Chapter 43.6- And so the Dragons Danced

I watched them for a few minutes longer before I turned around to leave. They still had another two hours of practice left for today, but that would be supervised by their commanding officers. It was on my way out that I ran into Ping, the messenger.

“This letter came in for you, General Natsu, it bears the insignia of the fire nation royal family” He said, and I nodded before taking the sealed scroll from him. So a messenger hawk had finally made the journey. I debated opening it as I walked but the risk of prying eyes was too great. It was good to train my discipline so I spent the walk to my office wondering what the letter contained. It was either a message from Ozai, or from whoever had taken over if they succeeded in killing him. A message from Ozai would probably be a summons back to the fire nation. One from the would-be conquerors would likely be the same. If they had any wisdom, they would pretend to be Ozai and summon me nonetheless so I would be within their custody and forced to surrender or be grossly outnumbered. I smirked to myself at the thought of slaughtering my way through the capital city and making my mistake. That would be legendary for sure.

I arrived to find Azula in the office. I didn’t even bother hiding the scroll from her. There were lies I could tell and lies I could not.

“A letter from the fire nation” I said, showing her the scroll. She practically tore it from my grip and only spent a second checking the seal before she opened it and begun to read. With the height difference, it was easy for me to loom over her shoulder and read the words it said.

“General Natsu of the House of Wu,

I do not know you. We have never met. But a friend of yours assures me that you are a good man. That is why I send this letter. Since my Uncle has not returned to me, I assume it means that you have him in your custody. My father, Ozai, was not a good man, but Uncle Iroh is all that I have. In exchange for his safe return, I will accept your surrender and not treat your actions as treason. This is an order from your Fire Lord.

Signed,

Fire Lord Zuko, First of his name.”

I lifted my eyebrow at that. He didn’t know his Uncle was dead. That was interesting. Both Pakku and Jeong-Jeong had managed to escape, so where were they? It said a lot about the time in which this letter was sent.

“General Natsu Sir” The messenger said as he bumbled inwards, tossing me from my thoughts. I wondered what had made him barge into my office like this. He was usually better put together.

“Yes, Ping?” I asked.

“There are ships sir, on the Horizon.” He said.

“There’s a port not far from the city so that does usually tend to be the state of things, Ping” I pointed out with a sigh.

“Yes, Sir. But they are Fire Nation ships, Sir. Dozens of them.”

Fuck. Well, I guess that answers the question of whether Zuko had managed to find out about his uncle’s faith.