The first thing Suyin learned about life on the ship was that she did not like it one bit. As soon as they left the port, she discovered that sea legs were neither a useless skill, nor an inherent one - and certainly one that she did not possess. Not yet, at least, she tried very much to remain positive and convince herself that it was only a matter of time, and that before long she, too, would be able to traverse the rocking ship without any issue.
The first three days she spent mostly hunched over the side of the ship, retching her guts out and returning what little food she managed to eat back to the ocean. It didn't leave her with much time to do anything else, though of course she forced herself to attend to her duties.
"Here," one of the sailors - a greying man with kind eyes - had told her early on that first day, when the sickness first overcame her, and held something out for her to take. "Suck on this. Ginger root. It'll help dispel the nausea."
Suyin had nearly cried with gratitude. He showed her how small a piece she should carve off of the root, and enunciated that she ought to suck on it only, for swallowing it could make her sicker still. And that, unfortunately, it would take a few days for it to work, but that if she remained consistent with it, it would help her feel better, and hopefully soon. It tasted bitter and terrible and completely unlike the sweet ginger tea she sometimes drank, or the pickled ginger they often had as a side for meals. Raw ginger root was nasty, but no matter how much Suyin loathed it, she'd take it over her nausea any day - and so she braved it.
Azula, on the other hand, did not seem affected by the sea at all, and Suyin almost hated her for it. Was it really too much to ask that the princess share in her misery? That she did not have to suffer alone? Everyone else on the ship had no issue - they were all seasoned sailors who were long since used to these conditions. Even the Ladies Lo and Li, having grown up on Ember Island, were used to sea voyages. And Princess Azula - well, was there anything that she could not do? She'd had her fair share of sea voyages as well, even at such a young age, and was clearly well used to it already, leaving Suyin as the only greenhorn. Worse yet was that Azula looked at her in her sickness with an expression of both pity and amusement.
So Suyin wasn't particularly enjoying the journey so far. She almost regretted it, in all honesty, but she knew that even if they could turn around and drop her off at the palace after all, asking for such a thing would also mean giving up her job. And so she didn't exactly have any other option - the only way out of this dreadful situation was to get through it.
But by the third day of the journey she was beginning to get used to it. Maybe it was all thanks to the ginger root, which she sucked on religiously, or simply a matter of getting used to it, but either way, she was glad of it. It certainly made her job of attending to the princess much easier - she'd had to reapply her makeup three times on that second day, when the rocking of the ship made her hand shake too much to draw clean, sharp lines. Azula's patience had started to run thin, though she didn't yet snap at her, and Suyin spent what time she didn't spend doubled over the ship hull, practising the makeup on herself - washing it off and reapplying it until she grew confident in her skills.
It was strange, though, attending to the princess here. On one hand, nothing at all had changed, for Suyin still performed all her usual duties: dressing her and bathing her and doing her hair. She tidied her room more, as well, for there were no other maids to do so. Essentially, nothing had changed in the slightest, but simply being away from their usual environment was- well, weird.
Strangest yet was how far away they slept from each other. For the past half a year, Suyin had been sleeping in her room adjacent to the princess', so close that she was practically on the other side of the wall, and would easily hear her should she call out to her. She hadn't particularly felt anything about that all this time, one way or another, but now that she was no longer so close, she felt… empty. It had almost been a comfort of sorts, knowing that Azula was so close. Not that Suyin had ever approached her for comfort, but she'd liked it either way.
Now there was a corridor separating them. The princess had the grandest room on the ship, with a bed almost as impressive as the one she had back in the palace. The room was smaller than the one she had back home, of course, but it was still twice as large as Suyin's handmaid's quarters in the palace. It was certainly nothing to complain about.
Suyin had been given a small cabin a few doors down. It just barely fit the bed, and contained one chest of drawers in which she could put her belongings, and that was it. Hardly luxurious, but she was only glad that she had a bed, rather than a hammock, and that she had a whole room to herself, rather than having to share with anyone. At least she had some privacy this way. She knew that Captain Ihn had his own cabin, and that Lo and Li shared one and of course the princess had one as well, but apart from that, the rest of the soldiers - men and women alike - slept together in one big room below the deck. And Suyin was incredibly grateful that she hadn't been put down there with the rest of them. Being the princess' handmaid certainly had its perks.
In any case - it was weird, being so far away from Azula. It didn't really make a difference in the grand scheme of things, for she still got up early and made herself presentable before even starting with the princess, but she didn't like having two doors between them, instead of just one. She couldn't place her finger on what it was that gave her such unease about this entire situation. It must have been simply because she'd grown so used to it - six straight months of it, at that. Anyone would have grown used to it, she thought. It was no wonder she missed their proximity, Suyin told herself.
Life on the ship was rather slow, at least for now. Once Suyin was finished with being sea-sick, she found that there really wasn't much to do. Azula spent a lot of time training, or pouring over the contents of books far too complicated for Suyin to understand. Sometimes, the sailors would play music in the evening. Those nights were nice, and full of merriment, although Azula rather sat to the side and observed them without much input, or missed out on them entirely, opting, instead, to study. But Suyin was more than welcome to spend her free time as she liked, and so she joined them for such merry evenings if only she had the chance.
The soldiers were nice. They were all mostly kind to Suyin, but though she could speak with just about anyone in a friendly manner, there was no spark of actual friendship anywhere. That was a bit of a shame, for she was rather starved of friendship on this ship with Linhua and Chiyo and Lian all gone, but it was alright. It had to be. She'd take this luke-warm friendship over malice any day.
It took three long, restless weeks, but finally, they arrived. They'd had a good handful of stops on the way there, to replenish their supplies and to allow Azula and her crew to do some scouting and gathering information about their targets' whereabouts, but finally they were here. Agni knew how Azula tracked them down, and so quickly at that, for this small Fire Nation village truly seemed like the middle of nowhere to Suyin. What Prince Zuko and General Iroh were doing here, of all places, was just as great a mystery, but Suyin supposed they probably didn't want to be found. That was one explanation, at least.
The half hour or so when Azula was away felt like the longest in Suyin's life. They'd docked the ship, and Azula had descended and left to meet Prince Zuko and General Iroh - alone. The captain had protested (clearly, he considered it his responsibility to bring the princess back home safe and sound and whole), and Suyin had protested right along with him, but Azula had insisted on going out to meet them alone. She said she would only gauge the situation, and not involve herself in any physical conflict if she could help it. That she wanted to at least try to resolve this with as little violence as possible.
Even so, Suyin worried. She stood by the ship's railings, watching the landscape intently for smoke - or for any other sign of firebending, of potential conflict. But there was nothing, and so she tried to draw comfort from that fact, difficult as it was with that droning emptiness making each minute feel like an hour.
But finally Azula returned, looking entirely unharmed, and not at all dishevelled. However, she returned alone, without either Prince Zuko or General Iroh.
"Did you find them?" Suyin couldn't help herself from blurting the question out before Azula even spoke to her - she was too excited.
"I did." Azula sent her a pleased smile. "I told Zuko that Father wants him to come home. He ate it up, but I'm afraid my uncle suspects there's something more to this. I told them to think it over and give me their decision tomorrow. If all goes well, they'll come to us of their own accord, and we'll take them back quietly, like lambs to the slaughter."
"That's- good." Or so Suyin thought, at least. She'd been expecting their new guests to arrive now, with Azula, but she supposed this was a much better strategy. If they were patient, then this entire ordeal could blow over without any actual conflict… That is, until the very last possible moment, when they were back in the Fire Nation.
Azula clapped her hands together. The sharp sound was surprisingly loud, reverberating in the open of the sea's vast landscape. She stood, now, at the head of the ship, and the soldiers immediately lined up in two perfectly formed lines, bowing before the princess, awaiting her incoming announcement.
"Listen up!" Azula called out. Her voice reverberated on the vast openness of the sea.
"Tomorrow, my brother and uncle will make a decision. I have told them that the Fire Lord wishes them to come back home, and so we must do our best to make it seem like so. If they realise what is truly going on… well then, we will fall back onto an offensive strategy. But let us hope that it doesn't come to that. You may have mixed feelings about lying to and attacking members of the royal family - trust me, I understand." Azula's voice took on a bitter edge before hardening once more, "But if you hesitate, I assure you I will not hesitate to bring you down."
She paused here, and let her gaze sweep over all the men under her command. "Am I understood? You will all treat my brother and uncle not as prisoners, but as respected members of the royal family. This is of utmost importance. They must not realise our true intentions."
"Yes princess!" The chorus of voices came together as one.
Pleased, Azula dismissed them, and she now turned to Suyin, who stood off by her side. "This goes for you as well, Su. You won't be attending to them, obviously, but you must play your part as well as everyone else here. I assigned two soldiers to act as attendants for my brother and uncle. They don't have the experience serving royalty in day to day affairs, obviously, so you will direct them on how to play their role, if it ever comes to that."
"Oh- yes, of course. I can do that." Suyin nodded. She'd speak to the two faux manservants before their guests boarded their ship, though she couldn't imagine she had much wisdom to share with them. It was, essentially, just busy work with which the royals often could not be bothered with - there was little actual skill to it, in Suyin's opinion. But she'd help out however she could.
Keeping the secret, on the other hand… That would certainly be more of a challenge. Suyin prayed she wouldn't have to spend too much time with them, so that at least she would not have many opportunities where she could mess this up. She was only a servant, after all. Maybe she could avoid speaking to them entirely, even on this three week long journey. She'd surely die of shame if they found out what was truly going on because of her. She'd certainly lose her job for it, too. Thankfully, she'd never been one to speak without any thought, opting, instead, to mull over her words first. Maybe she could manage. She had to. If there was even a small slip up, this entire mission would go straight down the drain.
Suyin wrung the water out of Azula's hair. She was absolutely soaked, and was still dripping a sizable puddle onto the floor of her cabin on the ship. Suyin would have to clean that up, later, too, but at the moment she was focused on getting the princess out of her wet clothes as quickly as possible. She peeled them off of her, letting them drop to the floor to be picked up later.
"Really! How incompetent can one man be?" Azula seethed as Suyin worked. "It was going so well, Brother and Uncle came willingly, and then that idiot ruined everything. I can't believe anyone would be so stupid! I'm rather suspecting treason, and that that so-called mistake was actually a purposeful warning."
Although the princess had just emerged out of the icy sea waters after her uncle had pushed her off the ship, she wasn't shivering. And now that she was out of her soaked clothes, she used her firebending to warm herself up, and to dry her skin. Her hair was still wet, though, and clung to her face and neck and down her back messier than Suyin had ever seen it before. She wrapped it in a towel and worked on dressing the princess in clean, dry clothes.
The plan hadn't worked. That is, not entirely. Just as Azula had said, the men had come willingly, believing that they were truly wanted home, until Captain Ihn misspoke and allowed that one damning word to slip through his lips- take the prisoners home.
"Do you really think it was on purpose?" Suyin asked.
"Oh, I don't know." Azula rolled her eyes, "Maybe he really is that dumb. Either way, I should have him executed."
Suyin nearly choked on her own saliva. "But- the ship needs a captain."
Azula sighed and rubbed her temples. "I know, that's the only reason why I haven't done so yet. Tell me, Su, what would be an appropriate punishment for that fool's blunder?"
Suyin frowned. Was Azula just playing a game with her? Toying with her? Or was she actually looking for an answer? She rather doubted the princess needed help thinking of something, so she suspected it was the first. She motioned for Azula to sit down on the edge of her bed while she knelt in front of her and put on her stockings. Maybe she could at least turn Azula away from the idea of execution.
"I don't know. Perhaps... once we return home, imprisonment?" A parallel to what Zuko and Iroh were meant to go through - and what he'd messed up with his slip up. It certainly felt fitting to Suyin, and at least the poor man would keep his life.
Azula laughed. "How poetic. I like it."
The sound of her laughter made Suyin relax. It seemed that at least some of the tension from before had disappeared, and she couldn't be happier about that. And though Suyin wouldn't say she was fond of the man, she'd grown somewhat attached to Captain Ihn. She certainly didn't want him dead. And, if Azula was so open to her alternate idea - it seemed as though she didn't exactly want him dead, either. That was a little bit of a surprise, for Suyin knew that Azula didn't exactly like Captain Ihn, and that they'd had a few conflicts throughout their journey already, but she supposed that even her dislike of him wasn't enough to wish death upon him. Or so she hoped.
That, and it surprised Suyin that the princess actually took her suggestion into consideration. She wouldn't have thought Azula to look for advice from other people, much less from her , a servant. Did she really trust her so much? Value her input? Suyin didn't exactly believe it, but still - it sent a certain warmth blooming in her chest.
"In any case, I have a feeling that these men will only slow me down in the future. I made the mistake of relying on them once, and I won't allow it to happen again."
"Surely you don't mean to capture Prince Zuko all on your own? He's going to be on the run now, and he'll certainly put up a fight-" Suyin worried.
"No, of course not. I need to assemble a small, elite team, made of people I can rely upon." Azula sent her a pointed smile, "And I know exactly where to find them."