Avuri
As ti went on and the new year crept closer, everything had started to llow out. Rylie and Demi had been staying with us for around a month, and we had been making solid strides on their poisoning. It would still take a while longer, but there was finally so noticeable progress in their condition, with the signs of trauma slowly healing along the edges of the affected area.
As a positive side-effect, it seed like my skills in healing were improving under the strain as well. I was getting much better at precise control and minute adjustnts that helped reduce the strain on myself, which translated to seeing more improvent and less exhaustion. Ery still chose to pamper after long nights of work, though, which was lovely.
The conversation we had had regarding taking things slower and not trying to keep busy had also affected our normal day to day. Things had gotten much more relaxed, and everyone seed to be enjoying the slow life. We still went through our normal daily ditations and practice, but the big, all-consuming group activities that we had been filling our days with had stopped.
Instead, we were regularly breaking into little groups to do things, and there had been a noticeable increase in the amount of low-stress activities, like drawing, writing, and reading. In fact, Rylie turned out to be a rather talented artist, with a particularly good eye for color despite having never really nurtured the skill before.
She had also put that eye for color to use when it ca to clothing, and had dragged , specifically, away to the city for shopping one day. I had never been so glad to carry an extra storage ring, because Rylie had gone crazy with purchases. Evidently, she and Demi had undersold the amount of money they had earned in the arena in the Riotlands because she was tossing out money like water, and then threatened when I suggested spending less.
The two of us ca back with three storage rings full of clothing and other treats for everyone, including snacks and toys for the kids, and so particularly expensive liquor for the adults. It had honestly turned into a very good day.
It was only a few days after that that Vale had finally returned. It was after dinner and already getting dark, but the whole family had still gone out to greet him. I could feel Ery's absolutely smoldering rage buried beneath a veneer of calm, and I did my best to send calming vibes to her through our link. Vale touched down outside the Basin itself, and arrived in his human form as normal, with a big grin on his face and a pleasant laugh as he was basically tackled by the kids.
"I'm back!" He declared, approaching Ery, her sisters, and , still flanked by the kids.
"Hey, Dad." Demi said, giving him a slightly awkward hug. Rylie did the sa, but I suspected they both knew that Ery was preparing to tear him apart verbally which had prompted the slightly awkward, but still genuine, hugs.
"Welco back, Vale." Ery said, icily. I wasn't sure if her tone was as obviously vicious to everyone else as it was to , given I could feel the emotions behind it quite clearly. But Vale seed to acknowledge it, but not engage with it, choosing to side-step the issue entirely instead.
"Well. It's good to be back. Let's get back inside and out of the dark, yeah?"
"Yeah!" The kids cheered, following him, while the adults trailed a bit behind, listening as Vale told the kids about the treats he had for them.
Once we had all gotten back inside, Vale imdiately slipped into present mode for the kids. Unusual fruit and sweets hit the table, as did a few new toys, plus a wide array of new paints and other art tools. He even had the wherewithal to produce so books for learning - multiple copies of each, even - so that the kids could also practice their characters and reading.
It was the single thing that he did that caused a little break in Ery's burning anger. Well, that and she seed to appreciate that he told the kids they needed their mothers' approval before eating any of the treats he had brought, which we told them would have to wait until the following day. He backed us up once the decision was made, which was also nice.
The next couple hours until the kids went to bed were mostly calm. He told stories to them about what he saw while traveling, trying to ignore Ery's heated stare boring into the back of his head. Even Rylie and Demi had picked up on it, and were taking turns trying to assuage Ery's anger with whispers throughout the night, but nothing seed to work.
"He just got back, Em. Are you sure -"
"Yes."
"Fine. But you had better control yourself. Don't worry the kids."
"I can manage that much." She sent back, seeming genuine. I figured that was enough.
When the kids finally did go to bed, the rest of us went to the bottom floor of the house and started to prepare for the dical treatnt that had beco part of our nightly routine. But while Rylie, Demi, and I set up the table for them to lay on, Ery had slid a chair across the floor with an unpleasant dragging sound and forced her father to sit in it.
"You," she began, the singular word dripping with venom, "have got so huge explaining to do."
Vale, thankfully, had the decency to look cowed. I had worried up until then that he would have no idea why Ery was so upset. Of course, I knew that the man - despite his typically happy-go-lucky appearance - was much more intelligent than he seed at first glance, but I still worried that he was more hands-off with his kids than I had first guessed.
I was thankful that he proved wrong imdiately, taking Ery's anger seriously.
"How could you do that?" She asked, her voice coming out a hiss to avoid getting too loud. "Rylie and Demi were as injured as I have ever seen them! And you just sent them on a fucking multi-day journey with a couple of damned bandages?"
Stolen story; please report.
"Ery-"
"Avuri has been treating them for a month, Dad. A full month. And they're only barely starting to show signs of recovery now. And while I suppose I appreciate the amount of faith you've placed in my wife and I, what would we have done if Avuri couldn't treat them? Just sit here and watch them die?"
Rylie, Demi, and I did our best to simply continue setting things up quietly as Ery continued to berate her father. She continued, barely even letting Vale get a word in, as she just vomited words at him.
"What would you have done if they had more normal injuries, hm? Would you have sent them here, all bandaged up the sa way, if Demi was missing her fucking arm? Or if Rylie had lost an eye or sothing?"
"Or, hell, Dad. Let's go back a bit further, even. What the hell were you thinking, shouting loud enough to distract them during a fight in the first place?"
Vale had seed like he had wanted to say sothing during most of the verbal beating up until then. But the suggestion that their injury was his fault in the first place seed to actually hit ho, and Vale deflated in the chair, shoulders drooping and head hanging. That response seed to be enough for Ery to finally let up long enough for Vale to respond.
"Putting that aside, don't forget who you are, Ery. Or who your sisters are." Vale said, glancing a quick glance at . "It's one thing for one of you to go to a spiritual doctor to have a bone reset or for so non-invasive treatnt of so kind. But drawing out virulent poison like this is a whole different kind of invasive."
Ery's eyes narrowed, but she didn't say anything, letting him continue. "Avuri isn't a fully trained spiritual doctor, but I was confident her skills would be more than enough to be able to deal with the poison. But if I had brought Rylie and Demi to an expensive doctor, they would have been able to tell that they have been affected by demonic Qi."
That was a surprise for all of us.
"What do you an?" Ery asked.
"Exactly what I said. Using Qi to draw out poison and heal the body the way Avuri has been doing with them is incredibly invasive. Putting aside how much discomfort and even pain it can cause, a talented doctor would passively gain all sorts of information about their patient's body through their Qi after enough training. And they would be able to see the demonic Qi influence that remains in all of you. And it would make things complicated."
The last sentence was hardly needed. If a doctor treating soone detected the presence of demonic Qi, there'd be consequences. Whether it stopped at an investigation after the healing was up in the air, and it was probably even likely that a doctor would instead push the poison along to kill what they assud was a demonic Cultivator.
Ery wasn't ready to let go of her anger at her father, though. "Fine," she snapped at him. "Then they couldn't go to a different doctor and they had to co here. If that was the case, why did you make them walk? You could have flown them here much faster than that!"
"I was trying to be logical about this, Ery." Vale said, pointing at Rylie and Demi beside , who were now standing there sowhat dumbstruck. "Those bandages? They are true-blue draconic artifacts. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that I could trust them to keep them alive during the trip. And I had to track down where that poison ca from."
"What do you an?" Demi asked, confused.
"That poison isn't normal." Vale said. "It's more complex than anything a tal Qi user should have been able to concoct, especially in the early Sky Realm," he said, then made a scrunched up, angry face, "and there's a distinct scent of draconic Qi in it."
"What?"
"My best guess is that those boys you fought found sothing particularly virulent and mixed it with their own poisons to create wherever it is they injured you both with. But there is at least one component in there that's not theirs."
"Did you talk to them?" Rylie asked, suddenly far more interested in this new information. "We left before they were well enough to have any sort of conversation, so we never -"
"No." Vale said, while I was wondering just what sort of state the sisters had left their opponents in. And what they had done to them to end the fight. "They're dead."
A stunned silence took over the room for a mont before Demi asked "Did…we…?" in a quiet voice.
Vale shook his head. "No. They were in the care of a spiritual doctor when you left, and were on the nd. When I went to ask them about what had happened a couple days later, they were already gone. And while the doctor wouldn't elaborate, he had assured it wasn't from succumbing to their injuries."
"Are you saying they were murdered?" I asked.
Vale nodded tentatively. "I don't know for sure, but that was certainly the impression the doctor gave . He was evasive about the whole thing and wouldn't confirm how they died beyond saying it wasn't the injuries you had given them. And I figure the chances of two young n both dying of natural causes randomly like that seems…well. Unlikely to say the least."
"But why?" Ery asked. "You're implying they were killed in relation to whatever extra draconic stuff was in their poison, right?"
"That is what I believe right now, yes." Vale said solemnly.
"Why would that be the case?" Ery pushed again.
Vale's eyes shot over to Ery, then back to Rylie and Demi, which was then followed by a sigh. "My best guess is soone was looking to get to . Through the two of you." He said, looking at his injured kids.
"And why would they do that?" Ery asked.
"Because they entered the Riotlands' arenas using my actual last na." Vale said, which prompted Ery's heated eyes to slowly pan over to her sisters. "They used pseudonyms for their own nas, but fought as the 'Felsyc Sisters'."
Ery's anger at her father was coming undone quickly as she rubbed her forehead. "You didn't…"
"People know I have kids out there, but no one really knows nas or appearances. Not really. So if soone using my na shows up to do so prize fighting -"
"At worst, whoever is looking to get to you took part in killing two random people, and did so through a proxy. At best, they actually kill people related to you and gain…sothing?" Ery figured.
"Given that I was literally in the city and didn't run into any trouble, I imagine it was just an effort to hurt emotionally. If it was soone more capable or looking to draw out, I imagine I would have been attacked." Vale said.
"So, instead, their plan failed and Rylie and Demi lived. But they did successfully confirm their relation to you when you shouted in the arena. And then when you started investigating, they disposed of the evidence and ran away." I said, trying to piece the different parts together.
"That's my guess." Vale agreed.
"If that's the case," Rylie asked, "why weren't we attacked on the road while we made our way here? It would've been easy to finish the job, right?" She prompted Demi, who nodded agreent.
"Because you were protected." Vale said. "There's an extra few talismans hidden with the bandages that would alert if you were in any danger."
"You're saying whoever it was could tell?" Demi asked.
"It's likely. The draconic Qi is easy enough to notice if you know what to look for." Vale said, which prompted literally everyone else in the room to make a deeper scan of the bandages with their own Qi.
Sure enough, when I took the ti to inspect the bandages while knowing what to look for, I could pick out three talismans woven into Demi's bandages with the others that had a slightly different quality of Qi that matched Vale's. I had simply dismissed it originally, having no basis for how the bandages functioned.
"What the hell…" Ery said, slumping over in her chair, wiped out.
"For whatever it is worth," Vale said, "Before I landed tonight, I did a full sweep of the area around the Peaks, just in case. There was no evidence that you two were followed at all."
I sighed inwardly, watching as the suggestion of them leading a dangerous enemy to the Basin relit the fire of Ery's anger and she turned to Vale to explode on him all over again.
Not that I disagreed with her this ti.
Reviews
All reviews (0)