Julia entered the living room and watched the bard confusedly. She had left Eliza learning how to cast Spirit Steed. She could see that the ritual had been successful, but for some reason, she was now attempting to feed the horse a carrot. The horse did not react to the smaller woman in any way and stood silently.

“Um... why are you trying to feed it?” Julia asked. Eliza whipped her head around to face her, her hair swayed before settling back. Julia really liked her hair short, she thought it suited her.

“Julia! He won’t eat or drink anything, there’s something wrong with him.” Julia blinked before she grinned and let out a huff of air.

“You can’t feed them; they’re spirits Eliza.” Julia said amusedly. She watched the smaller woman, run her hand through her short cropped hair, messing it up in the process. She looked extremely cute when she was frustrated.

“But Hala eats and he’s a spirit.” Eliza responded. She was referring to Julia’s black cat familiar, a magical being that for some reason enjoyed taking the shape of a kitten.

“Hala is an angelic spirit with a personality and desires. He doesn’t need to eat, but enjoys behaving like a kitten, and being pampered. Your spirit steed is a manifestation of pure magic. It doesn’t want anything other than to be ridden.” The wizard said, she approached the smaller woman who had begun to stroke the mane of her horse; a warm smile on her face. Julia could understand why Eliza would want to feed it, the horse looked very lifelike, and it was a handsome horse she had conjured. The wizard petted the mount, her fingers brushed against Eliza’s.

“I knew you could master the spell.” The wizard looked at the bard, her fingers stroked the back of her hand before squeezing it.

Eliza cheeks coloured at the sudden touch, a small smile breaking out.

“I didn’t want to dismiss him since it took me so long to summon him. I was unsure if I’d be able to bring him back again.” She muttered quietly, her pinky intertwining with Julia’s, her free hand playing with her hair as she stole looks at the tall woman. She reluctantly took her hand back from the wizards warm ones and broke the glowing sigil on the back of her hand. Both the horse and glow of the symbol disappeared making the room feel large again.

“You did very well, students take a few days to master that spell but you managed to do it in a number of hours.” Julia said matter of factly.

“That reminds me Julia.” Eliza picked up the wizards' worn tome from the floor. “This was the reason I struggled with the spell.” She holds up the book to the wizard and points at the poorly illustrated horse.

“The horse?” Julia asked her.

“I spent hours thinking it was a rune because of how it was drawn, it never occurred to me that it was an illustration of a horse!” Eliza chuckled, “It’s a terrible interpretation.”

“You learned how to critically think when analysing a spell.” Julia said.

“And the drawing was an intentional choice from you?” Eliza asked curiously, she wouldn’t put it past Julia to have done that with an intended purpose.

“Uh... yes, my drawing... was done intentionally.” The wizard stuttered out. She was terrible at lying. The smaller woman stepped closer to her, taking the leather tome from her grip, and looking up at her. Eliza drunk in her appearance, Julia’s slightly furrowed blonde brows and how her ears drooped ever so slightly, if her voice wasn’t a dead giveaway then she would have known she was lying from just those subtle expressions.

“You’re a terrible liar Julia.” Eliza giggled at her, the tall woman instantly relaxed.

“I know, it’s so hard to do and I hate it!” Julia said quickly, her discomfort showing as she wrung her hands. She placed her olive-skinned hands over the taller woman’s bronze-skinned ones, squeezing them she took them into her own hand; her thumbs running over the back of her palm.

“Which of your mothers taught you to draw the horse, Lucida? Or Priya?” Eliza asked amusedly. She had her suspicions as to which mother it was but would rather have Julia confirm it.

“It was my mother.” Julia said. That meant it was Lucida that had taught her to draw. “That’s how she drew her horse.” The blonde woman continued, her hands fidgeting in Eliza’s.

“So you inherited your mothers terrible drawing skills.” Eliza murmured as she leaned into Julia, her perfume smelled sweet and her lips looked inviting. She loosened her grip on Julia’s hands; they flapped as soon as they were able to.

“Mother taught me to draw and mama taught me everything else.” Julia took a step back, unaware that Eliza’s lost chalk had rolled under her foot. She fell backwards and looked at Eliza with wide eyes, she reached her hand out towards her. The smaller woman quickly reacted to help but found that Julia’s grip on her hands dragged her down with her. They both crashed onto the floor.

Eliza opened her eyes and looked at the taller woman underneath her, her cheeks matched the colour of Julia’s crimson lipstick.