Azula supposes that mercies come in small forms; Seicho doesn't mention the night before. But that doesn't mean that it isn't still on her mind. That it isn't making her feel jittery and out of sorts.
Last night had been a fluke, that's what she swears to herself. It had to be. She had let Seicho hold her with a promise that it was a one off thing. And yet it had felt so warm, she hasn't felt warm in so long. Not since the last time TyLee had held her. She grits her teeth, Agni how she wishes she could purge the woman from her mind.
Purge TyLee and Seicho both.
How can she when she can still feel the weight of Seicho's arms around her? When she can still feel the flutters of...comfort? Whatever it had been, it had taken the edge off of her distress. For just a moment, with Seicho squeezing her perhaps a little too tightly, she had felt like things might be alright.
She had felt like she wasn't completely unlovable.
Though she can't shake the shame that comes with having been caught so vulnerable. Seicho has seen more than she should have. The woman is lucky that Azula has a volcano waiting for her, otherwise she would have to take her down.
She doesn't think that she could if she wanted to. The woman and her chatter are both so dreadfully annoying. And yet it is the only thing that interrupts her rather steady flow of dark and depressive thoughts.
Seicho pauses, puts her hands on her hips, and holds her chin high. "We made it!"
Azula tilts her head, she doesn't see the ruins.
"That was the steepest incline." Seicho clarifies. "It should be smooth sailing...hiking from here on out!" She slings her arm around over Azula's shoulders. "Just think, no more foot pain, no more sore calves."
Azula supposes that the prospect is nice. But she can't imagine that the throbbing that has already worked its way into her muscles will subside just because they are on flatter ground. She decides that she won't sully the woman's mood by saying as much.
.oOo.
Clever.
Cheerful, good spirited.
Resourceful.
TyLee would have never thought herself resourceful and spirits does it make her feel light and fluttery to hear it. Smart, she realizes. It makes her feel smart. To finally have a mind of her own and use it.
"You're a natural at this." Tayul winks.
"Guess we can't make any firebender in the snow jokes on this expedition." Keyhyun chuckles.
"You can!" TyLee giggles. "As long as I get to make earthbender jokes."
She looks at her handiwork, Tuya's shoes look good as new. An hour or so into their trek, the woman's crampons had snapped. She'd insisted that she would be perfectly fine without them, but the truth was that it had slowed her down significantly. She had no traction and her slipping and sliding wasn't ideal especially when they were nearing a formation that Natuk called 'the crevice'.
Tanak had brought them to a halt. The man had declared that he wasn't willing to approach the crevice with Tuya so unsteady on her feet. The murmur of disappoint met shimmered bleakly through everyone's auras. And guilt had stained Tuya's to an unbearable degree.
TyLee found herself looking all about the glacier and then her eyes had fallen upon a rock formation. "Keyhyun, can you earthbend new crampons for her? You can make the...uh…" she gestured to the bottoms of her own footwear.
"Soles?"
TyLee had nodded. "Soles! You can shape new soles that fit around her old ones and you can leave the rocks rough like spikes!"
It probably isn't the most ideal thing in the world, but Tuya treks on with as much speed and stability as before. Just as quickly as the disappointment had sullied their auras, it dissipated into delight.
And, in this moment, nothing is more delightful than the world around her. She has never seen anything like it at all in the Fire Nation. She had thought that her first step into the glacier had been thrilling. This...this is something new entirely. Something otherworldly! Something extraordinary enchanting! From floor to ceiling, everything is ice. It is perfectly polished and smooth along the walls of the frigid tunnel and bumpy like large, frozen bubbles on the ceiling. The ground is more or less rocky with patches of ice here and there, thicker in some spots than in others. It is slick and wet and rocky. The ice above, depending on thickness, comes in different shades of teal and blue and when enough light hits it, a glowing white. And when chatter comes to a stop, she can hear the glacier whispering to her. The hisses and pops of the ice all around speak to her like a forlorn spirit. It is haunting and mystifying all at once.
It has been like this for an hour now but she still isn't over its majesty. The world itself has an aura and it is clean as only ice and frost can be. Coming to the tower of icicles is nothing like she could ever hope to describe. She could go home and gush to Zuko about it right now but no words could convey just what looking at the structure induced in her soul. It is many tiered and glittering with a razorlike beauty. Like perfectly spread frosting on a well sculpted and baked cake. She wonders how it had come to take shape.
She closes her eyes and breaths the glacier in. Savors the cold. Listens to the ghostly hum of the tunnel.
She thinks that it is spiriting her trepidations away. Purifying and rejuvenating her aura. Spirits, she hadn't realized how grey her aura had become until the glacier touched it with its icy fingers.
.oOo.
The ruins are far less impressive than she had anticipated and she hadn't anticipated them being impressive to begin with. It is little more than a small, collapsed, and overgrown shrine. Jungle weeds and vines weep from its stony orifices. Tattered banners flap in the entry way while broken wind chimes clack against one another. Several of them have fallen to the floor and cracked in half.
"The spirits usually hang out by the statue." She points to an aged rock lionturtle. Moss crawls over its stone shell and creates green tears down its eyes.
'I don't see any.' She etches into the ground with a stick.
Seicho taps her chin. "Well I did spot them during a full moon. Maybe it needs to be a full moon? Or nightfall?"
Wind howls through the dilapidated doorway of the shrine.
"Or maybe they're inside?"
Azula shrugs and takes the first step towards the shrine. It isn't the weather that chills her so much as the atmosphere of the place. It is gloomy and dank as Mai. She scowls, even this place has more joy than Mai. Her face bunches at the face conjured in her mind.
Next to her Seicho shivers.
'Was it this dismal when you visited the first time?'
Seicho thinks for a moment. "I didn't get this close to it, I was watching the spirits from a distance so I never really got a feeling for their energy.
Just perfect. The woman has led her here not knowing what to expect. 'Spirits don't like me as it is, Seicho…'
"You'll be fine. It's not like they can steal your voice again."
'I still have working eyes and ears. I would like to keep those.' She wipes that message away. 'And besides, the one that took my voice isn't here.'
"How do you know!? We haven't even gone inside."
'Don't need to. Can't feel that spirit's energy.' She taps the stick before continuing. 'It had a distinct energy, I would know it.'
Seicho nods. "Well you don't want to go in and have a look around?"
Azula rolls her eyes. 'Do you make a hobby of making spirits angry?'
She chuckles. "You think that I have a hobby of making spirits angry? You're the one who can't…"
Azula scowls and her grip tightens around the stick, it nearly snaps and she very nearly chucks it at the woman. She keeps herself composed, at least somewhat. She tosses the stick aside with more force than she ought and turns back the way they came.
"Wait!" Seicho calls. "It was a joke, I was joking. It was a stupid joke."
Azula doesn't slow, she has wasted enough time anyhow. It is time to get to her real objective.
"Where are you going?" Seicho calls again, panting as she hastens her pace to catch up. "You really aren't going to try to see if the spirit that took your voice is in there?"
Even if she hadn't tossed her sticks she sees no point in explaining that she had never intended to find the damn thing at all. Instead she digs out her parchment and writes a heavy handed, 'go home.'
Seicho flinches. "We are."
'We aren't doing anything.' She is going to the volcano. Seicho's lower lip quivers and Azula has a decent feeling that the woman will be following her to the volcano. Decidedly, it is her own fault if she sees something that she can't handle.
"I was hoping that, maybe we can go to Chan's beach party. This expedition went a lot quicker than I thought it would…"
And yet it seemed to drag on and on for her.
"We can probably make it back on time to go. And this time I can walk you through it so it won't be as awkward."
She couldn't be any less interested. 'No.'
Seicho swallows. "Okay we can just, uh, stroll through the jungle."
'Leave me.'
Seicho shakes her head, she is getting teary eyed and Azula can't possibly imagine why.
'Fine, follow me.'
She fixes her eyes upon the volcano, it is much closer to the ruins than she had anticipated. At least she has that going for her.