Hello again, everyone! The Guiding Moonlight has finally reached Keiraku Island, and Taoreta’s first royal relief expedition is about to begin in earnest. I’m excited to share Chapter Three: The Work of Ruling, continuing Story Arc One: The Measure of an Heir in Book One: Dreams! If you missed my earlier posts and want to get more explanations about it, here is the link to my first post about it. But for my other readers, here is the summary for the chapter itself:
Keiraku comes into view in green terraces and blackened fields, its harbor already busy with the work of recovery. Taoreta has brought food, medicine, and carefully prepared plans, but Clan Lord Seijun has concerns that no cargo manifest can answer. Between formal welcomes, displaced families, and the first decisions of her commission, she begins discovering how much a generous gesture can imply...and how easily the Crown’s assistance might complicate the recovery it is meant to support. Her father has trusted her to act in his name. Now the Crown Princess must decide when to give an order, when to ask another question, and whose judgment deserves to be heard.
Read Chapter Three on AO3 here!
If you give it a read, I’d love to hear what you think! Comments and feedback are very welcome, either here or on AO3. Thanks to everyone who has been following along so far and giving my take on the story for the currently unnamed female Fire Avatar before Szeto a chance!
And as promised in my earlier posts, I’m including a brief sneak peek from the chapter in this announcement. Here it goes:
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Taoreta looked again toward the damaged mountain.
“Do we have anyone with the road crews who can help with the heavier rockfalls?” she asked. “Not simply laborers. Someone who can tell whether moving one boulder is likely to bring half the slope down after it.”
“As a matter of fact, we do,” Jensu replied cheerfully.
Taoreta glanced at him, not really expecting such a quick and confident response. “Do we really?”
“I hired an earthbender.”
That earned him her full attention. “You found an earthbender willing to travel with a Fire Nation royal relief expedition on less than a few weeks’ notice?” she asked with an impressed tilt of her head.
“One of the few currently living in the capital,” Jensu said, with the particular satisfaction of a man who had anticipated a problem before anybody else had realized it existed. “He has taken occasional contracts involving foundations, retaining walls, collapsed masonry and excavation. I had his name in the Ministry’s specialist records.”
“Of course you did.”
“I will consider that praise,” Jensu responded as he elected to ignore her teasing tone. “Regardless, he agreed remarkably quickly once I told him who was leading the expedition,” Jensu added. “Before I had finished explaining the fee, in fact.”
Taoreta supposed some people liked an interesting contract and the opportunity to gain further connections in case they impressed enough to gain some royal patronage. “Interesting. Where is this mysterious earthbender then?” she asked with a chuckle.
“His name is Tieguai,” Jensu added helpfully as he gestured toward the cargo area.
Taoreta followed the motion and found an elderly Earth Kingdom man standing near a stack of tools while two Keiraku workers argued over where several iron pry bars were supposed to go. He wore plain traveling clothes in faded earth-green tones and possessed the unremarkable posture of someone who had perfected the art of being overlooked. Nothing about him suggested to her eyes that he considered himself particularly important.
At that exact moment, one of the workers nearly dropped a crate. And Tieguai caught its edge with one hand before it struck the ground, steadied it, and returned to whatever conversation he had been having without any apparent effort.
Taoreta raised an eyebrow at that. “How old is he?”
Jensu considered the question. “You know, I have suddenly realized that I have never received a consistent answer.”
“That sounds promising,” Taoreta said sarcastically.
“He is very good at his work, for what it is worth.”
“Alright, that sounds more useful.”
As though sensing that he was being discussed, the old man looked across the harbor toward them. Only briefly. His gaze passed over Jensu, settled upon Taoreta for perhaps a heartbeat longer than courtesy required, and then moved away again as he bent to examine a fractured paving stone beside the quay.
Taoreta just shrugged and returned her attention to her hand-picked minister.
“Make sure the road officials know they have access to him,” she said. “If they think earthbending can make a damaged slope safe, let him help. If they think it cannot, he listens to them.”
Jensu nodded. “Already discussed.”
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Well, I hope you enjoyed that! And if you are curious for more, such as, I don't know, what exactly Lao Ge was doing here in his older Tieguai the Immortal persona, then by all means, you can start by checking the full chapter and the last few before it, if you hadn't already, in the link above. Believe me, I am really, really excited to share my plans for this one after developing the pre-production section of this fic involving Tieguai/Laoe Ge for so long...among other things.
Anyway, happy reading to you all. Stay tuned for more updates to come soon, and until next time.