Toph Beifong
Ahh I felt like a dressed up turnip. Completely ridiculous and existing for no other reason than to show off wealth and money just something made to look fancy. But that's what I had to deal with in a situation like this. At least I didn't have to know what I look like exactly. I just felt the layers of dress on me and the dead end of my senses.
How had I ended up in this situation? Well, that's quite simple. I had been too good with my earthbending. I was born without sight and had to develop ways to exist without it, primarily by learning about how animals that were blind survived underground and advancing that through use of earthbending.
Unfortunately that was a blessing and curse at the same time. On one hand I have the ability to see in a roundabout way on the other… Well, I ended up as a potential candidate for the next Queen of the earth Kingdom or empire whatever Tanya was calling it that day.
Better than a long story short as well I had been taking part in a few less than legal fighting rings just so I could not have to deal with my dad's overprotectiveness and thankfully he never found out about it but he did notice that my Earth bending was pretty good and so he's gone looking for a way to make sure that I would be protected and then he found out about the potential earthbender School that Tanya had set up followed by the possibility that there might be one member of the academy chosen to serve as a potential hair since Tanya was never one to produce one.
But it pretty much doomed my life I've been signed up for the school shipped off into the safest place in the earth Kingdom far away from the coastline where the fire Nation May attack from and forced to show off my tricks in order to prove that I was a good earthbender unfortunately my tricks were leagues above some of these students who showed up and I got labeled a prodigy.
My father had won. I was now theoretically the safest place in the entire Kingdom, the heir to Tanya which meant I was doomed as far as I was concerned. I had considered running away once or twice but… ah.
As much as I was not a fan of my dad's plans I had to admit Tanya was a rather chill person.
She checked in to make sure I was doing my work and I could do whatever I wanted the rest of the time.
I even snuck out once or twice while competing in a local bending contest and besides possibly finding one of her harem sneaking around and keeping an eye on me she's not stopped it.
So as a result I had a lot more freedom here than I would have had back home which is why I was willing to put up with being the heir to the kingdom and being forced to learn all these historical facts and other dumb stuff that Tanya thought I needed to know to run this thing when she finally retired.
Something I found unlikely considering how much of a micro manager she tended to be.
Oh sure she goes into seclusion every once in a while but she comes out of it recovered and comes straight back to do a bunch of micromanaging to set the Kingdom right. It was almost a cycle at this point. Someone would screw up, Tanya would come in and fix it when she was sure it was fixed, she'd go away for a year or two and then someone would screw up again and she'd come out of retirement, fix the issue and then go back.
Of course there were moments that I was not as free as I would like to be which was like right now in fact instead of I don't know enjoying a good combat in the Badlands with some wanderers or nomads one of their fighting rings, here I was at some party at the city of Omashu the secondary capital of the earth Kingdom or the real Capital depending on who you talk to.
Instead of having fun I was here dressed up as a little princess and forced to wear shoes that made it hard to use my abilities. Not completely lost, the toes were still touching the ground in my shoe but the heel was always a bit too tall in my opinion. Yes I understood I needed to practice for political stuff and all that jazz but having my range of sight diminished to half it normally which was disconcerting.
Maybe claustrophobic was kind of the word after all without full sight as far as I could feel it felt like I was returning back to the blindness to the limited movements I have been allowed in my youth which are not happy memories I had at least.
Anyways I tried to put that out of my mind I'm just listen to the conversation as the air to the throne that should have no power I was called to go to certain places with Tanya to make sure I was up up to knowledge on all information that she was currently working on and one of those places we've been summing to was this city Omashu.
said city used gravity and shoots to move material up and down at a rather quick rate. A city run by a mad scientist at least that's what Tanya called him though I don't think she'd say that to his face she'd only ever mention it before the party on the way over in fact.
I was sitting a few feet away from her while she was in conversation with the current King of the city Bumi, a man who was old enough to remember a time when the Avatar was a thing which was older than dirt as far as I was concerned.
On one hand the man was definitely crazy when he acted and dressed and talked and made that clear as all day on the other well, it was a mad genius as Tanya said and she was of the opinion that they needed to keep him on the good side of the new nation particularly because well as the second largest city state in the earth Nation he produced quite a lot of important things for everyone.
In fact he was the one to put together the idea of putting the steam engine on rails which meant a lot of modern conveniences of the last 20 years had him to thank for since the speed of which nation was brought together really depended on those rails.
Currently he was sipping a drink as he listened to several people talk while Tanya seem to be deep in thought herself they had not spoken yet but they were obviously trying to work up to something what that something was I didn't know mainly because I had 50% of my senses unavailable so I just focused on getting a drink and listening in see what would happen.
I did not have long to wait as I was sitting there and I heard King Bumi speak up and say "so Queen Tanya what's this about you being an immortal empress or something."
I heard a stifle of a cough as Tanya was mid drink during that question and need to clear her airway took her a moment before she said "that damn cultus I don't know who is pushing this idea but I am not a fan of this whole situation I have been trying to get them to stop there particular religious worship of me but they do not apparently want to listen."
"Of course they don't want to listen," Bumi said with a chuckle, having the sound of someone who understood what was going on better than the queen. "These people probably think you're The reincarnation of Chin the conqueror here to finish the job that he failed to do when Avatar Kyoshi killed him."
Tanya scarves before saying "well that's an interesting theory they may have but they are wrong that I can tell you with some certainty."
"Ohh finally going to reveal who you're a reincarnation of?"
"Ha no no I am not." Tanya mused while drinking from her glass before saying. "So King bumi why did you want me to come to your far off City instead of meeting at my villa or possibly-."
"That terrible City that calls itself the capital of the earth Nation ha no" he said cutting her off before saying "there is no ingenuity or beauty to that City all there is is cramped quarters and big walls maybe a nation unto itself but it's a nation that's boring uninteresting and a waste of space would be cooler if they build up but no no they wanted to build wide."
He shook his head before saying "if anything you should do something about creating a new capital, get away from that massive city of spies and intrigue especially the organization and keep things running in that City what is it called".
Tanya shrugged her shoulder before saying "the Dai Liand and i'm well aware of their reputation that's why I stay out of that City but it is one of the most defendable places in the continent and I've already invested quite a bit of money into turning the palace into a governmental structure."
"Ba my waste of money then already. Bumi said with a shake of his head before saying "that city is a monument to the past, maybe bigger but it's too wrapped up in its own traditions. You should seek out building a new city one far away from that one or at least see about trying to finally unseat the police force from that City"
I could just feel Tanya's contempt as she seem to be thinking that over before saying although "I do have my issues with the police force of that City for the fact of the matter is they are important to protecting cultural relics that are important to maintaining the Earth Nations Independence.And though I think their way of doing things is a bit much in my opinion they do have the support of the people."
"More like the brainwashed masses" retired King Bumi said with a shake of his head before saying "yes they have support they've had support for hundreds of years and what did it get them all right with a moments of being sieged down by someone who didn't even have bending abilities."
Well I could not see it I could feel the tweak of a smile on Tanya's lips before she said "yes well just because one does have the power to do something does not mean they should do something not without a full understanding of what the consequences of that action would be let's not forget that the secret police force that currently occupies the city of Ba Sing Se or instituted for a solid reason. They were meant to maintain civil order to prevent any destruction of cultural heritage and remove them and perhaps we find out that they are needed. Perhaps if we don't have them there the city of Ba Sing Se will burn under the banner of those cultists who seem to believe in some sort of anti Avatar".
"Ha .. fine points are fine points I guess we'll have this argument again next year" he said with a shake of his head before adding "by the way you've been hearing the stories that they're coming out of the border regions to the South and possible return of the avatar."
"I've heard them," Tanya said with a shrug. I'm now focusing on the two more because I had not and I had not heard about the return of the Avatar at all in fact it was quite interesting in this story.
"Supposedly there's a kid wandering around in the South with air bending powers seems unlikely, but it would have been nearly a hundred years if Avatar was still alive. I doubt he's still alive now. Could be a new Avatar could be just the kid of the last Avatar but it is good to hear that the airbenders are still around if it's true I used to know one in my youth, good guy good guy."
Something about his statements begged for questioning but unfortunately Tanya didn't question it instead focusing on the subject of the Airbender.
"Hmm if there is an airbender to the South with the southern water tribes that is a very interesting situation assuming that he is not the after just some survivor or child of his driver that means he is entitled to a large piece of land mass off coast in between the earth nation and the fire Nation."
"Hmm yeah yeah I think you're right on that land well we're too far away here in these inland cities from the coast to find out if it really is the Avatar after a lie on our personnel then we send into the military to do that job and they're always too busy worrying about the fire Nation coming around for round two."
"Too true too true" Tanya said with a nod before her head tilted and looked in my general direction before saying "I wonder though if we could stack the deck and try and find out more of the situation."
"Hmm why are you looking at me?" I asked no one to mints words even if Tanya was.
"Your family lives near the coastline does he not."
Oh no I thought before signing saying "yes".
"How would you like to go visit your parents for a week or two, maybe a month? Keep an eye out for any information for me about this Airbender and report back to us when you have that information."
"Hmm" I pretended to give it some thought. I really wanted to say no right then and there after all I was free here. If I went back home for even a month I would probably be pinned up in a house somewhere being a baby by my parents.
However I would lie if I did not say it was an intriguing idea playing a little bit of a spycraft and finding out about this Airbender after all and one of them had not been seen on the continent for years. So obviously they're rare and who knows maybe I could learn something from them. It's always good to learn more about spending and give me more control and ability so there was a reason to do it at the very least.
After a few moments of thought I said "what do you want me to do while I'm there."
I couldn't see the smile but I could feel it and she said "nothing much just report if you do run into them tell them that we are willing to negotiate the return of their Islands to the air Nation under of course our protection from the fire Nation they are still poking around those islands I believe at least the group that call themselves are renegades do."
I nodded and said "all right guess I'm going on an adventure. Fine sounded happier than I was because I had a pretty good idea that the parents would prevent that from being too big of an adventure.
Lao Beifong
Smiling I looked out over the refinery, years of hard work and dedication had seen the creation of possibly a good sign of peace to come. The earthbender fire bender refinery was going to be a good step in putting behind the problems of the 70 year war granted it had been 30 years since that war had ended but there was always a little bit of unhealthy relations between the two sides here in the formerly occupied zone. Not for lack of trying people have been trying to improve the situation for the last 30 years notably the ruler of the earth Kingdom going out of the way to declare the zone a new territorial district so it didn't have to deal with the former nobles of the earth Kingdom that had lost territory in the area.
But in 30 years there hadn't been much effort to finish the project in his opinion. Oh they were efforts but they were half attempted and not fully pushed. The cultures of the three peoples who lived in this area were just so mixed and confused that this old hatred had prevented a lot of people from trying to improve things instead even though this place was considered mixed by the governments there were ghettos territories that were fire earth or water I imagine if the airbenders were still around that would be places for the airbenders as well but these issues were not insurmountable.
If there's one thing that earth, water , fire and even air, if they were still around, could agree on, making money was a good way to make friends.
So I had found other rich merchants and patrons from across this region and well it started a project to try and make money for the people. I figured if Earth fire water worked together the problems they had with each other would slowly Fall away after all money makes the world go round money can solve all your problems.
Well 90% of my problems. Couldn't solve my daughter's blindness. I thought about looking out a window for my office at the project. If it could solve my daughter's blindness I would have it fixed in an instant but no nothing could do that as a result she had been left handicapped well mostly handicapped she was an earthbender which was good for her I had never accomplished such a feat and I had done the best I could with what information I had using my money to pay for her schooling in the earth bending way hoping that somehow it may help her defend herself but she seemed too rambunctious after learning how to Earth bend.
Though I had wanted her to train to Earth then so she could better operate in the world I worried that it would make her too confident in herself and get herself hurt by classic conundrum when you really think about it. Help your child do better than you or worry that they'll get themselves in trouble.
I was not really sure what I was going to do on that matter until I'm out and had presented myself with one that I was apprehensive about but I thought could be good.
Master Yu had taken her to a training academy that was holding a competition not with my orders but not against my orders either so I let it slide. And while she was at that academy she had showing her skills to be quite applicable better than I had ever thought as the leader of the academy had come back and asked if I would be willing to let my daughter participate in a recent bid by the Earth empress or president whatever title they seem to go by nowadays to find an heir someone to pass the official royalty to upon their death.
Now on one hand I was not a fan of this that was probably the most dangerous position a person could be in if things went wrong but on the other it was also probably the safest hundreds of thousands of people willing to put their lives on the line to save my daughter make sure she was safe and she did not have to fight. It really became a choice of do I want my daughter to have a strong future or do I want to protect her and well in a sense she would get both in this path.
So grudgingly against the wishes of my wife I'd allowed her to participate.
And she won.
And she was safe in the capital away from the coast where the fire Nation could attack at any moment safe and sound under the care of a woman who saved the Earth Nation from the same fate as the airbenders.
I still question if that was the right decision my wife's still question if that was the right decision she'd almost left me but we eventually came to the decision that it was the right decision at the time once we met the Earth empress Tanya who explained that she would be getting the best education healthcare and training in the entire world.
It was a golden opportunity, one that would see my child be one of the most important figures in the history of the earth Nation and protected so I had let it happen. But like any good father I question that decision every day. I worried about her and that was not much to do but worry and hope that she would be okay.
Sighing and I continue to look out the window. Further down the streets I could see the new church and the empress going up. Well strange believers that Tanya was The reincarnation of King Chin the bandit who had tried to kill the Avatar hundreds of years before had been growing a little bit profusely within the multi-kingdom zone.
I doubt that everyone bought the whole spiel that these people came up with but most likely the peasants who fell for it simply hated the fact that they had to share the territory with the other people and not push them out.
Although I guess there were other options I wasn't one for their religion I don't think many people in the upper society were especially those with actual connection to benders as that particular group sended to be anti-avatar and anti-bender.
The current religious head of the organization Ttam tap seems to never be able to make up his mind on exactly what their goals were, just seem to complain about random things from history and propose his crazy theories about how it should have been done.
I tried to sit through one of his lectures. I had been so bored and tired by the end that I had left though I will admit the start was rather interesting.
I have wondered if the population of people who actually listen to their religious theories were broken up into three groups, are those who were there to make fun of it and have fun those who actually believed it and those who believed it but the other version that he spoke the week before and just had a notice that things have changed between versions.
Had to respect the hustle but at this point he was somewhat worried that they might cause a little bit of tension in the region where they're crazy talks.
Sighing I pressed my hand to my forehead trying not to think about them world's better when you didn't think about them hopefully they would stop being such a nuisance I was worried they might cause a problem for my employees in a few years nothing screws with your organization more than crazy religious wackos getting in the way of work.
Getting up, brush yourself off and move over to start heading home, stepping out of my office and heading down a few stairs to the first floor where an office girl was looking over some paperwork.
I was about to step out when she said "mister Beifong the letter just arrived for you."
"Really I wonder who that's from" I said with a smile moving over to grab the letter from her and then giving a nod "see you tomorrow mis Kevoh."
"Night mister Beifong". she said as i walked out the doors quickly finding the waiting cart to take me back home and tipping the driver a couple extra bucks because i was in a good mood.
Relaxing and watching the street go by as many people did what many people did, trade , have fun and yell at each other he wondered what world would come out of this era.
There were great opportunities in the formerly colonized regions, great opportunities to do good things but also great opportunities for bad and he just hoped that whatever happened things would get better. And he hoped but there would be an official peace treaty between the fire Nation and the Earth Nation and needed to happen already one of the reasons that the fire Nations investors have been a bit skittish was because there was always a worry that the war would start up again and when it did well consorting with the enemy was a problem.
Oh that's why he couldn't find anyone to invest with the water Nation they were still at war with the fire Nation and all the actually taking shots there was not a week that a story didn't come from the Navy about how close the water Nation drove it ships right up to the borders of the fire Nation or nearly collided with fire Nation ships and apparently some of those stories ended they were being a little bit of too aggressive to the Earth Nation nowadays as well indicating that they weren't fans of either.
Granted they hadn't actually done anything to start a war yet but this over aggressive attitude didn't seem to be pushing the border of things perhaps driving the Earth and fire Nation to be a bit careful around them.
It was sort of understandable after all their territory was rather fluid and they had to protected jealousy or well fishers would claim parts of it which had been a problem for the last 30 years or so Earth Nation fishers had been going into the water tribes territory and fishing using fish banks that had been ancestral territory of the water tribes for generations as deposits of food for your nation and the formerly colonized areas which is probably why the water tribes were not friendly to the Earth Nation anymore when you really thought about it.
Resources were running tight then if you started taking someone resources out from underneath them well they're going to notice sooner or later perhaps they've been having some bad harvesters perhaps winter wasn't as filling as it used to be either way perhaps the best option for them was to be overly aggressive pushing the border and securing their naval territory as possible.
There was of course another territory that was always up for debate though and probably was going to be a stickler for generations who got the Fisher Banks within the air nomads Island mountains. Personally he thought it probably should just be divided three ways but he wasn't in charge of things like this now the only reason he knew it was because he was looking into trying to invest in a new technology called canning and supposedly fish would be a good thing to be canned.
I need to know about that but he would keep an eye on it. Anything I can make profit and drive people together is something that should be worked on.
Sighing, I looked over at the letter that had been given to me and opened it wondering who it was from only to have a smile braced face as he read it.
His daughter had been off in the high Life of the earth Kingdom and would be returning for a few months. A little bit of visitation time. According to Tanya she felt that she was feeling homesick. I need to be with her parents for a while. This was quite wonderful. A chance to see his kid after a few years away would be good especially for poppy. She had always been the most upset about the whole situation and now he couldn't see how to improve it.
Perhaps i should put together a party yes a big party celebrating her arrival and her career so far also a big party would be good to keep her hemmed in away from the rest of the people of this area just because she was Earth Kingdom royals she did not mean she was not in danger and best to keep her safe as possible because people keep poking around.
Smiling, I closed the letter and leaned back when I was going to talk about it with my kid when they finally came home . That was a thought that I hadn't really thought about . After all, you should try and get the most out of this opportunity as possible.
Maybe he should contact her trainer and have him do some tests to see how she's been improving just to make sure that she's keeping up with her studies she what's the child to try and get away with things and what better way to make sure that she was doing her part for the Earth Nation other than to poke and make sure she was doing it.
The card he was on came to a stop as a group of protesters started making their way across the street a large column of people holding up an effigy of Tanya and shouting about something poking my head out I looked over there and saw it was one of the anti Avatar pro empress Earth Nation groups talking about grief with the avatar," why are these people so active today" I' uttered as I looked out the window.
"Probably cuz there's rumors of the avatars back" the driver of the card said, getting me to look over at him confused.
"What you're joking about, right."
The driver shrugged before saying "I'm just reported what I heard here's hoping probably do the world have been good to have the Avatar back in my opinion get these silly people to stop you at worrying about their Petty insults from generations ago."
"Hmm here going" i said in thinking, it probably would do in the world a bit of good not the way he was thinking but more in the fact that if the Avatar was really back the peace treaties needed to be signed would finally be done and progress could finally come to the former fire Nation colonies zone.