Sword and Snow

Stena wasn’t about to take any chances with Leon. Even with both of his arms separated from his body, he was enough of a potential danger to her and her family. And since none of them could interfere with his Domain, she really only had one option.

When Stena pushed her blade down to end him, it struck a layer of ice instead. Stena’s blade scratched the ice, but didn’t push through it. Instead, it slid off to the side, leaving a deep groove in the ice. The blade buried itself a few inches deep in the base of Leon’s shoulder. He screamed again, which quickly turned into incoherent babbling.

“I think you’ve done well enough.”

Stena turned toward the source of the voice, ready for another fight. Her mothers weren’t supposed to be here, and she didn’t trust her eyes. She stood and raised her weapon, ready to defend herself, when she felt a Domain settle over her. She could feel the strange vibrations in the air that Emery’s Domain caused. Vibrations that had always made her feel safe.

Stena’s whole body relaxed at once. She kept the strength in her knees to remain standing, and avoided a full-on slump, but her fighting-ready stance was entirely gone. Her siblings that were scattered around the area slowly revealed themselves, leaving their hiding spots tentatively. Cierra had dropped to her butt to sit down, clearly relieved.

Avuri let out a controlled burst of Qi that traveled in a dome shape through her Domain. Everyone watched as the wave of cold swept through the whole area. The cold front shimmered like a thin, transparent crystal as it simply snuffed out every bit of fire that it passed. And it extended well past the furthest fire that Leon had caused. Just in case.

The same cold front passed over Leon, and encased him fully in ice. He looked raving mad, his face frozen in an open mouthed shout.

As the small group that accompanied Emery and Avuri spread out from the trees, Stena let the dragonscale sword she carried return to her storage ring finally. Emery walked over to Stena, and put an arm around her daughter in a side hug around the girl's shoulders. Stena had to hold back a small chuckle - Emery had to struggle a bit to give her that hug because of the height difference. Even while slumped like she was, Stena still stood taller.

“You did good, kid.” Emery said with a smile. “That last attack was beautifully executed. Couldn’t have done it better myself.”

“You’re lying, but thank you.” Stena said, pushing against her mother’s sturdy body. As she watched Avuri move to check on Cierra, she asked, “How long were you all watching?”

“Mmm…basically since the beginning?” Emery responded. “We caught up to that asshole before he made it to the basin, but because his awareness and Qi control is so poor, he didn’t even notice us watching him.”

Stena almost couldn’t stop herself from laughing. Only a few chuckles escaped, as she realized there was never any real danger during that fight. Not really. Assuming the adults would’ve stepped in if anything got too dicey.

“You all did very well, though. It was a good plan, executed well.” Emery said again as everyone else walked up.

“You’re…not mad at us for taking on a Sky Realm like that?” Lia asked, her voice small.

“Normally I would be.” Emery said. “Though, to be fair, normally you’d all be dead after a stunt like that.” Her voice took on the maternal edge that they all recognized and the whole group flinched.

“But.” She continued, “I’m going to be generous today, and believe that you assessed the situation and chose to fight because you thought it through, not because you were reckless.” Emery eyed each of them in turn as she spoke, and each teen did their best not to flinch under her gaze.

“We were prepared to run from the beginning.” Kord said, speaking up. “Cierra and Stena were to appear briefly without engaging in combat to try to gauge the enemy’s strength. If they deemed the fight dangerous, they were going to retreat.”

It took a moment of silence, but Emery did nod finally. “Fair enough then. We’ll save the part where you’re all in trouble for being stupid and reckless for another day.”

“Let them breathe for a bit, Em.” Avuri said as she and Cierra approached. “Win or lose, they just had a pretty tense experience.”

“I know.” Emery said. “I just want them to realize how dangerous that was before they go celebrating. Do not expect to win against a Sky Realm Cultivator like that again. You got lucky.”

“I know, Mom.” Cierra said, her voice teetering between respectful and annoyed. “We really got lucky in terms of our opponent. Leon wasn’t a good Cultivator. He lacked experience despite knowing a few techniques. He had almost no real control over his Domain because, again, he clearly lacked training. And he over relied on it any time he could.”

“He also, most notably,” Stena picked up the explanation, meeting gazes with Cierra, “was absolutely garbage at separating his focus. He was locked onto Cierra and I the entire time and never thought to sweep the area for others. His singular focus also made it easy to disrupt his Domain.”

Avuri and Emery both seemed satisfied with that. “At least you’re aware, then. You basically fought an extra powerful Earth Realm Cultivator with a weapon they didn’t know how to use.”

All of the kids looked down, clearly in thought. They had gotten lucky, but they didn’t need to have it shoved home so thoroughly immediately after winning the fight.

Emery smiled. “Now then, like I said before, let’s put that aside. You all carried out your strategy wonderfully. Especially that combination at the end. Enrik, I assume those pillars were your doing?”

Enrik nodded. “Yes, they were.”

“You did a great job breaking his footing. That can turn around a battle if you time it right. And Fia? That wave of water was you?”

“I just wanted to get him to completely focus on one thing. That’s why the attack was so big and wide. I wanted it to look more imposing, even though it probably -”

“Relax,” Emery said, interrupting the girl’s worried rambling. “You did well. The attack did exactly what it was meant to. Well done.” Fia seemed to settle after that with a smile on her face.

“And Stena, I already told you, those sword strokes were beautifully executed. I have no notes for you either.” Emery said, and patted each one of their arms in turn.

“And Cierra. You and I are going to have a little talk later about your little stunt. I wouldn’t have pegged you as the type to overextend yourself in an attempt to test a theory.” Emery had to hold up a hand to stop Cierra from objecting. “No. You put yourself in far more danger than was necessary, and I am mad at you for that.”

Cierra looked a little dejected when Emery and Avuri shared a look then leaned in conspiratorially to ask, “So? How did your revenge feel?” Emery asked, the smile audible in her voice.

Cierra balked, clearly not expecting that question. She looked sheepishly at her mothers and a small smile broke free. “It was immensely satisfying.” She said, almost embarrassed. “I honestly didn’t think I cared. And then he showed up and suddenly I felt like I needed to pay back what he did to me.”

Basically everyone in attendance turned to look at the frozen Leon. Avuri didn’t freeze people solid often - she usually opted to encase them in ice. Actually freezing their bodies could cause some pretty severe damage and it was rare that she actually wanted to hurt the person. In this particular case, she hadn’t bothered being nice.

“I’m surprised you stopped me from killing him.” Stena said eventually, breaking the silence.

“I can’t speak for Emery,” Avuri said, “but I didn’t want you to have blood on your hands yet. There will no doubt be plenty of time in the future for you to do whatever it is you’re going to do, but while you’re here, still under our roof, I’d rather you not need to kill if it’s not necessary.”

“I don’t disagree.” Emery said. “You’re still young. And while I wouldn’t have had any issues with you killing him - especially him - I don’t see a reason to make you do it while we’re here.”

“Taking lives does something to you.” Ieji added. “It’s hard to explain. And I’m not going to tell you that there’s always some great emotional struggle involved, because there’s not. But something does change.”

Avuri nodded. “They’re right. There’s no reason to take that step unless you have to. And right now, you don’t.”

“What are you going to do with him, then?” Cierra asked, directing the question to Avuri. “He’s your brother.”

“Yes, he was.” Avuri said, taking a deep breath. “I don’t know what the situation is with my old family back in Bouquet right now, that they would send Leon to do something like this. But to be quite honest, I don’t really care.” Avuri’s gaze drifted to her frozen brother. “He must have known what would happen if he came back here. And I’m not about to let him leave after attacking my family again.”

The steel in Avuri’s voice was enough to make her children step back. She almost never got this angry; Emery was always the one that got angry, while Avuri was usually the more even keeled of the two.

Stena popped her blade back out of her storage ring, mostly as a joke, and offered it to Avuri handle-first. Avuri’s eyes were still glued to the ice statue she had made, but she took the proffered sword without looking.

“Everyone back up a little.”

Avuri barely waited for everyone to listen before the ice surrounding Leon melted away at her behest. His body thumped to the ground, still thawing. But the bump was apparently enough to wake him from his ice-induced unconsciousness because he immediately began raving again, shouting all kinds of obscenities.

Until he was coherent enough to look around and his eyes fell on Avuri. There was a moment of silence as he tried to process what was happening, and then he screamed.

“You bitch! You’re mine, Ivory! I’m going to kill you!”

His irrational screaming went on for a bit before he finally tried to pull on his Qi and found it sluggish to respond after being unconscious. But Avuri waited for him to pull himself together. She even let him push out his Domain again.

“I don’t like killing people who can’t defend themselves.” She said by way of explanation, but aimed it at her kids. “Neither does Emery. You shouldn’t do it.”

“You!” Leon screeched. He began to gather Qi in his mouth, probably to breathe flame. He was pretty severely limited without arms.

Avuri moved in a blink. Leon’s attempt at a fire breath was as poor as everything else he did, and Avuri sliced straight through the condensed fire. The dragonscale blade was perfect for that.

In the same motion, the blade continued to cut the fire breath in two until it reached Leon’s mouth. It kept cutting, separating the top of his head from the bottom, leaving only his lower jaw attached to his neck. Avuri spun into the follow through of the cut and jammed the blade into Leon’s back, straight through his heart, and through the front of his chest.

There was a satisfying sucking sound as she withdrew the blade from Leon’s body.

Someone in the group whistled appreciatively at the short exchange. Avuri, for her part, just let out a held breath as a long, drawn-out sigh.

Emery spoke the words on most of their minds.

“Good riddance.”