Sword and Snow

Cierra

"Cierra?"

Cyril's voice was the first thing she heard when any semblance of consciousness returned. Cierra felt a little weak and woozy. The second thing that made itself known was the stickiness and the stench. Her legs were still crossed in a meditative pose, but her upper body had slumped forward and she was face down in a foul smelling gunk. Despite desperately wanting to pull away from it, her body was being too stubborn to actually listen. For the moment, all she could do was flop to the side, but her strength was returning.

"Cyril?"

The dragon-man smiled. "You did well. Everything seems to be in order on the outside. How's your spirit feel?"

Cierra shifted her face as far away from the tarry substance as she could and took a deep breath before reaching out to feel her meridians and Core. Her meridians seemed fine, but there was a moment of panic when she reached for her Core but found it entirely missing. Instead, there was a swirling mass of intensely dense Qi in its place, which she realized must have been her inner world. Her Core missing was a normal part of being in the Sky Realm, and that would be something she'd have to get used to.

"In one piece, at least." She muttered. "My body is somewhat numb, though. Is that normal?"

"It…can be. Can you move?" Cyril asked.

"Barely," she grunted as she tried again, only succeeding in tumbling over onto her side.

"Alright," Cyril said calmly before he turned back toward the door to shout. "Hey, we're all finished in here, but we need a hand. Cierra's fine, but a little woozy."

Unsurprisingly to Cierra, her mothers immediately tumbled through the door to the closed room while it was still opening.

"She's okay? You said she's okay."

"I'm fine, Mom." Cierra said, rolling her eyes. "But my body is a little numb and doesn't want to listen. It can smell just fine though. Help."

Both of her parents smiled and chuckled at that. Emery stepped forward to help Cierra up off the ground while Avuri used bursts of pressurized water to slough off as much of the muck as possible.

"How bad is it?" Emery asked.

"I'm not sure I can stand on my own. My legs feel like jelly. Arms too, for that matter."

"We better get you somewhere you can lay down undisturbed before it gets worse."

Cierra blinked at her mother, confused. And suddenly worried. "What do you mean, 'worse'?"

Emery hefted her up entirely in her arms, which Cierra was sure looked silly. She had quite a bit of height on her mother, but Emery showed no signs of struggle with the weight. "Well…" Her mother's response was unusually cagey, and she even looked away.

"Go. I'll help clean up." Avuri said. Cierra had a sudden strong urge to turn toward her other mother, but wasn't able to do so quickly.

When Emery moved out of the room far more quickly than Cierra thought was necessary, she started to genuinely worry.

"Mom? What's going on?"

"Emery?" Vale asked as she entered the sitting room. "What happened? Is Cierra alright?"

"Numb." Was the single word response that Emery gave before looking down at Cierra. The mute pity in her eyes once again made Cierra's stomach drop. "From I think the neck down?"

"Oh no." Vale said. "There's a bed in the side room, down that way."

"Got it."

"Mom? You're scaring me. What's wrong?" Cierra asked again, this time sounding a little more afraid.

"You're going to be fine, Cierra. Cyril wasn't lying. But the next couple hours are going to be…bad."

"What does that mean?" Cierra asked, the light touch of hysteria at no one explaining what was happening raising her voice.

And then she felt a prickle travel down her spine, almost like a shiver. It was a small thing, but it felt like someone had rolled a circular metal brush down her back. As they entered the room with the bed, as promised, she felt the same sensation again, but it traveled over most of her body.

"I promise you'll be fine." Emery said, seeing the twitch in Cierra's face. "The same thing happened to me when I broke through, but it was only to my arm."

"Okay…?"

"Whatever was triggered during your breakthrough, you gave yourself a minor spiritual injury. Probably by pushing too hard - that's the normal cause."

"Right…"

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Long story short, you're going to feel like you're on pins and needles for the next few hours."

The statement, accompanied by Emery trying her best to put Cierra down gently, acted as the perfect cue for some of the feeling in her body to return.

Her mother had not been joking. At first, it felt like her limbs and body were just waking up after the numbness, but the growth of the tingling never stopped. In minutes, Cierra's entire body felt like it was on fire. Or, more accurately, surrounded by a bed of needles on all sides. Any tiny motion set off wave after wave of the burning tingles, even breathing.

It was absolutely agonizing, but not actually dangerous in any meaningful way, according to her mother. Emery hadn't left the room except once, just to let everyone know what was happening. And when she returned, Avuri came with her, too.

Tears were streaming down from Cierra's eyes as she tried to hold as still as possible, which made her feel even worse because the pain truly wasn't bad enough to cry about. The tears were involuntary, embarrassing, and wouldn't stop. But the worst part was that she hadn't had a chance to clean up. And because the tingling had ended up affecting her entire body, she couldn't really do anything about it now.

Her cheap robes - and now this bedding too - were completely done for. Even Emery's clothing was probably beyond saving as it had gotten covered in the breakthrough sludge when she carried Cierra, and that stuff was notoriously impossible to remove from cloth of any kind. It even made solid objects like stone smell awful for days unless someone scrubbed it with an abrasive and extra heavily scented soap.

Even when Avuri had tried to wash some of the gunk away using her Qi and a light touch of water, just brushing against Cierra's skin made her want to writhe. So all she could do was wait. She took solace in the fact that the numbness and subsequent pins and needles didn't extend past her shoulders, so she could at least talk, as long as she did so carefully.

And talk they did. Her mothers asked her about her breakthrough trial, and she told them about it without really holding back. They both knew her more than well enough to know that she struggled with being indecisive, so there was nothing she felt like she needed to hide. She even openly talked about the slightly more buried feeling of being not enough, or simply lucky and talented, that her trial had latched onto.

Avuri's smile was full of understanding, and she reached out toward Cierra as if to golf her hand reassuringly, but stopped before touching her. "The trial has ways of dragging out feelings that you sometimes don't even realize you have. It's very…annoying like that."

Emery nodded in agreement. "I've not experienced it myself, but it seems pretty common that it has a tendency to prey on insecurities, even making use of lies that don't quite sound like lies. Or other little tidbits that you can recognize as not quite right, but still put you off balance."

"Apparently." Cierra said flatly. "I never really thought about the way I've approached Cultivation in the terms that it put forth. Saying I've routinely taken the easy way out, or that I've just gone with the flow isn't exactly incorrect. But there's always been more to those decisions than just 'the other way is hard'."

Cierra had to remind herself that a few times since she woke up. Yes, she had ended up more closely following Avuri's path because she had a stronger affinity for water and ice Qi control. But she did that so she could make sure she was capable of defending herself if it was necessary. Which it had been, when Leon had made it through to the Basin.

Well, her mothers had apparently also still been there in case anything went wrong, but still. She had wanted the strength to defend herself like that, and she wouldn't have had it if she had split her focus between the two styles evenly.

And even then, while she wasn't spending her time on learning metal-based techniques, she had never ignored that part of her Cultivation. She still ran through an altered version of Emery's original metal Cultivation technique just as often as she used Avuri's ice to be sure that her strength and Qi in each style were equal. It was just that she had no good way to use her metal side yet.

On the other hand, maybe it was finally time to put some effort into learning Emery's techniques properly.

There were specific bits of her trial she chose not to share. Like the bit about her apparently believing Stena was more worthy than her for the gifts they were getting because when she wanted something, she made it happen. Those were both feelings she had come to terms with long ago.

Stena had a habit of pushing herself well beyond her limits while trying to chase Cierra in lots of things. But while she was constantly putting herself down for not surpassing Cierra, Stena had a level of perseverance that Cierra couldn't compete with. She didn't really ever say it so bluntly out loud, but Cierra deeply envied her younger sister for having that level of desire and commitment to the things she wanted. And that was in addition to the general respect that she had for Stena, which was massive in its own right.

She was just also entirely sure that she couldn't ever tell Stena that she had those feelings. There was a time when she had tried to get them across when they were younger and Stena just swore up and down that Cierra was lying, and it made them both feel worse. She didn't think Stena would throw a fit like she had when they were younger, but she was equally sure that Stena still wouldn't believe her, and she was afraid it would do more harm than good.

Eventually, Emery stood up. Cierra tried to gingerly turn her head toward her to see better, but didn't get very far. Her mother looked down at her with a crooked, apologetic smile.

"Not that you need me to tell you, but stay put. You'll be fine in a few hours, but I won't lie to you; I need to get out of this room before the stench makes me sick."

"Em, you shouldn't lie." Avuri chuckled as she stood too. "We're going to go check on the others. Mica is up next, and I want to make sure she's doing okay before she takes her turn."

"That's okay." Cierra said. "I can't move without it feeling like I'm being assaulted by a porcupine that is literally on fire, so I'm perfectly happy to just lay here."

"Alright. When you think you can move with it only feeling like a prickly little hedgehog, call for us." Emery said, gently resting a comforting hand on Cierra's forehead, which was thankfully safe to touch. And then she pulled her hand back with bits of black sludge on it and made a face. "We need to get you a bath."

"I would love nothing more." Cierra said, trying her absolute best to ignore the stench that permeated the room. "Don't suppose either of you have a way to turn off your sense of smell?"

Emery and Avuri shared a quick glance then laughed together. "Nope. You get to suffer just like the rest of us."

"Hey! You didn't have to lay in your - ow." Cierra closed her eyes against the wave of needles that passed over her body as she got too excited and yelled.

Her mothers' laughter stopped immediately. "Cierra?"

"Are you okay?"

"I'd be better if I could clean up, but yes. I'm fine. Just go before you make me mad again. Or laugh."

"Yeah, alright."

Avuri took her turn to give Cierra a comforting touch on her head, brushing her bunk-matted hair out of her eyes. Unlike Emery, Avuri didn't immediately shake her hand free of the muck, instead politely waiting until she left the room to wash it away.

Cierra heard everyone in the main room react to the smell as soon as her mother entered. She held back a chuckle, as she heard her younger sister whining about it.