Chapter 3

The dreams were somewhat useful. Visions of earth sages and master earthbenders teaching avatars across generations.

It was just that though, visions. While they imparted insightful bits of wisdom, it was only marginally better than trying to remember details from the show I watched so long ago.

It didn't matter though. They would have to be enough since I'm the only bender on this planet so there were no other sources of instruction on the art of bending.

It was a rare moment when my brother and I were left alone. Jaime was sitting on his bottom playing with the toy sword I had surrendered to him after I realized I was an earthbender while I found myself standing, toddling in reality, in the center of our little nursery. I had rolled up the floor rug so I could feel the rock under me directly.

I thought the sensation would be dirty or coarse but as I dug my legs into the ground, trying to achieve as much contact as I could, it felt oddly reassuring. Like a phantom sensation of me putting my legs into warm sand on a day to the beach.

Slowly, I spread my legs to the side while simultaneously lowering my body into a squat trying to achieve a crowding bridge stance, a staple of earthbending.

I found the motion oddly nostalgic though in my past life, it was just called a horse stance as far as I could tell but my previous avatar incarnations all called it the crowding bridge stance.

Rooting. If I wanted to move earth, I had to be just as stable as it. In the end, it was all based on an immovable foundation.

Unfortunately for me, my foundations were weak and puny and my thighs immediately started burning, faltering. It didn't take very long for me to topple backward, my balance shot by exhausted legs.

I stared blankly at the chandelier above me, waiting for the burning to recede from my thighs.

They say the most difficult step of a journey that takes ten thousand steps was the first.

Well, this journey was one I was determined to walk.

I forced myself back up and forced myself back into the crowding bridge stance.

Immovable as Casterly Rock. Unshakable as Casterly Rock. Enduring as Casterly Rock. I am a mountain and a mountain is me. I could feel my chi shifting, connecting with the ground beneath me.

Then my Casterly Rock-like foundation shattered as Jaime toddled into my back, bringing me down with him.

As he babbled nonsense at me excitedly, I sighed.

This was going to be a long journey indeed.

A long journey of many squats I foresee.


Minute by minute.

Hour by hour.

Day by day.

Week by week.

Month by month.

Time passed and I was three now.

And I was also rubbing my face, trying to soothe the ache after I tripped over my trunk and fell on my face.

I'm pretty sure all my servants and chambermaids thought I was stupid but it was for a good cause! A necessary one!

It was all to further my power!

Or more specifically, seismic sense.

I was an earthbender first so I was determined to learn all the skills that earthbending entails.

Not to mention seismic sense is cool as hell, listening to the earth through your feet and all that. It'll be like my weaker version of Spidey sense.

I would say that progress was slow but that was a a filthy lie, and Mama Joanna told me lying is bad. How very unnoble-like mother dearest. I'm sure Tywin would teach the opposite.

I knew seismic sense was possible. Toph did it and taught her non-blind daughters. Aang did it. Hell, even in my past lives, you heard stories about visually impaired people literally able to use echolocation by clicking their mouths.

If normal humans with no chi were already capable of something like that, then by the seven hells, I was going to learn seismic sense!

It wasn't like I didn't already have a weird earth sense. Ever since I bent for the first time two years ago, I've only felt my connection with the earth deepening.

It was an interesting feeling. The earth around me was kinda like my limbs. There wasn't exactly a sensation that they were there, yet you were always aware of them and able to command them. The earth and stone around me felt similar. It wasn't claustrophobic or distracting exactly, more just a constant feeling of existence perhaps? I wondered if all earthbenders felt this or was this just a me thing? I think I vaguely remembered some connection between Avatar Kyoshi and the earth but I couldn't remember the finer details, long eroded by time.

When I became aware of the growing connection between the earth and me, I thought it might have been a good time to try to learn seismic sense. Also, it was a rather less conspicuous way to train compared to chucking rocks about. I ended up spending a whole week just stomping the ground constantly, trying to get feedback from it.

Instead, the only thing I got was an increase in activity in the servant's rumor mill about me and a scolding from my mom after my feet started to bleed.

After that, I decided to try something else. Toph learned it from the badgermoles by necessity, both being blind and all. Also, I remembered that Toph didn't go stomping around everywhere to use it, it was only a Korra series thing, and that Aang learned it by being blindfolded.

So I thought I would follow in the wisdom of Avatar Aang.

By trying to live blind.

Results were mixed.

But I wasn't giving up! This was merely the first step of my journey to master earthbending.

First seismic sense.

The second would be metal bending, 'cause that's metal as hell.

The third would be lavabending.

Not a damn clue how to go about that last one though or if it was truly possible. Hopefully, I'll dream of Kyoshi doing it so I can work it out from there.

I stood back up while really trying to maximize my contact with the rock beneath me.

Mom hated that I always forwent the little child slippers she wished for me to wear but I equally despised how they slightly muted my earthen connection. It wasn't deafening, but it felt like someone put cotton in my ears.

Mom thought calluses were a bad thing but I was proud of the calluses I built up. Calluses are a sign of hard work. You should be proud Mom!

Well, calluses aren't lady-like but who the fuck would be looking at the bottom of my feet.

I took another step forward.

And promptly walked into a chair.

FUCK!

"Cersy hurt again?" An innocent voice asked worriedly.

"No, 'm fine," I mumbled out while I oriented myself towards the source of Jaime's voice. Canon Cersei wasn't kidding when she said she and Jaime were inseparable as children. I didn't mind it too much though as Jaime was a cute kid as young children often were. I hadn't told him yet about what I could do but I knew I would someday soon as the amount of things I could practice without being obvious was limited.

"Jaime, stomp please," I asked. The other reason I liked him was cause he was my lovable simp.

The purpose of this was to give me something to focus on. I was thinking maybe my struggles with seismic sense might lay in the fact that there was too much feedback for me even to try separating from each other as everyone lived and worked inside this mountain they call a castle.

It would be the equivalent of trying to feel subtle vibrations in the ground while a construction crew was jackhammering away at solid concrete next to me.

I heard rather than sensed Jaime doing as I asked and fell into a crowding bridge stance and tried to really dig my feet into the stone beneath me.

Closing my eyes, I shifted my attention and tried to ignore everything around me but the phantom sense of earth surrounding me.

Slow, steady, and methodical breaths.

Ignore the sounds of servants clattering away outside.

Push the constant awareness of chi into the background.

Focus.

I am of the earth and the earth is of me.

Neutral Jing. Neither positive nor negative. We wait and endure.

Minutes passed and the phantom sensation of the earth around me became slightly more defined and just the little bit sharper.

Enough so that I felt the barest hint of active feedback. Like if a fly landed on my arm or something was crawling up my leg.

My eyes shot open, the sounds and sensations of the world jarring back into place but I turned to where I felt the feedback from.

Lo and behold, there was little Jaime stomping about swinging his toy sword in hand. I felt it. Momentary and slight, but felt it all the same. It was no imagination or brush of the wind, but actual feedback. I burst into excited laughter. The sensation was weak and near useless, but to me, it would open up the world one day.


"Come on, Jaime! It's time to keep exploring!" I beckoned while pulling Jaime's arm.

As a highborn child, there wasn't a lot whole lot to do. We were only four at this point so there was still a year or two before we started lessons and stuff so that left a bunch of free time.

To spend such free time, I decided exploration of Casterly Rock was the order of the day. What little I saw definitely cinched that the reality I now lived in was closer to the book series than the show.

Well, what I saw and the fact my lord father wasn't Charles Dance. Tywin Lannister of my reality took after his book counterpart and I couldn't stop giggling at his whack-ass sideburns. Maybe he thought it made him look regal, akin to a lion's mane or something but I thought they looked silly as hell but if no one else was going to say anything, I sure as heck wasn't.

The show had Casterly Rock as merely a large castle built atop an oceanside hill whereas right now, the enclosure of my room was unmarred stone, not castle bricks. With our wealth, we could afford to decorate the walls with tapestries and such, but it didn't change the fact it was a man-made mountain cavern we were living in.

"I'm coming, stop pulling," Jaime whined at me to which I huffed.

Before I could say anything, the door suddenly opened to reveal Genna.

"Auntie Genna!" I called out and hugged her legs. Genna was a constant presence in my second life to a surprising degree. Jaime and I saw our mother often but during the times of year when Father was in the capital, the day-to-day ruling of Casterly Rock fell mostly to Joanna along with a little bit of help from Uncle Kevan.

"Going out I see?" She gave the two of us a warm smile and returned my hug. "Where to?"

"Adventure!"

"And where shall this grand adventure take you?" Genna entertained us.

"Uhhh," Jaime started hesitatingly, unsure.

"Wherever our feet take us! Like Lomas!" I spoke in turn for Jaime.

A soft, amused laugh escaped Genna's mouth. "I'm not sure how far those tiny legs of yours will take you but may your journey be swift and true, and as wondrous as Lomas' ever was." Her eyes sharpened suddenly. "But unlike Lomas, something seems to be lacking, Cersei, yes?"

I flushed before looking away, knowing what Genna was asking of me. The exploration of Casterly Rock was for curiosity's sake, but the second was to practice my seismic sense. I'd made what I think was good progress but with only Aang to measure myself against, I wasn't really sure.

I also discovered I really hated footwear of any kind whether it be boots, slippers, sandals, or whatever else. I enjoyed the constant connection between me and Casterly Rock.

"Cersei. Where are your slippers?" Genna asked sternly.

"Lost em," I lied quietly. With luck, they would be around the arm of Dorne by now.

Unfortunately for me, Genna already had several children and could tell I wasn't going to budge. So she attacked the weakest link.

"Jaime, where are your sister's slippers?"

Jaime, twin brother of mine, blood of my blood, we who came into life together, surely you would stand by your poor sister, right?

Unbeknownst and unheeding of my mental pleading and reasoning, innocent and bright-eyed Jaime immediately cocked his head adorably before turning around and pointing his treacherous little finger at our little window slit into the outside world of blue and greens.

YOU TRAITOR!

It was a fit of childish impulse which saw me defenestrate my footwear out said window. In hindsight, there were better places where I could've hidden them but I couldn't help myself. I was pretty spoiled honestly.

Thankfully, Genna looked more exasperated than angry. "I will need to speak to your mother about this Cersei," she said before sighing. "Why is it that you seem to dislike your footwear so, little Cersei."

"I like the feeling of the rock under my feet," I replied honestly. Hopefully, she'll just chalk it up to a kid thing that I'll eventually grow out of. "The earth sings to me." I followed up, leaning into childish delusions.

An amused glint entered Genna's eyes before it passed. "So you say Cersei. Go on then little adventurers. Be like Lomas Longstrider and see all that Casterly Rock has to offer. You especially, Jaime. All of Casterly Rock shall one day be yours to rule, little lion."

I needed no more encouragement before I pulled Jaime and me out into the hallway.