Sword and Snow

“I don’t know, I think I like this one better.”

Emery looked up from the sword she was toying with to see Avuri pointing at a spear on the wall. The haft was shaped from jade with gold inlay that wound around it. The gold eventually met with the blade’s hilt where it was fashioned into an open dragon’s mouth, with the blade shaped like flame.

“You think so?” Emery asked, walking over to admire the weapon. “I think it’s a spectacular piece, and I really loved the design.”

“Then why not use it? I think it’d fit perfectly with the rest of the look you’re going for, and it’s even got a bit of a dragon theme.”

“Mostly, it’s because the design isn’t mine.” Emery said, guiltily. “I saw a painting of a Cultivator from a long time ago. Some warrior with a great beard, and he had a weapon that looked like that. I really liked the design, so I recreated it.”

“So we want a Merri original. Gotcha.” Avuri said, then turned to look back around the displays.

They were both in deep meditation within their bonded Inner World. They walked through one of Emery’s smithy village buildings that had been refashioned into a display space for her favorite and most ambitious creations. Snow covered the ground outside as always, and there were even little flurries being let in through the ventilation windows on the upper parts of the walls.

Emery slipped her arm through Avuri’s as they stood in the center of the space looking around. “Anything else catch your eye?” Emery asked, as her own eyes slid over each of the weapons stored there.

“Did you know what sort of color scheme the armor is?” Avuri asked, looking around. “The weapons you have here are so colorful that I’m sure we’d want to pick something to match.”

“I can change the colors when I create the weapon, remember?” Emery teased. “I know I don’t do it often, but did you really forget?”

“Oh, right.” Avuri said, sounding a little spacey. “Honestly, I think I’m just overwhelmed for choice in here.” She slowly spun in place, dragging Emery with her, as she took in the tens, perhaps hundreds, of weapons scattered around them.

“That’s true, I suppose you don’t come in here often.”

“Almost never. You always show me when you finish one of your weapons, so I’ve seen them all at one point or another. But seeing them all laid out like this is incredible.”

“Well, let’s see what we can do to narrow things down, yeah?” Emery said with a smile. “I think we’re definitely settled on it working with the dragon theme, so…” As she trailed off, she waved her hands in the air as if conducting or pulling strings. A huge amount of the weapons in the room seemed to spring to life and move around the room in a beautifully mesmerizing dance.

Then they split apart, with all of the dragon themed weapons remaining laid out before the pair of women, while the rest were set off to the side on display hooks or in cases. But even then, they still had more than twenty options arrayed in front of them.

“It needs to be an impressive, inspiring weapon. So nothing too small.” Avuri said, thinking, while Emery removed the knives and other smaller weapons. “We definitely want ornate, too, so you can take that one away.” She continued, pointing to a jian that was crafted to look like it was covered in scales, but was otherwise unimpressive. It, too, was lifted up and floated away.

“I want an easy to recognize weapon, so I think a sword or spear would be best…” Emery said, moving away the three-section staff, wind and fire wheels, and hook swords. She also moved the rope dart away with a sigh. “I really love the rope dart. It’s such a neat weapon.”

Avuri watched it float away, eyeing it closely. “Why not just actually forge that one and wear it with the tether around your waist? It’s small enough that you could probably forge it in a day or two.”

The dart paused in mid air, then floated over to them. Emery looked it over carefully, deciding whether or not to do just that. The dart itself was shaped to look like a tooth or claw. It wasn’t curved like one, as that would ruin the balance, but it was weathered and colored to look remarkably similar to such a bone. Behind the dart itself, there was a bit of cloth, rope, and metal fashioned to look like dragon scales. The overall effect made it look almost as though a dragon’s arm was swinging around a claw when it was in motion.

“I might do that.” She concluded. “You’re right. Other than getting the weathering on the metal right, this would be a very easy forge.”

She stared at it a moment longer before nodding and sending it on its way.

“That leaves us with sixteen various swords and polearms to pick from.” Avuri said, her eyes roaming over the selection. “And you have no attachment to weapon type?”

“Not really.” Emery said. “I’m just as proficient with a polearm as with a sword, so they aren’t functionally too different for me. And at our level of Cultivation, the advantages and disadvantages of the weapons are almost non-factors anymore.”

“If that’s the case,” Avuri said, “I think a sword is best for you. They’re usually your default creation for extra weapons, and I think you should choose a weapon to match that.”

Emery considered that for a moment, then nodded, moving the polearms away. “Ten choices remaining,” she said, looking over the swords.

Avuri sighed. “There’s still too many options. My gut says you should just go with a traditional jian, but I think your dragon-styled dao are more impressive, visually speaking.”

Emery nodded. “The single-edged, pointy shape just lends itself better to a dragon theme than the straight, double edged form of the jian, yeah. Should I…?”

Avuri nodded, and the four jian lifted up and floated away to join their dragon-themed brethren on the side, leaving six various single edged blades to choose from. She stared at the swords, all lined up, trying to make any further decisions.

“We’re at the hard part now, I guess?” Emery chuckled.

“Yeah. The armor we had made for you isn’t too gaudy, right? It’s rather sleek?”

“That was the intention at least, yes. No oversized pauldrons or anything like that.”

“Right. Let’s pick a sword to match then.” Avuri pointed to a sword, acting with far more confidence in her choice than she actually felt.

The actual blade itself looked fairly unassuming and rather practical. The edge was curved and sharpened as expected, but the back edge of the dao had a graceful wave to it. Etched into the back portion of the sword, matching the waved shape, was a long, serpent-like dragon. The body looked both dangerous and graceful, with beautiful curves along the blade’s spine.

However, where the blade met the handle is where Emery’s work really began. The hilt and handle were masterpieces. The handle was designed extra long to accommodate two hands if the wielder wanted to use both, and the length allowed the art to really shine. Where the blade met hilt, the dragon transitioned into its neck and head. Two antler-like horns protruded upward along the back side of the blade, sprouting from the dragon’s head.

Ridges of scales surrounded the hilt acting as the dragon’s jaw bone, as well as creating a guard to defend the hands. There was a meaty portion of the hilt dedicated only to the back portion of the dragon’s head, depicting the jaw, eyes, and forehead beautifully before the actual handle began.

The handle itself was the dragon’s snout. It was elongated for the extra hand space, but Emery had somehow made it look striking and graceful rather than simply stretched. The dragon’s mouth was open as well, with grooves between the teeth to slot in the wielder’s fingers. The bottom jaw acted as a secondary guard for the fingers. And finally, the snarling nose acted as the pommel, with two large fangs sticking out from the bottom of the blade that could be used in close quarters if necessary.

Emery eyed the piece the Avuri chose, and made a face. “You don’t think that one’s too much? You literally just said we should pick a sleeker option.”

“I did say that. And I think this one functions two fold. First, when you hold it…” She said, holding up the weapon with ease, giving it a few test swings. “The blade is really what catches the eye at first, and it appears to be a fairly simple weapon if you don’t look at the handle. However…”

As she trailed off, she tossed the weapon into the air. Emery’s Qi caught it easily, keeping it aloft.

“If you choose to use it as a flying sword at any point, it’s appearance will be about as memorable as it can be.”

Emery followed Avuri’s gaze up to the floating weapon, and made it fly around the room. For added effect, she made it fly handle first, truly giving it the appearance of a dragon in flight. And Avuri was right - in motion, this would be the most impressive of the bunch, while still giving the appearance of a fairly normal blade as long as she held onto it.

“I guess we have a winner!” Emery declared, bringing the weapon down to her hand. With a quick flourish, the other weapons in the display area all flew into action, retreating to their original display settings.

“Now I suppose we just Cultivate for the rest of the night? It’s not like we’ll actually sleep.” Emery said as she turned toward the door, sword in hand.

Avuri followed, walking back out into their snowy village. “I suppose so. You’re at least right in that I don’t really feel like making the effort to get any sleep tonight. We may as well make use of the time.”

Emery nodded, and threw the sword into the air once they were outside her display building. It flew off toward the center of the village, and plunged into the dirt patch in the middle of everything, ready to be called up at a moment’s notice.

Emery offered Avuri a warm smile, then vanished from their Inner World as she opened her eyes. They were seated a small distance apart on their bed, both cross legged. A great situation for meditation and working on their combined Inner World, but not so much for Cultivating.

As Avuri blinked her eyes a few times to adjust to the room’s lighting, Emery shuffled around. She moved blankets and pillows to construct their normal little nest on their bed. Once it was finished, Avuri reached out to the door’s Array-based lock, and clicked it into place with her Qi from a distance, before they both began to settle in for the night.

Robes and clothing were discarded, only leaving underclothes on, and Avuri untied her braid; it would only get messy if she left it in. Both women took a solid drink of water before settling in. They snuggled up against one another, entwining legs and fingers in a close embrace.

Slowly, over the course of a minute or two, their breathing synced up. It took barely a thought for their Domains to clip into one another and click into place, fitting together in a way that felt more natural than being separate ever did. And together, they pulled at their combined, now singular mass of Qi to begin the process of their Cultivation.