Annabelle knew.

I don’t know how she knew, or how much she knew, but I was certain that she knew I was Brandon Norwood, or at least his reincarnation.

I’m ashamed to admit that my first thought was to run.

My second thought was to run and hide, so she could never find me again.

It was cowardice, pure and simple.

However, I did neither of those things. I did what I always had done when I found Annabelle crying. I hugged her. It was instinct. No. It was deeper than that. It was a soul deep reaction.

The moment I did, Annabelle pulled me into a tight embrace, her arms wrapping around me like the bars of a cage.

“Ha,” she said, her voice still thick with emotion. “Got you.”

I let out a resigned sigh, before chuckling. Annabelle had played me again.

“Yes, you did,” I said, switching to English to confuse any eavesdroppers.

Annabelle squeezed me tighter. If I had been a regular person, I would have been in pain. As it was, I just felt a slight discomfort. She let out a contented sigh. The scent of her vanilla perfume teased my nose. Her warmth seeped through my clothes and into my skin.

“You have no idea how much I’ve missed this,” Annabelle said, also in English.

I did, for I missed her just as much, though I didn’t voice this out loud.

Having Annabelle in my arms again was pure bliss. It was heaven on earth. I felt like a man who almost died of thirst, and now drank the waters of heaven.

Annabelle’s presence soothed my soul in ways I could scarcely comprehend, even as a reincarnated Immortal. I hadn’t even realized just how much pain I had been in until this moment, when she drove it all away.

My guilt and shame raised their ugly heads, whispering their poisonous words in my ear. They told me that I didn’t deserve this. They told me that I didn’t deserve her. I deserved to suffer for what I did.

I ignored them. The woman I loved was in my arms again, after a lifetime apart, and I wasn’t going to let go just yet.

We stood there for several minutes, just enjoying each other’s company. The entire time, I felt Avianna glare at me with murderous intent. With my divine sense, I even saw her draw out her short sword.

I started to pull away, but Annabelle tightened her hold on me.

“Oh, fuck no,” she said, her voice still a bit rough. “I’m not letting you go again, Brandon. Not after I just found you.”

“Gabriel,” I said. “My name is Gabriel in this lifetime.” I pulled away enough to look at Annabelle’s, though she resisted. She glared at me through red-rimmed eyes. “And if we don’t separate soon, your watchdog is going to kill me. She’s ten seconds away from cutting off my head.”

“Avianna,” Annabelle called out in Common Tongue, still looking me in the eyes. “Leave us.”

“But Lady Annabelle-…”

“I said leave us!”

Avianna didn’t move or say anything for several seconds, before she sheathed her short sword and left. However, she didn’t go very far. She reached the edge of the rose garden and parked herself there.

Was it my imagination, or did the killing intent coming from her grow even stronger?

I looked in her direction, though I couldn’t see her with my eyes.

“I suppose that’ll have to do,” I muttered.

Annabelle caught me off guard, and pulled me into a tight embrace again.

“You know,” I said, still speaking in English. “You don’t have to hold me so tightly. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Bullshit!” Annabelle said, switching back to English. She pulled back enough to glare at me some more. “You’re a coward when it comes to matters of the heart, Brando-… I mean, Gabe. When you realized I knew who you were, your first instinct was to run, wasn’t it?”

I blinked in surprise at her. How the hell had she known that?

“Because I know you.”

Wait, what? Did she just read my mind?

“No, I didn’t read your mind. I’m just good at reading your face, Brandon. I mean Gabe. You’re like an open book to me.”

I stared off into the distance, grimacing.

“Give up,” she said. “You’re not going to win this. I always get what I want.”

“Only because I let you,” I grumbled.

“Uh huh, sure.”

It felt good to banter like this. Fucking hell, I hadn’t realized how much I had missed being Brandon Norwood until this moment. Yeah, he had been a weird loner lost in his own little world, but at least he had Annabelle.

I pulled Annabelle to me before she could say anything again, and just held her.

“How did you find out?” I asked. “How long have you known? And how did you realize I remembered the truth as well?”

Annabelle didn’t respond right away. Instead, she took her time.

“About two weeks after our duel, I received a divination from a grand priest of the Church of the Sun,” she said.

A divination. Of fucking course.

“I wanted to find you, so Mom and Dad made arrangements with the Church of the Sun,” Annabelle continued. “The grand priest they talked to was busy at the time, however, so we had to delay things for a while.”

“Wait, you were looking for me?” I asked.

Annabelle tightened her hold on me.

“I’ve been searching for you ever since I came to Lumina,” she said. “Now that I’ve found you, I’m never letting go of you again.”

She’s been searching for me ever since she came to Lumina? Why? How had she known I was here? Questions buzzed about in my head like bees, but I put them on the back burner for now. That was a conversation for another time. We didn’t have to go over everything at once.

“The divination itself was some weird ritual that took hours,” Annabelle continued. “And in the end, the grand priest only told me one thing: ‘the First Son of the House of the Storm Dragon is your lover reborn.’” She said this next part in a flat voice. “It didn’t take a genius to figure out who he meant by that.”

While divinations tended to be vague and open to interpretation most of the time, I had to admit, this one was pretty clear cut. There weren’t many people who it could have referred to. In the entire Solarian Empire, House Sturm was the only one who claimed descent from a storm dragon. Perhaps there was one in the Lunarian Kingdom, but I doubted it.

“You must have been pissed about that,” I said with a chuckle.

“Oh, you have no idea,” Annabelle said. “I was in denial for the longest time. How could Lord Gabriel Sturm, that pig-headed, egotistical, rude, petty-…”

“Hey!”

“-…weak little twerp be my Brandon? Besides, you’re seventeen years old. I only lost Brandon two years ago. How could you two be the same person?”

“Time fuckery I assume.”

Annabelle pinched me.

“My point is,” she said. “It took time for me to wrap my head around the idea.” She lowered her voice. “More importantly, Brandon would never hurt me the way Lord Gabriel did.”

Her words punched me in the gut.

“I’m so, so sorry about that,” I said, my voice hoarse.

“Hey, none of that,” Annabelle said. “I already told you that I forgive you.” She paused. “Buuuuuut, if you really feel bad about it, you could always owe me another favor. That way, I get the three I asked for in the first place.”

I shook my head.

“You’re shameless.”

“When it comes to you? Always.”

I let out a sigh.

“Fine. You win. You get one more favor, for a total of three.”

“Ha! I told you I always get what I want.”

I pulled back so we could face each other again.

“So, what happened after that?”

Annabelle wiped away her now mostly dried tears.

“I decided to see for myself if you really were Brandon,” she said. “Of course, by the time I made that decision, you had already fucked off to the Icefall Region. I had to find a way to reach you without anyone else getting suspicious.” She looked a little guilty at this. “I haven’t told anyone else about you being Brandon. I was afraid Mom and Dad would have tried to stop me if I had. You aren’t their most favorite person in the world right now.”

That was going to be a headache to deal with if I wanted to be with Annabelle, and I did. I thought I could keep myself away from her, but after seeing her again and holding her in my arms, I knew that I couldn’t. Sure, I could force myself to do so, but why would I? I never wanted to do without her ever again. She was my sun; without her, my life was cold, desolate, and barren.

Nothing and no one would keep me from Annabelle. Not her family, not mine, and certainly not my guilt and shame. That said, I would have to work through my personal bullshit. Just because Annabelle forgave me, didn’t mean I forgave myself just yet.

“So, that’s the reason why you came to Rosewood City?” I asked.

Annabelle nodded.

“Since House Thorne and House Rosewood had ties with each other, it worked out really well for me,” she said.

“I thought you did it to see more of this world.”

“That’s what Mom and Dad assumed when I took a break from the academy and said I wanted to head north. I just never corrected their misunderstanding. If they knew the real reason, they wouldn’t have sent me here.”

“And what was your plan after that?” I asked. “Sneak away to Icefall City?”

“Basically, yeah,” she said. “I needed to see for myself if the grand priest’s divination was true.” She pouted at me. “Of course, none of this would have been necessary if you hadn’t run away like a wuss. Still, you made up for it by coming to Rosewood City on your own, so it evens out.”

I didn’t respond right away.

“I had a lot of things to deal with,” I said. “Most of them my fault. Going to the Icefall Region was the best solution I could come up with at the time.”

If I had known that Annabelle knew that I was Brandon Norwood, would I have made the same decision? Yes. Part of the reason that I fled to the Icefall Region was to avoid seeing Annabelle again, but it wasn’t the whole reason. I also did it for my family’s sake, and for the sake of my cultivation.

Ugh. That was another conversation Annabelle and I needed to have. She didn’t know about my first life as Immortal Celestial Thunder. I did not look forward to that. How did you tell someone that you were a reincarnated divine being? It was easier with Leroy, Lorelei, and Corie since they witnessed my true self when I forged the familiar contract with Aurora.

Annabelle caressed my face, pulling me back to the present.

“Lost you there for a second,” she said in a soft voice.

“Sorry,” I said. “I have a lot on my mind.”

She pouted.

“The only thing that should be on your mind right now is me,” she said in a teasing tone, before letting out a smile. “But I’ll forgive you this time.”

“You are the epitome of generosity and mercy,” I said in a sardonic tone.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Of course.”

“And humility.”

“That goes without saying.”

The two of us stared at each other for several seconds, before we both burst out into laughter.

“Okay, let’s get back on track,” I said, after my laughter started to die down. “How did you know it was me?”

“Simple,” she said. “You apologized. In all the time I knew you as Lord Gabriel, you never apologized to anyone for anything. That’s when I started to suspect that maybe you really were my Brandon.”

I racked my head, and realized that she was right. Well, not quite. The only people I apologized to were my family, and those I thought I had genuinely wronged. There weren’t many of the latter.

“I knew for sure when we met again at the lake,” Annabelle continued. “Otherwise, my little trick wouldn’t have worked. What did you call it again? Oh right, ‘Annabelle’s Puppy Eyes.’” She grinned at me. “That’s when I knew that you were my Brandon. I’ll admit, I got a little teary on the carriage ride home.”

“You bawled your eyes out, didn’t you?”

Annabelle punched me in the shoulder.

“Of course I did. Do you know how happy I was that I found you? That’s all that mattered to me. I mean, it sucked a little since you were also Lord Gabriel, but I could overlook that. There are worse handicaps.”

I pursed my lips.

“Thanks,” I said in a flat voice.

“You’re welcome,” she said, giving me a bright smile.

Annabelle then pulled away from me and crossed her arms. I felt cold without her warmth.

“All right,” she said. “Your turn. Spill it. When did you get your memories back? How long have you known?”

“In short?” I asked. “Ever since the duel. That’s when I regained the memories of my past lives. When I woke up from the coma and realized what I had done to you…” I paused. “…I have never hated myself more than in that moment.”

Annabelle looked away.

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t a picnic for me either,” she said, before looking back at me. “But as I said, I forgive you. For your sake, I’m willing to overlook a lot.”

Instead of feeling better, her words made me feel worse. I really was a toad lusting after a swan.

Was I going to stop? No.

“Yeah, well, I haven’t forgiven myself,” I said. “I don’t think I will for a long while yet.”

“You can start by taking responsibility for your actions instead of running away,” Annabelle said. “Stop hiding in the Icefall Region. Come back with me to the capital. Be with me. Actually make it up to me, instead of brooding about it.”

I was tempted. Oh, how I was tempted. I wanted to take her hand and never look back.

Yet, I didn’t.

“I can’t,” I said. “Rather, I won’t.”

Annabelle’s eyes narrowed. The temperature around us rose as heat radiated off of her.

“Why not?” she asked in a dangerous tone of voice.

“When it comes to you, I feel like I’m at war with myself,” I said. “Just because I remembered my past life as Brandon Norwood doesn’t mean that my feelings for you as Gabriel Sturm have disappeared. All the hate and jealousy is still there. They’re fading away, but they aren’t gone. I have a lot of issues I need to work through.”

Annabelle looked at me as if I had just punched her in the gut.

“Besides, it’s not just about me and you,” I said. “I have responsibilities that I can’t just abandon. You weren’t the only one that I hurt with my actions. My family suffered as well. I have a lot to make up for. That isn’t even taking into consideration my other duties.”

Annabelle didn’t respond right away.

“And you need to be in the Icefall Region for this?” she asked after a moment.

“Yes, for now.”

Well, not for my cultivation. I could practice that anywhere. I just needed someplace quiet, and away from watchful eyes.

However, I had people relying on me now. I wouldn’t just abandon them. Chief among them were Lorelei and Corie. They were my disciples. While they might join me if I headed back south, that wasn’t a decision I could make unilaterally. They had friends and family back in the Icefall Region. They had lives of their own. I wouldn’t take them away from all that, not without discussing the matter with them first.

Annabelle hugged herself tighter.

“Are these duties and responsibilities of yours more important than me?” she asked in a small voice.

My heart squeezed at that.

“No,” I said. “But they are still important to me, the same way House Thorne is important to you. Would you abandon them if I asked you to?”

Annabelle didn’t answer for a long time.

“Yes,” she whispered. “If you asked me to, I would.”

I reached forward to caress her cheek. Her skin felt like it was on fire. That wasn’t a euphemism. As a Fire wizard, Annabelle’s body could withstand heat better than most. It could also produce heat. That was a Fire wizard’s internal magic.

“Yet, it would pain you to do so,” I said. “Which is why I would never ask you to do that. You love them. I can tell. Please don’t ask me to abandon the other people I care about.”

Annabelle closed her eyes and leaned into my touch.

“I hate this,” she said. “I finally found you after all these years, only for you to leave me again.”

“It won’t be forever,” I said.

Annabelle’s eyes snapped open at this. She gave me an intense look.

“No,” she said. “It won’t. You aren’t escaping from me again, Bran-…Gabe. I meant Gabe! Fuck! This is going to take some getting used to.”

“You don’t have to push it,” I said. “If it makes you feel better, you can call me Brandon.”

“No, I’ll get over it.” Annabelle narrowed her eyes at me. “I don’t know if I can say the same about your pretty boy face. I’m so used to hating it. Every time I see it, I have to resist the urge to punch you.”

I grinned at her.

“Maybe this will help.”

I grabbed Annabelle by the waist, and pulled her towards me. She let out a little yelp, but made no effort to get away. Instead, she rested her hands on my shoulders.

“Well now,” Annabelle said, raising an eyebrow at me. “You’ve gotten bolder. You almost never initiated things back on Earth. I thought I’d have to use up a favor to get you to kiss me.”

Keeping on one hand on her waist, I cupped Annabelle’s cheek with the other.

“That’s because I’m a different person now,” I said. “I’m still Brandon Norwood, but I’m not just Brandon Norwood. He’s a part of me, but not the whole of me. If that makes any sense.” I paused. “Is that something you can accept?”

Annabelle smirked at me.

“It was something I was prepared for the moment I accepted the grand priest’s divination.” She touched my chest. “As long as you’re still the boy I fell in love with at your core, I can accept a little weirdness.”

I froze at that.

“And if I’m not?” I asked. “Brandon is the second previous life that I can remember, not the first. I was someone else before him.”

There were several differences between Immortal Celestial Thunder and Brandon Norwood. Immortal Celestial Thunder was cold, cruel, and calculating. He treated his friends and family well, and showed no mercy to his enemies.

Brandon Norwood was shy, quiet, and meek. He kept to himself, closing his heart off to protect himself from an apathetic and indifferent world. If it hadn’t been for Annabelle, Brandon’s heart might have remained closed for the rest of his life.

Two different sides of a triangle, with Gabriel Sturm making up the third.

How had we gotten to this point? I meant to go in for a kiss, not tell Annabelle about my first life. I wanted to save that for later.

I also had another, and much more petty, reason for not telling her about Immortal Celestial Thunder. If I did, she would win The Argument. I wanted to delay that for as long as possible.

“Do you love me?” Annabelle asked.

“With all my being,” I replied without hesitation.

“Then it doesn’t matter. I accept you. I accept all of you.”

Her words lifted a burden I hadn’t even realized I was carrying. It eased a tension inside me that existed ever since I woke up with the memories of my previous two lives.

“I’ll hold you to that,” I said, before dipping my head down and kissing her.

Annabelle still emitted heat, so her lips almost burned mine. I didn’t care. They were as soft as I remembered. Drawing upon Brandon Norwood’s memories, I kissed Annabelle just the way she liked it. She let out a moan as I used every trick I learned in my previous life.

When she parted her lips, my tongue plundered her mouth over and over again. She grabbed my clothes and leaned against me for support. After several minutes of this, we parted. Her cheeks were flushed, and her lips were wet and swollen.

My own lips curled up in a satisfied smile at the sight.

“Holy shit,” Annabelle said, panting. “I’d forgotten how good you were with your tongue. Scratch that, you’re even better than I remember.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “You haven’t practiced with other women behind my back, have you?”

“No,” I said. “You’re the only one for me.”

“Uh huh. What about Lorelei and Corie? They’re both beautiful. Don’t tell me you weren’t tempted.

I shook my head.

“Not even a little bit. They’re like family to me. Nothing happened between me and them, and nothing ever will. That’s all I’ll say about that for now.”

Annabelle chuckled.

“Relax,” she said. “I’m just fucking with you.”

I looked at the sky and grimaced. The two of us had been talking in the rose garden for more than an hour. I needed to leave and head back to the hotel.

“I should go,” I said.

Annabelle sighed.

“I know,” she said. “I promised to have lunch with Lady Violet today, and I’m pretty sure I’m late. Unlike her shithead brother, she’s very sweet. I think you’d like her.”

“The caravan going back to Icefall City leaves tomorrow. I don’t know if I’ll be able to see you before then.”

Annabelle leaned against my shoulder again.

“Don’t,” she said. “I don’t know if I’d be able to let you go a second time. Even now, I’m tempted to knock you out, tie you up, and drag you back to Thorne Manor.”

The idea of Annabelle knocking me out and kidnapping me, like some kind of cave woman, made me chuckle.

“Laugh it up,” Annabelle said. “You think I’m joking, but I’m not.”

She pulled away.

“Go,” she said. “Before I change my mind.”

I grabbed her hand and kissed it.

“Until next time, my lady,” I said, giving her a wink.

Annabelle’s cheeks flushed and she tried to swat at me, but I dodged out of the way. With that, I fled Dawnrose Hall.

----------------------------------------

Later that evening, I sat on top of the hotel’s roof and stared up at the waxing moon. It was almost full. After leaving Annabelle at Dawnrose Hall, I returned to the hotel where I spent the day alternating between resting and helping everyone pack up.

Lorelei and Corie questioned me on what happened between me and Annabelle, but I refused to answer. Leroy gave me a disapproving look, but otherwise left me alone.

After packing, we all had one final meal at a nearby restaurant before turning in for the night. However, I couldn’t sleep. My conversation with Annabelle today both settled and unsettled my heart. The part of me that was Brandon Norwood was ecstatic that Annabelle now knew the truth. However, he was also mired with guilt and shame.

The part of me that was Gabriel Sturm was troubled. He still hated Annabelle, consumed by jealousy and envy. Yet, he couldn’t deny the attraction he felt for her. It was something he had felt when they first met, but he buried it underneath all his other bullshit. The arrogance, the ego, the overwhelming sense of superiority.

Meanwhile, Immortal Celestial Thunder continued to maintain neutrality. In fact, he considered all this drama a distraction from what truly mattered: cultivation and training.

My emotions were a mess, so I decided to climb on top of the hotel and stare at the night sky to help settle my mind.

‘You’ve been awfully quiet today,’ I said to Aurora.

After the meeting with Lady Rosewood, Aurora curled up in my dantian, and hadn’t moved since. When I met Annabelle, I expected her to pipe up with a sarcastic comment, but she never did. Hell, she didn’t even say “I told you so”. Something was bothering her, and I had a faint idea of what it was.

Apologies, Gabe, Aurora said. I just have a lot on my mind right now.

‘Is it because we heard Terra’s voice earlier?’

Aurora gave me a mental nod.

For as long as I can remember, which isn’t all that long, I always knew that I lacked something, she said. I was missing something important, and I thought I would never get it back.

‘Your memories?’

Not only those, but something else. I feel like a fire that’s missing its spark. Does that make sense?

I nodded, though she couldn’t see me. Or maybe she could. I couldn’t tell what Aurora could or couldn’t perceive from within my dantian.

‘Yes, I do.’ I held up my hand and studied my palm. ‘You’re missing your divinity, the spark that makes you a divine being. I’m the same way. I have the memories and the soul of a reincarnated Immortal, but I am not an Immortal.’

Yes! That’s exactly it, Aurora said. I always assumed that my memories and my spark were taken away from me. However, after hearing…after hearing that voice, I don’t think that’s the case.

I frowned at this.

‘What do you mean?’

I think I still have them, my memories and my divine spark. They were never taken away from me, they were just sealed away. It’s like they were locked away in a vault, but after hearing that voice, the door to that vault opened up a crack.

‘So you got your memories back?’ I asked. ‘Or at least some of them?’

Just one, Aurora said. A hazy one at that. I also received a bit of power. That was why I was so quiet today. I was busy assimilating it.

I studied Aurora with my divine sense. She was more powerful than before. Not by much, but it was still an increase. That was good news for me as well, since it meant that my cultivation speed would increase as a result.

‘What do you remember?’ I asked.

Aurora paused before answering.

I remember being curled up in a woman’s lap, she said. She hummed a tune as she caressed my body. That’s it.

Given the context, I believed that this woman was Terra.

‘It’s not much,’ I said. ‘But it’s something. I imagine that when we become divine beings again, you’ll regain all of your memories.’

You really think so? Aurora asked.

‘Yes. And if that isn’t the case, I’ll do everything in my power to help you recover them.’

I…Thank you, Gabe. That means a lot to me.

‘Of course. We’re partners now. One being.’

I sent the mental equivalent of a hug to Aurora, and she returned it. Neither one of us said a word for a long while as I sat there on the roof, staring up at the night sky.

After a certain point, Aurora began humming a tune. It was a familiar tune, one I hadn’t heard since I was a mortal back on Spirit Earth. Soft and gentle, the tune was for a lullaby that parents sang to their children to help them sleep.

My heart ached when I heard Aurora humming it, and tears began falling down my cheeks.

Aurora stopped humming.

Gabe, what’s wrong? she asked. Why are you crying?

‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘Your humming brought back old memories.’

The last time I heard this tune was just before my first masters disappeared. They were a husband and wife pair that jointly taught me as their disciple: Celestial Blade and Celestial Weaver. Celestial Weaver, the wife, hummed this tune as we enjoyed a cup of tea together. It was the last time I saw her.

I didn’t remember my parents from that lifetime. The closest I had back then were my first masters. They treated me as their own son, and I loved them for it. We didn’t have a long time together before they disappeared, just a century or so, but they were the ones who got me started down the path to immortality. Their teachings continue to influence me to this day.

Every time I heard this tune, I thought of them. I tried searching for them, when I grew powerful enough, but never found a trace of them or what happened to them. It was as if they had vanished into nothing.

Do you want me to stop?

‘No, keep going.’

Aurora resumed her humming. I closed my eyes and listened.

If Terra was the woman from Aurora’s memory, and I had no reason to believe otherwise at the moment, then that confirmed something I suspected for a while.

Terra was like me. She was originally from Spirit Earth. Or she knew someone who was. It made sense. If I could end up here on Lumina, so could others from Spirit Earth.

That was the only explanation I could think of. How else would she know the language of Spirit Earth? When she spoke to me earlier, it sounded like it was her native tongue. Her words, her accent, everything.

More than that, Terra knew me. She didn’t know of me, but she knew me personally. That was the feeling I got when she spoke to me earlier. And I knew her, though I couldn’t remember who she was. My brief encounter with her today wasn’t enough for me to identify her. If I met her directly, that would be a different story, but that wouldn’t happen for a while.

While I was intrigued by this mystery, I put it on the back burner. It wasn’t urgent, and I didn’t think I could force the answers out of Terra. I would need to be a lot more powerful than I currently was to make that happen.

For now, I would focus on what was in front of me. Training my disciples, dealing with my family, Annabelle, and my own training. Those took precedence.

Aurora continued to hum while I sat there on the roof, watching the moon.