Chapter Text
Chapter 1
I know you
I walked with you once upon a dream
I know you
The gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam
Zuko spent his entire life surrounded by stories of the lost Southern Water Kingdom and the slumbering inhabitants of its King’s city.
When he was little, his mother used to tell him and his sister Azula the old Fire Nation tale of a proud king and queen who did not think it necessary to invite the Fire Fairies to their princess's Welcoming ceremony.
This was a grave mistake, since it had always been customary to invite the fairies from all four kingdoms to this special ceremony to bless new royal family members in each kingdom.
Instead, this proud king and queen, called the Last King and Queen of the Water Kingdom, closed their doors to the Fire Fairies when they tried to come in to bless the princess, thus invoking their just wrath.
Azula always liked the next part, because when the Fire Fairies finally made their way inside and faced the Last King and Queen, rather than giving the customary blessing (like beauty or wisdom or riches) they placed a curse on the princess instead. Because of the inhospitality and rudeness of her parents, which could even have been seen as a declaration of war against the Fire Kingdom, the Fire Fairies sentenced that the princess should die when she turned sixteen years old.
So great was the power of the three Fire Fairies combined, along with the magic of the Fire King who supported them (the great Fire King Sozin, your grandfather, their mother was always sure to add), that none of the other fairies had the power to stop this curse.
Zuko's mother would always pause here, as though unsure of how to continue. She had several different ways of explaining to them how it was that the curse was shifted, but none of them ever quite satisfied Zuko. Perhaps the princess's grandmother had some paltry magic herself, she'd say, or perhaps it was a loophole in the Fire Fairies’ words, or perhaps it was the Great Dragon himself, no one knew for sure. Regardless of the method though, somehow the curse was mitigated, so that when the princess turned sixteen she would not die, only fall into a deep, enchanted sleep, along with everyone else in the King's City.
During all those sixteen years the king and queen desperately tried everything they could to erase the curse or change it again, but to no avail. Their frantic efforts were futile in the face of the strength and power of the Fire King's magic.
Thus, it came to pass that the princess turned sixteen and fell asleep, and the whole kingdom fell asleep with her.
It was said that whoever managed to wake the princess would be able to control the whole Southern Water Kingdom, since its people would welcome that person as a savior.
However, no one knew exactly how to do this, and though it had been nearly a hundred years since these things had happened, and though many had tried to journey to the fabled Slumbering City to wake the princess and claim this power for themselves, no one was ever able to, and few, if any, ever returned from these journeys at all.
The children didn't understand this. Why should it be so difficult to find a whole city of sleeping people and wake up one person? It seemed that someone should've done that already, but no one had. Their mother reminded them that it was an enchanted sleep, but they still weren't convinced.
“If I were the one looking for the princess,” Azula declared one night as their mother finished the story, “I would find the city so fast that no one would be able to stop me, and then I'd just kick her or something, and then she'd wake up and I'd be able to take over the whole country!”
“Well there must've been a reason that literally no one else did it before,” Zuko countered. “I bet it's not even a real place, just something made-up for a story, and people are stupid when they think they can do it.”
“Well, I'm sure it is a real place,” said their mother. “It's probably just really hard to find, because no one's been there in so long. Now, it's bedtime for both of you, and I love you both very much.”
Her stories were one of the things Zuko missed the most when she was gone, and over time, that one grew to be the only one he remembered at all.
~~~~~
Zuko stared at the floor by his feet, sullen. All he had done was speak out against a plan to try to take the Water Kingdom by force (partially because of the impracticality of the venture, but mostly because of the countless lives that he knew would be lost), and his father had burned him, banished him, and sent him on an impossible quest to restore his honor and political standing: to find the Slumbering City and take control of the Southern Water Kingdom for the Fire Kingdom.
At least his father had given him a Fire Navy ship to command for his journey, although its small size seemed discouraging to him, as well as the attitude of its crew, who he realized had essentially been banished with him, and seemed to have little confidence in the command of a thirteen-year-old boy, prince or no.
At least I'll have some time to work on that, Zuko thought, as he headed down to his room just after watching the Fire King's City disappear over the horizon.
He entered his room, and was startled to see an old man there who he hadn't seen before, even when he had met the ship's crew a few hours earlier. The old man sat calmly at a table, drinking tea, and when Zuko came in he stood up and bowed towards him.
“Prince Zuko,” he began solemnly, “I’m—”
“Who are you and what are you doing here?” Zuko demanded impatiently.
Sighing, the old man began again. “My name is Iroh, and I believe I will be able to aid you in your quest to find the Slumbering City.”
“You still didn't answer my question!” Zuko insisted hotly. “Who are you?”
The old man sighed again, this time more deeply. “Of course, you don't remember me. You were so little when I was banished, in much the same way you are now.”
“What do you mean?” Zuko was apprehensive, but something stirred in his memory.
“I am your uncle,” Iroh said solemnly, “the older brother of your father, Ozai, and I, too, was banished just as you were for speaking out against the policies of my father.”
Zuko did remember that when he was little, his mother told him about his Uncle Iroh, a celebrated war general whose success gave him the over-confidence and pride that caused him to be banished, but she had said that he hadn't been heard from in many years, and very likely was no longer alive.
“Can you prove you are who you say you are?” Zuko asked, suspicious.
“Perhaps not in the way you would like me to,” Iroh replied sagely. “But I assure you that all will be revealed in due time.”
Zuko had no idea what to make of this answer, but something about the old man's demeanor, and something about the way Zuko's memory had twinged when he had introduced himself, made him seriously consider allowing the man to stay on board his ship. Maybe he would actually be able to help Zuko out, both in his practical, immediate need of learning to commandeer a ship, and in his long-term need of finding the Slumbering City.
Besides, it wasn't like Zuko had any other plan. Getting banished by your father and commanded to complete an impossible mission wasn't something that usually happened to people, so it was something Zuko, like anyone else in his position, was unprepared for. Zuko supposed that it would be helpful for him to have someone who could accompany him through even just the beginning part of his travels while he got his bearings, and potentially further, if this guy actually knew what he was talking about.
Having considered all these things, Zuko reluctantly gave the old man permission to join him.
Gleeful, his new companion began to hum as he followed Zuko as he began to take a tour of the ship. It was a cheery-sounding song that Zuko neither recognized nor cared to hear any more of, in his current emotional state, and it didn't help that a few of the crew members close by began to hum along as well. Some of them even smiled at or warmly greeted the old man like an old friend, their bursts of energy proving infectious as the tour progressed.
Zuko rolled his eyes, frowning. Here goes.
~~~~~
That night after dinner, Iroh (Zuko would never agree to thinking of him as his uncle) sat on the upper deck with Zuko and the ship’s officers, and he began to tell the old story of the Sleeping Princess.
Zuko groaned internally, prepared to leave early and go to his room, but something stopped him. He knew this story, everyone did, but some of the details seemed to be different.
Iroh gave names to the proud king and queen (Hakoda and Kya) and to the princess (Katara), as well as giving her an older brother (Sokka), and rather than being proud, Hakoda and Kya seemed instead to be kindly and compassionate rulers who loved their children more than anything.
Anything, that is, other than sacrificing the safety of their kingdom. So it seemed to Zuko, as he was surprised to learn that in this version of the story, the Fire Kingdom was actually the one who showed signs of initial aggression towards the other three kingdoms, with the number of raids and unacknowledged skirmishes increasing in the months before Katara was born. Rather than the act of spite and pride that he had associated with their actions before, Zuko could sense a genuine anxiety in Hakoda and Kya’s decision to try to avoid contact with a potential threat to their safety.
The Welcoming Ceremony and its intruders were thus also presented in a different light. The Fire Fairies, infuriated at having been overlooked, used their magic to force their way into the celebration, and sentenced to an early death the very person that Hakoda and Kya had tried to keep safe.
Zuko couldn't help but hold his breath as Iroh came to the next part, hoping that this other version of the story would answer his questions about how the curse was changed. This tale remained ambiguous, but it did include a comment on how “the gods blessed what their people meant to destroy” (whatever that means, thought Zuko).
Regardless of the method, the curse change was the same in this story, with the princess still sentenced to fall into the enchanted sleep when she turned sixteen. Hakoda and Kya's efforts to save her from this fate were truly admirable, Zuko thought, in contrast to the wild desperation of the story he'd always been told, but they were equally ineffective. Instead, Katara's grandmother (who as it turned out, did have some magic of her own), was able to discover a way (the only way) to break the curse.
As it turned out, this story was a kissing story, and Zuko was mad at it again. Iroh said that the only way to end the curse would be if a noble, honest, and honorable knight kissed the princess, then she and her city would all awaken.
Frustrated, and sensing that the story was over, Zuko went down to his room to think. The story that he had just heard was very different than the one he had always been told, which he thought made some sense; after all, the other version was a Fire Kingdom story, so of course it would be told with them as the “good guys” and the Water Kingdom as the “bad guys.” It bothered him that so many details had been omitted in the original story, but he was also frustrated at the ambiguity of both stories.
Zuko clenched his jaw. No matter how much confusion or frustration he felt, this was the only way that he would be able to earn back his father’s trust and love. It was the only way that he could return to his place as the heir to the Fire Kingdom throne, and restore his own honor after having been burned and banished by the Fire King himself.
Zuko saw no choice but to at least try to find the Slumbering City, even though it might take years or force him to travel through unknown territory with unknown (or unwanted) companions, including the one on the top deck of his ship, who he could still hear receiving applause for the fresh take on the story he had told.
Deciding that he would need his rest for a full day of learning how to run his ship tomorrow, Zuko resignedly closed his eyes to try to sleep.
Darkness enveloped him immediately. He could sense that this was not sleep, or at least not the sleep he'd ever known before. He was standing on what felt like water.
But it couldn't be! Nobody can walk on water!
After a few moments, a pinprick of light caught his eye. He stared at it for a moment before realizing that it was getting bigger. As it grew, he could see that it wasn't just one point of light, but two; one a curved teardrop shape with a hole in the middle, and the other was a tiny dot that mirrored the hole in the other side.
The shape stopped in front of Zuko and paused for a moment, spinning slowly.
Then it began to spin faster, and gradually faster, until it seemed just like a circle of one color, a blur of light and darkness combined.
Zuko was hit by a wall of light, which so contrasted with the darkness all around him before that took him a few moments of blinking to be able to see.
When his eyes began to adjust, he discovered that he was in what looked like a round room with several arched windows dotting the walls. The walls, floor, and ceiling appeared to be an icy shade of blue, which he had never seen before anywhere. The room also felt far colder than he was used to, but he oddly seemed not to be bothered by the cold.
As he looked around, he saw to his right a large canopy, covered in white furs. There was nothing else that he could see in the room, so he went over to the canopy to see what was inside.
Zuko pushed the furs aside and discovered a radiant girl sleeping on a bed covered in more furs. Her hair was a rich, warm brown, and, despite the cold in the room, her face retained its warm hue and stunningly bright beauty.
Zuko only saw her face for a moment before he was instantly snapped back into darkness.
The darkness dissipated into a dim candlelight. Zuko blinked for a moment, then saw Iroh standing beside his bed, holding a candle.
“Good morning, my friend,” Iroh said gently. “The sun will be rising soon, and so must you.”
Zuko sat up, groaning and rubbing his eyes. Had he been asleep for that long?
He certainly didn't feel like he had slept anywhere close to enough. He felt no less tired than the day before, and moreover, his dream could not have been longer than a few minutes, at most.
But that was the strangest dream, he thought, as he got up to get ready for the day. He couldn't help wondering if it had meant anything, and if so, what, or if it had been magic of some kind, or who that girl was.
Why did I have a weird dream about a girl? It's not like she was pretty or anything anyways.
It became apparent to Zuko rather quickly that he must go out and try to learn how to run his ship, sleep or no sleep. His quest must be accomplished, no matter how tired he was at the moment. Even if it took years, even if it took traveling around the whole world, he was resolved to find the Sleeping City and restore his honor.
Iroh was already singing as Zuko came to the top deck at the first lights of the dawn. There were few clouds in the sky, and a soft breeze accompanied the warmth of the early morning sun. The day promised to be a perfect one in many different regards.
To everyone, that is, but Zuko. He sighed. It was going to be a long journey.