Penelope gave a small chuckle at Crow's words and nodded her head. "Fair enough. Nothing can quite replace familiarness." she mused. She glanced over at Naida as she pointed out that eventually Crow would truly have such an influence. Her comment had merely been teasing but she supposed there would be quite a bit of truth to it in the future once he was truly accepted as viceroy by the nobles. The stranger thought was that she would eventually share some of that influence as his wife. Unsure how she felt about it, the knight sipped at her cider again.
"It's good." Penelope replied to Crow, welcoming the change of subject. She smirked at him. "It's what I usually get here."
Naida opened her mouth to add something but a different voice interrupted. "Well, well Miss Vermillion, it seems our paths cross again." mused a male voice from her left. Penelope blinked and turned her head to see that a nobleman from the party had approached their table. His blonde hair and blue eyes were familiar to her but it took a moment for the knight to place a name to the face. A flash of recognition crossed her gaze as she recalled this particular nobleman to be Kane Papert, one of the men she had danced with and someone whom was a friend of the Lenzs.
"Oh it seems so." Penelope said, offering a polite smile. "It's good to see you again, mister Papert."
"Likewise." He agreed, flashing a charming smile. His gaze shifted onto Naida and then briefly onto Crow. "Princess, ambassador." Realizing he was in the presence of the higher ranking nobles, he dipped his head respectfully to them. His gaze quickly shifted back onto Penelope and gestured to the table. "May I join you this evening?"
Penelope hesitated, side glancing at Crow and Naida, noticing the latter didn't seem thrilled. Truth be told, she was hoping to just spend time alone with the two and especially didn't feel like allowing the nobleman to join them as she recalled how he had been a bit flirtatious with her at the party. However, she also had no real reason to say no and his connection with Oliver made it even more difficult. She owed the Lenz's a great deal for all the help they had given her to make the end of the war happen and offending one of their friends wasn't exactly the way she wanted to repay them.
"Of course." Penelope caved and granted Kane permission to join them. She glanced towards the two half siblings and gave a subtle, hapless shrug. Meanwhile, Kane wasted no time in joining them, but instead of taking up the open seat next to Naida, he instead moved to sit on the other open side of Penelope.
