Sword and Snow

Avuri

After the initial event of finding the poorly trained spies, things more or less flowed into a new normal. There was a new tension in the air, especially after the brush with obvious danger spread among the older kids. What had been a ghostly guillotine hanging over everyone's necks was slowly being replaced with physical parts, and everyone could feel it.

Admittedly, the presence of the Elders did make everyone feel safer. Emery and Avuri both found it somewhat ridiculous that they had only recently added houses to their little Basin to give them seven extra places for people to stay, and less than a year later, five of them were taken.

One house had been set aside for Mica, Glenn, and Cove, while another was still taken by Talya, Gray, and Mylo, who had decided to stay until this turbulence blew over.

And then three went to the Elders. Lyn and Cyril stayed together, as expected, while Vyne and Ray decided they would share a house as well. The houses were plenty big for two people to share easily without stepping on one another's toes, given they each essentially had a two-bedroom suite, their own bathroom, and then the shared space.

The surprising one had been Eiry, who had ended up moving into the house that Vale had been using. Not the first time, Avuri wondered if there was something between them. Even Emery wasn't truly sure, beyond noting that she had certainly never seen anything to confirm anything that might be there. But she had also gone a step further and added that, despite Vale being her father for as long as he had been, Emery still didn't really understand how he was positioned among dragonkind. He simply never explained, dodging the question whenever he could.

Emery was pretty sure he was more important than he ever let on, especially with the way that he seemed to be well respected by everyone. But he adamantly denied any accusation of being any sort of dragon king or prince, or any sort of royalty at the very least. Emery had been inclined to believe him on that, so Avuri felt comfortable accepting it as well. Though they both still regularly theorized about what he really was every time he left to travel.

Once the Elders had moved in 'officially', things did calm down rather drastically. The Bonded group had been training for the vast majority of most days up until then, and they all suddenly found themselves with less than half their day consumed by the practice - except for Emery and Avuri. It worked out, though, as everyone except for the two of them were able to put in extra time working around the Basin and helping the Elders with the immense amount of paperwork they had to deal with for the city.

Meanwhile, Emery and Avuri continued their self-run training sessions. They did bring the intensity down, as requested, especially when it came to the physical exertion. They both still found the physical work they could put in during their combat meditation too useful to ignore, but were careful never to extend themselves to the point of being physically exhausted.

In addition, they also got better and better at the practice as they went. At first, their physical blows - even when intercepted - was clearing the snow off the ground for quite a significant distance in addition to literally digging them into a crater in the ground over time. But the more they practiced, the better they each became at parrying and redirecting the energy from their blows into harmless directions, or minimizing the energy to the point of rendering it a calm breeze.

Despite the reduction in physical training, the actual amount of time that the two spent working together didn't really change, though. Instead, they had essentially tripled the amount of spiritual and mental training they were doing, regularly meditating and Cultivating together to improve their still somewhat new shared Inner World.

It had been something they had unlocked a few months ago at that point, but had almost actively avoided interacting with because they truly understood so little about it. But at this point, having consulted with everyone and gained nothing from it, combined with the current situation where they needed to pull back on their physical training, they both agreed that they really needed to do something with it.

They hadn't really even explored the changes that had occurred when they both had finished processing the dragonblood, despite the cursory glances they took at their shared Domain clearly showing some obvious changes. Finally, they felt almost forced to confront some of what had happened, and was still happening to them.

Their Inner World was even more stunning than it had been when they had first created that permanent link.

When they had both sat down to Cultivate together and explore their shared Inner World, they had appeared squarely in the middle of it like they had before. They stood in front of a house that looked a lot like their home in the Basin, except the base floor had been crafted from stone instead of wood.

Like before, the areas around the house were coated in a light dusting of snow, with a gently flowing stream cutting through the middle of it all. And under all the snow, the glade the house was situated in was lush with greenery, not brown and dying like it would normally be under snow in winter.

Not too far from the house was the smithing village that Emery had grown accustomed to in her years as a Sky Realm Cultivator. When they had first fused their Inner Worlds, the space had gone through a significant upgrade, with each building becoming more fortified with stone and clearly being purpose built. There were workshops and smithies dedicated to specific crafts, while other buildings clearly housed other important functions.

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But they had changed since that first appearance. Now they all carried awnings and hanging signs that were crafted from dragon scales. It looked like the stone foundations and wooden walls had even been reinforced with scales to improve their ability to stand up to the heat and literal lava flowing around the area.

The area beyond the village was dominated by a huge mountain that was also a volcano. Smoke perpetually streamed from the top while molten lava flowed out around it in dark red and black rivers. One of the rivers had been designed and harnessed to flow through the smithing village, being utilized for its intense heat in the buildings' forges.

In addition, the mountain had sharp pillars of obsidian metal jutting out all around, reminiscent of steel teeth. The concentration of fire and metal Qi that radiated from the mountain was palpable, leaving its purpose there abundantly clear.

On the opposite side of the house rose a mountain in opposition to the volcano. It was an icy spire, surrounded by an ever present snow storm. It generated just as much ice and water Qi as the volcano, creating a strong sense of balance in the middle where the house was located.

Similarly to the volcano, the icy mountain generated ice floes that streaked down and around the area, leaving crisp, fresh water all around. Some of it even fed toward the smithing village, no doubt to be used to quench the heat in some workshops.

Opposing the village on the icy side of the World, which had previously been a snow-covered landscape, was now a stunning beautiful partially frozen waterfall. The area around it was similarly full of nature, as if the waterfall was found in the middle of a forest, despite everything being icy and covered in a layer of snow. Still, it looked and felt like the perfect spot for Avuri to meditate, without question.

Their spiritual forms had similarly gone through changes since they finished processing the dragonblood. Avuri looked, in Emery's words, like a draconic snow fairy. She wore brilliantly bright white robes, even including a floating pibo that shimmered as though made of snowflakes. Her antler-like dragon horns were on her head, and her spiritual form included her smattering of bright white scales as well. In addition, she had some sort of light blue freckles over the bridge of her nose that looked otherworldly. Her long hair was as white as her clothing, loose and flowing around her, and her light violet eyes gave off a slight, intoxicating glow.

Emery's form had changed more noticeably. She still wore the smithing gear, with a sleeveless top that had a low neckline. Rather than the loose clothing from before, however, it was better fitted and had dragonscales sewn throughout it. Where it had previously been a clean white shirt, it had also been changed to a burnished black color, reminiscent of the scales. And matching that color were Emery's hands, arms, shoulders, and neck, which were all featuring a complete set of burnished black scales that smoldered with red underneath them.

She wore pants that matched her top, but no shoes. Instead of the boots she had worn previously, her feet were now technically bare, but covered in thick scales that extended up to her knees. Still present as well was her thick smith's apron, which had been changed from a thick tanned leather to full-on dragon skin leather that was far more heat resistant. In addition, Emery's head was encircled by her curved horns, which also drew attention to her glowing, steel-gray dragon eyes.

They sat together in a little garden in the front of the house made for meditation. It was set up beautifully with curated plants and stones in a spiral design centered on two plush cushions for them to sit on. But rather than actually meditate, they were focused on truly taking in their surroundings. Not in an in-awe way, but rather in a more inquisitive way.

"Surely it's safe enough here to interact with things no differently than when we had our own individual Inner Worlds, right?" Avuri wondered aloud.

"It was never a problem when we had our Worlds bonded before, right?"

"Sure, but now whatever we do will directly affect both of us." Avuri said.

"Is that a problem?" Emery responded with a small smile. "Ri, part of what got us here is a strong bond of trust. Worrying about you hurting me or us in some way isn't even really a consideration any more. And if it was, I don't think we ever would've gotten this far."

Avuri couldn't help but snort out a short laugh. "I suppose that's fair. What should we do, then?"

"Explore, I would guess." Emery said, her gaze sweeping over everything. "We've only sort of done a cursory glance at everything in here."

"I wonder if we could put something together here that would help separate our thoughts a little bit more." Avuri wondered aloud. "Maybe give us a little more control over our separation, or lack thereof."

"I don't see why we couldn't. We'll just have to really do some soul searching."

Avuri turned toward her wife with a slack-jawed stare. "That was awful."

Emery shrugged with a bit of a shit-eating grin. "Someone's gotta lighten us up a bit. We've been way too down lately."

"We've got a good reason for that." Avuri said flatly.

"Yeah, still." Emery popped up to her feet gracefully and swung her arms around in a quick stretch after sitting for a bit. "My gut says we should check the house."

"I don't disagree. It feels like the most neutral - or rather, the most shared - place here." Avuri said, but then gestured to the entire space around the house that was clearly the middle point of the space. "Aside from literally the whole garden here."

Emery closed her eyes to focus. Avuri could feel her wife's attention snake out from her to feel her way around their space. She waited patiently until Emery's eyes opened again.

"There's definitely more Qi concentrated in the house than the area around it. I can't feel a specific connection point, though."

"Then into the house we go, I guess." Avuri said.

"Into the house we go." Emery echoed.