Wolf Moon 13

CHAPTER 13

The work day was long and bitterly cold. Yué stopped in her tracks as soon as she got outside, stunned by the chill. She took a moment to brace herself and then pushed on to where she would be meeting one of the non combat oriented Masters whose calling was the preservation of their city.

Despite the uncommonly cold day, the city was alive with motion. She passed open stores, practice halls, and the bustle of hundreds of people on their way to work. A group of men was clustered in the bay, laughing as they hauled something onto boats. Their voices began to fade into the distance as she gingerly stepped down onto the ice overlooking the great canal that all of the canals fed into.

It was hard to gauge the time, but it was clear that she was early. She ought to have continued on anyway to wait on the terrace above.

Instead, she made her way to the side of the canal, onto a promontory that was not intended for pedestrians.

She stepped onto the natural ice and stopped, transfixed. The sound of it was always so eerie. It sounded like a great beast was in the water, moving and clicking. She swayed in place. Without knowing it, she lost track of time. Her meeting time came and passed with her in the wrong place.

“Princess Yué?”

The sounds were louder now. Something was under there, groaning. If she could only reach it, she could know. She needed to know, she needed-

“Princess Yué?” Someone was in her personal space.

She was too disciplined to jump, but it was a near thing. “Thank you, Master Sakku,” she said, blinking back to awareness. “Shall we get started?”

The middle aged man gave her a searching look, but he nodded. They started the arduous process of checking all the places where their ice architecture could cause problems by growing, shrinking, and shifting.

Ice wasn’t still. Yué knew that in her bones. Even what looked solid was moving. There was motion that the human eye couldn’t see. The huge plates of ice that their society was built on were perpetually grinding against each other and moving apart.

She tore herself away into the mundane, analytical checks of their foundations. Master Sakku and his two apprentices reached into the ice and reported what they found. She dutifully recorded it.

This was one of the most important duties for the royal family. But it had always seemed a little silly to her to have the ceremony of three men telling her what she could already recognize by herself.

Perhaps that was the point. Having multiple people check ensured that no one’s oversight could lead to disaster.

Even inside her mittens, her fingers became so cold and stiff that she couldn't hold her writing stick. She quietly communicated the problem to Master Sakku, and he called for a break. The men ushered her inside a community building where she warmed her hands over a fire and listened to a story in the next room.

From the chorus of giggles, the elders were performing a history for a gaggle of very young children.

"Sister Orca said no! I will guide the people! But Brother Wolf was cunning. He…"

Yué quietened even her breathing to listen in. Master Sakku had a smile and soft eyes as he listened. He started mouthing the words. The younger waterbenders looked stoically bored.

“Brother Wolf said what?”

‘Sokka? Was that his voice?’

She sat up straighter. The kids let out a delighted peel of laughter that derailed the story.

“Yes, tribesman Sokka,” said an amused elder. They repeated the last lines in the wolf’s voice.

Oh. Yué hid a smile in her hand. Of course. He didn’t know the Northern Tribe’s stories. He must be learning them to take them home. Cultural preservation was one of the duties of Chief’s lines.

Thoroughly warmed, she decided it was time to get back to her own work. She gave Master Sakku a nod. The four of them rose in unison and went back into the cold. She glanced back in time to see flurries of snow escape into the building before the door closed behind them.

Out they went, into the cold. As they passed doorways, Yué listened to what people were saying. She caught snatches of conversations- someone chiding their companion for leaving dirty dishes, someone singing to themself as they worked, someone deriding the Avatar.

Ah. She didn’t let her expression change. Master Sakku glanced at the house with disapproval, but he didn’t say anything about it.

It was fine. There was never any chance that everyone would be pleased with the Avatar. If anything, it was a wonder that anyone was happy to see him.

‘He is going to bring the war here,’ Yué thought with a sigh. ‘They aren’t wrong to fear it.’

It wasn’t his fault. He was just a child, and particularly immature and flighty even for his age.

That was one of the other main reasons for disapproval. Regardless of whether someone blamed the Avatar for it or sympathized with him, it was wildly obvious that he was not qualified to be a wartime leader by means of personality. He could grow into it, perhaps. But he’d have to mature significantly to impress the Northern Water Tribe.

‘When I was twelve, I was already doing the same work I am now,’ Yué thought wryly. ‘If my personality was more like his, I would have been crushed by it.’

She didn’t think that was fair or reasonable, but it was what society had needed from her. And the Avatar was in a similar position. The world needed him to be a particularly competent adult, and it didn’t care much that he was a child.

After a few minutes they had reached their next destination, and Yué focused on her task. She pushed through until the afternoon meal, and then she was blissfully free.

Except, of course, for the upcoming interrogation by the married cohort of her childhood friends. Yué steeled herself for the encounter.

They came to her rooms. Kovra and Jana arrived in a swish of skirts and smiles at exactly the correct time. Yué was waiting with tea and dried fruits, luxuries that the other girls exclaimed over cheerfully.

She glanced at the door as the minutes ticked on.

“I don’t think that Aunna is coming,” Jana offered. Her deep brown eyes were watching where Yué kept looking. “I think she’s busy.”

Kovra gave a weak smile and put a date in her mouth.

Ah. Aunna wasn’t meant to be here, so that they could talk without her. Someone thought that Aunna might be a bad influence.

“Perhaps next time,” Yué said mildly. She crossed her legs at the ankle and picked up her steaming cup of tea. The heat hurt her fingertips, so she rotated the cup absently. “And Makie?”

“I think that she isn’t well.” Kovra looked genuinely disappointed. Unlike Jana, she had the classic blue eyes of the Water Tribe. They telegraphed her thoughts. They always had. “Princess Yué, why haven’t you accepted Hahn’s suit yet?”

She blinked. They weren’t dancing around it. “He hasn’t presented it,” she said honestly.

Jana’s forehead crinkled in thought. “That’s not what he told your Father.” She said it frankly.

Yué was struck silent, confused. “I.. I don’t know why he’d say anything else.”

‘Is he trying to punish me for avoiding him? Does he know that’s what I want?’

She thought that she was going to get interrogated about spending too much time with the foreigners, for avoiding Hahn. He’d implied that she rejected him?

Indignation rose. “If he said he’s asked me, then he’s spoken a mistruth,” Yué bit out. She put her tea down.

Kovra’s mouth popped open in scandalized delight. She hid the delight after a moment, after the implications sunk in. “That is interesting, isn’t it?” She exchanged a disturbed look with Jana. “That’s… I know that you’re not a liar, Princess. But I don’t want to believe that our future Chief…”

She trailed off weakly. Everyone knew that Hahn was dishonest, but it was supposed to only extend to playing love games with besotted girls.

Another interpretation came to mind. Hahn was so prideful, and he boasted a lot. He could have talked himself into a corner by saying he’d gotten her assent and people would know soon. And then when there was no announcement, he had to either lie again or admit that he’d lied the first time.

“Is this why he was sent out of the Capital?” Yué asked, dropping the pretense that Kovra and Jana were here by chance, and not sent to interrogate her. “To buy time to figure out-”

“What is happening, yes,” Jana agreed. She rubbed at her temples. “I cannot believe this… No, I can,” she corrected herself wryly. “That’s the worst part.”

Yué shared her theory. “He probably told someone that I’d agreed, and then when he hadn’t managed to ask me by the next time they asked him about it…” She trailed off and let the implication speak for itself.

Kovra groaned. “Men,” she complained. “They always have to have something to boast about.”

She eyed her friend dubiously. Kovra had a husband that she theoretically liked. “I don’t think most men are like that,” Yué said, and then winced when she realized that she’d basically admitted that she thought Hahn was particularly deficient.

Jana threw her head back and laughed.

“This is a mess,” Kovra said, tone full of wonder. She shook her head slightly. “Princess Yué, I’m not even involved and I’m embarrassed.”

Yué gave her childhood friend the driest look possible. It didn’t quell her at all. “Thank you.”

When Jana managed to stop laughing, she leaned in. “Is it true that the Southern Tribesman is going to propose to Aunna?”

Yué stared. She didn’t even have to lie? “Where did you hear that?” she asked, too weak for it to be a denial. Should she deny it? She supposed not, since it was the plan-

“Oh, he’s handsome.” Kovra’s eyes sparkled. “A little young, I thought…?”

“He’s the Chief’s son,” Jana pointed out, in a tone that implied it was a mitigating factor. “And he’s fairly tall.”

“Oh!” Kovra sat up straight. “I heard that Chief Hakoda is very tall.”

Both of them looked at Yué.

“Why would I know that?” she asked, baffled.

Jana made a rude noise. “You could ask.”

“It hasn’t come up,” Yué said weakly. What was even happening? She tried to get the conversation back on track. “Where did you hear that?”

“Weeell,” Jana said, drawing the word out mischievously. “Someone said that he’s making a necklace.”

The blood rushed out of her face.

He was? He was for sure?

“Your face,” Kovra cackled. She snatched up another dried fruit. “It’s true! And his sister is always hanging off of Aunna. She’s making sure that Aunna is a good fit, isn’t she?”

…Katara and Aunna didn’t particularly like one another.

“That’s right,” Yué lied. She felt faint. She felt queasy. “I… I don’t think Aunna realizes that he’s making a necklace already.”

“Well, she should start seriously considering if she wants to canoe to the Southern Tribe,” Kovra said, and then the conversation turned to less distressing topics.