Alex knelt, pressing his forehead to the cold floor. "You summoned me, father?"
"Rise," Ozai's voice boomed. Zuko stood, keeping his gaze level—respectful, but not fearful. "Captain Li tells me you have perfected the intermediate katas. He even said you defeated him in sparring. Is this true?"
"Captain Li is a capable teacher," Zuko evenly said. "But also predictable. Once I learned his rhythm, he was easy to fight."
Ozai's eyebrows lifted slightly. This was not the timid boy who usually cowered before him. A slow, cruel smile spread across Ozai's face. "Good. Perhaps you're not entirely useless after all."
The comment didn't even reach Zuko's ears. Rather, he cut straight to the point. "I have a request, father."
"You have barely proven yourself, and already you ask for favors?"
"Not a favor," Zuko corrected. "An investment."
"What kind?"
"I request another new firebending teacher."
Ozai leaned back. "Oh? And what is wrong with the one we recommended you?"
"Nothing," Zuko said. "I've simply learned all I can from him. I desire someone who can truly amplify my aptitude."
Ozai drummed his fingers on the armrest of his throne. He liked this. He liked the hunger. "Who? A General perhaps? Or were you thinking of learning from an Admiral?"
"Neither... I wish to study the techniques of Zeisan."
The silence in the room was immediate. Ozai's expression shifted from amusement to genuine confusion. "Zeisan? Surely you're not speaking of my aunt?"
"The same one..."
"She is dead, Zuko," Ozai said in a dangerous whisper. "She died long before you were born."
"I know," Zuko calmly replied. "I wish to read her works."
Ozai studied his son for a long, agonizing minute. He searched for weakness, for the soft heart of the boy who loved turtle-ducks. But the only thing he found was the hard eyes of a strategist—eyes that sparked greater than the time of Zuko's birth.
✟
The Royal Archives were a tomb of history that seemed to permeate every corner of the Fire Nation capital. The shelves themselves stretched up into the darkness.
Zuko walked the aisles with Ozai close in front of him.
"The records of Zeisan are in the west wing," Ozai said. "Though I fail to see why you would concern yourself with a woman who turned her back on her heritage."
"To understand the heretic is to understand the weakness of our enemies..."
It was a lie. In truth, Zuko was hunting for something else regarding that woman. Zeisan, the sister of Sozin, had been a nonconformist. She had also explored the world, mingled with the Air Nomads, and supposedly found a different means of fighting.
The two firebenders soon reached the section. Zuko pulled down a scroll case made of cracked leather. He unrolled it on a reading table before scanning the archaic calligraphy. Ozai stood over his shoulder, watching.
The text detailed Zeisan's travels, her fascination with the spiritual aspects of flame, and her eventual erasure from public history.
As Zuko read, he realized the specific techniques he was looking for weren't explicitly detailed here. So he searched harder.
After half an hour of silence, Ozai's patience thinned. "Well?"
Zuko rolled the scroll back up with a sigh of disappointment. He needed to play this perfectly. If he showed excitement, Ozai would confiscate the knowledge. If he showed nothing, Ozai would think him a fool.
"It's lacking," he admitted, turning to face his father. "The records are redacted. Her backstory was written, but the practical applications of her study are missing."
"As I expected," Ozai sneered. "She was a dreamer, Zuko. There's no power in dreams. Don't waste too much time chasing ghosts like your uncle. Real power is what you see before you."
"Yes, father..."
While Zuko wasn't going to give up on searching for what he needed from Zeisan, Ozai now believed Zuko's quest was a dead end. Meaning, he wouldn't be watching as closely next time.
✟
A few days later, the morning air was crisp as servants loaded trunks onto a carriage. Azula stood in the courtyard, looking imperious in her uniform. She was returning to the Royal Fire Academy for Girls, the most prestigious institution in the nation for high-born females.
Ursa was adjusting Azula's collar. Azula, predictably, looked bored by the affection.
"Might I accompany you?" Zuko announced, stepping out onto the veranda.
Both Ursa and Azula froze. Zuko would have never asked such a thing.
"You?" Azula wrinkled her nose. "Why? Want to see what a real prodigy looks like one last time?"
"I want to see my sister off," he said, forcing a warm smile that felt alien on Zuko's face. "We won't see each other until summer. I'll miss you."
Azula actually recoiled, looking physically ill. "Ugh. You're so gross."
Ursa, however, walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "That is very sweet, Zuko. Of course you can come. It's good to see you getting along."
The carriage ride was quiet. Azula spent the time ignoring him, which suited Zuko perfectly. He didn't care about family bonding anyway.
The Royal Fire Academy for Girls was a repository of specialized knowledge. While the boys were taught brute force and military tactics elsewhere, the girls were taught agility and stealth. It was also here that Ty Lee, Azula's acrobat friend, studied. And it was here that Ty Lee learned to paralyze grown men with a poke.
When they arrived, the academy was bustling with students and administrators.
While Ursa was distracted with the headmistress, discussing Azula's advanced placement, Zuko saw his window and left them.
It wasn't long until he found the library. It was smaller than the palace archives but far more specialized. So he approached the librarian, an elderly woman with spectacles.
"Excuse me," he said, projecting the authority of a prince. "I was wondering if there are any historical records regarding Lady Zeisan."
The librarian blinked but didn't argue with royalty. "Aisle four. She left some medical texts that you can read on the lower shelf."
Zuko soon walked to the aisle and eventually found the great equalizer: conceptualized textbooks detailing the anatomy of benders. And when he turned to a specific book, he saw exactly what he had failed to find at the Palace: Chi-blocking.
It was a technique that rendered bending useless. In a world where people relied entirely on their elemental powers, taking that away was a death sentence. Ty Lee was very skilled at it. How Zuko knew Zeisan's chi-blocking techniques could be here was because Ty Lee (the only character in this world who knew how to do it) learned it from here.
He pulled book after book while scanning the contents. Finally, buried in a section on 'Defensive Acrobatics and Pressure Points,' he found something called "The Kyusho Jitsu of the Fire Nation" written by Zeisan herself.
The book detailed the clusters of nerves that governed chi flow. It also explained how a precise strike to the neck could sever the connection between the brain and the bender's energy source.
So he sat on the floor and began to memorize what he could. The cluster at the shoulder, the junction at the thigh, and the switch is at the base of the neck. All of it seemed simple enough.
An hour later.
"Zuko?" The voice startled him. He looked up to see Ursa standing at the end of the aisle, flanked by the headmistress. "There you are. We've been looking for you. What are you doing?"
Zuko held up the large history book, looking innocent. "I got lost, mother. I found this library and decided to wait here."
Ursa glanced at the book, seeing the maps of the Fire Kingdom. She didn't see the smaller book tucked inside.
"Come," she said, holding out a hand. "It's time to say goodbye to your sister."
Zuko stood up, discreetly sliding the chi-blocking manual back onto the shelf as he closed the history book. He didn't need to steal it since he had already memorized enough forms. That was enough to practice for months.
They walked back to the entrance where Azula was standing by the gate, surrounded by a gaggle of classmates.
"Bye, Zuzu," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "Try not to embarrass the family while I'm gone."
"Study hard, Azula," he replied with calmness. "I'll see you in the summer."
As the carriage pulled away, leaving the academy behind, he settled back into the velvet seat. Azula was gone, Ozai thought he was still a failure, and Ursa believed him to be a studious boy.
The board was clear. He had the palace to himself and a secret training regimen to take down any bender who stood in his way.