Open Your Eyes | Book 2

12: Metamorphosis

Art: 2 Become 1 by Roberta Heslop

Iroh and I sat silently on either side of the sleeping prince. His skin was pale and slick with sweat. I had a clean bucket of water beside me as I attempted to heal his ailment. As I feared, it wasn't working. It wasn't even cooling his temperature.

I could feel something. It wasn't a physical condition. I tried to remember some of what Yugoda had told us in the few healing lessons we had taken with her. A major part of healing was chi paths. I remembered her also mentioning something called chakras.

I followed the pools of heat in his body but all I could do was poke at them. He groaned under my hands and I instantly moved away from the sensitive areas, fearing I was hearting him. Whatever these chakras were, they weren't something I could heal for him.

A frustrated grunt jumped out of my mouth. I balled my hands into fists, closing them as tightly as I did my eyes. The boiling resentment inside of me finally spilled over and I released my hands, throwing them to my sides as my eyes flew open. The water turned to ice picks and stabbed deeply into the floorboards on either side of me.

"This isn't something that can be healed," Iroh spoke in a sedating tone. "He will be fine. This is something he needs to do by himself."

"He's always by himself," I hissed. I turned my glare towards the man. I knew it wasn't his fault by I needed to direct my anger somewhere. "Why can't I ever be good enough to help him?"

"Kida," Iroh was cautious of my emotions, I could hear it in his voice. "You couldn't help him. There are some things you don't know-"

He started to reach for me but I threw off his hand. "No!" I roared. "I do know. I know everything." Iroh's eyes were wide. I realized what I'd said and knew it was too late to take it back now. After a deep intake of breath, I leveled my voice and explained, "I know about my siblings being here. I know about the Dai Li. I know that Appa was missing. I know it all."

The old man's eyes had grown wider and wider as he listened to me. His questions quickly fell out of his mouth. "What? But how?"

Another shaky sigh rattled out of my mouth. I looked down at Zuko. He twitched in his sleep, sweat beading over his temples. I grabbed the rag hanging off the bucket beside me and began to dab his forehead.

I couldn't look at Iroh as I told him the truth. "The leader of the Dai Li contacted me a while ago. He gives me updates about my siblings and I let him pretend that I'm leverage to get them out of his city. I was playing the clueless girl because I didn't want either of you involved." I pulled my eyes up, instantly feeling sheepish under his heavy gaze. "You were happy, Zuko was beginning to adjust, I wasn't about to bring up the Avatar."

Iroh was quiet for a long moment. I took the time to focus on nursing Zuko. I ran my hand through hair, ignoring the dampness; I only hoped I was giving him some sort of comfort through all of this.

"Do you know that Zuko was the one to free the Avatar's bison?"

I looked away from Zuko's pain-filled face to give my full attention to his uncle. "What? That's why you two were at the lake?"

He frowned. "You were there?"

I swallowed hard and reluctantly nodded. "Yes. Both of you weren't here when I woke up and I couldn't find you. I decided to hunt down Appa instead. I wanted to make sure that Long Feng kept his side of our deal."

Iroh paused again but not as long as before. "Zuko went there to use the bison to capture the Avatar but he changed his mind. He released it instead." I was surprised he admitted to Zuko's original plan. That was until he went on and I began to understand. "You don't have to keep secrets from us, Kida. You don't have to blame yourself for things that go wrong either. My nephew is good, you know that. It's why you're here. And, in the end, he will choose good. I have faith in him. You need to have the same."