Dawn was just beginning to light the port when Ren gathered his team in the meeting room. The sea mist drifted through the open windows, cooling the damp wood of the place and wrapping everything in a thin veil that made it seem as if the Company was about to enter a new world.
On the table was a map of the Earth Kingdom.
Old.
Stained.
And marked with a red circle around a small name:
Gaipan.
A lost village among hills and forest, mostly ignored by the rest of the Kingdom.
Ren placed both hands on the map.
His long, firm fingers seemed to hold the entire destiny of that region.
"Our first mission will be Gaipan," he said in a low, calm voice, but so firm that everyone straightened up. "And it will be the starting point of the White Lotus's power."*
Azula watched him with predatory interest, Suki with a mix of admiration and anxiety, and the rest with absolute attention.
Ren looked up.
THE MISSION CONTEXT
"Gaipan has been sending conflicting reports for weeks," he explained. "Rumors of bandits, disappearances, destroyed crops, and supposed signs that the Fire Nation plans to attack them."*
Mai narrowed her eyes.
"Do you know if any of those rumors are real?"
Ren smiled slightly.
"No. And that's why we're going. Because uncertainty… is fertile ground to plant influence."
Azula crossed her arms with a triumphant air.
"So you want the Company to intervene in a local conflict before the Earth Kingdom notices?"
"Exactly," Ren replied. "If we solve the problem before the government does, Gaipan will become our first loyal city. It will owe us its stability, its protection… and its future prosperity."*
Ty Lee raised her hand, moving restlessly.
"And if the problems are very dangerous?"
Ren looked at her with calculated calm.
"Then it will be even easier to make them depend on us."
Suki swallowed.
She knew perfectly well that Ren was creating not a business… but a strategic control point.
THE MISSION STRUCTURE
Ren took a step back and began to walk slowly in front of the team.
Each one could feel his gaze analyzing, calculating, and deciding with surgical precision.
"Gaipan is isolated," he began. "They are afraid. They need allies. And we will be those allies… but not just with protection. Also with solutions. With order. With vision."*
A silence stretched as the incense smoke rose in slow waves.
"That is why we will divide the mission into three sectors."
Ren raised a finger.
SOCIAL INFILTRATION — Ty Lee and Suki
"Ty Lee, you will handle infiltrating the daily life of Gaipan. Talk to mothers, merchants, children… I want rumors, stories, fears."
Tylee nodded excitedly.
"I'll make new friends!"
"Exactly," Ren said, "and each one of them will tell me what they really think."*
Then he looked at Suki.
"You, as ambassador, will present yourself to the village leaders and show our humanitarian aid. You will be their hope."
Suki took a deep breath, understanding the weight of that role.
"I will not fail."
Ren looked at her with dangerous tenderness.
"I know."
SECURITY AND CONTROL — Azula, Suri, and Keiko
Ren rested his gaze on Azula.
"You will lead the military front. You must assess whether the bandits exist or if someone is inventing everything. If there is a real threat… eliminate it."
Azula smiled as if receiving a beautiful gift.
"It will be a pleasure."
"Suri," Ren continued, "you will follow the invisible trails: suspicious routes, hidden messages, movements at night. If something is happening in the shadows of Gaipan, you will know before anyone."*
Suri bowed her head, cold and professional.
"I will discover everything."
Finally, Keiko.
"You will protect the population during the inspections. If they try to attack, if they try to intimidate us… you will handle it."
Keiko slapped a fist into her open palm.
"Understood."
INTERNAL AND ECONOMIC CONTROL — Mai
Ren turned to Mai, who kept her gaze fixed on her practice knife.
"You will study their current economy, their trade routes, their resources. I want to know what Gaipan produces, what it lacks, and what it has in surplus. And I want to know what we can sell them… or buy from them."
Mai looked up.
"All that will take time."
"That is why you will be the first to establish contact with local merchants," Ren explained. "And the first to explain that a powerful company can solve their misery… for a reasonable price."*
Mai sighed.
"Fine."
THE HIDDEN OBJECTIVE
Ren let his hand fall onto the map, right on top of the village's name, and spoke in a lower, intent-filled voice:
"Gaipan is far enough from Ba Sing Se for the Kingdom to ignore it… and close enough that, if we control it, we can open a direct route of influence to the capital."
Azula's eyes gleamed.
Suki swallowed.
Keiko smiled barely.
Mai raised both eyebrows.
Ty Lee gave a small jump of excitement.
Suri remained still… analyzing every implication.
Ren closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the team's expectant silence.
"I don't just want to help Gaipan," he whispered. "I want it to be the first seed. The first city that opens the doors of the Earth Kingdom to us.
And after that… the rest of the world."*
Azula took a deep breath, almost intoxicated by ambition.
Suki felt a shiver run down her spine.
Ren opened his eyes, more intense than ever.
"Prepare yourselves. We leave at dawn."
The White Lotus ship advanced slowly up a wide, green river that penetrated deep into Earth Kingdom territory. It was early morning: the mist floated on the water like a silk veil, blurring the colors and turning the landscape into something almost dreamlike.
Ren was at the prow, completely still… but his mind moved with the speed of lightning.
The air smelled of humidity, of freshly exposed bark, of rotting leaves.
The Earth Kingdom was wilder than he remembered from his previous life.
More primitive, more alive.
Behind him, Suki sharpened a small dagger; Suri watched the forest from the railing, mentally counting ambush routes; Keiko trained her shoulders and arms with a pair of improvised weights; Mai rested sitting without moving, but with her eyes wide open; Ty Lee did stretches in silence.
And Azula… Azula watched Ren with a dangerous mix of ambition and adoration.
Ren raised a hand.
"Stop the ship," he ordered.
The captain stopped immediately.
An expectant silence fell.
Suri narrowed her eyes.
"Is something not right?"
Ren didn't answer immediately.
He closed his eyes… and listened.
The wind whispered through the trees.
Birds shrieked in the distance.
The water slapped against the wood.
And yet…
There was something else.
An absence.
"The forest is too still," Ren murmured.
Keiko looked around.
"I don't see anything strange."
Ren opened his eyes. Something glinted within them.
"Precisely. No tracks from large animals. No broken branches. No predator marks. The entire forest has been… without activity for days."
Ty Lee shivered.
"That doesn't sound good."
Azula smiled barely, with a hint of dark excitement.
"Perfect. I was getting bored."
Ren advanced to the edge of the ship and leaned over, observing the water.
Small leaves floated… but they didn't move as they should.
It was as if the river were holding its own movement.
Unnatural.
Abnormal.
The Ren Yang within him would have laughed.
The Ren Yin would have analyzed it.
The complete Ren… was using it.
"We continue forward," he ordered. "But with caution."*
The ship resumed its journey through the unsettling silence of the forest.
As they advanced, disturbing signs began to appear:
Branches cut with a crude instrument.
Trees with deep claw marks.
Scraps of fabric caught in bushes.
Remains of abandoned campfires.
Suki slowly approached Ren.
"This doesn't seem like the work of simple bandits…"
Ren didn't take his eyes off the forest.
"No," he whispered. "There is something more. Perhaps an enemy. Or perhaps an ally… ignorant that it has already lost."*
The ship continued, and the river began to narrow.
Then, finally, the valley where Gaipan was located opened up before them.
But what they saw did not match the reports.
There was no smoke from daytime chimneys.
No peasants working.
No children playing on the paths.
Only an unsettling silence and a village that seemed to be holding its breath.
Ren raised a hand.
"All ready. We're going in."
The ship docked at a small, time-worn pier.
As they disembarked, they could feel the eyes of the villagers watching them… from behind closed windows.
Ty Lee hugged herself.
"They're hiding…"
"Or waiting," Mai replied with dry calm.
Suri already had her hand on the hilt of her weapon.
"Ren, how do we proceed?"
Ren smiled calmly.
"In the simplest way.
As allies.
As saviors.
As the answer to every one of their fears."
They walked together through the village entrance.
Their footsteps echoed hollowly on the worn cobblestones.
Suddenly, a door flew open.
An old woman with sunken eyes looked at them with a mix of hope and terror.
"Are you… are you from the north?" she asked in a trembling voice.
Ren took a step forward.
His shadow was projected onto the ground like that of someone with absolute authority.
"We have come to help."
The old woman covered her mouth with both hands, as if about to cry.
"Finally! Finally! The village could no longer bear it… finally someone has come!"
Immediately, doors began to open one after another.
First a few.
Then dozens.
Men, women, elders, children.
They looked at Ren as if he were salvation itself.
Azula's lips curled into a smile of superiority.
Suki felt her heart tighten.
Ty Lee waved with innocent excitement.
Mai just raised an eyebrow.
Keiko watched, calculating potential threats.
Ren… remained still, studying everything.
Absorbing everything.
Then he looked down at the villagers.
"Speak to me," he ordered softly. "What threat torments you?"*
The temple of Gaipan began to fill with voices:
"The missing…"
"Creatures in the forest…"
"Bandits…"
"Hooded men…"
"Screams in the night…"
Ren raised a hand.
Silence fell like a shroud.
"The White Lotus is here," he said. "And there will be no more fear."*
The villagers erupted in murmurs of relief and immediate adoration.
Azula bowed her head with pride.
Suki took a deep breath, moved.
And Ren, within himself, smiled.
Gaipan was already falling into his web.
"The mission begins," he whispered in a barely audible voice.
But loud enough for Azula to hear… and shiver.