Crow was relieved when Penelope willingly changed the subject with him. He knew his reaction to Hazel’s letter hadn’t slipped past her since she had brushed her leg against his in the only comforting gesture she could manage in the Great Hall, but that didn’t mean he wanted to talk about it. He preferred to process alone, and he also didn’t want her to think his emotional response meant he was miserable or anything. While it was true that he missed his companions greatly, the ache he felt for them was nothing compared to the pain of not having her by his side. He knew that from experience. As long as she was close to him, he would be happy no matter where he was.

As Penelope described the letter she had received form Olivia, Crow nodded thoughtfully. From what Hazel had written, he’d also known that there had been more battles lately. It sounded like the other thieves were still faring alright on the warfront, but he wondered how the knights were holding up under enemy attacks. Surely Olivia would have told Penelope if something bad had happened to one of her close comrades, so he could at least be certain that Gavin and Layth and a few others were alive. The state of the rest of the battalion was still a mystery to him though.

He blinked as he realized he suddenly had a bit more of a stake in the outcome of the war than he had as a peasant. Now that he was a nobleman, he was at risk of losing his life or being forced to suffer whatever other cruel fate the Younisians could come up with. The thought made him shiver apprehensively. He hoped Toreus’s plan to bring the kingdoms to a peaceful solution would be enough to prevent Brerra from being conquered by their enemies.

Another thought tugged at the back of his mind that he desperately wanted to repress but couldn’t bring himself to ignore: Two years ago, when he had met Aeklora—his belief that the encounter had been real was reaffirmed after Penelope had seen the Brerratic god at the pond—she had said that both Brerra and Younis would be destroyed if the king never got the staff. He wanted to believe she had been talking about the war that was currently raging between the two lands, but something told him she had been warning him about something far worse. After all, she had told him that Brerra and Younis would be the first of many. He tapped his finger absently against the table. There had to be something else going on that they weren’t aware of.

Suddenly realizing he’d fallen quiet, Crow snapped back to attention, racking his brain to remember what Penelope had just said to him. “I suppose I do owe her, but I don’t know what she could want from me,” he shrugged when the conversation came back to him, resting his chin in his palm. “Unless she wants me to officiate her wedding to Alistair.” He smirked mischievously. “I’ve done that once before, so you can tell her I’d be happy to tie the knot for their handfasting.”