gotta end it with a bang. it was fun, and now time for a (in my humble opinion, well-deserved) rest!
Oct 3rd - "Night"
Zuko and Ty Lee's first -- and only -- visit to Azula does not go well.
"And then what, Azula?" Zuko's voice is coated with venom; it is a vile, thick thing that makes the words drip from his mouth. "The crown, the kingdom, then the world? How many more must die until you are satisfied?"
A terrible smile spreads across Azula's face. It is one Ty Lee has seen innumerable times before: the smile of I Know Something You Don't Know. Those glory-gold eyes are fixated on Zuko's face so intently that Ty Lee is vaguely surprised that it isn't melting off his skull. "One."
Zuko's eyes narrow to thin slits and he matches Azula glare for glare. "You will try, sister."
An handful of heartbeats passes between them and then Zuko rises to his feet with a fluidity that would have made the waterbender jealous. He does not turn to acknowledge those fiery eyes burning into his back but Ty Lee does -- she gets up to slowly trail Zuko out but she is weak and she turns, she turns to find that same boiling gaze now focused on her. She tries to breathe and finds out that she can't, so instead she offers the would-be Fire Lord a smile so wide that it hurts, and these words: "I'll come see you again tomorrow night, okay 'Zula?"
She is too terrified to hear the reply and spins around before Azula can answer, clinging to Zuko's shadow as it retreats down the halls. Azula would have no qualms about killing him, the pretender to her throne, the usurper of her dreams. She inches a bit closer to him then, nothing but a subtle shift in the way she presses forward, but Zuko notices anyway and gives her a reassuring smile.
And all the way back to the palace, she cannot help but think that she is worried about the wrong sibling.
***
The coronation went beautifully. The Avatar and his companions, though initially a bit tentative, are nonetheless warm and welcoming and all too eager to include her in their jibes and jokes. Zuko is smiling like she hasn't seen in years, and Mai is smiling like she hasn't seen at all.
Ty Lee feels nauseous.
She is on her feet the instant the door comes crashing open, already sprinting forward as the stricken guard stammers out, "Milord, the Princess--"
***
She can hear their panic as she bolts through the city, every panting breath a prayer (hold on hold on hold on). She didn't stay behind to hear the rest of the guard's report, but she'll learn later: she'll learn that the Princess broke out, the how inexplicable but the guards catching the first onslaught of her rage. She'll learn that the one guard who had his eyes burned out still lives, but the one who had his throat torn from his neck does not. She'll learn that when they inspect the blackness of her cell, the painting of fire will greet their eyes: flames upon flames, countless tongues of fire scrawled on the walls. When they look closer they'll see she used her own blood to make them.
She'll stand in the middle of the cell, surrounded by the blood-art, and when she half-closes her eyes she'll see how it almost resembles the throne room.
The throne room.
The halls of the palace are empty, all the guards dispatched to protect Lord Zuko or search the city. She is running so fast that the columns are becoming a blur and for a moment she can swear she's flying (is this what being an airbender feels like?); she spots the monstrous, ornate doors before her and instead of slowing down she speeds up, the doors offering no resistance as she crashes through them, completely ignorant of any physical pain, and
***
she gets a few paces in, stumbles to a stop and crumples to her knees. Those strong acrobat's legs have never failed her before and she's never been anything but the essence of poise and grace but her body doesn't feel like her own.
Azula is on the throne, looking down at her.
"Azula," she whispers, and is startled to find that her voice sounds like it's coming from a great distance away. "Azula, you-- we need to get out of here."
Silence, damnable -- damning -- silence.
***
When she draws closer she'll find that Azula's body is still warm.
And when she picks up that dear dark head in her hands, she'll see a flash of gold and amber and rabid joy will spring to life within her chest; for an iota of a second she'll believe that Azula is still--
Then she will see that there is no fire in those dull eyes and she'll feel the twin flame in her own heart sputter out of existence in a moment that is so abrupt and easy that it feels like breathing, or being born.
Or dying.
***
It is high summer when this happens. The Princess will be buried, mourned (by few) and forgotten (by many). The seasons will come and go. The sun will rise and fall, the pendulum of light and dark ever-swinging.
But for Ty Lee, that same pendulum has stopped. Her nights are filled with the heat of that same summer, frantic footfalls echoing down the corridors of her memory as she speeds toward the throne room. And when she opens her eyes to meet a new day, she will rise and walk about and eat and smile and speak and carry on like any other person, but she is simply not there.
Daylight will come to everyone else in the Fire Nation.
It will eventually come to Ty Lee as well. Light is persistent: like faith, like hope, like forgiveness. But daylight will never consume Ty Lee whole -- it will never touch the one solitary, eternal place in her heart where Azula waits, as near and as distant as the promise of tomorrow night.