“It’s a free country,” Cassian says with a flash of a smile, and —

his expression is ostensibly friendly and the words aren’t unpleasant, exactly, but there’s a bitter bite beneath the surface. Sharp and sardonic, pressing his thumb on a particular bruise for a Tevene citizen like himself: Kirkwall still breathes free while Corypheus now sits openly in the Archon’s seat.

But he waves his own free hand, a have at it gesture. Cassian’s still new here. He’ll take the welcome wagon as it comes.