Carved In Rock || ATLA

Love, Lust & Liars

The Tale's of Ba Sing Se/Appa's Lost Day's/Lake Laogai

"You think you know someone, and then it comes undone. They take the heart and run, funny how things end up now that you're gone." - I Prevail

🌊⛰️🔥🌪️

"Spirits strike me down, I must be some sort of magnet for royal assholes."

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing," Aelita said as she wrapped her head around Kyojuro's admission from their hiding place in the abandoned zoo. "How do I know you're not lying?"

Kyojuro pulled out his hidden medallion and tossed it to the Akira. Solid gold and stamped with the Hashibira family crest, the ruling family of the Earth Kingdom for damn near the last millennia.

"I'll be damned." Aelita turned the piece over in her hand before tossing it back. "I'm guessing Long Feng won't be too happy about this."

"That would be an understatement," Kyojuro admitted a certain sadness in his voice that made Aelita think of the Toph they first met. "My turn. What do you know about Long Feng? It's obvious from your tone he's not someone you're happy to be acquainted with."

"We're not. He threatened to kick us out of the city the night we met him. He doesn't trust us." She explained. "Murata, the agent that had been tailing me? He's been with me since we got to Ba Sing Se."

"And who exactly is 'we'?"

"My friends, there's five of us traveling together. You heard Usagi mention Sokka and Katara from the Southern Water Tribe, their Dad's the Chief and they've been with the Avatar even longer than I have. He's our tactician and she's equal parts world-class healer and fighter when it comes to waterbending. Then there's Toph, she's one of the most impressive earthbenders I've ever seen, she's the one that taught Aang everything he knows about the element. And Aang? He's the Avatar, and he's one of the youngest airbending masters the Southern Air Temple ever saw."

"Sounds like quite the posse."

"We prefer to think of us as a family." Aelita shrugged. "Unfortunately we can't go anywhere in this city without the Dai Li watching our every move."

"But why? That doesn't make sense! You're the Akira. The crown has always had a close relationship with the Avatar and Akira up until now. Long Feng said the two haven't acknowledged the Hashibara family since the times of Roku and Tulan. And how the hell is the Avatar an airbender? And how are you a firebender and waterbender? Wouldn't that make you two what, a hundred something years old? But you're basically my age! According to the cycle, the Avatar between Roku and this Aang kid should've been an airbender and this Avatar should be a waterbender. You should've been the airbender, not him." Kyojuro couldn't stop the words pouring from his mouth, he was still processing everything he had learned thus far and each new thing has left him with even more questions. "And what the hell did the old man mean earlier about firebenders? Since when has anyone from the Fire Nation been afraid to step foot inside Ba Sing Se? What the fuck is going on? None of this makes sense! And..."

"Oi!" Aelita cut off the Prince's ramblings. "Breath Kyojuro, one thing at a time. You really have no idea, do you?"

She felt bad for the kid, she did. A sheltered life didn't always equal a good one, that was obvious enough from Toph but him? This was a whole different level.

"No idea about what?" The earthbender groaned.

"About the war."

🌊🏔🔥🌪

The light of day gave way to the cool glow of sunset all too quickly. This was a terrible idea. Zuko didn't want to do this. He wanted to be anywhere but here right now but here he was waiting outside of the tea shop for a girl. Maybe if the spirits were feeling generous she would be the one to bail and Zuko could at least tell his Uncle he tried.