Fic: The Elements
May. 7th, 2008 01:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
foxysquidalsoYes, another Sozin story from me! So surprising, I know.
Oh yeah, and I will make up for all this sadness with a fun Roku POV story, I swear!
Title: The Elements
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Characters, Pairing(s): Sozin; Roku/Sozin if you want it
Wordcount: 3,100
Spoilers: N/A
Rating: All Ages
Notes: Sozin has been searching for the Avatar all these long years.
The Elements.
I. Water.
There were times when the whole world seemed to be made of water, he thought, as he stood at the bow of the ship with the ocean spread out before him. So much water, dark and endless and ungenerous with its secrets. Usually he stood alone, his hands on the cool metal railing, but at times he was aware of a servant standing with him, giving him food or informing him in a politely neutral voice that it was time for him to retire to his stateroom, because it was late, or because it was dark, or because there was a storm coming. Or because it was too cold, although that was meaningless here. So far south, it was always cold.
His eyes fixed on the choppy waves, he wondered what it must be like to reach out, to feel that movement, to understand the water. To move his body and make the waves move with him, to raise them higher. All he would have to do was raise his arms--
Sozin brought up one hand. He pressed his fingers together, holding them rigid, then exhaled, his arm moving with his breath. A bright bolt of fire blazed through the air.
It hissed as it hit the water, sending up a flood of steam. Once the steam had dissipated, Sozin's hand shot out again, and this time the fire came from him in a flood, a brilliant thread of red and gold linking him to the sea. It was so hot. The water burned up. He gave it everything he had. He realized that he was expending his strength for nothing, that the water would not answer him, but that did not stop him.
"Fire Lord Sozin." Someone spoke, close by.
Sozin's first impulse was to whirl and strike, but he controlled it. He extinguished the fire, and he turned. "What is it?" He could feel the heat of the steam at his back.
There was fear as well as respect in the voice of the young officer who stood before him with his head bowed. "I was told you might wish to retire. Your cabin is ready."
Night had fallen. He hadn't noticed that before. "Do I wish to retire?" Sozin's voice was hot, and the young man flinched.
"I do not know, Fire Lord. As you please, Your Highness."
"The world is made of water," said Sozin.
The officer said nothing. He did not even flinch this time.
"I cannot burn it up, and I cannot make it speak to me." Sozin could not see the young man's face, but he could tell that the officer was terrified. There was no respect left in him now. Fear and respect could coexist in equal parts, but too much fear obliterated all else.
"Tell me where I should go," said Sozin, but he was no longer speaking to the officer. He had turned to face the ocean again. "Tell me where I can find him. You must know." The wind was picking up, and the waves were tipped in white. They defied him. He reached out, but this time he did not Firebend. He pulled his hands back as if he could pull the water to him. "Come to me." The torches were lit on the ship. Firelight danced on the waves, orange-gold glimmers on the dark surface.
"Come back," said Sozin.
But nothing happened. Sozin lowered his arms. He was drained, if not defeated. He let the officer escort him to his stateroom. He was an old man, perhaps too old for this journey, but his vision and hearing were still sharp. He heard the whispers in the corridors. The Fire Lord is ill. The Fire Lord is mad. But they didn't understand. The water. He could almost hear the water. And it was everywhere, no matter what he did. It was in everything. In his food, in his wine. Even in his mouth, even in his breath. Impossible to escape it. "Tell me where he is," he whispered as his attendants washed the oil from his hair and a few drops rolled down his face.
When he closed his eyes and at last went to sleep, Sozin dreamed of the rivers that flow into the sea.
II. Earth.
The carriage had been designed specifically for him. It was the first of its kind, and there was no other like it in the world. The years of conflict had fueled innovation, and this vehicle was a result of that drive to create more efficient and effective technology. Drawn by armored dragon moose, it could travel over the most rocky terrain and barely jostle the occupants within. It was jointed and had an elaborate suspension system of metal springs. The exterior too was metal, the roof barbed with spikes. It was a war carriage. Yet inside, it was pleasant, silk and padding, red and gold. There were windows which could be shuttered in case of attack, but now they were open, and Sozin looked out of them now at his armed escort, a combination of foot soldiers and calvary. As he watched, one of the komodo rhinos reared its head and let out a loud grunt. The animals were hungry and weary. They had been traveling for days across this stretch of barren land.
A scowl settled on Sozin's face, deepening the creases on his forehead and at the corners of his mouth. He disliked traveling in the Earth Kingdom. Earth was the most solid, the least yielding, of the elements, and the kingdom's resistance to his incursions had been fierce if not completely successful. Sozin did not enjoy the feeling of knocking his head against a wall.
"It's most likely," the man seated across from him was saying, "that the new Avatar is a girl. Historical evidence suggests that there is not only an elemental cycle, but also one of masculine and feminine energies. The last four Avatars--"
Sozin interrupted him. "I am not interested in the cycles. I mean to destroy all the cycles." He had little patience for anthropologists and archaeologists and scholars of that type. They concerned themselves only with what had been, not with what could be. Sozin was dealing with this man only because he knew the area well, and he had thought it might be useful to talk to him. "I eradicated the Airbenders, and I still haven't found the Avatar. Maybe it's not an Airbender. Maybe it's another Firebender."
"My lord, with all due respect, that is not possible." The scholar was only a few years younger than Sozin himself. Sozin knew that the man did not like him, but that did not matter to him. The man was nothing, and as Fire Lord, he did not need to be liked.
"I don't care about what's possible," Sozin informed him flatly, leaning back on his cushioned seat. " The balance has already been upset. So I will not take anything for granted."
"Yes, my lord."
"There will be no more Avatars. I will end the succession."
"Is that necessary, my lord?"
Sozin regarded him thoughtfully. The man was bold to disagree with him outright, especially as he was a native of the Earth Kingdom and a prisoner of the state. He held his hands very still in his lap so as to keep the chain linking his shackles from rattling. His long, narrow face was dark and weathered, but his green eyes were bright. After a moment's reflection, Sozin decided not to be angry. "I once thought as you did. We were all taught that the world needs the Avatar. But I no longer believe that to be true. The Avatar imposes balance, but why is balance necessary? I reject the idea. It's a myth. We can progress beyond that superstition now."
"What do you propose we replace it with?"
Sozin didn't feel the need to explain himself to a mere foreign scholar, so he turned to look out the window again. So desolate. So harsh. "You're sure you can find this library?"
"Yes. I have been there once. I remember the way. Though we'll have to abandon this carriage. The animals won't be able to pull it through the sand."
"That won't be difficult," said Sozin. The scholar was not a traitor to his people. He merely wished to save the lives of his wife and children. And Sozin would spare them, if he was given what he wanted. It was odd, he reflected, how the two of them could speak to each other so calmly and politely, as if there was nothing between them. As if they were simply two men traveling together.
"Fire Lord Sozin."
The urgency in the scholar's voice drew Sozin's attention away from the landscape to the man's lined face. His expression was earnest. His eyes were shining. "Please, I beg you, do not persist in this. You could stop it now. It's not too late. The Avatar is still alive--somewhere. We could have peace. You could make it right again, end the killing. So many have died--" He was babbling. His hands began to shake, so that the links of his chain clinked against each other.
"Enough," Sozin commanded. The man fell silent, but although he continued to tremble, he held Sozin's gaze. Sozin considered him. He was like the earth. Time and the wind had scarred his skin, but he remained defiant. Stubborn. This people would fight him for a long time, Sozin knew. But he would fight longer, and they would fall at the last. Yet for once, he was not angry. It was in their nature. He could understand that, in a way.
"You remind me of someone," Sozin said finally.
The man blinked, but Sozin did not elaborate. He found his gaze drawn back to the open window. The sun was sinking towards the horizon, and the stones which seemed to be the only inhabitants of this place were casting long shadows. One of the komodo rhinos grunted again, a painful sound. Sozin empathized with the beast. He hated this place. He would have been happier at the palace. He could have rested there. He did crave rest. The war was in the hands of his generals, and it was going well, in spite of the resistance they had encountered. But the war no longer concerned him, did it? No, he realized. It did not. Only one thing concerned him. He had only one goal, and he would not cease in his struggle to attain it.
He would outlast even stone.
III. Air.
No one could have seen more of the world than he had. He was always moving. He had come to know more of carriages and ships and roads and foreign cities than his own home Some days, he felt as if he would never stop. This was what he was meant to do. As he was the Fire Lord, no one asked him why he did not stay at home like any other man his age, why he did not let others carry on his task, but if they had asked him, he would have told them that it was his task and no one else's. He had grown attached to it, in a way.
For years he had ruled by proxy. The messenger hawks and his human messengers were swift enough, and he was confident in his power. He did return home, when his search permitted, perhaps usually more than once a year. In the summer of his eighty-second year, his homecoming had a purpose: a wedding celebration. After decades of delay for one reason or another, he married a noble girl his advisors had selected for him. The ceremony was simple and quickly concluded. The next time he returned to the palace, he saw his son for the first time. It was with a sense of relief that he looked upon the child in the arms of the female attendant. He had fulfilled his obligation and fathered an heir.
This year, he had gone home only briefly, but he had not departed alone. He had taken Azulon with him.
Sozin had not interacted with his son before for any length of time. The youth was grim and quiet, with wide golden eyes. Azulon watched his father in silence for the most part, replying to Sozin's curt questions with terse answers, but Sozin could sense that the boy was clever, and this satisfied him.
He took his son to see the Western Temple of the Air Nomads. Azulon stared at the upside-down spires and the overhanging rock ceiling with the same expression he wore when looking at his father, but Sozin could tell that the sight made an impression on the boy. He recalled the first time he had visited the temple, as a boy on a diplomatic mission with his own father. He remembered the orange robes of the nuns, bright against the dull colors of the stone. How he had felt dizzy when he'd stood at the cliff's edge, looking down. It had been clear that day, and he had been able to see all the way down.
He had visited the temple many times since then. The Avatar would return to the empty temples someday. Of this he was certain.
He put his hand on Azulon's shoulder as they looked out over the canyon together. "It is the Avatar who has kept me away from home all these years. I have been looking for him."
When he had been a young man of seventeen or eighteen, Sozin had briefly entertained the strange idea that since he had been born on the same day as the Avatar, he had almost been born the Avatar himself. A little twist of chance, and everything would have been changed.
The canyon was deep, and its bottom was indiscernible through the gray morning mist that rose up from the depths towards the city. The mist would not last long, Sozin knew. The sheer cliff walls, instead of protecting the temple from the wind, seemed to amplify it. Already a stiff breeze was sweeping through, tugging on his robes.
If he had been born the Avatar, this temple would still be full of people. He would have refused to leave home for his training. He would have stayed with his family, kept his own life. But it had been taken from him nonetheless. He tightened his grip on his son's shoulder, and the boy looked up at him.
The wind picked up. Sozin thought he heard a noise behind him, and he turned. The verandah was full of his men, waiting for his next command, as silent as his son, but he had heard something. That open doorway, a yawning mouth that opened in the stone. He released Azulon and strode towards it. Everyone watched him go, without uttering a word. Only the wind had a voice, giving a soft sigh as it swept through the canyon.
Although he had been here many times, the Avatar might always return. Even now, he might be hiding in any one of the numberless room of the temple. How could he search them all, every day? He couldn't know what day it would be, but the Avatar would return.
Sozin walked into the darkness. No one followed him, because he had not ordered them to. He came to a halt and listened. He heard the echo of his last footstep fade away, but that was all. Nothing was there. There was only the wind at his back.
IV. Fire.
It was a commonly held belief among the peasantry of the Fire Nation that Firebenders' lives were extended beyond the usual span by the fire within them. It was said that fire purified the body, made the heart blaze with life, made it stronger. Sometimes Sozin almost believed that that was true. He could feel his own fire constantly. It stirred within him, even when he slept.
He walked alone through the halls of the palace. When courtiers and servants buzzed around him--like gnat flies around a komodo rhino, he thought--he waved them away. He was not so infirm that he needed attending at all times. But no matter how he shooed them, off, they hovered nearby--out of sight, but only barely.
It was summer, and his inner fire was at its height. Perhaps not as hot as it had been when he was a younger man, but it burned steadily nonetheless. As the sun rose in the sky, he could feel it increase. It made him stronger. On a day like this, he could almost believe that he would live forever. The body was made of water and earth and air, but it was fire that animated it, that gave it power. That was why his nation and his people were the strongest in the world.
Sozin did not pause until he reached the courtyard. He found it just as it had always been, deep in its summer green. He glared at the covered walkways and open doorways, making certain that they were empty. The buzzing flies drew back. Good. He would not look kindly on anyone who disturbed him.
The trees never seemed to age. They were the same as they had been when he was a boy. He had to step carefully to avoid the same gnarled roots, ducking to avoid the same low branches. He came to the edge of the pool. The bronze dragon perched on the plinth in the center of the water watched him with its metal eyes. He closed his own eyes. He could feel the sunlight on his face.
Maybe it was not that his own fire had dimmed. Maybe it was the sun that was dimming. That, oddly enough, was easier to believe. The sun did seem less bright than it had once been, didn't it? Sozin felt tired, suddenly. He opened his eyes lowered himself to the ground, ignoring the protests of his knees and hips.
His body was only earth. It had worn down. His breath was only air, so it was fading. His blood was only water, so it grew thin. But the fire. The fire endured. That was why he was still here.
He had decreed that there would be no celebration on this day, that it must be treated like any other day. Yet when it came, he always knew what day it was, although no one said a word. Another year of his life had passed. He could never lose track of the days, of the years. Not until his fire went out.
Slowly, Sozin pulled his knees up towards his chest. He used to sit that way as a small boy, on this same grass. He closed his eyes again.
Oh yeah, and I will make up for all this sadness with a fun Roku POV story, I swear!
Title: The Elements
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Characters, Pairing(s): Sozin; Roku/Sozin if you want it
Wordcount: 3,100
Spoilers: N/A
Rating: All Ages
Notes: Sozin has been searching for the Avatar all these long years.
The Elements.
I. Water.
There were times when the whole world seemed to be made of water, he thought, as he stood at the bow of the ship with the ocean spread out before him. So much water, dark and endless and ungenerous with its secrets. Usually he stood alone, his hands on the cool metal railing, but at times he was aware of a servant standing with him, giving him food or informing him in a politely neutral voice that it was time for him to retire to his stateroom, because it was late, or because it was dark, or because there was a storm coming. Or because it was too cold, although that was meaningless here. So far south, it was always cold.
His eyes fixed on the choppy waves, he wondered what it must be like to reach out, to feel that movement, to understand the water. To move his body and make the waves move with him, to raise them higher. All he would have to do was raise his arms--
Sozin brought up one hand. He pressed his fingers together, holding them rigid, then exhaled, his arm moving with his breath. A bright bolt of fire blazed through the air.
It hissed as it hit the water, sending up a flood of steam. Once the steam had dissipated, Sozin's hand shot out again, and this time the fire came from him in a flood, a brilliant thread of red and gold linking him to the sea. It was so hot. The water burned up. He gave it everything he had. He realized that he was expending his strength for nothing, that the water would not answer him, but that did not stop him.
"Fire Lord Sozin." Someone spoke, close by.
Sozin's first impulse was to whirl and strike, but he controlled it. He extinguished the fire, and he turned. "What is it?" He could feel the heat of the steam at his back.
There was fear as well as respect in the voice of the young officer who stood before him with his head bowed. "I was told you might wish to retire. Your cabin is ready."
Night had fallen. He hadn't noticed that before. "Do I wish to retire?" Sozin's voice was hot, and the young man flinched.
"I do not know, Fire Lord. As you please, Your Highness."
"The world is made of water," said Sozin.
The officer said nothing. He did not even flinch this time.
"I cannot burn it up, and I cannot make it speak to me." Sozin could not see the young man's face, but he could tell that the officer was terrified. There was no respect left in him now. Fear and respect could coexist in equal parts, but too much fear obliterated all else.
"Tell me where I should go," said Sozin, but he was no longer speaking to the officer. He had turned to face the ocean again. "Tell me where I can find him. You must know." The wind was picking up, and the waves were tipped in white. They defied him. He reached out, but this time he did not Firebend. He pulled his hands back as if he could pull the water to him. "Come to me." The torches were lit on the ship. Firelight danced on the waves, orange-gold glimmers on the dark surface.
"Come back," said Sozin.
But nothing happened. Sozin lowered his arms. He was drained, if not defeated. He let the officer escort him to his stateroom. He was an old man, perhaps too old for this journey, but his vision and hearing were still sharp. He heard the whispers in the corridors. The Fire Lord is ill. The Fire Lord is mad. But they didn't understand. The water. He could almost hear the water. And it was everywhere, no matter what he did. It was in everything. In his food, in his wine. Even in his mouth, even in his breath. Impossible to escape it. "Tell me where he is," he whispered as his attendants washed the oil from his hair and a few drops rolled down his face.
When he closed his eyes and at last went to sleep, Sozin dreamed of the rivers that flow into the sea.
II. Earth.
The carriage had been designed specifically for him. It was the first of its kind, and there was no other like it in the world. The years of conflict had fueled innovation, and this vehicle was a result of that drive to create more efficient and effective technology. Drawn by armored dragon moose, it could travel over the most rocky terrain and barely jostle the occupants within. It was jointed and had an elaborate suspension system of metal springs. The exterior too was metal, the roof barbed with spikes. It was a war carriage. Yet inside, it was pleasant, silk and padding, red and gold. There were windows which could be shuttered in case of attack, but now they were open, and Sozin looked out of them now at his armed escort, a combination of foot soldiers and calvary. As he watched, one of the komodo rhinos reared its head and let out a loud grunt. The animals were hungry and weary. They had been traveling for days across this stretch of barren land.
A scowl settled on Sozin's face, deepening the creases on his forehead and at the corners of his mouth. He disliked traveling in the Earth Kingdom. Earth was the most solid, the least yielding, of the elements, and the kingdom's resistance to his incursions had been fierce if not completely successful. Sozin did not enjoy the feeling of knocking his head against a wall.
"It's most likely," the man seated across from him was saying, "that the new Avatar is a girl. Historical evidence suggests that there is not only an elemental cycle, but also one of masculine and feminine energies. The last four Avatars--"
Sozin interrupted him. "I am not interested in the cycles. I mean to destroy all the cycles." He had little patience for anthropologists and archaeologists and scholars of that type. They concerned themselves only with what had been, not with what could be. Sozin was dealing with this man only because he knew the area well, and he had thought it might be useful to talk to him. "I eradicated the Airbenders, and I still haven't found the Avatar. Maybe it's not an Airbender. Maybe it's another Firebender."
"My lord, with all due respect, that is not possible." The scholar was only a few years younger than Sozin himself. Sozin knew that the man did not like him, but that did not matter to him. The man was nothing, and as Fire Lord, he did not need to be liked.
"I don't care about what's possible," Sozin informed him flatly, leaning back on his cushioned seat. " The balance has already been upset. So I will not take anything for granted."
"Yes, my lord."
"There will be no more Avatars. I will end the succession."
"Is that necessary, my lord?"
Sozin regarded him thoughtfully. The man was bold to disagree with him outright, especially as he was a native of the Earth Kingdom and a prisoner of the state. He held his hands very still in his lap so as to keep the chain linking his shackles from rattling. His long, narrow face was dark and weathered, but his green eyes were bright. After a moment's reflection, Sozin decided not to be angry. "I once thought as you did. We were all taught that the world needs the Avatar. But I no longer believe that to be true. The Avatar imposes balance, but why is balance necessary? I reject the idea. It's a myth. We can progress beyond that superstition now."
"What do you propose we replace it with?"
Sozin didn't feel the need to explain himself to a mere foreign scholar, so he turned to look out the window again. So desolate. So harsh. "You're sure you can find this library?"
"Yes. I have been there once. I remember the way. Though we'll have to abandon this carriage. The animals won't be able to pull it through the sand."
"That won't be difficult," said Sozin. The scholar was not a traitor to his people. He merely wished to save the lives of his wife and children. And Sozin would spare them, if he was given what he wanted. It was odd, he reflected, how the two of them could speak to each other so calmly and politely, as if there was nothing between them. As if they were simply two men traveling together.
"Fire Lord Sozin."
The urgency in the scholar's voice drew Sozin's attention away from the landscape to the man's lined face. His expression was earnest. His eyes were shining. "Please, I beg you, do not persist in this. You could stop it now. It's not too late. The Avatar is still alive--somewhere. We could have peace. You could make it right again, end the killing. So many have died--" He was babbling. His hands began to shake, so that the links of his chain clinked against each other.
"Enough," Sozin commanded. The man fell silent, but although he continued to tremble, he held Sozin's gaze. Sozin considered him. He was like the earth. Time and the wind had scarred his skin, but he remained defiant. Stubborn. This people would fight him for a long time, Sozin knew. But he would fight longer, and they would fall at the last. Yet for once, he was not angry. It was in their nature. He could understand that, in a way.
"You remind me of someone," Sozin said finally.
The man blinked, but Sozin did not elaborate. He found his gaze drawn back to the open window. The sun was sinking towards the horizon, and the stones which seemed to be the only inhabitants of this place were casting long shadows. One of the komodo rhinos grunted again, a painful sound. Sozin empathized with the beast. He hated this place. He would have been happier at the palace. He could have rested there. He did crave rest. The war was in the hands of his generals, and it was going well, in spite of the resistance they had encountered. But the war no longer concerned him, did it? No, he realized. It did not. Only one thing concerned him. He had only one goal, and he would not cease in his struggle to attain it.
He would outlast even stone.
III. Air.
No one could have seen more of the world than he had. He was always moving. He had come to know more of carriages and ships and roads and foreign cities than his own home Some days, he felt as if he would never stop. This was what he was meant to do. As he was the Fire Lord, no one asked him why he did not stay at home like any other man his age, why he did not let others carry on his task, but if they had asked him, he would have told them that it was his task and no one else's. He had grown attached to it, in a way.
For years he had ruled by proxy. The messenger hawks and his human messengers were swift enough, and he was confident in his power. He did return home, when his search permitted, perhaps usually more than once a year. In the summer of his eighty-second year, his homecoming had a purpose: a wedding celebration. After decades of delay for one reason or another, he married a noble girl his advisors had selected for him. The ceremony was simple and quickly concluded. The next time he returned to the palace, he saw his son for the first time. It was with a sense of relief that he looked upon the child in the arms of the female attendant. He had fulfilled his obligation and fathered an heir.
This year, he had gone home only briefly, but he had not departed alone. He had taken Azulon with him.
Sozin had not interacted with his son before for any length of time. The youth was grim and quiet, with wide golden eyes. Azulon watched his father in silence for the most part, replying to Sozin's curt questions with terse answers, but Sozin could sense that the boy was clever, and this satisfied him.
He took his son to see the Western Temple of the Air Nomads. Azulon stared at the upside-down spires and the overhanging rock ceiling with the same expression he wore when looking at his father, but Sozin could tell that the sight made an impression on the boy. He recalled the first time he had visited the temple, as a boy on a diplomatic mission with his own father. He remembered the orange robes of the nuns, bright against the dull colors of the stone. How he had felt dizzy when he'd stood at the cliff's edge, looking down. It had been clear that day, and he had been able to see all the way down.
He had visited the temple many times since then. The Avatar would return to the empty temples someday. Of this he was certain.
He put his hand on Azulon's shoulder as they looked out over the canyon together. "It is the Avatar who has kept me away from home all these years. I have been looking for him."
When he had been a young man of seventeen or eighteen, Sozin had briefly entertained the strange idea that since he had been born on the same day as the Avatar, he had almost been born the Avatar himself. A little twist of chance, and everything would have been changed.
The canyon was deep, and its bottom was indiscernible through the gray morning mist that rose up from the depths towards the city. The mist would not last long, Sozin knew. The sheer cliff walls, instead of protecting the temple from the wind, seemed to amplify it. Already a stiff breeze was sweeping through, tugging on his robes.
If he had been born the Avatar, this temple would still be full of people. He would have refused to leave home for his training. He would have stayed with his family, kept his own life. But it had been taken from him nonetheless. He tightened his grip on his son's shoulder, and the boy looked up at him.
The wind picked up. Sozin thought he heard a noise behind him, and he turned. The verandah was full of his men, waiting for his next command, as silent as his son, but he had heard something. That open doorway, a yawning mouth that opened in the stone. He released Azulon and strode towards it. Everyone watched him go, without uttering a word. Only the wind had a voice, giving a soft sigh as it swept through the canyon.
Although he had been here many times, the Avatar might always return. Even now, he might be hiding in any one of the numberless room of the temple. How could he search them all, every day? He couldn't know what day it would be, but the Avatar would return.
Sozin walked into the darkness. No one followed him, because he had not ordered them to. He came to a halt and listened. He heard the echo of his last footstep fade away, but that was all. Nothing was there. There was only the wind at his back.
IV. Fire.
It was a commonly held belief among the peasantry of the Fire Nation that Firebenders' lives were extended beyond the usual span by the fire within them. It was said that fire purified the body, made the heart blaze with life, made it stronger. Sometimes Sozin almost believed that that was true. He could feel his own fire constantly. It stirred within him, even when he slept.
He walked alone through the halls of the palace. When courtiers and servants buzzed around him--like gnat flies around a komodo rhino, he thought--he waved them away. He was not so infirm that he needed attending at all times. But no matter how he shooed them, off, they hovered nearby--out of sight, but only barely.
It was summer, and his inner fire was at its height. Perhaps not as hot as it had been when he was a younger man, but it burned steadily nonetheless. As the sun rose in the sky, he could feel it increase. It made him stronger. On a day like this, he could almost believe that he would live forever. The body was made of water and earth and air, but it was fire that animated it, that gave it power. That was why his nation and his people were the strongest in the world.
Sozin did not pause until he reached the courtyard. He found it just as it had always been, deep in its summer green. He glared at the covered walkways and open doorways, making certain that they were empty. The buzzing flies drew back. Good. He would not look kindly on anyone who disturbed him.
The trees never seemed to age. They were the same as they had been when he was a boy. He had to step carefully to avoid the same gnarled roots, ducking to avoid the same low branches. He came to the edge of the pool. The bronze dragon perched on the plinth in the center of the water watched him with its metal eyes. He closed his own eyes. He could feel the sunlight on his face.
Maybe it was not that his own fire had dimmed. Maybe it was the sun that was dimming. That, oddly enough, was easier to believe. The sun did seem less bright than it had once been, didn't it? Sozin felt tired, suddenly. He opened his eyes lowered himself to the ground, ignoring the protests of his knees and hips.
His body was only earth. It had worn down. His breath was only air, so it was fading. His blood was only water, so it grew thin. But the fire. The fire endured. That was why he was still here.
He had decreed that there would be no celebration on this day, that it must be treated like any other day. Yet when it came, he always knew what day it was, although no one said a word. Another year of his life had passed. He could never lose track of the days, of the years. Not until his fire went out.
Slowly, Sozin pulled his knees up towards his chest. He used to sit that way as a small boy, on this same grass. He closed his eyes again.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-05-07 02:01 pm (UTC)I really like the way you use each of the elements, & the way he thinks about the balance and the importance of fire, the idea of it being superior and more enduring - he's kind of persuasive. MAD AS A BAG OF SPOONS. But persuasive! The voice of it is really nice too.
I liked it all, basically.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-07 06:52 pm (UTC)Ha ha ha, mad as a bag of spoons. That's very apt! I was going for that seemingly clear-headed, charismatic madness, so I'm glad it comes off that way. And I had a lot of fun figuring out what to do with each of the different elements.
I'm really glad you liked it! <3
no subject
Date: 2008-05-07 02:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-07 09:33 pm (UTC)Sozin strikes me as an uncompromising, unapologetic man, so I tried my best to incorporate that into my characterization.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-07 04:14 pm (UTC)But of course we know better.
Oh, Sozin. <3
no subject
Date: 2008-05-07 09:40 pm (UTC)Awwww, Sozin. You big dummy! ;__;
NO, IT'S NOT ABOUT ROKU AT ALL. WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT? YOU MUST BE CRAZY OR SOMETHING.
A Telling Omission
Date: 2008-05-08 12:12 am (UTC)Reading this over again, I'm stricken all over again.
Oh, Sozin. You impoverished old man. You incomprehending boy.
Such a subtly devastating, intensely intimate portrait.
Thank you. ♥
Re: A Telling Omission
Date: 2008-05-08 12:17 am (UTC)And I am ruled by Sozempathy. Where will it all end???
no subject
Date: 2008-06-03 08:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 05:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-26 08:26 am (UTC)This story, "The Elements," has been nominated and seconded in the Avatar: The Last Airbender category of the 2008 dotmoon.net UFO Awards. Congratulations! The UFO (Universal Fanfic Open) Awards are aimed at recognizing quality fanfiction across all the various fandoms on the internet. As a nominee, your fanfic is eligible to compete for best story of the Avatar category. Category winners will go on to compete for the title of best fanfic written in 2008! You can read more about the UFO Awards at http://www.dotmoon.net/awards/.
You do not have to be a member of the site to participate, but you do need to give permission for your story to be included in the awards. Please reply to this message ASAP to let us know you would like to accept your nomination. Alternately, you can respond by sending an email to awards@dotmoon.net. I look forward to hearing from you!
Dejana Talis
Administrator
http://www.dotmoon.net
no subject
Date: 2009-02-28 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-03 06:38 am (UTC)Without an alternate means of contact, I won't be able to send you updates on the awards (I don't want to keep spamming up this entry). Voting for the Best of Fandom round has started and will run through the end of April. If you are a winner, I'll contact you again after voting finishes. Feel free to email me anytime if you would like to be on the regular updates list. :)
Thanks again for choosing to participate in the UFO Awards!
Dejana Talis
Administrator
http://www.dotmoon.net/
no subject
Date: 2010-04-11 02:23 am (UTC)Gah, fucking Sozinpathy, don't feel sad for Asian Hitler, self!
I blame you entirely. <3
no subject
Date: 2010-04-21 08:00 pm (UTC)Haha, I did it to myself, too. Stupid Sozinpathetic self!
Also, thanks. <3