Since I had the day free, I went along with Zuko and Iroh to the palace to help them serve tea to the king and to offer entertainment if he got bored. We wanted to make a good impression, after all. Iroh held the invitation rather proudly in his hand as we stopped to admire the grand scale of the palace as we stood before the front gates. "Many times I imagined myself here, at the threshold of the palace, but I always thought I would be here as a conqueror." Iroh mused softly, lost in reverie as he took in the rather overwhelming size and grandeur of the palace. "Instead, we are the Earth King's personal guests, here to serve him tea. Destiny is a funny thing."
"It sure is uncle." Zuko agreed, making me glance at him. He caught my eye for a moment then the both of us looked away, blushing slightly before following after Iroh. It was a little weird being together after what happened last night, but it didn't exactly change the way we were together. I'd teased him this morning about his hair as Iroh had tried to comb it back to make it look smart but it had refused to be tamed, and Zuko would quip back at me with a return, poking fun at my uniform which made me look like a palace maid.
It was light and cheerful banter, which was usual for us, but when it got quiet, that's when we felt the awkwardness. Thankfully Iroh was completely oblivious, so for the moment neither of us mentioned it and just carried on as normal. We were shown to one of the residences of the palace near the rear gardens where we were supposed to serve tea, so Iroh and I got to work making the best brew we could possibly make before we were ready to serve, but the Earth King was yet to show up.
We ended up waiting over an hour, which seemed a little rude of a king after he'd invited us all the way here. "What's taking so long?" Zuko looked around impatiently, starting to get a little twitchy as I boiled some more tea for me to drink since I was thirsty.
"Maybe the Earth King overslept." Iroh suggested before we all fell silent. Just then several strong looking guards entered so we all straightened, assuming that the Earth King would follow but then Zuko frowned, murmuring quietly to his uncle and I.
"Something's not right." No sooner were the words out of his mouth, a door opened and a figure walked into the room, one I had hoped to never meet again.
"It's tea time." Azula sneered mockingly, Zuko jumping to his feet in surprise to see his sister here in the Earth Kingdom palace of all places. Her eyes glanced over her brother and uncle, but then they honed in on me and I knew right there and then that I had a death mark hanging over my head. "You. I'll enjoy making you pay for what you did to me later. I must be quite lucky that you happened to come along with my dear brother and senile uncle." Okay, now that was a step too far. No on insults Iroh and gets away with it. Tossing her head, Azula then returned her focus to her relatives, smirking at them dangerously. "Have you met the Dai Li? They're earth benders, but they have a killer instinct that is so fire bender, I just love it!"
Oh we are so massively screwed, aren't we? Beside me Iroh poured himself a cup of tea and stood up as I remained knelt between them, poised ready to run as Zuko lowered a hand ready to shield me, already in a defensive stance whilst he faced his sister and her Dai Li agents. What were earth benders doing with a Fire Nation princess? It didn't make any sense. Was she that good at manipulating people? Scary. "Did I ever tell you how I got the nickname the 'Dragon of the West'?" Iroh questioned as he took a sip of tea, though Azula seemed uninterested as she inspected her fingernails and spoke in a dry tone.
"I'm not interested in a lengthy anecdote, uncle."
"It's more of a demonstration really." Quickly taking the hint, I grabbed the teapot and threw it at Azula as Iroh expelled a powerful blast of continuous fire from his mouth, like a breath of fire from a dragon whilst Zuko ducked behind him, standing back to back as they turned to attack the Dai Li agents. Meanwhile, the teapot flew at Azula but she blasted it with fire to smash it, just as I expected so just before the blast shattered it, I bent the water out of the lid and circled it around the fire to douse the princess's face with the boiling tea.
All at once she let out a scream as the water burned her face, distracting the Dai Li and giving the three of us time to escape as I quickly turned and rose to my feet, heading for the an exit to leave with Zuko and Iroh closely in tow, however Zuko grabbed hold of me and instead, blasted straight through a wall in order to break free, probably expecting all the obvious exits to be covered so we left that way. Iroh breathed another fire blast, covering our escape whilst Azula continued to scream in pain. Well, if she didn't want to kill me before, she definitely did now. Huh, maybe she'll have a scar to match her brother now, wouldn't that be apt?
When small rocks came hurtling after us I shrieked as they struck the wall, narrowly missing our heads as Zuko continued to pull me forwards, leading the way. Iroh used a bolt of lightning to break through the thicker, outer wall of the building which lead us to the back gardens. Pausing only a moment, Iroh jumped down first and landed on a bush, which didn't look exactly comfortable but between a large drop and an angry genocidal princess behind me, I think I'll take my chances with the bush. "Go!" Zuko encouraged, pushing me towards the edge before I jumped, holding my breath as I fell.
Surprisingly, the bush was very spongy and absorbed the impact of my body, cushioning me although it was a little scratchy, but at least nothing was broken. Quickly climbing out I dusted myself off from leaves as Iroh called up to Zuko, who was still standing at the gaping hole in the wall. "Come on. You'll be fine."
"No. I'm tired of running. It's time I faced Azula!" What? Is he crazy?! I just threw boiling water on her face, I doubt she'll be in any kind of reasonable mood.
"Zuko no! She'll kill you, get your butt down here!" I yelled after him but he'd already turned away. Cursing under my breath, I started to race forwards in order to get back in the building, afraid that Zuko was going to get himself killed but Iroh caught hold of my wrist and held onto me. "Let me go! Let me go Iroh, we have to help him!"
"There is nothing we can do now, there are too many of them and too few of us. We need help."
"That doesn't matter, we have to try! We can't just leave him in there. Let go of me!" Fighting him with everything I had, I almost managed to break free from Iroh's surprisingly strong grasp but when I felt a sharp and rather sudden pain at my neck, I saw a bright flash of light before I felt my body sink, falling unconscious from the blow. Damn it Iroh, that's totally unfair. I felt him catch my body and sling me over his shoulder, carrying me out of the gardens and escaping whilst I faded into blackness, my last thoughts for Zuko facing his crazy sister alone.
