Chapter 17: Chapter 17

Azula marched across the now quieted battlefield with an anger borne out of confusion. The new weapons Xing had so casually displayed were competing with the colonel’s display of firebending in her mind. Neither had been what she had expected at all, and the screams of burning men were kept from being etched into her mind only from the sight of explosions from the safety of the viewing platform.

She’d heard of using firebending to add distance to leaps or sprints, but the burst of speed Xing had achieved was on another level entirely. And then the explosion that followed… The dome of white fire that appeared for the briefest moment was the most beautifully violent thing the princess had ever seen.

And it also told Azula how vast the chasm of power was between the boy and everyone else.

As she passed the loitering flame carts watching over a line of soot-covered prisoners, Azula saw a trooper running towards one of the soldiers standing by the carts. Curiosity made her pause and redirect her steps towards the messenger and the keenly interested crowd of soldiers around him.

“-ried to kill him,” the messenger spoke hurriedly.

The man he was directed to talk to - Sergeant Han, if she remembered the markings right - did not hide his surprise. “They…they dare to…”

Azula stepped in, needing to sate her curiosity. “What’s going on, soldier?”

The messenger snapped towards her and saluted formally, hiding his surprise rather well. “Your highness. There was an attempt to assassinate the colonel through a false surrender.”

Her eyes widened. False surrender? These Earth Kingdom weaklings were so pathetic to dare such a thing? They didn’t even have the courage to fight to the last or wait for an opportunity to break out of imprisonment?

Lieutenant Colonel Mozi and the bodyguards behind her were also similarly aghast at such blatant treachery. Some of the prisoners trodding pass glanced at the group, but were thankfully too far to eavesdrop.

“As such, new orders are to take no earthbender prisoner.”

Only earthbenders? Surely Lidai wasn’t that soft?

“We should just burn the whole lot of them,” one of the Hans said, to the angry nods of the others.

“You have your orders,” Mozi stepped in with a stern voice. “The earthbenders are easy enough to distinguish. Separate them from the rest for now. We’ll remove them after.” Azula felt the man’s cold stare sweep across the troops. “No mistakes, understood?”

Another Han sputtered, “But what if their uniform is too damaged?”

“Err on the side of caution,” Mozi said without hesitation. “Put them in with the earthbenders.”

They resumed walking, this time with a clearly concerned Mozi leading the way. Azula’s face was stuck in a frown as she tried to find the rationale in XIng’s soft-handed order. In the end, she gave up and asked the lieutenant. “I don’t get it. Why isn’t the regiment purging all prisoners?”

Mozi didn’t slow as he turned his head over his shoulder to address her. “If I were to guess, your highness, Colonel Xing is probably going to use the obvious show of mercy for later.”

“If you were to guess?” Azula repeated with a raised eyebrow.

The man sighed. “This is the first time we’ve ever had to…deal with something like this, your highness.”

“So, what? Xing is just going to keep these nonbender prisoners and let them know how lucky they are that he’s a nice guy?”

Mozi shook his head as he sidestepped a small pile of burnt men. Azula had quickly learned to not acknowledge her environment, and was rather thankful for this topic to distract herself with for the time being. She focused her full attention to the lieutenant colonel’s back and words, using that to tune out the stench.

“No, your highness. Since practically all Earth Kingdom officers are earthbenders, there’s no prisoners worth keeping.”

The princess had to consciously keep her feet from tripping over each other at the words. “But you have hundreds of non-bending prisoners headed towards our camp.”

“They’ll be released shortly after we’ve cleared the battlefield, your highness. Colonel Xing finds it far more effective to release enlisted soldiers, whether they be benders or otherwise. It taxes our resources far less, and we’ve found that the experience they bring back with them often spreads morale damage to the enemy.”

So…he’s building a reputation for his regiment. That made some sense…

“But wouldn’t the Earth Kingdom learn of the regiment’s tactics?”

Despite the worry etched on his face, Mozi still managed a faint smirk. “The rank and file, and even the junior officers rarely care to notice how they were defeated in the wider scale, your highness. They might tell of our new weapons, but we’ve found that that knowledge itself is largely useless for the Earth Kingdom, as it often does not include how we actually use them, or what their weaknesses are.”

A group of soldiers were running towards them, and Azula recognized Captain Kai at  the lead, waving an arm at them.

“Also, your highness,” Mozi continued, “They also bring back the knowledge that they were released. That fact is rather…surprisingly effective at getting the common soldiers to break when we encounter them in the future. If managed properly, we could lessen the burden of fighting just by encouraging the Earth Kingdom rank and file to drop their weapons or abandon the field.”

Azula digested that last point in silence. Xing’s lessons back then only dealt with maneuvers, commander decisions, and how various tactics were put to use. This was the first she’d heard of using freed prisoners as a tool. Come to think of it, the boy’s lessons never included his flame carts or metal tube either.

Her thoughts were interrupted as Kai approached in a light jog. “Mozi! Oi, Mo- Oh, your highness.” He skidded to a stop and immediately bowed and saluted. Despite the current air of trepidation, Azula found herself smiling inwardly at the display of instant respect the people of the 11th gave her.

“The Earth Kingdom resorted to foul play,” the large man reported, to which Mozi nodded.

“We heard from the runner. How did it happen?”

Kai then provided his first-hand report of delivering the Earth Kingdom’s general and his group of prisoners to Xing, and how the pathetic commander had tried to kill the colonel. Even the usually stoic Mozi was practically trembling with rage at the retelling. But then Kai told of how he captured the treacherous general, and how Xing had punished the man.

The anger at the brainless general turned into wide-eyed admiration at Xing. Clearly, killing the weakling was not enough. Xing had sent a rather…powerful message, and it was one that Azula was sure her father would approve of once she got back home and told him about it.

But still…

“So why are the non-bending prisoners being kept?” she asked, still finding their existence questionable.

“Your highness, Xing wants people to know what happened here. We’ll spread the news to the prisoners later, and have the other general verify it for them before sending him back. He seems genuinely ashamed enough for it. Then we’ll let the non-benders go, and the Earth Kingdom can’t say we were bad hosts. Not with the false surrender being general knowledge.”

The big softie grinned as he added, “And that kind of news wouldn’t sit well in the duke’s court. Or any others, for that matter.”

That was something she hadn’t considered, and seemed obvious now that Azula thought about it. The Earth Kingdom was known to be a fractious realm, with Ba Sing Se barely exerting any control over its many states. Court politics would no doubt be even more cutthroat than her father’s own court, and the Fire Nation nobles were stupid enough to consign Xing’s regiment to extinction.

Azula could easily imagine some ambitious noble using this event to at least disgrace the duke of Chenbao. Vassals might even use the excuse of such treachery to secure ‘guarantees’ for their future involvement with the duke, be it military or otherwise. Regardless, they’d be less eager to cooperate in future engagements, not wanting to stain their own names with the great blot that the false surrender has given the duke.

The chaos was…something she wished she could witness personally.

“Where is Xing?” Azula asked, and Kai nodded back to a gathering of soldiers.

“He’s back there. I, uh…suggest you wait for a bit, princess. Xing’s attack has…um, damaged his…armor?”

“Damaged armor?” Unamused, Azula ignored the captain’s sputtered protests and started walking again, only for Mozi to cut in with a polite cough. 

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“What the captain meant, your highness, was that the colonel’s form of attack had rendered him rather…vulnerable. He was removing his armor earlier to ensure that his flames didn’t destroy them.”

Then why the damaged armor excuse? The princess rolled her eyes and kept moving. So Xing has firebending that is so powerful it could break his armor. Why did that-

 

Oh… His clothes.

 

Azula slowed a little as the realization dawned on her, but seeing he was just beyond the group of soldiers, and not wanting to appear indecisive, she drew in a breath and powered on. She already took the trouble to walk all the way here, she would not waste her time doubling back now.

She was definitely not being curious. Not at all. 

The troops who noticed her quickly signaled their comrades with light backhands, and they parted for Azula in short order. At the center, the backs of Captains Ren and Weikong were nodding along to something. They paused to notice the crowd around them, and after a quick glance over their shoulders to see Azula, the captains promptly fully turned to face her and give her a sharp salute. 

“I was told Xing is here?” she immediately asked, noting how the captains were exchanging glances. 

Ren gave a grin to a confused Weikong and then nodded. “Yes, your highness. He’s right here.” With that, the woman took a step aside, revealing a rather…exposed Xing who was caught in the middle of reaching out to Ren.

Azula blinked several times as she saw practically all of the colonel. The cloak around him covered barely enough, and even then she could make out obscured movements within the shadows. Xing was quite…well built, she noted. There were some faded scars on his lean frame, including one that ran diagonally right to left across his belly. For some reason, having the lower half of the scar and most of the boy’s hips blocked by the cloak annoyed Azula’s senses.

The princess clacked her jaws shut, realizing that her thoughts had been seriously derailed.

Xing gave a soft cough before he bowed, letting the cloak cover more of him. “Princess Azula.”

Why was she annoyed at the cloak?

“Right. Xing.” Quickly refocusing her thoughts, Azula reigned her composure behind the mask of royal aloofness. “I came to…congratulate you on your impressive victory. Especially in dealing with the Earth Kingdom’s treachery.” She tried to keep her eyes locked onto his still bowing form, a small part of her wishing Xing would stand straight again.

“Thank you, princess.”

“I’ll see you back in camp. I expect a full report about what transpired here.”

“As you command, your highness.”

Awkwardness descended right after that, and Azula turned away before the silence could drag on. It was the wrong thing to do, as she was treated to the view from the Earth Kingdom’s perspective. Azula froze as she was finally forced to register the amount of bodies littering the charred field. She saw a line of soldiers from 11th methodically moving up, prodding the corpses they came across with their spears. Occasionally, one would bend down to study something, and call out for other soldiers to come in and drag out a barely-living Earth Kingdom warrior. 

The one Azula saw being carried away had half his face melted and a leg dangling uselessly like there was no bone in it.

There was a pile of burnt things just a stone’s throw from where she stood, with enough details on them for the princess to make out where melted armor and burnt cross ended and where charred flesh began. Her keen mind unfortunately made out the details of a face amongst that pile, the lower jaw dangling loosely in an overly wide scream, the eyes and nose melted in, his helmet cracked and broken.

Azula found herself breathing heavily, her body feeling both light and sluggish at the same time as her senses took in all of the carnage before her. Unburnt corpses with gaping wounds where their faces were, severed and almost limbs, a burnt husk leaning against the spear skewering it…

Before she knew it, Azula turned away and bent over. Her eyes watering and her throat burnt as she coughed, gagged, and finally emptied the contents of her stomach. She felt a hand patting her on the back, and another gently holding back her hair. Garbled noises were drowned out by her own retching. Another pair of strong hands kept her from dropping to her knees into the puddle she created.

Even as she gave in to the carnage, the conscious part of her felt burning shame at having lost her composure. And before Xing and so many soldiers too. She had degraded herself, shown weakness… Her image was ruined. She’d have to be wary of veiled mockery an-

“Are you alright?”

The voice drew Azula’s attention, and she looked up to see Xing standing before her, his bare legs stained with specks of her vomit. Azula blinked, and her eyes darted around to see the other soldiers regarding her with slight frowns of…concern. Genuine concern.

“Mozi, water.”

Someone was guiding her away from the crowd, and a flask of water was produced before her. Azula gingerly took the offered flask and took a mouthful of cool water to clear her mouth. A cloth was offered next, and she gladly took it, wetting it and using it to clean some of the mess from her face.

“I apologize for not considering the circumstances,” Xing’s voice came from beside her, and Azula turned to see the boy looking at her with a slight frown. “I should have met you back in camp instead of having you come out here.

“It is a passing weakness,” she replied sharply.

He only nodded slowly. “I understand. We all do, your highness. It is not an uncommon…result when witnessing the aftermath of a battle for the first time.”

The princess was about to reply again when Ren’s voice spoke up from behind her. “Yeah, don’t worry about it, princess. I remember puking my guts out after my first fight… Almost ruined Captain Shinu’s boots when I was reporting to him.” Ren finished with a soft chuckle, which was joined by several other soldiers.

“I held up until dinner,” someone else - Kai, she thought - added. “Was fine until I thought the stew looked…bad. Puked all over my squad’s meals…” 

“I remember that, you bastard! It was our first warm meal for days too!”

More laughter, and more of them openly spoke about their own humiliations after battle.

“Took me six fights to stop retching.”

“You’re lucky. I was still puking over my kills until Mi Sha Fang.”

It felt…surreal to Azula. They were…trying to make her feel better? Show that she was no different from any of them? But there were no veiled insults, no mockery of her being no better than them.

“Don’t worry, princess,” Xing finally said. “I remember keeling over and retching until I sprained my back and stomach. There’s no shame here. If anything, you’ve done a better job at holding it in than the rest of us.”

She blinked at his words, and then took consolation with a careful nod. “I…suppose. I had not expected to be…overwhelmed.”

“Few do, your highness.” Xing offered a reassuring smile before turning to one side. “Mozi, escort Princess Azula back to camp, so she can clean up. I’ll join right after finishing up here.”

Azula followed after the man in thoughtful silence, though it was interrupted when she heard the roar of fire in the distance as the rounded up earthbenders were executed. She ignored the screams of the dying much more easily then, if anything there was a sense of satisfaction seeing the punishment of vile treachery be enacted.

One of her bodyguards didn’t seem to think so, however, quickly running aside to heave loudly. Azula simply paused and waited for the man to be done, giving him an arched brow. “Feeling better?”

At his hurried nods, she sighed and resumed following after Mozi. “Come, I’ve had my fill of battlefields for today.”

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