Chapter 10- And so the Dragons Danced (Complete)

It felt like a weight had been taken off my shoulders from the moment I wrote that letter, spilling out all my thoughts and feelings about what my father had done to me. I guess those psychos who journaled might have actually been on to something. Not me, though, I could never keep a habit that consistent. I still appreciated the benefits, but not nearly enough to change my entire lifestyle to make room for it. What I did do, though, was enjoy the benefits of unburdening my mind from the feelings, if only for a little while. 

When I showed up to breakfast that morning with a peaceful smile on my face and absent of the usual scowl that had plagued it, I’d caused a small stir from the change. The rest of the school stared and whispered, but those who I truly cared about, matched my slowly widening smile-the one that appeared once I’d laid eyes on them-with ones of their own. Equally bright and honest. Teeth gleaming for the world to see, and eyes crinkled from the facial movements that smiling so bright required. 

Whatever thoughts and worries survived the tell all letter I’d written to my Grandfather faded to the wayside in the face of those smiles. They didn’t judge me. Not a single one of them hesitated to welcome me back to the group. No one mentioned the last time we’d all truly spoken to each other when I’d flown off the handles, and we all instead spent our time talking about the coming town visit. 

Once a month, students of the Royal Fire Nation Military Academy were let out of our school (prison) and got to visit the town that had sprung up around the school once it had been built. Word on the street was that our monthly visits alone accounted for over half of the town’s revenue. Considering we only got one visit a month, for the ten months we spent in school, it was a bit ridiculous. But it still made a bit of sense. The school, and by virtue of that, the town was nowhere close to anything of import. None of the major trade or residential centres were anywhere near here, so the traders couldn’t have got that much traffic. Add to that the fact that most of the traders seemed to deal in wares that I doubted would be of much use to the average fire nation peasant; you’d begin to understand why our school contributed so much. It took just as much, though. My Great-Great Grandfather had been the one to craft the town’s charter when he’d held the position of Headmaster for a short two-year stint before scandal had seen him retire in shame. The story had faded, relegated to the annals of history, but he never hesitated to make it clear in his journals that the seven teenage girls he’d slept with had been the ones to make advances at him. Needless to say, I had quite a few ancestors I wasn’t exactly proud of. Ignoring the pedophilia, though, the deal he’d crafted had been downright predatory. The school taxed the town a flat 50% and owned all the land in the town, renting it out as they pleased. Considering the school itself paid 0% in taxes to the Crown, they were making a killing from the town alone, without taking into account the exorbitant school fees they charged to the heirs of the old families. Well, it technically wasn’t a charge considering that the school was free, but some subtle social shaming around taking that option ensured that none but the most desperate of old families would take that option. Even Zhufu’s family, hard hit as they were, scrounged up the funds to pay tuition. The shame of not doing so was bloody. 

I listened as Lee and Toji spoke about the interesting scopes they’d got to see on their last visit. The town, as it normally did, swelled and expanded when the visiting days approached. Merchants from all over the fire nation would send envoys to set up pop-up shops in the hopes of getting the nation’s elite to purchase their overpriced goods. Since most of the friend group didn’t have as much disposable gold to throw at luxuries as Toji and I, we’d turned the visiting games into a game of trying to find the needles in the haystack. The affordable, fun options among the crowds of jewellery stores. Apparently, last time they’d found someone selling the ‘best Jasmine tea in the whole wide world’- Lee’s words, definitely not mine. Hyper as he was, Lee was a total tea nerd. Sullen and problematic as he was, Toji was much the same. It was one thing the two boys could bond over.

 Another thing they could bond over was their sheer fear of getting roped into shopping with the girls. It wasn’t like Maki or Zhufu would ever make anyone pay for their stuff. But it was still a chore, having to move from store to store, searching and haggling and picking up things here and there that you honestly could never be able to find the purpose for. Needless to say, it was torture. And also, needless to say, was that I was the one who ended up drawing that short end of the stick more often than most. At this point, it was part and parcel of the visiting day experience. 

“Let’s not split up this time, guys” Maki’s voice cut through Toji and Lee’s whispers and drew me from my thoughts. We all turned to face her in surprise-well, except Zhufu- and waited for her to explain what she was talking about. Whenever we tried shopping together in the past, it had turned into a terrible experience for all five of us, and we’d since outgrown any further attempts. “We’re older now than we used to be. Zhufu and I don’t really intend to pick that much up, and we could surely afford to spend much more time together as a group”. Her voice did not waver, but it sounded less sure than I was used to hearing from her, almost like she was hesitating about saying some words or looking for a better way to phrase things. She didn’t look at me when she said those words. Wasn’t even conspicuously looking everywhere but at me when she spoke them. It was just that it was really obvious just who she was speaking about. I’d been MIA for most of the month, and she must have been taking the opportunity to reconnect. 

When the silence had dragged on for too long, I could see Maki begin to retreat into her shell as she pulled her sleeves down even further to cover her hands and began to lean backwards in the chair. I decided to toss in my two cents behind her idea. “Splendid idea, Maki. I was just thinking exactly the same thing. In fact, the whole day is on me.” I said, smiling widely at her, only to get a shallow one in return. It was still something, at least. Better than nothing. The others instantly came around to the idea once I announced that I’d be paying for everything with Toji wolf-whistling before shooting me a thumbs up. He loved free stuff more than anything else, and I could already feel my wallet preparing to break into tears because he also loved expensive stuff more than anything else. 

XXXXXX

Our first stop, of course, was the food. There was nothing wrong with the food in school, but there was also very little that was right with it. It was food, just simple nourishment. Outside, though, here you could experience food that wasn’t just aimed at giving you all the nutrients your body needed in an efficient portion side. Zhufu practically ran to the freshly fried potatoes, and we followed her, chuckling all the while. She was never one to adapt to how the school viewed food and feeding us. To her, food was meant to be enjoyed on every level. 

“So, what do you have in mind for today?” I asked Maki as we walked into the town, following Zhufu’s trail. “I got a letter a few weeks ago from some of my friends outside” She said, pausing after those words and prompting me to ask more to get more from her. Sometimes, speaking with the orphan girl could be extremely frustrating

“And what did the letter say?” I finally asked, giving in and asking the question I knew she wanted me to ask. 

“Nothing in particular. Just that a certain group of people would be making their way to Academy Town today”, She said, drawing even more curiosity from me until she pointed to the side. 

I followed her hand and noted her pointing at a trial of smoke leading up into the air. That hadn’t been there before, I thought to myself as she ran forwards to catch up with everyone else and began dragging them to follow her. Zhufu was resistant, but eventually abandoned her pursuit of food as Maki assured her that we’d find even better food where we were going. That hint drew eyebrows from both Toji and I. It was clear that she knew a lot more than she was telling. 

In the end, we didn’t have to wait much to find the secret reason she’d wanted us to come in as a group. All we had to do was walk to the very opposite end of the town, and there it was. Or they, I guess. A series of tents. “The Carnival” Toji breathed in awe. I couldn’t fault him, as I was equally stunned. I never went out much with Grandfather as a child, but on one of the few occasions we’d done so, it was to see the performing travelling circus known as ‘The Carnival’. Needless to say, the experience had been magical. To see them here, was quite a surprise, and I clearly wasn’t the only one who thought so. The rest of the group stared at the canopies in awe, while Maki looked like the cat that just caught the canary. 

Zhufu was one of the first to snap out of it, and she was quick to grab on to my hand with a question on our lips, “what are we doing first?” Seeing as I had no idea, it was perhaps a good thing that Toji made the decision before anyone else and began walking for the large tent in the middle. 

XXXXXXX

“So I got your letter,” He said first, taking a sip of his tea and staring right at me from across the table. It was something else, watching him just sit there, knowing what he’d done and hid from me, acting like all was fine. 

“And never wrote back” I sniped. I’d sent the letter a month ago, and got nothing but silence in reply. If the Hawk had not returned with a letter confirming receipt from the postmaster at home, then I’d have even feared that it was intercepted or otherwise prevented from getting to its destination by some other force. 

“I decided to talk to you in person, instead. Some things are much too dangerous to be put to paper.”

“Indeed?” I asked sarcastically. “So a letter saying you’d talk to me in person was a bit too much for your old bones, huh?”

“Mind your tongue, boy. The Royal Family has put us in an extremely precarious situation. We have our gold, but the rest of the nobility treats it like it’s been infected with leprosy. I’d already had to change close to half our staff after a bunch of them resigned out of fear that the Fire Lord would punish them for working for us. I’ve had to pay well above the market price to tempt anyone back into our service. And that isn’t all. There’s half a million things going wrong at the same time. And you think I’d let you join that list? What were you even thinking, sending the application in without asking me or getting me involved at all.” 

“Is that really all you have to say about this?” I asked, cutting into his words as he continued to go right into the absolutely worst area of the thing. He was talking about failure to inform me like what he did wasn’t even worse. 

“Who informed who doesn’t matter. What matters, is that the fact that you don’t trust me. Not even to pass exams that I’ve basically been preparing for the better part of my life. Not even to let me know about the former. You just did what you did on your own without even thinking about what it would do to me, About how I would feel to be forced to let you down, only to find out that you were the reason I was letting you down all on your own.”

“Oh my sweet summer child. Who cares about the exam? I knew you’d smash the thing into pieces. You’ve never known failure in all your years, and this exam will not be anything different int that respect. I trust you in that. No, the reason I prevented you from writing the exam wasn’t that I didn’t trust you to pass it. It was that I knew you would”.

“What?”

“Look around you. Where do you think you are?” He asked a clearly rhetorical question. I wasn’t going to bite the bait into one of his teaching moments now, 

“You’re in the safest place in the fire nation for you that isn’t our manor. Surrounded by the heirs of the most prominent families in fire nation history, you are being offered two of the most valuable things ever, and it almost disappointed me to see you so willing to throw it all away.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked when it seemed like he wasn’t going to talk any more. My anger, a previously swirling firestorm, had settled and cooled to an extent. Not completely, but the cold winds of confusion were undeniably effective in the short term at least. I felt less like just burning the entire school around us to the ground, and instead felt like turning the wooden table he was leaning against into kindling. 

“I’m talking about the fact that you are spared from the dangers of the life outside. We are _persona non grata_ in the fire nation now, boy. You don’t realise what this means? You want to go fight in the war? Really? What happens when the General you’re placed under decides to send you into all the hot spots of the fighting. Into all the real danger. Make you the tip of every charge, not as a position of honour or because of trust in your abilities, but just because of the possibility that ending my line will grant him favour with the Royal Family. As a former General myself, I can tell you that Generals have done worse to preserve their standing or to gain an edge in court. All of us have much worse on our consciences than the lives of young, talented boys with idealistic dreams of reality and fictional patriotism.” He said, staring me down as he clapped his hand against the wooden table, making me flinch at the reminder of the strength in those old bones. 

“Without the family to protect you, the military will be a death sentence. And until Prince Ozai achieves his goal, the family cannot protect you. So what I need you to do is simple. Keep a low profile, excel in classes, make friends with those who are desirable to be friends with, cut off the dead weight and at the end of this, walk out with your head held high for surviving one of the most trying circumstances in our family’s history.” He said, leaning back into his chair and taking another sip of the tea that he’d almost knocked over with his previous clap against the table. His pale skin shined in the light from the fireplace, like marble dotted with veins. The wrinkles that spanned it had got deeper in the months I’d been away. All of this stressed him just as much as it did me, and I understood, but Ozai? Ozai was going to become a fucking mad man. Probably already was one. Who else would burn their own child so badly they’d end up scared for life. With just how much control I had over my fire and what I knew about the fire nation’s healing resources, it was clear that to make a burn like that one, you really needed to want it. It hadn’t been an accident. It was deliberate, premeditated, and cruel. A man who’d do that to his own son for a nonexistent insult was the exact opposite of the kind of person I’d be comfortable with Grandfather latching our futures onto. And then there was the other part of his statement. 

“Undesirables?” I asked, feeling a lead weight build in my stomach. No. Please no. Don’t do it. 

“Yes. Those friends of yours. They were acceptable enough before we got here. Now? Not even close. It seems like for all your bending talent and intelligence, you weren’t blessed with the ability to sus out useful friends from a crowd. Just look at who you surround yourself with. Firstly, there’s the one from the colonies. Trash with blood like his would never even be able to build nothing more than the most rudimentary talent with the sacred element. Then there’s the street urchin from that psychopath program. The thing only ever brought out one success, and he was still unsuitable for the military, spending his life now as a bounty hunter of all things. Two have slightly useful blood, but even among them there is room for improvement. Why would you pick the one Zenin with no ability to bend? And then there’s the girl. I’ve seen her scores. Failure at every corner from a family that hasn’t known greatness in centuries. I’m told all their gold was long squandered and all that remains is the reputation. One that will fade in due time. If these are the people-”

“Get out” I interrupted him, standing up and sending my chair flying across the room from the force with which I righted myself. I’d sat and taken that for too long. No, he couldn’t have said that about the people who’d been there for me throughout all this time. Now, as he spoke, it was almost like a fog was beginning to clear from my eyes. Like I was having my Saul turning into Paul moment, complete with scales falling from my eyes and al that. He sat there, shocked at my outburst and staring at me with coal-black eyes. I’d once compared our eyes to the charcoal of a freshly raged firestorm. Calm, but with promise. Now, it felt like I was seeing him for the first time. Those eyes are coal-black for a reason. Not the black of a firestorm that had run its course, but the black of a man whose soul was practically gone. That kind of black.

 “Get out” I repeated myself, pointing at the door. I couldn’t bear to keep looking at him. Not now. 

“This is my room” He said, looking unbothered by my outburst after the shock wore off. He picked up his cup again and took another sip of his tea. I stormed out, blood pounding in my head. 

A/N; Changed this a lot. The entire first half of this is new. How’s it looking?