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Part 1- A Troubling Sign
Liz turned to see Alex cradling Bip In his arms. Her eyes widened with concern before she ran over to her friend's side. Bip laid in Alex's arms completely motionless with his eyes closed.
“Oh god… is he ok?”
“Don’t worry, he’s just asleep, guess that attack drained the last of his energy.”
Alex gently placed Bip on the ground before standing back up and looking at the locked shipping container.
“Come on… let's get this over with so we can all get some rest.”
Alex walked over to the shipping container that the man had been defending. He looked down at the lock on the front of the container before raising his leg up and slamming his foot down on it breaking the lock. Liz walked over to Alex’s side as he reached out to grab the handles of the container. The sun began to rise over the steel lake basking the pair in a dim orange light. With a power full pull, the doors of the container came swinging open filling the inside with light. Liz looked on in horror as sore what was inside. The container was packed full of malnourished children packed in tight. The children looked up, their eyes struggled to adjust to the light.
“Huh, who’s there?” said one of the children.
“Are you here to help us?” asked another.
“Just please don’t hurt us.”
The children continued to murmur in confusion as the pair looked on in horror.
“Th… there’s so many. Why would someone do this,” Liz said.
“I have no idea, maybe that guy left some clues around here somewhere,” Alex said as he stepped forward into the container. “Listen up, you’re all free to go. Go find your parents and tell them everything that happened.”
The children looked amongst themselves confused for a moment, unsure whether to belive the strange man or not. One of the children at the front of the container slowly pulled himself from the ground and began to shuffle forward past Alex and out of the container. He covered his eyes from the now fully risen sun as they continued to adjust to the light. He removes his hand from his face to look at the light blue morning sky, his mouth widening in awe and wonder. The boy ran off towards the entrance of the facility. As the boy ran more and more kids stood up and looked out at the sky before running off. Soon the container was left completely lifeless. Alex stepped into the container and looked around intently at every nook and cranny. He walked up to one of the metal walls and took a close look at it.
“Doesn’t seem weird,” Alex said before turning to look at Liz. He raised his fist up and placed it next to the container wall. “Just a normal shipping container.”
He knocked his hand against the wall leading to an unusual silence. He turned to look at the wall once again.
“Huh… what the hell.”
Alex once again knocked against the wall with more force than the first time leading to no noise whatsoever. He looked at it, puzzled before pulling his leg back and slamming it full force into the wall once again leading to not the slightest sound.
“That’s strange,” said Liz as she joined Alex's side.
“Guess we know why we couldn’t hear the kids inside,” Alex replied as he continued to punch the wall to no results.
Liz turned her head to look into the corner of the container, noticing a small metal pyramid in the corner. She looked up and around noticing another one of the pyramids in each of the other corners. She walked over to one of the pyramids and reached out her hand to pick it up. The pyramid seemed to struggle against her as she pulled as though it was magnetically stuck to the wall. After a strong pull, the pyramid detached from the wall. Without warning, there was a sudden banging sound from behind her. She turned to see Alex continuing to bang on the wall.
“Huh?” Alex exclaimed.
“Guess these little things we’re blocking out all the sound,” Liz said as she walked back to Alex holding the object towards him.
Alex looked at the object closely, unsure of what to make of it.
“Any idea what it is?”
“No clue, but whatever it is it’s not using any magic.”
“Wait what? How could it do something like that and not be using any magic?”
“I’m not sure, we should hang on to it and see if one of the guild leaders has any answers,” Alex said as he stroked his chin. He turned to look around the rest of the container. “In any case looks like there’s nothing else here, Let head back.”
Alex and Liz walked out of the container. Liz looked down to see Bip curled up behind the door snoring soundly to himself as they left. She smiled as she looked at him before bending over and picking him up. As she picked him up she noticed a small note stuck to the side of the front of the door.
“Huh? What’s this.”
She pulled the note off the door as she stood back up. Her eyes filled with horror as she read the note, her heartbeat growing more rapid and breath becoming short. Alex looked over his shoulder to see Liz staring dead-eyed at the note.
“Huh… what’s that,” Alex said as he approached Liz.
He grabbed the sheet out of Liz's hands and began to read.
“It’s some sort of shipping information. Guess these kids were headed to someplace called Marathol, never heard of it before.”
“It’s a city,” Liz murmured under her breath drawing Alex’s attention to her. “It’s one of the biggest and oldest city’s… In Lemia.”
Alex was suddenly hit with the same wave of horror that had struck Liz.
“Wait… you mean that those kids were going to be shipped off to Lemia, but why… who would want a bunch of kid with magical potential, and in Lemia of all places
“I Don’t know… But I've got a bad feeling…” Liz said, clenching her fist as she turned to look at Alex. “Something big is coming.”
Part 2- A Call To Arms
Liz and Alex walked down the bustling streets, forcefully dragging their exhausted body’s forward.
“S..so tired,” Liz croaked.
“I’m so glad this is over, I’m ready to sleep for a week,” Alex replied as he struggled to keep his eyes open.
The pair reached The Tarken Dojo where they had been staying. As they approached the front door they noticed Tobin standing at the front door with a large briefcase locking the door. He picked up the briefcase and turned around, noticing the pair out of the corner of his eye as they reached him.
“Oh hey you guys, where have you been?”
“Just had some business to attend to, been up all night so thought we’d come back here for some rest,” said Liz.
“Oh, well sorry but you’re gonna have to find a hotel. I’m going to Capital City for a while so I’m closing the dojo.
“Arrgh are you serious… I’m so tired,” Alex whined
“Capital City? Why are you going there?”
Tobin looked at Liz with confusion.
“Huh? You mean you didn’t here? I guess that makes sense, after all, you two aren’t to easy to track down,” Tobin said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a letter. “This came in the mail yesterday.”
Tobin handed the note to Liz. Liz looked down and scanned the note over.
“Attention, this is a call to arms for all guild members. All members who are currently not involved in active jobs are to come to the main guild building in the capital city for an emergency meeting. The meeting will be held on the eleventh of November, any members who fail to arrive in time without an adequate reason will face a suspension or even cancelation of there membership.”
“Sounds pretty serious,” Alex added.
“That not even the most of it. I called up some of my friends in other guilds and found out we’re not the only guild that received these letters. Apparently, both the Cleaners Guild and The Black Dagger have been sent them as well.”
“Holy crap… what would someone want with so many mages?” Asked Liz.
“No clue, as far as I know, nothing like this has ever happened before, whatever the case is it looks like something big is on the horizon.”
There was silence amongst the group as they all thought about the implication of what was happening.
“You guys didn’t get a letter but I’m sure that it would be appreciated if you came, why not tag along with me, might make the trip a bit more fun,” said Tobin.
“Huh, oh yeah sounds like a plan to me,” Liz replied with a smile.
“Great, well let get a move on then, don’t wanna be late,” Tobin said as he began to walk off.
“Sure thing,” Liz said before turning to look at Alex as he drifted off to sleep. She nudged him back to life. “Come on we can sleep on the bus.”
Liz ran off after Tobin leaving Alex behind.
“Huh what… hey, wait up… cant we just have a quick nap first.”
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TO BE CONTINUED
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Thanks you for reading Chapter 59 of Mage. If you like what you see please consider dropping a Kudos and maybe checking out the rest of my work. Also for any updates or if you just wanna see my cosplay adventure please consider follwing my tumblr here https://www.tumblr.com/blog/50funny and until next time have a good one.