I'd rather be a spicy provincial sauce than a bland metropolitan soup.
***
After a month at sea.
I finally stepped ashore.
Land at last... Though to hell with the land!
There were trees here! Greenery! Birds other than penguins and messenger hawks! And the locals looked at me without fear, suspicion, or carefully concealed resentment! There were tea houses, too! This was practically a festival!
For the entire last month, all I had been able to do was train, very slowly learning to manipulate water and bringing my life energy back into balance after forcibly awakening the corresponding chakra.
True, driven half-feral by forced idleness, I eventually took the leap and turned Lightning from theoretical knowledge into a practical skill. Oh, what that had cost me...
I... was afraid of electricity, and a body accustomed to fire knew that if something was dangerous but necessary, then you approached it very slowly and carefully. In other words, nearly all firebender training—aside from the most brutish army drills designed for disposable foot soldiers—focused first and foremost on fine control and sustaining a flame.
Start small, proceed cautiously, understand the process, and only then cut loose.
The problem was that this method didn't work with lightning.
Breaking down air required a charge of a certain strength, and if the "voltage" produced by separating Chi into positive and negative was insufficient, the charge would travel through a more conductive medium... the unfortunate bender himself, for example.
In fact, that was exactly how my first attempt ended.
Fortunately, I had used the absolute minimum amount of power, merely wanting to understand what the pinnacle of firebending artistry actually felt like, so I escaped with nothing worse than lightly burned fingertips and hair standing on end. Strangely enough, the experience gave me confidence.
No, I hadn't stopped fearing electrocution, but the thing was, I had managed to sense that there wasn't really any electricity in magical lightning! Well, not entirely true—it was there, of course, but certainly not the half-million volts found in a natural lightning bolt.
So what was magical lightning?
Simplifying things, it was a stream of negatively charged Fire-aspected Chi that became ionized as it left the body and heated up through friction with the air. Yes, both involved high-speed streams of particles, but a stream of electrons would fry me without fail, while a stream of spiritual particles could be redirected, deflected, or even absorbed.
For an ordinary person—and for 99.9% of benders—the distinction would be meaningless. The only difference was that instead of electrical and thermal damage, magical lightning inflicted thermal, spiritual, and a bit of plain kinetic damage, because spiritual particles were, oddly enough, heavier and more "material" than electrons.
Powerful energybenders and naturally sturdy individuals like the Avatar would suffer far less damage, however.
Theoretically, if you passed the stream through metal and used it to accelerate ordinary electrons, you could create an "enchanted" weapon... or a decent generator. But what kind of idiot would ever think of using a firebender capable of performing the most difficult technique in the Fire as a battery?
So once I understood the true nature of Fire Lightning, mastering it became much simpler… well, and I gained yet another incentive to improve my energybending. But I wasn't allowed to dwell on those memories for long. As had become tradition, someone urgently needed me again.
"Master Chan, are you all right?" asked the adjutant I had "inherited" from Zhao.
"Yes... everything's fine. I only just realized how much I've missed home. Have you already ordered the unloading to begin?" All right, enough reminiscing. I still had to oversee the mooring, unloading, and quartering of the men, and after that report to my superiors... Though it seemed my superiors had plans of their own. I watched armed warriors in scarlet armor step onto the pier, naginatas in hand and their faces concealed behind crimson masks. The personal bodyguards of the royal family.
"Yes... already... gave the orders," the officer replied distractedly, staring at the guardsmen.
"Fire Herald," one of the newcomers addressed me, "the Fire Lord welcomes your return from the campaign and invites you to join him for luncheon." The guardsman spoke without the slightest trace of emotion.
"It is an honor. When am I expected to arrive?" Judging by the full escort, the answer was obvious, but it couldn't hurt to ask.
"The meal will take place in three hours. That should give you sufficient time to make yourself presentable. Chambers have already been prepared for you in the Fire Palace."
Hm. All right. If they weren't dragging me off to prison and had even assigned me guest quarters in the most prestigious location imaginable, then everything was fine. Still, my nerves were beginning to act up.
"Very well. And what about the gifts I brought from the conquered people?"
"Have your adjutant deliver them to the steward." He cast a brief glance at the officer standing beside me. "He should know who to contact."
I looked at my aid. He nodded confidently.
"Then I'm ready," I informed the guardsman.
I had already made myself presentable before disembarking. My body was covered by the dragon armor I had specifically donned for my arrival in the capital, an ornate crimson scale-cloak resting on my shoulders. In short, full dress uniform—perfectly suitable attire for appearing at the palace.
No sooner had I finished speaking than I found myself enclosed within a thoroughly professional security box, and the procession set off through the streets of the capital, drawing the attention of townsfolk, merchants, and visitors alike.
We walked in silence and at a brisk pace. The palace hadn't changed during my absence—the same luxury, the same scarlet-and-gold color scheme, the same crowds of idlers loitering around the royal residence, hoping for who knew what. Looking at them, I almost wanted to head back north.
(End of Chapter)
Even the smallest flame needs fuel to endure.
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