The Earth Kingdom soldier pulled the long, bladed spear off his back. “Let’s make this more interesting. Sing and dance for me, old man!” He swung his bladed spear at Uncle Iroh’s feet.

  Azula couldn’t believe her eyes. Her uncle did exactly what the man said. He frantically jumped over the blade, dancing in the village street, while singing a stupid folk song about the women of Ba Sing Se. She clenched her fists tightly. This "warrior" was a bully. A member of the royal family should never allow himself to be treated so!

  The soldier finally grew tired of tormenting Iroh. He returned the spear to his back. “There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” He laughed as he tossed a coin into Iroh’s conical hat, called a damao.

  “I greatly appreciate your kindness,” Iroh said.

  "Oh, wait," he said. "Did I mention I'm also here to collect taxes for the war effort?" He reached into Iroh's damao and took more out than he put in. The soldier barked another laugh as he walked down the street. He helped himself to the possessions of every beggar and refugee on the street before he turned a corner.

  Azula scowled at him and then at her uncle. “Unbelievable!” she said. She hit the wall behind them with her fist.

  Iroh shook his head. “It’s only a few moments of terror and humiliation.” Even he looked like he didn't quite believe that.

  "That's completely ludicrous! We should've fought him. He's breaking their own laws."

  "Then the people he works for would take everything. We'd have no money for food."

  “I’d rather starve than live under this!”

  Iroh shook his head. “You wouldn’t say that if you’d ever seen true starvation.”

  “Are you saying I’ve been pampered?” She pointed to the scar on her eye. “I beg to differ!”

  “You’ve suffered, no doubt,” he said, “And you aren’t afraid of hardship. It doesn’t mean you’ve experienced every evil under Agni's light. The poor suffer differently.”

  “Bah!” Her hand rested on the bag she’d taken from their ship those months ago. She idly thought of the garish red mask inside. She knew just how she’d use it tonight.

  ***

  Darkness had fallen on the town, and Azula crept in the shadows. She was hunting dangerous quarry. The door of a tavern opened, and her target stepped out into the empty alleyway. He was humming the same tune that Uncle Iroh had sung, oblivious to the danger that was coming for him.

  Azula made a predatory grin behind her red mask and snuck up behind him. Drunk as he was, he was still somehow alert to her attack. He spun around, pulling his spear. She wasted no time, sending lightning into her fingertips. She jabbed two fingers from each hand into his abdomen. The electricity discharged the man into the wall. His back crashed into it, and he fell to the ground, unconscious and spasming. The smell of electrified flesh stung her nostrils.

  She picked up the bladed spear. It was well-balanced. She spun it a few times. This would be a fine trophy as well as a weapon. She also searched him, pocketing the rest of his money. "Thanks for the taxes," she whispered to his senseless form. Then, she disappeared into the night. There would be more like him, corrupt officials undeserving of their gold.

  ***

  Over the next week, reports of the Red Spirit spread throughout the town. The bandit was stealing from the rich lords who abused their power, who took exorbitant taxes from the poor and infirm. What the Red Spirit did with it, no one but Azula knew and Iroh suspected.

  “Our money problems seem to have vanished overnight!” Iroh said. He ate one of the cakes that she’d brought him.

  “Yes, it’s strange, isn’t it?” Azula answered. “Fortune has smiled on us at last.”

  Iroh narrowed his eyes. “We’ll see what happens in the next town.”

  ***

  Azula crouched on a tree branch. Her prey was riding through town in a protected coach below her. This man was a particularly loathsome creature, fattened on the largesse of the government and the corruption of the tax collectors. It rumbled along. Two guards rode on either side. She jumped onto the cart as it passed under her. She swung the blunt end of the spear into a guard’s head. The man crumpled off his ostrich horse.

  The other man had time to pull his sword and attack. She met his blade with her own. They made a great clang, and she jumped from the top of the carriage and kicked the guard. He fell down. He swung his blade in a wide arc. She dodged, but part of the blade cut through her black clothes. She barely avoided it reaching her flesh.

  By now, other townfolk were noticing the commotion. They pointed at her and murmured with hope.

  "The Red Spirit!" one of them, a scholar, said. "Come to bring the corrupt to account."

  She swung low. When the man moved to parry with his sword, she hit his head with the other side of her spear. The man was out cold. She brought her bladed spear onto the wood of the carriage. Inside sat the overweight Earth Kingdom noble wearing fine green silks and cradling a small chest. His eyes bulged when he saw her.

  He shoved the chest at her. “Please, take it. Don’t hurt me!”

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  She grabbed the chest. It jingled, full of gold. Down the street, several guards were running her way. She had no worries that she could outrun most of them, but there were quite a few coming at her. She needed a distraction. She grabbed a handful of gold coins and then threw the rest into the street along with the box. Poor townfolk pounced on the coins, blocking their way. Even the guards were distracted.

  When they looked up again, the Red Spirit had disappeared.

  ***

  Azula met her uncle a few miles away. He was seated in a small clearing in the woods, sipping tea contentedly.

  “I got you some more tea, Uncle,” she said, tossing a box to him.

  He pursed his lips. “What you're doing is dangerous.”

  “I don’t see you refusing my night’s work!” she said. She brushed her black hair. To hide her identity, she’d had to wrap it tightly around her head. Now, she could let it down. “These weasels deserve it, stealing from their own people. I'm amazed the Earth Kingdom has lasted as long as it has.”

  “You are angering very powerful people."

  She nodded angrily. “We’re royalty. They are all beneath us.”

  “Their spears are just as sharp as yours."

  “I don’t care,” she said, crossing her arms. "I'm taking what we need."

  "You can't even firebend without alerting your brother and the rest of the Earth Kingdom. Someone is going to get hurt, maybe even killed."

  She glared at him. "I'm not afraid of killing."

  His eyes took on a haunted cast. "You wouldn't say that if you knew. It can mutilate your very soul."

  ***

  Word quickly spread around the area that the Red Spirit, the Scourge of the Fire Nation, had become the Bane of the Earth Kingdom as well. The bandit was stealing from the corrupt government and returning the ill-gotten gains to the people. To them, Azula wasn't just some bandit. She was a folk hero, someone who fought for the downtrodden. They whispered of the Red Spirit on street corners and in restaurants.

  Azula paid her uncle's remonstrations no mind. The way she saw it, her activities were a win-win. She could help herself and others. Stealing from these kleptocrats and giving back to the people made her feel good and kept her pockets full. What was there not to like?

  This new town was the biggest they'd yet entered. Almost a city, it was far enough inland, and its walls were thick enough, that it hadn't become a lasting target of the Fire Nation. That didn't stop it from exacting a usurious cost for defense from its citizens, much of which didn't go to the upkeep of the walls or the training of the soldiers. The sheer scope of the graft appalled her.

  Azula located the main culprit, a minor but self-important official from Ba Sing Se. Over the course of several days, she'd tracked him across the town. The blubbery man was everything someone in his position shouldn't have been: greedy, officious, condescending. His exhausted guards carried his hefty palanquin from station to station around the city, where he would collect the taxes. Everyone knew much of it would go to his own coffers rather than the royal treasury.

  From the rooftops, she watched him with disgust. She would make him pay.

  ***

  She prepared to attack his palanquin when he'd finished his thievery for the day. Night had fallen, and she rose from her position on a high rooftop, ready to pounce.

  "I knew I'd find you here," a voice behind her said. "All I had to do was wait."

  Azula wasn't used to being surprised. Few could sneak up behind her. She whipped around, her bladed spear at the ready.

  On the other side of the roof stood the first Earth Kingdom soldier she'd stolen from all those weeks ago. He brandished a brand-new bladed spear. "You took something from me. I want it back, and this time, it will be a fair fight."

  Azula didn't believe in fair fights, but she had little choice. She couldn't escape him on this roof. She swung her spear at him. He blocked with his own and shoved her back.

  "I don't remember you being so small," he said, grinning.

  He attacked her with a flurry of swings and strikes from both ends of his spear. She met each one and tried to attack with her own, but he was ready for her. He moved at blinding speed! The clank and thwack of spear meeting spear echoed through the night.

  He closed the distance between them and did something she'd not anticipated. He dropped his own spear and grabbed hers. With a quick twist, he disarmed her. She immediately threw a knife at his heart. He barely deflected it, and it sank into his shoulder.

  "Ah!" he yelled in pain. He ripped the knife out in anger. Blood seeped from the wound. "You'll pay for that!"

  He rushed her, and she aimed more knives at him. Some he dodged. Others he redirected, knocking them out of the way. With his spear, he forced her back to the edge of the roof. A little ledge was all that stopped her from plummeting to her death.

  "I get to kill you, the great Red Spirit," he sneered, breathing heavily.

  Her heart thundered in her chest. What was she to do? Should she use her bending? Then everyone would be hunting her. An idea came, a dangerous one.

  She grabbed the middle of the spear with one hand and his collar in the other. She fell to her back in a sacrifice throw. His eyes widened as the move pulled him above her and over the edge. She planted her feet into his stomach and pivoted. Both of them rolled off the roof.

  Azula frantically clutched for anything that could keep her from falling to her death. Her left hand grasped the ledge, and she held on by her fingertips. Her other hand somehow kept ahold of the spear. She looked down as the man fell. Time slowed to a mere crawl. The fright in his eyes as he plunged toward the ground etched itself in her memory. She knew she would remember it for the rest of her life.

  ***

  She tossed the spear back onto the roof and clambered back to safety. For a moment, she lay on the roof, gasping for breath, her body trembling. What had she just done? She'd killed a man! She'd threatened people before, she'd attempted to kill before, but she'd never succeeded until this night. Her mind fixated on the moment of death with absolute clarity. A hollow feeling bored through her chest. "I killed..."

  Cries sounded from below her. The man had been found. People would be looking up here soon. Azula had to get away. She forced herself to her feet and fled into the night.

  ***

  She met her uncle at sunrise in another cave not far from the town. It didn't shock her that he was awake. He'd probably stayed up the entire night, worrying. He was a good man.

  "How are you?" he said, noting her absent look.

  Without saying a word, she walked past him and packed her meager belongings into her small bag.

  "What's wrong?" Iroh asked.

  She slipped some money into her bag, enough for a decent journey. Though clean, the coins felt dirty, blood money.

  "Talk to me!" Iroh begged.

  Azula mounted the ostrich horse.

  "Please!" Iroh grabbed her wrist.

  She looked down at him. "I know what you meant now, Uncle."

  "About what?"

  She wanted tears to come, to tell him everything, to gain absolution. Nothing came. She was as dead inside as the man she'd killed. Her uncle was better off without someone as wicked as her.

  "Goodbye, Uncle."

  With a look of understanding, Iroh nodded. “I hope you find what you seek."

  Her heart like lead, she rode away. Alone.