Crow headed the group as they walked down the hall that the innkeeper had directed them to. He found the room quickly and opened the door, stepping inside and looking around the plain space. There were three beds in a row on the far side of the room. The walls were bare, without even a single window, so the only possible source of light was a small lantern on a table in the leftmost corner of the room. He made his way over and lit it so they would be able to see as they prepared for bed.

Already on the left side of the room, Crow took the left bed while Hartley set up in the middle and Penelope, the right. He rolled his shoulders, allowing his bag to slip effortlessly off his back and onto the wood floor. With the weight removed, he sat down on the edge of the mattress and bent down to take off his boots. He set everything in a pile at the foot of the bed and laid down, propping his head on his arms and staring up at the ceiling while he waited for the others to finish getting ready to sleep.

When the room finally fell quiet, he rolled over towards the table and snuffed out the lantern. Darkness immediately swallowed his vision, and he welcomed it. He turned so he was lying flat on his back again and closed his eyes to sleep. However, having already gotten plenty of rest during his nap earlier, he found it difficult to stop the thoughts running through his mind—particularly about Aeklora. He thought about the statue in the marketplace, the silver pendant, the rumors about the Younisian king. The goddess was everywhere.

[i]How has Hartley been able to get away with stealing all this time?[/i] Crow wondered suddenly. If the so called goddess really was protecting her people, why would she have intervened against him, but not Hartley? It didn’t make sense. [i]Maybe it was just a coincidence, after all,[/i] he thought hopefully. Perhaps the Younisian gods really were like the ones in Brerratic religion, only interacting with humans when it benefitted them. If so, he would only have to worry if Aeklora found it in her interest to stop him from taking the king’s staff. Surely she would have better things to do than play politics, right? With that comforting thought in mind, he settled down more comfortably in the bed to try and sleep.

Unfortunately, however, sleep continued to elude him. Crow sat up and threw off his blanket. Fine. If he wasn’t going to get any rest, he might as well do something productive with his time. He glanced at the other two. Hartley and Penelope were both lying still with their eyes closed. Assuming they were asleep, he slipped quietly off of his bed and put his boots back on, making his way towards the door.