Emery

Once Kord and the ceremonial space was cleaned up, their small group had gathered in the small center room for a quick lunch. Kord's Bonding and Breakthrough had taken multiple hours, and he was clearly famished, readily scarfing down any of the food placed in front of him.

Emery and Avuri were both picking lightly at the food, their nerves all jumbled together. Even worse, despite their efforts to the contrary, their worries were feeding off one another thanks to their connection. But they found that closing their connection actually made it worse. Despite the fact that once one of them began the Bonding ceremony, they would need to remain disconnected during the whole ordeal.

"Remember, Kord. You shouldn't utilize any of your Qi for now," Ray said as he watched the boy eat. "It's really quite fortunate that you got your Domain under control so fast. You need to let your body adjust to the bond and your new Realm before you go whipping your Qi about."

"We're going to have all three of you abstain from using your Qi immediately after the ceremony is over, just to be perfectly clear." Vale added. "Once everyone is finished, we will go through each of you one by one and have you cycle your Qi."

"Why all the pomp around us just using Qi afterward?" Emery asked. "Is just using the newly Bonded Qi dangerous?"

"Not necessarily dangerous, no." Lyn answered. "However, when you first begin to cycle the new Qi through your body, it might make some changes. And we'll want to be prepared for those, in addition to the low chance one of you loses control."

"Or freaks out." Ray chuckled. "Which is far more likely."

"Ah." Avuri grinned, feeling Emery's nerves spike.

"So that's when I'm going to grow a tail, then." She stated plainly.

The dragons around the table chuckled at that, while Kord and Avuri just smiled knowingly down at their plates of food. This was not the first time they'd heard this from Emery. Probably not even the tenth or twentieth.

"Well…it's possible, I suppose." Lyn said, holding a hand over her mouth to hide her smile politely. "I don't think it's likely any of you will grow a tail immediately after the Bonding like that though. Once you've trained with the power more often, perhaps."

"The most likely changes at that stage would be fairly minor ones."

"And what, exactly, qualifies as minor ones, Dad?"

"I believe the most common immediate changes are dragon-like pupils in the eyes, or some patches of scales?" Vale said, looking to the others for confirmation.

"I believe so as well." Lyn agreed. "Extra limbs like tails or wings are certainly not the first changes. And those can usually be stopped with focus, anyway."

"It's also worth noting that these changes are typically related to your use of the Qi. If you aren't cycling, you can choose to remain fully the way you are. The same way we do." Ray said.

Emery relaxed a little at that as the way Vale transformed when bringing his Qi fully to bear was called to mind. She sent a glare his way, though. For whatever reason, Vale had apparently seen fit to let her sweat about it for months and had never mentioned that bit to her.

Vale just offered her a toothy grin in response, showing off his Qi-sharpened teeth. She narrowed her eyes at him; he always did that when he messed with her.

"And even then, when you're fully using the Qi, you usually have some control over the form you take. A tail or wings might randomly appear when you utilize enough of the Bond's power the first time, but you should be able to control it." Vale said.

"Now. That being said, which of you would like to go first?" Lyn looked between Emery and Avuri, her head tilted in question.

Emery traded looks with her wife, the feelings bouncing between them entirely unclear. They both wanted to go first to get it over with, but also not because of the nerves. It had gotten to the point that they could barely separate their worries, anxieties, and anticipations from one another.

It wasn't common that they had something entirely unknown to them to worry about for months on end. Even when they had been building up to something like the attack on the City, it was at least a mostly known quantity. This was wholly unknown.

On the other hand, while he was currently barred from using it, Kord had come out on the other side in fantastic shape. They couldn't necessarily tell what stemmed from the Breakthrough versus the Bond, but there appeared to only be upsides for him.

"You go." Avuri said suddenly. "Putting everything else aside, Kord went first because of the amount of potential time the Breakthrough could have taken. If we're talking just the Bond, you should really be first, Em. You're the one with a dragon for a father."

Emery could feel the slowly crystalizing resolve between them, and latched onto it. She nodded, then turned to offer her father the same determined nod. "I'll go first, then."

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Vale placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. "You really don't need to worry about it so much. You should be fine."

"That 'should' is what worries me, you know." Emery said, trying to keep the worry out of her voice. "I trust you though. I know you'd never do anything to hurt me on purpose."

"Of course not. This will be fine. We can head into the room whenever you're ready."

With the decision made now, Emery no longer had any interest in the lunch whatsoever. The dainty pickiness that had come with the uncertainty of worry was replaced now with a wholehearted desire to get it all over with.

Emery had a pretty strong suspicion she would, like Kord, be wanting a fair bit of food when she had finished the ceremony.

"Alright," she said, taking a deep breath, "let's do this."

Most of the table stood when she did. Kord kept eating, still a little ravenous. Vale turned toward the ceremony room, while Avuri stepped over to give Emery a crushing hug and a quick kiss. "You've got this."

Emery smiled to herself, resting her forehead on Avuri's shoulder for just a moment. "I know. See you in a bit."

"Yep. Love you."

"I love you, too." Emery gave her wife one more squeeze and walked toward the room. As they had been told repeatedly they would need to, they pulled their Domains apart to stop any potential complications, just in case.

The dragons had seemed torn on whether it might cause problems, as they had never witnessed any Bonding ceremonies go through with a Bonded Domain pair before. And if it was a toss-up between "it really should be fine" and "we're just not sure", playing safe felt like the better option.

Of course, being entirely cut off from her other half made Emery a little uneasy despite knowing it wouldn't be for long and was the safest option right now. Avuri wasn't just her significant other, after all. At this point, she was quite literally her 'other half'.

Emery tried to focus as she stepped into the ceremonial room after Vale. She heard the calls of good luck and support from Ray, Lyn, and Kord behind her as she steadied her breathing. She felt the flex of Vale's Qi that closed the weird door behind her, but ignored it in favor of walking to the center of the room.

When she opened her eyes, ready to focus on the task at hand, her father was just standing in front of her somewhat awkwardly, with a big goofy grin on his face.

"Emery, you need to loosen up. I understand this is a very rare thing and whatnot, but it's really not as big as you all keep making it out to be. Bonding ceremonies used to be common. Hundreds of years ago, sure, but still." He shrugged, keeping that goofy but reassuring grin plastered on his face.

Emery did feel better, seeing her father there being nonchalant and reassuring. It maybe wasn't as big an impact on her as Avuri would have been at this point, but Vale had been her biggest support for the vast majority of her life.

"Now then." He said, motioning toward the cushions in the center of the floor. They were fresh ones, replaced after the last set had been incinerated thanks to Kord's Breakthrough impurities making them unusable.

"You said you wanted the mark on your arms, right?"

"Yes. You mentioned off hand at one point that the mark didn't need to be a singular location as long as the design made sense." Emery fell into a comfortable crossed-leg seating position and held out her arms so they were both even and straight with the palms down. "I thought you could do one that went across my forearms."

"I see. I think I can work with that, but you'll need to keep your arms steady throughout the process so the design doesn't slip."

"I should be able to manage."

Vale looked thoughtful for a moment, tilting his head in different ways to get various angles on Emery's arms. "Did you want the image to be laid across your arms like you have them now? Or would you rather have it displayed like this?" He asked, then brought his arms up to block his face, palms falling toward him with his forearms facing her.

"Hm. I hadn't thought that far." Emery muttered, moving her arms into different positions to see how the image would come together in different ways.

"I think this way is probably best for showing others the full image. Your way is probably best for seeing it yourself." Vale said, before finally putting his arms down. "But it's up to you. Or we can always do something else - where you put it has little actual effect on the process, but once you decide on it, we're locked in."

Emery shook her head to clear it. "Let's go with your way. I think it would go over better with kids if I could show them like that."

Vale chuckled at that and grinned. "Very well. Are you ready otherwise?"

Emery nodded. "How do you want me to hold up my arms for you now?"

"Any way is fine. It'll be a little harder to make the image if you just hold them out, but it'll be fine. I'd rather you be comfortable."

"Alright, then." Emery said and held her arms out straight. She took a few deep breaths, slowing her breathing down and calming herself the best she could. "Ready."

Vale similarly took a few deeper breaths and focused. The grin on his face slowly faded into a more neutral, focused expression. Emery could feel when he started cycling his Qi, but that really didn't mean much as she could also see the visible effects on his body.

His usually medium tanned skin turned darker as his black dragon scales appeared, as if a mirage was suddenly wiped away. His head showed more angular ridges covered in the same scales, with natural spikes and scales contouring his head to look a little more like a dragon's face shape.

The most striking addition was, of course, his horns. They appeared in that same shimmering mirage-like way, and were suddenly just there. They looked like antlers, clearly quite hard and rough material, but they also seemed like they carried an internal glow. When she was younger, Vale had told Emery that was because of his affinity for fire and magma. Some of that energy flowed through his body when he used his Qi, and a fair portion of that was concentrated in his horns.

He smiled, this time avoiding showing his sharper dragon fangs. "Ready?"

"Yes."

He nodded and gathered some Qi into his right hand. That further condensed into his index finger which glowed with the internal power. That slowly condensed into a glowing claw that extended from his fingernail.

"Here we go."

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