To her great disappointment, Harper was unable to fit the entire snake corpse into her aetherspace. She only managed to fit in three quarters of it, and that was only due to rigorous training on her part and the lack of the egg. There was a solution though.

  Harper concentrated on the core within. A blueprint of sorts was imprinted inside it. She willed her aetherspace to begin copying it using the available materials. She felt a spark of life ignite in her aetherspace. It was little more than a handful of cells. A small embryo. She couldn’t transform into it until it was at least mature enough to survive outside the space, not that she would do so anyways.

  It would need time to grow, and materials to fuel its growth. The snake’s body was a good start, but not enough to grow her Alius in its entirety.

  She would have to ask Vayuhn to keep an eye out for reptiles in particular. Other snakes would be the best option, but scaled creatures in general should do. Thinking about the labuntan, she looked up. He was keeping an eye on the surroundings. Normally, he would start skinning the creature, but there was no need for that today.

  The ringing had finally stopped enough that she could talk to him without him having to yell. “Nothing is intruding?” Cores without a vessel were much ‘louder’ than cores without. Domain creatures could sense one from quite far away. The time between the snake’s death and her absorption of its core was brief, but one could never know what it could attract.

  “No, you got all you could? Do you want me to pick up everything else so that we can get out of here?” He walked towards the carcass.

  “Yes, let’s head to our usual spot. Hopefully it doesn’t take too long to use up most of the material I’ve got. I’ve got someone that I can ask to hold the rest until I can take the rest.” Most of the body was perishable, and so needed to be held in his aetherspace to keep it in the best condition. She’d ask Laytia.

  Unfortunately, Vayuhn couldn’t hold onto it. His master checked his aetherspace at least once a week, sometimes more. This was for two reasons; the first being any resources he managed to get his hands on. He expected not only the cores, but the funds gotten from selling the materials.

  The second was to make sure he didn’t manifest any Domains. There were devices designed to test for a specific Domain, it was how they made sure that slaves weren’t secretly accumulating them.

  Apparently, their splitting of profits could only continue for so long. That was unless they stepped up how much they managed to hunt in a week. Vayuhn had enough coin to pay her for her half of the carcass, but it was running low quickly.

  Vayuhn had to sell the body to a specific merchant every week. If the labuntan gave his master his weekly quota of one core, but sold no carcass to the trader, then he would face punishment. The merchant would take all the money the creature was worth and give it directly to his master. His master had allowed Vayuhn to buy his equipment, but every earning after had gone to him.

  Vayuhn had other sources of funds. He claimed that when he was fortunate enough to fell two creatures in a week, a very rare occurrence, he sold the body of one to a discreet merchant for a fraction of the price, but Harper guessed he got more from elsewhere. She didn’t push him on it though.

  In any case, he had been doing this for years and had a system in place to both satisfy his master and earn some more independently. He just had to store all the stuff he wasn’t supposed to have in a secret place.

  Fortunately, this week he had already gotten his quota. A single Domain bird that he shot out of the sky. Harper didn’t know if she could have given up the core and corpse of the snake if he didn’t manage to find other prey. She was glad it didn’t come to that.

  Harper tested her limits on the way to the bone idol. She jumped in the air, finding that she could go moderately higher. She sprinted in bursts, trying to compare her speed before and after the integration. Unlike when first gaining a Domain, the body had no need to grow and acclimate.

  Integrating Domains didn’t change the body itself in any substantial way. Instead, they infused the body within Domains, bringing out the inherent potential in aethereal materials, which her body was now made up of. Her muscles were no denser and her blood no more efficient. The power of the Sea Domain running through her is what did all the work.

  Seeing a small puddle nearby, she was reminded of something else. “Hold on a moment.” she said to Vayuhn, walking to the small body of water. She tugged off her courier bag. It currently had only some food and small change in it. Harper infused it with the Aquatic Domain, achieving two things.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  The first, and something she’d been doing on a smaller scale already was strengthening it. Like she herself was now, the bag was made of aether imbued materials, allowing it to be infused. When not infused, the bag was no different than any other. While infused, she could expect it to be somewhat stronger.

  The second, and currently more important, was activating its enchantment. Any person with a Domain could infuse an item, only the strength of infusion was variable. If an item had an enchantment though, someone could activate it by infusing the correct integrated Domain.

  The infusion in place, Harper put the bag into the puddle, letting it sit for several seconds before lifting it out, none clinging to the surface. The water slid right off. Checking its contents, they were perfectly dry. Harper grinned. She could finally use enchantments, so long as they were of the Aquatic Domain.

  Happily, Harper stood back up, surprised how giddy she was. She looked at Vayuhn, expecting to feel some embarrassment at his amused look, but no such feeling appeared. She was too happy; she matched his grin.

  The difference before and after gaining her first Domain was gradual enough that it didn’t register to her as much as the current advancement did. Her spirits were higher than they’d been in months.

  Not since I left. At that she did lower a little, but just a little. She continued testing her new limits as they made the trip. The ringing in her ears had stopped completely, and the bruises she had accumulated during the fight were already darkening. A sure sign that the specialty effect of the Aquatic Domain, superior natural healing, was already taking effect.

  They arrived at the peryton statue, sitting on the more comfortably shaped rocks. It was time to continue their lessons.

  “Today, I’ll be talking more about the connection between Sky and Sun.” She began. It was a subject she was very academically well-versed in. “Do you think you have a pretty good grasp of the scientific side of it?”

  He nodded. “I feel like I really understand the relationship between fire and air. It all makes sense and lines up with my experiences. Other things are harder. I’m still wrapping my head around the idea of the atmosphere. How can there be an invisible and transparent shield over the entire planet that traps heat and air in? Some of the theories you told me make sense, I guess. It will just take me a while to acclimate. I think I’m ready to move onto the conceptual insights now.”

  “Very well. Stop me if you have any questions.” She paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts. “Sun and Sky are both known for their ephemeral and intangible nature. A gust of wind and burst of fire will behave very similarly. The difference being the former brings force and the latter heat, though both can borrow the other to a degree. Wind can be warm, and fire can push, if it’s powerful enough.”

  She sat up, gesturing upwards. “The relationship between the sun and the sky can also factor in. Sky is known for its versatility with other Domains. With Sea, for example, you can think of rainclouds. With Aurora, you can think of blizzards and hail. Sun doesn’t have a natural weather phenomenon that it can be associated with, but it represents the celestial body that is its namesake, the sun is literally in the sky.”

  “Turning to the more conceptual side of this example, the sky and sun together evokes daytime. Everything is bright and clear during the day. You can combine Sky’s concept of openness with Sun’s concept of visibility to understand the related concept of transparency. Note how this is in direct contrast of something like Sky and Dark’s related concept of opaqueness. Connections like that are important for further Domain understanding.”

  She continued in a similar manner for a while; sometimes she let him come to his own conclusions instead of leading him to a specific answer. The goal was not to name out all associating concepts that she could think of. No, that would be inefficient and a poor strategy in the long term. The goal was to get someone to think about concepts associated with the Domains and how they related to other concepts for themselves.

  A couple hours later, they were both sitting, meditating on their respective pursuits. Harper now had three choices when it came to her progression. The first, pondering the Domains, she had been doing for years. The second, enlarging her aetherspace, she’d been doing for weeks now.

  The last was a new option for her though. Now that she had an integrated Domain, she could begin saturating her body with Sea, eventually bonding with it on a deeper level than even an integrated Domain. She could have an Apex Domain.

  It would be a monumental time investment. Reaching critical mass in Domain saturation was very difficult. Most practitioners who managed it did so through saturating their body for hours daily. They had to do this for years.

  It was a process that constantly reverted itself. If someone slacked on their daily Domain saturation, days or even months of progress would be lost. For those who lacked sufficient talent and understanding, it was impossible. They would be unable to make enough progress to get ahead of the regression rate.

  Harper was not ready to begin working towards the Aquatic Apex Domain. Not only did she doubt her understanding was at an adequate level, she wasn’t ready to give up hope that she could get another. She had always imagined herself with a Solar or Aerial Apex Domain. She had accepted at this point that getting an Apex Domain of Sun was impossible; she had too little talent. But she still had hope for one of Sky.

  So, she continued as she had been. Her aetherspace’s volume continued growing at a steady if slow rate and her understanding of how Sky and Sea related moved forward. Her understanding of Sea in particular advanced faster, one of the benefits of absorbing a core of the same Domain. Meanwhile, the artificial body within her aetherspace grew.