HOME | DD

Description
Contrasts

Disclaimer: This work of fan fiction is not for personal profit. All the characters used in this fan fic are the property of Nickelodeon and/or other designated copyright and/or trademark holders, except for original characters created by Skeleton-Horse

This fanfic was inspired by the fan-art created by Skeleton-Horse. In this fic, it becomes a painting Kuei commissioned.

Spoiler Warning: This fanfiction is based on an artwork depiction representing a possible future of the Cause Some Trouble arc.

Zafirah had had to spend hours - HOURS! - locked into that one pose for the painting Kuei had commissioned. After that, she had been very happy to be able to walk around again and work the stiffness out of her muscles, get a little more Earthbending practice in.

That had been yesterday.

But today was the painting's private unveiling. Just a few minutes ago, Kuei had had to dash off for a brief meeting. He had gestured to the painter to take off the protective covering anyway, and as the drapes fell away, Zafirah was struck by the way she looked in the painting: standing in her Sandbender clothes with her hand outstretched toward Kuei.

But even as she liked the way her hand and Kuei's were almost touching, she couldn't help but notice the fine woven rugs, the intricately designed clothes, even the very room that Kuei was in. The sharp contrast between the sparse rolling desert of her home and the luxurious royal chambers made her wonder, again, what the residents of Ba Sing Se would think if they saw it.

She knew most people saw her as little better than a desert peasant, fit to eke out a living by endlessly haggling with con artists and outright cheap hogmonkeys. Yet through the most amazing turn of events, her world was the equal of Kuei's.

At least, in the painting.

The very idea of a royal sandbender nearly provoked bouts of laughter as she tried to imagine Qamar all dressed up in a fancy outfit of gauze and new clothes, as though she had become Queen of the Sandbenders. Had this been suggested to her, Qamar herself would be more likely to squint, ask if cactus juice was in the person's veins, and go on about her business.

"You will never have to bow. You are the equal of anyone in this room," Kuei had firmly said at the gathering when he had begun reinstating his rule over Ba Sing Se. Even so, the lump had remained in her throat as she fleetingly wondered if any of the nobles would go against the Earth King and demand it anyway - or worse. But astonishingly, they had behaved. "Lady Zafirah," they had said without demur.

Kuei's faith in people was so much larger than her own! But he could afford to do it, thought Zafirah, unkind though the thought was. Kuei could tell people to behave to her by laws and edicts - even dictate that the Sandbenders get preference on new shipbuilding contracts - but could he really change the minds of a noble caste long used to its own ways? No nobleman passing through the Misty Palms had ever demanded things of her, but they had never looked upon her with much kindness either.

Desert woman. Royal man. Could they actually make this work? Could their example really change things?

Then again, Zafirah thought as she spotted Kuei re-entering the room, even the most persistent of buildings could be eroded away in a strong enough sandstorm.

And, she thought, she and Kuei might just get that sandstorm started among the complex layers of Ba Sing Se.