"Solid gold. You should feel very honored that they gave you such a gift." The pinched faced woman said down towards Kya. She clicked a chain to the collar and handed it off to a nearby guard. The guard yanked on the chain and Kya stumbled to her feet. She gripped the chain to try and take a bit of the pressure off of her neck. She took a few unsteady steps.
"W-Wait! Please! My daughter!" She yelped in fear.
"Mom!" Katara said as she was pulled out from behind the other side of the curtain. Kya sighed, relieved. Katara was wearing a similar outfit to the other women working in the hot steam filled room. A dark red fire nation maid uniform, but redesigned for youths. Her hair was in a loose tangle down her back and still damp from the hot bath. Katara's eyes widened in surprise. She had never seen her mother so exposed before. It was a lot of bare skin.
The two women were wearing matching golden collars. A leash was in fire nation guards hands and they pulled the mother and daughter down multiple hallways. Slipping from one servant hallway to another. Until finally they popped out into a major corridor. The walls were held up by massive marble pillars, the ceiling disappeared into darkness. The only light came from flickering torches shoved into the wall.
A massive black stone door was open in the middle of the hallway. The smell of cinders floated out from it. Kya grabbed Katara's hand and squeezed it lovingly. She gazed at her daughter with as much care as she could muster.
The guards walked into the room and yanked the two behind them. Katara's eyes widened. Before her was a room she had never even imagined. Seated before her was an old man. So old his hair appeared to have lost all color. It wasn't white, it was drained. He was covered in wrinkles and had absurdly long sharp fingernails sharpened to dangerous deadly points. Behind him was a massive fire that flickered and cracked. A long line of guards stood on either side of the massive room.
Kneeling to one side on fine pillows was a family of four. They were wearing fine silks and robes. Even from this distance and in the darkened room Katara could tell that the family was adorned in royal finery. With silks and cottons and fine material that she had never seen before. Or even imagined.
It was a family of four. A man, his wife, and their son and daughter. The boy was looking at Katara with unabashed curiosity. As if he had never seen a member of the water tribe before. The girl was also studying Katara, but with a bored haughty expression. They were around her age. The boy maybe a little older, maybe around Sokka's age. The girl was definitely Katara's age.
"What has been presented to me today?" The old man seated before the flames croaked out. Katara cried out as she was kicked in the back onto the floor. She stumbled and fell to her hands and knees. The leash clicking against her collar. Kya cried out as well as she was pushed onto all fours as well.
"A woman of the southern water tribe and her daughter my Excellency. Captured from the Southern Water Tribe and brought as a offering to the Fire Lord's family. They are unique. No one in the fire nation owns a single member of the southern water tribe-" The guard cut himself off when the fire lord held up a hand.
"No one in the fire nation owns a single member of the southern water tribe? Who told you this?" The fire lord asked with a deep cracking snarl.
"The…the general who captured these two informed us that-"
"I own the southern water tribe. I also hold claim to the Earth Kingdom and the northern water tribe. They are all mine. Mine by right. All of the Southern Water Tribe members who I have captured are mine in MY prison. Who dared implied that I did not have a small armada already?" The Fire Lord asked warningly. His tone left no room for argument. The guard gulped, his throat bobbing, trying to get a word out. The Fire Lord snarled before pointing.
"Take these two worthless men to the dungeons and remove their legs. Then find this general who implies that I do not own the Southern Water Tribe. I want him burnt to ashes and the ashes burnt so that no one even remembers his name." A group of fire nation soldiers moved rapidly and gripped the guards by their arms, pulling them sharply backwards and towards the door. Katara stared after the departing guards with wide terrified eyes. The sheer ease and speed that the members of the household moved….It was terrifying. The men hadn't even done anything wrong! They had simply told the Fire Lord something that he didn't want to hear. And now they were going to lose their legs. And the man that took her and her mother so far away from home…he was going to be burnt.
"Now what to do with you two. I could just send you away to the water benders prison. But that is a waste of resources. I don't feel like feeding two mouths that can't even water bend." He tapped his sharp chin with an equally sharp finger. He studied the two women and sighed.
"Well you are both curiosities that is for certain. But not a curiosity that belongs in my zoo. Ozai. I gift them to you boy." The old man snarled to the younger man. Ozai, the man who was sitting on a nearby pillow bowed deeply. His forehead touched the floor.
"I thank you my excellency. My wife Ursa will be the one focusing on their training personally. I assure you that they will be the envy of the palace." Ozai said. The old man snorted and waved his hand dismissively.
"Do as you wish. Just remove them from my sight. They bore me. I gift the older one to you and your wife to use as you wish. The girl can go to the children. It is about time that they domesticate their own servant."
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