Not shortly after her father's resignation, the new Fire Lord Izumi was facing the greatest task in her life, ruling the Fire Nation.
Her father, Zuko I, had led their country into peace after years and years of turmoil that had affected her family and her people in a century. She promised herself to keep the country out of war and led with diplomacy. She had learned of her father's predecessors, their mistakes and their strategies.
One day she found herself walking through the lavish corridors of the royal palace. She remembered how she used to run around and play dragons with her late brother, Izan. After them it was her own children who followed their footsteps. Izumi was followed by her guards as she walked and stopped by a door with elegantly crafted woodwork. She hadn't been inside that room for ages.
"Everything's alright your Highness?" one of the guards asked her.
"Oh, yes." Izumi said with a sigh. It was almost as a relief to see the door as if she had missed it. "Do you, perhaps, remember this room?" Izumi asked the older guard who was standing behind her.
"I certainly do… It was…Uhm..."
"My mother's." Izumi said with a smile. "Her special room."
"A war-room?" the younger guard said with a confused smile.
Izumi shot back with serious look at him. "No. All Fire Ladies are given a special room for their work. It belonged to my grandmother Ursa before my mother was given access to it. Before Fire Lady Ursa it belonged to Fire Lady Ilah."
"Your Highness, the room has been locked for decades."
"I think it's time to open it." Izumi said unfazed.
"But your highness." The older guard said with a stronger voice. "Fire Lord Zuko ordered it locked ever since…"
"My father is not in power anymore." Izumi reminded her guards. "Also, I believe that this room needs some dusting." Izumi smiled at them.
Soon after opening the door she dismissed her guards and wanted to be left alone. She used her bending to light up the room and she was greeted by the portrait of her mother. A flashback came to her when this room was full of life. Mother with her handmaidens and a much younger Izumi playing around. There was a desk and Izumi remembered how mother's secretary used to sit there writing down everything mother would dictate. Everything from birth documents, royal statements and death documents. She remembered mother's assistant who used to check the documents before they got the royal insignia stamped on them.
Mother however liked doing it her own way. She wasn't used to have people work for her and do things for her. That wasn't a part of her upbringing. Izumi inspected the old desk. It certainly needed some cleaning. Perhaps father had forgotten about it or maybe it was his way to forget.
Fire Lord Zuko had ordered the room to be sealed and shut since the passing of his wife. Nothing had been touched since then and the only person that was allowed inside was himself. Every year, around the passing of Fire Lady Mai he would lock himself inside the room. It was his way to mourn, his way to remember and honor her.
As Izumi was looking over the old documents with the royal insignia she found something of more interests.
"What's this?" Curiosity peaked, and she found bundles of old memoirs. They were handwritten and on the top left corner she found her mother's handwriting. Something warm and comforting filled her when she found her own mother's personal writings. She hadn't seen her mother's handwriting in ages. They were quite preserved, and her mother's perfume lingered on them still. She noticed that someone must have preserved them this way and it couldn't have been none other than her own father.
He must have read these several times. There could be hundreds, or thousands of passages written by mother. She looked at the time stamps. The memoirs dated back from her wedding to her coronation and ends with what Izumi presumed would be her passing.
Izumi felt conflicted, there was an urge inside of her to read what was her mother's most personal thoughts and feelings. Another strong feeling inside of her told her it was best to leave it in the past. A few minutes later she opened the first passage. The year was dated after the end of the hundred-year-old war.