While Twinkletoes was out training and the water siblings were enjoying a sappy reunion, Toph spent her time exploring the palace. Her meeting with Yama had been short, the old fart had acknowledged that there wasn't much he could teach her in terms of actual earthbending, plus he was more interested in berating his staff over attending to Ba Sing Se's needs.
He did offer to teach her some tactics though, which Toph took a raincheck on.
Honestly, the old man seemed too eager to be stuck in boring administration instead of doing any actual bending. Apparently Yama was going to make the best of his long awaited return home by unscrewing things up, so she let it slide.
As before, the Fire Nation soldiers who guarded the palace barely gave her any thought, save for a quick enquiry about whether she needed any directions. Robed officials barely afforded her a glance as they hurried past her, and servants simply nodded in deference without being too patronizing in their attention.
With the exception of one particular wing (which contained…something, based on the vibrations she picked up), Toph was free to wander the place. It'd be a more meaningful exploration if she could see the decor, the girl supposed, but her tremorsense already picked up a lot of interesting things about the opulent construction around her.
Xing had been very thorough in taking the palace, the pockets of messily compacted earth spoke up filled secret tunnels and chambers. Cold metal plates braced what were once false walls to stop them from swiveling or sliding open. The same occurred to the listening chambers in the ceiling; Toph could just make out the once hidden spots to eavesdrop from by the difference in consistency of the earthworks.
It seems that the Fire Nation conquerors really got the Dai Li singing to have the palace so cleaned up.
Also of interest were the guests Xing was entertaining in the throne room. Toph only needed to stand by the walls outside to pick up on Xing standing by the vandalized Earth King's throne, addressing a man and a boy in some sort of conversation. Judging from how the latter guest gave tense movements, the meeting might be reluctant on their part. Reluctant on the boy's end anyway. The man just seemed sanguine about the whole thing and was constantly calming down the boy.
There were other curiosities in the palace that took up Toph's day. She found the dragons flitting about and playing with a toddler in a not-so-hidden room, overheard Generals Yiu and Sung reminding their officers to behave (and in the process learn about General Fong's ill-fated attempt at dethroning Xing), and spent some time focusing on the footwork of some soldiers in training. The quick and nimble movements were interesting enough that Toph began wondering if she could incorporate that into her own bending for rapid reactions.
Maybe it's something to ask Grumpy Yama later.
Toph felt the ripples of the explosions before she heard the muted thunderclap echoing off the walls. She was ready to write it off as firebender shenanigans, but hurried towards the source when she picked up the guards moving hurriedly. As she got closer the ground provided greater and greater detail of what had transpired.
Prince Iroh was down, and Aang was kneeling beside him with worry. A few of the palace guards were attending them, while others fanned out in search of something, or someone. More soldiers were converging, armed and alert. Katara and Sokka were running towards the site as well, with their grandaunt surprisingly keeping up with them. Xing blinked across Toph's tremorsense, probably from jetting through the hallway.
By the time Toph actually arrived at the crater that ate up half the garden, the soldiers had all left to conduct a search, while Katara and her grandaunt Kilin were tending to a groaning Prince Iroh. The vibrations did not provide much details on his wounds, but it looked like the old prince's back was shredded by the explosion he and Aang narrowly avoided.
"-froze for a second, and then he pushed me down before the ground exploded," Aang briefed Xing, sounding a little rattled.
For his part, the prince of Ba Sing Se was coldly furious, his feet firmly rooted to the ground as his body tensed up. "Did you see anything right up to the explosion? Smell? Hear?"
The Avatar shook his head. "Nothing."
"It was an explosion…"
"Yeah."
Xing paused for a second, and then turned to a hunched man on all fours, busily combing through the crater. "Hyung, anything?"
"I can tell you the point of the explosion, but…there's no trace of its fuel," Hyung reported with clear annoyance, his hand sweeping through the dirt. "It's like firebending, except, well…explosive. And strong too, to tear up so much dirt."
"How strong?"
The hunched man shrugged. "It's not going to melt through Ba Sing Se's walls like you, but it'll take out most buildings, I'm guessing."
"Wait, a firebender did this?" Sokka incredulously cut in.
Xing glanced at her and gave a tentative nod. "It seems so…" Toph picked up the sudden freeze and a spark of something from him as he trailed off and shifted his balance a little. Xing quickly turned to the nearby soldiers with urgency. "Send a message out to the hunters. Our target's likely with a third eye."
"Third eye?"
"Probably a tattoo or scar. Capture only if certain of success."
"Yes, my prince."
"Send the message to Mozi as well, I'll get him up to speed in a bit."
This time it was Aang who interrupted. "You know who did this?"
"I have…a hunch. Hopefully it's accurate." Oh, right. The Scorpion and his spirits. Guess that tale's true.
"Hold on just a moment," Katara said, and Toph immediately braced herself for the waterbender's incoming nonsense. "Why is everyone taking your word for granted?"
Ah, Toph was wrong. She'd expected Sugar Queen to be complaining about how Aang almost got killed. Still, the question made pretty much all the Fire Nation people in the garden (except for Prince Iroh who was busy being healed) shift their feet with annoyance. Xing though just gave her a mildly amused look.
"I'm not responsible for this, if that's what you're insinuating."
"I'm not, but-"
"Xing's…sources have not led him astray yet, Katara," Kilin soothed, with a surprising amount of ice under her warm tone.
"And he's not lying," Toph decided to chip in before the other girl decided to stick her foot in her mouth. There were way too many firebenders here to rile up.
Aang looked at her weirdly. "How can you tell?" Right, she never did tell anyone about her lie-detecting.
She walked up beside Xing and tapped her foot. "I can feel his breathing and his heartbeat. When people lie, there's a physical reaction. Xing's telling the truth when he says he's not really sure."
"Or he's a very good liar," Sokka decided to say, and which redirected the annoyed gazes his way. "Hey, I'm being hypothetical here."
Xing shook his head. "We're wasting time. Avatar Aang, I'll have to ask you to stay within the palace for the rest of the day while we sort this out."
"Shouldn't we help you? I mean, Appa can fly to cover more ground."
"It'd defeat the point of our secrecy up until now."
"Oh, right."
Toph felt the young prince's posture stiffen as he spared a brief glance at Prince Iroh who was now serenely snoring away from a healing-induced sleep. "In any case, this is my responsibility as a host. Someone has tried to make a lie of my hospitality. Elder Kilin, I entrust Prince Iroh's wellbeing to your care. Sergeant, tell Colonel Mozi to increase security, he'll know what to do. Kwan, tell the others to catch up with me. Koshi, try and keep up."
Without waiting for everyone's acknowledgement, the Scorpion shot up into the air with a roaring blast of fire, followed shortly after by a man who should be Koshi.
Toph glanced to her friends, and felt their lost looks from the ripples of their movement. "What do we do now?
*****
Bao-Zha had thought he was doing a great job at extracting himself from the Inner Ring. The routes and detours had been extensively planned out, down to what alleys to turn into at what time. He had four ostrich horses waiting at different points, and two carriages booked to receive his arrival at opposing ends of the Middle Ring.
There were no delusions of being able to blend in with the city's populace, not with how badly he stood out with his larger build and poorer attire. So Bao-Zha stuck to the shadows of rooftops and balconies, dropping down to alleyways only for short sprints to cross certain areas.
All avenues of escape were clear, but the assassin had not factored in that his vengeful hunters would so brazenly soar across the skies in groups. He'd poorly assumed that the rumors of the 11th flying across battlefields were hyperbole. Most firebenders capable of doing such a feat tended to stick to the ground to conserve their energy, after all.
It was a stupid mistake that cost Bao-Zha valuable time. Now his movement was severely hampered. Even the most alert guards on the ground tended to look forwards rather than up unless given reason to, but firebenders bounding through the air had a clear view of the rooftops below them.
To make things worse, the assassin spied the bright flame of the young prince taking part in the manhunt. Unlike the others who leapt from street to roof to street, Xing shot up almost completely vertically into the air, and then glided down in a slow spiral using his robes to slow his descent. It would've been a comical sight, if not for how much trouble Bao-Zha was in to appreciate it.
His window of escape was closing too quickly. Either he had to go to ground, or force a breakthrough.
For the sake of actually accomplishing his mission, Bao-Zha drew in a breath and then shot out from under the roof he was hiding. The burst of chi was sent skywards, and Bao-Zha was already running before the explosion went off. As expected, the shouts of alarm from the palace garrison initially drew them to the explosion itself, buying him precious time and distance.
Unfortunately, his break didn't last too long as the Scorpion's yell not only told Bao-Zha that he'd missed, but that the boy had seen him as well. He quickly dove down to the streets and broke into a run through the confused and panicked populace. If the rumors of the 11th's flight had been proven true, then their softness for civilians of any stripe should also be accurate.
And to Bao-Zha's relief, it was. He heard their furious yells behind and beside him, but by keeping near the cityfolk Bao-Zha managed to spoil their aim and resolve. Some guards of red and green formed on the road ahead with spears lowered, so the assassin took in a breath and exhaled out a beam of chi that erupted within the formation and blasted them clear. He ran past the broken bodies, caving in the head of an intact survivor with a kick of his metal leg on the way to further reduce the enemy count by one.
For all the people hounding him, escape was becoming a certainty for Bao-Zha. The soldiers dared not attack him, especially once he managed to scoop up a blindly fleeing woman to use as a shield. Once he reached the gates of the Inner Ring, a focused blast would kick up enough of a debris cloud to cover his escape. There was a well nearby that he could drop into, with a convenient hiding spot he'd quietly dug several nights before. Or he could use the false wall of an unoccupied house he'd scouted just yesterday, it'd require a bigger debris cloud but it'd most definitely keep him hidden.
Before the assassin could further run through the other alternative escape plans, his instincts screamed and he skipped aside as the ground he would've trod on collapsed into a hole. Bao-Zha fought down the urge to even hiss his annoyance as the city's earthbenders finally caught up.
"Fuckin' three-eyed prick!" an old earthbender spat as he made his entrance by churning the road into a wave that raced towards the assassin. "You don't cause shit in my city!"
Bao-Zha had to let go of his wailing hostage to leap for the safety of a nearby balcony. As a precaution he created a dome of explosions to ward off his snarling hunters. It bought him just enough time to climb back to the roofs and continue his escape. Better to face just firebenders in the open than both firebenders and earthbenders on the streets.
Or so he thought, until a fat tail of water smacked into him and knocked him down onto the ground. Bao-Zha just had enough time to see a group of waterbenders in action before another water whip slammed him down into the ground. He barely had time to register his bones cracking and the air knocked out of his lungs from the impact when the paved road around him rose up like parted waves. As the earth fell back down to swallow him with claustrophobic darkness, the professional part of Bao-Zha was grateful for his foresight of sending out his raven eagle before he began fleeing.
Hopefully a mere letter instead of a personal report would be enough to sway the Fire Lord. Let it be said that Bao-Zha never once failed his contracts.