After an hour of lecture, they sat in silence, meditating on the Domains. Well, Vayuhn was. Harper was shifting restlessly. She was growing frustrated and had resolved to ask Vayuhn his advice before she got ambushed.


    It rankled her pride to ask. Not only because this was something she should have been able to do with her extensive education, something he lacked, but that it would put her into his debt. It was outside the scope of their original deal. What if he decided their exchange was no longer equal and wanted something more? She wasn’t sure what she’d do if he asked for help escaping his bonds or to stage a revolt.


    Swallowing her pride and reluctance, she voiced the question. “Vayuhn?” she intoned. He cracked an eye towards her. “Can you advise me on the Aerial Domain?”


    She expected a calculating look or bargaining for something she could ill afford to lose, but none of those happened. She should have known better; he hadn’t pushed for more the entire time she knew him.


    He hadn’t requested a larger profit from their hunts, even when he probably should have. He hadn’t asked for any secret knowledge from her house. He hadn’t even pressed for more information about her background.


    Perhaps she was too used to backroom politics and the conniving manipulators common among the nobility of Quilen. Whenever she spent time with peers, she almost always had to be on her guard.


    When did I start considering Vayuhn to be a peer? She wondered. On this continent, so far from her house, her title mattered for a lot less. The closest she had to a peer in her social class in Mentril was the Governor’s son, Gavin. The manipulation she was expecting held true there, at least.


    Now that she considered it, she had nearly stopped thinking about the difference in social stations when interacting with others. An outcome of Vanax’s lack of clear social hierarchy, no doubt. Still, Vayuhn was a slave. Should she be getting so familiar with him? Should she consider him a... friend?


    His answer cut off her deliberations. “Finally! I was wondering when you were going to ask.” He gave a smug smile and spoke in a posh tone. “I will deign to educate you on the matter.”


    Harper crossed her arms. “I don’t talk like that.”


    “Whatever do you mean? I am merely speaking as an educated scholar. I would be delighted to enlighten you on my vast repertoire of knowledge.”


    The vocabulary he was mocking her with was not as far off as she would prefer, still, the accent was too much. His approximation of her aristocratic lilt was far overblown; a caricature of her way of speaking.


    She wished she could mock him in a like manner, only with a labuntan’s drawl and butchered sentences, but it wouldn’t make sense. There was no accent in his words different than she was used to at this point on Vanax, nor did his speech show any type of educational deficient. He was surprisingly eloquent for a slave, even before she began teaching him.


    Most of the labuntans she interacted with spoke simply and with a drawl. Not through any fault of their own of course, merely their lack of proper education. She wasn’t one of those foolish enough to believe the labuntan people any less intelligent than the other humanoid species. She had read too many books from south Zecura for that to be the case.


    She just rolled her eyes and huffed. “Are you going to assist me or not?”


    “Okay, okay,” he relented. “What I think you’re missing is the... feeling of it.”


    Harper raised a brow before replying in a dry tone. “The ‘feeling’ of it?”


    He ran his hand through his dirt blonde hair. “I know, give me a minute. I’ve never put it into words before.” He continued after a few seconds. “It’s like... it’s understanding what it’s like to be of the sky and be without the sky. Not the Domain of Sky, but the actual sky. Does that make any sense?”


    She frowned; it didn’t really mean anything to her. She tried to find a comparison within herself with her own Domain. Did she understand what it was like to be of the sea and not of the sea? Not really. The sea is just... the sea. The ranva are of the sea more than any other species, and while the Aquatic Domain is more common among them, it’s far from universal. Nor do I feel any affinity with the Domain of Earth, despite being of it as much as any other person or creature.


    Harper shook her head. It wasn’t too unexpected. If everyone was able to understand Domains in the same way, the process for manifesting them would be far more streamlined. The ways they looked at and understood the Domains was likely just too different for his advice to be helpful to her.


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    Before she opened her mouth to dismiss the topic of discussion, he spoke triumphantly. “Ah ha, it’s like freedom,” he declared. He gestured up and around. “Being of the sky is like freedom, while not being of it is like bondage.”


    That brought the conversation into more familiar waters for Harper. “Ah, you ascribe to Gentrel’s theory then?” she questioned, knowing full well he would have no idea what that was.


    Vayuhn just looked at her with mild annoyance. He folded his arms and stared at her, not bothering to ask the obvious.


    After a minute Harper gave in. “Gentrel was an atoran philosopher from Canjor that lived a few centuries ago. He was a known heretic and was eventually forced into the Great Nature Nexus and never seen again. In his time, he came up with a variety of methods for helping along the manifestation of Domains. Almost all of them were eventually proven correct, if outdated at this point.


    “Only one, now called Gentrel’s theory, is still debated. The theory states that every Domain is related to understanding an associated state of being. For the Aerial Domain, that state of being is freedom. For my own, the Domain of Sea, it is supposedly acceptance.”


    Vayuhn nodded. “A state of being; that’s almost the perfect way to describe it. He was right. Why is it still debated?”


    “Because most people think it’s ridiculous,” she said flatly. “Myself included.” Harper stood up and began pacing. “While a few say that it’s correct, most people have found no difference when it is taught. Studies done on it are inconclusive, but usually they lean towards it not mattering at all. Why would the Domains care about how one understands their state of being anyways?” Frustration leaked into her voice at that last sentence.


    Harper took a deep breath to calm herself. “I would completely dismiss your advice if not for the fact that my brother believes in it too.”


    Vayuhn refocused on her. She specifically never mentioned her family. “Why would that change your mind?” he asked.


    Harper spoke, but the frustration she had previously restrained was back in full force. “Because, like you, he’s a Domains blessed prodigy. What are the chances that two prodigies would tell me the same thing. There must be an element of truth, but it makes no damn sense!” Harper’s voice rose at the end of her sentence, and she kicked a nearby rock into the forest.


    Vayuhn gave her a minute to cool down, and she blushed in embarrassment. She should be better than this, losing her temper at all was a failure on her part. Losing it in front of someone she had a business relationship with was unacceptable. Her parents would see her locked in her rooms for weeks.


    After a while, Vayuhn spoke. If there was any pity, it was carefully removed from his tone. Only reasonable logic took its place. “You still got your Domain well before the average. You might not be a prodigy, but you’ll be just fine.”


    Harper shook her head. “You don''t understand. My Domain manifestation was average, maybe even a little behind. Most people don’t have the resources I grew up with. Even my parents didn’t have quite as many cores and as much accumulated knowledge as I received. In the circles I come from, I am far from the elite. In a house as ambitious as my own? I am not enough to lead.”


    Realizing how much she had revealed, Harper changed the subject in a manner that was anything but subtle. “Ahem, back to the discussion. Maybe the theory would help you with other Domains. It’s not something I’ve studied at all extensively, but I know the basics.”


    Vayuhn frowned but didn’t say anything about the earlier topic. “That would be good. I would have no idea where to even begin for the Solar Domain. Is it about power? The state of having power or being powerless. Maybe it’s about fury?” Vayuhn shook his head before correcting himself. “No, that wouldn’t make sense. That''s more an emotion then a state of being.”


    Glad to be moving on, Harper gave a small grin at the next thing she told him. She guessed that he would have a similar reaction to her own upon hearing it. She was not disappointed.


    “Actually, it’s about reliance. Do you understand the state of relying on someone or something?”


    Vayuhn scrunched up his face. “Seriously? The Domain of Sun is associated with... reliance?” he asked. At her nod he groaned. “Okay, maybe his theory isn’t all that accurate after all.”


    She gave a small laugh at that. “If you think that’s odd, the Umbral Domain is apparently related to the state of vulnerability.”


    “Where did he get these? They’re ridiculous!” He chuckled.


    “She continued. “And the Lunar Domain. It’s just as ludicrous. Apparently, it is connected to the state of being of passion, whatever in the Domains that means.”


    At that Vayuhn paused for a second. He laughed unconvincingly a moment later. “Yeah, those don’t make any sense.”


    Harper looked at him for a moment, noting the pause, before shrugging it off. “Anyways, let’s plan tomorrow’s excursion. It was a pack of wolves? Did you say there was a dire wolf?”


    He nodded seriously. “That’s what the rumors say. We’ll be staying well clear of them. These ones in particular seem very aggressive to people. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Governor has already sent some rangers to hunt them down. I’m hoping that their presence will have scared some game further north.”


    Vayuhn couldn’t venture too far due to his master’s restrictions. The enchanted device implanted in the back of his neck ensured his cooperation. Sometimes that made it difficult to find enough creatures when so limited to the near vicinity, but he always seemed to make do.


    After another hour they separately headed back. She took the time to enjoy the meal prepared by her landlady. She really was fortunate to find her landlords. Harper had a hard time imagining anyone else would have been willingly to take care of Briar when she left him. She had tried to pay Laytia one time but had been brushed off. The apprentice aethertanner was fond of Briar and had no issues checking up on him.


    Harper looked at the lizard himself with some small concern. He was in a deep sleep, snoring unusually loudly. While she was sure the hermit meant Briar no harm, she was still weary of the experimental growth serum he had been fed. There was nothing to do but see how he was the next morning.


    She went to bed. It would be an early start the next day. The nightmares still came, but they were starting to reduce in frequency, if not intensity. Still, there was nothing she could do about them. Harper needed to rest; they’d interrupt her whether she started now or later.