The sound of the ocean is a near constant roar as wave after wave crashes over a black sand beach.

Tui circles her hands around each other in front of her chest until she holds a suspended globe of sea water between them. The spirit nods to him. "I expect our unscheduled arrival will cause a stir as it is. Appearing while covered in mortal blood will only add unnecessary stress to the situation."

Salt water isn't ideal for cleaning, but it's better than nothing, and he can worry about washing up properly once he's home.

"Thank you," Ozai says as he submerges his hands into the globe of water. Red wisps away as he scrubs at his palms, leaving unblemished skin behind. It's a relief to see. There had been a moment while he was freeing prisoners from chains when he'd started to suspect he might be doing permanent damage to his hands, and he still isn't sure what capabilities the healers of the Solar and Lunar Courts have, nor what rules the spirits in question might hold to.

Tui waits for him to finish before washing her own hands, the water twisting over itself with every rotation of her wrists.

Ozai swipes a thumb over his cheek and hopes he's at least cleaned off most of the blood he'd accidentally painted his face with. "Why..." he licks his dry lips and tries again, "Why didn't Agni tell me that... being 'opposed' to my father created a... divide and brittleness in my reforging?"

He hopes he's saying this right.

He hopes he understands what it is he's saying.

"I know my brother well, Fire Lord, but even I could not claim to know every thought of Agni's, nor all that his many schemes entail." Tui's brow furrows as she thinks. "I suppose, if I were to guess, Agni might have judged it best not to bring up the matter, lest the knowledge itself became a source of distress. You have adjusted better than I did to the initial changes inherent to a reforging. It may have been his hope that it would not become an issue, but... allowing you to remain ignorant would have its own dangers."

"So, both options presented dangers, but you and Agni disagree on which path is safest."

Tui steps down to the beach, spins, and releases her orb of dirtied sea water as if from a sling. The water separates into a scattering of globules before splashing onto the sand. The next wave washes away any red tint that might have been hidden by the night and the dark color of the volcanic sand.

"That is my guess. For a true answer, you would have to ask Agni directly."

Ozai watches in shock as a rogue wave surges up to tower over Tui before just as suddenly breaking to crash onto the beach just short of reaching the Moon Spirit's bare feet. A man -- No, a spirit. He must be. -- stands tall as the waters retreat. No further waves dash themselves upon the beach as the sea calms to an unnatural still.

"La," Tui greets, caught somewhere between affection and long suffering exasperation.

"My moon," the Ocean Spirit returns with an undeterred smile full of literal shark teeth.

Ozai blinks in surprise, and then he wonders why some part of him still expects spirits to be more human, let alone the Ocean Spirit. The first time he'd ever seen La, the great spirit had been a gigantic, glowing fish-monster made of salt water. Unsettlingly sharp teeth might just be La feeling cordial.

The spirit masquerading as a tribesman glances over at him, and then Hama's still form, with eyes as dark as the depths before turning his attention back to Tui. "I see your errand goes well," La says.

"Yes," Tui confirms, squaring her shoulders.

La tilts his head to the side. "Ah," the Ocean Spirit says as if caught by a sudden epiphany, "Peace, my moon, I am not so fretful as Agni, and I have not come here to meddle. If you believe yourself ready, I will yield to your judgement." The spirit shrugs. "Though if you find yourself in need, I will catch you."

"Oh." Tui relaxes. "Thank you."

"Mm," La hums in acknowledgement. "Agni's new spark seems to be adapting quickly."

Tui literally brightens at that remark. "Would you meet him?"

"I would whatever might please my moon," La says.

He's about to go through official introductions with an angry Ocean Spirit ready to put him down like a rabid armadillo-dog. Oh, and La is also fully aware that he's responsible for a series of islands.

...Great.

Oblivious to his thoughts, Tui returns to the staircase only to capture his hand and tug him down to the beach to stand before La.

"Nephew, I present to you La, Master of Seas," Tui says, "Beloved, this is Ozai the Reforged, Herald of Agni." The Moon Spirit looks happier than Ozai has thus far witnessed through their limited meetings.

"I know this one," La says. The grin he levels at Ozai is amused but not friendly. La's eyes are swallowed by darkness as he leans forward and the Fire Lord forces himself to hold his ground in the face of the looming Ocean Spirit. "Three years of shouting from a rusting little boat seeking to imprison Raava, one night of particular foolishness in the Northern Seas, and a week of bitter words from a small raft."

Tui dims. "I had not considered your... past associations."

"Hm," the Ocean Spirit hums. La cocks his head to the side before withdrawing. His eyes return to a mostly human appearance. As do his teeth, for that matter. "My attention was elsewhere after organizing favorable currents for the raft. This," La says while pressing a single finger against Ozai's chest, "is not the first the King of Flames has schemed to preserve you."

"...Agni arranged for our passage?" It makes sense in hindsight. Making a voyage through arctic waters on a raft with limited steering capabilities should have ended in their deaths, one way or another. It also seems like it might be the safest direction to steer the conversation, considering the current company.

"Yes," La confirms, "and spent much sway to do so. This latest scheme had a deeper cost still. You should be careful, child of fire. Agni is a great spirit and holds high status among us, but even great spirits can run out of favors to leverage." The Ocean Spirit's face softens unexpectedly, like jagged ice melting into a reflective pool. It's far from warm, but at least La no longer appears one excuse away from drowning him. "I... begin to understand the King of Flames' investment."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Tui perks up. "Yue?"

"The patronship prompts unanticipated tendencies," La admits. Dark eyes slide over Ozai again, measuring and judging, but whatever the ocean's verdict is, it goes unvoiced. "The hour is late. Yue of the Northern Seas rests. This spark should be returned to his hearth before the sun finds more to fret over. Be swift, my moon."

That's two spirits now that have mentioned Agni's anxiety over this outing, despite the Sun Spirit's apparent calm when they spoke while Tui was dealing with Hama. Spirits may not lie, but how much does Agni hide behind misdirection and silence?

Ozai frowns, recalling how Agni had allowed Iroh to assume his vision of a Fire Lord and Avatar performing a kata alongside dragons was some ancient ritual rather than an event that took place only a few years past. It doesn't seem to be based in the sort of malicious nature that his sister's lies so often were, but he can't help being a bit perturbed by the realization, either.

"That is my intent," Tui promises while allowing La to take hold of one hand.

The Ocean Spirit presses a kiss to the back of her fingers before his form dissolves into sea foam. A new wave crashes onto the shore seconds later as the ocean resumes its natural rhythms.

Tui sighs. "That did not go as well as I had hoped," the Moon Spirit says, "but perhaps introductions have still concluded better than they might have."

His mind's eye conjures an image of La as a glowing tower of water, so tall that it eclipses the sun above Caldera. The imagined spirit proceeds to crash down with all the might of a tsunami, destroying everything on the island. Ozai allows a grimace to cross his face.

"Honestly, so long as the ocean behaves more or less as it always has around the Fire Nation, I'll have no complaints," the Fire Lord says.

"...If it is of consolation, the same charter that prevents Agni from providing greater assistance likewise restricts La's actions," Tui offers.

"That's... something," Ozai says for lack of a better response.

"Come," Tui beckons, "The prison resides at the top of these cliffs." The Moon spirit gestures to the sheer wall of black rock beyond the beach. Perched high above them is a steel building pulled from the night's shadows by the full moon's light and a handful of thin windows.

Ozai nods and joins Tui once more on the spirit's celestial staircase.

"There is little I will be able to do here," Tui informs him as they reach the top of the cliffs and come to rest nearly a hundred feet from the outer walls of the waterbenders' prison, "The authority to make changes rests with you, Nephew."

Ozai frowns up at steel walls and nods. "Let's get this done."

The Fire Lord leaves Tui's stairs of light for the barren rock surrounding the prison. He lifts a hand, using his bending as a beacon in the night, and bellows, "Guards!"

The reaction is more or less what one might expect when showing up at a high security prison unannounced and unscheduled. Fireballs fly from the top of the wall, creating a rough circle around him. Before the fire even has a chance to burn out on the stripped stone, a tighter circle of arrows surrounds him.

A Yuyan squad? He wouldn't have thought there would be any stationed here.

"Stay where you are!" a voice yells as a large set of doors open, "Do not move!"

Guards pour from the compound. One team heads directly for him while another four spread out to search the area. "Identif--" the team leader almost chokes on his own words as he gets close enough to see Ozai more clearly, "F-Fire Lord?"

"It's true!" one of the other guards gasps, the declaration muffled by his helmet, as the team falls into formation.

"I am Fire Lord Ozai," he answers as he evaluates the team. All sergeants, not a single private among them, though that's not unusual for a war prison important enough to be located within the Mother Islands. The team consists of three firebenders and two spearmen. It's a fairly standard composition for a team, outside of specialized branches, balancing weapons specialists with benders for flexibility.

He can't be sure what exactly is going through the mind of each guard, but most of them glance none-too-subtly above his head before bowing. Ozai spares a moment to be thankful that Tui sought him out at his last meeting of the day rather than after he'd been prepared for bed. While it's not the full regalia he'd be wearing for most public displays or duties performed outside of the palace, it's a lot more convincing than showing up with unbound hair and dressed only in loose pants would have been.

"We weren't expecting you, sir," the team leader says, still bowing over the sign of the flame.

"Rise," Ozai commands, "I wish to speak with the warden."

"Yes, your majesty!" the lead guard says, dismissing one man with a quick hand gesture, "Is there anything else we can do for you until the warden arrives?"

"You can signal the all clear," Ozai answers bluntly, "The company I keep tonight won't be found through the usual search methods."

"Yes, sir!" the man says before pulling a whistle from his belt. The team leader stops just as he is bringing the small tool to his lips. "...Er, the sound can be unpleasant, your majesty, and loud," he warns.

"Proceed."

It is loud, but he's spent enough time on ship and at port to grow used to the noise created by a military whistle. He also knows the patterns. Rather than the 'all clear' he had ordered, the team leader signals 'hold fire; allies.'

The meaning is close, but willfully amending a superior's orders is a potentially disastrous act of insubordination and it carries an equally dire punishment. It could be argued that the guardsman had chosen a better message to relay, one that provided more information, but the problem is that the man hadn't offered that alternative to Ozai. Instead, the guard had substituted the Fire Lord's words with his own.

"That will do, Sergeant," he says as the team leader returns the whistle to its designated pouch, "The next time a superior gives you an order to sound an all clear, I expect you will sound an all clear."

All four of the remaining team members immediately still, betraying their sudden tension through the armor of their uniforms. "Y-yes, sir," the lead guard manages in a rasp, bowing low in apology, "...Y-you mentioned company?"

"You may rise," Ozai says before he looks over his shoulder at Tui and asks, "Will you join me as I inspect the prison?"

Tui stares up at the prison with a furrowed brow, but she soon meets his gaze. "Yes," the Moon Spirit confirms and spins, abandoning Katara's form for that of a middle-aged man, though the stark white hair makes him -- Him? ...Trying to impose consistency on a spirit of 'changing faces' sounds like a quick way to drive himself mad while accomplishing nothing. 'Him,' it is. -- appear older than the borrowed face likely is. It takes Ozai another second to place the new face as Chief Arnook of the Northern Water Tribe. The Moon Spirit lifts Hama with a little more than a wave of his hand before settling the unconscious woman over his shoulder.

The four remaining guards startle as Tui returns to the mortal world but all of the men keep their heads well enough that there are no attempted attacks on the spirit. Belatedly, it occurs to Ozai that he should probably come up with a better way to introduce spirits other people can't see or hear. Some handle shock better than others, after all, and his luck guarantees trouble sooner rather than later if he doesn't figure out a solution.

"This is Moon Spirit Tui," Ozai says, burying the embarrassment he feels over his own lacking foresight. One nice thing about being Fire Lord, however, is that his social blunders are rarely commented on.

After a moment's hesitation, the team leader bows as if greeting a visiting noble and the others swiftly follow suit. "Welcome, Moon Spirit," the guard says, "You honor us with your presence."

"Do I?" Tui wonders, "This visit is a necessity, but hardly pleasant."

"I... regret to hear that," the team leader says, clearly out of his depth by this point.

The sergeant and his team are saved from further conversation by the warden's arrival.

"Fire Lord!" the older man greets as he hurries to join them, the missing member of the guard team trailing him dutifully, "A pleasure to see you well, and an unexpected honor to have you visit us this fine night! Welcome to Kitaika Prison. I am Warden Masaki." He and the returning sergeant both bow upon reaching the odd group. "Please, what can we do to further serve the nation?"