It was a quiet day. Relatively. Astral only had two more visions. And one happened to be a new one. It still involved trees but this time it was an actual forest. Golden arrows flew through the air, hitting shadows.

I wrote it all down. It hadn't left Astral as exhausted either. He seemed almost energised. He and Zeke sat on the floor, trying to sketch out the arrows and the shadows while I stayed in bed, napping on and off, their soft-spoken voices drifting in and out. It was comforting to hear them talk, to hear them laugh.

I woke up properly and they were sat on the floor still, but now they were eating. Astral smiled up at me, beckoning me to join them.

"Here, we left you something," he said and kissed my cheek.

It was roast with steamed potatoes. It looked absolutely delicious, and I dug in immediately.

"Did you get some sleep too?" I asked and yawned.

"A little here and there. You were out good though."

I nodded and swallowed a piece of meat. "I haven't slept this well in ages."

"Napping is pretty great," Zeke said and smiled. "Come here." She motioned me to turn her back on her and she stood up on her knees. "Your braids aren't looking too fresh anymore. We better fix that."

My cheeks were burning, and I nodded. I liked feeling her fingers in my hair. How careful she was when she brushed it. She had a silver comb in her room and went to get it, to get my hair properly untangled.

"You're next," she said aimed at Astral. "Your hair is looking more and more like a mop."

"Is not!" Astral exclaimed, both of his hands shooting up to his hair.

"It's tangled and mangled and you need a haircut."

Astral almost ferally growled at her but I slapped his arm. "Behave. Zeke is being nice."

"She called my hair ugly."

"She said it needed maintenance and she's not wrong."

Astral moped while Zeke got my hair untangled. She unbound the braids and then redid them, putting the pearls back in too. It felt nice to be pampered. She even had some oils for my hair that made it really soft and smelling like lavender. I felt really pretty again.

Next up was Astral. He whined like a baby when she started combing his hair, the curls in it fighting back.

"You need to brush this more often, you idiot," Zeke said in a reprimanding tone.

"It was fine," Astral shot back.

"It really wasn't. It was almost tangling up so bad I would've had to cut the knots out of it." She brought out a pair of silver scissors, cutting the ends off his hair, making it rain with green locks of hair. And it looked nice. He looked a little fresher, even despite having bags under his eyes. He hadn't slept enough, and I'd give him valerian tea later. But for now, I'd just admire Zeke's skills.

"I used to do everyone's hair back at the village. My mum did too," she explained when I asked her how she had gotten this good. "It was one way of making money, you know?" She sighed a little. "Then when I started having visions, people said I was possessed. The only one who believed me was my cousin. She's been around, you know? Used to travel around before she finally settled at the inn. So, she had seen other mages with visions. She hadn't seen someone get seizures, but she recognised the eyes. She tried telling everyone, but my mum had already convinced them I was possessed. And that made her lose business in return. She blamed me for that."

"But she was the one telling everyone you were cursed though," Astral said and frowned.

"I know. She'd do this a lot. Make up problems and then blame everyone but herself. In her mind she was perfect."

"I'm sorry," I said and tried to look supportive. "I guess sometimes it's hard to remember that even those with families aren't always fortunate."

"It's alright. She can't help it. I think if she ever did take responsibility, she'd have to realise all the things she has done in her life. She drove my father away the same way. And now she has driven me away too."

"We're better looking anyways," Astral said, punching right through the otherwise nice and supportive atmosphere.

"Way better looking," Zeke snorted and cut another lock off his hair. "And you'll be even more better looking once I finish cutting your hair."

"I don't want it too short."

"Don't worry, it won't be too short. It'll be right." She sounded so sure and Astral did already look better. She finished up and brushed some locks off his shoulders. "Now go look."

He rose to his feet and walked over to the silver-backed mirror hanging on the wall. Much easier to see yourself in those as opposed to the bronze ones.

He ran a hand through his hair, styling it a bit and then he nodded. "Yeah, this is good. Thank you, Zeke."

"You're welcome. At the next town we should buy you a comb so you can keep it yourself."

He nodded and turned back around, looking to me for my opinion.

"You look lovely," I said, and he smiled.

"You're the lovely one, Mars. We've been over this before." He came back to me and sat down next to me, placing a soft kiss on my cheek. "Especially with your hair all done up. Zeke is an artist."

"Oh, don't flatter me like that. You'll spoil me," Zeke laughed and packed up all her hair stuff. The oils and the tools.

"You deserve to be spoiled a little, to be quite honest. At the next town, what would you like to do?" Astral smiled and leaned his head on my shoulder.

"I'd..." She stopped and swallowed something. "I'd like new clothes. At least look at some. I don't have a lot of money-"

"Good thing we do," Astral interrupted. "Alright. We'll buy you new clothes when we get to the next town."

"You don't have to."

"But we want to. We're fully funded by the college. Parts of that funding goes to living expenses. And you being my apprentice, you get to have some perks from that too. It's no bother at all and so far, we've been fairly cheap to the college."

"You sure?"

"Absolutely," I said and smiled. I honestly couldn't think of a better way to repay her for doing our hair and for everything else.