Chapter Text
"Chamberlain, we'd like to submit the transcription from the Cockpit Voice Recorder. Fortunately, we were able to retrieve it without any trouble—every conversation from the moment the Fire Lord picked up his companion to when the airship took heavy damage flying through the tornado. The recorder stayed intact even as the hull was badly damaged, so it kept capturing everything inside the cabin all the way back to the Fire Nation."
The Chamberlain, buried in his own paperwork, didn't even look up. Honestly, he couldn't be bothered with yet another stack of documents to review. "So?" he said, eyes still on the papers in front of him. "Hand it to the archival team and the palace secretary to pass along to the Ministry of Defense. Same as always."
The transcriber hesitated. "Uh," he started, "I—we think you need to review part of this one yourself, Chamberlain."
Only then did the Chamberlain finally look up, studying the man standing before his desk. "I don't believe I've seen you before. Are you new? Perhaps your team leader hasn't told you, but I don't handle this sort of thing personally anymore," he said, a little curtly. The transcriber stammered, though the Chamberlain could see his grip tighten around the papers in his hands. "But my team leader specifically told me to bring this to you for review. We—we felt it was too personal to simply pass along to the palace secretary."
That got the Chamberlain's attention. He raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"
The transcriber set the stack down on the desk. "This is the transcript we recovered from the CVR—the flight to Yu Dao, before the airship made it back to the Fire Nation." The Chamberlain skimmed the pages, trying to work out what could possibly be so personal about a flight transcript.
"So the only two left aboard were the Fire Lord and—" he paused, trying to recall the name. "Toph Bei—"
"It's PAX!" the transcriber blurted, cutting him off before he could finish. Realizing he'd just raised his voice at the Chamberlain, he bowed quickly, apologizing as he straightened. "We—in transcription, we don't use names, Chamberlain. Even if we have our own assumptions about who's who, strong ones, we refer to them only as PAX, for passenger, and PIC, for pilot in command. It wouldn't be wise to simply assume it was the Fire Lord and Master Toph—"
"Right, right." The Chamberlain cut him off, not particularly pleased to be lectured on top of being handed more work. "I'll look into it myself and see what the issue is. Close the door on your way out."
"Thank you, Chamberlain."