To StarDaPanda225: Having Adrien fully by her side and having a whole team for support definitely helped ease much of Marinette's anxiety post-Hawk Moth. And then they had to go and wake up Adrien's mother, and who knows what she would think of Marinette? And suddenly all of that anxiety comes back with a vengeance – at least whenever Emilie is around. Just because a change is good doesn't make it any less of a change! I absolutely loved writing that ending, with Emilie's full acceptance and them hugging.
To Butterfly: I have been trying to keep things accurate to French (I actually went back and changed a bunch of "Mr." to "M." because I'd had that wrong). After everything they've been through, Marinette most definitely needed another "Mom hug"!
To yellow 14: A lot of the relationship between Marinette and Emilie is inspired by my own mom's relationship with my late wife – my wife (at the time girlfriend) was anxious about that first meeting, but by the end my mom was ready to adopt her!
To armadas: My late wife suffered from anxiety and depression, so I know the struggle far too well. Marinette's anxiety has definitely eased significantly over the last year, but it's still there, and something like meeting Emilie would certainly bring it out! I think that hug was the big resolution moment for the whole "relationship with Marinette" subplot to this anthology. That relationship continues to be important through the rest of the anthology, but this is when they get on the same page and Marinette finally believes that Emilie really is on her side and fully accepting of her relationship with Adrien.
After breakfast the next morning, Emilie descended the elevator to the Heroes' headquarters and found Master Fu waiting for her on one of the couches in the lounge area surrounding the portal ring, Kheaa sitting on his shoulder. He rose when the elevator plate retracted into the floor and waved her over, smiling benignly. Under the surface, however, Emilie could sense a level of anxiety and guardedness from him – a level which matched her own if she was completely honest. She strode briskly over to meet him and nodded curtly.
"Are you ready, Emilie?" he asked her, studying her intently.
Emilie shrugged. "I don't know," she answered honestly. "The last time I was there…" She trailed off into silence and closed her eyes. Duusu would be back in only a couple of days now; she could do this without him. Finally she released a slow breath, allowing her anxiety to escape into the atmosphere – or as much as she could – before adding, "But I don't know if I'll ever be ready to do this. Let's just get it over with."
Fu nodded and pressed a few buttons on the control panel built into the portal ring. The portal whirred to life as its selected mate did the same. On the other side of the ring the interior of a metal shipping container became visible, lit by a trio of bulbs. The sides of the container were lined with tools and building materials, with a pair of cots at the end closest to the doorway. Fu stepped through the portal as Emilie hesitated. "It is quite safe," he assured her. "The wardstones were repaired."
Emilie sighed and forced herself to put one foot in front of the other. On crossing the portal ring, she took a shuddering gasp. "The altitude change is so sudden!"
Fu frowned. "We have not found a way to account for that yet," he admitted. "One of the Australian Guardians, Evelyn, almost passed out the first time she came to help. Young M. Kubdel is researching with their Sorcerers' Guild, looking for a magical solution."
Emilie leaned against a pile of lumber to catch her breath before following Fu to the end of the shipping container. He pushed it open and led her out onto an all-too-familiar high plateau. "It looks so different from when I was last here," she observed, looking around.
Where the last time Emilie had visited the Tibet temple it had been covered with rubble, the outlines of destroyed buildings still visible as half-walls, the plateau had been cleared of debris, leaving a flat surface. Near the head of the path the gate had been rebuilt, three meters wide and an equal height. A magnolia tree on the far side of the plateau had been trimmed back and was beginning to put out new growth. Emilie's breath hitched when she looked at the center of the plateau, where the same mosaic she had examined last time remained; now, however it was intact.
Pedro stood at one end of a half-built wooden cabin on the far side of the mosaic, hammer in hand. He finished nailing another board to the outside wall of the hall before returning his hammer to its place on his tool belt and coming over to join them. He and Fu shook hands before he turned to Emilie. "Good afternoon!" He held out a hand to encompass the compound. "So… what do you think?"
"It looks much cleaner than the last time I was here," she answered wryly, stifling a bout of nausea at the thought of her last visit. She felt a hint of unease from both of her companions and shivered involuntarily. "I'm sorry," she apologized.
Fu waved a hand dismissively. "After what you experienced here, you are entitled to feel some discomfort on returning."
She nodded gratefully.
"The hall is almost finished," Pedro explained. "It's not much, but it's a start. Having help from the Guardians from the other temples has helped speed it up, as did the miraculous users."
"Taureau Dechaine pushed the shipping container into place and removed the largest pieces of debris," Fu supplied. "Ryoku washed away the smallest stones and twigs and the like."
"And of course the more people who come to participate in the daily meditation, the stronger the protections over the Maw become," Pedro finished.
"And good thing, too," Kheaa interjected with a shudder.
"On the subject," Fu began, leading the other two to sit in a circle around the mosaic.
Emilie sat down near the edge, as far from where she had been attacked as she could, and assumed the lotus position. She closed her eyes and reached within herself to find the reservoir of golden chi waiting below the surface for her to need it. On the other sides of the mosaic she could feel Fu and Pedro calming their emotions to focus their own chi. As Fu began to speak, she allowed her breathing to slow and her body to relax. She had returned to the site of her accident, and she had survived the experience. Yes, the accident had cost her four years of her life, but she would come out of it stronger. Her chi – as well as the miraculous she had loaned to Sabrina while Amelie acquainted herself with Nooroo – connected her to this world that was so much larger than herself. Holding her breath she touched the reservoir of chi and allowed some to flow out into her hands, and through her hands into the mosaic in front of her. Fu concluded the words of the ritual, and she opened her eyes.
Pushing herself to her feet, she stretched her neck and shoulders against the stiffness that had set in from sitting in one position for so long. As she crossed the mosaic to meet the other two, she glanced down at her feet and thought she saw a faint golden glow emanating from the white stones outlining the red-and-black yin-yang symbol in the center of the pattern. However, when she looked back, she couldn't be sure that it hadn't just been a trick of the light.
Fu shook his head in wonder. "Did Elizabeth write anything in her journal about the morning meditation ritual?" he asked.
Emilie furrowed her brows and thought. "Nothing beyond the importance of being attuned to your chi," she admitted. "Should she have written more?"
Fu chuckled. "If that is the case, she wrote all that we knew of it," he replied. "For the longest time I simply assumed that it was a mere ritual formality, a meaningless tradition handed down from ancient times to connect us to our past. But now? Now I know better."
AN: This is a good spot to pause "The Woman out of the Fridge" and continue with "A Bees' Life." I have 5 more chapters of this written, with ideas for a couple more, and there's no pressing timeline reason to break up the next 5 chapters, so let me know if you want to see all of them in a bunch or interspersed with the next couple multi-chapter stories.