"We didn't kidnap him!" Shomei exploded. "We found him in the square during the chaos at the city gates!"
"...You seriously expect me to believe that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Found him? That sounded so painfully pathetic and contrived that…
Then I remembered that, judging by Zuko's stories alone, Aang had a habit of stumbling into situations far more ridiculous than this.
No...
Oh, you've got to be kidding me.
They couldn't actually be telling the truth... could they?
"We're not lying!" another man from the delegation cut in. "I picked him up off the ground myself while the terrified crowd was fleeing the gates after your Herald scared them half to death! If it hadn't been for us, the boy would've been trampled to death. As for how he ended up there in the first place, maybe you should ask your own guards and the palace nursemaids."
Ohhh, fuuuck...
That changed everything. It was one thing if we were springing an ambush on dishonorable terrorists who hadn't hesitated to take a child hostage. It was something else entirely if we were about to gun down legitimate envoys of the enemy's regular army during peace negotiations.
War has always been governed by certain traditions and principles—unwritten rules forged over centuries, rules that must be observed. Ignore them, and you're guaranteed to create a great many problems for yourself. After all, no matter how bitter the hatred between two warring sides, enemies can always find something worth discussing.
You can try to retrieve your wounded under enemy fire, risking the lives of your own men—or you can agree to a temporary truce and evacuate them safely, while allowing your opponent to do the same. You can exchange or ransom prisoners of war, giving your opponent a reason not to abuse the soldiers who fall into his hands. You can negotiate the evacuation of women, children, and the elderly from a besieged fortress, sparing civilians from unnecessary suffering. And finally, you can offer an honorable surrender, allowing the defenders to march out with their weapons and banners. That spares you from having to storm strong fortifications against men who have nothing left to lose.
There's a great deal that can be done—but only if you're honorable and predictable.
But if you decide that murdering an envoy is acceptable, that's the end of it. No one will negotiate with you anymore.
They'll simply start exterminating you.
Excuses that it was the work of one bastard while everyone else was innocent lambs won't matter. Not in war. A dishonorable act doesn't stain only the commander responsible—it stains the entire nation. The enemy will come to see all of your soldiers as no better than beasts, and no one should expect mercy.
Our relationship with the Earth Kingdom is... complicated. There have been plenty of ugly moments on both sides. Pirates, for example—everyone knows they're protected by the dirt-diggers' authorities—can be butchered however and wherever you please without giving a second thought to honor. But regular troops are a different matter.
Pirates are irregulars. Criminals. They aren't part of the Earth Kingdom's military.
Professional soldiers are.
This war had been raging for a hundred years. Both sides had learned enough hard lessons by now to stay within certain boundaries. If memory served and our records weren't mistaken, Iroh himself had allowed besieged garrisons to march out honorably at least three times rather than waste his own men's lives in costly assaults.
And yes, we were winning.
But the occupied territories were filled with local civilians, and the last thing anyone wanted was another wave of uprisings—especially with the final assault on Ba Sing Se drawing closer.
In short, I hadn't poured so much effort into the Kyoshi Warriors operation just to throw everything away with one idiotic decision.
Damn it…!
Of course, on the one hand, these people were technically holding a child "hostage" and using him to blackmail us into accepting their demands, which gave the Fire Nation every right to gut them without the slightest mercy.
On the other hand… they hadn't kidnapped the child. If anything, they'd saved him. And now they were acting as legitimate envoys, attempting to negotiate the evacuation of their partisan forces and the civilians who refused to remain under Fire Nation rule.
Damn it!
That little brat… Couldn't the Avatar have simply shown up to trade for his friend and admitted they'd kidnapped the kid while he was at it?
It would've made everything so much simpler!
"All right," I said reluctantly once the storm in my head had finally subsided. "Let's say I believe you. Even so, your demands are completely unreasonable. If I agreed to that, the Herald would cremate me alive before anyone else. Since when does anyone supply an enemy army with provisions for an entire month of campaigning?"
"Fine. What are you offering?" Shomei frowned, though he relaxed a little once he realized we'd moved past the accusations.
"A handful of rice per person per day, one-third of a meat ration, and one serving of vegetables!" I opened with the absolute minimum.
"That's unacceptable!" My counterpart's beard practically bristled with indignation. "You're trying to starve us to death!"
"You're earthbenders. You can supplement your rations on the road by digging game out of their burrows or whatever!"
"We're warriors, not country shepherds! We'll be protecting the caravan, not running around chasing rabbits!"
"A true warrior provides for himself instead of begging the enemy for handouts!" I shot back without missing a beat…
***
Some Time Later...
Damn that Avatar!
Where the hell are you, you bald little bastard?!
How much longer are you planning to wait?!
The middle of a heated negotiation is the perfect time for a surprise attack! I've handed you everything on a silver platter. I "got distracted" myself, distracted the dirt-scratchers... Tch. Dirt-diggers! The soldiers making up the visible cordon are dutifully standing around like slack-jawed orangutans, your beloved "Sokka" is sitting inside the covered market where nobody's even looking. All you have to do is come in from the rear and quietly snatch him!
What in the name of one stinking possum are you waiting for?!
My tongue's already sore, and these stubborn idiots are giving me a migraine!
(End of Chapter)
P@treon: /SadRaven
🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰