"Once upon a time, a noble lady thought she would marry the lord of the land. She grew up to be beautiful, smart, and charming. Then, one day she met a man who had but one title, and she fell in love." Ta Min brushed out the long strands of her daughter's hair. The small girl played with a doll as she sat patient.
"Mama, will I have to marry the Fire Lord?" She asked and Ta Min chuckled.
"You are the daughter of the Avatar. You can marry whomever you please."
"Once upon a time, the daughter of a man with one title, courted by the Fire Lord, married a small town magistrate." Rina said as she braided her daughter's hair.
"Mama, will I have to marry the Fire Lord?" She asked and Rina chuckled.
"You are my daughter. You can marry whomever you please."
"Once upon a time, a small nobleman's daughter married the Fire Lord." Ursa said as she tossed bread to the turtleducks. Her son sat next to her and rested his head on her chest.
"And she lived happily ever after?" He asked. Ursa smiled sadly, though at four her son could only see a smile, and hugged him.
"The moment she became a mother, she did."
Zuko and Ty Lee ran to the carriage house. The one that had carried Ty Lee from the prison was still hitched and Zuko commanded the driver to return to his post. The pair jumped into the carriage and took only a moment to catch their breath.
"Did she say anything else?" Zuko asked her as the carriage lurched forward. Ty Lee shook her head and swallowed.
"No. Only that she had what you wanted."
"Did Ozai say anything?" Ty Lee shook her head and Zuko swore.
"Zuko, the way your sister talks about your mother, she sounds like she's still alive." Ty Lee said hopefully. Zuko scoffed and turned to look out the small window.
"To Azula, our mother is an ever present ghost." Zuko went quiet as he thought. Growing up, he remembered very little of his family ever being together. There were faint memories of a tiny Azula, Zuko's own small hands being held by Lu Ten's pudgy one, or how Iroh would be the one to bring his mother tea.
In those early days, his father was rarely there. The only times Zuko could remember him were when they were presented to his grandfather, so the children were formally dressed and usually crying, having been pinched or slapped by a nurse for fidgeting too much. Both of his parents would kneel and their faces would be blank.
When Azula started to show promise of being an excellent firebender, that was when she started to be drawn away for private lessons. Sometimes those lessons would be with their father, but Zuko did not remember ever being jealous. He had his mother and often was scared by his father's icy stare.
He remembered that whenever he was around Azula, that she had become meaner, and her cruelty now had a honed edge to it. He remembered how she mocked their uncle after Lu Ten died, or how she coldly remarked on their grandfather's decrepit aging.
And Zuko had been coddled, shielded by his mother's robes from more than just his father's cruelty. Why else would he have yearned for the approval and love of a man who saw his children as pawns? He had never been allowed to see his father for what he truly was until after his mother's disappearance. Really, until the moment he was burned.
What had childhood been like for Azula? Why, now, was she as obsessed with their mother as Zuko was?
"So what is the plan?" Ty Lee's voice shook him from his thoughts and Zuko turned to her.
"It depends on what she wants." Zuko sighed and rubbed his face. "I know this is going to blow up in my face somehow. I just want to mitigate the explosion."
"Do you really think your own family is out to get you?" Zuko simply stared at her till Ty Lee turned her face out the window.
They passed the rest of the ride in silence, and Zuko's nerves mounted. By the time they reached the prison, most of his muscles were held rigid in fearful anticipation. He wished Katara was there, but didn't want to think of her being a target again.
As they walked into the building, Zuko felt Ty Lee slowly begin to walk closer to him. The stone stairwells were dark and oppressive and at times even he felt claustrophobic.
"It's so quiet." Ty Lee whispered, looking forward at the back of one of the guards that flanked them. "How many people are in here?"
"Quite a number actually. Mostly people who tried to kill me."
"Blazes it must suck to be you." Ty Lee said flippantly and Zuko chuckled.
"You have no idea."
They reached the shared cell and the pair waited as the guard in front of them unlocked the heavy metal door. Inside were two more guards, each wearing the full face plate helmets. Inside the cage, Azula and Ozai were each in their separated rooms. As they entered, Ozai kept his back to the door but Azula stood and hooked her fingers in the chain linked wall.
"Zu-Zu!" She cried energetically and Zuko fought down the urge to cringe. "I have a present for my big brother." Her voice took on a sing-song quality and Zuko let out a breath.
"What do you want Azula?" He asked as he approached the cage. Azula made her way from her sectioned off room to the shared space. Their father did not move.
"I have something to show you. But it's in the palace." She said and approached the cage door. "So let me out."
"Just tell me where it is Azula." He replied and Azula once again clutched the metal wall.
"Get me out of here Zuko." Her voice lowered and her eyes narrowed, but Zuko only shook his head.
"I'm not stupid enough for that." Azula's nostrils flared and her knuckles went white as she gripped the metal links.
"I have something you want. You have to let me out."
"You're not even telling me what this mysterious thing is. I'm not letting you out Azula." Without a thought, Azula took in a breath and opened her mouth wide. Zuko anticipated the flames that spewed from her mouth and easily dispelled them into the air. He moved in a fluid way, curling the blue fire around his body before scattering it.
As Azula heaved, Zuko looked at her with bored eyes.
"They're letters." A voice from the back suddenly floated up to them. "Your mother's letters." Azula flinched as though the words hurt her, and Zuko found himself staring at his father's back.
"Where are they?"
"Your sister knows where they are." Zuko signalled the guards and looked at Ty Lee.
"Restrain her." He said and Ty Lee nodded.
The guards burst into the cage and Ty Lee followed quickly, jabbing her hands to various parts on Azula's body. Before his sister could react, she suddenly slumped into the arms of one of the guards.
"Cover her and get her into the carriage." Zuko said and turned sharply on his heel. As he walked out, he could hear his sister weakly struggle against the guard that had followed them, as he put a canvas bag over her head.
Once in the carriage, Zuko stared at Azula. Her covered head leaned against the wall and her hands were bound, laying in her lap. She whimpered softly over every bump and jostle. He didn't know if her pathetic mewling was an act, or a state to which she had severely degraded.
As they got to the palace, they maneuvered the carriage to a back access - there was always a secret access - and swiftly moved Azula inside. Zuko wanted to avoid his friends just as much as he wanted to avoid the public. Inside, Zuko pulled off the canvas bag but kept Azula's hands bound. She had begun to sweat under the bag and her hair stuck to her face like cracks in porcelain. She made no move to fix it but Zuko ordered a guard to get her a cup of water.
Chang returned with the cup.
"Why aren't you with Katara?" He asked as Chang assisted Azula with the cup. As the prisoner drank, Chang looked over at Zuko.
"I thought I would do better here." She replied and took the cup when Azula had drained it.
"The water bitch is here?" Azula questioned and Zuko sighed.
"Where are the letters Azula?"
"In father's room." She said primly and now Zuko shuddered. He had had that room sealed off the day he took up residence in the palace, having no intention of ever sleeping in his father's old rooms.
The group - Zuko, Azula, Ty Lee, Chang, and two guards - made their way through the family wing to Ozai's rooms. Without a word, a guard went to the door and unlocked it from a set of keys they carried at their side. The doors opened and Zuko was hit by the smell of dust and disuse. He strode inside and threw fire at the wall sconces, giving a little light to the oppressive room.
Everything was black and red. The massive bed was carved from large, ebony timber and polished to a high sheen. The linens, smelling faintly of mildew and age, were spun from silk and dyed a deep crimson. The floors were tiled with black stone and covered in red carpets. Light that sputtered from the walls was drawn into these colors and the room was cast in shadow.
"Can't bear to sleep here Zu-Zu?" Azula asked as she waltzed into the room.
"It's not like father moved into grandfather's rooms after he died."
"No, but did you know these rooms used to be Uncle's?" Zuko pulls his lips into a thin line and stayed silent. He remembered when his father had been named the next heir, they had been moved to new rooms. He had not known who had occupied them before.
Uncle very rarely had come back to the palace for any reason.
"If you had moved in here, you might have found the letters yourself." Azula moved to the bed and sat down on the edge. Her movements caused the scent up a waft of something sour.
"Where are they?" He asked. Azula swung her legs and hit her heels against the frame.
"He slept on them." Zuko moved quickly to the bed.
"Are you serious?" He knelt on the floor and there, very easy to see, was the outline of a drawer carved into the bed frame. A keyhole was set in metal but seemed to be a simple lock. "It's just been sitting here this entire time?"
"Who was going to come in here?" Azula retorted and Zuko glanced up at her.
"Where's the key?" Azula shrugged and giggled. Still looking at her, Zuko took one hand and ripped the drawer from the frame.
The wood splintered and the rending screech caused Azula to jump. Papers scattered to the floor as Zuko held the drawer loosely in his hand, the lock bent and almost broken from the wood.
"I am in no mood Azula." Azula said nothing but slid to the floor next to him. Her hands smoothed over the papers. Zuko picked up one and felt his stomach sink. They were copies, each of them, but there was a note on the bottom corner with the date it had been intercepted. They were still his mother's letters, just now with the seal of his father's notary.
Ursa, the daughter of Rina and Jinzuk, the granddaughter of Avatar Roku and Ta Min, was born into relative wealth in a small town called Hira'a. She was a great beauty and even though she was not a Firebender, her pedigree and appearance could secure her marriage to any within the Fire Nation. Ursa didn't mind any of the whisperings of adults, but busied herself with her education, with climbing the tall palms around her village, and playing with the other children.
She met Ikem when they were both six and at that moment Ikem had fallen in love.
It wasn't until Ursa was older that she began to see him the way he saw her. They courted and, though Ikem was the son of "returned" colonists, it was generally expected that they would marry.
Ikem proposed as they practiced for a play, "Love Amongst Dragons."
The same day, Ursa was introduced to Fire Lord Azulon and his second son, Ozai. They were hoping to secure a powerful bloodline, as the on-going war dictated a need for more power, so Fire Lord Azulon came to ask that the granddaughter of the Avatar would marry Ozai, who was in turn just as impressive a Firebender as his brother Iroh.
This was not the first time the royal family had tried to marry into Roku's line. Rina had been introduce to Azulon when they were younger, but Ta Min and Roku had insisted on a love match. And Rina did not love Azulon.
After Iroh's wife died in childbirth, Azulon tried again, this time to marry the much younger Ursa to the widowed heir. Rina and Jinzuk too insisted on a love match and anyway, Rina and Ursa were not Firebenders so the likelihood of any strong Firebender children was slim.
This time, only a few years later, Azulon tried for a final time. And he made it clear that he would not be leaving empty handed.
Ursa was promised to Ozai and their engagement was announced to the public from that village that very night. The next day, as they were leaving, Ikem made a stand to save his beloved. He stood against a few royal guards with two prop swords.
To spare him, Ursa promised Ozai that she would not kill herself after their wedding.
Ozai told her that she would never be able to speak with anyone in her village again. Including her own parents.
She was married quickly and became pregnant soon after. She longed to go back to Hira'a.
Then everything just stopped.
The letters ended when her parents died.
"She went back to Hira'a. She must have." Zuko said absently as he laid the last letter down. He read his grandparents' words, and also the flowing poetry the Ikem penned. His head swam with the words and he couldn't shake the sinking feeling.
"I told you I had something you wanted." Azula chirped and idly sifted through the papers. Zuko went still and slowly turned to her.
"And what do you want?" He asked. Azula shrugged and moved the papers around with her hands.
"Only the drawer." Zuko stared at her but she only looked down at the moving letters. He silently handed her the drawer and she took it greedily. Her fingers of one hand ran over the bottom and bumped around the edges. Suddenly, she sunk her fingers into the seam and ripped the bottom away from the drawer. The tips of her fingers were bloodied and it dotted the paper suddenly revealed with red droplets.
Azula stuck her fingers into her mouth and pulled out the paper. From a glimpse, Zuko saw his mother's handwriting.
"Azula!" Zuko said and lunged for the letter. Azula snatched it away and Zuko staggered forward.
With a sweet smile, she crooned over him.
"I swear to you brother that if you try to take this away from me, I will burn it and the both of us together." Zuko sat up and plucked away the letters that stuck to him.
"Why do you want that one?"
"That's for me to know," Azula said and folded the letter neatly. "And you to never find out!" As she tucked the letter away with a smile, she looked at him for a second before breaking into peals of laughter. Zuko stood and brushed dust from his shirt. He calmly bent down and picked up the sheafs of paper from the floor as Azula began to roll around the carpet.
"Lock her in here." He ordered as he walked to the door. "And guard the other exits." He left to the sound of Azula's crazed laughter.
Katara was beginning to feel penned in. The feeling usually struck when her anxiety levels were high and was possibly due to her recent years of having an itinerant lifestyle, but regardless, she hated it.
The palace was large and built like a temple, though the structure had reminded Katara of the prow of a ship. It was walled off, as were even the meanest manor houses as Katara had seen, and she felt cut off from the rest of the city. She was encapsulated by the stern facade of the high walls and stepped buildings that flanked her.
Outside of the palace but within the walls was also not a place that Katara wanted to tread. Many of the Fire Lords before Zuko took very seriously the aesthetics of ravaging flame to heart. The palace grounds had long since been razed and only in the past few years had Zuko hired groundskeepers in an attempt to salvage some greenery.
He had once explained to her that fire also meant rebirth, and that forest fires helped clear away the dead things and bring new nutrients into the soil for better growth. It was a novel way of looking at the element, though Katara was admittedly slow to embrace it.
All she saw outwardly was a burned and barren environment, with a cold and sterile interior. Zuko had tried with the renovations, to open the rooms up and lessen the severity. However, the building was constructed with the intent to inspire fearful awe. Supplicants to these grounds were meant to tremble. For all the frigid wastes of her home, the south pole was still warmer than this.
To distract herself, Katara had hoped to go out into the town, but by mid afternoon Chang had disappeared and she did not trust enough in the Fire Nation guards to protect her. That alone was a troublesome thought, but Katara was more annoyed that she couldn't simply leave. It would be nice if she had stayed somewhere removed from the palace, and could return when Zuko did.
But then she wouldn't be close enough to meet with Zuko in their fleeting moments.
Finding herself in a large garden with a small pond, Katara seated herself on the roots of a large blue oak. She idly toyed with her bending, bringing the water up from the pond and shaping it. She barely spent much time in thought on the matter of her bending, but now found herself marveling at the tunnel of water she presently controlled. Small fish swam in it, and the sunlight illuminated flecks of other organic matter floating within it.
Life abounded in water. For certain, while scorched earth held nutrients, it was something that had to be wakened by water.
Remembering the rows of men and women working with hoses and pumps, it took a lot of water to rouse this sleeping land.
Now with a clearer plan in mind, Katara rose and set off to find the groundskeepers.
It was early evening when Chang returned. She escorted Katara to Suki's rooms, as the other woman had requested her presence for dinner. Probably she wanted to discuss Zuko's leaving, and what it meant for the group. That, at least, had been pressing on Katara's mind from the very moment he had rushed away from breakfast that morning.
When Katara made it to Suki's rooms, she marveled at how different they looked. The floor and halfway up the wall was paneled in a bright wood. The upper walls were whitewashed and looked remarkably like Suki's training hall back in Kyoshi. All of the furniture was simple and made from similar, if not the same, bright wood. Green linen tapestries hung from the walls though the floors were bare. Katara sat on a small couch as Suki walked into the receiving room from her bedroom. Chang greeted her warmly but quickly excused herself to go and fetch their dinner.
"Katara." Suki said, her voice urgent, just as the door closed. "You have to help me with your brother."
"What?" Katara balked as Suki sat down next to her.
"He's driving me mad!" Katara blinked and gaped at her.
"I, don't really know what you want me to say here Suki."
"I just…" Suki cut herself off with a guttural groan and she covered her face with her hands. "He just keeps proposing!"
"That's kind of what my people do." Katara said and Suki uncovered her face.
"Has Aang proposed?" Katara pulled a face and smoothed back her hair, letting her hand linger on the back of her head.
"Air Nomads apparently aren't big on the concept of contractual marriage. They have a more communal lifestyle so marriage is a mutual agreement made between two people that may or may not be temporary."
"You sound okay with that."
"More that I have yet to be sold on the idea of marrying Aang at all."
"So you understand me."
"Not in the slightest." Suki groaned again and fell back into the couch. "Look, I just know that my brother loves you. A lot. But it's not like I've seen you guys together a whole lot since the war ended. I'm not really in a position to give you advice."
"Well, you saw him and Yue."
"I am not getting into this."
"How can I be with him when he would rather be with her?"
"I can't for a second believe that Sokka ever implied such a thing." Suki sighed and sat back up, slapping her hands on her thighs.
"He hasn't. He told me," Suki laughed and ran a hand through her hair. "He told me that Yue was one thing and I am another."
"And that's not okay." Suki looked at Katara and her eyes seemed pained.
"Haven't you wanted to be more to someone?" The sudden thought of Zuko caused Katara's breathing to hitch and she cleared her throat.
"I think this goes beyond my scope as either Sokka's sister or your friend." Suki sighed and leaned forward.
"I know. I'm sorry to put this on you. I guess I just need to hear someone say the magic words to make this all okay."
"What if Sokka had married her before she died?" Katara asked after some thought. Suki tilted her head to look over at her.
"What about it?"
"Would this still be a question?" Suki turned her head back down to gaze at the floor. "That's over and now, there's you."
"I think this would be easier if Sokka had married her." Katara shook her head and put her hand on her friend's back.
"But this is how things stand." She said and Suki groaned, slumping forward even more. Luckily, Katara was saved by the door opening and Chang entering with a tray of food.