Ery was not happy as she sat at the kitchen table listening to Avuri and her kids argue about her. She was sitting right there and no one so much as offered a glance to see what her opinion was on the matter, her strongest opinion being that she wanted nothing to do with this notwithstanding.
"I think you should go classic. Full regalia, expensive silks, extra flow-y." Cierra fervently argued. "Obviously dragon embroidery."
"Obviously dragon embroidery." Avuri, Stena, and Arek all echoed that sentint.
"First ti you've all agreed on sothing all day." Ery muttered to herself. Instantly, the three children fixed glares on her. Her wife just laughed.
Astra clambered her way up into Ery's lap and situated herself comfortably facing the table. She had apparently brought a small plate of crackers with her to munch on, as she grabbed one while leaning back against Ery's chest. Ery, for her part, wrapped her arms around Astra and gave her a light squeeze.
"Alright, we're clearly getting nowhere with this." Stena said, crossing her arms in frustration. "We should take all our ideas, write them down, and coordinate and see what we can mix and match."
"Good idea." Arek said, and dashed off to procure sothing to write with and write on.
"What's everyone fighting about?" Astra asked curiously. Ery couldn't help but smile and squeeze her daughter again, watching as the girl ate her crackers like a squirrel.
"They're arguing about how to dress up." Ery responded, resting her chin on the top of Astra's head. "Apparently your Mom's gonna be a hero."
"A hero?"
Stena moved over to the table then, and snagged one of Astra's crackers. "Yup. We're going to dress her up in a cool costu and she's going to scare all the bad guys away." She said confidently.
"Really?" Astra wiggled in Ery's lap to turn and look at her mother. "How're you gonna do that?"
Ery sighed when Stena quickly answered, "She's going to summon dragons."
"Like Uncle Vale?"
"Mhm. But I think the ones she can summon are even more dangerous?" Stena said, a question in her tone as she turned to Ery for clarification.
"You know, I'm not actually sure." Ery said, thinking about it. "Vale is very powerful, but I'm not too familiar with a lot of dragons, or what their standard for strength even is. But I know that he reports to them in so way."
"Safe to say they're very strong then, either way." Stena nodded.
"Yeah. I wouldn't want to be on their bad side." Ery agreed.
Arek ca trotting back around the corner, scrap paper and a pencil in hand. "Got them." he declared loudly as he thumped the paper onto the table, and offered the pencil to Avuri to write everything down. He knew how, but his handwriting was still ssy and Avuri would be much faster.
Avuri took the pen and began to write down their collective notes; Ery half collapsed onto Astra, who continued just munching away on her crackers.
"Okay, so Cierra suggested going all out in full battle regalia. I was thinking sothing more dragon thed…and silly." Avuri glanced at her wife and tried to hide a smile. She wanted to milk this and embarrass her as much as she could.
"Stena?"
"I think she should look plain." Stena said, picking another cracker from the pile. "Like, pointedly so; drab clothing, maybe a few rips, maybe add so dirt with makeup…"
"You want to look holess." Ery said flatly.
"Mhm." Stena agreed with her mouth full. When she swallowed, she added, "It would keep you very low profile, unattached to our family, and make your character an inspiring story for the less fortunate." Flat stares greeted her from around the table.
"...What?" She asked indignantly.
"Nothing. I just didn't expect such a well thought out reason from you." Cierra said. And when everyone else - even Astra, who was just following the group - nodded, Stena let out a frustrated growl.
"What's that supposed to an? At least it's better than you and Momri who just want to make Mom look silly." She shouted.
Avuri just looked away because Stena was right on the money with that accusation. Cierra, however, fired back, "No, I want her to look like a dramatic hero from the classic war tales!"
"Oh, yes," Stena said, glaring back, "dress our mother up like one of the sexy boys from your favorite books, hm?"
Her arrow struck her mark, and Cierra's face went red. They continued to bicker back and forth as Avuri addressed Arek.
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"You said you had an idea too, right, Arek?"
The boy nodded. "Mom is good at tals, so I was thinking of putting her in full armor. We can even stylize it with dragons and stuff." He said, excited, then looked at Ery. "You can make dragon-thed weapons with your Qi, right?"
For the first ti in the conversation, Ery grinned. She held a hand palm up and cycled her Qi. A knife ford, hovering above her palm, and Arek all but squealed.
It was rare for Ery to put any effort into shaping her weapons. Beyond making them functional and sharp, she always kept a few standard designs in mind that she typically drew from. In fact, she used the sa simple designs so often that her Inner World was littered with weapons of those sa shapes.
The weapon she created now was no such common thing. Not only was Ery annoyed with almost everyone in the room, she was also really bored. So she put real effort into crafting the knife, even tapping so tangential abilities that she never used.
The knife's blade was wickedly curved, designed to look like a dragon's tongue. The flat sides of the blade were inlaid and carved to add to the effect; even the tip was shaped accordingly, slightly forked with two points.
The hilt was crafted to be a dragon's head with the mouth open toward the blade, while the handle was the dragon's neck. The open mouth was wide enough and angled in such a way that it would make for a functional parrying dagger guard. It even had teeth to assist in catching other weapons. The head itself was ornately carved out of the tal, muscle and sinew clear in the design. Ery had even colored the tal to make the design eye-catching.
The handle was no less impressive. Styled as the dragon's neck, it was fitted perfectly for Ery's fingers, allowing them to sit between sharp spines that trailed down the back of the neck. Two antler-like horns also protruded from the top of the head and angled back, creating a functional hand guard.
Arek's high pitched squeak caught the attention of his sisters, who turned to see what he was on about. Even Avuri looked up from the notes she was writing.
"Holy shit, Mom." Stena said, staring at the knife. "I've lived with you for…a long ti. Have you ever made a weapon look that good?"
Cierra nodded fervently. "That looks amazing. Better than any work of art I've seen in the City for sure."
Avuri smiled and returned to her notes. She, in fact, had seen better. Ery's weapons designs were breathtaking when she put in the effort. It just wasn't usually worth it, and Avuri knew that. But she also had the benefit of sharing a bonded Inner World. She'd seen Ery's experintal crafts, as well as ones the woman herself considered masterworks. This was nothing in comparison.
Ery laughed, tossed the knife into the air to reverse it, and offered the handle side to Arek. "It's usually not worth the effort to shape things that are going to disappear shortly after I make them." She said in explanation.
When Arek's fingers wrapped around the handle, it morphed and resized to perfectly fit his fingers instead of Ery's.
"That's nothing, genuinely." Avuri put in, wanting to needle her kids a little. "You should see so of what she's got hidden away in her Inner World. If she ever actually made them real and took the ti to forge them with real steel, she'd be a legendary blacksmith."
Not quite having the desired effect, her kids just looked back at Ery with admiration and awe. Avuri chuckled; that outco was fine too.
"Are you really that good at forging weapons, Mom?" Arek asked, clearly interested in it as he swung the knife around carefully.
"Yes." Ery said, trying not to sound too prideful. "I have to be, to make all of the weapons I do with Qi. Learning how it is actually done with the physical materials made my Qi projections much faster to make."
"So…why don't we have a forge sowhere for you?" Cierra asked, curious. "If you can make such brilliant masterwork weapons, couldn't you, you know, make them and sell them to the City?"
Ery nodded. "I could do that, yes. I actually used to make money doing that before we settled here, sotis. But there's not much point to doing real forging these days."
"Why not?" Arek asked, looking at the knife disappointed.
"Well, forging is intensive, and takes a lot of ti. For starters, we hardly need more mortal money. And while I could make weapons tailored for Cultivators and sell them for rare materials instead, I'm not interested in selling weapons I've made to random buyers that I can't trust."
"I suppose that makes sense." Stena said, scratching her head. "Is that it?"
"No." Ery continued. "The main reason is that what ti I could spend forging physical weapons is better spent forging weapons in my Inner World instead. It's perfect for ditation and cycling all at once." Then she pointed at the knife that Arek still held. "And it allows to reproduce things like that on demand."
"She's right." Avuri added. "Once you awaken your Inner Worlds, you'll see that things that were ditative to you in the physical world beco strong Cultivation aides while ditating. It's actually quite interesting."
"So what do you do when you're ditating?" Arek asked.
"She knits."
The response ca from Ery, Cierra, and Stena all at once. Laughter followed.
"They're right." Avuri said, pointing at the group of laughing won with a thumb. "I took up knitting at the Frozen Mountain Sect when I lived there. It was convenient to make myself clothes and blankets before my body beca accustod to the cold. And I found the act to be calming, so it stuck."
"You all should see it, though." Ery said, snickering. "It's hilarious. Momri will sit on the mountain top, in a blizzard, and just calmly knit with her eyes closed. It'd make for a great painting."
"Shut up." Avuri shot back weakly, then looked back down at her notes. "Anyway, I think we may have a winner." She said, looking at Arek. "It's hard to argue with the ability to put you in so magnificent armor and let you call up so of your fancier weapons as a show. It would be incredibly inspiring."
"I can live with that." Ery said, then reached out to pat Arek's head. "Thanks for that one, bud. You saved ."
"About that." Avuri said, and her smile turned malicious. "You told I can practice dressing you up twice. And with the armor idea, I'm pretty sure I don't need two attempts to get it right."
Ery went pale. She could feel the blood drain from her face. There was no telling what Avuri would put on her without the need to practice an outfit.
Ery's brain suddenly recalled Avuri saying "you won't regret this," when she originally said she'd allow her to practice twice.
"I knew you were a liar." She muttered.
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