Crow glanced at Penelope and nodded when she told Gavin that they had enough supplies. Like the knight, he was glad that they wouldn’t have to rely on their camp for anything more. The nobles had already been livid enough when he’d borrowed a tent for the night and some breakfast that morning. Even though he enjoyed poking fun at them, he wanted to get back on the road to the inner kingdom with minimal resistance, if that was still possible. After all, the village of Wellspring was quite far from here, so the sooner they left, the better.

When Olivia spoke up, he glanced between the knights, listening to them talk about Penelope’s brother. The thought of Layth’s reaction to everything that was about to happen brought a faint smirk to his lips. After all the trouble the hotheaded knight had put him through during their previous encounters, it was going to be liberating to be able to confront him again as a superior instead of a captive. He was going to enjoy flaunting his title to the knight quite a bit.

At Olivia’s comment about in-laws, Crow let out an exaggerated sigh. “I’m still not sure how to deal with the family I just found out I have,” he said with a helpless smile. “I’m rather sure my younger brother hates me too. He seemed to believe I’m after his heritage to the throne, even though I don’t want anything to do with it.” He shook his head. “I don’t think I’m ready to add in-laws to the mix.”

“At least if he keeps trying to oppose you, you’ll have the authority to give him a little prison time,” Olivia snickered.

“That’s true,” Crow mused with a grin. However, the expression faded slightly as he remembered what Alistair had said about showing the nobles what it looked like to have power without oppressing others. “Although…” he went on, shifting his weight slightly. “I think I’d rather not go to such lengths to keep him from speaking his mind.”

“That’s smart of you,” Gavin nodded, shooting a disapproving look at Olivia. “Layth may be a pain in the ass, but he has friends in high places. You wouldn’t want to turn them into your enemies.”

Crow wrinkled his nose at that, “Gods, why are there politics in [i]everything[/i] in the inner kingdom? I feel like if I even look at someone the wrong way, I’m going to offend their cousin’s grandmother.”

“You’d better get used to it,” Olivia smirked. “There are rules about everything at the castle.”

“Well, they’d better get used to [i]me[/i],” Crow said stubbornly. “Because I’m not about to bow down to their precious traditions. I’ll be accommodating, but I refuse to be anyone’s puppet.”

“Alright,” Olivia shrugged. “But you’re going to rub a lot of people the wrong way if you do that.”

“It’s not like that’ll change anything,” Crow pointed out blandly.

“True,” she smirked.

Wanting to make sure they still had time, the thief glanced up at the sky and then turned to Penelope, “We should get going soon. It’s a long walk to Wellspring.”