Sword and Snow

Avuri

As they walked around the familiar rooms and hallways of their house, Avuri's mind was combing through all of the scrolls and studies she had read about Inner Worlds. There were so many theories and ideas about how they functioned, how they were shaped and made, what affected them, and so on. But the truth was, no one really knew.

People had long connected the ideas of Qi, Domains, Inner Worlds, and the soul. It just felt natural that things that were clearly based upon your very nature would be connected to the very essence of a person, but there was no way to prove any of that true. There were just as many musings out there that it was the other way around - that Qi and the body's Inner World shaped the person's personality instead.

There were really just too few ways to make a determination of how it all worked together. Especially when even the idea of the soul itself wasn't exactly a forgone conclusion, just a fairly readily accepted one.

But this experience was still making Avuri question all of it. Their fused Inner World had basically constructed a near one-to-one copy of their physical home. There were a few changes here and there, especially on the outside and in the decorations, but the layout was pretty much exactly the same.

Something that had immediately caught Avuri's attention was the invisible flows of Qi moving through the house, each of which seemed to correlate with one of them or the activity in the space. They noted how Emery's metal Qi suffused the kitchen, for example, muddled with some fire Qi where the stove would be. Or how Avuri's water and ice Qi flowed through the meditation room on the lower floor, a spot that she often retreated to when she wanted more purposeful peace and quiet.

But for the most part, they could feel their combined Qi flowing together throughout the space, mingling all around them. The feeling of closeness and affection that it all forced up quickly had Avuri holding her wife's hand as they wandered through their house. It was a little strange, moving from room to room without the constant ambience of children being loud in and around the place, but there was so much around that kept drawing their interest that the lack of sounds quickly fell out of their minds.

The kitchen table that they typically ate smaller meals at had two place settings already out, and Avuri ran her finger along the edge of her favorite plate as they passed. Emery giggled at her.

"Really? That's your favorite plate?" She asked, eyeing the old pewter-like piece of tableware. It was one that Emery had created in haste, and it had gotten pretty beat up over the years, with even a small crack through the edge on one side.

"It is." Avuri said, thinking of the first meal she had ever eaten in the Basin with the people who would end up her new family. The meal that had eaten from each of the pieces that were set out at her spot.

Emery's face flushed. There was something about being in their Inner World that made it nearly impossible to hide any sort of emotion on their faces. Even the smallest emotion could cause an uncontrolled, wide smile. "I see." She said, able to read Avuri's thoughts. And then she pointed to the singular cup that stood out alongside all of the cheap metalware beside it. "And what about that one?"

"You don't remember?" Avuri asked, picking up the copy of the poorly shaped ceramic cup. Unlike the metal ones, this one was in pristine condition, despite the wobbly shape of it, clearly made by a child's hands.

"Honestly? No. I don't think I recognize it." Emery said, confused.

"I suppose that's fair. I hid it way in the back of the cupboard." Avuri said with a smile. "I don't remember exactly when, but Cierra and Stena made it for me. We took them into the city for a day out and they sat through a kids' pottery class, remember?"

Avuri wasn't sure if Emery actually remembered, or was simply able to say she did because of Avuri's own memory of the event coming to the fore of her mind. That thought of doubt made Emery chuckle. "We really should figure out a way to separate our thoughts a bit more, huh."

"Yeah…" Avuri said, taking note of the tableware at Emery's place at the table. Most of the pieces were somewhat recent ones, but nothing Avuri could be mad at. A few years previous, they had bought a large quantity of pure white ceramic ware, and then had the kids each claim a set of their own, adding designs to their claimed pieces with paint.

It had been no surprise when the kids had banded together to decorate Emery's and Avuri's tableware with handprints and names under each one. And it was those that were set up at her spot at the table.

As they slid from room to room, it became more and more clear that the whole place was set up with items that were like crystalized memories for each of them. There were significant little trinkets everywhere they looked, calling to mind very potent memories for one or both of them, quickly becoming a literal stroll down memory lane.

Avuri's heart just about melted when they made it to the third floor bedrooms. The floor had been unnaturally extended with a series of extra rooms that shouldn't have fit the visual floorplan from the outside. But the additions were there to highlight the same sort of memory based importance that the rest of the house did.

The extra rooms were there to cover each kid that had ever stayed in the main house with them. Each one had their own room, from Cierra all the way to Astra, laid out just like they had it when they used it. Copies of favorite toys and clothing were laid out in each room in a fitting way, whether that be Stena's favorite clothes thrown around on the bed and chair, or Kord's neatly folded outfits stacked on the chest at the foot of the bed.

While the children's rooms were a definite treat that Avuri had a strong desire to revisit later, there was also a much larger situation that was demanding her attention.

The entire third floor, as it was, was practically consumed with a mass of Qi. The entire house was positioned so that the main length of the hallway was positioned from one side of their Inner World to the other, with large windows facing each of the opposing mountains. Each window had a huge current of Qi flowing in through it toward the center of the hallway where they both turned in toward two different doors that led to what Avuri was sure must have been their bedroom, despite the extra rooms beyond it.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Well. That's subtle." Emery had said once they had put it all together.

Avuri laughed. "About as subtle as we are, I suppose."

Emery just snorted. "Right. Shall we go take a look?"

"After you." Avuri said, motioning Emery forward, despite the fact that they were still walking side-by-side and hand-in-hand.

Avuri actively tried to ignore the Qi swirling around the room when they first walked through the first doorway to take in everything else. Aside from the additional added doorway to creat two entrances to their room, the layout was nearly the same as their current bedroom. Like with the kids' rooms, there were a few small alterations that called to mind earlier layouts of the room, and each and every change clearly designed to call to mind a specific memory.

Avuri's side table had a selection of her favorite combs throughout the years displayed neatly in a velvet-lined box. There were small tokens that Emery had gifted her throughout their marriage alongside it, with her favorite hairpins, accessories, and the like neatly lined up. Emery's side was much the same, with little ice sculptures that Avuri had made for fun over the years displayed, frozen in time, inured against melting.

Of course, the item in the room that had caught her attention the most was the wedding cord that was hung up over their bed. It was an item they both cherished, and normally stored in an Array to keep it safe. Seeing it so proudly displayed immediately caused strong emotions to well up inside her, bringing tears with it.

"Wow." Emery said, clearly feeling the same assault of emotions - probably not just because they were literally shared.

"Yeah." Avuri breathed. "I wonder if we could find a way to do that safely."

"I'm sure we could manage something." Emery said, staring at the wonderful red cord while blinking away tears.

They stood together, just staring at it for a long moment, shoulders pressed into one another, as memories ran through both their minds.

Eventually, though, the overwhelming amount of roiling Qi in the room demanded their attention. While the two apparently opposing forces filtered into the room from opposite sides - one all fire and steel, the other all ice and water - they mashed together in a chaotic mess in the bedroom, melding into one singular mass of Qi which then traveled out their balcony to flow over the rest of their Inner World, creating a calm lake that settled over the ground in their central glade area that was full of their combined, fused Qi.

Once her attention shifted to it, the flow of Qi was actually quite beautiful. It was unlike anything Avuri had ever encountered before, and had a wonderful sense of naturalness to it, as if it was exactly how everything there was supposed to be.

And yet, upon seeing it, like with so many pieces of a person's own Inner World, Avuri instinctively knew how it all functions and how to interact with it. She turned to Emery, completely in unison with her, and nodded.

"You feel it too, right?"

"Sure do."

"Then you know -"

"Yeah."

With Emery's affirmative, they both walked toward their associated doors, out into the hallway, then toward each window that matched their original Qi signature. The hallway was long, but not so much that Avuri couldn't see Emery when she nodded and pulled the window partially closed. Avuri followed suit, leaving the window open wide enough to still let a fair amount of Qi through, but it was enough to curb the absolute torrent it had been previously.

She watched as the lessened stream of Qi continued to flow down the hall and into their bedroom, where the two streams met each other. Almost as soon as she watched the smaller portion of Qi turn through the door, Avuri felt her connection to Emery thin out, becoming more like the bond they had shared for the last several years. Strong, but not overwhelming.

They both strolled back toward the bedroom, posting up against the empty wall between the two doors to watch the slightly more controlled tangle of Qi, their thoughts fully separate for the first time in weeks.

"Inner Worlds are really…weird." Emery said eventually, prompting a laugh from Avuri.

"No kidding. But I guess all of this is meant to be spiritual representations of things, right?"

Emery turned to look back at the Qi flowing through the hallway. "I don't think that makes it less strange."

"No, I suppose not." Avuri allowed. "But seeing it laid out like this does make our bond much easier to visualize and control. Just like anything else you do in your Inner World." As if to demonstrate her point, Avuri focused for a moment, picturing the sight of their home, the flow of Qi, and the window in her mind. Gently, she eased the window open, trying to strengthen their connection.

Right on cue, the window that she had just nearly closed swung back the other way, letting in more of the surging Qi. Emery squeaked suddenly, jumping as she was suddenly assaulted by Avuri's full thoughts again.

Avuri looked apologetic once she mentally closed the window again.

Emery just stared at her, unamused. "At least we know which direction that connection works. A little weird that we can choose to force connection, and not whether or not to receive it, but I guess it's what we're working with.

Avuri shrugged. "At least we don't have to be reading minds all day."

Emery sighed. "I guess we should take the win where we can get them. I'm worried those are going to be in short supply pretty soon."

Avuri stepped closer to Emery and wrapped her up in a comfortable embrace. "I don't think that's necessarily true. I understand the fear, though."

Emery laid her forehead on Avuri's shoulder the best she could at her height. "I just can't help but feel like there's going to be some sort of trap for us. Bouquet is a political and trade powerhouse, but if this comes to literal blows, I don't think there's a world where they stand a chance. Their Cultivators are too weak."

"If I know the Mephras, they'll absolutely have something to even the odds. They don't usually pick fights that they obviously can't win."

"Do they even pick fights that are 50-50?" Emery asked tentatively.

Avuri bit her lip. "No. They don't."

"That's what I thought. We must be missing something if we're still thinking this is an even fight."

"Or they're being misled by their new dragon friends." Avuri offered. It wasn't exactly a great option for their survival either, but if they were really just being led by the nose by Aysol, at least they might have some idea what to expect.

"I hope so."

Avuri laid her head against Emery's and sighed. "Yeah. Me too."