Stena

Despite the family going about their normal days outside, Stena, Emery, and Avuri were not bothered. The house wasn't exactly warded against Qi in any useful way to stop eavesdropping, so some of the others could have sensed the way they had cuddled up together on the couch - especially the more powerful ones like Vale or now Kord, Stena had to remind herself.

But no one bothered them. Stena considered that Cierra might be keeping people distracted, or at least away from the house, as she knew what Stena had wanted to talk about. And if that was the case, she would need to thank her sister later. A lot. Because she hadn't gotten to cuddle with her parents like this in a long time.

There were a number of reasons, she supposed. Getting older, of course, but between the relatively constant influx of younger children and their much busier life, it just naturally didn't happen. Her only thought for the moment, though, was age be damned, she was going to get hugs from her mothers. Even if it drew out more of her tears, at least for a while.

The sun had gone down by the time she felt put together again. Given they had arrived at sunset, she wasn't sure how long she had stayed there, but it couldn't have been more than an hour. When she stirred to get up, she was stopped by one more crushing hug from both of her parents.

"You sure you want to get up?" Emery asked.

Stena was surprised that the simple question stopped her in tracks so quickly. Honestly, she didn't want to. She would have been more than happy to just sit on the couch there for the rest of the night.

"Just for the record," Avuri said while Stena hesitated, "I know we joke about it, but we like cuddling up with you all too, you know. You just need to ask."

That made Stena smile. "I know." Then she decided to just be honest. "But also, no, I don't want to get up. I'd much rather stay there like that all night. But I broke through last night and I haven't even so much as tested what my Domain does."

She watched the smile on Emery's face change a little from one full of warmth for her daughter to excitement for her instead. It was a little difficult to see in the dark, but Stena only then realized that what she had thought had been in the light from a dim light Array was actually just her newly enhanced sight. There was no light in the room at all, but she could still see as if there were something like candlelight.

"You haven't tested it at all, yet?" Avuri asked, surprised.

Stena shook her head. "No. As soon as I broke through, Vyne was there. He helped me clean up and get to a bath. I didn't want to ruin their bath at the compound, so I didn't do anything there, and then I hid it all day, so my Qi has been locked up tight…"

"Huh." Emery said, exchanging glances with Avuri. "When I 'woke up' after my Sky Realm breakthrough, I was in my Inner World. It took a bit to get that under control before I was able to return to my physical body."

"It was the same for me." Avuri nodded. "After I dealt with my trial,. I woke up on my cliffside." She sounded almost fond of the original state of her inner world, but Stena thought the idea of being alone in a blizzard on a cliffside sounded awful.

"Is…is that normal?" Stena asked, worried she had done something wrong.

Avuri chuckled. "There's no 'normal' when it comes to unlocking your Domain, Stena."

"Ri's right. Some people completely lose control and decimate what's around them. Others are like us, and get deposited into their inner world before their physical body." Emery said. "There are a few different theories as to why, but the most widely accepted one is that the more distant the vision you have during your trial is from reality, the more likely you are to be in your inner world."

"I never left the meditation room, even during my visions."

"And there you go." Avuri said. "Or, at least, we know as much as anyone else does, probably. But you didn't do anything wrong."

"It's a little strange you didn't have to fight to control your Domain at first, though." Emery said.

Stena felt her stomach fall at that, but she caught a silent conversation between her mothers, which was a welcome break from her own worries. She suspected that Avuri was yelling at Emery for saying something, given their little expression changes.

Eventually, Avuri looked her in the eyes. "Don't worry about it, alright? I've heard of people not needing to control their Domain directly for a few reasons. The two most common are either that your Domain had no effect where you were and therefore you had no active Qi to fight against for control, or your Domain is more passive and easy to withdraw."

"Either way, we should take you out to the training grounds for this, just in case." Emery said. "No matter what you can do, most of our house is made of wood and you're predominantly a wood Cultivator. If you lost control, we could be in trouble."

Avuri nodded in agreement. "I don't think you're likely to be quite so dangerous with your techniques, Stena, but it's always better to take the precaution than not."

Stena nodded. "No, I think that's smart. But…can we not have the whole family watch?"

Avuri's smile was reassuring. "Of course. We can make sure we don't draw a crowd. Besides, it's after dark. It should be easy enough to get everyone to clear out for now if you keep your Qi controlled."

"Get Cierra though. I promised her she could watch when I test my Domain." Stena said as the three of them got to their feet, finally.

That seemed to catch both of her mothers off guard. "Oh, really?"

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"Yeah." Stena nodded. "We had a decent talk earlier. Even if it was short…" She trailed off, making a note to herself that she would really need to talk with Cierra more. Without the trial hanging over her head, it was likely that Stena could afford to be a little more volatile with her emotions. And while talking to Cierra about her problems more openly might cause some short-term issues, it would probably be an overall gain in the end. Vyne had thought as much, too.

"I'll go get her, then, and meet the two of you by the training grounds." Avuri said.

"Alright. Stena, have you had anything at all to eat today? Would you like a snack first?" Emery asked.

Stena's body decided to kick her for not thinking about food all day. Her nerves had been so fried that she hadn't ever been hungry, but now the mention of food made her stomach growl. Loudly, too.

"Yeah, maybe a small meal would be good," she said, embarrassed.

Emery smiled and turned toward the kitchen. "I'll whip something up before we meet you at the grounds. Won't be long."

"See you two shortly, then." Avuri said before walking toward the stairs to the door. She was taking her time, though, which should give Stena a bit of time to eat.

Emery was right - she threw together a small plate of food for Stena in no time at all. It was mostly already prepared foods, like a bar of oats shaped with honey, or jerky. There were a couple of pieces of grilled chicken on skewers as well that looked like they were recently made. Maybe even for that night's dinner that she had skipped.

After Stena made short work of the food, they were off to meet up again at the training ground. As requested, the large open space was empty save for Avuri and Cierra. There were still some of Stena's siblings mulling around by the dining pavilion and kitchen, probably cleaning up dinner, but they were far enough away that they wouldn't notice anything unless Stena made a loud statement with her Qi.

Or they actively eavesdropped, but that was unlikely in her experience.

"Thanks for letting me observe, Stena." Cierra said once they were within easy earshot.

Stena nodded. "Sure, but I honestly don't know what you're about to see."

"Well, for starters, you haven't seen your inner world yet, right?" Avuri asked. "We should start there. It might give you some direction for your Domain's abilities, and a warning if you're going to be particularly destructive."

"What?" Cierra and Stena asked together.

"Typically, what appears in your inner world is directly related to your Domain's abilities. While we don't think your Domain is likely to be too destructive, Stena, your inner world would warn you if it was."

"How would it warn me, exactly?" Stena asked.

"Usually just by being extreme in some way," Avuri explained, "like how mine has always had a blizzard. If I was to let my Domain act according to its natural state without controlling it, it could do some real damage and generate a localized blizzard on its own."

"That's just an example, though." Emery said. "Either way, I expect your Domain to be fairly docile. But it's worth entering your inner world to check it out regardless."

Stena decided to just shove her worries away for the moment and trust her mothers. They wouldn't lead her knowingly into danger. Plus, they'd be right here if anything went wrong anyway. "Alright, so what do I do, exactly?"

"To begin, start with just a normal meditation and Cultivation technique." Avuri said.

Stena followed the directions, taking a comfortable seated position, then she began to pull her Qi along her meridians in the normal Cultivation pattern.

She could feel the difference immediately. Her meridians had expanded a fair bit with her breakthrough, and they felt more solid and responsive than ever before. It even took less effort to move her Qi through her body.

"Now, once your Qi is moving as normal, you're going to focus inward, the same way you used to to sense your core. You're going to feel a mental tug once your concentration is cinched in. Let it draw you in, and you should find yourself in your inner world." Avuri said.

By the time Avuri finished speaking, Stena was already feeling that spiritual tug. She didn't exactly know how she was supposed to let it pull her in, but she found out pretty quickly that the simple thought of letting it sweep her along was more than enough.

She opened her eyes in a space that would have knocked her on her butt if she wasn't already sitting. She was perched on the branch of a tree, but she honestly hesitated to call it a branch. The wood below her was more than large enough to hold an entire house. Maybe even the entire space of the Basin. She couldn't even see the main trunk of the tree, only really able to tell that she was most likely in a tree because of the boughs above her.

In either case, what really grabbed her interest was the number of plants that were growing in, on, or around her and the branch. The entire space was simply lush with plant life of all kinds. Flowering plants were by far the most common, but vines and ivies were in some spots. And strangely, she even saw some bushes that seemed to be a mix of fruit-bearing and flowering.

Once she was able to pull her thoughts together, the rest of the details of the place started to register. She was seated in the middle of a large knot in the wood. It was almost spongy and comfortable to sit on; it even looked like it may have been grafted into the rest of the branch, as it was a slightly different color.

Then she noticed that, for all of the myriad plants around, there were distinct, winding paths that all spanned outward from her spot. She could easily walk along the paths to inspect each plant if she wished, and many of them were even grouped with others like it.

They weren't so overt as to be broken up by fruit here and flower there, but seemed to be grouped by use. With her Qi so easy to control here, she was able to recognize quickly that the medicinal plants for injuries were grouped together. As were the strongest poisons in another section, then the plants for stomach aches…it just went on.

She breathed out in disbelief. Stena had learned about all of these plants through books, in an attempt to grow her repertoire when it came to her techniques. But many of them she had never actually seen. All she could think of was that this would be heaven for an apothecary or herbalist, but she had never trained like that.

As she wandered the rows of plants with her Qi, she noticed that the further she got from her starting point, the taller the plants got - and then she found the trees.

She had already been shocked that there were bushes and shrugs growing out of the massive tree, but to see more 'normal' sized trees growing out of the giant branch was where she had to draw the line. It was simply too strange.

When her Qi crossed over a tree that she had only ever heard of from Vale, she had to stop. Abandoning her Qi-based search, she set off running with her spiritual body. She had to know if she could actually eat the fruit in this place.

When she stopped underneath the massive bunch of curved fruits on the single tree, she felt her mouth water. It was a fruit from the far south that she had only had a couple times in her life when Vale returned from trips that ventured that far.

"If you're taunting me with these bananas, I'm going to be very upset." Stena said to no one, hoping her inner world wasn't about to let her down. With a quick snap of her wrist and a bit of Qi, she swatted one of the fruit from the tree so it would plummet right into her hand. She stared at it for a moment, then peeled it and took a bite.

If she wasn't mistaken, it tasted even better than the one in her memory did.

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