Ery looked at like I had five heads. Clearly what I had said was not what she expected.
"I just spill my guts and tell you I've basically been trained for killing since birth, tortured for most of my childhood, and am on the warpath to murder as many demonic Cultivators as I can find, and your response is, 'this made more interesting'." She looked almost comical, blinking with her eyes so wide. "Are you insane?"
I just shrugged. "Only as much as you are, I imagine." Ery moved to respond again, but I waved her off and forged on. "And everyti you talk about your circumstances, you paint it all so specifically to make yourself sound like such a bad person. And that's doing you such a disservice."
Ery clenched her jaw shut and looked at pointedly and annoyed. I shifted in the bath to face her more directly. Earnestly.
"Listen. I'll give you that you've been trained to kill basically since birth and you had one hell of a tortured childhood. I certainly have no interest in disputing that. But saying that what you're doing now is being 'on a warpath to murder as many of whatever as you can' is just wrong."
Once again, Ery moved to speak but I spoke over her. "Tell , Ery, how many demonic Cultivators have you killed in the last eight months since I saw you last?"
"None." She said, indignantly.
"And why is that? If you are 'on the warpath', why have you not gone out and killed anyone in the last half a year?"
Ery folded her arms over her chest, looking distinctly peeved. "Because I've been building a new house."
I waited for her to elaborate further. She didn't. So I cleared my throat and prompted, "And why is that?" When she opened her mouth to speak, I could tell from the look on her face she was about to spout so nonsense to support her point. I put a hand up in front of her face. "The truth." I said, firmly.
Ery narrowed her eyes at . "Because I needed a ho base to work from, and I'm tired of wandering without one."
I eyed her, narrowing my own eyes in a mirror of hers. And with a quick flash of Qi, I drew up so of the bath water to splash her in the face. As she spluttered the water from her mouth, I said, "The whole truth, you idiot."
With the sa petulant look a child would give their parents during a scolding, Ery once again crossed her arms and forcefully dropped back against the edge of the tub with a huff. She sighed dramatically and said, "I wanted to have a place to call ho. For myself…and Cierra."
I swung my arms wide, as if putting on an overacted play. "There it is! Finally, a bit of truth from her mouth." I said, rolling my eyes. "You apparently don't want to admit it, but you're at least as concerned with your family - Cierra included - as you are with hunting demonic Cultivators."
I paused for emphasis. "And let be clear. Those demonic Cultivators deserve you coming after them. They deserve absolutely every little thing coming to them." I said, with as much finality as I could muster.
Ery laid her head back, looking more or less exhausted. She side eyed curiously, but said nothing. I settled back against the edge of the tub myself, in thought. My trip here and what Eli and Ettie had said.
"There is at least one demonic Cultivator sect in the Dying Lands. They've apparently been taking children from caravans that are traveling through the area." Ery's head snapped around imdiately, her eyes suddenly focused.
"Did you get any more information than that? Any leads?" She asked fervently.
I shook my head. "No, I was just told about it by two of the guards that were part of the caravan I traveled with. An Eli and Ettie Nunn?"
Ery shrugged. "Never heard of 'em. But we already know of one demonic sect in the Dying Lands." She let out a frustrated breath. "They're led by an old demonic beast with a human form. They're at least Sky Realm, so they're a little beyond right now."
"And Vale?" I asked.
"All the normal sect rules bullshit applies." Ery spat. "If he gets involved, it's entirely possible that we'd end up with an unknown demonic Heavenly or Celestial Realm Cultivator popping up to fight back. The last ti that happened is how we got the Dying Lands in the first place."
I raised an eyebrow. "I had heard that the desolation was the result of so high level battle but there's so many stories with conflicting details I thought no one knew for sure."
"Vale is an old dragon. He wasn't there as far as I know, but he's ntioned in passing that the scarring of the land was the result of a Celestial Realm demonic Cultivator showing up in retribution for a sect coming to wipe out the demonic sect that was based there. Apparently the demon wiped out the whole sect and ravaged the land all in one huge scale attack."
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I shivered. "And if Vale got involved in sothing like this, sothing more equal to his level may show up."
"Yeah."
"Well, shit." I said, with a sigh. Ery nodded - but there was a slightly concerning glint in her eyes.
"The one demonic sect we know about never abducted kids, though." Ery said.
"Which ans either they've started doing sothing new, or there is a second, different sect." I concluded.
"Yeah." Ery confird. "And it's incredibly rare that a demonic sect branches out like that, as they are usually ford around a specific demonic technique." Ery was sitting up straight now, alert and thinking. "They're still in the Dying Lands though, so they're guaranteed to be at least Sky Realm. How long did you say they've been taking kids?"
"I didn't. I wasn't told an exact tiline, but I got the impression it's maybe been a few months." I said, watching Ery's mind at work.
"If they're that new, it would be very unlikely they have any sort of powerful backing. I'd bet that they're a small group of Sky Realm Cultivators that recently got their hands on a demonic technique and are still new to it." Ery frowned. "If I was Sky Realm I could probably at least go and investigate. Damnit."
I considered being polite for a mont, before deciding to ask, "How close are you to the peak?"
Ery looked at seriously. "Pretty close. But still a year or two away from breaking through, I imagine. Probably."
I blanched. "Sa here. I thought maybe if you were close, we could train together and push you through. But I suppose if you're not that close, it's not really useful to just push for advancent."
Ery made a face as if she was just generally discontent with the whole situation. Which, given our inability to do anything here.
"Wait." Ery said, her head snapping up. "I rember Vale saying sothing about so kind of special training partners can do. Maybe he knows so way we can advance to the Sky Realm quickly."
I considered asking whether he had been referencing Dual Cultivation but figured soone as ancient as Vale might have sothing actually special up his sleeve.
I nodded. "We should ask. If there's so kind of special training regin we could do that would give us an edge or a Cultivation boost, it's worth it."
"Should we go now?" Ery asked. "Or did you want to soak a bit more?"
I leaned my head against the stone outside the bath and yawned. "I like the idea of soaking. But if you think Vale might have so kind of super secret training technique, we should just ask. The sooner we get to working toward saving those kids, the better."
Ery nodded and stood, holding her towel snug around her body. "Right then. Let's go talk to him before he gets settled for the night."
I stood, following suit. "Fair enough. You say 'settle in for the night,' but does Vale even sleep?"
"No, but he has a tendency to enter pretty deep ditation most nights. It's nearly impossible to get him out of it once he starts, so we're better off getting to him before then." Ery chuckled.
"Uuh, right." I said, chuckling as I imagined trying to wake a dragon from deep ditation. I motioned Ery toward the door. "Lead the way, I guess."
Together, we made our way into the changing room, dried off, and swapped towels for light robes. I followed Ery back to the main house and up to the second floor where the bedrooms were. She made her way down the hall to a room with a door closed, which I had to assu was Vale's.
When she knocked, a 'Co in' echoed from inside. And so we did. Vale was, indeed, sitting on the floor in a ditation pose. He untangled his legs and stood to greet us, motioning toward the small table in the center of the room with cushions around it. There was even a teapot on the table.
"Thanks, Vale." Ery said as we moved to the table.
I paused for a mont, looking between the two, and wondered if there was a reason she didn't call Vale 'Dad' or sothing similar the way Talya did. In the end, I sat down at the table without asking.
"What did you need?" Vale asked seriously. "I can see it on your face that you have a reason."
Ery nodded. Vale was right, her face was clearly serious. "You once said that there was so kind of training that I could do with a partner that would accelerate my Cultivation growth… 'explosively' was, I think, the word you used."
I could see Vale putting together what she was about to ask. And based on him clearly beginning to act uncomfortable, I suspected my earlier suspicion was dead on.
As Ery was no doubt about to ask what the technique was directly, I interrupted her. "Ery, I know you said that Vale ntioned such a technique, but I don't think it's sothing we can do."
Ery turned to sharply. "What do you an? You said you were interested." She looked incensed, but also perhaps on the verge of a pout. And then she turned back to Vale. "If you know a way, out with it."
Vale averted his eyes from Ery, either just uncomfortable or maybe embarrassed. "Look, Ery," he said, trying to explain. "You know I won't lie to you. There is a technique, but I can't recomnd it to the two of you." He looked between the two of us. "At least not yet, anyway. Maybe soday."
Ery just got annoyed by his response. "The hell does that an - not yet? There's children out there being tortured, and there's a way we can help them. You've always helped before, and now you're suddenly saying 'no'?"
I put a hand on her shoulder to try to calm her down a little. "It's okay Ery. If it's a shortcut, it's probably a bad idea. You know how things like that are usually too good to be true."
She nodded, still staring down Vale. "You're absolutely right. But I also know Vale would never suggest sothing like that to ." She looked about ready to start a scrap with the dragon. "So what'll it be, old man? You gonna help or get in my way."
When Vale didn't respond, I had to physically hold Ery in place. She snapped back at . "What are you doing?"
"Ery, I think I know of the technique he's referring to. And he's probably right. I don't think it's ant for us right now." Vale's eyes t mine and he sighed as I spoke again. "It's probably Dual Cultivation. Or Paired Cultivation. Whatever you'd like to call it."
Ery stopped and turned to Vale, a brow raised curiously. "What the hell is that?"
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