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350 word drabble: Esteem
Feb. 22nd, 2013 08:11 amWritten for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
avatar_500 prompt #71, Equal.
Summary: Azula has learned from her brother's mistakes. Companion to Words Lying Dead in Him.
Esteem
"I think you should take their precious hope and the rest of their land, and burn it all to the ground." She hoped Zuko was listening.
"Yes... Yes, you're right, Azula." Her father said softly, and Azula felt herself beaming inside, but only the smallest sliver of a smile showed through. "Sozin's Comet is almost upon us and on that day it will endow us with the strength and power of a hundred Suns. No bender will stand a chance against us."
"What are you suggesting, sir?" one of the generals asked cautiously, and for once, Azula was glad someone had asked, so that she would learn the answer, and no one would ever know she hadn't guessed.
Her father stood up and left his throne for the map at the foot of the dais. "When the comet last came, my grandfather, Fire Lord Sozin, used it to wipe out the Air Nomads. Now, I will use its power to end the Earth Kingdom." He smiled and stepped out onto the map, his robes swishing against the continents and tiny army figurines. And Azula's heart dropped like a stone. "Permanently. From our airships, we will rain fire over their lands, a fire that will destroy everything. And out of the ashes, a new world will be born, a world in which all the lands are Fire Nation and I am the supreme ruler of everything!"
As the generals clapped and cheered, the best and brightest that her father could find to surround himself with, Azula smiled, and kept smiling as she felt herself made small, as small as her brother on the other side of the throne, and felt his words caught in her own throat, "Well, that's not exactly what I..."
He thought she had meant it literally. He thought she was brilliant and clever, wise beyond her years, and worthy of him, so she smiled, and knew she could never let him see through. Out of the corner of her eye, she looked at her brother, at his face, and the price of failure to hide the cracks.
avatar_500 prompt #71, Equal.Summary: Azula has learned from her brother's mistakes. Companion to Words Lying Dead in Him.
Esteem
"I think you should take their precious hope and the rest of their land, and burn it all to the ground." She hoped Zuko was listening.
"Yes... Yes, you're right, Azula." Her father said softly, and Azula felt herself beaming inside, but only the smallest sliver of a smile showed through. "Sozin's Comet is almost upon us and on that day it will endow us with the strength and power of a hundred Suns. No bender will stand a chance against us."
"What are you suggesting, sir?" one of the generals asked cautiously, and for once, Azula was glad someone had asked, so that she would learn the answer, and no one would ever know she hadn't guessed.
Her father stood up and left his throne for the map at the foot of the dais. "When the comet last came, my grandfather, Fire Lord Sozin, used it to wipe out the Air Nomads. Now, I will use its power to end the Earth Kingdom." He smiled and stepped out onto the map, his robes swishing against the continents and tiny army figurines. And Azula's heart dropped like a stone. "Permanently. From our airships, we will rain fire over their lands, a fire that will destroy everything. And out of the ashes, a new world will be born, a world in which all the lands are Fire Nation and I am the supreme ruler of everything!"
As the generals clapped and cheered, the best and brightest that her father could find to surround himself with, Azula smiled, and kept smiling as she felt herself made small, as small as her brother on the other side of the throne, and felt his words caught in her own throat, "Well, that's not exactly what I..."
He thought she had meant it literally. He thought she was brilliant and clever, wise beyond her years, and worthy of him, so she smiled, and knew she could never let him see through. Out of the corner of her eye, she looked at her brother, at his face, and the price of failure to hide the cracks.
