lost so much during the war. I am sure you understand.” She smiled awkwardly, but in a way that felt very precisely calculated to Ty Lee’s trained eye. “These girls had nothing at all. Except me, and I am giving them the future. A future that will benefit people of the Earth Kingdom and the world.”

“The invitation mentioned you being the fiancee of King Kuei. I take it, we should offer our felicitations?” Mai said carefully.

“You may, but the official announcement will be at the Equinox, it is only known to the closest friends for now.”

“Are we your closest friends?”

“Well, of course! Who else? And you are both close to me and the Fire Nation Royal family. I do believe we must keep our friendship strong and fruitful. Which is why I couldn’t miss your traveling through my city and not to invite you!”

Mai inclined her head in a careful bow. “Thank you for thinking about us, and of course please accept your congratulations”

“Yes! Congratulations!” Ty Lee still couldn’t quite believe it. It was the most unlikely match she could think about. “Would you like to tell us all about it?”

“Absolutely, since I owe my meeting with king Kuei to princess and you. After Ba Sing Se was returned under control of Earth Kingdom, and the king had returned, we met. I was in a difficult position – but it was understood that princess Azula’s offer to watch over Earth Kingdom in her absence was not an offer one could refuse. And I saw that Kuei was not only an all powerful monarch of my country, but also a lonely young man, and so we… built an unlikely friendship.” Joo Dee’s smile turned sweet and wistful, but Ty Lee wasn’t convinced.

Mai didn’t say anything, just nodded politely.

Joo Dee continued, looking straight at Mai. “The relationships with the royals are so complicated, so fraught with difficulties, are they not?”

“Most certainly.” Mai was a picture of the perfect lady, impeccable manners that betrayed nothing.

“I am so glad you understand me! Anyway, Kuei and me, we came to an understanding that we together can greatly improve each other lives, and the lives of all people in our Earth Kingdom.”

“So you are not in love?”

“When did any royal marriage involve love, really? It is about stability, tradition, and political alliances.”

“I thought it meant the young girls from rich and powerful families, or something like that. Isn’t it your union a little.. unorthodox?” Ty Lee asked in genuine curiosity.

“The world is changing. Should we subject any young girl to an arranged marriage they find abhorrent, with a man they are not interested in, and who doesn’t care about them either? I am sure Beifong family would be interested in marrying off their daughter to the king, for example...”

“Actually, to my knowledge, the Beifong family has had for centuries enough wealth and influence so that they preferred to keep away from royal family, and since Toph Beifong is the only heir, they wouldn’t want to waste all that into the abyss that is royal treasury. But I agree with your overall point. No one should be forced into marriage.” Mai said.

Ty Lee imagined telling Toph about it. “Anyone who’d want to marry Toph has to catch her first.”

Joo Dee allowed herself smile showing she appreciated the joke. “I quite like king Kuei, actually, and pretty sure I can keep him comfortable and happy. After all, as long as he has his bear, he is content.”

Ty Lee sipped another cup of tea, lost in disturbing visions of Kuei, Bosko the bear, and Joo Dee in one happy marriage. “How’s Bosko the bear? Did he ever learn to stand on his front paws?”

“I haven’t seen him doing that, personally.”

“Yeah, I don’t really expect him, to, just curious.”

I am very satisfied we had a chance to catch up and refresh our friendship. I am sure that the bond we have will be stronger with every year to come, and will bring mutual prosperity to us and our nations.”

“Sure, but you shouldn’t overestimate our influence on our country. Just because we are on friendly terms with Fire lord Zuko, doesn’t mean we are influencing anything.”

“Maybe you are not. But some day you will. And he will listen.”

“I highly doubt that he will listen, with all due respect.”

“I understand the current situation is not conductive, but I do have high hopes for the future. The next time we meet, I am sure you will see I am right.”

The tea party was over eventually, and Joo Dee said her goodbyes to Ty Lee and Mai with all the appearance of being their closest friend.

Back at the Jasmine Dragon the girls climbed the roof and sat there, looking over the city of walls and sea of roofs.

“I think I prefer several days of Jin glaring at us in a cheap eatery over another tea party with Joo Dee.” Ty Lee said with a sigh.

Mai seemed lost in thoughts. “You know,” she said after a long pause. “Everything Joo Dee said today seemed reasonable and made perfect sense. But I felt her words like a slimy blanket swaddling me in a cocoon to eat later.”

“Wow, Mai! Thanks for the disturbing image! How am I supposed to sleep now? You are right though. Why did she felt so creepy?”

“Something about her expressions that felt always so appropriate, as if she rehearsed the whole thing until perfect.”

“I think I prefer you with your lack of expression.”

“Much appreciated.”

“What are we doing next? Making more friends?”

“Writing report and moving on. We still have our mission to do, right?”

“Right. We still have to go through a number of places, and check the eastern coast. Damn Ba Sing Se is like a swamp, you just slowly drown here without noticing.”

They watched moon rising over the city, each one deep in her own thoughts. Ty Lee was going over all the people they encountered in Earth Kingdom, and she had to admit, they hadn’t really made any new friends. They spent great time with Toph, but she was a part of the group to begin with. They worked together with locals in Yu Dao pretty well, but they left without plans to ever come back or talk to any one ever again. They would see Joo Dee again, most likely, but she wasn’t looking forward to it.

Mai said, looking somewhere far ahead. “I am not exactly looking for friends, you know. You are my best friend, and I wouldn’t want anything to change that.”

“We are what we are. Super special.” They had never actually talked about themselves. “Growing up with Azula cannot be copied.”

Mai patted her on the back, rather awkwardly.

“I accept it as a hug.” And they both giggled at that.

Later, when Mai was writing her report, Ty Lee with Iroh went over their next steps in the mission. They poured over Earth Kingdom maps and reports that might suggest unauthorized Fire Army activity.

Jasmine Dragon would stay their commutation point for the last part of their journey, with them sending Tufty the messenger hawk there if the need arises. They still had to prepare the supplies while they could find everything in or around Ba Sing Se, finish off the letters, and send off their purchases.

“It seems we’ll be here another couple of days. I am so tired of this city. How do you manage to live here all this time?” Ty Lee asked Iroh.

“I feel my presence here is more important that back home.”

“Zuko misses you very much, you know.” Mai turned her head from the report.

“I know, and I miss him too a lot. But it really is to the best if I stay here, and come to visit from time to time.”

Mai snorted as inelegantly as she could.

“Zuko is very lucky to have such good friends.”

“Who all of them are far away, being busy.”

“Such is an adult life, alas. Friends who were close together are all doing their own things, and living their own lives. Sometimes new friends happen.”

“It is hard to make new friends for the Fire lord.”

“Yes, and luckily I avoided that trap.”

Mai snorted again, and Ty Lee herself couldn’t refrain from giggling. It wasn’t funny when one stopped and think about it, and yet it was funny nevertheless. Ty Lee minutely remembered dark warning about Iroh that a bounty hunter woman, June, gave them. But it seemed too outrageous to think of Iroh as anyone but a kindly old uncle.

“Does anyone here know about you?” She asked Iroh.

“Some people, definitely.”

“And they are fine with the prince of the Fire Nation, the retired general, having a tea shop in Ba Sing Se?”

Iroh smiled. “I suppose so. We have a sort of unspoken agreement – they know; I know that they know; they know that I know that they know, and we don’t bother each other about little things.”

“Have you made any new friends?”

“Definitely. And I have no doubt that Zuko, and the both of you will be making good new friends throughout your life.”