So, Operation Catch Toph was proceeding exactly according to plan. After a week and a half of trying to catch her, nobody had managed to catch the girl, which raised a number of questions in Suki's mind. Most notably: where had this "a sheltered little girl who enjoyed fighting in underground arenas" learned so many dirty tricks, and why did those tricks look suspiciously similar to my dirty tricks?
Me? I was innocent.
I'd merely shared a few examples from my adventures. Who could have expected her to be such an attentive listener? Heh.
Besides her descriptions of the ongoing game of tag with Toph, Suki passed along greetings from Ty Lee. The leader of the Kyoshi Warriors exchanged letters with the acrobat from time to time anyway, and now the circus had happened to set up near Yu Dao, giving the girls a chance to meet in person.
The daughter of the Ty family was apparently a little disappointed that Chan had gone away on a family business trip, as Suki had chosen to describe my journey, but she still hoped we'd cross paths again someday.
Honestly, that bundle of positivity continued to leave me baffled. As far as I could tell, either she genuinely hadn't understood who I really was, or she simply hadn't considered it important. Or perhaps she'd performed a masterful act of pretending not to understand.
Who knew?
Aside from that, there wasn't much of interest. Just the usual I miss you, I love you messages that somehow never stopped warming my heart, along with stories about Morishita and the Mechanist.
Speaking of the latter...
I blinked and reread the lines more carefully.
So, in broad strokes, the story went like this.
Apparently, at some point the Mechanist had sadly mentioned that his son was confined to a wheelchair. Theo had since been transported to the Capital, where Ozai's personal physician had taken over his treatment. Suki, in turn, had included an excerpt from the good doctor's latest letter.
According to the esteemed healer, he would very much like to know why, after the boy suffered a complicated fracture of both legs, not a single idiot had thought to consult even an army bonesetter to ensure the bones healed properly.
As things stood, the poor man now had to rebreak bones that had fused incorrectly, torment himself with acupuncture and massage treatments, and generally clean up a mess that never should have existed in the first place. Theo would not be back on his feet for at least six months, and running again would take a year at best.
When the Mechanist received that letter, rumor had it he spent a long time alternating between laughter and tears. Then he drank himself into a state where he started seeing talking sky bison.
For some reason, they were bright green.
After that, however, the man completely lost all restraint.
To such an extent that he seized one of the glider prototypes and locked himself inside his workshop, muttering things about "the propulsive force of a flame jet" and "how long the average firebender can sustain continuous thrust," and "whether nozzle geometry affects thrust."
I read that section three times. Was he seriously trying to build a jet engine powered by firebending? Ahem. Perhaps bringing that inventor-maniac to Yu Dao hadn't been such a brilliant idea after all. At this rate, he might accidentally invent a nuclear bomb.
After spending a respectable amount of time meditating on the letter and achieving enlightenment, I began writing my reply. My mood improved, my worries temporarily retreated into the background, and life suddenly seemed brighter.
Unfortunately, that burst of optimism would probably last a day or two at most. Maybe a little longer if I supplemented the letter with a cup of tea and a conversation with Iroh.
Then I'd inevitably return to the far less productive pastime of driving myself insane and constructing theories, each more absurd than the last.
***
And once again, an indeterminate amount of time later.
I emerged from meditation.
Without letters from the mainland and without proper company (my tea supply was nearly exhausted, and inviting Iroh over had become an increasingly expensive proposition. I was running short myself. The old man was disappointed, but he understood: friendship was friendship, but White Dragon tea was another matter entirely) the only thing left to do was bury myself in training in general, and the study of energybending in particular.
The latter turned out to be not so much difficult as tedious and monotonous.
Meditate. Perform specific kata while simultaneously manipulating Chi. Listen to your body's sensations.
Mind-numbing.
The good news was that the results were real—and surprisingly impressive. Thanks to the dragons, my chakra... I mean, chi circulation system remained remarkably flexible after their modifications.
Of course, meddling in a Master's work with my own clumsy hands wasn't exactly the wisest decision, especially when that work happened to be my own body. Still, I wasn't attempting anything truly complicated. No "awakening," no "preparing the system to accept an element," or anything of that sort.
Nothing so ambitious.
I was merely strengthening and widening my chi pathways, which, in theory, should increase the power output of my bending while also improving my resilience and providing modest enhancements to the rest of my physical abilities—strength, agility, reflexes, and so on.
A person who advanced far enough along that path could eventually shatter granite boulders with their bare hands.
I, unfortunately, still had a very long way to go before reaching that level.
But the road is mastered by the one who walks it.
What, however, had interrupted me?
Crossing to the porthole, I slid open the shutter and allowed a blast of freezing air into the cabin. The scenery outside remained unchanged. The engines were idling, and the ship was drifting.
Judging by the fact that the other vessels visible through the porthole were doing the same, the conclusion was obvious.
We had arrived.
After donning my armor and retrieving the cloak that went with it from the wardrobe, I left the cabin. I needed to head up to the bridge and learn the current situation, as well as whatever plans the admiral had in mind.
One thing, however, was already perfectly clear.
The assault on the North would begin within the week.
(End of Chapter)
🙌Bonus chapter for 300 power stones!
🔥The next bonus chapter will be for 500 power stones.