I wasn't particularly concerned about being overheard. The old man was far too experienced for that. Even if the cabin somehow contained listening tubes, hidden vents, or similar tricks—which was already fairly unlikely—they had almost certainly been plugged up or melted shut. And nobody would be standing outside the door listening in… Well, nobody except a couple of men from my entourage who just happened to be taking a leisurely stroll through the corridor.
Iroh set about preparing a blend of herbs, while I watched his ritual unfold. It involved warming the cups with thin streams of fire, rinsing them with boiling water, applying fire once more, pouring out the first infusion as an offering to the spirits, and only then brewing the tea properly.
The entire process was oddly mesmerizing, inducing a calm, almost meditative state.
Eventually, the general finished. A cup of fragrant tea appeared before me, with a teapot set nearby for refills. After exchanging ceremonial bows, we each took a sip.
Neither of us seemed particularly eager to begin the conversation.
"So," the general finally broke the silence, "you didn't kill any dragons?"
"I couldn't bring myself to raise a hand against such magnificent creatures. Just as you couldn't, once upon a time. Masters Ran and Shaw send their regards." Well, I assumed they would have, had they known I was meeting with Iroh. The old man let out a good-natured chuckle.
"That's pleasant to hear. How are they?"
"I imagine they're much the same as ever. What is fifty years to them? Even less, perhaps..."
We spent the next several hours simply talking. Iroh was a genuinely interesting conversationalist—pleasant company and a man who knew a great many fascinating things.
There was one detail that bothered me, however.
His behavior and reactions whenever Zuko was mentioned simply didn't match the grief one would expect from someone who had supposedly lost a beloved nephew only recently.
There were three possible explanations. Either Iroh hadn't valued the exiled prince as highly as I remembered from canon; or Iroh was a brilliant actor—or a man with iron self-control, which honestly seemed far more likely. After all, we weren't close friends, and the general wasn't about to break down and cry on my shoulder... Or the reports of Zuko's demise had been greatly exaggerated.
That, however, raised an entirely different question.
Why would the prince pretend to be dead?
He might be exiled, but nobody had disowned him. Officially, he was still one of the possible candidates for the Fire Throne. More than that, he currently occupied the number two position in the line of succession, immediately behind Princess Azula. If he announced that an assassination attempt had been made against him, Ozai would immediately send at least a couple of platoons of guards to protect him. There would be an investigation, specialists dispatched to track down the culprits. Hell, I might even get dragged into it myself. Not out of paternal affection, obviously, but simply because the Fire Lord would have to preserve appearances.
No matter how you looked at it, Zuko stood to gain quite a bit from such a situation—a highly capable escort and at least a small opportunity to improve his relationship with his father. The only real drawback was that the escort would still belong to Ozai. Their first loyalty would be to the Fire Lord, and naturally they would keep him informed about the prince's every move.
Although...
The possibility of a golden cage couldn't be dismissed either. And if the boy needed freedom of movement, being officially dead provided exactly that.
Why would he need freedom of movement?
There was only one answer.
The Avatar.
If I remembered correctly, something along those lines happened in the cartoon as well, though personally I thought it was a foolish approach. It would be far more profitable to come to an arrangement with Zhao. Yes, the commander of the Western Fleet was an insufferable idiot, but he understood self-interest perfectly well. Ozai wouldn't live forever. And if Zuko delivered the Fire Lord the terrifying boogeyman that had been haunting Fire Nation nightmares for a century, the order of succession might suddenly become much more flexible.
Even if it didn't.
Having a reward tied to helping a prince capture the Avatar, plus a prince who owed you a tremendous debt, was strategically far more valuable than simply receiving the glory of being the man who caught the Avatar. Then again, that was how I would look at the situation. Zhao might hold very different views, and both the prince and the general could be fully aware of that fact.
All this speculation about possible developments, consequences, and political intrigue was starting to give me a headache. I understood that I'd chosen to wade into this shit myself, but understanding that didn't make it feel any less like a rotten swamp. And not one I merely needed to cross, either. If I wanted to achieve everything I'd once envisioned, I would have to settle down in that swamp and make a life there.
Damn politics.
Meanwhile, our conversation gradually drifted from idle topics to Ba Sing Se and its defenses. I carefully avoided mentioning the general's deceased son, focusing instead on the city itself and its defensive capabilities.
And those capabilities were impressive.
A wall fifty meters high and ten meters thick made the idea of smashing through it in a single blow a complete nonstarter, while dismantling it piece by piece was equally pointless.
First of all, spending any significant amount of time beneath the wall was a particularly inventive form of suicide. The earthbenders wouldn't simply stand there and watch us tear down their defenses. Even an ordinary stone dropped from a height of fifty meters could ruin someone's day. And if that stone wasn't dropped but launched by even a mediocre earthbender...
Well.
That option was out.
As for bombarding the wall with catapults and trebuchets, that wasn't much better. We simply didn't possess explosives powerful enough to destroy a section of wall in a single volley, and by the time a second one was ready, the earthbenders would likely have repaired the damage completely.
(End of Chapter)
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