The Heat that Drives the Light

Chapter 9

"Hey, Sokka!" I called to the boy from across the hallway, "how was the meeting?"

"Good," he said, "the advisors finally came to a conclusion with Zuko."

Early this morning Zuko had a meeting with his advisors to decide whether or not to force the fire nation settlers to come back to the fire nation from the colonies. He had promised me he would defend the earth kingdom's land.

I hadn't been able to attend the meeting because I was called away on some important spiritual issues. The issue was a load of crap about the ground shaking in a mountainside village a while from the city. Some grandmother had convinced the whole town it was the spirits angry about how they were being treated by the living. In reality, it was just an earthquake because they living near a fucking mountain.

"How did that go?" I asked him, already knowing the outcome.

"Well Zuko was hard to convince, but the advisors somehow managed to stop him from making them come back-"

"WHAT?" I gasped, and Sokka looked taken aback.

"He isn't going to make the-"

"Oh no I fucking heard you the first time," I growled, feeling slightly guilty for snapping at him. I spun quickly on my heel though, stalking off towards the end of the hallway.

"Where are you going?" Sokka called after me.

"I'm going to have a little conversation with Fire Lord Zuko!"

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I waited in our room, knowing that he was going to be in here any moment. Sokka had offered to get him, so I didn't burst in and chewed him out in front of everyone. I agreed, but only because I had felt bad about snapping at him.

Honestly did he not get it? It's not his country! They stole the land from the earth kingdom. I don't care if the fire nation types had "roots" there, give them some property and money if its such an issue. I didn't necessarily agree that the nations should be separated, but why did they have to come together on stolen land?

I heard a door open behind me and I looked over and saw Zuko walk in. He quickly shut the door behind him, probably to make sure no one heard us. He looked guilty and a little upset. I frowned at him and I saw he winced.

"Amara-"

"Save it!" I snapped, interrupting him, "I don't know what happened in that meeting, but you have no right keeping the earth kingdom lands!"

"It's not that simple Amara!" He responded, almost pleading.

"Not that simple? Not that simple!" I yelled, "Oh yeah its totally not like your advisors think less of the other nations because they aren't fire nation!"

"Amara please!" Zuko said, "I can't just force people to leave their homes, not when they are that engrained-"

"You stole their land!" I said, "I don't give a shit if your engrained-and neither do the earth kingdom people! It's like you are just trying to start another war you ass!"

"Amara, I can't force people to leave their homes-if you would just listen-maybe we can come to a conclusion with the other nations and come together and make Yu Dao a place where all the nations can come together."

"I'm all for the other nations coming together-believe me I am-but you can't just do it with land that your great-grandfather stole" I said, calming down a little and walking over to him.