The carriage bumped and I hurt my butt coming back down on the hard, wooden bench. I groaned and Astral snorted.

"Does my pain amuse you?" I asked and arched a brow.

"Your face amuses me."

"If faces amuse you so, you should carry around a mirror at all times."

Keefe and Zeke tried to muffle themselves, but they were laughing.

"It is hard to believe you love each other, when you say stuff like this," Keefe pointed out, while laughing. I didn't quite get how he could be laughing while saying something like that.

"I believe it keeps them both on their toes," Zeke said as if she was a genius on the subject.

Astral rolled his eyes and sighed deeply. He took my hand in his and fitted his fingers in between mine. "Banter is our love language."

Funny how you still haven't told me you love me then, I thought to myself but didn't say anything.

It was quite sweet how he'd say it was our love language, because it wasn't exactly untrue. He was infuriating but I loved that. I really did. Our small fights had always been a part of how we communicated and even though there was a lot more sincere talks now, we could still banter like we had always done. There was comfort in it, and I enjoyed it.

The carriage drew to a halt and I opened the door only to stop dead in my tracks. There was supposed to be a small village here, our next stop, but there was nothing but burned down buildings and smoke.

I looked up at the driver and he didn't look like he knew what to do either.

"What happened here?" I asked.

"Mages," Astral said as he stepped out of the carriage. "Only magical fire can burn stone." He nodded towards what had probably been a foundation to a house once, but now was just a melted mess.

I grabbed his hand, feeling scared. Why would mages do this to a village?

"What does this mean?" Zeke asked and pointed to something on the ground. We joined her and found a marking painted into the melted stone. It looked like a sort of globe. Circles within circles and two lines crossing, going down through the globe in an angle.

"That used to be the sign of one of the collectives of mages. They've supplied a lot of the theories we still use today but they're not... The good ones," I said and moved closer to Astral.

"Definitely not the good ones," he chimed in.

"So bad mages burned down a town?" Keefe asked and frowned, his nose wrinkling as well. "That doesn't seem very nice."

"You don't say," Astral muttered under his breath.

"We should move on. I don't wanna stay here." I tugged on Astral and we went back to the carriage.

"Don't wanna stay here?" the driver asked. "I'll be going to the village next over, if you wanna come."

"We'd be happy to. Do you know when this happened?" I asked.

"No, last I was here this hadn't happened. That was ten days ago."

Astral crouched down and put his hand on the melted stone. "It's still warm so it can't have been that long ago. We shouldn't stay here in case they come back."

"Let's get out of here."

In the next village there was definitely a feeling of animosity. I didn't feel entirely comfortable with how they looked at us.

"Is it just me or are they all staring?" Keefe asked with a low voice.

"They're staring. Better cover your ears here, Keefe," Astral said and smoothed his hair down a little.

Keefe took off his hat and pulled up his hood. "We should get hoods for all of you."

Zeke pulled her braids over to one side and bit down on her lip.

"We'll be fine," I tried, just to soothe my friend.

"Well, we haven't done anything wrong and it's not like they could possibly think all mages are bad, just because of the actions of a few, right?" Astral said and straightened his back, puffing up his chest. "Let's find an inn, some food and some beds. We'll leave first thing in the morning."

He strode forward, very confidently. Keefe, Zeke, and I shared a look before we followed. I wasn't nearly as confident as Astral. The last time I had felt exposed like this, uneasy like this, I had been killed.

We entered the inn, but it was nothing like we had been to in the past. It had an entry hall and a woman sitting behind a desk. She looked up over her red brimmed glasses.

"Rooms?" she croaked.

"Yes please. Three," Astral said and stepped up to the desk.

"Don't go about in the night here. Mages are not popular," she said. Her voice sounded like a creaky old door.

"Because of the neighbouring village?" I asked and fell in beside Astral. "We didn't have anything to do with that."

"Of course, you didn't. But these people are village idiots." She smiled through her wrinkles. "Where are you headed?"

"Heatherhills College. We're working on our thesis. Zeke here is our apprentice, and Keefe is our protector." I motioned to my two friends behind us.

"Good thing you have a protector. Don't leave without him." She leaned sideways and eyed Keefe. "Generally, I'd just keep him around for the view." She smiled again, letting her eyes wander up and down.

"I have many good spots to look at the view," Keefe said and smiled too.

I closed my eyes and tried hard to not laugh, while Astral got busy with paying for the rooms.

"Welcome to Sun's Guesthouse. Breakfast's at 8." She winked at me and I wasn't entirely sure what to do with that.

There wasn't much to do other than take our keys and find our rooms. It was an odd house all around. Instead of there being one big food hall at the centre of the house and then rooms on the top floor, this one had three floors with rooms on all of them. Long carpets covered every inch of the floor too, muffling the sound of our footsteps. Lamps hung on the wall, and I wasn't even sure if they were oil lamps or something else. Magical maybe?

"Do you sense magic here?" I asked Astral with a low voice.

"Yeah. Why?" He glanced at me and slowed down a little, letting Keefe and Zeke get ahead of us.

"I've been feeling weird ever since we got here. Do you think I'm sensing magic?"

Astral smiled a little. "Maybe. We've already established you've got some magic in you through your remedies, yeah? I wouldn't be surprised if you could sense magical pulses as well. And considering we've been away from the college for a while and now have come back to a place that does have a magical pulse, it wouldn't be odd for you to realise you can pick up on them now. But that's just my theory." He shrugged a little.

"How does it feel to you?"

"I feel a little on edge, but..." He sighed a little and clenched his eyes shut, grabbing my hand. His hand was twitching.

"A vision is coming," I said softly.

He nodded and rubbed his temple with his free hand. "My head has been aching ever since we got here. But I feel the pulse as a warm sensation on the top of my spine. As if someone put a hot cloth there."

I tried to feel the top of my spine, but in all honesty, the only thing I could feel was my stomach turning.

"I don't feel anything there," I admitted.

"It's different for everyone." He shrugged again. "Sun and stars, I can't wait to just lay down."

"We could cuddle."

"Don't be gross."

I snorted and grabbed his hand, pulling him close. "I'm gonna cuddle you so hard."

"Ew." He shot me a tired grin.