When Gaelin opened the door in the morning, Dina was already standing in the centre of the room, motionless in her olive-green dress, as if she had been waiting there for some time, eyes fixed on the doorknob. Gaelin grunted, avoiding the girl's gaze, and instead started bustling around, airing the room and then pushing a chair in front of the vanity table.

"Don't look at me like that," she muttered. Dina remained motionless in the middle, only turning her head to follow the woman with her eyes.

"I've already told you, and you should know it yourself, that I didn't plan it this way!"

The girl didn't reply.

Gaelin stood by the chair, gripping its backrest, now looking at Dina as if she should know what she wanted. "Come on, sit down. I'll do your hair."

Dina complied, although she cast a questioning glance in the mirror at Gaelin, who was rummaging among the combs behind her. Gaelin was the last person she expected to be concerned with such grooming. She could imagine this much more easily from Feléna. While Gaelin's warrior exterior hid a more open, straightforward interior, Feléna, despite her surface levity, concealed a strict mind.

"Why?" Dina asked, as she tolerated Gaelin combing her hair.

"You're preparing to join Feléna's team. You can't show up looking like you just threw your hair into a quick braid this morning."

"Why is that so important there?"

Gaelin didn't answer immediately, frowning and acting as if a tangle required her full attention. "You'll see today. Be patient."

Dina suffered the procedure without blinking, watching Gaelin in the mirror. From what she had heard, appearance mattered to Feléna. Yet it was Gaelin who was here, attending to her. Feléna appeared to Dina as someone who, as an examiner, would sit back, waiting for answers in silence, without offering a single helpful word. Dina had thought this of Gaelin at first.

But she didn't want to draw any far-reaching conclusions from this now. She had to admit she was grateful to both of them, Gaelin and Feléna, and she respected them equally.

She then returned to the original topic.

"So, how did you plan it then?"

"Well..."

The woman looked as though she might still be a little disappointed in Dina's physical strength, but she didn't bring it up again.

"I really want to know, why you brought me from the inn?"

Gaelin grunted. "You don't know Iolthland. I can't stand that pretentious fool! He makes my stomach turn the moment I see him, ugh!"

Had she not been concerned about the floor, Gaelin would have likely spat to the side at the mention of his name.

"A foolish, prissy figure who imagines himself as some cultural deity! Meanwhile, they say he's completely uneducated. Though I wouldn't know—I'm no expert on the arts. But that's the least of his flaws."

"Is he the local lord, isn't he?"

"Yeah, and may he rot in hell...! Sylvaron County's petty king. Which means he can rule over our lives. When he looked at you in that tavern, I thought I'd hit him! I had no desire to watch you suffer because of a careless word, even though you didn't look very trustworthy at the time. If it had been someone else in the same situation, I'd have helped them the same way."

Dina nodded in understanding. "I see. So you were trying to protect me from Iolthland."

"Of course! He's a mindless sensualist."

The girl didn't doubt Gaelin's judgement, still she had to ask the question.

"You're not on good terms with men, are you?"

Gaelin wrinkled her nose, battling another tangle. "Where do you get that idea?"

"You reacted the same way with Zevran."

"Zevran, Zevran, Zevran...! That's all I hear from you, just that name!"

Dina had her answer.

"I'm telling you, you'd be better off forgetting that fool too!"

"Zevran is not a fool." She didn't want to argue; she tried to soften Gaelin's opinion with gentle words.

"Believe what you like! But he's not worth all the thoughts you're wasting on him!"

"I just want to see him. He promised..."

Dina couldn't finish her sentence, for Gaelin laughed bitterly. "Promised? Don't joke—you can't be that naive! Men like him make promises, but those promises are gone like words on the wind!"

The girl lowered her head.

"Get real! If Zevran promised you anything, it's because he had some interest in it. And looking at you, I think I know what that interest was. Believe me, all men are like that, no exceptions. Or has Zevran found you? Is he here to help?"

"I was in Perubia, so maybe he..."

"Yeah, he can't find you because you're not in Perubia! Don't make me laugh! You're clinging to your own little illusions. You're fooling yourself! Any man who loves you would be here, he'd find you, wouldn't he?"

The girl didn't answer.

"Believe me, he's probably forgotten you by now, maybe rolling around with someone else! And you think he's worth your time? Hm! Foolishness..."

"He's helped me. Many times. He never hurt me. And he listened to me. In fact, he talked about himself too..."

"These things you're listing are no more than simple goodwill. Just because he talked about himself doesn't mean he loves you! And as for the sweet words and the courting, well, men like Zevran are experts at that with every naïve girl, just to get what they want."

Dina would have lied if she claimed that Gaelin's words didn't feel like a knife in her heart.

"Now I see it in the light. Is that it in your hair's colour? Hm. Now I think I know what Zevran gave you to make you fall for him."

Dina's eyes had a hint of challenge as she looked up in the mirror. "You misunderstand."

"What do I misunderstand? He was your client, wasn't he?"

The suddenness of her words filled the air with fear and humiliation, which Dina inhaled without being able to refute. They sat in silence for a while, Gaelin braiding her locks, and the girl swayed under the tugging of the woman's strong hands.

"I don't want to be foolish," Dina finally whispered. "I know there's truth in what you're saying, even if your words are harsh. But... somewhere deep in my heart, I hope that maybe there's something more between Zevran and me. Maybe... maybe there's some genuine love between us, buried under all the other things. A little sprout. A small seed. Something that could still grow into something beautiful."

"But you do know that out of those thousand seeds, maybe one or two will sprout. And considering Zevran's past, well, that doesn't help the odds."

Dina felt disheartened. "I know."

She had no answers, only more questions. Would he come for her? Would he even try? Would he not give up halfway, frustrated by failure? She found no answers, only an endless line of worries...

"It's hard, Gaelin."

The woman looked up at Dina's face, reflected back at her, so full of weariness. Perhaps she felt some sympathy because she unexpectedly reached out, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze, her earlier harsh tone softening.

"Dina, I know how it feels when your body has known something wonderful, and your heart just wants to follow, but... it can't. Because the one you wanted no longer wants you. That's why you should leave Zevran be. He's not for you."

Dina watched Gaelin in the mirror, speaking in a tone like a kind mother. But then her eyes welled up with tears. She quickly wiped them away and swallowed the rest.

Gaelin patted her shoulder.

"Right. This is not the time for tears. You need to pull yourself together now."

Dina agreed. She tried to put aside all her worries and inspected her finished hairstyle. Gaelin had skilfully twisted her hair into a beautiful bun, leaving a few strands loose beside her face. Dina was pleased with the look. She smiled.

"I didn't think you could do something like this," she said gratefully. The woman busied herself with the combs, pretending she hadn't heard any praise.

"What's going to happen today? And how much magic will be involved?"

"Some."

"Can you do magic too? Can both of you?"

Gaelin sighed. "I'm out of practice. Feléna is still quite good with spells that affect the mind and healing."

Dina nodded. "So, will I have to learn magic?"

"What? Oh, that's a minor detail. If you learn, you learn. If not, well, you don't. Feléna doesn't train wizards, Dina."

The girl looked at her reflection, unable to hide her surprise.

Gaelin went over to the wardrobe and opened it. "Now, let's see... have we got anything in grey here?" Finally, she pulled out a thin grey silk scarf and draped it over Dina's shoulders.

She clutched the fabric suspiciously, sensing the colour was no coincidence.

The woman smiled at her in the mirror, giving her arm a reassuring rub.

"Well, you're ready. Off you go."