10th Day of Winter in the Year 515 AV
Ialari had only recently arrived in Riverfall and found lodging at The Sanctuary yet she already had her hands full of projects. The first one, or rather the first two, were the snakes that she had somehow given birth to through a strange new magic. The magic allowed her blood, when smeared in a healthy amount upon a roughly snake-like object, to turn that object into a living breathing snake, bonded to her as if created through Izentor. Two snakes had been created, Arith and Reth. After that, Ialari crafted a potential gift for Kavala in the form of an Izentored bracer that would aid her newfound friend in acquiring the skills of blacksmithing. Finally, Ialari needed to find Arith and Reth an appropriate home away from the frigid cold of Winter and in a place where they could thrive. The only place she could think of was her Dominion. The problem with that plan was that she'd need to create a new Dominion Door in which to reestablish a link to the Dominion. Having yet mastered each space shaping skills to create numerous doors, she was still limited to two. She already created the original door that linked The Retreat on the eastern coast of Syliras to the Dominion and then created a door that led from the Dominion to Riverfall. Unfortunately they weren't two-way doors which meant she would have to destroy one to create another.
The process of destroying one door in exchange for another seemed easy enough in theory. She would simply have to add the right patterns to the new door that would essentially nullify the one that brought her to Riverfall and replace it with one that led from The Sanctuary to the Dominion. Her experience with such things however told her that there was always an element of unpredictability when it came to toying with the Ukalas. While her skills had improved dramatically since that fateful day that Izurdin and Dira had given Ialari their support in learning the Lost Discipline, there were still so much that she didn't know.
As with the door leading to Riverfall, a physical door wasn't required. When dominating the initial space, it was helpful to have a physical door if only to give the Domineer a familiar point from which to enter. Having already established her Dominion as well as having claimed more space afterwards, the need for a physical doorway was not there. This meant that Ialari could draw a symbolic door upon any flat surface and thus establish the desired link. The door could be on the wall, the floor or even the ceiling if she so wished. Opening it was as easy as activating the symbolic trigger mechanism. With a physical doorway, the latch, knob or handle served in this regard. For a symbolic doorway however, the means of opening that door would have to be crafted into the door's actual design.
When it came to these types of doors, Ialari was fond of using her own blood as the trigger. It prevented unwanted opening of the door by outside forces. As Ialari pondered possible locations, the obvious choice for the general spot was her chamber. Looking around her room, she considered her options. "I could put it on the wall...but it would be too obvious. Even if I covered it with a curtain or tapestry, a door would still be clearly seen by anyone who looked behind it. It would look like a complex drawing to anyone not knowing what to look for but it would raise too many questions." She considered a moment a spot on the ceiling but entry from the physical world would be problematic. Plus, if she were to step back out through an open doorway on the ceiling, she would fall.
It then occurred to her that maybe putting the door under the bed might work. Pushing the bed up against one wall, Ialari looked at the floor and noted that she could easily put a door there. It didn't have to be all that large, maybe just big enough for her to step into comfortably. If she made the patterns correctly and altered the right symbols, she could make it so that stepping through the floor would lead to her simply stepping into the Dominion as if walking through an upright door.
The bed would easily conceal the door and add an extra layer of discreetness. The mere thought of reconnecting with her Dominion sent shivers throughout her body. It had only been a few days since was last there yet still the longing to return was strong. Having spent so long straddling the two realms, Ialari had grown accustomed to being a creature of both. Even though she knew the Tree of Death would be waiting for her upon her return, she at least now knew something of why it was there. The tree held the fractured pieces of her soul. In order to access those pieces and reforge herself into who and what she was truly meant to be, she needed to learn what it was to be alive. She'd spent so much time among the dead and on her own, isolated and alone. In order to access those other pieces, she had to know what it was to truly live with only one piece. How long that would take and how she would know if she'd succeeded was still unknown but her Dominion, in an odd sort of way, had told her she would know when it happened.
"I'm going to need some paint. Probably don't want to let anyone know what I need paint for though." Looking to the collection of seashells that Ialari brought with her to Riverfall, she had at least half of the ingredients she would need. It was easy enough to grind the shells into powder and she had enough of them that she should be able to make a small door from them. All she needed was something to bind the powered shells with. With a kitchen just a short distance away, eggs would likely be available to make the binding. Thankfully, the kitchen was only really active during certain times of the day when the staff and guests of The Sanctuary had their regular meals. This left many openings for Ialari to take a few eggs without question. With the various projects Kavala had need of in the forge, Ialari felt she could easily pay back the use of a few eggs.
Taking a few moments to retrieve some eggs from the kitchen, she returned to her chamber to assemble and prepare the paint.