𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐎 𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐍 ꩜ prince zuko

¹³

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

        THE DAYS BEGAN TO blur together the longer Yan and Iroh remained in prison. Though she had no idea how long she'd been away from home, Yan gradually adapted to the rhythms of captivity. She learned the daily meal schedule by heart and even counted the steps each guard took on their patrols to her or Iroh's cell. Eventually, she could recognize who was approaching just by the cadence of their footsteps. One guard in particular, a woman named Ming, stood out; she treated Iroh with quiet kindness, occasionally slipping him extra provisions. On Iroh's word, she was polite to Yan as well, though she never brought her anything extra. Still, Iroh insisted that Ming's small gestures were what made life behind bars a little more bearable.

        Yan spent much of her time meditating and practicing yoga to keep her mind sharp and her emotions in check. Late at night when the prison was quiet, she would sometimes sneak in bending practice; mostly just lifting small stones scattered around her cell. The routine helped her stay sane; staring at the same walls day after day could unravel anyone, but Yan was better prepared than most. Her military training had warned of long stretches of idleness and in some strange way, learning to sit still for hours had become second nature.

        One day as she meditated, the small rocks around her gently rising and shifting in the air, her concentration broke when Iroh's voice echoed from the neighboring cell. Ming had arrived to deliver his lunch, and Yan overheard Iroh softly urging the guard to go home for the afternoon. Before Yan could wonder why he would say such a thing, a distant explosion rumbled through the prison walls. Instinct taking over, she used her earthbending to carve a small step in the wall beneath the narrow window. 

        "Iroh, what's going on?" she asked as she strained to make sense of the explosion. Balanced on her tiptoes, she could just barely see over the window, but nothing outside looked out of place; no smoke, no movement, no signs of conflict. Just the same bleak stretch of stone and sky.

        "Just be patient, Yan; patience is key," Iroh replied calmly. Yan let out a frustrated groan, his cryptic response only fueling her restlessness. She wanted to see more and know more, but instead, the distant booms of explosions echoed in the background like a slow-building storm. Then, something clicked; her eyes widened and she drew in a sharp gasp.

        She jumped down from the stone ledge and began pacing her cell, muttering to herself as her mind raced. "The invasion... Iroh, it's the invasion!" she shouted, eyes wide with shock. "Holy shit; it's the Day of Black Sun! That means Aang and everyone else... they're alive!" Her brown eyes were as wide as dinner plates, glowing with a mix of disbelief and sudden hope.

        Yan returned to the window, straining to catch the sounds of battle drifting in from the distance. Tension coiled in her chest as she paced the length of her cell and circled back to the window, weighing her moment. She remembered Sokka's invasion plan; the solar eclipse would be a brief window when firebenders would be powerless. Just a few minutes, but those few minutes could mean everything. If they timed it right, she and Iroh could break free; with her earthbending and their captors stripped of their firebending, they might finally escape this place and finally feel the sun on their faces again.

        "Are you ready, Yan?" Iroh asked as he rose smoothly from the floor, tightening the sash of his loose-fitting robe. The fabric hung over a body hardened by months of disciplined training, strength built in silence and shadows. He had known this day would come; the invasion had begun. The eclipse was underway, and now it was time to fight back.

        At Iroh's question, a smirk tugged at Yan's lips as she turned to face the cell door. "I'm more than ready," she answered. Wasting no time, she bent a sharp triangular stone from the floor and hurled it into the metal bars; with a deafening crack, the bars shattered, leaving a jagged opening in the cage. She stepped through without hesitation, then raised her hands and crumbled the stone wall beyond. For the first time in months, she stepped out of her cell.