Chapter 21: The Warlord
Hands bound by stone shackles, Ursa was escorted into the fortress's courtyard, Ty Lee and the soldier whose name she hadn't caught at her side. Despite her situation, she held herself erect and still, not allowing the warlord's men the satisfaction of seeing that she was shaken. The soldier was glaring at his captors with an expression that could have set a tapestry on fire, and Ty Lee's face was scrunched up in concentration as she wiggled her hands, trying to pull herself loose- to no avail. Finally the three captors were marched through the door and into the courtyard, Ursa wincing at the unexpectedly bright light. Jian Chin stood there, flanked by his closest lackeys. He shook his head sadly as they approached, though the effect was belied by his victorious smile.
"I'm disappointed, Ursa," he said. "You should have known better by now than to try and escape me."
"My only regret is that I didn't try sooner," she replied coldly. "Now tell me- where is my daughter?"
"Dead, most likely," Jian Chin said, waving the question away. "Not my problem any longer, and that's all I care about. You shouldn't miss her, either- evil little creep, from all I hear. The world is better off without her."
Ursa's eyes narrowed dangerously and her hands began to smoke. "The world should consider itself fortunate that you were never a parent, Jian Chin," she said. "What lies between Azula and myself isn't your concern- she is my daughter, and if you hurt her, I swear I will kill you."
Jian Chin laughed. "Really, Ursa- if you were capable of killing me you would have done it years ago. Enough of this talk!" He raised a hand and motioned his earthbenders forward. "Kill the two intruders. When they're dead, we're going to go to Ba Sing Se and bring it down. I will be king, and then you will be my lords."
The earthbenders stepped forward and planted their feet, drawing sharp stones up from the ground and pointing them towards Ty Lee and the captive soldier. The acrobat began struggling more intensely against her bonds, while the soldier simply faced forward, face expressionless. Ursa closed her eyes and looked away.
The ground rumbled beneath their feet. Jian Chin and his men stumbled backwards as a crack formed in the middle of the courtyard and blue-white light flashed in its depths. "What's going on here?" the warlord bellowed. "Who's doing that?" his men shook their heads confusedly.
The ground rumbled again and then the courtyard burst open, cobblestones shooting into the air along with bolts of lightning. A figure pulled itself slowly from the hole, wreathed in fire. Her clothes were torn and filthy, an ugly gash ran down one side of her face, and as she pulled herself to her feet she seemed to hold herself strangely, as though she'd been injured. Despite it all, Ursa recognized her daughter.
Azula turned slowly to face Jian Chin, the expression on her face so terrible that the warlord backed up a step before he caught himself. "Your friend failed," she said quietly. "Wei Ming is dead. Release my mother and my companions now, or join her. Your choice."
Seeing Azula for the first time in seven years brought a storm of emotions to life in Ursa. All too well she remembered the child who had from an early age internalized everything that Ozai believed about the place of royalty and the Fire Nation in the world and the ruthless methods necessary to ensure that. But at the same time other, more primal instincts were stirring. Whatever else she was, Azula was her daughter, and if Jian Chin wanted to hurt her, he would have to go through Ursa to do it.
Unfortunately, the fact that she was bound rendered her little more than a helpless observer to the coming battle. Ursa could do nothing but stand anxiously and watch.
Jian Chin backed away slowly, his eyes never leaving Azula's. "Kill her," he shouted to his earthbenders when he was safely out of range. They raised their boulders and prepared to launch them, but Azula only laughed. The sound was high and cold, and it set everyone in the courtyard on edge.
"Coward," the princess hissed, and Jian Chin recoiled as though struck. "I'm one girl, weak and injured, and you hide behind your men like I'm the Avatar himself come to punish you. If you had any real courage you'd kill me yourself so that everyone could see that you're greater than the infamous conqueror of Ba Sing Se, but apparently you're so afraid of losing to me that you won't dare. You're a disgrace to the title of warlord."
"Liar!" Jian Chin roared. "Call me coward again and I'll crush you with such force that they won't even be able to identify your remains for proper cremation!"
"Tedious threats," Azula said. "They'd be more effective if I actually thought you were capable of following up on them. But when I look at you, I don't see a fearsome warrior who will go out to bring the Earth Kingdom to its knees. No, I see a weak and foolish man who lets his own province fall to ruin because he's too busy dreaming of a war he'll never have the courage to actually wage. You're pathetic, Jian Chin- but then, what should I expect from a man who takes his name and inspiration from one of history's most spectacular failures?"
The warlord's mouth worked incoherently for several moments, and then he strode forward purposefully, seizing a warhammer from one of his men and brushing the rest aside. "I will destroy you so utterly that when history speaks of you from this day on out it will tell only of how you fell at my hands," Jian Chin snarled.
"Dream on," Azula replied.
Beside her Ursa could hear Ty Lee mouthing words of encouragement to her friend. The Fire Lord's former wife paused a moment to take in the whole scene- the two combatants, the guards, the other captives- before breathing deeply and focusing all of her will into blasting herself free of her bindings.
/
As Jian Chin stepped forward to face her, Azula was keenly aware of the pain lancing through her body and the exhaustion that threatened to claim her. Blasting her way free of the cave had taken a great deal of her strength- willpower alone was all that kept her on her feet now, and considerable as that was it wasn't infinite. Despite his lack of subtlety, Jian Chin's raw power would have made him a formidable opponent at the best of times- she didn't stand a chance of overpowering him now.
That meant she had to outthink him instead- and Azula already had a general idea what she needed to do. The trick would be executing it.
Jian Chin roared an inarticulate battle cry and lunged forward, pulling a large boulder free of the ground and batting it at his opponent with the hammer. Azula ducked to one side, wincing at the pain in her ribs, and allowed the projectile to smash into the wall of the main fortress. She looked up at the warlord and shook her head. "You'll have to do a better job than that."
The warlord raised his hammer high and struck the ground with it, sending out shockwaves that rocked the courtyard. Azula saw many of the soldiers standing there rocking back and forth on their feet, trying to stay stable. She decided it was best to avoid the problem entirely- focusing what remained of her power, she launched herself into the air and landed atop the outer wall.
"You can't escape from me up there, girl!" Jian Chin roared. "I'm an earthbender and this whole fortress is made of stone- it's all my domain. There is no escape." To prove his point, he dropped into a crouch and shoved his hands high in the air above him. A column of stone shot from the ground and curved up towards the wall, striking it near the top and breaking off a large amount of stone that rained to the ground below. Azula ran further along the wall to escape the attack.
"Very impressive," she called down. "It would be better if you'd actually managed to hit me, but you're definitely improving." Jian Chin shouted again and began hurling boulder after boulder at Azula. She ducked back and forth to avoid each one, ignoring the pain slowly building in the back of her awareness. He was doing exactly what she wanted now.
The fortress which the warlord had so foolishly claimed was built over a network of caves- Azula knew that very well, having just recently been in one of them. Doubtless years of earthbenders had shored the place up to keep it from collapsing, but unlike a firebender, Jian Chin couldn't create the element he needed to fight from his own body's energy. All of those projectiles he was throwing were coming from the stone that shored the fortress up- now all the princess had to do was strike the right spot and bring the whole unstable mess collapsing on his head.
Of course, the trick would be doing it without killing herself, her mother, and Ty Lee in the process. But then, Azula had always been good at tricks…
A flying boulder suddenly clipped her shoulder, bringing her to her knees with a pained cry. She heard Ty Lee's startled shout from the courtyard below, but she ignored it, focusing entirely on the here and now of the battle. The sound of rocks grinding reached her ears, and she looked up to see Jian Chin rising to the top of the wall, riding on a pillar of earth.
"Nowhere to run, little girl," he said. "You're mine now."
"Never," Azula said. She hurled herself out over the courtyard, catching herself in midair with fire jets and drifting gently to the ground. Jian Chin looked down at her in bafflement, and the princess shot him a proud smirk. Then she took careful aim and blasted the bottom of the wall with all the strength she could muster.
She really thought that lightning would have been better than fire for that particular task, but she didn't trust herself to handle that dangerous form of bending with her failing strength. Still Azula had to admit that the results were every bit as spectacular as she could have hoped. The fire exploded when it struck the wall, tearing a massive hole both above ground and, more importantly, below. It pushed the already unstable earth to the breaking point, and with a groan the wall and half the fortress slid down the cliff side.
Jian Chin's eyes widened in sudden fear as he realized what was happening. The warlord barely had time for a panicked shout before his support was torn from under him and he went sailing through the air. Azula rushed as close to the edge of the destruction as she dared and looked down. She saw Jian Chin land on the cliff side amid a rain of stone which quickly buried him. His final cry faded with distance as he fell, and then was suddenly cut short.
Azula turned slowly to face Jian Chin's surviving soldiers and their three captives, all of whom were staring at her in openmouthed awe. Once she would have enjoyed those expressions, considered them little more than her proper due, but now she simply lacked the energy to focus on or appreciate such things. With her opponent gone, there was nothing to keep exhaustion and pain at bay.
Azula collapsed onto the shattered ground of the courtyard and darkness swallowed her.
/
At the sight of her daughter's fall, energy jolted through Ursa's body. Fire shot from her hands with incredible force, bursting through the stone bonds that held her. Shaking herself easily free of the nerveless grip of the soldier who held her, she rushed across the courtyard and knelt at Azula's side. She was still breathing, barely, but the combination of injuries and sheer exhaustion seemed to have taken their toll.
A shadow fell over her and Ursa looked up to see Jian Chin's second-in-command, Xang, his expression unreadable. She rose quickly to her feet and held out a hand in warning. "One step closer and I'll burn you," she said. "All I want now is to leave with my daughter."
To her surprise, the man nodded. "And all we want now is for you to be gone. You firebenders are all trouble, whether as enemies or captives. We don't want anything more to do with you. Go, now, and don't return."
Ursa raised an eyebrow. "What, no mad avenging of your fallen lord?"
"Jian Chin was lord because he was strongest and because he paid," Xang said. "Now he's gone and we have no lord. There was no loyalty we felt to him powerful enough to bind us to a dead man."
Ursa nodded. "I understand." She looked over at Ty Lee and the other firebender. "Release them too, or we don't have a bargain."
Xang nodded and motioned to his men. They snapped their fists together and the stone bindings fell to dust. Ty Lee hurried over and knelt beside Azula. "Is she going to be all right?" the acrobat asked Ursa.
"I don't know," the noblewoman admitted. "We need to get her away from here." She glanced over at Ty Lee's companion. "I'm sorry, sir- I didn't catch your name."
"Captain Shin of the Fire Navy at your service, my lady," he said with a polite bow. "I agree that we need to remove the princess from this place. With the warlord dead, I don't believe it's completely stable- literally or figuratively." He bent down and picked Azula up in his arms. "I'm the strongest- I'll carry her."
The three hurried to the gate- which now hung crookedly open after the groundquake Azula had triggered- and stepped outside. They walked down the path and through the small town, which was in a state of chaos. They had largely avoided being hit by falling debris due to their position, but everyone had seen the collapse and wondered what it could mean. Shin's military bearing and the flame that Ursa held in one hand, however, prevented anyone from bothering them.
They made it through the town and into the forest. There Shin laid Azula down and knelt beside her, studying her intently. "Can you tell what's wrong?" Ty Lee asked. "Her aura looks funny- all flickery-like."
"I don't know about auras," Shin said, "but I know a little about battlefield injuries, and this doesn't look good." He ran a hand along Azula's head. "She hit this pretty good, and from the way she was acting I think she's got damaged ribs too. The cut on her face is nasty but not dangerous unless it gets infected. The real problem is that she used up too much energy firebending her way out of the cave and then fighting Jian Chin. Trying to bend at all with the head injury would have been bad for her, and to fight like she did – well, I'm not sure her chi could endure what she did to it. I can't say anything more for sure- I'm no healer. Just a soldier who's seen a lot of people get hurt before."
"Do you think she'll make it?" Ty Lee asked, her tone uncharacteristically subdued.
"I don't know," Shin admitted.
Sudden fury awoke in Ursa- not at Shin, but at Azula's condition in general. "She will," the noblewoman said, kneeling at her daughter's side. "I don't know why but she came halfway across the world to find me and save me from Jian Chin, and she's my daughter. That's enough for me, no matter what else she did or Ozai may have made of her. She will live!"
"Lady Ursa…" Captain Shin began to say, but if there was anything else Ursa didn't hear him. Not entirely certain what she was doing, she placed her hand on Azula's chest and bent her will on her, focusing all of her royal willpower and years of pent-up frustration on one idea- that Azula would survive.
For a moment that might have been an eternity Ursa knelt there with her daughter; the two of them seemed to hang suspended in a void, alone and entirely apart from any greater world. She could feel Azula's heartbeat, hear the breath that was becoming ever more faint, and then she became aware of something else as well, a heat that played along the back of her neck and seemed to be only the edge of some far greater power. The sun, Ursa realized slowly, the greatest fire of all, an inferno that would blind anyone who stared at it for too long, and yet without which life could not exist. A single source with many aspects, yet upon which all the world depended, which had the power to destroy… and to create.
And all at once, Ursa drew in a deep breath and realized she understood.
Sudden brilliant yellow light burst into being around her hand and passed over Azula's body. Shin and Ty Lee fell back, shielding their eyes, as the glow burned brighter and brighter. Ursa sat perfectly still in the center of it, unwilling and unable to break contact with her daughter, caught in the shining link that bound herself, Azula, and the sun. Finally the light faded and she let her breath out in a long sigh. Ursa blinked slowly, looked down at Azula- and was stunned.
The cut on her face was gone, replaced by a jagged but well-healed scar. Her skin had become a slightly more healthy color and her breathing more even, and Ursa could see that rather than being unconscious, Azula was now merely sleeping. A slight smile, untouched by her years of ambition and hate, curved her lips. It was just an illusion, Ursa knew, brought on by pleasant dreams, and she honestly didn't know what kind of person her daughter would be when she awoke. It had been too many years since they'd last met.
"That was amazing," Ty Lee said, awe in her voice. "How did you do that?"
"Impossible," Captain Shi breathed. "Firebending cannot heal- it is a weapon that only has the power to destroy."
"I don't know," Ty Lee said. "I heard Zuko once talking about something he learned during the War- that fire is life and death, creation and destruction, all in balance, or something like that. Maybe this is something similar?"
"Zuko," Ursa said. She knew that her son was Fire Lord now, but little else of what had happened in the years since her banishment. Suddenly she missed him more than she could put into words. "I'm ready to go home."
"I think we all are," Ty Lee said. "Let's wait here for Azula to sleep off that healing, and then we'll start heading west."
"My men should have disposed of the Dai Li by now," Shin said. "We can meet up with them up the coast. Jian Chin may be gone, but in these lands we can use the extra protection."
"Agreed," Ursa said. Standing slowly, she turned and looked towards the west- towards the son and the city she couldn't see, but knew were there. "I'm coming," she whispered.
Behind her, Azula slept peacefully for the first time in months.
/
The defeat of Jian Chin marks the final duel Azula faces in this fic, and though she doesn't realize it, she uses much the same tactic Aang employs against Zhao in "The Deserter". How do you defeat an opponent you know is stronger than you, but isn't smarter? You trick them into defeating themselves. At the end of her strength, Azula couldn't match Jian Chin blow for blow, but she could use his own strength against him – which is also a rather waterbender way to fight, not that she'd care for the comparison!
We never see firebending healing in the show (though the old Fire Sage in Korra performs a somewhat similar technique), but it always made a certain amount of sense to me that it would exist, considering the Book Three revelations about the Sun Warriors and the true nature of fire as an element. Giving this power to Ursa made thematic sense to me as well, though in this revision I dedicated a bit more time to her internal struggle and revelation before discovering the ability to make the moment feel a bit more earned. I feel that firebending healing is harder than the waterbending equivalent, and more dangerous to the patient as it involves basically supercharging their chi – Azula should count herself lucky that her will to survive is so strong! The addition of this constructive ability to an art that is generally seen as purely destructive also relates into her development as well – after all, Azula is someone who has spent her lifetime using her skills and intelligence for evil purposes, and is now being forced to explore new aspects of herself. What, exactly, those aspects might be and what she will have learned from her confrontations with Wei Ming and Jian Chin will have to wait until she awakens at the start of the next fic – but just because the obvious wounds have been healed and she's no longer in immediate danger doesn't mean she won't be carrying lingering scars (physical and otherwise) from these encounters.
With this chapter's end, the main action of Path of Fire is over. Only the epilogue remains, in which the dead do not lie peacefully, and the true identity of a spirit will stand revealed…
-MasterGhandalf