Kilin sighed as she sat by her patient's bedside. Despite the close call, despite that brief moment of panic, she felt exasperation and annoyance instead of relief or concern as she regarded her patient.
"What did I say about getting out of bed?" she warned in a maternal tone.
Xing gave her a sheepish look as he shrugged, the black patch on his cheek contorting a little to betray his clenching jaw. "Don't?"
She felt an urge to pinch and twist his ear. "That's right. You're still weak. That you can sit up and talk is already a miracle in itself."
"Bu-"
Her hand shot up to cut his excuses off, her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Just because you feel a little better doesn't mean you can try walking out of here, got it?"
There was a heavy pause as the boy processed her threat, and then he finally gave a sober nod. Kilin glared at him for a moment longer before she waved her hands and melted the ice encasing him and his bed, bending the water into a nearby barrel.
"You're lucky your men were around to catch you. If you broke your nose, I'd be using the older methods of fixing it. The one that used hot water and metal pegs."
Xing sank into his bed, rightly mortified at the scolding, yet looking uncanny because of it. Rare were the moments where the healer saw him behaving as a boy his age should. There was a pang of melancholy, but Kilin pushed it away in favor of keeping up appearances.
Like every other brat with too much energy and too little sense, this little Scorpion should be made to understand the gravity of his situation.
She let out a soft sigh. "Just rest up, boy. Your princess and soldiers have got things sorted, from what I've heard. Or would you rather I send them in here with the knowledge of your latest exploits?"
Xing's head shook quickly, causing the old healer to smirk.
Typical of kids his age. Ignore the wisdom of elders, but appreciate the same words coming from his peers. Or girlfriend.
"Now, since you haven't wasted my time by breaking anything new, and you think you're strong enough to try and walk, we might as well try to purge more of that poison out of you."
This time Xing sat back up again, his sheepishness giving way to firm resolve as he nodded. Kilin looked at the blackened skin on his cheek and wondered not for the first time how lucky and unlucky it was that Xing got poisoned.
Lucky, because out of all the potential victims there that day, he was the only one who could've survived the poisoned arrow. Unlucky, because for all his clothes and armor, the arrow had to graze his face. Short of his heart, even getting his dick pricked would've been less of a pain to detox thanks to chi circulation.
The refined poison was an insidious thing, almost tailored against benders. Rather than rotting the flesh around the wound, or destroying the body through tainted blood pumping through the veins, this nasty concoction corrupted its victim's chi. The poison would circulate through the victim's chi network, tainting the chakras so that it would further propagate the tainted energy.
Waterbending healing would unwittingly exacerbate the matter, as it relied on redirecting and focusing chi to accelerate the body's restoration. Doing so with tainted chi would likely see the focused areas rotting away faster and chi pathways eroded. Because of that, the usual bandaid of meditation would also accelerate the poisoning rather than slow it.
On any normal victim, the poison was crippling at best, especially for benders due to scarred chi networks and tainted chakras. At worst, it would lead to an ugly death as the body's lifeforce destroyed its vessel from the inside out.
Mercifully, Xing was not a normal victim. His already broken chi pathways meant that the poison couldn't circulate within his body. Curtailed in such a manner, the poison was a much easier thing to deal with; only his infected cheek was at risk of rotting away from the toxin's more conventional effects. Compared to disintegrated chi pathways, dealing with necrosis was as easy as building an ice castle.
Still, devious little shits, Fong's people. Lead with what was essentially a harpoon launched from far away, and follow up right after with an envenomed arrow to score a bonus hit as people were reacting to the bolt. The archer was an amazing shot to do such a follow up, Kilin had to give them that.
A pity they'd likely not be able to use a bow anymore after this, one way or another.
Kilin leaned closer to her patient and bended out a blob of water from the barrel. Applying the water to blackened skin, she carefully regulated the chi within the water, which in turn interacted with Xing's chi into accelerated healing.
"Now, take it slow…"
The healer didn't care as the water rapidly heated up - firebenders were all heat resistant to a degree, and what's a little scalding anyway. She focused instead on the chi within it, monitoring the healing process. A decent healer knew how much to use to close up a wound, a good one could ensure no scar formed, and a bad one might cause an outbreak of tumorous lumps instead.
Kilin liked to think she was a very good healer, considering her record so far.
Xing closed his eyes as he visibly focused, sweat forming on his brow as he did his best to localize his flow of chi. For a lad who lacked precision and fine control, he was doing a passable job of maintaining a workable, if somewhat unstable, flow of energy. Like using a pail to administer droplets.
"Alright, do you feel any discomfort?"
"Just some tingling around the area…"
"Tingling's good. Your nerves are regrowing."
Certain that she's found a clear separation between tainted and untainted flesh, Kilin focused her healing around the black patch, outlining it with her own chi. She numbed the area as best as she could before leaning back and giving Xing a nod.
"Right. You have a feel for the area? Good, go for it."
The boy winced, and the water rippled for a fraction of a second before it exploded into mist, along with a good chunk of purplish pus and blackened flesh. With one hand Kilin quickly bended out another blob of water from the barrel to slap onto the fresh crater on the boy's face, while at the same time the other hand gestured to solidify the mist into blackish snow, minimizing the smear of poisoned gore across the room like the last time.
"Clean that up, will you," she absently told the bodyguards behind her as she focused her attention on the exposed flesh in Xing's face. With his cheek literally blown out, she could see his teeth and hints of jawbone, like white stones poking out of red moss.
Kilin tapped her patient sharply on the arm to stop him from opening his mouth to verbalize his agony. Squinting, she stilled the water and inspected the raw flesh underneath.
"Hm… Hasn't spread since the last time, I think. Hasn't touched your bones yet, at least. Feel any of that gnawing, deflating pain?" Beyond the existing agony, of course.
At the boy's shake of his head, Kilin grunted with satisfaction. "Good. Now, like we did last time…"
With healing arts working with Xing's impossible chi reserve, the exposed flesh regrew with amazing swiftness. If the water wasn't glowing right now, Kilin reckoned she'd be seeing muscles and sinew reforming before fresh skin flowed on top of them.
It took a good while of concentration as Kilin guided and molded the healing process. By the time she was done she noted the sun-cast shadows in the room had noticeably shifted. Kilin leaned back in her chair and stretched, hating how her bones popped and creaked.
Spirits, getting old sucks.
After twisting her waist to free some mobility, she leaned back in to inspect the work.
"Alright, Xing, as slow as you can."
The boy, soaked in sweat by now, nodded stiffly and channeled his chi in small doses. Well, small for him anyway. Kilin quickly frowned as she noticed the flush of black veins on the restored patch of skin. The area quickly darkened to a familiar, rotting hue, but the affected area was much smaller compared to before.
"Shit, there's still traces of it left…"
"Fuck," Xing muttered in agreement.
The healer slowly rose up, patting his shoulder even as the bones of her back unseized itself with audible pops. "Welp, rest up. We'll do this again tomorrow." Infinite chi or not, Xing's body still strained at maintaining the flow of energy; it'd be problematic if he passed out or started getting that weird frostbite in the middle of healing.
She gave the attending bodyguards a glance. "Maybe tie him down to save yourselves some trouble."
"We'll get the princess to visit to get it into his head," one of them replied lightly.
Another shrugged casually. "Tying him down might still work out…for her?"
"Fuck no," Xing quickly replied, his good cheek flushing with some healthier color.
*****
The Kyoshi Warriors poorly hid their nervousness as they assembled in what was once one of the palace's more extravagant guest halls. Now the room was completely bare, with all furniture and even the torches and braziers removed. The shafts of natural sunlight piercing through the many windows to highlight the beautiful mosaic floor gave the empty hall an eerie air.
Or it would have, if not for the crowd of kneeling and gagged prisoners taking up most of the floor space, barely clothed and arranged in neat rows and columns.
It probably didn't help the mood to have the grim faces of Xing, Azula and some of their soldiers standing beside Suki and her warrior sisters and staring down at the captured Dai Li. While Xing's expression was unreadable, the princess and some of the soldiers were clearly repulsed by the kneeling men and were keen on burning them all away.
Xing's words told Suki why the prisoners were here at all. The black veins on one side of his face pulsed as he spoke. "These men were the…staff we captured under Lake Laogai."
That immediately grabbed the Kyoshi Warriors' attention. Suki stared at the prince, and then the prisoners, feeling something bubbling in her.
"Do you think you can identify your torturers?"
The Kyoshi Warriors snarled as one, and Suki answered for them. "Easily."
They fanned out among the whimpering men, and Suki found herself spitefully enjoying their broken states. The digit-less stumps of their hands and feet were twisted at unnatural angles, and the emblem of the old Ba Sing Se was branded on their chests and backs. She stalked across one row and then stopped to kneel down in front of a particular man who was doing a bad job at turning his head away from her gaze.
"This one," Suki declared vindictively. "He was the one who tried to…" She paused, fighting down the urge to cover herself protectively and drew in a slow breath to steady her will. "He was the one who tried to rape me in front of the others."
The former torturer mewled pathetically as a soldier of the 11th came to Suki's side and roughly dragged the Dai Li out.
She could hear the dark glee in Miyu's voice suddenly calling out. "Here's one. He was the one who tore out our nails and broke our fingers."
"This one too," Okuni added a few rows down.
The Kyoshi Warriors carefully went through the rows of Dai Li prisoners, and the Scorpion's people helpfully yanked out the whimpering men each time. Xing was gracious enough to let them do a second pass before they finally confirmed that they had identified all their torturers.
"Thank you for taking the time and not just declaring all of them as guilty," he said with a thin smile that made the lingering black veins on his cheek ripple. Beside him, Azula grinned proudly for some reason while behind them a couple of soldiers were begrudgingly passing pouches to their fellows.
Xing gave a nod that sent his men and women to unkindly usher out the unselected prisoners. It did well for Suki's spirits to see the once dark and powerful Dai Li broken into little more than a groaning, weeping men as they were herded out of the hall. She exchanged smirks of grim satisfaction with her sisters, and found herself eagerly looking forward to what was going to happen next with the two dozen or so tormentors the Kyoshi Warriors had singled out.
This time, it was Azula who turned to address the Kyoshi Warriors with all the authority of her royal rank. Surprisingly, the princess bowed formally, with all traces of her usual smirk of superiority hidden. The sympathy she offered, genuine or not, was almost uncanny.
"The Earth Kingdom might be the Fire Nation's enemies, but even we did not expect them to stoop so low. As crown princess of the Fire Nation, allow me to offer my sincere sympathies for what your supposed allies had done to you. Know that I do not expect this to immediately change your perception of us, or that we might now be seen as your friends. We do this because we too see the dire need for justice for such a foul crime."
Suki did not flinch when the remaining soldiers around her drew their weapons.
Contrasting starkly to Azula's formality, Xing kept a casual tone and posture as he gestured to his troops. "Would you rather choose and watch the execution of these Dai Li, or would you prefer dealing with it yourselves?"
It was a pointless question, but one that Suki nonetheless appreciated. The Fire Nation overlords of Ba Sing Se left the hall after the Kyoshi Warriors were handed swords and daggers, leaving only a quartet of guards to stand outside the hall's entrance.
"Call on them once you're done," Xing said laconically, ignoring the increased whimpering and squirming from the Dai Li. "I hope this is a significant step towards attaining closure for all of you."
"I'll have a bath prepared for you," Azula added off-handedly. "And new clothes. Don't worry about being too messy."
Suki led the other Kyoshi Warriors in bowing out of sincere gratitude and respect to their hosts. "Thank you, for saving us and allowing us…this."
"Don't overdo it," the princess simply replied. "I'd hate to see you all sprain a muscle or something to excuse our next spar."
They waited until the young royals had left the hall with their guards and soldiers, and then turned to the crippled prisoners with dark intent. Brandishing their weapons, the Kyoshi Warriors stalked towards their former abusers with snarls and grins, and as they brought their loaned blades to bear with practiced ease, Suki basked in the terror of these broken men before her, just as they had once done to her.
She would not pretend that she was doing this for the sake of Kyoshi's legacy.
The Dai Li's pitiful screams and the carnage that was enacted on them were a salve that the Kyoshi Warriors greatly needed, and Suki found herself appreciating Azula's gesture. A bath and new clothes greatly helped after bloodily facing down her nightmares.