Chapter 19: Into the Fortress
Ursa was awakened by the sound of someone pounding on her door. She was surprised- normally Jian Chin only came in the evenings- but her training for the Fire Lord's court took over and prevented her from showing it. Rather she rose smoothly and pulled on a robe before her captors entered. The guards had keys and could come in at any time they wished, but by the warlord's orders they had to give her a warning first- and even then they almost never actually entered when he wasn't present.
The door opened, and Jian Chin marched in, flanked by his guards. Looking at him, Ursa was surprised- he was wearing a suit of old but ornate armor and appeared to have actually made some effort to tame his appearance. It did little to reduce his brutish image, but the mere fact that he'd done anything in that respect had Ursa worried. The warlord was as solid and predictable as his element; if he was changing his routine at all, it obviously meant he was up to something.
"Jian Chin," Ursa said coolly. "You're early today. Is there a special occasion I wasn't aware of?"
"You might put it that way," Jian Chin rumbled. "I've recently come into possession of information that will make me the most powerful man on the continent. I was hoping you would be willing to accompany me to Ba Sing Se- and perhaps be crowned as my queen when the city falls to me."
Ursa couldn't help but laugh rather more wildly than she intended. "You're mad," she said. "Or such a fool that you might as well be. The Dragon of the West couldn't take Ba Sing Se, and he was ten times the general you'll ever be. Or is this another of your empty boasts?"
"Boast, yes. Empty, no," Jian Chin said with a smile. "Three nights ago I was given a map that will let me bypass the walls and go straight into the palace itself. When the palace falls, so will the city, and I will be Earth King. We're leaving today- come with me, and be my bride! I'm offering you a kingdom."
"I would sooner die," Ursa spat, veneer of politeness gone. Jian Chin recoiled as though she'd slapped him- clearly that wasn't the response he'd expected.
"I'm sorry to hear that," the warlord said softly. "But if that's your answer, you won't have a choice. When I'm Earth King I will do whatever I want- or take whatever woman I want to be my wife. You won't be able to stop me." With that he motioned to his men, and they turned together and left the room.
Ursa sat back on her bed and stared at her hands. Jian Chin was a fool if he honestly thought this mad scheme would work, but in any event his entire domain would now be in motion. If she wanted to escape, now was the time to do it. She just needed to plan how.
"It's an awful feeling, isn't it?" a cold voice asked. Ursa looked up and was surprised to see a young woman in a dark cloak standing by her bed. Shadow clung to her body, and there was an unreadable expression in her strange eyes.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Ursa told her. Her mind was racing. Who was this person, and how had she gotten in here? Had Ursa herself finally gone mad under the strain and was imagining this conversation? There was no way to be sure.
"Being powerless," the girl explained, gliding over and studying Ursa's face intently. "Knowing that someone else has taken complete control of your life, able to think but not to act. To be a slave."
"Who are you and what do you want with me?" Ursa asked, standing and pulling away from the stranger.
"I'm no one important," she said. "I just wanted to see you- to see what kind of person you were. I couldn't help myself- I was curious."
"Curious about what?" Ursa was breathing deeply now, preparing to unleash fire if the intruder made a threatening move.
"What her mother was like," the girl said. "I saw the father, but I was curious to see what kind of woman would give birth to that creature. I must admit I'm disappointed."
"Her?" Ursa asked, then realization dawned. "Azula? How do you know my daughter?" She knew in broad strokes what had happened in the world during her imprisonment- she knew that the War was over and her son Zuko was Fire Lord, but she'd heard nothing about the ultimate fate of Azula. Probably Jian Chin didn't know himself.
"Azula and I are acquainted, and soon we'll meet for the last time," the girl said. "That's all you need to know. Like I said, I just wondered what kind of mother would raise such a child, and now I know. You're weak and powerless, sitting by and allowing a monster to raise Azula to follow in his footsteps."
"You know nothing," Ursa hissed. "You do not know what I sacrificed for my children or my family. And you are a fool if you think I'm going to sit back and let Jian Chin decide my fate."
"If you insist," the girl said with a shrug. "Oh- one more thing. Azula is coming here to save you- for her own selfish reasons, of course. But she isn't going to make it. I'm going to destroy her slowly, and then destroy every last one of you pampered, arrogant, corrupt nobles. I just thought you should know."
Ursa felt anger and fear blaze in her simultaneously. It had been a long time since she'd seen her daughter, and she didn't know what the girl had become in those years- though Ozai had done an excellent job of molding her in his own image already before she'd been banished. But for an instant, none of that mattered. Ursa's protective instincts were in full force, and it took all of her self control to keep from throwing fire then and there. "If you're so intent to destroy us," she said in a barely controlled voice. "Why not start now, with me?" A part of her almost wished the girl would- then maybe Ursa could defeat her before she killed Azula and Zuko.
"Oh, I have," the girl said. "Think on what I said- you don't have anything better to do other than letting it sink in."
No sooner had she finished speaking than Ursa leapt to her feet, had thrust before her. A thin bolt of fire lanced from the tips of her outstretched fingers and shot towards the intruder, but it never struck. The strange girl only gave a cold, triumphant smile and swept her cloak around herself; shadows seemed to writhe in the air for a moment, and when Ursa's vision cleared the girl was gone, leaving the fireblast to impact harmlessly against the stone wall.
/
Azula stood on a rise and stared out at the fortress of Jian Chin. Just a few short months ago she had faced the mad General Azun in another ancient place- the Obsidian Citadel- and she couldn't help but contrast the two locations now. The Citadel had been otherworldly, a jagged black-glass mirror of the Fire Lord's palace. It had been impressively eerie and mysterious, a peace of the spirit world torn from its origin and planted in the realm of mortals. Jian Chin's fortress, by contrast, was clearly made of the stone of this world, and was so ancient that it was almost falling apart. Still, there was something almost regal about the place- in spite of its obvious flaws, this was a building that had seen the rise and fall of dozens of empires and the reigns of hundreds of kings. Azula thought it wasted on a barbarian who was no doubt incapable of learning from the mistakes of past conquerors. Anyone who styled himself after Chin the Conqueror was clearly in dire need of a history lesson.
"So that's it, huh?" Ty Lee said from beside the princess. "We've gotten in to worse. Should be fun." She took a moment to stretch her arms as if limbering them up for the day's struggle.
Captain Shin held a hand over his brow and studied the town at the base of the fortress. "You might want to think again," he said. "There's something going on down there- I can't tell what from this distance, but there are a lot of people gathering down there."
"That could be made to work to our advantage," Azula said. "It's easy to get lost in a crowd, as long as the crowd isn't specifically looking for you."
"What do you suggest we do?" Shin asked.
Azula looked down at her clothing- filthy from her rough handling by the Dai Li and her duel with Long Feng- and smiled bitterly. "I think we're all covered in enough dirt to pass for peasants. We're going down there and seeing what all of the commotion is about. It could provide us with the cover we need."
The three walked down the rise and towards the town, attempting to seem as casual as possible. Azula couldn't really bring herself to adopt the downtrodden gait of a true peasant, but she doubted it would be an issue- most people around here wouldn't recognize royalty if it was standing directly in front of them. She did keep her head lowered, though- even to the uneducated, her golden eyes were at best a talking point and at worst a giveaway.
The outer portions of the town were empty as they made their way towards the center. As they neared the edge of the crowd, it became apparent that not everyone was there by choice- soldiers in mismatched armor stood around the edges, and every so often one of them would forcibly drag more peasants up. At the base of the path leading up to the fortress stood a handful of men in gaudy robes who appeared to be passing out crude swords and spears to the populace.
"Azula, what's going on?" Ty Lee asked quietly. "I don't like this."
"Neither do I," the princess replied. "This looks like conscription. Jian Chin is planning to attack someone- the question is, who?"
Captain Shin grabbed a nearby man by the arm. "Excuse me, friend," he said, "but my companions and I were just passing through this town when we were rounded up by soldiers and forced over here. Care to explain what's going on?"
"Well, I don't know more than you, probably," the man said. "Guys in the robes up there made a speech a bit ago, but I kind of tuned it out. Too much talk's bad for the stomach, you know. But I think I heard the word's Ba Sing Se and Earth King." His brows furrowed. "It was definitely some kind of king."
"Ba Sing Se?" Azula asked incredulously. "Jian Chin must be insane if he thinks he can conquer the Earth Kingdom capital with this rabble." Azula seemed to be cursed with an improbably high number of encounters with the mad during her travels- part of her thought darkly that the universe must have a sense of irony.
"Maybe he's not," Ty Lee said. "Long Feng got away, remember? Maybe this is where he ran to."
"You're right," Azula mused. "Maybe he intends to use Jian Chin as a puppet ruler. Arrogant fools are remarkably easy to manipulate, after all."
A shadow fell over the princess, and she turned her head to see a tall soldier looming over her. "Did I just hear you calling our glorious leader a fool, girl?" he asked ominously, fingering a warhammer that hung from his belt.
"No, no you didn't!" Ty Lee said, pushing herself in between the soldier and Azula. "My friend was just saying that you'd have to be a fool to try and fight him." She smiled widely and batted her eyes.
"Well, uh, that is true," the soldier said, rather taken aback.
"I mean, with big, strong warriors like you fighting for him, how could Jian Chin lose?" Ty Lee let her smile widen just a bit more, her eyes alight with apparent awe.
"That's very right," the soldier said. "Good day to you, ladies." He walked off, apparently continuing a patrol around the edge of the crowd. There was a noticeable bounce in his step that hadn't been there before.
"That was utterly demeaning," Azula said softly.
Ty Lee shrugged. "Well, it worked, didn't it?"
Azula sighed. "I suppose it did. Now that he's out of our way, though, we need to get inside the fortress. I have an idea." The princess began to push her way through the crowd, a confused Ty Lee and Captain Shin following behind.
She reached the robed men with the weapons- apparently Jian Chin's ministers, or whatever he had that passed for ministers- and marched up to the one in front. "Thief!" she shouted at him in a voice carefully filled with righteous indignation.
The man looked at her confusedly. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he said. "Now go away and let me work. These people won't arm themselves."
"Of course they won't," Azula snapped. "They can't- you and your kind have taken everything they had and used it to line your own pockets. Well, they've had enough!"
"You are raving," the official said coldly. "Guards, remove her from my presence."
"Raving, am I?" Azula shrieked. "Then explain this!" She hurled herself on the man, knocking him backwards. Quickly she pulled herself back to her feet, a pouch she'd pulled from under his robes in one hand. Raising it over her head, she tossed the pouch into the crowd. It landed in the middle of them and split open, revealing gleaming gold and silver coins.
"See!" Azula said. "That's wealth his kind stole from you- and there's more where that came from!" As one, Jian Chin's oppressed subjects- many of whom had only seen a single gold piece in their life, if they were lucky- surged forward, some going for the already spilled gold, others charging the robed officials. Azula ducked away from the budding riot and began to hurry up the pathway. Ty Lee and Shin joined her shortly.
"Very clever," Shin murmured. "Instant riot- that will take a while to calm down, even with bending."
"I know," Azula said smugly. Looking back, she saw the soldiers wading into the rioting crowd. "We'd better hurry, though- I don't know how long it will be before they have it under enough control to notice us." The other two nodded, and then they were hurrying up towards the fortress.
As they reached the top of the path, they saw that the gate was open, but guarded. Four large men with hammers stood beside it, and Azula noted their bare feet. Earthbenders.
"Who are you and what do you want here?" their officer barked at the three figures. "You can't come in- Lord Jian Chin doesn't want peasants tracking filth all over his castle."
"We're here to warn Jian Chin," Azula said. "There's a riot down there- it's completely out of control. You need to send more men at once!"
The guard laughed. "Nice try, missy. We can see the riot just fine- the soldiers who are already down there are quite capable of handling it. Now go away and leave important business to those of us who can actually think enough to handle it."
"Excellent advice," Azula said, allowing her voice to slip back into aristocratic tones as her eyes narrowed. "You should consider taking it." The princess lunged forward and shot one hand out- a thin jet of blue fire blasted from her fingertips and struck the lead guard, knocking him back against the wall where he lay still.
"Firebender!" one of the other guards shouted.
"Aren't you a master of deduction," Azula muttered. In a louder voice she shouted to her companions "Take them!"
One of the guards pulled his hammer from his belt and charged forward, but before he could go more than a few steps Ty Lee was in front of him, smiling perkily. The man stopped, jaw open- and then the acrobat felled him with three quick jabs. He collapsed to the ground, a dumbfounded expression frozen on his face.
Another guard charged towards Azula, hammer at the ready. She dodged away lightly and then caught his wrist in one hand, twisting it at an impossible angle. The man screamed and dropped his weapon, and the princess followed up with a fireblast to the face. He collapsed to the ground, screaming and rolling about as he tried to douse the flames. Behind her Azula could hear grunts and punches, and turned to see Shin in the process of disposing with the final guard.
When the guard was down, Azula motioned to her companions. "Hurry," she said. "Someone will have heard that." She ran through the open gates and came out in a wide courtyard overlooked by a balcony. A beefy man in armor and a ludicrously small crown stood there, looking down at her interestedly.
"Well, well," he rumbled. "You must be Azula. I heard you were coming."
"Jian Chin, I presume?" Azula asked as Ty Lee and Shin came up behind her. "Tell me where I can find my mother, and I'll let you live."
Jian Chin laughed. "You think you can threaten me? I could crush you with my bare hands!"
"We'll see about that," Azula muttered. Crouching low to the ground, she drew a deep breath and ignited jets of fire beneath her hands and feet. She shot into the air and flew up to the warlord's balcony, landing lightly in front of him. He stumbled backwards, a shocked look on his face.
"Still think you can crush me?" the princess asked conversationally.
"You may be strong, but you are only a child," Jian Chin growled. "I will show you true power!" Centering his stance, the warlord raised his hands clenched his fists. Beneath their feet, the entire fortress began to rumble.
"Careful with that," Azula said. "Power's no good if you don't know how to use it. Allow me to demonstrate." Quickly she brought her hands up, blue sparks flashing around them. Quicker than the eye could follow one hand shot forward, fingers extended, and a bolt of lightning lanced towards Jian Chin.
But the warlord was a powerful earthbender, and his fortress was made of stone. The balcony itself rose up to defend him, catching the bolt before it could strike. The lightning blasted the stone into pieces, but none of it struck its intended target. Then Jian Chin smiled and pushed, and the wave of rubble shot forward. Azula tried to leap out of the way, but she was slightly too slow. She was thrown off of the balcony and landed lightly in the courtyard.
"Now!" Jian Chin roared. "Before she can fly again." Azula bent down to ignite her jets again, but as she did so she saw who the warlord had been talking to- earthbenders who had stood hidden around the courtyard. The princess was still assessing this new threat when they bent down as one and pulled.
Azula braced herself for an attack, but it didn't come. Instead the ground itself turned over beneath her feet in one massive slab, and the princess of the Fire Nation found herself being hurled down a long tunnel into darkness.
/
From within her room Ursa could hear the sound of fighting and the groaning of the earth. Knowing that this was her chance, she hurried to the door and pressed an ear against it. Normally there were guards outside, of course, but they had run off to join their master when the fighting started. There was nothing keeping Ursa here now except for a lock.
Raising two fingers, the Fire Nation noblewoman focused her power and produced a small, white-hot flame. Carefully she pressed it against the lock and breathed deeply. After a few moments the smell of smoke filled the room, and the lock had melted into something utterly useless for its intended purpose. Ursa allowed herself a triumphant smile and pushed hard on the door. It gave way with ease, and she stepped out into an empty hallway.
If the strange girl who had been in her room earlier was right, then the fight Ursa was hearing was probably with Azula and whatever companions she'd brought with her. The noblewoman's feelings about her daughter were mixed- she had been Ozai's favorite and had inherited many of the darker aspects of his personality, which he'd done his best to nurture – and Ursa could not deny that she had seen a troubling reflection of some of her own traits in the young girl as well. What Azula had become in the years since Ursa's banishment might well be something terrible indeed. Even so, she was still Ursa's child as much as Zuko, and it wasn't in her nature to abandon her if she had any say in the matter.
The shadow girl had called Ursa weak and powerless, but with the combination of her own escape and her daughter's peril she had a goal that gave her strength. For the first time in years, Ursa felt hope. Surely if the girl knew that, she would be furious. The girl had tried to destroy her with doubt, but she'd only strengthened her resolve. For all her talk, she obviously didn't understand the Fire Nation royal family at all, and certainly not the woman who had once assassinated a Fire Lord to spare her children.
Filled with purpose, Ursa walked down the hall towards the sounds of fighting.
/
And now the climax begins! Mostly this is pretty straightforward, but a few talking points are noteworthy here. First, we see that Wei Ming overplayed her hand in her taunting of Ursa; attempting to break her with fear and despair, instead she kindled a determined fire. My version of Ursa isn't the warrior her husband and children are, but she's still a very dangerous woman and now has incentive to bring that side of herself to the fore.
And Jian Chin's own incompetence at ruling bits him indirectly in this chapter as well. He mostly rules with brute force when he deigns to notice his subjects at all, and the result is a ramshackle domain held together mostly by violence and the threat thereof. Most of these people are about a hairsbreadth away from open revolt on the best of days, kept from doing so only by their fear of their overlord, but with Jian Chin himself nowhere to be seen, Azula was able to read the situation right and whip up a riot with minimal effort. After all, unlike her adversary she knows that sometimes finesse can get you what brute force can't.
Of course, Jian Chin isn't without resources either, and now Azula has fallen (literally) into a trap. You can probably guess just who is waiting for her at the other end…
-MasterGhandalf