Page 161 of Rebellious Royals

"Doesn't help," Hawke told him.

Which earned him an annoyed caw. Then, "Jack, Morrigan!" he tried next. "Jack-Shadow. Morrigan-court. Enemy, enemy, enemy! Courtiers." He nodded emphatically. "Bitch! Shadow. Morrigan. Court, court, court, court - courtier! Knight, Morrigan. Jack. Shadow." And he made a point of looking at each of us.

Wilder just scooped up a forkful of food. "I got exactly none of that, Jack, but it was a good try."

And I swore my crow grumbled in frustration. Still, he'd said one thing I hadn't mentioned yet.

"So, when all of that was going down," I said, "I spotted Shadow on the wall behind us."

"It does that, or so it seems," Aspen said.

I nodded. "But this time, it had one white eye, one green, and its smile was iridescent-looking."

So Keir looked at Jack. "Does that mean something?" he asked.

Jack nodded.

"Do you have words to explain it?" Keir tried next.

Jack shook his head.

So Torian lifted a finger. "Jack, is any of this dangerous for us?"

In response, Jack tilted his head, proving that was not a simple yes or no answer.

Torian tried again. "Is Shadow directly malicious to anyone on the court, including you?"

Jack shook his beak emphatically. "Jack. Jack-Shadow. Shadow-Morrigan!"

"Ok," I said. "But Shadow clearly has a mind of its own, right?"

That got a yes.

So Aspen decided to try. "Is Shadow somehow responsible for people's magic shifting?"

To that, Jack ruffled his feathers. Then, he even flapped his wings. Needless to say, everyone turned to me for the translation of that.

"He doesn't answer that way enough for me to know what it means. Sorry, guys. No clue."

"Jack!" he cawed, hopping and nodding.

"Wait?" Hawke begged. "So the flapping and feathers thing means you don't know?"

This time, Jack nodded.

Wilder bumped Hawke's shoulder with a cute little smile. "Funny how you're so good at understanding wildlings."

"Asshole," Hawke shot back, but playfully.

"Ok," I said, trying to keep them from getting distracted. "So what we know is Shadow has its own thoughts and intentions that Jack doesn't always know about." My bird nodded, so I keptgoing. "And yet, Shadow doesn't mean to harm us, but Jack can't be sure it wouldn't harm us if Shadow thought that was its best option?"

Jack nodded again. "Rain!" That felt like he was cheering me on.

"But you, Jack, are completely on our side, trying to help this court fix the mess the Mad Queen has made of magic, stop the Hunt, and deal with anything else that happens along the way?"

One more time, Jack nodded. "Jack-Rain," he told me. "Morrigan!"

"But you've mentioned before that you can talk to it," I reminded my bird.

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