"I didn't find anything, aside from a trashy knife," Azula said with a disgruntled look, emerging from what I gathered was a storage room for the prisoners' personal effects.
"Perhaps the Captain decided to examine the contents of your cosmetic kit more carefully." There were, after all, many items in it, and if I were truly some kind of spy, I would have hidden more than one secret message in there. "Or maybe someone stole it as a gift for his wife or daughter. Your cosmetic kit and its contents look very expensive, even at a glance."
That was also possible. Everyone here engaged in looting. Sometimes on the road, you could see a naked corpse that had even had its worn foot wrappings taken; only the cause of death offered a clue as to which nation it had served. If they died from a burn, clearly an Earth Kingdom soldier; if pierced by stone spikes, probably a Fire Nation fighter. Although sometimes even that was hard to determine. The local fauna wasn't entirely averse to feasting on human flesh. Not all creatures, but such animals were regularly encountered. Spirits were slightly less common, but they left absolutely no trace behind. The body simply vanished. And here, they didn't even have to strip a corpse, they just had to grab an expensive-looking satchel from a shelf. I wouldn't be surprised if it was already delighting some young woman in Omashu.
"Should we search for it?" I asked the Princess with doubt.
"No," Azula shook her head. "You were right. We shouldn't linger here if we don't want to end up back in a cell."
We raced back toward the exit. It was precisely at that moment that we heard the thud of many feet coming from the second floor. Princess Azula paused for a moment. Lightning struck the ceiling. It collapsed. Along with pieces of the ceiling, a multitude of soldiers fell from the second floor to the first. I didn't hold back and covered the defenseless people with a wave of flame. I didn't kill everyone, but I delayed and injured many.
We continued our escape. Running back into the fortress courtyard, we noticed several Earthbending fighters hastily blocking the exit with thick stone slabs. I rushed forward again. Fire daggers flared in my hands. The preoccupied Earthbenders didn't even have time to understand what killed them. I turned back to Azula and clasped my hands together. Azula took a hard run-up and, using me as a springboard, leaped straight onto the wall. Grabbing a ledge, she pulled herself up and was over it. Thankfully, the walls inside Omashu itself weren't terribly high.
I stepped back a bit for a running start and, firing jets of flame from my heels, jumped onto the wall. I grasped the Princess's outstretched hand and was soon standing on the wall as well. We lingered there only long enough to look around and figure out where we were. Omashu was smaller than Ba Sing Se. Several times smaller. But it was still a large city. In the darkness, we could barely make out one of the outer defensive walls. And only because there were guards with torches on it.
It seemed the alarm hadn't been sounded throughout the entire city yet. Only this isolated section, which doubled as a prison, had been put on high alert. Well, and the houses standing nearby had lights on. People had been woken by the noise.
"The Omashu gates are usually closed. They're only opened when someone wants to leave or enter the city. And they're only opened during the daytime. We should lie low in the city for a while."
"Where is the best place to do that? In the slums?"
"It's very easy to get lost in the slums," I nodded at Azula's suggestion. "But the locals there are searched much more frequently and crudely. We should head to the heart of the city, to the areas where the elite live. Everyone there knows everyone, but sometimes the aristocratic homes are so large that some rooms aren't used at all. We'll hide in those. No general will want to conduct a total search among the city's elite. If he does, he might very quickly find himself demoted to a private."
Having decided where to go, we descended from the walls. We tried to do so in the least conspicuous way, so as not to attract unnecessary attention. That is, we didn't use bending.
Soon our duo was lost among Omashu's numerous alleys. Walking along the main street was too risky. Patrolling is common on such important thoroughfares, even at night, which is not the case in the cramped alleys where even long-time residents can get lost. As it turned out, the prison we'd briefly occupied stood right in the center of the local slums, simultaneously serving as a sort of police station. That unknown Captain took on far too many duties...
We often encountered dead ends that an ordinary person wouldn't be able to cross. But we were not ordinary people. Princess Azula's physical training was enough for her to climb over flimsy fences or clamber onto a rooftop by pushing off the walls of other buildings, and then continue on across the roof.
Where to run was quite clear to us. First, Omashu's Royal Palace served as a beacon for us. It was well-lit at night. Second, the city was built on a mountain. And that was very noticeable. To reach the center of the city, we simply needed to keep moving upward.
Strangely enough, we managed to pass through Omashu's confusing slums much faster than the more orderly part of the city that followed immediately after. Simply put, in the slums, part of the journey was completed on the rooftops. But in the next district, that proved impossible. The distance between the houses grew wider. We could have bridged it using Firebending skills, but such a leap at night would have been visible to everyone. Sometimes we also had to hide in alleys until a patrol—or, more often, a transport, raced past.
The citizens of Omashu prided themselves on their advanced mail system, consisting of various slides and chutes. And despite the name, it wasn't only used for mail delivery. Slowly, the noise in the city was increasing. It seemed that interested parties had already learned of the escape from one of the prisons. Consequently, soldiers began to arrive in the slum district. Their numbers were growing literally by the minute. It was good that we had already passed through that area.
Omashu was divided into several sectors. And I wasn't talking about rich and poor districts, or, for example, commercial, artisanal, and residential areas. In Omashu, just like in Ba Sing Se, there were several rings of walls. However, unlike the Earth Kingdom's largest city, aside from the outer wall, these were all open, and anyone could pass through. Even at night. Only the guard post at the gates could stop someone for document inspection, but they didn't bother us. We brazenly ran right through. The guards didn't even pay attention to our pair. There were many people like us rushing about right now. Many fighters were running, delivering reports from one commander to another. In the eyes of the gate guards, the Princess and I looked no different from the others. Especially since our uniforms still belonged to Earth Kingdom soldiers.
A while after passing the walls, we ducked into an alley and stopped to catch our breath. Running uphill isn't the same as running on flat ground. It's much harder and takes more energy.
"To pass the posts so easily…" Azula was surprised by our luck and the incompetence of the local guard. "Is it possible to do the same thing just as easily in our capital?"
"It's even easier in the Fire Nation capital. I remind you, Princess, the war has been waged on enemy territory this entire time. The Fire Nation has never truly maintained defenses within its own borders. The capital garrisons are very complacent. Although the Palace is guarded by the best Firebenders, I could easily penetrate it even in this Earth Kingdom soldier's uniform. I'd most likely be mistaken for a theatre actor. The Fire Lord didn't ban it, did he? I haven't missed that detail?"
"After the conclusion of my exi…" Azula bit her tongue and looked at me intently. Hmm, so the Princess thinks my attitude toward her might change if I find out she is actually in the Fire Lord's disfavor. Without noticing that I had caught her slip, she continued. "After the conclusion of this mission assigned by the Fire Lord, I must ask him to conduct training for the capital guard. I don't want intruders to wander through my home as freely as we are doing in theirs. Fire Lord Ozai did wish to abolish the theatrical performances, but he has been so busy lately that he completely forgot about it."
"And what was the reason for the Fire Lord's desire?"
"That is... personal," Azula's face darkened.
"Are you rested? Can we continue?" Seeing the Princess's nod, I ran between Omashu's houses, trying to get as far away as possible from the central streets and the local postal network, and to create less noise.
Our wandering through the city ended after dawn. By this time, all of Omashu was already agitated by the escape of two Firebender prisoners from custody. But in the districts where we were now located, the atmosphere was calmer than in the lower areas. In general, the closer to the slums, the more restless the people were. After all, that's where the prison was, which meant the escaped Firebenders must be nearby. But this was a widespread mistake.
Princess Azula and I managed to sneak into the mansion of some Omashu aristocrat or wealthy merchant. The house was enormous compared to the others, and the security wasn't excessive. Four people patrolled the perimeter. Furthermore, they barely entered the mansion itself. The only people inside were the residents, an elderly couple, and their numerous servants, most of whom were sent home at night, leaving only a few for various needs.
As I had guessed, there were enough empty rooms where we could hide and wait out the commotion in the city. In some, despite the staff, there was even a visible layer of dust. I wanted to stay in one of those rooms. If no one had cleaned it before our arrival, it was unlikely anyone would do so after. The chance of being discovered in such rooms was smaller than in others.
But Princess Azula had a different opinion. She didn't want to sleep in a dusty room. If the option was available, she wanted to rest in conditions suitable for her status. Therefore, I was forced to accompany her to another room where no dust was visible. However, this nearly cost us our cover…
The door to the room where we were resting unexpectedly opened, and one of the servants began backing into it, humming a song to himself. Princess Azula and I barely managed to hide in one of the wardrobes. It was extremely cramped due to the multitude of clothes inside, so we involuntarily had to press very closely against each other. The contact was so tight that I could feel the Princess's breathing and her accelerated heartbeat.
We were unlucky that the servant chose this particular day to conduct an almost complete cleaning of the room. He diligently washed the walls, wiped almost all the furniture—fortunately, only the exterior—and mopped the floors. All this time, we had to remain pressed together and try not to make a sound. But I became concerned by the fact that Princess Azula's heartbeat was not calming down. After a while, I started to feel heat radiating from her. Her face was flushed. I would have thought the Princess was simply feeling stuffy or hot, but she was a Firebending master, and at that level, a person controls their body temperature very well. Only one possibility remained: Princess Azula was sick. I decided to confirm this.
"Princess, are you not feeling well?" I whispered practically into her ear, leaning in and, for convenience, wrapping my arms around her waist. A noticeable shiver ran through Azula's body. She was definitely sick.
I pulled back from the Princess as much as I could and placed my palm on her forehead. It, like the rest of Azula, was hot. At the moment of my touch, she became even more flushed and warm. She started breathing heavily. Lifting a slightly hazy gaze to me, Azula uttered, barely making a sound:
"Yes, it seems sleeping outdoors and in Earth Kingdom prisons is a little detrimental to one's health… I'm sick," the Princess reluctantly admitted, her gaze flicking away. "My legs can barely hold me up, and my body is cold… Long, hold me, or I'll fall over, and this servant will expose us."
Without waiting for me to act, the Princess, trembling slightly, raised her arms and wrapped them around me herself, pressing even closer, as if seeking warmth. Soon, I hugged her back, simply to help her stay on her feet. If the Princess wasn't lying—and she had no reason to—she felt weak and could collapse at any moment. I couldn't let that happen.
"Long… you do realize that no one must ever know about this?" Even without seeing Azula's face, I knew she had fixed a watchful, slightly narrowed gaze upon me.
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