Chapter 6

Part 2

Iroza was sweating slightly, and he blamed it all on the steam.

The bathhouse was really humid.

Go figure.

But he was nervous.

His handoff of the delivery and subsequent bathroom break had all gone more or less as planned.

Still, he couldn't help but look around.

And look around again.

Shit, this was stressful.

Whatever.

Whatever.

He was alone with the letters, and he had to be fast.

He had to do this quickly.

Staying too long would arouse too much suspicion.

There was also the nagging possibility that the heat might fuck with the ink.

The steam in the ait was nothelping matters.

He pulled the letter to Warden Pola out and ocalled a small flame to his hand.

Then he winced and held ita little further from the paper.

A steaming bathhouse and a flame.

Just perfect.

Just a really great idea, Iroza.

One of a kind genius, you are.

ldiot.

He wondered how much it said about him that his overzealous inner critic sounded so haughty, feminine, and annoyingly familiar.

Probably a lot.

More than he was willing to unpack, least of all now.

He narrowed his eyes at the letter and held his other hand at an angle, trying to pick up the writing through the back of the parchment.

Shit.

Shit.

Shit.

Shit.

He couldn't see any of the text.

He swore under his breath, and in his head.

The parchment was too thick.

There was no bleed-through from the ink.

This was likely to be his only chance to get something from this.

But how?

Then his eyes drifted to his hand, still alight with flame, and he had an idea that he really should have thought of earlier, even if it was kind ofa dodgy idea.

So naturally, he decided to go with it right away.

The flame in his hand grew smaller, dimming until the heat was entirely contained beneath his skin.

Right on his thumb, until it started getting red.

No open flame.

He pressed his thumb into the back of the letter and started peeling the front off.

All while staring intently at the seal.

Please don't break

Please dont break.

Please don't break.

Please-

It came off.

And he remembered to breathe.

Wax still in one piece.

Seal intact.

Fuck.

He laughed slightly, noticing how tense he was.

Right.

The letter was open.

Good.

Realy good.

He flipped it open, eyes darting across the text as he remembered that he was on a timetable.

By the end of the letter, his excitement had waned slightly.

Less than he had hoped for no obvious evidence of a conspiracy.

Though expecting anything damning was probably too optimistic anyway.

The letter was normal.

Fairly starndard prisoner transfer orders.

Sixteen Earth Kingdom POWs being transferred back to the colonies.

They would be split up and dolled out to the different sea prisons from there.

Earthbenders, then.

That was something the only odd parts were a few non-standard bits that didnt quite fit with the rest of the military jargon in the letter.

Warning of bandit activity along the route, along with details on the quality and quantity of soldiers that would be accompanying the prisoner train.

Not too suspicious at a glance, but what would a prison warden need with it?

And then there was the word.

Well, he wasnt sure what it was, exactly.

Either a name or some sort of callsign, or even a code word, at the bottom of the letter. It might be the name of the sender, but it still didnt help him very much.

It was written in plain script.

No signature.

Just the insignia from the seal, that three-tiered circle, and word at the end.

Laogai.

Iroza wracked his brain, but it didn't ring any bells.

If it was a name, then it wasnt from anyone in the local chain of command he recognized.

That wasnt a high bar, but it discounted everyone he was already suspicious of.

The initials didn't fit.

It could be a place?

Some sort of meeting spot, or dropoff.

But that didnt help either, since he didn't know where it was or if they had some specialized code of indicating that sort of thing.

As a codeword, it could easily function as some sort of key for the letter to be translated, or just signal an alternate interpretation of the letter without changing it at all.

He bit his tongue slightly.

Tricky, tricky.

After a few more seconds, he sighed and rubbed at his forehead.

These theories weren't really helping.

The letter was just missing too much context.

As his thurmb heated back up, he watched and waited as the wax seal started to soften.

Just as it looked ready to drip, but before the surface of the indentation could be deformed at all, he resealed the letter.

There.

Easy.

Firebending ruled.

Splashing his face with some water from the basin in the room, to give the impression he had actually been using the facilities instead of making it obvious he had just spent five minutes standing around doing nothing, he then gathered the letters back up and left the bathhouse.

He spared a nod to the man at the desk but otherwise kept to his thoughts as he walked.

Mai might be able to glean more from the text, seeing as she was deceitful and roguish by nature, but he still had to actually deliver the thing.

The best he could do would be reciting it to her by memory, which of course he would do anyway.

But in the meantime.

Well, maybe Warden Paola was up for a friendly chat?

Yeah, right.

They could just talk all of this out like reasonable folk.

And while he was at it, Iroza would broker peace between Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom.

He would be anointed as a hero and hailed as a patron saint, which wasn't a thing here.

Finally, he would be revealed to be the Avatar because the cycle had inexplicably skipped over the other elements and gone right back to fire.

And nothing bad would ever happen again.

This time he really did sigh.

Spirits, but he wished he could just storm into the prison and firebend the information out of the warden.

It would be so easy.

That's what Azula would do if she was here.

And it would work.

Probably.

Thing was, Azula was also less worried about consequences than him.

Being the favored daughter, and all.

That, and she was a skilled fighter and firebender both.

Not that Iroza was unskilled.

He was just... Less skilled.

Yeah.

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His route took him through most of the districts, though only very briefly in some cases.

He made sure not to spend too long in the merchant's district because it was full of disgusting merchant pigs.

And panhandlers.

At first, Iroza had been planning on mentally checking out until he finally made it to the delivery he cared at all about, to save some of his sanity.

Unfortunately, the contents of the letter or lack of contents, necessitated a different strategy.

If he was to get any kind of information directly from the Warden, it had to come off as routine.

His questions had to be within the expected parameters of the people who were watching him.

If he only asked the Warden questions, and not anyone else, then it would imply that he had taken a special interest in the Warden.

And what could possibly have brought that on?

The letter, obviously.

So, as much as he despised these people, he had to resign himself to being told all about the daily life and duties of a blacksmith, a bake, a seamstress, and so on.

With each delivery, he asked a few different questions.

Interviewing them, real.

He had to frame this as curiosity, and an eagerness to learn about the administration in the city.

It was awful.

Completely worthless prattle.

But it was necessary.

Finally, he arrived at the prison and summoned the last dredges of his willpower.

Ramshackle as everything in Wan Bhing tended to be, the prison was still a veritable fortress of smooth stone walls, with towers and battlements strategically placed.

He briefly scanned the top, taking note of the guards wh were actually patrolling.

That was something.

He brought his eyes to the gates, where two guards were sitting and chatting.

Whatever.

At least no one was asleep.

They leapt to their feet and right to attention as Iroza approached the thick prison doors, which were barred.

He nodded to them. "Gentlemen."

One of them took a step forward and bowed. "Your grace, your presence honors us. Did the General send you?"

"Of course not, he was just visiting. That's right. Priority message, straight from General Rama," He said, holding the letter up and briefly glancing around. "Is Warden Pola about?"

"I believe so. I'l see to it that she gets the message:"

Iroza shook his head.

"That won't be necessary. Point me in the right direction, soldier."

And again, the hesitation.

"Forgive me, but are you cleared for that?"

At Iroza's glare, the man stumbled on. "It's just- 0ur prison is a secure facility, and entry is strictly regulated by order of Representative Ji, sir."

Iroza wanted to kill everyone.

Instead, he smiled and tilted his head.

"As Supreme Royal Adjutant, it so happens that Representative Ji and I operate on comparable levels of authority. Do you know what that means?"

That factoid might have been complete horseshit, for all Iroza knew.

But these idiots definitely didnt know.

"That.. You are cleared for entry?"

"Correct."

The soldier rubbed at his neck, sharing a look with one of the others at the gate.

"Does that make sense to you?"

"Why are you asking me? You're the one talking to him, so you decide."

He stalked over and punched his compatriot in the shoulder, lowering his voice.

But not enough that Iroza couldn't listen in.