Avuri

It wasn't until well after dinner time that the group training with the Elders finally prepared to return home. Everyone was tired in their own way, thanks to the unrelenting teachers that had been hounding them all day long. In Avuri's case, she was physically and spiritually drained from Lyn's attempt to make her more efficient when it came to controlling her Qi. She didn't need to adjust nearly as much as the others to accept Lyn's Kin-bond, so they had jumped right into more typical training.

It seemed like Stena had ended up mentally exhausted. She and Vyne had never actually returned to the training room, spending the full day after lunch in the little secluded break room just talking. When everyone had gathered up for the journey home, Emery and Avuri were both hopeful that whatever they had done had gone over well.

They could tell pretty quickly that Stena had been crying at some point, but she also came out of the room looking deeply satisfied but exhausted. Letting out frustrations and other emotions like that was generally good for people, so they were both hoping it was a good sign.

Avuri hadn't exactly been able to pay too much attention to the others during training as she was entirely occupied with her own, but she had tried to keep an eye on all of her family members throughout the day where she could.

Emery's training seemed to go about as well as expected. She did well, generally speaking, but had also done something monumentally stupid - which was typical for her. She was excited to get the actual details from her wife later.

Glenn, Mica, and Cove had all done well with Eiry, apparently. The Elder's teachings were rough, but she seemed to be the most at home in a typical teacher role, quickly adjusting to running the group of Avuri's cousins through standard drills and tests to evaluate where exactly they all were in training with more exacting precision than before. It seemed like Eiry was at least happy with where each of them were at, although she didn't sound impressed.

Avuri guessed that meant they were all around what would be expected of an average Cultivator for their ages. Though Avuri was also willing to bet that Eiry's standards were higher than an average sect, so that would probably put her cousins at solidly above average.

Cierra was, like Emery, stuck, doing her best to prepare her Cultivation base itself to accept a clashing type of Qi. She and Cyril had spent the entire day trying to find a way to help her accept the dragon's fire Qi safely. Thankfully, Cierra was partially a water Qi user, so she did have a useful starting point - so long as she could find a way to keep Cyril's fire Qi from damaging the parts of her foundation that were based upon her metal Qi. The bigger issue was simply adding a third type of Qi to the mix; that was typically regarded as dangerous.

It did seem like Kord had been the standout, but Avuri wasn't sure if that was due to Ray's expectations. Kord was well above average for his age as far as Avuri could tell, and his mentality and work ethic were particularly praise worthy.

While he was growing up, Avuri and Emery both had to actively try to get him to be a kid and let off steam. Even now, they were both concerned that the poor boy had been forced to grow up too fast and was never able to really enjoy his childhood that they tried so hard to give him.

On the other hand, that relatively single-minded focus and pursuit of personal improvement had made him a very impressive Cultivator for his age. Even as a child, he had a fairly straightforward idea of what he wanted to be able to do, and that made his Cultivation technique equally straightforward. Altogether, it had made his foundation unusually solid and strong.

Ray had slowly, over the course of the day, basically become enamored with the boy the same way a father or uncle would. He was proud of what Kord had accomplished that day, and was bragging to the other Elders that he had been given a perfect student.

It probably didn't hurt that Kord's Cultivation and general fighting style was very much aligned with Ray's style of just pummeling things harder until they gave in. Kord's metal Qi Cultivation had been entirely focused on body enhancement and reinforcement, along with a skill to create pieces of Qi armor to add to the body's enhancements. And then, in any off time the boy had, he was devoted to learning martial arts themselves.

It really had been, out of everyone involved in the whole Dragon-Kin idea, the one true match made in heaven.

Once the group arrived home, everyone dispersed quickly. Kord, Stena, and Cierra all broke off quickly for bed. Almost as soon as Vale had touched down in the Basin, they all gave Avuri and Emery hugs good night and were each off to bed. Stena was even a little wobbly on her feet, leaning on Cierra for support.

Avuri's cousins also said their good nights and wandered off toward their house, looking beat, which just left Emery, Avuri, and Vale to head toward the main house. Talya greeted them at the door, and gave them all the short version of what had happened at home that day - which was basically nothing of note.

The kids had all done their work and chores as expected, and Talya and Gray had taken care of the meals with some assistance for the day. If nothing else, Talya was sure to make sure that they knew no one went hungry. As the adults all split up from there for the night, things quieted down quickly after that.

All of the kids that had been home all day had already gone to their respective homes, and Arek and Astra were both asleep already. Opting for a short relaxing bath before bed, Emery and Avuri both decided to use their smaller bathroom in their house rather than the bathhouse. They may not have nearly as much room in it, but there was enough that the two of them could fit in the tub if they got cozy.

Once they made it to their bedroom, they both peeled off their clothing. Despite no longer being actually slick with sweat, the clothing still felt somewhat gross after the day's work and the flight back to the basin had left the clothing plastered to their bodies.

"I hope the kids actually decided to take a quick trip to the bathhouse to rinse down before getting into bed." Emery said idly as they slipped through the door into the bathroom.

"Honestly? If they feel like I do right now, there's no way they sleep without at least a rinse." Avuri agreed, running a finger down her flank. It felt gross, mostly from the flight back, she assumed.

"Cierra and Kord probably will. Stena may be too tired." Emery said as they got the water Array running to fill their nicely crafted stone and wood tub.

"True," Avuri said, idly letting a little of Qi into the bath's water to heat it up a little further. "She looked completely exhausted. I hope things went well for her today."

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"I think they did," Emery said, watching the bath fill. "She looked tired, but there was also a pretty distinct look of…relief in her eyes. Relief, or something similar, at least."

"Vyne always seemed like he would be a good listener. If talking to him helps her, then I am entirely in favor of it." Avuri said. "I'm sure there's something to be said for talking to someone who is, you know, not family."

"Yeah," Emery agreed, shutting off the bath's Array to move toward the smaller Arrays along the wall to actually rinse before getting in the bath. "I realize that we're able to offer comfort and the like, but I wish we could also be helpful to her for more than that."

"While I agree with the feeling, I entirely understand that she doesn't want to just vent all her frustrations to her family. If she feels safe doing so to Vyne, that's a good thing."

"I recognize that," Emery said, "I do. I just wish we could do more."

"I'm sure if she feels like she can come to us for anything else she will." Avuri said, "Stena has never been shy about that before."

"That's true." Emery said, then dumped a bucket of warm water over her head. Avuri followed suit, doing the same for herself, then prepared another, deeper bucket to wash her hair with. It was a small thing that only ever got used when she bathed in their bathroom, but she loved the bucket. It was a gift from Stena and Briar, and wonderfully made. It was a fairly normal width, but the wooden bucket was extra deep to allow her to dip her long hair into it all at once.

As she dragged her fingers through the wet strands of hair, Avuri's thoughts drifted through the comfortable silence. Still fairly tired from the day herself, Avuri let her thoughts completely drift away when she started to massage the soap through her hair and scratched her scalp.

"So…did you hear what I did during training today, yet?" Emery asked in the silence.

Avuri snickered. "I did not. Though I hear you did something stupid."

"So, obviously, Vale's fire Qi is a bad match for me, right?"

"Sure. We knew that."

"Well," Emery said, drawing out the word, "I may have tried to use a little bit of your water Qi and ran through your Cultivation technique."

Avuri stopped scratching at her head to stare at her idiot wife incredulously. "Are you really that stupid?"

"No?" Emery said laughing. "Vale basically asked the same thing. But it still makes sense to me logically. I have so much of your water Qi running through my meridians most days that my body is certainly acclimated to the use of water Qi. So I figured that opting to try a Cultivating technique that utilized it wouldn't be harmful for me."

"Em, when was the last time you just suddenly swapped Cultivation techniques like that?" Avuri asked, hoping to guide Emery to the reason it was a stupid choice naturally.

"Hm. Probably when we first bonded and needed to alter our technique to work for both of us."

"And before that?" Avuri asked, rolling her eyes.

"Never?" Emery said, looking toward the ceiling in thought. "Any other change I made was a gradual one as I grew up."

"Yeah. The way it's supposed to be done. Do you know why it works that way?"

"Of course." Emery said, as if Avuri was asking a stupid question. "Suddenly swapping to a new Cultivation technique - especially one unrelated to the type of Qi you've been Cultivating - can often result in damage to a person's meridians because there can be Qi that the body isn't used to or prepared for. Alternatively, you can cause damage because the new technique might send the Qi down meridians that your body is unused to using, which could rupture when they are suddenly used for Qi stronger than they have been trained to handle."

Avuri rolled her eyes. "And having said all of that, you still don't see the issue?"

"No, I don't." Emery said, sounding genuinely confused. "I've had water Qi in my body for so long at this point that I'm sure it's safe for me to use. Admittedly, I usually channel it through the meridians that I use for my own metal-based techniques, but still."

As she trailed off, Emery's eyes started acting shifty. Avuri narrowed her own eyes onto Emery. "And?" she asked, prompting Emery to continue.

Emery was quiet for just a moment before muttering, "And I've been practicing using your Cultivation technique for a long time, just a little bit at a time. Specifically to strengthen those meridians."

Avuri sighed, in some combination of relief and exasperation. "You idiot. Why didn't you tell Vale that?"

"Because it didn't seem necessary, I guess?" Emery said. "And because I wanted to tell you that I'd been practicing your ice focused techniques before you heard it from someone else."

"What? Thought I would accuse you of stealing my technique or something?" Avuri giggled. "You idiot. How would you feel if I started using your metal Cultivation technique?"

"Well, I wouldn't be angry," she rushed to say, then added, "Flattered, probably?"

"And why do you think I'd be any different?"

"I don't know. Isn't the Cultivation technique you use some secret technique from the Frozen Mountain Sect? Or supposed to be a secret or something?" Emery asked.

Avuri just laughed, "Emery, first, if it was some big secret technique that I was supposed to keep a secret, I wouldn't have blatantly practiced it in front of you, let alone while our Domains are literally connected." Avuri couldn't help but roll her eyes. "And second, I haven't used the Frozen Mountain technique in…I don't even know how long. I stopped practicing their basic technique before I even left the Sect, because it was too weak from my level."

"Oh? So what technique is it that you're using, exactly? And just what did I pick up from you?" Emery asked, blinking as she dumped a final bucket of water over her head to finish rinsing off.

"Hell if I know." Avuri chuckled. "At this point, I think it'd probably be considered an Avuri original. There's still some base from the Frozen Mountain in there, but it's buried really deep under layers of alterations I've made to keep the technique up to our level of power."

"I see…" Emery said, leaning over to get some suds out of Avuri's hair that she had missed. "You'll have to name it at some point, then. It's a good technique."

"You think so?" Avuri asked.

"I do. Considering after practicing it in full today, Vale thinks that I'm well on my way to being strong enough with water Qi to counteract his fire. Or at least keep it controlled and stop it from destroying my metal base."

"Huh." Avuri considered that as she ran a big comb through her hair to finish rinsing the rest of the soap out. "I'll have to keep that in mind."

They grew quiet as Avuri finished rinsing out her hair. Once she was satisfied that it was clean, she bundled as much of it as she could manage on the top of her head and used a little Qi to freeze it in place. In addition to keeping her hair out of the way and avoiding it pooling all around when they entered the tub, Avuri found the icy chill on her head pleasant when paired with the hot bath water.

Once they settled into the water, Emery lazily leaned on Avuri's shoulder. Avuri smiled, content, and considered dipping low enough into the water to dunk Emery's face in it.

"What do you think about Kord?" Emery asked softly. "Do you think we've done well by him?"

Avuri considered the question. The topic had been on her mind, too. "I think so." She offered. "While I do wish he had been more…playful as a child, I think his no-nonsense, focused drive is part of his personality. Not trauma."

"I hope so." Emery said. "I see a lot of my teenage years in him. And I was just so angry at everyone and everything that wasn't my family back then that I worry about what he might feel but not say."

Avuri laid her head against Emery's, trying to offer a little comfort. "We can always try talking to him if you'd like, but I really do believe that it is his personality that guides him." After a beat, she added, "Or, at least, it is now."

"He had to grow up too fast." Emery spat, a little of her anger at demonic Cultivators in general seeping through.

"Yeah," Avuri agreed, "Yeah, he did."

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