"If that is truly the case, prince Zuko, then wouldn't such a name become obvious as people know me?" he asked, sipping his tea. "Besides, if we are truly somewhere new and these are people who would come to know me in time..."

He sipped again, considering, as though he had not trailed off mid sentence.

As if this sentence connected to what he had been saying, he continued. "When we went to Ba Sing Se, we did not go as conquerors, nor did we win any part of a war we cared about winning any longer. Not the first time we were there." He stroked his beard. "We were given a chance to start over there, Zuko. To try to live different lives."

Another sip of his tea.

"There are parts of who I was during the war, when I fought under the banner of the fire nation that I was proud of, that I still am. But there were other parts, other moments, that I learned from but would rather not remind people of, or inform them of, should that be how we first meet. If I am to give an impression not of who I had been, but who I would like to become..."

He set down his tea and slid something out of the sleeve of his robe. He set it down and slid it to the center of the table. "Do you think anyone here knows how to play Pai Sho?" and he smiled, lifting his finger off of the white lotus tile that now sat in the middle of the table, between and apart from their cups.