"It's just a portrait. Is there anything strange about a loyal warrior keeping a portrait of a member of the royal family?" Damn, that sounded forced as hell...
"Funny, I haven't noticed any portraits of Father, Uncle, or Zu-Zu in here," the princess continued pressing me, though somehow without her usual fire. Her nose hadn't even wrinkled, and when she was really raging, three distinct little creases usually appeared there.
"I simply chose the member of the royal family most pleasing to my eye." The important thing was to keep a straight face.
"Oh, really?" Her left cheek twitched. Bad sign. I'd barely had time to think that before a loose strand of hair fell across Azula's face and she DIDN'T immediately fix it... Very bad sign! "Then how do you explain THIS portrayal? Do I look like that?! It's... it's..." As the princess struggled to find the words, looking down at the picture again, her free hand rose to waist level and froze there, fingers curled like claws and trembling slightly, as though she were barely restraining herself from tearing the canvas she was staring at to pieces.
"Very cute," I helpfully supplied, unable to believe I was actually doing this.
Two amber lasers locked onto my face before the final sound had even left my lips, and an indescribable sensation crawled down my neck, as though someone's jaws were about to close around my throat.
"Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about that," I hurried to finish my thought before she started killing me. "Creative types have their own way of seeing the world. According to the director, the actor playing me embodies the 'Might of the Fire Nation'—that's how the director sees me. And this is how Master Piandao sees you, Princess. What can you do? An artist is a creative soul."
Whew, she'd heard me out. The I'll kill you where you stand! look in her eyes gave way to But how the hell did this happen?! And there it was, the first part of my "revenge": embarrass Azula and dump all the blame on that misanthrope.
That would teach the two of them to gang up on me! What made the situation especially delicious was that my "secret weapon" really had been made by my Master, who hadn't even suspected that he was "forging" a weapon that would eventually be turned against him.
"I see..." the girl said slowly, relaxing her hand and lowering it.
Her gaze slipped away from my face and began darting around the room, and a second later the princess herself joined it. Meaning she started nervously pacing back and forth across the cabin. On her very first turn, I noticed that she was lightly biting the inside of her right cheek, betraying a truly off-the-charts degree of bewilderment. I'd only seen her make that gesture in front of me twice before... Maybe three times.
Azula didn't allow her emotions free rein for long, however. She was far too intelligent not to have realized that this was my little revenge for her "jokes." Formally, though, my hands were clean, and my position wouldn't allow her to accuse me of disrespect without considerably stronger evidence. But the firebender wouldn't have been herself if she had simply accepted "defeat," even in something as trivial as a verbal skirmish.
"And what do you think of me?" The girl stopped and fixed me with a gaze full of suspicion and an easily readable threat. "How do you see me, Herald?" One step closer, her face settling into a predatory squint as a dangerous crease appeared across her nose.
"Me? Hmm... You're strong, beautiful, and deadly. I see in you the grace and power of a magnificent blade." Except that, like every blade, you had your breaking point, beyond which you would shatter—but I wasn't going to tell you that.
"A blade?" The crease on her nose disappeared, only for her right eyebrow to rise instead. "A very... ambiguous statement coming from someone who has devoted his life to wielding blades." The princess's amber pools looked more like the futuristic weapons of some plasma cannons charging up to fire.
"Perhaps that's precisely why the image came to mind. What could inspire more admiration in a swordsman than a beautiful sword?" I didn't even want to know what it cost me to say that evenly and respectfully. And it wasn't a fight with Azula that scared me—I could kill her easily enough. No, it was something else entirely that frightened me... What exactly? Hell if I knew! No time for that now!
"Well, that's much better than..." A brief glance at the portrait painted an entire palette of disgust, indignation, and embarrassment across the girl's face. "Cat ears and that timid pose." Ozai's daughter shuddered as though from a chill.
Personally, I thought it was beautifully done: the image of a modest, meek Azula, with bashfully drooping cat ears peeking out through her loose hair... Nya!
Though judging by the look of her, it had managed to get to the princess herself. At the very least, that flush on her face could mean one of two things: a fit of murderous rage or actual embarrassment. Since she wasn't currently trying to roast me alive on the spot, murderous rage seemed to be off the table.
A somewhat awkward silence settled over us. Azula was standing so close that I could clearly catch the faint herbal scent of her hair. Her beautiful face was alive with emotion, with life itself, and it seemed that all I had to do was reach out and... anything might happen.
(End of Chapter)
P@treon: /SadRaven
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