Chapter Text
Wherever their mother had ended up, Zuko really doubted that it was South Chung-Ling; it was nobody’s idea of a happening tourist destination. A factory in the centre of town churned out flamethrowers for the army, and those not employed there were involved in the fishing industry; there didn’t seem to be much else (at least legally – three separate people attempted to rob them on their walk through town). The air was filled variously with smog and the smell of fish.
By the time they reached the port they were tired; they’d landed the balloon out of town and walked all the way. Yue was definitely suffering, though she had made no complaints, but even Zuko, used to travelling and extended training sessions, really wanted to get off his feet for a while.
Deciding it was better to be well-rested before they began searching, he called a halt, and pushed open the door of a nearby inn. Considering that their mother was almost certainly long gone from here, there was no rush. Well, there was – they wanted to find her, or at least answers about what had happened to her – but it had been five years. If she was still here, it was unlikely she was going to hop on a ship tonight.
Azula clearly wanted to object, and the fact that she swallowed her words meant her feet must really have been aching.
The place appeared nice enough, though Azula looked disdainfully at a gouge in their table that had been improperly repaired. Still, it was clean, the other patrons looked fairly respectable, and when their food arrived it seemed edible enough. There was even a portrait of the Firelord on the wall. They tried to avoid looking at it, but… it was a good sign, right? This was a law-abiding establishment.
Even if there were signs that the portrait had been damaged and poorly repaired…
Though there was a tense moment when he tried to pay both for the meal, and for rooms for the night. The treasury had been full of gold and jewels, but not exactly an abundance of coppers.
The innkeeper stared at the gold in his hand. Then up to his face. She looked at him for a long moment, before her eyes flicked to the lamps on the walls, burning much more steadily in their corner than elsewhere in the room. And then, to his horror, she turned to stare at the portrait of his father on the wall, before looking back at him again and peering into his face. He tried to subtly turn his head so that his scarred side was more towards her.
“Uh, and keep the change?” He grinned nervously, as the others shifted, checking that they could easily reach their weapons if this turned into a fight.
The woman turned her head, looking around, before bowing to him. “Of course, Your Majesty. We have some rooms free. Please, follow me.”
She led them upstairs. There were two rooms free, right next to each other, which was good. But each one only had two beds. The innkeeper looked nervous. “Of course, I can free up one of the other rooms…”
“No, no, it’s fine,” he assured her. “We can manage. Two people will just have to share, that’s all.”
Even if it turned out whichever luckless guest was forced to give up their bed was just about to leave anyway and didn’t mind being kicked out, it made sense to stick together as much as they could. It was a bad idea to split the party at all, but if they really had to so they all got to sleep in a bed, then being split across two rooms was better than three, with one person being alone.
Azula rolled her eyes. “Well, if you share with Mai, I call dibs on a bed in the other room, because I am not sleeping next to that.”
Ty Lee grinned, wrapping an arm around Mai. “It’s fine! Mai can share with me! It’ll be like a sleepover!”
Mai sighed. “Sure, whatever. But you’d better not kick me in in your sleep.”
The landlady bowed. “Very well, Your Majesty. Will that be all?”
“That’s fine, thank you.”
She bowed again and left. She didn’t take the money though. Oh well, he was probably meant to pay later, now that she knew he was good for it.
“It’s weird how she addressed you as ‘Your Majesty’,” commented Yue, staring after the woman. “Not ‘Your Highness’.”
“She probably doesn’t know the difference,” suggested Ty Lee. “I doubt she had a protocol teacher.”
“Lucky her,” muttered Mai.
⁂
The next day they went to the port to ask around, which managed to be more tedious than walking around looking at rocks. Asking the same questions over and over and over, getting the same answers again and again. Not only that, but it was considerably more dangerous than looking at rocks. Their father had probably sent word out to look for them; Yue was keeping her hood up to hide her distinctive hair, while Zuko did his best to style his hair so that some draped over his scar.
They’d at least given the innkeeper the benefit of the doubt, if only because Mai had pointed out that if she meant to betray them, she’d have taken the money first, even if she expected a reward for turning them in. But not everyone could be guaranteed to keep quiet, so they needed to avoid attracting attention. But asking everyone questions was basically forcing people to pay attention to them.
Still, it wasn’t like there was any other way. Hopefully they’d find answers before they others starting asking questions of their own.
But the day went on, and they received one negative response after another; nobody remembered seeing her. And worse, a few ‘Your Highnesses’, and someone mistakenly addressing him as ‘Your Majesty’, plus a few more that stared at them a little too long, as if comparing them to a picture in their heads.
Finally, late in the afternoon, a spot of luck. Well, luck for them, anyway. Less so for the hapless merchant, apparently the victim of poor loading on the part of the dockworkers, as the door of his cart fell open, spewing merchandise everywhere.
“My cabbages!”
Zuko and Yue immediately stepped forward to help the poor man (who he was sure looked vaguely familiar somehow), quickly followed by Ty Lee, who dragged Mai along with her. Momo tried to help too, though mostly he just rolled cabbages about and chased after them. Azula stood back with her arms folded, annoyed at this distraction.
Eventually they got all the cabbages loaded back onto the cart and secured properly this time.
“Oh, thank you all so much! Spirits, I’ve had the worst luck.” He chattered away, explaining that he was from one of the colonies, and had been travelling around the Earth Kingdom, but every step of the way seemed to have been beset by disaster, often at the hands of a gang of kids who sounded like absolute hooligans. Zuko was just trying to think of a polite way of extricating them from the interaction (before Azula went with a less polite option), when he mentioned, “So I thought I’d try my luck in the Fire Nation again. Though I must say, this town looks like it’s changed a lot in the five years since I was here last!”
“You were here five years ago.” Ah, now Azula was interested.
It didn’t necessarily mean anything. Most of the people they’d spoken to today had probably been here then too.
“Yes, but back then the factory wasn’t as-”
“Yeah, yeah.” She pulled out the portrait she was carrying and held it out. “Did you see her while you were here?”
He squinted at it, and then his face lit up in recognition. Zuko felt a thrill of excitement. “Why yes! Delightful woman. I remember I found her sitting over there, crying.” He pointed. “So I asked what was wrong, and she explained she was trying to get back to her family, but didn’t have money to pay for a fare. She’d tried asking the crews of cargo ships, but they refused to take on a passenger.”
“I don’t suppose you know what happened to her?” Zuko asked, trying not to crowd the man in his desperation.
“Why yes! I had a friend who ran a shop selling fruit, over in North Chung-Ling, and she had a lot of contacts within the local shipping companies there, so she was sure to find someone would could take her wherever she needed to go.”
Mai unrolled the map and peered at it. “I can’t see any town by that name. You sure it’s around here?”
“Of course!” He peered over her shoulder, squinting at the map, then pointed. “Ah, there! Where it says Fire Fountain City. That must have renamed it.”
“Oooh. I think I heard about that,” said Ty Lee. “They built a huge statue of your da- That is, of Firelord Ozai there, and it got named after that.”
“And you’re sure she went there?” asked Azula.
“Sure! I was going there myself, so I gave her a ride on my cart.”
⁂
Azula thought he was being ridiculous in giving the man money, just as she’d complained about him paying the fisherman. But both of them had helped point them in the right direction, and it seemed like this guy in particular could really use a break.
Judging by all the people they’d heard muttering complaints about taxes and the price of goods, a lot of people could use a break.
As for the innkeeper, who they did owe money to, she refused to accept it, even after he tried calling it a tax rebate. In the end, Yue somehow persuaded her to accept it by talking at her really nicely and earnestly.
“These people should be honoured to serve us,” muttered Azula (though he noticed that, despite her complaints, she’d never actually tried to stop him paying anyone).
“Yeah,” he replied. “But it still seems right.”
⁂
‘WELCOME TO FIRE FOUNTAIN CITY’, the sign declared. And then, in slightly smaller lettering, ‘HOME OF THE WORLD-FAMOUS FOUNTAIN IN THE LIKENESS OF OUR GLORIOUS FIRELORD OZAI, LONG MAY HE REIGN.’
Or at least, that was what it was meant to say; it had been heavily defaced. Someone had messily painted ‘North Chung-Ling’ over the place name, and similarly replaced ‘glorious’ with ‘false’. ‘Long may he reign’ had a stark line slashed through it.
A man was busy cleaning up the damage.
“Third time this month,” they heard him mutter as they walked past.
⁂
They stared at the boarded-up shop. ‘Nayumi Fruits’, read the sign. ‘High quality produce! Best prices in town!’
Peering through gaps in the boards showed only empty shelves and dust.
“Excuse me,” Ty Lee asked a passer-by. “Do you know where we can find the lady who ran this shop?”
The woman shook her head. “Sorry, dear. She died three months ago. Heart attack. Such a shame.”
Another dead end.
⁂
Since they were here, they might as well look around. Maybe they would find something useful.
They found themselves in the main plaza, staring up at…
“It doesn’t even look much like him!” complained Azula.
“It’s not even a fountain,” added Ty Lee. “The city’s name is all wrong now.”
Zuko wondered if there’d been a fraught discussion at some point after the loss of firebending, about whether to produce the flames artificially, even though that would divert technology and fuel from the war effort, or to leave it as just a statue and make a lie of the city’s new name, or to use water instead (which could be seen as mocking the loss of firebending by using another element).
Like the sign, it was marked by graffiti. Or at least the parts that people could easily reach. Again, there was someone cleaning it off.
She glared at them suspiciously. “Don’t even think about it. I don’t get paid enough considering how often I have to clean this damn thing.”
They all made protestations of innocence.
“We’re just looking for someone,” Zuko assured her, pulling out a portrait. “Have you seen her?”
“Yup.”
Wow, first person they asked too! Things were going their way for once! “Do you know where she went?”
“Last I heard? Jail. That’s where.”