Death of a Thousand Cuts 12 - Mask

Azula set her latest set of notes aside and got a clean sheet of paper. Once it was perfectly centered on the desk in front of her, she looked up at Li and Lo. "You can send the next one in, now." The old women bowed their acknowledgement, and backed out of the office.

So far, Azula was disappointed in the quality of the applicants. When she had put out her advertisements for a female companion for Zuzu, she had of course expected all kinds of gold-diggers to come applying for the position, as well as weak-willed opportunists who wanted to 'prove' how loyal they were to Ba Sing Se's new Fire Nation occupiers. However, she had at least expected some kind of personality in the applicants, not an endless parade of simpering ninnies who Zuko would be hard-pressed to notice through his perpetual personal angst. Perhaps she shouldn't have had an artist's sketch of Zuzu's face included in the ad? That might have turned off any women who actually wanted to look at the boy with whom they were spending time. Azula had heard of the prior day's meeting between Zuzu and Mai's mother, and how Mai's little brother had called the prince "ugly." Azula had laughed long and hard at that, but then realized that if Zuzu scared babies, it was going increase the difficulty of finding a properly hostile girl for him.

Still, Azula had not yet given up. If there had been some middling possibilities among the applicants thus far, she would be despairing, but a complete lack of suitable applicants, after so many hours of interviewing? Those were long odds, and Azula always won when she went for the long shot.

The next girl shuffled into the office, and Azula had to hold back a sigh. This one was just as wary and skittish as the others, and as an added complication, her robe looked like it had been passed down through a long dynasty of beggars. Still, Azula wasn't shopping for a wife for Zuko or anything like that, so low-birth wasn't really a disqualifier. Yet. "Yes, come in. I'm royalty, so you should also bow. Um, forehead to the floor, I'm a Princess. Good, you may rise. Now, what's your name?"

The girl kneeled across the desk from Azula, and ran a hand over her bristly ponytail in a pathetic nervous gesture. "Um, I'm Jin."

"Hello, Jin." Azula wrote down the name. "Now, do you understand exactly what this position calls for?"

"N- no, not really. Like, I'm supposed to spend time with some prince?"

Azula frowned, and made a note that this girl had come to the interview completely unprepared. "Well, Jin, that's correct in a general sense, but it doesn't speak well of you that you didn't exhaustively research this opportunity before applying. The Prince in question is my brother, and he needs someone with the vision to keep him on track. A girl who's smart and opportunistic. A girl who can see all the possibilities in a situation, evaluate them on the fly, and pick the best from amongst them. A girl who understands his weaknesses and can-" Azula frowned. She was rambling, wasn't she? And not saying anything particularly useful. "Well, never mind."

Jin raised a hand. "Can I ask a question?"

"You may."

"Thanks. So, um, by 'companion,' do you, like, want a wife for your brother?"

"No, this is a temporary position. Ideally, my brother will eventually straighten out his life to the point where I will have the time and energy to manage it for him. If not, then I can find a suitable wife for him amongst the Fire Nation nobility. Still, this is a job that could last some years. Are you able to leave home and come to the Fire Nation with us?"

"Yeah, that's fine." Jin wrung her hands together. "So, um, will the companionship be... like, romantic, or is this just a friends-type thing?"

Azula wasn't sure what she was more disturbed by, the thought of this trash getting cozy with Zuko, or her tortured sentence structure. "I'll leave that as an on-the-job tactical decision." She briefly massaged her forehead. "You need to understand, your primary role will be as a distraction for Zuko. He's alone with all his anxieties, and has no outlet for them. If you can solve that by kissing him all the time, then so be it. If you have to develop a rivalry, either intellectually or physically, that's fine, too. Whatever form it takes, I need you to be a presence in my brother's life, not just a toy he comes home to at the end of the day. Do you understand?"

Jin nodded. "I getcha."

Azula wrote down that Jin understood, but also that she used the word 'getcha' in speech. "Wonderful. Tell me, do you have experience being a companion?"

Jin blinked. "Um, not professionally? I've always had lots of friends." A smile grew on the girl's face. "And I've had a few boyfriends, you know?"

"I see. And can you provide references?"

"Well, your brother is kinda one of them. You can ask him."

Azula was right in the middle of writing down Zuzu as one of the girl's references before the full import of the statement hit her. It slammed into her with the force of one of her father's punishments, back when Azula was weak enough to earn punishments. "I beg your pardon?"

"Your brother? Zuko's his name, right? I took him out on a date." Jin stared back with honest, open eyes.

Azula blinked. "You know Zuko?"

"Yeah. Well, not by that name. He told me it was Lee. And his Uncle was Mushi."

"wut"

Jin's smile turned positively cat-like. "Sure, they were living in the Lower Ring for a while. Lee worked at a tea shop in my neighborhood, and eventually I got him out on a date." Her smile waved for a moment. "It didn't really end well, but that wasn't my fault."

Azula felt laughter bubbling up within her. Zuzu had gone on a date with a peasant girl? That was the most delightful thing she had ever heard. And now this girl was here, applying for the job of Zuzu's companion? Azula couldn't have planned this better. "And you recognized his face in my advertisement."

"Yeah. It's pretty distinctive. But not bad-looking, you know?"

Azula almost nodded. "Well, this changes the situation. But you say the date ended badly?"

Jin leaned forward. "Well. See, it was going pretty well. Lee was a dork, but I kind of like dorks. It's cute, and he was trying so hard! But then my plans for the date fell through, but he suddenly got so suave and romantic, and fixed it somehow." She frowned and tapped her chin. "Now that I think about, I should have been more suspicious about how he could light that many candles across such a large space so quickly. Anyway, that's when I kissed him."

"You kissed him?!" Azula wrote that down. "What was it like? Was he a good kisser?"

"Kind of? He wasn't, like, taking the lead or anything, but he was good. Sincere, you know?"

Azula did not know, but she wrote all of that down anyway. "And then what?"

"Well, I think that's why he'd give me a good reference. He said things were too complicated, and he ran away. Boys don't do that if they don't like you, you know?"

Azula wrote that down, too. "Go on."

"So, like, he was obviously afraid of being an evil Fire Nation infiltrator sent to help take over the city, right? But if that wasn't in the way, we could be together. So, here I am."

"I see." Azula finished making her notes. "And that's why you've come. To try again with Zuko."

"Sure."

"So you wouldn't mind if we don't pay you?"

"I was going to get paid?"

Azula made a note of that. Then a horrifying thought occurred to her. "You're not... with child, are you? Zuko's child?"

Jin paled. "What?! It was just a kiss!"

"That's a no?"

"Babies don't come from kisses!"

Azula wrote that down. "Very well." She put her brush down, and sat back to really examine Jin. "Do you know what I think?"

Jin quirked her head. "Um, no?"

"Of course you don't." Azula brought her hands together and steepled her fingers, the way Grandfather used to when he was annoyed. "I think you're a liar. Yes, you might have had this 'date' experience with my brother, but that's as far as it goes. You're not here to get more kisses from Zuko."

Jin slumped, and offered something like a smile. "Okay, you got me. I'm really hoping for... you know, true love and stuff with a Prince. I'm deeply in love with him, and I'm hoping he'll choose to stay with me forever instead of marrying a cold noblewoman."

Azula smiled. "That's cute. No, you're still lying. You're exploiting an opportunity, and just as coldly as any noblewoman I've ever met. Even the most besotted peasant girls don't spend the money for a train ride from the Lower Ring to the Upper Ring just on the hope of love. Besides, there's no passion in your voice, even when you talk about... doing things with... my brother."

Jin crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm not trying to marry him for his money!"

"Of course not. You didn't ask about the pay, and a girl chasing her dreams like this wouldn't betray her nation so blithely; she would be maintaining a fantasy about seducing the enemy prince to her side so that he could liberate the city, or something equally inane. No, you're obviously an assassin."

All the color drained from Jin's face.

Azula continued, "You recognized Zuzu in my ad, brought your past with him to the attention of some local rebel groups, and they ordered you to come here as an assassin. If you got the job, you would kill Zuko and then as many of us as you could, and if not, then you would at least have a shot at him here. They furnished you with the train fare, as well as the knife up your left sleeve- a short butterfly sword, if I'm not mistaken. Sadly, they didn't provide you with any training; that much is evident in the way you walk. Thus, your mission was a failure before it even began."

Jin sprang up, yanked the knife out of her sleeve, and lunged for Azula.

Expecting the move, Azula rose smoothly, reached around the blade to grab Jin's wrist, and twisted it. She didn't apply any real strength to the maneuver, but the angle put enough pressure on Jin's poor grip to make her drop the weapon. Then Azula let go with a throwing motion that sent Jin plopping back down into her kneeling position.

Azula calmly kneeled again. "As I was saying, you're perfect for the job. You have romantic tension with Zuzu, but you're also an assassin looking to end his life. Whether he takes pleasure in your company or simply spends his time dodging your pathetic attempts to kill him, he'll finally get his mind off of his anxieties. Is that a satisfactory arrangement?"

Jin was breathing hard, but she struggled to remain calm in the face of her failure. "Are you serious?"

"Of course."

"You're not going to have me killed?"

"I could do it right now if I really wanted to end your life. It wouldn't be a bother."

"And you're not going to make guards watch me around your brother or anything?"

"A little threat of death is exactly what he needs."

Jin's eyebrows scrunched together. "Are you trying to get your brother out of the way?"

Azula smiled. "Remember what I said about doing my own killing? That goes for family, too."

"You're crazy, lady."

"So they say. And you will address me as 'Princess.' I wouldn't expect you to know this, but a Lady is a lower rank in the Fire Nation. So, will you accept the job?"

Jin looked like she was expecting Azula to change her mind and kill her at any moment. Which, of course, was entirely reasonable. It seemed that the girl could learn. Finally, she said, "I guess?"

"Wonderful. Li and Lo will get you settled. Welcome to the staff, Miss Jin." Azula smirked. "This is where you bow, again."

TO BE CONTINUED