The journey to Ba Sing Se took longer than expected, mostly because of the surprisingly stiff resistance the armies faced in stabilizing a safe corridor to the city. The royal convoy was forced to slow or halt several times due to desperate breakthrough attempts by the various Earth Kingdom states, though according to General Hwa whose grand battalion served as Azula’s escort, the remaining northern states were on their last legs, having been effectively cut off from the rest of the continent thanks to Ba Sing Se’s fall.
It was good news indeed, though Azula would’ve preferred if they could be a bit more considerate and capitulate faster.
Still, the journey wasn’t without its amusement. Having Zuko along as effectively a ceremonial bodyguard kept Azula’s mood light. Her brother had shaped up well under the regiment’s training, and Mai most certainly noticed. The usually somber girl broke into smirks every now and then as she found an excuse to rest her gaze on Zuko.
Ty Lee of course seized on the opportunity to tease her friend, pointing out how much prettier Mai’s aura is in pink or some such nonsense. Poor Zuzu did his best to remain stoic as a bodyguard should, but with Ty Lee’s emphasis on words like ‘hot’ and ‘hunky’, he ended up fidgeting uncomfortably most of the time.
Azula had to overrule Mai’s order for Zuko to stab Ty Lee several times, but the princess had to admit, it was very, very entertaining watching her friend become so animated and…pink, compared to her normal unemotive state.
Whether or not Zuko’s legitimacy was reinstated, he and Mai still made for a decent pairing, politically. Her father, now the governor of New Ozai, was one of the quieter members of the conservative faction. And while not as prominent, having his family bound to the royal one would go some ways in placating the ruffled old farts in the palace. At worst, a union between her brother and her friend might focus the attention of her court politicians onto Ukano, making for easier monitoring.
Unfortunately, it’d still require the two awkward teens to actually bond closer, but Mai was too reserved, and Zuko was…Zuko. Azula almost snorted once more at the thought. It was a good thing she and her Xing understood each other well enough for their relationship to advance with relative ease. She’d declared her intentions for him first, but he reciprocated with equal…enthusiasm.
Azula’s fingers on one hand absently went up to brush at her lips, remembering how Xing tasted and felt… Then she barely caught her other hand from drifting down to the other spot that her colonel so passionately kissed. A quick glance showed that everyone else was busy setting up camp for the evening, while her bodyguards either didn’t notice or politely ignored the lapse of their princess’ movements.
“Hey Azula.”
Shit.
Ty Lee suddenly skipped into view, wearing a dangerously bright smile. “Everything okay? You’re looking a bit…flush.”
The glimmer in the damned girl’s eyes betrayed her playing coy.
“It’s nothing,” Azula quickly replied, dropping her hand from her lips. “It’s just the weather.”
Ty Lee’s head swiveled as a teasing grin blossomed on her face. “Are you suuure?”
The princess quickly turned away and found something that could require her attention. Hopefully. “Yes. The Earth Kingdom climate is too inconsiderate for my skin.” Gah, was that the best she could come up with?
Predictably, the teasing voice from Ty Lee became more predatory. “Oh, that’s a shame.” She slipped in front of Azula, her mischievous grin dominating the princess’ vision. “I guess we’ll have to quickly reach Ba Sing Se so that your Xing could help tend to your skin, eh?” Azula felt a strong urge to burn off Ty Lee’s disgustingly suggestive waggling eyebrows right then.
Thankfully, the girl knew the limits and withdrew after that, abandoning her teasing for a more casual air. “Anyway, I saw Mai asking Zuko to join the other soldiers in their evening drills. Wanna go see her ogling your brother?”
“Firstly, Ty Lee, perhaps you should leave them to their own devices, and let Zuko do his job.”
“Aww, but they look so cute when their auras both become matching pink. And besides, you want them hitched, right?”
Azula quirked an eyebrow at her overly cheery friend. “I’m just giving my brother and my friend the chance to…mingle that I ruined back when we were younger.” The shrug that followed wasn’t too forced. “If they happen to work together, I won’t complain.”
Ty Lee’s head bobbed with fake gravitas. “Well, it’ll help everyone if they both quickly realize whether they like each other or not, right?”
“Yeees…?”
“So we should continue poking them along. The more I remind Mai about Zuko’s good points, the more she drags him along with her when she storms off.”
“Isn’t that just because you’re being annoying?”
Totally unbefitting of her, Ty Lee nodded sagely. “It would…but then her aura becomes almost as red as you once the two of them are alone in their tent or out in the woods. And Zuko’s just starting to shift from pink to red too.”
The seriousness was then instantly replaced with a mischievous smirk. “There’s a betting pool going among your soldiers, most of them are favoring your brother making the first move. But this way, Mai will eventually get tired of his denseness during their alone time and take the first step.”
Huh. “That’s surprisingly devious of you, Ty Lee. I didn’t think you had it in you to matchmake like that.”
Ty Lee preened at the praise. “Well, Mai’s my friend too, and I don’t think your brother’s a bad choice. Better him than the potential suitors her father would send her way.”
Azula smiled at the reminder that Ty Lee had a noble background, and was glad that she hadn’t truly thrown all of her lessons away.
“That’s true,” the princess replied. “Governor Ukano might be pressed to seek a more influential pairing for Mai.”
Both girls shuddered at what that might entail. Ty Lee gave a repulsed noise. “Yech. I heard that there are older and richer suitors looking to ‘sponsor’ lesser nobles in exchange for marriage. They’re practically buying people’s daughters as wives.”
Azula nodded with disgust, but was happy to be conversing on a familiar topic. “Unfortunately so. Especially after the losses from the North Pole, many families have lost a significant amount of influence along with their sons or brothers. The significant losses also left some bachelorettes with dissolved engagements, engagements that would’ve raised their family’s prospects.”
Basically leaving the minor nobility, or even upper nobility in some cases, desperately seeking ways to stay politically afloat or simply continue their family line. Azula thought back once more to Ping, who she had quietly intervened to save from such an engagement.
“Those poor women,” Ty Lee said sincerely with a shake of her head.
“Quite so.” Azula sighed heavily, ignoring the uncomfortable fidgeting from her bodyguards and a few soldiers who were poorly masking their eavesdropping. “But you’re right, it’s all the more reason to be happy if Mai and Zuko get along.”
And now that she thought about it, if they got married first, if done correctly, it could reduce some of the wariness from the traditionalists. Make Azula’s own union with Xing appear less ambitious and politically threatening…
Presently, the princess hummed thoughtfully. “I suppose I can’t begrudge you trying to get them both some happiness…”
Ty Lee brightened up at that and clapped her hands together. “See?”
“Not a word out, understood?” Azula didn’t turn to any of them, and her bodyguards barely shifted their heads with nods.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Reassured by Ty Lee’s intent, Azula left her friend to her little scheme and returned to more pressing concerns. She sought out the newly erected command tent and found the right person to address those concerns.
“General Hwa, how fares the rest of the corridor?”
The good general gave a quick salute, already learning not to waste time with simpering formalities. “The last stretch should be safe enough for us to push out at full speed tomorrow, princess. Sh- General Sho’s disruptive spearhead has finally begun to draw the northern states’ attention.”
Azula nodded, only aware of the surface details of that plan. General Sho had peeled off a force to strike deep into enemy territory, to distract and put the remaining strongholds back into defensive alert. There were also rumors that it was also to keep a certain Colonel Dao from meeting her, though Azula couldn’t fathom why just yet. Everyone seemed strangely awkward about it, even the few veterans of the 11th in the convoy.
“What about the southern flank?”
“Our troops are holding them back more easily now, mostly thanks to Colonel Xing. Apparently his arrival has drawn most of the forces in the region back to Ba Sing Se. Seems like they’re focusing all their effort on protecting the city.”
The princess nodded at the Hwa’s disapproving tone. The overrated symbolic value of Ba Sing Se as the crown jewel of the Earth Kingdom made it imperative that the city stood at whatever the costs. With its reputation of being the Impenetrable City, losing it would likely break the back of Earth Kingdom resistance, far greater than what might happen if the reverse occurred and the Earth Kingdom took over the Fire Nation’s royal capital.
After all, nobody in the home islands held delusions of invincibility for the capital city. They’d likely be infuriated and have a mind to retake it with furious resolve. As for Ba Sing Se, the city’s sense of unassailability was also inextricably tied to the Earth King’s legitimacy. Who knows what kind of morale damage would be dealt once their boasts about being unconquerable were proven false.
It was a lesson Azula would have to remember when governing the colonies and the Fire Nation in the future. Try not to make any one place too invaluable, balance out some redundancies… Bah, there was too much to worry about for the present.
Azula pushed back such thoughts and brought her focus back to the present. “Any word from Xing?”
“None yet, princess. The 11th should have already reached the walls to join him by now. We’ll need another day or two before the messenger hawk arrives.”
Clicking her tongue in annoyance, the princess moved onto other matters. “I do not want Xing’s inevitable victory to be a symbolic and temporary one. Can this corridor be made permanent? Safe enough for colonial administrators to journey to the city?”
The General of the East nodded with full conviction. “General Sho will be commencing region-wide siege on the northern states to lock them up and hopefully force them into capitulation. We’re just waiting on Admiral Dae to finish reorganizing the navy to lend support from the sea. As for the southern flank, my Eastern Army are already entrenching themselves, and only require reinforcements to further bolster the line.”
“Reliable reinforcements, I hope?”
Hwa gave an uncharacteristically wicked grin. “The last of the disgraced commanders from the North Pole have been ordered to deploy, fully under my command.”
Huh. So father really did demote the generals? No doubt he already had his eyes on fresh talent to replace the culled failures. And Hwa was technically on his side since he appointed her to the position without Azula’s involvement. Still, it was good to know that he didn’t try usurping Hwa’s or Sho’s command, at least not yet, and let the competent commanders continue doing their thing.
On that note, maybe it’d be best to keep an eye on who became General of the South. Once Xing takes Ba Sing Se, the southern states would be the only real opposition left, turning that theater into the next pilgrimage site for glory hounds.
With little else to worry about, Azula retired for the night, and awoke to a pleasant surprise by way of a messenger hawk. Xing had broken Ba Sing Se’s Outer Wall. The massive rampart that had taken Uncle Iroh more than a year to tear down, her soon-to-be fiance had apparently breached not once, but thrice, in less than a couple of hours.
It was good to be reminded about her Xing’s prowess.
The news spread through the convoy, lifting the spirits of everyone marching. Even the prisoners of the 11th seemed oddly elated at hearing that. Perhaps they had a grudge against their capital? It might prove useful later…
Another hawk came two days later, and this time the news was more damning than pleasant. Bearing the personal seals of the generals Xing had captured the day before, it spoke of the outrageous atrocity that lay under Lake Laogai. A dungeon, not for keeping captured enemies, but the city’s own womenfolk. Women who were kidnapped by the famed Dai Li to be…brainwashed by some yet unidentified method and turned into living dolls.
That discovery, along with the promise to undo the entrancement, had seemingly earned Xing the cooperation of his new prisoners. It was a horrific revelation, one that made everyone react in varying degrees of revulsion once Azula had the report spread around, and one that would no doubt make for a brilliant piece of propaganda once the message reached her father’s attention.
If not him, at least Azula’s own servants would know how to best propagate such information to the Fire Nation’s advantage.
Azula did not forward a second letter though, one written in Xing’s cipher. That one she read in the privacy of her tent, after chasing out Ty Lee and Mai. The princess felt her blood go cold with horror, and then furiously hot as she read of what had been done to the Kyoshi Warriors. She had found the painted ladies to be tolerable, and potentially even worth employing, if not befriending. That they had suffered such despicable fates by their own people…
It’d be a publicity windfall to make this known, but Azula held a modicum of respect for the Kyoshi Warriors to do so without their assent. Besides, Xing delivered this particular news in secret. Idly, the princess wondered if it was all part of the spirits’ plans, or was it something actually unexpected for once? Xing’s words were noticeably more disgusted and angry than usual.
The third messenger hawk arrived just as the Outer Wall peeked through the forest. Even from this distance, there was no mistaking the three blackened gaps decorating the massive fortification. Faint trails of smoke rose up behind it, probably the city itself being fought over.
Or maybe not, as Azula read the message.
“With the witnesses of his prisoners and his soldiers, Colonel Xing has single-handedly torn down both Outer and Inner Walls of Ba Sing Se, and also entered and captured the Earth King’s palace by himself.”
Azula couldn’t suppress the urge to smile at the last few sentences. “Colonel Xing has taken the royal palace, the Earth King himself has fled thanks to the Avatar. All remaining resistance has either fled the city or surrendered.”
She breathed out the last words with a relief she didn’t know she’d been holding onto ever since Xing left. “Ba Sing Se is now under the control of Colonel Xing, on behalf of the Fire Nation.”
“Congratulations on your engagement, Azula!” Ty Lee said, not quite spoiling the mood.