Epilogue 12: A Father's Praise
The anxiety built in his stomach as he walked through the halls of the palace to the throne room. He stopped at the curtain. He pushed his Silver Circle wristband as far up his forearm as he could to hide it from his father. Swallowing down his fear, he sighed heavily. Beyond the red and gold insignia of the Fire Nation on those curtains would be his father. Taking another deep and resolute breath, he pushed past the curtain. Everyone is counting on me… Faelin is counting on me… but to do what exactly? What am I to do?
He faltered for just a second as he wrapped the noble air of a prince around him like a cloak and mask. It worked so well on lesser people. He hoped it would work on his father. His father sat behind a wall of fire, menacing in his posture. Zuko's breath caught and a trickle of sweat slipped icily down his spine. Last time he saw his father, it was during an Agni Kai and to end of a fire blast.
Each step was a chakra breath till he stopped at the appropriate distance where he knelt to one knee then the next and bowed his head to the floor before his father in respectful servitude. The silence stretched. Zuko could feel his father's eyes burning through him. You are no longer my father. I am not the scared little boy you burned and banished so cruelly.
Ozai regarded him coolly, "You have been away for a long time. I see the weight of your travels has changed you." He stood and strode forward to the fire wall. "You have redeemed yourself, my son." He stepped casually through the flames and off the dais to Zuko. "Welcome home," he said almost expressionlessly.
Only then did Zuko raise his head, remaining seated in the kneeling meditation pose, hands still on the floor. He searched his father's eyes briefly for compassion, but found none. Zuko looked back to the floor as Ozai paced easily in front of his son. Zuko's heart betrayed him in the tiniest bit of a son's hope for his father to love him and felt pained by the dispassion he had seen on his father's face. He doesn't love me. He doesn't care. I wonder if he cares about anything at all besides power. Azula is just like him. They are both mad.
"I am proud of you, Zuko. I am proud because you and your sister conquered Ba Sing Se. I am proud because when your loyalty was tested by your treacherous uncle, you did the right thing." Zuko stomach knotted at that betrayal too as he silently prayed his uncle would understand. "You captured the traitor. And I am proudest of all because of your most legendary accomplishment." Ozai circled Zuko like a predator stopping behind the young man. "You slayed the avatar."
Zuko tried not to flinch. His mind swirled in a frantic internal whirlwind of images of the fall of the avatar by Azula's lightening and of Katara retreating with the boy, of Katara touching Zuko's scar holding special spirit-touched water from the sacred pool in the Northern Water Kingdom. It was a kingdom no matter what anyone thought. It was far too large to be a tribe, honestly. Surely, Katara would use that magical water to save Aang's life. She must. Zuko refrained from looking at his father in case the truth was writing on his own face too clearly. "What did you hear?" Zuko dared to ask hands firmly on the tiles of the floor doing his best to steady his breath. He hopes his voice did not shake too noticeably. Dammit. He still scares me. How will I ever face him like a man…?
"Azula told me everything. She said she was amazed and impressed with your power and veracity… at the moment of truth." It was a lie. Zuko knew it. Azula always lies. Zuko wondered why Azula didn't claim the credit. Why did she lie? WHY?!
Anger fueled Zuko's courage here.
