MAYA [Book 1 - Water]

Chapter 49 - The Life of a Princess

-Anika's Point of View-

(continuation of the third letter)

After the Agni Kai duel with Ozai, Fire Lord Azulon halted all of my training sessions to give me time to recuperate from the burn. 

I was out by the pond one lovely morning, enjoying tea with Iroh when Ozai suddenly came crashing in and pulled on the collar of my shirt.

"Why did you do it?" he angrily asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked back.

"You did it on purpose, didn't you? You let me win on purpose so that I would look weak in the eyes of my father!" he continued shouting.

I suddenly got irritated at the fact that he somehow always finds a way to blame me for everything that was going wrong in his life.

My patience was already at the limit, so I snapped at him.

"Why is it my fault that you didn't have the guts to burn me?! So what if I let you win on purpose? You were given an opportunity for a victory, but you let it slip away. You hesitated!"  I shouted back at him.

"You're the one who humiliated yourself," I said concluding my argument against his accusation.

He gritted his teeth and didn't reply. Instead, he pushed me to the ground and walked away. 

Ozai later found out that I let him win on purpose during the duel and he confronted me about it. Our conversation got heated when I lost patience with him.

I got irritated at the fact that he was accusing me of having wrong intentions in letting him win when the only reason I did so was because I didn't want to hurt him. 

I thought that he on the other hand wouldn't have a hard time finishing off the fight, that's why I decided to let him win. But he thought I did it on purpose so that he'd be humiliated in front of his father.

Ever since that quarrel we had, our friendship went back to zero. I rarely got to see him as I was prohibited from training until I had completely healed. 

Fire Lord Azulon cooped me inside my room in order to study certain firebending techniques from an ancient tribe.

"Anika, it is time you learn about your ancestors," Fire Lord Azulon said as he laid out scrolls and books in front of me.

"Study carefully and read through every scroll and page until you've fully understood it all. This will be your training until you've healed completely," he commanded.

I stayed inside my room reading and trying to understand the scriptures written in the scrolls and books he had brought to me. 

There I learned about the ancient tribe that could bend white fire. They were called the Fintan Tribe.

Fire Lord Azulon believed that my mother was able to pass down that bloodline to me.

Looking back, I realized that it was the one he tried to talk about with my parents on the day he first visited our house. I didn't understand it back then, but now I know why he was so eager to train me.