"I see. I'll tell you everything. It started when my uncle and I noticed a pillar of light while sailing near the South Pole..."
"Hm. And why there specifically? The Avatar was an airbender, after all, and the Southerners haven't had any airbenders—or even waterbenders of their own—for nearly twenty years."
"Pure coincidence," the prince replied with another shrug and continued his story...
The royal scion was clearly leaving certain details out. For example, the circumstances that had allowed Aang to escape from the admiral and the elite Yuyan Archers were undoubtedly more interesting than he was trying to make them sound. But pressing him for admissions or trying to catch him omitting facts would have been counterproductive.
My encounter with the Ocean Spirit had shaken my confidence somewhat and forced me to revise my plans. I had experienced firsthand that people are not only mortal—they can die very suddenly.
Exiled or not, the prince had never been formally cast out of the royal family or removed from the line of succession. If anything happened to Ozai and Azula, he would become Fire Lord.
Now add my own observations and the fragments of canon knowledge rattling around in my head. The resulting picture wasn't especially appealing, but why not try to change it while I still had the chance?
Besides, having a claimant to the throne who owed you a considerable personal debt was far preferable to not having one.
The prince needed to be given something useful to do, needed to feel that he was needed... not so much by his father as by his country. Perhaps I could straighten out some of his thinking a little—or at least try to get him looking in what I considered the right direction.
After all, he was still a teenager. Somewhat bitter, a little arrogant, but not yet burdened with the proper amount of cynicism and still relatively impressionable.
There remained the question of how Iroh would feel about all this. After all, he undoubtedly possessed both greater influence over the prince and far more experience in getting inside people's heads than I did.
Still, you never know unless you try.
Besides, it would be a shame to let the prince's talents go to waste, and directing them toward something useful was a very intriguing prospect indeed.
What talents?
Heh. The guy had managed to pursue an airbender across half the world with a single raider. An airbender traveling on a flying bison that left no tracks and could ignore virtually any obstacle in its path. That's practically the equivalent of tracking down an airship from the deck of a ship. Personally, I couldn't have pulled that off.
I understand that the desire to "restore one's honor" is a powerful motivator, but no matter how strong the motivation, a pursuit like that would have been impossible without skill, talent, and a fair amount of luck.
Beyond that, the kid had actually taken my earlier advice to heart and compiled a list of potential teachers for the Avatar. Reasonably concluding that he neither knew any earthbending masters nor had any chance of guessing which one the airbender might seek out, he focused on firebenders instead. He conducted research and identified everyone with the necessary qualifications who also wouldn't try to kill Aang on sight.
Naturally, he didn't tell me exactly who was on that list, and I didn't press the matter. I understood perfectly well that there was no point poking at a person's sore spots and obsessions. He still intended to capture the Avatar, after all. But he did tell me the total number of candidates.
Four.
Just four potential "teachers" whom, according to the young man, were not easy to approach. Hell, simply finding them would have been a challenge in itself. Even so, the Avatar had options.
All in all, the exile had done respectable detective work.
Not bad for a seventeen-year-old kid.
Of course, the prince had plenty of flaws as well, chief among them his "wonderful" people skills—or rather, the complete lack thereof. Still, his style would fit a penal battalion rather nicely. The important thing would be providing him with competent bodyguards and the right assignment.
Hm… An interesting possibility. Now I just had to properly motivate all the necessary parties.
Yeah. Easier said than done.
"Thank you," I said.
The disgraced prince's account had taken the better part of two hours. By this point, Iroh had somehow managed to acquire a table, chairs, a teapot, and several pouches containing different varieties of tea. Where exactly he had gotten all of it was a mystery on par with the motivations of spirits themselves.
"And what will you do now?" Zuko asked.
"Establish a provisional administration, prepare for the transportation of prisoners, continue the proper propaganda campaign... There will be work enough for quite some time. And I could use some help."
"I'm sorry, but no." Hm. He genuinely seemed sorry, if only a little. "I still need to capture the Avatar and restore my honor!" From Iroh's direction came a heavy sigh, artfully disguised by the gurgling of tea being poured.
"A pity." I pretended to consider the matter. "Still, I think we can help one another. You need to leave the North Pole and reach the mainland, do you not? And for that, you'll need a ship and a crew—assuming you don't intend to cross an ocean that has only just recovered from weeks of storms aboard a fishing schooner."
The prince frowned. He had clearly been counting on getting a free ride, and this was an unpleasant surprise. Still, I was entirely within my rights, and he knew it perfectly well.
"And what exactly are you proposing, Herald?"
(End of Chapter)
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