Chapter Text
“You wanted to see me, sir?”
Natek glanced surreptitiously around him, puzzled at the location of their meeting place; usually talks between Natek and his father, Sisra, were not held in the public square. Perhaps Sisra was going to make an announcement regarding his mother, who lay grievously ill inside the palace, tended by her loyal handmaidens. Natek’s stomach twisted uncomfortably with worry and grief.
“Yes, boy,” Sisra said, his voice cold and hard, his eyes flinting. It was not unusual for Natek to be addressed hostilely by his father, but the atmosphere put Natek on edge.
“You are twelve now,” Sisra mused, looking down his hooked nose at the young prince. “Almost a man . . . tell me, boy, what do you know of your heritage?”
“My heritage?” Natek asked confusedly, tilting his head. “What do you mean?”
Sisra smiled, an almost cruel expression twisting his face. “Your mother never divulged to you where you’re from? Where you’re really from?”
“What? I was born here,” Natek said with a frown, worrying absently at the fur on his collar. He didn’t know what was going on, or why so many people had gathered in the square to hear them talk. Across the icy courtyard, Natek saw his cousin, Yue, and her father, Natek’s uncle, Arnook. They were both watching with concerned expressions.
“Your mother, Yahere,” Sisra said, raising his voice so it echoed around the courtyard, “is disloyal and cheating.”
“What? No, she’s not,” Natek said angrily, shocked out of his bewilderment by this slander. “Mom is really nice.”
“It is common knowledge now in our tribe that, during our courtship, she strayed from the traditions of our tribe,” Sisra said, ignoring Natek and raising his voice. “She went behind my back on missions to the Earth Kingdom to meet with a lover ! An earthbending prince, no less!”
Murmurs broke out across the courtyard, and Natek saw multiple people point (rather indiscreetly) at him.
“With this earthbender, she had a child . . . the prince ,” Sisra said, spitting the word as if it were dirt on his tongue, “that stands before me.”
“What?” Natek said, still trying to wrap his head around what Sisra was saying. “What do you mean, an earthbending prince? I’m your son!”
“You are not,” Sisra hissed angrily, “and you have never been. I’ve always thought there was something strange about you, with your discolored hair and your inability to bend water correctly —”
“I can so too bend water!” Natek retorted furiously. “And you don’t say anything about Yue’s hair, and hers is way lighter than mine!”
“Princess Yue was touched by the moon spirit,” Sisra sniffed disdainfully with a glance over at the white-haired princess. “ You were tainted with dishonor and lies.”
Natek hung his head. It wasn’t as though he hadn’t heard his father (not his father?) say things like this before, but in front of a crowd it was even more humiliating.
A frigid wind blew down upon them as Sisra raised his voice even more.
“Princess Yahere has dishonored our tribe with her disloyalty and negligence of tradition,” Sisra bellowed to the tribe. “ Her penance is her illness. But this boy before me is no prince — he is an illegitimate child, a product of betrayal. He is no son of mine. He never has been.”
Natek’s large blue eyes widened with shock and hurt. He had always known that Sisra didn’t like him; Sisra was an avid believer of tradition, and anything that broke those traditions was deemed unfit to him. Natek had always assumed his dark blonde hair was cause for Sisra’s hate and contempt.
“Hold on, now,” a voice spoke up, and Natek looked up as a tear slid down his cheek. Arnook had stepped forward, a frown on his face. “My sister is royalty — true royalty. And so is her son. Natek is a prince. We have all heard the rumors — but the boy’s parentage is no fault of his. Despite being illegitimate, you cannot deny the boy’s title.”
“Silence!” Sisra barked, and Arnook’s frown deepened. “You speak of titles. This boy has none. For his mother’s crimes against me and our tribe, I am banishing him.”
“No!” Yue cried, and Arnook took another step forward, but Sisra stopped him with a hand.
“You forget who is Chief, Arnook,” Sisra said, his eyes glinting maliciously.
“No,” Natek said in a choked voice, stumbling forwards. “Father — father, please —”
“Do I look like your father?” Sisra growled. “You are no son of mine. Begone!”
Hot tears poured down Natek’s cheeks, and he bit back a sob. Some people in the crowd were shouting at Sisra, some were glaring, some were being held back by family members, and still more were looking at Natek with pity in their eyes, helpless.
Natek himself felt helpless. He didn’t know what had just happened. One moment his father ( not his father? ) had asked to speak with him, and the next he was being told that his mother was a traitor, and his real father was an Earth prince that he had never even heard of. And the very next moment he was being banished.
“Natek!”
Natek barely had time to look up before he was being bundled over by Yue, who was also crying.
“They can’t do this to you,” she wept into his shoulder. “This is so unfair! You can’t leave!”
“I don’t know what’s going on,” Nate exclaimed helplessly, wrapping his arms around his cousin. “I don’t know what just happened! What is he talking about? What does he mean?”
“Sisra, this is too much,” Arnook said firmly, stepping forwards again. “You cannot punish the child for someone else’s wrongdoings. It is unfair and unjust, and goes against the laws of our tribe. His mother is on her deathbed,” he added in a lower voice, shooting a sympathetic look down at Natek and Yue. “Have a heart. Do not banish him.”
“It is my wife ,” Sisra spat at him, “on the very deathbed you speak of, who deliriously admitted to her attendants of her affair and her betrayal. She pretended this boy was mine all these years, but I always knew something was off. I’m simply doing what was always inevitable. The boy does not belong in our tribe. He never has.”
“You can’t do this,” Natek cried feebly, getting to his feet. “Father, this is my home! Where am I to go? What am I supposed to do? I don’t — I don’t even know any earthbenders!”
“Silence!” Sisra shrieked. “You are banished! It is not my concern where you go, or what you do, or how you do it! You are not welcome here! Get out!”
Natek looked into Sisra’s eyes, cold and cruel, and realized that this was more than tradition for him. This was personal.
Natek took a step back, then stopped.
“What about Mom?” Natek asked, fighting to keep the tears out of his voice. “I wanna say goodbye to her before I go.”
“Yahere is delirious, as I have previously mentioned. She would not recognize you were you to call, and there would be no point. Now go .”
“No,” Yue cried, clinging to Natek’s arm as he tried to stand up. “You can’t go! Don’t go!”
Natek could hardly see through his tears, but he gave her one last, tight hug.
“Princess, get away from this traitor,” Sisra said with a glare, striding towards them. He grabbed Yue’s shoulder and ripped her away from Natek, who stumbled as a result of the sudden force. Sisra grabbed him by the hood of his heavy overcoat, then reached forward and roughly tugged his royal hair ornament off of his ponytail. Natek cried out, feeling several hairs rip.
“I said get out !” Sisra yelled, and Natek had no time to prepare for what came next: Sisra balled his fist around the hair ornament and brought it down hard on the left side of Natek’s face, on his eyebrow.
There were multiple screams from the crowd, and Natek looked around blearily, feeling himself stumble to the ground. Blood ran into his eye and he tried and failed to blink it out.
Someone helped him gently to his feet, and then he heard Arnook’s voice in his ear: “Meet me above the Oasis just after sundown. I will bring you clothes and food.”
Natek groaned but nodded in agreement as he was helped to a gondola. As the waterbender on the back of the boat guided the gondola towards the front entrance to the city, Natek looked back, gingerly wiping away the blood still running into his eye.
Yue was sobbing, clinging to her father with a heartbreaking expression. Arnook looked deeply disturbed, and sad. Sisra was watching with a cruelly triumphant expression on his face. The rest of the assembled crowd was pitying, angry, horrified, scared.
“What just happened?” Natek asked, still in shock and hurt, both physically and emotionally. The ferryman did not respond, and Natek allowed himself to be escorted out of the city he had called home for 12 years.
