attackfish

Mai took a steady breath and picked up his arm. His eyelids fluttered. “Wha...”

Setting his wrist down into the water, she caught sight of blackened bone through the blackened flesh. His hand looked dead and buried. Azula should have let them cut it off already.

The water glowed blue. Lines, like waves under the ocean, glittered on the walls, chasing away the shadows hanging low around the cell. Zuko shuddered, and a faint gasp emerged from his throat.

When the light died away, Mai looked into the water. His hand bobbed to the surface, pink and puffy, dying instead of dead. She could see new, whole flesh over the bone of his wrist, but the charred black burn was still there, like a dark, crispy smudge.

Zuko didn’t stopped shivering. “M-mai?”

“It’s good to see you again,” she said neutrally.

The air caught on Zuko’s teeth and in his throat, echoing noisily. “What are you doing here?”

Mai rolled her eyes. “Drink the water. You’re going to need it.”

Zuko lifted the bowl and held it to his lips. “I could-” He gulped down a mouthful of the water and let it run down his throat. “I could take this and use it...”

Mai snorted and took the bowl out his hands when it was empty. “Give me your arms like a good boy.” Zuko nodded. For a moment, Mai was terrified he was going to cry. Her hands were numb around the shackles as she locked them around his arms again, above his elbows, far away from the burn. “Don’t tell your sister.”

~*~

Zuko heard the sound of a key sliding into the lock, and his head shot up. But it wasn’t Mai. Azula strolled across the cell floor. “You look better.”

“What do you want, Azula?” Without the fever, he hurt even worse.

Azula crouched down and lifted up her brother’s chained arm. “Where did you get the water, Zuko?”

Zuko held himself stiff. “We’re in the middle of the ocean, Azula.”

“Yes, I know that, Zuzu.” Azula glanced up at the ceiling and shook her head. “Do you expect me to believe you bent the water all the way up to here without your arms? You aren’t even facing the window.”

“You can’t keep the water away from me, Azula,” he told her. “Not here.”

~*~

Lu Ten turned to the wall when the door opened. “I’m not going to tell you anything.”

“I didn’t ask.” Mai stood in the doorway.

“But you’re going to, and I’m not going to tell you anything.”

Mai huffed. “Your cousin’s doing better.”

“Hey,” Lu Ten turned to her. “I know where I saw you before. You went to school with Azula. You were at the palace all the time.”

Mai nodded.

Lu Ten swallowed. “Tell me how my daughter’s doing.”

She shook her head. “I haven’t seen her yet.”

“Did-” Lu Ten looked down. “You’re at least keeping her with my wife, right?”

An expression flitted across Mai’s face and disappeared to fast for him to see what it was. “No.”

“She’s not...” Lu Ten tried to reach for her, but with his hands chained behind his back, he almost overbalanced himself instead. “Alone?”

Mai closed her eyes.

“Oh spirits,” he whispered. “You can’t leave her like that, please, please get her out of there!”

“Princess Azula wants to know where you’ve been hiding for the last six years.”

Lu Ten clenched his teeth. “I can’t tell you that.”

“You’re all probably going to be executed,” she said, folding her arms and leaning against the doorway. “Unless you give Azula some reason you shouldn’t be.”

“I didn’t do anything!” Lu Ten tried to push himself on the wall without his arms, but his legs slipped out from under him on the dew-dampened iron floor.

Mai waved one of her hands carelessly. “Look, she just wants the throne. She thinks you’ll get in the way. You give her a reason you won’t, and she’ll let you live.”

“And Zuko?” he challenged. “He can’t get in her way anymore.”

And Azula wanted him dead anyway.

Mai turned away.

~*~

Concentrating on working his arms around from behind his back, Iroh didn’t hear the door open until Azula nudged him with her foot. “Hello, Uncle.”