Chapter 15: Battle in the Western Castle: part two

As I was waiting for the guards to go to the courtyard I heard someone coming down the corridor. Looking through a crack in the door I saw that it was an old woman carrying a tray with several cups of tea on it. Perfect, she'd be able to provide me with all the information I needed. I went into the corridor and fired a fireball in front of the old woman. When it hit the wall she screamed and fell backwards, the tea went everywhere soaking her. As she tried to stand up I put my foot on her hand. When she looked up I put my hand around her throat and heated it up with some light Firebending. I could see the fear in her eyes.

"If you want to live tell me what I want to know," I ordered.

She started crying but didn't say anything. I increased the heat on her neck.

"Do you understand? Yes or no," I shouted.

"I … I understand. Plea … please don't kill me," she sobbed.

Now that she understood it was time to question her.

"Where's the Colonel?" I asked.

"He left three days ago, with a girl he'd captured the day before," she replied, still crying.

"Where did he go?"

"He went to the PohuaiStronghold."

This was problematic, however it wasn't a fatal problem. The colonel would have had to appoint someone to run this castle while he was absent. I just needed to hold him hostage.

"Who's running the castle?"

"Captain Hidoi is in charge."

"Where can I find him?"

"He went to get a girl for interrogation, so he'll either be in the cells or the interrogation room."

Wait, I killed an officer in the cells who was looking for a girl to interrogate. I needed to know if it was Captain Hidoi.

"Did he have a scar above his eye?"

"Yes, it was over his left eye."

Damn it, I killed the person I needed to hold hostage (thought this was perfectly justified given the circumstances). Now I need to find his second in command and hold him hostage.

"If something happened to the Captain who would be in charge?"

"I don't know, the Colonel or the Captain are the only people who give orders here."

In annoyance I threw the old woman to the ground. This is bad. This is very bad. I can't hold a dead man hostage and there's no one else I can use. I can't defeat all the guards by myself, so fighting isn't an option. As the guards are all in the courtyard trying to sneak out will be difficult; and even if I succeed I'll only be able to escape with a small amount of provisions and without a map of the surrounding area I'll quickly get lost. Surrender is unacceptable. This only left one option; I had to capture the castle.

If I had my royal clothes and armour the guards would all know who I was and obey my every order. However I was wearing a peasant's outfit, guard armour that didn't fit, and was surrounded by girls who the guards all thought looked like me. To convince the guards who I really was I would need to show them an awe inspiring display of my authority. But how best to do this? Well, there was still one place I could search for something useful. I turned to face the old woman, she was cowering against the wall looking at me, still very afraid.

"Take me to the Captain's room."

"Why do you want to …"

"Just do it! Don't try to trick me."

After hearing my order the old woman stood up and walked down the corridor, I followed after her. She moved at a slow pace I didn't tell her to hurry up because if I became tired before we reached the Captain's room the old woman may try to escape. Though the map did show there were some rooms in the tower it did not say who occupied them, so I would need a guide. After walking along a few corridors I followed her up two flights of stairs and along another corridor, until we reached a large wooden door. I turned to the old woman.

"Open it."

"But I don't have key for it."

"Then go get it."

She ran off, back the way we came. I pulled out the four keys I took from the captain. Two were small and silver, one was larger and brown, and one was slender and black. As the lock on the door looked large and strong I tried the black key first. The lock clicked and the door opened. I entered the room, then turned round and locked the doors so that if the old woman had gone to get the guards rather than the keys they wouldn't be able to enter this room without breaking the door down.

The room had a small window and contained a desk with a mirror on it, a bed, and a wardrobe; since this room was neat it would be easy to search this room. I began with the desk, it contained writing equipment but nothing useful. Next I check the wardrobe. Inside I found a grey pair of trousers and a jacket, and a red cloak. Though the trousers and jacket clothes were too big for me, the cloak was large enough to cover my most of my oversized armour and peasant clothes. Now that I was done searching this room it was time to get dressed. I turned to the mirror on the desk and pulled out the hair tie I took from the Captain. It was of mediocre quality, but if I used it to tie my hair in a topknot it would be easier to convince the guards who I really was. However trying to tie my hair into a topknot proved difficult because my hair was so greasy and full of tangles (I would need to wash it a lot after I escaped from here). Eventually I managed to tie my hair into a topknot, then I put on the cloak. Now I looked more like my old self, though I still had a long to go until I would retain my former glory and honour.

Now that I was done with this room I decided to look out the window to see what was happening in the courtyard. I saw that most of the girls had been cornered by the guards. Though this meant that my distraction had now ended with so many guards in one place this would be the best time to announce who I was. I had to get there quickly. Going back the way I came here would be dangerous, especially if that old woman had told the guards that I attacked her. Fortunately there was another way out of this room. A little below the window there was a tile roof. If I stood here I would be visible to everyone in the courtyard, the perfect place to declare who I was. I squeezed through the window and jumped down onto the tile roof.

I easily landed on the roof and walk forwards to midway along the roof. Now that I was clearly visible I just needed to get everyone's attention. One of the Firebending techniques I had learned as a child was how to make my fireball larger at the expense of their power. Though these fireballs had little power they did look more intimidating and were commonly used to break the moral of Earth Kingdom soldiers. This technique would make my blue fire visible to everyone. I shot a volley of large fireballs at the walls of the castle and in the courtyard by the guards. The guards in the courtyard immediately broke formation and turned to look at me. Now to address them.

"I am Azula, Princess of the Fire Nation. Captain Hidoi is dead, either bow before me or suffer the same fate he did." I shouted.

The guards and I started at each other for a moment. If Kegatsu had any sense he would try to convince the other guards to surrender to me. As I was standing there I noticed eight Fire Nation soldiers on Komodo Rhinos approaching the castle from my left. Most likely they'd been patrolling, had seen my blue flames, and had come to investigate. As the gate was locked and the guards won't open it while the girls are still in the courtyard they won't be able to get in without climbing equipment, so I chose to ignore them for the moment. The guards in front of me were the ones I had to control. Though they should obey my orders and surrender I didn't want to leave anything to chance. I fired another volley of fireballs, then I began separating enough chi for a lighting bolt, should they decide to fight me (I couldn't use more than one lighting bolt because of my poor accuracy).

After firing the second volley the guards began to scatter, heading towards the keep. This was bad, I needed them where I could see them. I began calling out to them to stay here and bow before me when I heard a large crash, from my left. I quickly turned my head to see what had caused this noise and saw that one of the outer walls had completely collapsed and the Fire Nation soldiers I saw heading towards here were coming through the hole. Since they weren't carrying any equipment capable for destroying that wall they must have used their Firebending. However I wouldn't have been able to break down a wall of that size without the power of Souzin's Comet. This meant that they were incredible strong, too strong for me to fight. Wait, how had they become so strong? If there was a way to gain the power of the comet without it being present why hadn't father used it? This could be very beneficial to me. If an ordinary soldier could gain this much power then what would happen to a protégé like me. I had to find out what they'd done to gain this power no matter the cost.

Notes:

1) 'Hidoi' is Japanese for cruel.

2) PohuaiStronghold is where Aang was taken in 'The Blue Spirit' (Season 1, episode 13).

3) The tile roofs Azula mentions is a part of a Japanese or Chinese castle (I don't know its actual name). Below are links to some Japanese Castles that have several tile roofs coming out of their keeps.

.org/wiki/Japanese_castles

.org/wiki/Himeji_castle

.org/wiki/Fushimi-Momoyama_castle

.org/wiki/Osaka_castle