A cold sweat dropped to my spine when the Lord announced his decision.
"F-Fire Nation?"
"Yes, I have an agenda in the Nation that requires my presence. Therefore, I've decided that the family will accompany me for a short trip. You may think of it as a working holiday."
Wait, the Fire Nation? You mean that Fire Nation—the same one that threatened to assassinate the Lord's daughter just to back them off from involvement in the war? I get that the relations between the Beifongs and the Fire Nation as a whole have settled into something resembling peace; the Lord's business decision to export metal as a gesture of goodwill was the major factor...
But even so, to willingly step into their territory was one thing. To bring along their previous assassination target? Was he serious?
I glanced towards the Madam, who was seated beside the Lord, trying to seek some answers from her.
She winked her eye at me instead. That was not reassuring, Madam!
"Ahem." Lord Beifong noticed my distress, coughing into his fist before he elaborated. "While I am sure that bringing Toph to a new location—a foreign space nonetheless—carries a certain risk, I am confident in our security measures. Especially with the support of the Royal Family. They have given their word to expend resources for our utmost safety."
WHAT? The Royal Family?! I stared at the Lord in shock, struggling to process his words.
As if this weren't already shocking, the Lord then dropped another bombshell.
"Unfortunately, Fire Lord Azulon has passed away, which is the reason for the visit. We have been invited to the funeral and the succession of the new Fire Lord."
My body went slack.
What.
"Cool, when are we going?" Toph asked from beside me, pumping her fist excitedly at the thought of visiting a new and foreign land instead of mourning the loss of a life... To be honest, I didn't particularly care about the Fire Lord's passing either. The man had caused far more headaches for the world than relief.
But if the next Fire Lord was Ozai...
Then the timeline was moving closer to the fragments of the future that Zero had in his memories.
"Remember your manners, Toph." Lord Beifong sighed before answering her question. "As for your question, we will leave in three days. I have already instructed our servants to prepare for the week-long trip. Renji, see to it that you learn proper Fire Nation etiquette from Toph's mannerism tutor so as not to embarrass the Beifong name before the trip."
I had to snap out of my shock to bow my head. "As you wish, my Lord."
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He looked younger than I thought.
From afar, I watched as the son of Azulon, dressed in ceremonial white, received the royal artifact that symbolized the mantle of the Fire Lord. As the ceremony continued, my gaze began to wander across the surrounding area.
The Fire Nation was—unsurprisingly—hot and humid. Far hotter than Gaoling, let alone most parts of the Earth Kingdom. And the architecture was visibly different. While I wasn't an expert on such a topic, I could obviously tell that everything was built vertically. Very vertical-shaped buildings, like the pagoda before me.
As I stood beside Toph, fanning her with a paper fan to help cool her down, my eyes flickered around when they met the golden eyes of the girl dressed in white garb, similar to the newly appointed Fire Lord.
It was a familiar shade of gold, my brain noticed. If my own eyes were just a little brighter, I would have said we shared the exact same color. But gold-colored irises were rather common in the land of Fire.
I was the first to avert my gaze from the princess when Toph started to pull me to the railing of the stands as Fire Lord Ozai started his display of Fire Bending, my attention fully focused on the forms and actions that the Fire Lord performed, interested in copying and implementing the movements into my own craft.
I never noticed that her curious gaze lingered, eyes still fixed on me even as we were escorted to the palace some time later.
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Strolling down the wide hallway of the palace, I followed behind Toph, who was eagerly exploring the castle with the help of her Seismic Sense. The adults had practically left us in their dust, disappearing into a private conference room for their meeting. And just like that, we were left alone with nothing to do but kill time—
Toph suddenly stopped in place, her head tilting to the side as she stared at a seemingly ordinary pillar. I followed her gaze and noticed a subtle discrepancy in the shadow behind its surface.
"Dang, we got caught that easily?" a voice echoed from behind the pillar as someone stepped out of the shadows. "I told you to hide better, Zuko! You always get us caught!"
"It's not like I wanted to get caught," came the reply. "The pillar was too small for both of us."
I immediately leaned near Toph's ear. "The prince and princess," I quickly supplied her as she couldn't differentiate people with her Seismic Sense yet, and got to my knees. "Your royal highnesses."
Toph did the same, lowering herself to her knees and bowing with precise form instinctively.
"You." The princess—Azula from the teachings prior—pointed directly at me. "I can sense your spirit. You are a Fire Bender, are you not? Judging by your appearance, ten to twelve years old, you should be around Er[1] or San[2]Dan in skill level."
"Um… what?" I muttered, completely thrown off, as Azula lifted her chin, a smug smile playing on her lips.
"I am curious," she continued, "that such a young immigrant works for the Flying Boars. Since my father and his advisors are in a meeting with your Lord, to use the excess time we have at hand, I would like to officially request a sparring match—to test and compare the prowess of Fire Nation versus Earth Kingdom Fire Bending techniques."
Her smile shifts into a smirk as she takes a step closer to my kneeling form.
"And unofficially... This is not a request." Her voice drops, cold and sharp. "So please, follow us to our sparring chambers."
What have I gotten myself into...?
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NEXT UPDATE: 17 April, Friday
A/N: I thought today was Wednesday. SMH
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[1] Means "two" (儿)
[2] Means "three" (三)