Ares felt his body be transported into a state of an empty room. This room was filled in a blaring white light, a luminosity that Ares could not comprehend. All of it was rather hazy, with nothing seeming to be made out other than walls erected up in the shape of a hexagon.

Suddenly, everything began to come into focus, and Ares noticed a face he hadn't seen in a long time. It belongs to the person he least expected to see here. His father had passed away. He'd lost his parents, and if he was conscious, he couldn't even recall their faces. But in the realm of dreams, his face stood out like a ghost, and it began to move about the empty white room. Despite it being empty, the room had a strong emotion tied to it, one of both home - and of clear danger.

"Why were you in a life so full of nothing, yet when you finally decided to change, you're regretting it?" burst from his father's voice, riddled with riddles. Ares was questioned by his father. The boy didn't know what to say or how to answer to this question, it was such a strange and far out question, so he merely slapped his cheeks and waited for this nightmare to end.

When his father's eyes noticed that Ares wasn't answering, he took determined strides over to the kid. His father's arms immediately reached out and touched Ares' shoulder. Ares didn't know what to say since his expression was troubled. He wanted to shout, but his vocal chords were compressed. "I am sorry for not having my presence in this world my child", he said before being removed from his view.

Ares heard footsteps approaching and followed the sound as far as his eyes could. He noticed a person approaching through the bright light. A shadow of a woman emerged, this time with a face similar to his mother's... or what he assumed was his mother's face, but with a somewhat more youthful look. It became apparent as his dream progressed that none of it seemed to be of meaning. But still, he could feel such heavy emotions - whoever was at the door appeared to agitate this room, and the overall well being of the area.

He heard footsteps again and a loud thud. Something landed near where he stood, but no matter how hard he tried to look, he couldn't make it out. The person standing by the wall fell to her knees and knocked on the floor like a maniac, manically pounding the floor over and over again...

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And then, the scene that played in Ares’ mind changed. Instead of a white room, he was in a bustling avenue. It felt familiar, and it took a bit to remember what it was. But as he looked around, he remembered the day. It was the balloon fair, and he saw his older brother Alan in the dream desperately trying to tie a balloon for a customer, he was even trying to secretly use black magic in order to make it go in easier, but the balloon just wasn’t working the way he wanted it to be. Ares giggled as he saw his brother accidentally pop a row of balloons right above his head with his little hands before running off laughing, and Alan decided to follow Ares into the crowd of excited children who were going to throw balloons at each other as well as try to win some prizes.

A large cog machine sat in the centre of the plaza that Alan had carried Ares to before in the past, this time it had been decorated in a lavish manner with colorful streamers, bright lights, music, banners, and a giant rainbow balloon, Ares was jumping up and down in excitement beside Alan, both of their mouths hung open in wonder as they watched the people around them dancing while cheering and shouting happily. Some fireworks rang out and a large boom was heard throughout Upper Nimbia. Alan was trying to get Ares to pay attention, but his baby brother decided putting dead bugs into his mouth and trying (and failing) to revive them was better. Eventually though, Alan managed to distract his brothers enough to get back to the balloon station to make some more smaller balloon decoration for customers.

Despite these smaller balloons being made, they weren’t the main attraction of the fair. Rather the massive blimps that flew in the sky with decorative engravings flew about. The first one came overhead, and Alan and Ares were watching in awe as a group of people at their stall followed suit with them. This dream felt relaxing, and everything seemed peaceful. Life was good in here Ares thought to himself, and just when he was comfortable - the scene shifted around him again...

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He found himself in a harsh wilderness, one that seemed familiar from the children books Alan had read as a child. He looked around and spotted a few trees flowing as if they were singing a lullaby to Ares. Something seemed odd to him. Everything felt different in this place. When he peered up, he saw a strange mixture of a lavender ooze coming towards him. Ares stood there watching as it drew closer and closer, and soon an army of humanoid poison appeared to spring to life.

They encircled him, and he could see and feel his skin tingle and burn as the monsters launched a fierce attack, but before anything else could happen, he felt a power within him cry at him to use all of his might to destroy the humanoid things. But he couldn't, could he? He was much too feeble... too puny to accomplish anything of the kind, and glancing about the forest floor, there was nothing dead he could resurrect to have the strength to combat the creature.

An aura screamed out from behind him as one of the purple creatures rushed over him with sharp jaws ready to destroy him. His eyes steadily glanced when he noticed a body hanging from a tree near a clearing, a corpse that had been left to rot just conveniently lying on the tree. Ares paused for a split second before choosing to go for it; he didn't form a summoning circle, instead praying with his entire chest that the magic would succeed...

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And suddenly, the creature that had hanged on the tree leapt down through the power of Ares’ magic.

It landed right on its feet and lunged forward into one of the humanoid poison, and even though they had no mouth or ears, their mouths contorted into what looked like a twisted grimace, yet they were still able to scream in agony. The purple poisonous creatures seeped through their limbs and body, and they fell limp to the ground.

Ares was astonished, but in two things. The first thing... what was that horrid creature? Ares knew he lived a sheltered life, but that wasn't anything he'd ever heard of before. But the more important question was... how did he revive that person without a summoning circle? A person like him who barely could barely resurrect anything without injuring himself? He thought that it might have been someone else who did it, or that it wasn't really dead, but as he thought about it more and more... the more ringing and clacking was heard.

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Ares awakened on his bed and swiftly glanced about; his body felt warm and humid, which was terrible, and he turned towards his satchel, which was where the ringing originated from. He realised it was all a dream, a meaningless dream... yet how come it seemed so genuine? Ares had never experienced a dream that made him feel those feelings to that amount - but pondering what had happened wouldn't help, so he stood up to the carpeted floor and fumbled for his bag.

When he got closer to the bag, his sight was drawn to the outside window; he had believed seven or eight hours had passed because the sky was dark and the moon was out, and he could get the vibe that they were halfway there to Strata City. He noticed a magnificent bit of ocean dancing its waves out as they got closer to the glass, a spot he had never seen before due to the high elevation of the Nimbian Isle.

After taking one last peer out of the small window, he averted his attention to his satchel that was still ringing, he took the Portable Transmitter out of the satchel and checked underneath the cogs to see a name. It was Ersa calling him, he nervously pressed the dial and heard an excited voice talk back to him.

"Hello Ares! How's your first class suite?" Ersa said in a voice filled with jubilee and wonder, "Is everything nice and comfy?"

Ares looked across the oversized suite that he occupied and responded with, "Oh it's uhh... spacious... thanks for getting the ticket for me."

"Not a problem at all Ares! Those tickets barely cost anything, they were practically zilch!" Ersa said in a casual nonchalant tone, as if she didn't care about a single monetary value for any item or any commodity in the world.

"All well... in any case, why did you call me?" Ares expressed great skepticism in the words Ersa had said, but also needed to continue on with the conversation.

"Yes! So, I guess I have told you how to travel to Stelmaugh." Ersa asked to Ares.

"Uhh... somewhat sure of where it is, but you stated it fairly quickly when you discussed it previously." Ares explained in hushed tones to make it seem like he had a clue where it was.

"Yeah... sorry about that!" Ersa said. "Anyhow, that's where my pal comes in!"

"Your pal?" Ares asked

"Yup! She is one of the folks I cherish and adore! We took lessons together to develop our talents; she's not as powerful as me, but she's quite close, and she's a fantastic talker!" Ersa seemed to ramble on and on about what her friend does, and how Ersa was always better then her.

"Ah..." Ares murmured, concerned for the way Ersa described her "pal" and perplexed by where the conversation was going. "So, how does this friend fit in with me heading to Stelmaugh?" Ares questioned.

"Oh! Sorry, I went on a tangent for just a bit too long," Ersa said. "But yeah, basically once you land down in Strata City - she'll be there and accompany you to the academy! Her name is Afie, and she has large violet hair that poofs out, you can't miss her!"

Ares responded, "Ah okay... wait does she know about this whole switch we did?" It was a simple question, but as Ersa remained silent - Ares became even more concerned about this "pal" of her.

"Well, it was very complicated but essentially no, I felt like it w-" Ersa said, before being cut off by Ares' voice again.

Ares spoke in a strained tone "Hey, just curious... why did you do all of this? I believe I have a moral right to know."

Ersa replied quick, "Ah because of your desire fo-" before being cut off again by Ares' voice.

""Not that," he responded, "So why did you leave that place? By the way you use that magic, I don't think you were sick of it, and even if you were, the city seems lovely based on Alan's study of it. Why would you want to visit Upper Nimbia and just ditch all of that behind?"

Ersa seemed to not respond for a while, a silence befell and Ares could almost feel the cogs moving in Ersa's brain, but eventually her voice solemnly said "It's for personal reasons, everything and everyone in that city was terrible to live in... for me. That's all I'll say on that matter. I don't want to deceive you, but I don't think this knowledge is required. I have stated that living as me would be difficult, but I could tell how badly you desired this opportunity... I regret if it was a hasty decision, but your willingness to travel there indicates that it was also in your heart." Her voice sounded different then the other times Ares had met up with her, but the aura in the way she talked to him on the phone was the most sincere one he had felt.

Ares simply sat in silence for a few moments before apologising, "Alright... sorry, that was a bit invasive to ask." At this time, he believed Ersa's words.

"Don't worry too much about it, I feel like it's very reasonable to have concerns... but just know that I'm someone you can trust, I detected an aura from you that made me have this strong... impulse to help you," Ersa replied calmly. "Anyway, I have to leave now! Still need to work out my timetable with Alan, talk to you soon!"

Ares was left alone as static filled the once gushing sound from the equipment. Ares returned the portable transmitter to the sack as he stretched his arms out to the ceiling, accompanied by a hungry grumble. He attempted to ignore his stomach, but it kept crying for food, so he decided to risk his weight and go to the buffet; it was late at night and dinner was ready to be served.

He had intended to go eat alone, but as he opened the door, a person stood their... with their long flowy hair.