Chapter 231: Power’s Intrigue
"You have no idea how easily I could place my Theron upon that throne, Kevron," Aveline said.
Her voice was calm—too calm. The emerald in her eyes had vanished, swallowed by an obsidian darkness that made even the King’s breath catch.
He looked up at her, one hand clutching desperately at his throat. "...The throne?" he rasped, his vision already beginning to blur. This had never been about replacing Theron. Never. He wanted to explain. He wanted to tell her everything.
Let me speak.
I know who killed your parents.
His lips parted, but no words came. His lungs refused to obey him.
"Not interested," Aveline replied quietly as she closed her eyes.
The invisible threads were still there.
The breaths.
Every inhale. Every exhale.
They no longer felt unfamiliar. They felt... natural. As though they had always belonged in her hands, waiting for her to notice them. Then another rhythm emerged beneath them, softer yet stronger.
Thump... Thump... Thump...
Her brows knitted together. It was no longer the air she sensed. It lay beneath it, deeper still. She could feel warm rivers flowing through every living body surrounding her, blood coursing tirelessly through veins and arteries. Her awareness sank further into those unseen currents until, almost instinctively, she reached toward one of them.
The flow resisted.
Only for a moment.
Then...
It yielded.
Her fingers twitched ever so slightly, and she felt the current slow. Almost immediately another sensation answered her—a frantic heartbeat straining against the resistance, desperately trying to force blood through vessels that no longer welcomed it.
Aveline stood utterly still.
An unfamiliar emotion bloomed inside her.
Power.
Not the power to command fire or lightning. Not the power to bend the elements.
This was something else entirely.
This was the power to decide whether another living being continued to exist.
For one terrifying instant, she understood why men lusted after power. Why kingdoms were drowned in blood for crowns. Why tyrants convinced themselves they alone deserved to rule. Why lords ruled with whips in their hands, and laughed seeing people trembled in front of them.
The realization was intoxicating.
Then a heavy thud shattered the silence.
One of the air-benders lost his footing and crashed from the tree where he had been concealed. He hit the ground hard, both hands flying to his chest as he gasped soundlessly, his face already draining of color.
Aveline’s eyes snapped open.
Horror surged through her.
"No..."
Her hand opened at once.
The invisible threads slipped from her grasp.
Every one of them.
The King stumbled backward, dragging desperate gulps of air into his burning lungs. Around him, the shadow-benders collapsed to one knee, coughing violently as their grip on her shadow disappeared. The air-benders doubled over, the swirling dome of dust collapsing with them as each fought simply to breathe again.
None of them understood what had happened.
They only knew that, for several dreadful moments, breathing itself had no longer belonged to them.
Aveline remained rooted where she stood, her hand trembling uncontrollably. She quietly curled it into a fist before anyone noticed. Her eyes searched for the fallen air-bender, and only when she saw him roll onto his side, coughing and drawing another shaky breath, did the tightness in her own chest ease.
This...
This power was far too dangerous.
"What you just did..." Edric Vantaris said hoarsely, instinctively stepping in front of the King despite still struggling to breathe. "...Manipulating the air inside another person’s lungs..."
His voice wavered despite every effort to steady it.
"...is forbidden."
Aveline slowly turned toward him.
The simple movement made several of the shadow-benders recoil without thinking. Even Edric’s feet shifted backward before he caught himself. Fear had settled over them all like a suffocating fog, and she saw it plainly in every pair of eyes fixed upon her.
For a long moment, she simply looked at them.
Then a faint, humorless smile curved her lips.
"Forbidden?" she repeated softly.
Her gaze swept across every face before settling once more on Edric.
"So..." she said, her voice barely above a whisper, "who intends to condemn me?"
Silence answered her.
No one stepped forward.
No one reached for a weapon.
Beyond the settling dust, the curious students who had gathered earlier had already scattered. Those who remained stared at her as though they were looking upon something no longer entirely human.
Aveline looked at the King one last time.
"Stop bothering me."
Then she turned and walked away.
This time...
No one dared stand in her path.
Only when she was certain she had left them far behind did Aveline finally break into a run.
She ran without direction, her breaths coming in ragged bursts, her feet carrying her through winding corridors and deserted courtyards until the familiar walls of the dormitory came into view. She fumbled with the door, slipped inside, and shut it behind her with trembling hands.
The room was empty.
Silence greeted her.
Slowly, she slid down the wall until she reached the floor. She pulled her knees tightly against her chest and wrapped her arms around them, making herself as small as she could. Her entire body shook.
What... have I become?
The question echoed over and over inside her head.
She had not merely fought them. She had held their lives in her hands. She had felt their breaths as though they belonged to her. She had reached into their bodies, touched the beating of their hearts, slowed the flow of their blood...
And for one horrifying moment...
She had liked how it felt.
A sob escaped her lips.
Fear tightened around her chest. Panic followed close behind. Then came the shame.
She had always believed power existed to protect others. To save. To heal. Yet moments ago, all it had taken was her anger, and she had nearly become the very monster she despised.
She buried her face against her knees.
What if she had been one heartbeat slower?
What if that air-bender had died?
What if... the next time, she didn’t stop herself?
Her fingers curled around her sleeves until they hurt.
She was terrified.
She was terrified... of herself.
She remembered the King’s face turning pale and Edric shielding him. She remembered the soldiers collapsing to their knees... and the airbender falling from the tree like a lifeless puppet.
They had all looked at her... the same way the people of Greenvale looked at monsters.
A fresh wave of nausea rolled through her.
She had always hated those stronger than herself forcing others into submission.She knew what helplessness felt like. She knew what it meant to have someone decide your fate while you could do nothing but endure.
Yet today... For one dreadful moment... She had become that person. The King had threatened her. The King had wronged her. Yet the others... they were soldiers following orders.
Tears welled in her eyes.
"No..."
The whisper escaped her cracked lips.
"I don’t want to become someone people fear. That’s not what father and mother would want from me."
She pressed a shaking hand against her chest, forcing herself to breathe slowly.
Power itself was not evil. She knew that. Power could protect. Power could heal. Power could save.
But the moment it was used to make others kneel... to rob them of choice... to delight in their helplessness... it became the very thing she despised.
Her fingers curled into a fist.
"No matter what happens..." Her voice was barely audible, but it did not waver. "I will never use my power to terrify people."
She lifted her head, tears still clinging to her lashes.
"I know what it feels like to be powerless. I know what it feels like to be afraid."
A long silence settled over the room before she whispered the vow that would bind her more tightly than any law.
"I will never become the kind of person I once prayed to be saved from."