Avatar Chapter 48
I do not own Avatar the Last Air Bender
Mai was not a morning person, she liked her rest, a lot, but did not sleep half the day away like some people. Plus if she got up early she got some peace and quiet before her brother decided to wake the household.
Azula on the other hand was, apparently, up the moment the sun broke the horizon and had spent the morning wandering around, i.e. unnerving people. By the time Mai decided to get on with her day half the people she saw in the halls were sweating as if they had been interrogated. "She did this at school to, even the teachers weren't up that early."
And worse of all the Princess had taken up the whole dining room table, now covered in papers, maps and all number of documents that had no business being out before noon.
"It's never too early for paperwork with you is it." Mai sat down at the opposite end of the table where some room was left.
"Some of us have responsibilities and projects to manage." Azula did not even look up from the map she was glaring at.
"Some of us don't have a progressive Fire Lord as a parent, I spent most of last year learning how to sew, arrange flowers and make tea."
"Ah yes that's right, I forgot how you lowly nobles have to play the suitor game, tell me have your parents found a good match for you yet?"
"My family is not all that well liked as you very well know."
"No it isn't, but on the bright side I can recruit you for a dangerous mission without so much as a peep from your parents, wonderful how that works out."
Mai looked at Azula, she was her snooty self but she seemed subdued, as if she were trying to banter without using up to much energy. "Maybe she had a bad night, I know she can't sleep if at least half the furniture in the room can't be used as cover"
One of the double doors to the side of room opened and the colony girl in an expensive sleeping robe walked in like the living dead, she probably had no idea where she was. "She certainly did not have a good sleep." Mas wondered if the girl slept on the floor so she would not risk breaking anything
Mai was about to say something to spook the girl when the other double door flew open and Ty Lee in a neon pink robe, which was way to sheen and short for any type of modesty, skipped in.
"Good morning!" Ty Lee nearly shouted.
Kori jumped and fell on her rear, now very awake. "P-P-Princess, please forgive me for not greeting you!"
"Oh hi Kori I dint see you, ooohhhh nice robe." Ty Lee was bending over and Mai looked away, who bought a robe that short?
"Wait…" Mai looked over to Azula, who was now very focused on Ty Lee's behind.
Ty Lee hauled Kori up off the floor and Azula looked away, a smirk on her face, Mai held back a gag.
"Hey Mai your house is really confusing, why do so many halls end for no reason?" Ty Lee was leaning over the table, Kori gasped and covered her eyes and Mai almost got an eyeful of Ty Lee's chest.
"Because we can't make the walls move with our mind." Mai was not looking at Ty Lee until she put some clothes on.
"I see…, but Kori can! Azula we should go explore!"
"I'm busy"
"But-"
"Busy, if you want, take the earth bender and do what you will."
"Yay!" Ty Lee jumped up and Mai now knew the pink Princess's preference in undergarments, a detail she could have died happily not knowing.
"I should have slept longer, it's too early for Ty Lee"
Kori tugged at the formal outfit the Palace servants had laid out this morning, it was deep red outlined in gold and felt wonderful on her skin. It was also worth more than probably everything in her room back home combined and that terrified her.
She had tried to refuse but the servants made it very clear this was a gift, along with the fancy guest room and the enormous bed she tried to sleep in last night but laid on so stiffly she barely got any rest.
While Kori appreciated the generosity she felt very uncomfortable being treated in a way so high above her station, she was a commoner yet the servants here addressed as 'Lady' and the night before she was able to dine with royalty, the governors family and even a general.
And now she was alone with Princess Ty Lee, a girl who Kori was certain never stopped talking.
"Kori, what's your favorite color?"
"Um… dark green."
"Ok, what's yours second favorite color?"
"Red, I think."
"Neat, then what's your favorite flavour?"
"Pardon?"
"Mines super sweet!"
"I'm… not sure."
"Are you uncomfortable?" Princess Ty Lee stopped in the hall and looked at her closely.
"Of course not your majesty!"
"Are you sure?" The Princess was now squinting, as if trying to look really hard.
"Yes Princess."
"So… yes you're uncomfortable or yes you're not uncomfortable." Kori was not sure what to say, and neither was Ty Lee, who now looked lost.
"Wait… darn it I confused myself again, oh well never mind tell me what Yu Dao's like!" The Princess switched topic and tone so fast it always caught Kori off guard.
None the less her home town was something she could talk about. "It's a wonderful city Princess, full of shops, restaurants, theatres and temples, every street has at least one metal working shop." Kori was now realizing she was homesick.
"The high walls have stood for over a hundred years, if you stand up on the gatehouse you can see the green roofs go on and on and there's this statue of Fire Lord Sozin in a park that-." Kori realized the Princess was not talking.
She turned her head and saw the Princess with tears in her eyes and looked completely captivated. "That sounds so beautiful." The girl sniffled.
Kori was horrified. "I'm so sorry your majesty! I didn't mean to make you cry please forgive my rambling." She bowed deeply to hide her blush, she just could not help but embarrass herself.
"But it was so wonderful how you talked about you home." The Princess actually took hold her shoulders and stood Kori upright. "I knew you'd be a good friend."
"You're far to kind your majesty."
"Lots of people tell me that, hey is there anything you want to ask me? Azula tells me I bug people with too many questions sometimes."
Kori was unsure it was appropriate for her to ask anything of royalty, but she did have something she had always wanted to hear about. "If I may Princess, you… live in the capital, back in the homeland, I have always wanted to hear about it, if that is okay."
"It's awesome! It's in the crater of a volcano that everyone says won't blow up but the grounds really hot sometimes so maybe it will, everything is so nice and clean and shiny and-." Kori listened to every word, the capital and the area around it held some of the most sacred and important sites in the Fire Nation and though she loved Yu Dao she had always dreamed of seeing the beating heart of her country.
"-and then there's the grand temple, it's really stuffy inside but it has all sorts of neat statues and paintings, I'll show you when we go back."
"Back?"
"Well yeah, Azula has to do some stuff here in Earth Kingdom but when that's all done we can all go back to the capital and I can show you all the neat sites."
Kori was stunned still. "But Princess I am, I'm-"
"You're my friend, and if I want to show you around back home I will, I can do that now." Ty Lee giggled. "Being a Princess is great, except for all the stiff robes and… I think Azula calls them 'ingrates' that talk to me, but everything else is nice."
Kori was not sure what to say, this was the greatest of honors.
"Well start with the Palace first, I can show you all the cool passages and big rooms… except for the throne room, Azula's dad is there most of the time."
"The Fire Lord!" Kori could not believe she had forgotten, even for a moment, about the man who sat upon the burning throne, all the great works and historic sites were secondary to him.
"Yeah… he's really scary, like more than Azula and that's super hard to do, I even fainted in front of him, a few times… actually." The Princess was twiddling her fingers and now looked mopey.
Kori swallowed a lump in her throat.
"But don't worry about it I'm sure we won't run into him… maybe…probably, right now though there's this wall I'm sure leads somewhere I was hoping you could move it!"
"Of course Princess! I would be happy too."
"Goodie, this way it's next to a painting of some weird crying fish guy."
Mai sat at what should be a table for eating meals but was now a very large desk for a picky Princess. She methodically clicked her nails against the surface, as she had been doing for the last half hour.
"Mai you realize I can tune out Ty Lee whenever I want do you not? Your attempts of agitating me are utterly insignificant in comparison."
Mai said nothing but stopped her clicking, she couldn't compete with Ty Lee when it came to distractions.
"You've been staring at that atlas for a while, the world is not going to shift because you glare at it long enough."
"You underestimate me, it will shift when and I want it to shift but for now I am simply plotting our route."
"Our route to where exactly?"
"I recall telling you of our mission"
"You did, catch your brother and uncle who are hiding somewhere on the biggest landmass in the world."
"You don't sound very confident, or are you worried about little Zuzu getting hurt?" Azula smirked at her.
Mai raised an eyebrow. "Zuko's been traveling the world for over three years and he hasn't expired yet, even after that disaster at the North Pole."
"The very reason the Fire Lord wants him back home under lock and key, he's embarrassed my family long enough."
"Flawless logic, but I ask again, where exactly do you think we are we going find them?"
Azula ran a finger through her bang, which looked flawless and drool free, and traced a line on the map. "They will head east and then north, to Ba Sing Se, it's the only place they could go."
"For good reason." Mai did not need to tell Azula that if Zuko and Iroh got past those walls somehow they would never get them out.
"It's predictable, and I already have people with keen eyes on the path."
"They had better be dark brown eyes, this is as far inland a person can get with fair skin and golden eyes before their lynched."
"That's quite the dark tone, even for you."
Mai sighed. "I apologize, gossip and rumors are the only things a proper noble lady can enjoy our here, I was so bored one day I took inspiration from you and imagined setting something on fire to make something happen."
"I don't set things on fire at random."
"That Ming girl at the academy?"
"She annoyed me, her and her mother."
"The craft room?"
"It was a total waste of resources, we should have been taught combat techniques not how to make clay pots!"
"Those boys who called Ty Lee a fire cracker?"
"You stabbed one of them first."
"A stab with a purpose."
"It was a clean hit, even back then you were quite good with those knives, I hope you have not slacked off?"
Mai took one of her doubled edged knives and threw it, it spun like a disk, curved then dropped like a rock so it hit the spine of Azula's atlas, the Princess did not even blink.
"It's one of the few things my parents let me do without lecturing me about finding a good husband, though at this rate I'm more likely to wind up some man's mistress."
"I will not have your skills wasted or tied to some oaf, when we catch my traitor relatives you will come back to the homeland with us, your house is still right across the street."
"How fun, national politics… I guess I can endure that."
Mai left the Princess to her notes and reports, though to be honest Azula looked like she needed a nap above everything else.
She walked down the hall, it looked Fire Nation but there were still vestiges of the Earth Kingdom building it used to be. She understood why they had converted the old Palace instead of just building a brand new one, they didn't have the funds for it, not by a long shot.
She doubted even Azula knew just how close to the edge her family was, the treasury consisted of a small packed trunk of gold coins, some jewels and a few tacky artifacts. Everything else was either decorating this place or, if it was really valuable, back home in the capital, one of the few properties her father had not been forced to sell.
And while being on verge of poverty, what nobles considered poverty anyway, was bad enough worse was the lack of any real power or standing. Mai had it drilled into her head the long history of her family, they were one of the oldest lines and used to have ties to every major intuition in the Fire Nation. Now her uncle being the warden of the Boiling Rock was the high point of their family.
This post as governor was the last chance their family had, and it all seemed to rest on some psycho Azula had elevated to a position of power.
The wall next to Mai suddenly… fell, right into the ground, on the other side of it was the colony girl looking awaked in an earth bending stance which did not mesh with the formal robe she was wearing.
"Cool! So it leads back here." Ty Lee poked her head out from the side of the hole and noticed her. "Oh hi Mai! Your house is so neat."
"Ty Lee, are you having the Kori bring down every wall that gets in your way?"
"No!.. Maybe…Yes"
Mai just stared, Ty Lee was so burning innocent sometimes is made Mai want to punch her, and she still had not put anything on besides that skimpy robe.
"If you come across any glowing symbols, whispering jars or bleeding ceilings please scream loudly so the rest of us can escape." With that Mai kept walking, the look of both curiosity and horror on Ty Lee's face gave her the utmost joy.
"No fair Mai, you didn't tell me your house is haunted!"
Mai walked on, not really having any destination mind, before eventually coming upon her mother with a handful of guards and servants.
"Mai darling, how are you this morning? I trust you've met with the Princesses."
"Their fine, Azula has taken over the dining room and Ty Lee is roaming around."
"Excellent, we must all do our best to make their stay here enjoyable."
"Of course." Mai was aware her friendship with the royals was probably the greatest asset her family had.
"Well you make sure they are content Mai, I am going to head out."
That took Mai off guard. "I was attacked by rebels yesterday, in broad daylight."
"Exactly, now I must traverse the streets to show the citizens we do not back down from troublemakers." Mai looked over her mother's guards, they looked like a wet wind would blow them over.
"Mother would not do well if captured…"
"I will accompany you." Her mother looked surprised, but smiled soon after.
"Wonderful, we don't spend nearly enough time together these days, I haven't had a good mother daughter talk with you in years."
Mai made a long mental groan but followed her mother, if something happened to her things would get very complicated and Mai had no intention of dealing more family issues than she absolutely had to.
Azula was truly glad Mai when finally left, it was hard to keep up the Princess act when she was a comfy chair away from nodding off. She had gotten no sleep last night thanks to Ty Lee, it had been wonderful.
She had tried to make their love making as orderly as possible, with all the oils, perfumes, manuals, toys and clothing deemed appropriate for such matters. Ty Lee on the other hand seemed fine with a frisky attitude and those magic fingers of hers. It was completely unorderly and plebeian but she had bitten through a now incinerated pillow last night to keep from screaming.
"Curse you Ty, you, your stupid fingers, your stupid tongue, even your stupid toes." Azula was both tired and angry, she was the one in charge of this relationship! She would corner Ty Lee somewhere private later, she would make it clear how things worked, she would stare into those big, beutif- dumb grey eyes, Ty Lee would be scared, her full lips quivering, Azula would grab her chin then press her into the wall and-.
Azula realized where her thoughts were going and slammed her head into the atlas. "Burn it all! I can't even intimidate my own fantasies anymore." She nearly pulled her bangs out of her skull in rage, she needed to burn something then go to sleep.
But alas there was nothing to burn and it was improper for a Fire Bender to sleep the day away, so Azula meditated, which was like sleeping but sounded like one was actually doing something.
She 'meditated' for a few hours until some poor fool knocked on the door, Azula was still tired but she had the energy to pretend she was angry. "Enter"
"This had better be good, if not I will finally test to see if I can vaporize someone's eye lashes off."
Unfortunately through the door came a messenger who looked rather riled up. "Forgive me Princess, there has been an incident in the city."
Earlier
"Now Mai I know this has been put off for a while but we must start thinking about your position, this is a chance for a fresh start for the whole family."
"This city is a dump."
"Of course it is Mai these people have been living backwards for Agni knows how long, but now that your fathers Governor we can build this city into a model colony."
"Right." Mai could see the work camps along the edge of the gorge, they were impressive and not her father's idea.
"The Fire Lord graciously gave your father this position in part because of your friendship with the Princess, and Lord Xizan as… peculiar, as he is has gained a tremendous amount of influence lately, it would be wise to court his favour."
"And since he's become what he is through the Princess I should court her favour."
"Exactly Mai! Oh how I worried you weren't taking your studies seriously all these years but you really are coming into your own." Her mother patted her head like she was five and Mai felt an eye twitch.
"Just think Mai soon this city will have everything a civilized society needs and we'll be able to live as comfortably as we used to."
Mai was silent, uncomfortable for her mother was being a weak behind the latest fashion.
They walked through an area under construction, apparently the top of the biggest hill was being transformed into a giant relay station and command centre for all these fancy trains she had been hearing about.
As of now though it was a dump full of scaffolding, big rocks and tools with no one actually working. "If I break off a bottom beam I wonder how far the whole thing will fall."
There was a rumble up above and for an instant Mai wondered if some spirit had decided to mock her, but it was a wave of rocks falling towards them not a wall of scaffolding.
Right towards them in fact, Mai looked around and made a quick decision, before her mother could gather up the breath to scream Mai had already grasped her arm.
"Forgive me mother." She was amused the by the bulging of her mother's eyes before Mai heaved the woman over her shoulder and into the furthest guard, sending both of them tumbling out of the falling rocks path.
As for Mai she had only a second to duck under the first rock and then leap, dodge and roll through the rest. A boulder twice her size clipped her arm and she nearly bashed her head into another but she was alive by the time the last rock crashed into something.
"Well that was a thrill, I may have fractured something though." Her left arm throbbed painfully."
"Mai! Say something" Her mother screeched and Mai felt a ring in her ears, between that and the dust in her eye she was going to have an enormous headache later.
The dust settled down and Mai saw her mother, and a few lucky attendants, off to side.
She caught her mother's eye and the women seemed ready to scream with joy before Mai felt herself falling as the rock beneath her feet suddenly disappeared.
Sorry for the long wait, school is hard.