"I have never been so exhausted in my entire life," Suki collapsed across a sofa, still muddy from working. Laith sat down beside her, equally tired and dirty. He put his head in his hands.

A massive tropical storm had hit the coast of Narnia the previous night. Cair Paravel had come through fine, barely even losing any roof tiles. The nearby port and fishing town hadn't been so lucky. The kings and queens had been out running relief all day. Suki and Laith had personally led the charge on search and rescue. Teo had run the medical and food tents as well as arranging and supervising setting up large tents for those whose homes had been damaged to sleep in.

Azula sat down quietly across from her sibling monarchs, drawn and pale. She'd spent most of the day building and maintaining large bonfires to warm people up and dry their belongings, as well as also being in charge of the fires in the food tent and purifying water, and none of that was even too tiring. Azula was honestly more tired from having to walk around and monitor all the fires than from having to keep them going. But then the evening came, and with it the bodies of the three narnians who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time last night and paid the price for it. The mermaids had needed to bring two of them back. The families had asked Azula to light the pyres. One of them had been a little girl, younger even than Azula had been when she came to Narnia. Her mother's weeping would haunt Azula for a long time.

"Well, now, what's all this?" Mrs. Beaver bustled in, older than when they first met but no less energetic, "Come on now, up you get! There's warm baths waiting for all of you, then after that a good meal and a good night's sleep. You'll feel much better in the morning. Come on, up you get!"

She gently chivvied them up and out of the room towards their private bathrooms. Laith placed a hand on Azula's shoulder as they walked.

"It'll get better," he said quietly, "With time. And for now, you'll feel better clean and fed."

"Thank you," Azula whispered back. She wasn't sure how anything was supposed to make this feel better, but a bath did sound nice. And maybe Mrs. Beaver was right. Maybe it'd really all feel better in the morning. Azula split off from the group when they passed her private washroom, a steaming bath already waiting for her as promised and her favorite pajamas laid out on a chair nearby. Time to get clean.