For the next stretch of days, Kahn continued resting just as Azula demanded.
He occasionally hung out with Ty Lee and Mai, then returned home to continue studying Firebending—especially Lightningbending.
Lightningbending, a high-level Firebending art passed down through the royal family, was incredibly powerful, extremely difficult, and undeniably dangerous.
Even for him and Azula, learning it wasn't smooth sailing. Their progress wasn't slow, but calling it fast would be pushing it.
This was because derivative Firebending arts like Lightningbending, Heatbending, Waterbending offshoots, and even Plantbending weren't complete bending systems.
The four major bending disciplines—Fire, Water, Earth, Air—were whole and organized, with full learning methods and structured applications.
Derivative forms lacked that structure; they relied more on self-exploration than formal training.
And in some cases, structured "moves" were actually unnecessary.
Lightningbending, for example, was inherently dangerous to perform. Adding complex motions would only make it more unstable. A clean, direct lightning strike was far more practical.
His own Thermal Energy Firebending was similar: bestow, change, extract—three applications, each capable of infinite variations. Anything more would just be flashy nonsense.
Still—
Although learning Lightningbending was progressing slowly, both he and Azula had become incredibly proficient in Reverse Lightning Fire.
They had even reached the point where they could effortlessly pass it back and forth between them like some deadly lightning ball game.
At this point, while Kahn wasn't arrogant enough to claim he was the strongest, he could definitely hold the title of "king of internal sparring."
During this time, he and Azula combed through more documents hoping to uncover additional information about the Face Mother—and what they found was unexpected.
One document suggested that the Face Mother might have a special connection to the spirit who stole the face of the Avatar's wife.
The author speculated that the two might be related due to the similarity in their abilities: the face-stealing spirit could take people's faces, while the Face Mother could give people new ones.
But everything recorded about the Face Mother portrayed her as a benevolent spirit, while the face-stealer was pure malice.
The idea of them being connected felt unlikely. If anything, they seemed like opposites.
However, Kahn, recalling the old myths and legends from his previous world, didn't find the idea completely impossible.
What puzzled both the author and them was how such ancient, eternal beings reproduced—if they even did.
Back to the main issue: they didn't know whether this information would be useful, but they noted it down anyway. Better to have it than not.
Although his earlier self-exposure probably wasn't necessary, Kahn realized it also wasn't a big deal.
With that thought, he finally decided: he needed to learn Spiritbending from Guru Pathik.
It wasn't just for Azula's sake, to help her find Erh Shu—it was also for himself.
Spiritbending, as a truly human spiritual art, felt like something deeply important for him.
He had a vague, almost instinctive feeling that it might be the most crucial bending path he would take.
But even with that resolve, he wasn't leaving now.
Ozai didn't trust him enough to let him vanish for long periods.
He needed more time, more missions, more reliability built up before he could safely disappear to learn from Guru Pathik.
So for now, life returned to a stable routine: Firebending practice during the day, spending time with Azula and the others when he could, practicing Spiritbending at night, or visiting the Spirit World to chat with Iroh for a bit of mental balance.
Iroh and his group had already left the Northern Air Temple and were heading toward the Eastern Air Temple, where Guru Pathik lived.
Since the Avatar of this era was an Air Nomad, they were inspecting the ruins of all the temples again, hoping for clues—though a century of searching had yielded nothing.
This time, Iroh traveled with a unit of soldiers, so meeting Guru Pathik seemed unlikely.
Zuko, meanwhile, had begun studying Air Nomad records in addition to his Firebending.
He wanted to understand every place they visited so his years of wandering wouldn't go to waste.
Kahn nodded at the news. It seemed Zuko's mental state was improving nicely.
In the Spirit World, aside from discussing bending with Iroh, Kahn also began wandering more in search of… well, fate.
Maybe he'd meet a powerful, handsome spirit willing to follow him?
A man could dream.
But peaceful days pass quickly. Before long, Ozai summoned them with a new mission.
Azula and Kahn exchanged glances, stretching in sync.
"Time to get moving."
The mission target was, again, Iroh's renegade former subordinates.
For Ozai, sending Azula and Kahn ensured the mission's success, increased Azula's prestige, and tightened the leash on Kahn.
Efficient, effective, and manipulative—classic Ozai.
Kahn was mentally prepared for this. He had been waiting for another opportunity.
Successfully completing missions was the only way to gain more freedom—freedom he needed for the next phase of his plans.
But this time, the objective was different.
The order had changed from kill to capture.
It seemed their previous plan—the self-inflicted wound strategy—had pleased Ozai, which was good news.
"Though I hate to ruin that innocent smile on your face," Azula said coolly, "aren't you thinking a bit too optimistically?"
She folded her arms.
"Why don't you use your little brain for once and figure out what went wrong?"
The logic was simple:
If Ozai was still satisfied, then the rescue plan for Lidan and the others must have failed.
They had likely been transported to various mining areas, exactly as planned, and were either still working… or dead.
If they had been intercepted or escaped, Ozai would never have issued this new order.
Kahn's expression stiffened.
"True… but where exactly did it fail?"
Azula shrugged.
"Who knows? Maybe ask that organization called the Whily Lorus. Weren't they in charge of the rescue?"
Then she added with a sharp smirk:
"If they can't even complete such a simple mission, it really makes you wonder what they've been doing all this time. Maybe they're Father's people too?"
"If that were true, we'd be dead already."
Kahn rolled his eyes.
"And it's called the White Lotus, thank you very much."
Still—Azula was right.
He really should find out what the White Lotus had been doing… and where the plan had gone wrong.
...
Author's Note:
The full completed version of Avatar: Rebirth of the Strongest Firebender — Part 1 (ATLA) is now available on Patreon!
Part 2 — Arc 1, set in The Legend of Korra era, has also been completed and continues the story into the next generation with stronger enemies, expanded worldbuilding, and major character developments ahead.
And one complete 18+ novel has been uploaded on Patreon that's guaranteed to give you an intense and thrilling experience.
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