A. N. : Welp, I have officially run out of pre-written chapters. Hopefully, this shouldn't have an impact on the schedule, but it does mean that I don't have any wiggle room at all anymore if my brain decides to give out on me. So if there's a chapter that comes late, this is why. But like I said, it should be alright. Anyway, it's Mai time ! And also introducing-new-worldbuilding time.
Mai's feet hurt.
It's a ridiculously small issue when compared to everything else, from Azula's sudden illness, to Ty Lee's uncharacteristic aggressiveness towards Qin, to the fact that they're assisting an exile and renounced their titles themselves to do so and that if they hadn't, Mai might have ended up –
She takes a step. Her feet hurt. That's a thing she can focus on without consequences. It's safe.
So, Mai's feet hurt, and the reason for that is that Azula had to go and fall ill somehow – Ty Lee said something about her aura, and Qin theorized an imbalance in her chi, all while Mai just stared ahead and focused on not getting her feet tangled in any roots. And because the road to the Gates of Azulon follows a dozen twists and turns that make travelling by foot take entirely too long, they decided to instead head for one of the small coastal villages that are closer only by virtue of the more direct forest paths leading to them.
Although Mai thinks calling them paths is probably too generous. Mud and rocks forming an approximation of a straight line, perhaps. Remnants of one time when a tree fell all the way down to the sea and tore through the bushes that used to grow there. The path of an angry komodo-rhino ?
Usually, Ty Lee would be the one to make these kinds of remarks, voicing Mai's thoughts better than she herself could. Usually, Ty Lee wouldn't be so quiet, so tense, on guard for anything Qin might do while he carries Azula on his back.
Ty Lee threatened to kill him. That alone would be enough to make Mai uneasy. Ty Lee doesn't threaten people, not like Azula, not like Mai – she charms people, acts dumber than she is, precisely so that she doesn't have to threaten them.
Something is horribly wrong and Mai's feet hurt.
It's not that she expected the journey to be easy, like some sort of romantic tale of running away, or even for Azula to be thankful – on the contrary, Mai knew when she chose to keep her blade at Azula's hair that it was betrayal, rebellion against Azula as much as against the Fi –
Against Ozai. It is not the Fire Lord Mai rejects, but the man who burned his son and sentenced his daughter to a fate worse than death.
Father bet his political career on Ozai, so Mai supposes she is rebelling against him, as well.
In one single action, one single refusal to obey, Mai broke the chains that bonded her to a life she couldn't bear. She freed herself. She follows Azula still, but she could leave. She is free to do so at any time. That knowledge is –
Her feet hurt.
The forest is clearing up, the approximation of a path turning more defined with each step, until finally trees are replaced by rock, and a few houses appear along with the coast.
They must look odd, the four of them. Short haired girls, a mismatch of pinks and dark reds and the reddish browns Qin found somewhere to replace his uniform, and the unconscious child – and it hits Mai how short Azula is, how much younger she looks without makeup – on the back of a man who might be old enough to be the father of one of the girls at his side, but in no way of all three.
The merchant they ask for directions eyes them suspiciously. Mai can't say she wouldn't do the same in her stead.
Ty Lee and Qin spin a tale of cousins reuniting after the passing of a relative, poor orphaned Ty Lee being taken in by her uncle and his two daughters, the four of them moving to the mainland in the hopes of putting the past behind and starting a new life, and unfortunately young Azula fell ill during the journey and would you be so kind as to tell us where to find a healer –
The woman squints harder with each word. Mai browses the stall, picks out a particularly lavish fan, with a wave pattern highlighted in gold paint, and a pearl tied to the white handle with a red knot – the kind of tacky thing she can't bear. And also, without a doubt, the most expensive thing in this merchant's stock. If not in the whole village.
She places a full chord of gold on the stall. My little sister is very sick, she says, eyes boring into the merchant's face.
After seconds of staring, the merchant's eyes going from the money to Azula a few times, they finally get an answer. Follow the road to the sea, the house closest to the water is the village healer's.
They thank her, Mai grabs her new fan, wondering what in Koh's name she could even do with that… thing, and hoping to soon be allowed to take off her shoes and sit down.
Then, when the healer looks at Azula, she will take Ty Lee aside and ask her about Qin.
With that resolution, Mai keeps her eyes on the coast, watching as the small wooden house closest to the sea grows in size with each step she takes. From this close, she can see a person sitting on the porch, long gray hair veering on white loosely tied so as to not get in the way of whatever they're doing.
The person is grinding something down, Mai realizes as she keeps on advancing. Hopefully, it will be a medicinal herb, and Azula won't have to wait any longer to get care.
And then, as the old healer shifts to see who is coming to visit them, Mai sees the tattoos. She stops.
Follow the road to the sea, the house closest to the water is the village healer's. There's only one house here – a little away from the rest of the town, an odd place for a healer now that Mai thinks about it – meaning it has to be the right one.
The merchant only forgot to mention the healer is a pirate.