Crow closed his eyes serenely as Penelope brushed a strand of hair from his face. He found it relaxing to lay against her like this, simply talking and enjoying each other’s company instead of rushing to sleep together in the limited time they had that night. While he was still fond of the latter, he was glad they had chosen to do this instead. He missed the way they used to talk so casually in Younis without worrying about time constraints or being caught by anyone. Even though it wasn’t realistic to expect anything like that while the war was going on, he was happy to be able to spend at least part of the night like they had back then.

He smiled as he felt her kiss his forehead and opened his eyes to look up at her again. “Me too,” he sighed, reaching up with his hand to caress her cheek. “We get closer to the end of this war every day. I just wish I knew how much longer it will be before it’s over.” He frowned slightly as she went on to speak of her worries about Younis winning the war. At this point, it was hard to say who would win. Even after a year of fighting, neither kingdom had been able to gain the upper hand over the other. It had been a constant back and forth of Brerra conquering pieces of Younis and vice versa. Since everything remained to be uncertain, the knight’s fears weren’t completely unfounded.

“I’m sure it’ll be alright,” Crow offered her a reassuring smile. “You remember what Younis was like, don’t you? Their people are much more peace-loving than ours. Even if they manage to somehow overpower our kingdom, I don’t think they’ll be so cruel as to turn us all into slaves or anything like that. They’ll probably just enforce their laws over us and charge taxes to their king.” Thinking about it a bit more, he doubted much, if anything, would change for him or any of the other peasants in Brerra. They had nothing to lose aside from the little freedom they had left if the Younisians did force them into slavery.

However, the nobles would likely come out much worse. The thief wouldn’t have been at all surprised if the Younisians took away their status and wealth to reduce their power. After all, nobles were the most likely group to rebel against their new authority. The Younisian king would have to have been a fool to allow them to carry on without checking their abilities to fight back.

He knitted his brow as a distant memory resurfaced that made him a bit more concerned. He recalled speaking with a Waithenese traveler a number of years ago who had told him about a war that had happened between Waithen and a now-gone kingdom called Othorus. About thirty years ago, Waithen had conquered Othorus and annexed its people. The usual procedures followed: the Waithenese knights enforced new laws in the conquered kingdom, some people were bought and sold as slaves, and the Waenyit language was taught to anyone who didn’t already speak it.

The detail that worried Crow, however, was that the Waithenese royals, instead of stripping the Othorusen nobles of their power, forced them to intermarry with the nobles of their own kingdom in order to spread their culture with less resistance. He shifted uncomfortably. Penelope was a noblewoman without a husband. If Younis chose to enforce a similar rule, she might find herself in yet another arranged marriage, and their plans to be together would be interrupted yet again.

[i]Hopefully Brerra wins,[/i] he thought, leaning a little closer to the knight in subconscious protectiveness.

Not wanting to share his thoughts with Penelope and worry her more than she already was, Crow kept his concerns to himself. He let a brief silence fall between them as he laid against her, savoring the moment before they would have to part ways again. After a while, he reluctantly shifted to sit up again, arching his back in a languid stretch. “As much as I would love to stay here with you longer, we should probably start heading back,” he said, turning towards her. “I don’t want any of your comrades to notice you’re missing again.”

Standing up from the bed, he moved to get his cloak from the chair it was hanging over. He put it on and then grabbed Penelope’s to bring back to her. “One week, huh?” he mused as he handed the cloak off to her. “I hope this one goes by faster than the last.”