We came to a small town but there was no inn here. The main travel road didn't lead through the forest, apparently. And that meant this town wasn't visited often. They had a place for campers still, which offered shade and a pit to start a fire, so that would have to do.

Tomorrow we'd get a ride to a proper town where there'd be an inn, so this was just for one night. That didn't appease Astral though. He wanted to sleep in a bed and not on the ground. It wasn't like I was looking forward to sleeping on the ground either, but I didn't think throwing a fit over it was really necessary.

Zeke and I made the best of it, pretending to have gone camping. We talked about all the stars we'd be seeing when it grew dark. Keefe had food we could roast over the fire. Rabbits he had shot in the forest and some bread we could heat on the stones by the fire. It was turning out to be a real feast and Keefe told us everything he knew about sleeping out in the wild.

He might've not been the sharpest knife in the kitchen, but he knew his way around nature. He collected some mushrooms for us to roast as well.

It wasn't bad and soon even Astral warmed up to us camping. He sat next to me, munching on a loaf of bread. I leaned against him and he put his arm around my shoulders. He placed a kiss on the top of my head and continued to eat. I had finished my own loaf long ago, but I was still hungry. I was always hungry.

"You want the rest?" Astral asked when he caught me eyeing his loaf.

"You should eat it yourself," I said half-heartedly.

"I'm fine. I don't have a bottomless pit in my stomach."

I frowned and pulled far away enough "Neither do I."

"You do, Mars," Astral laughed and gave me the rest of his loaf. "Or it's a creature, growling all the time."

I bit down into the bread instead of answering. Astral pulled me close again and kissed my cheek. He was trying to sway me back on his side and quite frankly, it worked.

"You're so cute, when you're grumpy," he murmured into my hair.

"You're unattractive when you act a fool."

He laughed again and settled against me. "You don't think I'm unattractive."

"Can't you just pretend you don't know that?"

In the midst of our conversation, Zeke and Keefe had been observing us from the other side of the bonfire in silence. Keefe finally cleared his throat.

"Are you two married? If so, have you been married long?"

Zeke snorted much like a pig and then burst out laughing. "They do sound like an old married couple."

"So, they are not married?"

"No, but we've been friends since childhood," I said and chuckled.

"Mars found me irresistible from the first time he saw me."

"We were five, Astral." I rolled my eyes very dramatically, but he was right. I had been infatuated with him from the very beginning. I knew I wanted to be close to him. Platonically at first, then as we grew older, I fell in love with him.

"You were a perceptive five-year-old, seeing greatness already." Astral batted his eyelashes and shot a very corny smile at me.

"As you can tell, Astral is a very humble guy," Zeke said and poked Keefe with her elbow.

Keefe frowned a little. "I don't think his statements have been very humble."

Zeke snorted again and hid her face in her hands. Astral's smile slid right off, and he actually looked offended.

"Being confident is not a bad thing," I murmured and smiled at him.

He eased up and smiled back. "Thanks," he whispered and kissed me.

It was nice how he wasn't afraid of being intimate with me out in public. I had been slightly afraid he'd shy away from it. But he didn't. He was sitting here with me by the fire, his arm around me, his fingers playing absentmindedly with my hair.

"Would you like to get married?" Keefe asked then.

Astral's fingers stilled, and I froze. We were at all not there yet and we still hadn't told each other we loved each other, so... Marriage seemed so far away.

"Maybe that's enough talk about marriage," Zeke said, saving both Astral and I from having this conversation out in public.

I wanted to say yes, we'd get married in the future. I wasn't sure Astral even supported that institution. Lots of people didn't believe in marriage as it was something the government was in charge of. And lots of people didn't support the government. We had had lots of talks about the politics of our nation, but as mages a lot of laws didn't really apply to them. Mages had their own laws and government and acted as free-state citizens.

But I was not a mage, so technically Astral and I were from two different nations within one country. It didn't really matter when it came to marriage – everyone could get married to each other if they wanted. But there were different laws and I kept forgetting I wasn't a part of the mage community, despite having grown up with them, and gotten the full mage education, living the mage lifestyle. I partook in their culture, celebrated their holidays and honestly considered myself a mage, at least culturally. Which wasn't a thing. Either you were a mage, or you weren't. There wasn't room for someone like me, despite my talents with the remedies, or the fact that I had been better than everyone in my class. It wasn't considered mage-like. I could be considered a natural healer, perhaps even a doctor, if I were taught how to perform surgery. But beyond that, I was just a regular human being. A cursed human but a human, nonetheless.

This new town was awe-inspiring. Entirely made of marble it carried the very fitting name of Marble. A vibrant city that lived off tourism, art – especially sculptures made of marble – and a heavy export in fruits. It laid in a valley that made the conditions for several plantations extremely fruitful. Literally. Apples, oranges, plums and pomegranates.

And it seemed like a friendly city too. The minute we stepped onto the marble cobblestones, people were nodding at us in greetings, some smiled and gave a happy 'hello'. The people seemed as beautiful as their town.

"Have you never been to Marble?" Keefe asked, probably having noticed how we were all staring in awe.

"No, never," I said after having cleared my throat.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

I nodded. As did Zeke and Astral.

"We'll definitely find you nice clothes here," Astral said, aimed at Zeke.

"And a hat for Keefe," she said and grinned up at the much taller boy.

"Right, let's find a place to put our stuff, get something to eat and then we go explore, yeah?" Astral said, sounding almost giddy.

"Sounds like a plan!"

After a quick lunch at the inn, we went to town. Literally. We found the street that was bursting with shops and small booths, lining both sides. Zeke stopped by a women's clothing shop and dragged me into it. Clothes were everywhere, lining the walls, and there were even wooden mannequins wearing outfits as well.

"Is this too expensive?" she asked, holding what appeared to be a nice white dress shirt.

"Don't you want anything else?" I asked and looked through my pockets, searching for my purse. Astral had given me plenty of money from our account, so it wasn't like we had to be cheap.

"I... Don't know. I've never been in a shop as nice as this one." Zeke looked down at the shirt. It had white embroidered roses in it. A subtle touch of art, really. There was delicate lace around the collar and by the end of the sleeves.

"What about some trousers as well? Maybe some dresses or something?" I asked and walked towards the dresses section of the shop.

"Dresses won't really be very practical for our journey, Mars."

"But they're so pretty," I said almost dreamingly. I carefully ran my hand over the soft fabrics of a blue dress.

"You buy it then."

I looked at her over my shoulder and grimaced. "I'd look ridiculous."

"Maybe in that one, yeah, but you could definitely pull off another kind." She came over to me, still holding on to the shirt. She held it up, pinning its shoulders to mine. "This would look nice on you."

Heat travelled up from my chest, up my throat and settled on my cheeks.

"We could match," I said and ran my hand over the fabric.

"Then we both get it, yeah?"

"Alright. We both get it."

We bought the shirts and I convinced Zeke to get some more from another shop. A jacket, some nice socks, trousers and a velvet vest. She'd look pretty in all the clothes, and they weren't just for practicality. I mean, they were all practical, but she'd also look nice in them too.

We met up with Astral and Keefe at one of the many small squares. Keefe was wearing the most ridiculous hat I had ever seen. The rim was buttoned to the side, a large feather with an eye on it fastened to the side. It looked to have been made of well-treated leather and quite frankly, it made him look like a pirate from the fiction novels I had read as a child which featured illustrations of the seafarers.

But Keefe seemed immensely proud of it as he kept turning his head, the feather bouncing back and forth with the movement.

"What did you get?" Astral asked.

I put the brown package on the small table we were all sitting around and opened it and showed Astral the shirt.

"That looks nice," he said softly.

"I got one to match," Zeke said with a wide smile.

Astral frowned a little. "You got a woman's shirt?" he asked and turned to me.

"Well, it's Mars's now so it's no longer a woman's shirt." Zeke looked very seriously at Astral.

"I was just asking," Astral said and ran his fingers over the soft fabric. "It's gonna look good on you." He smiled a little at me.

I smiled back. "I hope so. Otherwise, we've spent a lot of money on something that won't get used," I chuckled and packed up the shirt again so it wouldn't get dirty.

"There is a midsummer festival celebration happening tonight. To celebrate the harvest. You wanna go?" Keefe asked, wiggling his head a little, making the ridiculous feather wiggle too.

"A party?" Astral chirped and perked up.

"Yes, it's a party," Keefe said and smiled a bit, a dimple digging into his cheek.

"I want to go," Astral announced and glanced at me. "You'd look good in that blue jacket. With your new shirt underneath." He brushed a lock of my hair behind my ear.

I liked how he'd woo me. Even now he was a terrible flirt, and I loved every second of it. He could be arrogant and annoying. Sometimes childish and petulant. But then he'd flirt as if we weren't already sharing a bed. As if we hadn't already been living as a married couple for years. I hoped it'd never go away. That when we were old and grey, he'd still flirt with me.

Except I'd never grow old and grey. I'd see him wither and die eventually while I'd continue living.

"Mars?" Astral looked a little worried.

I shook my head, shaking those thoughts out of it. "Yes, let's go to the party. After everything we've been through, we deserve a night to unwind." I smiled and so did he.