The Officer and the Princess: The Flames Of War

Chapter 40

Azula fell like a fool wearing the white robes over her clothes. But she felt even more foolish wearing the white mask. Apparently from what Mother Honoka told her the white face with red lips was supposed to be a recreation of Amaterasu's face. Mother Honoka told her that when the Shrine Sisters went out to do their charity work they wore the garb to remain anonymous in their work, a symbolic way of saying that it wasn't the Shrine Sisters who were helping the misfortunate's of Sun Dao but the Goddess herself. Though in Mother Honoka's opinion it was Amaterasu who was helping. She was working through the Shrine Sisters. Azula however was grateful for the garb, even if she felt foolish. She was thankful for the sole reason that it covered her face.

She was riding in a caravan of three wagons, she sitting in the passenger's seat of the front wagon. "Her" Ostrich Horse tied to the back most wagon. All three wagons were loaded with food, clothing, blankets, and medical supplies, as well as a few miscellaneous items such as children's toys, salt, cooking utensils, and other items that made the unfortunate people's lives easier.

The wagons moved through the packed streets of Ajios commerce district. It was apparently market day judging by the amount of people. From stalls vendors peddled their wears. Women carried baskets of produce, butcher paper wrapped meats, spices, and other such items. From what Azula could see Market day in Ajio was like a small festival in and of itself. A group of children ranging from six to at least nine stood in awe around a puppet theater watching a story be played out. No doubt this was set up as a way to distract the children while their parents shopped in peace.

Something else that Azula noticed however was how tight security was. Guards could be seen standing on street corners as well as moving through the crowds, stopping random people and holding up a piece of paper that she was to far away to see what was on it. After a small conversation the person they were talking to would shake their head and the guards would move on to someone else and the cycle continued. As they passed a street corner where two Sun Dao Defense Force Soldiers sat on Ostrich Horse back, she saw pinned to a community message board a wanted poster, it was a colored drawing of her face. The caption reading "Wanted for questioning, if seen report to the Sun Dao Defense Force immediately, Consider dangerous, do not approach!" Azula didn't know how she should feel about that. Perhaps the old version of her would feel flattered that she had gotten such a response. But now she was somewhat upset.

She recalled what Tadashi had told her just before she came out of her Cleansing ritual. "they will hate you for a time...but when it really matters and they see what you have done, how you have stepped up to fight the madness, they will understand." Azula hoped so. By now or very shortly Sung would learn about what happened and despite Azula saying he did stupid things Sung was smart and he would come to a conclusion that would hurt him more than Azula ever wanted to. What made it worse was she could never explain to him what she was doing and why. Sung would probably think she had abandoned him, she silently prayed to Amaterasu that his will was strong enough to pull through it.

Azula felt strange saying the silent prayer, part of her was still on the fence about wether the Sun Goddess was real or just folklore, she couldn't deny that seeing a man who had died over three hundred years ago was certainly something she couldn't logically explain. But she hadn't had what could be described as a "religious experience" that cemented her belief. But right now she could use all the help she could get, and aid from a celestial being would certainly be a welcome companion in the days to come.

*

The ride was slow going as the Caravan had to keep stopping as they reached large crowds of people, though upon seeing the wagons out of some respect for the Shrine Sisters they created gaps for the wagons to pass through. It took well over an hour to finally exit the Commerce District and moved through streets lined with restaurants and two story apartment blocks. Here the foot traffic was still heavy but it seemed less packed somehow. Security was no less numerous however.