Work Text:
morning
Azula wandered along the war table and back again in thought. She pointedly avoided stepping on the map, and the military generals around the table each slipped their scrolls and work away when she walked past.
She was Fire Lord Azula, now.
Had been for two days, and in the wake of her father’s death, she’d been left with the problems he’d caused and never solved.
“Fire Lord Azula,” General Raisu started, “I believe we should talk about—”
“Cease,” she said, holding up a hand and pausing, her right foot floating above the tabletop. “I am thinking.”
General Raisu sat back. The table was emptier than it might usually have been, but that was because Azula fired any of the generals who had opposed her taking rule at such a young age. Her fifteenth birthday was in a little more than a week. Traditionally, a royal wouldn’t take the seat of the Fire Lord until sixteen at the youngest, but Azula wasn’t going to have a regent sending this nation spiralling after the murder of her father.
They needed to put on a strong show now to prove to the other nations that they were not weak, were not in a position to be fought against. If the Earth Kingdom started believing that the Fire Nation was not as mighty as ever, rebellions might ensue.
She voiced this thought, and Admiral Seezo raised a hand. “Fire Lord Azula, if I may?” She waved a hand. “If we need a show of strength, perhaps it should be posed towards another Earth Kingdom town, or perhaps the Southern Water Tribe.”
“The South Pole wouldn’t be a show of strength,” Azula replied, continuing her walk around the table, “it would be about picking up scraps. Crumbs. The North and the Earth Kingdom would see us taking an easy target and think we do not have the strength for a bigger one.”
“What of Ba Sing Se?” another general asked, though Azula had forgotten his name. After a certain point, a list of men with the same rank grew boring to memorise.
“It’s too soon to retake Ba Sing Se,” Azula sighed. “The people there are currently filled with hope; they’ll fight back and too many of our soldiers will be lost to the battle. The same with Omashu, that ridiculous king will only let us take his kingdom once without fighting, a second time will call for a battle we might not win.”
“We’re the Fire Nation,” Raisu said, “we will win.”
Azula hummed. “Not with the level of troops currently in the Earth Kingdom; many of them were pulled back to the Fire Nation to board the airships and so died in the crash. Those that did not drown were burned or crushed to death.”
She paused at the head of the table and studied the throne in this room, the painted fiery mural behind. “How many troops are trained and available to be deployed from home?”
“About three hundred men at present,” someone responded behind her.
“Not enough,” she mused. “Lower the draft age.”
“Fire Lord Azula—”
“What is it now? Seventeen?”
“Yes—”
“Lower it to sixteen.” Sixteen-year-olds were allowed to join and train, but they were not forcibly drafted. Azula waved a hand. “Make it happen. We’ll increase the amount of troops we have across the Fire Nation and make another assault in the Earth Kingdom. Gaoling is still ours, I presume?”
“Yes, though taking it was a questionable decision, your highness.”
Azula turned sharply, eyes narrowing on Seezo. “It’s Your Majesty, now,” she hissed.
“Of course,” he rushed to say. “I apologise Your Majesty, it was a mistake.” She noted it against him silently as he moved to continue, “Gaoling has no strategic importance in the Earth Kingdom, but has been under Fire Nation control for almost three months. Fire Nation taxes have been imposed and our troops control the city, but not much else has been done with it.”
Azula nodded slowly. “Draft in the new recruits; I want to sweep the Fire Nation across the Earth Kingdom, from east to west. Take every town along the way until all that is left is Omashu and Ba Sing Se. Omashu can be taken as soon as the king is dead. He’s very old, isn’t he?”
“Fire Lord Azula,” Raisu said, “we cannot pin Omashu on the hopes that an old man will die.”
“We can’t,” she agreed, “that’s why I want the best assassins in the nation sent after him. As soon as he’s dead, Omashu will return to New Ozai.” She stepped across the table and peered down at the map, at the organisation of the Earth Kingdom. “Make it look natural,” she said, like grandfather Azulon. “I want the world to think he’s died in his sleep, not that the Fire Nation wants his city back.”
She crouched low, tilting her head and gazing across the world, her world. Father was too ambitious and yet not ambitious enough. He sought to use the comet to take this world and relied on it; relied on his victory over a small child, when all reports of the few surviving soldiers in the ships stated that the Avatar took down Ozai with help. She could imagine the riff raff the Avatar travelled with, all of them banding together in some pathetic show of friendship to kill her father.
And kill him they did. Azula didn’t know they had it in them. That was an oversight that wouldn't be repeated.
She rose again. “More importantly,” she began, “is that to keep the Fire Nation appearing strong and untouchable, we must block all attempts at seizing the throne.” She marched back to the head of the table and turned to face the room. “My brother is still alive and he fights beside the Avatar. Both of them will, no doubt, make attempts to have me removed from the throne and install him in my place.”
“Your Majesty, if it comes to civil war, you have the support of the military,” Seezo said.
“And the noble class,” Ozum added, head of the treasury. “The people will also fall in line; they understand the need to bring prosperity and advancement to the other nations.”
Azula hummed. “Maybe so—but that will not stop them from trying.”
She stepped off the table.
“Fire Lord Azula?”
Azula started for the door. “I believe we will need to lure them into our grasp and trap them there,” she said over her shoulder. “I have some thinking to do.”
afternoon
Ty Lee wandered through the street towards her house. She glanced over her shoulder at the guards that tailed her; she’d only just persuaded them not to make her take a palanquin and let her walk amongst the people. She was still unrecognisable. It did not matter that she’d stood at Azula’s side when she was crowned; Ty Lee was just another face in the crowd, albeit followed by a pack of guards.
The guards were actually chafing quite a bit. Azula had assigned three to both her and Mai, which was very thoughtful of her, of course, but Ty Lee just didn’t see her needing them. She may be friends with Azula, but no one was going to make an attempt on her life; she held absolutely no political power, no rank. In fact, though she was sixteen and no longer lived at home, she had no job, either.
The circus had long moved on without her and Azula tended to all of her needs. If she needed her own money, she might be able to return home and get it from her parents, but just like now, as she made the walk, she was flanked by guards who no doubt reported back to the Fire Lord.
They stood outside her door at night and followed her to her massages or training sessions. She had been tempted, again and again, to try… something. Something forbidden. Something she couldn’t have; she mustn’t, but again and again she became aware of the guards nearby.
One glimpse of her… airbending could get her executed on the spot.
If it was possible that she could, that was. She hadn’t had much chance to try, even weeks since the little Avatar had cornered her with his belief.
She marched a little faster, as if trying to get away from the thought. It felt dirty to even think about, like someone might peer into her head and spill all her private secrets like wine. It would stain the rugs and the flooring, and everyone would know what he said.
Everyone would know what she was—
Might be. There was no proof. None at all.
She made her way back to the mansion her parents owned and knocked heavily with the knocker. The house was in the inner circle of the Caldera, and her parents were rich enough to send Ty Lee and a few of her other highly-scoring sisters to the Royal Fire Academy for Girls, but they were certainly on the lower end of the nobility spectrum.
For one, they had a cleaner but no butler or chef. And for two, Ty Lee and her sisters were not raised to be wives like other noble girls, such as Mai – they were allowed to explore and follow their dreams. It was the girls themselves that had laid down the law on who owned which dream and how they could never overstep.
It was her mother that opened the door, smiling gently and saying, “My girl, look how big you’ve gotten.”
“Mother,” Ty Lee replied, embracing her tightly. “May I come in?”
“Of course, of course. Are they… with you?” She was pointing down to the three guards that stood at the gates.
“Oh, right. You can wait out here,” Ty Lee said.
“At least one of us must go inside,” a guard replied, stepping forward. “Fire Lord Azula’s ruling is that you may not be in a building alone—”
“Alright, alright,” Ty Lee sighed. “One of you may come inside. I hope that’s okay, Mother.”
“Yes, yes, that’ll be fine,” her mother said softly, leading Ty Lee in. She watched her gaze jump to the guard that followed them inside, posting himself at the door. “The Fire Lord deems you important enough to give a guard detail to… that is very impressive, Ty Lee.”
Ty Lee noted that her mother did not guess which daughter she was speaking to until she was sure. She nodded absently, starting into the lounge where one of her identical sisters sat, feet propped up on the coffee table as she read through a scroll. She lowered it into her lap when spotting her.
“Ty Woo,” Ty lee greeted with a smile.
“I’m Ty Liu,” her sister responded.
“No, you’re not.”
Ty Woo scoffed. “How’d you know?”
“Ty Liu wouldn’t wear those shoes.” They grinned at each other, sparing a glance for the… stylistically unique shoes on Ty Woo’s feet.
“Ty Liu’s at work,” Ty Woo said. “What are you doing here anyway?” She nodded to the guard at the door. “Fire Lord got you down?”
“Ty Woo,” their mother hissed. “We do not speak badly of the Fire Lord, in all her glory and power, in this household. Fire Lord Azula and Ty Lee have been good friends since a young age, and we do our best here to respect our standing Fire Lord and support her in her work to keep this nation strong.”
Ty Lee, keeping her back to the guard, pulled a face. Ty Woo pressed her lips into a thin line, holding back a smile. Ty Woo and Ty Lin had been the two sisters that attended the Royal Academy for girls with Ty Lee; Ty Woo was the oldest of the seven, and first in line to inherit their father’s properties, while Ty Lin had scored exceptionally high and ended up signing up for the Fire Navy upon turning sixteen. Neither of them had managed to catch Azula’s eye the way Ty Lee had, but due to their identical nature and Azula’s forceful presence, Ty Woo and Ty Lin had been forced to wear identical red ribbons in their hair every day, so Azula could tell them apart from Ty Lee.
It was very smart of Azula, of course, to make them easy to tell apart, but it had caused several arguments at home, once away from the prying ears of the teachers and other students. Of course, Ty Lee hadn’t told Azula this, so she couldn’t have known.
Ty Lee flipped her braid over her shoulder. “Azula is doing very well in her new position,” she said, just so the guard would have something positive to say about this visit if (when) Azula asked. “I think she makes a simply marvellous Fire Lord; I know she’s been preparing to ascend for a long time.” Her mother smiled, satiated, so Ty Lee continued, “I was hoping to have a look at our family records; it’s why I stopped by today.”
“Oh?”
Ty Lee shrugged. “I’m just interested. Past our grandparents, I don’t know much about our history. I was reading some of the history of Azula’s family recently, and it got me thinking about our own.”
“Well, I’m sure our family history is nowhere near as interesting as the Fire Lord’s,” her mother said, tapping her chin, “but there might be something in the office?”
Ty Lee thanked her and bounded out of the room. She expected to find her father in the office, but it was empty. Perhaps her father was out at a tea shop or in a meeting. So Ty Lee sat by the bookcase and searched through the collection of scrolls, opening the ornate boxes and peering inside to see what they held.
Eventually, she came across what she was looking for, and settled on the rug to read through. But it wasn’t long, just a basic family tree going only three generations back from herself. Her parents, their parents, and their parents before them. There was no information on who they had once been, who they descended from.
What if the Avatar had been right? What if, before the hundred-year war, nations had cross-bred? A Fire Nation citizen and an Air Nomad, falling in love and then having their romance forbidden? Oh, that sounded so romantic! But it would leave her in a precarious position today.
Her mother poked her head through the door. “Find what you were looking for?” she asked.
Ty Lee sighed, rolling up the scroll. “Not really. There’s nothing before my great-grandparents.”
Her mother pulled a face. “Oh, yes, well that might’ve been due to the fire.”
“The fire?”
“Yes, I remember my grandmother telling me about it as a girl.” She propped herself up in the doorway. “Quite a curious event, as our entire family history – on both sides, in fact – has been filled with nonbenders. When my grandmother had just married her husband, there was a fire that burnt their entire house down. They lost everything; all their possessions, all their family histories. It was as if they never existed at all.”
Ty Lee swallowed. “And Father’s side?”
“I’m unsure,” she said. “Histories are hard to keep track of. Do you want to stay for dinner? Ty Liu will be home in a few hours.”
“Oh, no, no,” Ty Lee said, shaking her head. “Azula has invited Mai and I to dinner tonight.”
Her mother nodded. “Are you doing well in the palace? Your exploits with the Fire Lord are quite the talking-point.”
Ty Lee hummed. “I’m doing very well,” she said. “Azula is a gracious host.”
Her mother nodded and straightened, preparing to leave.
“Wait, Mother?”
“Yes?”
“Fire Nation houses don’t burn easily,” Ty Lee said.
“I’m sorry?”
“You said my great-grandmother’s house burned to the ground, but… Fire Nation architecture is specifically made to be inflammable.”
Her mother hesitated, then nodded. “I suppose you’re right. Must’ve been very bad luck indeed.”
evening
Mai kicked her feet up on the sofa, the sky outside a navy blue, glowing a yellow-gold from below as the Caldera lit their lanterns for the night. She clapped her hands and a servant stepped forward from the wall.
“Yes, my lady?”
“I’d like a fruit tart,” she said.
“Of course, my lady.”
“Oh! I want rose petals on top.”
“Of course, my lady.”
Azula raised an eyebrow at her and Mai waved a hand, gesturing for her to give it a go.
“Servant.”
“Yes, Fire Lord Azula?”
“I’d like rice candy. A bowl of it. The size of Ty Lee’s head.”
“Very good, Fire Lord Azula.”
“And flavoured water.”
“What flavour, Fire Lord Azula?”
Azula hesitated and Ty Lee ducked forward, gasping, “Oh! Can it be mango flavoured?”
“Hm, I’m partial to papaya,” Azula replied.
“Can we have both?”
Azula clapped her hands. “Excellent idea, Ty Lee! I knew I kept you around for a reason. Mango water and papaya water. Be quick about it.”
“Of course, Fire Lord Azula.” The servant vanished out the door.
The lounge was vast and opulent, just one of Azula’s many, many rooms in the palace. Mai had to admit that she liked this kind of life – perhaps she wouldn’t have done such a bad job as Fire Lady, after all, if she could relax in a room like this after a nauseating meeting with nobility. But, alas, Zuko was a traitor (again) and had vanished (again). Mai lifted the notice from the coffee table, glancing it over for the third time: It is of the Fire Lord’s greatest despair that her only brother, the ex-Prince Zuko, played a role in helping the Avatar assassinate the great Phoenix King. It went on about justice and reward for information and yada yada yada.
She threw it back on the table. Zuko wasn’t just exiled anymore, but a wanted criminal, to be tried and executed for his crimes against the Fire Nation.
Since the day of Sozin’s Comet, when the Avatar’s flying bison was spotted attempting to land in the Caldera, but was warded off with an attack, Mai assumed she wouldn’t see Zuko again. He surely was not dumb enough to try and best Azula for the crown, nor start a campaign and civil war within the nation; one he would surely lose.
Then again, he and his friends were surely optimistic enough to give it a try anyway.
The rice candy arrived first. Azula had always had a taste for it.
“How was your meeting this morning?” Ty Lee asked, grabbing a handful for herself.
“Oh, fine,” Azula sighed. “The military will lower the draft age to draw in more troops, etcetera etcetera.”
Mai pulled a face. “To what age?”
“Sixteen.”
“Aren’t we nearly sixteen?”
Azula hesitated, then waved a hand. “I’ll have you both exempt. You’re specialised anyway, and I could do with you both where I could reach you. No, my real problem is about my dear, sweet brother.” She stood and paced the room, glancing out the palace windows towards the glowing lights of her kingdom. “He’s going to come for the throne, you know.”
“I do,” Mai agreed. Zuko was still the same, even if he changed sides: he was anger and yearning, except now she imagined the anger was aimed towards Azula and the yearning was all about the throne. She could only admit to herself that she didn’t like what Azula would do to him if he made a play for it.
“I need to draw him out. He and the Avatar both,” Azula mused. “Lay a trap they cannot resist.”
Mai tipped her head backwards in thought. The flavoured water arrived. She took a cup of mango for herself.
“Well, they care about people,” Ty Lee suggested.
“Yes, yes, but they won’t come for just anyone, surely.”
Mai hummed. “What about those goodie-goodie warriors?”
“Hm?”
She snapped her fingers a few times. “The Kyoshi Warriors. We dressed up as them.”
Azula’s eyes widened with inspiration and she paused in the centre of the room.
Mai continued, “They even broke the leader out of the Boiling Rock – that’s got to mean that they care about them.”
“That,” Azula breathed, “is an excellent idea, Mai.”
Mai raised an eyebrow. Azula rarely complimented someone else if it didn’t, at the same time, compliment herself.
“And I am about to make it even more so.”
There it is.
Azula downed her papaya water and placed the cup on the table. “We announce an execution,” she said. “To the other nations, it’ll look like a show of strength; that I’m trying to prove just how strong I am – but it’ll really be about reeling in the Avatar and Zuko.”
“That’s very smart, Azula,” Ty Lee said.
“I know,” she replied. “We’ll bring the Kyoshi Warriors from their prisons to the capital, arrange an execution and announce that any and all allies of the Avatar will be executed from here onward.”
“Do we even have any other allies captured?” Mai asked.
Azula’s lips pulled downwards for just a second, but then the moment passed. “We won’t need any more,” she decided. “The Avatar and Zuko will come for the Kyoshi Warriors; we’ll spread the news far and wide so everyone knows what becomes of anyone who associates themselves with the Avatar. Then, we’ll have a public execution. They’ll try to save them, but we’ll be ready to spring a trap – the Dai Li and our soldiers will be dressed as regular citizens, and they’ll bring them both down.” Azula’s smile was something wicked. “We’ll have two executions that day.”
Mai stopped drinking the mango water. Her stomach was feeling a little funny.
“What if they win?”
“Hm?”
“What if Zuko and the Avatar escape?”
Azula shrugged. “Then Zuzu will no doubt challenge me to an Agni Kai for the throne. I’ll win, Zuko will die—”
“What if he beats you?”
“He won’t.”
Mai sat back at her tone of voice. She gave it a second and then said, “You’re right, Azula. He wouldn’t stand a chance against you.”
Azula nodded, returning to her seat. Mai did not blow out a sigh of relief, nor let that relief show on her face. Mai was in an increasingly precarious situation; though she did not like the idea of Zuko being killed, her position with Azula was more important. If she fell out of favour, she’d be executed before she could even plead for her life.
The fruit tart with rose petals arrived. Mai grabbed a slice. They changed the topic.