Sword and Snow

Stena

Stena explored a bit more before she emerged from her inner world. For as interesting as the space was, it didn't seem to have many secrets to hide beyond, perhaps, a few plants that were dangerous and hidden among the rest. But as far as anything else of note, she couldn't find much.

Before she opened her eyes, Stena said, "I don't think there's any danger." She blinked a few times, trying to readjust to her physical body's senses again.

"What was it like?" Cierra asked, clearly excited.

"I was in a giant tree." Stena said, rolling her shoulders just to test moving her body again. "I was on a single, massive branch. And the whole thing was covered in plants. Flowers, ivies, bushes - there were even trees growing on it."

Cierra breathed out, clearly enamored with the idea, and likely wondering what her own space would be like. Emery and Avuri, meanwhile, looked more contemplative.

"So nothing that seemed dangerous?" Avuri asked.

Stena shook her head. "Not really. There were definitely some dangerous plants around, though, if that counts. But the space didn't feel dangerous."

Emery nodded. "Then it's unlikely that just activating your Domain will be dangerous without direct input from you."

"Did you want to test it? Are you feeling up to it?" Avuri asked.

Stena honestly couldn't wait any longer. It had been in her head all day; what sort of new power could she unleash? She found herself nodding as the list of possibilities that she had been building all day ran through her head. Although, having seen her inner world, she was crossing some of those possibilities off the list now.

"Do you know how to extend it?" Avuri asked. "It's usually a pretty natural feeling, but if you've been keeping it bottled up all day, it may not be as easy for you."

"I'm pretty sure I know how." Stena said. Avuri was right; she had been keeping her Domain bottled all day long. But it clearly had wanted to extend out from her, so at this point, she was pretty sure all she had to do was let go.

As soon as she did, she could feel her Domain push out from her body. It was a strange sensation, similar to when she pushed out Qi for techniques, but she never lost her connection with it. It felt almost like her body was stretching to cover everything nearby.

Without any mental effort, she felt her Domain reach out, covering the practice field, then continue past that. She had heard that most Domains started fairly small, but hers seemed to reach well past what was normal. She thought it might have even been larger than Emery's naturally was.

The change in the air was instant, too. Suddenly, there was the distinct scent of lavender and vanilla hovering around them. It was strange, though. It wasn't what she would call pungent, or sharp, but it was forcefully there, as if she couldn't avoid the scent if she tried. Like the air was suffused with it in an unnatural way - which, she supposed, it was.

Cierra's nose twitched. "That you? It smells nice."

"Some Domains do carry an aroma like that." Emery said, nodding.

"Sure, but it's not usually so blatant." Avuri said. "And your reach is impressive, Stena."

"She takes after you." Emery said, elbowing her wife in the side. Avuri needled Emery back, but Stena's concentration was on her new Domain.

She had heard that control over the aspects of your Domain was something almost inherent. And while there were often hidden depths for a person to discover - like the way Emery took time discovering that she could sharpen or blunt the air itself - the general control and effects were something that were practically instinctual.

Stena hadn't exactly understood that when she had heard it, but she did now. As if someone had told her what she could do, or she had read a book on it, she just knew what her basic capabilities were. With a thought, the pleasant scent carried by her Domain was washed out with a crisp, clean scent of citrus.

"Now that's different." Avuri said, turning to Stena with an eyebrow raised. "Scents are often associated with the user's Domain. Like Emery's often smelled like blade oil. Actually, I wonder what our new combined one smells like - we never tested it."

Emery ignored the second part of Avuri's statement, continuing from her first thought. "The scent is usually ingrained in the Domain's very nature. So you can do something with it, then?"

Stena nodded. "I think so. But it's more complicated than just scent…"

It was difficult for Stena to explain. But she could feel it. It was easy for her to inject scents into her Domain, but that was more like a byproduct of her actual abilities. She was immediately aware of the potential dangers she could impose, but wanted to show a less dangerous option. And she didn't need to think long to come up with a solid example.

"Onion?" Cierra said, blinking in confusion.

"That's the smell of onion, alright." Avuri said, nodding.

"Is it alright if I test something?" Stena asked.

"Of course? As long as it's not actually dangerous." Emery said, looking down at her daughter in mild confusion at the sudden scent change again.

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Stena didn't respond, instead focusing on her Domain. At her will, the scent of onion grew stronger in a short burst. And then her Domain showed a fraction of its true worth. Emery, Avuri, and Cierra were immediately tearing up and sniffling against the assault on their senses. The effect, driven by Stena's Domain, was much worse than normally cutting an onion, but was similar in effect.

What did shock her was how easily she could apparently affect her mothers. Even without the protection of their Domain, she had expected their Sky Realm bodies to stop the effects of whatever it was that cutting an onion put into the air. It wasn't like they ever had to deal with it while cooking. But it seemed like her Domain bypassed the resistance of the Sky Realm body, though she had no idea how.

"You've made your point, Stena." Cierra said, furiously wiping tears from her eyes.

Avuri and Emery were a little more controlled in their suffering, but even they were blinking rapidly to try to counteract the effect.

Stena let the effect drop from her Domain at once. Doing so even drained the scent that the Domain had carried before, leaving it scentless.

"That's a very interesting ability." Emery said, wiping her eyes with a sleeve. "I assume you can use a lot more than onions to power it."

Stena nodded. "My inner world was so lush with plants, that I'd bet I have access to quite the arsenal. All sorts of peppers and things, for starters. But there were plenty of genuinely dangerous poisonous plants, too. I didn't examine them as closely, but there were mushrooms as well."

"If you can flood your Domain with spores or pollen and the like…" Avuri muttered in thought. "That's really quite dangerous."

"Worse, it's very difficult to test." Emery said, scratching her chin. "There's no good way to test the efficacy of poisons without any harm. Especially what sorts of effects you could use against people your own level, or when fighting up."

"Well, the onion thing clearly worked on you two." Cierra pointed out. "I would imagine that if it did, genuine poisons would, too."

"That's a fair assumption to make, but not one you should stake your life on." Emery said plainly. "We're going to have to take you hunting to try fighting some higher Realm beasts. Or see if the Elders are willing to help in some way."

Avuri nodded. "More passive effects like this are notoriously difficult to trust in dangerous situations, because you never know when it might fail. So, your mother is right. We'll need to run you through all sorts of tests."

Stena was only really half listening. While she agreed that she wasn't about to trust her life in a fight to airborne poisons and things of that nature, she was still trying to figure out what else her Domain might be capable of.

Like many wood Cultivators that specialized in plants, Stena was able to control plants to a degree. She could create plants as physical weapons for herself, or alter a plant's growth to suit her needs. It was a common skill, but one that required immense amounts of control and power to do well. Typically, rushing a plant to grow quickly, or forcing a flower to bloom would ruin the plant in the long term. It took an immense amount of energy from a living thing to do that, and it often resulted in short-living plants.

Large growth on the scale that Vyne had done for their Basin, for example, took a level of skill and power that Stena could only dream of. However, as her Domain was spread out over a large amount of plants in their vicinity, she could feel each of them as if they reached toward her as well, ready to heed her instructions. It felt as if she suddenly had friends all around her.

And they told her over and over again that she didn't need to be afraid of hurting them.

Stena closed off her senses to the chatter and planning going on around her to focus on a single plant nearby. There was a small nettle plant that was struggling by the edge of the training ground. The seed had landed in a spot right on the edge of the patch of infertile dirt, and wasn't able to establish itself well. To Stena's new senses, it felt thirsty, hungry, and ready. It could feel Stena's Domain laying over it, and was eagerly waiting for Stena to make her move.

Stena reached out to it with her Domain and funneled some of her Qi into it. The little plant drank it in and changed. The little plant grew from what was ostensibly a weed into a small bush of stinging nettle.

As in tune with nature and plants as she was, Stena could tell immediately that the detrimental effects she expected to see in a Qi-altered plant didn't appear. Instead, the nettle seemed excited to be useful, and wanted more Qi.

So, curious at what she could do, Stena shoved a large amount of Qi toward the plant. Her Domain did the difficult work of funneling her Qi to the plant in doses that wouldn't overwhelm it, which left her to simply decide how much to give it. She gave it what she believed would equate to a big, hearty meal for a starved plant.

The nettle all but exploded in size. It quickly climbed across the ground, rushing over the deadened dirt of the practice ground with ease, extending where there was no other plant-based competition. Emery, Avuri, and Cierra all leapt away, their discussion interrupted, as the plant zoomed toward them.

The plant seemed to readily obey Stena's wants without her consciously giving orders. It rushed over the ground, but left a clear circle around Stena. And when it reached the other side of the dirt, it stopped growing, content to simply cover the entire practice ground.

"Stena?" Avuri called, now beyond the plant's reach beside the training area. "That was you, right?"

Stena stood in the middle of the plant's rampage, looking around. "It was. Sorry."

"No need to apologize." Emery chuckled. "A little warning next time, though?"

"Sure…" Stena muttered, still trying to feel out what else she could do.

"Should we be worried?" Avuri called.

"No." Stena called back. "But don't touch it. It's nettle."

"Nettle isn't usually a problem for us, though." Cierra sounded confused.

"I think it's reinforced with Qi, so it might be now." Stena said, feeling around with her new power. When she felt the plant reaching out toward her Domain, asking to change, she hesitated. "Stay back for a bit. I'm going to try something else."

"Okay, but be careful!" Cierra called back, but Stena wasn't listening. She was too focused on what she was doing, and searching her Domain for what it could do.

She was immediately met with a deluge of thoughts that included all sorts of variants of the nettle plant. It seemed like the plant she was working with could be altered into any of the related plants by her Qi, at least temporarily.

But sorting through all of the options floating around her head was difficult, and everything was too jumbled up. However, the plant still seemed to react to her general commands, not requiring her to be so specific. So she mentally requested that it become more dangerous - the most dangerous - form of itself.

In a blink, the sprawling plant changed. What was a fairly average nettle plant suddenly looked threatening. The entire thing was covered in the slight white sheen that came with the tiny barbs, and even grew flowers on some of the vines, but it all looked threatening. Somehow, she knew that even a Cultivator trying to move through it would be rolling on the ground in pain if they weren't careful.

She also instinctively knew it wouldn't be life threatening, just immensely painful. For days, at least.

"Stena?" Emery called from the edge of the training ground.

"Mom?"

"Please tell me you can clean this up."

Stena looked around at the plant. As she tested her connection with it through her Domain, she found that, yes, she believed she could pull her Qi from the plant, returning it to its original state.

Which she'd do. Mostly.

She wanted to leave it a little Qi so it could at least survive where it had sprouted.