The fleet finally came close enough that they stopped being someone else's problem, all across the Northern Water Tribe.
From high on the palace-side wall, when Sokka looked down, Agna Qel'a looked too beautiful to be under attack. Evening had not quite set in, but it was getting there; the hard white glare had softened to a colder gold, while the long shadows never quite darkened from blue to black, except beyond the bridges and canal-runs leading to the royal tombs. It was subtle, but even Sokka's staggeringly ordinary self could sense the deadly imbalance hovering over those eerie, sharp roofs. Out beyond the outer wall, jet black royal warships and the gaudy gold-wrapped Arzayan monstrosities moved over the water like claws dragging ever close to the heart of the north. A long and mournful warning horn carried over the city, deep and urgent and trying not to sound frightened, making sure even the drowsiest warrior was on his feet and ready by the way Sokka felt it rattle in his chest—it came from just above him and the princess, where they perched on a narrow landing that he hoped was hidden well enough.
Then a second deep, carrying sound rolled over the roof and caused Sokka to slice his arm out across Yue's waist—startled as she was on a treacherous step. She likely wasn't going to slip, but he held it there as he turned his ear to catch the strange, chiming gong.
It came from the biggest Arzayan ship, the infamous Sword of Ruin, where Sokka couldn't help but pause and wonder on such a noise as he'd never heard, until he blinked at a glint on the polished black deck.
Arzayanagi. He knew that devilish gold anywhere, even when it was much too far away to see it clearly or who was holding it. His heart almost stopped at the reminder that if the Arzayans decided to use it, the battle would be over before it started. Every indication was that they wouldn't, but still it took a bit before he could force himself to look away and move on. Yue wouldn't quite budge, however, and that never boded spiritually well, so Sokka craned his head around to see what provoked her stare of horror.
"I can see her," Yue breathed as she gazed out towards the Sword of Ruin too. She finally blinked, and looked at him. "I don't know how, I thought she was lingering here—that awful curse on her bones, but… they have Koani. She's—" she paused and shook her head, sounding close to tears. "Sokka, she's on that huge ship somehow, and she's after me. I—"
"Yue, I won't let that happen."
She looked a bit relieved, then wilted again. "Maybe Tui and La were talking to me? I should have left the city—on Appa, maybe? She can sense me too, I'm sure of it," she strained to say, and her voice cracked, "What does she want with me?"
"Doesn't matter. We're going to stop her."
She held on his fierce scowl for a moment, until it became a bit awkward and reality rushed back to him—what with him just being some dork and the enemy being armies, plural, unfortunately. His brow lifted, the corner of his mouth twitched, and somehow she was still holding on to a slightly pained smile that he wasn't sure he understood.
For one quiet moment, Sokka kept one hand at Yue's back as they hurried along the slightly less narrow wall-walk and to an out-of-the-way and lonely window they hoped was callously ignored by the guards.
He realized how familiar and touchy he was being only when they stopped, and she glanced down at his hand as it held firm on her waist. He instantly yanked it away like he'd committed an act of war.
"Sorry," he muttered. "Not trying to be all… you know."
"All what?"
"I'm not trying to do that whole 'I'm the guy, I'm in charge' thing." He gestured helplessly to the whole situation: fleets, fire, impending death, her being a princess, him being him. "Like I trudge out of my dirty snow hut and start acting like I've got everything under control in your actual real princess palace. Maybe it's kinda… insulting?"
Yue blinked, and somehow seemed a lot less worried. Her head tilted so cutely aside that Sokka genuinely felt it was unfair.
"You don't have a dirty snow hut," she insisted, like that was somehow the important part.
"But… I—"
"Your sister wouldn't let you."
He raised a finger and looked quite argumentative as he took in a breath, but just sputtered and drooped his head.
"Yeah, that's fair…"
Another weird, worryingly louder chiming gong sound rolled across the frozen roof, and this time the warships answered it.
At that angle, Sokka could barely see the siege machines, but the great flaming arcs were perfectly visible, especially from the largest royal and Arzayan vessels. They slammed into the great outer wall, dead center with a BOOM! That he felt shake the palace through his boots. Ice and steam burst outward in a glittering white spray, then another hit much farther west, where the dead lay.
It was grim to see no response from the assembled warriors and waterbenders that remained at Agna Qel'a, as they were clustered around the inner walls protecting the palace, but it was also a relief that Sokka felt very strangely about.
Because as he turned to stand on his tip-toes and see the vessels still speeding in closer, he knew it was probably not the move they'd make if they were going to pound the city into slush with the spear of doom. He figured that perhaps Raven really wasn't a filthy Fire Nation liar long-gaming their twisted demise at that point.
"What are you nodding at? They're going to see you," Yue politely reminded him as she tapped his back.
Below them, warriors in blue-and-white parkas rushed across one of the lower bridges, and the palace guard had started hauling bundled arrow crates up to each level.
"Oh crap!" he hissed as he saw a hardened warrior about to glance his way.
"And Sokka?" she said, keeping her voice low as they half-ran again, "if you wish to keep a hand at my back, I very much welcome it."
That did not help him remain normal at all, but he did quickly help her that way as she somehow gracefully princessed her way over the windowsill.
"I'm good at hiding it, but I'm terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought right now," Yue stated with her hands politely crossed at her waist, her head delicately nodding, and her voice underlaid with the scarcest tremor.
Sokka turned to look at her and offer some kind of support, but instead tightened his hand on his crippled spear's haft. He saw a row of water tribe hunting spears on the dim wall behind her.
"Is that it?" he blurted.
Yue looked very lost.
"Uh—sorry—spear guy stuff! Not you!" he rambled, but shot right back to nerding out. "Raven's bringing Arzayanagi, Arzayanagi can harm spirits—trap them even, I think? Do we just huck it at Nagi and call it a day? For Katara, at least, uh…"
"I know what you mean, and it sounds promising!"
"Oh. Good."
Sokka scuttled over to the door out of the forsaken room, and took a peek, looking back with a shrug.
"Nobody. We should hurry, but… are you sure about Master Pakku?"
Yue slowly shook her head.
"Not completely, but he was the only other one who seemed to sense what was happening. I just hope he's still… awake," she admitted, and obviously chose not to say 'alive' very deliberately.
-
Princess Azula did not like sloppy maneuvers, especially not from the apparently late Admiral Zhao's illustrious command deck. But sloppy would be better than whatever was swaggering around the west side of the city wall as though it had plans of its own.
"What is that meat bucket up to?" Azula leaned in, squinting her eyes at the off-plan detachment. "That is his ship, of course," she sighed like it was a mere nuisance.
She whipped around fast with a directed glare.
"Ty Lee—"
"A bucket, Azula?" Ty Lee frowned her way, hands most definitely on her hips. "He's so much more like a… meat gazebo—meat palace? Ya know, cause he wears more jewelry than my sister."
"Which one?" Mai dryly asked.
"Who cares?!" Azula demanded.
"Exactly, see? Azula gets it, it doesn't matter which—" Ty Lee bubbled 'til she popped. "Wha-aaahh! Watch it!"
Blue light streaked—close enough to make eyes water—and Ty Lee expertly as ever flipped back away from Azula's flames. The poor acrobat blinked and rubbed her eyes with a pout.
"You go find out what he's up to then!" Azula snapped. "I don't have time for your silly games right now."
Ty Lee slowly stood straight again, caught off-guard like she was waiting for a bait-and-switch. "Really? Right now?"
Azula just raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms, then nodded aside in the vague direction of the misplaced Sword of Ruin, along with a few escorts.
"Uh… alright? So sorry if I annoyed you, Azula," Ty Lee said with an impossible mixture of cheer and deep apology.
Mai sat up a bit from something she was reading, too relaxed with her legs crossed, in a fancy chair she just kinda took from Omashu without telling anyone and that looked masterfully out-of-place on the flagship's highest deck. "Maybe don't provoke Shoko during an actual battle, Ty Lee?" she lazily added as Ty Lee held up the insufficient coat she brought with her.
"Don't provoke anyone, I said figure out what he's up to, don't start a fight," Azula stepped after the bouncy girl to insist. "Father has been very precise about how we engage with those filthy pirates."
Ty Lee just nodded like none of what was going on was a big deal, but stopped to ponder a moment.
"Would you mind if I snag one of their big fur coats, Azula?" Ty Lee was delighted to ask as she looked out across what little remained of the frigid sea before the walls of ice rose. "They look so warm and comfy!"
"We're conquering them. I do not care what you do with their outerwear. Just go already!" Azula barked back.
Ty Lee sped off with one last smile, not even bothering with a single stair; she went right over the railing. They lost sight of her for only a frosty breath until she reappeared on the deck below, zipping along like a girly blur as she hopped onto the railing, raced along with effortless balance, and she launched into the air without delay.
Even Mai winced slightly as she craned her neck to catch sight of Ty Lee kicking off an ice wall that cracked and lost a flurry of snowflakes just behind her, but she was up and over the top before anyone had time to worry. Then she followed up by popping over to give a little wave before ducking away.
"She sure is in a hurry," Mai stated. "Did you threaten her or something?
Azula scowled at the oddly silent outer wall.
"I would be more concerned with the lack of reception, Mai. Where are all the mighty warriors and waterbenders of the north, hmm?"
Mai shrugged. "They probably figured they'd just get blown up like Omashu, Azula, it's not really that surprising if they're holed up somewhere."
"It's still troubling if these remote tribals already know about that, and troubling that we don't know where it is," Azula sharply said as she strutted back to the open door to the bridge. "You were supposed to keep track of it, Mai," she added as she stopped abruptly, but sighed and finished in a forgiving tone, "It's not like you to simply lose a mark like that."
Mai gave Azula's back a narrow gaze as she stood up. It was absurd, of course, to be blamed for not sprouting wings and flying after the Avatar who she didn't even know about back at Omashu until it was too late.
"Fine, I'll go see if they have it," Mai groaned like she was disappointed her book had to be set down as she stood.
She was gone an instant later, slipping down the ladderway into shadows without the impossible balance of Ty Lee, but her ability to suddenly vanish was still impressive. It left Azula alone with the wind, and the gathering uncertainty that the Arzayans had some master strategy she hadn't considered. She stepped back into the bridge, where waiting officers stood at attention for her return.
"Well, commander?"
A helmed man with hard eyes and a mustache as long as his forearms clicked his booths together.
"The Avatar has disabled two of our cruisers, but no resistance at the outer wall, Your Highness, we can deploy at any time."
She nodded. "Good, advance on the palace, but treat every corner as a possible ambush."
"Yes, ma'am."
"And," she began as men started moving slightly too early, halting them. "Prioritize taking ground towards the west specifically, and do so with as little caution as you can get away with."
"Y-yes, ma'am."
She heard doubt, and shot him a glance.
"I don't want those fanatics skulking out of sight for any longer than is absolutely necessary—is that clear?" She said with no subtle tone at all. "I will be very disappointed if I smell cowardice slowing that maneuver down."
The commander nodded, giving his mustache a gentle bounce.
"I shall send our best."
As officers filed out to hurry to their duties, Azula stepped over to the war map and shifted the token for the Sword of Ruin to the west end of the wall with more than a little annoyance. She tapped her finger thrice, and looked up to the helmsman, who caught her gaze quickly.
"Move us alongside the Arzayan flagship once the invasion forces disembark," she ordered, and moved her flagship's token too. "As close as possible—don't give them any room to hit this ship without sinking their own."
The helmsman nodded and turned back to his work immediately as the sound of her battleship's docking ramps creaked and boomed as they slammed down and crushed ice.
-
"Dang it, Aang, come back already…" Sokka breathed out as he peered out a south-facing window and saw the yellowy-orange blur looping around a volley of flames and swooping out of sight again.
It did at least look like he'd somehow left a couple warships out there smoldering and stranded without reaching the walls, but there were dozens more across two particularly elite fleets, so it was little comfort.
"He's here," Yue whispered back to Sokka as she peaked in a likely door in a hallway where the healers were far too busy with delirious waterbenders and lacerated warriors to worry about why the princess was wandering around, or hopefully report her location to anyone else.
"Excuse me, Princess Yue," a middle-aged healer said as she suddenly shuffled out of the door Yue was just peeking through.
"Oh! Apologies," she politely said as she backed off.
She gave Yue a brief and worrying glance, but only said, "please encourage him to lie down, if you're here to see Master Pakku," before she hurried off with a clumped up mass of bloody rags.
Yue and Sokka briefly frowned at each other, but wasted no further time ducking out of the busy hall and into the sparse and largely sterile chamber Pakku had been taken to. He was indeed already standing, his ruined arm clutching against his chest as he stared west out the window, and his parka hung all wrong.
"I had a feeling I'd be seeing both of you again," he said without looking, of course.
"Ahh… Master Pakku, sir, really sorry about my crazy sister—"
Pakku glanced back with zero patience, but all Sokka could really see was how waxy gray his face had gone.
"We both know that wasn't her, Sokka, no need to waste coddling on me," he gruffly said, which was totally fair. Honestly, Sokka was ready to let him have whatever attitude he wanted after he'd already paid an arm for it.
"Yeah, you're right, I'll stop," Sokka tensely replied.
Both Sokka and Yue slowly approached, as if he might suddenly bark or bite, but the miserable old man just nodded out the window. Joining him, it was plain to see he was looking down at the tombs, and his eyes scanned over to the edge of the city.
"I stand by my earlier assessment, but—nngh!" the maimed master began before seizing up around his arm for a moment. He took a breath, and tried again, "but… now I can see—who I presume are the Arzayans by your description—sending a team straight to the tombs."
"So… you'll send warriors to stop them?!" Sokka cautiously then excitedly hoped.
Master Pakku scowled back, and deftly ignored the tremor of his stiff, bandaged leg.
"I said I stand by it, didn't I? We don't have the men to stop them from reaching the tombs."
Sokka tilted his head in disbelief.
"Well, you can't just do nothing! They're gonna do something horrible! Your princess can sense it!" Sokka blurted out, failing entirely to stay cool.
"I am aware!" Pakku shouted back, paying for it with pain, and it shut Sokka right up. "It doesn't make any difference. We can't stop them, you need to find out what they're up to."
Sokka pointed to himself, and to Yue.
"Arnook might take my other arm for it, but yes. You have no sense for the spiritual, and she is too delicate to make it on her own," Master Pakku insisted, and ground his teeth for a moment. "I'll keep everyone I can spare on standby to counter it once you know where they're going."
Yue suddenly widened her eyes, and Pakku noticed.
"Yes, Princess Yue?"
She pursed her lips for a second, and looked vaguely out the window to the northern cliffs.
"Nagi is waiting at the Spirit Oasis! They must be planning to take Koani's remains there! Oh… that can't be anything good," Yue fretted, and looked Master Pakku to see the shared intensity of concern in his eyes. "Master Pakku, I believe Tui and La fled to the spirit world, at least while Nagi threatens them there."
Sokka was hopping on the balls of his feet as he clenched the windowsill, honestly energized by how little attention Master Pakku had been paying to his gruesome injuries.
"We better hurry, they're not taking it slow," Sokka declared as he pointed down to the formation moving along the far west canals.
Pakku let out a sigh before gruffly saying, "I'll not touch the reason why you know that, Your Highness, as that is dire news."
The master craned his neck and clutched his bandaged stump as he looked south to see Aang still swooping, strafing, and drawing an endless barrage of fireballs and blazing streams here or there.
"Waterbenders cannot face Nagi, it seems," he definitely did not like admitting, and gave a slow nod like he had to give himself permission. "I won't send brave men to certain defeat, so we'll need the Avatar."
"Oh!" Sokka announced as he took one step and stopped. "We were going to ask you to direct him to us to get Nagi out of Katara, awesome! We totally already have a plan, kind of!"
Yue gave a happy nod and smile, like any good news was welcome in the pits of anxiety and despair.
"C'mon, Yue! And don't worry, I've been schmoozing with some Arzayans, I can probably talk us out of it if they see us?" Sokka excitedly declared as he reached his hand out to her.
"Yes, of course!" she replied.
And she happily took his hand, but Master Pakku stopped them one last time with a clearing of his throat.
"You're obviously braver than most boys your age, Sokka," he said firmly, oddly almost like an accusation, and his breath shortened worryingly, but he raised his voice anyway. "I trust you understand what it means to take responsibility for her safety?"
"I know," Sokka instantly said. "I'm not letting anything happen to her, even if it kills me."
Pakku slowly nodded in a rare show of unfiltered approval, though it ended in a grimace that looked a lot like pain and pride refusing to sit down.
Yue's fingers gently touched Pakku's good shoulder with a meaningful if not complicated look, and it seemed to be enough for both of them. And she returned to Sokka, and tightened her hand around his for only a second before she let go, which again was enough.
"Thank you both, truly," Yue whispered with deep emotion, then gave a frantic look to Sokka like they were running out of time.
Sokka nodded, hitched his bent spear under his arm, and cast one last look up at Aang wheeling through the smoke and fire over the fleet line, but unfortunately nowhere near the western end of the city. There was no way to reach him fast enough, not now.
"Here," Master Pakku said, just before he curled his good arm, and lowered the flat of his hand.
The windowsill melted away, and the floor, leaving a dim passage visible beneath where they could already see a crude doorway opening up too.
"No time for sneaking around," he gruffly said. "Go!"
Seeing the strain it put on him, Sokka and Yue clenched their teeth but wasted no time dropping down—Sokka catching her as well as Pakku had hoped. The wounded old master finally staggered his way back to a chair—a bed was out of the question— and two of them slipped away from Master Pakku's window and into the palace's emptied side runs, keeping low and moving west while every sane person in Agna Qel'a ran the other direction.
Whatever the Arzayans were planning, it wasn't at the harbor. And if Yue could get close enough to feel it, then maybe—just maybe—they still had a chance to get there before something ancient and unforgivable got her too.