The sun was dipping low behind the horizon when Lila stood once again in the palace garden, but this time, she wasn't looking to admire the view. Her thoughts were elsewhere, buried beneath layers of stone, where the Earth King was said to slumber.
She was starting to understand that each elemental power was more than a tool. It was a mirror. Fire had burned away her fear. Water had forced her to feel. And now, Earth, what would it demand from her?
Isolde met her just inside the palace's eastern wing. The walls here were rougher, ancient, almost forgotten. Without a word, the older woman led her to a stairwell hidden behind a crumbling statue of a boar.
As they descended into the depths of the earth, Lila's skin prickled. The air grew cool and damp, filled with the scent of moss and minerals. Their lantern barely cut through the darkness.
"Are you afraid?" Isolde asked, finally breaking the silence.
Lila shook her head, even if her heart was beating a little faster than she liked. "Not afraid. Just… heavy."
"That's how you know Earth is near," Isolde murmured. "It weighs the truth out of you."
They stepped into a vast underground chamber, lit only by faintly glowing crystals that jutted from the walls. Tree roots coiled through the ceiling like veins, and a stone dais rose at the center.
Seated upon it, still as a mountain, was the Earth King.
He looked carved from the cavern itself, broad-shouldered, with skin like weathered granite and eyes the deep green of forest shadows. He opened them slowly, as if waking from a long dream.
"You've walked the path," he said. "But have you planted your feet?"
Lila approached him carefully. "I want to awaken the Earth within me."
"No," he rumbled. "You want to control it. That is not the same."
He rose, and the entire room seemed to shudder under his weight. "Earth is not fire, which roars and dances. Not water, which flows and adapts. Earth does not move for the sake of moving."
With a wave of his hand, the ground beneath Lila cracked. A ring of earth encircled her, then dropped. She was left standing alone on a narrow platform above a deep pit.
"You will not call Earth to you," he said. "You will stand. That is how Earth answers."
Lila swallowed hard, resisting the urge to cry out. She closed her eyes and steadied her breath.
She remembered what Cassian had said about standing tall despite the darkness.
She bent to one knee and touched the stone with both hands. "I am not afraid," she whispered. "I'm not running anymore."
The platform vibrated under her palm. A faint green light pulsed from the rock. Vines burst from the crevices, curling around her arms, not to bind, but to anchor.
And within her, something shifted. A calm strength. The knowledge that no matter how much the world trembled, she could remain rooted.
The Earth King nodded once, satisfied. "You are ready."