Sword and Snow

Avuri levitated the cannon in place, still aimed in Quarris’ direction, readying to take a second shot. Just in case. She could also feel Emery building up a cavalcade of air blades surrounding the woman.

The cannon blast had cut straight through her orbiting stones and annihilated her arm. The ensuing pain was clearly enough for Quarris to drop concentration on her Qi; Avuri had felt Emery’s command over their Domain slam into Quarris’ hoping to shut her down in the moment of impact. Quarris had done admirably in defending her space, and had barely given a few centimeters

The damage still showed, though. Quarris' techniques had suffered instead; her quickly spinning orbitals dropped to the ground, forgotten, while even her armor began to sag. It didn’t fall apart entirely, but it clearly had begun to melt from a hardened substance back into something more akin to wet sand. Her concentration spent on maintaining her Domain was the correct option, but it still left her far more defenseless than before.

If nothing else, with her orbitals dropped, there was nothing defending her from Emery’s invisible blades; and given that Quarris refused to move, it seemed she knew it too. She also knew we would attack again if she so much as made a motion to restart her techniques.

“So?” She asked. “Putting aside whatever monstrosity that is,” she said, pointing at the cannon, “what exactly is your plan here, now? You’ve got me dead to rights, but didn’t actually go for the -”

“I missed.” Avuri said, flatly. Quarris turned to meet her eyes. “Aiming this thing is a pain in the ass, and even when aimed properly, more than half the time the shot goes awry anyway.”

“What good is a cannon that you can’t aim worth a damn?” Quarris asked, her face screwed up in some kind of disbelieving rage.

Avuri merely pointed at the swath of destruction in the trees behind Quarris. “That kind of destruction is the point. It’s not great to use against single people, sure, but it’s not designed to be.”

Avuri was absolutely spouting nonsense, but hoped it sounded believable. She just wanted to maintain whatever kind of control she had over the situation. It was seemingly a surprisingly high amount. Emery silently supported her through their connection, in favor of whatever this was.

There was another few moments of silence as Quarris stared Avuri down angrily. Eventually, the rage faded somewhat, leaving a more mild annoyance. She sighed. “Are you going to kill me, make me bleed out, or can I staunch the wound with a technique?”

Truthfully, Avuri really wanted to just kill her and be done with it. She had threatened her kids, attempted to invade their home - backed with a substantial fighting force, and generally seemed somewhat mad. Or at least she seemed far less mentally stable than when they had met in the tent for the parley earlier.

We should -

I know.

Avuri sighed, waving the woman’s concern away. “Stop the bleeding. But while you do so, tell me who, exactly, Aysol is.”

Quarries snorted as she gathered a mass of Qi infused sand around the wound, consolidating it and hardening it to stop the stump of her upper arm from bleeding. “Terrane knows the most about him. Personally, I’ve only seen him a few times. Never spoke to him. He’s been coming and going from The Deposits for a while for some kind of business, presumably with the Elders.”

“Speaking of, where are they?” Emery asked, crossing her arms and shifting her weight to one leg. She looked rather comfortable, despite the tense situation.

“Take a guess.” Quarris said acidly. “They’re watching from somewhere, but who knows where. I imagine they’re still leading the main body of the army. Or ran when they saw the fucking dragons.”

“Fair point.” Emery nodded, acknowledging the point.

“As for Aysol, I don’t know much. I know he was involved with convincing the Elders to attack your stupid city. Told us we should expect a dragon or two to defend it, but that we could probably overwhelm you with numbers.”

Quarris smiled a vicious little smile then. “He’s also the one that brought that other man to us.” She nodded over toward Avuri’s Chilling Cage, where she had trapped Leon.

The cage that was now empty.

Quarris laughed at first, then smacked the ground. “That fucking weasel!”

Leon couldn’t believe his luck.

He didn’t have much in the way of combat skills. Yes, he was capable of fighting, but not to a particularly high standard. He knew he couldn’t beat Ivory or her witch of a wife in a fight. Certainly not both at once.

But what he truly excelled at was reading people. His merchant training as a child had extended to how to read minute changes in a person’s facial expressions, body language and personal tics. And as soon as he had reached the Sky Realm, that training had extended to reading Domains and their associated quirks.

And while Ivory’s Domain was really weird, he had still been able to read the exact moment that she had launched that attack. And in that moment, there was a tiny lapse in Ivory’s concentration on her cage.

It wasn’t enough for the cage to be fully destroyed or anything like that, but it was enough that with using a highly concentrated blade of fire Qi he was able to cut through the metal and ice well enough that he could bust his way out of the cage.

The fact that he was able to get away without anyone noticing though, that was the real treat. He had left behind a sort of Qi decoy that had apparently worked better than he had expected it would. Ultimately, it was just a lump of Qi that carried a heavy amount of his Qi signature.

He supposed because Ivory was paying so little attention to him, she didn’t notice when he slipped away because there was a sort of stand-in left behind.

Leon grinned as he ran further up the mountain, toward the Basin. He knew that if his sister found him at this point, he was as good as dead without backup. He needed a plan that was more than ‘put up a fight and die,’ and he had some idea of what might work.

Yes, he remembered his last visit to his sister’s house and how she had reacted to him hitting that girl of hers. It wasn’t necessarily a smart idea, trying to take a hostage, but he was out of options otherwise.

She clearly cared enough about the girl that she might be willing to talk if he could threaten her using one of the girls. It would be a long shot, but he was basically dead if he didn’t try something. He wasn’t exactly proud to be taking a little girl hostage, but if it was what needed to be done, then so be it.

Leon smiled to himself as he rushed up the mountain; it was time for a reunion.

Cierra and Stena were relaxing in the dining room with Arek and Astra playing cards. Talya and Gray were around somewhere, probably the kitchen, but Cierra wasn’t paying enough attention to know for sure.

Things had been going fine. It had only been a day with their mothers gone. And even then, only the daylight, not a full twenty four hours. Everyone else had hunkered down in their houses as they had been told. Cierra was sure they’d get restless and start to try to cause trouble eventually, but for one day, everything went to plan. It would even be bedtime for the younger kids soon.

“Oh, right,” Cierra said to herself, then leaned back in her chair to talk toward the kitchen. “Talya?”

“Yes, hun?” She responded from the kitchen.

“It occurred to me that we never set up any sort of overnight surveillance plan. Someone should stay up to keep an eye on the Arrays, right?”

“Oh, it’s not really necessary.” Talya said. “If something crosses through any of the outer Arrays, there’ll be an alarm that goes off, as well as a bit of a flashy lightshow. I designed it to be enough to wake at least one of us up. Though, to be honest, I doubt any of us would sleep through it.”

“Okay.” Cierra said, nodding acceptance.

She must have not sounded entirely convinced because Talya popped her head around the corner of the kitchen’s doorway, still wiping down a dish from dinner. She smiled warmly. “If you would feel better staying up to keep an eye on it, you can. I don’t think Gray or I are planning on sleeping too much either, but if you’re going to stay up tonight, maybe we’ll try to get some sleep.”

Cierra nodded. “I’ll probably do that if it’s okay. I think I’ll feel better that way, and to be honest, I’m not sure I could sleep even if I wanted to.”

Talya nodded. “Okay, I don’t blame you.” She looked around at the rest of the kids at the table. “How about all of you?”

“I might stay up for a while too.” Stena said. “I’m not tired, and I’m also not too sure I could sleep.”

“I want to stay up too.” Arek said. He had seemed a little nervous for most of the day, so they wouldn’t make him go to bed. At least not yet. But Cierra was pretty sure that he wouldn’t make it very long. Maybe an hour or two past their normal bedtime.

Astra was already looking sleepy, despite bedtime still being a little while away. For the moment, though, she was still lucid enough to put in the token, “I’ll stay up too.”

Talya chuckled. “Okay, you four can stay up for now. But once your bedtime hits, go hang out in one of your rooms.”

There was a chorus of agreements around the table as the card game resumed for now. They’d move to Astra’s bedroom in a bit, so when she inevitably fell asleep, they’d have less distance to carry her to bed. And then maybe they could move to Arek’s room for the same reason.

Cierra chuckled to herself, thinking about whether or not Arek would catch them moving to his room and take it as an insult or not. She thought he was smart enough that he might figure it out.

Avuri felt Emery’s emotions through their connection. Anger, worry, urgency; among other things. She wanted to give chase right now, and Avuri could feel Emery’s desire to separate Leon’s head from his body and it was no less than her own.

But for all of that, Avuri wasn’t really worried. And she shared that emotion with Emery silently, just for reassurance. Emery turned to look at her, while Avuri kept an eye on Quarris, who was busy trying to keep her arm from bleeding while angrily muttering about Leon running away.

I’m just as angry as you, Avuri sent. But honestly, I’m not worried. Only Leon got away. The girls can handle him just fine, I’m sure.

Emery took a deep breath and let it out slowly. You’re right. Emery sent, then smiled crookedly. Honestly, if he picks a fight with them alone, I’m going to feel sorry for him.