𝑯𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆

𝑼𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈

Chapter Nineteen
Aang

The minute we landed back at the Fire Nation palace, I thought Inara would storm in and kill Jiro right on the spot. The cold rage in her eyes when Aizen said his name was enough to make anyone think she was about to tear the entire palace down with her bare hands. But I should've known better.

Inara wasn't impulsive. She never let her emotions cloud her actions, no matter how much fire raged inside her. She was always composed, always clever. Still, after three days of silence, it was starting to mess with me. She hadn't said a word to Zuko. She hadn't even approached Jiro. And now she was standing out on the balcony, staring at a lone tree that swayed softly in the wind, her back rigid, lost in thought.

The air in the room felt thick, heavy. The distant sounds of the Fire Nation capital below buzzed faintly, but in here, it was suffocatingly quiet. My eyes traced the lines of her figure, the way her hands gripped the stone railing as if trying to ground herself. The amber glow of the setting sun bathed her in warm light, making her look almost serene—if I didn't know better. But I did.

I leaned against the doorway, hesitant. Inara didn't like being interrupted when she was like this. I'd learned that the hard way. But watching her do nothing was worse. She hadn't acted on anything since we returned. I cleared my throat softly, my foot shifting on the wooden floor, the faint creak betraying my presence.

"What?" she whispered, not even turning to look at me.

"Uh, nothing," I stammered, rubbing the back of my neck. "I just... thought maybe we should do something about what we found out. Like... tell Zuko?"

She finally turned her head slightly, just enough to let me see the way her jaw clenched. The tension rolled off her like waves.

"We're not telling Zuko," she said, her voice low and final. "And you will never mention any of this to him."

I blinked, feeling the weight of her words. "Why not?" I asked cautiously.

She turned her gaze back to the horizon, the light from the setting sun casting long shadows on her face. Her grip on the railing tightened.

"Because he'll be mad and hurt," she said slowly, as if each word was measured, "that I kept all of this from him."

"Why did you keep this from him?" I couldn't help myself from asking. I needed to understand. Inara was always careful with Zuko, fiercely protective of him. But this? This was one of his advisors, someone he trusted, plotting a scheme to toy with her. Shouldn't he be aware of it? Zuko would want to know. He would defend her like he always had, fiercely, without hesitation. It didn't make sense to me why she was keeping him in the dark.

Inara let out a sigh, one that seemed to carry the weight of the world with it. She straightened, pushing herself away from the railing and finally turning to face me fully. Her eyes were unreadable, but the cold calmness in them sent a chill through me.

"You ask an awful lot of questions, Aang," she said, her voice softer now, but still guarded. "I didn't tell him because he would've stopped me. Zuko would've shut it down before I had the chance to find out the truth. And if he had done that... we could've endangered the mother I thought was still alive at the time."

The words hung between us, heavy and sharp. But there was something more behind her tone, something I didn't quite catch until she paused, her gaze flickering for just a moment.

Inara wasn't just keeping secrets to spare Zuko's feelings—that much was obvious. There was something deeper. A ghost from her past that she had chased relentlessly, something she had to face alone. Now, after everything, she seemed relieved, even if she wouldn't admit it.