A Charming Spell

By InfiniteSet (無限集合)

A/N: This prompt was a challenge placed at the Avatar: The Last Airbender Challenge Forum by Emote Control.

Prologue - More Sinned Against than Sinning

To someone who sees nothing, does black exist? Or do blind people truly see... nothing? The only way a person who sees can explain nothing is an infinite void of nothing but color, but to a blind person there is no color, there is no form, there is no void, no beginning, no end- nothing.

An Earthbender is someone who can take this nothing- this formless, colorless, non-void nothing- and make it into something. Well... to be honest, that is what Earthbenders were once. They were the creators of form once, long ago.

To someone who creates form, sight is useless. You could say a true Earthbender must be blind, but only if you apply this antiquated definition of an Earthbender. But if this definition is the true definition of an Earthbender, then the most powerful Earthbender has to be blind to the newly formed world so that they can create anew.
-Chikyū no Sakusei

...

"Is there nothing we can do?" The candle flicked and shadows danced across the walls. One shadow spoke to another, its voice low and hushed.

"I don't think so... not until the child is born, anyway." Was the reply.

"And we do nothing until then?" said a third shadow, it's voice trembling. Another flicker made the shadows all become one blob of opaque darkness and separate just as quickly. Perhaps in doing so, they traded with each other; Maybe they exchanged the secrets only shadows knew or maybe they just traded pieces of themselves.

"We have no choice. Anything we do now might seriously endanger you and the child. When it's born... then..."

"I have to agree with the Master. We'll get an excellent physician. I promise."

"But... if the child is born... we could hurt it! We could end up maiming in the worst possible way! And then what...?"

"I don't want to do anything to hurt our child, but in the end this will aid it! And in case... in case it dies..." The voice faltered, floundering for the right words.

"The child will live." The last voice said confidently. "And we will make sure that it is healthy and strong. And it will be the world's strongest Earthbender."

"...I'm worried."

"We're all worried, but the three of us will manage this. You know we can, don't you?" Two shadows mingled and did not separate. It was not a trick of the light that made them join, rather it was force of will. "The child, our child. He'll live."

A short, quiet laugh followed. "It could be a girl."

"Then she'll live. She must. She's a Bei Fong, after all."

"...Of course. Our child will live..." The voice was wistful, faraway. "And be the strongest Earthbender."

...

Had you been in the room, deep within the Bei Fong estate, where Lao, Poppy and Yu sat, poring over old scrolls, you might have thought it sweet. Sheets were strewn this way and that way, all about child-rearing and giving birth. You might have thought the expecting parents were worried about having their first child, that they were trying to ensure that their daughter was a bender, or perhaps that they had suspected a defect and were trying to fix it preemptively.

Amongst all those rolls of paper lay one specific text, separated from the others. It is the oldest scroll that the Bei Fongs own, quite like a family heirloom. It is called Chikyū no Sakusei and in it, many things have been written about the nature of Earthbending, from its creation to the extent of its power. But this scroll doesn't start with the creation of Earthbending within humans. It starts with the world being molded from a shapeless, formless... nothing. It meanders for a while, bordering on religion to explain the placement of the original benders and water, but finally it speaks of the first Earthbenders, the Badgermoles, who worked with the Dragons and the Sky Bisons to create the world. It says, almost verbatim, that it was their blindness that made the Badgermoles so powerful.

There is no reason to read such a text; it is after all, an old book filled with only speculation about how things came to be. Only a few copies were created and most of those belong to old, Earth Kingdom families who have forgotten about it. But the Bei Fongs never forgot that book and its theories. At least not Lao, whose father had been hoping for a blind child and was disappointed with his perfectly healthy son.

Has it occurred to you yet, why the Bei Fongs were in this hidden room that night?