Crow walked quickly down the corridor that led away from the Great Hall, hoping that if he moved fast enough, Elizabeth wouldn’t be able to catch up with him again. He was still thrown off from seeing her again so suddenly. He’d never expected her to remember him and even hunt him down after seven years apart. Of course, he wasn’t gullible. He knew she was most likely here because she just wanted the benefits of his new status, not because of some long awaited romance like she claimed. It was just frustrating not to be able to turn her away. Liz hadn’t known him for long, but she knew him well enough to find it suspicious if he turned down her offer for a fling. The last thing he needed was for someone else to start watching him more closely.

The viceroy sighed and ran a hand through his hair as he made his way up the stairs that led to his father’s bedchamber, slowing his pace slightly now that he’d traveled far away from the Great Hall. Though Elizabeth had proven to be stubborn that morning, he hoped she wouldn’t be determined enough to hang around him for too long. He didn’t want to dodge around her until he and Penelope could start courting. The thought of staving off the noblewoman’s attempts to flirt with him for weeks made him cringe.

[i]She’s going to make it harder for Penelope and I to spend time together too,[/i] he realized, letting out a quiet groan of annoyance. It was already difficult enough for them to sneak around William and keep a distance when Naida was around. He wasn’t excited to add yet another person to that list and hoped it wouldn’t be much longer before they could start courting, so power-hungry noblewomen would stop trying to win him over.

By the time he reached his father’s bedchamber, Crow’s mood had waned quite a bit. He hesitated outside the door, wishing he could go back to his own room to take a nap instead of endure a lesson in a language he couldn’t even read. Between his lack of sleep and Elizabeth’s unexpected arrival, he was in no mood to learn. However, ditching the king sounded much worse, so he took a steeling breath and knocked.

There was a brief moment of silence before the door opened, revealing a familiar face on the other side.

“Ah, come in,” Hunter bowed respectfully and stepped aside to let the viceroy pass.

Crow nodded wordlessly and entered the room, taking a moment to look over the enormous space. Like last time, his father sat at the long table in the center, but to his surprise, they weren’t alone. The viceroy’s gaze wandered to the left side of the room, where a number of female servants bustled about, preparing the queen’s dress and hair. They worked on countless fabric fastenings and a complicated looking braid. It seemed like a lot of work for just one person.

The queen turned in his direction, and the viceroy reddened slightly, realizing he was staring. It was hard not to when he found the intricacy of her routine so unusual, but he forced himself to look away so she wouldn’t think his behavior was strange.

“Collin, you’re finally here,” Albin spoke up with his usual warm smile and gestured to an open chair beside him. “Have a seat.”

Eager to get away from the queen’s unnerving gaze, Crow was quick to comply with the command. He stepped over to the table and sat down, looking over the collection of papers and scrolls his father had laid out for him. Just a glimpse was enough to tell him that written Gorman was completely different from written Missenar. He didn’t recognize a single character on any of the pages. The letters were all made up mostly of lines and dots with few curves of any sort. He swallowed nervously, unsure if he was prepared to handle learning such a complex looking language.

“Just relax.”

The viceroy looked up to see that his father was watching him with an amused smirk. Albin seemed to have picked up on his nervousness and reached out to rest a hand on his shoulder. “It’s intimidating at first, but you’ll get the hang of it,” the king went on confidently. “Just don’t let yourself be overwhelmed.”

“You say that like it’s easy,” Crow muttered, looking over the mass of foreign characters in front of him again.

“I only brought all of these out to show you what you’ll be able to read by the time we’re finished,” Albin explained, turning to the papers as well. “[i]This[/i] is what you’ll be starting with today.” Pushing aside the majority of the scrolls, the king gestured to a smaller paper with four rows of characters on it, not too unlike the one Udolf had used to teach him the basics of Missenar.

“Those are the letters and numbers, right?” Crow guessed, looking up to meet his father’s gaze.

“See? You’re understanding already,” Albin grinned. He pointed to the first and longest row, “These are all the characters used in Gorman speech.” Moving his hand, he pointed next to the shorter second and third rows. “These are special symbols to indicate tense, when you’re talking about something that happened in the past or that hasn’t happened yet at all; and these indicate spiritual sentience.”

“Spiritual what?” Crow blinked confusedly.

“The Gorman people are incredibly religious,” Albin answered. “Their writing and speech is reflective of their beliefs. You may not know this, since you learned the language orally, but the people of Gorm have syllables that they use to identify something as living, nonliving, or a spirit. To them, it is important to identify every creature and object correctly, because they believe that the gods, good and evil, can manifest themselves in human form. According to their legends, evil beings are incapable of understanding the difference between living and nonliving things, so the language itself protects them from being tricked by a malicious spirit.”

“That’s… complicated,” Crow knitted his brow as he examined the third row of characters more closely. “I think I know what you’re talking about though. I didn’t know that’s what they meant, but I noticed a long time ago that Gorman has the same syllables for words that describe creatures or objects.”

“This will be easy for you then,” his father smiled approvingly. “If you already speak the language correctly, you’ll just need to memorize the characters themselves. Now then, let’s start with the basics, so you’ll have a proper foundation to build upon.”

“Alright,” Crow nodded, feeling a little more sure of himself after the king’s words of praise. He picked up a quill from the table and followed along, paying close attention as Albin taught him about the Gorman alphabet.