Avuri
It wasn't until well after dinner ti that the group training with the Elders finally prepared to return ho. 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 ca 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 seed like Stena had ended up ntally 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 ho, Ery 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 so point, but she also ca 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 mbers throughout the day where she could.
Ery's training seed to go about as well as expected. She did well, generally speaking, but had also done sothing monuntally 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 seed to be the most at ho 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 seed like Eiry was at least happy with where each of them were at, although she didn't sound impressed.
Avuri guessed that ant 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 Ery, 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 tal 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 ntality and work ethic were particularly praise worthy.
While he was growing up, Avuri and Ery 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 improvent 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 beco enamored with the boy the sa 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 pumling things harder until they gave in. Kord's tal Qi Cultivation had been entirely focused on body enhancent and reinforcent, along with a skill to create pieces of Qi armor to add to the body's enhancents. And then, in any off ti 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 ho, 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 Ery 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 Ery, 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 ho 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 als with so 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 ho all day had already gone to their respective hos, and Arek and Astra were both asleep already. Opting for a short relaxing bath before bed, Ery 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 sowhat 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." Ery 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 assud.
"Cierra and Kord probably will. Stena may be too tired." Ery 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," Ery said, watching the bath fill. "She looked tired, but there was also a pretty distinct look of…relief in her eyes. Relief, or sothing similar, at least."
"Vyne always seed 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 sothing to be said for talking to soone who is, you know, not family."
"Yeah," Ery 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," Ery said, "I do. I just wish we could do more."
"I'm sure if she feels like she can co to us for anything else she will." Avuri said, "Stena has never been shy about that before."
"That's true." Ery said, then dumped a bucket of warm water over her head. Avuri followed suit, doing the sa 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?" Ery asked in the silence.
Avuri snickered. "I did not. Though I hear you did sothing stupid."
"So, obviously, Vale's fire Qi is a bad match for , right?"
"Sure. We knew that."
"Well," Ery 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?" Ery said laughing. "Vale basically asked the sa thing. But it still makes sense to logically. I have so much of your water Qi running through my ridians 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 ."
"Em, when was the last ti you just suddenly swapped Cultivation techniques like that?" Avuri asked, hoping to guide Ery 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?" Ery 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." Ery 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 ridians 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 ridians 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." Ery 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 to use. Admittedly, I usually channel it through the ridians that I use for my own tal-based techniques, but still."
As she trailed off, Ery's eyes started acting shifty. Avuri narrowed her own eyes onto Ery. "And?" she asked, prompting Ery to continue.
Ery was quiet for just a mont before muttering, "And I've been practicing using your Cultivation technique for a long ti, just a little bit at a ti. Specifically to strengthen those ridians."
Avuri sighed, in so combination of relief and exasperation. "You idiot. Why didn't you tell Vale that?"
"Because it didn't seem necessary, I guess?" Ery said. "And because I wanted to tell you that I'd been practicing your ice focused techniques before you heard it from soone else."
"What? Thought I would accuse you of stealing my technique or sothing?" Avuri giggled. "You idiot. How would you feel if I started using your tal 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 so secret technique from the Frozen Mountain Sect? Or supposed to be a secret or sothing?" Ery asked.
Avuri just laughed, "Ery, first, if it was so 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?" Ery 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 so 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…" Ery said, leaning over to get so suds out of Avuri's hair that she had missed. "You'll have to na it at so 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 tal 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, Ery lazily leaned on Avuri's shoulder. Avuri smiled, content, and considered dipping low enough into the water to dunk Ery's face in it.
"What do you think about Kord?" Ery 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." Ery 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 Ery'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." Ery spat, a little of her anger at demonic Cultivators in general seeping through.
"Yeah," Avuri agreed, "Yeah, he did."
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