change of fate

Letters

This one goes out to Trash_goddess600 ❤😘. Its short and rushed but tada~~

Letters arrive from the front almost immediately. And although she can't yet read the sharp script of the Fire Nation, Katara can see Lu Ten's personality leaking onto the page. Every so often there's a line thats too slanted or heavy. She can picture him rushing to finish a sentence or reclined in some tent writing on his lap.

The letters she gets from him break the monotony of the day. Her schedule is blocked out as such.

8:30 is time to get up. Her handmaids shuffle about her room picking out what she'll wear that day, drawing a bath, arranging breakfast. She's finally kicked out of bed at 8:45 and hurried into perfectly warmed water. At 9:00 shes to be dressed and starting breakfast with which she has to finish by 9:15.

9:30 is her morning Reading works. She's figured out the alphabet but that's about it. Her tutor having her learn small common words for the time being in the tea parlor.

11:00. A short break for tea.

11:30. Math. So far the lessons are smooth going but Katara has laid eyes on a couple of shipping charts in her day. And shes not too confident that what the Navigation Captains are doing can even be called 'math'.

12:45. Lunch. Lunch is usually quiet. She eats by herself.

From 1:45 to 3:00 she is to practice bending. The palace managed to find what has to have been the only water bender in the entire Fire Nation. An elderly woman named Hama. She's patient with Katara. Soft and reassuring. It was odd at first. The first person that looked like her she had seen in a great couple of months. The way Hama stuck out in a crowd of pale courtiers made Katara prickly aware of her own uniqueness. But Katara quickly found that if she squinted she could see some of Gran Gran in this old woman.

3:00 onward was free to do with what she wished until dinner at 6:30.

At 6:30 precisely she was expected to eat with Azulan and the rest of the royal family. It seemed that Azulan just wished to be close to his family, for as little time that dinner allowed each night. Ozai often times used the meal as a meeting. Inviting whichever Advisor or courtier suited him that evening. Azulan never seemed to mind. The old man just eating his meal in peace. Katara for the most part kept quiet. Sometimes speaking with Ursa or her son Zuko. But that was all.

At 10:00 it was time for bed. She was dressed down and the grim of the day wiped off of her with dampened rags. One final cup of tea and then lights out.

The uniformity of her days felt dull. Only brightening when she was water bending and when letters came. Somehow amongst a sea of people she still felt completely and utterly isolated.

But the schedule was not to be disobeyed. That was made very clear to her by several Advisors and even Azulan himself on night over dinner. Deviation from it would be punisher, Ozai assured her. He also made sure to the the point across that he found her and her people barbaric, uncivilized, uncultured, and just generally speaking filthy dogs. Katara had lost her appetite for the rest of her meal after that.

Its only Lu Ten's letters that keep her company. Ursa reads them to her over tea in the morning. The days Ursa joins her Katara knows he's written. She reads his words and sometimes her voice falls away so that its like Lu Ten talking to her in person. Ursa helps her write letters to send him in turn.

Katara's fingers crave the day that she'll be able to write her own words. Watch as her own hands create sentences that shine with her personality.