98 A.G
Commander Lin waited in Chin Village's dock. Her hands were behind her back in perfect posture while both Captain Aiku and Zhou were at her sides. Princess Azula was also present, but they had arranged a small table set up for her and Toph to wait more comfortably.
Lin had also placed a soldier in charge of bearing a giant silk parasol to offer shade for them. It wasn't practical to build a pavilion at the docks and she thought the task built discipline for any soldier. They were honored to be close to the royal princess either way.
The reason for waiting here was that they had received a fire-hawk a week ago warning them to expect reinforcements. Her mission was to coordinate with them to take or disable Shen Guan fortress so that they could siege Omashu unimpededly.
Adding to those forces, General Shu was also expected to arrive later with three brigades, composed of nine battalions. He would then take command of all forces to attack Omashu.
It would be the biggest concentration of forces since taking control of the northern Earth Kingdom region.
A total of eleven battalions plus support companies; around 20,000 troops would be mobilized for the siege. A staggering amount of soldiers, they said. It was a drop in the ocean for what Lin was used to.
Back in her time, an army group would usually be composed of ten times that number, and at the battle of Seoul they had lost three times the amount mobilized for this campaign.
By the end of the first week of the communists invasion the casualties were so great and the retreat was so chaotic they lost track of how many exactly died, many flagged as missing instead.
Units were shattered, regrouped, or absorbed into other formations so fast that some simply disappeared on paper.
In the retreat out of Naktong alone they lost around 70,000 soldiers. Command had initially listed them as missing, but everyone knew they were very dead.
In any case, back to the present, Lin calculated that Commander Mamushi would arrive with her forces today if there were no problems with the weather.
Even if they didn't arrive, it was a nice day in the sun and there was a gentle breeze from the sea that helped her relax. While they waited, Toph and Azula were focused on learning a simplified version of Braille.
The language system had been developed in the previous century in her experience but before it was officially adopted by the French, a similar system had existed previously, used extensively by the military for night reading.
She couldn't remember exactly how Braille worked but she spent an entire week, a few hours a day, coming up with the letters arranged in a six-point matrix for the young earthbender to adopt. That way, Lin could begin teaching her how to read and write.
At first, it wasn't something she had in mind. When it was clear Toph didn't mind being a soldier and actually helped train her men already, Lin saw it as an investment.
She prided herself on educating her soldiers so that they could advance in life; either after the war was over, or as a practical way to advance in their military careers. She had already taught basics, including a bit of history and math to several of her men herself.
It would be a lot of work to translate books for the blind girl. To write it, she had to use beeswax mixed with a bit of resin then use chi to heat a needle to gently place each point. They had enough in their supplies because they used this mixture to seal letters and reports. It made the dots bigger and easier to read, but it was exhausting.
Once she could translate a few of her scrolls using this method, she was ready to teach it to others. Toph initially had joked that she didn't see the appeal of books but once Lin mentioned that there was a way to teach her how to read with just her fingers she was curious about it.
As it could be applied to military use, she had spread the method as soon as she had the letters worked out. First, through her captains who would then teach it to their lieutenants and anyone else who wanted to learn.
Once they were back home, they could use steel slates and a stylus to write it better as beeswax was not something they could keep as an archive, it would deform with time and be lost, but for teaching it was very practical as they could reheat the wax and make corrections.
A reflection of the sun in the distance took Lin out of her thoughts. It was the metal of a ship now visible on the horizon. She was expecting to see more than one ship, and much larger ones.
"Captains, prepare for an arrival, it seems our Prince is back." Lin said.
"At once, commander." saluted Aiku.
Lin turned around and moved in on Toph and Azula.
"Azula, your brother is coming to port. From the distance they were spotted, we believe the ship will be docking in about an hour, more or less." Lin informed them.
"Zuzu is coming?" Azula smirked in thought. "You. Bring me my armor." Azula ordered the soldier holding the parasol.
"Wait, corporal." Lin stopped the soldier before he darted to do as commanded.
"Are you expecting a fight against your brother?" Lin asked, worried.
"Oh, no. Nothing like that, Lin. Just making sure I look my best when demonstrating to my brother what leading our men looks like. I'm supposed to be in command around here, am I not?"
"As you say… I still don't understand, my princess." Lin said.
"Well… for much of my life we were rivals of sorts. With his lack of skill, both in firebending and leadership he never did put much of a fight. But he was first in the inheritance order. He would have been the Fire Lord." Azula clarified.
"That was until he was banished, then he was removed from the line of succession and thus is not able to claim the throne." she finished.
"I see… but then, why would you care what impression he has of you? It's not as if he can contest the succession already established. Let's be honest, there is no way he will find the Avatar, it was just an excuse to send him away." Lin voiced her opinion.
Normally, she wouldn't question the princess, but she had a soft spot for siblings in her life. She had tried to protect her little brother in her first life from the horrors of the war, and had even volunteered as his replacement in the militia, to spare him from having to be drafted.
Lin loved her brother Raizo as well. True, she had suffered by his hands, but it was not his fault. The fault lay with her parents who not only did not supervise them correctly, but they encouraged them to take unnecessary risks in order to gain mastery over their bending faster.
He had more than made up for it, he had taken care of her when injured, there were days when she was in too much pain as this world had no powerful painkillers, and he had been there for her. Making sure her wounds were clean and that she was able to eat and have enough water.
Azula gave it some thought and then sighed. "I still think I look better in armor and would like to wear it right now."
"Can I get armor too?" Toph asked suddenly.
"Yes, I don't see why not." Azula replied instantly, smiling widely.
"Well… as long as you are not expecting a fight… Go corporal, get the princess' armor from her chambers. You can also pick my old set of armor from my chamber as well, it's on display beside the door to your right." Lin said.
The corporal saluted her, Lin could see he was still nervous from the whole situation, he was gone in the blink of an eye. He had a long way to the newly built residence in the village where their chambers were.
"You are giving me old crap?!" Toph asked, pouting.
"It is clean and it is a bit smaller than me, it will fit you well, it won't have armored sleeves but I imagine you can complement that with your bending. There won't be another armor piece that will fit you otherwise." Lin said, ignoring her indignant tone.
"Hmph! It better be in great shape." Toph said, annoyed. Lin had come to know the girl and she could see she was excited at wearing armor even if she hid it well.
"You might want to go to your ship, princess. I'm sure your servants will be able to dress you appropriately there. I will let the corporal know where to go when he comes back." Lin said.
"Yes, that sounds ideal. I want to give my dear brother a proper welcome." Azula said, walking off to the royal sloop close by.
"I also want to intimidate Azula's brother. If he is anything like her, it will be fun." Toph said with an innocent face, following her.
Lin just hoped the two girls would behave and not make a scene with the Prince. It would be difficult to pick a side otherwise.
"Why?" Lin mumbled. "How troublesome."
----0000----
Prince Zuko was already regretting coming back to Chin Village. He could see Azula's ship docked, probably back from her mission. His sister had no reason to stay in Gaoling after being taken, he should have realized that sooner.
Already dreading the interaction with her, he indicated to the helmsman to lower the ramp. Waiting for him was Commander Lin and two soldiers by her side. As he descended with his uncle beside him they bowed deeply for him.
Zuko could already see his sister approaching from her ship, dressed in black and gold armor. An even younger soldier walked beside her. What stood out for him for a moment was that she was grabbing a part of Azula's clothes and that for some ungodly reason she had no shoes on.
"My prince, General Iroh. Welcome back." Lin said, and Zuko turned to her.
"Commander." Zuko acknowledged her.
"I already contacted a platoon to help with anything your ship might need and they will be here shortly." Lin said.
"My crew will thank you, commander." the prince replied.
"How did your search go?" she asked.
"Maybe we could discuss that with a cup of tea." Iroh said.
Lin gave them a nod.
"Oh, Zuzu. It's been a long time, welcome." Azula's voice interrupted.
Zuko paled a bit and gritted his teeth.
"Don't call me that." he replied instantly.
He saw her smirk and he had to remind himself he was here for a reason, otherwise he would have returned to his ship.
"Oh, loosen up brother, cannot I have missed you, Zuzu?"
"No welcome for me, niece?" Iroh butted in.
"But of course, uncle." Azula replied, uninterested.
"Introduce us, Princess platypus." the small soldier beside her said suddenly, and Zuko was sure that, along with his uncle, he sported the biggest perplexed face in his lifetime.
He also noticed how the small girl was not looking at their eyes directly, just turned in their direction slightly. Her eyes were white as well.
'Was she blind?' he wondered.
Even more surprising, her sister, instead of lashing out at the outlandish nickname, just rolled her eyes.
"My brother Zuzu is the one in front of you, the one behind him is my uncle Iroh. This is my friend Toph Beifong." said Azula nonchalantly, not even addressing the nickname.
"Uh, hello." Zuko managed to say, his sister's comment somewhat confirming that she was indeed blind.
Azula scoffed. "Way to go, Zuzu. Luckily you are not courting a woman yet, otherwise you would be doomed." Zuko scowled at her while Toph giggled.
"Maybe we can continue with pleasantries in my office, Azula." Lin said.
Before Zuko could wonder why an officer of the Army called his sister by her name, he was surprised by how fast Azula relented to her and nodded, turning around and walking toward the cliff wall and the stairs towards the village.
As the rest of the soldiers followed, Zuko wondered if someone had finally managed to tame his sister. Now looking at it from this perspective, it wasn't that surprising that the cold and devoted girl with metal limbs had been the one to accomplish such a feat.
Unsurprising, the prince already wanted to embark again and head back out to sea. Reluctantly though, he followed them towards the village.
----0000----
Iroh said nothing as he followed behind. He couldn't help but be concerned with the small girl that was tugging on his niece's clothing, bickering with the princess all the way towards the village. He, of course, knew about the Beifong family.
He wondered if she was kidnapped during the capture of Gaoling, but it didn't look like the girl was forced against her will. Maybe she had lost her parents during the battle and was being used for her abilities, the Beifongs had a long line of powerful earthbenders.
But as they continued walking it was clear Azula was close with the girl, and it was surprising that her cruel side did not appear with her constant blatant disrespect. They would joke with one another and tease one another like any other teenager.
Iroh never thought he would see the day when his niece would act her age, it was refreshing as it was jarring.
As they entered the city, more soldiers saluted them and he saw a platoon rushing past them, probably to assist their ship's crew. Iroh was marveled by the progress they had made during the time they were away.
The entire city now had the streets paved with rocks instead of dirt. There were many merchants with carts and people walking around, offering the commander and the soldiers respect with a small bow as they passed by.
They approached a newly built building. It was clear that the commander was still acting as the sole governor of the village, abandoning her temporary office. As they entered, he was surprised to find that earth kingdom citizens were working there now, not only soldiers.
They glanced up from their desks and documents to briefly nod at the commander, while they continued their work. Azula looked annoyed at the amount of people, especially when they did not realize they were coming through.
"Apologies for the mess, we recently hired administrators to govern the village and, as you can see, they are hard at work." Lin said, as more people rushed out of their way.
"It's quite alright, commander. May I ask, why hire Earth Kingdom citizens?" Iroh inquired. He wanted to figure out her motives, most officers wouldn't allow anyone from their enemies to have a hand in their colonies decisions.
When they finally arrived at her office Lin answered while everyone sat down.
"They haven't sent anyone from the Fire Isles capable of being the governor of the southern colonies yet, so I decided to form a council with both Fire Nation officers and Earth Kingdom citizens in order to appease unrest and work towards developing the colonies faster." Lin said.
"You are probably aware, General, but logistics need a lot of work in the south to support an invasion of Ba Sing Se. We are building infrastructure as fast as possible and if we can take Omashu we know that we can link railroads with the northern colonies and then the flow of supplies would be enough to assault them indefinitely as long as we don't lose manpower needlessly."
He was about to reply when the blind girl interrupted them.
"Boooring." Toph said. "I want to know why Prince Pouty is here."
"W-what?!" his nephew roared, standing up.
'If only his nephew could control his temperament…' Iroh thought bitterly, while Azula laughed out loud.
"Jeez Broody Boy, calm down." Toph continued, unbothered. His nephew was fuming and glaring at the small girl. Iroh hoped Zuko didn't escalate the situation.
"In any case, I do want to know if there is something we can help you with, my prince. I didn't think you'd return so soon." Lin said. It helped defuse the situation and for him to sit back down.
"I was able to scout the southern air temple from above thanks to the glider you provided me with, but we couldn't land anywhere up there. It would be too dangerous to get close enough, the mountains are very tricky." Zuko said.
Azula looked at Zuko with uncertainty. "You are dead set on finding clues about the avatar huh."
"I will reclaim my honor. I want to return home." Zuko said, simply.
Iroh saw the face of his niece morph into a different set of emotions until it settled in the emotionless mask he was used to.
"Then the solution is simple, dear brother. Just jump." Azula said.
Zuko scoffed. "Of course you would say that. Why is everything a cruel joke with you?"
Azula scowled. "I'm serious, you can jump from the glider, in fact a sufficiently trained flier could drop two of you and come back and drop more in the span of an hour." she said.
"What the princess means is jumping and landing slowly through the use of a parachute, my prince. It's a type of backpack with a piece of cloth designed to slow your descent when you open the bag."
"You can even use firebending to push yourself one way or the other to help land correctly. We have used them successfully several times over Gaoling. Your sister as well." Lin said.
"Wait, you guys jumped from the death machines?! Are you totally insane? You are crazier than I initially thought!" Toph said.
"Death machines…?" asked Iroh incredulously.
"We took Toph flying and it didn't sit well with her. I think poor Toma spent a few hours cleaning the aftermath." Azula said, smirking.
"I hate you." Toph said, pouting while the princess laughed.
"It is safe and I think it would be your solution, my prince. I can teach you how to do it, the way I taught everyone else. By jumping with you and strapping myself to you midair, then deploying the cloth so you have firsthand experience as to what to do" the commander said.
Zuko looked like he was debating if this was a very elaborate prank or if they were really serious. After a continuous back-and-forth where the commander had to skillfully intervene a few times between his nephew and the princess to stop a potential fight, Zuko agreed to be taught the skill.
Iroh sighed in relief…At least, they would get what they came for. Just then a corporal knocked and entered the office.
"Commander, we have finished loading their ship with the crates of tea, as requested." he said.
'Ah… excellent.' Iroh mused, and finally smiled.
----0000----
Azula stared at Lin for a few moments. She had asked her to stay behind and her heart began beating faster.
"My princess, it may not be my place to say, but I'm glad meeting with your brother didn't end up in a fight." Lin said.
Azula scoffed. "Please, as if my brother would be a threat."
"I don't think he would be, no. His stance is sloppy, he is easily riled up and he has poor vision in his scarred eye." Lin nodded. "What I meant is that there is a clear divide between you both, he is quite wary of you, Azula. To start repairing your relationship, these first few steps are crucial."
"Why would I want to repair anything?" Azula asked, incredulous.
"There are many reasons… His banishment may not be forever, the Fire Lord might one day welcome him back, whether it be for reasons your father approves or forced by a feat so great his nation would benefit from it." Lin replied.
"As if Zuzu could…" Azula said.
"You have both been taught how to rule through your education, you could use his advice in your eventual reign. Judging by his character and what you have told me about him, he would cede his throne to you if he has the chance, he is not really interested in ruling. He is quite selfish and immature at the moment."
Lin continued, not allowing Azula to reply.
"I know this, because he doesn't care about his people. He is not even concerned with his crew at all. I had reports of both stops taken from his crew, and it's been quite rough for them since the beginning of their journey."
"With the right pressure, I'm sure he would be content following his own goals rather than care for the nation as a whole." Lin paused, looking steadily at the princess.
"So you are saying that I should befriend Zuko, to gain legitimacy and political strength, and avoid having him as a rival. And you want him to see me as a good leader and not interfere in my rule, not because he is strong but because people might use him against me to try and usurp my throne?" Azula summarized.
"My thoughts exactly." Lin answered with a smile.
"I see."
"I'll be honest, for a moment, I thought you were as selfish as your brother. When the crew of your ship told me how you ordered them through the storm without caring for their well-being I feared you would not care for your people at all."
"Careful, commander-" Azula began, her anger showing up on her face, so Lin cut her off.
"You proved me very wrong with your mission in Gaoling." Lin continued.
"Is this another lesson?" Azula asked, exasperated.
Lin chuckled. "It could be. The unit you commanded spoke very highly of you. Refusing to escape alone and leave them behind earned you their respect and admiration."
"They were already willing to die for you out of their own sense of duty and honor, but now, they would do so for another reason; Loyalty and conviction."
"If the people of your nation follow you out of their own volition, it's because they see you as their natural leader. It's something you earn through winning them over; not caring about them, or threatening them into submission won't give you that same loyalty."
"You are saying my crew could betray me?" Azula asked.
"I'm saying that no soldier would remain loyal by threat or fear. Most of us are already ready to give our lives for our nation. The threat of dying sounds silly to me."
"Duty and honor holds only enough until a soldier begins thinking that they need to place someone else as their leader in order to defend their people. Dying for that conviction is perfectly acceptable to most." Lin replied calmly.
"I threatened the captain…" Azula whispered, eyes wide in realization.
"That is right. But you are still young and will make mistakes. What's important is that you are growing. I think you have the potential to be a great leader and Fire Lord."
Azula remained contemplative for a moment.
"What do you think about marriage?" Azula asked, trying her best to sound nonchalant.
"W-What?" Lin asked, dumbfounded
"Marriage. What are your thoughts on it?" Azula pressed.
"I'm not sure… Is your father forcing you to marry someone already?" Lin asked, concerned. The princess was too young in her eyes, but the world was backward already, it made a lot of sense if Azula already had an arranged marriage, as a royal.
"No, he has allowed me to be part of the military and gain experience first, and he has often said that there are no political threats we need on our side desperately enough." Azula said.
"I see… then you are asking because you are curious about it?"
"Somewhat, I want to know your thoughts." Azula said, now looking annoyed.
"My thoughts on marriage are not the usual." Lin said, wondering if she could avoid this conversation altogether. At the same time, she wasn't sure her views on the matter would be welcomed by the Fire Lord. Technically she wasn't teaching the princess officially anymore, and thus was not responsible if Azula picked up on her ideals, but people were not all rational and she could be blamed regardless.
"Lin, I don't want to ask a third time." Azula said, glaring at her.
Lin sighed. "I think marriage is not for me. My family allowed me to pursue my military career, and for now I don't have to worry about it. The problem lies with me though, my mother often said that I'm too assertive and headstrong, something most men don't like in women. She has tried everything and I did my best to follow her teachings, I just don't think my personality will match with most, and it would be too troublesome to look for those who might like it. Besides, I think it would be difficult to love me with all of my health problems ,and having so much metal on me."
"I see…" Azula replied. "So if most men don't like you for what you are, would you marry a woman?" Azula asked.
Lin chuckled slightly, not expecting Azula to make a joke out of her explanation or tease her about it.
"I suppose I might have to." Lin replied, now feeling light that she was probably escaping the conversation having no influence on the young royal about her particular views.
Marrying for love was not something Lin thought Azula would understand just yet.
----0000----
Azula's heart couldn't stop racing, and she still couldn't believe she had gotten the answer she was hoping for. She was now left alone to feel giddy and happy, all on her lonesome.
"Now I only need to be the Fire Lord and she will be mine…" Azula muttered.
Her thoughts went back to her previous conversation.
"I guess apologies are in order…" she whispered.
She didn't like it, but she was determined now to have Zuko like her. Higher odds of having no issues in the future meant a happier time with her commander.