"Right, is that everything?" I asked and looked over our packing list.

"I think so," Astral said, looking through his rucksack one last time. "Did you bring the ginger?"

"Yeah, I've got it. We'll need to buy more on our travels though. It won't last forever."

"And we'll buy clothes on the road too." He closed up the leather sack and shouldered the strap, pulling it up from the bed. "I still can't believe we're actually leaving." He jumped over to me, helped me get my own rucksack up on my back and then pulled me in for a kiss. It was a brief one, but it left my lips tingling.

"Let's get the fuck out of here," he said and laced his fingers with mine.

There were no teary goodbyes. We stopped under the arch which marked the entrance to the front gardens of the college and looked back at the large stone building. It looked like a magical castle. Technically I guess it was?

"Well, I'm not gonna miss this place," Astral said and glanced at me.

I tipped my head to the side and grimaced. "Me neither. I'm taking the only good thing about this place with me." I grabbed his hand and brought it up to my lips, kissing his knuckles.

"You can be so smooth sometimes, Mars. I like it." He leaned in and kissed my cheek. "Let's go."

"I think my blisters are growing blisters," Astral whined. We had been walking for half a day and he had been complaining for the most part of it.

"I told you not to wear those boots," I grumbled. Astral needed to wear his nice new boots, instead of the ones who had been firmly broken in and were much more comfortable. I didn't know who he exactly wanted to look so good for, especially after we had left the college city and were walking on the smaller roads. There were only us and an occasional carriage.

"Do you think we can get a ride with the next carriage?"

"You can try and ask," I muttered. I quite liked the walk. No one stared at me here. The arch mage had fashioned a pair of spectacles for me, so the sun wouldn't hurt my eyes. It had toned glasses both in the front and on the sides.

Sure, I looked even weirder but at least I wasn't getting headaches from squinting all the time. Even if Astral said I looked cute when I squinted.

"How much further?" he whined.

I stopped and pulled out the map. We were not far from a smaller town. We should stop there and rest. Maybe we could catch a carriage to the bigger town we were aiming for. I told Astral and he seemed a little happier. There was a bit of a bounce to his step.

And he was even happier when we made it to the small town. It was really cute. Every house was turned towards the town centre, which had a little fountain and a statue of the water goddess. She was pouring water from a vase into the fountain. I wondered if it was made with magic or genius design.

We went to the inn and I let Astral deal with getting us a room. It was very cosy. A big fireplace was placed in the middle, under a hole in the roof, for the smoke. Tables, big and small, were scattered all over the big room and by one of the walls was a counter. A door behind the counter probably lead to the kitchens. My stomach growled by thought of food.

"We should put our things down in our room and then get some dinner," I said as Astral was handed a key to our room.

"I agree. It smells divine in here, doesn't it?" He smiled and inhaled very deeply.

I inhaled too, closing my eyes. It smelt of lavender and food. Maybe some kind of stew? Sun and stars, I was starving.

We went to our room and I stopped dead in my tracks. There was one large bed. Not two small ones.

"I didn't think we'd need more than one," Astral said and put his rucksack on the floor before turning to me with a cheeky smile on his lips.

"N-no, we don't."

He stepped in front of me, kissed me and slid the straps of my rucksack off my shoulders. He put it on the floor with a bump. Then he reached up and carefully removed my specks. I blinked a little, trying to adjust my eyes to the new kind of light in the room.

He pressed his lips to mine again. I ran my hands up his chest, letting them rest on the sides of his throat. I gently ran my thumbs over the sharp corners of his jaw. He had the most exquisite jaw. The way it moved when he spoke or when he kissed me. I loved feeling it move under my fingers.

And then my stomach decided to betray me and growl very loudly. Astral snorted against my lips, heating up the top one with his breath.

"Let's get that belly filled, love," he murmured.

My heart fluttered. He had never called me that before.

We went back downstairs, the floors and steps creaking under our boots. The smell of food hit me even harder this time and my stomach growled loudly again.

"Yes, Mars' belly, we'll get you food soon," Astral laughed and patted my stomach.

We found a seat close by the fire and got comfortable on the wooden chairs.

"Hey there boys, what would you like for dinner? We have a broth soup cooking and a lamb stew. My father just pulled out a fresh batch of bread too," a very spunky girl said, dark braids surrounding her face.

"Is it the lamb stew that smells this divine?" I asked.

"Yes," she said with a wink and put two cups on our table, filling them with wine.

"I'd like that then, please. With a slice of that fresh bread too." I smiled back and glanced at Astral.

"Yeah, same for me," he said, not taking his eyes off me. His hand crept over the table, fitting his fingers in between mine.

"Coming right up!" the girl chirped, whirled around, and stalked back to the counter with the cannister of wine.

Astral leaned in and kissed my cheek. I had been looking after the girl but turned my attention back to my friend.

"What was that for?" I asked, my free hand grazing over the skin his lips had touched.

"I wanted your attention," he said with a soft voice, his fingers twitching a little.

"You always have my full attention. You know that."

"This is not how we banter, Mars. You're supposed to say, 'Astral, you demand too much attention. Like a child.' And I'd say, 'I deserve all your attention all the time. For being so pretty.'"

I couldn't help but laugh. "Do I need to leave you alone for this conversation? Sounds like you don't even need me here."

"Oh, I could do this with myself all day."

"Like other things."

He leaned back and laughed loudly. "And there we go. Our classic banter."

"You live to banter with me, huh." I took a sip of the wine. It was exceptionally good. Round in the taste and there was a hint of plums in there. There was a plum plantation nearby and much of this countryside lived off of plums and selling different assortments of plum produce.

"So, let's start planning a bit. If we find a carriage going to the Heatherhills, we can visit their local college," Astral said and took a sip of his wine too. "Maybe they have research papers we could look at, to help us."

"And maybe other people with The Sight as well."

He nodded and then his hands twitched again. I frowned a little.

"What's up with that?" I asked and nodded towards his hand, resting on the table.

"Vision coming. It won't be here until a couple of hours though."

"When did your hands start twitching like that?" I dug out my notebook and a pencil, getting ready to take notes.

"Recently. Maybe a moon or two ago." He rubbed his temples.

I grabbed both of his hands very gently and looked down at them. "Your nails are a little blue too. And your fingers are cold."

"Happens all the time." He frowned a little.

"Hm, circulation seems to be getting worse before a vision then. Do you feel dizzy? Tired?" I grabbed his wrist and put my thumb on his pulse, pulling out my pocket watch and tracking his pulse.

"A bit dizzy, but I'm also hungry. And I'm tired after the walk, I reckon."

I nodded and kept focus on his pulse. It was slow. "I think your circulation actually slows down. When you do have visions, your pulse is out of control."

He nodded. He knew this. We had it documented in our thesis. "You think there might be a correlation?"

I bopped my head from side to side. "Who knows. But let's note it down. Maybe there's more information at the smaller college in Heatherhills on this."

Astral smiled and nodded again. "You take such good care of me."

"Hey, I just wanna figure out if we can do anything to make the visions not so terrible. I don't like it when you feel bad."

He brought my fingers up to his mouth and kissed them. "Like I said, you take such good care of me."

"Find a way to repay me then."

"Alright, I will." He tipped his head up, taking the challenge with his chin apparently.