Previously, on A viper-lizard's tales : Called by the servant Qin sent for them, Mai and Ty Lee come to Azula's side and find her prostrated on the floor, unmoving. Mai is reminded of old memories of playing with Azula's dolls, and of Azula arguing with Ursa about what she is and isn't allowed to do with her things. Watching Azula's sorry state, Mai wonder what will happen with her own situation, and realizes that she can take control over her future - if she kills Azula before noon, she will be executed, and as such the two of them will escape certain suffering. Looking at Ty Lee, though, Mai wonders if it would truly be mercy to deprive herself of the company of a friend in such a cruel way...
A. N. : Well, last one was certainly something, huh ! The cliffhanger is now over, though. This chapter has a scene that I'd actually been planning for a very long time, and it felt really liberating to finally reach it. Like, wow, I'm actually getting somewhere with this fic ! Anyway, I love writing the dynamics of our favorite gal pals, and I hope you guys will enjoy this chapter as well.
Ty Lee prays.
She doesn't know when, exactly, she started reciting the words in her head, if it was when she saw Azula in shambles in her room, or even earlier, when the servant called for Mai and herself, and Ty Lee just knew something terrible was about to happen.
What she does know is that the number of Spirits she has called only grew when she saw Mai with steel in her hand and unshed tears in her eyes.
Agni, great Spirit of the Sun, protector of the Fire Nation – Tui, who watches over the night, and La, whose seas have always been a blessing to the Islands and the Nation – Oma, mentioned a few times by the Dai Li as a protector of their craft, whose grief raised mountains so high she herself rose to the level of a Spirit honored in the entirety of the Earth Kingdom – even Spirits whose name cannot be spoken anymore, bringers of the Storms –
Anyone, please, hear Ty Lee's prayers and spare her the pain of losing her friends when they need her the most.
Mai doesn't look at her, and only stares Azula down, who twists her body slightly to face Mai properly and spreads the shaking arms she kept close to her stomach before, in a welcoming manner that reminds Ty Lee of when she offered to watch the show, genuine want mixed with the need to hurt.
Ty Lee doesn't move. Keeps her muscles tense and ready to take action.
If someone hurts her friends, she will strike them, no matter who they are, no matter if the one they seek to hurt is themselves.
Mai blinks the tears away. Turns the knife in her hand.
You look awful, she says, and Ty Lee feels Azula startle as if she was just stabbed – or rather, as if she was betrayed. She probably would've embraced the pain of death with a smile.
But Mai doesn't offer blood, instead – give me your head, she says, I'll see what I can do with – she grimaces, raises a sarcastic eyebrow – that hair.
In her whole life, Ty Lee doesn't think she's ever seen Azula so lost. Maybe if she still had the strength, she would make Mai pay for going against her plans, but… as things are, she simply brings her arms closer once more and lowers her head in what Ty Lee would see as defeat on anyone else.
Azula doesn't lose. She just doesn't. Even when she can't be the best at something, she always finds a way around. It's infuriating, like when she used to shove Ty Lee for being better at cartwheeling –
It's what makes Azula special. What makes Ty Lee special, by extension, to be needed as part of Azula's strategies to compensate for her own shortcomings.
So for Azula to lower her head and tell Mai to do what she wants… It makes Ty Lee's insides twist like a noose.
Mai comes closer, carefully shoves the glass shards aside with her shoe, then she kneels and sets up to work. Azula's hair is a sorry sight, the back of her head, closest to where her topknot was, almost showing skin, while the rest is of varying length all over in an haphazard mess. It isn't Azula at all.
It must be sad for her, Ty Lee thinks, to see her hair, dark and smooth as silk and beautiful, falling down around her as Mai cuts lock after lock, until the whole back of Azula's head is as short as the rest. The front remains, though, the hair highlighting Azula's face almost the same as ever, adapted to make a smooth diagonal from her chin to the top of her head so it won't look out of place in this new configuration.
It must be sad for Azula, and lonely, and it will only be worse when she has to leave. Ty Lee knows – being torn from the circus broke her heart, but she at least wasn't alone back then. She knew Mai would join them, and Azula was still fun to be around once she got what she wanted, and she needed Ty Lee –
Azula's aura is wholly purple, safe for the green touches someone – no, not someone, Qin, Ty Lee cannot afford half-lies anymore – put in there, and that's something only Ty Lee knows. Something only she can do anything about. And Azula would be so lonely…
Do mine next, she asks Mai. She realizes her face is probably too serious here, so she adds a bright smile and a please when Mai asks if she's sure.
Ty Lee has never been more sure of anything, she thinks. It's something only she can do, and Azula needs her, needs her in a way she never did before, in a way Ty Lee's never been needed and it's – it's exhilarating to the point it almost makes her sick with herself, so instead she focuses on the weight of her braid, that she never really noticed until now that it's gone, focuses on the sound of Mai's blade cutting through hair, focuses on the brown locks tickling her cheeks and nose as they fall down.
She blows some air upwards, trying to dislodge the hair stuck on her face.
Azula talked about noon, so that leaves maybe five hours to prepare, pack clothes and money and some food, and leave… she'll need to check what places are off-limit now.
She'll miss Mai.
She'll miss her so much, but Mai's family probably can't afford for their daughter to help out an exile. Politically, that's suicide, and Mai is too kind to put them in danger like that.
Maybe Ty Lee should send a hawk to Auntie Mei Lin to ask her to put Mai under her protection, just in case. Mai is precise enough that no one will bat an eye at her being chosen as an apprentice, even by one as respected as Auntie Mei Lin.
Plus, no one would ask a Lee for explanations.
And – and it would put her out of Qin's reach.
As she turns to tell Mai about her idea, she notices Mai undid her own hair. Ty Lee can only stare in silence as Mai pulls her hair into an emu-ponytail. As Mai tightens her grip on the knife. As she slices through her hair with the same cold determination she does almost everything.
Her aura is pure black – and green, the green just will not leave – as she looks down at the night-black hair she spilled on the floor, mixing with Azula's softer locks and Ty Lee's own brown ones. She cut at shoulder length, and it suits her, makes her look even taller, and it makes Ty Lee wonder what she herself looks like now that her own hair is short enough that its curls feel like soft wool, barely brushing against her ears anymore.
This Mai, pure black and so much taller, simply says that she isn't letting Ozai ruin her life, any Ty Lee nods.
Azula laughs. It sounds like a sob.
Mai reaches for a paper on the floor, skims through the text with a frown, then rises to her feet.
Let's go, she says.