An excerpt from an unpublished draft of the heat that drives the light (the fire it ignites), set immediately after Zuko and Azula’s flight from the palace.
Ursa wakes up, disoriented, to find herself in the palace infirmary.
It takes her five seconds to wade through the haze in her head, but when she finally remembers – Zuko coming to fetch her, Azula frightened out of her mind, putting the children to bed, and then the intense sense of foreboding weighing on her chest that forced her to get out of bed and check on the children – she bolts upright.
Her head spins, and bile bubbles up her throat.
“My lady!” someone cries, and suddenly, there’s a basin in front of her, a servant holding back her hair, and a hot towel pressed into her hands.
“Thank you,” she says hoarsely, dabbing delicately at her mouth. The servant bows, but continues to hover by Ursa’s bed worriedly. “What happened?”
The girl wrings her hands, and doesn’t meet Ursa’s eyes. “There was a commotion in the Princess’s rooms, my lady, and on their way there, the guards found you unconscious right outside your bedroom.” She hesitates, then adds: “They found Prince Ozai half-dead on the floor, and the children are missing.”
Ursa’s stomach drops. Agni. Agni. Ozai in Azula’s bedroom – impossible.
The Fire Lord said that Father had to kill Azula to become Crown Prince, and Father said yes!
Azula is his daughter, through and through; there is no way Ozai will harm a hair on the head of his chosen heir. Sozin’s line must be kept secure, he told Ursa, when they were trying for a second child; surely he wouldn’t throw away that security for his ambitions? Now that Lu Ten is gone, and Iroh too old for more children, Azula and Zuko are the future of the Dragon Throne — the heir and a lone spare. He wouldn’t.
Ursa doesn’t want to believe it. But Azula’s voice rings in her head, accusatory: You know what he does to obstacles.
She sets the towel aside, and gets to her feet, trembling. “My husband. Where is he?"