In the dark expanse of his Domain, where once nothing but his Spirit, and the chains of his Oaths existed, Alnea had made two new additions. And though the mask on his face, his second Aspect, was just a temporary one, which would soon get its own home in his Spirit World, the other, the Mystery that he had comprehended, was going to be a permanent resident of his Domain. Rather, he had especially transformed his Domain for the Mystery.

Though, on second thought, he had not really done much, except infuse his comprehension of the Mystery in a cloud of Oren. But comprehending a Mystery in his first try in itself was an accomplishment. Something that his master would surely be proud of. Thinking of his master, Alnea felt an inexplicable urge to just rush out from his Domain, and tell her everything about his new Aspect, and the Mystery. But he did not act on those urges.

He was a Wanderer. A proper Wanderer, who had already become a Warrior, and was soon also going to become an Arcanist. He could not keep acting on his whims like a child. Or else, he would never be able to temper his Heart to Clarity. After all, gaining Clarity meant looking through the essence of his thoughts. If he did not give himself enough time to look through his thoughts, and kept acting on them as soon as they came to him, then how was he going to gain Clarity?

…So, what he was doing at the moment, could it be considered as looking through the essence of his thoughts?

Alnea could not help himself from chuckling at that thought. If only gaining Clarity of his Heart could be that easy. Shaking his head to himself, he submerged his thoughts in his Serenity. He did not know when he would gain the Clarity of his Heart, but he did know that at the moment, all he had to do was to focus on his Serenity, and expand it, so that it would not prove a problem to his advancement to the Intermediate, and Advanced Stage.

For the Intermediate Stage, he still had some confidence in himself. His Heart was only a small distance away from being able to handle the greater depths of the Origin Sea. For the Advanced Stage though, things were going to be a little difficult. Especially since he had planned to reach that Stage in less than two years. That was going to be a little difficult. Maybe he might even have to…

Alnea submerged the thoughts back into his Serenity. There was no point in thinking about what he might, or might not have to do in future. It was more important to focus on the present, and do the best he could. Like comprehending more Mysteries, or taming more Aspects. Of course, before that, he had to learn how to make the best use of the Aspects, and the Mystery that he already had.

Sensing his thoughts, the Aspect on his face sent him a message, saying that it was, indeed, a very useful Aspect. It could change form, colour, size, and much more. Even it did not know the limits of its abilities. It might have used some tricks, but that only showed how useful it was. So, he should not be too mad at it…

Alnea shook his head, and let out a laugh. His Aspect… it was indeed going to be very useful. He had already thought up quite a few uses of it. He just had to ask his master about the viability of his ideas. To do that though, he had to return from the Origin Sea first. And so, after a last glance at his transformed Domain, he reached out to his Roots, and tugged at it.

But this time, instead of using its connection with the Origin Sea, he used its connection with his Spirit World, and travelled along it. And the moment they reached his Spirit World, the naughty little Aspect began asking if this was its new home. If this was where it was supposed to live. If this was its well. Such a boundless well, it indeed fit its image of the Aspect which would one day stand at the top of the world of Aspects…

For a few moments, Alnea was left completely speechless at his Aspect, wondering if he had really made the right choice. How could he even think that they had things in common? He was never this shameless…

Before his Heart could spring up some errant thoughts, and contradict him, Alnea told his Aspect about the truth, which was met by some disappointment from the Aspect. It did not stay down for long though, and soon came back with greater enthusiasm, asking for where its home was then, only to be met with more disappointment. There was nothing that Alnea could do about it though.

His Spirit Power was too low to dig an Aspect Well at the moment. As such, he could only promise to dig its home in a few hours, before leaving his Spirit State. And as if she was sensing all his movements, the moment he opened his eyes, so did his master. Looking at him with pride in her eyes, she gave him an approving nod, and said, “Which Aspect is it this time?”

Alnea scratched the back of his head with an awkward laugh, and said, “Looks like I cannot hide it from you, master.”

“You have yet to dig an Aspect Well for your new Aspect, resulting in leakage of its powers, and characteristics. Like the slight fluctuation of your Spirit, or the black light flashing in your eyes. Even though it is not much, it cannot hide from my senses.”

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“…Then can you guess which lineage this Aspect is related to, master?”

“Now that you have your second Aspect, you think you can tease your master?”

“…Don’t try to get out of this, master,” Alnea said, laughing at his master’s clumsy attempt. “Come on, take a guess. I bet you are going to be surprised by the answer.”

“Surprised you say,” his master said, looking at him with amusement. “Then it seems I really must take a guess.”

“So, which lineage is it?”

“A black light flashing in your eyes… Since you said this would be a surprise, then it cannot be the lineage of night. The lineage of Death then? No, it could also be the lineage of Destruction…. After all, your Spirit has been constantly submerged in the Mysteries of Destruction for the past week…”

“…I meant one guess, master. You cannot name all of the lineages in your guess.”

“Cheeky disciple,” his master said, smiling at him, as she condensed her Spirit Power into hands to flick his forehead. Not too hard. Just strong enough to force his head back. Before he could grumble to her though, she added, “The lineage of Destruction.”

“...Are you sure that is your guess, master?”

“…If you have too much time to waste, then I can add other things to your training schedule.”

“I am not wasting time, master!” Alnea said. “In a way, this is also related to my training.”

“Oh? And how is that so?”

“Because the new Aspect is related to the lineage of Trickeries.”

“…Lineage of Trickeries?”

“Yes, lineage of Trickeries,” Alnea said, enjoying the baffled confused look on his master’s face with a laugh. “The lineage of Optah.”

“…How did you end up with an Aspect related to the lineage of Trickeries?”

“…By its tricks,” Alnea said, as his laughed turned back to being awkward. “At first, it made me think that it was related to the lineage of Justice, and even behaved like one. Only when I had made my choice, and established a connection with the Aspect, did it reveal its true form.”

“…Getting tricked by an Aspect,” his master mumbled. “I guess there are always new things for people to learn.”

“You have never heard of such cases before, master?”

Instead of answering him, his master asked him a question.

“How do you think we tame Aspects, Alnea?”

“…By communicating with them?”

“And what is necessary for that communication?”

“…For both the parties to be willing to communicate. And for them to be compatible with each other.”

“Compatibility… if a Wanderer is compatible with Aspects related to the lineage of Trickeries, then do you think that the Aspects would need to Trick them into communicating with it?”

“But it did trick me, master…”

“That is why I said that there are always new things for people to learn,” his master said, shaking her head. “The Aspect probably would not have tried to Trick you… if it had been the only Aspect you were communicating with. But you were not. You had many options to choose from. And many of them would have been related to the Mysteries of Day, and Night. If you had gotten a chance, which one would you have preferred?”

“…The latter.”

“And so, the Aspect was forced to trick you. If it was the only Aspect you were communicating with, then it would have probably come clean to you from the beginning.”

“…It is such a devious little guy,” Alnea mumbled, only to have his master flick his forehead once again.

“It is already your Aspect now, so treat it with respect. Besides, do you think you are any better than the Aspect?”

“…I am respectful, master,” Alnea grumbled. “But that Aspect needs to be taught a lesson. Of course, I will not be mean to it… I will just keep using it, and tire it to death.”

“You…” his master said, fumbling with her words, as she kept looking at him speechlessly. After a few moments, she shook her head. “Forget it. It is your Aspect. Do as you want. Just try not to lose control of it.”

“Don’t worry, master. I know my limits.”

“If only that were true,” his master said, shaking her head with a wry smile. “Anyways, there is no use worrying about it right now. We will see how things goes. For now, let us come back to what we were discussing about before you went Wandering, Martial Styles. In specific, Martial Styles focussing on swords. As for your other Aspect…

“After what you told me last time, I had anticipated that you might tame another Aspect in a week or so, and had prepared accordingly, but that I had never expected for the Aspect you tamed to be of the lineage of Trickeries. It will take me a couple of weeks to prepare the corresponding Martial Styles. Till then, you can just practise with the other Martial Styles, starting with those related to swords. Now, according to the different specialisations, Martial Styles of the Weapon type—

“Wait a moment, master!” Alnea said, hurriedly interrupting his master. She was like that sometimes, jumping from one topic to the next without any rest, expecting him to keep up with her. And most of the time, he did keep up with her. But not this time. “There is one more thing I need to tell you before we begin with Martial Styles.”

“Is it related to your Aspects?”

“No…”

“Is it related to the Martial Styles you are going to practise?”

“No…”

“Then it can wait.”

“But—

“You need to learn to focus, Alnea. As a Wanderer, you need to have—

“I have comprehended a Mystery.”