Emery

The rest of the day passed somberly. Emery was glad that all of the urgent chores had gotten done earlier in the day before Ieji left, because she wasn't sure anyone was up to doing much after they were gone.

Most of the kids seemed emotionally drained, and a large group continued to hang around the dining pavilion, bringing some board games and cards to pass the time together. Knowing the major work for the day was done, Emery was more than content to join the kids at the various tables rotating through different games to keep everyone entertained.

It seemed all the adults were feeling similarly, because while she had fully expected Avuri to join in with the kids, she didn't expect Talya, Gray, and Vale to be so ready to do the same. But they had went among the tables and slipped into games just as readily as Emery and Avuri had.

When the sun finally started to set, Emery broke off with her culinary team to reheat some of the leftovers as a late dinner for everyone to munch on. Not everyone was hungry, but those that were took plates. She was pretty sure that by that point the dour mood was feeding off itself, and everyone would be more or less functional the next day, so she let it run its course.

The entire family stayed together for a while after the sun went down, using a few Arrays for light, before eventually dispersing to their various houses. Emery and Avuri stayed until the group had dwindled down to just a few before deciding that everyone should probably go to bed. Emery had Astra basically asleep in her lap, and even Avuri was holding Arek up while the boy dozed on her shoulder.

As the day went on, Emery was also getting more and more anxious about returning to Cultivating. Whatever it was that she and Avuri had done, she hoped they would be able to figure it out during their meditations that night. If not, they might have to resort to asking Vale, and that could get them a stern talking to if they had accidentally done something stupid again.

Once they had put the kids to bed, Emery and Avuri reconvened in their bedroom. They went through their everyday routines in preparation for bed; they bathed together, combed out each other's hair, spent a little time just cuddled up together on the bed in silence, enjoying one another's company.

They had naturally fallen into Avuri embracing Emery from behind while laying together, which Emery appreciated. She took comfort in Avuri's embrace, especially when she was still a little sad with Ieji's departure.

Feeling safe and comfortable in their bedroom, Emery and Avuri let their transformed Qi and Domains flow freely around them. As it had felt in the morning, there was no sense of two halves locking together like puzzle pieces. Instead, it felt more like two cups of plain water being poured into one container. Their Domains didn't snap together, but simply became one. As if there was no difference between them at all.

At the same time, their usual connection flourished. Emery immediately felt the rush of Avuri's emotions; love, support, her own sadness at Ieji's departure, contentment. The feelings all flooded her at once, leaving Emery feeling safe and loved. She breathed out softly, relaxed in Avuri's embrace.

And she could feel the same coming from Avuri, too. Emery was sure all of her own feelings and emotions were similarly conveyed to her wife, who squeezed Emery happily in response.

They laid there together for a while, content with each other, simply comfortable.

"We should probably actually Cultivate." Avuri murmured eventually. "Although this is very nice."

Emery rubbed the side of her head against Avuri's arm like a cat. "You're right. I was nervous and anxious about Cultivating earlier, but being here with you has completely driven that off. I'm so calm now."

"Me too." Avuri whispered, placing a kiss atop Emery's head. "Do you want to sit up or stay like this?"

"Stay." Emery said. It may not have been the most optimal position for Cultivating together, but they were making enough contact to make it worth it. Plus, they were laid out easily without any contorted limbs, so their meridians would still be untangled and easy to work with.

Emery snuggled against her wife once more before closing her eyes to focus on meditation. Each of them began cycling their Qi through the new meridians they had forged, utilizing their respective new Cultivation techniques. It didn't take long before their Qi was moving at speed through their meridians. Then Emery and Avuri opened up to each other, creating a closed circuit between them as they had done for so long.

It took barely seconds for the feeling from the previous night to return. Emery was sure now that the Qi circulating through them was simply the same. The Qi completely lacked defining features that she could use to determine what Qi was natural hers or what was naturally Avuri's. Instead, it all felt the same.

She could, upon deeper inspection, tease out dominant elements within the Qi that varied from location to location. The parts of her meridians nearest to specific body parts would gather related elemental Qi. Bits of fire Qi gathered near her heart, for example, while water Qi grouped up around her kidneys.

It all followed logically from the general principles of Qi. The major elements had associated organs and body parts, which would strengthen that element when sent through meridians near them. And those related meridians in her body were where each of their types of Qi felt most natural.

However, if she pulled for a specific element, as if using a technique, that element would simply manifest in the nearest Qi. Fire Qi typically built up in the body's core; however, if Emery began a technique to call a small tongue of flame into her palm, the Qi circulating through her arm and hand would shift from something more nebulous to primarily fire aspected Qi.

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Emery was deep in meditation, continuing to cycle and Cultivate, but also ruminating on the properties of this new Qi. Its shifting nature was baffling to her. She could feel its readiness to respond in the same nature that her blade Qi would, but it was just as prepared to act as raw ice. Or even fire.

It was as if this new Qi was all three of their elements at once, in perfect balance, simply waiting to be told which color it truly was. If she wanted fire's red or water's blue, she needed only to ask.

The pair spent hours in plain Cultivation, into the early morning. Emery didn't know what time it was, as she was so focused on understanding their new Qi when she felt something fundamental in her soul shift. It was a feeling she couldn't quite describe, but something had shifted into place and settled.

The sudden feeling was enough to shake her concentration on her meditation, pulling her out of it. As soon as she came mentally back to herself, she was greeted with similar feelings from Avuri. She had felt something too. And was equally confused by it. The feeling came from something primal that neither could immediately place.

But they both recognized the most likely source of that feeling - their Domain. They had both recognized that when they had ended their Cultivation the previous night, their Domain was in some kind of transitional period and was changing. That feeling was gone now, with a sudden feeling of steadiness.

"Should we…?"

"Check our Domain? I think so." Emery answered wordlessly. Together, they once again entered meditation, now focusing on entering their Inner Worlds and Domain.

Usually, when their Domains were connected and they both moved to enter it, Emery appeared in the middle of her smithy village, in the biggest workshop, which she considered her main space.

Similarly, Avuri usually found her spiritual body in her shack - which was now a sizable home - situated among the outskirts of the snowy village, the location a mix of their individual Inner Worlds.

Instead of what they were used to, Emery and Avuri appeared together, standing side by side in their spiritual bodies. The entire space around them, however, was entirely new and alien to them.

They stood in front of a house that looked a lot like the one Avuri had gotten used to. The design was clearly similar to that of their home in the Basin, but it was built sturdy with a stone base that became wood above the first floor. It was a welcome sight for both of them, as it was the one thing that looked truly familiar. Although, it looked even more like their physical home than the one that Avuri had built in her own Domain.

The rest of the space would take some getting used to, because Emery could barely believe what she was seeing. A similar level of disbelief emanated from Avuri. What stretched out before them was picturesque and fantastical to the extreme.

Around the house there was lightly snow-dusted grass with a beautifully clear stream of water flowing by at a gentle pace. The ground, despite being covered in a blanket of snow, was lush and green and welcoming, fed by the calm water that flowed through it.

A small walk away from the house - located where the Basin's training and dining pavilions would have been - was the restructured remnants of Emery's smithing village. It was no longer a village with many shops and small buildings, but instead a grouping of buildings with express purpose.

One was clearly set up to be a workshop and smithy, while another was clearly an armory. There were a few other buildings that she would need to get closer to inspect.

But what truly demanded the lion's share of her attention was their surroundings. While they appeared to be in a small, perfectly balanced little sliver of land that looked suspiciously like the Basin they lived in, the areas around them were dominated by two massive mountains on either side.

With the house's front door behind them, to the left was a terrifying, dangerous looking mountain and volcano. Lava visibly flowed down the sides in rivers, with massive pillars of obsidian and various metals jutting out and up from the mountain side. The whole mountain radiated metal and fire Qi, leaving Emery no doubt what its purpose was. She could also visibly track small rivers of the magma that came close to their little slice of heaven, at least one of which fed into the workshop for her smithing.

To their right was the exact opposite. A frigid, icy mountain covered in snow and ice crystals dominated that side of the area. The water and ice Qi it generated was equal to that of its opposite, with the clean, crisp water that flowed through their little Basin clearly coming from the mountain's ice.

The two of them stood in the middle valley between the massive mountains in awe. In the same way that Emery and Avuri had found balance in their Qi, the two huge peaks balanced each other in the valley, creating a beautiful little slice of heaven. Emery would've said the place was 'magical', and that wasn't a word she used lightly.

Emery let out a breath as she took it all in while also trying to keep a mental checklist of all the questions popping up in her head.

"This is new." Avuri said lightly, trying to avoid being overwhelmed by the sudden and massive change to their Domains.

"There are pieces of things that I recognize, but…yeah." Emery agreed, continuing to look around. "But now what?"

"I don't know. I suppose we could explore? Or Cultivate more, of course."

"You felt the way our Qi settled earlier too, right?" Emery asked. Avuri only nodded. "I think whatever it was that we were working toward with our Cultivation worked out. That left us with…this." She motioned around them as they tentatively walked away from the house.

"I'm inclined to agree, but this sort of sweeping chance is still well beyond our expertise."

"I'm not asking my Dad about it." Emery said flatly.

Avuri chuckled at her immediate refusal. "I didn't say that. Yet. I agree that we should explore the space before we do anything else."

"I think I'm more interested in the way our Domains were interacting before. They feel the same. Is it possible for two people to actually share a Domain?"

"I don't know. Our Domains have been able to combine and coexist similar to this for so long that I would be inclined to say yes? But following commonly accepted knowledge, one's Domain is crafted by their soul and a representation of who they are, yes?"

"That's what I was basically taught, yeah." Emery agreed. "But there's always been a few discrepancies in there, right? Like, yes, a fundamental shift in your personality can cause sweeping changes to your Domain, but even small changes in your Qi's signature can cause bigger ones."

"So, you think that one's Domain is more related to their Qi than their soul?"

"Maybe?" Emery honestly had no idea, but she and her siblings had often discussed fundamentals that Vale had taught them and had picked things apart. These kinds of conversations weren't exactly new to her, but it had been a while since she had really torn into such fundamental ideas.

"There's plenty of reasons to believe that something like a soul exists, but it's also one of those things that no one understands." Emery shrugged. "Maybe Domains have nothing to do with your soul at all, and it really is just a consequence of the body building up an excess amount of a specific type of Qi. Afterall, breaking through to the Sky Realm is what causes a person to develop a full Domain."

"And the mechanics behind the Breakthrough is essentially building up an excess of your own personal type of Qi." Avuri muttered. "It does make a sort of sense."

"Despite everyone using Qi so readily and constantly, even Cultivators only understand bits and pieces of the mechanics of it all." Emery added.

"It'd be really awkward if we just broke tens of thousands of years of common knowledge in a few nights, kinda by accident." Avuri muttered.

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