Crow spent the entirety of his lesson memorizing Gorman characters and writing them in conjunction with the special symbols that changed their meanings. Like Udolf, Albin was a patient teacher who didn’t get short with him whenever he mixed up the characters. He found that he appreciated being taught by someone who had held the same position he was training for now. His father knew just the right way to explain everything about Gorman to him so that it all made sense. He supposed he shouldn’t have expected anything less though. After all, the king used to have an apprentice two years ago. He had probably already taught Abraxas everything he was introducing to his son now.

The lesson itself went better than Crow had hoped, but he didn’t enjoy every aspect of being in his father’s bedchamber. The queen also remained in the room for the entirety of the afternoon. Her presence unsettled him, partly because he didn’t know much about her but also because he caught her staring in his direction more often than he felt comfortable with. It was hard to say why she was so interested in him—perhaps she had noticed he looked quite a bit like her husband—but whatever the case, he didn’t like the attention.

By the time Preston came to get him for supper, the viceroy was eager to leave. He felt exhausted from the effort of learning another new language and couldn’t wait to get away from Albin’s staring wife. However, he didn’t get far from the table before his father stopped him.

“At the rate you’re progressing, I wonder if you’ll even need a whole month to prepare,” the king mused, eyeing over the paper his son had written on. “You’ve already covered quite a lot of ground for just one day.”

Crow stiffened. He’d been so caught up in the lesson that he’d completely forgotten what it was for. “I don’t know,” he shrugged, trying to discourage his father from accelerating his trip even more than he already had. “I might find this easy, but I still have a lot of other skills to develop before I can go anywhere. I can’t even ride a horse.”

“I suppose so,” Albin said thoughtfully, keeping his gaze fixed on the paper. He fell quiet for a moment longer before speaking up again, “Continue to plan for one month, but be prepared to leave sooner. If you’re ready to leave for the trip at any time before then, I’m going to send you north.”

Crow wavered. “Okay,” he nodded after a pause. It seemed he’d said enough to keep Albin from pushing the journey forward right away, but the king was still considering the possibility of doing so in the future. He hoped Penelope would be able to get her plan moving faster than his father could send him to Gorm, or else the war was going to end in quite a lot of bloodshed.

With nothing left to say, he dipped his head in a curt goodbye and headed to the Great Hall with Preston. When they arrived, he looked for Penelope as usual, but didn’t see her in the crowd. He frowned, hoping she would show up soon. Since their breakfast had been interrupted by Elizabeth, he wanted to spend some time with her at supper. His eyes wandered to an empty table as he considered waiting for her. However, in the next moment, he cringed as he imagined being spotted by Liz first. The woman had been unbearable enough with a third party around. He dreaded to think what she would do if she managed to catch him alone at a meal.

Looking over the room once more, Crow caught sight of Naida eating at a different table with a couple of knights he didn’t recognize. He chewed on the inside of his lip, disliking the idea of joining nobles he’d never met before but hating the thought of eating with Liz even more. With no better option, he made his way over to the knights’ table.

Naida saw him right away.

“Hey, Collin!” she greeted cheerily, gesturing for him to sit beside her on the bench. “Nice of you to join us.” Across the table, the other knights exchanged a nervous glance, and the princess rolled her eyes at them. “Oh, don’t. If you’d just [i]talk[/i] to him instead of muttering behind his back, you’d see he’s a good person.”

Crow smiled faintly in amusement as he reclined at the table. It was oddly nice to have someone whose voice carried weight genuinely vouch for him. Her effort was certainly enough to get the two men on the other side of them to keep their mouths shut. He wondered if her support would be enough to get more of the nobles in the castle to start accepting him.

“So,” his sister went on, ignoring her comrades’ discomfort. “What have you been up to today?”

“More of the same,” the viceroy answered simply, looking up as Preston arrived with his supper. “What about you?”

“I had to guard the second floor today,” Naida made a face. “Day shifts are the worst around here. Nothing exciting ever happens.”

“Would you prefer to be attacked?” Crow shot her a teasing smirk.

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “At least then I wouldn’t have to stand in a boring, empty hallway for hours.”

Suddenly, the siblings’ attention was drawn by movement as the other knights rose simultaneously from the table. Naida knitted her brow, “Where are you two going?”

The men exchanged another glance. “Audric beckoned us to join him at his table,” the one on the right said, casting her a helpless look.

“Yeah, we’ll catch up with you later, Naida,” the man on the left added uncomfortably before they hurried off to sit with the other knights.

The princess watched them go with a disappointed expression. “I don’t get it,” she sighed, resting her chin in her palm. “It’s not like you were wanted for murder or anything. Why is it so hard for them to be around you?”

“Well, I did steal from a lot of families in the inner kingdom,” Crow admitted, lifting a bite of food to his mouth. “They’re probably still angry about it.”

“I guess,” she exhaled again. “I just think it’s petty of them to hold your past over your head like this.”

“I don’t regret my past,” Crow casted her a lopsided smile and then nudged her arm. “Don’t worry about it, alright? They’ll get used to me eventually. I mean, they have to since I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.”

“If you say so,” Naida returned his smile.

With lifted spirits, the two continued to speak casually to one another, working slowly on their meals as they talked.