"Agreed. We'll move out as soon as we've burned the supplies. In the meantime, go check on the others," the princess ordered.
I nodded and headed off to inspect the rest of the group while the princess busied herself with thoroughly setting absolutely everything ablaze.
It was already the third caravan we'd intercepted in five days, and once again Azula had revealed an entirely new side of herself. As a fighter, she might still have been relatively inexperienced—though she was improving at a remarkable pace—but as a tactician... she was something else entirely.
I had some experience of my own, borrowed from the history of my first world, where humanity had spent century after century inventing ever more efficient ways of killing one another. In fact, I'd shamelessly stolen ideas like "night bombardments" and "harassing fire" straight from historical records.
But Azula?
She truly was either a genius or an exceptionally well-trained commander. She spotted an enemy's weaknesses almost immediately and struck them without hesitation. She had no qualms whatsoever about using terror tactics, breaking enemy morale, setting ambushes, or employing every underhanded trick imaginable.
I'd bet that if you left her here for a month, she'd bribe exactly the right people in dirt-diggers settlements and build an entire intelligence network from the ground up.
In short, she was a terrifying woman.
In the best possible sense of the word.
At first, I'd been worried about how the Kyoshi Warriors would react to fighting the Earth Kingdom, but fortunately those concerns proved unfounded.
First, Kyoshi Island hadn't even nominally been part of the Earth Kingdom since Avatar Kyoshi's time. Second, centuries of neutrality had clearly left their mark. And third, my unit had long since grown accustomed to war. Cynical as it might sound, after all the shit they'd witnessed at the hands of the Earth Kingdom's so-called pirates, they felt absolutely no qualms about fighting the kingdom's regular forces.
Ty Lee also proved her worth. She was a master infiltrator of the highest caliber, capable of strolling through an entire caravan while effortlessly taking note of who was where and what everyone was doing. So much for the cute little acrobat.
And her fighting style?
Just as I'd suspected, her strikes channeled internal energy, simply paralyzing her opponents or temporarily shutting down a bender's abilities. Even armor did absolutely nothing to stop her.
Toph also proved herself to be an absolute little monster in battle, hurling stone shrapnel in every direction and trapping entire groups of soldiers—along with their ostrich horses—in stone snares. I can't say I was particularly happy to see such a bloodthirsty streak. Whatever traces of civilization still clung to me simply refused to reconcile themselves with the sight of a twelve-year-old girl standing shoulder to shoulder with adults in the middle of a slaughter.
But if I stepped back and looked at our group as a whole... Azula had only recently turned fifteen. Suki wasn't much older. I was nineteen, already a half-gray veteran of two military campaigns.
So Toph, at twelve years old, dropping grown men by the dozen, was unusual even by this world's standards—but hardly unprecedented. Aang was about the same age. And back in the era of the Lion Turtles, kids like them had already been fighting spirits to carve out a place beneath the sun for humanity.
Once I'd finished checking everyone over and confirmed there were no wounded and no one needed medical attention—which wasn't surprising, considering we were essentially an elite unit reinforced by three and a half powerful benders going up against ordinary supply wagons with only a token escort—I joined the princess in burning the food, medicine, and equipment.
It was a shame, of course, but we couldn't carry any of it with us, which meant it had to be destroyed rather than left for the enemy. Dirty, tedious wartime routine—but unfortunately, there was no getting around it.
While we were busy destroying the caravan's supplies, the others managed to get some rest, tend to our lizards, and prepare for the journey ahead.
Omashu awaited.
***
Two days later.
As we approached Omashu, we had a thoroughly unexpected—but very welcome—encounter. In terms of sheer historical significance, it could easily have rivaled the Meeting on the Elbe...
"Azula? What are you doing here?" A young man with a burn scar across his face stepped forward from the ranks of a small but clearly formidable group of five men in Fire Nation armor.
"Zu-Zu, and that's all you have to say after so long apart? What about 'I missed you,' or something along those lines? Hello, Uncle."
Yeah... and here I'd thought she'd reserved her venom for me.
Compared to the poison dripping from her voice as she greeted the prince, the way she spoke to me was practically affectionate.
There went another assumption of mine, shattering into pieces.
"And yes, I'm just thrilled to see you too," Zuko all but spat. "Now would you mind answering my question?!"
"As polite and charming as ever," the princess continued, thoroughly enjoying herself. "But never mind. Father assigned me a few tasks in this part of the world, and to my great delight"—judging by her expression, her "delight" was anything but great—"one of them was delivering a message to you."
"A message? From Father?" the prince asked in surprise.
"Yes." Azula sighed.
"Certain people"—this time her loving gaze settled on me—"praised your talents so highly that the Fire Lord concluded you've finally begun behaving as befits a prince. I'm to inform you that you've been forgiven. Father is waiting for your return."
"Father... is waiting for me?" The young man looked as though someone had just smacked him over the head with a sack of bricks.
And that was practically a direct admission of who the prince had to thank for this.
Not that I hadn't intended to drop Zuko a hint myself—a grateful debtor like him could be remarkably useful—but why was Azula doing it? Was she angling to collect a favor from me later for helping win over our little ninja? At the same time, the whole performance would earn me a few points with Zuko as well: fellow victims of the princess's abuse, united by shared suffering.
Or was I simply overthinking things and wandering into conspiracy-theory territory? Maybe she really was just irritated that she'd been used as a glorified messenger.
(End of Chapter)
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