Ursa and Lien peered around the bannister at the top of the staircase. Below them, the entire household, even Ursa's father, knelt before the royal procession led by fire sages. A gong rang out, and the lead sage bowed to Ursa's father and motioned for him to stand up and follow him. No one said a word or even looked up from the floor.

"What do you think is going on?" Lien said and her throaty voice rumbled down the stairs. Nearly fifty pairs of eyes snapped upwards, and their Auntie Bao caught their eyes and purpled with anger. Ursa pulled Lien by the sleeve, yanking her out of sight.

Ursa was shaking with laughter, her fist stuffed into own mouth. "Come on, Lien, be quiet! Do you want to be scrubbing silver with the servants until the solstice?"

"Did you see the look on Auntie Bao's face, though?" Lien snorted, and Ursa dissolved into giggles. The two cousins shared only the same booming laugh. Lien was bold and brash. She spoke her mind, and loudly at that. Ursa was sneakier. She could get away with murder by batting her eyelashes and smiling demurely behind a fan.

"Girls, you will bring shame to our entire house! Dishonor will rain down on us! Dishonor!" said Ursa dramatically, clutching her heart.

"You belong to the noble line of Avatar Roku. Behave like young ladies!"

Lien was cut short by a voice behind them. "Yes. Do behave like young ladies." The girls cringed and turned to face Auntie Bao, whose lips were pursed and whose wide, squat frame darkened the stairwell. "Why are you not kneeling before our guests?" She snapped her fan together and used it to smack each girl on the back of the head.

A flurry of women came flying up the stairs. "Ursa, we don't have much time! We have to get you ready! Hurry!" Auntie Wen, Lien's mother, squawked.

Ursa's own mother said nothing, but took charge, tight-lipped and pale faced. She wrestled Ursa into her finest clothes, a long golden gown embroidered with blood colored thread. The sash was pulled tight, Ursa's lips were painted with red, and her long hair was braided.

"No, no, no!" Auntie Bao flapped her hands. "Hair down? Completely inappropriate!"

Ursa winced as her hair was yanked into a high bun. "What's wrong with my hair? I always wear it down."

"Not any more you don't," said Auntie Bao tersely.

In a rare gesture of tenderness, Ursa's mother cupped Ursa's face in her smooth hands. "The fire sages had a vision about you," she said. "That can only mean one thing. They have come to arrange your marriage."

Ursa's hands flew to her hair - the hairstyle of a married woman. "What? What do the fire sages have to do with it?" She had watched countless cousins get married, but it was always arranged by parents and the family diviner.

"Your husband must be important," said Lien. "No rice farmers for you."

"Come along. You are ready," said Ursa's mother.

Grabbing for Lien's hand, Ursa said, "Can't Lien come with me?"

Auntie Bao shook her head violently. "Not if we want this engagement to be sealed! Ursa, obey your mother."

Every face of every boy she had ever known flickered through Ursa's thoughts. With Lien's words in mind, she pictured generals and courtiers. A future she did want took shape in her imagination, and Ursa saw herself standing dutifully beside a faceless husband in a military uniform. Rank and power for a man meant silence and submission for a woman.

"Mother what if I don't want to -"

"Ursa, hush. You must make a good impression. Your life is about to change."

Ursa stepped alone through the doors of the family temple.

The elders of her family were kneeling before the fire sages, and leaping flames separated the two groups. Ursa bowed deeply and took her place beside her father.

"Stand, Ursa, daughter of Hayou," said a fire sage priestess. The flames burned higher and brighter as Ursa rose.

"Deep in the fire temples, we have seen visions of a great future for you. A future of unimaginable power and the potential to change the world."

Definitely not a rice farmer, then.

"The family of Avatar Roku and the line of Sozin has been joined in friendship for generations. It is time for that bond to be sealed."

It took a moment for the words to sink in. Members of the family gasped.

"The second son of the royal family is about to return from his military duty in the Earth Kingdom. On the day of the summer solstice, you will marry Prince Ozai, son of Fire Lord Azulon, grandson of the great Fire Lord Sozin." The voice of the fire sage rang out through the temple, and fire flickered oddly in Ursa's eyes. She said nothing. She did not weep with joy or thank the spirits for her fate. She did not even bow.

"Do you accept?"

"I accept."

Flames wound their way around her wrists in a burning ring.

"The betrothal is sealed."