Prana

Azula began her journey across the wartorn Earth Kingdom with the singular goal of learning from the Masters of the Northern Water Tribe. She had left the Southern Air Temple changed, no longer the girl she once was. But there was little time for this epiphany, for the many warlords in the ruined Earth Kingdom could prove to be just as dangerous as the Fire Nation.

The world below seemed so small. It was humbling, touching the clouds on the back of a sky bison, watching the blue ocean horizon arc in the distance. Ancient astronomers had proven the world to be round thousands of years before. Ships circumnavigated the globe frequently now. But it was quite another thing to see the curve of the earth below.

After returning to the ship, they set off to Kyoshi Island. The ship was just big enough for Ikki to curl-up amidships at night. During the day, Azula steadily learned how to ride Ikki; with the combination of Appa having taught her before and Azula finding little bits of ancestral memory to draw from, they muddled their way through the process. By the time they reached Kyoshi Island, Azula had passed on some of the skills to her companions.

After tearful goodbyes to Oyaji and Suki's mother, they'd set out North at first light. By then, they were all reasonably competent at guiding Ikki, but they kept the pace slow. Ikki had a sprinter's constitution, and wished to fly faster than the wind could blow, but had not developed endurance living sheltered around the Patola mountains.

They only made a hundred miles in the first day north, setting down just after noon to allow the excitable sky bison to rest. It was just as well: the old map that Oyaji had given them marked a hot-spring in this area, which only took a few minutes scouting by air to locate.

Sokka and Suki departed after touchdown to hunt and forage, leaving Azula and Katara to brush down Ikki and set up camp. Spring was in full-bloom here, tucked amidst the foothills dotted with giant coastal redwood.

After starting a pot of rice over the campfire, Azula started stropping a straight-razor on her belt. The sight caused Katara to stop chopping wild mushrooms, and stick the knife into the stump she was using as a cutting surface. "What do you have Sokka's razor for?"

Azula wrinkled her nose. "Sokka's? No, this is my razor. I traded some of the trinkets we recovered from the temple for it. I've been without one since the steamer sank with half my possessions. We probably bought from the same smith."

"Why do you have a razor?"

"To shave, why else?"

"Girls don't shave," Katara said matter-of-factly.

"Maybe girls don't among savages, but among civ–" Azula realized her mistake a half beat too late. "Katara, I'm–"

"Bitch. Go dry up and die for all I care."

"I already apologized, what more do you want?"

"For you to stop. That's all I ask. Is that so hard?"

"I'm trying."

"Try harder."

Azula stood up, brushing the dust off her pants. "Since you're not being reasonable," Azula said through gritted teeth, "I'm going to go until you can calm down."

"I tell you to stop scorning my nation and I'm the unreasonable one? You know what? Go!"

She had felt so good and smug when Azula had left. When she'd gotten out of earshot of the camp, though, the dread began to settle in. First pride, then shame. They got along well…until moments like this when Azula would say something careless, something she'd say without batting an eye back home, and there'd be a fight where she wouldn't give an inch.

But she wasn't back home. The only way she'd ever be able to return would be at the head of a conquering army. Here she was, starting fights with the few friends she had left. So utterly royal of her. Azula settled against a redwood and rested her head in her hands. It wasn't like this with Mai and Ty Lee. But only because when there were moments like this, Azula was still their princess.

It was a daily challenge, learning to live among people who did not owe her fealty. She thought it would get better when she swallowed her pride before Jeong Jeong, but each day it was still so hard.

Azula knocked her head against the tree. Go back and apologize. The way you would to your uncle…to your fa–to your brother. No excuses, just do it. But still she didn't move yet. Fear paralyzed her, and she took the easy way out. Azula would let Katara calm down first, so she didn't have to look in the eyes of a friend she's hurt.

After ten minute silently brooding she growled. "You coward, just go do it. If you can charge a battleline without fear, you can go and prostrate yourself before your friend!"

Katara's voice came from behind her. "Well well, I can't say I mind the thought of you kowtowing to me, Azula. But let's not get ahead of ourselves."

"How long…were you there," Azula squeaked out.

"I just showed up." Katara sat next to Azula. Her body was warm against Azula's. "I've come to say I'm sorry."

Azula turned to find a genuine look of hurt in Katara's misty eyes. Without thinking, she took Katara's hand in hers. "Don't apologize, I don't deserve it."

"But-"

"I was wrong, you were right. I was just too proud to treat what I said–what I thought–with any seriousness. Just…as long as you can have some patience with me, I'll keep trying."

"I know you're trying, and I'm glad. I sometimes forget how much your own people mutilate you." Katara's eyes traced the line of burns on Azula's forearms. "Not just physically. I won't pretend any of the nations are perfect, but from the few Fire Nation civilians I've met it seems like the Fire Nation is less of a nation and more of a barracks."

Azula nodded. "Aang's told me as much in my dreams. I get…glimpses…in my dreams of what my country was like before the war. They're not all through Aang's eyes. I think some of them are through Roku's. It's so different, it's unrecognizable. A different country, where children played in the streets, where people laughed and danced with people from the other nations, and reveled in the sweet liquor of life."

Katara nodded. "Well, you want to make things up to me, you can help me straighten out my wind-whipped hair." She pressed a boar-hair brush into Azula's hand, "and tell me more about your visions."

Azula shrugged. "I'm still terrible at this."

"Only one way to get better. Do my hair in a top-knot. Something that looks good. If you practice at it, maybe you won't need me to do your hair."

"Fair enough."

They found a more comfortable spot on an exposed root, where Katara could settle in between Azula's knees at a better height for optimal brushing. Once Katara assured her that she'd remembered to take the pot off the fire, Azula took her time brushing out her hair. These tender moments were precious, even with the ever present grief that Azula might never see Mai and Ty Lee again.

Her short life had been filled with roughness and violence, kept apart from others in spartan stoicism. The touch of another human being came only from the cold, mechanical motions of servants. And how could it ever be otherwise!

"Sometimes," Azula said, "I fear that the other-memory is rose-tinted nostalgia. Or that I'll wind up lost living through someone else's better days, when I remember the world as it is. I remember nights under the Southern Lights, watching the spirits dance among the stars. I'm just a little boy, and my father takes me away from the campfire so I can see the stars better. And then I see the glowing lanterns of a big city on the edge of a bay. And my heart hurts, because I've seen the icy bones of that city in this life."

Katara took her hand for a moment and gave Azula a reassuring squeeze.

Drawing the unbound hair from Katara's face, looking down at her glittering eyes looking back at her, Azula memorized every curve, every line of Katara's face. The mortal danger their quest put them in, someday that face might be nothing but a memory. She would never forget Katara. She hoped Katara wouldn't forget her.

"How much of your other lives do you remember?"

"Only glimpses. It's like when we were leaving your village, that iceberg in the bay suddenly heeled over, and for that brief moment I could see how huge it was beneath the water. But when it settled again, only a tiny bit of blue was still peeking above the wave."

"A thousand lifetimes is a very long time. I wonder how many times our paths crossed over them."

"Maybe someday I'll be able to tell you. But whether I've known you in a thousand lifetimes or just this one, you're still precious to me."

The red blush rose instantly in Katara's cheeks. And the panic rose in Azula, fearing she'd said too much. But Katara smiled and muttered, "same to you, you dork."

It only took three tries to get Katara's top-knot straight and even. It might have been easier had the butterflies not been dancing in Azula's belly as she tried. "You know, I think I'm getting the hang of this," she said.

Katara laughed, "Took you long enough. Thanks for telling me about your dreams. Especially the dreams of the South Pole, from before the Long Night. I've been afraid that the memory of it would die with our elders, but now it lives on in you. I'm sorry, it's not fair to you, that you have to carry the legacy of two people who've been on their way to extinction."

Katara got up and stretched her legs. There were still words caught in Azula's throat, though, and she feared she wouldn't be able to say them. There was more than just memory in the visions.

"Let's head back to camp, I'm sure those two will be back soon."

Azula caught her hand. "Katara, wait…there's one more thing. Something I'm not comfortable sharing with anyone else yet. So don't tell them."

Katara nodded and nudged in close, in the range of whispers. "Okay. What is it?"

"I'm not just seeing the past. There's something else. Like I was looking at the path behind me, and caught a glimpse of the road before me before the vision ended."

"Like prophecy? Are you sure?"

"I can't be certain, not yet. If it is, it's more like a premonition. The other-memory, it's like moments painted on canvas. Clear, almost too perfect. But when I turn the other way, it's just flashes and feelings. Like a lightning storm at night."

"What do you see?"

"A storm is probably the best metaphor. But not like a regular one, like a typhoon." When Katara reacted coolly, Azula added, "Doesn't that scare you, at least a little?"

Katara shrugged. "Maybe that's what we need most right now. Not the gentle shower, but thunder. I can't know what the future holds for us, but it's hard to imagine it's any worse than what this war has already brought."

They returned to camp in silence, just listening to the birds sing of spring and the new year. Azula stoked the fire back to life and set the kettle on for tea while Katara finished meal prep. By the time Sokka and Suki returned, Katara had just finished showing Azula the right way to cook cured meats and pickled vegetables, resulting in a much more appetizing accompaniment to rice than her previous attempts.

In the evening, Azula and Katara made the short hike to the local spring. After rooting around the decayed ruins of the teahouse and cottages around the springs, they found one of the shallower pools in the spring and started Waterbending practice.

There had been a few scrolls on Waterbending among Kyoshi's artifacts, which had been copied and gifted to Katara as a parting gift by the village. They were by no means comprehensive, but they seemed suitable for a self-taught girl like Katara. Today they were working on control. Azula had shrugged off the idea dismissively as she removed her tabi and sandals, then rolled up her pant legs to above the knee.

"Control of my bending has never been something I have trouble with," said Azula, dipping her toes into the water. Happy with the temperature, she stepped in, already thinking of a nice soak tonight.

"What's true about Firebending may not be true about Waterbending," Katara said. "Besides, it's about the fundamentals."

"If you say so, sifu."

Planting herself, Katara, drew a long tendril of water up to her hands, looping it around her wrists in a circuit. Her eyebrows narrowed as she gritted her teeth. Droplets fell off the circuit at first, but soon the ragged lemniscate flowed into a smooth circuit. "Alright, catch!"

With a lazy flick of her arm, Katara lofted the tendril to Azula. Azula reached out to grab it, but the water flowed around her bending like a rope slipping through fingers, and by the time she got hold of it, only a small ball remained above her palms. "Damn it."

"Hmm. I think I figured out what your problem is."

"My problem?" Azula cried, hackles raising.

"You're treating the water like fire. When you're trying to bend the water, it's like you're trying to concentrate it down to a point and hold it tight. But water doesn't behave that way. It has weight,it has current. It does not consume, it just is. Try holding it more loosely."

"I've already tried that, but it's like trying to hold water in a net then!"

"Let it flow, don't keep it still. Here." Katara picked up a handful of water and molded it into a ball the same size as Azula's. But rather than the undulating, barely controlled mass in Azula's palms, Katara's water ball was almost perfectly round.

It took Azula a moment to realize that the water in Katara's palms was flowing around its axis.

"The water wants to flow. We just give it direction." Katara drew more water into the sphere. As it grew, Katara no-longer remained still. Her hands and body moved in rhythm with the water. "And we flow with it."

It was taking all of Katara's concentration to keep the water moving. But the result was breathtaking. The sun glinting off the swirling tendrils of water lit up Katara's skin. It was a dance, and Katara was alive in her element. Azula stooped to pick up another scoop of water. Sweat beading on her brow, she pulled the water into her palms. She closed her eyes and imagined the chi flowing through her chakras, feeling its currents and eddies.

The water would flow with it, if she would let it. The epiphany came, and with it the cool water flowed up into her palm. Not daring to look, Azula stood, all her focus on flowing with the water. When she finally dared to look, she found a loop of water flowing in a figure-8 circuit around her hands.

For an instant she found herself on an ice shelf, looking out over caribou herds roaming the tundra below. The other-memory told her this was the North Pole. An ancient voice standing beside her spoke as she watched water in her palms; not still, but always in motion, an infinite circuit of liquid water, frozen ice and searing steam, all blending seamlessly into each other. The voice told her, "The Riddle of the Sea is also the Riddle of Life. The steam rising from the bay is also the snow falling on the ground. The mystery cannot be known by stopping it. Only by experiencing it; flowing with it."

The vision went away as quickly as it came. The faces and names vanished from memory, but the insight remained, and soon Azula's jittery circuit flowed smoothly.

Katara smiled. "You're doing it."

"Yeah." Azula could almost barely believe it. Water had always been defiant, and her ability with it lagged far behind her skill with Earthbending. The earth had conviction, it was resolute, but it could be sculpted by any force stronger than it, and in this regard she'd come to see the Earth as a sort of mirror to herself. Learning to let go was the hardest thing.

"Honestly, I was afraid that what I was saying wasn't making any sense. I never had anyone to teach me, and I'm at a loss for how to teach anyone else."

"It reminded me of something a past me heard about the Riddle of the Sea. How it's also the Riddle of Life."

"Oh, I thought it was just 'savage superstitions' to you?"

"Never going to let me live it down, are you?"

"It's just teasing, Azula."

"It isn't to me. What I said, what I thought; it was shameful. It would be shameful even for a stranger to think that of your people. Our people. Who've been a better family to me than mine ever where." The circuit of water fell from Azula's hands. Azula stood with her eyes downcast, stricken with shame. Every scar burned, inviting her to make a new sister on her skin.

"It's not easy to be vulnerable, Azula. But thank you for trusting me."

They had stopped in the last city still under Earth Kingdom control. The rest of their journey would have to take them through Fire Nation territory or actively contested battlelands. With Fire Nation raiders routinely reaching the outer walls of Ba Sing Se, strictly speaking there was no place beyond the Fire Nation's reach from here to their destination. It was decided unanimously that the shortest, fastest route would be the safest. Lingering in contested territory trying to skirt around the line-of-contact would be inviting disaster.

Even the idea of Earth Kingdom control was suspect. What remained of the Earth Kingdom was a patchwork of warlords, whose fealty to the High King in Ba Sing Se was flexible at best. The last Earth King to truly command a united kingdom had died in the first campaign of the war. In a hundred years, the notion of one kingdom had become an increasingly strained fiction, and even the reach of the Great Wardens of the Earth Kingdom, such as the King of Omashu, had waned.

So it was little surprise when after landing in the outskirts and purchasing a berth at one of the livery stables, a group of Earth Kingdom soldiers came to shake Azula down for protection money.

The stable was run down, and the man at the desk could only walk with the aid of crutches. But he seemed amiable enough, not least because his profession allowed him to drink on the job. The old man looked Ikki up and down, glanced at the decanter of cheap wine, then looked back at Azula. "Right funny creature you got dere, missy," he said uneasily. "It's not going to eat me, is it?"

Azula slapped a silver qián on the desk, holding it down with her index finger. "I assure you that Ikki is herbivorous. She eats hay and most fruits readily, and so long as she is looked after she is entirely pleasant company."

"Well, you see–"

Azula tsked, rapping her fingers. "You're no doubt worried that an animal her size is going to eat commensurately more. I am prepared to pay accordingly. But I will not be taken for a fool."

The man eyed the coin, licking his lips. "Well, since you are paying in specie and not in scrip, I suppose I can be reasonable." His eyes turned to the machete at her belt, and he swallowed. "Seven tael for two days."

Azula smirked. "Six. And I will expect you to provide her with fresh apples with her hay."

"Six tael, twelve zhu. War's made prices go up, even in cash. Final offer."

"You'll take six and eight or I'll go somewhere else."

The old man huffed. "Fine, your offer is accepted."

Azula flicked the coin across the desk. "I expect that change will be given for my qián according to the Omashu standard." The man grumbled and counted out thirteen brass tael and sixteen copper zhu for Azula's change. "Pleasure doing business with you," lied Azula. It was more than a fair price, he'd just expected to run roughshod over young people traveling unchaperoned.

When Azula left the office, she found four men in jade-green armor looming around Katara. Their pear-colored helmets glinted in the setting sun. One of the four rested his palm on the hilt of the jian sword at his belt. He said behind his false smile, "Now listen little missy, you're a long way from home. We wouldn't want you to get hurt. That's why all we're asking for is a small donation to our company. Cash preferably, with scrip being what it is, but we can make out a deal."

Katara looked at him warily. Nonchalantly, she uncorked the water skin at her side and took a drink. "Well I appreciate all you men do, but I can look after myself."

The man shook his head. "I don't think you appreciate the situation you're in. But you're not from around here, so I'll cut you some slack. After all, there is a war going on here. People get hurt all the time."

Azula was about to step in when Katara laughed. "Oh, I get it now. Oh, clever!" She wiped the spilled water from her chin and bared her smiling fangs. "I just thought you were trying to scam me. But I get it now. You want me to pay you, or else you're going to hurt me. This is a very clever form of robbery, isn't it Azula?"

"It's called a protection racket," Azula said, "seems pretty low for soldiers to get involved in it. It's usually the job of lowlifes. Then again, you four are posted to the rear instead of at the front."

The four soldiers' hands were at their scabbards now. The man spit out a gob of hemp as he squared his stance. "The lady knows fancy words, but can she count? Four is more than two."

"Behind you, genius," said Sokka, cracking his knuckles. Suki stood to his left, and flicked her katana an inch out of its scabbard with her thumb.

They four soldiers growled and hissed like alley cats. But they soon backed down. "You best watch out for trouble, traveler," the leader said, straightening his tunic. Gathering his men, he marched the quick-time down the street, out to the city walls.

The man from the livery stable came hobbling out of his office. Chewing on his tongue, he watched the four soldiers retreat, balancing on his crutch. The sour smell of old garlic wafted after him. "'Twas a brave t'ing you did dere, miss. And foolish. Dey'll be back."

"Have they been causing trouble?" Katara asked.

"Garrison's been running rackets for as long as I can remember. Dey call it a war tax, but it ain't official. Been getting steeper dese last few monts dough. Been a real boil on my arse—beg you pardon, miss."

"Think nothing of it," Azula said. "We're looking for lodging tonight. Food, drink and a place to sleep. Can you point us to a good place."

"Dere's a teahouse down this lane, only a few blocks. Serves more dan just tea, also has rooms for rent. Bit of a bawdy place dough, wouldn't want my daughter staying dere."

Suki gave Sokka an elbow jab in his ribs. "Sounds perfect, actually. For you, I mean."

Sokka elbowed her back. "Hey I saw your eyes light up, don't put this on me."

Katara stretched her weary shoulders. "Honestly, sounds good enough for me."

Sokka turned to Katara in mock aghast, "My baby sister…a delinquent? Impossible, I'll never allow it."

"I stopped being your 'baby sister' when I started doing your laundry, brother-dear." A feral grin curled on Katara's cheeks. "Maybe you want me to tell Suki about the smell–"

"Alright, alright, I get it! I was just joking around."

Three sets of eyes turned to Azula. Only when the silence turned awkward did she realize they were waiting for her to give her opinion on the idea. Azula blinked with the epiphany. She'd become too used to people openly asking for permission to do things, and even when she left that life behind, the subtle rhythms of life with peers were still lost on her. Only now did Azula realize that since the confrontation with the soldiers, she'd been standing at parade rest, that false state of relaxation demanded by military decorum.

Smiling, she rubbed her chin. "To be quite honest, I could use something stronger than tea."

The celebratory mood was nice. The sudden group hug forced on her by Sokka…that was more of a mixed reception. She didn't slap him this time at least.

The "teahouse" went by the name The Jealous Kitsune, and it served everything except tea. When Sokka's eyes lingered too long on one of the courtesans, Azula pulled the purse from his hands and hissed, "We don't have enough money for companionship."

"What, I was just admiring the view."

The young woman across the smoke-filled hall was made up like a doll, hair perfectly coiffed and skin pearly white aside from the rose blush and delicately brushed kohl around her eyes. She blew a ring of sweetgrass smoke after toking on a delicate brass pipe and winked at Sokka.

"And what a view it is," Suki amended.

Azula pursed her lips. She wasn't wrong, and that was the vexing part. Nothing had ever felt quite so wrong and right simultaneously. Perhaps it was the burden of royalty, or the regimentation of her life, but either way it left the princess a stranger to temptation. She could talk intelligently about it in abstract; what share of the state revenue came from liquor, gambling, and brothel taxes, their mixed effects on civilian and military morale, and the many young men at court neglecting their duties for such vices.

It was quite another thing entirely for Azula to find herself frozen like a lost baby dear, staring at a young server's plunging neckline while she dipped in to pour a cup of wine, then try to count out the right change for the round of drinks plus gratuity. When the server left, sashaying her hips so delightfully, Azula sighed and squeaked out a quiet "wow."

Katara to her left nodded and said "yeah."

Thankfully Sokka and Suki had already engrossed themselves in a game of dominoes, or else Azula would never hear the end of it. She hid her blush behind her cup, and took a deep draught of the sour red. It was going to be a long night.

Azula had some experience drinking. She had no experience of actual social drinking. Sure she'd drink at events where it was customary, but it was pure business and a way to dull the dullards she was forced to mix with in the gentry. It only took one cup of even the watered down wine to silence the nagging voice in her head that she was doing something wrong.

Three cups in plus a taste of some of Katara's malt beer, and Azula was armwrestling Sokka while Suki and Katara put bets on who'd buy the next round. Not that it actually mattered; they'd agreed to put all their funds into a single pool for the quest, but it was fun to get in on the action and pretend that it mattered.

Azula took a swig of some sake and squared up for the tiebreaker match. "Alright, I'm warmed up now," Azula gushed, "you may surrender and be spared any shame, Sokka."

"In your dreams. You only won yours by distracting me. That trick won't work again."

"What, are you afraid you're looking weak in front of the local girls, Sokka?" Azula's ears and cheeks were burning pleasantly. "Tell you what, if you win, maybe I'll introduce you to one of them. But then again, they could do better."

Sokka laughed deep in his belly and finished his sake. "Okay, you're going down princess."

"Not on you."

Suki spit out her drink in a laughing, coughing fit. Katara suppressed her laugh with her hand over her mouth.

Azula blinked. "What's so funny?"

"Oh sweetie, just roll with it," said Suki, finally finished with hacking up a lung.

"No, I want to know. What did I say? I just said I wasn't going to go down on him. Certainly not without a fight. I'd sooner gag myself with a spoon. He's going down on me first."

Katara burst out into a giggling fit. "Azula…just stop, oh dear!"

Sokka was read as a beet and suddenly very quiet. Suki looked at him and ribbed him. "Oh man, not saying I wouldn't support you like all the others you've pursued, but Sokka that would be a ride you would not survive."

"I feel like we're having two conversations," Azula huffed. "I've clearly landed face-first on some innuendo, just tell me what it is so I don't do it again."

Katara shifted in close, cupping her hands by Azula's ear. "'Going down' on someone means giving oral sex. Please don't make me explain what that means."

The blush rose on Azula's face like the mercury rising in a thermometer. If she'd been sober she'd have been able to brush it off. But she started rambling, "Eww. I mean, not that you're disgusting Sokka, you are a handsome man. But you're Katara's brother, and I don't think of you that way, and I'm pretty sure Suki would kill me if I did–did I say that out loud? Forget I said that–"

Katara put her hand over Azula's mouth. "Quit digging yourself deeper."

"Ya know, I think I'm out of the mood to arm wrestle," Sokka said.

Azula drowned her need to explain herself with more sake, taking the time to survey the surroundings and just how many people had noticed her making an utter fool of herself. Most of the other patrons seemed engrossed in their own affairs, save for a tall raven-haired woman leaned up against the bar. She wore a top-knot in a skull motif clasp, but otherwise her long hair stretched to her mid back. When she noticed Azula looking, she winked, and Azula's pulse quickened.

Maybe it wasn't so bad to be noticed by someone like her. But at that moment, the inn suddenly became deathly silent. Every eye turned to the door to watch Earth Kingdom soldiers file in the door. The first four Azula recognized from before. But more followed after them, eight in total.

The sergeant leading them stepped to the fore, looking down his nose at Azula. His helmet was courteously tucked under his arm, but the rest of the soldiers remained at-arms, hands on the pommels of their swords. "I believe we've already met," he said. "My name is Zhang, and my reputation precedes me. You can pay double right now for disrespecting me and my men. Or we can do this the hard way."

Azula stood, shoulders squared, right up in his face. He looked to be in his forties, and stood just below Azula's 5'9". And she still had some years of growth yet. "There's not anything that's hard about you, Zhang," Azula said, glaring back at him with murderous contempt.

"Why you–"

"You're a small, soft little man so many miles behind the line-of-contact. I'd offer to buy you some time with one of the working girls to take your mind off your inadequacy, but I'm sure you'd hold up as well as fresh noodles in a typhoon."

No one laughed, except for the raven-haired woman at the bar. Zhang didn't lash out yet. He hissed between his gritted teeth. "You really think you can take on the whole garrison."

"You're an embarrassment to the uniform, Zhang. And when they hear that you've been bested by a sixteen-year old girl, they'll send you straight to the front. Walk away, little man."

It might have worked, had she just not called him a little man again. He went for his sword. But his reflexes were dulled by anger and too long spent out of discipline. His gorget had been removed for comfort, so Azula punched him straight in the throat before he could even touch the pommel.

He went down, gasping and clutching his neck. Before the rest of them could react, the rest of the party jumped into action. Katara slapped the soldiers across the face with a water-whip bent from the beverages on her table. Sokka was over the table in a flash, kicking one in the face, while Suki went low and slashed at their legs with her fans.

The brawl was the most fun Azula had in a long time. And tipsy like she was, she didn't hide her thrill behind a stoic mask. She grinned like a demon, laughing as she kicked and slapped around the dazed, leaderless soldiers. The woman at the bar laughed and joined in, and some of the other patrons followed after. There was some friendly fire in the drunken brawl, but it didn't escalate beyond kicking the shit out of the thugs running the protection racket in this district.

The fight ended with Azula taking the recovering sergeant by the scruff of his neck, hauling him to the front door and tossing him out on the heap with the rest of his men. "Thank you, sergeant, for serving and protecting." She dusted off her hands and strutted back inside, feeling like a thousand-thousand ban.

The other patrons were buying her friends another round, giving them hearty slaps on the back or kisses on the cheek. It felt…nice to do something heroic for a change, above and beyond the thrill of the fight. The tall woman strutted over and extended her hand. Azula clasped wrist-to-wrist. "June," she said.

"Na-yeon."

"I know that's not your real name, princess."

Azula froze for a moment.

"I have no intention of doing anything with that information. You're alright, kid. Why don't you introduce me to your friends."

Azula nodded. "Those inseparable two are Sokka and Suki. He's an anointed brother of the Wolf-Lodge of the Southern Water Tribe, like his younger sister, Katara. Suki is the captain of the Kyoshi Warriors."

"Quite a band you've got here. Shame to waste your talents taking out the garbage."

"Duty may not be glamorous, but it is duty."

June stifled a giggle. Azula let it slide in the general gaiety of the moment.

June stretched, lazily. "Well, fighting always gets my blood going. And there's nothing better to cap that off than taking a girl to bed." When Azula flushed crimson, June added, "Relax kid, not you, you're too young for me."

Azula's mood turned on a dime from embarrassed and scared to insulted. "You're like twenty."

"Twenty-one. Anyway, I'm going to go find a companion for the night. Be seeing you–"

"I'm nineteen," Suki interrupted. "And you're right, some companionship is the best way to end a night like this." She ran the back of her hand down June's arm, giving a daring smile.

June smiled back. Standing almost four inches taller than Suki, she looked down at Suki's eager grin and ran her thumb along the Kyoshi warrior's cheek. Suki stood on her tiptoes, grabbed the nape of June's neck and pulled her lips to June's.

Azula looked away, flushing hot with embarrassment. Katara giggled. And Sokka cheered, "Alright Suki, you go!"

It was like watching a carriage accident, Azula decided, watching people make out in public. Her eyes kept flitting back to the spectacle, however wrong it felt to watch. Soon enough, June was leading Suki upstairs to her room. But she stopped at the foot of the stairs and said, "Should I invite your wingman upstairs too? You two do seem inseparable."

Suki babbled something about her being a girl and Sokka being a boy, which June just brushed aside by saying, "I'm flexible."

Suki hid her face in June's chest for a moment. Then she turned, and nodded bashfully at Sokka. He stood mouth agape, pointing at his chest. When she nodded again, he followed after.

A sudden quiet settled over Azula as she returned to their table with Katara. The burden of knowledge weighed heavily down on her shoulders. Her friends were going upstairs to do something scandalous, a strange and mysterious rite-of-passage. It had never occurred to her to wonder if they'd ever done this before. She only knew about Ty Lee's…dalliances…because she spoke of them freely to her friends. Suddenly Mai's quiet confidence in those conversations contrasted with Azula's unease, and Azula realized it came from first-hand experience.

June was right, Azula decided. She was not ready for this adult world. But unlike the burden of being the Avatar, this would wait for her, until she was ready. Katara looked at Azula with unspoken understanding. Azula nodded. It was no doubt even weirder for Katara; one of them was her brother after all.

So they sat in companionable silence, sipping at their drinks and snacking on dango. Azula didn't feel left out anymore. It was nice to not overthink things for once. Her first time would wait for her. She smiled at Katara. It would be with someone Azula loved and treasured, not a random fling with a hot stranger.

Dream?

Memory?

Prophecy?

Azula remembered settling her weary head down on a soft-feather pillow, futon huddled close to the hearth, still drunk and giggly. Katara had already been snoring away next to her. And then she found herself sitting seiza in the middle of an open-air temple, gazing out at the luminous gray landscape. The air was totally still under the lacquered wood arches. The brass chimes hung silent as the night.

The temple was built around a crystal monolith. The inscriptions etched in the crystal were too hard to read, save for a single glyph:

月

Moon.

It couldn't be.

Azula wore a blue hauberk over her jacket. The blued metal was caked with dried blood and ash. Her blue, gray and white facepaint was streaked with sweat and soot. The ash clung to her tightly bound hair, painted with blood like her hands. The blood was not hers.

Azula looked up from the glowing horizon into the black night sky. She rose to be transfixed by what she saw. The Earth hung low on the horizon, a crescent disc of blue and green flecked with clouds of white. Dawn was breaking over the Caldera, the familiar shape of the Fire Islands now emerging from the curtain of night.

A voice tore her attention away. A woman was now sitting on the monolith. Her body and gauze-like robes seemed to be almost weightless. "The Earth is quite beautiful from up here, isn't it?"

Azula nodded, heart torn by some inexplicable sadness. Something horrible had just happened, though she knew not what.

The woman looked down on her. Her dark skin glowed with an ethereal halo of white light, blue eyes sparkling. Her snow-white hair was bound by silver gossamer. The woman frowned, shoulders slumping. "If only people could see the world as I see it now." She floated off the monolith to stand in front of Azula.

The Earth hung in the sky just over the woman's shoulders. "I'm sorry, I should have known what they would do," Azula said, tears streaming down her cheeks.

The woman pressed a finger to Azula's lips. "It was always going to come to this. Had you interfered, my destiny would only have brought me here some other day." The woman gave a familiar smile. "In even worse company."

Azula took the woman's hands in hers.

Azula's eyes fluttered open to the dark teahouse room. Her head pounded like a taiko drum, and she felt the irrepressible urge to sit up, throwing aside the blanket. The churning in her belly slowed once she sat up, but now the frosty air bit her skin.

She groaned, vowing never to drink so much again. But the vision of the Earth hanging in the sky stuck with her from the dream. She could not do anything about the visions, but she could do something about the cold. Azula stirred the embers back to life, and piled fresh dry kindling atop them.

Katara stirred, evidently less hungover than her. The thin strips of wood were starting to burn and crackle, and the girl huddled close to Azula, wrapping her blanket around them both. She pushed a waterskin into Azula's hands and commanded, "Drink."

Azula didn't realize how thirsty she was until the water touched her tongue. She drank greedily, until the pounding in her head slowed. "What a night."

"I'll say."

"Always knew Suki had a thing for your brother."

"Could you not?"

Azula grinned. "Guess she does like sausage."

"Scamp!"

Azula gave her best innocent doe eyes. "Who, me?"

"Unbelievable."

"Just be glad they went to June's room, they were going to room right next to us."

"You're unusually feisty for someone who's woken up at the witching hour."

Azula looked into the flames pensively, until she remembered that some Firebenders see visions in fire too. Azula looked into Katara's eyes. It hadn't been her that she'd seen in the vision, she was sure of that now, but sometimes visions show half truths or cloak meaning behind metaphor. "I had another vision, this was clearer than any of the others. But I don't know what it means."

"Then don't think about it."

"Huh?"

"How many legends begin with a great warrior or prince hearing a terrible prophecy about his fate, then doing something terrible to avoid it, only to find at the end of the journey he conspired to make his destiny happen?"

"Point taken."

"That's part of the Riddle of the Sea. Sometimes we have to just flow with it, and not fight the currents."

Author's Notes: As always, the spicier content is exclusive to the version on AO3. Head there if you want the Sokka/June/Suki love scene you never knew you wanted.