Chapter 1
“You’re weak, Lexa.” Anya grumbles under her breath. “Your parents will be disappointed in your lack of skills.”
Lexa wipes out the beads of sweat running down her forehead and neck. Her cousin might not be the nicest teacher, but she always been like this since they’re young. Always pushing her to the limits of her capacities, so much that Lexa would often come home sore and head directly to bed. She lets out a sigh of annoyance and takes the stance Anya asked her to, readying herself to repeat the sequence – the same one – she had been doing since daybreak. She is tired but definitely wants to prove her worth to her older cousin. She shows a lot of concentration on her tasks and, finally, Anya shuts her mouth to examine her again.
I’m going to move this damn rock, Lexa encourages herself, tightening her fists until her knuckles are white. She inhales sharply before opening her legs, a little larger than her shoulders, and lowers her center of gravity. She focuses on the boulder in front of her and shoots her left fist in the air in a perfectly calculated motion.
The rock moves from a few inches, but Lexa knows that it definitely won’t satisfy her cousin. She takes another step forward, coming closer to the boulder, and repeats the same sequence with her right arm. Her annoyance shows as it doesn’t move this time. Earth bending is supposed to be easy and come to her naturally; her mother is an earth-bender and her father is a fire-bender. It runs in her family too; Anya is also an earth-bender and she learned by herself how to bend because her father is a fire-bender like Lexa’s father and her mother doesn’t have any bending skills. It frustrates herself that her cousin, only two years older than her, has to teach her to bend. To Lexa’s defense, she had only discovered a few months ago that she has the same capacities as her mother.
Anya rolls her eyes and crosses her arms on her chest. “This is pathetic.”
Lexa glares at her and doesn’t miss how the corners of her cousins lips curls in a smug smirk. How Anya finds this amusing is pissing Lexa off, but she tries to ignore it. Getting angry will incapacitate me even more, she tries to reason herself. Or it could help her, but she would be a useless bender is she can control earth bending only when she is angry.
“Try again.”
She continues and repeats the sequence, clenching her teeth together. Lexa lets out a breath and takes another step, sending her fist towards the boulder. If it doesn’t move more this time, she’ll stop. She can’t keep trying without any success. It’s tiring and demotivating her. She doesn’t want to be the shame of her family.
Lexa is so much focused on her task that she completely forgot about the distance. Her fist collides with the rough surface of the boulder and she curses at the sharp pain. The young brunette curses out loud, earning a hard glare from her cousin, but she doesn’t care because even physically she couldn’t move the rock. She doesn’t care about her hand anymore, because her parents will look at her bloody knuckles and understand that she failed today’s lesson again.
Anya still cares about her well-being enough to ask her if it hurts, but Lexa doesn’t listen to her. Instead, she moves to a fighting stance, lowering herself even more. The grunt that comes out of her mouth sounds primitive, as she brings her intact fist up in the air, gathering all her energy to destroy the boulder with a spike from the soil. She feels the power flow in her veins and, for a moment, Lexa is proud of herself because she reduced the boulder to a pile of little rocks.
It takes a moment for her to come down of her high. When she does, it’s because she can feel the pulsations running through her hand and it’s quite painful. She looks down at her knuckles and can see the blood coating her fingers and dripping on the ground. The realisation that she failed this simple task once more time hits her and she feels defeated. Her mother would not be proud.
“Your lesson was to move the boulder Lexa, not to destroy it.” Anya says, looking unimpressed.
It’s Lexa’s turn to roll her eyes at her cousin. “Sorry, I got carried away this time.”
“You always say that.” She continues. “You have to find peace and balance, do not rush anything. Always getting angry will not make you learn anything from what I am trying to teach you.”
“Tell me why I agreed that you teach me earth bending again?” Lexa asks rhetorically.
Anya ignores that her younger cousin is not really asking her a question and answers: “Because it is your mother that asked me to.” She smirks smugly, knowing that it will frustrate Lexa even more. “She wants the best earth bending teacher for you… and that happens to be me.”
“She asked you because we don’t have the money to afford a real teacher.” Lexa snarls, walking towards her.
“And because I’m a great earth-bender.” Anya points out, shrugging. Lexa hates that her cousin takes so much pleasure in seeing her struggling with her abilities. “We can stop for today, I think you’ve had enough.” Lexa grumbles but doesn’t object. She needs to bathe and take care of her injury before it gets infected. “Tomorrow, same time. We’re going to work on your meditation, you need it a little.”
Lexa wants to punch her in the face for mocking her with her struggles. One day, she’ll prove Anya that she’s a great earth-bender too… and hopes that she’ll learn metal bending by herself before her cousin does. Lexa agrees with a nod and turns her back on Anya, leaving the stone pit where they always train. It’s far enough from Republic City and no one has ever came to this place before, so it became their training grounds.
The sun is at its highest in the sky. Lexa’s stomach grumbles loudly at the lack of attention and Lexa sighs. Today had been a rough day already and she wants nothing more than to get home, bathe and fall asleep in bed, but she knows it’s unlikely going to happen. Her parents would probably have an important meeting at their house and she would be forced to stay outside for a few hours. She probably has time to get home and take care of her hand before her mother comes home from work. She decides that jogging will be faster and also help to clear her mind from unwanted thoughts.
Twenty minutes later, Lexa is back at her house, cleaning her hand and applying a bandage on her knuckles. I really should learn to find balance, like Anya says, Lexa tells herself as she looks at her reflection in the mirror – though she’ll never admit to her cousin how right she is about her poor earth bending skills. It’s only more frustrating than anything. She can endure Anya’s remarks, but she only want to make her parents proud, which she knows won’t happen in a matter of a few lessons. It will take time and hard work to get as good as Anya.
Anya had time to master earth bending. She discovered at 14 years-old her abilities and now, three years later, she is as good as Lexa’s mother. Of course, she didn’t tell anyone outside of their family, since practicing bending before 16 years-old is illegal. It was one of the latest wishes of Avatar Korra before her death. The Government, with Beilon Jr. II as president, decided that it was for the best to introduce the law for benders of all elements. Being only 15 years-old, Lexa isn’t supposed to practice her bending. This is one of the reasons why Anya trains her at the stone pit. Both of them are well aware of the risks of being caught, so does their parents. They risk prison – even Anya – for an undetermined time. The Government explains this law as a necessity to avoid another civil conflict between benders and non-benders. Nothing happened after Korra took down Amon and the Equalists a few decades ago, but they would rather not risk any conflict.
As benders, Lexa’s parents are against this law, of course. Being a bender is an important tradition that has to be instructed to the next generation, to their children. Indra, Lexa’s mother, agrees that benders, even if they are now a minority, have the right to practice their abilities and occupy important roles in their society. The Government gives more power to non-benders, because their voice is their power, unlike benders. They judge that, since there’s a majority of non-benders, they deserve a bigger place in the society. There are above 60% of the representatives that are non-benders and the president himself, even if he is the son of a fire-bending woman, is a non-bender. Gustus, Lexa’s father, thinks the same as Indra, but is more adamant on the fact that benders have always been better on political grounds and the world had always been ruled by benders. All nations lived in harmony before; yes, there had been wars before, but it always ended with the Avatar saving the day and restoring balance in the world. If not for Aang and Korra, the world wouldn’t be at peace now; the Fire nation would have taken over the world or the spirit world would be unbalanced. Benders are not made for restrictions – because yes, being 16 years-old or above isn’t the only law the Government made to have an eye on benders. There are a lot and every benders need to apply them or they could end up in prison. It’s as simple as that – they can’t use their abilities to save non-benders from an accident.
Lexa hears the front door open and she hears the voices of her parents arguing over something. They’re speaking fast, not loud, but Lexa can hear a few interesting things about a rebellion, which makes her realise something. They don’t know I’m here. They probably think that I’m still training with Anya. She pinches her lips and shakes her head. Lexa doesn’t want to eavesdrop on her parents having an important and adult conversation. She doesn’t want to get reprimanded, yet it’s not her fault if the walls of their house is paper thin.
She opens the bathroom’s door and she hears them stop talking. She puts on a smile on her face and goes down the stairs to greet them. “Hi, Mother. Father.” She nods at them and moves to the kitchen, grabbing a banana – the less expensive fruit on the market – and peels it.
“You finished your training with Anya.” Indra states, looking at her daughter. Lexa is still dishevelled from her training and she didn’t have time to bathe yet. She knows that she can’t avoid this conversation with her mother. “Did you improve?”
Lexa notices her mother’s eyes darting to her injured arm and she knows she can’t lie about this. She’s not also one to beat around the bush. “Not much.” She says, carefully choosing her words. “Anya thinks I get frustrated too easily and I can’t focus. We’re meditating tomorrow.”
“You hurt yourself?” Gustus asks, moving to take Lexa’s hand delicately. Lexa’s father is a tall and large bearded man who looks like – according to Anya – a mean man. Though, everyone knows that he’s more like a teddy bear. Between Indra and him, he definitely is the soft parent. “What happened?”
Lexa lets out a sigh. “I got angry and punched the damn boulder.”
“Lexa.” One word is enough for Indra to reprimand her daughter.
“Sorry.” Yes, she is still angry at this rock.
“You need to improve with your earth bending.” Indra scowls. “If I had time, I’d teach you myself, but I know that Anya is a good bender and can teach you a few things.”
“Don’t be so hard on her, Indra.” Gustus tells his wife, his lips curving a little into a small smile. “Our daughter is only fifteen years-old. I didn’t know I was a fire-bender before I was eighteen. She is lucky with her abilities, but I don’t think pushing her beyond her limits is good for improvement. She has to learn at her pace.”
Lexa is forever thankful to have Gustus as a father. He is definitely softer than his brother Tristan, Anya’s father. “I will try harder, Mother.”
Indra gives a glance at them and nods sharply. “I want Anya to tell me how hard you train by the end of the week. If you don’t improve, I will teach you myself and you’ll get better in a matter of time.”
“Understood.”
“We have a reunion in a few hours.” Gustus points out. “We require the house and shall not be disturbed. You could take this time to focus on your meditation.”
“I’ll surely do that. I have to bathe now, if you’ll excuse me.”
Indra leaves the kitchen and Gustus looks down at his daughter. “Sorry about that. She is upset because of her work and took it out on you.” Lexa says nothing, because it’s not the first time her mother did that. “But tell me, what did you do with the boulder, Lexa?”
She gives him an amused smile. “I destroyed it.”
After scrubbing all the sweat and dirt from her skin, Lexa finally gets out of the bath. The trickiest part of cleaning herself up was to wash her hair; she found that it was quite hard to do it with an injured hand. She puts on clean and fresh clothes, gathers the used towels and her dirty clothing, and gets out of the bathroom. She heads upstairs to her room without a noise and, when she finally discarded everything in her arms in the laundry basket, she picks up her bag.
Her parents are in the living room with her uncle Tristan. Lexa doesn’t know what they are talking about, but she knows it’s probably just small talk. They’re waiting for me to leave the house to get down to business, Lexa understands. She smiles at her uncle, who nods back at her seriously. There’s so much of him in Anya, it’s almost surprising.
“Hi uncle.” She tells him, then looks at her parents. “I’m going out to meditate. I’ll be back at sundown.”
“Okay Lexa, be careful.” Gustus gives her a warm smile and pats her on the shoulder. She always loved her father’s affection.
She pushes the front door, leaving her parents and uncle alone and talking about business in the living room. The fresh air hits her and she inhales deeply; summer is almost gone, being replaced by autumn. Soon, the leaves will change of color and start falling on the ground. It’s Lexa’s favourite season; the colors are beautiful and she enjoys even more spending time outside.
The young earth-bender makes her way in Republic City, having one place in mind for her meditation; Avatar Korra’s and Aang’s memorial statues. Both were constructed in the water surrounding Republic City’s air temple, where the air nomads live. Since Korra spent a few years in the city and was of great help against Amon, Quvira and her own uncle Unalaq, they decided that it was for the best that the memorial was erected in Republic City and not in the Southern water tribe, where she was born. Lexa has always found both memorials very impressive, ever since she was a child.
It takes her half an hour on feet to get to the memorial – of course, knowing that she couldn’t come back to her house before sundown, she took her time. Usually, it takes her less than fifteen minutes to walk.
Lexa admires the statues from afar. She will meditate here, since it is interdicted to swim to the memorials. Police forces had claimed the Avatars’ statues to be property of the Government and, unless it’s under supervision, no one can visit it. Lexa would have loved to meditate right in front of Korra’s memorial; she somehow thinks that it could have gave her enough strength and willpower to finally fully control her earth bending abilities.
She jumps over the fence with agility to get to the shore. They said that swimming in the lake was illegal, not meditating on the shore. She doubts that she will get reprimanded for trespassing the fence – unless officers just want to put her in trouble. She will be discreet enough to be unnoticed, she hopes.
Taking a deep breath in, Lexa takes off her bag from her shoulder and shoves her hand inside. She finds a blanket, which she lays on the ground for her to sit on. When she is comfortably installed on the ground, Lexa looks up at the statues one last time before closing her eyes. Focus on your control, on your inner peace, she tells herself, reminding that she couldn’t get angry this time. She needs to focus on nothing else than balance. Instead of resting her elbows on her knees and bringing her fingers together, she puts the palms of her hands on the ground – ignoring the pain the movement brings to her injured hand. It is not a conventional method of meditation, according to Anya, but it always worked better for Lexa.
She feels the uneven soil underneath her fingers and it’s calming. She can sense the energy flow from the ground to the tip of her fingers, tickling her, then spreading to her hands and forearms. It’s an overwhelming feeling of control and Lexa takes pleasure in this. If only her Mother could understand that she is better at controlling her earth bending abilities when she by herself. Unfortunately, there’s nobody to prove what she is capable of doing if no one watches her.
After a few minutes of thinking of absolutely nothing, concentrating herself to be calm and peacefull, Lexa finally enters a trance. She doesn’t even hear the sounds of Republic City at all; a car suddenly breaking at a red light, people walking and laughing loudly, Lexa hears nothing. Gladly. All she feels is the Earth beneath her fingertips and she is mesmerized, feeling it breathe through her. She doesn’t know for how long she stays immobile like this, but she knows it must be a few hours. When she opens her eyes, she is faced with the amazing orange sunset behind Avatar Aang and Avatar Korra statues. She knows she should leave the place because she told her parents that she’ll be back before sundown, but it’s beautiful and she remains in her meditating position, lost in her thoughts.
She finds herself thinking about the Avatar spirit, supposed to be passed down to another bender since Avatar Korra died a few years ago of old age. According to traditions, the next Avatar should be an earth bender. The Government looked around all Earth nation grounds, but found nothing. Perhaps the tradition broke when Korra had trouble with the spirit world – she had lost Raava and had to fight Vaatu in order to restore the balance with both the spirit world and the real world. When she finally let Raava back into her Avatar spirit, Korra decided to keep the portal to the spirit world open – thinking that perhaps the first Avatar didn’t made the right choice to close it in the first place. What if it’s over now, there will be no more Avatars to restore balance in the world? Lexa asks herself. That would mean, with Korra’s death, that the last Avatar died and the circle was over, which she thinks is impossible. From the beginning of times, there had always been someone to look up for their people. That would also mean that the Government could make new laws against benders without someone to look after them – which, somehow, angers Lexa. They need an Avatar on their side.
She lets out a sharp breath when she hears footsteps behind her – two persons, apparently – were coming right in her direction. They probably spotted her from the other side of the fence. Maybe it was guards, which would mean that she’ll be in trouble.
Lexa turns her head in the direction of the footsteps. To her surprise, they’re not guards, but teenagers just like her. Still. They noticed her and she can’t let them report her to anyone. Her parents would be mad at her if she got into trouble – not that it’s something she does often. She stands up rapidly and picks up the blanket to shove it in her bag.
The strangers, a young girl and an older boy, look at her with curiosity written all over their faces. Lexa grits her teeth together, thinking that now she will definitely be home late and make her parents worried to death. I should ignore them and walk away, Lexa tells herself. This way she would avoid any interactions with the other teenagers. She decides to walk towards the fence, eyes on the ground to avoid meeting their eyes. Lexa hears them murmur a few things to each other, but it’s not loud enough for her to hear.
“You told us you were getting back here at sundown.” Indra scolds her, giving her a hard look. Lexa knows it’s her fault and won’t protest or talk back at her mother. She is used to this. She’ll be reprimanded, but her chores will be to clean the house and water the plants – a thing she does regularly, usually in the morning when her parents are at work.
Lexa lowers her gaze. “I’m sorry, Mother. I lost track of time.”
Indra scoffs in return. “I hope you meditated well. Now go to sleep, you look tired. You will need strength for your training with Anya tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Good night, Lexa.” Gustus says, smiling at her, a smile that is impossible for Lexa not to return.
Lexa gets upstairs to her room and changes for her nightwear. Before getting to bed, she opens the window to let the fresh air inside her room, then closes her door. As soon as she puts her head on her pillow, her eyes close and she falls asleep.