Sword and Snow

Emery

A week after Stena had broken through to the Sky Realm, things seemed to finally be fully in motion again after the short break.

The Elders declared Cierra, Stena, and Mica were all ready for their Bonding ceremonies, and things were being prepared for them. If all went well, the three of them would have their Bonding ceremonies held two weeks later. The gap gave them all enough time to get their emotions and Qi in order. Especially Stena, who still needed to consolidate her new Sky Realm Qi and get her emotions in order.

To the girl's credit, Emery thought that she was doing incredibly well. Her trial had shaken her up in a big way, setting loose a decade's worth of bottled up emotions in some ways. Then following that up with direct conversations regarding her feelings with everyone had no doubt shaken even more loose. But she was working through it remarkably well with Vyne's help, and seemed as stable as ever.

Altogether, it finally felt like things were getting back on track and moving forward.

Even the Elders seemed to be in good moods. Despite all of the concern over Aysol and whatever retribution he might bring, there didn't seem to be any movement from the city's potential enemies. Even knowing that dragons often worked on a different timescale than most people did - even including Cultivators and their heightened life spans - she had still expected their enemy to move against them more quickly.

But here they were, around nine months later, having heard literally nothing from the 'enemy'. Emery really wasn't sure what to make of that. On one hand, it seemed like it confirmed that, yes, dragons really didn't operate on 'normal' time scales. On the other hand, though, it left her feeling that, surely, they must be coming up on some sort of event.

Emery was pulled from her long, winding train of thought when Avuri pushed the usual comb into her hand. She looked up from where she was sitting on the edge of their bed and into Avuri's eyes. She was standing over her with a mild look of concern.

"Em? Are you alright?"

Emery breathed out slowly, nodding her head. "Yeah, I'm alright. Just…lost in thought."

"What about?"

Emery shifted sideways on the bed so Avuri could join her and sit right in front of her - their usual way for combing out Avuri's hair. As Avuri climbed up onto the bed, Emery scratched a sudden itch on the back of her head. "Everything?"

"Everything?"

"Everything." Emery chuckled as she settled in to comb out her wife's hair. There was something incredibly calming about running the tortoiseshell comb through Avuri's long locks, for both of them. "Aysol, mostly, I suppose. But also us."

"What about us?" Avuri asked, clearly concerned with Emery's choice of words, as she turned half way around to try to see her. Emery smiled, directing Avuri to face fully forward again with her hands. She leaned her forehead against the back of Avuri's head.

"Not like that." She clarified. "I love you, Avuri, that's not a concern, I promise."

"Then what do you mean?"

Once again, Emery started working the comb through the lovely strands of silvery white. "It's been nine months since we supposedly angered Aysol. We were told he may or may not be angry with us for it. We were told that dragons see time differently, so who knows when he may make another move."

She sighed. "We've been stuck in this will-he-won't-he situation for almost a year, and I'm not a fan of it. And that's even taking into account the massive distraction that the whole Dragon-Kin Bond situation gave us."

Avuri's eyes drifted as far to the side as they could manage, trying to peek at Emery's face. "You're getting antsy."

"You could say that, yeah." Emery nodded. "I don't know the last time I had a potential blade hanging over my neck like this. And because Aysol is such a threat, it makes it difficult to do anything but train and prepare and wait."

It was no secret that Emery and Avuri had both wanted to be at home as much as possible, and as soon as they had finished their Dragon-Kin training, they had wanted to stay in the Basin as much as possible. Neither had said it out loud, but a large part of that was the desire to be close on the off chance something happened.

"Before, if I was feeling like I needed to do something or make a difference, it was easy enough to start looking for signs of a demonic sect to hunt. But now…"

"We can't just leave the Basin undefended for a month or more at a time." Avuri said.

"Yeah." Emery agreed. "I've always had enemies, but having them be in a position to threaten my home and family is new. Feeling like I need to stay home just in case is restricting in a way I don't like."

Avuri was quiet for a while, letting the comb and Emery's fingers drift easily through her hair. As Sky Realm Cultivators, it was rare that she ever had knots to untangle, which meant for as much as they both enjoyed their ritual, there was little point to it other than the act itself.

That hardly mattered to Emery, who found the act itself comforting. And she knew that Avuri enjoyed it too.

"I suppose you don't want to hear that we could just throw ourselves into training." Avuri offered eventually.

"If you already knew that, why did you even say it?" Emery joked, lightly tapping the back of Avuri's head.

"Well, if it was acceptable, it'd be an easy fix for the antsy issue."

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"Would it?" Emery asked, leading forward and placing her chin on Avuri's shoulder. "Training for training's sake is hard. You don't like it any more than I do." She kissed Avuri on the cheek. "And I love you for that, too. But we've been 'training' for months. That was fine because we had a goal. Now we've met that goal, and the tangible thing to reach for is gone."

"We could start trying to reach the Heavenly Realm." Avuri suggested, but it sounded half-hearted. They both knew how far away that was. Without some sort of life altering power, that would be years away at a minimum.

"We both know that's not happening any time soon." Emery said.

"I dunno." Avuri's voice took on a whimsical tone. "We haven't truly seen what our capabilities as Dragon-Kin are. Maybe the Bond will give us a boost forward."

"Unless that boost is literal magic, I don't think it's going to be enough to put the Heavenly Realm in any sort of meaningful reach." Emery said.

"You never know. We made it to the Sky Realm well ahead of when traditional knowledge would say so, too."

"There were always records of Cultivators using Dual Cultivation to consolidate their strength quicker, Ri."

"And remind me how many records there are of Dragon-Kin, exactly?" Avuri asked, turning just enough for me to see the cheeky grin on her face.

Emery took the chance to flick her in the nose. "Stop turning around. You're gonna get the comb caught in your hair."

Avuri snorted and said, "We both know that's not likely," but still followed the instruction. "And you didn't answer my question."

"There aren't any." Emery said.

"Right. So who knows how this might affect us when it comes to our Cultivation."

"It's been a few weeks, Ri. And while things have certainly changed, I'm not sure we're Cultivating faster than before."

"It's only been a few weeks, you mean. As you'll recall, it took a little while for us to really see the benefits of Dual Cultivation really start to show themselves, too."

"You say that, but I remember Cultivation itself feeling pretty different almost immediately." Emery said, discarding the comb to scratch lightly at Avuri's scalp in a massage.

Avuri all but purred as a shiver ran down her spine before she replied, "Em, our Cultivation has changed so drastically in the last two months that I'm not sure we'd even notice a difference if the Dragon-Kin Bond had doubled our speed outright."

Emery busied herself dragging her fingernails in light circles around Avuri's temples. "I suppose that's true…I guess we'll see where things go from here."

Emery couldn't help but smile as Avuri leaned back against her, melting into her touch. Her wife reminded her of an animal, pushing her head into Emery's scratching fingers. When she eventually slowed the scratching down to just cradle Avuri's head nicely, their gazes met and held for a long moment.

"I'm sorry you feel stuck." Avuri said, her voice full of sincerity. "I've been there. It's not pleasant."

Emery leaned down to kiss Avuri gently, despite her being essentially upside-down because of the way her head was in her lap. When she pulled back, she crushed their cheeks together in a clear sign of affection.

"Thanks for being here."

"Of course, love."

Emery took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "You know, it's funny. Despite spending so much of my life desperately wanting a home like this, and then wanting so bad to be able to just live in it, I never realized how easy it is to suddenly feel trapped by it. Well. Maybe trapped isn't the right word. That feels too negative."

Avuri chuckled. "I get it though. Up until now, we've always had the option of going back out there and hunting demonic Cultivators or something like that. Now, suddenly, that feels like a tremendous risk."

Emery nodded. "That's a better way to put it, yeah."

Avuri sat quietly in thought for a moment before speaking again. "You know, you've always been so set on protecting people, but until now, you've always done that by going out, finding them, and bringing them back here." She shifted in Emery's hands until she could meet her eyes again. "The need to defend people in your own home is new for you, isn't it?"

Emery thought about it for a moment before replying. "Even when I was a kid, 'home' was safe." She began, thinking back. "Admittedly, Vale settled with the six of us kids in the middle of nowhere and shared that information with basically no one until we were all fully able to defend ourselves. Then everyone spread out to do their own things while dad and I travelled together."

She looked up to stare at a knot in the wood of the ceiling. "It might actually be more apt to say that I've never really had a home to defend. Even when we were living in the house I grew up in, it was more like a hideout than a home." She smiled ruefully. "This is the first time I'm living somewhere openly, and people know where my home is. So, I suppose, yes. It's new to me."

Avuri leaned back, letting herself be fully supported by Emery's body. "We'll make sure nothing happens to anyone here."

"I know." Emery said. "We even have six dragons on our side."

"And soon, we'll even have eight half dragons, too. Pseudo-dragons?"

Emery snorted when Avuri turned her head this way and that as if considering what to call them. "I think just sticking with Dragon-Kin is probably for the best."

"That's probably true."

With a sigh, Emery bent down a little to fully embrace her wife in a tight, squeezing hug. "Thank you."

Avuri snuggled into Emery's arms. "Anytime."

They stayed like that for a few minutes, just enjoying one another's company and contact. It was Avuri that eventually moved first, trying to turn around and face Emery more properly. There was a clear struggle on her face, and she looked like she didn't want to say whatever was on her mind, but Emery could already feel the offer through their bond anyway.

"If…if you feel like you really need to go and do something, I can always stay here and watch everyone."

Emery took Avuri's hands in hers and gave them a reassuring squeeze, then chuckled. "I appreciate you saying that out loud, Ri, but you already know my answer. I'm not going anywhere without you. Practical reasons like needing to be near one another to properly Cultivate aside, I have no plans to ever separate from you for any reason. I'm just feeling restless."

"I know. But I also don't want you to be here feeling trapped all the time either. Especially if it's years before anything actually happens." Avuri said.

"If the feeling ever gets to be unmanageable, you'll be the first to know. And I'm sure you already know that."

Avuri nodded. It was honestly getting more and more impossible to hide any major feelings between them as their bond continued to grow in power. Something like an overwhelming urge to get up and do something would be felt by Avuri long before it actually drove Emery into action.

"Maybe something interesting will happen here soon?" Avuri said idly.

Emery chuckled, pressing their foreheads together and whispered, "Be careful saying stuff like that out loud, alright? As much as I'm itching to do something, I'd rather not tempt fate like that."

"Good point." Avuri said, then kissed her.