The Girl who held Fire in her hands

Chapter 1

“Hmmm…. How about burning Ba Sing Se to the ground?”

Father mused thoughtfully, scratching his chin. He turned to me.

“Azula, what do you think?”

I was stunned. I thought he’d forgotten that I was even there.

“Ummmm….. Well…… I think…..” I dithered. I had no idea what to say. I didn’t even know what they were talking about, as I had dozed off at the start of the meeting when they started saying something about Sozin’s comet and airships. What had once been battle tactics involving fire-shooting blimps, bombs, and terrified peasants became a dream about bubble-emitting pink party balloons, confetti, cake, and my eighth birthday party in which Zuzu fell face-down into the garden pond while playing pin-the-tail-on the dragon. I was stunned out of my blissful dream by a loud voice.

“Well, speak up, girl!” A rather plump general that looked rather senile with bushy, white eyebrows barked from the other end of the table.

“Well…. I suggest sending in our airship fleet?” I said the first thing that came to mind.

“Great idea! We’ll have the airship navy fly in and we’ll start by burning down the Earth Kingdom! Then, we go on to the poles and the rest of the land in between. We’ll leave the Fire Nation. Later, a new world entirely dominated by the Fire Nation will be born from the ashes of this unsatisfying, imperfect, mediocre universe!”

The generals started cheering for their Fire Lord. Father raised his hand for silence.

“Don’t applaud me. Applaud your princess, as she is to be your Fire Lord!”

An awkward silence fell. The entire room seemed to say, “WHAT????” in disbelief.

“Father??? What do you mean? If I’m the new Fire Lord what about you?” I stammered. I was overcome with dread, and joy at the same time.

"Oh, I forgot to mention. I will be taking on the title of Phoenix King and ruling the world! Isn't that great?" He said happily, ruffling my hair. I didn't know what to think. My life’s ambition to become Fire Lord was coming true a few decades early, a mixed blessing as I was still only fourteen, and dreading the fact that my country wanted to destroy the world. I thought of my childhood friend Toph Beifong and felt a stab of pity. As the only daughter of the wealthy Beifong family and a niece of the exiled Earth King Kuei, she would have to die with all the other Earth Kingdom citizens, but then I remembered that she was traveling with the Avatar. I felt a tiny fountain of hope welled up in my frosty, cold heart. With a slight chance, if the Avatar stopped my father in time, they would live, but that would mean my father’s death. I would lose either way. Contemplating this, I felt bitter anger and despair cloud my eyes. That was the reason I normally closed my mind from emotions like worry and friendship. I would block the pain that came from years of loneliness, betrayal, and the lack of a motherly figure in my life, with only my demanding, perfectionist, father to comfort me.

“Azula? Are you okay? You look tired. Maybe you should go to sleep.” My father suggested, misinterpreting my silence as exhaustion. His guess wasn’t too far off, as I was drained of all energy. I grabbed my notetaking scroll, brush, ink, and ink dish and scurried out of the war room.

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I walked down the paneled mahogany-wood, glass and red-velvet curtained hallway, seeking the polished, engraved gold, ebony and copper door that lead to my expansive chambers. A nice soak in the hot spring tub, some hot jasmine tea and then bed, I decided. I entered my room, and dragged myself to the bathroom. I threw my robes onto the ground and slowly lowered myself into the hot spring bath, letting the warm water and spiralling cinnamon-scented steam soothe my joints which ached from hours and hours of sitting in a mercilessly straight-backed, hard, wooden and brass chair which was not at all comfortable and should be purely decorative, not functional. I freed my hair from the tyrannically tight topknot, and sank to the bottom of the pool, scuffing the smooth red, gold, and blue tiles with my toenails. My hair fell around my face in a ebony mop. I let the soothing herbal steam moisten my dry, pale lips, cracked and bleeding from sitting for hours, talking and talking without drinking a drop of water. I soaked for several more minutes, and climbed out of the warm spring pool. I dried off with a fresh white towel and pulled on my red and gold silk nightgown. I went out to the sitting-room, and reached for the stainless white and gold patterned jug from the glass coffee table, and poured some of the fragrant herbal tea into an ornate glass. I downed the warm liquid, and slumped into the enormous lump of feather mattress, plush pillows, and silk bed sheets that was my huge four-poster bed. I collapsed into it, and let sleep enfold me the moment my exhausted head hit the silken pillows.

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