We had decided to go. We packed lightly in case we were to stay overnight. But no more than one night. We weren't going to be away for long. We had promised Keefe and Zeke as much.

Astral was already complaining by the time we made it out of the town. He really hated walking.

"We should get you proper boots," I said and nodded towards his fancy ones.

"These are perfect."

"They're obviously hurting your feet and they have too high of a heel on them for them to be comfortable. Just say, you'll buy new boots once we get back."

"Sure, I'll buy new and ugly boots once we get back. And then you'll have to watch me wear the ugliest boots in the world."

"If it keeps you from complaining every time, we have to walk further than from our room to the food court, I'm perfectly content with that."

Astral made a face at me.

"You'll look just fine in regular boots." I sighed and picked up the pace a little.

"I'll look ugly and you'll find someone with much better taste, I'm sure."

I laughed and shook my head. "You're ridiculous."

"I'm fashionably aware, thank you very much. You should never underestimate that talent."

"I surely won't. Please excuse my grave mistake, my lord."

"You're a cheeky shit, Mars," Astral laughed and circled his arm around my neck, ruffling up my hair. I pushed him off me, only to grab the front of his jacket, pulling him to me and kissing him.

He chuckled, grabbed my hand, and we continued our walk.

The landscape was quite striking here. Fields stretched over the hills the moment we left the forests behind. Flowers painted the fields pinks and yellows, making it look like someone had put carpets on them. I liked imagining someone would come out every morning with huge carpets and carefully drape them over the fields, only to take them back inside before the evening dew snuck out.

Summer was beautiful here and I couldn't wait until autumn to see the colours changed. I bet it looked even more beautiful, casting the whole countryside in a golden hue.

So pretty.

We pressed on until we finally took a break by a small creek, a nice bridge stretching over it. I unpacked some of the food we had brought for the trip. Some bread and some cheese, some nice wine too.

Astral smiled at me as I poured wine into his travel mug. Despite him being less than happy about his dumb boots and the aches in his feet, there was still happiness to be found. Especially as he submerged his feet into the creek, jerking his head at me, beckoning me to join him.

The water was nice. Not too cold but cool enough. A slight bite in the water told the story of how it probably came from ice in the mountains. Maybe we'd even see snow on the tops, depending on how far up we were going.

It felt like a nice hike and not potentially something that could be dangerous. Like when we were little kids and pretended the gardens were much larger than they actually were. We'd pretend to be adventurers, finding magical objects and fighting off monsters.

"Remember when we played The Hunt for the Magical Vase?" I asked.

Astral chuckled. "Yeah, I tied scarves around our faces so we wouldn't die from the toxic gas booby traps."

I laughed and nodded. "We had a pretty great childhood, didn't we?"
"It was great because you were there," he said softly and leaned in, kissing me on the corner of my jaw.

By the end of the day, we made it to... I wasn't sure what to call it. We had made it far up enough to actually be in the mountains and right in the side of an especially steep mountainside was a castle? It had towers and spires like a castle, but they were so slim it looked more like spikes. And it looked like it had more or less sprung out of the mountain on its own, following an almost natural flow of the stones. But it still didn't look natural. Nor did it look welcoming.

"I'm not sure about this Astral," I said with a low voice, afraid the spikes would hear me.

"I feel something. I feel drawn to this place. Don't you feel something?"

I felt my stomach turning, the same sensation I had felt in the inn with electrical lights on the wall. Nothing had happened there, so maybe this was truly how I sensed magical interference? I wasn't sure I could actually trust my gut, as Zeke had advised me to do. I hadn't felt anything when I was about to be killed. I hadn't felt anything when we were nearing the burnt down village. My stomach only growled when I was hungry and apparently it got unsettled when we were close to magical beings. But it never happened around Zeke or Astral, so I wasn't... Sure. I wasn't sure about anything.

Astral grabbed my hand, gave it a squeeze and started towards the monstrous castle.

There was no wind here. Not a single sound either. The closer we got to the castle, the quieter it became. There had been birds chirping, but it was as if they had just stopped.

The doors opened slowly when we were only a few metres from it. The path led directly to it and there was really nowhere else to go.

A person appeared from the shadows in the door. It looked like a woman. Long straight black hair streamed down to her waist, looking more like ink spilling than hair against her white shirt. She was pretty smartly dressed, in a pair of high-waisted trousers with buttons on both sides.

She looked aethereal, almost not real, in the way she floated forward. "Hello. Welcome to my home," she said with an exceptionally soft voice.

"Thank you," Astral said and glanced at me. "We've come a long way to see you."

She sent us a soft smile and beckoned us forward. I was still hesitant, but Astral pulled me with him. The closer we got the paler she looked. Her face was almost too perfect. Very symmetrical. Like a painting.

"You're both welcome to rest here."

"We have... Questions too." He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, taking my hand in both of his.

"And I will answer them. But first, you look hungry and tired. And in need of a bath. I have clothes laid out for you and someone will wash yours." She bowed her head at us and turned around. We followed her inside the darkness, only to realise it wasn't dark at all. I had thought there'd be dark and cold, but it was warm. It looked like everything was made of marble and glass. Very lush.

"I have a room prepared for you. I've seen you coming, you see," she said without turning to us, almost as if she was just slinging her words over her shoulder.

"Thank you. We didn't expect a welcome quite like this," Astral said.

"Mages have to help out their own, no?" Now she looked over her shoulder and smiled at us.

"We haven't met many others outside of the colleges. But they've always been kind there."

She stopped in front of a very intricately decorated door and opened it, showing off a room like none I had ever seen. There was a large bed in the centre of the back wall. Large windows flanked the bed on either side, encased with what looked like the softest drapes I had ever seen. On the other side of the room was an open door, and it looked like there was an actual washroom connected to the room. With a large tub too. I was sure my eyes were about to roll out of my skull when I looked up to find a massive chandelier. It was so beautiful it couldn't just possibly be a lamp. It was art.

"I'm Venus," she said and smiled again.

"I'm Astral. And this is Mars."

It was as if her gaze was physically heavy as it settled on me. "Mars." She narrowed one eye a bit. "I've been waiting for you. For a long time."

"Why?" I asked, my voice seriously failing me.

"I will tell you when you're rested. I can tell you're overwhelmed. I would rather we talk when you've both settled. You have so many questions and I might have the answers to some. But I am hungry. And I get moody when I'm hungry, so, wash up and we'll eat."

Astral snorted a bit. "Mars does as well."

A very genuine and almost young smile appeared on her face. For the first time she actually looked human.