I'm the Firebender for the Red Sand Rabaroos and my prompts are Red, "Third Time's the Charm", Ursa
Word Count: 2,513
The red everywhere had gotten to her after a while.
Ursa was proud of her country even if she was well aware of the suffering that it was bringing other nations in this long war that has lasted almost a century, and as such was also aware that the color was the most associated and used by her nation.
But why in this good earth did everything in the Fire Nation Palace had to be some shade of Red?
Everything from curtains to the floor slabs was red, and she was getting upset by it. Silly? Yes, Insignificant, even more; but that was about all she could do ever since Ozai came and took her as his wife.
Ozai was…a complicated man, being the second-born to the Fire Lord had taken a toll on his personality but he sometimes seemed like he cared about her and the next he was all about what was proper in court and apparently being a thinking individual was forbidden for a royal wife given that Ozai kept her from reading any of the incredible amount of books in the Palace, writing home or having an intelligent talk at all.
All Ozai allowed her to do was to talk to the court maidens her father-in-law kept around for his personal 'entertainment' and sleep; sometimes not even that when Ozai was in a mood for either complaining about how things weren't going his way at whatever scheme he was up to get ahead of his brother in the line to the Throne or when he was quite interested in keeping his marital duties looked after.
At least she couldn't complain about something in this old place full of rules and boredom, even if it was him instead of Ikem, and yes it was a way to kill time but she sometimes felt disgusted of how she was forced to do this to herself because who her grand-father was.
Sometimes she wished she was a firebender so she could at least practice a combat form or something artsy that could take her back to the old days in the theater company and all the fun memories of Ikem and her messing around between rehearsals.
Here all she could do was try to have the decoration changed so her father-in-law, her husband or a servant had it changed back to red under the argument that 'That color wasn't acceptable to be seen in the Palace' or 'It's been like that ever since this country was unified!' or the argument she hated the most 'It's not something a Fire nation Princess should worry about.'
She had to do something! It might seem alluring at first but a life of nothing but pleasantries and not being allowed to do anything but look pretty and get pregnant so the Fire Nation Royal line never ran out of direct successors was not a great life. Ursa sometimes wondered if it was life at all.
The noise of the door sliding made Ursa groan; it was either Ozai with some rant or dull event, a servant that was doing his rounds asking if she needed anything even if she had to carry a bell at all times by court protocols or some noble or merchant that wanted an audience with her to obtain a favor from her or her husband.
She was surprised however, when she heard it was a noble the one that had entered the room but one of the few nobles she could stand.
"Her Grace, Lady Izelia Landsor. Duchess of Ember Island" the servant that opened the door to the living room Ursa was in announced.
Izelia was everything Ursa wanted to be as a noble but couldn't because 'Royal Princesses are above the kind of thing she does'.
But if you asked Ursa being able to talk back to men, lead troops into battle, being granted by the Fire Lord an Honor name and have influence in the court politics wasn't something ghastly awful. Ursa sometimes couldn't believe Izelia wasn't a Landsor by blood but by marriage and that her husband allowed her to do much of that for what she was famous.
"Hedalinus!" Ursa greeted Izelia with her Honor name only for the noble woman to wave her hand in dismissal "Remember Your Grace that to you, your in-laws and husband is Izzy"
"Well Izzy, I'm just trying to make use of that name. The way I hear it you barely use it even when outside the palace." Ursa said as Izelia approached her and knelt, kissing the royal's hand as protocol dictated.
"I really just accepted the thing because I wanted my share of the credit in that siege" Izelia said as she got up and sat in a loveseat, Ursa doing the same across of her.
"So what do I owe the pleasure? You've been away for quite a while. Your family hasn't been around since…" Ursa said looking down in grief at the reason the Landsors had been in the Palace for the last time.
"Zenia's funeral" Izzy said dryly and with a hint of sorrow in her voice; she and Iroh's wife were so close they were practically sisters.
"Well…that spoiled the mood a little" Ursa commented after a minute of respectful silence in honor of the departed woman.
"True. I even forgot why I was here besides the social pleasantry" Izzy confessed as she crossed her legs to sit in an elegant way.
"Well, we can always talk gossip" Ursa joked but Izelia's eyebrow raising, revealing surprise, made her open her mouth in awe. Izelia was not one to be easily surprised.
"Out, now" Izelia ordered the servants, who looked at each other confused.
"I'm sorry Milady, is there something wrong? Are you displeased at something? We can have it fixed in-" one of the servants started talking when Izelia interrupted him, a loud voice being heard in the room.
"I SAID GET OUT! If you can't follow a simple order like that I will have you fired for incompetence. Even a Rabbit monkey follows orders better than you for what I'm seeing right now"
The servants all shook in fear and left rather quickly, bowing as protocol demanded and closed the door behind them.
"I SWEAR YOU PEOPLE ARE TOO STUPID TO LIVE! I SAID LEAVE! NOT STAND OUTSIDE THE ROOM!" Izelia shouted and hurried steps could be heard in the hallway.
"Sorry for that, but you would be surprised the kind of things those people get to hear. They could be a security risk if given the chance" Izelia said like if she had not done something at all.
"How? How do you get them to do what you want? I'm struggling to make them respect my choice in floral arrangements and their insistence in not leaving me alone while Ozai's not around but you get them to leave just like that. Yes, you yelled at them but they obeyed and I swear I saw them tremble in fear. I once yelled to a maid and she kept her composure and took it like if I had said nothing at all" Ursa said wholeheartedly and a little sad that this woman could basically do anything she wanted.
"Well, that particular skill can be thanked to my time in the Army as a cavalry officer" Izelia started to say amicably "Us women are barely leaving the submissive role and going out there and joining the fight. Some men would rather have us here, bored and doing our nails while they get all the glory of combat"
"Sounds like you miss getting boulders thrown at you" the Fire Princess retorted.
"Agni, do I miss it. Here all I do is deceive politicians into doing what I want and screwing" Izelia grimaced at the last part of the statement "I humbly beg you a thousand pardons, Milady. Old soldiers mouth."
"I rather have you act like that if I'm honest. Your visit is the most interesting thing to happen to me since Iroh left on another adventure. I heard he's going to slay a dragon!" Ursa told Izzy with disbelief. She knew Iroh was a good firebender but facing a dragon was something people rarely came back to tell the tale.
"Ah, he'll be fine. Old Ash and Guts is that good. Too bad on the dragon though. I've heard they're becoming rarer to spot" Izelia said with a smile in her face as she mentioned Iroh by his army's nickname.
"I never learned where he got that one" Ursa admitted to the Duchess.
"Something quite stupid; but that's how nicknames are earned. In his speeches he used to say all the times that in combat all we should focus on was 'turning them to ash and guts on the field'. He said that every single time he spoke to the troops. At one point you could even predict when he was going to use that line, so he became 'Ash and Guts'. Then he got old" Izelia recounted the story with such fondness one could not believe she had just yelled at the servants and made then obey without hesitation.
Ursa giggled at the story and covered her mouth with her hand to hide her smile.
"Goodness. That's a funny one. What I'd give to be you sometimes" Ursa revealed.
"How so? You're not liking being pampered and having no worries in the world?" The Duchess asked the Fire Princess.
"I hate it. I can't even read a book! All they allow me to do is choose my pick from between two sets of clothing and walk around the gardens. Escorted by guards, let me tell you." Ursa started rant of her lack of freedom in the Palace.
"Yeah, that happens sometimes. The trick is to remember them their place. They're your servants. Not your lads or your superiors or someone that can have a say on what you can or can't do. You do as you please and no one can stop you because…" Izelia trailed off, looking at the Princess expectant of her to finish the sentence.
"I'm the Princess?" Ursa spoke not quite sure if that's what the Duchess wanted to hear.
"Yes. But that's no fucking way to say it, if you pardon my foul language." Izelia told Ursa as she stood up.
"You have to say it like you believe it. You have to be certain that you're superior and that they're here to do as you want them to do; anything else and they'll start their shite talk about them being sorry and that 'That's not how thing are done' and all the bullshit reasons they give merchants and other guests about how to and how not to behave when they let them in to the Palace" Izelia surprise Ursa with the way she talked; confident, self-assured and above all else, with conviction.
"But isn't that bad? Getting too proud of your position?" Ursa asked.
"Fuck yeah but only if you believe what you're preaching. I'll let you in on a secret Milady. All this" Izelia signaled around "It's a joke. A show we do to make people believe things like that we're better than them for the mere fact we were born into a noble family"
Ursa looked in awe at the Duchess, not believing what she was saying for one moment.
"The most perfect example I can give you: The Ashtenmarks. They were so fucking big and had all this titles and all this lands in the colonies and look what they did; they spent all their money in stupid shit until they went broke and had to sell everything to pay off debts." Even Ursa had heard of that massive fall from grace and she hated talking of the socialite.
"Tell me where the superiority in that is" Izelia asked Ursa but she just didn't know how to respond.
"Absolutely no-fucking-where" Izelia answered her own question "The previous Ashtenmarks and most of us that hold titles or are important know that we're not better just because we're Landsors or Khals or fucking Trastamaras. We're better than everybody else because we know how to make people believe we're better and prove ourselves better one way or the other" Izelia revealed to Ursa.
"So what? We just act all cocky and prideful for people to respect us?" Ursa asked.
"No, not for respect. That is earned over time. We do it so people fucking listen without questioning. Stand up, milady" Izelia signaled the Princess to incorporate herself and stand at her side; which Ursa did wondering what Izzy would prove with this.
"Now what's the thing servants here do most that pisses you off?" Izelia asked, perhaps not imagining the length of the mental list Ursa had of things the servants did that enervated her.
"Not respecting my choices in decoration. They need to have everything red! Every last thing I'm around in this place has to be some tone of Red! I miss white for crying out loud!" Ursa said wholeheartedly.
"Ok. Imagine one of them fuckers second guessing you and tell me how you handle thing normally" Izelia asked of the Princess.
"I'd like to have white roses please. There is plenty red around here and they could make a perfect addition to-" Izelia interrupted her.
"No fucking wonder then Milady. You're asking, not telling them what you want"
"But how do I do it then?" Ursa asked appalled.
"I want white roses. I hate the red ones. If you keep putting them around I swear by Agni I will have them feed to your children" Izelia said in such a way that Ursa feared for her little babies.
"See. Now you try it. Tell them what you want and sound like you know it. The threat is optional. Works with people that are used to second guessing."
"I…want white roses. Please" Ursa remembered her manners and Izelia shook her head.
"No. You're still leaving them the chance to second guess you. You need to be punctual" Izelia punctuated the last word making a fist and making it come down against the open palm of her other hand "You want white roses. Not red ones. Calling them 'Motherfuckers' might help but not sure if that will help your case. The point is to get them to do as you want, not for them to have something to gossip about."
"I WANT WHITE ROSES!" Ursa yelled "I WANT WHITE ROSES AND THERE'S NO WAY I'LL BE HAVING RED ONES!"
Suddenly something felt well about yelling like that and Izelia smiled as she could tell Ursa had a realization of sorts.
"Goodness, that felt great. I think I get what you mean when you talked about 'having them listen'" Ursa told Izzy.
"See! Third Time's the Charm! Remember how that felt. Remember it always and you will get what you want"
Izelia didn't knew it then but in that moment she had taught Ursa an ability Ursa would wield to inadvertently shape the world in a different direction.