After that conversation, Lady Beifong was lost to the world. Having commandeered a pile of scrap iron for her experiments, she locked herself in her room, plunging the airship into silence, peace, and... fresh waves of awkwardness that, while she was no longer personally provoking them, somehow kept generating themselves anyway.
Anyway, when one of our people's siege camps on the approaches to Ba Sing Se appeared on the horizon, we all breathed a sigh of relief. And began our descent.
At the camp itself, an entire delegation was already waiting for us, complete with an honor guard. The Herald's personal crest was well known by now, after all, and then people discovered that he had the Fire Princess, the prince, and the Fire Lord's own brother traveling with him, so the soldiers started scurrying around even faster.
Within a few minutes, all of us had been escorted to the residence of the commander currently in charge of the siege of Ba Sing Se.
"Princess Azula." A bow to the girl.
"Herald." This time, the bow went to the Blast—I had no intention of abandoning the cover story I'd chosen, especially with a stray Avatar possibly wandering around somewhere nearby.
"It is a great honor to welcome you to my camp," said the stocky warrior with a cordial smile. He wore ordinary officer's armor without any insignia and looked to be around forty-five or fifty. His posture was still straight, and the military bearing was still there, but it was already clear that his best years were behind him.
I recognized our host, though. It was hard not to recognize one of the highest-ranking officers in your own army. We might never have met in person, but I'd seen his portrait "in the line of duty."
"General Chin." Azula gave a curt nod, most likely knowing the man personally. "What is the situation at the front?"
"The Drill has already been delivered, my lady. Another day or two, and we'll launch it! It is undoubtedly the crowning achievement of our engineers. With it, the Earth Kingdom will finally fall, and you will be able to enter this city as its conqueror."
"Our engineers have created many things," the princess dismissed irritably, "and you shouldn't celebrate a victory before it has actually been won. Still, your enthusiasm is certainly encouraging. Wouldn't you agree, Li?"
"Of course, Your Highness." Smile and bow. "Though I would be delighted if the esteemed General Chin would satisfy my curiosity and explain how this device works."
"Yes, I'd like to hear about it as well," the Herald said, "confirming" my authority to take an interest in the matter.
"Certainly! Well, if you don't wish to rest after your journey, then please, follow me!" The man headed for the entrance of the tent, his every movement demonstrating just how honored he was to personally escort us.
"Travel by airship is quite comfortable, so we have no need of rest," Azula declared regally, following the general out first.
"Oh, so that's what this device is called?" the officer exclaimed with interest once we were outside the tent, glancing toward the elongated behemoth that had landed a short distance from the camp but was still large and tall enough to be perfectly visible from where we stood. "Would you do me the honor of satisfying my curiosity, my lady? What exactly is it?"
"Another invention of our engineers. It has already entered mass production, and if this drill fails to accomplish its purpose, we'll wipe the city off the face of the earth by other means. Incidentally, Li is one of the developers of this device and can tell you more about it."
"Really?" Chin raised an eyebrow. "Hmm... Your face seems vaguely familiar, young man. Have we met somewhere before?"
"Unlikely, General Chin." Smile pleasantly. "Though perhaps you saw my father or mother at one of the receptions in the capital."
"Quite so," Azula said with a smile. "After all, noble scions and their parents all know each other to some extent. However, I would still like to hear about this miraculous drill sometime before I grow old." And now the lady deigned to show a certain amount of irritation. Still, considering the girl's aforementioned state in general and her personality in particular, I had to admit that she was behaving astonishingly meekly and peacefully at the moment.
Could that conversation of ours really have had a much greater effect than I'd thought, with Azula now making an effort to restrain herself and "play by the rules"?
"Oh, of course! Besides, we're almost there." The officer gestured toward the side of the camp opposite the airship's landing site, where a row of adjoining structures rose—not even tents, really, but more like hangars made from stretched canvas.
"Yeeah... That's one huge thing," Toph concluded as we stepped under the rain shelters where the cyclopean machine was being assembled.
And I completely agreed with her. From a distance, when we'd seen it back in Yu Dao, it hadn't looked all that large and had resembled nothing more than a "tunnel boring machine," perhaps somewhat bulkier than the ones used to dig subway tunnels. But now... up close... it was basically an armored train with a drill of monstrous diameter. Even the "old" twelve-ton Fire Nation tank (as in, the old "heavy" version of that tank) could easily fit inside this thing three abreast! I didn't even want to imagine how much this monster weighed or how much coal it devoured!
(End of Chapter)
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