“So how was the split?”
“Three quarters from the south, the rest from the north. From those we have about a dozen infiltrators that we identified. Should we arrest them, princess?”
I set aside the parchments with the relevant figures breaking down the details on my new force and tap my chin with a finger.
This first group was an experiment. I did want my own force and they definitely fulfilled that role, but I was using the recruits to map out how information spread throughout Danyuan. Chi Song and her friend were the only people I had told about the port guard aspect, yet there had been mentions of it throughout the city and the recruits.
One of them obviously spread the information and encouraged people to sign up with the guard to help secure the city. My guess was on Chi Song. Zhu Wuneng might be part of her group, but it was obvious he was less trusting of the Fire Nation in general. It also meant whichever group she was feeding information to was situated in the southern half of the city.
Interestingly, the informants I had hired throughout the city reported that while many groups in the south had learned about the specifics of the port guard and happily joined up, most of the northern sections had actually gotten slightly more antagonistic. Practically everyone in my retinue believed that there was either a split in the insurgent groups or there had always been two groups working for similar goals.
Still what to do about the infiltrators?
I turned to face Sha Wujing. “Leave them for now. When they complete basic training have them assigned to groups with our more veteran soldiers. Make sure they can be discrete about watching who each one talks to.”
If we were lucky we could either flip the infiltrators into working for me or find out where they sent information.
“As you command.” Sha Wujing replied seriously.
“Hmm, now then let’s move to more pleasant topics.” I shifted to lounge in my chair. “How are the recruits doing overall?”
“Well they aren’t the worst group I’ve worked with.” Sha Wujing replied. “Most of them wouldn’t know the sharp end of a spear if you smacked them with it, but they are coming around. We should be able to start sending them out into the city in another few days at this rate.”
Ah yes, the other reason I wanted locals in my forces.
While I’m sure some of the more rebellious ones would use the opportunity to overlook crimes that took place to make the Fire Nation look bad, most of the recruits wanted to serve their city.
It would also hopefully cut down on the amount of sabotage and attacks by the citizens as well. Attacking soldiers from far away holding your city on the orders of a distant ruler was easy. Attacking Han from three houses down for doing his job was much harder.
“Good work. Make sure to keep the parols mixed. I don’t want anyone to have a reason to single out groups.”
“Of course princess. We know what to do.”
“Yeah, some of us have been doing this since you were running around in diapers. We know how to handle greenhorns.” Captain Mako announced his presence from the doorway. “Anyways, patrols just got back. Got some small boats hanging around an inlet up north a bit. Might be worth checking in on when you get a chance from your fancy plans.”
“What is it about old soldiers and no respect?” I mused to no one in particular.
“Probably ‘cause we seen it all, so we don’t see a reason to bow and scrape is all.” the captain replied.
I shot him a mild glare. “Well if you’re so enlightened I have some other reports I could have you look over.”
Captain Mako waved his hands in surrender. “My apologies your highness, no need to be cruel about it.” He smirked. “I know when to respect my superiors.”
“As you should.” I faked a haughty sniff. Then I stood up from the chair I spent the last couple hours in and started walking out of the room. “Let me know if there are any issues with the training group.”
“Yes Princess!” the two men said before moving to a discussion about what the patrols found.
I was content to leave them to it. Injecting myself into every level of running a garrison was not something I was interested in doing and both of them were actually very competent at their jobs surprisingly enough. Captain Mako simply didn’t let anyone know he was as good as he was because he didn’t want more responsibilities and Commander Sha Wujing was merely bad against subtle opponents.
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Besides, I had another task to complete now.
Wandering back to the house I had one of the maids direct me to Chi Song.
I had been content to allow her little spy game to go unremarked on while I was setting up the basics, mostly because that was done in closed door meetings where she would have no chance of sneaking in on, but now that I was moving to the next phase she would need to be checked on.
If she agreed to work for me I could overlook quite a bit of her activities. If not, then I might need to replace the mayor and his family as the head of the city. A large part of me hoped Chi Song would be reasonable. Finding someone capable of running a city at a moment’s notice was far more difficult than you would think.
I was led to one of the smaller gardens to find Chi Song reading through a bunch of scrolls. A quick look over her shoulder showed it was an old law summary.
She was investigating old Fire Nation laws? Interesting.
“Looking for something specific?” I asked from slightly behind her.
Based on the shriek and flung scroll, Chi Song apparently hadn’t heard me walk in.
“Spirits! Would it kill you to make a little noise when you walk?!” she shrieked.
“Depends where I am.” I replied glibly.
Chi Song scowled at that. “Can I help you with something or were you just trying to give me a heart attack?”
I picked up a few of the scroll covers and examined them. Bending restrictions, citizen requirements, forbidden actions, and a few others revolving around bending law. Why was she looking into this? Checking to see what firebenders were allowed to do perhaps? It seemed she was even looking as far back as the beginning of the war for some things.
I pushed those thoughts aside for the moment.
“I actually do have another reason to talk to you.” I said much more seriously. “About the little activities you’ve been failing to hide from me.”
Chi Song paled a bit.
“I don’t know what you mean?” She tried.
“I think you do.” I countered. “And wasting time debating it isn’t something I have time for.”
I started to pace around the garden.
“I could ignore it while I was getting things settled, lots to do as I’m sure you noticed, but now you're a loose end that I need to decide what to do with.”
Chi Song clenched her jaw a bit and stood more defensively. “It’s not exactly illegal.”
Fair enough. Spying was more of an unofficial sport to nobles. If she was a commoner it would be a very different story. It certainly didn’t mean I would turn a blind eye to it if it was going to cause me issues.
“No, but when you’re the princess of a nation you’ll find laws are quite a bit more flexible than people think.”
Apparently that was the wrong thing to say because now she was getting angry on top of her defensive attitude.
“Is that how it's going to go?” Chi Song spat. “As long as it is convenient for you, you ignore it, but the second it goes past that you throw people away for something they can’t control.”
Now I was confused. Something she couldn’t control? I was starting to get the sense we were talking about two very different things. But if she wasn’t talking about spying on me what could-
“I thought you were different than other Fire Nation nobles but you are the exact same as your father!”
Tongues of fire erupted from my nostrils and swirled around my fists as all thoughts were blanked out by the white hot anger those words caused.
Me? Like that murderous bastard in any way?
”You. Dare.” I hissed.
“Of course I dare! It's the truth isn’t it?!” Chi Song spat back.
Before I thought about it a raging fireball was flying towards her even as it felt like ice water was dumped on my head.
Very rarely had I ever struck out randomly with my firebending. Out of all those times, it was either at an object or another firebender, never at a normal person. Which is why when a thin stone wall appeared between Chi Song and the fire ball I was equally relieved and shocked.
“You’re an Earthbender?!”
“Like you didn’t know!”
“How would I know that?! And you’re from the home islands! How are you an Earthbender?!”
Our confrontation might have been pretty short, but sudden violence and shouting in the middle of the mayor’s manor was an excellent way to draw the attention of everyone in hearing distance. In this case it meant Chi Song’s friend Zhu Wuneng, along with a pair of guards, burst through the doors to the garden and saw the two of us facing off. The embers of my attack and the earthen wall painted a clear picture about what happened.
“Earthbender!” One of the guards shouted, “Get he- urk!”
Zhu Wuneng quickly stomped the ground causing two chunks of earth to rise from the ground and with a single movement sent them both into the unprotected sides of the guards. Both of them crashed into the doorframe and were knocked unconscious.
“Chi Song, we need to escape!” He shouted and punched another rock at me.
“We can’t! What about my mom and dad?” Chi Song called back.
Zhu Wuneng had a look of intense concentration on his face even as he continued attacking me. “Then we kidnap the princess. The guards didn’t see your face so we might be able to say it was someone else.” Another rock passed by me and I retaliated by dancing around it and sending a blast of flames towards the top of the door he came through.
The explosion pushed him further into the gardens so he skidded not far away from Chi Song, who ran out to help him up while attacking me at the same time.
“Going to kidnap me now, are you?” I said mildly as I dodged her attacks and rushed them both. A burst of fire accelerated me so I was in front of them in an instant. I kicked Zhu Wuneng’s leg out from under him, driving an elbow into his stomach and following up with a palm strike to the chin, and he was out like a light. Swaying to my left, I felt a slight breeze as Chi Song’s own attack missed by inches, I grabbed the outstretched arm and roughly pulled her forward.
Off balance and probably panicking a bit, Chi Song only let out a yelp of pain when I seized her by the back of her neck and forced her facedown to the ground. A very weak puff of fire right in front of her face was enough to discourage any sudden moves.
“Now then, I have several questions about what just happened here,” a chill entered my voice. “And you are going to follow along with what I say, or I am going to throw you, your friend there, and your parents into the darkest hole I can until this mess is sorted out. Understand?”
She nodded rapidly.
“Good. Sit up and say nothing.”
She did and I began acting like I was checking her over as two more guards burst through the other door to the garden.
“Princess, we heard the noise! What should we do?” one of them asked.
“There was an earthbender that came through that door.” I said, pointing at the pile of rubble that used to be an archway. “Take the guards and sweep the compound for him. Also I’m taking Chi Song and her friend to a secure room. They were caught up in the fight with the earthbender and I want to make sure no harm came to them.”
With a loud salute the guards split up to follow my orders. One going to gather more people, and the other checking on the three unconscious people in the room.