Sword and Snow

Emery

As I led my younger sisters up to the Basin, I told Avuri to get the kids ready for an early bedtime tonight. Given that Rylie and Demi were both injured - and I currently had yet to see the extent to which they were - I wanted to sit them down, check them out, and get the full story before I let six kids give them the run around.

Avuri agreed, only after I assured her that both of my sisters seemed fine. They were hiking behind me well enough, and that seemed to reassure Avuri that she wasn't needed immediately. After that, I slowed our pace down, allowing Avuri time to get the kids in bed. We'd get back solidly after dark, but that was fine.

Despite the minor teasing I had done earlier about keeping a brisk pace, I hadn't really moved us quickly at all. And for all of Demi's bravado, it seemed like Rylie and her apologetic request to keep things a little more sedate was the correct approach. I had figured that Demi was prepared for more strenuous activity, given she had only shown me an injured arm and had seemed willing to race, but even she seemed to be in pretty rough shape. At least for a Cultivator, anyway - they were both keeping about the pace a mortal would, if they could ignore the cold.

It made me a little worried about their current bodily state. On one hand, I knew it couldn't be all that bad. Vale had sent them both this way, presumably after they were injured. He wouldn't have let them do anything like that if they were truly in any danger. But on the other hand, I wasn't entirely sure why he would send them our way if they needed any sort of treatment. Avuri may have had some minor healing capabilities, but they were cuts and scrapes, mostly. Admittedly, she was also surprisingly adept at cleansing the body of poisons, but that didn't seem to be what my sisters were needing.

I didn't want to ask them too many specific questions while we were walking, so I just decided to trust our father. If he had honestly just sent the two of them our way, they must be at least well enough to make it to the house. And if anything was urgent, I trusted them to say so.

When we finally reached the mountainous barrier that set the Basin in its little valley, and crossed through one of the small crevasses in the rock that allowed us to cut through the wall, Rylie doubled over. She placed her hands on her knees, breathing deeply as if she were exhausted.

"Can we…take a short break?" She asked, trying to regulate her breathing. Demi quickly moved to her side and rubbed her back. Rylie's longer, wavy hair was obscuring a lot of her face, but I could hear her struggling to keep her breathing even. I didn't need to see whatever sort of grimace was on her face.

"Of course." I said, then brought forth some of my Qi. It wasn't perfect, but I quickly made three flat, rounded pieces of metal that shot up from the ground. I wasn't sure they'd be comfortable, but at least we'd be able to lean against the improvised chair-backs and relax for a bit.

"Thanks, Em." Rylie said, lowering to the ground. She had enough control to do so gently without plopping into the spot, which seemed like a good thing.

"Don't worry about it." I said, pointing toward the house in the center of the Basin. "We're not that far now, and we're within the climate Array, too. We're about as safe here as we would be there."

Demi shaded her eyes against the basically non-existent sun, which had already dipped below the edge of the cliffs, trying to get a good look at the rest of the Basin. "It looks pretty similar to the last time we were here."

"We did future proof it somewhat when we first built it all." I said, "So, yeah, we haven't really needed to change much."

"That makes sense." Demi nodded.

"Is anyone else here right now aside from you, Avuri, and the kids?" Rylie asked, her breath already beginning to even out as her Cultivator body did its job.

"Right now, no. It's just the eight of us." I answered. "There's plenty of space for the two of you, so don't worry about it. You could even each take a separate guest house if you wanted to."

"We'll probably stay together." Demi said, and Rylie nodded in agreement. "There's no reason to make a mess in more than one of your many houses."

"My sister is such a level-headed and smart business woman! Owning so many houses…" Rylie snarked. I just rolled my eyes.

"And hers is the biggest of all!" Demi said, picking up the trail. "And settling such beautiful, untouched land, too. What a winner!"

As she continued, I watched Rylie chuckle and gingerly run her hands through her hair, trying to get it in place and out of her eyes. It only then occurred to me that I had never seen her physically take such actions, because somehow, while we were growing up, her hair had always magically stayed in place. Seeing her struggle with it then made me more suspicious than ever that she had used Qi in some way to make it always so perfect.

And the lack of her doing so now made me, once again, wonder exactly what had happened.

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As my sisters goofed off while giving me back-handed compliments and making snide but playful remarks, I watched with a small smile. I missed them, and seeing them again always did wonders for my mood.

Their joking eventually started insinuating that my relationship with Avuri was one more akin to one that belonged in a red light district, and I took that as my cue to get us moving again. Thankfully, whatever was wrong seemed to have mostly passed, and Rylie had no problem standing up and continuing our hike - which was about to get much easier.

Descending the inside of the Basin's walls was only a little tricky, and more about weight placement to avoid the rocks and dirt you stood on from sliding out from under your feet than anything else. And stepping lightly was pretty easy for Cultivators, even injured ones.

Once we made it to the flat ground of the Basin, it was only a short walk to one of the dirt paths that ran throughout the space, weaving in and out of various trees and other vegetation. Even in the near-dark, the path was easy enough to follow, and avoiding the more troublesome brush that obscured the path was easy for us. There were some thorned bushes here and there that were meant to serve as small deterrents for the kids straying too far, but they couldn't even scratch our Sky Realm skin. Which, in retrospect, might've been a bit mean to the kids.

In any case, it didn't take very long after we made it to the path to reach the house. As we approached, Avuri was already waiting in the doorway, leaning against the jamb. When we got closer, she waved, which my sisters returned.

"Rylie. Demi." Avuri greeted them both with warm, welcoming smiles as we finally made it to the door.

"Sister-in-law." Demi said, sounding weirdly distant. I felt a slight undercurrent of confusion from Avuri, as she seemed to wonder what she had done to warrant the cold greeting. And then Demi opened her arms. "Mind if I give you a hug?"

Avuri let out a quiet giggle. "Of course not."

Once Demi had her hug, she stepped aside so Rylie could take her turn, but stepped directly in front of me with a big grin.

"You too, sis. Again." Demi said, stepping up and giving me a much more pleasant, warm embrace compared to the quick hug out on the cold mountainside. I was more careful this time, making sure not to squeeze too hard, but I did hold on to her a bit longer than was probably normal. And the same thing repeated again when Rylie got her turn.

"We should get inside." Avuri said, watching the exchange with a pleasant expression. "The kids are all in bed upstairs though, and I didn't tell them that you two were here. I told them that you were running to the city for a last minute shopping for something special tomorrow, though, Em."

"...And they accepted that?"

"No." Avuri chuckled. "But they did go to bed once I assured them that everything was alright, and they'd get a treat tomorrow."

"Great." I sighed.

"It's fine. I actually have a perfect treat for them that I've been saving." Avuri grinned mischievous grin, showing teeth. "I happened to see a durian fruit the last time I was in the market. It's been in a special container in the cold storage for a bit, waiting for the perfect opportunity."

"Ugh, not that awful, smelly thing." Demi said, as I made a face, recalling the awful smell.

"I don't know why you two hate it so much." Rylie shrugged. "Sure, they don't smell very good, but they taste way better than they smell."

"Even if that is the case," I said, "you can't seriously tell me you'd pick a durian over basically any other fruit."

"Well, no…" Rylie said, "Except maybe oranges. I don't like those."

I rolled my eyes as Avuri said, "In any case, I only really bought it to see the kids' reactions anyway."

"Fair."

"All that is to say, though, we should talk on the bottom floor." Avuri said. "I don't want to actually leave the house in case one of the kids needs anything, but we don't want to actually wake them up, either.

"Good points all around." Demi said with a nod, and Rylie motioned for us to lead the way. So we did, the four of us settling around a short table on cushions, with cups and a pot of tea that Avuri had prepared ahead of time.

I moved to pour the cups of tea, curious which blend Avuri had chosen, and smiled when I smelled the faint aroma of both jasmine and chamomile. It was a lovely floral and relaxing scent that I loved.

"So…" I prompted, eyeing my sisters as I distributed the cups.

They had both been happy enough to chat on the way to the house, but it had felt like distractive small talk. And seeing them inside the house now, still clearly not wanting to broach the subject, made me even more sure that it had been exactly that.

Rylie had picked up the tea cup and smelled it as she lifted it up toward her mouth. She let out a delicate breath and blew on the hot tea. "It smells lovely." She said with a distant smile.

"Smells a lot like the one Dad used to make us when we were upset." Demi said idly, her eyes staring off into the distance in the same way Rylie's had.

"It's a similar blend." I said gently. "Not exactly the same, of course. I don't have access to the same shops he did, so the jasmine here is a little bit more floral and a little less sharp in the taste. And the chamomile smells stronger, but actually tastes more mellow."

They both took a sip of the tea and sighed. Demi narrowed her eyes and looked as though she was trying to figure out where to start with telling their story, so I focused on her. She took in a breath twice, opening her mouth but only ended with a false start both times, choosing instead to sip at the tea again.

Rylie ended up being the one to break the silence with a deep, heavy groan. It sounded strange coming from her; Rylie had always been the beautiful, girly girl in the family. Not to imply she couldn't match strength to strength with the rest of us, but her mannerisms had always leaned more 'cute'.

She even went as far as putting her tea down on the table to run her fingers through her hair, scratching her head in frustration. "It's just…" she began, but trailed off fast.

"Embarrassing?" Demi offered.

"Yeah. Sure. Let's go with that."