There was one way to put it, and he'd gotten used to it over the years: "I'm a royal bastard. Here, it doesn't matter. No thrones, no people getting shifty about if I'm going to raise an army or something, but." He lifted a shoulder.

And then he picked up Nida's boots and moved them over to the fireside, turning them upside down so no snow would melt into the soles.

"Strange to think of measuring weather, though. Why would that even... I mean, I can understand measuring snow. Sometimes you want to see how deep it is. But temperature? Isn't that more of... it's cold or it's not? Eh, different minds."