I woke up to the familiar feeling of blood trickling down my cheek.

My training partner from last night, Lanzo, had thrust his training sword through my helmet's grille. I should have been more careful. Luckily it wasn't a serious injury, though it would leave a noticeable bruise which would attract a lot of attention. I couldn’t even imagine how disappointed Master Almon would be. He was already known for his grumpy attitude and his dislike for anything that was not normal behavior for a Cappesand aspirant.

As I stood up from the narrow but soft bed, I was immediately greeted by the biting cold that had taken over my room. I realized I must have forgotten to close the window the night before, and I silently cursed myself for having to get out of bed earlier to close it. I would’ve preferred to stay in bed and catch up on some more sleep, but the sight of my breath fogging the air made it impossible to ignore the cold. And it was mornings like this that I wished I could warm up my room with only a thought, as Florencia does.

It was clear that the nights in Bessou were becoming colder, a sign of a long and harsh winter that was to come.

I always had a fondness for my small and cozy room. Despite its size, it had been my home for almost five years, and I couldn’t be happier with it. Though I did sometimes miss the company of the mice that used to scurry around under the floorboards back in Darnel, I much preferred the space I had here in Cappesand. It may’ve been small—barely twenty paces long and wide—but it had been my sanctuary and a place where I had made many memories.

I called it home.

As I stepped in front of the mirror, placed on top of an old dark wood cupboard, I could see that the bruise on my cheek wasn't too bad. It was only a minor scratch where the blunted tip of the sword had hit. Worse was my body, which hurt all over from the training. It was a good pain that I started craving lately. It must have been almost a year that I started working out this hard, and as soon as I started, I felt a need for it. I was more alive in those minutes in the ring than in any of my classes in Cappesand. And I got used to the pain as well, and after getting used to the pain, I started to enjoy it. After the first few months, the body gets tough and heals faster.

Lanzo always complains that I have an unfair advantage with my faster healing, and the help of the Cappesand physicians. I told him countless times that after my third visit there; the healers were already growing suspicious of me and might even go to the dean to complain. But he kept whining, and I slapped his dumb helmeted face with a handle strike. All with good sportsmanship, of course. The strike was so quick that he never saw it coming, and only complained about it after our duel was over. I might have held back a bit, if he wasn't whining the evening before.

One of the most ridiculous sentiments in the larger wizarding world was that working out was demeaning, something beneath a true master of the craft. They all said that a decent mage could do all he needs to do with just a twitch of his finger. Being in strong physical shape showed that you had little skill in the craft and needed to use your body. Which sounds ridiculous, and I tried explaining my opposite viewpoint, which went over as well as I thought it would. The sentiment even applied to me. While I was far from being a true mage, my fellow students would still mock me over it. So I'd never publicly admit that I was taking sword fighting classes and doing manual labor at the warehouse.

A love for the comfortable life showed in how the masters looked. They were all fat, with their great bellies wobbling while they walked. Soft like dough. The masters always had trouble going higher than the third floor on the staircases. I would have thought there would be some outliers, but I was wrong. Everyone very much so enjoyed their stationary lifestyle.

After I washed the dried blood off my cheek, I put on the only outfit that was still clean. Most of my uniforms were in the wash, so I had to settle for the worn brown trousers with suspenders, a collarless white undershirt, and the Cappesand Basic Aspirant Coat, which was a simple rich blue tunic with golden trimming to be worn on top of a shirt. I really should've saved up for a new pair of canvas boots, but I spent all my coins for Florencia's present. The tear on the side of the boot grow larger every week.

All students had to wear standardized Cappesand Academy uniforms, which were of luxurious materials and tailored to our exact measurements. Not silk or fine twill, but a very gentle and flexible cotton or wool fabric. And while I never liked to look like everyone else, the fit and quality of the garments made up for it. Besides, we could customize the tunics and winter overcoats to our liking with some colorful scarfs or undershirts, so everyone added their own flair to the outfits. I've never worn tailored clothes before either, so the perfect fit was a pleasant surprise as well.

I should have emotion-craft classes later this evening with master Mergo, but I would probably skip them. He doesn't care to teach me either, so it wasn't a real loss. Besides, I had big plans. It was Florencia's twentieth birthday today, and I booked the same restaurant as last year. I thought, why waste a good plan? She couldn't make it last year, so it wasn't like I did the same thing twice. And while I was nervous, that the dinner date might not impress Florencia that much, the worst-case scenario was that we would just get some time together, just the two of us.

She knew I had planned something for last year, and she knew I planned something for today as well. And of course, I kept it a secret from her, and had teased her about it for weeks already, to a point she was getting pissed off over it. She looked so cute when she was pissed off, so I didn't mind. She had this habit of...

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Knock! Knock! Knock!

I jumped and messed up the lace I was trying to tie on my second boot. "Who is it?" I shouted.

"Who else is going to knock on your door, silly!" Florencia replied, her voice muffled by the heavy oaken boards, glued together ages ago and strengthened with black iron.

"Yeah, sorry," I said and snapped my index finger. The door uncontrollably flew open and smashed into my small nightstand, knocking some books off to the floor, and scratching the door handle on the stone wall. Florencia rolled her eyes casually, walked in and closed the door without making a big thing about it. She looked beautiful as ever, with slight eyeshadow on her dark green eyes, and my heart started palpitating as soon as I smelled her flowery perfume. She had made her hair in a single thick braid, but still had a few loose hairs poking out here and there.

"Sorry!" I said again, crouched down and continued tying up the laces. At least this way I didn't have to look at her, and perhaps my heart rate would slow down.

"You'll get the hang of it soon enough," Florencia said, and started picking up the books off the floor. She was bending over instead of kneeling down, and I dared not look up. Although she was wearing a thick and shapeless Aspirant tunic of deep blue wool, her mere closeness sent my mind into a craze. It was almost impossible to keep calm and ignore my feelings for her.

"It's freezing in here. What happened? Forgot to close your window again?" she asked while scanning my room. She never missed a single out-of-place detail, and always would comment if I left something laying around out of lazyness. She frowned, held her left arm close to her chest, and my room rapidly warmed up until it was almost too hot.

"Ugh, can you stop making it so warm?"

"I hate the cold," Florencia said, ignoring my comment. She sat down on the bed next to me so that our hips touched and started swinging her legs against the bed frame.

"But it's my room, I think I should have-"

"Nuh uh! If you want it colder, then learn pyromancy. I could teach you, but you're probably too lazy to try."

"Fine, whatever. What brings you to my room this early?" I asked in a high-pitched nasal voice, mimicking one of her masters, Vanda Canno.

Florencia stepped so close I couldn't turn away from her big puppy eyes she loved to make when she really, really wanted me to do something. "It's someone's birthday and I wonder if you forgot-"

"Oh!" I exclaimed loudly, enjoying releasing a bit of pressure from the theatricality. "How could I ever forget that it's your birthday! You've only been talking about it for weeks without pause."

Florencia was giggling and tugging on my arm while I was replying, her eyes mischievously alight.

"I'm just joking. Happy birthday," I said and pulled her in for a a friendly hug. Florencia had another idea instead and wrapped both her hands around my waist. She held the embrace for way longer than she usually did. I could almost hear a faint whine when she tightened her hold on me for just a quick second before letting go and turning toward the door. She smelled of sweet spring flowers and I could barely contain myself.

"Come on, Jonas, let's get some breakfast. I heard we can get the toffee canoes. I won't forgive you if we miss out on them," she said. She loved those canoe toffees more than anything in the world, and would be irritated all day if she missed out.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm almost done," I reply, and straightened my bedcover. "And don't you worry about tonight. I've got everything planned out. You just have to be there."

She looked up at me while still holding onto my arm and said: "Oh, I'm going to come!" She said firmly. Florencia was wearing a dark red lipstick this morning. She usually skips lipstick because it gets messed up when she eats, and she can't pick on her lower lip when she reads a particularly difficult text. "... so no-one is going to stop me! I took the whole evening off and if someone even dares to make me to do something, I'll tell them to piss off!"

Florencia was opening the door and stepped into the hallway, but as I joined her outside my room, her eyes immediately snapped to my cheek. Damn it, I thought I cleaned up the bruise well enough. "Jonas! What is that? Again?" This time she was angry, but out of worry. We were going to talk about that again, aren't we.

"It's nothing. Lanzo was being annoying," I said and shrugged it off, hoping this time she won't lecture me about it. Again. "What's the big deal? It's just a bruise, it'll heal up."

"But you could get badly hurt! I don't understand why you even like this savage sport. And what if you break your wrist again?"

"It was just one time!" I replied. "I tried that stupid technique one time, and promised to never do it again."

"Jonas, I had to steal those healing balms!"

"And you stole those balms like an expert."

"That's not what -"

"Like an expert!" I interrupted. She hated when I did that and always forgot what she was going to say.

"Pff!" Florencia scoffed, with her cheeks turning red. I could almost see her eyes burning out of anger. "People get hurt even when they're trying to stay safe. Ugh, you're really stupid sometimes. You know I don't like it when you fight. You could have at least skipped it today. As a gift for my birthday."

"Wasn't on your birthday," I mumbled and rubbed my cheek. It started hurting again, and I was out of numbing-paste. Those greedy apothecaries charged way too much for them, even though I heard it only takes them an hour to mix it all together.

Florencia puffed again. "Fine!"

She not-so-gently hit my chest, and immediately my dormitory door closed with a loud bang. I could sense how she wanted to smack my face instead. The crashing door echoed against the surrounding walls, and ancient oil paintings of great mages history shook and trembled.

"Show off!"

Florencia just breathed out again, now rather irritated, and skipped ahead of me towards the cafeteria. We had many of them all over the Cappesand campus, but the one under the dormitory wing was the best, because it was free.

"Next time you're angry, just hit me. I can't afford to get a new door again."

"Shut up. I'm mad at you."

"I know," I said, and pulled her back so I could catch up to her. Florencia suppressed a giggle and grabbed my arm close and then glued herself against me. She never could stay mad for too long, and before we even reached the main corridor of the dormitory wing, she was laughing at a joke I made at the expense of a second-year student Lilly Weare. We were not the only students heading to the dining room, and it would probably already be quite full, like usual.