Sword and Snow

Emery was sitting on a bench nearby the main thoroughfare of the basin, watching the children play. With the main, giant wisteria tree in the center of the basin spread out in a large canopy close to 100m above her, sunlight came down in beams that struggled to make it through the large boughs. And after that, they still had to filter through the smaller trees that were planted and spread out beneath the Qi-infused elder wisteria.

Still, thanks to a few well-arranged Spiritual Arrays, the basin was always well lit in warm sunlight-like natural light. It was needed for all the farming they did, if nothing else. But it also gave the large open plot of grass and dirt near the main house perfect light for kids to play by. And play they did.

Arek and Astra had gathered a number of the other younger children for a game of tag earlier when she first brought them out here. In the time since, some of the older kids had also joined in and the game had turned from a simple children’s game into something of a show.

Whenever one of the older children was ‘it’, the older group - who were mostly Human Realm Cultivators - really went at it when it was their turn. The chasing and dodging became an acrobatic game of cat and mouse as they spun, flipped, and otherwise practically flew around the playground. The acrobatics on display were impressive for their age, and Emery smiled. If they were playing among normal village kids, the game would be so one-sided it would basically cease being a game at all.

Thankfully none of the older boys or girls picked on the younger ones, who clearly couldn’t keep up. They would occasionally chase them down, scoop them up ‘tagged’, and then let them run amok among the younger group again until an older sibling let someone tag them again. Play proceeded like this for a while, with each age group swapping, but neither ignoring the other.

Emery could feel the smile creep onto her face. This was exactly what she had wanted all those years ago. Of course, this scene wasn’t anything new - this sort of playing had been pretty normal for years now. But it never failed to brighten her mood, knowing what some of these kids had been like when she picked them up.

Her eyes were drawn to Astra, her newest daughter. Her body was still somewhat emaciated, her bones easily visible beneath her lack of muscle or fat. Her hair was looking more and more normal each day, instead of the sickly, pale gray wisps she had had on her head when she was first brought here.

Despite all that, the girl’s face showed nothing but a big great smile as she was fully absorbed in the game. She was still small, even for her age at seven, which let her hide behind Arek rather successfully. And Arek played at protecting her from the older kids who were taking their turn leaping around.

Elise was currently the chaser, and Emery watched her bounce around before expertly faking out Enrik. With a quick change of direction after clearly signaling she would launch the other way, Elise had forced Enrik to try to wrench his weight around in a quick twist to adjust. While his attempt was admirable, the movement took him just off balance enough that he stumbled.

“Gotcha!” Elise called, as she sped past him to the side, and gently pushed his shoulder.

“Oh, that girl’s a troublemaker…” Emery chuckled to herself. And sure enough, the slight shove was placed just so, and sent Enrik just a bit further off-balance to the point that he couldn’t recover. He squawked as he tumbled to the side. To his credit, though, he rolled back to his feet without missing a beat.

“Elise! I’m gonna get ya for that!” He yelled menacingly, as the girl practically skipped away, sticking out her tongue at him.

And then, with him in hot pursuit, she slid behind Arek and Astra, using them as an obstacle. Arek quickly situated himself between Astra and Enrik, continuing to play the valiant defender, as Enrik ran up and eyed Elise over the younger siblings’ heads.

“You’re really taking hostages?” He said, acting as though he couldn’t believe it. Then his face took on a haughty look. “I suppose you do need the help to escape, huh?”

Elise clicked her tongue. “I do not!” She shot back. “I got you on my own, didn’t I?”

“Sure,” He said, drawing it out tauntingly. “And yet, here you are, hiding.” As he spoke, he feinted to the left, then the right, trying to gauge her reaction to his movements. She barely responded at all, calling his bluff.

Finally, he committed, and darted right. Elise read him correctly, and jumped off to his left, getting away quickly and putting a fair bit of distance between them fast.

Arek, however, was not nearly fast enough to react to the speed that the Earth Realm Cultivators moved at. And as Enrik saw Elise slip well out of his grasp, he quickly adjusted and spun around Arek to scoop up Astra. In a blink, Astra was up on Enrik’s shoulder and he tapped her on the nose.

“Alright, Star. You’re gonna be the one to get Elise for me.” He said with a mischievous grin, and then whispered something in her ear.

Elise, confused for her part, stood watching with a confused eyebrow raised.

As Enrik finished explaining something to her, Astra’s face lit up and she nodded emphatically. Enrik gently put the girl down, and she sped off toward Elise at a normal, non-Cultivator speed.

Enrik gave Arek a pat on the shoulder, consoling the boy who looked a little dejected because he failed to protect Astra at all. The younger boy just sighed and looked peeved as Enrik dashed off after Elise.

As Elise dodged playfully around Astra, Enrik began getting in Elise’s way, trying to trip her up or otherwise pen her in to get her caught. As the dance continued, it seemed like Enrik’s plan wasn’t working until Elise dodged Astra and continued running in the circle right in front of Emery.

And as she passed, Astra kept running, straight into Emery.

“I got you, Mom!”

Emery gave her a big, toothy grin in response. “I guess you did.” She said, standing. And Emery lightly stretched her legs, she watched Elise go pale. Enrik laughed. After cracking her neck, Emery scooped up Astra and put her on her shoulders, securing the girl’s arms around her neck.

“Hold on tight, Star.” She said, keeping one hand behind the little girl’s back to keep her steady. Then, Emery shot off. Elise was moving before Emery had even finished stretching, but within an instant, Emery was standing before Elise, blocking her way. Elise quickly changed directions.

Emery was impressed with how nimble the girl was. At sixteen, she was one of the oldest in the group, and was doing great in her Cultivator training. But even then, the girl’s speed and flexibility was worth praise.

Emery proceeded to hound the girl a few more times, making her run sprints with sudden direction changes before finally getting ahead of her without giving her enough room to adjust.

The girl stumbled while trying feebly to stop her momentum, but was unable to stop herself from crashing right into Emery’s outstretched hand.

Astra cheered from her shoulders. “We got her!”

Enrik cheered in concert with her, as did many of the other kids on the field. Emery put Astra back down and crossed her arms, watching Elise pant to catch her breath.

“That was some really impressive running there, Elise. Well done.” Emery said, holding her hand out for a high five. Elise, still doubled over trying to catch her breath, eyed her hand warily, but did reach out for the high five.

And then Emery smirked. “Oh! I guess I’m the chaser again, aren’t I?” She said, loudly for everyone to hear. And with a huge grin she turned around to the rest of the field to see pale faces and everyone backing up step by step.

Her eyes locked onto Enrik’s, and she watched him take a deep breath and gather himself onto the balls of his feet. He knew what was coming, she was sure of it.

Avuri, despite what she told Vale, ran back into the house to check on things and clean up from breakfast before she went outside to check on Emery and the kids. She could hear the shouting and laughter coming from the playground while she was tidying up, and it put a smile on her face.

She was sure that Cierra would make some solid progress today, after Vale’s lesson. And the man was right; the technique that Emery used to control her weapons was not ideal for controlling roiling, dangerous Qi. She sighed aloud. “If Cierra had just asked, I could have told her that weeks ago.” She muttered, frowning at the dirty cookware that she was scrubbing at.

She understood, of course, that Cierra wanted to do it on her own and not rely on them to teach her everything. She understood that very well, in fact, remembering how she felt when she was still learning at the Frozen Mountain Sect. Much the same, she had rebelled at being taught how to do every technique that the Sect disseminated just so. It felt stifling, when she couldn’t put things together herself and had to just learn to follow directions.

Knowing how Cierra felt didn’t exactly help, though. She still wanted to give her daughter every advantage she could, and Cierra trying to use Avuri’s techniques made her uniquely qualified to help.

“Even if she doesn’t want just exact copies of my techniques, I could still teach her the theory…” she muttered, placing the cookware in the drying rack. After wicking away the remaining water from her hands with a quick touch of Qi, Avuri headed out to the playground.

When she arrived, she immediately wished she could take an exact copy of the scene before her. Astra was astride Emery’s shoulders, her legs curled around Emery’s arms and tucked in behind her armpits for as much stability as she could muster. Her arms were also wrapped tightly around Emery’s neck to hold her in place.

Emery, for her part, was moving around the playground at a speed well beyond any of the kids in the area. Perhaps Cierra or Stena could keep up on a good day, but if that would be up to chance.

The kids were scattering as quickly as they could manage, trying to stay as far away from Emery’s rampage as they could. Which, it seemed like they could, so long as they weren’t the one she was currently chasing. For the moment, Emery appeared to be doggedly on the heels of Lia, one of the twelve-year-old girls.

Despite Lia running at a sprint, Emery kept getting ahead of her, or running just alongside her, forcing the girl to change directions at a sprint. Emery did this several times, before she stepped in behind Lia and with a quick burst of speed, snatched the girl up from behind and lifted her up above her head.

As Lia flailed aimlessly, Emery lifted her easily within reach of Astra’s outstretched hand, and Astra smacked Lia on the shoulder.

“And you’re out!” Emery declared. As she sped over to the bench, which was already occupied by five other kids, laughter broke out among the crowd. She gently placed Lia in an open spot, then turned back to the field, her eyes full of hunger as she asked Astra, “Who’s next?”

As their game continued, Avuri let her Domain inertly flow out of her and toward Emery. In answer, Emery’s Domain slipped out, and the two intermingled, slotting into place within one another, as if they were designed to do so. Avuri supposed they were, given their Bonded Cultivation, but she was still always a little awed by how right it felt to be connected in that way. When their Domains were linked, she just felt whole. Emery had said more than once that she felt as though being connected like that felt like their natural state, more than when they were separate. Avuri agreed.

Avuri walked over to the bench and sat with the kids who were ‘out’. She ruffled some hair and playfully knocked the kids about until they made room for her in the middle. Once she sat, Kaili and Marche, the kids on her either side, both leaned against her happily.

As she watched her wife absolutely terrorize the other kids, she wasn’t sure life got any better than this.