Emery took a deep breath. Even if she had gotten somewhat used to it over the years, she never really liked coming to the Elders’ compound.

  If nothing else, it always meant something serious was happening. Or going wrong. She could only recall one visit to this place in fifteen years that wasn’t for some serious reason - and that was if she had considered wedding prep unserious.

  Avuri had acted like she was going to war that day.

  As it was, this visit teetered on the line. Eiry had asked them to come to discuss what happened next. And yet, she had only asked for Emery and Avuri, not any of their other family members.

  Well. And Vale, too, but he more or less counted as an Elder when it came to serious matters.

  And so it was that Emery and Avuri were sat at the Elders’ table, with the six dragons arrayed around it with them. Emery let out another breath. All she wanted was to spend time with her family in peace, but it seemed that such peace was always short-lived.

  “Well, we’re here.” Emery said, her voice clearly unenthusiastic to be there. “What did you need us for?”

  “Emery, don’t be like that.” Avuri said. “Things are good right now, there’s no need to be so...annoyed.”

  “One week.” Emery sighed. “It’s been one week since we threw that party. And suddenly we need to meet to discuss the end of the world again?”

  “Emery, trust me,” Eiry said, “I really am sorry. But we’ve been going over things here and making decisions about what’s to come.”

  “And for better or worse, we came to the conclusion that the two of you should probably be involved now.” Lyn picked up the explanation. “Whether or not you’ve meant to, you’ve thrown your lot in with us.”

  “Well, at least for now.” Vyne took over. “One of the reasons we wanted the two of you to come alone was - before anything else - to tell you this, and offer you the chance to leave.”

  “Leave?” Avuri asked.

  “Yes, leave.” Vyne continued. “As Lyn said, you’ve thrown in your lot with ours. Word will get back to Aysol, no doubt, about what has happened here.” He turned to Avuri as he continued, “Avuri, if your family has gotten involved, it’s hard to say what sort of information he had before the attack on the city. But it’s all but certain he’ll know you are here with us now.”

  “More than that,” Vale said, “he’ll know that I’m here. And he already knew about my kids. He’ll consider you an enemy if you stay and that’s…well. It’s dangerous. As I’m sure you both can imagine.”

  “Emery. Avuri.” Lyn took over again. “The two of you have been the best of neighbors. Truly. And you helped us when danger came calling, when you probably didn’t have to.”

  Emery was about to argue that point, but Lyn held her hand up to stop her. “No, you didn’t. You feel like you did, because you’re good people. But you could have - perhaps should have - squirrelled away in your home and defended it from outsiders, and left the city to defend itself.”

  “Fact is, you didn’t do that.” Eiry said. “Instead, you fought with us and put yourselves and your family in harm’s way more than you may have had to.” She smiled warmly at them. “To that end,” she continued, “given the current situation, we wanted to give you a chance to leave. If you pull up and relocate, Aysol has no true quarrel with you. He wouldn’t chase you down for simply defending your family.”

  “We’ll even assist you with relocating, if you’d like.” Vyne added. “But if you choose to stay, you need to know. If you continue to live on the Dragon Peaks, Aysol will count you among his enemies.”

  Emery and Avuri shared a long look. With just a touch of their Domains, they could tell how they each felt.

  Emery didn’t want to move. She loved it here. The Basin was about as perfect a home as could possibly exist. It was their home. And it was their kids’ home. They didn’t want to take that away from them.

  But the danger posed by Aysol was partially unknown, but certainly well above them. If he showed up in even a reasonable number of years, it was almost a forgone conclusion that he could wipe their entire family off the map.

  And yet.

  And yet.

  It wasn’t exactly a decided outcome. They also had six dragons here. Sure, their family couldn’t fight him alone. Maybe with Vale they could, but he wasn’t always here. The Elders were though.

  And damn it, they wanted to stay.

  “If we stay,” Emery began, Avuri’s resolute gaze facing the Elders with a unified front, “what does that mean? I assume if you’re offering to help us relocate, you’re also going to offer protection?”

  The Elders and Vale shared a look. Vale looked like disappointment and pride warred within him. Emery could understand that. He probably hoped they would choose the safe option to remain out of harm’s way. But he was proud that his daughter and daughter-in-law would choose to stay and not abandon their friends.

  The Elders as a group, however, looked almost relieved. Had they been afraid of them choosing to leave?

  “Have the two of you been into the City recently?” Ray asked.

  “Other than that one day to set up our party? No.” Avuri said, curious.

  Ray just laughed. “The two of you must have still been a little out of it that day then. Or kept your heads down the whole time you were walking around.”

  “I guess?” Emery said. “We just went straight to the shops we needed and got our errands done. Why?”

  “Emery, you’re a fucking hero, girl.” Ray said through some errant chuckling. “Sure, people don’t really know that ‘Nyr the Dragon-Kin’ is you, but still. The entire city has been turned upside-down looking for Nyr. Whispers and rumors are flying all over the place about who they were, where they went…”

  “We’ve had to actively stop people from climbing the Dragon Peaks looking for you, you know.” Cyril chuckled. “Most of the Cultivators in the city are convinced that the ‘Dragon-Kin’ could only have descended from the Peaks as some great Hidden Master coming down to defend what they view as their territory.”

  By the end of that, Avuri was actively trying to hide her giggles while Emery rubbed her forehead. “Nothing can ever just be easy.” She mumbled.

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  “Have the two of you considered where things go from here if you chose to stay?”

  Avuri picked up that answer while Emery still tried to wrestle with the sudden news of her becoming essentially a living legend.

  “We have. But to be honest, we just figured that things would mostly continue as normal for the foreseeable future. We would continue as friends to the city and occasional visitors while living our lives in the Basin.” She glanced at Emery once before continuing, “We had actually considered hiring scouts to hunt down our next set of rescues.”

  The Elders nodded, understanding. It had been less than a year since they had rescued the group with Astra, but they were already feeling antsy to try to gather information on their next target; who knew what could happen while they weren’t being vigilant.

  “We don’t plan to interfere in any way when it comes to what you feel is your life’s work, Emery. And anything that you chose to do is your choice. But one of the things we’ve been debating about here came to a standstill without you.”

  “You’re going to ask me to actively be Nyr, aren’t you.” She sighed again.

  “Yes. Well, sort of.” Eiry said. “What we actually want to propose to you is a bit more…complicated than that. And trying to decide where we go from here started to require your input before we could continue.”

  “Sure, alright.” Emery said. “Lay it on me. What was the idea?”

  Vale took over then. No doubt they thought whatever they had to ask would sound best coming from her father.

  “The idea is to set you up as a sort of…ambassador for the city. For lack of a better term.” He began. “You can decide whether you’d like to simply act as Nyr, or let the city know that you - as Emery - are Nyr. Either option would be tenable, with equally difficult portions to each option. We can tell the city that you are a friend to the dragons, and deal with the rest of the fallout from that in other ways.”

  Emery placed her elbow on the table and held her forehead in her hand, thinking and massaging her forehead. She could feel the headache coming on.

  “Really, the way this happens is potentially in your hands, Emery.” Eiry said. “We can defer to you on the details. But our ultimate goal with this would be to show the city that the dragons they saw are here to stay, without completely revealing ourselves as the Elders.”

  “And you think me or Nyr telling them ‘Hey, I’m friends with the dragons, and I promise to defend you’ would be enough to make an impact?”

  “In a way.” Cyril said. “Nyr remaining in the city gives the dragons a reason to be here without us having to reveal ourselves.”

  "Which, to be clear, we would probably do in the event that you choose to leave.” Lyn said. “We’re prepared to do that if it comes to it. We need to be able to show the populace that they’re safe, and the presence of dragons is far and away the most reliable way to do that.”

  “I see.” Emery said.

  “And what about our family?” Avuri asked. “If we stay you said yourselves that we would be putting a target on our backs for Aysol. Surely your offer isn’t just to ask us to help you out and then offer us the same level of protection afforded the city?”

  The Elders glanced at each other, their combined gaze eventually landing on Vale, who snorted.

  “You’re really going to make me be the one to break all the important news.” He muttered.

  “We are.” Eiry said.

  “Most of the work in this endeavor will come from you, Vale. You should be the one to talk about it.” Lyn added. Vale just sighed.

  “Yes, you will be under the same protection as the city, of course. The Elders and I will also keep a closer watch over the Basin itself to be sure you all remain safe.” He paused for a moment, to gather his thoughts. “The greater protection afforded to you will be in the form of training. And some other particular beneficial gifts.”

  Emery perked up. The offer to be trained by the Elders was not an offer to take lightly. They were all masters in one form or another, most of them in several. Direct training from them could be considered priceless.

  But it still wouldn’t exactly help them stand up to whatever dangers Aysol could potentially send after them.

  “What do you mean by ‘other beneficial gifts’?” Avuri asked. “Training from you all is all well and good - truly, it’s an amazing offer. But your training will not help us survive whatever is coming.”

  The Elders remained quiet, eyeing Vale, waiting for him to speak. The air seemed charged, somehow, and Emery’s hair was standing on end. Something told her that this wasn’t as simple as mundane Cultivation aids and pills or the like.

  “The rumors flying around about Nyr have given them the title of ‘Dragon-Kin’. Have either of you heard that term before?”

  Both women shook their heads.

  “I didn’t think so. It’s not just a powerful sounding moniker. ‘Dragon-Kin’ is a proper title for a Cultivator that has a blood-bond with a dragon from a technique that hasn’t been used for…well, to be honest, I’m not sure how long.”

  “The Cultivators who named you probably don’t even know that they happened upon a true title, either.” Ray chuckled. “Dragon-Kin isn’t something most people know about.”

  “But that is the true offer here.” Vale steadied himself before continuing. “Each of us here will grant one person within your family that bond. The strength granted to each of you through the technique would be immense, and after the training, likely afford you the power to defend your family if threatened.”

  Emery’s head spun. Being granted the power to stand up to the potential danger from Aysol was no small feat. That would mean at least six of their family members reaching the Heavenly Realm most likely. And within months? She presumed a few years was more likely, but still. If they were offering that sort of power, they must not be taking this lightly.

  “If you choose to go this route, we’ve already each chosen who we would each give our blood to. Emery, you’re my daughter; obviously you would be paired with me. Avuri, Lyn offered to pair with you. The others we can worry about later. But this is not a decision to take lightly. It will change you.”

  “Will the change be meaningful in any way?” Avuri asked.

  “Yes. Strength, speed, Cultivation techniques, your body may even -” Ray said before Avuri interrupted him to clarify.

  “No; will there be meaningful changes? Any change to mental faculties? Personality? Emotional warping?” She looked at Emery, concerned. “Changes to Cultivation as a whole?”

  “No.” Lyn said, warmly. “You will remain yourselves. Your Cultivation bond will remain unchanged as well. You will still need to Cultivate together as normal for you. The main changes will be physical changes. You’ll likely want to find a new Cultivation Form that will benefit you further after your changes, but that would need to be done eventually as you grow in strength anyway.”

  “Just so you are aware,” Vyne said, pointedly, “when we say physical changes, we mean real changes. It varies from person to person, but you may develop scales or a tail. It’s rare, but can happen. There are techniques to hide them if it happens, of course, but sweeping physical changes are a possibility.”

  Eiry eyed Vyne carefully. “Vyne is right. But nothing will happen to your core humanity. With a close family like yours, I imagine that is your major concern, so let me put it to rest. Yes, you may develop some draconic features from the blood, but you will all remain firmly human. Functionally, it will simply be a strength and Cultivation boost.”

  “You can swear that to me?” Emery asked, cautiously. “You can swear to us that we will come out the other side still ourselves in every meaningful way?”

  “Yes.” Eiry said, her voice full of conviction. “I have seen a Dragon-Kin made one time. I knew them for years before and after the bond was forged. They were the same throughout.”

  Emery and Avuri met gazes, warring over the decision, touching their Domains together to transfer their feelings about the whole situation back and forth.

  Truthfully, they agreed on all counts, but were still unsure over all.

  They wanted to stay.

  They wanted the power to protect their family.

  They did want to help Flowing Dragon City.

  They wanted, more than anything else, to remain themselves and with their family.

  Relocating was the safest option, no doubt. But it wouldn’t necessarily be the best option.

  The Basin was their home. They didn’t want to tear their kids away to move somewhere else, hoping beyond hope to find a place that was just as solitary and safe as the Basin had been until now.

  And could be again.

  “Alright.” Emery said, as she and Avuri nodded together. “We’re in.”

  The Elders seemed to relax at that point. Emery was shocked that they seemed so invested in getting them to remain. Aside from Vale, anyway; his reaction wasn’t shocking.

  “We have a lot of plans to make, then.” Eiry said, with a wry smile. “I’m sorry you two. You’ll need to stay here for a while longer while we hash out details.

  Emery groaned and collapsed onto the table.

  “You people better at least offer us some food.” She muttered.