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Borealis: A Zutara Story	By : jaded_priceless Category: Avatar - The Last Airbender > AU/AR - Alternate Universe/Alternate Reality Views: 33965 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar: The Legend of Korra, any historical figures or events, or easily recognizable persons, places or things. I make no profit from this work of fanfiction

Chapter List
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Chapter 39
The exit parade was in the same order as the arriving procession but the Ursa was fully staffed and not just running on a skeleton crew so there was more room between the royals and Aang’s cage. This time Katara started out riding sidesaddle on Korhi with Zuko; unlike her brother and Aang, she was completely unbound.
She had been convinced by Zuko that she was not safe from the nobles until they were back on the ship and away from the Fire Nation. It would be foolish to fight when her brother and the Avatar were still bound and Appa was on the ship. There really wasn’t much a single Waterbender could do against such numbers so she agreed.

Once again the people of Soizin City lined the streets. Several of them remembered seeing Prince Zuko and Katara shopping. Now she was wearing the colors of the royal family and a diadem. They screamed “Why was he with the Waterbender and not Lady Mai?” and “Why was the barbarian wearing a crown and such finery instead of Lady Mai?”
Zuko ignored their cries and Katara peeped over his shoulder at Aang and Sokka. Aang was looking at her in confusion. Sokka looked angry. She waved at them reassuringly. Aang waved back. Sokka scowled. Katara turned back around. She hadn’t been to visit them since last night and she wasn’t sure how much Sokka had eaten. She had food in Zuko’s saddlebag for them.
Katara tugged on Zuko’s shirt and raised her head expectantly much like she’d done when she was younger and asking her father for a new toy. She waited until she looked down at her before speaking, “Zuko, I think my brother’s hungry.”
Zuko cursed. He had forgotten about them and meager rations given to prisoners once every 12 hours. He broke formation and cut Sokka’s rope just like he’d cut Katara’s the day before. He held Katara steady as she reached in the saddle bag and handed Sokka the food they’d prepared for him. Sokka grunted a quick thanks and Zuko moved forward so Katara could do what she could to get the food to the Avatar. His thank you was more cheerful.

Zuko moved back to the front of the line and Mai moved beside him, “Zuko, why is this Water Tribe peasant wearing a crown and why did you just free the other one? Are you so eager to humiliate me that you would also insult our country’s national heritage by giving her a crown?”
Zuko dropped his head to Katara’s shoulder and sighed. He was expecting to have to deal with Mai sooner or later. He had hoped it would be somewhere private and where he could escape from his ex-girlfriend if need be. He definitely did not want it to be while Korhi’s gait was rhythmically bumping Katara’s hip and thighs against his crotch.
“Katara is wearing the diadem because it belongs to her. She was able to open the vaults of honorable Great-great- Grandmother Kesuk and honorable Great-Great-Great-Grandmother Nini. It was part of her reward for doing so,” he explained without facing her.
Azula stopped her basilisk lizard, “What do you mean she opened their vaults? She’s your concubine Zuko! Under the Law’s of Inheritance the conditions of opening the vault would apply to her!” she screamed uncharacteristically.
Zuko shrugged, “It is done Azula. Father called the scribes to record it and document everything that is inside.”
“Father?” Azula shrieked, “Father knows about this? You have got to be lying?”
“Azula, you know I am a terrible liar,” Zuko said calmly, “If you don’t believe me, ask her.”
“Peasant, how did you open the vaults and does my father know about it? Don’t leave anything out,” Azula snarled at Katara.
“I opened both chambers with Waterbending. Zuko took me into his vault to give me my signet then he asked me if I wanted anything else out of it, but I declined. He then took me over the doors of Princess Kesuk and Fire Lady Nini to see if I could open them. I could. He told me every Waterbender your country had captured had tried but couldn’t do it even though you’d promised them their freedom.”
“It much easier than I expected it to be,” Katara shrugged.
“It was easy to open those doors? My family has been trying to open those doors for over one hundred years and it was easy? Nini’s doors confounded even Kesuk but they were easy?” Azula asked.
“They were,” she explained, “I just had to wiggle and jiggle the water in the right way and they popped right open. Fire Lord Ozai heard me telling Zuko I didn’t want what was in them since they were treasures for your people. He called me ridiculous and told me they were mine. He witnessed the ring exchange ceremony to formally appoint me as Zuko’s concubine and sent Zuko to get the scribes to record everything for posterity. I asked him for one small item and he snapped at me. Your father basically called me stupid to ask for anything since everything in the room was mine to do with as I pleased.
I never imagined that Fire Lord Ozai could be such a kind and generous man. He told Zuko to help me select a few items I might need and to hurry since we had to sit for the royal portrait artist,” Katara added in amazement.
Mai’s face turned slightly red. She swallowed before slowly asking “Zuko, Azula, will one of you please tell me that this peasant did not say that your father approved her having the contents of one of the royal treasure vaults belonging to a former Fire Lady?” Normally such treasures were only granted to a wife.
“No, Gloomy, weren’t you listening? Fire Lord Ozai approved Zuko’s decision to give me the contents of two royal treasure vaults. Everything in the ones that once belonged to Princess Kesuk and Fire Lady Nini now belong to me,” Katara said sweetly.
Mai blinked rapidly as the color drained from her face, “You are not even Fire Nation. How can you be the recipient of two vaults based on the clauses set forth in the royal rights of succession as dictated by Fire Lord Sozin?”
“When Zuko and I exchanged signet rings, he declared me Katara of the Fire Nation, and his royal concubine. The scribe added everything to the official registers and Fire Lord Ozai signed it,” Katara stated simply.
“Why do you keep saying exchange signet rings? Concubines have their signet ring commissioned by the royal who appointed them. My aunt was once Fire Lord Azulon’s number one and they never exchanged rings” Mai huffed haughtily.
“Fire Lord Ozai ordered that Zuko and I perform the signet exchange so I would accept what was in the vaults. Zuko gave me one of his signet rings that he has outgrown. He placed it on my hand and I placed the one that he’s currently wearing on his. Is that not how you make a royal concubine?” Katara asked looking up at Zuko.
Zuko groaned. His grandfather’s method did create a royal concubine, but only in the least sense of the word. A concubine with her own ring could be used by any member of the royal family. The ring exchange bonded Katara exclusively to him and gave her more power than any of Azulon’s concubines would ever wield.
Mu, who had been listening silently joined in, when he heard that. Most women were not taught the difference between the two ring levels while all men were, “You two did the signet exchange? As in full mouth to ring signet exchange?”
Katara blushed and nodded.
“In front of the Fire Lord? You did that in front of the Fire Lord and said the vows in front of the Fire Lord?” Mu asked in disbelief.
“Yes, Mu. We did that in front of my father. He witnessed our joining that morning so yes, Katara is the highest level of royal concubine that has and can ever be appointed in the Fire Nation,” Zuko said angrily hoping he’d misread the glimmer of mischief in his friend’s eye.
Mu was mostly quiet and reserved, but he had a twisted sense of humor ten miles wide. Zuko didn’t want Katara to know just how tightly she was bound to him and Mu could reveal what he was hiding. His father had told her that they were not married. Technically they weren’t since she hadn’t signed the documents but all it took was for the Fire Lord to decree it, which his father had practically done twice for them to be wed.
“Congratulations on your nuptials Prince Zuko and Princess Katara. May the union grant you many healthy children,” Mu said not caring that he was upsetting his cousin Mai. She had been her typically bitchy self and refused to let him, his wife, his brother, and six year old nephew spend the night when they came to pick up the Avatar’s lemur. She had the whole mansion to herself but they had been forced to find a hotel willing to take a child and a small animal.

Author’s Note: Thank you for reading, reviewing and voting.
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Borealis: A Zutara Story