Jin stared at the gold window for a long time after it folded itself away.
A domain, he thought, turning the word over in his head, and found he didn't quite know what to do with it.
He remembered the school the way it had been on the very first night, when it was nothing but an empty building with broken windows and four exhausted people sleeping on the floor of a classroom, taking turns on watch because they were too scared to all close their eyes at once. Back then, claiming it as territory had felt like a joke, a little flag stuck in the ground of a world that was falling apart. Then it had become a stronghold, with walls and recruits and a training yard and a garden. Then a fortress, with Aestros in the walls and Mirim's forest wrapped around it like armor. And now this.
He should have felt something bigger about it. Pride, maybe, or relief. Mostly, he just felt tired, and aware of how much more there still was to do.
He didn't have time to sit with it now anyway.
