Chapter Four: In the Hall of the Fire Lord
Zuko stood in the portrait gallery; his hands clasped behind his back, and sighed. There, before him, were the pictures of his ancestors, Fire Lord after Fire Lord, good rulers, bad ones, men about whom Zuko had been taught all his life, and others about whom Zuko knew nearly nothing. Everyone expected that his picture would hang here among them, and frankly, this expectation left Zuko a little surprised.
It was true, of course, that he was the eldest child and only son of the Fire Lord, but Father had always liked Azula better. Zuko's younger sister was talented and confident, ruthless and, truth be told, more than a little cruel. Her personality was more like their father's, and she was definitely his favourite child. Zuko hadn't exactly been in Father's good graces lately, either. Actually, Zuko had never exactly been in his father's good graces. The fact that he was still the heir apparent, after all this time, was astonishing. Apparently Zuko's father was now ill, and had been for some time. Zuko suspected the illness had started when his father had faced the avatar, at the end of the summer almost two years ago now. Whatever had caused the sickness, if Zuko's father died, Zuko himself was next in line for the throne. And that was an interesting thought. It was a position he had long assumed he'd fill, but one about which his feelings were mixed, to say the least.
Zuko walked up and down the room, pretending to admire the portraits. If he wasn't Fire Lord, who would be? There was Azula, but that couldn't possibly be good for the country. Not for the ordinary citizens, anyhow. There was also Uncle Iroh, who had once been the acknowledge heir to the Fire Nation himself. But Zuko had the feeling that Uncle Iroh had no interest in being Fire Lord; he had been much happier as a mild-mannered, Pai Sho-mad eccentric running a tea shop than he ever had as a general or statesman. Zuko didn't doubt that Uncle Iroh could be a good Fire Lord, maybe even a great one – but Zuko also didn't doubt that Uncle Iroh would rather not have to be. So that left only Zuko himself.
And once upon a time, of course, Zuko had been sure he wanted to fill the role, too. It was his destiny. Ever since his father had inherited the position instead of Uncle Iroh, it was a given that Zuko was next in line. And Zuko had known, even as a boy, that it would be dishonourable to turn down such a position. But now that it seemed it might become reality, Zuko felt surprisingly unhappy about the whole affair. He had all the usual worries, of course – that he would not do well in the position, that he would have trouble with rebellious factions within his own government, that his life would no longer be his own – but there were other worries, ones he had never thought might even come up in his life. He was worried about ending the war. He didn't want the Avatar as his enemy. But ending the war would mean making peace with the Earth Kingdom, possibly turning large amounts of territory back over to the Earth King, and Zuko knew his father's government would not like that. He was also worried about a young woman who had glared at him the last time he had seen her, who unfortunately was an ordinary Earth Kingdom citizen, rather than the daughter of a Fire Nation official. The fact was, he was married to her, and that was another thing his father's government would not like. It was something they would not like at all.
A Note to the Reader: A musical reference this time, the title is paraphrased from In the Hall of the Mountain King, from Grieg's Peer Gynt suite. You probably know the piece of music, but you may not realize that you know it – Google "In the Hall of the Mountain King" if you're not sure. Go on, do it. You know you want to.
On an aside, not really happy with this one. I wanted to get away from everything resembling dialogue, but it didn't come out as well as I had hoped. Oh well, onwards and forwards. At least I got to use the word "dishonourable". It's a good word.