The trip back, and the following workdays proceeded in an unremarkable fashion. Soon enough, Frostday had arrived. Harper got up even earlier than usual and prepared for the day. She borrowed the hunting bow again, deciding to bring back some small game as thanks, if they caught any, that was.

  She had seriously considered telling Laytia who she would be with today, as an extra measure of security, but ultimately elected not to. She wasn’t sure that the woman could be discreet enough, or that she wouldn’t try to talk her out of it.

  Her hallmate was busy with her own new employment. She had secured an apprenticeship as an aethertanner, a specialization of aethertreating. It, like all aethercraft, was a demanding discipline. She spent more time working than Harper, having only a single day off a month. Due to her age, she wouldn’t have been taken on as an apprentice at all if she didn’t already have the Nature Domain and have experience working as a mundane tanner.

  Harper was happy for her. If she learned the trade well, she was looking at a very lucrative career. More than good enough to support her family when the rest made the move to Vanax. Harper could use her own leather armor. Maybe she’d purchase some from her one day, once she was making enough money to justify it.

  The young woman walked out the southern gate, making a beeline west. She moved her eyes across the forest, trying to spot Vayuhn. If he was somewhere in sight, he was well concealed. Maybe watching from a tree?

  She walked a short distance into the forest and leaned against a nearby tree, waiting. A couple minutes later, she heard a rustle of leaves, and a figure blurred towards her from above. Harper reacted instinctually, jumping back and sliding out her sword, pointing it at the grinning labuntan.

  “You seem to already have a good grasp of being on guard in the wild. Your courier training? That will make this easier.”

  Harper huffed and sheathed her rapier. “I hope you have more in mind than trying to sneak up on me today. Do you have a training regimen prepared? For your education, I’ve compiled-”

  He interrupted her. “We’ll get to all that good stuff later. For now, I want to see what you can already do. There was a herd of deer a few hours from here. One of them will have a core. Let’s go.”

  With that he set off into the forest. Harper stared after him for a moment, before sighing and following. They hadn’t even worked out the details of their deal yet, but if he wanted to start teaching her immediately, she wouldn’t stop him.

  As they walked, he pointed out tracks, droppings, and other signs of various animals, both of the mundane and the Domains. He showed her how to walk in the way that was the most efficient and quiet. Occasionally, he would stop and have her listen to a certain sound in the background, and explained what that sound meant.

  It had some overlap with her courier training, but it was more focused towards locating threats rather than avoiding them entirely. They didn’t bother with smaller game, wanting not to have to carry too much if they managed to get a deer. During this time, they hammered out the distribution of their hunts.

  “Sorry, can’t budge on this. If we get a core, and I haven't gotten one already, I’ll need it; this is very important.”

  “You already have plenty of equipment and an integrated core. If you take the core and we only get one a week, I’ll end up with nothing.” She argued back.

  “It takes me a lot of time and effort to find a suitable Domain creature to hunt. I’ll be spending a large amount of time prowling the forest while you're off delivering letters.” She was going to retort that her employment consisted of more than ‘delivering letters’ before he continued in a grim tone.” Besides, if I don’t get a core, chances are I won’t be able to meet up with you the next time.”

  Harper paused at that. Vayuhn continued talking. “It’s part of the price I pay for being as independent as I am. I have a quota of one core a week. If I don’t fill it, my master deems missing a month... or two of cores a worthy price to punish me for failing.”

  Harper glanced over at him. “He just doesn’t let you hunt for a month? What kind of punishment is that?

  The young man shook his head. “No, it takes me at least a month to heal enough to hunt again.”

  She fell silent at that.

  After a while, Harper spoke again. “Why don’t you run away? You have the means.” She gestured at the forest around them.

  Vayuhn stopped walking and leaned against a tree. “I’ve got things that keep me here and... compliant.” He turned around and pulled his cloak away, showing a device on his lower neck, right above his elytra. It was a metallic implant, inset with an electric blue core. The Domain of Lightning.

  “This is one of those things. It’s enchanted to electrocute me if any of a few things happen. The first is if I try to forcibly remove it or it’s severely damaged in some way. The second is if I try to shift into my Alius. The last, it has a sort of timer on it. If two days pass without my master resetting the timer with a linked device, it electrocutes me.”

  There were a number of things that stood out in that explanation. First, that he had an Alius. It wasn’t unheard of to give a slave one if it was believed the investment was worth it. She had heard about labuntans having Aliuses of beasts of burden. They could serve as a substitute for trained Domain animals; they were of similar price anyways. He clearly wasn’t tilling fields though.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  The second was how fiendishly complex of an enchantment that was for a single Domain artifact. She had heard about slave control devices of course, but rarely of this complexity. It would take a master aethersmith to make such a thing. The capability of the timer especially. It made her wonder if that was somehow done with the support of more mundane means.

  The last question it raised, or rather, the existing question that was elevated, was why this slave warranted such investment and privileges. By her count, he had four, maybe five cores attributed to him. The core he integrated, the enchantments for the two control devices, and the cores needed to power those devices, unless the one his master held was powered manually with his own Domain.

  That wasn’t even considering his equipment, which looked to be of decent quality. She supposed that not all of it was purely invested in him. The control devices were reusable, and the timer resetting device could be used for multiple slaves if there were more shock implants.

  He claimed that he needed a core a week, so every ten days. If he succeeded and brought a core to his master even half the time, that investment would be paid off relatively quickly. But he would have needed training and equipment in the first place. Did his master provide that?

  The young man didn’t seem to be interested in answering further question. “C’mon, let’s get going. That herd shouldn’t be too far off now. Just be quiet once I signal you.”

  Twenty minutes later, they reached a clearing. Vayuhn walked around it, inspecting tracks. Harper realized that the small field was littered with deer tracks and droppings. One of their frequent grazing areas then. She decided it was better to be safe than sorry and loaded her flintlock, remembering the spider incident. She’d discharge it after the hunt if necessary. Shortly after, he seemed to find the tracks that he wanted and waved her after him.

  They prowled through the trees for a while, following the newest tracks. Eventually, they heard some rustling up ahead. Vayuhn crept back towards her, whispering instructions. “Get your bow ready. Our mark is an unusually large doe with a green tail. Shoot center mass, slightly closer to the front is best. Watch where you put your feet.”

  She nodded, and they snuck forward. Soon, the herd came into sight. Sure enough, one of them was larger than the others. She watched for a bit, and it shifted, flashing a hint of green. They got within an almost comfortable shooting range without alerting them. Once he pulled out an arrow, Harper followed Vayuhn’s example and pulled back, waiting to take the shot.

  She released it as soon as she heard his launch. Her arrow struck the animal in the chest, his in the joint between the front leg and torso. One to weaken, one to slow. The deer yelled out in pain and surprise. They immediately let loose another volley. Harper missed, Vayuhn landed another shot in the torso. The doe ran.

  It followed the rest of the herd, lagging behind a little, but not nearly as much as it would have if it didn’t benefit from a core. They gave chase, launching arrows as much as they could. If they didn’t have a Domain, they would have long fallen behind the herd.

  Finally, something gave. The doe staggered, another arrow landing in a back leg. Vayuhn again. She had only landed one more arrow after the first. Harper slid out her rapier and rushed forward. This creature would fight. Domain creatures usually did, even if their species acted differently. A mundane doe would retreat until its last breath, unless every opening was closed off, or they had a fawn to protect. This was not the case for a Domain deer.

  Sure enough, it turned, rearing aggressively. Domain creatures were more confrontational by nature. When running didn’t work, it came down to combat.

  Harper prepared to fight it in a melee. She would slice its legs open, slowing the animal down and letting her bleed out. She would jump out of the way at need, both to dodge attacks, and to let Vayuhn get shots in. This was the tactic they had devised.

  It’s even faster than I thought it would be. I’ll have to play this very safe. Then she heard Vayuhn yell. “Harper! Get out of there! It has-” Harper didn’t get to hear the rest of what he was going to say. She had a pretty good guess when a vine wrapped around her leg and tripped her though. The doe had an Apex Domain of Nature. Shattered Moon, she swore blithely, as she fell to the ground.

  She hacked at the vines with her sword, trying to drag herself away. Vayuhn launched arrow after arrow at the doe, trying to distract it. It wasn’t working; the deer had an iron grip on her, or viny grip anyways.

  Harper scrambled for her flintlock, managing to grip the handle and tug it out of its holster. A vine crawled over that arm, hugging it towards her body. She managed to jerk the other hand out of the way, keeping it free. The once again partially bound young woman grabbed the handle with her off-hand and aimed it at the deer. She pulled the trigger and fired, only a short distance away.

  She was a much better shot with firearms than bows and crossbows, the panicked raccoon shot notwithstanding. But for this shot, the animal was so close enough that it almost didn’t matter.

  The ball hit the doe right in the head, injuring and stunning it. Right before, Harper got a glance at what Vayuhn had missed. If he had seen it, he would never have risked this hunt. Instead of the normal black orbs, emerald pools stared back at her. A certain sign of the Apex Biotic Domain. Markers for Apex Domains could be subtle, though they usually weren’t. The eyes though, the eyes were always changed.

  The vines loosened; their controller stunned. The bullet hadn’t penetrated very far in, but the wound still bled furiously. Harper scrambled to her feet and dashed away, Vayuhn running after her once she passed. They looked back shortly after, seeing vines reaching after them. They were safely out of the doe’s range though. There was little chance of the deer catching up to them if it gave chase, it was too wounded and disoriented.

  Perhaps they could have stayed and slain the Apex beast, but it was too risky. Apex Domains not only gave an advantage in raw body enhancement, it provided the person or creature with manipulation abilities pertaining to that Domain. Control of plant matter was rudimentary, but still very dangerous to the two of them.

  They ran past the clearing and continued running for a while. Neither thought they were being chased, but better safe than sorry. Once they came to a stop for a break, Vayuhn walked a short distance away, still breathing heavily. “Domains!” He cursed, kicking a tree. It produced a cracking sound.

  A couple minutes later, he composed himself and walked back over. He bowed his head to her. “My deepest apologies. I rarely run into Apex creatures and I’m usually pretty good about noticing things like that. I’d understand if you’d want to break our deal. I was too complacent”

  Harper thought it over for a moment. “No, that’s a mistake almost anyone could have made. That was very subtle for an Apex Domain. You were otherwise very competent.”

  He sighed in relief. “Thank you. Though I’m afraid I can’t accept any teaching you would give this week, or spend much time teaching you. I need to find a core. I have an emergency extra for situations like this, but I hate being without one. Also, it can go poorly if I give my master one without a carcass to go along with it.”

  The young woman was sick of running. Harper looked at him. “How do you feel about spiders?”