Lu Ten decided to spend some of his time with his younger cousin. They were both enthusiastically swinging wooden swords in a small courtyard located inside the palace. This wasn't fencing instruction. Lu Ten simply didn't know how to wield a sword, so he couldn't teach Prince Zuko anything of value. They were just having fun. More accurately, they were fooling around.
Lu Ten had gifted his younger cousin a specially tailored Fire Nation soldier uniform, while he himself was dressed up as an Earthbender. What other games could boys play? Especially in a nation that has been at war with the rest of the world for nearly a hundred years? And it didn't matter at all that Lu Ten was almost twenty. He was a boy.
But it wasn't the Princes' game that drew my attention. I probably wouldn't have lingered to watch it longer, as the library awaited me, had I not incidentally noticed one more casual, or perhaps not so casual, spectator on the rooftop.
Princess Azula was sitting on the edge of the roof, hugging her knees, and watching the mock battle with envy.
"Why don't you join your relatives, Princess, if you want to so badly?"
I finished my question by redirecting Azula's attack with a counter-strike against her wrist, causing the powerful jet of flame she intended to blast me with to shoot harmlessly into the sky. Did I imagine it, or were there actually blue flashes in her fire? That flame was definitely hotter than even Lu Ten's… How interesting…
The Princess stared at me in surprise, then blew a strand of hair from her face and frowned: "You're Lu Ten's bodyguard, aren't you? Don't sneak up on me again. Now go where you were going."
The Princess blew the hair from her face once more and sat back down, watching the playful fight between her cousins, who hadn't noticed a thing. Unlike the royal guards who had subtly arrived to check on the area. They quietly retreated after seeing my nod, signifying everything was fine. I had already managed to earn a certain level of authority within their circles.
I probably would have followed the Princess's advice if not for my curiosity. Lu Ten had asked me to stay away from Prince Ozai and his daughter, Princess Azula. He offered almost no explanation, only throwing out a few general phrases that raised more questions than they answered.
It was surprising, really. Lu Ten is a generally positive person who finds common ground with almost everyone immediately after meeting them, yet here he was, directly asking me to keep my distance from his immediate family. I know about palace intrigues, but again, Lu Ten doesn't seem like the type to be involved. Questions arose particularly when a flicker of fear crossed his face after mentioning his younger sister, Azula.
Azula was Prince Ozai's youngest child. She was the twin sister of Prince Zuko, with whom Lu Ten was playing now. She was currently ten years old and, by my estimation, was an excellent Firebender for her age. Is Lu Ten afraid of her power? Unlikely. That guy is too… too carefree.
Azula pulled a small doll from the inner pocket of her uniform. She stared intently at it for a few seconds and squeezed it tightly.
"Are you still here?" she asked, exhaling a small stream of flame, still looking at the doll. Astonishing Firebending talent! And how much resentment and anger was in her for a ten-year-old child. She conveyed this not with her face or her expressions, but with her voice, which she clearly couldn't yet control well. "Then answer me one question: why does everyone love that Zuzu so much, while they sometimes whisper and call me a monster when they think I can't hear them?"
An unexpected confession. It seemed the Princess was ready to burst into tears. Only by biting her lower lip until it bled was she able to hold back the tears. Her control over her facial expressions suddenly weakened. In an instant, Azula's face became utterly mournful.
"Why?"
"Who are those 'everyone' and 'they,' Princess Azula?"
"They… the servants, the Fire Sages, the guards, Lu Ten, even my own mother… Everyone but Father. No, I know I made a few mistakes: I burned the fish in the pond, the favorite flower, a scarf, and I nearly set Zuzu on fire once—a lot of things, really… But that's no reason to call me a monster. Maybe I did all those things just to finally get some attention?
"Why does my mother only look at Zuko? Is it because he was lucky enough to be born first? Would it be different if I had been the firstborn? But we're twins! There's only a difference of a couple of minutes between us! Is that the only reason Mother loves him but not me?"
The doll in her hands began to slowly smolder. Azula got to her feet, smoothed her clothing, and looked intently straight into my eyes, expecting some kind of answer. Her gaze was not what you would expect from a child. Now it was clear where the problem stemmed from… She soon let out a sigh of disappointment and hung her head. At that very instant, the doll in her hands burst into flames. "Fine, forget it…" Her gaze rose again to my face. "If this conversation ever surfaces, you'll be in trouble."
Having issued her final threat, she walked across the rooftop toward the far side of the palace. The only reminder of Azula's recent presence was the scorched doll she left behind. I picked it up. It seemed to have been a gift from General Iroh. Lu Ten, in addition to his own presents, had also delivered Iroh's gifts. Azula, as I understood it, got the doll, and Zuko got some kind of knife, allegedly taken from the body of an enemy general.
"Hmm…" I mused, looking in the direction the Princess had gone.
*********
In another, long-abandoned courtyard of the palace, located quite far from where Lu Ten and Zuko were playing, Azula was swinging the first stick she could find, trying to imitate her cousin's movements. She did this very diligently, pouring all her focus into the process.
"Lu Ten doesn't know how to fence at all, Princess, and he is, to put it mildly, an absolutely terrible teacher," I said, dangling my legs from the roof.
Azula threw the stick away and looked at me angrily: "You again?" There were no visible traces of her recent outburst on her face. She had managed to regain control very quickly. "Why did you come here?"
"Tell me," I requested, tilting my head slightly, "why are you trying to learn sword fighting? Your Firebending is simply astonishing. Don't you think that will be enough?"
"I must be perfect." Azula crossed her arms over her chest and looked up at me from under her brows. "Perfect in everything."
In the next second, the Princess sharply leaped aside and looked at me in surprise. A knife was sticking out of the ground where she had stood moments earlier.
"Perhaps we can strike a bargain, Princess Azula?" I asked with a smirk that Lu Ten usually called the grin of an evil spirit. "I will teach you several lessons in cold steel weapon mastery, and in return, you will become my Firebending teacher while I am in the palace."
Azula considered this for a few seconds.
"How will you prove your qualifications?" she asked, a very good question.
"I am Prince Lu Ten's personal bodyguard."
"Pffft, he probably just brought you along because it would be more fun for him."
"Fine," I nodded. "Then you may ask the royal guards who protect the palace about my skills. I am certainly inferior to them in Firebending, but I managed to earn their respect in a training spar when, using my skills, including my cold steel mastery, I managed to put ten of them on their backs."
"Very well, I shall allow you to train me," Azula stated regally. A kind of imperial aura emanated from her in that moment, something Lu Ten could never even dream of possessing. "And I agree to repay you for the training with my knowledge of Firebending. But if you lied about the level of your skill, which I will definitely find out, you're finished."
"Good," I nodded again and jumped off the roof, cushioning the impact with a roll. "Pick up the knife. It's not a general's, of course, but it did belong to a hereditary military man from the Earth Kingdom."
The knife had the inscription "From Father to Son" engraved on both sides. Moreover, the style of the engravings differed. One was done in the traditional script, and the other—in the simplified script. A writing reform in the Earth Kingdom took place about forty years ago. That means the knife is quite old. A family heirloom. Judging by the look in her eyes when the Princess picked up the knife, she understood all this, too. An astonishingly clever and educated girl. Did she grow up that way, or was it the training?
"Let this knife be my gift to you… Although it isn't as beautiful as the one your older brother, Prince Zuko, received, and the inscription is entirely unsuitable for a Princess, this knife will be excellent for training bouts."
"Training bouts?" Azula shifted her gaze from the knife to me, and she did so just in time. Had she hesitated, she wouldn't have seen my attack.
The clang of two knives colliding echoed through the small courtyard.
"Yes, knowledge is assimilated much faster in this form of training."
A sinister smile appeared on Azula's face. She slid to the side and tried to stab me with the knife. The blow was parried.
"Hahaha, what is your name?" The girl's clear laughter sounded a little sinister. To others, perhaps. But to me, I liked it more than I feared it.
"Long, Princess Azula," I replied, delivering a counter-strike.
"Long… if you get bored serving Cousin Lu Ten, ask to join my guard. I will certainly hire you."
"I will keep that in mind, Princess," I answered with a smile.
Honestly, I don't know what came over me… There was absolutely no benefit in playing teacher and student with this girl. Moreover, I was simply wasting my time with her, time I could have spent in the library. It's unlikely she could teach me anything truly useful or valuable in return. I doubt Azula knows more about Firebending than even Lu Ten, or at least myself. Even establishing good relations with her cannot be called a beneficial, prospective activity for the future. She is merely the daughter of Prince Ozai. Not even the firstborn. She is at the very end of a quite long list in the succession order for the title of Fire Lord.
But something about the Princess appealed to me… I felt a certain spiritual kinship with her… Magic is undoubtedly important, but perhaps I will distract myself from it for a short while, so as not to burn out on my passion, my new meaning in life, and occupy myself with the girl.