Of Oceans and Stars

Chapter 3

After a few silent moments, the door clicked open again. Suki stepped out, dressed in a lounge set fashioned like Katara's. Her hair had been fashioned into a short, casual braid. Closing the door silently behind her, Suki smiled at the Waterbender.

"What sort of mysteries are we researching this time?"

Katara gave a small laugh. "Oh, the usual. Mysterious statue in Zuko's garden and..." She trailed for a moment.

The warrior maiden kept in step with Katara, whose pace was a little quicker and more hurried than usual. "Rana Bai-Sha?"

Katara cocked her head to the left, giving a vague nod as they traveled the corridor together. She didn't offer a response. Over the years of traveling, battling, and rebuilding nations together, the pair of women had become close. It was as if the warrior maiden was the sister Katara never had. When the time did come and Sokka proposed marriage to Suki, Katara would celebrate and welcome the woman into her family with enthusiastic arms.

Katara's silence spoke volumes to Suki. She knew better than to pry for more information. In time, the warrior knew, Katara would spill her guts. The past years had worn on the Waterbender, who at one time had been extremely vocal about her feelings on many situations and had worn her feelings casually on her sleeve. However, with the political entanglements of Aang as the Avatar, Katara quickly learned to keep her thoughts and opinions to herself. Even from her closest friends and allies at times.

It was as if Katara had become an island unto herself, only truly expressing herself in times of privacy and seclusion. Neutrality, Suki noted, was what Katara had come to embody. Just as the stance that the Avatar had to keep outwardly for the world to see.

As the pair reached the library, they sat at a long wooden table nestled in a curtained-off alcove. Picking through a large stack of books, Katara set a few of the tomes aside and focused on a large leather-bound volume. Opening the volume, Katara leaned forward into the table as her eyes scanned the characters laid out before her.

Next to her, Suki too leaned forward in her set and picked up one side of the volume to read the title. "A History of Earth Kingdom Ruling Families and Nobility?"

Katara's face warmed as she looked up from the page. "Rana Bai-Sha..." She repeated, almost to herself as she flipped pages further into the thick volume.

"She certainly thought a lot of Aang last night," Suki murmured as she opened her book, a small novel.

While her eyes focused on the page before her, Katara's face again heated as she focused on Suki's words. After the Earth Kingdom General had falsely announced the expected betrothal of his daughter to the Avatar the prior night, Katara wanted nothing but answers. And to maybe freeze Rana Bai-Sha into a block of ice and drop her into the South Sea.

Finding the section that listed out the Bai-Sha lineage, Katara turned her thoughts from the previous night to the page in front of her. The family's history went back centuries, almost as far back as the founding of the current Earth Kingdom royal family. Records of marriages, births, and deaths followed short entries on illustrious battles and the rise of the Bai-Sha family.

And then, it was as if their history was cut short. Just after the fifteenth generation, no mention of General Kuyu Bai-Sha, his wife, or his daughter. The last entry - blank but for a name and date of death - Iris Bai-Sha, deceased aged 21, 1 child, unknown name.

"Look at this-" Katara breathed, slapped the tome loudly.

Closing her novel, Suki slid closer to Katara and studied the page. Her eyes widened slightly as she spoke. "A noble family with an incomplete record?"