13th Day, 7th Moon, Year of the Hare (Azulon 64)
I am saddened and angered. The Fire Lord has refused my petition, on the grounds that Dr. Chung only fulfilled his duty and no more. Moreover, my lord husband has done nothing but defend his father's decision. The Fire Lord's word is law and none of us has the right to protest his pronouncements, but among ourselves we are free to agree or disagree, and I am aggrieved that my lord husband agrees with such a callous dismissal of a man's exemplary work. To twist the knife further, when I asked whether he wasn't pleased to have Zuko and me alive, he said:
"Of course I am pleased to have you alive."
"And Zuko?" I pressed.
He was silent for a long moment, whereupon he said, "It is no pleasure for me to have a son who nearly killed my wife."
My face must have been quite appalling, because he made a stammering attempt at apologizing, but I was too angry to hear any of it. We were in the solarium at the time, and I fled his presence and returned to the nursery and held my son close for over an hour. I only just put him back down in his crib before sitting down to write.
If I must love him twice as hard to make up for the love he lacks from his father, I shall!