I turned away from the window and looked back at Pakku, mechanically noting that his gaze had become just as focused, tracking my every movement. Under other circumstances, I might have been pleased by that. But I was too mentally exhausted to feel much of anything, so I merely registered the fact and moved on.
"Your people currently have three possible futures ahead of them. I've just described the first. The second… The second is to share the fate of the Southern Tribe. Perhaps you don't know this, but our soldiers captured the southerners' settlement more than once, and every time they left afterward. The belief was that if we deprived them of their waterbenders, they would eventually settle down and cease to be a problem."
I walked over to the small table beside the brazier and picked up a cup of tea that had long since gone lukewarm, giving my listeners time to absorb what I'd said while also wetting my throat with the drink, reheated in my own hands.
"We deprived them of their waterbenders. Special facilities were constructed in the homeland to hold waterbenders. Air filtration, iron bars, minimal access to water—even for drinking. But it didn't help. The Southern Water Tribe stubbornly kept provoking us, striking again and again, constantly relocating to avoid being found, and repeatedly forcing us to launch new punitive expeditions.
"As a result, what was once a great nation has been reduced to a handful of huts housing barely a dozen families. Yet even that wasn't enough to make them stop. At this very moment, somewhere in the waters of the Earth Kingdom, a pirate band led by the father of those two children who were recently here with the Avatar is preying on shipping.
"The instructive part of this story is that, in their obsession with taking revenge on the Fire Nation, these heroes left their own settlement without a single adult man. All it would take is one raider with a half-strength crew to wipe out the future of their people once and for all."
I finished the tea and returned the cup to the tray.
Only then did I notice that the candles and braziers throughout the room were burning with blue flames, pulsing in rhythm with my heartbeat. And the sensation was as though I were breathing with a dozen synchronized pairs of lungs...
"That future remains open to you as well," I said, turning away from the coals to face the waterbender again, giving no indication that the flames' change in color had occurred without any conscious effort on my part, "though I wouldn't call it particularly likely. After the Air Nomads, our attempt to deal with the Southern Tribe with minimal bloodshed proved a complete failure. I doubt many people will be eager to repeat that experiment and leave their descendants with such an 'amusement' for another hundred years. But you're welcome to try."
"And the third option?" the old man asked hoarsely. Beads of sweat had appeared on his forehead. I hadn't realized it was possible to sweat while sitting on a block of ice and being a waterbender.
"The third option is the most difficult. You will have to prove that you are worthy of becoming a full and equal part of the Fire Nation. And we will begin with the signing of an official surrender. Captain Tandao?"
"Yes, Herald," the man replied, rising instantly to his feet with three scrolls already in hand.
***
Having "prepared" the chief waterbender for cooperation, I needed to do the same with the upper ranks of the warriors, craftsmen, healers—in short, everyone who had represented the old authority and might prove useful to the new one.
Naturally, Pakku's authority was a considerable asset, but first, the old man's only contribution so far was his silent presence during the "negotiations" and his refusal to start shouting things along the lines of better to die on your feet than live on your knees, which, to any reasonably sensible individual, already spoke volumes. Second, his authority was far from universal.
The real problem, as expected, came from the military aristocracy—or rather, those members of it who had somehow survived the assault. There weren't many of them, but there were enough.
Whether fortunately or unfortunately, I couldn't say, but Chief Arnook had died a warrior's death. His daughter's "ascension" to the position of the Moon Spirit had dealt a severe blow to the man. Truth be told, he had had nothing left to lose. As a result, he spared neither his enemies nor himself in battle...
And, quite predictably, ended up taking a spear through the stomach from one of our heavy cavalrymen.
Perhaps it was for the best that he never learned there had been no "ascension" at all, and that the fish had merely reclaimed the life energy it had once lent.
In practical terms, the human Yue had died almost immediately after birth, and her place had been taken by a fragment of the Moon Spirit—an "avatar of a deity" in the original sense of the term. That fragment possessed no memory of its true nature, genuinely believed itself to be human, and, given the peculiar nature of the fish spirits, lacked the powers normally granted to a spirit medium. Nevertheless, she was not the real Yue.
Since the Moon, unlike the Ocean, is considered a benevolent spirit, I could even believe she created that avatar simply to comfort the girl's parents rather than as part of some "Grand Plan" or emergency backup. Still, things turned out the way they did.
The more knowledge one possesses, the more sorrows one finds. Wan Shi Tong had been remarkably generous in sharing certain details about the nature of spiritual existence, and as a result, I found it impossible to believe in beautiful fairy tales and comforting stories. Knowing what was actually happening behind the scenes got in the way.
(End of Chapter)
P@treon: /SadRaven
🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰