“It’s as I explained,” he said. “Yun and I had an argument about his bending progress. More than an argument, really. I said things to him I never should have said. It got out of hand and he ran away with Kelsang’s help. On a bison, the two of them could have gone anywhere in the world.”
Hei-Ran’s face was remarkably still, but the slight temperature increase in the room betrayed her emotions. It added to the effect of Jianzhu’s ploy.
Hui was still shocked, but the wheels in his mind were already beginning to turn, his chest heaving for dramatic effect more than a need for air. “I thought the monk was the equivalent of a decorative hermit living on your estate,” he said, not a good enough actor to keep out the sneer of disdain.
He was a companion of Kuruk and my friend, you little toad. “He was, or so I thought. I didn’t realize he’d been plotting, waiting to seize the right moment. Our relationship had suffered over the years, but I could never have expected to this extent.”
Jianzhu punched at the air, letting his real frustrations shine through. “It’s Yun I should have understood better. I don’t know if the damage can ever be repaired.”
“It can’t be that bad,” Hui said, hoping with his entire heart it was truly that bad. “Children are volatile at that age.”
“He—he swore upon his own Avatarhood that he would never accept me as his master again.” Jianzhu ran his thumb and forefinger over his eyes. “Chamberlain Hui, I am begging you for assistance here. The stability of our nation is paramount. If word gets out that Yun has gone rogue, then there’ll be chaos.”
The crack that Hui had been hoping for turned out to be a gulf the size of the Great Divide. He hadn’t been prepared to strike this much gold. “Master Jianzhu, there are several prominent Earth Kingdom sages, including our benefactor, waiting for the Avatar in the grand hall,” he said, thrustin
g his hands at the walls.
Jianzhu put on a mask he’d never worn before. Helplessness. He let his silence answer for him.
Hui composed himself, wanting to reflect the new state of affairs. He was the man in charge now. He straightened his collar and clicked his heels together. Unfortunately for him, he also forgot about the ink on his sleeve, ruining the effect of tidiness.
“Master Jianzhu, there’s no need to worry,” he said. “I’ll handle this.”
In the end, Hui told Lu Beifong and the assembled sages the exact line that Jianzhu had used on his own household. Yun felt he’d been neglecting his spiritual studies. After much pleading, Jianzhu had given him leave to travel alone with Kelsang on a nomadic journey of self-discovery, avoiding such obvious destinations as the Air Temples or the Northern Oasis. Yun had been to those places. He needed to grow along his own path, untrammeled by expectations.
It meant no contact from the Avatar for a while. The world would have to get along without one until further notice.
Jianzhu could have said as much himself, but coming from Hui, the story was so much more effective. It was an open secret among the party guests that the chamberlain was waging political war against him. The only thing they would ever align on were basic, incontrovertible facts. Like the Avatar going on a vacation.
The rest of the visit was spent on trivialities. Jianzhu weathered the severe annoyance and biting remarks of Lu Beifong, wondering how many more years he’d have to put up with groveling before his former sifu. The old man seemed like he would never kick the bucket while debtors owed him money, and nearly the entire Earth Kingdom banked with the House of the Flying Boar.
Hei-Ran stood dull-eyed in the corner as men prodded for her thoughts on remarriage, in language they thought was subtle and flattering. Some of them, upon hearing her rebuff, immediately pivoted to inquiring about her daughter. Jianzhu never understood how she resisted the temptation to bend scorched holes into the ceiling when her element was always available.
They left when the party became too much to bear, getting into a single carriage for the journey back. Hei-Ran’s admirers could have interpreted that a certain way. But the two of them simply needed to talk.
“I know you’re angry at me,” Jianzhu said. He slumped back against his seat.
“About what?” Hei-Ran snapped. “The fact that you revealed your biggest setback to your worst enemy? That you’re piling lies upon lies for no reason I can see? Why didn’t you tell Hui the excuse he gave to the crowd?”
“Because vulnerability equals truth. The only statement of mine Hui would take at face value was one that left me exposed. Now my story’s set with the vast majority of the Earth Kingdom. I only have a single opponent to worry about.”
She didn’t look very confident in his tactic. Firebenders thought in terms of positive jing, always staying on the offensive. “It’s getting a little difficult to keep track of the wind spewing out of your mouth at this point.”
Imagine how hard it is for me. “All warfare is based on deception,” he said. “Isn’t that a Fire Nation quote?”
Hei-Ran suddenly pulled her hairpin out of her tightly bundled style and hurled it against the wall of the coach. It clattered to the floor, the arms bent.
For the first time today, Jianzhu was truly alarmed. For a Fire Nation native to treat her hair, her topknot, this way meant she felt she was losing her honor. He waited patiently for her to speak.
“Jianzhu, I pushed that boy to the breaking point,” she said, her voice hoarse. “He might not have been a Firebender, and he might not have been the Avatar, but Yun was still my student. I had an obligation to him, and I failed.”
Hearing his name all night must have been eating at her. The absent Avatar was still the toast of the party, his conquest of the pirates turning into legend through word of mouth.
“We can still make this right,” Jianzhu said. “We simply need to find Kyoshi. Everything will be fine after that.”
“If that’s the case, and I don’t think it is, you set ablaze the time we had left and scattered the ashes. As soon as that party is over, Hui is going to march straight to the other sages and tell them what you told him. He might not wait. It’ll be the conversation topic over dessert.”
“It’ll be longer than that,” Jianzhu said. “He’s not going to waste an opportunity of this magnitude by hurrying. In fact, if he plays the information too quickly and carelessly, it’ll bite him in the end. He’s a man of self-preservation.”