"Your father and I met in that town, both lost and lonely," my Mother continued, "meeting each other only by chance.

"I had apprenticed to a local potion maker, and your Father was one of the young Elves that supplied that shop with spirit herbs. He flirted with me shamelessly for months but never had the courage to ask me out."

"Hey! I asked you out," my Father interrupted with indignation.

"Of course, you did, dear," Mother replied, the gentle pat to his check a habit of hers when she needed to soothe his bruised ego.

"Anyway, you know the rest. We've shared the stories of our courtship with you. Once I finished my apprenticeship, we moved around, finally arriving in Flowing Water town, where we settled down and began to raise a family."

"And the Dark Elves? You mentioned gifts. I would guess there might be racial traits that were inherited with that bloodline. Is there anything we need to be concerned with?"

"The Dark Elves have their own version of the Spirit Root awakening [Ritual]," Mother replied, "there are some benefits that one can gain from it. You wouldn't have noticed, but you have better night vision.

"The other trait you seem to have inherited is your ability to sense ley-lines and magnetic fields that circumnavigate the world. It is why you have never gotten lost. Even as a child, you knew where home was, your expanded senses allowing you to navigate even the most confusing intersection of roads and buildings."

"It was your poor Father's own personal tribulation keeping track of you at times. We love you, make no mistake, but you were a handful to raise."

"I almost decided to stop taking you hunting with me because of your be-damned curiosity. I had to track you down more than twice before making you understand the Forests were dangerous," Father agreed. "And I think that lesson might never have been learned if I hadn't been wounded fighting off a tier one beast that had been stalking you and attacked as I found you."

I blushed at his reminder. The one and only time Father had spanked me was after I'd followed my nose after I discovered a scent I'd never experienced before, leading me to a carnivorous plant that exuded a sweet smell to attract prey.

I didn't mean to run off. I never did. But my curiosity was hard to contain. I might have made a good Peacekeeper if I hadn't become a Cultivator. I was always trying to understand the reasons something existed or happened.

Truth stones and tracking beasts made it easier to find a person involved in a crime and determine guilt or innocence, but searching for clues and making the connections between the most trivial matter found at a crime scene seemed like something I would have enjoyed if I hadn't awoken a spirit root.

Those traits that allowed me to notice the small details and make an intuitive leap in logic based on the most negligible evidence were significant reasons for my success as a Cultivator. That and the fact that I was the Main Character in the world of some demented Author. Which meant I had the Heaven's own luck as I lived my life.

"The Dark Elves are isolated, far enough away that there is no chance that we will have to worry about the people that effectively exiled you and your parents?" I asked, ignoring Father and the issue of my misbehavior.

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"It's doubtful," Mother assured me. "They would have to traverse the Empire, gain passage across the ocean, discover what city we were living in and hide who and what they are while doing so.

"It has been so long since my parents fled. So long since they were killed, I doubt even the Dark Elves, with their penchant for holding grudges, would bother with the children of a House that had been wiped out mainly because the Dark Elves are as insular and clannish as Elves.

"If they made an effort to find us, other Dark Elf clans would wonder why. They might investigate and find that our House had been destroyed and that I was the last of our line. And that would mean the spirit stone vein and mine that had been stolen from us were mine, and the Clan involved in the theft might be sanctioned."

"Is that a real possibility?" I wondered.

"Yes, but only if the Clans or the Royal House actually investigated the matter and didn't simply blackmail or claim the mine for themselves."

"That is why your Father and I decided not to claim and restore House Mytle. Letting the House fade and being lost to time was easier and safer for you children and us."

"We did worry for the briefest moments when we learned you had established Fief Myche and House Myche but decided we were being paranoid over nothing. Yes, both Houses start with the same letter, but why would that gain the interest of a people that have long thought House Mytle destroyed?"

"Do you want to restore the House?" I asked.

"As you said, the chance of any Dark Elf that would even care is slim to none. Those left that would find out the House lives and bother tracking any members of that House across the Empire, ocean, and the Kingdom of Onkei to find any members is even smaller.

"If you wanted to re-establish the House, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't."

"We will talk to your brother and sister about the option when they are older. As Cultivators, they would be able to defend themselves, and one or both might be interested in claiming their own House," Mother promised.

Establishing a House required a person to navigate a bureaucratic nightmare within the Empire. A certain level of wealth and influence were required to surmount the roadblocks local governments put in place to keep those Houses already established firmly in control.

I would have to meet with Gwen and Clement in the future to devise a policy for my kingdom on that issue, one of many things I hadn't thought of or needed to worry about yet, mainly because it wasn't something I'd considered.

I had barely placed the Kingdom Stone and established the Onkei Kingdom. There was so much left to organize. But the method to form a House, Clan, and Sect must be addressed soon. Others would be interested in beginning that process, and I had planned on using the ability to establish those institutions to attract wealth and people.

I would lean on Clement's connections to find any Sects interested in migrating here. I also planned on speaking with Elder Cix from Flowing Water Sect to add another series of feelers within the Empire. That Elf was the craftiest person I had ever met, and I was confident he had connections and knowledge of individuals that were powerful, motivated, and driven enough to put in the effort to launch a Sect, Clan, or House on this remote island.

I had already sent him a communication device as a gift for a purely selfish motive. I wanted access to that Elves mind. He was the only person remaining in the Flowing Water Sect that I respected.

That thought made me realize it had been a while since I'd last spoken with Elder Shadow, the Elder I had followed when leaving Flowing Water Sect. At some point, I'd stopped considering him my mentor, someone I could go to for advice and support. Clement had assumed that role.

It wasn't that I disliked Elder Shadow. I realized that our goals no longer aligned. And if I was honest with myself, I had to admit I didn't trust him, or Patriarch Umbra, for that matter. I would not repudiate my House's alliance with House Penumbra, but that alliance was tenuous at best. It was not something I would or could rely on.

No, it was better to rely on Clement and his previous House. He had proven himself to be the better ally. His decision to forsake his House to join mine was a sacrifice that astonished me. The honor he had shown me with that decision was one I might never be able to return.