Forged In Fire || ATLA

Mercy

The Avatar and the Fire Lord

"If you ever loved me, have mercy." - Brett Young

🌊⛰️🔥🌪

Aelita was going to be sick. She didn't dare look at the spirit standing beside her as a young Tulan slipped back into the post-wedding celebration on the Fire Lord's arm.

It felt too much like looking into Aelita's future rather than her past.

"Sozin was a product of generations of ambition and instability,"  Tulan explained when the girl was silent. "History taught the ruling family of the Fire Nation that worldly power, landmass, and obedience equated to greatness. I glimpsed a sign of those beliefs in Fire Lord Kazan just as Ragnar saw in Zoryu, as Akitaru sensed in Chaeryu, and so on. Sozin was the next step in a centuries-old cycle. He reflected Kazan's shortcomings as a ruler and a father. But I saw a boy who loved and supported his friends openly and fully. I saw a man who took the time to hear me and run to my aid even when I hadn't asked for it. I saw a Fire Lord who united his people, uplifted even the poorest of his nation, and ushered in an era of unprecedented technological development. And until then, Sozin had never acted upon his upbringing in front of me, so I truly believed the gentle and caring boy I loved had grown to be an even better man. When I finally began to catch a glimpse of the being beneath the ambition, I wanted nothing more than to turn a blind eye. I didn't want to accept who or what I was beginning to suspect Sozin truly was. I thought if I did, I'd have to admit I had never truly known him at all."

The celebration fell away. The two Akira's stood between a pair of the glittering lakes that dotted Caldera. The sun dipped lazily below the lip of the dormant volcano. Sozin turned a hand over slowly as he watched a firefly walk across his skin. As he lounged next to Tulan on a too-large blanket, he looked almost normal. His bride-to-be, without a trace of anything that could be mistaken for Earth Kingdom on her, stared quietly out onto the still waters.

"You're dwelling on the mess with the Beifong's, aren't you?"

"How can I not? They're one of the world's biggest financial powerhouses," Tulan groaned, holding her thumb and pointer finger together until they were nearly touching. "And I was this close to winning their support of the Southern Water Tribe. Akira Ragnar might have left his people more stable than they've been in centuries, but they're still leaps and bounds behind the rest of the world in terms of advancement, and there's the matter of the rising aggression in the spirits in either Pole. Their more remote villages are on constant alert after the string of recent attacks. The North has no aid to give their sister tribe. A loan from the Beifongs would allow the South to keep up or at least keep pace with the rest of the world. And the entire family was on board until Jialun's xenophobia made its way to Gaoling. All my hard work and negotiation wasted thanks to the fear the Earth King sews."

"However much you planned to ask the Beifong's for, double it."

Tulan's head whipped around in Sozin's direction.

"The Fire Nation will give it as a sign of our goodwill," he said, sitting up and tugging her hands into his lap, the firefly finally abandoning him. "In a matter of weeks, you'll stand before my people and become my wife. My people will be your people, and you'll belong to them as much as you do to me. We support our own here. And I would do anything you asked of me," the Fire Lord insisted as he rubbed a thumb over the band on her finger. "And I'd do anything even if you hadn't asked it, anything that would keep you happy and safe and mine. Haven't I proven to you my loyalty? My dedication?"

"Of course you have."

"Haven't I shown that you and I want the same things out of this life? That you and I are two halves of one whole?"