Far above the sleeping capital, the King stood alone upon the palace balcony.
The night was moonless. Dark clouds drifted lazily across the sky, leaving the city wrapped in deep shadow. Yet even the darkness could not conceal it.
Something enormous floated above the rooftops.
His fingers slowly tightened around the carved marble balustrade. Stone groaned beneath his grip.
"..."
For a long moment, he simply watched. An entire mass of earth... suspended in the night sky… Moving.
Who...?
His pulse quickened.
Who possesses such overwhelming command over the earth?
Even among the royal court's finest earth-benders, no one could perform a feat remotely approaching this.
A single face surfaced unbidden in his mind.
Aveline.
His eyes narrowed. "...It should be you." The words escaped almost as a whisper. "It has to be."
Without looking away from the impossible sight, he spoke into the darkness behind him. "Who's there?"
