Hello everyone! Since it's Chinese New Year, I thought I'd release three chapters this week. Enjoy! I'll be continuing to release about two chapters a week until the story is finished. I always welcome your thoughts and comments!
Chapter 12
News of the Firelord's bastard spread quickly. In an effort to feign a cover-up, Zuko had told Kazuto's new nursemaids 'in confidence' that he, Zuko, was the child's father. Naturally, the entire palace knew by the end of the day. As Mai left the palace to walk the short block to her mother's house, she noticed several nobles staring at her pityingly. Well, they knew this would happen. She knew Zuko was worried about what his Council of Ministers would have to say about it at their next weekly meeting. Although royal bastards had taken the throne before, raising them in the palace simply wasn't done, and with Zuko's popularity already low…
Mai marched up the stairs to her mother's house—only left to her mother because of Zuko's generosity. It was ridiculous that Mai had to come all the way here and interact with a woman she did not like in order to be fitted for her wedding robes. In fact, Zuko had told her not to come at all, but Sokka shrewdly pointed out that it would be best for Mai to be seen publicly preparing for the wedding, despite her fiancé's 'affair.' They had to present a united front.
Without knocking, Mai slammed the door open so forcefully that she hit a manservant standing on the other side. The tray of tea he was carrying fell to the ground and shattered, and the man clutched his head. "Sorry," said Mai dully. She knelt to pick up the pieces of china.
"No, my Lady!" said the servant. "I'll do it!" He pulled a dustbroom from nowhere and started sweeping. Well, this was his job, and a broom was more efficient. Mai left him to it.
"Mai!" Mai's mother Michi gushed into the front hall. "I thought it must be you, from the crash. You always were a clumsy child. I wasn't expecting you." She was shorter than Mai, and plumper, her robes pink with black edgings. Michi stretched forward to kiss Mai on the cheek, and Mai submitted dumbly.
"You poor thing!" said her mother. "I've heard all about it. To think, the whole time you two were here together three years ago, he was also laying with a maid! Disgraceful. You must feel so foolish."
Although nothing Michi said was true, it cut Mai deeper than one of her shruiken blades ever could. She wanted to defend her fiancé, defend herself, but she couldn't. She clenched her fists.
"It's none of your business, Mother," she said stiffly, careful not to let her mother see how much her words had hurt.
"So is the wedding still on?" Michi asked delicately. Her eyes glinted with excitement for potential new gossip.
"Yes," said Mai flatly. "Why else would I be here."
"Oh, you darling! You forgave him!" Her mother lowered her voice. "But you do know, once a cheater, always a cheater. Mark my words, he's a philanderer just like his fa-"
"Stop it, Mother! Just stop it." snapped Mai. Then she paused. What had Michi just said about Ozai being a philanderer? Was that public knowledge? But Mai's apprehension was quickly overwhelmed by anger when her mother continued.
"I'm just looking out for you," said Michi in a tone that would sound caring to anyone who didn't know her. "I don't want you to regret this decision later." Her lips curved upwards.
"I won't regret it," said Mai angrily. Why couldn't her mother leave her alone, instead of questioning every decision?
Michi gave Mai an understanding look. "I see. But I have to ask-do you have-to marry him? Because you, well." She looked at Mai's torso significantly.
"No, Mother, I'm not pregnant. Sages, why do you always have to think the worst?" Mai tried to hold her next sentence back, but couldn't. "Although you would be worried about a hasty wedding. When did you and father marry, about three months before I was born?" Mai smiled spitefully as her mother stuttered. She felt a twinge of guilt, but not enough to make her wish she hadn't said it.
"Well, you've been practically living with him!" Michi finally said scornfully. "I haven't seen you in two weeks." Mai rolled her eyes.
"I've heard enough. I'll try on my robes, and then I'm out of here." She pushed past her mother to go to her room.
"Wait, Mai—" Michi looked panicked and grabbed at Mai's sleeve.
Shaking off her mother irritably, Mai opened the door, and gaped at her former bedroom. All the furnishings had been taken out; instead a central table dominated the room. Crates of blasting jelly were stacked along the walls.
Ignoring her mother's shouts for her to stop, Mai approached the table in a daze. Pieces of parchment lay carelessly about, written in a code she couldn't read. But one thing was unmistakable: a blueprint of the tower on the outskirts of the capital. The tower in which Ozai was kept. Mai had only visited it once, when she followed Zuko on one of his midnight visits to Ozai two years ago. But it was Ozai's prison.
"Mother, what is this?" she asked, too shocked to even raise her voice. "Tell me this isn't true. Tell me you aren't working for the New Ozai Society." How could she, after Mai's father had already been banished for the same crime? Michi didn't answer, but shrunk against the door.
"I thought you disavowed Father and his politics," said Mai, her voice getting louder. "So what is this?" The last word screeched into a yell, and Mai grabbed a handful of papers and threw them in her mother's face.
Mai's anger seemed to embolden the other woman. "The Firelord took everything from us!" Michi spat. "He took my husband, he took my titles, he took my future!"
"He spared your life!" screamed Mai. "He gave you this house! And what about me, Mother?" She sagged, suddenly a child again. "How could you do this to me? I'm marrying the Firelord you're trying to overthrow!"
"Yes, you're marrying him," hissed her mother. "You're marrying a traitor, a usurper, a murderer! His weakness will destroy the Fire Nation. And if you hadn't already given yourself to him, I would have tried to save you. But you're his whore, and I can't help you."
"What did I ever do to you?" asked Mai, her anger leaching away into grey exhaustion. She knew she should tell someone about the plot to free Ozai, but suddenly couldn't find the strength to move.
"Oh, Mai," her mother said heavily. "You're asking the wrong questions, as always. This isn't about you! This is about protecting our family, protecting the Fire Nation. Your father and I tried so hard to teach you the importance of strength—by sending you to the same school as Princess Azula, by bringing you to Omashu when you father was made Governor! But at every turn, you were weak. You favoured Zuko over Azula as an ally, when anyone could see Firelord Ozai would never give that boy the throne. You betrayed your country for a clearly unrequited crush when you help Zuko escape from the Boiling Rock! And you chose the wrong side in getting engaged to this Firelord. He won't last another year."
I love Zuko more than I fear you. Mai had said that to Azula, faced certain death in order to save the one she loved. So why was it so hard to fight back to her mother, a woman with no combat abilities at all? Mai thought of how Zuko had stood up to Ozai, a far worse monster than Michi. He believed she was brave. She was.
"It's over, Mother," said Mai shakily. "You're wrong about Zuko, and you're wrong about me. I'm turning you in." She could do this.
"It may be over for me," Michi replied. "But you're stupider than I thought if you think that the New Ozai Society will just go away."
"They will lose," snapped Mai. "But either way, I hope you enjoy the rest of your life in prison." With a sinking feeling, she suddenly remembered Tom-Tom. He would hate her, too, now that she had sent both of their parents away. For the first time in a long time, Mai could feel a tightness at the back of her throat and pricking at her eyes. Damn her parents for making her do this to her little brother, for ruining one of the only good things she had…
"Where's Tom-Tom?" asked Mai quietly.
"With your grandparents," said Michi. "You would have known that, if you were living here instead of lounging in the Firelord's b-"
Michi didn't even attempt to fight back as Mai grabbed her arm roughly. Pretend she's not your mother, just another criminal. It's fine.
"Send a message to the Firelord," ordered Mai to a servant. "Tell him to send the Imperial Guard here." She thought of all the blasting jelly in her room. "Tell him not to come himself." It could be a trap.
Mai shoved her mother into a closet and locked the door, then returned to the poorly concealed New Ozai Society room. Why was everything left out like this? Had she interrupted a meeting when she arrived unexpectedly? She paced around the chamber, looking for any signs of who could have been in attendance.
And there, in the corner, was an abandoned spear. The spear of an Imperial Guard.
Great Fire Sages. That would also explain how they got the blueprints to Ozai's prison, or even knew where Ozai was held. But if the Imperial Guard itself was turning against Zuko, who could they trust? Mai realized with horror that the Guard she had called was likely only minutes away. Depending on how many of them were allied with the New Ozai Society, they might recognize the spear's owner and help her arrest him or her…or they might turn against Mai.
Mai had to decide quickly. She grabbed the spear, shoved open her window, and dropped the weapon into the bushes below. She could come back for it later; maybe General Mak could identify whose it was. Zuko trusted him. When the Imperial Guard arrived, she stood in a corner and watched as they collected the evidence, making sure none of the coded documents were 'accidentally lost.' But though she knew she'd have to tell Zuko about it later, her mind was far from the conspiracy.
She had finally done it. Directly spoken against her mother. After all the other things she'd done—fighting Azula, killing Sachem—it shouldn't be a big deal. But somehow, her encounter with her mother had shaken her more than anything else.
"We're done here, my Lady," said a guardsman. "We'll bring these to the palace immediately."
Good. Mai wanted to go home.
