Sword and Snow

I tried to wring out my long hair with a towel the best I could as I walked back into the bedroom. Thankfully, things were at least quiet.

Cierra and Stena both were pretty wiped out after the incident in the morning. Crying was really exhausting, after all, both mentally and physically. The two of them had taken a bath shortly after dinner and went almost straight to bed. They were so tired that they didn’t even put up a token resistance to sleeping in their own room tonight.

And to add to the quiet, Emery’s siblings had moved out of the main house rooms into the smaller houses that my family members had vacated. Even Vale and Talya had chosen to move to the separated houses.

I’ll admit, the more complete silence had been a little unnerving while washing up in the bathroom, after being so used to the occasional noises of other people living in the house. The whole feeling went away pretty quickly when I returned to see Emery sitting on the bed, though, book in one hand, and a comb in the other.

She glanced up over the edge of the book and met my eyes. “I’m sorry things went the way they did today.” She said quietly. I could hear her cleanly over the lack of any background noise though.

“It’s okay.” I breathed out heavily, then took another even deeper breath. “I was prepared for something like that to happen. I’ll give you, I didn’t expect it to be so…in the open. I was fully expecting some kind of subterfuge or sly plan of theirs to come to light.” I could feel my mouth pull back in an unconscious frown. “I didn’t expect anyone to hit anybody.”

Emery put the book down on her side of the bed and sat up against her pillow and the wall behind her, motioning for me to come sit with the comb. “I’ll brush you out, come here.” She said, her warm smile about as calming and inviting as I had ever seen it.

As I moved to sit on the bed as comfortably as I could manage wedged between her legs, she continued, “I know you weren’t expecting it. I don’t think any of us were.” Despite being behind me, I could hear the difference in her voice when she turned away from me either embarrassed or apologetic. “I fully expected them to try to use the girls against us somehow. There had to be a reason that they were so insistent on babysitting them while we did our work.”

I nodded, feeling Emery’s fingers begin to glide through my hair. She gently scratched at my scalp on each pass, and shivers traveled down my back each time. “I thought so too.” I agreed. “It’s why I never objected to you turning them down every time. They absolutely would have tried to use them against us somehow. They’re still a little young to be political hostages, but I’d be willing to bet they’d still try.”

There was a moment of silence as Emery gathered up a section of hair to begin the long process of detangling it all. “...I expected them to suggest the girls go to Bouquet to study, because the teachers here are ‘lacking’, or some other similar reason. And if they had really convinced the girls to like them, they could have even had the girls asking to go.”

“That sort of move is exactly what I expected.” I said. I closed my eyes and focused on the pleasant feeling of Emery brushing my hair. “I’m honestly not sure the girls would have agreed, even if everything went entirely their way. In fact, I’m pretty sure that Cierra and Stena both would fight us tooth and nail to stay here with us.”

Emery snickered behind me, and I felt a smile creep onto my face in response to the relatively happy sound. “I bet you’re right.” She agreed. “I can already imagine the whining and carrying on. Stena trying to jump on me to get picked up.”

I chuckled, imagining it - and very easily too. “She’s so lucky that we’re Cultivators and can pick her up the way she wants.”

Emery laughed at that. “No doubt. There’s no way we’d be able to hold her otherwise. Or at least not for very long.”

The conversation flowed easily from there for another twenty minutes as Emery slowly took her time going through each little section of my hair, detangling it. And each time she started a new section, she would massage and scratch my head in a way that left me so relaxed that I could have easily fallen asleep right there. More than once she had to push me upright again after I had leaned back against her with a blissful smile on my face.

Once she was finally done, she took the time to carefully braid the giant mass and tie it up before placing the comb aside. Finally, satisfied she had finished, she patted my shoulder and leaned around to kiss my cheek. “All done, love.”

“Thank you. That felt lovely.” I said, a huge grin in place. “I would not be opposed to that being a regular occurrence.”

“You know, I enjoyed it myself. It was nice to just take a bit and relax like that.” She said, her hands snaking around my waist from behind, holding me in her lap. Her chin rested comfortably on my shoulder, and I leaned my head against hers. After a moment, she nudged me with her nose a few times to get me to turn and kiss her.

She twisted to the side and pulled me down to the bed with her, still hugging me from behind. I snuggled in back against her and pulled her arms tighter around me and we lay on our sides. She wiggled against my back trying to fit herself nicely against me, but she seemed to be getting frustrated that the difference in height left her face against my shoulder blades.

Rather than let her continue, I turned around to face her instead and curled my arms around her too. With a smile, I rested my forehead against hers as she finally seemed to settle in.

We stayed quietly like that for a little while before I said, “You know what we haven’t done in a while?”

Emery snorted. “Cultivation.” She said flatly. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot too. Do you think we should do it again?”

“Well, putting all else aside, it’s hard to ignore how explosively we both grew in those few months. We’d be leaving so much potential on the table if we don’t.” I said, trying to sound logical about it.

Emery eyed me suspiciously, like I knew she would. There was no keeping something obvious like this from her. “That’s not your actual reason at all, is it?” She asked. “Or do you actually just regret not Dual Cultivating for the last eight months?”

I smiled and leaned in for a quick peck just because. “You caught me. No. I think we made the right call by removing that particular storm of emotions from the situation. But I also think that I’m ready now. For all that it entails. If you are too, then…” I trailed off in question, trying to watch her expression for any changes.

I didn’t need to watch very carefully to see it melt into a blatant caring and loving smile. “I feel the same, Avuri.” She said plainly. “You don’t think we’re just still in the honeymoon phase of our relationship?” She asked, not actually sounding that concerned about it.

“It’s been over a year since what I imagine would be considered our first date.” I responded. “I don’t know when the honeymoon phase officially transitions into just a good relationship, but surely it has by now.”

She snickered. “Yeah, that seems fair.” There was silence again for a moment, then she asked “You’re sure?”

“Yeah.” I said. “Though I’ve also been told to be prepared. Apparently the rush after taking such a long break will be…significant.” I recalled the pseudo warning Lyn had given me in passing one day.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Apparently, if you take an extended break from Dual Cultivation with someone and then return to it with the same person, your Qi can recognize that and get excited.” I thought back to the conversation I had and smiled wistfully. “Lyn said something about our souls being able to recognize their partner, but that seems a little fanciful. She did say that if the connections between you are real, though, that the effect is greater, so…who knows.”

I felt Emery’s hand cup my cheek as we met eyes again. She looked about as open and honest as I had ever seen her. “If that’s the case, I may be in trouble.” She said, then smiled.

“Me too,” I said with a similar grin. “There’s no one else in the house with Qi sense, and the girls are asleep. Should we try it?”

Despite fully expecting a hearty ‘yes’, I could feel my mouth go dry at the thought of her turning me down. As it turned out, I didn’t get a verbal response at all, just a nod and a squeeze from her hand in mine.

Then I felt her reach out eagerly with her Qi. As I let my own begin to cycle, I could feel her eagerness and excitement before our Domains and Qi even really touched, let alone connected.

Despite our bodies being rather tightly wound together and at least nominally clothed, there was a moment after we both were surrounded by our Qi and Domains, but hadn’t actually ‘touched’ them together yet where I imagined we both felt somehow exposed. There was just a small moment before we connected that was full of the sort of excitement before jumping into a pool. Not exactly hesitation or apprehension, but something more akin to taking a moment to appreciate the excitement before the jump.

We both smiled at each other, recognizing that same feeling in the other. That feeling lasted just a moment longer before we simultaneously reached out and our Qi met.

It was almost instantaneous. Our Qi and Domains seemed to latch onto one another immediately. It wasn’t the same type of connection that we needed to actually use for Dual Cultivation, but rather the Domains simply seemed to want to stay in contact. While neither of us had any desire to pull back, I had the feeling that if we tried, our Domains would object to it at that moment.

We both wordlessly moved to make the connection that we had avoided for so long at the same time. Before, even after all of the training we had done, it still took a bit of effort to forge that connection. It wasn’t difficult, but more like making a decision; we needed to want to connect, and then things would slip into place.

This time, the connection almost required no thought at all. In the back of my mind, I recalled Vale, or maybe someone else, mentioning that forming this connection would become easier and easier as the people involved got closer. The way that everything just snapped into place with zero actual effort made me believe those words.

I could feel the smaller connections of Qi and Domain strengthen and braid together like a cord, the connection getting stronger and harder to break. It seemed everything was falling into place at a steady rate for a while, then something deeper clicked and the sensations changed. Raw, unfettered emotions slammed against me in a torrent, leaving me struggling to keep my head above water.