Burnings of the Heart
Burnings of the Heart
Chapter XXXV:
The Depths of Deception
Azula slowly opened her eyes at the roaring and creaking sound of thunder and lightning and found herself lying a upon a black, stone brick path surrounded by dark purple storm clouds. She sat up partially and shook her head and then examined her surroundings…
"Where am I?" she asked herself. She sat up completely. "Kai-lin! Mai, Ty Lee…anyone!" no answer came. She hugged herself as a cold wind blew by and fooled with her heir and dress robe. She wiped the hair from her face and looked up the path to find a large shadowy structure in the distance. Just looking at the place sent an eerie chill down her spine, she looked around again, but it was the only place she could see. She stood and straightened out her robe and hair and looked at the structure. Lightning flashed brightly, emulating the structure for but a moment and revealing it to be some short of a castle.
"Well...as creepy as it is, I've seen worse in my life. Heck, I've been worse in my life," she blinked and breathed slowly, "and it's better than staying here."
She started walking down the path, towards the castle. Fear and uncertainty filled her heart with every step she took and lightning and thunder echoed all around her. Then suddenly a new wave of sounds mixed into the melody of storms. It started out low at first but then slowly turned into a roar of voices blended in with the sound of clashing steel. The princess then turned to her left and went wide eyed with surprise at the sight that suddenly surrounded her, a large scale battle with hundreds upon hundreds of men in either violet armor with silvery-purple dragon symbols on the shoulders or black armor with silvery-red serpent symbols on their shoulders, and carrying various weapons. Some weren't even wielding weaponry at all, but were benders from each of the known elements, and others she'd never seen in all her life. These others were not bending fire, air, water or earth, but lightning; pure, no firebending required, lightning. They used it in ways she'd never seen before and it just made her awe.
While the earth, fire, water, and air benders all seemed to be on the side of the of the soldiers in violet armor, the lightningbenders were split between the two sides, but despite this split their performance and those of the other benders astounded her. She didn't know what to make of it. Up until that moment she'd only seen Kai-lin use such abilities, and his use of them was self-restricted to his private training in the gardens and was rare, very very rare.
She found herself captivated by the battle and combat techniques being used, but then she suddenly took on a serious expression and immediately glanced to her left to spot a large boulder flying towards her at an unbelievable speed. She quickly ducked and dodged it and then looked up the path to find three violet armored earthbenders facing her, their eyes gray and without pupils. The earthbenders stomped the ground and large rocks popped up and the three benders immediately kicked the rocks at her. Azula jumped into the air and evaded the assault, arms across chest and then swung her arms downward and lunched two waves of fire at the earthbenders who vanished into smoke upon collusion.
Azula landed with her hands on the ground and stared in confusion, "What the…" but she hand little time to rest as a soldier in black armor charged her from behind. She glanced back and back-kicked him like a horse and them side swap at his friend who attacked shortly after, both vanished into smoke. She quickly stood and looked around to find other soldiers climbing up onto the path, and she chose not to stick around. The way back blocked, she'd no choice but to charge forward towards the castle. A swordsman attempted to block her path but she jumped and kicked his sword out of hands and into the air. She caught it and as she landed sliced him right down the middle. The swordsman froze for but a moment before vanishing slowly into smoke as he fell back.
The princess quickly continued her charge down the path, cutting down anyone who attempted to get in her way. Three waterbenders stood in her way and tried to strike her with waterwhips, but the Princess dodged the first two assaults, used her sword to block the last and then swung the sword at them and lunched a wave of fire that hit and made them vanish into smoke. She continued to move down the path until she came upon a catapult being guarded by a firebender and an airbender. She dodged their attempted assaults and then jump onto the loaded catapult, used her bending to cut the lunch string and then sent herself flying up and over wall just as the armies attempted to stop her.
She landed on the other side of the castle wall into a court yard filled with violet armored soldiers that wasted no time in charging her yelling battle cries all the way. Azula breathed in and out with an irritated tone. She stood and moved her arms once in a circle and they enveloped in lightning and then she plunged her left hand forward lunching and furious bolt that soared through the soldiers destroying all that were in its path. She then quickly charged through the cleared path cutting down anyone that dared get in her. The soldiers quickly chased after her as she ran for a set of stairs on the other side of the courtyard leading up to the castle. Lightning and thunder raged overhead as she reached and charged up the stairs to the castle doors. She quickly grabbed the door handle and pulled with all her might as the soldiers charged up the stairs being led by five lightningbenders. She pulled and pulled as hard as she could until the large castle door opened and she immediately slipped inside and pushed it shut as the lightningbenders lunched their violet bolts at her in unison.
Azula stood with her back against the door and coiled a little at the violent feel of the door shaking under the lightning's impact. She dropped her sword, which vanished into smoke upon hitting the ground, as she slid to the floor exhausted, strains of her hair lapsing in front of her face. Close eyed she caught her breath, wiped her hair from her face, and then stood. She looked around and found she was in a large hall that's walls were decorated with violet silk tapestries outlined in silver, all bearing the beautiful and luxurious designs of a serpentine, silver dragon with a long, thin hanging mustache. Paper lamps, twice as big as a human head and bearing large violet glowing crystals with lightning sparking inside of them, hung from the ceiling by thick silver chains and filled the hall with a violet light that illuminated the large crystal statues of various men and woman standing along the walls and just made them glow. Each statue differed in a appearance except for the lightning bolt shaped top-piece they all bore at top their heads. She walked down the hall, along the reflective black marble floor, starring in admiration, until she reached the end of the hall where a set of two large double doors stood before her, bearing the symbol of a coiled silvery-red serpent. She stared at the door and for some reason looking at it filled her heart with a light feeling of dread. Though she was curious as to what lay behind it, something inside her heart was telling her to leave it be.
She turned from the door to leave, when all of sudden a strange voice echoed throughout the hall.
"Where are you a going," the voice asked. The princess froze, "why don't you come in?"
The princess looked back as the doors suddenly opened to a enormous room with twelve large violet pillars that stood fifty feet apart from one another outlined in shining silver, and the design of a silver serpentine dragon coiled around each one. In the back stood a ten step staircase that led up to a plateform fifteen feet in length, but ten feet in width, with a throne sitting atop it. The throne was surrounded by four pillars holding up a roof that had a violet semi-transparent vial hanging down and surrounding the throne on all sides, and the shadowy figure that sat in it, crossed lagged.
Azula slowly entered the room and the doors shut instantly behind her. She jumped a little and looked back for a moment, but breathed slowly, turned forward and looked at the throne. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and continued forward. The figure sitting on the throne smiled lightly at her as she came to a stop before the stairs. The figure then stood and said in a cold, but sinister tone.
"Welcome…Princess Azula," the figure walked towards her and out of the secrecy of the vial, and Azula went wide eyed upon seeing her face. "It's nice to finally meet you."
"You're you're...you're me," Azula stumbled.
The figure looked exactly like her except for he fire nation officer's uniform she wore, her hair being in a complete topknot with a silvery red serpent top piece sitting atop it, and a cold look of malice and deceit that she herself once had.
"Indeed I am, and so much more," the look alike replied with a cold smile and seductive look in her eye. She walked down the steps and stood before Azula. "I have to say I'm I was worried you might not be able to get through my security. I apologize for the trouble it caused you. I would have disabled it but I'd used up too much of my energy just trying to get you down here."
"Wait a second, you brought me here," the princess replied in serious tone and a drop of anger. The twin nodded, "But why, and just where is here?" Azula asked concerningly.
"You are in the deepest depths of your own mind and I brought you here so that I could talk with you."
"My mind, you mean all this...is inside my head, but how is that possible?"
"There are many things you do not know, particularly the truth about your precious fiancé, Kai-lin," the twin walked passed her a little.
"What about Kai-lin?"
"I've been watching you two, and I have to say it wasn't an easy thing to do. The very sight of your disgustingly sweet moments made me sick, and while you absorbed everything he told you without a even a drop of concern; I have been able to see through his lies," the twin said turning around and facing the princess, her hands behind her back.
"What you do mean, Kai-lin would never—" Azula replied in disbelief.
"Oh but he has," the twin replied in a cold tone and deceitful small smile. "You may not realize it, but he's been deceiving you since day one. Haven't you ever wondered how your chi level ended up at zero in the first place."
"Well…not really, I mean…it had crossed my mind, but since I was recovering I saw no reason to question it," Azula replied.
"Yes I know, and that was very foolish of you," the twin replied. "Though I imagine if had you questioned Kai-lin about it he'd have lied you. I don't know what he would have said, but he mostly certainly would have lied."
"But why would he lie to me?"
"Because he's the one who expelled every drop of your chi from you body."
Azula froze with surprise and then shook her head, "What…no he…"
"Think about it, your chi was just fine before the agni kai, but after he struck you with that final blow, and knocked you unconscious your chi suddenly ended up at zero, and when you consider all the power he and knowledge he has of secret and so called ancient techniques what other explanation could there be?" the twin explained, "and what other cases have there been of such things in the past. None, that's what," she walked a little to side, and glanced at her, "However, your chi couldn't recover while you were unconscious. So it would have started to recover immediately after you woke up."
"But it did start recovery as soon as I woke," Azula replied.
"Indeed it did, but it should have fully recovered within a couple weeks," the twin said as she walked passed her a little, and then took on a cold deceitful smile, "Unless of course…it was slowed."
"Slowed, but how could the recovery be slowed?" Azula asked confusingly. "What could possibly do that? I know Ty Lee and Shan-yi can block a person's chi flow but only for a short time and the person usually recovers with an hour. So what could possibly do something like that?"
"Not what, who, and that who is your precious Kai-lin," the twin explained. "He branded you with something that disrupted and slowed your chi's recovery."
"Branded me…branded me with what?" Azula asked.
The twin smiled, "Tell me have ever notice that scar on your neck? How it somehow looks different than it did when you first woke up?"
"I am aware of the scar but I have never really seen it and never really cared, and if it has changed at all, I wouldn't know; Jin's never mentioned anything and my neck is pretty always covered. What does my burn scar have to do with anything?"
The twin giggled and turned towards "I see, so you really haven't noticed it." She shaped her fingers and a mirror appeared to Azula's left, "Look in the mirror, pull down your collar and see it for yourself."
Azula was hesitate at first and then turned towards the mirror and touched the collar of her dress robe. She pulled it aside a little, and then went wide eyed upon seeing the head of the two ring spiral dragon scar coiled around her neck.
"Wha…what is this…" the Princess asked.
"It's called a Drages Seal, and its purpose is to suppress the power of its bearer. Your power…" the twin said with sinister smile and cold tone into her ear.
"Suppress…my power…" Azula said fearfully. "But who would what to do that and why?"
"Haven't you heard a word I said," the twin asked. "Kai-lin, he's the one who put on you and he put it on you because you're a threat to him."
"What do you mean? How am I a threat to him, and why would he even consider me a threat?" Azula asked.
"Because you are," the twin said. "He needs you to be completely loyal to him if his real plan is to succeed."
"What do you mean his real plan? His goal is to create a peaceful world for the people," Azula said.
"That's just what he wants you to think. His real plan is to seize control of the throne, and he needs you to do with having to bloody his hands. By marrying you or just being engaged to you he gets a legitimate right to throne, but without you he doesn't have it. You're really just a tool for him to use and once he has it he'll no longer have need of you. So to make it easier for him to be rid of you when the time comes he breaded you with that to keep you from be able to access your full power and challenge him."
"But that doesn't make any sense; Kai-lin said that he wanted me to rule with him."
"It was a lie," the twin said with a smile, "and you know it's a lie. Think about it, if he truly wanted you to rule with him wouldn't he have let you in on his secret meetings with you uncle and that master healer," She walked to the side a bit and looked at her, "You know those private little meetings he has the Yu Yan guard and keep everyone, but Iroh, Yi Lin and his two vassals out of. If he truly wanted you to rule with him, to stand beside him, wouldn't he let you in on what goes on in those meetings," she walked behind her, "and let's of course not forget those messages he been receiving from the Yu Yan he sent to watch the Avatar. Why is it that he doesn't tell you about them. Why does he only talk with your uncle, Yi Lin and his two vassals about them? Why are you left out of the loop?"
"Well…because he…" Azula replied nervously. She wanted to give a good a rebuttal but she couldn't think of one. In all truth she had been somewhat concerned about Kai-lin's secret meetings. She'd tried bringing them up during their private times together, but he would always just smile at her and say something she sometimes regretted saying to him, that they shouldn't talk about their work during their private moments alone together. In the end she always just dropped the subject and went on with their evenings, but she still couldn't get mind off them.
The twin looked at the princess and smiled, it gave her pleasure to see Azula's confused and an uncertain face. Hands behind her back walked up behind her. "Oh! And let's not forget that one little night after the inferno," she walked up and gently grabbed her shoulders and whispered into her, "You know the one where he said he was going to kill you!"
Azula froze wide eyed. She did remember that night. That night he spoke with Lady Yi Lin and the things they'd discussed. She couldn't hear everything they were saying but what she could hear worried her. She just chosen to obey Yi Lin and not pry into in it, but something wasn't right in the twin's words. She did remember Kai-lin yelling something about killing her, but those words weren't really the exact words Kai-lin had used.
The twin just smiled and then took on a sad expression, stepped to the side and slowly turned Azula towards her, "Look, I know this is hard for you to accept, but you can trust me, I'm you and I know what I'm talking about. Kai-lin he—"
"No you don't," Azula said strongly and suddenly.
"What…" the twin said suddenly irritated.
"You say he desires the throne and that he was merely using me to get it, but if that's true than why we would he even bother to include me in other important decisions regarding the city. Why would his show his face to me when he could have easily kept it hidden, why would he work so hard to earn the people's trust and consent to rule?" the Princess questioned. She blinked slowly bearing a serious expression, "If all he desires is the throne than why doesn't he just take it. He has the power, the cunning and strength to do it. Yes, if my father were to suddenly end up dead fingers would likely pointed at him first, but in all truth who in their right mind would stop him from taking the throne. My father is a tyrant, he rules with an iron fist while Kai-lin has ruled with an open palm and a gentle heart. Even before he came to Ba Sing Se, he was doing all he could ease the people's suffering. He liberated Yuran from it fifteen years of bandit and corrupted nobleman rule, he brought food and supplies to village that had none, and he shut down markets that took part in the selling of innocence like livestock," she smiled and looked at her twin. "To say that he merely desires the throne makes no sense. I have spent time with him, spoke with him and learned from him. I have no doubt that there are still things I have yet to learn of him, but of all the things I have learned about him, the thing I've learned the most about him is his heart and from that knowledge I know I can trust him."
"You fool! He lied to you, he kept secrets from you, he's using just using for power. During his private little chat with Yi Lin he said he'd kill you."
"Wrong! I remember that night as well, and while I couldn't hear everything they were saying, I did hear a few things and what he said was that he wouldn't kill me, and he said it with resolve," Azula replied seriously and bravely. "I don't who you are, but you're NOT ME! Who are you? What do you want from me and what the hell are doing inside my mind?"
The twin frowned at first, but then took on a sinister smile and started to laugh, and as she laughed Azula heard her voice suddenly be accompanied a second deep, more male like voice, "and hear I was hoping to take control in a more subtle way." The twin looked at Azula with a cold cruel look and then giggled loudly, "HA!" the twin cried raising her hand firing off a violet bolt of lightning that knocked Azula into a near by pillar where she was suspended in the air as a shock wave of volts ran through her body.
Azula cried out pain as she the continuous surge of electrical energy run through her until it faded and she fell to the floor on all fours breathing hard. The twin walked up and stood over her with a sinister smile.
"I had planned on tricking you into become one with me so that I might take this body for my own without a fight, but seeing how my diplomacy has failed I'll—what the…" she said suddenly. She closed her eyes and when into thought.
Azula noticed her sudden lapse in guard and wasted no time in rolling out to the side, jumping back up and taking a her usual combat stance.
The twin then suddenly frowned in anger, "Impossible how did they…" she gritted her teeth. "Damn him…damn that in infuriating living taboo of a mortal and his foster mother." She then glared over at Azula, and a perfectly round blue sphere with a swirling fiery center appeared in her hand. "There's no time to waste. I must be rid of you quickly!" she immediately punched hand forward and sent the ball flying towards Azula!
The princess quickly dodged the assault and the many others that exploded behind her as she ran looking for an opening. She glanced at her sinister double and then jumped to her right just barely evading the last assault as she swung one arm up with the other following across and sent two waves of fire flying at her. The twin saw the assault and held her hand stopped the wave right before her hand, the two waves then suddenly condensed into two fiery spheres and then flying back at Azula. The Princess tried to moved to dodge the assault only to suddenly fall to the ground. She looked down at her lags to find them suddenly bond by chains. She engulfed her hand in fire and struck at the chains repeatedly. The twin took on a large sinister grin as the spheres grew closer and closer their target. Azula saw the sphere and raised her arms in front of her face but then went wide eyed with surprise when the spheres suddenly exploded in unison with a flash of light.
"NO!" The twin cried.
Azula lowered her hands and reached out in front of her and found an invisible screen of light that enacted an silver glow around the prints of her hands as she touched it. "What…"
The twin gripped her fists in anger, her eyes glowing a fiery light. "Damn him! Damn him and that accused healer!" she then calmed herself a bit, "No matter, he's a fool a to come here. I'll end this once and for all and be rid of him." She smiled cruelly, "Yes…this is my domain," she laughed, her duel voices sending a chill down Azula's spine. "If I kill him here…yes…that's what I'll do…he's a fool to come here, now I'll be rid of him and his accused bloodline once and for all."
Azula looked at her twin confusingly. The twin, now calmed looked at him with a cruel smile. "It would appear your weak hearted fool of a fiancé has come to rescue you."
"Kai-lin…" Azula said in surprise.
"As it stands I'm unable to harm you, but that will change once I rid myself of your accused Kai-lin," the twin said slowly vanishing into flames.
Azula watched her go and then looked at the floor, "Kai-lin…he came to…"
Meanwhile outside the castle a portion of the storm clouds started swirling like a vortex and red ball of fire dropped out of them and crushed into the brick path sending smoke and dust flying everywhere. The smoke slowly cleared and revealed a figure wrapped a crimson red cloaked, the top half of his face hidden by its hood.
'Kai-lin…Kai-lin can you hear me, are you alright?' a voice echoed in his mind.
"Yes, Lady Yi Lin, I'm fine," he replied. He looked around as the two armies in black and violet armor suddenly stopped fighting each other and started surrounding him, "and I've just met the welcoming party."
'Be careful about how you use your abilities, remember this is the inside of a person's mind, not the spirit world the same restrictions impaled upon in reality apply here as well,' Yi Lin said.
"I well aware of that, you needn't remind me," Kai-lin said seriously as he tossed back his cloak and drew his gapped sword.
'Don't strain yourself too much, help is on the way. Try to hold out until then,' Yi Lin said, 'and really Kai-lin PLEASE be careful. Whatever happens to you in there will follow you back out here.'
"Don't worry," he replied. "I've no intention of dying." He looked past the armies at the distant castle wall where a male figure in dark violet robes stood smiling. Kai-lin frowned, "No intention at all…"