Zuko looked at his sister's dead body. "I don't know what to do with her. Obviously, a funeral, but how? Would my Father wish he was there?"
"I can freeze her body in ice," Katara said. "We could ship her to him, but would he care now that she's not helpful to him? Would she get a more proper funeral from him or from us?"
"To my horror, I don't know." Zuko frowned. "Damn that man; he's such a monster. Someone in the family should mourn her."
Mai walked up, glaring at Katara. She said, "I'll mourn her."
"Good, but you're not in the family," Zuko replied evenly.
"I will be. I am your betrothed," she said glaring at Katara. Then Mai walked closer up to him and tried to touch his chest. He grabbed her hand and roughly shoved it away. "Don't you dare touch me. I won't be marrying you."
"But I love you, and I'm Fire Nation. She's not one of us!" Mai yelled.
Katara slapped her hard across the face. "How fucking dare you! You might have a pathetic little crush on him, but don't you dare call it love! I gave up my nationality, my hatred for the country that killed my mother in front of my very own eyes; I turned my back on my own father when he wouldn't accept that I was with Zuko! You don't love him; you couldn't even walk away from someone as spiteful and mean as Azula. Don't call what you feel love; it sickens me."
Mai reached out and yanked Katara's hair. "You're just a water-whore! One who can bend at that! Aren't you supposed to be dead? What do you think Ozai will do when he discovers what you are?" Katara couldn't help herself; she spit in Mai's face. That got her to release Katara's hair.
"Do what you want. I don't care," Katara challenged. "Tell Ozai. Zuko loves me, and that is something I know and cherish. Make your choice. Hate me and work with us anyway or leave and become my enemy. I would even work with you if it helped Zuko. I would do anything for him."
Ty Lee laughed. "Sorry, it was getting really uncomfortable, and I giggle when I'm nervous."
Mai looked at Zuko with wide, vulnerable eyes. He said, "Katara isn't really right in what she said about my love. You need to know, I will marry her or no other. She is now the only hope for the Fire Nation to have an heir. That or Uncle will need to marry a much younger woman. I not only love her and will pledge myself in life to her, I will pledge myself in death too. And I would take Katara at her word; you don't want to be her enemy."
The wives' luncheon at the palace was underway. And they were all skittish. Not from worry that their conversation would be repeated, but because Ozai was so far out of control.
"Well, I liked Katara from the beginning, and then she was a massive help getting my husband laid." The woman took a huge swallow of wine. "Even I like his mistress, which is wonderful. We're retreating back home for a while. Like everyone else is now. I'll get a sweet woman to talk to during the day, and he gets a hot woman to bury his cock in at night. We both will get full use of her."
The woman with the heart-shaped face and the now faithful husband blushed. "Well, we're going too. Rumor is the Fire Lord is looking to start his invite-only dinners again." She blushed even deeper, "my husband said he wouldn't go. Not anymore, no matter how much his family wants power."
Another wife smiled, "and for good reason." She raised her wine glass to the woman with a heart-shaped face. "And thank you for that! I talked to the Madam too. My husband was pissed with how good the sex was. He thought I had to have learned it from another man. When I explained I had some lessons, he locked us in the room for a day. It was amazing!" That got a laugh from everyone. "He's now faithful too."
Another wife said, "I think we need to all be quietly showing support to Katara. Without her here, the Fire Lord is…."
The drunk woman said, "a damn menace."
The other woman continued, not commenting. "I plan to start wearing a flower in my hair. I suspect the Fire Lord won't realize she wore one to the first wives' luncheon she came to."
"And the Ball," another added.
"Where she looked like a Fire Lady," another said.
The drunk laughed. "I actually stayed sober that night. I had to remember her besting the Fire Lord –again."
A wife near her whispered, "I noticed her going into his brother's room."
Taking another huge sip of wine, she said, "Daddy needed to spank me –he gets off on that. Not shockingly, Azula fucks him too. She has an even bigger daddy-kink than I do."
One woman choked on her sip of water. "I didn't need to know that!"
Another scoffed, "everyone knows that."
"Your husband has a mistress. Why are you leaving?" one wife asked the drunk. "Surely the coming invite-only dinners aren't an issue for you."
The drunk woman mock-toasted her. "I told you. I like the girl he's fucking. I don't want all that for her. Plus, with how off the rails he is now, I worry about her."
"You worry about her?!"
"She's actually the one I like the most here. She spreads her legs, and my husband buys me things. He appreciates that I asked Katara for her. I think he's growing very attached to her. I'm relieved."
The wife with a heart-shaped face blushed at what the other woman said. She then announced, "well, she fixed my marriage."
"Mine too!" The drunk insisted. "I find him much easier to talk to when he's happy."
Kei's mother was in the room refilling glasses of wine. It was beneath her station, but she wanted information to relate to Katara later. She chanced to say, "Katara respects you all. Sorry if I speak out of turn."
The drunk woman with a now full glass of wine smiled. "She made this palace better to live in. I fuck my brother-in-law and call him daddy while my husband screws his mistress, and even I think the Fire Lord has issues."
The woman with the heart-shaped face said, "well, we're leaving until Katara returns and gets control of the Fire Lord again. I heard he has started private sex dinners in his room and likes watching the councilmen have oral sex with their women from the harem. My husband is afraid to be invited."
"Because he actually loves you," a middle-aged woman said. "Sorry I was so dismissive before. It's just not something I'm used to here."
They all knew it was bad in the palace, but it would just get worse without Katara there, and more importantly, so did their husbands.
Sokka was regretting his life choices. He couldn't block out the sound of Yamato and Kei having a very good time in their not secluded enough bed. Apparently, Kei, Yamato's wife, was delighted by his size and how vigorously he was taking her. She kept saying it over and over.
He got out of bed and walked away, grossed out, mainly by how he wasn't getting any sex, and everyone else seemed to be.
He looked up at the moon and sighed, wondering where his perfect woman was.
Ozai was balls deep in one of his busty whores while the other was sitting on his face with his tongue in her. They were both screaming in pleasure. They made him feel powerful. Still, he was unhappy. Katara had stolen one of his playthings. And he liked having three. He didn't care that he wasn't sure of what her name was.
Luckily he had his most aggressive of the three. And that's where the one pissed him off. Has he grabbed any other neck, he was sure he would still have three cunts to fuck. It was just bad luck on his part.
He wanted to go back to the invite-only dinners. It would show Katara she couldn't control him. That made his cock even harder as his whore rode him.
Last night he had a private dinner for him and one of his favorite counselors. He loved watching the man get sucked off and orgasm in the slut's mouth. He wanted more of that, and he was pleased that he could command it. He was reveling in the fact that Katara couldn't influence his counsel anymore.