Chapter 3: Invasion

Book 1 Episodes 19, 20

Hiraku is an idiot, plain and simple.

But he's neither plain, nor simple and that's what makes him such a pain. While he does as I ask, he constantly undermines my supposed authority – we're all consenting adults here, after all, even if we realise that a request from the chief is an order – in the smallest of ways. He doesn't say anything, really. And I caught him on a bad day, when I asked him to be my coordinator of sorts. I did 'chase' his girl away.

But it's very clear in the way he looks at me, and his tone when he speaks at me that he has no respect for my person.

Now, usually – because it's a very rare thing when I truly respect anyone instead of the usual respect you have for another human being – I don't mind. I can earn his respect, if it can reasonably be earned. But in this case, he's trying to make me out to be someone instated from the top, but not an accepted leader. Someone to resent. That's never good when it becomes a question of life or death. If he were questioning my competence outright, we could have an argument with a clear set of guidelines, but he's making it about wordless power-plays.

Should he succeed, my orders would be at best obeyed with a delay of receiving permission from Hiraku, at worst entirely ignored. Not only would it be bad, in the case of something with as much destructive power as this, it would be catastrophic.

The fact is that my proficiency measured against Hiraku's stand above his. Even in terms of experience I am one of the few benders who regularly take part in joint exercises in bending because of how close Pakku and I still are and how much he favours those exercises in his curriculum.

If Hiraku thinks he will be allowed to get anywhere with his actions, juvenile as they are, he's mistaken. He plays his games. I prepare for larger concerns. Of which neither he nor the others know, and my certainty may originally stem from a children's TV show, but I've kept an eye out, and there's been an increase in attacks on our border patrols.

Hiraku, while projecting disapproval of me and my methods at every turn is beginning to turn into nothing but an annoyance. He doesn't think beyond his envy. Might not even be aware of how malign it is turning out to be.

By the end of the third day, my patience has run out. What he is doing could endanger the entire city, not just my fragile self-confidence. This needs to be addressed. Even if it weren't endangering the entire tribe, his behaviour isn't acceptable for a supposed joint-effort.

Already there is resentment against me for my status with Pakku and Arnook. For the young age at which I became a master. I don't need him adding to it and hurting our chances of making this work. He chose the benders cleverly. Almost every single one of them holds some preconceived notions of my character.

Of course, not all of them are wrong. I am a lazy, mostly apathetic and arrogant person with advantageous social standing within the tribe.

What I am not is weak, or unsuited to the task.

Once I've sent the benders home with instructions to think about who they can best work in tandem with to ensure a smooth rise, I confront Hiraku. His face as I ask him to stay is a haughty grimace.

"What's the problem, Hiraku?"

He tries to brush me off, surprised that I would speak to him, instead of participating in his petty subterfuge and overt undermining of authority. "What? What problem?"

"Clearly, there is one. It's so obvious you might as well shout it out from the palace steps." Not helping, self.

I do need to get him to admit to his intentions, however. Not because I want to bring him before the council. I've always solved my problems myself, whenever I could. No, all I want is for him to realise how futile his efforts are. He's irritated me. I want him to know it.

He sneers.

I point a lazy finger. "See, that right there. That's the problem."

He schools his face into a blank mask in an immediate conditioned reaction. He looks slightly constipated.

I give him a kind smile. "Perfect, just like that. You need to keep that face. Then I'll believe you." And I'll keep having to suppress my laughter at it, if he does.

The mask shatters. I can almost hear it splinter. How many of those will dig deep into his cheeks to sting every time he gets a slap? "Your arrogance knows no bounds!"

"True. So?" Vaguely, I wonder if he would lunge to strangle me if I shrugged.

"So? So! You should not be the one to lead this effort! The recognition should not go to you at the demonstration! You have been too friendly with the Chief since your buddy Hahn got engaged to the princess!" He rants, spittle flying. I flick it away before it can reach me. "And that! The nonchalance with which you treat bending! I can't stand it!"

My tone is that of a person concerned with the taste of their sea prune stew. "Oh dear. That's quite a few more problems than I anticipated."

I know this isn't constructive. I know I'm not behaving in the best interest of conflict-solving. He's just irritated me for long enough that I can't hold myself back. I imagine he feels much the same way.

"Aarrgh!" he growls, and thrusts his palms out. Shards of ice shoot from the ground with me as their target. They're blunted, so not necessarily lethal. Still, they could break bones. Ribs, if I allow them to continue on their path.

I decide to prove his point. Instead of batting them away and launching my own attack, I clench one hand into a fist and crush them to dust. It shimmers prettily in the fading sunlight.

Fairy dust, part of my mind whispers.

Hiraku looks shocked. Ah, so he understands the significance of bending with only one part of the body. I'm almost insulted he thought I couldn't do it. Almost. This is a skill, while blatantly obvious now, that I keep close to my chest whenever I am not in trusted company.

However, I am aware of his level of self-absorption. While I was experimenting with it during our joint time as Pakku's students, he was busy preparing for becoming a master himself.

"Now, this is all very dramatic, but we don't have an audience to appreciate it." His face! His face! I almost crack up. It's worth not speaking of his little faux-pas seconds ago. One of our laws here states that attacking another bender in a not previously agreed capacity, such as sparring, results in trial and usually the penalty of being stripped of all honours and titles. That is, if no one got hurt.

It is a classic rendition of preventive law, to make the cost of consequence not worth the temptation.

He knows it, I know it, and it's an insult to not address this, as though he were beneath my notice. That's perfectly alright. I mean to insult. I am not generous enough to forgive all his slights without a bit of retaliation.

My smile is decidedly unpleasant. "I am giving you a choice: either stop undermining my authority, or don't bother showing up tomorrow."

Panic begins to spread over his face in twitches. It would be funny, if it weren't such a serious consequence for him. He knows I could destroy him, socially. I have the connections, and given the incentive I could do irreparable damage to his reputation. Even his mother on the council couldn't save him.

Not, that I would. Sometimes the threat is enough, and I certainly hope that this is one of those times. I could also hurt him physically. Call it a spar. We find such practises as Agni Kais barbaric, but who could possibly account for accidents? Not two masters, of course not, what are you on about?

"The others will follow me!" Could this be more cliché? He may have chosen them well, but he forgets to account for what it means for every single one of them to shun the honour of being part of this, part of a new sequence that our Sister Tribe brought to us.

"Will they?" I shrug, "We can let it play out, if you like. But think about it for a moment. While I've been doing nothing but heling things along on a personal level, you've been the one at the head pointing out mistakes with a condescending air."

"I am condescending? You're the arrogant one! The favoured one!"

So there lies the heart of the problem, as I thought. Because Pakku was my teacher, I'm regarded as favoured along with talented. Hiraku was his student as well, and should have also received that prestige. He still does, to a degree, in addition to his mother's connections.

But I've stolen some of his thunder in finishing early, in being called a prodigy. Not a perfect little one, no, I acted out enough for that not to be attributed to me, but being perfect wasn't enough to step out from my shadow for Hiraku, it seems.

I wait a moment to allow him to catch his breath. He's a bit embarrassed to have shouted, I can tell. Looking immature compared to me of all people is an achievement. I'd feel accomplished. Then again, most people make an effort to appear grown-up.

"I wonder whether they'll give up the chance to be part of something that could, if implemented properly, make the difference between the lives and deaths of a few hundred people."

He rears back as if slapped. I did, verbally and if it's not stinging yet, my next words will ensure it. "Now, will you get your act together, or do I need to ask Master Pakku to supervise the men because you can't?"

And that, that cuts deepest. For me to insinuate that his old master had better never let him go, that Pakku needs to fix his mistakes, that's me gouging out a pound of flesh from his pride.

This is my petty little revenge.

He can count himself lucky that I'm not into public humiliation.

His lips press into a white line, his fists clench at his sides and I'm expecting another attack any time soon, half-hoping for his hurt to hold so much sway over him that he gives in and revises his approach.

He does neither. Instead, he surprises me and reigns in his emotions. "I have underestimated you."

I don't smother the amusement that bubbles in my chest. "Everyone does."

He runs a hand over his oiled hair. He seems frustrated, unsteady and suddenly oddly defeated. His fur-wrapped shoulders lower as his head does in a half-bow. "I can see that now. You… have my apologies."

Oh, that must've hurt. He's even using the proper gestures for a semi-official apology.

I nod cordially, even a bit meanly, completing the small ritual. "So," I extend my hand, "Shall we work together from now on?"

He shakes it like it's causing him physical pain. Who knows, it might be.

It might also be causing me joy to believe it does.

.

A day and a half before the night of the full moon, I've managed to get everyone to harmonise dry, but with actual bending, someone always messes up. It's clear why. Someone always struggles with the rhythm, the meshing of desires. I expect it. but some are getting too excited. I am, too, but I'll save my enthusiasm for smug satisfaction once we've accomplished our goal.

Admittedly, it's a steep one – excuse the pun. But we're master waterbenders, and that title stands for something.

It gets better with every try, even manages to be large enough that we move to the wall. Our best run so far has spanned along the entire bay's width and reached the height of our waists as we stand on the city wall. Then someone got excited again.

Emotions can't actually be felt in harmonised bending but that sort of quivering in our bending is unmistakable.

"Alright, lunch break," I tell the benders who are all too happy with my decision. Some are sweating with exertion. That's just poor stamina.

Hiraku silently disagrees with me, but he doesn't know that soon enough it'll be hailing fireballs. At least he's stopped his little gestures and faces that bothered me in the first place. For the sake of our partnership, I even go so far as to share my special Yugoda-brew with him.

His face when he tastes it does something funny, then he looks at me, and eyes his cup suspiciously.

"It's meant to be this bitter," I reassure him, and watch him debate whether he should take another sip.

Overhead, the Avatar's flying bison makes for the palace at break-neck speeds.

Hiraku swallows another mouthful and grimaces.

"An acquired taste," I admit with a quirk of my mouth, "But it helps with staying awake and alert."

He nods silently, expression still slightly pinched. Suddenly, all he seems to be to me is painfully inexperienced. Like a child tasting coffee for the first time and realising it doesn't match their palate, only to keep drinking to seem grown-up. He's lived his entire life in this bubble of a society. The most foreign agent in all of this is me. And I've not been the best first contact.

Ever since we were children, Pakku's students, I've been nothing but an irritant to him.

Inside my head, I laugh at myself. All these realisations because of this meagre substitute for coffee.

I search my basket that I brought the tea in for some of that sweet honey I packed together with the double-layered clay canister that I needed to have specially made, only for it to be sold like, well, the most useful thing since the invention of hot showers. These two things are mostly what convinced the civilians that I'm a genius. We've only installed them in the public bathhouses, though.

"Here," I offer the honey to Hiraku. He stares at it a little, hesitant.

"That's expensive." He doesn't seem the type to worry about what costs what. He's lived his entire life with a silver spoon in his mouth. So why care now? Does he think I'm not as well-off? I get a princess' guard's salary. It more than gets me by.

"I don't want it to go to waste," I say, daring him to tell me that honey doesn't go bad.

He looks both confused and irritated now. Slowly, he reaches out for the small jar. At this rate, the tea will be cold before the sweet stuff has dissolved. Spirits. What's wrong with a little impatience?

I decide to ignore him and his uneducated watertribe poise. Maybe I should get out more, spread my personal brand of enlightenment among the younger generation.

Next to me, Hiraku makes a noise of pleasant surprise.

Spirits, this man-child will be the death of me.

.

It's Pakku who brings us the news. His face and posture are tight. Hiraku and I share a brief look. As his former students, we can read the mood, and it does not bode well for anyone who shows the old master 'impertinence'.

"The Fire Nation is attacking," he speaks quietly, but his voice carries even now. All activity around us halts. On some faces, I see apprehension. Others are already fearful.

When they meet my eyes, though, they straighten up. Good. They'll be needing that pride later. If I, the city's most privileged bender am not afraid, how could they allow themselves to be?

"The fleet is only hours away. Our patrols must have been wiped out before they could strike alarm."

Which is unfortunate. Undoubtedly, there were some friends among them. One could hope that before the actual siege, the Fire Nation still felt charitable enough to take prisoners and that we have the opportunity to free them.

"Well…" I say, more to myself than anyone else, "Shit. There goes my date."

Hiraku smiles, and some of the men chuckle. My date, as it were, would have been the evening shift for Yue, since Arnook's noticed that she's been sneaking out alone. He knows that I'd have just gone and escorted her to her meeting place with Sokka, but someone would have been with her and that's what he cares about. That I wouldn't say anything to Yue about it is why she wouldn't protest.

I pull Pakku aside to suggest a strike team sinking ships from underwater. He both hates and loves the idea. Hates, I have no idea why, but loves because Pakku, no matter how strict he seems, has nothing against sabotaging the enemy.

So he gives me seven rested benders and I lead them into the bowels of the city, where when you open the passage to one particular cellar, you arrive at the entrance to the tunnels that lead you outside the city. The water level rises with the tide, so sometimes the room is entirely flooded, but tonight we get to pick which one to take on dry land.

In some cases, it doesn't matter, because they meet beneath the city. But in this case, we need to be quick to engage, and so choosing the correct one is important.

Thankfully, one of the other benders, Talak, a middle-aged man with a thick beard knows these tunnels well. He's one of the few seal hunters we have. He leads our descent.

We leave the city through one of the tunnels that open up into the ocean about a mile in front of the gate. The tunnels are checked over regularly, and too long for even seals to make use of to invade our city from below. We're in a large, bullet-shaped bubble of air that two of us propel forward fitted perfectly to the diameter of the tunnel. It's large enough that the air might last us until we're back out of range of the Fire Nation ships.

If not, well, we're waterbenders, we can navigate dangerous waters. Usually, it's us that make them unsafe in the first place. It's not like we're pirates. But we do like to control who enters our territories.

We're too fast to see much, but the ship isn't hard to find.

It looks out of place in this bay of ours. We know it well, from above the waves, and beneath.

It's easy to sink by prying the metal hull apart at the seams. It's done so quickly, I'm almost concerned that it's a trap. No doubt, in the long run it sort of is, with all that oil spillage. But thankfully, these are warships. There are no large oil tanks aboard. Just enough to get here, muck about a bit, and go back. Besides, there are methods of cleaning it away. It will take weeks, but if we all work together, and isolate the oils, we might even have some to power the experimental machinery that we don't have. Those are thoughts for another time.

We gain some distance and watch as some of the crew rescue themselves into a small longboat. The others must still be trapped inside.

I make the decision to scout the numbers of the rest of the fleet. So we surface for air, and sink back down into the black depths of our element.

The first one wasn't a trap, but it was a ship they did not expect to see return, because taking out three of the larger ones takes a bit more work. The hull is double-layered, and we're forced to open up the hull in various places. The ships are so large, they've built separate compartments that they can completely close off and remain seaworthy.

We sample only those three, but we do wait to see how many soldiers drown, and how many are rescued. No sense in wasting a perfectly good opportunity for gauging their numbers.

There are Komono Rhinos attempting to tread the water, but their weight proves too much of a challenge. Each of the ships we sink have several trebuchets and must have at least a hundred soldiers each, and those are only the numbers we definitely see. About half of them drown before the other ships send out longboats to rescue them. I hope they all get pneumonia.

Carefully, I avoid thinking of them as people.

Upon our return there is a large crater in the wall, but the rest of the city seems to have survived unscathed, except for the towers of ice, each holding a cooling metal orb, spanning a man's length in diameter, and three in height.

Pakku and Arnook greet us in front of the gate to the streets of the city.

"Well?" Pakku demands, eyes flickering over each of us, satisfied not to see blood.

"There must be about a hundred and twenty Empire class battleships on their way. We took out three of the larger ones. They had Komodo Rhinos and Fire Nation Cruisers on board. Not to mention the trebuchets." I let my eyes wander to one icy popsicle tower they erected in our absence. "The larger ones have compartments they can seal off to remain afloat even as the hull is breached. It's double-layered, and I suspect that parts of it can be removed if the outer layer becomes too damaged. There are at least a hundred soldiers and at least ten rhinos to a ship."

"Very well," Arnook thinks for a moment as he takes us in, mostly smug and only slightly worse for wear. "How effective would multiple such expeditions be? Could we reasonably pick off those that are close enough to pose a danger to our walls without better spending those efforts in defending the city?"

Pakku and I trade a look, both calculating. This wasn't particularly tiring, but could we eight have been of better use here, had we not been needed to scout? No. The fiery projectiles were all caught before doing any damage, except the one buried in the city wall.

"If we chose strategically… The ships with the most trebuchets, then the ones with the most chances of breaching the wall," I suggest, and Pakku nods thoughtfully.

"Can you judge which ones they are from below the surface?"

I exchange glances with my fellow scouts. No, we can't.

"Then, we'll need the Avatar's help."

Aang, it seems, has already been helping out, destroying trebuchets, and admiring our work from above. We rest while we wait for him to return from his… rampage.

A determined airbending master can deal out a lot of damage.

With how he lost his entire people not a few months ago, he's fairly goal-orientated to keep the Fire Nation at bay. Or outside of our bay.

It's decided that it will be Sokka, as well as one of the more observationally adept warriors who will go up with him, to mark the positions of the ships we want sabotaged the most. They both have good eyesight, and that will be necessary for accurately gathering the information we need.

Before we prepare even more, we hold war council. This is where we determine objectives and missions. Some clear order with a clear purpose will do everyone good.

Currently, some of the citizens look like they're getting ready to play headless chicken. Tui and La save us all from that nightmare.

We don't really practise what to do in the case of an invasion. People know to pack their things, though, and supplies, and move towards the palace where they can be directed into the caverns carved from the ice walls surrounding the city. They are emergency shelters at worst, cool hideouts for children at best.

Now, their true purpose will fill them to the brim.

.

Warriors and benders alike have all assembled in the great hall of the palace. It now serves as the war council's base of operations, and where ideas are carried to the table to be considered. So long as you are someone, you will be heard. Now it pays to have friends. Or be those friends.

"While I am hesitant to launch an attack, we may well be operating on a tight schedule. The numbers we face prove too steep," Arnook says, as he addresses the assembled troops, "With the moon so close to being full, we should be able to ambush the fleet."

Pakku steps up to outline what the rough plan is, so that then we can add our ideas. So long as you're one of those who get one of the cushions to sit on, you can speak. Very liberal. It's about the money, after all.

"We have decided to send out several strike teams to take out the ships from underwater, as we did this afternoon to find out their numbers. While the Fire Navy will be busy rescuing their fellow soldiers from drowning, the group of thirty who have been practising the new sequence from the Avatar will perform the wave two miles outside the city and freeze it, to add another layer of defence."