Sword and Snow

My eyes snapped open as I came to with a sudden jerk. My first reaction was to grab for my left arm, which was thankfully in place. With a sigh of relief, I took in my new surroundings.

It looked like I was in some kind of craftsman village. I was absolutely surrounded on all sides by buildings and tents, each one housing some kind of artisan workspace. The most common was by far traditional blacksmithing tools, but there were a few scattered jewelry smiths and even leatherworking. There weren’t any people, but plenty of stations looked as though they were recently used, or perhaps even vacated in the middle of work.

As I looked around and got my bearings, I began to feel my way around the space. I had never been in one, but I knew this was my Domain. Which meant that the fight for my life I had just been in wasn’t that at all, but rather part of my breakthrough.

While it wasn’t something that happened at every level, or even to everyone, such visceral visions did occur on occasion when someone tried to break through. The exact mechanic behind it wasn’t understood well, and it couldn’t really even be observed. Some people believed it was your own soul testing you before allowing you to continue on your Cultivation path. Others believed it was the world itself testing you to deem you worthy of the next level of power.

Whatever the case was, it didn’t matter much to me. I had apparently proven myself capable enough to be here, and that was enough for me.

I slowly maneuvered my way around the buildings and tents. They seemed to be arrayed in a very rough circular pattern, so I made my way toward the center. It seemed like a reasonable thing to do.

I was surprised to find that the center wasn’t all that different. There was a single, slightly larger than average blacksmith workshop in the center of everything. There were blades of every conceivable shape scattered about. Mostly on the floor, but some were stuck into the wood of the walls, or even stuck into tables and workbenches. It was an absolute mess.

But it felt oddly like home.

Toward the middle of the workshop, there was a cleared space, denoted by six swords sticking out of the ground. They were equidistant from each other, forming a clean hexagon, within which sat a beat up, ragged looking cushion.

The cushion, despite looking incredibly un-welcoming, seemed to have an innate pull on me. I slowly made my way over to it and sat down on it in a meditation position.

When I took in my first deep breath to begin to cycle my Qi, the whole space around me seemed to suddenly quiver. The air felt clearer somehow, as if a clean, pleasant breeze had just blown through.

I could feel the whole Domain react to the movement of my Qi through my meridians. To what end, I couldn’t tell, but the whole place seemed to react to each and every minor adjustment I made.

Shortly after I started cycling, I stopped. I didn’t want to get too deep into meditation here without knowing what I was getting into. Instead, I calmed my breathing once more and focused on pulling my consciousness out of my Core.

The next breath was almost like coming up out of water for air. I took in a deep breath as I came back to my physical body in full. I noticed immediately that my entire left arm was numb and somewhat difficult to move. And while that prompted a moment of sheer panic, the limb quickly came back to life with a surge of pins and needles.

I went deathly still, trying not to jostle the limb as feeling in it returned. I tried to steady my breathing and keep my thoughts away from the tingling limb.

That led me to notice just how frigid the air was in the cave now. The temperature had dropped significantly since I had first begun to meditate, and I could even see my breath now.

And the smell. My sweat, as usual with breakthroughs, ran thick with a rank slimy substance - the impurities that my body had purged while adapting to its newfound level of strength.

From the first steps of Cultivation up through the Earth Realm, Qi in the body is relegated to flow only through the body’s meridians. However, upon reaching the Sky Realm, Qi suffuses the rest of the body as well, strengthening it greatly. It’s one of the two major reasons why the gap between the Earth and Sky Realms is so massive, relatively speaking.

The process had pushed out all kinds of impurities with my sweat, leaving me damp, smelly, and altogether feeling rather gross. I made up my mind that as soon as my left arm was functional, I would go bathe. Then I heard footsteps approaching from my left.

Evidently, the change in my breathing when I had come to had tipped off Vale that I was awake. He had quietly made his way over and stood next to me.

“Well done, Em.” He said, his voice full of fatherly pride. He didn’t have the tone very often, and I was happy to hear it and smiled. “You seem to have everything well in hand for now. I saw you unleash your Domain earlier, so you can rest easy knowing that you have indeed broken through.”

“I don’t think Avuri is far behind you. Her Domain activated a few minutes ago, but she hasn’t gotten it entirely under control yet.” That explained the cold. “For now, get up and go clean yourself off. You stink, girl.” He said, and nudged me with his foot.

The instant his foot made contact with my arm, my eyes flew open as the feeling of pins and needles tracked violently up my arm. I yelped like a kicked dog, and fell over, trying in vain to quickly recover feeling in the limb.

Vale was stunned for a moment before he broke out in laughter, watching me clutch at my arm. He fought to control himself long enough to ask, “Minor spiritual injury?”

“Think so.” I mumbled, trying to get my arm steady again. “I’d swear that my arm is actually full of acupuncture needles.”

Vale nodded. “It’ll fade. Might take a little while though, sometimes they can last a few hours.”

I could feel the blood drain from my face as I looked up at him in horror. “Tell me you’re lying.”

“Nope. One time I had an injury like that to one of my legs. It spent two hours twitching on its own, then when the pins and needles started, if I so much as bumped into something I was on the ground in agony. And that lasted for two days.”

I shook my head in horror. “Not happening.”

“You should be fine in a couple hours, I think.” Vale said as he looked me over. “The injury I had was the result of an actual fight and technique used on me. You shouldn’t have anything nearly that dangerous.”

I let out a relieved sigh. “Thank fuck.”

Vale laughed again, then stopped suddenly and turned toward Avuri’s room. Before I could even ask a question, I felt the change in temperature as the cold subsided somewhat.

“She’s retracting her Domain. Seems like you both made it through alright.” He said with a grin.

I cradled my left arm to my chest as I stood and ambled my way over to Avuri, who was just beginning to open her eyes. As I got within a few feet, she blinked up at me. Apparently, she had made it through the whole ordeal unscathed as she immediately made a face and pinched her nose.

“Emery, you stink! Back up, back up!” She said, waving furiously at me. “Ugh.”

I laughed and stepped back. “Me backing up isn’t gonna solve your problems, Avuri.” I said, and pointed at her own completely soiled clothing.

She made another face as she looked down at herself, less disgusted and more generally upset. “These were such nice clothes, too. I can’t believe I forgot about the whole rank gunk thing.”

“You know,” I said, holding back my laughter, “I was going to ask why you were wearing decent clothes today but never got a chance. I guess I should’ve made sure to point it out.”

“That would’ve been nice of you, yeah. Jerk.” Avuri returned with a small smile.

Vale approached us then, clapping to get our attention. “Right then, ladies. Go get yourselves cleaned up. As Avuri so generously pointed out, the two of you absolutely reek.” With his piece said, Vale turned to leave. “And remember, Domain training begins tomorrow. We’ll get the two of you into fighting shape as fast as we can so you can work on the whole Dying Lands issue.”

“Yes, sir!” I shouted, a little over enthusiastically. Vale gave me an eye roll and walked away.

“So? What was yours like?” Avuri asked, excited, as she worked to her feet.

“A craftsman village.” I said, turning toward the exit. “Lots of blacksmithing tools and workshops, along with a few assorted other crafting workshops. You?”

Avuri looked a little disappointed. “A snowy mountaintop in a blizzard. It was basically empty except for a small lean-to for some cover from the elements, which was kinda disappointing.”

“Maybe it’ll change over time?” I said, thinking about it. “Maybe if you can stop the blizzard you’d get a lovely view of the night sky or something?”

Avuri shrugged. “Maybe.” She said, then eyed my arm which was still held tightly to my chest. “And what happened here, exactly?” She asked, and reached out to poke it.

I jumped several feet away, which seemed to startle Avuri. She looked concerned.

“Minor spiritual injury during my breakthrough. My arm was basically numb when I came to, and now it’s a mess of pins and needles.” I said, trying to settle her worries.

And I did! Except then her face took on a slightly scary, menacing grin. “I see.” She said mildly.

I slowly moved back toward Avuri to fall in step beside her as we walked out of the basement and toward the bathhouse. I kept just a little bit of distance between us in case she decided to attack me suddenly, which I was almost positive she would do.

The chat turned into inane small talk for the duration of our walk and while we were changing. Avuri led the conversation purposefully, seemingly trying to get me to drop my guard. I was cautious the whole way into the bath, and through my washing and rinsing off.

By the time we were both clean again, it had been a while but my arm was still tingling rather painfully. Thankfully, I had managed to clean myself off and together we had cleaned the bath of all the smelly gunk that we left behind. Then we slipped into the warm bath water to soak for a bit.

And that was my mistake.

Without warning, I felt Avuri pull up her Qi. Before I could tell what she was trying to do, the water around my feet had solidified into ice, trapping me in the water. Avuri stood and waded in the waist deep water to stand before me with a wicked grin on her face.

“You know,” She said, as she twirled her fingers around in the air threateningly, “I never got you back for dunking me the other day.”

Her smile turned feral as she manipulated the water with her Qi, producing several floating globes of water behind her.

“You wouldn’t.” I said meekly, trying to cover my still vulnerable arm.

“Oh, I would.” She said with a laugh, then flicked her finger forward. The globes of water all careened toward me at different angles. Several had been aimed at my face, and splattered over my eyes, nose, and mouth, leaving me sputtering and unable to see clearly.

Then I felt several splash against my arm, which sent vicious torrents of tingles shooting up the appendage. I yowled as Avuri laughed at me.

By the time she had had her fun, I was gasping for air and trying to stop my arm from spasming out of my control. And silently, I vowed revenge.