She places a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry,” she says softly. Part of her wonders if things would be different if Mai had stayed. If Mai had stayed, would the idea for her to marry Zuko still have come up?

There was no way to know for sure now. But it was just one more thing that he had lost thanks to all this.

“You need that,” she agrees. “But also someone who will be as fair to you and your people as possible. Someone who won’t try to make you feel guilty for the Fire Nation’s past, in order to push the needs of their own home nation first.”

That’s what she had been worried about. If she had turned down the proposal, and someone else had been chosen chosen to marry him, she was worried that the other person would try to guilt Zuko into fixing their home, at the expense of his own.

She looks out at the land just beyond the palace walls. “Your people are a lot like you, Zuko,” she says softly. “Stubborn, strong...a little lost but ultimately a good people. You’ll be a good leader for them, because you can understand what they’ll be going through.” She turns to him. “And you need someone who understands you.”