"Are you sure you want to do this, Queen Azula?" One of the guards asked nervously, "He's not exactly… behaving." As if to punctuate this statement, a loud crash and a scream echoed from the room he was guarding.

Azula snorted slightly, "I didn't expect him to be. No concept of manners at all. Don't worry, he can't hurt me," she started to open the door, then paused, "Don't tell my fellow monarchs about this."

"Of course not, your majesty," Both guards bowed, then the door opened and closed behind her. She looked around and barely managed to restrain a sneer, lifting her skirts so they wouldn't drag in the vomit and sweat and splinters covering the floor. Rabadash sat on the other side of what had been a fairly decent guest room prior to him being placed there, looking rather unhinged.

Azula regarded him with distaste, "Hello, Rabadash."

He started and whirled toward her with wild eyes, "You!"

"Me," she agreed, "You've certainly made a royal mess out of everything, haven't you?"

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Rabadash snarled.

Azula raised her eyebrows at him, then looked around. Her gaze lingered significantly on the ruined furniture and puddles where he had induced himself to vomit like a small child, then on the chains he still wore on his wrists and ankles because he bit and kicked and spit at the guards who tried to take them off, and finally out the window, where there was a lovely view of the courtyard where the calormen soldiers who had been captured, which was most of them, were being held. Then she looked at Rabadash again.

"Why nothing at all," she said dryly, "I thought I would come and let you know that your sentencing will be taking place tonight, after dinner."

"Sentencing?" He cried in affront, but Azula ignored him.

"My fellow kings and queens are kinder than I. I have no doubt you'll come off better than you deserve," she said with a sneer.

"I thought you were meant to be merciful" Rabadash sneered back, "Just you wait, barbarian witch! I will have…"

Azula cut him off with a burst of flame. Rabadash shrieked and backpedaled frantically from the fire Azula held easily in her palms. She smirked at him.

"I could do anything to you, Rabadash," she told him with a smile, "Maim you, blind you, scar you for life, even kill you. I have all the power here. There is nothing you could do to stop me." She brought the flame almost to his face, watched him wince away as sweat beaded on his brow, "But I'm not going to." She put her fire out as Rabadash stared in confusion.

"You made a mistake, Rabadash," Azula told him conversationally, "In assuming 'merciful' meant weak, or biddable, or even kind. When I am said to have mercy what is meant is that I have restraint. Not that I expect you to understand the difference."

Rabadash stared at her, particularly her hands, in horror, and she snorted at him.

"As I said, your sentencing will take place after the rest of us have eaten," Azula told him, "My fellow rulers are wise, and kind, and so I will abide by their decision. But I warn you now, if you try to come back, if you attempt vengeance, if you so much as glance at my sister queen," Azula said threateningly, "I will no longer hesitate, and you will be nothing more than ash on the wind."

She swept out of the room, locking the door behind her. She nodded to the guards, then headed off to find her fellow monarchs. There was going to be a party tonight, and she didn't want to miss it.

"There you are Azula!" An arm wrapped around her shoulders and she smiled, letting her sister queen guide her back to the rest of the guests. Her sibling monarchs didn't understand, but that was okay. They didn't need to. Azula might not have liked the knowledge and skills she had learned from her father's court, but she would use them. For them.

Later on, Rabadash would wonder if he wouldn't have rather had the barbarian queen follow through with her threat.