Androlis easily matched his Grandmother's smile with one of his own while nodding and relaxing in his chair, “Good morning to you as well Grandmother, and yes I am beyond excited and am looking forward to having my concepts revealed” he answered despite the fact he already knew what his concepts would be.

  “That is good, that is good” She nodded, her smile never faltering. “Now, be honest with me young man, I know this is more than you simply gifting me your presence and morning greeting. Tell your old Grandmother what is on your mind.”

  “Being in your presence is the gift, Grandmother” He chuckled but let it fade upon seeing the intense gaze she leveled on him. Clearing his throat he added in a much more professional tone, “Mother requested I speak with you concerning a rather difficult and intense dream I experienced last night. According to her I had awoken screaming in a manner that suggested it was more than a simple nightmare.”

  “I see, I see” She muttered in response, her gaze unwavering.

  Andro resisted the urge to swallow nervously or even look around the room. To his misfortune, he couldn’t help but compare this to the atmosphere of the few interrogations he had the displeasure of being a part of.

  “Tell me of this dream, Little Andro. Perhaps it could be a sign of you gaining the family's gift and joining us on the path of divination” she suggested, her tone kind and inviting, yet her gaze stayed unwavering.

  Andro paused, taking a moment to compose his thoughts as he put together a plan on what to actually tell her. Hopefully she took his pause as him focusing on remembering what he could and not him trying to figure out what to reveal. Something he knew without a doubt however was he needed to keep it as truthful as possible, if there was anyone in this household who could see through lies, it was Grandmother. Looking up at her, Andro met her gaze and started speaking.

  “I saw carnage Grandmother. I saw creatures of scales and violence tearing their way across the city as they ravaged it. I could hear screams from both battle and fear echoing across the rubble. I saw Venilar brought to its knees, with the Father of scales himself standing upon the wreckage.” He spoke with utter truth and had to pause and look away to blink away the tears that threatened to appear.

  Now that he had time to rest and process everything that had happened, to think about the battle, it had been an awful event to witness let alone be a part of. At the time he had obviously been too focused on the fight itself to truly see and analyze how terrible it was. Too busy to count how many bodies had been simply stepped over, how many screams for help went ignored. A wave of guilt and utter shame slammed down onto him, onto his very soul, nearly dragging him out of his chair and onto the floor.

  His mind spun and he could feel his guts lurch, threatening to expel the potion he had drunk yet he was able to keep it down. How many people had died during the attack? How many could he have saved? How many would still be alive if he had never tried to kill the Corruptor?

  At some point Andro leaned forward in his chair, pressing his hands in his knees, his breath coming more rapidly. A noise caught his attention and he looked up to see Grandmother was also leaning forward, but it was to stare into his eyes with such an intensity he felt his very could being gazed upon. He flinched away from her stare, unable to bring himself to find the courage to look into her silver eyes.

  “What did you do?” she asked, her tone soft but firm enough alarm bells went off in his head which screamed at how suspicious he was acting right now.

  “I don't under…” he tried to deny, feigning confusion but was cut off by her shaking her head, her next words carrying a hint of annoyance.

  “Androlis Maxon, don't you dare try to pull a veil over my eyes you fool boy” She stated in a way that had him leaning back to sink into his chair, becoming fully aware of the power gap between them at that moment. “The old god of tricks himself couldn’t deceive these eyes so what made you think you even had a chance?” She leaned back into her chair, crossing her legs and tapping impatiently on the armrest with a single finger.

  A long moment passed as she simply stared at him with those shimmering silver eyes, all while he used every ounce of willpower he possessed to maintain a modicum of control and not break down. The moment stretched onwards to an almost uncomfortable degree, until she finally spoke, her tone even but curious.

  “My eyes see that it is you in there, little Andro. Yet it is also not” She said to which he nearly toppled back in his chair from how hard he flinched, “Do you not remember my lessons? The eyes of an individual are special, they are a window to one's soul, and in my case that is quite literal. Right now I see the eyes of my little Andro, of the young boy who would beg to hear a story or secretly watch his father train in the yard, and try to imitate the moves.”

  With every word she spoke, he could feel himself sink farther and further into himself, a cocoon of shame and guilt wrapping its way around him. How could he have believed that he could do all this without Grandmother finding out. He should have been surprised that she suspected something this soon, but if he knew his Grandmother he wasn’t surprised at all.

  “I see all that, yet I also see the eyes of man that speak of age. They tell a story of countless experience’s, ones of victory and ones of loss. They tell me of times of joy and success, but most of all they scream of despair and guilt. They cry out in a shame so profound that the determination that I can see struggles for every step it takes. So, tell me little Andro. Tell your Grandmother what it is you did”

  Her words struck him like a physical blow slapping into his face, leaving him speechless and motionless for several long moments as she maintained her gaze. He had a feeling she at least suspected something was off about him, but what she just said all but said she knew just about everything. Deep down he knew there was nothing he could do at this point, his only option was to tell her everything. After all, if there was anyone he could trust with this information, it was Grandmother, the most powerful seer in all of Venilar.

  Succumbing to her gaze, Andro let out a long, deep sigh that carried the weariness of the past decade as he slumped forward in his chair. He buried his face in his hands, his elbows resting on his knees and stayed like that for another long moment, gently rubbing his face as he did so. Eventually he pulled his face away, letting his hands drop to hang between his legs and he looked back up into the eyes of Grandmother. However, it wasn’t the hopeful and bright gaze of the Maxon family's youngest child that met hers. Right now, she met the haunted eyes of Androlis Maxon, commander of the Allied Forces 8th company, a man who had lost everything and who had very likely been what brought about the destruction of civilization.

  For the first time in what felt like a lifetime, the old seer that her family only referred to as Grandmother, felt speechless. She hadn’t been lying to the young man sitting before her, yet the drastic change in his demeanor, the way he now looked upon her, was more than she expected. Gone was her grandson, the cheerful young boy she would sneak sweets too when his mother wasn’t looking. What sat before her right now could only be described as an exhausted warrior, a man who had lived his life upon the battlefield and found nothing but strife.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Grandmother hid her shock well, yet Androlis noticed by widening of her eyes and the shift of her features to incorporate, was that concern? It didn’t matter right now, she saw him for what he truly was and he would tell her the truth.

  “I became the world's failure, Grandmother” He spoke honestly, his voice no longer hiding behind youthful vigor, “I allowed my judgment to be clouded by pride and glory. I became greedy for the attention and fame that my travels and exploits gathered and desired nothing more than for the world to see me as a hero to be told in legends for the rest of time”

  As he spoke, his gaze lifted to the ceiling, a wistful expression coming across his features for a brief moment, before it was consumed by weariness, his head drooping back down to stare at the floor.

  “I had dedicated my path, dedicated everything to be the one man to bring about the end of the monsters spawned by the corruptors. I could see a world where the people no longer needed to hide behind the walls of cities, so that they could all grow and live in a time of peace.” Androlis explained without a hint of pride in what sounded to be an honorable goal “Blinded by my own hubris to what the consequences would be, I was the catalyst for a campaign, no, a war against the corruptors and their vile spawn.”

  He paused and took a few deep breaths in order to collect himself, refusing to look back up until in fear of being unable to finish his confession. Just thinking about the shame and judgment that must be on Grandmother's face right now was enough to shake his resolve.

  “Pride was my true undoing, my greatest sin. It was the pride I held in myself, the belief that my power and capabilities were the key to save us all, yet it is what led everything to its end.” He couldn’t help but let out a small sinister chuckle, finding it fairly hilarious at how he had acted “During the war, we had actually discovered the prison that held one of the corruptors, the prison that held the Father of Scales. We believed,” He shook his head and sighed, “I believed that I was about to make history, that I would become the hero who had slain a corruptor, a monster that held the power of a god. Yet all I accomplished that day, was setting the thing free.”

  Androlis went silent, unable to bring himself to say anything else after that confession. From the moment the fight happened, he had held that truth close, both wanting to admit it and also hide it away. Guilt weighed heavy in chest, the shame burning away at his insides as he thought about what his actions had done. Part of him knew he would one day have to speak this confession, to tell somebody if only to gain a small reprieve. That fact it was happening within a glass of him waking up was not at all what he expected.

  “I see you carry quite the heavy burden, young Andro” Grandmother said softly prompting him to look up in mild confusion. Where was the judgment? Where was the scolding of how foolish he had been? Yet he saw none of that in her face, only sadness.

  “How is it you came back?" I wonder” she mused, tilting her head, “but more importantly, why?” she spoke as if the questions were addressed to both him and yet to no one. “Are you here, seeking asylum from your shame? Or are you simply running from your problems?” He was already shaking his head but part of him knew she was actually accusing him, merely prompting him to speak so as to not fall into a spiral in his own mind.

  “There is no hiding for me Grandmother” He stated, his posture straightening, “I came back so that I can change, so that I may never allow myself to do something so foolish.”

  “Ah, that is noble young Andro” She nodded, a small knowing smile on her lips, “But as you should know, the paths once set, are not so easily strayed from. A path tread upon, is a path that is forever ventured”

  He blinked a few times before groaning, leaning back down to rub his face. “I was afraid you would say something like that” He moaned out, then stopped and sat up, realization tickling at him, “However you also taught us that even the paths set in stone may gain bends and twists”

  Her grin grew into a proud smile as he spoke, “So you were paying attention during my lessons” she teased with a cackle, “But, you have yet to answer my first question, nor full my second”

  Androlis grimaced and began the lengthy tale of how he found the table of return early in his adventuring days, believing it to be nothing more than a useful escape item. Eventually he had nearly forgotten about it until the fateful day during the battle and the offhand comment his sergeant had made about returning to the past. Thinking there wasn’t much risk in trying, he used their final moments before they were over-run to activate the tablet and himself to the day of his choosing.

  “They sacrificed themselves to buy me the necessary time I needed to activate the tablet” He explained to Grandmother, unable to hide the guilt in his voice, “The prominent fear I held was that none of my memories would have come back with me, which would have ultimately made the endeavor useless. For a brief moment after I had awoken, my fears were true. The past thirty years of my life had felt like nothing more than a fever dream. Regaining all those memories was unpleasant, however the experience was more than worth it and I can begin to prepare.”

  “Preparing for what exactly?” She asked him with a quirked eyebrow but a knowing grin. Despite the complete absurdity of everything Androlis had explained to her, she remained collected as if she expected most of this.

  Androlis could only match his grandmother's grin as he shook his head, “Just as you said Grandmother, the path has already been tread so fate will pull us all back towards those events. However this time I am able to better prepare, I can choose better skills and gather the best allies possible. Even if there is no avoiding that day…” He paused with a frown but continued, if at a slower pace, “Even if there is no avoiding the day I released the Corruptor, I can ensure we are all much more powerful and prepared. The day is,” He paused again and looked away as he did some quick math in his head, “That day is roughly thirty six years from now and I plan on using thirty of them for power growth.”

  Grandmother nodded along as he explained, her facial features kept neutral. “I trust that you are confident you know what you are doing, after all what better way to predict the future than to have lived it. There is a question you must ask yourself, what will you do first?” She asked him before her gaze grew more intense, “More importantly, who else will you tell about all this?”

  Androlis was already shaking his head as he answered, “No one else for now, I suspect mother will be the first one to piece everything together. Once I am strong enough however I intend to seek out those last eight of my soldiers and see about trying to get their memories back as well.” He explained getting a nod of agreement.

  “I agree with your assessment of your mother. She has the potential of surpassing me in the future. Seeking those soldiers however, that is something I insist you put more thought into”

  He frowned at her words and opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again at her raised hand.

  “Allow me to elaborate” She said, her features shifting to be softer, “I understand you made a promise to them, and you seek allies that you know you can trust. However, before you make your decision, think about what their lives are like. Think about the differences to be more precise, after all I have no doubt you will be altering a great many things to come. Who's to say any of those men become soldiers now? Who is to know what sort of lives these men shall live. Tell me young Andro, will you be able to pull a man who runs a pastry shop into a war?”

  Grandmother's questions made Androlis flinch with the severity in which it struck him. He had not, in fact, thought about that at all. She was right, which of course she was, there was always the chance that since he no longer planned on joining the Allied forces this go around, that some, if not all of his men will never join as well. Up until he joined, the Allied forces only had seven companies, he had founded the eighth and pretty much hand picked every soldier in it.

  He sat there in silence for a long moment as he contemplated the dilemma, but eventually answered his Grandmother.

  “I am unsure as of right now Grandmother. I will have to track them all down first and make my decision based on their situations” He said slowly then nodded to himself, “But that is something I have time to figure out, I didn't start the eight company until I was in my thirties.”

  “That is an excellent way to go about it” She approved

  “As for what I will do first” He said, a grin crossing his face, “it is my choosing day after all.”