It was cold in their room the next morning, but not nearly as cold as it was every morning in the carriage. Still, the cold made it hard to leave the comfortable warmth of the bed sheets, and each other. Tanden nestled in Soren's arms, trying to ignore the fact that morning had come. Luckily, they had made no plans about when to meet Jale, and since he was paying for the entire trip, Tanden decided it wasn't going to be an early morning.

When he felt Soren stir and suspected Soren was awake, Tanden said quietly, "What are the chances Jale bursts in here this morning to make sure I'm still alive?"

"If you're quiet she won't worry," Soren replied with a yawn.

Tanden smirked against Soren's chest. "Was that a proposition, mate?"

Soren chuckled, and Tanden felt it as much as heard it. "Don't pretend you weren't propositioning me, Captain."

"Well, I'm just saying... it's a warm, comfortable bed."

"Aye."

"It's been a while since we had a warm, comfortable bed."

"Aye," Soren agreed again.

Tanden threw a leg over Soren to straddle him, and didn't quite manage to keep the blanket over his shoulders. He tugged it back up, and part of him wished he had a pin to keep it in place, like a giant cloak. "It's my turn, mate."

For the first time that morning, Soren cracked his eyes open. "Hmm... Dunno. The terms of the bargain—"

"No, you said "tonight", and tonight is clearly over," Tanden corrected. He reached an arm out from underneath the protective blanket, to gently wipe some of Soren's hair away from his eyes. "Gonna make me beg, mate?"

"That Crelan accent trick doesn't work as well when we're not on the Wanderlust."

"That's a lie." Tanden clutched the blanket to his shoulders as he leaned down to give Soren a kiss. "You like it."

"Well..." Soren trailed off, and pretended to think about it. For all his chastising, he could be quite dramatic himself, when he felt like it. Tanden sat up again and trailed his fingers up Soren's chest, over the place his ribs had been broken months earlier, over the temporary tattoo, until his fingers met the curling edges of Soren's Crelan tattoo around his neck. He traced the lines of the tattoo lightly with his fingertip.

Finally, Tanden felt Soren's warm hands on his hips. "Go ahead." Soren said.

"Very funny," Tanden said, reached for the little bottle of oil they had left on the bedside table.

It was a loud knock on the door that woke him up again. Soren could tell from the slant of the sunlight that they had dozed off, and some time had passed. He freed himself from Tanden's arms, and pulled on his discarded pants before going to answer the door.

Jale pushed her way in as soon as he'd opened it. "You two are late. Get up—" She walked over to the bed and pulled the blanket off of Tanden's face. "Wake up."

"What?" Tanden grumbled, rolling over. "This is my trip. We're not late."

"I booked the rooms until midday," Jale said. "So unless you want to innkeeper to come in and drag you out of bed, I suggest you get up." She turned to Soren, who was still standing by the door. "You have henna."

Soren blinked. "What?"

"On your chest. Your arms are clearly different. Oh well," she shrugged, and shot Tanden a glance over her shoulder. He hadn't moved. "Get him up."

"That's not always easy."

"Wait, wait." Tanden sat up, sounding far more awake than he had a moment ago. He let the blankets settle around his waist. "Jale. How's the barmaid doing this morning?"

"Didn't you hear me? It isn't 'this morning'. It's midday," Jale replied. "And Raserani and I had a wonderful night. Clearly you did as well. Now get up." She left as abruptly as she'd walked in.

Tanden sighed and collapsed back onto the bed. "I'm already exhausted. How is this trip more tiring that anything we've ever done on the Wanderlust? We're just sitting around all day."

"I reckon it's the cold," Soren said. He went over to their discarded pile of tunics and jackets, and carried everything over to the bed. Tanden grumbled again as his jacket fell on top of him, but after a moment pushed it aside to climb out of bed.

"We just need to push on until we reach the city," he said, like he was trying to convince himself. "Then we'll have plenty of time to rest."

Soren nodded as he pulled on his jacket, but he didn't do up the buttons. It was actually a nice temperature in the room. He waited until Tanden was dressed, and the bottle of oil was safely tucked away, then they walked out to the front together.

Jale was sitting at the bar, chatting with the barmaid, Raserani, who was beaming. Tanden strolled over and took the stool next to Jale. "Do you want to introduce us?"

Jale rolled her eyes. "All right. Tanden, Soren, this is Raserani. Or Sera." She continued in Tallenese for Sera, who giggled. Soren clapped Tanden on the shoulder before sitting beside him.

"Don't press your luck, Captain. Jale, would you mind ordering us some food?"

Jale smiled at him. "I already did."

Soren realized that as well as talking to Jale, Sera was preparing two plates of food. Each plate had a thin piece of bread, topped with cooked eggs. As he watched, Sera added a mound of chopped potatoes to each plate. She slid the plates in front of them, and then placed two wooden cups beside them. Soren eyed the cup a little warily.

"It's water," Jale chimed in. "We don't drink irdka in the morning. Usually."

Tanden said two words in Tallenese. Delight flashed across Sera's face and she rewarded him with a pretty smile, before blushing and walking down the bar to help another customer.

Soren had already taken a bite of the chopped potatoes, which were delicious. "What did you say?"

"I think I thanked her," Tanden said.

"Close." Jale said something very similar to what Tanden had said, and he repeated it. For a few minutes they did this, until Jale seemed satisfied. "That was good. But like I said in Till. You'll never get all the sounds right."

Soren had already finished his food, Tanden was distracted and had hardly touched his. So Soren reached over his arm to stab a couple pieces of potato with his fork. He thought of eating them himself, but then held the fork to Tanden's mouth. "Eat."

"I don't need to be fed," Tanden said, but he accepted the food anyway. Then he knocked Soren's hand away and continued eating on his own. "It seems like you know her pretty well."

"I visit her every time I'm in Morie Caro," Jale explained. "We're—" she paused to puzzle over a Teltish word.

"Courting?" Tanden suggested. "Preparing to get married?"

"Hmm... in a way. Her father would have to approve."

"Oh. He doesn't want Sera marrying a woman?"

"No. He doesn't want Sera marrying a ranger," Jale corrected. "I make good money, but I'm always on the move. She would be alone most of the year."

"But..." Tanden started slowly, and Soren could hear the caution in his voice. He was curious, but worried about crossing a line. "If you married someone else, couldn't they live together?"

Jale nodded. "Yes. But that would involve finding someone else I want to marry," she pointed out. "And someone Sera would enjoy living with."

"Right, of course," Tanden said. "Well, I wish you luck with that. It seems like you care about each other a lot."

Jale smiled, and said the Tallenese phrase they had just been practicing. Then in Teltish, "Hurry up, we're not going to get very far tonight if we keep stalling. I'm going to go get the kyloe ready." She pushed back her stool and stood.

"We can't explore the town?" Tanden asked.

"You saw half of it yesterday on the drive in," Jale pointed out. "And you'll see the other half on the drive out. Hurry up."

Tanden finally gave the food most of his attention, but Soren watched Jale walk down to the end of the bar, where Sera had started wiping down some dishes. She put the dishes down to wrap Jale in a hug, and for a moment, they stood together like that. When Jale pulled back, it was to give Sera a kiss. They spoke a little longer, and Jale let go first to turn and walk away. No one gave the women a second glance.

"Too bad Teltans aren't open minded." Soren said.

Tanden clearly understood, even though he hadn't been watching the women. "Teltans are old fashioned. The nobles are old fashioned to cling to power, and the middle and lower class follow suite because what the nobles do is considered proper. The problem is that most noble Teltans don't do anything." He glanced up. "I'm not condemning my family. Tandrael works hard and so does Tandar, but that's because we have a city to run. People rely on the Tandrans. But lesser nobles don't tend to do much. Some of them join the army, some of them run villas or farmsteads. Most of them just have expensive hobbies and go to balls, and don't care for anyone but themselves. And those nobles make up the majority. "

It was no secret that Tanden thought very little of the niceties of court, the etiquette of a ball, or the lifestyles of many other young nobles. Tanden had left that life behind as quickly as he could manage. But he rarely spoke about his distain so openly.

"Crelans are different," Tanden continued. "Crelans are hardworking, even the ones who have joined the nobility have done so through hard work and not birthright. Roland is a noble in all but name, because he earned that respect. And Crelans understand that when someone's working hard, away from home, they still have needs. Hence things happening at sea."

"That tends to only be physical," Soren pointed out. "Not emotional."

"I know." Tanden paused to scrape up the last of his eggs. "But my point is that people who work hard and care about the people they interact with seem to be more open-minded. Whereas the people who care only about their social standing and reputation seem to be more closed-minded. And most noble Teltans fall into the latter category."

"What happened to your family?"

"I don't know. In a way I think I happened. We've always had a reputation for being a little more flexible with old traditions. But I'm so much younger than Rael and Tandar, so they've always looked out for me. They decided to support me, and so they're not about to condemn other similar people. Maybe I helped open their minds."

Soren chuckled. "Maybe," he agreed, because it seemed as good an explanation as any.

"Nah, my brothers have always been good people. My parents made sure. It was trained into them at a young age."

"What happened to you?"

"Like I said, I'm so much younger than them, no one had time for me," Tanden replied seriously. "That's why I'm an untameable rogue."

"Reckon I've tamed you."

Tanden narrowed his eyes with false annoyance. "Reckon we should go find Jale." He stood up, and reached over their higher section of the bar to put their plates on the inner part. He called to Sera, the same phrase as before, and she gave them another pretty smile and a wave. "Come on, mate." He said, gesturing for Soren to follow him.

They found Jale off to the side of the inn, doing up the harnesses on the kyloe. Tanden stepped up to help, and Soren rearranged the crates of new supplies. Soon, they were on their way out of Morie Caro.

Jale hadn't been wrong, they saw the rest of the little town as they drove out. Then they were in the forest again, their runners making trails in the fresh snow along the road. Up front, Jale and Tanden spent the time practicing Tallenese, leaving Soren to once again relax in the back and just take in the views.

When it got dark, they fell into the familiar routine of making camp. Jale left Tanden to handle the kyloe while she went hunting, and Soren made a fire and started preparing their food. The new supplies included dried mushrooms and different spices, which he experimented with to give their stew a new flavour. When Jale returned with a rabbit, Tanden had already melted some snow to put out for the kyloe, and had started boiling water for the traveller's tea. Soren had cut up all the ingredients for the stew and the pot of water was bubbling. Jale prepared the rabbit quickly, and soon the delicious smell of the stew was wafting through the forest.

It was a mild night, so they took their time eating and drinking the tea. Tanden pestered Jale with questions about her relationship with Sera, and in turn she asked them about their relationship. They settled into the carriage later in the evening than they usually would have.