Dragon At Heart

Chapter 5

5. Learning the Hard Way

Zuko was sitting alone in his cabin onboard his ship. Uncle had forced him to take the day off, but Zuko was no good at sitting around doing nothing even on the best of days. Now that he knew the Avatar was getting further away every minute they wasted on his health, Zuko was getting anxious.

Sergeant Cho had estimated that the prince had at least three broken ribs and a mild concussion, and Uncle insisted that they took it seriously and went to see a healer before going after the Avatar. Since Zuko had no idea which way the Avatar had gone, he had no choice but to comply.

The one good thing about the situation was that now Zuko had time to practice his mindreading. And practice it needed. Zuko was by no means a master when it came to using the Power of Dragons, but he couldn't afford to keep making rookie mistakes like the ones he had made back in the village when reading Katara.

The things Zuko had found out about Katara's past had made him lower his defenses for a crucial moment. Loosing sight of what thoughts were yours and what belonged to someone else could be problematic.

Back in the village, Zuko may have accidentally allowed Katara to see into his own past, and although he wasn't sure how much of himself he had revealed, Zuko had an unnerving feeling that whatever it was, it would come back to haunt him one day.

Uncle was the only person on board the ship who knew of Zuko's unusual ability. The Order hadn't wanted Zuko to tell anyone anything about them, but the Prince wouldn't and couldn't keep many things from Uncle. If anyone knew the Prince was using the Power of Dragons, or that he even could use it, Zuko would get into even more trouble than he was already in.

On the first days of his banishment, Zuko had presumed Uncle had offered to accompany him in his banishment because Iroh (and hopefully, the Fire Nation) were still interested in Zuko's progress in his firebending practices. The real reason for Iroh's presence on Zuko's ship had become clear to him a few months into their journey.

As hard as it was for Zuko to understand why, Uncle really cared what became of him. Zuko was more grateful for that than the firebending lessons. Knowing that someone cared about him, no matter what he did or how badly he screwed up, made Zuko's life as an exile considerable more bearable.

Iroh had never been wildly enthusiastic about Zuko's plan to learn an ancient, forbidden form of firebending from a mysterious Order, but he hadn't forbidden it. Actually, there were very few things Iroh ever forbid Zuko from doing.

One of the unfortunate side effects of all the secrecy was that finding a sparring partner on board the ship wasn't going to happen.

Uncle had no affinity for the Power, and Zuko and Iroh had long ago made a silent agreement that Zuko would never use the Power of Dragons on Uncle. If Iroh wanted to tell his nephew something, he would do so. If not, Zuko didn't need to know it. The same rule applied the other way around.

Everyone is entitled to their secrets. Well, almost everyone.

On a level, Zuko knew that the way he treated Uncle shouldn't have been the exception but the rule. Intruding into someone else's memories without their permission was... wrong.

However, sometimes the end justified the means. For example, if someone Zuko cared about was in danger, and someone else knew where but wouldn't say, he wouldn't hesitate to use every means of available to him to question that person.

Still, Zuko didn't use the Power often, and when he did, he tried to turn it into a deal. It was by no means fair even then, but at least the Prince had a way to give his target the heads up that he or she was about to be interrogated.