Whirlwind [Avatar Aang]

☁Chapter Fifteen☁

Nazadori was right: Gazon was angry with her for trying to go talk to the supposed Fire Nation candidate with Aang. He was so angry that he took the choice away from her to choose her own council, the people that were supposed to help her with her reign as queen. The advisors weren't even supposed to continue advising her when she was crowned queen, yet they seemed to love taking control of everything for her.

When was she supposed to prove to them that she was going to be a good queen if they wouldn't even let her out of the palace?

Gazon had a guard stationed outside of her room here at the palace day and night, and right now, it just had to be her sister, the very one who spilled the beans to someone about the robbery they stopped together. If Mava hadn't done that, then everything would have been different for Nazadori. 

Nazadori paced up and down her bedroom as anger spiraled through her chest. Those old men were controlling her and her reign already. They were supposed to be Bumi's trusted men, the men that helped him in his last few years at the king of Omashu. But they were proving to be men who didn't like the way Nazadori did things because it wasn't what Bumi would have done. She just didn't know how to prove to them that what she was doing was for the betterment of Omashu, not some crazy antics of a troubled girl.

She suddenly stopped pacing and stood in front of the window looking down at the courtyard, where she had an excellent view of servants bringing in a large helping of different types of foods from the two other surviving nations. The advisors must have planned a whole dinner for her and the new council members without even telling her about it. Did they expect her to not show up to the dinner? Were they afraid that she was going to do something in front of them or say something wrong in front of them?

Nazadori didn't know what to do anymore. This situation she found herself in was not what she pictured when she first got told she was going to be queen of Omashu, right after Bumi let out his last breath. She thought that this would have come easier to her than it was and that people would actually have trusted her to take control of the city after Bumi. 

Unfortunately, Nazadori didn't have a lot of time to think any more about that because someone was knocking on the door. Letting out a soft sigh, she walked over to the door and opened it, revealing Mava standing out there, her hand raised like she was going to knock again. She quickly dropped her arm down to her side.

"Yes?" Nazadori asked her.

"You need to get ready to go to the throne room now."

"Okay." Before Nazadori could close the door in her face, Mava forced her way into her room. She shut the door behind her, leaving the two of them alone in there. "What are you doing in here? I need to get ready. Alone."

"I wanted to talk to you."

"About?"

"The night of the robbery."

Nazadori turned away from Mava and walked over to her bed where her outfit was waiting for her. She quickly slipped out of her pajamas and put on the silky green dress instead of answering Mava. She didn't want to talk to her about any of that right now. She didn't want to talk to her about it at all, actually. 

"What's there to talk about?" Nazadori asked her finally. "You got me into trouble with my advisors because they think I did something horrible and dangerous, and you also got me into trouble with the public because they think I'm a troubled girl."

"I'm sorry!" Mava said to her. "I had to tell my boss --"

"You had to tell your boss that your adopted sister -- the future queen of Omashu -- participated in stopping a robbery. I get it."

She couldn't even face Mava right now or else she would have probably attacked her with all the anger coursing through her veins. Nazadori desperately wanted Mava to leave her here to rot away in her jail cell instead of trying to get her to go to the throne room to meet her new council members. She just wanted to be alone right now or else she was going to explode, just what she told to Aang the other day. If she felt these emotions, she was going to burn up. It was the truth.

"I'm not sure if you understand that I have a job now," Mava said, her voice clipped and hard. Nazadori only ever heard her use that on Baleng when he wouldn't do any of his chores for the day. "It's something that I take seriously."

"Are you insinuating that I won't take this job seriously?" 

Mava remained silent, and Nazadori knew what her answer was. Of course, Mava didn't think that Nazadori was going to take being queen seriously. What else had she taken seriously in her life before this? Nothing, really. She somehow always seemed to pick fights at school that Mava and Baleng had to take care of. She skipped out on a lot of days with Bumi when he first called her to work here in the palace. In Mava's eyes, Nazadori wasn't meant for this job at all.

But deep in her heart, Nazadori knew this was what she was meant to do. Aang's words had been echoing in her head for days, and she slowly started thinking about what she needed to do to be a better person -- a better queen. And the first thing she settled on was not listening to the opinions of others who didn't know the real her.

"You've been spreading rumors about me, haven't you?" Nazadori asked as she slowly turned around to face the woman who used to be her sister. Now, she was just someone Nazadori used to know. "You've been telling people that I won't be a good queen, that I have a trouble past. I wouldn't put it past you to have set up that robbery just for me to stumble into it."

"I didn't know you were going to come home, so how in the world could I have set up the robbery?" she asked her with a frown on her face.

"I thought I could trust you. You're my family, after all. But none of you have been here for me in my darkest moments. None of you have offered me support in this new role I'm taking on because you don't think Bumi was right in choosing me."

"I've been busy working," Mava answered her, deflecting from the question instead of actually answering it. "And Mother's been busy trying to get Baleng off his favorite cushion to get a job. How are we supposed to make time to see you when you haven't done the same for us?"

This time, Nazadori didn't have anything to say to Mava. She didn't want to use the same excuse that she was also busy trying to find the right people for the council, so she didn't say anything at all to her. Instead, she busied herself with closing the blinds, shutting off all the light coming inside her room. 

"Ready?" she asked Mava. "We have to go now. They are waiting for me."

Mava led her out of her room, and even though Nazadori didn't even want to come to the throne room today, she knew that she would rather be in there than staying another minute alone with Mava. She couldn't do it anymore. She couldn't fake it to herself that she cared about her family, and that her family cared about her. 

It was a short and quiet walk to the throne room, and soon enough, the two of them stood in front of the wide double doors. Mava didn't hesitate a single second longer, and she opened up the two doors as quickly as she could. Though Nazadori wasn't ready to face anyone yet, she knew she had to.

As the doors opened up, Nazadori saw her advisors waiting on the side of the room. She forced a smile on her face when Gazon glanced at her. The four council members stood in the center of the room, waiting for her. Aang stood at the end of the line, his head hanging low. Thankfully, most of her top choices were here in this room instead of the people that she didn't want on her council. Maybe Aang had some choice in picking the council members, too, and chose who he thought she wanted. If only he would look up so she could thank him for it.

"Thank you all for coming here today," Nazadori said to each of them. "I have chosen you four as the members of my council to help me govern the city of Omashu in relation to the rest of the world." She stared directly at Gazon when she said, "I hope that you four will help me be the best queen of Omashu I can be."

Her words echoed around her as the four council members clapped and cheered for her, all besides Aang. He lifted his head and shook it slightly before shooting a glance back at Gazon and the other advisors. That told her everything she needed to know. Aang didn't do that to her at all; he was just caught in the crossfire, just like she was. It wasn't fair, she knew that, but at least she had one person in her corner, cheering her on. She hoped that wouldn't change.