By Vifetoile
This is a companion piece to my other story, 'Marisa and her Mother,' which can be found on my profile. Thank you for reading! More chapters to come.
Basically, this came about as a very strange idea that I had that would not let me alone. Ever. Until I wrote it down and wrote it out. I own neither Azula, nor her world, nor the world of Lyra's Oxford, but then, I never pretended to.
The Priest
The Witch
I had learned enough English by this point to get along. I also knew that the window I sought lay "North," so I went North. I went too far North.
I found a small stray dog that was looking for an owner, so I adopted it, thinking it could act as my dæmon. It was small and friendly and well-trained, and it prevented people from giving me double-takes in disbelief when I walked down the street. People who spent too much time with me would realize that he wasn't my soul at all, but he served my purposes. I called him Lee.
One day I woke up and realized I – Lee and I – had spent three days straight on a boat headed North. I was leaving my window home behind me, in the South. I could have set the entire ship on fire. And I was running out of money.
Let it be noted, I hate being low on money. No sound in the world holds quite as much terror as the spare jingle of coins as they shrink to less and less. That sound nearly drove me – scratch that. Nothing drove me mad. I was perfectly calm that entire time.
I was running out of money. I figured I would find some handsome gentleman and seduce him and live on his gold. But I failed to consider the kind of ship that I was on. It was a sad sack of a vessel, a cargo ship that the Fire Nation navy would scorn. Even when I landed in port, my clothes were tatters, pieces of charity from that backwards town. And no man would accept me when he realized I had no dæmon.
The last man that I approached – a heavy, red-bearded man with whiskey on his breath – simply picked me up and hauled me away, depositing me at the door of some office and yelling something to the man inside. He then shambled away, leaving me very confused. Lee soon arrived, yelping at my feet for me to pick me up. I almost kicked him away, but the door opened.
A middle-aged man with bright green eyes and a large cat for a dæmon stood there and said to me, in English, "Greetings and welcome, Sister. Come inside." But he looked at me and then said, "You are not a witch."
"No, I am not a witch," I said, finally picking up Lee so that the cur would stop barking. "I am not of this world."
He raised his eyebrows and said, "Come inside, then, Miss. We have much to talk about."
He invited me in – his house was warm and well-furnished – and introduced himself as the Witch Consul. He spoke to me politely and in slow English that I could understand. That was how I learned about the witches. They knew about other worlds, but had rarely spoken of them. They were women in that world – beautiful women – powerful women – who were respected and feared, but who did not keep their dæmons near by them. I wanted to be one of them. I did not say as much out loud, however.
He rang a little bell and had a servant serve dinner. The servant had a dog dæmon that looked much like Lee, and watching them together, I could see clearly for the first time the difference that would be obvious to anyone of that world, between a dæmon and a real animal.
The Witch Consul poured a hot drink out for me – he called it chocolatl, and I found myself liking it very much – and then he asked me about my world, and how I had gotten here.
I asked if he could understand Chinese, because it would make explaining it so much easier. He said he could not, and was sorry. I swallowed some more chocolatl and began my story. It was good, so good, to be able to tell everything without once being judged. He wanted to know everything, and I was only too happy to tell. If I wanted a term to describe something, he would willingly provide it. I almost felt as though I was back with Marius – but I refused to let myself think of him.
When night had fallen, he asked me to demonstrate firebending for him. He had a small, snowy courtyard in his house, and I did so happily.
He served me a good dinner, told one of his servants to give Lee a bath, and put me in his best guest room with a bathroom right off of it. It was a good night, and I slept well.
When I woke up the next morning, I heard voices on my way downstairs. Women's voices. I was cautious going down the stairs. When I entered the consul's parlor the conversation ceased. I counted five women there, young women in rags of black silk. Most of them had long hair – only one of them had her dæmon nearby, and he was an arctic tern. All wore small crowns of flowers, but no two had a similar crown. They each looked different, but there was some kind of shared spirit among them – they each carried themselves as if they were queens, which gave them more charisma than if they were beautiful.
The Consul was seated on a chair, and he stood up and offered me breakfast. I said, "I would rather you introduce these women to me."
"Most certainly." He extended a hand to indicate each of the women, and they said their own names.
"I am Layla Kamar," said the first one, a swarthy lady with jasmine flowers in her hair. Others named themselves Tenna Huang (who looked 'Chinese,' or, more properly, like one of the Water Tribe), Lorelei Ashpetal (she was the one with the tern dæmon), Mesoel Pekkala, whose hair was the fairest, with red flowers in it, and, the seeming oldest, whose hair was completely white with small lilies of the valley in it, Celsia Perrenia.
Isn't it funny, how even now I can clearly see their names and their faces?
Celsia Perrenia told me that they were the queens of the witches in the area. They asked me to tell about my other world, and my other life.
So I explained, more coherently than I had to the Witch Consul the day before, and in greater detail. My telling wore into the night, but they did not seem to mind at all. We were served a peculiar dinner, consisting mostly of fruit and meat that had only been heated, not seasoned. By now my voice was weak with so much talking. I offered to demonstrate firebending, but they did not seem interested.
After that, there was more talking. The witches excused themselves – I watched them take branches of pine – cloud-pine, they called it – and take off to be in the air above the house, where they circled closely together, in council. When the Aurora Borealis flared in the sky they flew towards it. I went upstairs to my room to wait for them, and to watch the Aurora.
I had never seen an Aurora Borealis before, except on the boat coming up North. I relished the chance to see it up closer. Since then I've learned that an identical phenomenon occurs in the Northern and Southern Water Tribes of this world. It's truly a magnificent sight – fire in the sky, without source or heat. Imagine the bender who could control that fire! Perhaps only the Avatar possibly could.
But while I was watching the Aurora, studying it with delight, I noticed something strange. I could see, gradually, the shape of a city emerge, as though seen through a heavy veil, fluttering in the sky. I squinted against the light – there, wasn't that the roof of the Grand Palace of Ba Sing Se? Was that a way for me to get back to my home? I strained to see better. I wondered if lightning might not open a pathway, and immediately my fingers took the required position and I started breathing deeply.
I could feel and see the lightning waking up in my fingers. I brought my fingers together and set my eyes on the Palace roof –
And I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. I was not surprised enough to lose control, but the lightning in my hands flared into fire and died out.
I turned around. Celsia Perrenia, the oldest queen, was standing there. She fixed me with her golden eyes and said, "You will need watching."
I shrugged off her hand. "I'm not a child."
"No. You are not a child. You are just barely a woman. And you are even more dangerous that way." Her face became rather inquiring, and she leaned closer to look at me.
"What are you looking at?" I demanded.
"You are with child," she said.
I was stunned. She said something else but I interrupted her by crying, "What? That's impossible! I'm not even married!"
I heard a laugh high above me. I looked up. Layla Kamar was laughing at me. The other witches were perched on the roof, and all were smiling. I snarled and clenched my hands into the lightning-bending form. I took aim, but again Celsia Perrenia stopped me. She threw her cloud pine branch over my head and tightened it against my throat. I sent a harmless crack of lightning five feet away from Layla Kamar.
"No one laughs at me," I spat.
Celsia Perrenia touched my throat – not in a threatening gesture, but a restraining one. "Your power is in your breath. You must be watched. You will live with me and my clan. You will be our guest, but I warn you –" She turned me around to face her. "If you attack one of my sisters unprovoked, or take a life without cause, you shall deal with me personally."
"How many sisters do you have?"
"They are all my sisters," she said, nodding to the other witches on the roof. "Every witch in my clan is my sister. Any of the witches in any of their clans is my sister."
"Good Agni, what a family," I muttered.
"They are mine," Celsia said. "And you shall live with them. And you shall not start a war."
"I shall help you," Tenna Huang said, leaping lightly down onto the balcony to be on my other side. I was surrounded by the glittering eyes of witches, and knew it would be useless to resist.
That's enough for today, I think.