Emery

As Emery walked out from the little sequestered lunch area, she immediately noticed both Stena and Avuri sitting against the wall. She had already known that Avuri was there, thanks to their bond, but knowing that she was still with Stena made her feel better.

She could feel the concern and general care that Avuri felt toward their daughter and opted not to bother them. As much as she wanted to go over and give Stena a hug and tell her everything would be alright, she trusted Avuri to handle it.

Instead, she followed her father back to their section of the massive training cavern and did her best to focus. Vale had told her earlier that she may be in for a rough time during this training because of their mismatched Qi signatures. Or, more specifically, because fire was typically destructive to metal, Emery was going to need to make sure she was physically prepared for what the fire Qi could do to her meridians.

With some training, she should be able to at least resist the worst of it. Vale kept assuring her that it wasn't likely to cause any long term damage or anything of the sort, and that it would ultimately be a boon. Afterall, the addition of fire Qi to her body would make Emery even more versatile than she already was with command over metal, water, and ice Qi thanks to her bond with Avuri.

If anything, Emery was even mildly concerned that she was simply overreaching what a fairly average human Cultivator could handle. She already technically had two peoples' Qi running through her meridians. Maybe. Depending on the school of thought, it was possible that she and Avuri were the same person now when it came to their shared Qi, so maybe that wasn't quite right.

But either way, her body was definitely already host to more than one basic Qi. And adding a third could be dangerous if she wasn't careful.

Of course, in the end, she also felt that the power granted by the Dragon-Kin bond was worth the potential danger. She wanted to continue to assist with Flowing Dragon City, but couldn't stay unless she also knew she would have the power to defend her family from whatever danger was headed their way.

The Kin bond would give her that power, supposedly. Vale continued to say so, and she had no reason not to trust her father. He had never knowingly led her wrong, and she saw no reason why he would do so now.

Admittedly, the trust that the Elders were showing her family was unexpected, however welcome it was. She didn't suspect them of any foul play, given she had known them for almost as long as she had known her wife. Lyn and Cyril in particular were basically an aunt and uncle to all their kids. She could trust them.

She just had to hope that they weren't collectively down playing the strain caused by the Kin bond. While she was willing to risk herself and maybe Avuri to try to protect her family, she was still on the fence over letting Cierra, Stena, and Kord take part. They had all volunteered for it as soon as they were brought into the fold with what was going on, but Emery was still hesitant.

They were all basically adults and capable of making their own decisions. And she kept needing to tell herself that over and over every time she saw them struggling with the training and testing they were doing now.

Especially Stena. Emery knew how much the girl always judged herself for not being as talented as her older sister - which was just incorrect to begin with. As a child, yes, she was regularly behind Cierra in studies and Cultivation alike. But that was mostly due to the age difference; after all, the gap between a 7-year-old and a 9-year-old was significant.

But now? Stena was easily as talented as her sister. And while she may not be as clever as Cierra, she was far more creative. She had opted to travel on her own Cultivation path instead of following Emery or Avuri, and had done as well as she probably could've. Emery was still sometimes shocked at how the girl was unable to see that she had done better than Cierra in many respects.

And yet, she remained as brutal to herself as always. Emery hoped desperately that she could eventually settle her mind in some way that would at least allow her to be at peace instead of constant doubt.

"Emery, focus."

"Oh, sorry," Emery said, as Vale's sharp voice cut through her wandering thoughts. She was supposed to be meditating after all.

She tried to keep her mind from wandering and thought about how to strengthen her body and meridians against fire. As she fell deeper into meditation, she eventually found herself in her Inner World without really meaning to. While training, she hadn't been actively connected with Avuri, so her little smithy village was only mildly dusted with snow.

She wandered around, taking in all of the waiting weapons that she had forged over the years. Emery knew that she should be more than capable of preparing for an influx of fire Qi, given the sheer amount of fire that she was always surrounded by already.

The mechanical workings of meridians were always difficult to truly grasp because they seemed to be almost half physical and half metaphorical. She knew that it wouldn't be as simple as preparing to direct the fire Qi through her meridians to a place that would later be accessed when she wanted the fire for things. She needed to find a way to fully incorporate the fire Qi into her own metal.

She eventually chose to wander toward one of the covered smithy shops and sat down on a stool to think. When she had initially begun Dual Cultivation with Avuri, they didn't actually need to incorporate each others' Qi - only push it through their meridians and then back to its actual owner.

Even when they fully bonded, there was still no actual process of incorporating the new Qi. Instead, Avuri's Qi was simply also Emery's and vice-versa. It all happened automatically, with no functional input from either of them.

But Vale had told her that the Kin bond would be different. Presumably because the Kin bond wouldn't be connecting her to Vale in a way where they shared each others' Qi. It was more akin to Vale gifting her a seed that she would need to care for and make bloom on her own.

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She took a deep breath and let it out, trying to figure out a way to overcome the road block. She knew that her Inner World was at least partially a representation of her body and meridians, so she was sure that the answer was somewhere within it.

When she and Avuri became bonded, the entire location was altered permanently. Avuri's Qi brought in snow and ice and cold that blanketed the entire space. Emery had never needed to control it in any way, because it just suddenly existed in the space and was no different than any of what was already there for her. It became a defining part of the space that she couldn't control.

Evidently, the fire Qi would be different. It wouldn't just automatically replace the smelting fires and burning cauldrons that she used for forging. Nor would it just create an ever present lava flow that would surround the little village. Somehow, she would need to temper her entire Inner World against it and let it flow over the entire space without destroying anything.

She spared just a minute to be jealous of Avuri, who would be matching neatly with Lyn. Water and ice Qi were of roughly the same base, so it would likely be easy for Avuri to account for the new addition. She would just need to make some minor preparations to prepare her body for it.

With a sigh, Emery looked out over the little smithy village. Too much of it was made of wood, despite all of the fire around. Not to mention the cloth that was used as a roofing cover against the constant snow. If fire Qi came through here in a rush, it would burn so much to the ground.

If it wasn't such a problem for her, Emery would have laughed at it. Despite using so much fire in her forging of metal weapons, she was entirely at the mercy of the damn element as well.

She idly considered whether replacing all of the wooden and cloth structures with tempered metal would be enough. But she didn't think it would be that simple. Work like that done inside someone's Inner World wasn't as literal as that. There was a good chance that anything she replaced with forged metal would just be wood again the next time she returned.

Instead, it was likely that there was some kind of Cultivation technique that she could practice that would replace all of her wooden buildings with fire proof ones just by virtue of her changed technique.

Something in her head teased at that answer. A new Cultivation technique might actually be a usable answer for her. And even more than that, she even had access to a Cultivation technique that would probably be able to contain the fire Qi being introduced to her system.

Without thinking too hard about it, Emery dropped to the ground in a meditation posture right in the middle of her Inner World. She pulled a little of Avuri's ice and water Qi toward her and cycled her Qi using Avuri's older method.

Over their time together, they had developed a few different Cultivation styles that were tailor made to their unique blend of Qi. However, the style that Avuri had practiced for the first couple years they were together was still burned into Emery's mind. She drew on those memories now, sending her metal Qi - colored with a little of Avuri's water Qi - through the patterns that Avuri used to practice. When she and Avuri had first bonded, she secretly had run the water Qi in this same pattern occasionally, just in case, but had never used it to Cultivate.

Emery immediately felt her body grow colder. It was a strange, but not unpleasant feeling. She did have to fight her Qi at first, as it moved sluggishly when pushed in unfamiliar ways, but once she had it moving, the bits of Avuri's Qi that she was utilizing seemed to make the cycling go smoother as she moved it along.

It took her a few minutes to complete the first cycle, but after that, the Qi moved easier and smoother with each cycle. More and more of Avuri's water Qi joined hers in the cycle, easing it along. As it went, she could feel her body continuing to drop in temperature, much like how Avuri's did when she Cultivated her pure water and ice Qi. The only question that Emery had was whether or not it would give her the outcome she wanted - steeling her body against fire.

She made it through several cycles before Vale eventually kicked her in the side. The sudden jolt to her body startled her out of her concentration, and she opened her eyes.

"Hey, are you alright?" Vale asked, mild concern on his face. While he trusted Emery to know what she could handle, he also knew she had a penchant for doing stupid things and leaping before she looked.

"I think so," she said, admittedly not positive whether she had made a mistake or not. A cold bit of air puffed out between her lips as she spoke, causing a small puff of smoke.

Vale responded with an obvious "are you sure" look. Emery tried not to laugh and nodded.

"I suppose I could have asked you about it before I just started." Emery admitted.

"And exactly what did you 'just start'?" He asked.

"So, part of the problem is that our Qi is at odds. Fire destroys metal, so I need to figure out a way to either contain or stop the damage while incorporating the Qi."

"Yes…?"

"Well, it occurred to me that water Qi also destroys fire. And it just so happens that I have water Qi, as well as a water-based Cultivation technique that I can use. So I did." Emery said.

Vale narrowed his eyes at Emery, unsure what to make of that. "You just randomly decided to use a new Cultivation technique that works with an entirely different element than you're used to."

"Yes…?" She said tentatively, at the same time that Vale lightly smacked the side of her head.

"You idiot. There's safe ways to go about doing things like that. Don't you remember how much work it took to help Cierra start Cultivating two elements?" Vale said.

Emery did remember. It was a difficult road for her, when she said she wanted to Cultivate both water and metal, like a combination of Emery and Avuri. They each had to spend several days with her to teach her the techniques separately, and getting her meridians into shape to work with two completely different Cultivation techniques took weeks.

It wasn't exactly rare for Cultivators to work with two different base elements, but starting with one that they had never worked with before was a process.

Emery, admittedly, had completely jumped the learning step and just dropped herself right off the cliff and started using an Earth Realm Cultivation technique for an element she hadn't actively Cultivated before.

"But there's already a large amount of water Qi in my body. I didn't think it would be an issue." Emery said defensively.

"And you're lucky that you're right, you idiot." Vale sighed. "If your body wasn't already so used to using water Qi from Avuri, you might have just injured yourself or even just died."

"That makes sense." Emery said.

"That makes - Oh, this girl is going to be the death of me." Vale sighed, covering his face with a hand.

"How many times do you think you've said that?" Emery laughed.

"I lost count somewhere in the upper hundreds." He muttered.

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