Emery looked at me like I had five heads. Clearly what I had said was not what she expected.

“I just spill my guts and tell you I’ve basically been trained for killing since birth, tortured for most of my childhood, and am on the warpath to murder as many demonic Cultivators as I can find, and your response is, ‘this made me more interesting’.” She looked almost comical, blinking with her eyes so wide. “Are you insane?”

I just shrugged. “Only as much as you are, I imagine.” Emery moved to respond again, but I waved her off and forged on. “And everytime you talk about your circumstances, you paint it all so specifically to make yourself sound like such a bad person. And that’s doing you such a disservice.”

Emery clenched her jaw shut and looked at me pointedly and annoyed. I shifted in the bath to face her more directly. Earnestly.

“Listen. I’ll give you that you’ve been trained to kill basically since birth and you had one hell of a tortured childhood. I certainly have no interest in disputing that. But saying that what you’re doing now is being ‘on a warpath to murder as many of whatever as you can’ is just wrong.”

Once again, Emery moved to speak but I spoke over her. “Tell me, Emery, how many demonic Cultivators have you killed in the last eight months since I saw you last?”

“None.” She said, indignantly.

“And why is that? If you are ‘on the warpath’, why have you not gone out and killed anyone in the last half a year?”

Emery folded her arms over her chest, looking distinctly peeved. “Because I’ve been building a new house.”

I waited for her to elaborate further. She didn’t. So I cleared my throat and prompted, “And why is that?” When she opened her mouth to speak, I could tell from the look on her face she was about to spout some nonsense to support her point. I put a hand up in front of her face. “The truth.” I said, firmly.

Emery narrowed her eyes at me. “Because I needed a home base to work from, and I’m tired of wandering without one.”

I eyed her, narrowing my own eyes in a mirror of hers. And with a quick flash of Qi, I drew up some of the bath water to splash her in the face. As she spluttered the water from her mouth, I said, “The whole truth, you idiot.”

With the same petulant look a child would give their parents during a scolding, Emery once again crossed her arms and forcefully dropped back against the edge of the tub with a huff. She sighed dramatically and said, “I wanted to have a place to call home. For myself…and Cierra.”

I swung my arms wide, as if putting on an overacted play. “There it is! Finally, a bit of truth from her mouth.” I said, rolling my eyes. “You apparently don’t want to admit it, but you’re at least as concerned with your family - Cierra included - as you are with hunting demonic Cultivators.”

I paused for emphasis. “And let me be clear. Those demonic Cultivators deserve you coming after them. They deserve absolutely every little thing coming to them.” I said, with as much finality as I could muster.

Emery laid her head back, looking more or less exhausted. She side eyed me curiously, but said nothing. I settled back against the edge of the tub myself, in thought. My trip here and what Eli and Ettie had said.

“There is at least one demonic Cultivator sect in the Dying Lands. They’ve apparently been taking children from caravans that are traveling through the area.” Emery’s head snapped around immediately, her eyes suddenly focused.

“Did you get any more information than that? Any leads?” She asked fervently.

I shook my head. “No, I was just told about it by two of the guards that were part of the caravan I traveled with. An Eli and Ettie Nunn?”

Emery shrugged. “Never heard of ‘em. But we already know of one demonic sect in the Dying Lands.” She let out a frustrated breath. “They’re led by an old demonic beast with a human form. They’re at least Sky Realm, so they’re a little beyond me right now.”

“And Vale?” I asked.

“All the normal sect rules bullshit applies.” Emery spat. “If he gets involved, it’s entirely possible that we’d end up with an unknown demonic Heavenly or Celestial Realm Cultivator popping up to fight back. The last time that happened is how we got the Dying Lands in the first place.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I had heard that the desolation was the result of some high level battle but there’s so many stories with conflicting details I thought no one knew for sure.”

“Vale is an old dragon. He wasn’t there as far as I know, but he’s mentioned in passing that the scarring of the land was the result of a Celestial Realm demonic Cultivator showing up in retribution for a sect coming to wipe out the demonic sect that was based there. Apparently the demon wiped out the whole sect and ravaged the land all in one huge scale attack.”

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

I shivered. “And if Vale got involved in something like this, something more equal to his level may show up.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, shit.” I said, with a sigh. Emery nodded - but there was a slightly concerning glint in her eyes.

“The one demonic sect we know about never abducted kids, though.” Emery said.

“Which means either they’ve started doing something new, or there is a second, different sect.” I concluded.

“Yeah.” Emery confirmed. “And it’s incredibly rare that a demonic sect branches out like that, as they are usually formed around a specific demonic technique.” Emery was sitting up straight now, alert and thinking. “They’re still in the Dying Lands though, so they’re guaranteed to be at least Sky Realm. How long did you say they’ve been taking kids?”

“I didn’t. I wasn’t told an exact timeline, but I got the impression it’s maybe been a few months.” I said, watching Emery’s mind at work.

“If they’re that new, it would be very unlikely they have any sort of powerful backing. I’d bet that they’re a small group of Sky Realm Cultivators that recently got their hands on a demonic technique and are still new to it.” Emery frowned. “If I was Sky Realm I could probably at least go and investigate. Damnit.”

I considered being polite for a moment, before deciding to ask, “How close are you to the peak?”

Emery looked at me seriously. “Pretty close. But still a year or two away from breaking through, I imagine. Probably.”

I blanched. “Same here. I thought maybe if you were close, we could train together and push you through. But I suppose if you're not that close, it's not really useful to just push for advancement.”

Emery made a face as if she was just generally discontent with the whole situation. Which, given our inability to do anything here.

“Wait.” Emery said, her head snapping up. “I remember Vale saying something about some kind of special training partners can do. Maybe he knows some way we can advance to the Sky Realm quickly.”

I considered asking whether he had been referencing Dual Cultivation but figured someone as ancient as Vale might have something actually special up his sleeve.

I nodded. “We should ask. If there's some kind of special training regimen we could do that would give us an edge or a Cultivation boost, it's worth it.”

“Should we go now?” Emery asked. “Or did you want to soak a bit more?”

I leaned my head against the stone outside the bath and yawned. “I like the idea of soaking. But if you think Vale might have some kind of super secret training technique, we should just ask. The sooner we get to working toward saving those kids, the better.”

Emery nodded and stood, holding her towel snug around her body. “Right then. Let's go talk to him before he gets settled for the night.”

I stood, following suit. “Fair enough. You say ‘settle in for the night,’ but does Vale even sleep?”

“No, but he has a tendency to enter pretty deep meditation most nights. It's nearly impossible to get him out of it once he starts, so we're better off getting to him before then.” Emery chuckled.

“Uuh, right.” I said, chuckling as I imagined trying to wake a dragon from deep meditation. I motioned Emery toward the door. “Lead the way, I guess.”

Together, we made our way into the changing room, dried off, and swapped towels for light robes. I followed Emery back to the main house and up to the second floor where the bedrooms were. She made her way down the hall to a room with a door closed, which I had to assume was Vale's.

When she knocked, a ‘Come in’ echoed from inside. And so we did. Vale was, indeed, sitting on the floor in a meditation pose. He untangled his legs and stood to greet us, motioning toward the small table in the center of the room with cushions around it. There was even a teapot on the table.

“Thanks, Vale.” Emery said as we moved to the table.

I paused for a moment, looking between the two, and wondered if there was a reason she didn't call Vale ‘Dad’ or something similar the way Talya did. In the end, I sat down at the table without asking.

“What did you need?” Vale asked seriously. “I can see it on your face that you have a reason.”

Emery nodded. Vale was right, her face was clearly serious. “You once said that there was some kind of training that I could do with a partner that would accelerate my Cultivation growth… ‘explosively’ was, I think, the word you used.”

I could see Vale putting together what she was about to ask. And based on him clearly beginning to act uncomfortable, I suspected my earlier suspicion was dead on.

As Emery was no doubt about to ask what the technique was directly, I interrupted her. “Emery, I know you said that Vale mentioned such a technique, but I don't think it's something we can do.”

Emery turned to me sharply. “What do you mean? You said you were interested.” She looked incensed, but also perhaps on the verge of a pout. And then she turned back to Vale. “If you know a way, out with it.”

Vale averted his eyes from Emery, either just uncomfortable or maybe embarrassed. “Look, Emery,” he said, trying to explain. “You know I won't lie to you. There is a technique, but I can't recommend it to the two of you.” He looked between the two of us. “At least not yet, anyway. Maybe someday.”

Emery just got annoyed by his response. “The hell does that mean - not yet? There's children out there being tortured, and there's a way we can help them. You've always helped before, and now you're suddenly saying ‘no'?”

I put a hand on her shoulder to try to calm her down a little. “It's okay Emery. If it's a shortcut, it's probably a bad idea. You know how things like that are usually too good to be true.”

She nodded, still staring down Vale. “You're absolutely right. But I also know Vale would never suggest something like that to me.” She looked about ready to start a scrap with the dragon. “So what'll it be, old man? You gonna help or get in my way.”

When Vale didn't respond, I had to physically hold Emery in place. She snapped back at me. “What are you doing?”

“Emery, I think I know of the technique he's referring to. And he's probably right. I don't think it's meant for us right now.” Vale’s eyes met mine and he sighed as I spoke again. “It's probably Dual Cultivation. Or Paired Cultivation. Whatever you'd like to call it.”

Emery stopped and turned to Vale, a brow raised curiously. “What the hell is that?”