Chapter 10.1- And so the Dragons Danced

“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 precariuous situation. We have our gold, but the rest of the nobility treats it like iots 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, cuting into his words as he continued to go right uto the aboslutely worst area of the thing. He was atalking about gailure to inform me like what he did wasn’t even worse.

“Who informed who doesn’t matter. What matters, id that the fact that you don’t trust me. Not to pass exams I’ve basically been preparti g for for the better part of my life. Not even to let me know about the former. You just did what you did on your ownwithout even thinking about what it would do to me, Abiut how I would feel to be forced to let yo donw, only to find out that you wer ethe reason I was letting you donw  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 faulure in all your years, and this ecxam will not be anything different int that trespect. 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 arounf 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 themost prkminent families in fire nation history, you are being offered two of the most valuabkle things ever and it almost disappointed me to see y0ou so willing tio throw it all away.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked when it seemed like he wasn’t going to talk anymore. 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 hjust burning the entire school around us to the ground, and instead felt like turning the wooden table he was leaning agaisnt into kiundling.

“I’m talking about the fact that you are spared from the dangers of the klufe outside. We are persona non grata in the fire nation now, bioy. You don’t realise what this means? You want to go fight 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, niot 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. Every single one of us have much worse on our consciences than the lives of young talented boyus 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 gotten 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? None at all. 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 sooner or later. 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 own 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 raged firestorm, 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; Another half a chapter done. Please pardon the inevitable typos, this is raw.