“It doesn’t seem real,” Mother said, taking a look around. “Sometimes, I feel like I’m in a prolonged dream, and at any moment, I’m going to wake up.”
“I could pinch you,” I said, grinning at her. “If you think it will help.”
Mother gave me a withering look and didn’t respond. The two of us were standing atop the roof of the new main hall for Sturm Hill Hall. It sat right in the center of the newly built estate, giving us a clear view of everything. Or maybe compound was a better word, since the whole place consisted of multiple buildings, surrounded by a wall taller than me that was reinforced by a defensive magic circle.
It was late morning. Dark gray clouds blanketed the sky, blocking the sun. Snow coated the forest that surrounded Sturm Hill Hall. It gave the area an air of purity and cleanliness. A magic circle kept the compound itself free of snow. It was still freezing cold out, but Mother and I were fine. We wore thick winter clothing, and we were both cultivators. Mundane weather like this wasn’t worth the worry.
Despite the cold, Sturm Hill Hall was a lively place. Servants bustled about, many of them newly hired, each of them busy with one chore or another. Since the Sturm Hill Hall was much larger than it used to be, we needed more servants to handle the upkeep.
The servants weren’t the only ones out and about. Our Clan’s disciples were busy with their own business. Some were training or cultivating, while others worked for the Clan in order to earn merits.
Watching it all filled me with nostalgia. It reminded me of the Blossoming Lotus Sect back on Spirit Earth, albeit on a much smaller scale. Our Clan had ten outer disciples, three inner disciples, a single core disciple, and one elder. Two, if I counted Grandfather Gabe. Meanwhile, the Blossoming Lotus Sect had tens of thousands of members. Still, Sturm Hill Hall’s bustle reminded me a little of my old sect.
Hmm, maybe we should come up with a new name for this place. After all, there were more halls now, in addition to the original Sturm Hill Hall. Sturm Hill Estate? Sturm Hill Compound? Or maybe we should just go with something simple and easy, like Sturm Hill. I would have to talk with Mother about it.
That could wait until later, however. Right now, the two of us were enjoying the view.
It was several months after my conversation about House Griffin with Guildmaster Sinclair. Winter was well under way, and the snows had arrived. The climate was much harsher here than it was down south. Not only was it colder, but it snowed more and the winds were stronger. Despite the dismal weather, we were all in high spirits.
The airship for House Icefall arrived a little after my conversation with Guildmaster Sinclair, which allowed us to start shipping mythril south by having it travel with the House Solaria airship. Lord Icefall had been particularly happy about that, since it meant that no one would dare try to steal from his House or ours.
When it arrived, the airship also brought with it the personnel hired by Father for the renovation and expansion of Sturm Hill, as well as the materials needed. Under their direction and guidance, we had begun to set our plans for the place in motion.
The reason why we hired outside experts, instead of doing everything ourselves, was simple. The architects and engineers hired by Father were also wizards who specialized in construction. Building, or renovating in this case, an estate worthy of a House wasn’t a simple matter. It required knowledge of magic circles, magical materials, and so on that, frankly, none of us had.
We had needed a lot of mana to power all the spells that would go into Sturm Hill. Defensive spells, mana gathering magic circles, and the various enchantments that improved quality of life overall. Not only that, but since this was the home of Clan Sturm, we had needed several meditation chambers of varying qualities for the sake of our disciples’ cultivation.
Not only that, but rebuilding Sturm Hill required magical materials. For the most part, we just needed low-grade or mid-grade materials, but places like the meditation chambers required high-grade materials at a minimum. Thanks to our deal with House Icefall, we had mythril for the parts that required metal, but we had to buy and import the rest. Thankfully, Father had already thought of all that.
Balancing all this so that Sturm Hill would be in harmony with nature, rather than working against it, had required an expert’s knowledge. So, Father hired several. I probably could have done it myself, if I just wanted to use formations, but magic circles were overall better for this sort of thing. Grandfather Gabe was responsible for the most important magic circles, because of his level of power and knowledge, but we left the rest for the personnel hired by Father.
The actual construction itself didn’t take much time or effort, despite the frost and the snow. We had several wizards with a variety of elemental affinities available. With their aid, it only took us a few weeks to finish rebuilding Sturm Hill into a home worthy of Clan Sturm.
The results filled me with pride and joy.
There was the original Sturm Hill Hall, which had been renovated and expanded. This was where members of the main family resided. For now, that just meant Mother and I, as well as Grandfather Gabe. It wasn’t all that different from the original Sturm Hill Hall. We only replaced what needed replacing, knocked down some walls to enlarge certain rooms, and other small touches to brighten things up. However, we also now had a private training hall, so we could practice without an audience.
In addition to Sturm Hill Hall itself, we also built a slew of other buildings. Right in the center of it all was the main hall, which served as a gathering spot for the Clan, as well as a communal mess. It was also where we would first receive any guests that might come our way.
We also had a proper training hall for our Clan’s disciples, as well as a dormitory for our Clan’s outer disciples to live in. Having all of them stay in Sturm Hill Hall itself had made things cramped. It wasn’t as bad as it had been when the rest of the House Sturm retainers were here, but I enjoyed having more space again. The dormitory was too large for just ten people, but in time we would have more disciples.
There was also a separate dorm for our Clan’s inner disciples, which only consisted of Leroy, Lorelei, and Corie at the moment. Again, while it was too large for just the three of them, it would be different in the future as our Clan grew. Hell, given their rate of progress under Grandfather Gabe’s tutelage, I wouldn’t be surprised if our ten outer disciples ended up becoming inner disciples in the future.
As for the training hall itself, it included a large open space for practicing martial arts as well as sparring. It had wooden dummies, targets for archery practice, and more. The training hall also had an obstacle course, one created using magic so that it could be changed, making each run different. Two different people going through it, one after the other, would face different courses. This also gave us the ability to adjust the difficulty of each course.
The training hall also had rooms for specialized forms of training. One example was the room where gravity could be adjusted by increasing or decreasing it, depending on the kind of training one needed. There was also the dark room, where both sight and spirit sense was limited, which was used to hone one’s other senses.
In addition to the dorms and training hall, we also had a library separate from the one in Sturm Hill Hall, as well as a secret library for more dangerous texts and tomes. We also had a proper repository for our Clan’s magic resources and supplies, with security measures in place to prevent theft as well as keep any dangerous materials contained. Back on Spirit Earth, I heard of a sect whose repository burned down because of a volatile magic fruit that hadn’t been properly contained.
We also had workshops built for magical crafting as well as alchemy. While we didn’t have many who could do the former, that would change in the future. If nothing else, Grandfather Gabe was happy, since he dabbled in magical crafting. I felt a bit guilty, since I had focused more on alchemy than magical crafting even though I had intended to study up on both. So far, the only things I have crafted were talismans. To be fair, talismans were pretty useful.
However, the most important building in the entirety of Sturm Hill was the meditation tower. As the name suggested, it was where all of Sturm Hill’s meditation chambers were located. It was a tall, cylindrical building that stood several stories high. The hall stood near the rear of the compound, and was protected by several layers of magical protection. As one of the most important buildings to our Clan, we had wanted to make sure that no outsider could mess with it.
Unlike the meditation chamber in the basement of Sturm Hill Hall, the ones in the meditation tower took elemental affinities into account. Each chamber was built from low-grade magical materials, which differed depending on the element we wanted the mana in the chamber to take on. We had one for each element, as well as a few which had more than one elemental affinity.
At the top of the meditation tower were the chambers reserved for members of the Sturm family. Not only did they have better mana gathering magic circles, but they had higher quality materials for Air and Lightning. I had been in one of them, just to check it out, and I could practically taste the Lightning in the mana. It made me giddy.
The part of me that was Immortal Celestial Thunder found the idea of a hall for meditation chambers a bit odd, since he was so used to immortal caves. Cultivators tended to cultivate in solitude, at least back on Spirit Earth, so the idea of cultivating together in a relatively small space was weird.
To be fair, there was a reason why cultivators practiced in solitude. There was only so much mana within a given area, so if two cultivators practiced too closely together, each would end up with less mana than they otherwise would have gotten. The more powerful the cultivator, the more mana they needed.
This was where the experts hired by Father earned their pay. Most Houses didn’t have a meditation tower, since few of them were large enough to need one. Only the largest of the Great Houses, the Solarian Imperial Academy, and the Tower of Magic used them. Since wizards also needed large amounts of mana in order to form new Circles, and a large number of wizards needed a massive amount of mana, this presented something of a problem.
Thousands of years ago, a wizard from the Tower of Magic came up with a solution to this problem. He was able to create a special kind of crystal that acted like a battery in order to store mana, similar to mana stones. These crystals could be used with certain kinds of mana gathering magic circles in order to mitigate the effect of too many wizards trying to form Circles near each other; or too many cultivators cultivating in our case. As long as every chamber wasn’t in use at the same time, it was fine. Everyone would have the mana they needed in order to cultivate and form new Circles.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
These mana crystals could only be used in conjunction with mana gathering magic circles, unlike mana stones, which limited their value. They were also only really used in meditation towers, which limited their value even further. Still, they were life-saving to those who did need them, like us.
As a result of all these mana gathering magic circles, Sturm Hill was practically flooded with mana. It was likely the most magical place in the Icefall Region, barring the clearing where Aurora and I formed our contract.
I made a mental note to revisit that place one of these days.
We also took a page from House Rosewood’s book, and beautified Sturm Hill in order to keep it from looking too utilitarian. In addition to the new buildings, gardens dotted the compound. While they were barren now, since we were still in the middle of winter, they would be rather beautiful come spring. Given all the ambient mana in and around Strum Hill, that was all but guaranteed.
These gardens weren’t just decoration either. After some discussion, Mother and I decided that rather than create one large field for our magic herbs, we would have several smaller gardens instead, with each one growing a different kind of magic herb; a union of beauty and utility.
Aside from the gardens, we also had statues, fountains, and other decorations. Stone pathways lined by fruit bearing trees connected everything. The trees were just saplings right now, but in a few years, they would enhance Sturm Hill’s beauty. Given the amount of mana in Sturm Hill, I wouldn’t be surprised if these trees started producing low-grade magic fruits within the next few decades.
My heart hurt when I thought about how much money it took to build all of this. While I didn’t know the exact amount, Father must have borrowed a large fortune from the Solarian Imperial Bank in order to finance it all. The mere thought of spending that much money filled me with anxiety, since I was so used to my family’s fortunes being on the decline. While we would be able to pay it off in a few years, thanks to our alliance with House Icefall, that didn’t make me feel all that much better. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.
***
While Mother and I stood atop the main hall, with neither of us saying a word, hope blossomed in my heart. The new Sturm Hill was small, as these things went, but it was the seed of something greater. Our Clan was small for now, but in time we would grow. I would make sure of it. House Sturm would rise to prominence once more.
“Gabriel,” Mother said, breaking the silence. “I’m not sure if I can be the Matriarch of Clan Sturm.”
My head whipped towards her, my eyebrows raised. Mother’s brow was furrowed, and she wore a frown on her face. I saw fear and anxiety in her eyes.
“What brought this on?” I asked.
Mother pursed her lips and didn’t respond right away.
“When we first decided to become a cultivator Clan,” Mother began after a while. “I was filled with hope and excitement. After leaving Clan Leone and forsaking cultivation, I felt adrift.” She shook her head. “Don’t get me wrong. I love Bryce, and I will never regret choosing to marry him. He brought light and joy to my life, and so did you and your siblings.” Her frown deepened. “However, I’ll admit, losing my cultivation left a hole in my heart that never healed. So much so, that I jumped at the first opportunity to become a cultivator again and help form my own Clan.”
Mother fell silent for a few moments.
“Afterwards, I was too busy working that I didn’t really take the time to think about what it would mean. It didn’t feel real to me, if that makes any sense.” Mother gestured towards the compound that surrounded. “However, after seeing all this, it feels real now. This is really happening. And I don’t know if I’m strong enough to bear the burden of being the Matriarch of a cultivator Clan.” She looked up, a melancholic expression on her face. “What if this was all a mistake? What if my desire to become a cultivator again blinded me to my own shortcomings?”
I stared at Mother for several long seconds. This side of Mother was new to me. At least, it was new to the part of me that was Gabriel Sturm. For the majority of my life here on Lumina, Father and Mother were the solid and unbreakable pillars of my world. Whenever me or my siblings had a problem, we would go to them for help. Before I regained the memories of my past lives, it never occurred to me that my parents were people too. Infallible people, with their own fears and anxieties.
Even after I regained my memories, a part of me continued to think like that, though I knew better. Parents struggled to navigate the trials and tribulations of life, just like their children. While the specific issues might differ, that particular truth remained the same. It was universal. As someone who lived on three different worlds, I was qualified to make that statement.
“Sorry,” Mother said, looking down and shaking her head. “I didn’t mean to lay that on your shoulders. Forget I said anything.”
“No, don’t say that,” I said. “It’s better to talk about this sort of thing rather than holding it in. Don’t let your fears fester in the darkness of your heart, lest they become an inner demon that will plague you later on.”
Mother gave me a small smile in gratitude.
“While I appreciate the gesture, Gabriel,” she said. “I’m the parent here. It’s my responsibility to listen to your troubles and help you deal with them, not the other way around.”
“True,” I admitted. “However, I’m not just your son. I’ve lived two entire lifetimes before this one. If we factor in my total life experience, I’m much older than you.”
Mother snorted at my words, but she didn’t refute them.
“Talk to me,” I said in a gentle voice. “Why do you think you’re not qualified to lead a cultivator Clan?”
Mother didn’t respond right away. She opened and closed her mouth several times.
“If it helps,” I said. “Don’t think of me as your son right now. Think of me as Celestial Thunder, a reincarnation from Spirit Earth.”
Who just happened to be wearing her son’s face, but I wasn’t going to mention that. Saying so would make it seem like I possessed Gabriel Sturm’s body.
“I have no experience running a House or a Clan,” Mother said in a rush, the words pouring out of her. “I wasn’t brought up with the expectation that I would lead either House Leone or Clan Leone. It was my mother, your grandmother, who was always more interested in that sort of thing.”
Grandfather Gabe mentioned something like this a while back. According to him, Mackenzie Leone, my maternal grandmother, focused more on House politics than on her cultivation. In fact, I believed she was working towards forming her own House and Clan.
“You’ve spent the past few decades as Lady Sturm,” I pointed out.
“There is a world of difference between being married to the head of a House, and actually being the head of a House, Gabriel.”
“Fair enough,” I said, conceding the point. “However, being the spouse of the head of a House is a position with several duties and responsibilities of its own.”
As Lady Sturm, Mother worked hard for the sake of our family. While Father focused more on external affairs, such as politics and our House’s enterprises, Mother focused on more internal affairs. Not only did she have to raise me and my siblings, but she also had to manage Sturm Manor as well as the other various properties our family owned.
She also had to participate in the House social scene, which was a battlefield in its own right. Vicious gossip, the roundabout way some House scions spoke, picking apart everything everyone else is doing, etc. It exhausted me just to think about it. It amazed me that Mother managed to hold her own when dealing with that nonsense. Despite her own…fiery reputation, her efforts were one the reasons why House Sturm was as well-regarded as it was; at least until I came along and fucked things up. While our House had continued its gradual fall to ruin, she helped slow things down.
“Even if we disregard all that,” I continued. “Your efforts over these past few months have proven that you’re more than capable of leading Clan Sturm. Grandfather Gabe and I helped you, but you were the one in charge.”
Mother clenched her hands into fists.
“I-…” she started to say, but stopped herself. She looked me right in the eyes. “Gabriel, I was a Foundation Establishment cultivator before I had my cultivation unraveled. Even though I’ve started cultivating again, I’m still just an Energy Condensation cultivator. I’m too weak to protect our Clan. If I introduced myself as the Matriarch of Clan Sturm, we will be laughed at and disgraced.” She gestured to me. “Given your current level of strength, and your rate of advancement, you’re more qualified than I am to lead our Clan.”
This was the crux of Mother’s issues: her low cultivation base. She feared that no one would take her seriously, since she was just an Energy Condensation cultivator. To be fair, her fears weren’t unfounded.
Back on Spirit Earth, cultivators valued strength almost above everything else. The one with the strongest fist often had the biggest say in things. Custom and courtesy kept things from getting too out of hand, but not always. I assumed that the cultivator Clans and sects here on Lumina had adopted a similar attitude.
“Strength alone does not mean that one would make for a good leader,” I said. “Back on Spirit Earth, I was one of the strongest cultivators around, but I considered myself a poor leader. I could take up the mantle, if necessary, but I preferred not to. Part of the reason why was that I had no interest in leadership. The duties and responsibilities that came with it took time and effort away from cultivation. At most, I would guide and teach my own disciples.”
Celestial Hound, on the other hand, had been an excellent leader. Without him around, our rebellion against the Golden Dragon wouldn’t have fared so well. We might have lost before we gained any momentum. He was the heart and brain, while I was the brawn. I fully expected him to become the new Heavenly Emperor after we won.
Then again, without him around, I wouldn’t have rebelled in the first place.
Backstabbing scumbag.
“And to point out the obvious,” I continued. “You’re a Fourth Circle wizard. While your cultivation level is low, you’re not weak. Your physical capabilities leave much to be desired, but your magic is strong. If someone mocks you for being an Energy Condensation cultivator, just set them on fire. That’s what you usually do when dealing with uppity House scions.”
Mother let out a surprised laugh at this.
“You do have a point,” she said, wiping a tear from her eye. A wistful smile adorned her face. “I do have something of a reputation, at least among the Houses.” Her smile turned thoughtful. “It might not be a bad idea to take the same approach with the Clans. That’s not how Clan Leone does things. They take a more diplomatic approach, but we aren’t Clan Leone, are we?”
Cultivators respected strength, and the simplest way to display strength was through violence.
“Not to mention, you aren’t alone,” I said. “While the head of a Clan is the main pillar holding everything up, they aren’t the only one. You have people you can rely on. Me, our disciples, Grandfather Gabe.” I paused. “In fact, when he returns, why don’t you talk with him about your concerns? I’m sure he’ll tell you the same thing.”
At least, I hoped he would. Grandfather Gabe doted on Mother. It was clear, even without the other members of Clan Leone around, that she was his favorite. Hell, he outright said it when I first met him.
If he was around, he probably would have popped up by now. However, at the moment, he was back in Sunheart. While Grandfather Gabe spent most of his time up here with us, helping us train our disciples, he made occasional trips down south to check in on Annabelle and the rest of our family.
I took those opportunities to exchange letters with my beloved. We used Grandfather Gabe as a courier, since we didn’t want to risk her family intercepting them. While he grumbled about being treated as a mere messenger, we knew that he didn’t mean it.
After I finished speaking, Mother looked down, a gentle expression on her face.
“I will,” she said, before looking me in the eyes. “Thank you, Gabriel. I didn’t mean to lay all of this on your shoulders, but thank you.” She huffed. “Sometimes, I’m not sure if I can rely on you, given the immature way you act sometimes. But then you do something like this, and remind me that you’re more than you seem.” Her expression turned serious. “Which one is the real you? The immature teen? The wise old cultivator?”
“Both,” I said with a shrug. “Immature teen and reincarnated Immortal are two facets of my true self. No one is ever just any one thing. We are all complex beings. That’s true for everyone, even if some seem shallow and one-dimensional.” I tapped my chest. “Each of us has a rich and colorful inner world.”
A troubled expression crossed Mother’s face.
“Please don’t grow up too fast,” she whispered. “I don’t want to lose my son just yet.”
“You don’t have to worry about that just yet,” I said. “I’ll be your son for as long as you need me to be. We’re family, now and forever.”
Mother nodded as we fell silent again and simply enjoyed each other’s company.