The border between Reed's domain and the neighboring territory of Lord Vexus manifested as a physical wound in the landscape—a jagged crack where soil turned from the rich, blood-infused black earth of the Hollow to the sickly yellow clay of Vexus's realm. Reed paused at this boundary, feeling the elemental energies within him recoil at the transition. Behind him, the skies bore the perpetual amber hue of his domain. Ahead, clouds of noxious green vapor swirled beneath a sky the color of old bruises.
"You feel it, don't you?" Shia asked, her shadow-form congealing beside him. "The rejection. Your elements sense the incompatibility."
Reed nodded, watching as the flesh of his forearm rippled with discomfort, the four elements churning visibly beneath his translucent skin. "Each Lord's domain is an extension of their essence. My presence here is... an intrusion."
