Chapter Three
At first, Azula did not enjoy being shipped away after she left the asylum. She resided in her room in the palace for less than a day before she abandoned her home for good. There had been no use in prolonging the stint before her departure. After all, any forms of companionship were severed. Who did she have to greet her home or wish her well?
That was fine enough though.
Then again, the young woman never enjoyed doing much under her brother's discretion. After she was "healed," Firelord Zuko gave her an ultimatum: imprisonment or banishment. She would live like her father in prison or live like her mother in exile. Either way, she would be stripped of her name.
Azula smirked and declared, "You're too kind, Zuzu." The young woman would rather be dead than be cowed and defeated, but she was no longer the imperious leader who conquered Ba Sing Se through manipulation and cunning.
As she was taken to her ship—a rather plain, unassuming ride—Azula was guarded, and the former princess walked away from her home with her head high, but none of her family members or former friends accompanied her, except for Zuko. Not even Uncle arrived. The streets were empty, as it was an affair that transpired in the very early morning—before the birds had a chance to take to the trees and chirp their happy tunes.
The woman shrugged off her feelings of disdain, repulsion toward her condition. Azula pondered if Zuko even lost sleep over deciding her fate. She doubted it, since the firebending prodigy would have simply incarcerated her brother if she'd been in his place, but she hoped his childhood weakness returned and made him ill to the bones.
"Goodbye, brother," Azula said.
Zuko met her gaze evenly with straightened shoulders and pronounced resolve. "Goodbye, sister."
"I see I am not worthy of Uncle's presence," She brushed imaginary lint off of the shoulder of her robe. "Is he too busy running his tacky little tea shop?"
"Azula," Suddenly, her brother's visage was overcome with an emotion that Azula believes is sorrow, something she grew begrudgingly acquainted with during her stay at the mental hospital. "Uncle died a few weeks ago."
As his composure crumpled, Azula reflected. They would both be losing the only family they had left, but Zuko was a political leader, and therefore he had to do what sated his advisors.
Azula thought the people of Ba Sing Se would recognize her, but they didn't. No longer languishing, she was a commoner. The people know she's Fire Nation, and this should warrant many glares and off-color remarks, but Ba Sing Se has grown more diverse in a short period of time.
Only non-benders are increasingly discriminated against now that the Fire Nation isn't an enemy. Merchants who cannot fend criminals off are taken advantage of and families with few benders are mocked as degenerates; even though they are a large community, it is not an uncommon belief that non-benders are somehow a result of bad breeding or dirty blood. After all, people will say, if the spirits are the cause of bending, what do those without the ability lack in order to be considered unworthy of such powers?
She hasn't firebended in so long; honestly, she is wary of what might transpire.
Lan. Azula is a name derived from royalty. Her grandfather. Admittedly, she isn't suited for it; Azula no longer holds strong opinions on her lineage or her purpose. Better not to dwell on her failure, or she might be driven insane again.
Azula recalls less-than-pleasant tales on library scrolls in the shelves of the academy she attended as a young girl. When she was younger, the woman was still as astute and read when she wasn't training or observing the mannerisms of her classmates; when she did so, she surveyed the technicalities: structure; method; purpose. She was once told by a peer that she'd make a decent instructor because of her constant scrutinizing. Azula kindly showed the girl what she thought of that statement by burning all of the reading material the imbecile needed for class. After all, besides being a princess (teaching is indeed a valuable profession in the Fire Nation, but the Fire Nation princess planned to order an army, not some attention-deficient, energy-addled children), Azula never did as mediocre as "decent."
Some of these scrolls contained stories—legends, fables, myths.
She will never forget the fox-maiden. The fox-maiden is anything but a maiden and more than miserly. She is a pernicious spirit. Truly a fox, often roaming untamed forests or sullen bogs, she transforms into a beautiful woman; she seduces men of power—kings, princes.
Becoming a scarlet-swathed, pearl-riddled, golden-tongued concubine, she grows vain and consumed by attention from her lovers—often making other mistresses of the harems neglected. The fox-maiden further lures these affluent men into committing atrocities to their other women—sometimes subtle, but ultimately leading to grisly deaths. Once, the fox-maiden cajoled an emperor into throwing the rest of his harem into a pit that contained a swarm of vicious bees; they remained trapped there until they perished awhile later. The former princess fondly thinks of many other ways victims of this spirit died.
The fox-maiden cannot look into a mirror, one of her weaknesses, because it reveals her true form. As Azula ponders, she smoothes her hair and smirks bitterly. In retrospect, the firebender supposes that she was prone as a child to glancing over the morals or consequences of these tales.
In the end, loneliness and lightning are what can kill the fox-maiden; when she finds herself no longer pursued by wanton or lovesick suitors, she climbs atop a colossal mountain, where she will weep. If it is raining, and lightning strikers the fox-maiden, then she will turn to stone.