For the first day of her break, she decided to rest and focus on connecting to the Aerial Domain. Alternating to expanding her aetherspace when she grew tired of doing so. It was tedious, and more than a little boring at times, but it needed to be done.

  She also checked the markets. There were plenty of Aquatic cores in stock, but, as she suspected, they would be out of her price range for at least the next couple months, even with the inflated value of her Quilish coins. That wasn’t even accounting for the fact that she couldn’t absorb just any Aquatic core; she’d need one that could conceivably evolve into a dragon.

  The majority were fish cores. It would be very difficult to transition from a fish as a starting point to being a dragon. Perhaps that could work if she managed to find a cetus as an in-between, but she couldn’t count on it. It would be far preferable to find the Sea core of some sort of reptile, such as a lizard. She could only find two such cores, and they were a decent bit more expensive than more common ones.

  It was worth checking, but Harper didn’t plan on buying one anyways. No, she’d either hunt down a suitable creature and absorb its core, or trade in an incompatible core from a creature she killed for one she could use. Preferably, she’d do the first. Having the body of the creature she was taking the form of would cut down on growing expenses drastically.

  Harper also checked on the egg sitting within her aetherspace. She had stopped at a library in Porvus to find a bestiary. She was unable to identify the species of the egg, only confirming what she suspected, the creature inside would have the Solar Domain. The problem wasn’t that she couldn’t find a matching description, moreso that there were too many matches.

  She determined that it was some type of lizard, not any of the common types though. The lengthy incubation period was indicative enough of that. The egg itself gave her mixed feelings. It was a farewell gift from her brother, slipped to her when their parents weren’t looking. No doubt he found it on his return trip from the capital, where he had manifested Sun.

  The recently exiled noble was irritated when she realized what he had slipped her, taking it out of her aetherspace. He could have smuggled her a small, useful artifact, or a chunk of valuable aethereal material, but she knew that was the jealously talking. She couldn’t bring herself to sell it.

  Her aetherspace should be a fine place to store it while she waited for it to hatch. Though, chances of success, both for a healthy birth and a stronger bond would have been better if she had the Solar Domain. The best way to bond with most Domain creatures was to raise them from birth. For some creatures though, there was an additional option to increase the likelihood of imprinting on the creature.

  Research conducted in Magnon showed that holding an egg in one’s aetherspace for the incubation period made that creature positively disposed to the incubator. Raising the creature from there almost always resulted in a loyal pet. For birds anyways. Doing so with a reptile or amphibian was much more hit or miss.

  On the morning of the second day of her break, she stretched near the forest's edge, a short distance away from the wall.

  The Domain had done its work. She was stronger, faster, mentally sharper, and generally better in nearly every way. This was the peak of the mundane. She would not see such a jump again from manifesting another Domain. To be enhanced in a meaningful way again, she would have to integrate Domains. Ideally, she’d be integrating Sea soon.

  Harper set off into the forest. The surrounding area should be fairly clear, but she didn’t let down her guard. Her plan was to stalk through the forest, using knowledge from the courier lessons to avoid the greatest dangers. She kept a large portion of her attention on the ground, finding more tracks the further in she walked.

  She wasn’t too worried about getting lost. She had a compass as part of her courier kit, and her education had covered navigation thoroughly. She noted down landmarks and kept track of the nearest one. If she got really turned around, she would check her compass to ensure her internal directions were correct and walk north until she hit a road. Finding her way back should be easy enough from there.

  She wasn’t even too concerned about running into a creature too powerful for her to handle. She had done her research; there was no aether nexus in the immediate vicinity. It would be highly unusual for something dangerous to roam this area without ample warning signs.

  Harper was more worried about being ambushed herself. There were creatures that specialized in blending in. It was entirely possible she wouldn’t be able to see such a creature until she was right on top of them.

  The amateur hunter continued her wanderings, eventually hearing some rustling in nearby bushes. She slipped off her hunting bow, having borrowed it from her landlords. She wasn’t foolish enough to use her flintlock or rapier. The first would be loud and a waste of musket balls. The latter, she was pretty sure she'd be unable to chase down most creatures, enhanced or not.

  She was too loud. A squirrel jumped out of the bush and scurried away. Not something she would have wanted to bag anyways. Huh, I don’t know how to skin an animal. It was a realization that should have been obvious. She had even brought along game bags. It didn’t even occur to her that she would need to prepare the carcass.

  Going back then seemed ridiculous. I’ll just carry back whatever I catch. I’m sure that’s got its own issues, but it will be fine. Lamenting her lack of foresight, she carried on. She proceeded to scare away almost every creature she spotted. The squirrels heard her and took off; she took a shot at a fox, and missed, and the only animal she didn’t alert, she slowly backed away from once seeing.

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  It was a brown bear. She didn’t think it was a Domain creature; it wasn’t large enough. Regardless, she wasn’t confident in killing it even using her gun and she would have no way to carry it back.

  It was late afternoon before she decided to end her hunt. It was more obvious than ever that she didn’t know what she was doing, courier training or not. Harper needed someone to teach her to hunt. If she couldn’t even hunt mundane creatures, how was she supposed to bag a Domain creature?

  She made her way back, taking a direct path and moving quickly. She wanted to get back well before it got dark. Several hours later, Harper spotted one of the landmarks she had noted earlier. It was a high point in the area, with a mound of rocks atop it. She elected to climb it, wanting to get a view of the city walls and make for a more direct course.

  It wasn’t too difficult a climb, and worth the effort. She could make out the outline of the city in the distance. She wasn’t sure she would have been capable of seeing it before her Domain. Her sight wasn’t enhanced a significant amount, but any bit helped.

  She slid down the rocks, glad she had elected to wear her trousers and tunic, rather than one of her dresses. They were practical enough and likely would have fared just fine, but she’d hate to damage them. I wonder how expensive a set of leather armo-

  Suddenly, as she was jogging between two trees away from the cleft of rocks, she was jerked to a stop. She felt some sort of sticky residue holding onto her front. She felt a chill. That’s when her eyes picked out the web.

  It was nearly invisible, even right in front of her. Perhaps if she wasn’t distracted and was treading carefully... too late for regrets now. She had to get out of here. Harper struggled wildly, trying to pull herself out of the web. Think, think, think. My Sword! Of course. She pulled her hand down, against the webs. Her fingers latched onto the handle, and she gripped with all she had.

  She wrenched the sword out of its sheath, halfway anyways. She used the exposed part of the blade to slice any webs she could reach with it, eventually freeing her hand. Click, click, click. Harper did her best to ignore the sound of the approaching monster. She frantically hacked at the web holding her other limbs, ignoring the strings attached to her sword.

  Just before she managed to free herself, she felt something clamp down on her right thigh. Screaming, she jumped backwards in pain-induced strength, freeing herself completely. She barely stopped her leg from buckling and turned to face her attacker. A large brown spider, with long spindly legs, a mottled brown pattern, and its abdomen reaching to her hip, charged at her.

  She swung her sword wildly, trying to keep it back. The noble glanced around in near panic, fighting to keep level-headed. She was conscious of the danger of other webs waiting to trap her. If she ran into another one, she wouldn’t live to learn from her mistakes.

  The spider held back, wary of the rapier. Harper took the opportunity to take a swing between two nearby trees, coming away with more webs. She quickly returned to fending off the spider, cutting off its jump. She made her way around various traps, alternating between checking for more webs and keeping the spider at bay.

  After a minute of not finding another web, she breathed out in relief. She wasn't safe yet, but her opponent no longer had the home field advantage. It knew it too. It took one last risky attempt to attack her, ignoring her swing. Harper jumped to the side as it rushed her, slicing into its front right leg.

  The spider screeched in pain, reorienting on Harper, only to find her gone. She was sprinting away as fast as she could. She glanced back to see the spider retreating to the cleft. Most likely to a small cave or crevice that it called home. She continued running at near full speed for several minutes.

  Eventually, she slowed down, coming to a stop after glancing around warily. The young woman leaned against a tree, breathing heavily. After she ascertained she was safe, at least for the moment, she looked down at her torn trousers. She unbelted them, pulling them down to inspect her thigh.

  Other than some bruising, the flesh was unharmed. Two thin bone-grey chitin plates adorned the front and back. Both were cracked, but they would repair themselves in time. They were an inheritance from her great grandfather, on her father’s side. She had three similar sets. One on her other thigh, and two more on her forearms.

  That she was mixed-blood was no secret to anyone who saw her. Her platinum hair was enough to announce that. Unlike her brother though, or perhaps inversely, it was not immediately obvious that she had tetran heritage. Just like it wasn’t obvious that her brother had ranva heritage. His bronze-like hair was close enough to human strawberry blonde that no one would know by looking at him.

  Sometimes, she disliked the chitin plates. They weren’t heavy, not really, but they still slowed her down just a bit. She also disliked how off they looked on her, like a knight missing only their breastplate and greaves, the missing pieces making the knight look silly. Her nanny, Vidura, had told her it was all in her head. She still would have preferred that she either had a more complete set, like her father and brother, or none at all.

  Today though, they had quite possibly saved her life. Without them, it was entirely conceivable that her leg would be so damaged that she couldn’t walk or run. It was even possible that she would have lost the leg entirely, though she doubted it. That’s not even mentioning that they may have saved her from the bite injecting poison into her bloodstream.

  She was lucky. Very lucky. Harper suddenly felt furious. Not at the spider, a creature would act according to its nature. She would have no qualms about trapping and killing it after all. Instead, she was furious at herself.

  This entire trip was incredibly foolish. Thinking she could stroll right into the forest and kill a creature. If it was that easy, everyone would do it. People wouldn’t be saving up their hard-earned coin to buy them if there was a better option.

  Not to mention how entirely inadequate her preparations were. She didn’t know all the dangers of this area. She didn’t know how to track down prey. She didn’t know what she would do with anything she actually managed to slay.

  The fight itself was a mess. She had nearly completely forgotten her years of training, swinging around her sword like a club. Harper should have been dancing around the spider, taking openings to strike devastating hits. She had done none of that. Instead fighting like a madwoman.

  As the adrenaline wore off and pain set into her bruised leg, Harper limped the rest of the way back, stewing all the while. Though she remained vigilant, doing her best to ensure she wouldn’t walk into another trap. Hours later, as the sun began to set, she had arrived back in Mentril.