Chapter 210: The Raid (3)
"Stop him!" Aelion shouted.
An air-bender immediately thrust both hands forward.
A compressed current of wind shot toward the guard, intending to snuff out the flame before it could be born. The Terravain guard tightened his grip around the carved fire rune. Its crimson inscriptions began to glow. Heat shimmered around his fingers.
"You’ll all die if you light it!" Aveline cried.
Her voice echoed through the underground chamber.
"The fire won’t stop with the cotton! It’ll spread to the streets above! To the shops! To the homes!"
"The people you’re trying to protect will burn with it!"
Before she could take another step, an invisible arm wrapped firmly around her waist.
Theron.
He pulled her backward in one swift motion, shielding her with his own body, though no one else could see him.
He had already judged the distance.
If that rune ignited... The explosion of flame would consume everyone nearby.
She struggled instinctively.
"No—"
Theron refused to release her.
Aveline grit her teeth. Her elbow drove sharply backward. It caught him squarely beneath the ribs.
More from surprise than pain, his grip loosened. She slipped free. Before he could catch her again, she stepped directly into the guards’ line of sight.
"W-What are you doing?" one rebel gasped.
Aveline ignored them all.
She looked only at the man holding the rune. "Are you truly willing to die for your lord?" she asked.
Her voice was no longer frantic. It was calm and steady.
"If you ignite that fire... you won’t survive it." Her eyes never left his.
"Will your Chancellor mourn you?"
"Will he care for your wife?"
"Your children?"
"Your parents?"
"Or will he simply replace you tomorrow?"
The guard’s hand trembled. The rune flickered.
For the briefest moment... The fire failed to bloom. A flicker of doubt crossed his face. It was enough.
"Aveline!"
Aelion launched himself from one of the suspended stone slabs. His sword flashed through the crystal-lit chamber as he closed the distance with astonishing speed.
Steel met steel.
The Terravain guard barely raised his weapon in time. The rune slipped from his grasp as the two men collided.
"Close the tiles!" Aveline shouted. "If we bury the warehouse, they can’t burn it!"
The rebel earth-benders immediately understood. They slammed both palms against the ground. The enormous stone slabs began descending once more, inch by inch, sealing the underground chamber.
"Hold it open!"
The Terravain earth-benders answered with identical movements. Stone groaned violently. The earth itself seemed caught between two opposing wills. The slabs shuddered.
Neither side yielded.
Nearby, the water-benders abandoned any hope of moving the entire stockpile. Instead, torrents of water surged across the warehouse floor. They drenched bale after bale, soaking as much cotton as they could.
Others guided narrow streams through hastily carved channels, floating precious bundles toward the exits.
"There are too many!"
"Keep moving!"
"Save what you can!"
The chamber dissolved into chaos.
Steel clashed. Stone roared. Water crashed. Bodies fell. Blood stained the pale stone floor.
Aveline turned slowly, taking it all in. Everything was happening at once.
Too much. Far too much.
Aelion was locked in combat, desperately keeping the fire rune out of the other guard’s hands. The rebel earth-benders strained to bury the warehouse before it could become a furnace. The water-benders fought to salvage enough cotton to make the raid worthwhile.
And Theron...
He never strayed far from her.
Though invisible beneath the Aurelion Veil, she could feel him moving with her, intercepting every threat that came too close. A dead guard still lay only a few paces behind her—a silent reminder that she was alive because he refused to leave her unprotected.
She couldn’t resent him for that.
Not now.
But as Aveline’s eyes swept across the impossible sea of cotton filling the underground vault, another thought slowly rose above the chaos.
For now... Nothing mattered more than protecting it.
A cry rang through the chamber. Another Terravain guard leapt onto one of the suspended stone slabs. His fingers closed around the fallen fire rune.
"No!" someone shouted.
Before anyone could reach him, he slammed his thumb against the carved inscription. Crimson light erupted. A blossom of fire burst from the rune.
An air-bender reacted instantly, thrusting both hands forward.
A violent gust swallowed the newborn flames before they could spread, scattering burning embers into harmless sparks.
But Aveline’s heart sank. That had been far too close.
Next time... They might not stop it. Time had run out.
She slowly lowered herself onto one knee. Around her, steel continued to clash. The ground shook beneath countless earth-benders. Water surged through hastily carved channels.
Men shouted. Some screamed.
She let it all fade away. None of it mattered. Not for this moment.
She trusted Theron. As long as he was here... She could close her eyes.
Her fingertips rested gently against the cold stone floor.
Think.
There has to be a way.
Something simple...
Don’t fight the problem.
Move it.
The cotton. She only needed to move the cotton. But... Her brows slowly knitted together. Cotton wasn’t earth. Earth-bending couldn’t affect it. For one frustrating heartbeat, her mind went blank.
Then...
A quiet realization bloomed.
The cotton isn’t touching the earth. It’s resting inside it.
Her breathing slowed.
The warehouse itself... The underground chamber... Every bale sat within a cradle of stone.
If she couldn’t move the cotton... She could move the earth carrying it.
It was a ridiculous thought.
Impossible. Yet... As soon as the idea formed...
The earth answered. A deep rumble echoed beneath her palm.
Aveline’s eyes flew open.
The chamber was moving. Not collapsing. It was rising.
The rebel earthbenders gasped.
The Terravain earth-benders abruptly lost control of the stone slabs they had been struggling over. With thunderous force, the suspended tiles crashed back into place, sealing the opening above.
Then the entire underground floor trembled.
"What...?"
"The ground..."
"It’s moving!"
The vast stone foundation beneath the warehouse lifted as one enormous platform. Thousands upon thousands of bales of cotton rose with it.
Aveline’s arms trembled violently. It felt as though she were lifting an entire mountain. Every muscle in her body screamed.
Still... She refused to let go.
A slow breath escaped her. Then another.
The platform climbed higher. Higher. Higher.
Silence spread across the battlefield. Even the fighting faltered. Both rebels and guards stared upward in complete disbelief. No one had ever seen earth move like this.
No one.
Aelion forgot to swing his sword. He simply stared. "...Impossible."
Nearby, Theron looked at her with undisguised astonishment.
His heart pounded. He had seen master earth-benders reshape fortresses. He had watched generals split rivers. He had witnessed legendary magic on battlefields.
Yet nothing... Nothing resembled what Aveline was doing now.
She wasn’t manipulating stone. She was carrying an entire underground chamber into the sky, not through brute force, but through understanding.
His awe was quickly replaced by alarm.
She was shaking. The strain was immense. She’s pushing herself too far.
The first arrow flew. Theron’s sword flashed. The shaft split cleanly in two before it could reach her.
Another followed.
Then another.
Invisible to every eye, he became a wall around her.
Steel rang. Daggers disappeared from the air before they reached her. No one understood why every attack aimed toward the rising platform failed.
Only Aveline knew.
She could still feel him.
Always close.
Always protecting her.
Below, Aelion snapped back to himself.
"Protect her!"
The rebels immediately formed around the ascending platform. Aelion intercepted every swordsman who tried to climb after her, his blade moving faster than ever before.
Above them all... The platform continued to rise.
Beyond the reach of swords.
Beyond arrows.
Beyond the grasp of earth-benders still standing below.
Until the battlefield became little more than scattered figures beneath her feet.
Only then did Aveline move. The floating mass of earth drifted forward. Slowly at first. Then steadily... carrying the kingdom’s stolen lifeline away from the battlefield.
Away from the Terravains. Away from the fire.
Farther. Farther still.
Until the only other soul upon that vast moving island... was the invisible prince who refused to leave her side.
-----
The King, who couldn’t sleep on that moonless night, walked to his balcony. His eyes caught that floating piece of... something in the air.
"What is that?" he muttered, as he looked closer.