The floor was thick with dust. While Yun poured, Jianzhu plucked a twig that had snagged on a burlap sack and used it as a stylus, drawing a simplified version of a Pai Sho board on the ground between them.
Yun was confused. The two of them had played the game incessantly while first getting to know each other. But Pai Sho had been forbidden to him for a long time now. It was a distraction from mastering the elements.
Jianzhu contemplated the empty grid, his long face flickering in recollection of past sequences, lines of shining brilliance and outrageous risks unfolding in the tiles. The markers of age radiated outward from his eyes. The troubles that gave him severe crow’s feet and white temples had yet to reach the smooth flat line of his mouth.
“I have some news,” he said. “Our emissaries tell us that Tagaka has agreed to sign a new version of her great-grandfather’s treaty.”
Yun perked up. His master had been trying to pursue a diplomatic solution with the queen of the seaborne daofei for years. “What changed, Sifu?”
Jianzhu gestured at him. “You. She learned we finally found the Avatar and that he was one of the strongest benders of this generation.”
Yun knew that was true. For earth, at least. It might have been arrogant of him to think so, but it was hard to argue with the evidence left across the ground.
“The Fifth Nation fleet will cease raiding the coastlines along the Xishaan Mountains,” Jianzhu said. “They’ve promised not to raise a sail under her colors within sight of the Eastern Air Temple.”
“In exchange for what?”
“For official access to the timber on Yesso Island, though they’ve been unofficially logging there for the better part of a decade. The other sages are calling it a total diplomatic victory. So much gained, for so little.”
The leaves of Yun’s tea lost their grip on the surface of the liquid. Water was the last element he’d need to master. He’d always suspected he’d have a better time of it than fire.
“Except it’s not a victory, is it?” he said, rolling the cup between his fingers. “She’s promising to halt her operations in one sector, but a fleet of marauders isn’t going to lay down their arms and pick up the plow overnight. They’ll cause trouble in the other oceans, maybe go as far north as Chameleon Bay or the Fire Nation home islands. It’s just pushing the violence from one corner of the world to the other.”
“What would you do then?” Jianzhu said. “Reject Tagaka’s offer?”
Yun took a turn staring at the blank gameboard, especially at the sections where players usually laid their boat tiles. He shuddered at the images that came rushing into his head.
Contrary to what many of the locals thought, Jianzhu did not keep him locked up in the estate like a moon flower that would wither in too much sunlight. In between training, they regularly took trips around the world with Kelsang on his flying bison, Pengpeng, to meet important people from around the Four Nations. The goal was to make sure Yun had a cosmopolitan upbringing since the ideal Avatar was also a diplomat, never showing bias to one people or the other. He learned a lot by their side, exploring great cities and talking with their leaders. Sometimes he had fun.
The last outing was not one of those times.
When Jianzhu told him they were obligated to survey the extent of the damage inflicted by the largest coordinated pirate raid on the southeast coast of the Earth Kingdom mainlands in over a century, Yun had steeled himself for blood. Corpses amid smoldering ruins. A scene of total devastation.
But as they flew low over the shores on Pengpeng’s back, scanning the seaside villages for survivors, he was surprised to see the driftwood houses and straw huts intact. Nearly pristine. No sign of the inhabitants anywhere.
They had to touch down and investigate a few structures before things fell into place. Inside the homes, they’d found spears left on racks. Tables set with cooked food that hadn’t rotted yet. Fishing nets in the midst of being repaired. There had been no massacre.
By complete surprise, the villagers had been taken. Like they were livestock. Animals stolen from a herd.
Nothing else had been touched by Tagaka’s corsairs, except for a common thread of items that Yun noticed at the last minute. They’d stolen the bells. The drums and the gongs. The watchtowers of any village lucky enough to have one were picked clean.
Cast bronze was extremely valuable and nigh irreplaceable in that part of the country, Yun realized. So were the right quality hides for drumskins. The pirates had made it so that the village warning systems couldn’t be reused when they returned.
Nearly a thousand people were unaccounted for. Conducting a raid on this scale with such precision was not only a crime but a message. Tagaka was more dangerous than her father, her grandfather, and every other crude, bloody-minded pirate that ran the Eastern Sea.
Yun had spent the better part of that night screaming and raging at Jianzhu after his mentor calmly explained that the Earth King was likely not going to do anything to protect his subjects, not ones of so little marginal value. That they were largely on their own to deal with the problem.
The emptiness of the Pai Sho board taunted Yun as loudly as the missing, unrung bells
. Not if they returned, but when.
He put his tea down and leaned back on his hands. “We should take her offer and pretend we’re glad to do it. It’s our only chance of rescuing the surviving captives. It’ll buy time for the coastal areas to build up defenses. And if Tagaka is bold enough to sail northwest, there’s a chance she’ll grow overconfident and pick a fight with the Fire Navy. That’s an opponent ruthless enough to destroy her completely.”
His proposal spilled out of his lips naturally, despite the unease it created in his core. The idea of manipulating the nations he was supposed to keep balance over was frightening, solely because of how easy and effective it would be. He waited for a rebuke.
Instead he caught Jianzhu smiling at him openly. A rare occurrence.
“See?” Jianzhu said, gesturing at the game board out of habit. “This is why you are destined to be a great Avatar. You have the insight to think ahead, to see where people are weak and strong. You know which threads of the future to pull. There’s not going to be a solution to the Fifth Nation through powerful bending. But there will be a strategy, a line of play that minimizes the suffering they can inflict. And you’ve spotted it.