The Fire Princess [Avatar : TLA] [OC]

[Azura]

Chapter 10

About a week after my little walk around the city was so rudely interrupted I had finally managed to get caught up on the paperwork describing the situation in Danyuan.

I finally had a decent grasp on who had the most influence and power in the city along with notable figures in the community. It had taken some time to get that second part down, but it was finally time to start putting some pressure on the rebels.

My infiltrators had tracked the teen that confronted me to his house. Unfortunately, despite waiting a week there had been no suspicious activity from him since that day. No sneaking out to gatherings undercutting the Fire Nation presence, no spreading rebel propaganda, no plans to attack my soldiers. Instead he had simply worked at his family's shop. There had been no sign of the other man that moved him away though.

That was fine. I would either draw him out if he was working against me or forget about him entirely. There was going to be a gathering for me to formally introduce myself to the city, a nice ceremony telling them how honored they should be to host a Royal princess and an outline of my plan for the city.

That my ideas would likely give Father a heart attack was only a bonus in my eyes.

I still had some time before my speech was about to begin so I decided to wander around and bother Chi Song. The mayor's daughter was still kinda stiff around me, but she was much better than the unquestioning attitudes of most of the soldiers I dealt with. It helped that she wore her emotions on her sleeve as well.

It was also pretty cute how hard she tried to hide spying on me. It reminded me of Azula and her friends trying to sneak into my firebending practice without being caught failing to realise hiding behind the decorative plants only worked if you didn't push the leaves aside for a better view.

Maybe after today I would mention it, or not, I wasn't entirely sure who she was spying for but it was always useful to feed people misinformation while being completely honest. As far as she knew I was going to be simply announcing my presence to the city.

Spotting her walking down the hallway I increased my stride to come up behind her. Peeking over her shoulder I saw she was absorbed in some kind of invitation for later today.

"Good afternoon Chi Song, anything interesting going on?"

There were multiple ways people reacted when suddenly startled. Most people either stiffened up or jerked into motion. Chi Song didn't do either of those. She was either the rare instance of a person whose natural response to the unexpected was to fight it, or she had been trained that way.

Which was why I kept sneaking up on her. I hoped she would throw a punch blindly so I could tell either way, but once again she recognised me enough to only shriek in surprise and jump away.

"Great jumping badger moles, do you have to keep doing that!" She exclaimed clutching her chest and taking deep breaths. "And how do you keep sneaking up on me? The maids can't even do that anymore thanks to you."

"Yes, I'm doing well. Getting ready for later, big speech to give and all that." I replied airily, ignoring her. "Are you going to be sitting with your father?"

Chi Song glared at me. Once she had figured out I wasn't going to make a big deal out of pomp and ceremony in private she was quick to abandon the polite facade practically every noble or official used.

"Hello Princess," She said eventually with a sigh, the angry glare shifting to an exasperated one. "I...don't know. I had planned to since it was, you know, expected. But I got an invitation from a few friends to meet with them instead." She waved the paper in her hand.

"Trying to decide if you should accept?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Well I say do it. I could use more opinions on what the public thinks. You can tell me what people are really thinking instead of what they want me to hear. Besides you've spent most of the week guiding me around, I'm sure you want to see them as well."

"You aren't wrong." She mumbled. "I guess I'll let dad know I'll watch the speech with my friends. I'll try to keep them from doing something stupid too."

I couldn't hear that last part but nodded at her decision. I had to start getting ready if I was going to give the maids enough time to finish on time.

Chi Song followed after me. We talked for a bit, not about anything serious, but it was pleasant to just speak to someone without needing to consider a larger goal for a bit.

When we reached my chambers I invited her inside to continue our conversation as a swarm of maids descended on me making sure my hair and makeup were done perfectly.

"So you never gave me an answer." Chi Song said eventually.

"Hmm?" I made a polite inquisitive sound. I was currently having my hair brushed out and was feeling very relaxed.

"About how you keep sneaking up on me. Is there some super secret spy training you went through or something."

I couldn't help but giggle a bit at the ridiculous theory.

"Hey it was just a guess!" Chi Song blushed heavily.

"Sorry, sorry." I placated, still chuckling. "I almost wish it was something that interesting. It's a combination of firebender training and etiquette classes from when I attended the Royal Academy for Girls."

Chi Song furrowed her brow at my answer. "The firebending thing I kinda get, the soldiers and guards seem to move a bit smoother than normal people. But how does etiquette class work into that?"

My smile fled from my face as I had a miniature flashback to those nightmarish lessons.

"We used to have to wear bells all over our body and perform a tea ceremony without ringing one." I said with a dead tone. "If you did, you had to start all over."

I shuttered just a little at the memory.

Chi Song looked surprised that that was the reason for my dread while the maids seemed professionally intrigued. I hope they didn't try and replicate that here.

"...that doesn't sound so bad?" she tried.

I shuddered again.

"Maybe not, but years of being told 'Head up! Back Straight! Move faster, ladies! Was that a bell? Start over!' I think I gained a bit of a trauma." I said with a wry smile and a passable imitation of my old teacher.

"Sounds rough." Was her final thought on the matter.

Soon after the maids finished up my hair and makeup and it was time to head to the courtyard for my address.

The meeting had already started. The mayor was going over some less serious issues while I was getting ready. Tax rates for the near future, festival preparations for some holiday local to the city, news that he felt needed to be shared. Nothing I needed to directly have my hand in, so I stayed out of it.

When I felt he had reached a good stopping point for now I had one of the guards give a prearranged signal to begin my introduction and started walking to the high backed chair prepared for me.

"...reatest honor to present her royal highness, Princess Azura of the Fire Nation." The mayor ended seriously.

Oh, I blocked out his whole speech. Oops.

Best not let them know that.

I reclined a little in my chair and looked out over the people gathered. Most of them seemed unsurprised if wary of my presence, no doubt having their own ears in the mayor's office, some seemed hostile, mainly the older citizens, and the rest seemed shocked a princess would be here.

"Good afternoon, citizens of Danyaun. As I'm sure many of you are aware, there have been some very disturbing reports about this city that have made their way to the Capital."

There was the indignation I was expecting.

"Assaulting loyal soldiers, stealing from merchants, inciting unrest, and even a small rebellion that needed to be put down before it destroyed the city."

Spines straightened, eyes hardened, and tempers started to flare. No one would say anything though. It would be unwise to speak up against a homeland noble, let alone a princess.

"It is clear that the city will need a firmer hand in the future to ensure these miserable events do not continue. I will be announcing several new edicts on changes that will be made to guarantee the insurgents are dealt with more harshly than the lenient measures your mayor had put in place since they seem to be determined to take advantage of his restraint."

I shifted so I was more comfortable and rested my chin on a fist.

"Of course many of these will require a heavier military presence than in the past. And since this city has been so welcoming to loyal soldiers of the fire nation, I'm not inclined to assign any more soldiers to this disgrace of a city." Mostly because I couldn't. "So I am hereby announcing the creation of the Danyuan port guard under the command of the 201st recon fleet. There will be five hundred spaces open for locals to apply. If the numbers aren't met after two weeks then we will regretfully need to create a draft to ensure that there are enough guards to keep the peace of the city."

I stood from my spot and took one final look around at the group. Mixed expressions all around. Well I guess this was a shock to most of them so it will take some time for the full weight of what was about to happen to sink in.

"As for those of you who are here acting as informants for the insurgents," I randomly glanced at a few people. "Please do let the leaders know their days are numbered and the fire nation will not allow them to ruin the lives of the citizens here for their own purposes.

With that in mind, have a good day."

With one last dismissive wave at the mayor, I turned and walked out of the courtyard.

The mayor hesitated for a second before trying to move on to another topic. He lasted all of fifteen seconds once I was out of sight before the assembled people erupted in a cacophony of shouts.

"Aaahah, so noisy."

"You did just kick the anthill over on them." A voice behind me pointed out.

I turned to see Chi Song and another teen being escorted by a pair of guards.

"Chi Song! Did you like the show?" I said with a smile, waving the guards back a bit so we could talk in peace.

"You threaten the entire city and say you are going to force people into your army and you call it a show?" the boy next to her growled.

I shrugged.

"At a certain point all politics is just a big show. So Chi Song who's your friend?"

"Ah! This is Zhu Wuneng. He's the son of a merchant that works with Dad a lot." She said before scowling. "Don't change the subject. What are you doing throwing everything into chaos like this?"

"I'm not though." I said reasonably. "The leaders behind our little insurgent movement have had months to set themselves up in a way that seems friendly to the public. Bringing in more outsiders just sets up an 'us vs them' mentality. I want to have the city get rid of the troublemakers themselves."

"And then all the good little soldiers you gained get thrown into the war, huh?" Zhu Wuneng said sarcastically. "You think anyone is going to do what you want when they are just going to be sent away from their families?"

"Of course they wouldn't. That's why I made sure it was a port guard and not a militia. Port guards stay in the city they are assigned no matter what unless they specifically request a transfer." I waved dismissively.

"Wait, really? That's a thing?" both of them seemed confused.

"Yep!" I said happily. "It's one of the things that gets overlooked a lot because most colonies don't have large amounts of recruits locally so they all get sent to training camps. I'm just making sure the reinforcements are people from the city."

A maid entered and bowed before reminding me I had a meeting with the garrison commander in a few minutes.

I let out another sigh. Some days just seemed to drag on forever.

"Well I'm still busy, but if you want to talk more let me know. Dealing with stuck up adults has a way of wearing on you."

Chi Song seemed open to the idea at least. Zhu Wuneng was just trying to appear respectful while still glaring at me.

Probably still mad about the speech, but I think I dangled enough hints to make him interested. If he came by again I would see what I might be able to use him for.

We said our farewells and I headed off to my next appointment.

 

[Azura]

Chapter 11

"So how was the split?"

"Three quarters from the south, the rest from the north. From those we have about a dozen infiltrators that we identified. Should we arrest them, princess?"

I set aside the parchments with the relevant figures breaking down the details on my new force and tap my chin with a finger.

This first group was an experiment. I did want my own force and they definitely fulfilled that role, but I was using the recruits to map out how information spread throughout Danyuan. Chi Song and her friend were the only people I had told about the port guard aspect, yet there had been mentions of it throughout the city and the recruits.

One of them obviously spread the information and encouraged people to sign up with the guard to help secure the city. My guess was on Chi Song. Zhu Wuneng might be part of her group, but it was obvious he was less trusting of the Fire Nation in general. It also meant whichever group she was feeding information to was situated in the southern half of the city.

Interestingly, the informants I had hired throughout the city reported that while many groups in the south had learned about the specifics of the port guard and happily joined up, most of the northern sections had actually gotten slightly more antagonistic. Practically everyone in my retinue believed that there was either a split in the insurgent groups or there had always been two groups working for similar goals.

Still what to do about the infiltrators?

I turned to face Sha Wujing. "Leave them for now. When they complete basic training have them assigned to groups with our more veteran soldiers. Make sure they can be discrete about watching who each one talks to."

If we were lucky we could either flip the infiltrators into working for me or find out where they sent information.

"As you command." Sha Wujing replied seriously.

"Hmm, now then let's move to more pleasant topics." I shifted to lounge in my chair. "How are the recruits doing overall?"

"Well they aren't the worst group I've worked with." Sha Wujing replied. "Most of them wouldn't know the sharp end of a spear if you smacked them with it, but they are coming around. We should be able to start sending them out into the city in another few days at this rate."

Ah yes, the other reason I wanted locals in my forces.

While I'm sure some of the more rebellious ones would use the opportunity to overlook crimes that took place to make the Fire Nation look bad, most of the recruits wanted to serve their city.

It would also hopefully cut down on the amount of sabotage and attacks by the citizens as well. Attacking soldiers from far away holding your city on the orders of a distant ruler was easy. Attacking Han from three houses down for doing his job was much harder.

"Good work. Make sure to keep the parols mixed. I don't want anyone to have a reason to single out groups."

"Of course princess. We know what to do."

"Yeah, some of us have been doing this since you were running around in diapers. We know how to handle greenhorns." Captain Mako announced his presence from the doorway. "Anyways, patrols just got back. Got some small boats hanging around an inlet up north a bit. Might be worth checking in on when you get a chance from your fancy plans."

"What is it about old soldiers and no respect?" I mused to no one in particular.

"Probably 'cause we seen it all, so we don't see a reason to bow and scrape is all." the captain replied.

I shot him a mild glare. "Well if you're so enlightened I have some other reports I could have you look over."

Captain Mako waved his hands in surrender. "My apologies your highness, no need to be cruel about it." He smirked. "I know when to respect my superiors."

"As you should." I faked a haughty sniff. Then I stood up from the chair I spent the last couple hours in and started walking out of the room. "Let me know if there are any issues with the training group."

"Yes Princess!" the two men said before moving to a discussion about what the patrols found.

I was content to leave them to it. Injecting myself into every level of running a garrison was not something I was interested in doing and both of them were actually very competent at their jobs surprisingly enough. Captain Mako simply didn't let anyone know he was as good as he was because he didn't want more responsibilities and Commander Sha Wujing was merely bad against subtle opponents.

Besides, I had another task to complete now.

Wandering back to the house I had one of the maids direct me to Chi Song.

I had been content to allow her little spy game to go unremarked on while I was setting up the basics, mostly because that was done in closed door meetings where she would have no chance of sneaking in on, but now that I was moving to the next phase she would need to be checked on.

If she agreed to work for me I could overlook quite a bit of her activities. If not, then I might need to replace the mayor and his family as the head of the city. A large part of me hoped Chi Song would be reasonable. Finding someone capable of running a city at a moment's notice was far more difficult than you would think.

I was led to one of the smaller gardens to find Chi Song reading through a bunch of scrolls. A quick look over her shoulder showed it was an old law summary.

She was investigating old Fire Nation laws? Interesting.

"Looking for something specific?" I asked from slightly behind her.

Based on the shriek and flung scroll, Chi Song apparently hadn't heard me walk in.

"Spirits! Would it kill you to make a little noise when you walk?!" she shrieked.

"Depends where I am." I replied glibly.

Chi Song scowled at that. "Can I help you with something or were you just trying to give me a heart attack?"

I picked up a few of the scroll covers and examined them. Bending restrictions, citizen requirements, forbidden actions, and a few others revolving around bending law. Why was she looking into this? Checking to see what firebenders were allowed to do perhaps? It seemed she was even looking as far back as the beginning of the war for some things.

I pushed those thoughts aside for the moment.

"I actually do have another reason to talk to you." I said much more seriously. "About the little activities you've been failing to hide from me."

Chi Song paled a bit.

"I don't know what you mean?" She tried.

"I think you do." I countered. "And wasting time debating it isn't something I have time for."

I started to pace around the garden.

"I could ignore it while I was getting things settled, lots to do as I'm sure you noticed, but now you're a loose end that I need to decide what to do with."

Chi Song clenched her jaw a bit and stood more defensively. "It's not exactly illegal."

Fair enough. Spying was more of an unofficial sport to nobles. If she was a commoner it would be a very different story. It certainly didn't mean I would turn a blind eye to it if it was going to cause me issues.

"No, but when you're the princess of a nation you'll find laws are quite a bit more flexible than people think."

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say because now she was getting angry on top of her defensive attitude.

"Is that how it's going to go?" Chi Song spat. "As long as it is convenient for you, you ignore it, but the second it goes past that you throw people away for something they can't control."

Now I was confused. Something she couldn't control? I was starting to get the sense we were talking about two very different things. But if she wasn't talking about spying on me what could-

"I thought you were different than other Fire Nation nobles but you are the exact same as your father!"

Tongues of fire erupted from my nostrils and swirled around my fists as all thoughts were blanked out by the white hot anger those words caused.

Me? Like that murderous bastard in any way?

"You. Dare." I hissed.

"Of course I dare! It's the truth isn't it?!" Chi Song spat back.

Before I thought about it a raging fireball was flying towards her even as it felt like ice water was dumped on my head.

Very rarely had I ever struck out randomly with my firebending. Out of all those times, it was either at an object or another firebender, never at a normal person. Which is why when a thin stone wall appeared between Chi Song and the fire ball I was equally relieved and shocked.

"You're an Earthbender?!"

"Like you didn't know!"

"How would I know that?! And you're from the home islands! How are you an Earthbender?!"

Our confrontation might have been pretty short, but sudden violence and shouting in the middle of the mayor's manor was an excellent way to draw the attention of everyone in hearing distance. In this case it meant Chi Song's friend Zhu Wuneng, along with a pair of guards, burst through the doors to the garden and saw the two of us facing off. The embers of my attack and the earthen wall painted a clear picture about what happened.

"Earthbender!" One of the guards shouted, "Get he- urk!"

Zhu Wuneng quickly stomped the ground causing two chunks of earth to rise from the ground and with a single movement sent them both into the unprotected sides of the guards. Both of them crashed into the doorframe and were knocked unconscious.

"Chi Song, we need to escape!" He shouted and punched another rock at me.

"We can't! What about my mom and dad?" Chi Song called back.

Zhu Wuneng had a look of intense concentration on his face even as he continued attacking me. "Then we kidnap the princess. The guards didn't see your face so we might be able to say it was someone else." Another rock passed by me and I retaliated by dancing around it and sending a blast of flames towards the top of the door he came through.

The explosion pushed him further into the gardens so he skidded not far away from Chi Song, who ran out to help him up while attacking me at the same time.

"Going to kidnap me now, are you?" I said mildly as I dodged her attacks and rushed them both. A burst of fire accelerated me so I was in front of them in an instant. I kicked Zhu Wuneng's leg out from under him, driving an elbow into his stomach and following up with a palm strike to the chin, and he was out like a light. Swaying to my left, I felt a slight breeze as Chi Song's own attack missed by inches, I grabbed the outstretched arm and roughly pulled her forward.

Off balance and probably panicking a bit, Chi Song only let out a yelp of pain when I seized her by the back of her neck and forced her facedown to the ground. A very weak puff of fire right in front of her face was enough to discourage any sudden moves.

"Now then, I have several questions about what just happened here," a chill entered my voice. "And you are going to follow along with what I say, or I am going to throw you, your friend there, and your parents into the darkest hole I can until this mess is sorted out. Understand?"

She nodded rapidly.

"Good. Sit up and say nothing."

She did and I began acting like I was checking her over as two more guards burst through the other door to the garden.

"Princess, we heard the noise! What should we do?" one of them asked.

"There was an earthbender that came through that door." I said, pointing at the pile of rubble that used to be an archway. "Take the guards and sweep the compound for him. Also I'm taking Chi Song and her friend to a secure room. They were caught up in the fight with the earthbender and I want to make sure no harm came to them."

With a loud salute the guards split up to follow my orders. One going to gather more people, and the other checking on the three unconscious people in the room.

 

[Azura]

Chapter 12

The two guards were taken to see a doctor while I had Chi Song and Zhu Wuneng taken to a more private location.

To ensure that they both cooperated through the meeting, I had wooden handcuffs on both of them and made sure there was no earth anywhere accessible.

"Now that we are all comfortable," I started off, sinking into a chair across from the glaring Chi Song and the now conscious Zhu Wuneng. "I want to know exactly how an Earthbender managed to pass herself off as the daughter of a Fire Nation noble. A cover? Replacement? Or are you just adopted?"

"How dare you!" Chi Song bit out. "They are my real parents."

"I don't see how." I casually replied. "Nobility has their background checked before they take up stations in the colonies specifically to ensure there is no conflict of interest to their post. I will have to have someone check the records, but if either one of them came from the Earth Kingdom there is no chance they would have been sent here."
"So once again, how can an Earthbender pass herself off as their daughter?"

The glare Chi Song gave me never changed in its intensity, "Well when a mommy Earthbender or a daddy Earthbender love eachother very much…"

I snorted.

"Cute, but please take this seriously."

"Just tell her, Song. It's not like she's gonna care." Zhu Wuneng said bitterly.

"You're right. I probably won't care why a pair of insurgents and traitors have been working to overthrow the order of an entire city."

"We aren't traitors!" Chi Song yelled. "My father has been working for years to make sure the people in the city aren't just second class citizens to the jerks in the main islands. I would never throw that away!"

I regarded her carefully. "You are actually his daughter…" She nodded. "How?"

"My great-great-grandfather moved to the Fire Nation from the Earth Kingdom." Chi Song admitted. "No one else in my family had the talent for earthbending...until me."

That was probably not true, I realised. Bending ran pretty true in most families and while it was common that the ability skipped a generation occasionally, it was more likely the rest of her family simply never realised they could earthbend.

It also made sense that her heritage slipped through the cracks. No one really paid close attention to those things until the start of the war, or so I was told. Digging through mounds of family records to determine a person's heritage wasn't something I would ever do.

"...so why did you attack me?" My thoughts were all over the place now, but I was curious.

"...I thought you knew I was an earthbender." Chi Song said in a small voice, shoulders hunching inward.

"Why would I know that?"

Her head slumped down. "Fine, you want me to say it? I figured you recognized me from the attack on your carriage."

"..."

"..."

Both Zhu Wuneng and I just stared at her until she started to fidget under our gaze.

"I...I don't know what to say to that." Zhu Wuneng whined.

I kneaded the bridge of my nose. "So you thought I was going to call you put for being an earthbender because of an attack, that lasted for less than a minute, over two weeks ago because why again?"

"Well what else could it have been?" Chi Song said defensively.

"How about the fact you were spying on me and weren't exactly subtle about it?"

Zhu Wuneng groaned and Chi Song was practically glowing with how hard she was blushing.

"I...well...that was…" She stuttered.

"Enough." I waved a hand. "If you aren't trying to cause a revolt against the Fire Nation why would you attack me in the first place?"

"I told you, it's because I thought you knew I was-"

"No, not just now. At the carriage." I clarified. "What would attacking me and your father accomplish?"

Chi Song muttered something under her breath but I couldn't hear her.

"What was that?"

"She said, 'we thought it was another useless Noble trying to get rich' besides we didn't know her dad was there. He never goes personally if he can help it." Zhu Wuneng said.

I raised an eyebrow. "'We', huh?"

He stiffened momentarily before relaxing again.

"Well it's obvious I would be involved by now, right? Might as well come clean."

Not throwing his friend under the cart now that they were exposed? If nothing else Zhu Wuneng was loyal. I could respect that.

"So what now?"

What now indeed. I had gotten the answers I was after. Now I had to deal with the fact the both of them had not only attacked me, but also planned to kidnap me no matter how unsuccessful they were.

If they were anyone else I would just throw the pair of them in jail and be done with it. But one was the daughter of the mayor and the other was the son of a very influential merchant. While neither one would really be able to cause me issues per say, it would still cause distractions I didn't need at the moment.

I blinked as an idea popped into my head. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it would make sure I could keep an eye on them both.

"Well, there is no denying that I hold both your and your family's future in my hand at the moment." I started ominously. Both of them went pale and started sweating when they saw the smile on my face.

"So this is what you are going to do…"

-o-​

"Are you really going to do this, princess?" Sha Wujing pleaded with a tired air around him.

Captain Mako, who was standing besides him, just laughed and clapped Sha Wujing on the back. "Ha, ha, ha! C'mon boy, lighten up! This will be good for the harmony between the colonies and the homeland."

Sha Wujing rocked on his feet under the force of the Captain's pat and just shot the older man a glare.

"You don't care because you don't need to deal with the mess this is going to cause, old man." he accused.

"Got that right!"

"Alright, enough you two." I decided to cut in. "Sha Wujing, you will be in charge of securing those that attend the meeting Zhu Wuneng called. Remember, no excessive force. If they only follow us because they are under threat they will be useless for my plans.

Captain Mako, any update on the situation up north?"

"Yeah. We confirmed a couple Water Tribe looking ships making runs every once in a while." Captain Mako said while scratching the side of his head. "No idea how many of them there are or where they head off to just yet, but we know where they call home."

I nodded.

"In that case start prepping your men for an assault. Once Commander Sha finishes his end we will strike both the port and the base in the city at the same time. Spirits willing, we should be able to round up all the leaders of this little insurrection in no time."

""Yes, Your Highness."" Both of them saluted and left to complete their tasks.

Now alone, I picked up a cup of tea and enjoyed the warm feeling spreading throughout my palms.

With a little luck all the problems plaguing Danyuan will be solved in a week or two. Then I could start focusing on spreading my influence to the neighboring ports. It would be the foundation for all my plans to come.

Just wait, Father. Soon the war will be the least of your worries.

--------------------------------------

AN: Short chapter this time. For some reason my brain just refused to think of anything to fit in this chapter.
And yes; surprising probably nobody, Chi Song is outed as the attacker from that first ambush.
Anyways, Azura is done building up her local forces. Time to take the fight to the insurgents!

 

[Azura]

Chapter 13

It was still early in the morning as one hooded person made one last sweep over the bustling street in front of him.

Like many trading cities, the streets of Danyuan were busy from the moment the sun peeked over the horizon and they rarely calmed down until it set. The shuffling crowds made it a near requirement to move to a destination quickly or get swept along by the swarm of people.

It also allowed for people to discreetly slip away into side alleys so they could gather in nondescript buildings without being noticed.

Seeing no obvious signs of being followed or any observers, the hooded figure slipped through a door and pulled it closed behind him.

"We weren't followed, and no sign of Fire Nation guards outside the normal patrol." the figure whispered to a comrade already inside the building.

"It's nearly 10. Everyone who could make it has gathered inside."

Inside, a group of around twenty people were talking to each other. Every once in a while they would glance to the side at a rough stage, waiting for someone to begin. In the distance, great bronze bells could be heard announcing the change of the hour.

As soon as the ringing faded to nothing, two figures stepped out from the gathered crowd. Even dressed in lower quality clothes to fit in with the rest of the people Chi Song and Zhu Wuneng were easily identifiable.

The muted conversations that filled the room died off as the two of them made their way to the stage.

"So this is all that could make it?" Zhu Wuneng mused.

"Tch, that or the rest decided to join up with that group from the Water Tribe." Chi Song said.

Both of them tried not to think about what that meant and decided to get things started as the crowd started to get a little restless.

"Hello everyone!" Zhu Wuneng greeted the crowd, "Thanks for coming here, I…"

"Save the speeches for selling things, kid." a middle-aged man near the front. "You called us here for a reason. Get on with it."

Eye twitching in irritation, Zhu Wuneng did his best to ignore the interruption. "Right… well, everyone knows how the Fire Nation Princess has been recruiting?"

"You mean tricking nearly the whole city into giving her a loyal guard force? As expected from one of those nobles."

"Still she seems alright so far."

"We'll see."

More conversations broke out among the crowd. When people realised that the port guard would be trained locally and not sent to a training camp there were a mix of reactions from the citizens. Most were happy that their friends and family were not being sent away to join a war no one who hadn't joined the army by now had wanted to be a part of. That those same people would be trained to make sure the city was protected had earned Azura a lot of good will.

Even if most of the Fire Nation soldiers were decent people, they were still considered outsiders by the people in the city. That was why Zhu Wuneng and Chi Song had joined with a resistance group even though they both lived in the higher society of Danyuan, they didn't want strangers ruining things for their city.

"Alright people, we get it," Chi Song called out, trying to stop things from running off on a tangent. "The princess isn't the greedy noble sort we expected. That's nice. But we have a problem."

She took a deep breath because she knew this was going to cause a panic.

"Azura knows me and Zhu Wuneng are Earthbenders."

"She was also the one who made me call this meeting." Zhu Wuneng added in, figuring it was best just to get everything out in the open.

There was dead silence as the crowd absorbed those two statements.

Then there was pandemonium as everyone began to shout over themselves, demanding an explanation for what was going on.

The two on the stage tried to calm things down to explain but no one was listening to them. More demands, questions, and angry words were hurled at them without the chance to address a single one.

It might have continued to escalate until a white haired old man raised a foot and slammed it into the ground, causing not only the group to quiet in favor of staying on their feet but also set the entire building shaking.

"Now then," the old man said gently. "If we are done acting like children, why don't we let those two explain why they called a meeting with every Earthbender in the city they could."

"Master Dan! You can't…!" one of the angrier members of the crowd started before being silenced by a glare.

"It's been a while since I taught you Molin, but I would have hoped you would remember manners by now." Master Dan swept his gaze over everyone gathered before stopping on the two teenagers on the stage. "Now go ahead, young ones. What message do you have for us?"

Said 'young ones' nervously exchanged glances before Chi Song took a step forward.

"Well she gave us this nice big speech, but apparently people don't like those around here," she started off a little shakily, the joke helped though and some of the tension bled out of the room. "But the whole thing boils down to two points. One; if any Earthbender causes trouble for the city, she will spare no expense to see them hunted down."

That got a lot of frowns from the group. For the most part everyone here already kept an extremely tight lid on their Earthbending for fear of being arrested. It didn't make sense for a princess to tell them to not cause trouble to a group that already hid themselves.

"Two," Chi Song continued. "Is that any Earthbender who wants to openly practice can do so if they join the her household."

…

"You're kidding right?" came the question.

"Is this some kind of joke?"

"Is that open to anyone or just us?"

They spoke hesitantly but it was, after all, such an outrageous offer.

"What about the rebels trying to kick out the Fire Nation? Do they get the offer too?"

Zhu Wuneng stepped forward to support Chi Song with the weight of all the questions.

"It will be open to anyone in good standing starting tomorrow morning." He said. "As for the rebels...they are currently being arrested by Princess Azura and her forces as we speak."

Once again there was pandemonium. This time it took far more to quiet them down.

-o-​

Across the city, a few minutes before the bells tolled 10, I was standing with a group of Fire Nation guards, experienced ones not the fresh group we had barely started to train, waiting for the report from our watcher groups.

The signal was due any moment and we needed to ensure there were no rebel supporters hanging around our target to give early warning. While it probably wouldn't matter in the end, chasing them down would be put far too many of my plans behind schedule. It was better to sweep them up in one go.

To that end, I had several groups of soldiers ready to raid specific targets at the chime of the bells. With all the leaders of the rebel groups captured, anyone with anti-Fire Nation motives would be either too small or too weak to actually affect us.

A man dressed in normal commoner clothes rounded the corner and approached one of the guards. After a short exchange the man left and the soldier made his way to me.

"No signs of observation, your highness. They don't know we are here."

I smiled contentedly as the bells started to toll in the background.

It was always nice when there were no last minute complications to a plan. No sudden variable to account for. With that in mind the three groups surrounding the building moved towards a seperate entrance and with three great gouts of flame blasted the doors clean off.

I calmly walked through the resulting dust cloud and waved a hand in front of my face to help clear it away. "Good morning everyone. For your crimes against the Fire Nation you are all under arrest. Please resist, since otherwise this is going to be a frightfully boring day for me."

"It's the Fire Nation!" Some incredibly bright soul shouted from inside.

A discrete signal from me had the rest of the guards step through the doors and fan out.

"There's more of them!" Truly a genius, that one.

"Calm yourselves men!" the man I assumed was the leader of this group boomed. It was actually impressive how large the man was. Easily a head taller and a bit wider than anyone else in the room the earthbender made for an impressive figure. Especially considering he seemed to be all muscle. "The foul Fire Nation strikes at us from the shadows, but that is because they fear us! We shall overcome this trial and then purge our fair city of their corrupt influence!"

Spirits, he was loud. And slightly annoying since his declaration seemed to put some spine back into the rebels. That just wouldn't do, I had beaten them. I had taken their whole insurgency and today was the day I crushed it. No last minute speech was going to undermine my accomplishment. I had won and they would recognize that.

"That would be impressive." I sarcastically complimented. "Seeing as how my guards are in the process of arresting not only the people here, but also the other nine hideouts you have hidden across the city." Shock filled the faces of everyone there. "So there will not be another rebellion to trouble the fine people of this city. You either give up without a fight or give one final struggle to mark the end of the insurgents. Either way, the city won't have to deal with the likes of you any longer."

The leader obviously didn't like that going by his expression. "Liar! We are the strength of the Earth Kingdom! We won't be defeated by the likes of you!" He roared and stomped on the ground. A boulder rose and was punched at me before I shattered it with a blast of fire.

Strength of the Earth Kingdom, huh? I suppose the Water Tribe wasn't the only one poking around the city… or he could just be delusional. Danyuan has only been under Fire Nation control for fifteen years or so, the leader could have been an Earth Kingdom nationalist and just never left in that time.

A rock flew through the space I had been in before subconsciously dodging. I should pay attention to the fight in front of me, I could have him interrogated later if I wanted to know how the Earth Kingdom fit into this.

Five rocks hovered in front of the leader and were launched with a ferocity I hadn't seen from either Chi Song or Zhu Wuneng. I danced back and forth through four of them before ducking under the last. As I did, my leg kicked out and sent a low cone of flames over the ground.

In response an earth wall rose in between us blocking the flames. Undeterred, I pivoted from my low stance into a back kick, sending a much stronger fireball that shattered the Earthbender's defenses and sent him stumbling backwards.

I took a moment to survey the rest of the building. The rebels had followed their leader's example and attacked but they were a poor match for the professionally armed guards. Most of them lacked a proper weapon and the few earth benders were struggling when faced against several fire benders at once.

The ground in front of me cracked and buckled as the leader recovered and launched another attack. Since I couldn't see exactly how he was planning to attack, I jumped into the air just as the cracking earth reached me. Just in time too, a lance of rock burst from the ground right where I had been standing.

Taking advantage of the near miss I used the protruding rock as a foothold to launch myself further into the air over the leader and rain fire down on him. He responded well by using a wall of rubble as a shield, but he made the mistake of taking his eyes off me.

Landing next to the earthbender I feinted towards his face with a weak spurt of fire. When he reflexively drew back I lashed out and kicked at his ankle while pulling him further off balance using a hold on his arm.

Taken completely off guard the leader fell heavily to the ground where I casually twisted his arm until he was forced to roll onto his stomach and stepped on his shoulder to prevent him from moving further.

"She beat the boss!" that same individual shouted over the din of combat, causing everyone to see that I had indeed beaten their leader. One by one, the rest of the rebels discarded their weapons and surrendered.

"He certainly enjoys shouting out the obvious doesn't he." I mused out loud, a smile on my face. Today was going great so far.

The leader under me just let out a pained groan in response.

--------------------------------------
AN: So tiny bit of world building I don't know if I will ever work into the story itself and might never be commented on because it is just normal to the people in the ATLA world (much like Naruto's random mix of feudal and modern technology) is that nobles past a certain level have a household that is basically an independent kingdom unto itself. While it conforms to the same rules as the nation it is led by, normal lawkeepers in that nation would basically need to ask the noble permission to arrest people in their household for certain things.

Examples of this would be how Zuko had a command of soldiers and could stay in Fire Nation territory despite being an exile (yes I know there are other possibilities but this is mine) and how Azula can just adopt a bunch of Earthbenders even though we saw earthbenders sent to prison on sight in the show. Another example might be the Beifong family hiring people to kidnap Toph when one was a criminal (for kidnapping Toph)
[END Chapter]

 

[Azura]

Chapter 14

I had listened to enough war councils and had enough lessons with old soldiers to know that if things were going too well, it was likely because somewhere else something was going horribly wrong.

So when Sha Wujing, Zhu Wuneng, and Chi Song approached me two days after our operation with content if not happy expressions while Captain Mako returned with a scowl I knew something hadn't gone exactly to plan.

Not wanting to ruin my good mood immediately in the face of bad news I decided to have the city events reported first.

The capture of all the insurrectionist groups we knew about had gone off without a hitch. I had personally captured the leader of the group along with several of the highest ranking members. The others had been captured at other sites throughout the city in smaller raids on warehouses and hideouts. We might have missed a few overall, but nowhere near enough that the local guard couldn't deal with them. Especially if they were assisted by the swelling numbers of the port guard.

The raids also had the benefit of unearthing some additional locations that would need to be checked out. I was sure Sha Wujing was already putting together more teams to investigate those on top of going through what we already had. From the summary reports he had already submitted most of those would be small groups of less than ten people.

For all intents and purposes Danyuan had been cleansed of the insurrection.

Zhu Wuneng and Chi Song had slightly less positive news for me.
The talks with the peaceful and law abiding Earthbenders had gone well, as expected really. I wasn't asking them to do anything they already weren't doing so there was no detectable reaction in the city.

Though I was also having the guard watch out for some idiot trying something just to spite us. There always seemed to be the one person out there that would be totally fine under Fire Nation rule, but the second you reminded him he was under Fire Nation rule he pulled some ill thought out stunt in the name of 'rebellion'.

Thankfully there had been none of that yet.

Unfortunately none of them had decided to come forward and join my forces as of yet. Not surprising at all. Two days was not enough time for someone to make such a risky decision like that, but I was still a little irritated by the lack of progress. It's hard to demonstrate the inclusion of a subset of people when those people refuse to be included.

Problems for later. There's nothing I could do besides track down a few of them and force them into service. Which would destroy not only my credibility but it would ensure anyone I convinced to work with me would betray me the second they had a chance.

And that meant I had stalled as long as I could.

"Alright then. Captain Mako, your report?"

"We successfully captured the port the suspected Water Tripe were using."

"Don't you mean Water Tribe?" Sha Wujing asked.

"I know what I said."

"So what was the issue?" I cut in before this could devolve into an argument.

Captain Mako huffed, "They weren't there."

Everyone at the table blinked.

"What do you mean they weren't there?"

"Exactly that, earth girl. My boys had the ocean under watch the whole time we were prepping for the attack. One day they're there, the next, gone without a trace."

That was...incredibly concerning.

The small port to the north had been boxed in by seven Fire Nation war ships and the Water Tribe managed to escape unnoticed? No wonder Captain Mako was in such a bad mood. It was one thing to see your opponent and for them to escape by some clever maneuver or tactic, it was something entirely different when you managed to lose a fleet without a clue how it happened.

It was a very good thing that capturing the Water Tribe specifically was not a priority or this operation would have been considered a failure despite the success in the city.

"Did you have any trouble with the locals then?"

The Captain shook his head. "Nah, they are all incredibly 'grateful' we managed to drive off the Water Bandits with our mere presence. I left a couple soldiers behind to keep an eye on em but it's a small fishing port. If we pulled out tomorrow and a bandit group rolled up they would thank em for driving off the tyranny of the Fire Nation or something like that."

I nodded in understanding. For the powerless, the easiest way to survive was to rely on the support of the closest group stronger than them. The Fire Nation might be the mightiest nation in the world, but without a clear presence in the area those small villages wouldn't hesitate to bow to someone else.

"Have some of our Port Guard stationed there on a monthly rotation. Even a small garrison should be enough to keep them in check." I smiled, "And it isn't like we have a shortage of troops for it at the moment."

"I'll make sure it's done, Princess." Sha Wujing saluted and made a note on a piece of paper.

I nodded once again and moved on to the final point of this meeting.

"Now that Danyuan is solidly back under Fire Nation control I have one more task I want to complete before I return to give my report to the Fire Lord." I stopped and looked very closely at the four people in the room. "Make no mistake...if a hint of this makes it back to my father being, locked up in the darkest hole you can imagine would be a blessing. If you have no intention of swearing total loyalty to me you are free to leave."

Chi Song laughed. "Oh yeah, that'd be great. 'Hey Fire Lord, two earthbenders have something to tell you. Oh by the way, one of them is technically Nobility'. Don't worry about me."

"Same for me." Zhu Wuneng agreed. "You've done the most for earthbenders in Fire Nation territory in decades. Keep it up and I'll follow you."

That was both excellent news and horribly depressing at the same time.

"You saved my entire command staff, your Highness." Sha Wujing said. "When the first rebellion occurred, the Colonel in charge of Danyuan fled to the home islands. I, along with my subordinates, would've taken the blame for the saboteurs and insurgents if you hadn't rooted them out. All of us are willing to pledge ourselves to you."

All eyes turned to Captain Mako, who had tuned out the rest of us in favor of preparing a pot of tea. When the Captain noticed he negligently waved a hand in the air.

"Your Uncle's a good Pai Sho buddy of mine. Least I can do is make sure his niece is taken care of."

Not exactly the pledge of undying loyalty I was hoping for, but considering who I was asking that was probably the best I was going to get without causing some dissatisfaction.

"Hnm...I guess that will do." I murmured. "I admit I'm taking a risk with all of you. But if things continue unchecked I predict the Fire Nation will collapse around itself in as little as five years." I said in a stronger voice. Suddenly I had everyone's complete undivided attention.

"So I am going to make sure that doesn't happen. I'm going to use the four of you to start forging a new strength for the Nation in the colonies. And by the end of it...I will end the war."

Captain Mako started choking on his tea as the others burst into a storm of questions. I just smiled at their expressions. If this was how they reacted to just a hint of my larger goals, how would they react when they learned the full picture?

-o-​

I wasn't expecting any major changes in the Capital during the few months I had been away. The political upheaval I accidentally engineered ensured that none of the more influential officials would make any big moves while they were busy figuring out the new political scene.

So besides a rather ceremonial parade welcoming me back to the capital I was free to move about unhindered by petty schemes and plots.

Well, at least any that would be important enough to need my attention.

In fact the only political move that really caught my notice was a marriage between two noble families a week prior to my return. And it wasn't because it was some mismatched union between a high and low family or between political factions, but rather because I, and nearly everyone in the capital, had been convinced the bride and groom hated each other.

Apparently not considering the gossip sweeping the city.

The two had been almost sickeningly sweet together since the wedding and had been seen in each other's company almost constantly. An odd turn of events but it stood out simply because it was one of the few happy marriages between nobles.

I also found out that Azula and her friends were visiting one of the historical temples with the rest of her class so I likely wouldn't see her for a while. Shame. I wanted to introduce her to my new handmaiden.

With those thoughts in mind, I began the lengthy process of reacquainting myself with the projects I had left behind when I went to Danyuan as well as catching up on the latest war efforts. I had my audience with my father tomorrow. It wouldn't do to be ignorant about the current state of affairs.

 

[Azura]

Chapter 15

The throne room was nearly empty as I bowed on one knee in front of my Father, only a few military officers and the like. The normal servants were nowhere to be seen. Per usual, the decorative wall of flames concealed much of his form, and what little wasn't was hidden in the cast shadows. I had been in this position for at least fifteen minutes and was starting to lose feeling in my leg. Despite knowing that I had successfully completed my mission and there was nothing the Fire Lord could pin on me without coming across as incredibly petty and ungrateful to the entire nation, I still couldn't completely shake off the slightly choking feeling of his presence filling the room.

Let it never be said that Ozai didn't have the art of intimidation honed to perfection.

"I see that you managed to accomplish your task." He said, finally breaking the silence.

"I did."

"And yet I received notice that the Water Tribe pirates who were no doubt behind the troubles to begin with managed to escape you."

"They weren't my priority." I replied shortly.

One of the few other people in the room stood up at this and bowed towards the throne.

"Apologies for the interruption Your Highness, but for the good of the Fire Nation I cannot ignore what the Princess just said in good conscience." The speaker was some random Colonel that I wasn't immediately familiar with. No doubt he was some 'expert' my Father had pulled in to use as a mouthpiece against me.

"You have something to say Colonel Taso?"

"I do. While the Princess managed to complete her task with satisfactory results, she ignored the source of the trouble and allowed a dangerous subversive force to escape. No doubt they will make their way to another city and simply repeat the process, tying up our forces for months to come." The Colonel sneered slightly.

Ah, I recognized him now.

A man who had managed to advance through the ranks with a few notable military victories in the Earth Kingdom and with the help of some family contacts.

It made sense father would use him as my detractor. If you didn't know the actual history of his career he was the perfect person to find fault in any strategy I used. An up-and-coming officer who knew what he was doing and had no issue with speaking out against his superiors making mistakes. And if I managed to prove him wrong? Well, he was a simple military man. How could he hope to understand the brilliance of the Royal Family.

A rather transparent attempt for Father to try and strip my newly acquired forces, but too bad for him I was actually familiar with Taso. Or rather, I was familiar with Uncle's complaints about the man and his habit of risking entire battle plans for minimal high visibility gains. He wasn't as talented as he seemed at first glance.

"A mistake caused by the Princess's lack of experience no doubt. But something that I feel she could overcome with the proper instruction. Naturally someone would need to...correct...the mistakes she made on her assignment." the ambitious weasel placated.

"Hmm. It's true that Azura hasn't properly led anything before this incident so some mistakes should be expected." Father said, stroking his beard before turning to me. "What do you think, daughter?"

"I think you should fire whoever recommended the Colonel to advise the people gathered here on what is a priority during an assignment. Clearly they don't know what they are talking about." I said shortly, fully aware I had just indirectly called my father an idiot.

If he thought I would meekly hand over my accomplishments just because he was going to make it seem I had blundered, he didn't know me very well.

Colonel Taso stiffened indignantly but said nothing. My Father narrowed his eyes and leaned forward a bit, the flames in the room growing just the slightest bit more intense.

"Oh? And where was the Colonel's judgement wrong?"

I took that as permission to rise from my position and face Colonel Taso.

"His insistence that the Water Tribe was the source of the disturbances the city faced for one. There was an organised resistance group of Earth Kingdom loyalists operating in the middle of Danyuan. Removing them and solidifying the Fire Nation's control over the city was my objective, not chasing after some remnants of a backwater fishing village we could crush with a mid sized patrol." I said to the room. "The Water Tribe might've compounded the issues in some small way but without similar groups already existing in other cities any action they want to take is limited."

"That thinking is rather naive, Princess. Small groups can win large victories." Taso retorted. "It was using one such group that I recaptured the Naga pass fortress from the Earth Kingdom."

"Then enlighten me. What would you have done differently." I demanded.

"You left the Water Tribe alone for too long." Taso said in a tone I supposed he considered scholarly. "When you became aware of their presence you should have surrounded them and decisively removed them before they could escape."

"With what forces?"

"I- what?" It seems that wasn't the question he was expecting.

"With what forces Colonel. I'm curious where you would get the forces needed to surround them."

"With the same forces you had access to Princess." Taso said in a confused tone.

I raised an eyebrow as I stared impassively at him. "Somehow I'm not surprised. You're saying you would have emptied the City the moment you discovered the Water Tribe's location?"

"No, of course not! I would have taken the proper amount of soldiers from the local guard to encircle the port by land and used the scout patrol you were given to block the sea route."

There was some shuffling among the other military officers as they started to realise the flaw in the Colonel's logic. I saw father shift his gaze to a few of them out of the corner of my eye and couldn't help feeling a little malicious joy seeing him still unaware of what precisely the issue was.

"Is that so? I suppose that fits with your past actions. You seem to like retaking positions lost to idiotic decisions."

One of the generals, one I assume was familiar with Taso's most impressive feat, broke out in a coughing fit to cover his startled laughter.

While it was true Taso had managed to reclaim a fallen outpost in Naga pass with less than twenty soldiers following him, what was left out of the reports (but not Uncle's gossip circle), was that the only reason the outpost was lost in the first place was because a patrol had been lured out of position chasing after a high rank soldier from the Earth Kingdom.

If they had simply diverted and then returned to their route then no one could fault them for the detour, but Taso had convinced the others to keep pressing on after the officer even after he had deliberately shown himself to the patrol after losing them several times.

Any soldier worth their command would've guessed there was something up after the second or third time, but not Taso. So while they were off chasing a lure, Earth Kingdom soldiers had walked completely undetected through the hole in the scouting pattern and captured the fortress by surprise.

That Taso managed to recapture the pass was immaterial since the sudden loss of a supply route meant the siege of So Chu was forced to pull back. By the time that Naga pass was recaptured the city had been reinforced and the siege needed to be restarted all over again.

"And the City would've been overthrown by the Rebel elements since anyone competent would've realised the garrison there was the only reason they hadn't tried to take the City again after they failed the first time." Taso was looking rather red.

"If the city was unstable I would've conscripted for the city guard just as you did." He tried to defend himself.

"Yes, because conscripts from the unhappy population would be an excellent choice to guard a city while the regular soldiers go on some halfwit adventure. And before you bring up that I used locals as well, remember that I had any new recruits stationed far away from critical points in the city and simply used them to keep the peace with the civilians there." Taso's mouth snapped shut as he was no doubt about to bring that point up.

I felt I had made my point and turned back to the throne. "You see, Father? I took the necessary steps to secure the city you tasked me with bringing under control, added to our forces, wiped out the resistance, and even secured the countryside from our enemies. But if the advisor who tricked you into thinking Colonel Taso here could have done a better job because some Water Tribe rabble were too cowardly to even fight, then I suppose we must censure the generals here as well. Afterall, they often let the enemy get away on occasion, which must be a sign of incompetence if a Colonel could do better than all of them."

And just like that the atmosphere in the throne room grew even heavier as my Father realised he couldn't trap me. If he decided to punish me for letting some pirates get away when they weren't even part of my mission, then he would need to uphold that decision for every military operation afterwards. The officers would revolt in a week.

"Colonel Taso, you are dismissed."

"I-...yes, Fire Lord." the man ground out.

I ignored the glare he not-so-subtly threw at me as he left the room. He would wind up somewhere else in the war effort no doubt. Either a remote outpost or somewhere similarly unimportant. I had likely ruined his career, but that was the price he paid for trying to get involved with royal politics.

"Azura, I have a new mission for you." Father decided to cut his losses. "While Danyaun was easily the most obviously rebellious of the colonies, no doubt there are similar groups infiltrating the others. Root them out. And if you find those Water Tribe pirates again. Don't let them get away."

I bowed and accepted the order while scoffing internally. Yes, yes, I will stay far from the capital and your ham-fisted attempts at cunning. Besides, this arrangement worked perfectly for my own plans.

With another few bows and farewells, I left the throne room and returned to my estate. I crafted a few letters for Azula letting her know what I would be doing and arranged for their delivery and arranged for the chefs to prepare dinner.

A nice way to end the day after such a colossal waste of my time.

 

[Azura]

Chapter 16

Once again I found myself staring at a map while my subordinates milled around in the background.

We had moved on to the third city on my route to secure key points and wrest control for the colonies from my Father. The second had been a port city similar to Danyuan, but had lacked any sort of unrest or rebellion to justify staying in the area for long. Captain Mako had stayed behind to act as my proxy to assist in the creation of another port guard and invite any earthbenders to join under my banner. Both of which would probably form slower than they had previously, lacking a clear threat of being subjugated for rebellion, but it ensured any recruits who signed on to either force would be under officers sworn to my personal service rather than the Fire Nation military as a whole.
I was confident he could handle most of the issues that would pop up, so we had moved further inland to a landlocked city close to a mountain range that acted as a convergence point for several roads. It also happened to be close enough to the front lines that Earth Kingdom attacks were a real concern although they did not happen often.

The lack of any water meant I couldn't just declare the creation of a Port Guard like I had in the last two cities, but with some...inspired interpretation of a few laws...I had started the recruitment for a branch of the City Guard that fulfilled the same role without requiring recruits to leave for training. Thankfully the letter of the law was sufficiently vague that I could argue in my favor for long enough that by the time anyone in the court managed to decide one way or the other, my troops would be fully trained and the point would be moot.

Provided the court even noticed what was happening. The royal court didn't exactly pay close attention to the recruitment processes of the colonies after all, and most Captains knew better than to second guess a Princess.

That was about where the good news ended.

Probably due to the closeness to the frontlines, the cultural tension in Anje was much more apparent in the streets.

Unlike in Danyuan it wasn't a populous desiring to be treated as equals rather than second class citizens with a small but disruptive rebellious element, but a neat divide of newcomers that had been born in the Fire Nation and had moved to the city when it had been taken and the Earth Kingdom citizens who had stayed.

Weirdly, the biggest tension point wasn't about which nation ruled the city but about what traditions were celebrated in the city. Something that normally should have been addressed by the local mayor, but after meeting the spineless waste I understood perfectly why nothing was done. Simply put, the mayor would do nothing more than ensure the proper taxes were sent to the capital. All the other duties were ignored or delegated to others.

It worked, but only enough that two factions had formed and taken over running the city. The amount of soldiers that passed through the city ensured no violence broke out, but that simply made the sides turn to other methods of fighting. Certain families were either charged more or banned from businesses, neighbors would loudly spread rumors about each other, goods and supplies were damaged or stolen, and other such methods were used so it was little surprise both factions were nearly at each other's throats by the time I arrived.

Ironically my plan to create soldiers loyal to me from the local population actually relieved some of the tension both sides were facing. Any of the young men and women itching to ensure they could protect their culture through force swarmed to either the City guard if they were a Firebender or nationalist, or to my house forces if they were an Earthbender or a colonist. With most of the more violently inclined idiots busy getting beaten into shape by my loyal instructors, they simply didn't have the energy to pick fights with each other any more.

Without a decently strong central leader to settle disputes, however, both sides would likely come to blows eventually once I left. So I was stuck trying to find a replacement for the current mayor who would not only be able to handle the job, but also not favor one side over the other.

That was clearly going to be a difficult task on a normal day but just to ensure that I had the worst day possible, we got word from one of the road outposts that a rock slide had blocked the path out of the North road of the city. Soon after, similar news came from the West road, and then again from the South.

It was clear Anje was about to come under siege from the Earth Kingdom, and I was stuck facing it with only a local garrison, some half-trained recruits, and a handful of dubiously loyal Earthbenders.

Spirits, what a mess.

"I need specifics, gentlemen. How many are we facing and where are they coming from? I refuse to believe not a single soldier spotted anything this whole time!"

The local officers refused to meet my eyes while my entourage stepped forward.

"We have a few reports of some unknown traders hanging around Earth Kingdom aligned shops for the last week but that's only because the business owners complained about the Fire Nation faction driving off their customers. Best I can guess is that there is somewhere around fifty between all groups because any bigger and the guards would've needed to see their caravan licence."

I stared at Sha Wujing.

"So you are telling me... that fifty enemy Earthbenders might have snuck past our guards because they spent more time hassling local businesses than doing their jobs?" I pointedly did not glare at the local officers, but my tone let them know exactly my thoughts on them if the way they all paled and started sweating was any indication.

"Sounds like it." Chi Song commented from the side. "Good news is it wasn't because someone bribed the guards."

"Yes, because our guards being incompetent instead of bought is so much better." I inhaled deeply before slowly letting out a breath, the candles in the room dimming and then flaring at the same time in response to me releasing my frustration. Losing my temper didn't help me at the moment. I needed to figure out what the Earth Kingdom leader hoped to achieve here.

Fifty soldiers was enough to do a lot of damage but not enough to hold a city. So this was likely a raid to weaken the city for some reason. Either as a distraction or for another force to conquer didn't matter, but those were the top two theories. Either one required an attack, probably one that would be coming soon, to take advantage of the chaos caused by isolating the city with those rockslides. So how do I prevent that?

Step one would be finding where the enemy was hiding.

Unless the enemy commander was willing to risk going unnoticed in the sweep that was sure to follow the discovery of the collapsed roads he would be outside the city. Probably close enough to the walls to sneak close when night fell but far enough that they wouldn't be immediately spotted by scouts if they searched the area.

So where would I go?

If it was me, I would pick the forest nearby. Plenty of places to hide, the trees would make causal discovery hard, and the roots would make bending harder for weaker Earthbenders. My second choice would be a clearing by the nearby stream. It was easier to get spotted, but it was also more open, difficulties with trying to cross the water aside.

But that was if I was leading Firebenders. Earthbenders would want to be in open elevated spaces so nothing could interfere with their bending and they would use less energy, which meant something in the hills or mountains.

Anything to the south was out. The forest was too dense to navigate easily at night. West was more probable, but the distance to the hills made it slightly too far for my taste.

I turned back to the maps and started looking for a more detailed version of the north areas. At first glance the north shared most of the issues as the west, but there was a cliffside that overlooked the city that had a small clearing on it if the maps were right. It was close enough to a few hunting paths that it was accessible, but the sheerness of the cliff meant Fire Nation troops would never be able to safely descend without specialised equipment.

But steep cliffs weren't an issue for Earthbenders, were they?

"Found you." I muttered

I tapped the table and looked around at the people in the room. The locals could barely be trusted to tie their bootlaces it seemed, let alone be trusted to handle this. So it would have to be my personal troops.

"I want half the guards from the southeast walls shifted to cover the north side of the city. Have them check on anything that an Earthbender could destroy quickly and would cause chaos. Food storage, stables, anything like that. Sha Wujing, you are in charge. Try to keep these idiots from simply handing the city to the enemy?"

"Yes, Princess." Sha Wujing replied, both of us ignoring the winces from the surrounding officers.

"Zhu Wuneng, try and find a hunter who would be willing to lead a group of twenty to this location. If I'm right, then our Earth Kingdom friend should be around there."

"Sure. I could probably find someone."

I nodded. "Chi Song-"

"If you tell me to stay in the city, I am going to break something. Fair warning." she interrupted.

"-gather four Earthbenders from my house forces you can trust and tell them what's going on. You are coming with me." I finished, giving her a half-lidded stare.

"Oh. Uh, sure." Chi Song blushed and looked away, scratching at her cheek with one finger.

"As for the rest of you, I want the scouts out towards the east. I doubt even if we beat those Earthbenders here it will be the end of their plan."

""Yes, Princess!""

"Dismissed." I idly waved a hand and watched as everyone left to carry out their tasks.

When they were gone I walked around to the north side of the map so I could look at the city from the Earth commander's point of view.

"Fifty is too small to do anything...what is your game here?"

 

[Azura]

Chapter 17

Our trek up to the cliffs was slowed down slightly by the fact we only had a handful of people able to check for traps or ambushes.

None of the soldiers in the city were frontline groups used to dealing with Earthbender tricks and the five Earthbenders I had with me weren't exactly on the same level as elite Earth Kingdom troops.

But the Earthbenders we were approaching seemed to have done the bare minimum in terms of traps or early warning systems. There were no scouts waiting for us that we could find and only a few basic pitfall traps that were easily countered.

Was it because they didn't have enough people to properly screen for enemies? Were they in the middle of another sabotage attempt? Was it a trap? Or were they simply arrogant enough to believe that they wouldn't be discovered this quickly and hadn't done more than the bare minimum?

Pointless questions since I wouldn't get an answer until we found the Earthbender camp, but I couldn't keep my mind off of it. Apparently neither could Chi Song since she hung back to walk with me and whispered, "You think this is too easy? It feels too easy."

I nodded.

"Nothing we can do about it until we reach our destination. Just keep your guard up."

We walked in uncomfortable silence for a while until we reached the final bend on the mountain path. If the maps were correct then the clearing we expected to find the enemy camp was just around the corner. I had sixty Firebenders and five Earthbenders with me and somehow we had not seen any reaction to such a force moving up a relatively open path. Something that had all my instincts buzzing.

The advance guard turned the corner and for a heartbeat there was no change. Then there was a loud sound of rocks crashing together and a shout of "It's the Fire Nation!"

I wasted no time once I heard that.

"Forward! Capture as many as you can, let none escape!" I ordered as all my troops ran to get into position.

Chi Song followed behind me as I charged ahead as well, we turned the corner and the normal soldiers fanned out to the sides so I had an uninterrupted path forward to see… a handful of Earth Kingdom soldiers and a group of peasants.

What?

Even as I froze because of the unexpected sight, my soldiers encircled the camp and a couple small fights broke out between them and the Earthbenders. Most of both parties hung back and were on the alert for large moves but one or two would duel each other. I knew the Firebenders were doing so to ensure no gaps opened in our encirclement, but the way the Earthbenders were huddling up instead of trying to break out made me nervous.

"So the Fire Nation is sending little girls to face us now?" A loud booming voice cut over the sounds of the various fights, causing almost all of them to come to a halt. A large man in Earth Kingdom armor made his way through the crowd to face me along with some other soldiers flanking him.

"The Earth Kingdom is reduced to sending villagers against us now?" I returned, pointedly drawing attention to the peasants in the crowd. Now that I had a better look I saw that there were only ten or so properly uniformed soldiers. Even if the rest turned out to be Earthbenders the sight of them wearing rough-spun clothes and the like undercut any respect I had for them as soldiers.

"Hah, of course not! These are the brave people willing to cast aside the false promises of the Fire Nation and join the Earth Kingdom army!" Agni's grace this man was loud.

"Oh? And what lies are those?"

"Interested now are you?! What do you say, men?! Shall we let them know the lies they spread?"

The crowd of peasants started shouting almost as one but I was able to pick out some individual comments.

"They treat us like second-class citizens!"

"We were here first!"

"...lies about Earthbenders being accepted!"

"...saying a princess is going to help us…"

And many more things of that nature. It was a little disheartening to hear my activities were so outlandish people were distrusting them so much. I might need to do something to ensure my father doesn't think to use that as incentive to reverse my progress.

The leader of the earthbenders clapped his hands and grinned widely. "There you have it!" He proclaimed. "The Fire Nation is so desperate to keep a leash on the people of the Earth Kingdom that they spread fanciful tales of a princess coming to lift them up and guarantee equality if they just behave themselves. But we have told them of these lies before they could take hold! And I, Lieutenant Fang of the Rumbling Boulder Squadron, will lead them against this foe! So that they can be victorious!" Chi Song choked back a laugh as the Lieutenant pointed a finger at me. "Now then, while it pains me to see someone so young allowed to lead the vile forces of the Fire Nation to battle, I will allow you to tell me your name so it will not be forgotten in the face of your inevitable defeat!"

"...he...hehe...hehehe...hahahaHAHAHA~!!" Chi Song gave up restraining her laughter and nearly doubled over in the face of the leader's declaration. Her laughter turned out to be infectious as quite a few soldiers started chuckling along with her. For my part, I simply crossed my arms and looked on disapprovingly.

The sudden laughter had also really thrown off all the enemies in front of us as well. The peasants were looking around worriedly and the soldiers had tensed up. The leader was also slowly going red in the face.

"What is so funny?!" he demanded.

"H-he doesn't even know!" Chi Song almost howled, waving a hand in my direction.

Our enemies were now almost all looking at me warily and I could only roll my eyes at my subordinate's behaviour.

Figuring this joke was getting out of hand, I strode forward confidently.

"Listen up!" I raised my voice so everyone could hear me and smiled internally as the last of the fights stopped in response. "I am Azura, First Princess of the Fire Nation. I can't say for certain all of the rumors you have heard about me are true...but I can say that the improving conditions for earthbenders in Fire Nation territory is no lie. In fact, I have some of them with me." I motioned towards Chi Song. She got the message and bent a couple pillars of rock as both a demonstration and in preparation to attack when a fight broke out.

The sight of an earthbender so close to Fire Nation royalty and obviously trusted set a wave of mutters through the enemy. The Earth Kingdom lieutenant grit his teeth so hard I was almost worried they would break under the pressure. Not that I could really bring myself to care about an enemy's dental care.

"A single person means nothing…" he tried to deny, but his mouth snapped shut when the other four earthbenders with me revealed themselves.

"Indeed. A single person does mean nothing." I mocked. "Which is why I make it a habit to bring a few earthbenders from each colony I recruit from to prove my words. Most of them are still back in the city, helping recruit the ones willing to work for me."

Another wave of mutters broke out and suddenly I saw quite a few people not looking so sure about their choice to be here. I could use that…

"I know that many of you are here because you didn't believe the rumors that things could get better. You thought that it was a trick and lashed out. However, since this misunderstanding has been cleared up I will graciously promise that anyone who surrenders now and comes with us peacefully will be pardoned fully as long as they join the city register."

"To be leashed as dogs by you, no doubt." the lieutenant tried dissuading his faltering troops.

I shrugged. "Not at all. The register is going to be a list of all benders in the city Fire, Earth, or Water and used to request help during emergencies." It was simply going to be expanding on the existing register for Firebenders standard in the home islands. Granted, those were mostly for ensuring young firebenders didn't go unnoticed or unsupervised but the premise remained the same. "Though if you want to openly use your bending then you will of course need to join my forces."

"And if we don't want to fight in the war?" someone in the crowd called out.

The Earth Kingdom soldiers' faces darkened. Ah, some of the draw for these people was the freedom to use their bending openly. Letting them move deeper into the Earth Kingdom to do what they wished with their bending. Well that wasn't an issue I was unprepared for.

"Each branch working for me is local to it's own city. You will be called on to defend it but you will not be sent to fight unless you request to, and there are plenty of jobs to use your bending for."

More of the crowd wavered and some of them even visibly made a decision. With a bit more time I could probably convince more than half of them to surrender, which is exactly why Lieutenant Fang decided I had spoken more than enough.

"It doesn't matter if she is trying to make things equal for earthbenders, if we capture her now then we can use her to pressure the Fire Lord to end the war in return for his daughter!" Lieutenant Fang shouted. "For the Earth Kingdom, to battle!"

He and the other soldiers stomped the ground and punched the resulting boulders into shrapnel that targeted the people surrounding me. Just like that the enemy forces collapsed into chaos as the disorganised rabble tried to attack, surrender, and retreat all at once.

I ignored the peasants, trusting my soldiers to handle that mess, and reduced any shrapnel coming towards me to dust with a blast of fire and charged the Earth Kingdom Soldiers. The only real thing keeping the enemy's morale from collapsing entirely was the lieutenant. Take him down and this fight was over.

I was vaguely aware of Chi Song following behind me as I ran forward a bit to make sure I had clear surroundings. Once I had room I sent sheets of fire crawling along ground to try and trip up their footing. Some of the soldiers tried to block with a raised wall but that left them open to Chi Song's followup attack. Two rocks slammed into the soldiers and knocked them unconcious. A third blocked another rock from hitting but was blasted in the side by one of the other Firebenders. Lieutenant Fang reacted the best by raising a solid pillar about the size of himself and sending it rocketing towards me, the large block of stone tearing up the ground along the way.

I kicked out with the strongest fire blast I could on short notice and frowned as the mass of rock easily passed through my flames and forced me to swiftly dodge. Lieutenant Fang was a much stronger Earthbender than I figured he would be. A series of fireballs and rocks flew through the air between us as we both struggled to control the pace of our fight. I was attacking easily three times as much as the Earth Kingdom Soldier, but his attacks consistently forced me to dodge out of the way before I was struck, allowing him to reestablish his defence and making me start all over.

I hadn't had this much trouble with an opponent in a long time. It was actually somewhat enjoyable and I might have drawn out the fight for the novelty of it, but the chaos of the common soldiers was dying down as my forces managed to subdue them with numbers and teamwork. If this went on longer someone was going to do something desperate.

Lieutenant Fang was forced to raise a thick wall as I punched out a sustained torrent of fire directly at him, he couldn't dodge without opening his comrade up to the fury of my attack. Something I was more than happy to use against him.

I extended two fingers and moved my hand in a small circular motion, feeling the energy in the air part as I moved them through the air. My other hand came down in a similar manner, my surroundings now crackling with the promise of barely restrained power. When the energies built up to the point I could barely hold it back I thrust my hand out and watched as the lightning I released tore through Lieutenant Fang's wall and exploded.

When the smoke cleared everyone was able to see the groaning form of the lieutenant on the ground.

Naturally, after such a display and their leader defeated, the few Earthbenders still fighting took that moment to surrender.

I straightened up and let out a long breath, releasing the tension that came from that technique, and motioned my soldiers forward to restrain them. Chi Song wandered over to my side and looked over the scene with a smile.

"That went pretty well. We found the bad guys and took them down before they could do more damage. You even got to make another fancy speech."

I smirked in response before growing serious. "Yes. Now we need to figure out what they were hoping to accomplish in the first place."

 

[Azura]

Chapter 18

There were advantages to being royalty.

The best teachers around practically threw themselves at my feet to have me as a student, the food I ate was normally of the highest quality, and I wanted for almost nothing anywhere I went.

There were downsides, naturally.

I had to present a proper image of strength and confidence as a member of the Royal Family near constantly, I was expected to excel in anything I was instructed in, and I had Ozai for a father.

That last one was a major reason why I felt entitled to claim that being a princess of the Fire Nation was not nearly as fantastic as others seemed to claim.

But those reasons weren't why I currently wished that I had been born into almost any other family. No, what was reserved for the slimeball currently droning on infront of me.

"...and due to the delay, the produce is falling well below the standards we have come to guarantee from our shops. Surely there will be compensations to the owners of these goods to make up for the lost sales they will be expecting once the roads have been cleared, yes?" the merchant's oily voice rang out through the air.

I took a mental note of how not once did he say that the workers would be receiving any of that compensation.

Ugh, merchant lords.

Leeches that tried to suck more out of people at every given opportunity. To make things worse, they usually had enough connections to various nobles that even I couldn't just toss them off a cliff without causing myself some serious issues.

"That seems like something you should discuss with the local leadership, mister Chen." I emphasised the man's lack of any title to hopefully get him to remember who he was talking to. Unfortunately, this particular slime ignored my tone.

"Of course you are right, your highness." the man said with a condescending tone that would've been right at home in the capital. "But a gesture from the visiting nobility would go a long way in making sure that the proper people get what they deserve."

"People like you I suppose?" I idly checked over my nails.

"Well of course! Without my business, trade would slow down all over the colonies!"

Doubtful. I was already aware of the major caravan companies moving city to city and this man didn't own one. It's possible he could have had something to do with some of the larger towns in the area but I didn't particularly care about that.

Suddenly the door to the meeting hall burst open as Sha Wujing made his way inside. Thank Agni, a distraction!

"Princess, apologies for the interruption but I have news from our interrogators." He said seriously.

"I see… Mister Chen, you're dismissed. We can revisit this conversation at another time." Never, if I had my way about it.

The complaining merchant was immediately dragged out by two of my guards and the room was sealed.

"Is there actually some news or did you just do that to get him out of my hall?" I sighed and looked at the Troop Leader.

"I wish it was simply to get him to leave. The information we received… it isn't good."

I sighed. "Of course not, that would be far too easy." I sat up and gave Sha Wujing my full attention. "Very well, what did they have to say?"

"A force of five hundred elite Earthbenders are on their way to take this city. They will arrive in three days if there were no delays."

"..." I was speechless.

"Are- are you sure?"

"Three separate prisoners all confirmed it. Unless they managed to collaborate before they were captured, we are reasonably sure they are telling the truth."

"Spirits…" I had no idea how to react to this. Not only were the routes to the neighboring cities still being excavated by my own Earthbender forces, even if they were clear, three days wasn't enough to get reinforcements in time.

"...Princess, it might be best if you took a small group and escaped before this force arrives." Sha Wujing said hesitantly.

I immediately shook my head. "No, the loss of such an important city would be the perfect excuse for Father to recall me to the Capital. Besides, running from a force like this would ruin my reputation in the colonies. That is unacceptable."

Sha Wujing did not look happy at my decision, but it was his job to keep me safe and I was certainly not making it easy for him. "What shall we do then?"

I thought furiously for a moment. Five hundred Earthbenders was far too many for the garrison to last long against even with my forces added to them. In a straight up fight, we lose, simple as that.

Which meant I needed to draw them into fighting me on my terms instead.

"Alright, first we need scouts. Find out exactly where this force is and what they have with them. Second, send someone to recall all the soldiers we have working on clearing the paths. No good will come of that for now. Finally, get the squad captains together and work out a schedule for patrolling the city. Once we tell the citizens I'm sure a few are going to panic, we don't have time to deal with distractions though so I want any troublemakers arrested before they can rile everyone up too much."

"Of course, what about our own Earthbenders?"

"See if any of them can talk to the locals about where the Earth Kingdom would want to attack from. I'm sure they can get more useful details than our Firebenders would."

Sha Wujing saluted and rushed out of the hall. As soon as he left I collapsed back and ran a hand through my hair. Well this was a mess. Public unrest and rebels I could deal with no worries. An invading army was far beyond my abilities. And as much as I could bluster about fighting them on my terms...I didn't really know what my terms were.

Hopefully the scouts would give me something useful to work with.

-o-

A day and a half later, the scouts had returned and confirmed the presence of a large number of Earthbenders approaching the city. They were moving slowly but they also didn't seem to be concerned about being discovered or sneaking around which meant they probably expected the group we captured earlier to be distracting the city guards still.

How unfortunate they were enjoying their time in jail cells instead of causing whatever chaos they were planning on.

That thought made me smile, but not nearly as much as the information I got from my Earthbender corps. Not only was there a perfect place to stall the advancing army for a bit, there was also a good opportunity to potentially force them back to the Earth Kingdom if I was lucky enough.

It would be a pretty underhanded move, but as Father had proved to me time and time again…

Nothing was too underhanded if you got what you wanted.

---------------------------------​

AN: Not sure how many people saw this announcement in An Elf in Skyrim, but I will be doing story hiatus a bit differently than most authors.
I will be focusing most of my attention on my three main stories (A Wandering Soul, Ghost Spider, and Mass Effect: KotOR) but this and An Elf in Skyrim might have a chapter come out once in a blue moon.
When I feel like it…
...okay mostly when I don't feel like working on the main 3 and am trying to avoid getting sucked into one of the 5 plot ideas that won't leave me alone but I don't feel like actually writing.

 

[Azura]

Chapter 19

The day was shaping up to be perfect. The sun was shining brightly without a cloud in sight, everything was a pleasant temperature, not too hot nor too cold, and a slight breeze carried a refreshing scent of nature from the surroundings.

It was the kind of day that would encourage people with nothing to do to simply enjoy the outdoors, they might even set up a picnic to fully enjoy the good weather.

Unfortunately the citizens of the border city Anje weren't in a position to enjoy the day. The message of an army of Elite Earthbenders on the way had left many of them wondering if today was the day they might lose their homes. Only the presence of the City Guard and the troops brought by a genuine princess of the Fire Nation managed to keep many of them from panicking.

They all convinced themselves that the princess was hard at work with her advisors readying the soldiers to repel the attackers, when in reality...

"Haah~, they're taking their time aren't they?" I sighed while I idly ran a finger around the rim of my teacup.

...that princess was outside the walls enjoying tea and lounging around on a sedan chair, doing absolutely nothing as she waited for the Earthbenders to arrive.

"Our scouts estimate they should be visible within fifteen minutes if their pace hasn't changed." Sha Wujing replied tersely. For some reason he didn't like me sitting around outside with only a handful of guards and a hostile army on the way. He was stuffy like that.

"So the army of highly trained soldiers is almost here to kill us? Goody." Chi Song snarked from beside me as she refilled my cup. She also wasn't thrilled about being out here, but it mostly stemmed from the fact she was out here with me.

"Don't be so dramatic. We'll be fine." I waved a hand dismissively at her.

I continued to enjoy my tea until an Earth Kingdom scout on an ostrich horse appeared over the horizon, spotted our group, and quickly disappeared back the way he came.

Minutes later a group pretty close in size to our own flying a truce flag came into view and started to approach. It seemed the Earth General was willing to at least negotiate a little before the siege started.

Good.

Part one of the plan was about to begin.

-o-

I waited calmly as the group approached and took some time to inspect the members.

Most of them were normal soldiers and there were a pair of officers, but the most eye-catching person in the group was the General himself. He was a massive man with an equally impressive beard that went down to the middle of his chest. Although I would be more impressed if he actually took care of the thing.

It was so scruffy and wild looking that it was clear the man took the barest amount of care of it if he bothered at all. He would've been forced to cut it if he was in the Fire Nation army, general or not, but I guess not everyone cared about maintaining the outward dignity of their positions.

Once they were close enough I stood from my chair and called out to them.

"Good afternoon. Welcome to Anje, can I interest you fine men in some tea?"

My polite greeting was met with a stony silence as the Earthbenders just stared at me. I'd be offended but them wasting time suited my plans fine so I just continued to wait patiently.

After a few seconds the general dismounted his ostrich horse with a slight tremor as he childishly tried to intimidate us with a small demonstration of his Earthbending. I ignored it and motioned at the low table I had set up in advance, welcoming him to take a seat.

The general looked over the table, snorted at the Fire Nation symbol prominently displayed, and launched the whole thing with another burst of Earthbending. He replaced the now shattered table with a block of stone and took a seat on another smaller rock.

I felt my eye twitch a bit at the unnecessary destruction of a perfectly fine tea set and the show of blatant aggression. Clearly the man was only going through the motions of a parley and was eager to get to fighting. Clearly I wasn't going to be matching wits with some master strategist.

I ignored his display and gracefully joined him at his rock table, motioning for Chi Song to prepare another pot of tea. While my attendant was busy with that I tried to get the general talking.

"Would you care to have any of your men join us? Or have them relax while we discuss things? I'm sure they would like the opportunity."

Once again the general scoffed at me and turned to look at Sha Wujing, who was standing behind me. "I don't have time to play games with some brat thinking war is just a game. Bring out the real leader or I'm leaving this farce."

Sha Wujing was sweating but pointedly did not answer. Instead, I pinned the general with a stare that dared him to ignore me. "I can assure you, general, that I AM the one in charge here. Which you would know if you bothered to be the least bit civilised and introduced yourself."

"Tch," the large man clicked his tongue and twisted his face in annoyance but complied. "I am General Fong. I am here to bring the city of Anje back into its rightful place as part of the Earth Kingdom."

I nodded as I recognised the name. General Fong was one of the enemy generals I had heard of often in the Capital. Mostly because everyone in the Fire Nation hated finding themselves going up against him.

Not because he was exceptionally clever or anything like that, although from what I heard he wasn't exactly stupid either. But because he was ruthlessly aggressive and just the slightest bit insane. There were stories where Fong would order full charges against Fire Nation soldiers despite his troops being injured and he would win because his troops were willing to fight long after they should've been too hurt to move. It didn't help that he was also skilled enough that anyone short of a Master wasn't able to beat him.

I was glad my plan didn't revolve around beating the army itself since Fong's soldiers wouldn't give up until the man himself was beaten.

I took a sip of my newly poured tea and waited as the General began to do the same. "Your reputation precedes you, General. I am Azura, First Princess of the Fire Nation." I took a vindictive kind of pleasure watching the General choke on his tea before continuing like nothing happened. "I'm not going to insult the both of us by asking you to turn back, but we did manage to capture quite a few of your men trying to stir up trouble in the city. I'd be willing to release them for some concessions on your part."

Fong glared at me once he finally managed to stop coughing and I figured it would be best if I stated my terms.

"I'd be happy to return a few Earthbenders if you cleared off the roads they blocked off earlier and allowed the citizens who wanted to leave some time to head to another city...say two days or so?"

"...*cough*...and give you time for reinforcements to arrive? I don't think so." General Fong replied hoarsely. "I agree to letting any citizens who want to flee to leave by the north road, but they will only have a day to remove themselves."

I shrugged and accepted his terms since they didn't really matter in the end and motioned for one of the guards I had with me to relay the terms of our negotiation and to bring ten of the prisoners back with him.

"While we wait for them, do you want more tea? It's one of my favorite blends and you wasted your cup earlier." I asked, fixing a polite smile on my face.

The General just continued to glare at me. I don't think he liked me much for some reason.

-o-

A line of miserable looking men in civilian clothing and wooden handcuffs were presented to General Fong once my messenger returned. It made sense. They were supposed to be a diversion and sabotage the city only to be found out and captured without doing much of anything.

"There you are, General. Ten Earthbenders ready to be handed over in exchange for allowing any civilians that want to leave via the north road." I said graciously. "Assuming you still agree?"

"Hmph, let's make sure they are actually Earthbenders before we make any promises." he said irritably.

My face hardened at the implied slight.

"Fine. Each of them can do a small demonstration. Anything more and I will consider it a breach of our truce."

One by one each of the men stomped on the ground and lifted a small patch of earth proving that they were indeed all Earthbenders. Fong looked frustrated that he hadn't caught me trying to slip in a Firebender spy amongst the group and was forced to honor his agreement. Now he would be unable to make any moves in the north for a few days since even if the agreement only specified the one, civilians weren't that fast and no one wanted them getting caught up in a battle.

The Earth Kingdom troops left as soon as General Fong made the arrangements for the released men and my group didn't stay much longer before returning to Anje.

The parley truce theoretically meant that there would be no further actions by both armies today, but maneuvering positions wasn't really considered under that and neither General Fong nor myself wanted to bet on the other being honorable to not try something with the enemy commander right there.

Part one of my plan had gone off without a hitch. Now I just needed to….

My musings were cut off by the shrill cry of a messenger hawk. I waited patiently for Sha Wujing to allow it to perch on his extended forearm and retrieve the message. A brief glance was enough to confirm the contents and a satisfied smile crept onto my face.

Part two was complete.

Now to wait for nightfall and the completion of part three…