When I was eight, my father dishonored my uncle and grandfather after my cousin died, and my grandfather told him he needed to experience the pain of losing a first born child. He was going to do it, but my mother intervened. The next morning, my grandfather was dead, my father was declared Fire Lord and my mother was missing. My father told me before the end of the war that she'd only been banished, and that she might still be alive somewhere, but won't give me any more information, and neither will anyone else.

You don't know anything about what the Fire Nation's like right now. We don't have a well-run network with a kingdom behind it. I chose to come here now, with the promise that time wouldn't pass while I was gone, to get this out of the way and keep me focused on what matters to my people instead of some personal issue I'll never be able to let go of. I need to know if she's alive or not.