"And, did you achieve it?" Zhurin asked: "Happiness?"

"Eventually yes, but it would take more time and effort and luck." Azula said.

"Did it happen with Shen?" Zhurin added with a wide grin. It was amazing how at ease she was starting to feel around Azula, around Karuna especially and around most other students. Sometimes she took it too far but most genuinely rejoiced in her more liberated attitude, it was like a heavy chain was lifted from her. What Karuna said to Zhurin held true, that you need good people around you to feel good... but she also added that you have to take the effort to be good yourself in order to enjoy the benefit.

"You're really curious about that, aren't you?" Azula said with a knowing grin.

"Forgive me master. Please, I didn't mean to." she blushed. She still had issues distinguishing when people were upset with her and when they were just joking. It still showed to Azula that Zhurin had reverence for her and she appreciated it. That was among the reasons why she was willing to go into such detail about her past for her, and it seemed to benefit her charge.

"It's OK. You're naturally curious about those things like most girls your age... and I will tell you in time, it's a longer story after all."

Zhurin calmed down and said: "Thank you. It's just that hearing these stories before from people around me would make me depressed. People who never understood or cared how I felt, who made it sound all too easy and wondered what's wrong with me, why I can't just get over myself. I tried, believe me."

"Ah, the old advice of hating yourself into a better you. I gave that advice to my own brother countless times in word and deed, no wonder he hated me."

Zhurin laughed for a moment but then said: "I'm sorry about your brother. Mine is the only person who made me not feel like a burden. Without him I would still be stuck in the hospital instead of being here with you. Speaking of those, I was curious for a long time but didn't dare asking, who liberated you? Did you escape for yourself. How did it happen?

Azula sighed, Zhurin was indeed a bold one now. It was one of her less pleasant memories but it wasn't the first time she told the story. She told Lao and Maitri, why not to Zhurin?

"I wish I had managed to escape myself, with my own wits and strength... but I was lacking in both of those and I was too well guarded, most the time there I spent in a straightjacket with my feet bound together as well."

Zhurin's expression saddened: "Me too. They were afraid I would try hurting myself. I did want to die, only my brother's letters kept me alive."

"I didn't receive a single one, not from my friends, not from Zuko... until one day he just showed up, dressed as the Fire Lord, splendid in all his newfound might, coming to see his little sister, his lowly prisoner, to offer her something. The possibility of a pardon, but only if I helped him with something. For some reason he deducted that I knew where our mother was... he was right though, I did know where to start looking. My father showed me when I asked one time. She was his first and only but it turns out he wasn't hers. She had a boyfriend before their marriage to each other was arranged. They were very young and their parents strict so they never consummated their love but their feelings for each other were strong. So strong in fact that she never grew to love my father, in fact she hated him... and she hated me for being like him. I knew that in the night she disappeared she went back to her home to find her lover and they moved away together to some even more remote place. We found it eventually, me, Zuko, the Avatar and his friends. They were there to make sure I cooperated and didn't try to escape. However, as we were approaching their house I saw a little girl playing outside it, she had my eyes and similar hair."

"I'm really sorry to hear that. It must have been..."

"The knowledge that my own mother not only abandoned but replaced me. I couldn't bear it. I just knew in that moment that I never wanted to see that woman again in my life or hear her lying voice... so I used a moment of inattention by my enemies and ran. I ran as far and as fast as I could. They chased me but I hid. My brother shouted around for me, even begged me to stay and reconsider but I kept still. I eventually stowed away on a ship and made my way to the colonies, hoping to hide forever. The visions I had however, I couldn't escape. Not until I found Lao."

Zhurin listened. The story must have stirred some bad memories about her own parents as well, Azula could sense it. She then did something unexpected. She threw herself in her master's arms and hugged her. She hugged her back but said:

"It's OK. This old wound is long mended. Now please let me go, it's really inappropriate."

Zhurin reacted as she was told and let go. "I just wanted to..."

"Show compassion? I know, but manners matter too... I have something for you though that will make you happy. There is a letter from your brother, he's coming to visit."

Zhurin's entire being lit up in joy in an instant.

"I can't wait to see him again. There is so much I can tell him, so much I can show. I hope he will be proud of me."

"He will, I made sure of that after all."