The reactions to his proclamation held a mixed quality, a gasp escaping his mothers lips while his father looked proud as he beamed a wide smile his way. Kayla just looked excited in an all too familiar mischievous way that instantly had him wondering if he just made a terrible choice.

  “Are you sure?” his mother asked not bothering to hide the worry from her voice at the same time his father exclaimed “Good on you”

  They gave each other a look to which his father gave his wife a simple shrug while she answered with a look that practically screamed, you are not helping!

  “Are you sure?” his mother repeated, turning her gaze back on to him, “I was under the impression you had already made up your mind on the college. Not to mention won't your illness make it riskier to join the league?”

  Hearing her logic, Andro could physically see his father shift towards agreeing with his wife as he too spoke up, “Are you willing to face the risks of not having access to any of your treatments? Gaining your shard and your first rank is not guaranteed to fix everything you know”

  Andro wished he could tell them that he already knew he would never need another treatment again, but Grandmother's warnings rang inside his head about spreading the knowledge he was from the future. He had no doubt his mother would find out sooner or later, but that was something that needed to happen on its own time. In the meantime he just needed to convince them he was both confident and prepared to handle it.

  “I understand your concern, I honestly do” He said full of conviction then shook his head as he settled on the route he would take on what to tell them, “But if what Grandmother said is true, that the dreams I witnessed are actually possibilities, that the carnage and destruction that laid before me are actual paths that we can head towards, then I need to be strong.” He took a deep breath and settled his mind and memories forced themselves to the front of his mind, “I can not risk even the smallest chance that what I saw will come to pass, and I won't be strong enough to protect my family. Mother, you have told me on multiple occasions that for generations our family have been the ones to foresee the dangers of the future and prepare for them, as well as stop them.” His gaze swept over his astonished parents and sister as they sat and listened to his speech, “I would not be honoring our legacy if I sit back and ignore something that is an obvious threat. As unlikely as it is for something with the level of destruction that I witnessed to come to pass, that fact I saw it before even awakening my concepts, that should all but scream the chances of it coming to pass.” Andro had tried to keep his reasoning as close to the truth as he could without giving anything away. Mother may not have been as powerful as Grandmother, but she was the current head for a reason.

  If he were honest to himself, he was counting a good deal on her love and trust in him overshadowing the obvious suspicions that someone with her skills would see in his statement. She sat perfectly still, her silver eyes locked on to him as she gave him a long and intense look, the doubt clear in her eyes, so he added one final statement.

  “Mother, I understand that I am still young, yet I am more than able to vouch to you that I have put a considerable amount of thought into this decision and am confident in what I am doing. I want to do right by our family and I believe that will best be accomplished with the League, at least for now. I can always join the college at a later date if the League ends up to not be what I was needing.”

  There was another long silence full of tension that was trapped inside the cart, both his father and sister looking uncomfortable as they squirmed in their seats. Finally, his mother let out a long drawn out sigh that carried ten years worth of worry behind it, and she spoke.

  “I shall trust your judgment on this little An, however, only on one condition” She stated, crossing her arms.

  Andro waited patiently, giving her a nod to indicate he was listening.

  “You will carry a small dipo-bag with multiple vials of your treatment until we are confident that you no longer suffer from your condition” She stated with absolutely no room for argument.

  Andro fought, and failed, to keep the smile from crossing his face as he found her condition to be more than reasonable. After all he was already aware that he would never need to take another treatment again so keeping a small bag on him for a time was no big deal.

  “That is more than reasonable Mother” he responded and she nodded while pulling a small leather book from the dipo-bag at her side and flipped it open. “Since we are in agreement, I shall send for an application to be delivered to you at home.” She scribbled something down onto a seemingly random page and he couldn’t stop the small wave of nostalgia from hitting him upon laying his eyes on his mothers sending journal.

  For people in positions similar to his mothers, the enchanted books known as sending journals were worth their weight in gold. Not everyone could gain access to skills that could allow someone long distance communication, so being able to simply write your message in a book and have it appear within another was valuable. The one she used the most wasn’t her only one, nor was it the most expensive one she owned. They were common gifts among high society, especially those who worked with or alongside city officials. What made the simple leather book she currently held so valuable was it was the very first gift his father had given her when they first met.

  The rest of the fairly long trip was spent in relative silence with the exception of Kayla excitedly talking to him about the league, like the entrance exams, the base, the kinds of missions they could take and even some of the officials. Andro was only half listening as he already knew most of what she was telling him even though last time he didn’t join for nearly five years. He wondered how differently he will be treated this time around with part of him expecting some negativity due to his age. Unfortunately there were some within the league who did not enjoy when people joined fresh from their choosing, and Andro could partially see why.

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  The unfortunate truth was the highest mortality rate amongst league members was claimed by members less than twenty years old and have only been in the league for barely a year. On the flip side however, many of the members who rose to the higher ranks to be considered legends joined fresh from their choosing. With his current knowledge and skills with combat, Andro was more than confident he could beat those odds and use the resources of the league to rise to the top.

  It took them well over a glass, approaching two before they reached the city center that housed the beacons sanctuary. Normally a trip like this could be done in roughly half a glass, but with it being one of the few choosing days done every year the streets were absolutely packed with people all making their way in the same direction. There weren't even any open spaces for them to actually park their carriage so they all agreed to exit while still on the road and walk the rest of the way once the tower was in view.

  The tower in question was a massive structure of polished carved stone that started wide at the bottom, then slowly became more narrow as it rose towards the sky. Every inch of space on its structure was carved and decorated in the likeness of a countless number of figures, each one said to be one of the founding heroes who gave absolutely everything they could to bring about the creation of the beacons. Without them fighting back against the corruptors, the Creator and the powers of the past would not have had enough time or energy to create the beacons.

  Andro and his family walked through the arched gate that stood wide open allowing them all access to the flat sand field that surrounded the tower. The stone wall that circled the tower and its sand field stood exactly one hundred meters from the tower's lower walls. The only portion of the area that wasn't covered in a thick layer of perfectly flat sand was the stone path constructed out of bricks the same color of a starless night sky. The brick path was easily twenty meters wide and led straight to the only visible entrance at the tower's base.

  His mother pulled a small timekeeper out from her bag and let out a sigh of relief upon checking it and placing it back.

  “I was afraid we would be late” she stated to which the rest of her family turned and gave her the same incredulous look all at the same time. “What?”

  “My dear it is quite honestly your actual duty to regularly peer into the future. You knew we would arrive on time months ago” Her husband said bluntly, yet with a cheeky grin plastered on his face

  “It becomes tiresome to constantly know what will happen days in advance” She defended, "I'm allowed to enjoy the mystery of not knowing what will happen”

  They all continued to stare at her until she let out another sigh, this one of defeat before muttering, “Ok fine, yes I knew we would arrive on time. But I still stand by what I said”

  Andro’s father chuckled as her gave his wife a side hug and a peck on her cheek saying, “We know dear and we love you for it”

  She tried to scoff in mock annoyance but failed to hide the smile on her face as the Maxon family stepped through the arched gateway that led into the glittering sand field that surrounded the tower. Dozens of other people, many of them families such as themselves, milled about as they waited for the ceremony to start. Most looked to belong to what was referred to as the middle class, those who lived comfortable enough with their salaries but were by no means rich, while there looked to be one other noble family.

  Andor recognized them as the D’lavicks, a military focused house that held high positions within Venilar’s wall defense. Similar to the Maxon house they took pride in the fact most members of their family shared concepts that held a relation. For the D’lavicks they were concepts related to fire and magma allowing them to produce destructive skills that made them vital in the cities defense. Personally Andro found most of them stuck up and entitled, yet there were a few he met in his past life, or future life technically, that were quite respectable.

  As he looked around at the different people hanging out in the sanctuary’s courtyard, there was actually a good number of individuals he recognized, or more accurately he remembered them as most he met at one point or another in his past life. Kelvish was the first one to catch his eye, a young farm boy who spent nearly the entirety of his life within the grove district and awakened a rare combination of the concept’s growth, cloud, and earth. While some would argue they are useless considering there was no real combat potential, Andro knew Kelvish would take that combination and vastly improve the quality of the city's farms. In less than a decade, that young farm boy would essentially become the farming overseer for the entire grove district and raise his family to the status of nobility.

  Andro’s gaze shifted to the young man currently pumping out pushups nearby, who if he recalled, was named Chen. He was unique in the fact he desired nothing more than to become a master of martial arts, then become the master of martial arts recognized by the city. Unfortunately Andro already knew that dream would nearly be crushed when he awakened with the concepts of flame, lightning, and blast as well as only gaining access to the caster core class and not the fighter. To everyone’s surprise, he took the power and abilities of what should have been a long range artillery caster, and turned himself into a close quarters powerhouse that could punch with the force of an explosion and kick at the speed of a lightning strike.

  All Andro could do was shake his head in amusement at recalling some of the battles he saw Chen take part in, especially during the battle of Venilar. He would not have been surprised to learn if some of the massive flashes of color he saw during that battle had come from Chen tearing his way through the scaled creatures that swarmed the city.

  Another one to catch his eye was a rather large young man, and if memory served his name was Devon. The young man was currently trying to flirt with a young elven woman, who by Andro’s opinion, looked to be annoyed at the situation. According to his memories, Devon was someone who attempted to act more important than what he truly was, constantly bragging how he would gain powerful concepts and skills. Instead all he gained was the concepts of balance, sight, and wind as well as not gaining access to any of the core classes. To his credit, he was able to take the more minor skills he was able to choose and eventually become one of the most prominent messengers the city possesses.

  Continuing to look around he began to go through his memories of everyone he recognized one by one, and seeing if he could also recall what concepts they ended up receiving. His last choosing day was a big event for him, so in the end he recognized just about everyone he saw. The bright side to this was reassuring himself as to the quality of his memory, the downside however was he knew this time around it was going to be rather boring. He already knew everything that was going to take place over the next few hours, however, maybe there was something he could do to make it more interesting.