Chapter 11
Azula detached herself from the tree she was leaning against and sauntered towards Uncle Iroh. The old man was still oblivious of her presence, talking to a flower. He had been squatting in that position for a long time for someone his age. Azula was afraid she would see him dead before she saw him rot in prison. She finally found him, she didn’t plan to let him escape her that easily.
“Hello, Uncle,” she said cheerfully. “It’s so good to see you.”
Uncle Iroh looked over his shoulder and grinned. His face was covered in red welts. Which were growing and swelling in front of her eyes as if alive. Her lip curled in disgust taking a step back. Why couldn’t this man do anything the right way? He couldn’t even get captured right. Azula shook her head. Why was he still smiling?
“I guess a deadly poison it is,” his cheerful voice matched hers. “But these gems right here.”
Azula sighed and waved for her guards to come forward. They detained Iroh, getting rid of whatever new poison he was about to ingest. Should she just let him die? The thought crossed her mind more than once. But Azula craved her father’s affection more than his anger. Iroh couldn’t die in her possession. She followed her guards as they dragged her uncle towards the ship.
A healer met them before they reached the shore. She wrung her hands, avoiding eye contact with Azula. The experience told the princess she wasn’t going to like what the healer had to say.
“Uh, umm, Princess… Your Highness…”
“You are losing years as my uncle loses his minutes, use your time wisely.”
“Princess, we don’t have a cure for it,” the words rushed out of the woman and then she drew back from her.
Azula had expected there may not be a cure, not that there was a cure and they didn’t have it. “I see. But there is a cure, am I understanding it correctly?”
“P-P-princess...”
“I’m glad you are aware of my title. Was that what I asked?”
“There is a cure, but the Fire Nation doesn’t have it.”
“Let me guess, the Earth Kingdom has it?”
The lady took another step back, her lip quivering. In Azula’s opinion that wasn't an appropriate amount of fear to what she was feeling at that very moment.
“Can you explain it to me because I’m having trouble comprehending your words. In hundred years we failed to procure a cure to the wildly available deadly poison? Is that the best excuse you have?”
“I-I...”
“Oh no.” The princess smiled. “Of course, I don’t blame it on you.”
Her shoulders relaxed.
“Although,” continued Azula, a plan forming in her mind. She needed to send a message and she needed to teach this woman and her colleagues a lesson. She thought combining the two was the most efficient. “I don’t need to find out what other knowledge you lack. You are already useless to me.”
With a lift of a hand, the woman was removed from her eye-sight. Azula stood frozen as she gazed at the horizon. She knew what she needed to do, what she must go to save her uncle. There was only one place she could go… there were other places she could go...but, really, in the end, she only wanted to go to one place. She worried her lip as a strange excitement clawed at her stomach.
Azula straightened her uniform and marched towards her ship. The Crown Princess preferred to keep her brain perfectly compartmentalized and organized. She wouldn’t admit she knew the exact number of days she hadn’t seen her. She was only going to her place for Iroh. It was the closest place she could go for a cure. The only people she trusted in the area. All the way to Omashu, her brain provided excuses.
The princess stilled herself, her face mask of indifference as she descended from the ship. Mai’s parents greeted her but there was no sign of her friend. She wasn’t used to disappointment. Not to say twice in one day. Mai knew how much Azula hated her disregard of etiquette. Where was she? Was she sick?
“Please accept our apology, your Highness,” said Mai’s father. “You see, our son is missing and none of us have been ourselves. Mai hasn’t left her room. I’ll have someone bring her instantly.”
“No need.”
Mai’s mom led her towards her bedroom. Moaning about her lost kid. Azula tuned out the lady, focusing on her control over her emotions. When they bounded the corner on the second floor, both sides of the walls were lined with stacks of books. Azula’s lip curled into a smile. The memories of their dorm in the Royal Fire Academy came to her mind; columns of books pressed together keeping each other upright covered all available surfaces when Mai’s boredom hit the highest levels. She even read the most boring books.
Azula hadn’t minded putting up with it. She felt comfortable in Mai’s personal space. Or minded helping her hide everything when the room inspection came. For Ty Lee it provided a personal obstacle course so she didn’t mind either. Even though Azula had her own accommodations in the Academy, an entire tower all to herself, apart from a single night she hadn’t spent any other time in her bed. She preferred the crumbed space of Mai’s and Ty’s room.
They visited her room often, to hide forbidden books she and Ty managed to get for Mai. Or play games and consume alcohol. Azula never understood how she was talked into committing treasons on a monthly basis or how she had never reported either of them. It was as if everything that happened in the Academy happened to a different girl. And she stayed at the Academy when Azula left. There was no place for a girl like that in the house of the Fire Lord.
“Your Highness,” Mai’s mom bowed and left.
Princess Azula faced the closed wooden doors. Lightning moved between her fingers, releasing a little bit of tension from her shoulders. She didn’t allow herself to linger since Mai would have heard their footsteps as well as when her mother left. Azula pushed the double doors half expecting resistance from a lock. The doors swung open into a dimly lit room. The drapes were drawn together cutting off the daylight from the room. A lamp on the desk was the only source of light.
In the soft glow, she saw a figure with her back to the door sleeping on the four poster bed. Azula leaned her shoulder against the door framed and looked around the room. It was a large room, still small compared to her own chambers. Whatever new skill she was learning required lots of fabric, water and cool floral scents. Scraps and pieces of it strewn all around her room. It could be called clean only from the sheer power of maids. She couldn’t imagine how someone who studied at the Fire Academy would be this disorganized. Mai always managed to turn her room into chaos while Azula still woke up at the exact same time every morning with bells ringing in her brain.
A nail polish with a lid screwed half way down next to a piping hot cup of tea gave Mai away.
“Is this how you greet your princess?”
Any other person would have lost their head at this point. The Fire Princess didn’t quite understand why or when hurting Mai started to hurt her more. But after she realized she couldn’t treat her the same way she treated Ty Lee or anyone else. When they were children they played many dangerous games, she had never given a second thought to Mai’s wellbeing. Or even opposite, wanted to do harm to her. Perhaps she would find an answer if she hadn’t chosen to file those questions away. What difference did it make to know when it had changed?
Credit to Mai, she never outright defied Azula when under the public scrutiny. But in private she crossed all boundaries and tested her tolerance with determination. Azula could only retaliate by learning how to push the few buttons she had. And one of those buttons was the invasion of personal space. The princess didn’t view it as an invasion. How could she when she thought she owned everything? How could she when it was the only place she felt like herself?
Azula closed the doors and walked slowly towards the bed. She lifted one knee onto the mattress while her eyes traced the length of her slender figure. The longer she didn’t move, the more Mai’s back tensed in waiting. She got on the bed and fell backwards. Automatically, her hand sought the strand of Mai’s black hair. She wrapped it around her finger and let go, the strand slipped down her hand. She closed her eyes and smiled, enjoying the familiar feeling.
Mai sat up, back still to her, and moved to get off the bed. Azula’s hand shot out and grabbed the hem of her pajama. “Don’t.”
Mai sat rigid for a moment before returning back to bed, back still to her. Satisfied, Azula picked up another strand of hair and wrapped it around her finger before letting it caress her skin as the silky texture moved down her wrist. She repeated a few more times while staring at the ceiling. She couldn’t comprehend why anyone would want to paint anything on the ceiling. And why choose a nightmare? Azula eyed the fat naked babies and a half naked woman having a picnic next to a waterfall. She blinked a few times, craning her neck until she took all of it in. Where did anyone even get the idea? She hadn’t seen anything so creepy in her life.
How could anyone sleep under their gazes?
“You can stay at the palace while they repaint your room,” she said without thinking, “once we get back.”
“I wasn’t aware I was going somewhere,” she finally heard her voice, calm and cool. “And I painted a week ago.”
“You must be joking.” Azula shuddered the longer she stared at it. Soon she realized even when she closed her eyes, it was all she could see. “Why? How can you sleep here?”
“Peacefully.”
Not counting the creepy ceiling, Azula never felt this peaceful anywhere else. Not even in her own bed. Maybe especially in her own bed. It carried the mark of the heavy burden of her title and nights spent on scheming. Her time in the Academy had been the only time she had known a good night’s sleep. Something about Mai’s personal space silenced the ceaseless turmoil in her brain. She sunk deeper into the bed, moving closer to her warmth. She played with Mai’s hair until she had replenished some well that was drained in the month she hadn’t done it. She was sure at some point she snoozed off. Mai remained lying on her side.
Azula didn’t know how long it had passed since she entered the room. Probably it was past midnight. She knew no one would come this way. Not even to call them for dinner. Everyone in the Fire Nation had learned to understand and obey her silent commands. She was hungry but unwilling to move. She would rather not disturb the calmness between them. She would probably stay that way for the entire night but she knew Mai wouldn’t. Her body was relaxed but she still hadn’t faced Azula.
“I missed you.”