"So what?" the prince asked, not getting it.
"So the arrival of a Fire Nation delegation aboard a flying ship is definitely going to impress Dad!" Toph bared her teeth in a bloodthirsty grin.
"Yeah..." Everyone present knew perfectly well who the girl's father was. The girl herself, however, clearly no longer cared—her behavior triggered yet another burst of enthusiasm from Ty Lee.
"Pff—aaah, get off me! Let go! Azula, keep her on a short leash!" The earthbender tried to fight off the acrobat… with limited success.
"Ah, youth." Iroh hid his smile behind yet another sip of tea. Damn it, at this rate he was going to drink his way through my entire collection!
"Nevertheless," Zuko returned to the subject, "such a... conspicuous arrival can hardly go unnoticed by the Avatar, which means he definitely won't come anywhere near the city."
"We've already discussed this." I took another sip of tea as well. "Aang is too mobile. Chasing him is practically impossible; we need to choose a point of interest and wait for him there. And there's nothing interesting in Gaoling."
"The earthbending school?" Mai suggested.
"Ha." Having finally fought off the acrobat, Toph snorted contemptuously. "They teach even worse there than they do at an army training camp. Hell, the 'headmaster' of that place is even weaker than those army earthbenders we were burying by the dozen on our way to Omashu!"
"Are you sure the Avatar knows that?" the prince asked her. "I'll remind you that because of who we're dealing with, we have to consider every possibility, even the most idiotic ones. Especially the most idiotic ones." Zuko wearily closed his eyes. I understood. To predict an idiot, you had to get into an idiot's head, and that was, to put it mildly, no easy task.
"Well, if he's that much of an idiot, maybe he won't even figure out what the airship has to do with anything?"
"Hmm..." The prince was clearly giving that some thought. "No, he can't possibly be that... Although..." The prince's face froze in some strange expression hovering on the verge of actual pain, and he retreated into his thoughts.
"There's only one way for us to find out, isn't there? In any case, I have no intention of wasting an entire day just traveling there and back for no good reason," Azula declared.
"Besides, we should visit our mission. We might be able to get some new information there—messenger hawks are faster than an airship, after all," Suki added.
"Mission?" Zuko raised his burned eyebrow. "I don't remember the Fire Nation having any missions in Gaoling."
"Oh." The girl waved a hand dismissively. "It's just a small detachment that accompanied us on our last trip through the Earth Kingdom. Officially, they're sitting there waiting for a ship... They've been doing that for... umm, I think this is their third month now? (The Qunari of Kirkwall rise to give them a standing ovation.)" Suki shrugged.
/Note: By the way, I wanted to ask how interested you are in the Dragon Age fandom, especially the first game. I'd be glad to hear your thoughts./
"And... how does the city leadership feel about that?" the prince asked cautiously.
"After Chan arranged a direct trade route between them and the homeland? Respected Lao let his own daughter leave with him, and you think anyone cares about some little compound..." The girl made a vague gesture in the air, her expression making it clear she couldn't see what the big deal was.
"The Great Scoundrel... That title definitely suits you," the little blind girl snickered.
That brought the conversation to an end, and we began preparing to disembark. We had accumulated plenty of things to do during our visit to Gaoling: discuss a few matters with Lao Beifong, who should have returned from Yu Dao by now; check the reports from our agents; pass along new orders. All in all, we were definitely going to be staying here for a couple of days.
***
Lao was already waiting for us.
Something resembling an honor guard had formed beside the airship, headed by the elder generation of the Beifong family—fortunately, the merchant was familiar with my coat of arms.
Though when Toph leaped from the flying transport with an exuberant shriek, the married couple went considerably pale. Once the child landed, however, she was immediately scooped up by her mother and subjected to a thorough and exacting inspection for structural integrity, adequate nourishment, and all the other parameters of vital importance to a parent.
The Blind Bandit pulled an unhappy face but stoically endured all the hugging and squeezing and made no attempt to escape—she had missed her parents after all, no matter how much she tried to act tough.
Then came the formal—and very warm—welcome. The fact that his daughter and heir had been accepted into the inner circle of some of the most powerful people in the world pleased the merchant immensely, so his cautious suggestion that we move to a less "formal" level of interaction was entirely predictable.
Most interestingly, it was Azula who accepted the offer. I flatter myself with the thought that my influence had something to do with it. Though perhaps it was simply common sense—having a man with a large merchant fleet, connections, and money among your "friends" was far better than having that same man on the list of people harboring a grudge against you.
But eventually all the bowing and scraping came to an end, and we took our seats around the table, armed with cups of tea (at Iroh's initiative).
(End of Chapter)
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