Goodbye for now

He smiled to himself he was happy that he had already learnt one spell. Despite this spell only being use for disappearing objects he was satisfied.

Ares returned home to the railway. He hadn't been able to see Alex for the last few days so today was his last chance before he left.

"Alex." He shouted reaching her carriage. It was about seven pm by this point and the sound of movement could be heard in the carriage.

"Ares" she shouted bounding out of the side door. She wore a coarse apron like dress in a cream colour.

"Hello Alex, have you heard?" While he hadn't spoken to Alex it was more then likely someone would tell her about his magic training. Carl especially often spoke to the other family heads to discuss the ongoing actions all the children and people in the railway.

"I heard." She replied an instantly sad look permeating her face. He face changed and she furrowed her eyebrows and approached him.

Without a second to react she reached out her delicate hand and pinched Ares's arm.

"Ouch." He flinched backwards frowning at her.

She looked competitive.

"You put on weight."

"Ha, ha" he replied sarcastically.

"So I hear you are a bigshot mage now?" She put her hands on her hips.

"Not yet Alex, but soon hopefully I will be, its hard this magic stuff."

"You know magic! No way that's really cool show me, show me, show me!" she badgered dragging him by his arm to a quieter place of the railway.

After finding a quiet area with lots of debris he told Alex to back at least 10 metres away. He read the magic wouldn't hurt anything living but he didn't want to test that; after all he was very new to this. He put his hand out and pointed at a pile of disused wheels.

The black beam shot quickly from his finger engulfing a wheel around the size and width of Ares. There was a second before the wheel disappeared.

Alex's eyes were opened wide.

"THAT'S AMAZING!" she shouted skipping towards Ares.

He smiled, the weariness already setting in from the spell.

Sensing there was something wrong Alex took a glance at Ares.

"What's wrong?" she asked concern covering her little face.

"I'm fine just a little weary I can't cast more than once."

"oh well that sucks then." She grinned and poked her little tongue out at him. Without letting up on her criticism she continued.

"And while it looks cool what's that any use for, can you bring it back or is your magic only good for waste disposal?" She had an innocently beguiling look on her face.

Ares sighed exacerbated this girl was truly too wicked, if he didn't know she was joking he may have been upset.

The two didn't leave the trainyard and instead spoke at length about the future. When it got late Ares realised it was time to bid farewell.

"Alex, I leave tomorrow for the guild. But ill be back and when I am hopefully we can leave this place." He was sad, farewells were rare in his life.

"You will be back and this is a good thing, don't get so soppy." She retorted. It was clear she was putting on a brave face as her eyes held unshed tears. She gave him a hug squeezing him tightly with her little frame, then turned and ran towards her carriage. As she turned and began to ran the tears fell down her face.

"Farewell for now." Ares muttered under his breath turning to return to his own carriage to bid his family farewell before he left tomorrow.

The goodbyes in the family carriage were far shorter and less emotional it was clear they all had complete faith that Ares would return without any harm befalling him.

A sleepless night came and went and before he knew it he was waiting in the square the exact position he had been told to go to by Mars. He had a small bag around his shoulder containing what he considered to be he most important possessions. Essentially this was just the magic book given to him by Mars and a few pieces of clothing.

He hadn't been waiting long when he saw Mars approaching, he was still wearing that beige robe and had a sleepy look on his middle-aged face.

"Follow me" He said turning almost immediately after find Ares. He made his way towards the South of the city.

Ares followed closely behind Mars, he didn't know him well and he had no idea of the destination.

Mars led Ares through streets and streets, even knowing the city fairly well Ares got lost in the twists and turns Mars made. Strangely no one attempted to attack them or even followed them, it was like Mars had some sort of natural deterrent. After around two hours of walking Mars began to slow. The area of the city they were in seemed to be almost completely deserted. They had left the wide streets hours ago and now it seemed to be an abandoned industrial area. There were huge steel framed walls littering the streets.

"Follow closely and in my footsteps" Mars warned.

There was a large pile of debris easily three stories high full of jutting metal and concrete blocks to the left. Mars walked a strange route around the debris before coming to a hole in the pile. It looked to be the start of a cave of sorts. Ares followed closely matching the steps that were taken by Mars.

"Welcome to the Space guild" Mars said as they entered the hole. Ares felt slightly disappointed, the primary guilds had compounds the size of towns near the centre of the city, hell even the secondary guilds had secure compounds on the outskirts but the Space guild had a freaking cave. He truly drew a short straw with this choice.