"Kaelen... Mara... Silas..." The Avatar allowed each name to hang in the air like a physical weight, forcing the soldiers to confront the emptiness each loss left behind. "Each one a brother... Each one a sister..."
"Each one a piece of the foundation we stand upon." The pauses were surgical, allowing the grief to breathe, to sting, to transform from raw pain into something sharper: resolve.
"I know what some of you whisper in the dark when the torches burn low," the Avatar continued, its gaze dropping slightly, as if sharing a private confidence with the masses. "You wonder if we are enough..."
"You wonder if a single city can truly hold back the tide of something so ancient, so hungry."
The Avatar looked up, its eyes Rex's eyes scanning the formations with a calculated warmth that felt almost achingly genuine. "I know many of you have wondered why Helena Von Starlight isn't standing here with us today."
