Luckily for Crow, the first person he spotted when he arrived at the Great Hall was Penelope. Better yet, she was sitting alone. He smiled to himself and walked over to join her, noticing that she was waving a piece of paper at him. At first, he wasn’t sure what it was, but after a moment, he recalled the letters they had written to their friends in the outer villages a while ago. The others must have finally written them back. He hastened his pace, eager to find out what they had to say.

“Well, this day just keep getting better,” he grinned when he reached her, sliding onto the bench on the other side of the table. “A little alone time with you, word from our friends, [i]and[/i],” he leaned forward with a slight pause for dramatic effect. “I got a whole night of sleep for the first time in almost a week.” Even though he usually kept to himself, he found that he wanted to tell her that he hadn’t had a nightmare this time. The news would lessen whatever worries she held about his condition, he was sure, but besides that, he wanted to share his excitement about the progress with her. If it really had been the exercise he’d gotten in Bellmare that had helped him, then he might finally have a lead to get rid of the dreams completely.

He opened his mouth to explain his theory to her, but didn’t get a chance before he was interrupted by a less than welcome voice.

“Morning.” Crow cringed as Elizabeth stepped up from behind him. The noblewoman had a friendly smile on her face, but surprisingly, she didn’t move to sit beside him at the table.

He glanced over his shoulder at her briefly and then turned away again without replying, hoping she would get the message that he still didn’t want to talk to her.

“I heard you left the castle yesterday,” Liz went on, ignoring his hostility. “Did you do anything fun?”

Crow rolled his eyes. The stubborn woman wasn’t going anywhere yet, but he wasn’t about to let her win in a battle of wills. “So, any word from the warfront?” he asked Penelope, pointedly disregarding the noblewoman beside him. If she was going to try to stay, he would just make her feel as unwelcomed as he could. She hadn’t listened when he’d told her directly to leave before, so this was the next best option.

Liz crossed her arms. “I don’t know why you’re still treating me so poorly. I’m just trying to catch up.”

“How is your battalion doing?” Crow added mercilessly, pretending not to hear her.

Fortunately, that seemed to be enough to convince her to give up for now. The noblewoman huffed indignantly and walked away, and the viceroy leaned into the table with relief. “Thank the gods,” he sighed. “I thought she was going to try to sit with us again.”