The Companion

"We could have had a Fire Lady who actually knew how to use power! I could have brought success and prosperity to the rest of the country like I did for the Saowon!"

— Huazo trying to convince Kyoshi about how much better off the Fire Nation would have been if Chaeryu had married her instead of Sulan.

"The Companion"
Information
Novel	The Shadow of Kyoshi
Authors	F. C. Yee Michael Dante DiMartino
Chapter	19/27
Word count	2,380
From page	232
To page	240
Chapter guide
Previous	"Escalation"
Next	"The Edge"

"The Companion" is the nineteenth chapter of The Shadow of Kyoshi.

Overview

As Jinpa flies them back to Capital Island, Huazo tells Kyoshi she and Chaeryu were once young and in love, but that political pressures convinced him to marry Lady Sulan of the Keohso clan. Huazo explains she was already pregnant with Chaejin and that Sulan lacked tact as Fire Lady, so she dedicated herself to strengthening the Saowon clan. Kyoshi and Jinpa leave Huazo at a hut nestled in a precarious cliffside, promising to return shortly. Kyoshi questions Jinpa's devotion to his pacifistic Air Nomad beliefs given the violence he has watched Kyoshi commit. He reveals that he belongs to another community and must make peace with his choices, as they head for the Fire Nation Royal Palace.

Synopsis

Huazo complains to Kyoshi that she is hungry as they fly together on Yingyong. Kyoshi offers Huazo a sack of grain; the noblewoman throws a tantrum but bitterly accepts it.

Huazo says that she and Fire Lord Chaeryu used to fight like this when they traveled together through the wilderness. Kyoshi asks if Huazo really used to rough it with Fire Nation Royalty. Huazo explains that camping in the mountains was how they escaped from the pressures of the court. Kyoshi oversteps and questions what happened between the couple. Huazo decides to answer Kyoshi's question regardless of her lack of boundaries and explains that they were merely young and in love; eventually, Chaeryu decided that he could do better than Huazo. Huazo says that the Saowon clan were weak and being a Fire Lord's mistress was frowned upon.

The noblewoman asks Kyoshi for water before continuing her story: Chaeryu decided to break up with Huazo after meeting Lady Sulan at a garden party. Huazo explains how heartbroken she was from Chaeryu suddenly blushing over Sulan and choosing her instead. Huazo laughs as she tells Kyoshi how unfortunate it was for her to discover she was pregnant with Chaejin. Huazo says that Chaeryu was very embarrassed when she told him the news. Kyoshi asks if that is why Huazo has been lashing out at the Keohso clan, where Lady Sulan was from. Huazo dismisses Kyoshi's accusation and explains she simply wants the Saowon to prosper through having an offspring sitting rightfully on the throne. Huazo claims that she never hated Sulan, who was too gentle for court duties.

Huazo tells Kyoshi that Sulan naively chose the name Zoryu, which contains the strictly Saowon zo sound, rather than naming her children after her own clan; Sulan stole a Saowon name and accidentally dishonored them. Huazo explains that she was more shocked by Sulan's foolishness than she was angry. Huazo passionately tells Kyoshi that she would have made a better Fire Lady than Sulan; Huazo would have brought prosperity to the Fire Nation, just like she has already done for the Saowon. Kyoshi imagines another reality in which she and Lady Huazo are able to work together as allies.

The Avatar alleges that Chaejin is Huazo's second chance to potentially control the throne. Though Huazo first clarifies that she loves her son, she goes on to admit that Chaejin taking the throne from Zoryu would set the past right. Kyoshi tells Huazo that her hidden hatred toward Sulan and Zoryu will push the Fire Nation into a war. Huazo smirks, admitting that personal matters tend to flood into duties and implying that it is something Kyoshi also struggles with; she asks Kyoshi about Yun, though struggles to properly recall his name. In her head, Kyoshi thanks Huazo for making what she is about to do easier.

Kyoshi spots the Fire Nation Capital on the horizon and guides Jinpa to a steep cliffside too dangerous to reach by boat, where a small hut is nestled into a crag. Huazo tells Kyoshi she thought they were going to the palace, to which Kyoshi says they will eventually. Kyoshi orders Huazo to go wait inside the hut, bending an earth ramp so she can safely disembark. She hesitates briefly, sniffing in disgust at the smell of seabird droppings and expressing confusion as to why Kyoshi was not going to stay and guard her. Kyoshi asks her rhetorically where she could go, after which Huazo marches along the bridge and into the hut.

After Huazo disappears from view, Jinpa remarks how incredible her story was and wonders if she and Kyoshi are friends now. Kyoshi does not think so and proceeds to ask Jinpa how long he has been traveling with her as the Avatar's secretary and advisor. While he cannot recall the official date, Jinpa answers that she could choose the date when she left the Southern Air Temple to mop up the remaining splinter fleets of the Fifth Nation as a starting point. He recounts a couple of their other adventures together, leading Kyoshi to wonder why, being a peaceful Air Nomad, he never interfered during any of her violent exploits.

Jinpa becomes uncomfortable at having been found out but admits to Kyoshi that he belongs to another community that tasked him with helping the Avatar establish herself however he could, even if it meant violating his beliefs as an airbender. Kyoshi deduces that he is talking about the friends he plays Pai Sho with and understand his struggle in trying to manage both identities, thinking back on her own double heritage, half Earth Kingdom and half Air Nomad, as well as her dual roles as the bridge between humans and spirits and as a public figure and daofei.

Kyoshi asks Jinpa about the ideals of this other community. He explains that it concerns the philosophies of beauty and truth but requires a deep attachment to the world that enlightened Air Nomads are supposed to avoid. When Kyoshi inquires as to what Jinpa personally believes, he smiles sadly, responding that he believes he must make peace with his choices, just like everyone else. His bittersweet expression reminds Kyoshi of Kelsang's moral struggles and the conflict all Air Nomads face between their own ethics and the world's.

Kyoshi does not ask Jinpa to name the secret society, relieved that an organization is trying to help rather than hurt her for a change and expresses hope that she can be less confrontational and more compromising in the future. Jinpa resigns that they are both compromised now as they set a course for the royal palace.

Production notes

Series continuity

• Despite his relationship with Huazo, Fire Lord Chaeryu's ministers arrange for him to meet and fall in love with Lady Sulan at a garden party because, as Huazo explains to Kyoshi, there are certain ways members of the Fire Nation Royal Family are supposed to meet their future partners, a tradition Fire Lord Azulon upholds for Prince Ozai in The Search Part One by arranging for him to marry Avatar Roku's granddaughter, Ursa, despite her relationship with Ikem.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender co-creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko similarly considered giving Princess Azula an arranged marriage in Book Three: Fire but never followed through with the idea.
• Kyoshi expresses hope that after concluding her business in the Fire Nation, she can learn to be less confrontational and compromise more, a prospect she partly achieves in Escape from the Spirit World when, despite defying orders to squash a peasant uprising and violently resisting arrest, she ultimately comes to a compromise with the 46th Earth King, in which she agrees to protect his interests and Ba Sing Se's cultural heritage if he listens to his peasants' grievances.

Trivia

• Despite belonging to the Keohso clan, Sulan named Zoryu with a character traditionally reserved for Saowon names, zo.
• Huazo mistakenly refers to Yun as Yao, the same name as another character who, like Yun, has a transformative encounter with a spirit, as seen in "Beginnings, Part 1".
• Jinpa's description of the secret society he belongs to, as encompassing "the philosophies of beauty and truth", is nearly identical to the word choice Jeong Jeong, another member of the group, articulates in "Sozin's Comet, Part 2: The Old Masters", explaining that the Order of the White Lotus has always involved "philosophy and beauty and truth."