The Traitor Princess

Chapter 69 - Sozin's Comet, Part Four

A few days passed since the battle during the comet. The Order of the White Lotus reclaimed Ba Sing Se in the name of the Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation troops were ordered to pull back from many of the colonies, and Zuko assumed the role of Fire Lord.

The war may have been over, but the work had only begun.

In the days since the comet, Team Avatar hadn't had a moment to rest. In fact, only Zuko and Sokka, much to both the boys' displeasure, were the only ones who actually rested due to their injuries. Eziri hadn't spoken much to her brother outside of duty–she was still furious with him for locking Azula in the tower. Deep down, she understood that Zuko had to do it, but that didn't ease any of her anger.

Despite the tension between the siblings, Eziri was essentially acting as the Fire Lord while Zuko recovered. She refused to officially take the title, but she acted as Zuko's right hand in handling all the tasks he was unable to. They set Zuko's official coronation in two weeks, giving him time to recover a bit and allowing for the majority of the Fire Nation Army to return home before he would give his speech. It also allowed all of their invited attendees to travel to the Fire Nation.

There was so much to do and it seemed like there was so little time to do it. Still, in between revising Fire Nation-implemented laws on Earth Kingdom cities, and ordering the release of innocent prisoners, Eziri found comfort in her friends.

Aang was a huge support as he, along with Eziri, met with the Fire Lord's council and started their necessary work. Katara and Sokka would sometimes assist, but they had their own tasks. Sokka was coordinating the arrival of all the major leaders in each nation for Zuko's coronation and Katara was personally overseeing the creation of small, healer outposts in the parts of the Earth Kingdom most affected by the war.

Toph, Suki, and Mila were tasked with interrogating highly-ranked officials and officers in the Fire Nation. Toph used her abilities to sort out each person's lie while Suki and Mila, under the guidance of Zuko and Eziri, asked all the questions. It was important for Zuko and Eziri to determine which Fire Nation nobles would accept Zuko's command and which would remain loyal to Ozai. They knew they were both in a precarious position and at great risk of losing the throne. Iroh wrote to his niece and nephew promising he would arrive soon and help in any way he could.

When all the teens weren't busy with their individual duties, they spent time together–primarily choosing to hide out in Eziri's childhood room. The young firebender asked a few palace servants to move extra beds into her room. Considering the bedroom was obnoxiously large, she certainly had the space for the extra furniture. It seemed that Team Avatar had grown too accustomed to each other and found it difficult to be away from the group for too long. Sleeping in the same room together seemed to help.

In between all the other endless tasks, Eziri was privately working to help her sister. She had a physician visit Azula daily. There was a small facility where her father said the 'crazy' citizens were sent. She was planning to have Azula evaluated and hopefully moved to the facility where she could receive help for her mental health.

She had avoided any mention of Azula to her brother as they had too much work to do and little time for arguments. It was a topic likely to end in shouting and she was saving it for when he was a bit more recovered. However, that didn't stop her from having the physician build a case-file for her sister so she'd have everything she'd need to convince her brother to move Azula when the time came.

____

It was only 5 days later when Zuko was no longer bed-bound that Eziri finally brought up the dreaded topic.

"We need to talk about Azula."

Zuko sighed heavily and slumped into his chair. "Eziri, we've been over this. I can't simply pardon her because she's our sister. What sort of message would it send if I held trials for the highest-ranking officers but let Azula go unpunished?"