jaydude
Five Thousand Club
NecroKnight
It was the time between evening and night, and Xiao leant on the railing of one of the balconies at her family estate, looking over the city she called home. A lot had changed in the three years since Earth Queen Hou Ting's assassination at the hands of the Red Lotus. And with the fall of the Earth Empire, much more was bound to change over the next couple of weeks. Not just here, but in the whole of the Earth Kingdom.
Xiao remembered joining up with the predecessor to the Earth Empire, that band of brave men and women who had sought to impose order and enlightenment on a chaotic and ignorant land, led by the former captain of the Zaofu guard, Kuvira. Xiao had joined up as a medic, and for much of the next three years, served alongside this band as they carried out their mission.
She hadn't been alone, the young woman thought to herself, as she looked down fondly at the golden ring on her left hand. Li - her handmaiden and bodyguard, then her lover and war comrade, and finally her wife - had been alongside her all that time. They'd been each others' lights in the dark during the difficult times. Had they not had each other, they might have lost their ways and followed Kuvira into villainy.
Following Kuvira's defeat at the hands of the Avatar, the formal disbanding of the Earth Empire, and Prince Wu's decision to dissolve the Earth Kingdom monarchy, the state of Qutong - along with all the other states and provinces in the nation - had been allowed to freely elect their governors. Xiao's father - the incumbent - had won the election in Qutong; the fact that he had once been appointed to the position by the Earth Queen didn't change the fact that he had successfully guided the state through many troubles and hardships during his tenure as governor. He had the wisdom and the experience to rule, and now he would be able to do so without being shackled by the tax demands of a corrupt queen, or the labour demands of a paranoid despot.
But Xiao knew that, even after everything that had happened, things weren't going to magically become perfect. They never did when there was a power vacuum to fill.
It was the time between evening and night, and Xiao leant on the railing of one of the balconies at her family estate, looking over the city she called home. A lot had changed in the three years since Earth Queen Hou Ting's assassination at the hands of the Red Lotus. And with the fall of the Earth Empire, much more was bound to change over the next couple of weeks. Not just here, but in the whole of the Earth Kingdom.
Xiao remembered joining up with the predecessor to the Earth Empire, that band of brave men and women who had sought to impose order and enlightenment on a chaotic and ignorant land, led by the former captain of the Zaofu guard, Kuvira. Xiao had joined up as a medic, and for much of the next three years, served alongside this band as they carried out their mission.
She hadn't been alone, the young woman thought to herself, as she looked down fondly at the golden ring on her left hand. Li - her handmaiden and bodyguard, then her lover and war comrade, and finally her wife - had been alongside her all that time. They'd been each others' lights in the dark during the difficult times. Had they not had each other, they might have lost their ways and followed Kuvira into villainy.
Following Kuvira's defeat at the hands of the Avatar, the formal disbanding of the Earth Empire, and Prince Wu's decision to dissolve the Earth Kingdom monarchy, the state of Qutong - along with all the other states and provinces in the nation - had been allowed to freely elect their governors. Xiao's father - the incumbent - had won the election in Qutong; the fact that he had once been appointed to the position by the Earth Queen didn't change the fact that he had successfully guided the state through many troubles and hardships during his tenure as governor. He had the wisdom and the experience to rule, and now he would be able to do so without being shackled by the tax demands of a corrupt queen, or the labour demands of a paranoid despot.
But Xiao knew that, even after everything that had happened, things weren't going to magically become perfect. They never did when there was a power vacuum to fill.