Chapter Text
Fire Lord Azula oversaw Caldera from the balcony in her bedchamber, - fireworks of varying degrees of heat shot out in the night, leaving clouds of graded National Colors to dissipate in the air, while shouts of victory reverberated in the streets.
A pyrrhic victory , she thought; what with a defeated father and a traitor for a brother on the loose, - maimed, but alive, - it felt like only a matter of time until someone took her down and bathed in her blood... she shrugged off the uncomfortable thought.
Azula sighed.
‘’I warned you, Princess Azula, - it is never to stop,’’ she heard her father’s voice ringing in her ears and she took in a sharp breath. ‘’It’s so wonderfully ironic when Power turns against the mighty.’’
Her mind reeled and time seemed to slow down in the frigid room. She sneered, stealing a look to the bulge on the floor. A servant lay dead at her feet after an attempt on her life, - he had come with an unrequested boiling cup of tea and in a boost of precaution, she ordered him to drink it. With his complexion hidden under beads of sweat, the man ran only to dance along with the tendrils of her lightning.
She kicked the smoking corpse for good measure and took the cup in her hands, only to find a Lotus Flower in the deep end of the recipient.
A message or a brand, she surmised as she pulled the drapes to the balcony closed. She would look into it, later, - she had never seen cups such as those in the palace before.
Her hands shook with impotence. She wanted to fight tangible enemies and go to sleep, - perhaps find some respite of mind and return to the time when she never feared for her life. When she didn’t know what fear was.
Azula dragged her feet to the door and closed it with half a mind to return to the royal bed, - and sat on fine linings; her armor weighted on the mattress as she lay down.
Sleep wouldn’t come easily, - not when the scratch of skin against sheets woke her up in a frenzy of beats and sweat... and gasps. She squeezed her eyes shut. She needed sleep but every time she closed her eyes she saw her friends’ betrayal, - Zuko’s, - a Lotus Flower.
I’ll have the Dai Li investigate it.
Lotus... Flower... White... Tea... What does it all compound together? A message? A threat? A new brand of teacups? A coincidence?
Twirling thoughts assaulted her and golden eyes shot open, absorbing the night with dilated pupils.
Uncle, - she reasoned, sitting upright, - he loves Pai Sho as much as he loves tea . A possibility.
She got up, heart beating fast, and walked towards the dark escritoire, - looking for ink and paper in the drawers.
Azula pulled out a fine brush from the drawer and began with a decisive downward stroke, - a yawn broke through her jaw.
Agni, was she beyond tired, especially, when the paranoia was consuming her mind.
She hit her head against the wood, - and Azula woke up with the engraved memory of her brother’s horror-stricken face. Slow images of how the Dai Li advanced on him and the Water Tribe girl. She turned to the window and watched through the crevices in the singed drapes. The Sun rose in the sky, - so did Azula.
She staggered towards the broken mirror in order to put herself together for the day. But the splotched with ink over her clothes, fingers, - chin, - spoke volumes, even to her. She was but a scrawny girl with bruised dark circles under her eyes and a limp fringe that fell uselessly onto her forehead.
Azula was almost five-and-ten and with a crown too heavy for her head... a burden on her shoulders.
She heard a gasp. She turned to regard her mother, who watched her with a delicate frown on her regal face.
‘’A pity, my daughter, my beautiful Azula, - your hair… your beauty was your only redeeming quality,’’ Princess Ursa said and Azula shrieked, hitting the mirror and bloodying her hands, floor, armor, - with shards of glass encrusted on her tender flesh, - until her mother disappeared in a shower of red.
‘’You don’t get to criticize me, - not when you are not even here anymore,’’ she said through gritted teeth and azure flames in her hands.
The fire would cauterize her wounds.
Just not all of them.