Androlis Maxon shot his eyes open as his body instinctively bolted upright, grasping at the air as he attempted to find his spear. His attempts to arm himself were interrupted before he even made progress as something was wrapped and tangled around him. He wanted to panic but roared in defiance, unwilling to go down without a fight, swearing to take every creature around him to the garden with him.

  His flailing was brought to a rough end as he tipped over and slammed hard into what felt like a wooden floor. On the bright side, his head had broken free of his restraints right as he tipped over, unfortunately that meant his arms were still tangled when the back of his head made contact with the wood surface. The blow was enough to stun him and push most of the air right out of his lungs in the form of a groaning gasp.

  Andro blinked a few times as he stared up at a familiar ceiling all while wondering why such a short fall had hurt that much. Realization struck and he could only chastise himself at letting a dream affect him so much as slowly sat up next to his bed and rubbed his face. It was his blanket that had entangled him causing him to chuckle at himself while gathering it up and tossing it back up.

  He looked around in confusion as when he thought about it he didn't recall going to bed after eating dinner with his family. He couldn’t remember what he did after and even the dream was fading fast, wait, the dream. He focused on the strange dream for a moment, frowning in concentration as he struggled to remember it. For a moment it was as if his mind wanted nothing more than to push it away, yet with an effort of will, a dam broke open.

  Over five decades worth of memories poured into his brain as Androlis remembered everything all at once. The sheer amount of information that flooded into his brain was agonizing and threatened to overwhelm him. All he could do was scream and clutch his head as he struggled desperately to stay conscious, his head feeling as if it were going to burst open.

  He was unsure of how long his torment lasted, it was impossible to do anything but feel the pain and pressure of his mind sorting through so much information all at once. Blissfully, it stopped nearly as quickly as it had started, leaving him trembling and gasping for air all while lying on the floor drenched in sweat. His mind was still somewhat foggy and disorganized but he was grateful the pain had stopped as it sorted through the last bits of memory and organized them.

  The bedroom door that was opposite to the foot of his bed slammed open as an armored figure barreled through, with another figure hot on their heels. The first figure was one of their family guards, his blade already drawn and scanning the room for threats. The second figure was none other than his mother, Leandra Maxon, who rushed forwards and dropped down to his side.

  “What's wrong? What happened?” she asked frantically while looking him over “Are you hurt? Is someone in here?” her brilliant silver eyes practically glowed and paired oddly well with her fiery red hair that was currently undone, streaming down her back and over her shoulders.

  It took Androlis another moment to compose himself, which his mother used to fuss over him even more. Every instinct and urge desperately wanted to just hug her and never let go, yet his years of war and battle allowed him to keep his wits about him. He knew about her capabilities and knew if he started acting like it had been a while since he last saw her, she would figure everything out and do it soon. After all she was the head of the family's affairs for a reason, which included keeping up their reputation for being gifted in divination and foresight.

  “I am fine mother” He was able to get out, his voice only trembling faintly and surprising him at how young it sounded now.

  “All clear my lady” the guard, Gerard if he remembered correctly, said and sheathed his sword moving to stand behind Leandra.

  “Thank you Gerard” She said, giving the man a nod “You can wait by the door, don't let anyone else in unless it's his father” Gerard bowed respectfully and moved to stand by the open door.

  “Tell me what's wrong An” she half ordered him, using the nickname she had used for him since he was barely walking. “Why did you scream like that? It sounded like you were being attacked”

  He could see the worry in her eyes, as well as her calculating side that liked to piece together situations like puzzles. He always hated making her worry like this and it especially didn’t help it was obvious he had woken her up considering she was still in her nightgown. With that knowledge, he was able to see how little sunlight was coming in through his window and guessed they were less than a glass away from sunrise. Taking a final deep breath to clear his mind, and choosing his words carefully, he spoke back up.

  “I am all right, mother” he said to her, his voice much calmer and resolute. He smiled softly at his mother to help convince her and met her silver eyes with his steel grey ones. “It was just a bad dream, I’m sorry if I worried you”

  By the way she looked at him, Andro could tell she wasn’t completely buying his excuse, but it was enough that she eventually just sighed and helped him stand up.

  “You claim it was just a dream” she started making sure he was listening, “But I want you to go talk to Grandmother before we leave. Something this intense happening on your choosing day can’t be just a coincidence.” She tried to sound authoritative with her demands, but that failed to stop the warm smile spreading on her face when mentioning it was his choosing day.

  “I can’t believe my little An is finally going to get his first skills today” She exclaimed with the warmth and joy only a mother could display as she pulled him into a tight hug.

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  Andro couldn’t stop his own smile from spreading on his face as he accepted her embrace having learned years ago that it was futile to fight her on them. She may have been the head of the family and had a public reputation of being stoic and intense, but that never stopped her from being a hugger. Despite the overwhelming joy at being able to hug her once more, he couldn’t help but be rudely reminded of their height disparity as she easily rested her head on top of his.

  He was by no means short, being just under two meters, yet his freakishly tall mother still had him beat, being a good head taller than him. They had always joked that somewhere in the family tree, one of their ancestors had a secret relationship with a Golon due to them often being nearly three meters tall. The odd part was it was always in the female of the family, his sisters and grandmother all being fairly tall.

  She eventually pulled away from him, but kept her hands on his shoulders for a moment as she gave him a worried but warm smile.

  “I am so proud of you An” She told him without a shred of dishonesty “After you're done getting ready, Grandmother should be in the library already. When you are done speaking with her, come join us for breakfast”

  He nodded his confirmation and kept the smile on his face until she strode out of the room, Gerard following after giving Androlis a nod. He let out a heavy sigh as soon as the door was closed and picked up his tangled comforter. Out of sheer muscle memory he quickly made his bed to military standards before making his way into the washroom that was connected to his room.

  He failed to realize how odd that kind of behavior was for him until he was already in the washroom and tapping the crystal next to the door. Similar crystals along the walls lit up with a soft white glow to illuminate the room and Androlis briefly thought about going back into his room to mess the bed up, but just shrugged. While it was a little abnormal for him to make his bed, at most it would just be his maid Cecilia who would be confused.

  After making sure the door was latched and locked, he undressed and examined himself in the full body mirror that stood between the wash basin and the iron tub. What stared back at him only served as proof that he had indeed returned to his younger self. Instead of the older, scar covered figure he recalled from not even a day ago, instead he saw a young, fairly healthy, looking young man. He couldn’t help but grumble a bit at seeing the tattoos he had gained over the years were gone as well, but that was to be expected.

  What was also gone was his resonance shard, instead all he saw was smooth skin covering his sternum. That he wasn’t worried about since this was the day he was supposed to acquire it, well reacquire in his case. His features were what he remembered, the softer cheekbones from his mother resting above the more angular jawline he gained from his father. His nose was more round than it was pointed, along with his chin being something else he inherited from his mother. He always found it funny how his older sisters inherited more of their fathers stronger features while he was the one to gain more of their mothers softer features.

  Glancing up, he saw the messy mop of chocolate brown hair resting on his head that held natural streaks of his mothers fiery red. His hair was something that his mother always fussed about, mostly due to how little effort he tended to put in keeping it in check. He had always believed that as long as it was clean and out of his face, that was all the effort he really needed to put in it. He chuckled at himself for being such a kid and made a mental note to have Cecelia cut it for him whenever she arrived. Far too many incidents in the past, err future, where his unruly hair had been the cause of was honestly embarrassing.

  Finally he met his own gaze and had to suppress a shudder at what he saw. They remained the same steel grey he had always possessed, but he could see what made his mother worry so much and probably not buy his dream story. While the color was the same, what he saw in them was nowhere near the same eyes he had over thirty years ago, instead they were the eyes he saw in the mirror from barely a week ago.

  The eyes that stared back into him were the eyes of a man who had spent their life in a constant war. They were the eyes of a man who had held hope for over four decades, only to have it ripped apart to become despair. They were eyes that have seen countless friends and family alike taken from, unable to do anything except watch.

  Before he understood what was happening, tears leaked from those dead eyes to trail down his cheeks as memories long thought buried clawed their way to the surface. Memories he had buried himself, unwilling and unable to face them and keep what sanity that remained. The dam now broken, they all rushed through his mind one by one with no sign of slowing down until they all made their presence known.

  Androlis clenched his fists and snarled at his reflection, halting any and all resistance he had in fighting the flood. “You will be better” he growled, jabbing his finger towards the mirror as every memory of all the mistakes he made came to the front of his mind. He needed to know what he did wrong, he needed to know how he could do better this time.

  His chest burned and his breathing grew in pace and intensity as emotions warred inside of him. He was finally coming to the realization that this was all real and not just some fever dream as he died at the hands of a monster. He felt anger at himself for being so weak, guilt for letting so many people die under his care. He felt joy at getting this second chance, but also terror at the prospect of messing it all up again.

  Androlis looked at himself in the mirror, really looked at every part of himself, and grimaced at how pathetic he looked at the moment. He truly did have a second to fix what he could, to save who he could and hopefully prevent a major disaster.

  “You will choose better” He demanded of his reflection, clenching his fists even harder till his knuckles popped. “There will be no more pride getting in the way, no more glory blinding you from what must be done. You will be there for everyone you care about and this time you will save them. You will not let your greed for recognition drive you into that forsaken decision of believing you can actually take on a Corruptor. What you did doomed thousands no, millions to die a needless, pointless death and all for nothing!” he was half shouting at himself by now, the tears only increasing in intensity as his emotions only fueled themselves.

  Androlis nearly lashed out to smash the mirror, but stopped short, forcing himself to take deep measured breaths. He maintained eye contact as he got his breathing and emotions under control, remembering his Grandmother's lessons with almost perfect recollection. He could practically hear her voice as she drilled the lessons into his head.

  “Emotions are a boon of life, little Andro, tools that help us understand what it actually means to be alive” she had said in her ever calm and relaxing tone “To let them control you is no longer living, but merely observing a darker part of yourself. Acknowledge what you feel, accept it for what it is, then let it pass to simply be another point in your life”

  The tears dried up, his breathing became under control and his emotions in check, Androlis nodded at his reflection as he recalled Grandmother's words, and the nickname she had given him that he preferred. “We will be better” He vowed with a steady conviction.