By the time Orion turned four, the walls of his quiet little home began to feel too small.
His life changed in ways he hadn't quite prepared for - small things, yet significant. Marn no longer hovered over him every waking moment, and his world grew beyond the faint scent of herbs and the dim glow of the infirmary lamps.
For the first time, he was made to attend the local school. The Frostveil Foundational School, they called it - though it was little more than a series of connected stone halls near the base of the manor's hill.
It was his first real step into the wider world, and God, did he hate it.
Children.
Screaming, drooling, running children.
He remembered standing in the corner on that first day, hands tucked behind his back, watching chaos unfold. A boy threw snow into another's face. A girl shrieked something incomprehensible about beasts.
Meanwhile, Orion stood in silence, the white-haired, dark-eyed outlier that none of them understood. It didn't take long for them to start whispering, even though he was from the Varyn house that oversaw this town.
Then again, he didn't have the surname of the Varyns to intimidate them.
"Look, it's the Frost Demon."
"He never talks."
"Why's his hair so white? My pa says only cursed ones look like that."
'Seems like even with all the hair and eye colours I've seen, white is weird,' Orion laughed to himself.
The Frost Demon was an urban legend around these parts about a monster that resides in the cold and comes out at night. Somehow, that became Orion's name at school.
He ignored them all, sitting quietly with that calm, disinterested expression that only infuriated the children more. He'd lived longer than some of their parents - what did it matter if a few kids called him names?
Orion had never been interested in killing children in his past life. They had yet to fully find themselves or understand the world, and maybe the little morality he had within him deterred him from doing so.
But, boy, did he feel like butchering some of them at times.
Thankfully, he managed to suppress that urge, and he would rather wet his hands with the blood of a scumbag or someone he had a grudge against - those were the most satisfying.
Anyway, away from the topic of killing, Marn would drop him off every morning.
The old woman would always mutter under her breath about how much of a hassle he'd become. She'd then shuffle back to her infirmary duties while Orion trudged into the classroom, enduring the daily monotony. His mother was too weak to walk him there, but every afternoon she'd wait by the window, eager to ask how his day went.
She'd smile and pat his hair as he gave brief answers, sometimes nothing more than a nod. Despite how kind she was, Orion always kept her at arm's length. He wasn't used to warmth, certainly not in his past life. But she never pushed. She simply respected his space, quietly loving him from a distance.
It made him feel… guilty, though he couldn't quite explain why.
By the time he turned five, his Ether Core had evolved.
Four years of Ether Cultivation.
He had figured out everything alone, without a teacher or external resources. He had bumps and many learning curves. Most of the progress was made in the last year or two, during which he streamlined his Ether Dominion Cultivation Method.
The breakthrough from Crimson to Ember Rank wasn't flashy or loud; it was internal, almost meditative. One cold night, sitting cross-legged in his small room, Orion had felt his Ether swirl violently before condensing into something denser, smaller - like molten metal being hammered into shape.
The moment it solidified, he could feel it - his body bursting with power.
His Ether Core pulsed orange within his chest, the hue of burning coals. His body felt lighter, sturdier. Every breath filled him with vitality. Still, his control over Ether remained largely untested.
Orion was itching to see what his body was capable of. And unlike other children, he wasn't trained in any form of combat. His peers in age were far from awakening Ether, but many, especially those among the Varyns, had already begun training in martial arts.
But with his mother's fragile health and his father's absence, Marn always kept him close.
Still, he made do.
He could very well sneak out, but he decided to bide his time and continue to develop his Ether Core. After all, it was only a matter of time before he was able to use it, and it was satisfying enough just to cultivate.
Every day, he would attend that damned foundational school.
Every night, he would cultivate silently and collect his thoughts about what he had learnt and observed throughout the day.
And so, slowly and silently, he grew.
It was during this period that Orion learned something else, something vital.
Being around Ascendants was dangerous.
Marn, and others like her at the Crimson Rank, possessed so little Ether that their presence was easy to overlook. Around them, Orion had never felt the need to be cautious. But school introduced him to a far more troubling realisation.
Ascendants could sense Ether.
Not see it, not like he could with his Eyes of Dominion, but feel it.
The concept had been mentioned casually during a lesson, almost as an afterthought, yet it struck Orion with immediate force. His hand shot up before he could stop himself - the first time in three years of schooling he'd ever volunteered to speak.
The classroom fell into an awkward silence.
Until then, his teacher had allowed him to sit quietly in the corner and do as he pleased. Part of it was because he was Lord Kael's son, even if unofficially. The rest was because the white-haired boy unsettled her. There was something about the way he watched everything - he was too still, too aware.
She was young, barely out of her teens, and not an Ascendant, not that Orion had used his Eyes of Dominion in front of an audience. It was just a hunch; she didn't have that sharpness he'd felt about other ascendents.
"Yes… Orion?" she asked, clearly confused.
"Can you clarify how Ascendants sense one another?" he questioned calmly.
The way he spoke - measured, precise - didn't sound like a child at all. It was the first time most of the class had ever heard his voice, and more than a few students turned to look at him.
Her answer was lacklustre at best. Vague explanations about awareness and presence, offered without real understanding. Still unsatisfied, Orion asked Marn the same question on the walk home.
She was surprised he'd even asked. The usually silent boy rarely showed curiosity about anything outside her books. But even she didn't know much beyond surface-level explanations.
Likely because she, too, was not a particularly capable Ascendant.
But from what Orion could piece together, Ascendants didn't sense Ether itself, but its movement. The circulation within the body, the subtle fluctuations that leaked outward. Like catching movement at the edge of one's vision, or sensing a shift in the air.
He couldn't feel Ether in that way.
Whether it was something he needed to learn or something that unlocked at higher ranks, he wasn't sure.
But one thing was clear: he had to be careful.
As far as he knew, he hadn't encountered any truly capable Ascendants recently. Not his father. Not even the mysterious man who used to visit his mother, who possibly could still be visiting his mother while he was away at school.
But luck was unreliable.
And concealment was essential.
If anyone discovered that a child his age had already Ascended, let alone reached Ember Rank, the entire city would fall into chaos.
So, Orion did what he always did.
He adapted.
Just as he'd created his own cultivation method, he devised his own concealment technique.
He called it Internal Dominion.
The concept was simple - halt the flow and seal the ether.
Freeze Ether circulation entirely. Lock all his ether within his core, preventing even the faintest fluctuation from escaping the body. If Ascendants sensed movement rather than Ether itself, then stagnation was the answer.
And if at higher levels they could also sense ether itself, then sealing it added a layer of concealment.
It was exhausting to maintain. Required absolute precision and control.
But it worked.
At least, it seemed to.
Not that he intended to test it against someone like his father if he didn't have to.
'Maybe it's a blessing in disguise that he's a deadbeat,' Orion thought, a faint smirk touching his lips.
He liked the name.
Internal Dominion.
It fit the theme.
And it fit him, with it only being possible because of his unique control over ether.
Maintaining his Internal Dominion at all times unless he was alone in his room, Orion continued progressing in the shadows.
Learning, planning, waiting - years passed by quickly...