Yue

The last time Yue had been on a boat, she had just witnessed Hakoda's murder. She had been afraid, and sad. Now the ferry carried her away from the Fire Nation palace to the resort destination, and she found that she was more curious than afraid.

The waters between the caldera and Ember Island were clear, and she dared thought that she could see fish. She wondered if Katara had seen this view and realized her power before she capsized the ship. Not for the first time, Yue wished she was a waterbender.

Ursa stood beside her, her dark hair tied down in a simple braid. Yue found that she was used to the queen's elaborate topknots. This new style was unbecoming of her. She seemed painfully average, undeserving of the ostentatious title of "Phoenix Queen". Ursa caught her gaze and smiled. "When we arrive, Azula and her friends will help you settle in. You've never been to the beach, have you?"

"There's no sand in the North Pole, my lady."

The queen laughed softly and prettily. "Oh, yes," she said, "I seem to have forgotten." Her hands rested on the railing, knuckles tinged white. "I planned this trip for my husband, you know," she said to Yue. "He has always been so...straightforward. That is the way with kings, you know, they are never at ease."

Yue figured that the Phoenix King had every reason to be at ease. He was a man with the world under his thumb. "You must care for him very much."

"Twenty one years," Ursa nodded. "Back when he was a spare prince." She cast a glance at Yue. "No one can say that I am not a loving, dutiful wife."

Yue shook her head. From what she had seen Ursa was a woman who excelled at being a queen. "How did you meet him? The Phoenix King, I mean." She leaned forward, letting the water spray her skin. Her hair threatened to spring loose from her two braids held in place by her comb. She tried to imagine if it had been a love story, like the ones she loved to hear about.

The Phoenix Queen smirked. "The way all noble women meet their husbands- through arrangement. A lucky woman will find happiness in such a thing. You know how the life must go for a noblewoman, especially a princess."

That she did. Yue had always known that she would never be able to marry a man that her father hadn't approved of. She had been betrothed once, as a very young child, but the match had been set aside just as quickly. "And Azula? Will she have an arranged marriage too?"

Ursa's expression soured. "Any man my daughter marries will have to sleep with one eye open." She strode away from the railing and into the ferry's gathering area, where there were cushioned benches. She sat and invited Yue to settle beside her. "That child has too much of the worst of us."

Yue wasn't sure she understood but she nodded anyway. Azula wasn't too terrible, she thought. She had long since gotten used to the barbed comments that the Fire Nation princess lobbed at her. A princess takes dignity in all things.

The ferry's horn gave out one long blast. Yue leapt to her feet as Zuko and Azula, the Phoenix Queen's children, appeared from the next room over. Zuko bowed to his mother and Azula gave a stiff nod in the woman's direction. Behind them trailed Mai and Ty Lee, Azula's companions.

Yue had yet to interact much the girls, besides a cordial greeting and small conversation. Mai, she knew, was somber. Her eyes were narrow and yellow, and angry. Ty Lee, on the other hand, had gray dancing eyes. The same gray, Yue had realized with initial horror, as the gray eyed firebender's. She had wondered why it had taken her so long to put the two together.

Ty Lee swept forward, her brown braid tucked over her shoulder. She put both hands on Yue's arms, grinning. "Oh you're going to have so much fun on Ember Island! Trust me!"

"Stand down, Ty Lee," Mai said.

Yue smiled and prayed it met her eyes. The ferry's horn blew once more. The bells began to chime. Once, twice, and then once more. The floor lurched as the ferry was brought to a halt at the pier.

Welcome to Ember Island, Yue thought.

Ursa led her brood of noble children back onto the deck. Yue could see the beach in all its glory, with a vast expanse of biege sand. The buildings behind it were burgundy and brown, with stilts holding them up out of the sand. She could see sun-tanned people playing with a ball, launching it at each other over the net. Others were sparring, their fists and feet flashing with flame.

Yue admired it. There was nothing like it in the North Pole, whose frigid temperatures would never support a beach of this sort. Even though she was nothing more than a glorified prisoner, Yue tried to imagine what it would've been like if she had never seen a beach. Perhaps when- if- she returned home, she would try to explain it to Kuruk.

A horde of servants began hauling their luggage down the ramp, onto a waiting cart. Two rickshaws had been set up for them and a man was standing near them, holding what appeared to be a tray of fresh fruit.

The ramp landed on the dock with a clang. Ursa, joined by the Phoenix King- who had seemed to materialize from thin air- descended the ramp and moved towards the rickshaw.

The second rickshaw was designated for the four teenagers. Azula climbed in first and Yue followed, pressed in beside Ty Lee. Zuko and Mai sat across from them, both of their shoulders in a straight line.

"We're going to play kuai ball." Azula said, and it was not a suggestion. Her golden gaze slid over to Yue and her lips pursed. Yue realized she was looking at her arms, which were not nearly as strong or toned as Azula's. Or Zuko's. Or Ty Lee's. She had seen Azula and Zuko spar, a clash of blue and golden flames. It had been vicious and beautiful.

The rickshaw transported them to the magnificent villa that Zuko explained had belonged to their family for almost two hundred years. A servant guided them inside, which was spacious and adorned in dark wood. The man led them to their rooms, which were situated on the left wing of the villa.

Yue's room overlooked the beach and the ocean, and she wondered if the setup had been intended to be some cruel jab. She stood in the middle of the room, the walls brown and gold and red. The drawers had been filled with clothes that were not her own. Yue went to the window and sat on the sill, peering out at the beige sand and cerulean water. She realized that she had grown used to seeing the gardens beneath her window, the same way she had grown used to seeing the moonrise at IcePoint. Some part of her had begrudgingly started to call the caldera "home".

She shed the loose gown she had been wearing and slipped on a burgundy wrapped skirt. Yue found, with some horror, that most of the shirts provided bared her midriff. They could hardly be called shirts at all, she thought and stared at herself in the mirror in the corner of the room.

Her skin seemed warmer and darker, her eyes more vibrant and her hair a gleaming white. Yue thought that she seemed taller, which she could imagine to be true. She was nearing seventeen. By most of the world's standards, she was a woman grown.

"You look so cute!" Ty Lee squealed and burst into the room. Yue jumped, finding Azula and Mai lingering in the doorway. Ty Lee had exchanged her normal attire for a bikini, while Mai and Azula had chosen skirts and half-shirts. "You don't have to play kuai ball, you can sit and tan. We can tan together!"

"I burn." Mai grumbled and Yue saw a large sun hat tucked under her arm.

Yue followed the Fire Nation teenaegers out of the villa and across the expanse of sand, feeling it sneak in her sandals. She'd never felt sand before.

They passed a woman selling peeled mangoes. She caught one glance at the crowns glinting on Azula and Zuko's brow and held out several of the fruit. "For our Prince and his friends!" She said, passing a mango to each of them, though not before sprinkling a spice over them. Ty Lee whispered that it was chili powder.

Azula scowled. "I am more than just the Prince'sfriend," she snapped. She glowered at the fruit vendor, who seemed to shrink into herself. "Do you know who I am?"

"I-I-I'm sorry, Princess Azula!" The fruit vendor dropped into a bow and Yue saw a bead of sweat trickle down the side of her face. Yue figured it was not from the Fire Nation heat.

"You're intimidating her, Azula." Zuko said and his sister turned her glare onto him. Yue watched the exchange. There was no Ursa to keep them from going at each other.

"Good," the princess snapped and the mango in her hand went up in blue-tinged, fruity smoke. The blue flames licked at Azula's fingertips before she extinguished them. "Now let's play kuai ball."

Azula claimed a playing circle, snarling at the teenagers who voiced their complaints. "If you want your net back, then you'll have to fight for it."

The teenagers on the other side of the net were golden, though not beautiful like the royal siblings. The tallest, a boy with a loose black topknot and tanned arms, smirked. "Wanna bet on it?"

Yue wondered if the boy had taken notice of their golden crowns. Azula and Zuko were two of the richest people in the world, they could bet on anything. She watched as the proud princess threw back her hair and held up her hands. Bright blue flames erupted from them, licking at the net dividing their group and the boy's.

"We shall annihilate you and leave you to weep amongst the ashes of the playing field and to drown in your humiliation!" The golden-eyed princess laughed manically and Yue winced.

Ty Lee put a hand on Yue's arm. "She thinks he's cute. 'Zula can go...over the top when she thinks someone is cute."

"Ah," Yue said, "I see."

The boy, much to his credit, did not wince or shy away. His smirk widened and his group of friends set themselves in stance to begin the game. He brandished the ball and took a step back away from the net. In one choreographed move, he launched the ball and the only girl on his side- a girl with dark enough skin to suggest something other than Fire Nation ancestry- sprang into the air, her foot connecting with the ball in an expert spike.

Zuko sprang forward, clasping his hands together. He kept the ball in the air and Azula leapt and spun, using the sole of her foot to send the ball back over the net. Yue could see the competitive snarl twisting the princess's features.

Yue tried to follow the game as best as she could, though after a while everything became a blur. Mai sat in the sand beside her, claiming she was not much of an athlete. "This is boring," the pale girl groaned and Yue couldn't help but agree.

The other team was wearing down, their movements slower and taking more effort to jump and set the ball. One boy, whose hair was long and brown and whose skin was as white as Mai's, had already stumbled and fallen in the sand. His name, Yue had overheard, was Ruon-Jian.

The girl on the other side slid and kicked the ball back into the air, her curly hair coming loose from its topknot. Yue tried to place her ancestry. Her eyes were Fire Nation citrine and her skin closer to the shade of clay. Perhaps not all Fire Nationers looked like Azula or Mai or Ty Lee. "Get it, Ruon-Jian!"

In a slow, almost lazy arc, the ball made its way over the net. Zuko cupped his hands and Ty Lee used him to bounce into the air, slapping the ball back towards their rivals. It hit the ground and settled there in the sand.

Azula let out a triumphant cackle. "We are victorious!" She bared her teeth in an imitation of a smile.

"Good game," Zuko murmured and grasped first Ruon-Jian's hand and then Chan's, the golden leader. "Good game."

Chan flashed a brilliant smile as Yue and Mai rejoined the group. "It was, wasn't it?" He caught Yue's eye and focused on her, setting a hand on his hip. "How would you guys like to hang out with the most important kids in the Fire Nation?"

Zuko and Azula bristled, but Ty Lee giggled. "We already are." She gestured at the royal siblings and then at Yue. "These are the most important."

Chan's jaw dripped and simultaneously he and his companions bowed. His grin returned as he straightened. "The offer still stands."

Their two groups became one and Chan introduced them to his companions. He himself was the son of an Admiral, while Ruon-Jian was the nephew of the governor of Estival Peninsula. The girl with dark skin and yellow eyes was named Naoki, the daughter of an esteemed general.

"You're not Fire Nation," Naoki said, slithering next to her as they made their way across the beach. "What's Water Tribe nobility doing on Ember Island? And what's with the white hair?"

Yue gave a sardonic smile. "You haven't heard? I'm the esteemed guest of the Phoenix King himself." She felt for her comb in her hair and decided that the story of her birth could come another day.

.

They spent the next few days together. Azula, Zuko, and Chan would practice firebending katas together with the sunrise. Naoki, despite her athletic prowess, was a dainty soul fond of makeovers and clothes. Ruon-Jian was characterized by his noncommittal shrugs and grunts.

Ursa came to them in the morning when they were eating a quiet breakfast, her normally pouting features aglow with a smile. "We're going to see a play at the theater this event," she beamed and produced a flyer.

Yue craned her neck to see. The flyer depicted two dragons, one red and one blue, entwined. Beneath them was a woman and man embracing, their features forlorn. Beside her, the royal siblings groaned in unison.

The Phoenix Queen glared at her children and instead turned to Yue. "Love Amongst the Dragons is a brilliant play," she said, "I cry every time."

"So do I, because of how sappy and horrible it is." Azula snorted. "The playwright should've been banished from the Fire Nation. Had I been Fire Lord, I would've sentenced him to death."

"It couldn't be that bad." Yue shrugged and cringed underneath the sharp glares the siblings threw at her. "I, for one, like romances."

She found herself repeating the same thing hours later, standing in front of the Ember Island Theater. The sun was setting over the ocean behind them. A cool breeze danced along the island and Yue drew the thin shawl tighter over her shoulders. As it turned out, Ursa had made it tradition to abandon their crowns and priveleges for a night. They now stood in the same line as the commoners of Ember Island, praying for a seat not in the nosebleeds section.

"This is beneath me." Azula said and shoved hard when a woman tried to elbow her way in front of her. She was without her entourage tonight; Mai and Ty Lee had faced her wrath when they decided to stay behind.

"Patience is a virtue," Zuko replied, golden eyes twinkling.

The Theater on Ember Island was an elegant structure. It was three stories high, with narrow windows that cast amber light on the deck that wrapped around. Its roof was tiled and red, with paper lanterns hanging near the entrance. Yue could smell food.

In front of them stood the Phoenix King and Queen. Ursa had her arm linked with her husband's, whose shoulders were squared and tense. They suited each other, Yue thought. They had toppled a dynasty together, that alone was admirable.

"Please, help give this veteran home!" Yue heard someone shout and when she turned, she could see a man making his way through the line, feebly rattling an empty can. "I returned from the Earth Kingdoms to no home and no wife!"

The man was still young, perhaps not quite thirty. He might have even been handsome at one point, but Yue saw that the left side of his body had suffered some type of traumatic injury. His arm was cradled close and his chest seemed sunken in, while the left side of his face sagged.

"What's wrong with him?" She asked.

"He was too weak to fend off an earthbender, that's what," Azula snapped. "Pockets of dissent pop up every once in a while and are crushed quickly." She wrinkled her nose as the man approached them. "The shame of the Fire Nation."

Yue tried to imagine what it must've been like, suffering so terribly. She met the man's gaze and smiled softly at him. She watched as his lopsided features shifted into confusion, and then rage. He stormed closer, close enough that she could smell the alcohol seeping from his breath.

"Foreigners! I was left maimed and homeless just so a foreigner could take my spot!" The veteran snarled and Yue stumbled back, crashing into Zuko. He caught her arms, holding her upright and Azula lunged forward, blue sparks flaring at her fingertips. "I returned from the Earth Kingdoms for this?"

Both Ozai and Ursa spun around. The Phoenix King, beautiful though he was, was unrecognizable in the twilight and without his crown. He grabbed the inebriated man by the collar of his vest and wordlessly slung him aside, causing him to stumble into the railing of the deck.

The queen turned apologetically to Yue, reaching out to squeeze her hand. "I am so sorry," she said quietly. "I am so, so sorry."

Yue forced a reassuring smile. She could not help that she was a foreigner in this land. It had not been her choice to come, she wanted to say. She had been brought here as a prisoner, as leverage for the obedience of her people. Apologize all they want, she thought, and it would still be the same.

Love Amongst the Dragons ran smoothly. Ursa's insistence on acting like the common people had landed them in fortunate seats. Yue found that the play was well performed, finding the tragic character of Noren both handsome and appealing.

Azula and Zuko sat beside their parents, their arms crossed. They mirrored Ozai while the queen sat on the edge of her seat, using a square of silk to dab at her eyes. Yue was not ashamed to say that she felt the same sting.

The play's second act ended with Noren, the bold hero, face to face once more with the Dark Water Spirit. He was inchained by tendrils of water, while the love of his life was imprisoned by a waterfall. The velvet curtains decided on the scene. A soft, mourning music played and Yue found herself suddenly longing for water. For the ocean and the ice, and the cool air that nipped her skin.

She stood and Zuko offered to accompany her. Yue declined and made her way through the crowded lobby, her nose and eyes burning from the intense smell of fire flakes. The deck was not quite so full and she wandered around the building until she found a place of relative solitude.

Beyond the island, the stars winked. The moon, an luminous half-circle- hung in the sky, mounted on dark indigo. Yue breathed in and exhaled, daring to outstretch her hands. A band of clouds spread over the moon.

He came from the corner of her eye, savage and cautious, like a pitviper lying in wait. She could smell him before she could see him, and she turned quickly on her heel. He descended on her with a roar flamed by inebriated breath, his hands closing around her wrists.

"What a surprise," the man growled and he suddenly seemed more dangerous when there was no longer Azula or the Phoenix King to chase him away. The small light threw shadows over his sagging face, making his cheeks hollow and gaunt. His lips drew back over his teeth. "Think you're so important because you're a wealthy foreigner, huh? Think just because the world is being united that you can waltz around on Fire Nation land?"

His grip threatened to shatter the bones in her wrists. Yue jerked away, stumbling back against the railing. He fell with her and she found that he was heavier than he looked. "All you earthbenders are the same."

Yue whimpered. He thought she was from the Earth Kingdoms. She had the misfortune of looking like his supposed enemy, despite her white hair and blue eyes. If not her, she thought, then it might've been somewhere else.

She opened her mouth to scream, only to find her throat sealed shut by his hands. She squawked, digging her fingernails into him. It was to no avail, his hold only tightened. He pressed his face close to hers, his eyes lit by rage and alcohol. The edges of her vision dimmed. She thought she felt a hand brush along the side of her chest. No, she thought. A princess could not take dignity in this.

A Koi would not stand for this.

She would not die here. Not here, so far away from her home and her people.

Yue screamed and yanked her comb from her hair with one hand, feeling strands part painfully from her scalp. Perhaps it was fear that made her so quick and strong. Perhaps it was desperation.

She plunged the comb down in the darkness, feeling it pierce through something with an audible tear. The man cried out, cut off by a wet gurgle. Yue retched and sobbed as some dark liquid ran over her hand, warm and thick. The man's body slumped against her and she leaned back against the railing, as far away from him as she could manage, her breath coming in short, desperate pants.

The moon emerged from behind the clouds, illuminating the blank face of the man lying lifeless against her, the silhouette of her comb protruding from his neck. His hands on her throat had turned limp and cold, his fingers leaving red bruises. Yue whimpered, meeting his dead, unwavering gaze, and vomited.

"Help me," she whispered. "Please, someone help me."

She dared yell louder, feeling her knees grow weak. She slid down, the man's death grip finally shaking loose. He hit the ground with a thud, a new rivulet of red streaming from underneath him. Yue pulled her knees to her chest and found that she didn't have the stretch to look at her hands.

"Help!" She called out and hurried footsteps approached. Yue looked up a man and his wife, her eyes darting to the corpse at her feet. "Please."

It was a blur after. She remembered the man draping his jacket over her shoulders. She remembered him picking her up and carrying her, and she remembered the startled faces of Ursa and Zuko. Ozai and Azula had gone to find out what had happened.

She remembered the rushed ferry ride back home, as if they were outlaws fleeing a crime scene.

She returned to her rooms and she didn't emerge. Yue imagined that she slept most of the time and the man's dead eyes found their way inside of her dreams. His fingers had left a necklace of dark marks around her throat.

There was a knock on the door on the third day back at the palace- or perhaps it was the fifth day or the seventh, she didn't remember. Yue moaned for them to go away and pressed her face back into the pillows. The servants always obeyed, apologizing profusely and then slipping away.

Azula stormed in, followed by a much slower Ursa. The queen took a seat beside Yue on the bed and pressed a tentative hand on her shoulder. When Yue did not shy away, she ran her palm along her hair. "Yue, little one, you must get up. It is not becoming for a woman of your station to behave like this."

Yue turned away and Ursa's fingers tightened. "Do not pull away," she commanded, voice hardening, and she hoisted Yue upright, forcing her to meet her gaze. "A princess, especially one from such an ancient family, does not lay down and mope. This world is too cruel for self-pity. Other women may buckle and break, but are you not of the Water Tribes? Do your people not boast strength and adaptability?"

"I killed a man," Yue whispered and the Phoenix Queen's jaw set. "I killed him."

Azula strode forward. "And you are all the stronger for it. A simpler woman would've succumbed to being choked and killed. You didn't. You claimed your life back from him. That is an admirable trait."

"There's no honor in that. There's no honor in playing at being a god."

The Fire Nation's princess snorted. "There's no honor in trying to kill an innocent teenage girl." She cast a glance at her mother and the queen nodded, slipping from the room wordlessly. Azula dug her fingernails into the flesh of Yue's thigh. "You are stronger for it, but you are still weak." Her eyes narrowed. "A warrior wouldn't have been so defenseless. You are pampered and the whole of your nation shows it."

Yue clenched her teeth.

"The South knelt to the Phoenix King. I heard that the chief put up a fight when Zhao slit his throat. I heard the South's princess capsized a ship to save herself. What have you done?" Azula leaned within inches of Yue's face, close enough that Yue could count her lashes if she wanted. "I'll only make this offer once," she said, and pressed a knife into Yue's hand. "You either adapt, or you die. I'll still dream sweetly at night, ice lily."

Yue looked down at the blade and then down at Tui, curled at the foot of the bed. The polar dog watched her. Azula watched her. She allowed her fingers to tighten around the hilt. "I am not an ice lily," she said, "I am a Koi."