#giselbert

Kim quickly replied, remembering that if she had nothing nice to say, then she shouldn't say anything, but she desperately wanted to talk. "His hair looked nice, I liked that. I wonder how he's keeping his tan though, if he's all locked up."

Gisele gathered her thoughts for a moment, trying to remember what had gone through her head back then.

"He looks so smug. I get that weird Arkt guy, I'd like to punch him too, I think. But he's our leader, so I better have a back-up plan if I'm ever tempted."

"He's got ambition, that's always good to have. You... don't think there's anything nice about him?"

"I don't know... He seems insufferable, to be honest. Never liked guys like him. But if I had to say something nice? I guess he's got a nice butt."

"Huh... I suppose so, I wasn't looking there." Kim gave her friend a confused look, trying to understand what had led her to do so.

"I have it figured out! He's the kind of person that I'd kiss only to make them shut up." Gisele continued, after waiting for a few seconds of silence.

"You don't have to do that, I think. You could just... chuck an apple in there."

"Or my fist."

"That Arkt guy seems keen on getting his hands on him, you could join his side and bond over your desire to knock him down. You could dress up in matching black armour, and take the Sanctum for yourselves."

"I could, yes. He was weirdly creepy though, don't you think? Do you think he was hanging around in his armour, just waiting for someone to come in?"

"I hope not, that would be a bit sad of him. Pathetic, even." Kim paused for a moment, asking the Creator to forgive her for what she said and was about to say, before continuing. "His armour was a bit much."

"You’re right, it looked a bit stupid. Who is he trying to intimidate with those skulls? Babies? He should’ve gone for something a bit more… real. Like a bear. Skeletons are just bones, we all have those, so it’s not that scary."

“Sure,” Kim nodded, trying to hold in laughter.

“Do you think that Narathzul is afraid of skeletons? And that’s why Arkt has skulls on his stuff?”

Kim let a giggle escape, covering her mouth with her hand.

“Why are you giggling? You know I’m right.”

“No, no, you are. But you were the one yelling ‘Fuck off! I’m DEFINITELY not scared of you!’ at the skeletons that were chasing us.” Kim erupted into laughter, burying her face into her pillow to avoid making too much noise, and getting Acorias to yell at them to go to sleep.

“Hey!” It was Gisele’s turn to laugh, getting the last of her stress out of her body.

Eventually, they calmed down, and staring at the ceiling, Kim instinctively took a lock of her own hair and started braiding it, Gisele’s eyes riveted on the intricate handiwork.

“Weird question, but do all Aeterna have nice hair? You, Narathzul, Arkt… you’re all Aeterna, and your hair looks so silky.” She couldn’t help but ask. She was just a human, and she’d never spoken to an Aeterna until the recent events. She was glad that Kim was nice, and perhaps a bit naïve, so that she’d indulge her questions without worrying about sounding rude, something that she was good at, because she was Gisele.

“I can’t say for sure. But maybe.” Kim turned to face her friend, before asking a question of her own. “Why is your hair short? Do you keep it like that for efficiency?”

“I don’t know, actually. At the abbey, they didn’t really treat me like a girl nor a boy, so I never really wanted to keep my hair long. Sometimes, I like to think that they simply forgot to assign me a gender at birth, and that’s why the abbey was like that with me. Besides, with all the trouble I got into as a kid, keeping my hair short was a smart move.” She edged closer to Kim, before revealing one of her adventures. “One time when I got lice, and I shook my head over the kids that I didn’t like and that didn’t like me.”

“Gisele! That’s terrible!” Kim cried out, in a half-offended, half-bewildered voice. “You’re the one that the Light-born should’ve locked up.”

“It’s true. With that head of hair, Narathzul clearly didn’t do half of the warfare I did as a child. But he did do worse later on, I guess that makes up for it.” She stopped for a moment, before continuing. “Despite what I’ve said about him, I’m glad that at least someone’s working to make things change. Sticking up for the little man is always a good thing.”

“Look! Now there’s a second thing you like about him.” Kim jokingly pointed out, poking Gisele’s cheek before changing back the subject to her friend. “You should grow your hair out a bit, like up to your temples. You’d look like a boisterous knight in shining armour then.”

“I don’t know what that means, but it sounds nice.” Gisele raised up her hand to pass it through her hair, not much longer than an inch at most, almost bare in some places as Duras, who had been in charge of cutting it, was rather keen on hacking it with the dullest scissors he could find, and Gisele was never good at sitting still.

“You know how to read better than I do, right? We could sneak into the library, find a spell that lets you grow out your hair faster maybe. You help me read, and I’ll take care of the magick.” There was a rare glimmer of lighthearted mischief in Kim’s eyes, one that Gisele rarely saw, and that she loved seeing. With only a grin forming on her face that Kim took as approval, the two snuck out of bed, hissing when they felt their feet against bare cold stone floor.

Using light blankets as capes to shield themselves from the cold of the night, they made their way to the library, empty, save for a few floating orbs of light, cast from enchanted gems, keeping the room from sinking into complete darkness.

“Changing my hair… That would be Light Magic, right?” Gisele wondered, her voice low to avoid grabbing anyone’s attention. She rushed over to the appropriate section, her fingers wandering all over the spines of the thick and heavy tomes, some untouched in decades.

“I think so. I’ll look over there, I’ll tell you if I’ve found anything.”

Holding onto one of the gems for light, Gisele resumed her search, telling herself that she’s glad that she was recruited to fight, and not to study and research. Though, seeing as her magick skills were quite lacking, she could benefit from cracking open a book or two- an idea that she quickly shook away from her mind, deciding that it was the Sanctum’s problem, to recruit her and place her into their ranks without making sure first that she could in fact cast more than a simple fireball or hovering light.

“I think I have something here!” Kim loudly whispered, waving at Gisele to join her and crouch down to her level. “ ’Looks and Appearances’, that should be what we’re looking for, right?”

As Gisele nodded, Kim pulled the tome out, opening it to its index and doing her best to quickly decipher what page would be of interest as she rose up again.

“Alright… here goes nothing!” Gisele stood still in anticipation as Kim read the spell under her breath, underlining the words with her fingers as she went, her free hand waving around, rich and flowing with mana.

The glow in Kim’s hand must’ve been strong, or they weren’t silent enough, but just as the spell left her hands, the two had managed to catch Acorias’ attention.

“What the fuck is going on in here?” His voice vibrated throughout the library, full of anger from being woken up, and from having to intervene. His heavy footsteps resonated as he climbed up the stairs, and Kim and Gisele knew that time was short- either they hid, or they ran. Instinctively, they ducked, hoping to gain a few seconds.

Despite the darkness of the library, Gisele spotted the staircase that led upstairs, and grabbing Kim’s hand, they carefully threaded along the bookshelves, staying low and hoping their makeshift capes wouldn’t snag on anything that could slow them down.

While Gisele almost fell down straight on her face as she shuffled her feet a bit too fast and Kim could barely hold in her “Oh no, oh Gods no”, they had safely made it upstairs, they let out a deep sigh of relief once they had found refuge against the wall and heard Acorias leave.

“We’re definitely doing this again,” Gisele excitedly said, a grin on her face from the thrill of their adventure.

“No we’re not! I thought my heart was going to leap out of my chest!” Kim repeatedly hit her on her arm, albeit gently.

“So… you’re alright with breaking me out of wherever it was that Kreo held me, risking your life and mine, but sneaking into a library is too much?” Gisele joked, knowing that Kim was only exaggerating.

“That’s!! Entirely different!” She replied, still continuing to hit her as Gisele giggled under the friendly hits. “Wait…” Kim suddenly stopped, covering her mouth with her hand.

“Wait what? He’s already gone by now, we can go back to your bed.”

“No, not that. Your hair, it’s…” Kim couldn’t continue, apprehensive of Gisele’s reaction, and instead pointed towards the mirror at the end of the hall.

As Gisele got up to see herself, she cast a small orb of light, barely enough to illuminate her, but it didn’t matter much. As long as she could see herself, that was all that she needed. Though she wasn’t one that cared much for how she looked, there was unease building up in her, afraid that Kim had given her a tonsure, or worse, made her entirely bald, save for a few strands that she felt that were tickling her forehead.

“Kim!” As the ball of light hovered around her, Gisele turned her head left, then right, left again, trying to take in her new hairstyle. “You made me old!”

“No I didn’t!” Kim rushed to the mirror, trying to assess the extent of her damages.

Gisele tried her best to keep her voice down, hoping to avoid waking up the mages sleeping in the rooms next to them by opting to loudly whisper. “Uh, you did! My hair’s all white! Pretty and a bit longer, but white! I can’t be an old lady at twenty-three years old!”

“We’ll find some way to dye it, I’m sure of it! Besides, look at your face, not a single wrinkle in sight.” Kim passed her fingers over her friend’s cheeks and jaw, making sure of her statement. “Oh, your skin is really soft.”

“That’s not the point, Kim. One day, I’m going to have to rescue Narathzul from his pretty princess prison, and he’ll ask why the Sanctum why the world’s oldest twentysomething was sent instead of the most impressive knight available! I can’t let him down like that!”

“I thought you hated him?”

“I’m very distressed right now, I’m allowed to be conflicted about my feelings for him!” Gisele took in a deep breath. Her face softened, realising that in fact, she wasn’t very distressed, and she was simply dealing with many changes in her life in such little time, and her hair was the last straw. And besides, the white was nice on her, and the length gave her that ‘boisterous knight’ charm that Kim was talking about. “I’m not mad at you, by the way. You made my hair look nicer than ever.”

“You’re weird.” Kim was overcome with relief, before giggling.