Magic Circle or Magic Curse

"Hello Ares." She said again smiling coyly.

"Hello Alex." He replied formally, grinning back.

"You rogue, why don't you visit more often." She exclaimed launching herself lightly towards him and hitting his raised arms with her small clenched fists.

"You know how it is Alex." He replied slightly depressed at their circumstances.

"I do, we should just be thankful that we aren't slaves I suppose" Alex said sighing at the negative plummet of the atmosphere.

"What's been happening then tell me it all." Alex asked.

Having known her for years and trusting her more than almost anyone else Ares decided to tell her about what had happened to him. As he told the story he himself began to realise quite how ludicrous the story sounded. Throughout his account Alex did not criticize. She sat listening, her eyebrows furrowed at points and a look of concern on her face at other times.

When he had completed his account, he looked pensively towards her. She remained silent for a few seconds.

"I know how it sounds." He began trying to explain what had happened.

"it sounds completely mad." She interrupted looking at him.

"don't you believe me?" he felt dejected.

"I do, its just Ares the things you are telling me are so strange, do you not realise that half of what you told me involved you almost dying. Are you ok?" She had a look of concern on her face and she seemed to be surveying him for injuries.

"I'm ok, just confused." Ares had a strange warm feeling inside of him. Alex did not doubt him and her first concerns were for him and not what had happened.

"You can't tell anyone about it, but we need to find out what it was. Let me look at your hand." She grabbed his right hand and pulled it towards her and into the candle-light.

Ares had forgotten about his hand injury. it was bizarre, until he had recanted the story back to Alex he had genuinely forgotten that it had been pierced. He looked at it in confusion as Alex examined it. His hand was healed, there was no injury or even a scar. There was however a very faint white stencil like design on his palm, it was almost invisible unless you looked for it. The design was a circle with almost undistinguishable letters on it.

"I've seen these letters before" Alex commented another confused look on her face.

"Where?" Ares asked

"The mages guild in the city, I was once helped to help clean one of their outer compounds and I saw a magic book with similar symbols." There was a look of concern on her dainty face.

"Well let's ignore that then, I can't afford to go to those places and I won't be able to in this lifetime." While he felt slightly dejected it was common knowledge to Ares that entering a mages compound was an impossibility.

It seemed to him that Alex was far more upset about the situation then he was.

"You don't understand Ares; the magic circle could be a curse, without their help we don't know what it will do." She looked at Ares her eyes were brimming with tears. Crossing the short distance between them he put his arms around her.

"Ill be fine" he assured.

She sobbed gently into his shoulders. Her figure juddering with her sobs in their embrace.

"I don't want anything to happen to you." She said. Her nose wrinkled up a little as Ares pulled her closer into his chest.

"You smell funny" she said peeking up between his arms, a shy smile tainting her lips.

Ares laughed. It was common for Alex to state the truth however unattractive it was. It was another reason they got along so well.

"It's the long day I had. Sorry, I meant to shower." He realised he was still a mess; his clothes were dirty and wet.

"I don't care, we need to get you into a guild to find out what that mark is." She remarked peeling herself away from his embrace.

"Let's ignore this we both know I'll never make it in, I have no talent for magic." Ares didn't want to upset their time together so brushed the situation off. Inside he had a fear of the mark on his face but he buried this feeling deep and put a brave face on.

"It's ok, I won't let this ruin our time together." she brightened up a little, but still her eyes displayed her gloomy emotion.

"I have an idea; follow me it is bound to cheer you up."

Her mouth bent into a crocked smile, and she looked side-tracked.

"Okay" she said simply.

Ares led her up out of the library careful to remain silent in case anyone was watching. Ares directed Alex out into the street and down a silent side street, by now it was dark with only the moon illuminating the streets. A half-destroyed tower with broken walls and a small courtyard greeted them. Graves littered the courtyard, these being the only indicator of what the building used to be. They were to the rear of the building however both Ares and Alex could hear muffled talking from the other side of the building.

Ares was wary around this area. He had once seen a murder take place here in the graveyard. It had been an elderly man and he had been lured by slavers, after being given a choice of life in servitude or death the man had answer by attacked the group and fighting valiantly. Unfortunately for this man the group he had been targeted by had a low level ice mage who froze his body and stopped him. After overpowered the man they killed him and left his body to rot on the streets for weeks.

Ares mind remained on alert as he considered the past. Although Alex obviously had questions she stayed silent holding onto his hand as he led her around the broken walls to a dark doorway. His hand traced the door, it was covered in moss and freezing cold but the wood had cracked in certain places. He smiled briefly at Alex then putting his hand into a crevice he twisted. The key on the other side turned and unlocked the door.

"What is this place?" Alex asked her eyes full of curiosity.

"I found it about a week ago, just wait the best part is soon" he winked at her.

After locking the door, he lit a lantern which was hung from the roof. It seemed this room was one of the only surviving parts of the church but due to the growth of the ivy and trees around it, no-one knew of its existence. Ares slid up behind Alex and put his hands over her eyes.

"No peeking"

"This better be worth it." She was smiling.

He took her to the side of the room and slid off a blanket which was resting on a long glass panel covering a whole wall.

"Ok open your eyes"

Her mouth opened and she went silent.

"Do you like it?" he asked.

She looked at the panel; on it was a huge glass image. It was every colour they had ever seen. 12 men were surrounding another man; in his hand he held a golden chalice. The cup glowed and light bounced around the picture like streaks of yellow.

Very quietly she muttered "it's amazing."

They remained quiet. His finding was special, however he got far more joy from watching Alex enjoy it then the joy of it itself.

She remained silent for a few minutes simply looking at the picture, finally she said

"What do you think it means?"

Only now did he notice that she had two thick black hand marks on her face covering her eyes, he looked at his hands there was a clean patch from where he had covered her eyes. Immediately Ares burst out laughing.

"What's so funny" she demanded stamping her foot and looking somewhat frustrated.

"Look at your face!" He exclaimed between his hysterics.

She looked into the glass and saw her reflection instantly she started laughing.

After both of them calmed down Ares realised it had gotten late, he wanted to stay and spend more time with Ares but the Slavers would be out in full force soon. They walked back towards the railway and silently thought about their many problems.

As they got back to the railway Ares stopped and looked at Alex

"I will be fine." He said looking at her.

"Ares, never make promises you can't keep" she said staring into his eyes.

After a short period, she turned and ran into her carriage leaving Ares to regret not offering her more reassurance.

He walked slowly back towards his carriage, it was a short walk but thinking about the many different things that had occurred in this long day. What happened? he thought to himself.

Ares entered his Carriage, he was met by Carl his adopted father. Carl had never lied about Ares's heritage always telling him how heroic both his father and my mother were. Despite this Carl had always treated Ares like his own child. He was married happily with 4 other children. Those children were Ares family, and he loved them all.

"How was work?" Carl said, his eyebrow rose in question.

"Ah you know same old, still working with that tosspot Grant" Ares grinned at him.

"You cheeky little swine" he laughed playfully making a feeble attempt at clipping his ear.

Carl had been out of work for a number of years due to an accident he had. His left arm was severed under the elbow, this didn't faze Carl and he would have happily returned to work. His wife Kate refused him the chance of working, with three strong sons they had no need to send him to work anyway.

"You best get to sleep Ares, long day tomorrow." Carl smiled

His eyes were tired almost instantaneously he yawned. It had been a very long day.

"Sounds good to me, see you tomorrow Carl"

Ares walked to the two seats in the carriage which belonged to him, they were his bed. In the background he could hear his three brothers and sister asleep and already snoring quietly. He put the thick itchy fabric of the blankets over him and closed his eyes. He would find a way to deal with these problems one way or another he promised himself.