Stena

Hiding her newfound power turned out to be easier than Stena had expected. Cierra gave her a big strong hug before returning to her own training for the day, and Vyne was content to sit in the little lunch alcove with Stena quietly most of the day. If anything, Stena guessed he was perfectly happy to have a day off to do nothing but read whatever book had so clearly captured his attention.

No one so much as blinked an eye at her not doing any physical training for the day, or even as she and Vyne shuffled out of the alcove during lunch time, then back in once everyone had finished eating and returned to their own training.

Stena spent the entire time reading, too. There was little point to meditation while keeping her Qi locked away, and she didn't want to risk leaking if she talked to Vyne and got emotional. Well, and she wanted to ride the high of her success for a little while longer, too. Which left her very little to actually do, so she read an adventure novel that she had bought on her last trip into the city. It turned out to be just the thing to carry her through the day quickly, as the story turned out to be a light-hearted page-turner.

And then it was time to go home. She left with everyone else for the ride home, and Cierra decided to stick close. Usually, Stena rode alone in one of Vale's claws because she was hardly in the mood to talk to anyone after her emotion-filled chat sessions, but this time she rode with Cierra on Vale's shoulder blades, huddled close together against the cold and for support.

When they arrived in the Basin, it was right around sunset, and dinner time. The majority of the family was still gathered around the tables in the dining pavilion, but Stena's mothers had walked over to greet everyone as they arrived. Once they disembarked and Vale shifted back to his human form, Cierra gave Stena a light push, nodding toward their moms.

Without a word, Stena took a deep breath and walked over to them. They both smiled warmly and came in for a hug.

"You look like you finally got some sleep," Emery said, backing up after the hug. She cupped Stena's cheeks, and brushed a thumb over the skin under her eyes. "Even the bags under your eyes are gone. That's good."

Avuri hung an arm around her wife as she inspected Stena's face, too. "So, how was spending the night in the Elders' compound? We've never seen their bedrooms; are they extra opulent?"

Stena snorted as Emery's hands slipped from her cheeks to her shoulders, then her arms, cheeking her over. "I never saw them. Or a guest room. I spent the night in a meditation chamber. Then the bath. Though, I suppose both of them were pretty nice, yeah. I think I was even in Vyne's personal mediation chamber. There was a huge, dragon-sized blanket in there."

"Vyne never struck me as the type to over decorate." Avuri said thoughtfully.

"Definitely not." Emery agreed, then pulled Stena in for another hug. "Either way, it's good to have you home."

"Good to be home." Stena said, hugging her mother back. After a strong final squeeze, she let go again, backed up a step and looked down at her feet a little awkwardly. "Can we talk?"

Stena glanced up again to watch her mothers do that thing where they very clearly were communicating quietly, but it didn't last more than a second or two before Emery nodded. "Of course. To the house?"

Stena nodded, and her parents spun to head that direction. She ended up a few steps behind when Cierra, who had still been nearby, crashed into Stena with another hug. "Good luck. You've got this."

Stena rolled her eyes at that, even if she did appreciate the sentiment. "Not going to fight them, am I?" She smiled at her sister anyway. "Thanks, though. Talk to you later."

Cierra nodded and sent her on her way. Both Emery and Avuri were taking a nice, easy pace toward the house, so Stena was able to catch up pretty easily. Even once she did, none of them spoke. It wasn't an awkward or tense silence, though, just no one had anything to say yet.

Stena's heart was pounding as they entered the main house and walked straight up the stairs. Everyone else was still eating at the pavilion tonight, so no one was around, leaving their kitchen table free for the three of them.

Stena did her best to calm herself as she took a seat across from her mothers. It's not like she had any reason to be nervous about this. At the absolute worst, she might be in for a light scolding for ever even considering that they would abandon her. But there was no real danger here at all.

"So…are you alright?" Avuri asked, pulling Stena from her thoughts. "Did something happen?"

Stena felt a small smile creep onto her face. Her mother was genuinely concerned, wringing her hands almost imperceptively, waiting for an explanation. Not only did Stena appreciate the concern itself, but it also meant that not a single person around her had made any attempt to forcefully check her. Her mothers and Vale, at the very least, could all have forcibly checked her out with their Qi, and it would have been obvious to them that her body had been improved by the breakthrough.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

But doing that was incredibly rude and violating in most cases. She appreciated that no one had done that despite her acting strange.

"I'm alright." Stena said slowly, trying to find the right words for what she wanted to tell her parents. Unlike with Cierra, where it was more a fight to muster up courage, she was honestly not sure what she needed to tell her mothers. She just had a strong urge to be honest and open with them in a way she hadn't before; but that didn't exactly tell her where to start.

"Um," she stammered, still hunting down the right words, "Well…" she sighed, and watched both Emery and Avuri grow mildly more concerned.

"You know you can tell us anything." Emery reassured, and Avuri nodded in agreement.

Stena really wasn't sure what to lead with. She had wanted to hold off on revealing her breakthrough until after they had talked, but it was also the most obvious opening move she could see.

"I need you both to not celebrate yet, okay?" Stena asked. "Just hear me out first before you get all excited."

"Okay?" Avuri said, but Stena could still see much of the worry lines on their faces fade back. At least that had curtailed their immediate concerns.

Stena took a breath and let her Qi out from her tight control as she spoke. "Last night, I broke through to the Sky Realm."

As soon as the words left her mouth, she could feel both of her parents' attention lock onto her. They hadn't moved when she first let her Qi suffuse her body again, but now they seemed to be checking her over on a surface level, just to confirm. Which they did, and Stena could see their excitement blossom in their eyes. But they did remain calm, as she had asked.

"My trial…it was more or less what we imagined it would be." Stena said. The topic seemed to tip her mothers off to what she was talking to them for. The excitement in their faces was replaced with earnest concern again. "I know you both said that the trial is very personal or specific to each person, and that the whole thing can vary wildly. But we guessed mine almost spot on."

"I didn't even realize what was happening." Stena said, thinking back to the whole ordeal. "I was just meditating and getting frustrated at things like I always do. But it made me angrier than normal. Cierra started taunting me, then Kord joined in, and the whole thing just made me more and more frustrated, and I kept pushing."

She shook her head, thinking about it. "They kept taunting me with my own thoughts. But that wasn't where it all ended." Stena looked up from the knot in the wooden table she had started staring at as she spoke to meet her mothers' eyes. "I know that I've tried talking to both of you about the way I feel when it comes to Cierra. I know that Vyne has helped me work on it more than you have, but I wanted to tell you both that I'm glad I went to you first. And that I love you."

Somewhere in the middle of her speech, Stena felt like she had lost her actual train of thought, but she kept going on feeling alone. Her vision was getting blurry with the beginnings of unshed tears, and that made her look down again in a futile attempt to avoid crying.

"But…but the final bit of it all had nothing to do with them." Thinking back to the vision she had, Stena couldn't meet her mothers' gazes. She was almost positive she'd start crying the moment she did. "I've never told anyone…anyone…but I am terrified that you'll all leave me. That you two will leave me behind."

Stena felt the first tear slip down her cheek and she did everything she could not to show it. "My test made me watch both of you turn and walk away from me. That was the actual test. Whether or not I would be willing to bare myself instead of trying to bottle it all up. And it took watching you leave me to do it."

"So here I am, trying to be honest." Stena chuckled weakly, trying to find the levity in the whole situation. She breathed in, preparing to say "So please don't leave me," but sniffled in the process.

That had apparently been enough. Stena knew, logically, that Emery and Avuri could move ludicrously fast. Even more so now that they had finished their physical enhancements with the dragonblood. But the speed at which Stena found herself tackled to the floor in the most crushing hug she could ever remember still stunned her.

She was on the floor, on her back in an instant, with Emery on her left and Avuri on her right. She could see the kitchen table in the lower corner of her vision, neatly placed on its side, so that it was standing up longways, stretching toward the ceiling. Where the chairs ended up, she couldn't tell. Maybe they had pulled them into their storage rings?

But the crushing, squeezing hug was nice. It felt like it had when she shared a bed with them as a kid, and she instinctively snuggled into their embrace. She was pretty sure that they had even used more strength than usual to account for her new Sky Realm body's resilience to make sure she felt the squeeze.

"We would never leave you, Stena." Emery said, her voice quiet but firm. "I imagine you know that," she placed a gentle kiss on the top of Stena's head, "but I'll tell you anyway."

"Mom's right. You'd have to fight us before we let you go anywhere." Avuri said, following Emery's lead. Then she added, in response to Stena's earlier statement, "And we love you too." Emery grunted an agreement and squeezed her tightly.

That was apparently enough to get Stena's tears flowing, but she still fought against the urge to actually cry aloud. Instead, with the fresh tears making tracks down her face, she just sniffled and turned her face into Avuri's chest, hiding underneath her chin. There was a distant voice in her head telling her she should be embarrassed for such a display at her age, but that voice was tiny compared to the one that just screamed that she wanted her mothers.

Thankfully, Emery and Avuri were more than happy to oblige. They stayed on the floor only for a minute or two, then Stena found herself scooped up and brought to the couch just as easily as they had done when she was little. The three of them sat cuddled up together under a blanket that one of them had produced from their storage.

For the first time in a long time, Stena felt a level of safety and reassurance that was unmatched. There was no room in her head for her constant worries, having been forced out by the comfort that her parents gave her at that moment.

She could talk to them more properly later, if she felt the need. For the moment, it was enough that they were there with her.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.