Willow woke to dawn's first light. Outside the sounds of a city already in motion could be heard. The clattering wheels on cobblestones and the yelling of men moving heavy goods. They were not noises she was used to waking up to. But the sounds of the city could not compare in oddity to the sound of Elise snoring. It sounded more like she was gargling rocks than anything akin to breathing.

When Elise had described the upstairs she hadn't conveyed just how cramped and small it was. There were about two meters of floor space total not taken up by furniture and that was the kitchen and bedroom combined. Nothing separated the bedroom and kitchen, they were basically the same room. Piles of books, pots, pans and other objects took up a lot of space. Now that a hammock had been rigged up the room felt even smaller. One large window supplied the room's light. Still closed and shuttered, light leaked from it in pretty beams shining through the dust.

Grogilliy and unsure Willow slipped down from the hammock, managing to do so without getting tangled in it somehow. She had not slept well. Being suspended a distance above the ground by ropes did not make her relax nor did Elise's snoring. She was stiff and sore and tired. Quickly she got dressed doing her best not to disturb Elise. Though it seemed she needn't worry, Elise was a deep sleeper apparently. The way she had switched off and went to sleep immediately should have been a hint. Willow could never do that even if she wanted to. For her, nights had been a gift, a peaceful time alone. She had been reluctant to spend such time asleep. She'd stayed awake and imagined living lives other than her own. It formed a habit quickly and she found it hard to get to sleep as a result now even when she wished to. It was a kind of self-inflicted insomnia. In that early morning light, she wished she had managed to get more sleep last night.

Yesterday seemed so strange and so surreal looking back. If she was not in another's home she would doubt that it had even happened. An apprenticeship, she had an apprenticeship! It was one given out of pity she knew but she couldn't think of any other way she could feasibly get one. There was no other way, not for her. She couldn't afford to lose this chance. Elise was a strange one but Willow didn't dare question any of the things she did. Rocking the boat could lead to her being kicked out on the street again. It was best to keep her head down and stay quiet about everything.

Elise's sleeping form turned over, unwilling to wake for the morning light. The nightdress she wore was a grey sheet that someone had sewn into the shape of a long sack and then crudely cut holes for the arms and head into it. Her feet protruded from under the covers and were as scared and burnt as her hands. Several toes were missing. Elise's wounds were distinct. Even without knowing much about her Willow knew vaguely what had caused them. It was possible to keep casting after you ran out of stored spell thread, but it would use your internal weave instead. A person's internal weave was similar to spell thread in many respects and could act as spell thread if needed. But it recovered slowly and it was what held a person together. There were consequences to using it up.

Willow had used it just once and the indescribable pain had forced her to stop. It had been like she was being burnt from the inside out and it had only been the tiniest quantity. She could never understand how people could endure it long enough to get permanent scars. Burns around the eyes, fingers and toes were the first external signs of damage from using your internal weave but by that point internally you would already be beginning to disintegrate. Skilled healers could reverse some of the damage but there were limits to what a healer could fix. The patient's remaining internal weave got in the way of healing and healing required a lot of magic to work. The more damage the more magic needed. They'd never be completely healed.

But that was for normal people with small scarred rings around their eyes. If Elise's scars were as bad as they looked she shouldn't be alive. Those weren't the kind of wounds you recovered from.

Willow put those thoughts aside. Instead, she wondered what she should do. She wouldn't be able to get back to sleep and this was an unfamiliar environment for her. What was expected of her here? She didn't want to wake Elise but she also didn't know where anything was and didn't feel right rummaging around in Elise's things to make breakfast. She pulled out her wand and started casting the light spell she had yesterday. A dimmer version would be better and shouldn't wake-

Elise sprang out of her bed before the spell pattern was even complete. Seemingly from nowhere, a knife had appeared in her hand.

"Who are you?!" she demanded her eyes affixed on Willow. "What are you doing here?!"

"Y-you hired me as an apprentice," Willow stammered, terrified as she backed away, her wand falling from her fingers.

"That does not sound like something I would do," Elise hissed sceptically but with less obvious hostility.

Even so, she advanced a few steps towards the panicking Willow.

"The hammock, you put up the hammock for me. You're making a ring for me. An illusion ring. I'm-I'm your apprentice,"

In a flash all of Elise's hostility and the knife she was holding vanished. Willow hadn't seen where it had went, Elise had simply waved her hands and it was gone.

"Right, right, the ring. Of course. Shit. I'm so sorry. I remember now. Ahhrgh shit! I'm sorry it just takes some time some mornings to figure things out. I am so sorry,"

Willow stayed still and she stayed silent. All she needed to do was keep her head down, don't question.

"Are you alright? Are you okay? I didn't mean to do that,"

Willow nodded and quietly whispered "It's fine,"

Elise's eyebrows rose.

"Really? I don't think it's fine. If you woke up disorientated and pulled a weapon on me it sure as hell wouldn't be something I'd just brush off. Even confused I shouldn't have acted that way. Tell me, what can I do to apologise? And don't tell me some nonsense about it being fine. I just scared the shit out of you. I'm terrible with people and even I can see how scared you still are,"

"I wasn't scared about you stabbing me. I was scared you were going to kick me out,"

It was a quiet admission, barely audible against the background noises of the waking city. Elise stood there her brows furrowed, visibly struggling to find the best way to respond.

"Willow, I'm not going to kick you out. I said I'd take you in as an apprentice and I'll stick to that. Sometimes when I wake up it's hard to tell which of my memories happened yesterday and which happened decades ago. That's all that was. You're still my apprentice, I was just confused. I didn't recognise you,"

Willow didn't want to say anything, her every habit and instinct yelled at her to bow her head and let this moment pass. But she couldn't help it, she needed to know.

"Will you be confused again tomorrow?" she asked, her voice quavering.

"Possibly. But I doubt I will be as aggressive. You really startled me this morning. I thought an assassin had come for me for a moment there. There's nothing that ruins the start of your day quite like getting murdered before you can even wake up,"

With a yawn, Elise sat down on the end of her bed and stretched. Willow watched as the scarred woman relaxed and slowly Willow began to relax as well. Part of her wanted to ask about the assassin comment or the memory issues but she couldn't bring herself to risk it. That seemed like dangerous ground and she couldn't risk getting kicked out. Willow didn't know what would happen to her if she was kicked out again. Her limited experience in the lows suggested that it wouldn't be pleasant. But whatever happened she couldn't go back home. She wouldn't go back home

"Dead gods Willow what hour of the morning do you get up at? It's barely past first light. You know what nevermind, it's been a difficult morning already. Breakfast?"

"Yes, please,"

Would future mornings be like this she wondered? Would she be waking up to a yelling, confused Elise every dawn? She hoped not but even so it was preferable to home.