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*
"Drink."
She encourages this with a low, soothed voice, nodding.
(No easy task this is… steeping black henbane, rinsed in vinegar and hippo cow's milk, and using the fragrance of lavender to hide it…)
The royal palace-guard across from Ursa looking straight-faced, eventually does.
His mouth wet.
"I… p-please forgive me, my lady…"
"Tell me more," Ursa says softly, expressionless. "You say you guard the prison-towers? Who are you keeping?"
"A woman… a waterbender… the last living waterbender in the South Pole…"
At this, Ursa's golden eyes narrow.
"You are certain?" Ursa asks. "Has she attacked anyone before?"
"No…"
There is no telling if the palace-guard means the woman's abilities shown or his certainty in the matter of who has been imprisoned. Ursa remembers Ozai discussing the Southern Raiders amongst his top generals within earshot of her. Yon Rha's reports. The bloodshed accounted for.
Her throat bobs.
"Your commitment to the crown is most honorable," Ursa lies, offering a thin, pleasant smile.
She encourages another sip, nodding.
The palace-guard's eyes gleam, unfocused.
"Drink. And continue."
*
On the outside, one wears a mask.
The Firelord's daughter by matrimony. Ozai's wife. Her Highness Ursa. The beautiful, beloved princess of their nation.
Inside her, however, grows… the Dragon Empress, Ursa has named it.
Her own self-made manifestation of contempt.
Someone who lost love. Someone now untouchable. Someone who exists within dark deeds.
Her mother, Rina, taught Ursa well as a young girl.
Ursa concocts brews and tonics meant to fuddle thoughts, to confuse and disappear memories of previous encounters as soon as the strong-acting herbs wear off. Ursa observes her doses, using her handmaidens and personal guardsmen as subjects. They remain ignorant of it.
Then, Ursa ledgers in the evening uninterrupted, after putting her children to bed.
Ozai… Ozai finds himself busy with military meetings, disregarding her. It is preferable. Ursa takes her opportunity to interrogate different persons, military-men, servants… questioning them, evaluating their memory… noticing calm, complacent behavior after they have drank…
Xiaojun mushrooms, blended with ginseng and white sweet elderflowers…
Donning a hooded cloak, Ursa passes by the tower-guards obediently staring ahead, unmoving. Their cheeks warm. Two or three guards laugh eccentrically under their breath. Despite this, they are unmoving as well. She will correct the drink-dosage for the following opportunity.
The prisoner, left in filthied rags, weeps when Ursa finds her in the highest room.
Her terror inarguable.
She shakes, thrashes, begs for mercy over and over. Ursa sees her brown arms covered in disfiguring burn-scars. As if tortured.
"No more… no more… no more…"
Ursa's heart sinks.
*
On the first night, nothing can be done.
The second, Ursa gives her a drink boiled with poppy. It will help her rest.
Ursa whispers she means to be 'a friend' to this woman-prisoner.
She vanishes.
And, finally, the third night: Ursa returns with food, giving shanglu root-infused water to help the drowsy-eyed prisoner speak freely.
"Kya…"
"My name…"
"Where did you come from?" Ursa breathes, kneeling down in front of the cell.
"The… Southern Water Tribe… my husband, my children, they… they don't know where I am…"
"Are you the last waterbender?"
Kya's face tightens. Her bright blue eyes widen impossibly wide.
"No… no! No!"
There is no telling if Kya means she is not the last waterbender, or isn't a waterbender at all, or refuses to answer. As her distress heightens, physically shaking her, Ursa makes a shushing noise. She holds both of Kya's hands through the cell-bars, thumbs stroking.
*
Azula's high-pitched cackle fills the air.
"Oh no!"
Bright, flaming light illuminates the royal garden-hedges. Ursa gasps loudly. She scoops up the mother turtle duck Azula glares at. Meanwhile, Zuko copies Ursa and scoops up the baby turtle duck nearby. With his little, outstretched hand, he concentrates, inhaling. Zuko's eyelids flutter.
In moments, Azula's fire she set… extinguishes.
Ursa gasps again, mesmerized. She barely looks away from her son while nudging the mother turtle duck quacking, into the pond.
Zuko opens his eyes, appearing haughty.
"Master Kunyo didn't teach you that, did he, Azula?"
Furious, Azula fire-pinches Zuko's bottom, making him drop the turtle duck.
It recovers, waddling back to his patiently waiting mother.
"That is enough, young lady!" Ursa scolds, tugging on Azula's wrist and hurrying off while her daughter pouts.
"Ugh! It's not my fault, Mother!" Azula insists. "The leaves shouldn't allow themselves to burn so easily! Or to be so ugly!"
Spirits be good…
Ursa bends herself down, meeting Azula's tiny and golden eyes. She clutches her shoulders. "Listen to me, Azula." Ursa stares, heartbroken. "Just because something won't change for you…" she whispers, "that doesn't mean, as consequence, you have any right to do it harm."
Azula's brow creases.
"I… don't?" she asks, no longer seeming furious.
Ursa sighs, relieved, and hugs her. At first, she senses Azula's doubt… and then, her tiny arms insistently hug Ursa back.
Love…
Love is the only thing that can save Ursa and her children. She can't bear to think of being forced apart from them.
Kya…
*
She visits the greenhouse, picking out bold leaf hibiscus, lemon verbena, maogen…
Over days, Ursa's well-earned mastery over herbal remedies and behavior conditioning through them she has tested, it surpasses her expectations. The drinks, given to others by Ursa herself, more potent. The effects, overall, more quick to take and more lasting.
"It is not me…"
"Yes?" Ursa encourages her, spending another evening kneeling with Kya gratefully drinking. In admittance, she is reassured to have Kya's company. In the middle of a conversation of Ursa proudly announcing Zuko's newest firebending, Kya's features went grief-stricken.
In the South Pole, they weren't searching for Kya, she admits… it was someone Kya was protecting.
"My daughter…"
Kya fretfully sobs, open-mouthed. She becomes visibly woozy.
The herbs overpower Kya's emotional outburst.
Ursa's lips twitch downwards.
"My Katara… she will lose her life if they know she is a waterbender… she has done nothing wrong but be born…"
She accepts the weight of Kya's burn-scarred hands desperately reaching for her.
No…
*
Zuko has done nothing wrong but be born, yes.
Azulon commands for Zuko's murder, by Ozai's hand, as a punishment for treasonous words against Iroh, the brother next in line to rule. Ursa agrees to Ozai's deal, prepared to kill Azulon a hundred times over with poison if it meant saving Zuko's life. Or even Azula's.
She mixes something stronger than valerian into the dinner served to her two children, under Ozai's ever-watchful eye.
(He doesn't touch anything on his plate. Rightfully so… Ursa considered cutting his reign short.)
*
Ursa, dressed in plain robes and her hooded cloak, goes to Azula before Zuko.
Azula never stirs.
Not for the world. Not for Ursa's mouth pressing all of her tear-stained and warm kisses across Azula's cheek.
*
Somehow, Zuko manages to regain consciousness.
He groans quietly.
"M…Mom…"
"Zuko… please, my love, listen to me." Ursa sits him upright, holding Zuko close. "Everything I have done… I have done to protect you."
"Remember this…"
*
Her banishment starts when Ursa walks out into the night-air, lifting her face, exhaling.
Kya's fingers tense up, gripping Ursa's.
Ursa cradles the other woman's hand, smiling earnestly.
She has done what can be for Azula and Zuko… it is time for what can be done for Kya and Kya's children waiting for their mother…
(Even if it takes years, and years…)
They nod, together, running and disappearing out into the shadows.
*