The Meeting
This chapter is dedicated to (Mister Vii).
For the additional chapter, we have 97 stones left to collect.
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The day after the Fire Nation Princess arrived at Yu Dao Colony.
"How appetising everything is, I wish I could try it. Ooh! How about these?" - I prompt Azula with a selection of sweets for tea.
Right at that moment I was behind her back, we were looking at the menu of the local pastry shop together. It turns out that in this era, they already have them. My surprise was unbounded when I saw the menu. I immediately wanted to try everything, just like a little kid. It's been a long time since I've had a sweet tooth, and Zula wasn't exactly eager to help me with that. Her strict upbringing was showing in all its glory, as well as the rumours about the dangers of sweets.
After looking through the menu, Azula called for the waitress.
- We'll take these," Zula shows the waitress her choice. - And also the jasmine dragon, for me and my friend.
- Okay, in ten minutes it will be ready, but I have to warn you that this tea is very expensive, - the girl politely replies, taking the menu from her hands and leaving the table.
- We have enough money," Azula replied
This pastry shop, by the way, the best in the province, opened only half an hour ago. There were very few customers, so they didn't have to wait long to order. Soon, Azule and Mei brought delicious desserts along with cups of hot tea. Having listened to his opinion, Zula herself wanted to test the truth of these words by scheduling an important meeting in this pleasant place. It was true that she had come here too early. I wonder if it was her punctuality or a personal desire? After all, we all want to taste something sweet sometimes.
"And they're even more beautiful in person," I sadly note the mouth-watering sweetness I'm not destined to taste.
- Jasmine dragon... - May says calmly, sitting opposite at the same table and looking at the served cup of tea.
- Do you care anymore? I ordered for the two of us since you said you don't care,' Azula replied to her friend.
- I don't care about the taste of the tea. I just remembered it's your uncle's favourite drink," Mei said almost emotionlessly, taking a sip, after which she reached for a piece of sweet rice cake. Taking a bite, she smiles faintly and says, "Delicious.
- Yes, that's exactly what it is. A governor treated me to one at a meeting. - Azula takes a sip of jasmine tea. - It's not bad. And how do you know my uncle's favourite tea?
- 'From your brother,' May replies calmly.
- 'Zu-zu...' Azula says with a touch of condescension. - Do you correspond with him? How is his search for honour and reason going?
- So far he's only found every possible type and recipe for tea. In his last letter he said the whole ship smelled of it," May replies with a slightly wider smile, clearly remembering something good.
After these words Azula frowned and fell silent. She did not wish to talk about her relatives anymore. Unpleasantly bitter feelings arose in the girl's chest every time she remembered them. Even the red sweet bean rolls didn't taste so good after bringing up the subject.
The conversation suddenly ended on its own. The girls preferred to drink tea in silence and savour the taste of the sweet cakes. The princess, immersed in her own thoughts, looked at the usual people - visitors and customers of the place with interest. Out of the corner of her eye, Azula noticed May looking at her with a steady gaze.
"Sweets are so pleasant and so distant. I wonder if this establishment allows you to buy sweets to take with you? I would greatly appreciate it," I remind Azula of my presence. Staring at the sparse visitors to the teahouse proves to be surprisingly boring.
Zula cast a calm glance at where I was. Her eyes travelled over my ghostly figure from head to toe. Without holding her gaze, she returns to the sight of her tea and gingerbread. And that's the moment May chose to speak.
- You know, you've changed," May says in a calm tone, placing the empty cup on the table.
- Why would you think that? I'm still the same Azula you've known since you were a child," the princess replies, meeting her friend's confident gaze.
- It's hard to say exactly what the changes are, but in general your behaviour has changed, as well as your reactions to certain things. You're... softer. Yes... softer," May continued to ponder aloud calmly, not reacting to the way Zula's eyebrows shifted menacingly.
"Personality changes throughout existence. Change is the essence of life, there is nothing to fear or lie to yourself about. I'm sorry, I won't distract you from your conversation with your friend," I deliberately cut into the conversation, earning an angry look from the princess.
- Nonsense," Azula replies confidently, not going to agree with our opinions.
- Interest in a tea you couldn't stand before - only Mei had her own set of arguments and facts.
- I've never tried it, - however, the princess was not going to give up without a fight, starting to justify herself.
- May's soft spot for the Mayor's daughter, Cory.
- She's just a child, albeit a little talented. And she can serve me and the country well in the future.
- That hasn't stopped you from killing her before. And most importantly, we came here as ordinary citizens. Look," Mei glances around at the sparse crowd of people in the place, starting to speak more softly, "none of them have any idea of your status. You even dressed appropriately so as not to attract attention. Buying a few things you'll probably never wear again.
"Green looks disgusting on you, by the way," I don't stay out of the conversation, inserting my 'important' opinion.
- Enough," the princess says coldly, raising her hand, "that's enough. I just got bored with the adoration of everyone. Once, I wanted to know how people would behave with me if they didn't know who I was. Is it really taboo for a person of my status? Never mind, you don't have to answer," Azula explained more to herself than to her friend, thinking hard towards the end.
Mei watched the princess' changes in silence. It was hard to tell from her cold face what the girl was thinking, I decided to once again take the floor.
"There's no shame in being curious about everything new and unknown. At your age, everything unknown and forbidden seems so interesting and exciting. I understand you, May does too, it's just that she prefers to keep quiet, as usual. Order another cup, take some rolls with you and don't forget to enjoy yourself. Life, you know, is precious for moments like this," I say to Zula, who's paying attention to me, putting my hand on her shoulder, becoming partially material. No one can see me anyway, no matter how hard I try, but the girl, sensing my support, contorted the edges of her lips in a slight smile.
- Another cup?
- I wouldn't say no...
After some time spent by the girls for silent drinking of tea, the one we were waiting for came to the confectionery. A man whose appearance is perfectly described by the word stern or even formidable. A metre wide, two metres tall. Bald, bearded, muscular, with a tattoo on his forehead and gleaming prosthetic right leg and arm. As soon as he entered, all the visitors turned their eyes on such an interesting and formidable visitor. Yes, the mercenary was imposing, very imposing by his appearance alone. But for those who knew his reputation, more impressive were his skills in fire magic and his ability to conquer the special magic of explosions. However, I personally wondered how he got such prosthetics and how he used them.
And while I was wondering about that, the man looked over every customer in the pastry shop, making almost everyone present shiver. Then he headed towards Azula, recognising her as the princess at a glance.
The conversation between the mercenary and his employer was shockingly short, and his voice was intimidating. Reluctantly, the visitors began to retreat from the candy shop, not wanting to be with such an imposing man. The man was agreeable to all of Azula's terms, however he asked for his price. The price was small for a princess of the world's dominant country, but quite large by local standards. But before sealing the contract, Azula wished to see the special magic of the explosion. To do so, the girls and the mercenary travelled far beyond the walls of the city.
- You have so few scars on your body, but you are missing an arm and a leg. Who was able to take them from you? - Trying to learn more about the mercenary, Azula wonders, once our company had just left the walls of the city.
- No one. Magic," the man replied with some difficulty in a bass voice, as if every word brought him pain.
The princess still tried to find out more about him, but he said that his throat was also damaged. Speaking to him was not very pleasant, and frankly, painful. So he was terribly silent and spoke in very short phrases, sometimes using only gestures. I spent the entire journey looking at the mercenary's energy, straining my eyes.
He was an ordinary fire mage. Or rather, he was a good fire mage with perfectly developed energy and powerful Qi. In some places, his energy was even better than Azula's and her father's! Namely, his belly chakra and forehead chakra were open. But that wasn't the only thing that made me look at this cabinet for so long. My interest was in his missing limbs, or rather in the glands that replaced those limbs for him.
His prosthetic limbs, they didn't work because of technology, but because of Qi! I don't know who thought of that, but it was insanely ingenious. It was as if the mage had become fused with his prosthetic limbs and could control them almost as freely as his own limbs. Watching this work was very interesting. So interesting that I missed the way to the place of testing, as well as the beginning of the tests, too interested in the activity in the mercenary's body.
I was distracted from my thoughts by a powerful clap, as if a powerful firecracker or even a grenade had exploded somewhere nearby. Out of the corner of my eye I even noticed a flash of light somewhere off to the side. As soon as I turned around, I immediately noticed a small crater about a hundred metres away from our group. It was about two metres in diameter and was right in the middle of a dense mass of earth. There were no city walls visible, so we must have moved quite far away from Yu Dao.
- Excellent, now show me the most powerful magic you're capable of," the princess ordered with obvious enthusiasm. She clearly enjoyed the spectacle.
The man looked at her doubtfully. Seeing the predatory glint in her eyes, he didn't say anything. Picking a target farther away, he tensed his abdominal muscles sharply while leaning forward slightly. A barely perceptible beam shot out from his forehead, which almost instantly covered a distance of hundreds and hundreds of metres. After that, a bright flash of light appeared in the distance, and a second later we were stunned by the sound of an explosion. The shockwave even reached here, ruffling the girlfriends' hair.
- Great! You work for me from now on!
The man didn't answer anything. While the princess, her friend and the mercenary were walking back to the city, I managed to fly down and look at the traces of the explosion magic. The huge hole formed at the site of the explosion was impressive, very impressive. I wanted to compare it to the familiar destructive power of conquering lightning. I did. Its magic does indeed surpass lightning by an order of magnitude, if not several. You can hide from lightning, redirect it, protect yourself with metal, but you can't do that with a powerful explosion. Not to mention that a mercenary creates an explosion faster than Ozai creates lightning. I think Zula figured all of this out as well, immediately wishing to get her hands on such a power.
After quickly catching up with the group, I continued to examine the mercenary's Qi. I had the impression that he could repeat a dozen or more such explosions. How had such power been overlooked by the authorities? Ozai might not be so clever, but Azulon, how did he miss this diamond? Senile senility? Probably.
And while I was thinking about these questions and the mercenary's past, he and Azula managed to reach the city, draw up a contract, sign it and seal it with a special imperial seal. After that, the man travelled to Azula's ship. He was even provided with a chaperone. There were enough free cabins on the ship, and the budget would feed one more person. Especially if he was so valuable and strong. Finished with the mercenary, the princess returned to the mayor's estate to check on the state of affairs in the colony. Mei followed her friend the whole time. They went about their business until the evening.
At one point, Azula ordered her friend to wait. Immediately after, she glanced at me, shooting a glance in the direction of the door that led to the deserted room. The hint was obvious and clear.
- Yoaru, I want to talk to you," the girl ordered in a commanding tone, walking over to the chair and sitting down on it in the familiar Empress pose.
"It's been a while since you've spoken to me in that tone," I remark with a smile, flying higher towards the ceiling, causing the girl to look up at me from below. The topic of conversation was as clear as the day outside the window.
- His magic, can I learn it? - And here was the reason for her behaviour. Yes, Zula was more interested in this magic than some fire healing.
"I think so, and it will be much easier than healing. There's nothing complicated about explosion magic. It's just like with lightning, most of the creation process is identical. The key difference is to combine negative and positive Qi not in your own body, but far beyond it. Did you see his beam? It was exactly the Qi of different polarities, technically it is not one ray, but two rays that join at the point of explosion. The connection point can be controlled, it doesn't have to face an obstacle," I shared everything I had learnt during the day. There was no reason for me to hide this information, because whatever Azula can do, I can do.
- I wonder..." Zula said thoughtfully. - And how did such power go unnoticed by her father?
"I wonder about that too. In any case, do not dare to train without my presence. There will need to be much more to talk to Berkrut about his magic. You've seen for yourself how dangerous that sub-species of fire magic is. You'll be without a limb or two," I tell her sternly, making her frown in indignation.
- Who do you think I am? - The princess was indignant.
"A power-obsessed maniac?" - I say back, not without a share of snarkiness.
Snorting, the girl turned round offended, heading for the exit of the room. As they say: oops, offended. And I knew how she was overreacting.
"I was joking, you're actually a vulnerable girl that no one understands. I didn't mean to offend you, Zula. But hey, weren't we planning on attending a performance at the circus this evening?"
- Your apologies are pretty meagre. Perhaps you could try to improve them with poetry? - Stops the princess, turning around to show off her grin.
"Huh. A familiar situation, yet meeting Tai Li awaits, or are you afraid of meeting your childhood friend?"
- Here's more.
With another snort, she left the room. I followed, wanting to meet Tai Li as much as Azula. In the princess's memory, she was the most interesting person Zula had ever met, and of course I liked her. I wished to see her in person, not from memory. After finishing our business at the mayor's mansion, we travelled with May to the circus. The invitations to the performances had been bought yesterday, and for the sake of them, the princess did not even hesitate to strain her people. On the way I told the princess to buy flowers for her friend, she agreed and bought them, earning another strange look from May. After that, the girls went straight to the show.
Zula and I had long ago discussed options for inviting her friend to join the team. With a little prompting from me, she came up with a harmless plan. Or else her threats could have ruined the relationship with such a positive person and caused a possible betrayal. Remembering how the princess had changed since we'd met, I waited for the performance to begin. People were seating themselves. As usual, Azula and Mei took the seats for the special people.
The performance began...
I didn't see anything exciting or amusing in the performance, although the people around me were enjoying themselves. The audience was oohing and aahing in delight and laughing at the local clowns. Alas, I could not understand the local humour. And so, the circus was just like a circus, but in this world it was a little different. The fire mages were doing various tricks, using magic for the amusement of the audience. Huge men carried equally huge things and showed off their bogatyr strength. Various jugglers, painted clowns, throwers and swallowers of all kinds of sharp and long things, and other clowning for the amusement of the audience. In general, there was nothing special in it.
Separately it is necessary to allocate except that various numbers with trained animals that performed various tricks. I admired them with sadness and interest. The local nature did its best, having created a lot of incomprehensible animals and adding to it hybrids of already familiar to me representatives. And I was sad because of harmless animals, which are trained for tricks and amusement of other, especially stupid animals. In general, looking at unfamiliar animals was the most interesting thing in the circus. The fire tricks were just tricks, and the rest of the clowning was uninteresting to me.
The last act was the acrobats. They were last for a reason. It was the best the circus had to offer. And the favourite, of course, was Tai Li. She was much prettier than in my memory, so to speak, a distant childhood friend grown into a beautiful girl. Involuntarily I stared at her, her beauty, flexibility, sense of balance and insanely beautiful smile, the girl was so cute that I did not notice how the show ended.
- Come on, it's time to meet my friend in person," Azula commanded and she and Mei followed in the opposite direction of the crowd that was heading for the exit.
Getting 'backstage' was a breeze. No guards or forbidding signs. And where only the circus management looks? However, if we remember Tai Li's skills... and if the others in the circus are as talented, they have nothing to fear. The girls found their friend in the private dressing room. Which was no small acknowledgement of her talent. Tai Li herself was taking off her make-up, standing on her hands in front of the mirror and using only her legs.
- Tai Li... - the princess was the first to speak.
- Ah... - the gymnast turns around, a moment of recognition flashes in her eyes and her face breaks into a smile. - Azula!
The girl jumps from hand to foot, twists, twists, twists, twists and somehow falls down in a special way, performing an overly respectful bow to the princess, actually falling at her feet. After waiting a second or two, she rises abruptly, and quickly draws closer to Zula, enclosing her in a hug.
- May! It's so good to see you! Were you at the performance? I thought I was imagining it, but I saw you! I didn't think you'd ever come here for a performance," the girl said excitedly, happy to see her friends.
- As cheerful as ever," May replied coolly, stoically tolerating her friend's friendly feelings as she threw her arms around her. However, despite her tone, she also hugged Tai Li in return.
- 'Here, this is for you,' Azula hesitantly holds out a bouquet of flowers, catching another glance from Mei.
- Flowers? For me personally? Thank you," the acrobat buried her nose in the bouquet, inhaling the scents of fresh flowers and feeling genuinely happy. It seems that she was even embarrassed by such attention. But no, I must have imagined it.
I continued to admire the girl. Up close I was able to appreciate her beauty much better than from afar. But not only her beauty and impressive forms captivated my gaze. Her aura, stood out from anything I had ever seen. And the chakras, they were open! Absolutely all the chakras were open. I'd never met a person with all their chakras open before.
- Yes, we were looking at that... what do you call it? - Azula continued to speak in her own manner, but then Lee turned around to put the bouquet on the table, only I was behind her.
- Oh, who are you? - we meet eyes. - Is he a new acquaintance of yours? - Leigh turns her head, looking to her friends for answers....