Sword and Snow

Emery and Avuri stood before basically their entire family. All twenty seven kids were sitting on the first floor of their spacious home, mostly well behaved and ready to listen. A few of the youngest sat in elder siblings’ laps and were acting as you’d expect of small children, but that was fine.

The large open space of the first floor that often doubled as a meeting space for days like this still had plenty of space remaining if they ever needed it. But as Emery looked out over their relatively massive family, she smiled.

Avuri pulled up two wooden chairs to the front so they could each sit and relax when they weren’t talking, and sat in one herself while Emery began to address the room. A quick flex of Qi quieted the older children, as she gathered a large ball of metal Qi in the air behind her. And the older kids quieting down slowly hushed the younger ones, as attention in the room turned to Emery.

Avuri hid a smile as Emery’s teacher persona seemed to settle over her wife. She stood straighter, at attention, and gave off a commanding presence that she usually lacked outside of combat. Avuri knew it was all bluster here, though - Emery just enjoyed being looked up to like this, and putting on airs made the kids more attentive.

“Okay, everybody.” Emery said, taking control. She motioned to Cierra and Stena, who were sitting off to one side and just as clueless as everyone else why they were all there. “Cierra and Stena are beginning to get close to the peak of the Earth Realm. And Cierra in particular mentioned Domains recently, and Avuri and I realized how little you all know about them.” Emery glanced at Avuri, who nodded happily.

“We were going to go over Domains and how they work with the two of them, but realized we may as well talk to you all at once. I realize not all of you, especially the little ones, will remember everything we go over today, and that’s fine. But even a baseline working knowledge will be a good place to start when you get closer to the Sky Realm yourselves.”

Mutters and quiet conversation passed around the room. Shara, a cute little eight year old girl, raised her hand. Emery smiled as her eyes met the girl’s; as usual, she was sat in the middle of her five adopted older brothers. They all treated her like a princess, and it was adorable.

“Yes, Shara?”

“What’s a Domain?” She asked sweetly. Quinn and Marche, two of her brothers, ruffled her hair playfully.

“She’s gonna tell us, silly. Just wait.” Marche said warmly.

Emery nodded. “Well, given the question, let’s start as simply as possible.” She began to twist and alter the sphere of mercurial metal behind her into shapes and diagrams to help explain her points as she went on.

“You all are at least vaguely familiar with the Cultivation process you go through as a child. You gather Qi, condense it into a shell to form a Core, then build upon that Core as much as you can.”

A number of the kids nodded. Even the little ones who weren’t truly Cultivating yet.

“That’s really only how it functions until you reach the peak of the Earth Realm. By that point, assuming you’ve done every other step correctly, your Core should quite literally be full to the point of bursting. So much so that you can’t really fit any more Qi inside it.”

Some of the kids looked a little worried at that idea, but Emery continued on. “The breakthrough into the Sky Realm is, functionally, the process of you destroying the shell that you formed for your core back before you Awakened.”

“By the time you reach the peak of the Earth Realm, the Qi in your core should be so dense that it is self perpetuating. Er,” Emery paused, seeing a fair number of confused faces. “Basically, at that point, there’s so much Qi together that it doesn’t need the shell to stay together.”

“Think of it like water and ice.” Avuri chimed in. “Once you have enough Qi in your core, it solidifies, the way water in a cup can freeze in the shape of the cup. So, even if you remove the cup, the water stays together.”

An ‘Oooh’ reverberated through the crowd. Emery gave Avuri a smile and a nod of approval. “Just like that. But when you hit the peak of the Earth Realm, you’ve basically put so much water in your cup that you would need to remove the cup so you can keep adding water.” She glanced back at Avuri. “Did that make sense?”

Avuri laughed. “It did, but do you want me to take over?”

Emery shook her head, then turned back to the room. “So, moving along. When you break your shell, some of the Qi in your core will burst out around you. Two important things happen at that moment.” She held up a finger. “One, Qi will saturate your body. It will go everywhere - muscles, organs, skin, not just your meridians. And that makes you a lot stronger in a whole bunch of ways.”

“And two,” She held up a second finger, “A portion of Qi will be able to just hang in the air around you. That area of Qi is your Domain. It will interact with the world in different ways depending on you, and it’ll grow in size as you continue to Cultivate and gather more Qi.”

Emery put her hand down before continuing, but met the eyes of each kid in her little audience in turn. “Removing the shell from your Core also allows you to spiritually enter it during meditation and while Cultivating. That spiritual space is usually also just referred to as your Domain, but many people will also call it your Inner World when they talk about it specifically.”

“Your Inner World is like a manifestation of your Cultivation mixed with your personality. For me, for example, it looks like a small town of smithing workshops.”

“Mine,” Avuri said from behind Emery, “is a snowy mountain top.”

“Your Inner World is a great way to see the state of your Cultivation, but isn’t all that important until higher Realms. In the Sky Realm, it has limited uses.” Emery continued. “But! Your Domain? That is an instant and massive boost in strength as soon as you can control it.”

Emery and Avuri both began to stretch, lightly, just working their arms and legs a bit. Several of the older kids sat up straighter at that, getting excited for a demonstration.

“We’ve not really taught you all much about Domains because they just aren’t really important for you to know about at your stage, other than just knowing they exist. However, I think a small demonstration would be beneficial to you all after this little chat.”

As Emery spoke, several of the older kids whooped in excitement, and wide grins spread around the room. Even Cierra and Stena looked excited, as they hadn’t seen their mothers’ Domains in use very often. It wasn’t a secret, but Domains were a little more powerful than daily life ever required. It would’ve been like unsheathing a two handed sword to cut vegetables.

Emery cycled her Qi through her body, and her Domain flooded out from her. As her Qi suffused the room, the whole air in the space changed. Some of the children could feel it, as expressions around the room changed. The younger kids all looked around, curious why some of the older kids were flinching, or suddenly nervous.

“My Domain has several effects that I can manipulate at will. The first, and most obvious one is sharpness.” In demonstration, Emery took a piece of paper off the desk at the front of the room, and slid it lightly over the corner of the desk. It cut the paper cleanly in two with the barest touch.

“I can make anything in my Domain as sharp or as dull as I like, and the change is near instant. Furthermore,” She said, before motioning upward with a hand. Several unattended objects - pencils, papers, and other things - rose into the air. “I can manipulate most things in my Domain as though I had directly connected Qi to it.”

‘Ooh’s and ‘Aah’s flew around the room. “There are other things too, but these are the most immediate abilities that come with it.” As Emery wrapped up her demonstration, the items she had controlled momentarily slowly fell back to wherever they had been. She had considered showing off some of her more flashy techniques, but decided that trump cards should probably remain hidden, even from her kids.

Then Avuri stepped up to the front. Emery backed up as Avuri released her own Domain. “As for me,” she began, and the temperature in the room immediately plummeted. “I can chill, or even freeze anything in my Domain. In particular, my accuracy within my Domain is near perfect, so it makes it very difficult for someone to escape me as long as they are within my Domain.”

She smiled sweetly, and it began to snow lightly in the room. “I can make it snow, flurry, or even blizzard as well. It makes for a lovely little parlor trick like this.” She said, as the kids marveled at the indoor snow. Avuri controlled it very deliberately, as this same ability could turn very deadly if she focused on it. Creating a blizzard like this had once torn an entire stone building apart in moments.

Then, things calmed as Avuri withdrew her Domain once more. Rather than Emery stepping back to continue the lesson, however, Avuri just continued on.

“There’s a few other rules about Domains that you should all know. First and foremost, is that as long as your Domain is active in an area, your abilities within it are absolute. If you are able to control an area with your Domain, other Qi can’t function properly. If you’re in a fight, for example, and you gain control of a space with your Domain, your opponent won’t be able to use any Qi outside of their own body.”

Everyone was quiet now, many with terrified thoughts and faces, results of long periods of life where they were under the control of someone else. Others’ Domains controlling them like that was likely a nightmare come true for many.

“This is why fighting someone in the Sky Realm without a Domain is basically suicide. There is almost zero chance of an Earth Realm Cultivator being able to deal with a Domain. There are exceptions…” Avuri glanced at Emery with a knowing wink, “But they are rare. Do not ever challenge a Sky Realm Cultivator without a Domain of your own; understood?”

A chorus of “Yes, Momri,” echoed around the room.

“The other side of that coin is that as long as you have an active Domain, other Domains cannot reach you without a fight. If one side is strong enough, they may be able to overwhelm and suppress the other Domain, but the power difference required for that is immense. Typically, whichever side has the stronger Domain will be able to push the weaker one back toward the weaker Cultivator’s body, but not suppress it entirely. Can anyone guess why?”

“Because a Domain is stronger closer to your Core and body?” Cierra asked.

Avuri nodded. “Exactly. The concentration of your Domain’s Qi is much denser closer to your body. You gain an innate sense for all this when you break through into the Sky Realm, so dwelling on all this now isn’t particularly helpful, so we’ll move on.”

Kord’s hand went up then. He was the oldest boy among all the kids at seventeen, and in the Earth Realm. “Then, if two Cultivators that have Domains are in a fight, do Domains matter?”

Avuri smiled. “I was just about to get to that.” She said, and pointed to her head. “Keeping your Domain active requires some level of discipline and concentration. As does stopping an opponent from overwhelming your defenses.”

Avuri stepped forward toward the children, then turned to face Emery. Avuri unleashed her Domain again, and the room’s temperature dropped. She continued to speak as Emery saw where this was going and unleashed her own Domain. “Training to keep your concentration while under attack, in a fight, or even while being surprised or injured is an important part of learning to control your Domain and defend yourself. For example…” She motioned a go-ahead to Emery.

Emery shot forward, stopping right in front of Avuri, within inches. She grinned, then poked Avuri several times. She tried tickling her wife, then pinching her and just generally acted a nuisance.

“Playing like this at first is a decent way to train yourself to maintain concentration on your -” Avuri was cut off when Emery suddenly leaped on her and kissed her deeply.

Emery’s Domain suddenly slammed the door shut on Avuri’s, the cold in the room vanishing, replaced by the strange humming air of Emery’s.

“- Or that happens.” Emery backed away from Avuri amid a chorus of childish ‘Eww’s and licked her lips. She wore an impish little smile.

“Yes.” Avuri said, flatly. “Or that happens.”