Captain Lee (Another One). Western Fleet.
The young officer clapped his hands one final time and, offering a ceremonial bow, departed the shrine. Like the rest of his crew, he had been giving thanks to the Fire Spirits for sending one of their great kind to them, mere mortals, so that He might protect and preserve their lives far from home on foreign and frozen shores.
Until recently, the captain had regarded the Herald with considerable skepticism. In his eyes, the title was little more than a game played by the nobility or a gross exaggeration of the achievements of an eastern admiral's son.
Such things were familiar enough. High-ranking officials always wished to advance their children, and victories, fame, and glory were useful tools for that purpose. A young admiral's son winning one brilliant victory after another was unusual—there were only three admirals in the entire Fire Nation, after all—but hardly unprecedented. Behind every such triumph there could easily be several units left in the shadows, or nameless heroes who vanished without recognition despite being the true authors of the deed.
Yet his first meeting with the Herald had planted serious doubts in that belief.
Commander Chan had proven himself not only an exceptionally educated man, a firebender who had mastered the royal color of flame, and an outstanding warrior, but also a Dragon Slayer! Even then, he was worthy to stand alongside the heroes of old, men such as Sozin and Azulon.
But what happened afterward eclipsed all of that.
The Great Ocean Spirit worshiped by the northerners. The being Fire Nation warriors had always dismissed as nothing more than a tale told to children. The tale had turned out to be a nightmare made real. And at the very moment when the warriors had ceased believing in their own salvation, the Herald stepped forward. He challenged the lord of the waters, and... a spirit the size of a mountain recoiled in fear and retreated.
Lee himself had not been aboard the flagship, but he had seen the colossal spirit turn away from Herald's flagship, and later, officers he knew had told him what happened there.
And if Water Spirits truly existed, then surely the Fire Spirits existed as well. The Fire Nation was stronger than the Water Tribe, which meant the Fire Spirits must be stronger too! No mortal could stand against spirits, yet the Herald had done exactly that. To the captain, the conclusion was obvious.
Stopping at the threshold to the shrine—a small compartment aboard the cruiser that had once served as a secondary workshop or an interrogation room—the young officer bowed once more to the burning candles.
New stories about the Fire Herald already awaited those willing to hear them.
***
A little later. Chan.
If I'd thought besieging a city was difficult, I had been wrong. Besieging a city was perhaps the easiest part of expansion. Sorting through the avalanche of reports that had started pouring in scarcely five minutes after the final volley... that was a feat worthy of a capital F.
Naturally, I would have died trying to make sense of it all on my own, even the staff I'd appropriated from Zhao—reinforced and discreetly supervised by the military officials my father had assigned to me—didn't make the task much easier. A substantial portion of the decisions required my personal involvement, or at the very least my direct oversight. After all, given a sufficient level of confusion, even the simplest order could be carried out in a way that would make the person who issued it physically ill.
For example, the order to "establish temporary quarters for soldiers within the city" had nearly turned into looting and riots. During the "sorting of prisoners," several attractive native women had been passed around by the troops. And my order that medical aid was to be provided to all wounded—and that the waterbender healers were to be involved in that effort—had to be repeated by me personally THREE TIMES, because the first time around people assumed I was joking.
There was nothing for it. I'd already expressed my opinion on attitudes toward prisoners in this world. Punishments and reprisals were unavoidable, up to and including flogging men to death and hanging them from posts as a warning to the rest.
At the same time, I couldn't be excessively harsh toward the soldiers.
For one thing, I had only two and a half thousand warriors who were completely loyal to me, while the "inheritance" left behind by the admiral amounted to roughly ten times that number.
And, truth be told, I could understand the men. A month at sea in an exclusively masculine environment, followed by an assault, then the Avatar, and after that a colossal eldritch horror.
If I'd started going gray and my nerves were fraying despite my knowledge of the canon—even if it was vague—and everything I'd experienced before, then what could be expected of ordinary soldiers who had never dealt with anything supernatural in their lives?
They needed an outlet. There was a reason conquered cities had so often been handed over to the army for several days of plunder, both in my world's history and in the history of this one.
The problem was that such an approach was completely unacceptable here.
So I had to improvise, introduce restrictions, and keep everything under control. Some of it came from plans I'd prepared in advance. During the voyage I'd had plenty of time to think through a great many possibilities. Reality, however, had naturally made extensive revisions to those plans. I had to adapt.
And all of that was before even considering the problem of the locals themselves—both the population and the spoils.
In short, it didn't take long for me to realize that if this many headaches had surfaced in just three hours, there would be far more to come. IWhat I needed were not merely subordinates, but competent and proactive assistants. And it would be even better if some of the natives helped us manage the place.
Having arrived at that conclusion, I convened a war council and invited not only my staff officers, but also Iroh and Zuko, along with someone from the local ruling class—to sit in, listen, and await a decision.
(End of Chapter)
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