(Firelord has ordered you to his palace.) Zhao

(Good to know. Well. Goodbye. Please make up an excuse for me.) Shamo

(Not a chance! You are going and that is final!) Zhao

(Do not pretend this is nothing to do with you. It was your idea that I go to school. I was against it to the end. If they are going to find how allowed me to do something like that at school then I will point at you.) Shamo

(Shameless little ####.) Zhao

(Language. I am only 9-years old. Today is in fact my birthday. Give me a present. I know. Let me go to the vocation to earth kingdom. I will arrive back as soon as possible. You can trust me.) Shamo

(Yeah. You are correct. I should take you for a vocation. The boiling rock would be an interesting place to go.) Zhao

(I am sorry. When should I go to the palace?) Shamo

(Tomorrow.) Zhao

(Great. My date of death is the day after my birthday.) Shamo

(Do not get so down. Firelord is not a person how would kill someone just walking to his home.) Zhao

(I injured four firebenders and three of them were found poisoned.) Shamo

(I still do not get how you got your hands on such poison. You were searched. Sand and rocks I can understand but how did you get yourself a poison.) Zhao

(School still has not found about it. Really?) Shamo

(Do not get too proud of yourself. You should not forget how much trouble you are in. Forget about it. Tomorrow will show how things will turn themselves around.) Zhao

Tomorrow morning.

I am happy. Why do you ask? I am not wearing a girl's dress. I could come in my student outfit. Maybe I was reborn to the wrong nation. This is how boys should wear and not like in earth kingdom.

I am in front of the fire nation palace´s meeting hall. I must be the first earthbender in here since it was built since avatar Roku destroyed the old one. I think no assassin has come as close as me. I was surprised to notice the whole palace is something that I could earthbend. Are they mad or confident in their protections? This is madness.

(Great your Firelord. All hail Firelord Azulon.) Adviser

(All hail Firelord Azulon x3) Everyone.

We all bowed toward the throne.

Good thing that we were allowed to sit to the side as everyone else. It was like any other meeting before. Some problems with food supply thievery and festival. No other problems were brought up. Naturally, I stayed quiet. Maybe they will forget that we are here and let us go without the problem.

(Next thing on our list is some problem with a local school where one crown princess studies. There seems to have been a fight that did not go as planned.) Adviser

Great. They did not forget.

(What seems to be a problem. Competent bender should be a good thing no matter the sacrifices.) Azulon

(Winner was not firebender, my lord.) Adviser

(So we have competent non-bender. That is no bad thing either. What do you want to say? Speak up or stay silent.) Azulon

(He was an earthbender.) Adviser

Silence.

(There was an earthbender in our school where the royal family studies. How could you miss something like that up?) Azulon

(He is a citizen of fire nation by blood. He is a relative of Captain Zhao.) Adviser

(Captain Zhao. Come forward and tell me is this true.) Azulon

(It is the truth, your highness.) Zhao

(Can you explain how things ended up like this?) Azulon

Zhao explained everything without keeping anything a secret. Literally everything. From Gaoling to the library and finally the school. He could not explain poisoning though.

(Explain how you got poison to the school?) Azulon

(My first opponent was carrying it. When I blinded my surroundings, I went to the opponent to get my leftover stone back which I planted during the fight. I noticed poison thanks to my friend Oki´s teachings. I came to realize he was going to shame earthbenders reputation which would have undermined my purpose there. But in truth I was angry at them so I took revenge.) Shamo

Everything has been revealed. There is no point to deceive.

(Indeed. It is worrisome to underestimate your enemies. It seems that even under all those conditions you could hold control over the whole fight. How did you manage that?) Azulon

(The first reason is the experience of the fight against firebenders. I have formed some idea how they attack and how I can make firebenders act while in a fight. This allows me to save stamina and nerves. The second reason is earthbending teachings. The key to earth bending is with the neutral jing. It is about listening and waiting for our opponent. We rarely make our first move but we are adept at counterattacking. I think the largest successes were made against the earth kingdom when there were feints.) Shamo

(Do you have something to add to this, prince Iroh?) Azulon

(I have doubt that he could manage all that just with that kind of teaching. Where you taught by other means?) Iroh

(Yes. There is waterbending teaching with sand bending and firebending teaching with my stealthy poisoning strikes. I use knowledge from many places and not just with my bending. Does my answer satisfy you?) Shamo

(Yes. That is enough. I have nothing to add any longer.) Iroh

(You are free to leave the room. You will let you know what is going to happen at end of the week.) Azulon

He did not say anything more so we both left the place while there was still something to discuss with everyone else. Those previous talks much have been for the purpose to show Firelord strength to newcomers.

It was the weekend so the answer will arrive tomorrow. That will allow us to look around the palace. We were ordered to leave the room but not from the palace. We might need to sleep here. Just to be sure I asked Zhao was my idea correct.

(Are we staying a night here?) Shamo

(Yes.) Zhao

(Great. I think every soldier back home would be jealous of me. I am going to sleep in the same building with the enemy leader in stone build palace. What could go wrong?) Shamo

(Just go to sleep and stop thinking about stupid things) Zhao

I think he is correct. I have been under a lot of stress for over half a year. I should go to the room for visitors and start sleeping. Maybe it will calm me down.

I looked outside the window and saw a pond with turtleducks. I turned my face back in front of me. I should not look there any closer. I have changed much but this is not one thing that I could change even if I wanted.

(You were that earthbender how made trouble in school.)

Guess how is in front of me. The man was way taller and intimidating than I thought. The voice that causes goosebumps. Eyes so fierce that they go right through you. Posture causes shame to most earthbenders. Hand so undamaged that causes to think he has not held a weapon before. The perfect balance of power and deception to make your goals come true.

The worst thing is his face. The face is that of a kind honorable man without selfish ideals. All my past human experiences were destroyed by him since I knew him. Ruler of fire nation during 95 to 100 AG. Current prince of the fire nation. Firebending master and finally infamous Phoenix King. He was Ozai.