Ba Sing Se
The city center of Ba Sing Se hummed. The clopping of horse hoof on stone complimenting the screaming and giggling of over-excited children. It was easy to forget that just a month ago this city used to be a war zone. Of course the city center had managed to avoid the worst of the conflict, the city was large enough that news of a battle on the outer edge would take a day to reach the King.
Speaking of Kings, the city technically lacked one. Ever since the last king of Ba Sing Se had "abdicated", the city had been in a state of interregnum. Everyone knew that even if there technically was no King, the real Monarch had already taken charge of the city. Warlord An had taken over the royal household, exiling any who were loyal to the previous king and replacing them with men of his own. More dancing puppets than men, the only advice they gave was to tell An to calm down when he entered one of his oh-too-common rages. Quite a few had to be whisked out of the palace by doctors after An turned his rage on them.
Despite the facade of normal life in Ba Sing Se, the city had an aura of fear permeating through every section of it. Ba Sing Se had never been conquered in a siege, and yet An had managed to take it anyway, without even needing to resort to assaulting the city walls. If Ba Sing Se was unable to stop him, what could?
An elderly fellow in a filthy cloak stood atop one of the many stone buildings. He stared over the city. His eyes were purple and sagged on his face, his white beard dyed a shade of blackish-grey as a result of days without cleaning. He looked at the silent palace and sighed, dipping his shoulders and shaking his head at the sight of it. There were banners flying off of it, the oncoming coronation had brought with it a feeling of celebration amongst the city's upper brass. The people were not as happy, not in the slightest. An's army had to take to the streets to prevent an all out riot. The tension didn't dissipate, and in fact the army arriving only made things worse.
He licked his dry, cracking lips for a moment, contemplating the palace for a second. Finally he pulled a piece of paper from beneath his cloak and folded it open. He read from it, his mouth making the words as he did.
"You reached the right place," a voice called from behind him, sending the elderly man almost falling off the side of the building.
The bearded figure collapsed onto his bottom after narrowly avoiding tumbling into the streets below. A hooded figure had appeared on the building behind him, dressed in a green cloak with a pair of blue semicircles on each side of his chest. He held out a hand, which the older man used to pull himself up after a moment's hesitation.
The older man again licked his lips and held his mouth open as he collected his thoughts. He hopped in place as he remembered something, and he handed over the paper soon afterwards.
"Are you one of the... oh what was it again?" the bearded man said, his voice trembling much like the rest of his body.
"I am one of the Avatar's Own yes," the hooded figure stated, lowering the hood to reveal a darker-skinned woman with the characteristic airbending tattoos evident through the one that rested on her forehead. She couldn't have been over twenty years old. She carried a frown on her face even whilst her expression was neutral. The older man's eyes bulged out of his head.
"Oh, I thought... your voice..." he stammered. In response the woman gave a soft smirk.
"I get that a lot, don't worry, no offense taken," she said with a shrug. Her face quickly hardened. "You came to find me, you came because you had a purpose. What was that purpose?" she asked, almost as if she already knew his answer.
"Er..." he uttered, still flat-footed and confused. "Oh, I came here to find the Avatar, yes!" he said proudly, puffing out his chest. The woman's frown faded into her natural frown once more.
"Don't go yelling that out now," she cautioned. "But yes, I'm glad you came! An extra pair of eyes slash hands is always appreciated."
The woman pointed a thumb at herself.
"My name is Miki of the Air Nomads, I have a lot to teach you."
The sound of a struggling chain, the steady thumping of fist against stone, and the grunting of the man within drifted from the ornate door. Sanshi gulped as the platter in his hands let out a soft noise of porcelain against silver as it shuddered from every blow, even with the door between.
Sanshi sighed to calm his chest.
An is unnatural, no man should be that strong.
An had quickly made the palace his own after seizing the city, replacing the old, overly ornate rooms of the previous administration with more utilitarian constructions of his own design.
"Utilitarian" meaning plain brown stone, maybe with a cushion haphazardly put on top if you were lucky.
The palace bureaucrats had either taken up positions as his footrests or had been sent off to the mines to work until the value of their work matched the value of what they'd stolen from the Earth Kingdom's citizens.
This had even happened to the female bureaucrats, who Sanshi assumed would at least be kept around as eye-candy.
Sanshi himself had been smart enough to bow to An as soon as he had taken the city, thanks to that smart display, he had been given the prestigious position of cupbearer, mostly because An assumed him too weak-willed to attempt to poison him, which wasn't inaccurate.
All others would be replaced by generals from the western boondocks that An had come from.
Sanshi steeled himself as he raised a shaky hand to the door, rapping it twice with his knuckles.
"Come in."
The voice that came from the other side of the door was a powerful bellow despite the owner clearly being short of breath.
Sanshi pushed his way into the room to spot An punch a massive earth pillar, hung from the ceiling from what were clearly some powerful chains, so hard that it ended up laying parallel to the ceiling.
An turned, rolling his shoulder as he did so. Sanshi couldn't help but notice his powerful physique. An was at least twice the size of Sanshi, so large that even the massive Royal Apartment looked far too small for him. He was wide, both of shoulder and of stomach, but his extended stomach didn't look like the blobby result of fat; it was firm and his skin held tightly to it. His arms were so massive Sanshi thought that one of the man's biceps had to be at least as wide as Sanshi's waist.
A bead of sweat dripped off of An's nose, falling in front of the man's mustache, usually exquisitely curled to give the pretense of nobility, but now laying against his beard, which was matted against his chest.
He looked like a shaved elephant mandrill, with the multi-colored face replaced with one of red, the red of exertion and triumph.
"Oh, Sanshi, thank the spirits, I was getting thirsty. Just put it on the table over there," An said, dismissively waving his hand at his servant as he turned back to the earthen pillar. Sanshi began to feel all too hot, the room had been heated to an insane temperature by An's workout, and the ornate robes that Sanshi was wearing made him feel all too overdressed.
As An landed a groundshaking punch to the pillar, Sanshi felt a lump in his throat that wouldn't go away no matter what he did.
Thank the spirits he likes me.
Sanshi nervously placed the drink tray on the bedside table, cringing every time he heard the hearty thump of An's powerful blows.
He quickly placed his hands into his sleeves and bowed to An, who had just kicked a chunk out of the pillar. An sneered at Sanshi's manners. An always seemed to have a distaste for protocol and etiquette; he only pretended to care when his public image was at stake.
Not that his public image was positive in the first place.
Sanshi moved to the corner of the room and watched as An trundled over to the bedstand. He grabbed the bottle and poured its contents into the cup swiftly, swirling the cup in his hand.
"I always wondered," An suddenly spoke, not even turning to look at Sanshi. "Why is it that you gave in so easily? Why were you so quick to abandon your lord?"
Sanshi stared a moment, his tongue shaking in his mouth. His mouth was unwilling to make words. He had never been asked such a question before, and knowing An, this was probably a test of some kind, one that he desperately wanted to pass.
"Um... well I knew that you were unbeatable, opposing you was equal to hitting myself in the face with a hammer," Sanshi said after a time of deep thought. Er scowled at this response, still swirling the cup in his hand. Sanshi found himself unable to look away from the cup, watching the liquid swirling around and around. He knew that looking up would force him to look into those terrifyingly stern eyes, grey as the overcast sky and with flecks of cold black. Finally Er made a sound, a soft snort of derision. The sound shook Sanshi to his very core, and he felt his knees suddenly begin to struggle against the weight of the rest of his body.
"If anything you're truthful. If not smart. If you're so quick to abandon the lord whose service you're born into, how quick will you be to abandon mine?"
"Oh no my lord I swear-"
"You swear to him, you swear to me, first time you lie, am I expected to believe that the second time is truthful?"
Sanshi sputtered and tried to think, his entire body shaking with fear in a way that seemed to bring a smile to An's face.
He's doing this on purpose. He thinks that this is funny! I can't take this anymore! He's gonna beat me within an inch of my life if I don't get him first.
Sanshi slowly moved a hand behind him, still shaking with every muscle in his body. Something inside Sanshi died when he noticed An's eyes following his hand, and An's smirk turning into a wide smile.
An took a soft step forwards, and Sanshi felt his arm stop in its tracks.
He shook as he slowly moved his head. The ground beside his foot had changed into an earthen pillar which wrapped around his elbow, keeping it from moving.
Sanshi hyperventilated. He grabbed his elbow with his free hand. He had to free himself, he had to run, he had to get away. With all of the strength that he had, he pulled hard on his elbow. His arm tightened and waves of stinging pain shot up his trapped arm as he pulled harder and harder. The sound of bare foot against stone got closer and closer as An approached, and despite his arms feeling dead on his body, he pulled ever harder, to no avail. The stone didn't even budge.
"You were right to assume the worst. I have a friend to whom I owe a favor, and your position was just what I needed to repay that favor," An's voice had become soft, it danced from high tones to low tones like the slithering of a snake. "He asked to be cupbearer by my coronation, and I'm not one to put things off until the last day, but I just had so much to do. So, now that today is the last day before this city's crown is placed upon my head, I have no time left to wait," An was within a finger's length of him now, and Sanshi's struggling had given way to frantic pleading in noises that only barely resembled words. An placed a finger against Sanshi's head softly. "The mines aren't that bad, of course you won't enjoy them, no," he said, his voice morphed into a whisper. He cupped Sanshi's trembling face with a pair of warm hands.
"But I've had enough of people like you continuing to work under me out of pure good will. Well that ends today," An's voice had taken an angry tone. Sanshi tried to free himself from An's grasp futilely.
An yanked him free of the restraints.
"Wait nononono!" Sanshi pleaded as he was lifted into the air. "I can pay you! I can pay you!"
An looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Pay me? With what? I have most of anything that I could ever want."
"But do you have hugs?"
"...Hugs?"
"Yes! I-I give really great hugs! I can be your royal stuffed animal but instead of a stuffed animal I'm real!"
An looked tired.
"Oh, I see what this is, this is a prank, you're pranking me right now."
"Wha-no, no prank no joke, this is a real offer!"
An sighed and hefted Sanshi over his head with both arms.
"Wait we can talk about this! I... I can be your stress ball, when you're angry you can hit me! I have a punchable face right? I think I do! I think I'm a pest who deserves the old one two!"
A wall of rock appeared in front of An, and with a small step, he hurled Sanshi towards it.
"Waitnononon-"
Sanshi was only able to hear his body thwack into the wall. His vision darkened, and finally he gave in to unconsciousness.
