Darshi studied the Fire Nation platoons that trickled nearer, waiting patiently with the rest of the earth benders lining the wall. She twisted a piece of stray metal in her hand, brushing her wind whipped hair out of her face. It had grown long in the past months and she would have to remind herself to cut it soon.

Just as Darshi hoped the front of the army fell through the ground and the earth benders let out a collective sigh of relieve. She told them to burrow beneath the dirt on all fronts where an army was, an old trick of hers she'd used previously in the South against Prince Seokjin. A few people walking across it wouldn’t make it cave in, but the amount the Fire Nation was taking across would. It wouldn’t stop war, but it would set the Fire Nation back. It was what they needed now. Time, after the last attack.

“It seems your plan worked,” King Shichiro announced, clapping his hands together pleased.

“Yes, it has,” she agreed, voice soft.

“Walk with me?”

She nodded to the presiding bender in charge, following the Earth King. Since coming back the earth army treated her differently. Before it was awe on their faces, but now it was weariness after learning what she had done. The air bender Ishan had disappeared out of her life. She could only assume it was his way of ending whatever relationship they had started.

“Do you know what the world was like before the war?” he asked her.

Darshi shook her head. The most she could imagine was what she saw at Lake Laogai. Coming from a war ravaged land to there was like finding paradise. She would have never been able to imagine something like that without seeing it for herself.

“We could communicate with the spirit world, but as soon as the Fire Nation broke the balance it was as if they withdrew full contact.”

“What did the spirit world do?”

The old man chuckled, pulling at his beard in thought. “Spirits can be mischievous little creatures. They mostly caused trouble, but sometimes they were able to give great advice. I once leaned a great life lesson from a badger-mole, although it took me over a month to get its attention.”

“It sounds like how the Water Tribe’s used to be able to speak the ancestors.” As the war grew, contact with the dead dwindled until it was nonexistent. She wasn’t sure why that was. Maybe it was the severe decline of benders.

“Ah, yes. Similar to that,” he agreed. “It was the monks that were able to speak to the spirits the most. For any other element it was a rarity. The Air Nomads helped balance the world, stepping in to help disputes between nations. The air benders were the only one’s people trusted to be fair and just when it came to those kinds of things. We need a connection to the spirit world again, although I’m not sure it is something that can be mended.”

From here Darshi could see Lake Laogai, a little speck of blue to the east. They hadn’t banned her from going there, but she wasn’t welcome either. She decided to stay where she had before, on the outer wall of the city. It seemed the best for everyone.

“I don’t think that is something you can decide to do either,” she said finally. “It is something that must happen naturally, if ever at all.”

Darshi didn’t know anything about her people. She wasn’t sure if there was a trick to speaking to the spirit world or not, but if that ever happened it would have to be because the other realm wanted it. There was nothing any of them could do from here. Places that were once sacred prayer sites were abandoned and forgotten. No one knew the steps anymore.

Darshi paused as she noted the Fire Nation slowly making their way past the new barrier. She hadn’t expected them to do it so quickly. She thought there would be a few days delay at least. Not a few hours. The King stood beside her, watching as the opposing army gathered themselves and prepared to march.

“Should we send out some soldiers?” she pressed.

His face was more serious than she’s ever seen it before. “Not today.” He turned away as if he was no longer troubled by this disasterous hitch in their plans. “Have you ever heard of the avatar?”

Darshi frowned, struggling to figure out why he would bring that up at a time like this. “It’s a story to tell children at night.” Sometimes parents needed their children to believe in miracles, and that was what the avatar was. He or she was a person that could master all elements and bring peace to the world. If such a person existed they would bring hope, but Darshi wasn’t one to believe in fairy tales. Not since she was a girl of ten. “What of it?”

“Have you ever wondered if you’re the avatar?”

Darshi snorted, unable to help herself. “Of course not! The avatar is something meant to comfort believers and nothing more.”

“But have you ever tried working another element?”

Darshi sighed, leaning against the stone wall. It was firm and smooth to the touch, not one sharp edge brushing against her palm. The earth benders would allow nothing else. “Of course I have,” she admitted, her tone oddly muted. “Do you not realize how badly I wanted to be normal? Once upon a time I was a little girl too. One that grew up in the Southern Water Tribe and wanted nothing more than to be like everyone else. It was all I ever dreamed of as a child, waking up and having water as my element instead of air. That, and peace.”

She shook herself, pulling herself out of old memories. The majority of the army was past the diversion and now making their way towards the wall. Darshi turned back around to get where she was needed the most, but the Earth King wrapped his fingers around her arm.

His eyes held hers, a strange acceptance in them. “We’re going to lose the outer wall.”

Darshi flinched back, pulling out of his grasp. “No,” she murmured, refusing to listen. This was their last stand, the only safe place left in the world. “Over my dead body will we lose the wall!”

“Unfortunately, you are no longer able to give that.”

Darshi froze, unable to take the remaining steps back and help with battle plans. Her hands began shaking, heart unsteady in her chest. When she turned around her eyes were wild, desperate to keep this last stronghold in the world, but King Shichiro silenced her before she could even begin.

“The world needs you alive more than dead for a one time sacrifice. They need many more of those out of you, and it’s something you vowed to give under Lake Laogai. The inner wall is much smaller and easier to control, but this outer wall is too great for us to handle.”

Darshi’s throat bobbed, heart calming just a bit. “We would be giving up Lake Laogai.”

“The only people with the ability to open Lake Laogai are earth benders, and unless a slave that is a master earth bender is feeling through the cracks of the earth they are safe. There is a secret entrance we do not use that leads there in the lower district, and one in the palace so, they will not be completely cut off,” the king disagreed.

The army neared, flames flickering every so often in the rows of men and women marching towards them. While Darshi remained frozen, struggling with comprehension as they grew closer, the King began giving orders for his men to vacate the premises.

“What would it take to have peace?”

She was lost, unsure what the next step was anymore. Her chi was a tangled mess, personal life in flames. It was hard to imagine a step after this.

He placed his hand on her shoulder, eyes soft as he gazed plaintively into hers. “I think you already know that answer. You just don’t like it.”

Darshi gripped her head, struggling to keep it together. She did have the answer, but she didn’t think it was the best one. But her mind could strategize no other way. The Fire Lord held abso