Sword and Snow

We struggled for a couple of hours. Even after we were able to successfully weave the threads together, what I had thought would be the easy part turned out to be giving us quite a bit of trouble. We had both gotten quite skilled at manipulating the threads of Qi after hours of working on it, but they just wouldn’t cooperate after a certain threshold.

We would pull the thicker, braided cord apart as planned, and begin to feed it back to each of us to start the circuit. But each time, after reaching a certain point apart, the two ends would fight being pulled any further and would eventually snap back together.

Avuri and I were certainly being too stubborn for our own good at this point, unable to accept that the Qi just wouldn’t bend to our will on this. But after two hours of being stubborn, I sighed aloud and slumped. Avuri seemed to have the same reaction at the same time.

“This isn’t working.” I said, mildly defeated.

“No, it isn’t.” Avuri echoed. “I think we need to be closer than just sitting back to back. We’re trying to stretch the Qi too far for it to hold.”

“I know.” I said, thinking about all the material I had read. “Physical closeness brings our spiritual selves and Cores closer together and all that.”

I could feel Avuri nodding against my back. “We need to try something else.” She said matter-of-factly.

I took a deep breath. “Right. Go sit up against the pillows.” I motioned toward the head of the bed, where the pillows were propped up against the headboard. Without complaint, Avuri slid up to them and sat up with her back against the pillows.

I crawled up the bed toward her and nodded. “Spread your legs a little.” I wasn’t sure if we were connected enough by that point that she could feel my intentions, or what. But Avuri listened without so much as a blink. I slid myself backwards between her legs, leaning my back against her as if I was sitting in her lap.

We both repositioned ourselves until we were comfortable for a long stay like this. Avuri put her arms around me to hold me in place. It was remarkably comfortable. And while I was a little chagrined that this position highlighted my smaller stature against Avuri, I didn’t feel negatively about it in that moment.

Once we were both settled, we returned to the task at hand. Cuddled up the way we were, with significantly more physical contact, indeed seemed to do the trick. On our second attempt, we managed to complete the circuit between us.

There was a strange jolt the instant we made the connection. It wasn’t something as obvious as being able to communicate telepathically or something similar. But while it wasn’t so obvious, it felt more profound than such an ability would be. Even more so than the feeling from when we connected the first strands of Qi, this new feeling was intense and overwhelming.

My first thought was immediately understanding why some Cultivators craved it so much, to the point of paying unreasonable amounts of money to have someone do this with them. The feeling of comfort and peace that came with knowing I was not alone anymore in any sense of the word was so overwhelming I almost felt like crying.

I could feel through the connection that Avuri was similarly moved in a slightly different way. I imagined that whatever feeling I provided her was equally comforting but different. I felt Avuri’s arms pull me in tighter in response to it all, and I subconsciously snuggled into her embrace.

After a few moments, Avuri and I once again were able to focus on the task at hand. As we each began to cycle our Qi, I found that my concentration and focus were noticeably improved. Something about the peace I felt in this situation seemed to allow me to singularly focus on our Cultivation, in a way I never had been able to before.

Our Qi flowed among the connected pathways in a mesmerizing pattern. With both of us focused entirely on pushing the Qi through our connected meridians, the speed at which it moved was astounding. Far faster than I had ever pushed it alone. As usual, our Cores siphoned off some of the Qi as it passed through, slowly collecting and consolidating the Qi as raw strength.

Time passed like this for a while as our bodies and Cores worked together to Cultivate at a frightening speed. Or at least frightening in comparison to what I could usually manage alone. Somehow, working together like this was multiplicative, not additive.

We had been in a solid groove for some time when I felt Avuri move. I felt her mutter, “We can do better.” The thought seemed to bounce around in my head, and I wasn’t entirely sure if she had spoken out loud, or if she had communicated through her Qi somehow.

As I felt her shifting around, an image of a new position rose in my thoughts unbidden, and I began to move toward it. Together, we slid down until we were both lying flat on the bed, facing each other. We slid closer until our bodies were basically flush with one another, arms holding each other, and our foreheads gently touching.

The new position immediately felt comfortable and natural as we returned to Cultivating. Avuri was right - our Cultivation speed picked up again. Not by leaps and bounds, but it was noticeable. Our legs tangled comfortably on the bed as we cuddled up to one another finding an odd comfort and sense of peace in it.

Distantly, I acknowledged how this experience could so easily lead to more intimate activities. As we spent the next several hours in that position, I had to - more than once - remind myself not to kiss Avuri as we Cultivated. Her face being so close made it feel like it would be so easy to do, and the feelings that were caused by the connections we had made kept leaning in that direction.

The time Cultivating in between those intrusive thoughts, however, were immensely comforting and peaceful. The process of Cultivating had never been easier than it was right then in Avuri’s arms. And the progress we had made was staggering.

It wasn’t until after dinner time had passed that either of us made any sort of attempt to check on our surroundings. An errant thought about Cierra had pulled me from the meditation long enough to see that the sun had gone down and it was clearly getting dark. I bumped my head against Avuri’s to pull her out of meditation for a moment. She blinked at me, confused.

“It’s late.” I whispered, motioning toward the window. “We should probably stop for the day. If nothing else, I promised Cierra we would be with her for bed time.” I kept my voice soft, unwilling to break whatever strange atmosphere had settled over us.

Avuri nodded. “Right. Let’s go see how late it is.” She whispered in turn, and began to untangle herself from me. I did the same, slowly separating myself from Avuri. When we were on opposite sides of the bed, we disconnected the Qi bond as well.

And we both practically doubled over, as if we were punched in the gut.

The sense of loss and sudden loneliness was deep and all consuming. The overwhelming totality of it didn’t last long, but it was crippling for a few moments. We both instinctively reached out and held hands as the feeling slowly lessened. The initial gut punch faded over a few minutes, but I still felt an intense sense of loss and loneliness. It was bearable enough that I felt comfortable going on with the rest of my night.

It turned out that we had missed normal dinner time by a couple of hours, but not by all that much as everyone else had eaten late as well. As Avuri and I had hungrily scarfed down the remainders of the food, Cierra had chattered at us about the exciting day ‘Uncle Vale’ had spent with her. He had apparently taken her around the basin to see the various plants, and then a little ways toward the Verdant Dragon Peak to see some smaller fauna.

After we both sat back in our chairs, finally full, Vale sat down with us. Taking the opportunity while Cierra ran off for the bathroom, he asked, “How’d it go?”

Avuri and I shared a look before I spoke. “Well, I think. It was certainly…an experience.” Avuri nodded in agreement. I glanced at her once more before continuing, “I don’t think the books and documents did such a good job of explaining just how much you feel while connected like that. They mentioned it in passing, but nothing about the sheer scope of it. It was practically all consuming.”

Vale raised an eyebrow at me in question, but nodded sagely. “I see. I suppose I should’ve warned you about it then. Qi is a very interesting thing. It can contain everything from raw energy to thoughts and emotions, and the connection formed during Dual Cultivation like that is an easy way to share those things between people. It’s one of the reasons that people will pay enormous amounts for a partner who is willing to take part, despite a lack of trust in that situation. The whole situation can be intoxicating.”

Avuri and I both nodded. “I didn’t expect to feel such intense feelings of…” Avuri trailed off, trying to put it to words. “Completeness? Contentment?” She looked at me, as if I could help her figure out the words.

I shrugged. “I would’ve said something more like comfort, or being entirely at peace.”

Once again, Vale’s brow went up. “Whatever it is that you feel while connected like that through your Qi will be related to the person you are with. One person’s Qi might make you feel at peace, like you said,” He pointed to me, “Or complete,” he motioned to Avuri, “Or uncomfortable, or even in danger. It depends entirely on your partner.”

I considered that for a moment, but my thoughts didn’t get far as Cierra ran back to the table.

“Mom!” She shouted, happily hopping up my side. She made a face at me and then tried to crawl into my lap. I laughed, and shoved the chair away from the table so she would fit, then pulled her up. My arms snaked around her in a hug.

“Alright, you. What did you want to do tonight? There’s a couple hours before bed, yet.”

The conversation thoroughly derailed at that point, Vale smiled and suggested, “We’ve got a deck of cards. I bet we could teach Cierra how to play.”

“How to play what, exactly?” I said, eyeing the man carefully. “I’m not teaching a six year old how to gamble.”

Vale put his hands up innocently as Avuri chuckled. Cierra just asked, “What’s ‘gamble’?” And I rolled my eyes.

“Don’t worry about that, Cierra.” I said, looking down at her. “We’ll teach you how to play cards if you want though.”

She nodded emphatically as Vale excitedly got up from the table to fetch the deck.

“You can’t win money off of a six year old, you old bastard!” I called after him. As Avuri laughed, I turned to her indignantly. “Oh, just you wait. The old bastard loves cleaning out peoples’ wallets.”

Later, after a few non-gambling rounds to let Cierra play, the little girl was seated in my lap as Avuri, Talya, and I tried our luck against the dragon.

Avuri learned first hand what I had meant as we were all, without mercy, taken to the cleaners.