3 - Ethereal

Mai wondered what she'd done, besides say she wanted to marry Zuko, to land herself in a boring magistrate's office.

Despite all the chaos she had caused throughout her life, she had never seen the inside of one before. She'd committed high treason, the type of crime she would have thought people would want to at least write down if not get all the juicy details of, but she'd gone straight from the scene of her crime to a jail cell, no pesky investigation or trial involved. She supposed that was either one of the perks of being nobility, or one of the downsides of going up against royalty. Maybe both.

Now that she was here, though, she decided that either things had significantly cooled down in this new 'age of law' that Zuko was so excited about, or her mother's tales of the fate of juvenile delinquents had been a tad exaggerated. There were no heads of notorious criminals on display, the instruments of torture for extracting confessions must have been moved to the basement, and the only desk in the room didn't look at all like an unholy alter awaiting the blood of the guilty. No wonder Azula had just bypassed the whole affair.

Still, at least this time Mai had a royal on her side. And against them-

Well, the table on the other side of the office, where the enemy (or other team or opposition or 'those traitors' as Zuko had called them) was supposed to be seated, was empty. The table where Mai and Zuko were making their heroic stand was very much occupied, in comparison, partially by Mai and Zuko themselves, but mostly by a team of those 'lawyers' he had been keeping in the basement. He had probably been waiting for an opportunity to unleash them on an unsuspecting populace. Zuko was overall fairly nice, but he did have his megalomaniacal moments.

The desk in front of them was also empty. When the magistrate came in and occupied it, as she'd been told by her cousin Manisha (who apparently was no longer a professional marriage prospect and now did law-things for Zuko) the proceedings would officially begin.

Mai eyed the empty table to her right again and wondered if this was like an Angi Kai, where if the enemy didn't show up, she and Zuko would win automatically. It might be the most boring kind of victory imaginable, but in this case it would get her closer to marrying Zuko, so she was willing to deal with the boredom.

Closer to marrying Zuko.

She was almost suspicious of how easily they had arrived at the agreement.

Both of them were scared. There was no doubt about that. Zuko leaping back and raising his hands in a guard position when the subject came up was pretty indicative. Mai herself was usually able to deny her own emotional state quite easily, but this time had been so difficult that she'd been reduced to a babbling explanation to try to get out of accidentally proposing. Somehow, though, it hadn't ultimately mattered. They'd both been able to agree that marriage was a common goal for them, especially marriage to each other, and then decided to keep things unofficial for a bit in the name of their own emotional safety.

They were actually working together to protect themselves from being hurt, while still moving forward to a brighter future.

Clearly, the relationship had entered into some very tricky new territory.

Not that Mai wanted to go back to the old way, where she and Zuko both hid their anxieties and let themselves get wound up until it all exploded in one or more angry arguments. Yes, that kind of thing was more 'interesting' and less 'boring' and blah blah blah some joke about her being an adrenaline junkie. But Mai had gotten very tired of relationship drama, and she wanted things with Zuko to work. She wanted to marry him. She wanted to admit to wanting to marry him. She wanted to be Fire Lady Mai, in spite of how it still sounded like a silly title to her, because it meant she'd be married to Zuko, who just so happened to be a Fire Lord.

All they had to do was allow themselves to keep becoming the kind of people they wanted to be.

And also kill these enemy lawyers or something.

Mai looked at the empty table again and whispered to Zuko, "Forfeiting is a thing in law battles, right?"

He frowned. "I'm not sure."

"Um." Manisha, sitting on his other side, leaned over and somehow contrived to aim her spectacles at Mai while bashfully locking her gaze firmly on the table surface. "Not- um, not exactly. With no one to- um, yes, defend the challenge, it will be easier for- well, for us. But we still have to- um, present our argument. Yes."

Mai couldn't believe what she was hearing. This was no Agni Kai. This was sniping. Someone unseen was throwing ethereal knives at her future marriage, and they weren't even close enough for her kick. Now she knew why Toph called her a lousy cheater whenever they sparred.

Manisha motioned to the magistrate's empty desk. "And the decision rests with-"

The door in the back of the room slid open, and Manisha startled so violently that her spectacles popped off her face. Mai plucked them out of the air for her and turned to see a man striding into the room.

He had a politician's smile - which made him look very foreign, because in the Fire Nation politicians rarely indulged in expression and when they did it was with very practiced scowls - and a head of dark hair that was almost but not quite untamed. And his robes were nearly as fancy as Zuko's, although with marginally less gold. He had no facial hair, which was odd for someone his age.

"Apologies," the man sang as he placed a leather case on the empty table. "I became engaged reading a most delightfully boring review that carried me languidly towards the realm of slumber, something I definitely intend to revisit later before my own nightly hibernation. Ah, Fire Lord!" He bowed, and Mai noted that it was a hair's breadth short of the minimal deference required outside of the throne room- but surely that couldn't have been purposeful. "So good of you to give your direct attention to this matter."

Zuko stood up and nodded his acknowledgment. "I take it that you're Advocate Caldera Yu Sung Saikit? And you're representing-"

"A client. Who, I'm disappointed to say, wishes to remain nameless and thoroughly detached from even the legal affairs in which he - and I use that most handy pronoun generally, not with the intention to disqualify our many honorable women in the Caldera - takes an interest."

Mai thought she was protected from view by Zuko's body, so she rolled her eyes at the cowardice of their enemy. However, Saikit leaned around to look straight at her and said, "Ah, this must be Lady Harbor Yu Mai."

She kept her face expressionless and rose to her feet. A slight incline of her head was all the greeting she felt the need to provide.

Saikit, though, kept smiling. "I have heard so much about you, my dear, and some of it has even been good, which is quite to your credit in a place like the Caldera. A pleasure, truly a pleasure. The Fire Lord is very lucky, as you have such lovely- ah-"

His smile faltered and his gaze began a dance that Mai knew well. It started with her lips, looking for a smile he could compliment, but all she gave him was a flat thin line that absolutely refused to be seen in public with compliments. He next went to her eyes, but they were the kind of eyes that cared so little about other people that they refused to settle on an identifiable color, instead covering a range from yellowish-gray to orange-gold depending on the lighting, her mood, and the price of rice in the Earth Kingdom. The gaze then went to her hair, which was indeed lovely and worthy of every compliment that people could form for it, but the gaze went a bit flat as its master realized that offering flattery for a woman's hair by itself was difficult without sounding creepy.

Thankfully, Saikit's tour of her features stopped with her head, since he was old enough to be her father. He picked up with, "You are quite lovely. Yes, quite lovely, a true flower of the Fire Nation, level of pollen yet to be determined."

Mai thought about indulging in a smirk and perhaps some polite-sounding insults, but another door slid open, and the magistrate bobbed his way over to his desk. "Ah, good, everyone is here. We can begin then." He bowed so low that his forehead pressed against the desk surface. "Fire Lord Zuko, you honor my office with your presence."

Zuko nodded back. "Magistrate Lee. Thank you for so quickly accommodating my request."

"Ah, yes, of course, of course. Lord Saikit, good to see you again. Everyone please be seated, please be seated." Magistrate Lee took his own position behind the desk. Mai took note of the way he tapped his fingers against its surface. "I shall begin by noting that this is not a trial, not a trial. I am merely facilitating an arbitration session to allow the Fire Lord and his (unofficial) intended to respond to the challenge of their marriage filing." He looked to Zuko. "It is, ah, unusual for a Fire Lord to be involved in legal matters such as this. Dictating laws, yes, obviously you'd be involved in that. Overturning laws, of course, is one of your unique powers. Even enforcing the laws is something I've seen Fire Lords take to with some enthusiasm. Hm, some enthusiasm. But- ah- actual proceedings have never attracted such high-level attention before. Do you understand?"

Zuko blinked. "No. Is my being here a problem? I'm acting as a man interested in marriage, not as the Fire Lord."

Magistrate Lee clasped his hands together. "Hm, no, no problem. No problem. But usually the laws serve the Fire Lord; the Fire Lord doesn't serve the laws. So having you here, see, can perhaps have the effect of being personally upsetting. My assistant wound up with a case of the vapors when he heard you were coming, and I had to send him home to recover. So you see the issue."

Zuko blinked again. "I'm- not sure I do?"

As Magistrate Lee made more Hm's and Ah's continued using a lot of words to say nothing, Mai looked over at Saikit. The advocate was resting in what looked like quite a bit of comfort, a sharp contrast to the magistrate.

Mai frowned. The only sharp contrasts she liked were the ones at the edges of her sharp knives.

Then she realized she was still holding Manisha's spectacles. She angled around Zuko's back and held them out to her cousin, who gave a grateful if shaky smile and leaned over to take them. Mai took the opportunity to whisper, "Please get things started. They'll go back and forth all day."

Manisha blinked, blushed, sniffled, and nodded. She put her spectacles back on and straightened in her seat again. A nod to one of the other lawyers got her a piece of paper handed in return, which she slid over onto the Magistrate's desk.

Manisha said, "Since there are no problems with the Fire Lord's attendance today, I am submitting a request for the full extent of Advocate Saikit's challenge to be disclosed."

Magistrate Lee looked over the paper and then placed it in a tray on the desk. "Granted. Saikit, would you like to briefly explain?"

"Indeed, magistrate, it would give me no end of pleasure, but perhaps several sequels." Saikit glanced at them all and raised his hands in a helpless gesture. "I tremble to trouble you with it, but in the Fen An era's Treaty of Ulaanbaatar, Fire Lord Usun granted to the nobility a restriction, that no member of the royal family can marry a criminal who has not completed their sentence. The history behind such a thing is quite fascinating, but I will spare you the educational series and take a graceful leap out of the past to modern days, when the Fire Lord filed his intention to marry a criminal woman who has not yet completed her life sentence, on account, primarily, of still having a pulse."

Mai sighed. "We're talking about Azula at the Boiling Rock, aren't we?"

Saikit gave a shrug and pulled a sheet of paper out of his leather satchel. "I have here copies of both Lady Mai's intake and discharge papers from the Boiling Rock, including the sentencing from Princess Azula of the imprisonment terms. Specifically, the wording is, 'Let them rot.' And yet the health assessment upon their release, signed by the warden himself, indicates generally good condition of both Ladies Mai and Ty Lee, implying the lack of any rot. A fairly clear case, I feel, especially since no direct amendment or overturning of the sentencing was ever officially filed."

Zuko slapped the table, making Manisha jump. "Mai was released when my crowning was announced! She's not a criminal; she saved my life!"

Mai put her hands on Zuko's shoulder and tried to draw the tension out of his body the way one of his jokes could draw all the fun out of the room. Amazingly, it worked, as she felt Zuko relax and take a deep breath. Taking advantage of the lull, she said, "So since I'm not rotting and don't plan to begin any time soon, all we need is some kind of paperwork that says Azula's hissy fit isn't valid anymore? Right?"

Manisha produced a sheet of paper from her own satchel. "Um, naturally I brought the official documentation of the results of the Agni Kai match between Fire Lord Zuko and Princess Azula, witnessed and certified by the High Sage of the Caldera Temple. As is standard for such matches, any actions taken against each other - by themselves and their agents – are retroactively made an officially part of a succession conflict, and so are not subject to regular laws. Lady Mai acted on behalf of Zuko to save his life, making her his agent. So Azula's orders were never valid as a sentencing, meaning that Mai was never a criminal."

Magistrate Lee accepted the paper and began reading it.

He was taking his time, so Mai moved Zuko so that he was leaning back and giving her a clear view of her cousin. "You just happened to have that paperwork on you?"

Manisha hunched her shoulders. "Um. Yes. I brought- um, I brought copies of all your, um, important records. I can also- um, also prove that you were born. Yes."

Well, if it ever came down to proving that she actually existed, they were apparently covered. Mai did her best to keep the sarcasm out of her voice and replied, "You're very thorough."

Magistrate Lee finally nodded. "Yes, this appears to be in order. In order. Of course, my staff will have to verify that all the related document was indeed filed correctly, but I think this will resolve the issue. Saikit?"

Saikit bowed his head. "I think that answers things nicely, yes. I will be sure to advise my client of this, but as his acting proxy in these matters by order and the ridiculous amount of money I'm charging, I affirm that this appears to satisfy the original concern."

Huh. Mai had expected this to be a lot harder. If it was all just a matter of letting the lawyers throw paper at each other, she and Zuko could have skipped this whole thing. She looked to Zuko, and found him smiling at her. She could read the warm intentions in his eyes and moved into receive a kiss-

"While, we're all here, though," Saikit lilted, "I have been enlisted by a different client about an alarming matter that has recently emerged regarding Lady Harbor Yu Mai's arrest for trespassing, breaking and entering, assault of a guard, and - worst of all - mockery of royal edicts. An audience with the Fire Lord has, officially, not yet resulted in a sentencing-"

Zuko whipped his head around to look at Saikit and growl.

"-which, er, I hasten to add is very wise of him considering the delicate nature of the case," Saikit stammered.

Zuko tried to stand up, but Mai grabbed his shoulder again and kept him seated. Her stomach was clenching in on itself in an attempt to hide from the fact that none of that matter should have gotten around quick enough for a controversy to start over it, but more important than her own discomfort was keeping Zuko from doing something entirely in character for him. She moved her head to catch his gaze and said, "Hey, it will be fine. You can just give me a light sentencing, and then we'll be fine."

"Ah, a most clever and logical plan." Saikit gave her a jaunty salute. "I'm sure the Fire Lord will be able to navigate the punishments outlined for your list of crimes and find something that satisfies the mandates while minimizing any actual inconvenience to you, which I'm equally sure the nobility will take note of. I feel terrible about bringing it up, but it's so much better to work through these things via official channels, so that everyone can see the Fire Lord obeying the laws he expects his subjects to also give consideration to."

Magistrate Lee was glancing back and forth between Zuko and Saikit, and in Mai's opinion he was looking exactly the right amount of worried. "Ah, if that will be all, if that will be all, then-"

"Well," Saikit interrupted, "if you're so generously continuing to offer you services, I do happen to have a few related matters to address. Naturally, given my skill, charisma, and sterling reputation, I have quite a few clients who wish to pay me for my services, and I am professionally pleased to be able to act on their wishes here and now on matters that just so happen to touch on - quite tangentially, I assure you - the topics of discussion."

This time, when Zuko tried to stand up, Mai let him. His hands formed steaming fists at his sides. "What are you trying to pull?"

Saikit bowed his head low. "Your Majesty, I am but a humble servant to my clients. They have- concerns. If I did not bring them to the magistrate's attention, I assure you others would, and they would perhaps not be so clear and impartial as I strive when my nation's well-being is on the line. And I must say that some of their allegations are quite concerning."

"Allegations?" For the first time since Mai had started wearing knives under her clothes, she felt completely unarmed. Even in the Boiling Rock, she'd collected loose bolts and other handy little throwable objects in case she decided to kill every guard in the entire structure. But how could she fight against this?

Saikit's expression was somewhere between a grin and a grimace, a kind of grinace. "When Princess Azula fomented that little dishonorable plot of hers a while ago - the one with the fake spirits and the real child-kidnappings and overall attempt to undermine the citizen's confidence in our Fire Lord - it seems there were a number of witnesses who can tie you to the activities of the treasonous 'New Ozai Society.' I believe your father was their leader-"

Now Mai was standing, too. "What witnesses?" Yes, she had tried to navigate the tricky path between helping Zuko and not sending her own parent to prison or worse, but that had all been done in private, and as soon as the full scope of Father's poor judgment was revealed, she'd turned on him like a bottle of milk in a leaky ice-box.

"Well, I don't know myself, of course, as I am only handling the legal proceedings for my clients. But the clients themselves, being prestigious and honorable men - and women! - of Caldera society, have been contacted by these concerned citizens and will be filing charges against you based on their testimony." Saikit took another piece of paper out of his satchel and handed it over to the magistrate. "I am hereby requesting a hold on all marriage applications submitted for Lady Harbor Yu Mai and Fire Lord Zuko until these allegations can be investigated and - I'm sure - be completely dismissed for the mistaken impressions they are."

It was just like Zuko's fangirl brigade, only instead of nasty jealous insults and rotten cabbage, Mai was being bombarded with legal nonsense. They were trying to make her out to be a traitor, were trying to have her thrown back in prison, all because she dared to love and be loved by the Fire Lord. It was terrible, but it was perfectly in keeping with how awful people were. She should-

Wait.

No, that wasn't what this was.

Mai, above all else, was a fighter. Not a warrior; that was a much fancier job that involved honor and duty and putting life on the line for such worthy causes as preventing a stupid Water Tribe boy and a sassy blind Earthbender from rescuing an incontinent bear from Fire Nation control. What made Mai a fighter, instead, was that she only fought when she when it was actually important, and when she did fight, she only used tactics that were concerned with both winning and surviving. Which meant she often did things that had true warriors call her 'cheap.'

And she recognized this tactic.

It was strange, and ethereal, and legal, but her instincts were telling her that she at the center of an attack she called a 'knife storm.' It involved filling the air with sharp metal aimed at her opponent, but not with the intent of actually hitting. The sole purpose was to distract, overwhelm, and emotionally destabilize. It didn't matter if none of those knives actually drew blood; the storm would still leave her opponent flustered and in a bad position.

She gave a long, evaluating look at Saikit. "And I bet once we clear that up, you'll have more concerned clients? After all, you're apparently a pretty popular law-guy."

Saikit's own gaze focused and narrowed on her. "You, my dear, are as perceptive as you are - generally, and without any callout to any specific feature - lovely."

She took Zuko's hands - his steaming fists - into her own. "Come on, let's get out of here. Let the paper-benders do their thing."

Zuko let her lead him away. "Why? What are we going to do?"

Mai leaned over to whisper in his ear, "Something I don't think I'm allowed to let the lawyers hear."

TO BE CONTINUED