Emery

When Vale's flaming claw made the first cut into her forearm, Emery was barely fazed at all. It didn't really hurt much, and her childhood had made her body resistant to much worse pain.

After the first few cuts were drawn, Vale closed his eyes and began reciting some words in a draconic language. She recognized some of the basic sounds, as Vale had taught her and her siblings some very basics of the language to be able to use it as a code while under duress.

Of course, with what knowledge Vale had given her, she could only pick out words here and there. She couldn't make sense of the greater sentences, but the little snippets she could understand led her to believe it was something like an oath. A spiritually binding one, at that.

Most of Emery's thoughts had been focused on the worry that Vale was quite literally cutting something like a tattoo into her arms with his eyes closed. She just kept telling her that he had said earlier that the technique itself would guide his hands, so she tried not to worry about it.

But as he seemed to slip into the second portion of the ceremony, the whole situation changed for Emery. She guessed that Vale had started the actual transfer of power or blood or something, because suddenly her arms were on fire.

Not literally, but the sudden eruption of a burning sensation and pain did make her double check to be sure. It certainly felt like they were on fire.

Vale must have noticed the change in Emery's demeanor because he opened one eye to look at her reassuringly. "Guide the energy. You've been preparing for this, you'll be fine," was all he said before returning to the ritual.

Despite the sudden cold sweat that had broken out over her body, Emery did her best to do what her father had told her. And what she had quite literally spent the last half a year preparing for.

She closed her own eyes and put the ceremonial portion of what was happening out of her mind. Instead, she cycled her Qi and focused on the pain.

As soon as she slipped into meditation, she was able to separate the pain and the energy that was causing it. Vale hadn't been kidding - her body was being flooded with fire aspected Qi from where Vale was making the cuts on her arms. The pain and burning sensation was from the Qi building up in her arms and not being distributed.

So she went to work. Emery focused on her own Qi, getting it moving throughout her body. Once it was flowing in the usual pattern, she added detours for it to pass through the meridians in her arms to pass by the new fire Qi. Thankfully, the strong current of her own Qi was enough to coax the fire Qi to move along her meridians.

The burning pain died down quickly, now that she had started to integrate the new Qi more properly instead of letting it gather in one spot. The process of making it her own would be longer than just this portion of the process, where she had to help it mix and blend with her normal Qi.

As she tried to move it all through her body, she realized immediately how difficult it was. She had performed a similar process with Avuri's Qi when they had first Bonded the Domains. However, when she had begun to draw in Avuri's Qi and tried to integrate it, the Qi had felt as though it was helping, actively trying to incorporate itself into Emery's very being. As if it had always belonged there.

The new Qi from Vale wasn't exactly being uncooperative, as it still moved along her meridians easily enough, but it felt entirely indifferent to the process. It obeyed Emery's pushes and pulls, but that was all. She would need to actively push it toward integration with her own Qi, rather than simply guide it the way it had worked with Avuri's Qi.

And there was still more coming from Vale, too. She never let enough of it congeal in one place to cause the painful burning again, but as she found more and more flames in her system, she realized her body was heating up and everything felt itchy. As if she was wearing a particularly itchy wool bodysuit. Perhaps worse, her body felt itchy on the inside too, thanks to the fire running through her body.

She wasn't sure how long they had been in the room or how long she had been meditating on the movement of her Qi, but it felt like a long time. Her entire body felt like she had been bathed in itching powder, despite the actual substance having long lost any chance of working on her. She knew that she would need to do something about it before she would be able to function.

But there was something scratching at the back of her mind that told her she only needed to wait until the ceremony reached the conclusion. Or, at least, part of it, anyway. She couldn't remember in the moment if she was recalling something Vale or one of the other Elders had said, or if it was just a feeling she was getting, but she held onto that reassurance as she continued to move the fire Qi through her meridians and body to keep the heat from building up in any one spot for too long.

And then she felt Vale cap off the transfer with something special. In the same way that the fire Qi had been flooding her system, something else joined it before the flow finally stopped. Whatever it was was still akin to Vale's flaming Qi, but it had a different feeling to it. Something deeper and more powerful, but it slid along her meridians with the rest of the Qi normally.

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Until it moved through her core. While the rest of the Qi had passed along her meridians, through her core and Dantian, and then continued along the path, whatever that extra bit of power was settled in her center. From there, she could feel a cooling, calming sensation begin to flow from her Dantian through her entire body, calming much of the itchy burning.

It didn't extinguish the fire Qi or neutralize it, exactly. It felt more to her as if whatever had settled in her core had given her a stronger connection and authority over the fire Qi. It was beginning to behave more like Avuri's Qi had, rather than mostly ignoring her.

With her body's incessant itching fading, Emery found it much easier to concentrate and make better moves toward integrating the new power.

It wasn't long before she slipped into a deeper meditation, and then into her Inner World.

She was not remotely prepared for the vision that greeted her, but she was immensely glad for the prep work she had done before they attempted this Bonding.

Her little blacksmith town was basically under siege by lava. Molten rock and flames flowed across the ground between the buildings like snakes, slithering through the crevices and burning anything that was unprepared for the heat. Thankfully, the time she had spent working on Avuri's techniques had helped her build her village into a less flammable state.

What had originally been mostly tents and log cabins - which would have absolutely been devoured by the molten stone - had been replaced with much more durable stone and brick. Of course, Emery knew that such buildings would still not have stood up well to the heat from the lava flowing around, but her Inner World didn't exactly follow normal rules. The stone buildings were merely images representing her preparations for the fire Qi's arrival.

She didn't spend long simply watching the lava flows either. Emery quickly jumped between the buildings, trying to take stock of the situation, and then began putting her plan into action.

As she worked with her body to tame and incorporate the fire Qi utilizing the strange power gifted to her by whatever that capstone Vale had given her, she felt her body begin to adjust. While she had certainly been running a fever - perhaps even a dangerous one - she could feel her body cooling as the fire was brought under control.

At the same time, she watched as small divots in the ground wound their way around her blacksmith's village. Then those divots grew into small paths, then trenches, and then further still. As she felt the fire Qi finally truly incorporated and became hers, the lava around her Inner World came under control as well.

The final scene made her grin widely, too. She wasn't sure how the introduction of Vale's Qi would alter her Inner World, but the final picture was an attractive one.

Lava flows had been contained and directed with deep trenches in the ground, sending rivers of molten rock through certain areas of the village. The heat of it felt contained in a way that would not be possible in the real world, but in her Inner World, it was comfortably hot.

But the best part was the way the lava flowed into all of the major smithies, and moved through the smelters and other tools to generate heat - and it was far hotter than the old fires she had used. Seeing the whole thing together had her hands itching to work on something immediately. Use the new power to create something spectacular. It had been a fairly long time since she had the itch to create like that.

But, for now, she had to put that feeling away. She knew that once she checked herself over and settled everything, she would need to continue her day. She couldn't just stay in meditation to work on something new.

So, she mentally and spiritually went over herself. Her body seemed healthy and whole, for starters, but she could also feel a difference in it. While amassing strength of any kind was typically a long, drawn-out process, there were a few times in her life where her body seemed to jump in strength immensely - during Breakthroughs. And this sudden power jump felt comparable to that.

The big difference, however, was that it was almost entirely physical. While she could feel the new Qi coursing through her and ready to be used, it didn't immediately feel like her spiritual strength had grown exponentially like during a Breakthrough.

Her body, however, felt immensely more powerful, physically. It was almost as if her already Qi-infused muscles and body had grown their own muscles on top of themselves.

It was a terrible way to think of it, but it was the best way she could mentally explain it to herself. She flexed her fingers while still in meditation, and swore she could feel the flexing muscles in a way she never had before. It was strange, a little off putting, but also immensely satisfying.

She almost laughed when her first thought had once again been that itch to do some intense smithing, just in the physical world this time. Her newfound strength would certainly allow her to do things she never could before.

Shaking the sudden desire to forge out of her head, Emery focused herself again. She had been pretty deep into meditation, and felt like she was about ready to leave it. She ran a quick mental check over her Inner World to be sure everything was in place and set up in a way that would be 'safe'. She noted the new lava flows and where they went, making sure they each one entered and exited the village safely without any potentially dangerous spots.

Once she was satisfied that her Inner World was in order and she wasn't going to suffer a Qi deviation because of a missed problem, she opened her eyes. Her breathing remained slow and steady, and she felt good. Solid.

She was still sitting in the center of the room, facing Vale who grinned widely at her, his teeth normal human ones. Just a genuine smile then, not a teasing one.

"You've done well. And your Qi is entirely under control. How do you feel?"

"Good. A little strange, but good."

Vale nodded, accepting that. "Then let's get out of here before your lovely wife breaks down the door. I think Lyn told her your ceremonies should be quick, but you were busy for over an hour."

Emery cringed and looked toward the door a little sheepishly. "I got distracted by my own Cultivation. Honestly, I wanted to immediately drop everything and do some forge work as soon as everything settled."

"There'll be time for that later."

"I know." Emery stood up, her eyes never leaving the door. "Let's go put Avuri at ease. And then freak her out again when we tell her it's her turn."

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