The second morning at Moonhowl Academy began with a gray sky and air that smelled faintly of rain.

Korra stood before the mirror in her room, adjusting the stiff collar of her vest for the third time. No matter how she tried, it never seemed to sit right. The fabric still felt foreign, too fine for her calloused hands, too clean for a girl who once scrubbed floors and fetched firewood before dawn.

Mara, already tying her boots, caught her staring. “You will be fine,” she said with an ...