Chapter Text
Toph could feel the other girl’s footsteps. Light, careful. But not light enough. She waited as the girl crept closer. Until just the last second before turning to face right at her with a smirk.
“Hello there!” Toph greeted.
The girl froze in place, but didn’t jump. Damn. Too composed for that. But from the sound of Zuko’s laughter, Toph could guess that Azula was glaring at her.
“So what were you trying to do?” Toph asked.
“Just testing you,” Azula said. “Zuko told me you only ‘see’ with Earthbending, but I wanted to see for myself how well that actually works. Can you tell what I’m doing?”
“If you mean ‘waving your hand in front of my face, then yes,” she said.
“You could have asked her, you know,” Zuko said.
“Brilliant idea,” Azula said. “Surely she’ll spill all her secrets and weaknesses to a girl who tried to kill her.”
“Of course I will,” Toph said. “Because I’m confident I can take her in a fight!”
Oh, did that get Zuko’s heartrate up. Azula’s too, but it was more interest than fear.
Toph could feel her position change. Pulling back a little. A flick of her wrist and an open palm. In technicality, Toph couldn’t see her fire. But she knew it was there.
“Is your fire actually blue or is everyone exaggerating?” Toph asked.
“You can’t possibly see that, can you?” Azula asked.
“No, not really,” she admitted. “But all Benders have to move to Bend. So even if I can’t see fire or water or air, I can tell what you’re doing and where it’s headed.”
“Fascinating!” she said, the tone of her voice indicating her grin growing wide.
“Before you two destroy the arenas,” Zuko sighed. “Can we focus on why I asked you two here?”
“Sure can, Sunshine!” Toph said.
Just to annoy him, she chose the chair behind the desk. What she assumed should have been reserved for the “most highly ranked” in the… meeting room? Office? She wasn't sure what to call the room. It pretty much had a desk, three chairs, and nearly every wall covered in bookshelves or cabinets, all stuffed to the brim.
Zuko was entirely unphased by this behavior. At best an exasperated yet affectionate sigh.
“What I want is for you two to map out all of the palace’s hidden passages,” Zuko said. “I know where a few are, but this building is ancient. I’m sure for every one I find, there’s half a dozen more hidden away.”
“I did find a few while you were gone,” Azula admitted. “Certainly used them during my assassin phase.”
“I don’t need help to do that,” Toph said, diverting from that hot mess. “I can feel all the passages on my own.”
There was a pause in the conversation anyway. Just a touch too long to be about the assassin phase thing rather than her abilities.
“Trying to figure out how to say ‘I need someone who can see’?” Toph guessed.
“Essentially,” Zuko admitted. “You might be able to feel the secret passages, but I’d like to figure out how to open them without destroying walls. Though a few have more visible lever mechanics I’m sure you can figure out, I know some have visual puzzles. One needs fire, and there’s probably more of those hidden.”
“I suppose you want us to start here?” Azula asked. “Make sure no one’s going to come assassinate you while you’re doing paperwork?”
“I mean there is one against that wall,” Toph said, pointing over her right shoulder. “I think there’s two hidden compartments on the other wall. One behind the painting and one in a bookshelf.”
Zuko immediately headed for the wall. Hands running along the surface trying to find the barely-there cracks. Toph could feel when he got the right spot, tapping along the edge for any kind of give. When that failed, he leaned back to look around. Reaching for one of the lights on the wall and giving a gentle tug.
The door creaked open. A rush of stale air showing that it hadn’t been used in a long time.
“Huh,” Zuko said. “Yeah that’s very assassin-y.”
“If only I knew about that a year and a half ago,” Azula mockingly lamented. “You said there’s a compartment behind the painting, right?”
She got up and moved the painting off the hooks, carefully placing it on the floor. There was a pause as she put her hand on the wall, then the sound of something crunching.
“Can you not destroy the place?” Zuko asked.
“There was a board hiding the compartment,” Azula said. “A good idea, since the painting trick is quite old. Even double protected with a safe! Really liking whoever installed this thing.”
“If it’s a safe, I can open it,” Toph said, getting up and cracking her knuckles.
“Without breaking it, please?” Zuko said. “I don’t care but I still have a housekeeper mad at me because I threw out all the furniture in the Fire Lord’s chambers despite them supposedly being used for generations.”
“Why’d you do that?” Azula asked.
“Do you want to sleep in the bed our father had used less than a week before?” he asked.
“... Did you keep anything to set ablaze in a latent fit of rage?” she asked.
Zuko gave a non-committal hum at that. Though an easy tell that there might be a bonfire later. Toph pushed past them both to the safe. Putting her hands on the metal and doing her best to not say ‘fuck it’ and just Bend the metal open.
It was a combination lock, not a key. That was easier for her anyway. She might not see the numbers themselves, but she could feel the tumblers as she turned the knob. Soft clicks and a harder ker-chunk as she turned it just the right way. She grinned feeling the final thunk, only to immediately grimace at the sound of rusted hinges as the door swung open.
“Feels like a bunch of paperwork,” Toph said, reaching in.
“Oh that’s pre-war,” Azula said, looking over her shoulder.
“How can you tell?” she asked.
“The Seal,” Zuko said. “While all official documents have the Royal Seal, each Fire Lord has a personal one. This one would have been Fire Lord Taiso. Sozin’s father.”
Zuko’s hands guided hers to the bottom of the page, careful in case the documents were brittle. Wax embossed with intricate designs settled into the paper. Toph ran her thumb over them. One with the Fire Nation’s insignia. The other of a moon eclipsing a star. She assumed the symbol must have some importance, but quite honestly she’d heard little of the country’s pre-war history. Little of any country’s pre-war history, now that she thought about it.
She flipped through the documents before handing them to Zuko. Most had those Seals on them. There were a few others too, imagery of different flowers. Must’ve been from various Noble houses or Dignitaries the contracts were with.
While Zuko was still rifling through them, pondering if any were still in play in the present, Azula had already wandered off to the other bookshelf. Stubbornly shoving her weight against it to move it away rather than moving the books off the shelf to make it lighter. Toph and Zuko went to help, and though a few books fell off it did budge.
Toph beat them to the compartment. Not another safe this time, but still a hidden panel that fell away easy.
“More documents,” Toph sighed. “Different Seal this time.”
“That looks like Grandfather’s…..” Azula began, taking the top sheet of the page. “Oh. Zuzu, I think you’ll get a kick out of this one!”
Zuko took the page from her. A moment of reading, and he was almost laughing. Not the funny kind, but the exhausted kind. Where it was either laugh or cry.
“I knew he faked the one we found but damn that’s-” Zuko shook his head.
“What’s it say?” Toph asked.
“It’s Grandfather’s will,” Azula said. “The real one. Not whatever father crafted to take the throne.”
“The real thing says basically the opposite,” Zuko said. “Disinherit Ozai entirely. Just him though.”
“Just him?” Toph asked.
“Yep,” he said. “He explicitly says that Azula and I would remain in the line of succession. So if Iroh had become Fire Lord, but didn’t make any new heirs between Grandfather’s death and his…”
“You would’ve been Fire Lord anyway,” Azula finished. “Unless, of course, you met your untimely demise by ‘accidentally’ falling off a cliff the day before your coronation! I promise I would’ve given a wonderful eulogy. Very dramatic. Only tales of your greatness and certainly not the time you tripped and fell in the turtleduck pond.”
That got a real laugh from him. The surprised bark that often accompanied such morbid humor. Toph had yet to master this of this sort of joke, unsure where the line is between comedy and insult.
She focused back on the papers in her hands. They meant little to her, as she couldn’t read them. The only thing she could do was run her fingers over the Seals. It took her a moment to discern Azulon’s Seal from the others, but she felt the image of the turtle that appeared on every page.
Her finger traced an image on the next page, and her body froze. Running her hand over it again. And again. Familiar lines that couldn’t possibly be there. It had to be something similar, but no. Even at this scale, she could pick out details. Hooves, a snout, and flared wings.
“What the fuck?!” Toph exclaimed. “Why the fuck is my family’s Seal on this?!”
“Your family’s Seal?” Zuko asked, immediately taking the page.
“The winged boar!” she said. “That what it is, right? The Beifong Family Seal! Why is it here?!”
“Yeah that’s a winged-hey!”
He was cut off as Azula snatched the page from him.
“Clocked you as a noble,” Azula said. “Unlike the rest of your friends, you are far too comfortable in ornate palaces.”
Zuko reached for the page, only to have Azula push him back. Keeping him at arm’s length as she read the document. He reached for it again, but didn’t push it lest they accidentally ripped the thing. Settling for pouting as she deciphered what it said.
It was rare that Toph felt infuriated with her lack of vision, but being unable to read most text sure did it. It was the only thing that stopped her from joining the fight for the paper. Though she was quite tempted to grab it anyway out of spite.
“My oh my!” Azula said, a sing-song lilt in her voice. “Congratulations, you two!”
“Congratulations?” Zuko asked.
“On what?” Toph wondered, her patience wearing thin.
“On your engagement, of course!”
…….
“WHAT?!”