Emery yawned. It hadn’t been an unusually long or tiring day, but it was still starting to grow late. For now, she’d hold out a bit longer and continue to keep a watch over the kids and their evening meditation. They didn’t always hold long sessions like this before bed, but now and again it was good to keep everyone focused beyond what was normal. Pushing everyone to hold out while they were tired was good training for their focus, after all.

On the other hand, her charges tonight were the younger kids - those under 10 years of age. Many were still in the earliest stages of Cultivation. Whether they were in the Gathering or Core Formation Stages varied from kid to kid, but this extra training would still be good for each of them. The youngest two of the group, both at the age of four, were mostly just sitting quietly, pretending to also meditate. Emery smiled - being that well behaved was good enough for her.

She glanced around the room at the other kids. They had nine children living here that were under the age of 10, and each of them with her tonight. All of them had some unfortunate circumstances that led them here, but she vowed to take care of them, and she would.

Most were victims of some kind of demonic sect in one way or another. Some were lucky enough to still have family here with them. Most weren’t. Some had banded together by the time she was able to rescue them, and had formed family units on their own, like the Elm kids. There were several families among the kids that had formed more spontaneously with older kids taking responsibility for the younger ones.

A few were left with virtually no one; those, she adopted herself. Emery often found her eyes wandering to those kids that she thought of as her own. They weren’t significant in number, but they were special to her. Among the younger kids with her now, two of them were hers - Arek and Astra.

Astra was the younger of the two, though not by much. She was a small girl, at the age of seven, and the neglect of her previous ‘guardians’ still showed some. Her hair was long and a dull gray when they had first rescued her; now it was cut to the center of her back, clean, and a silvery color that was gaining back some luster. She was still rail-thin, but that would be fixed in time. And whenever Emery saw the girl’s adorable mousy face, she couldn’t help but smile.

Arek was in much better shape. He had joined them three years ago now, and had been training with them for much of that time. He had just turned nine years old, and he looked like a healthy boy of such an age. His black hair was short and somewhat shaggy looking, but still clean. At least she had talked him into keeping it out of his face, which always looked a little stern for a nine year old.

Arek was also nearing completion of the Core Formation Stage. He would soon be ready to Awaken his Core and ascend to the Human Realm. He may already be prepared, if Emery was honest with herself, but they usually kept the kids in the Formation Stage until their tenth birthday to help create a truly strong foundation. Astra had recently joined her brother in the Gathering Stage, and would be upset if he left her behind again, too.

Emery swept her gaze over the room with an appraising eye, as she also reached out with her Domain to get a sense of how the kids were doing. None of the children here had Awakened yet, as that was part of ascending into the Human Realm. And without having Awakened, they would not yet be able to veil themselves. This let Emery get a clear sense of how each of the children was progressing without any real effort.

Outside of the youngest two, most of the kids were still diligently trying to meditate despite the late hour. A few were beginning to flag as they were nearing their bedtimes, but were struggling to hold on to their last bit of willpower to stay awake and focused.

Emery let her Domain wander out to the other meditation room with the older kids. Her Domain met and melded with another, and she smiled warmly; it was Avuri’s. Her wife’s. As their Domains intermingled, she could feel the same warm smile exuding from Avuri. As she wandered further throughout the room, she bumped into their older children, Stena and Cierra.

Then, she made a cursory sweep through the room’s occupants just to make a show of why she was checking the other room to begin with. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary; all of the kids were meditating quietly, focused on building up their stores of Qi. Most of the kids were still in the early stages of the Human Realm, but the some of the elders of the group, like Enrik Elm and Kord Alder, were making impressive progress into the Earth Realm.

Pulling her Domain back, Emery clapped her hands twice. The younger kids in her room slowly pulled themselves out of their meditation and looked up.

“Alright, I think you’ve all suffered enough for tonight. I’ll let you all get to bed.” She smiled at each child as they met her eyes. A collective sigh ran through the room as several of the kids half-slumped over, barely keeping themselves awake after the nighttime session. Emery left them to their murmuring as she heard Avuri call a stop in the other room as well.

The older kids began stretching out their limbs and collecting their younger siblings from her room, as they all headed off in different directions to their various dwellings. Their Wisteria Sect had a satisfyingly large, sprawling bit of land, courtesy of Uncle Vale. While Emery still wasn’t exactly satisfied with the sect name that Avuri had proposed, she was entirely satisfied with their location.

Nestled in a well hidden basin between four mountain peaks, Emery could not have asked for a better location. Thanks to some immaculately placed Spiritual Arrays, the basin wasn’t just well maintained for comfort with temperature regulation and the like, but was even designed to be conducive to farming for self-reliance.

The center of the basin was dominated by the sect’s namesake - an absolutely gargantuan Wisteria tree reached high into the air, and sprawled out with a massive canopy, covering most of the basin. Uncle Vale’s and Emery’s love of nature was shown in the space, with almost all of the buildings and materials in the basin being wooden or built out of still living trees.

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With some help from Uncle Vale when they were setting up the space, they were able to build plenty of living spaces, most of which were separate, little houses that could hold a family of six easily, and a few more if they got particularly cozy. Each small home had three small bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and some living space.

The Sect’s basin also had two large communal, open gazebo-style buildings. One was a sprawling affair for training and meditation; the second was smaller and designed for communal eating. The gazebo-style buildings were some of Emery’s favorites, with each of the supports for the roof being a living tree, and the roofing a living, breathing canopy.

Other sections of their land were divided for other purposes, with several areas not even dedicated yet. But there was a large area set aside to farm both food and plants, as well as a large family-style bath house.

Built next to the Wisteria tree, as central as possible, was a beautiful, large, wooden family house. It was designed to be large enough to hold full sect meetings on the bottom floor, but the second and third floors were designed to be a cozy family home.

The second floor held a few living spaces, a bathroom, an extra large kitchen, a small training and meditation room, and two guest rooms. The third floor held the master bedroom, five other bedrooms, three bathrooms, and an extra family space. This layout left Emery and Avuri sharing their bedroom, while each of their children had their own, and they even had one room left over.

As Emery watched the smaller family units file out of the training area, her own family began to drift together. Astra attached herself to Emery’s hip with a big hug, and she ruffled the girl’s hair in response. Arek saddled up alongside the younger girl and looked a little conflicted. Emery was positive he wanted to follow suit, but his older sisters were nearby, and their teasing could be merciless.

Avuri, Cierra, and Stena came around the doorway, and the six of them headed toward their house together.

“Seems like everyone is shaping up quite nicely.” Emery said as they walked. “Even Kal and Luc are ‘meditating’.” She said with a smile.

Avuri hooked her arm around Emery’s as she spoke. “Everyone is doing great. Kord is just about nearing the peak of the Human Realm, and Enrik and Elise aren’t far behind him. The others are making solid progress. The younger kids are all making solid strides toward Awakening - and even better - they all managed to stay awake all night tonight. I didn’t even see any getting carried home.”

“I’m not sleepy either!” Astra piped in, and Emery ruffled her hair again.

“It’s still bed time for you, Star. Arek too.” She shot the slightly older boy a smile.

He, in turn, just shot a look at his older sisters. “I want to stay up with Stena and Cierra. They were talking about playing a game!”

Stena scooped up her brother with ease, thanks to her Qi-strengthened body. “Arek, we’re just going to play a game or two of chess and then go to bed ourselves.” She glanced over to Cierra for confirmation, and she nodded. “If you ask nicely, maybe you could watch the first game, but you should sleep, too. We all went late with meditation tonight.”

“Can I watch them play, Momri?” Arek asked, directing the question to Avuri. Emery narrowed her eyes a bit, knowing he did so because Avuri was the more lax of the two.

“Of course, sweetie. But it’s straight to bed as soon as Cierra wins.” The taunting grin that split her face when Stena glared at her set off Emery’s own grin.

“Now that was uncalled for.” Stena muttered.

“Momri’s right though. We both know you’re gonna lose.” Cierra teased. “What’s the count now? Something like thirty-four to two this month?”

Stena made a show of sighing, and snuggling into Arek in her arms. “Well, maybe with a little help from Arek tonight, I can get one over on you.”

Arek smiled happily as the two sisters argued good-naturedly over who got to have him on their side. As they bickered, Astra tugged on Emery’s sleeve. “I’m not really tired yet, either. Can I have a bedtime story?”

Emery just giggled, scooped up Astra into her arms, and kissed her on the head. “Of course you can. Avuri, would you like to tuck Star in while I wash off really quick, and then we’ll trade?”

Avuri stepped up and took Astra from Emery as they entered the house. “I can do that.” As she took the younger girl, Avuri leaned in to give Emery a quick kiss before heading on up to the second floor. The other kids followed, heading to Cierra’s room, with Emery bringing up the rear.

Once they made it upstairs and went their separate ways, Emery went into her bedroom and began stripping off her robes to wash up. She didn’t exert herself too much today, so she wasn’t particularly dirty or sweaty, but she still wanted to clean up.

Once she was in the bathroom, she triggered a Spiritual Array that began filling a large tub with steaming hot water. While waiting for it to fill, she soaked a cloth in the hot water to wipe down with. Sitting in a chair in front of a mirror, she looked herself over to be sure she didn’t miss any dirt or grime.

Her body was built lithe, somewhat compact, and carried a good bit of muscle. Sometimes she wished she was a little taller, but she had long ago come to terms with her smaller stature. Becoming a Cultivator always came with the lovely bonus of making one’s skin virtually perfect, and Emery’s skin was as flawless as one would expect.

Leaning over, she grabbed a small bucket to dump some water over her head to wet her hair. She lathered in some shampoo. While wet, her hair fell down to her shoulders, but would curl up a bit as it dried. Usually, it sat just below her chin and looked a little unkempt due to the waves in it. She did take meticulous care of her bangs, though; if she didn’t, they would look far too messy.

She dumped another batch of water on her head to wash out the shampoo. She chuckled at herself in the mirror - she looked like a wet cat. She turned her head this way and that, catching the light just so. Her onyx black hair shined a lovely shade of purple in the right light that matched her wife’s eyes.

She gave her head a shake before dipping into the now-filled tub. A quick dip was all she wanted to clean off, and she hopped back out to go get dressed. She promised Astra a bedtime story, after all.

After throwing on a comfortable silk robe, she walked over to Astra’s room. Emery paused in the doorway after opening it, to watch Avuri stand and give Astra a hug goodnight. Her wife bumped her with her hip on her way out.

“Okay Star, what kind of story did you want tonight?” Emery asked as she saddled up alongside her daughter’s bed.

“Mm…How did you and Momri meet?” Astra asked, snuggling into her blankets. Emery reached out to stroke her daughter’s recovering silver hair.

“Did we never tell you? The first time we met was at an exhibition match for Cultivators. It’s kinda like a tournament where you get to show how good you are with your Qi.” She clarified when her daughter gave her a blank look.

Astra giggled. “You and Momri met at a tournament for fighting?”

Emery smiled warmly, thinking back. “We did. We both were there for different reasons, but none of that matters once you’re in an arena.”