As the battle met its end, Penelope looked around at her comrades, watching as the healers moved in to tend to the badly wounded and those that had smaller injuries stepped aside to tend to themselves. She kept her gaze from lingering too long on the bodies, enemy and comrade alike, as she stepped over to where Gavin was. The male knight was cleaning up a few cuts he had received, one being on his side and the other on his leg, with his friend Alan. The two turned their heads to look over at her as she approached.

"Hey Penelope." Alan greeted with a small nod to her. 

"Have you wrapped up your arm yet? Looks like it's still bleeding." Gavin said with a small frown. 

Penelope glanced down at the cut her had received on her arm. She had nearly forgotten about as her mind was buzzing after coming face to face with Crow and seeing the brutalness of war. Suddenly more aware of it, she began to feel it sting slightly. "I haven't yet." She admitted and Gavin immediately moved in to help her wrap it. She mumbled a thanks to him then lifted her gaze to see Mia riding towards them. 

"Penelope," Mia began as she looked down at her lieutenant with narrowed eyes. "I've been hearing a lot of talk among some of the knights about an order that I didn't give... Care to explain?"

The female lieutenant looked up at her baroness. Though Penelope wasn't a strict enforcer of the law after returning back to her old life, she often tried to keep a low profile and not cause too much trouble. She was tempted to just apologize and hope for Mia's forgiveness. However, frustration began to boil in the female knight as she thought about how reckless some of the Brerratic knights had been. If this was how war was, she wanted to change it. 

"Sure." Penelope said with a fiery look of defiance in her green eyes. "My comrades were hurting innocent people. Ones that were just trying to defend themselves and their home. I wasn't just going to stand back and watch them help demolish this village so I did something about it."

Gavin looked a little nervous at how brazenly Penelope spoke to the baroness and shuffled his feet. "We... We really shouldn't be killing our own people.. I mean no disrespect ma'am, I just think Penelope had good intentions.." He said, trying to support the female knight in his own respectful way.

Mia's hardened expression suddenly vanished as an amused grin broke out over her face. "Wow! Never thought I'd see the day when you'd act so boldly, Penelope!" She chuckled. Her amusement melted into a more sympathetic look. "I think you did the right thing though, so you can relax lieutenant. That being said though, I'm not sure Bennet and Edward will completely agree. Casualties are a part of war and to them, the numbers don't matter too much when you're trying to win a battle." 

Though she was a little annoyed at Mia's initial reaction, she was glad that the baroness approved of her actions. As she went on to speak of the other two barons, Penelope looked a little confused at why she brought them up. Mia smirked noticing her confusion and went on to add, "If possible, I think we should try to lessen the damage of the villages out here. We're directly damaging our own kingdom and surely that will eventually have a negative effect on us as the war goes on. So we should lessen the damage. But to do that properly, we're going to need all of the barons on board with this. I intend to bring it up in the next meeting with them. Penelope, you'll have my support, but you'll need to find a way to convince them." 

Penelope stared up at Mia in surprise. She hadn't been expecting the baroness to go so far as to bring it up with the others to make it an actual rule. The female knight nodded her head. "I will. Thank you, Mia." She told her with a grateful smile. 

"Of course. Now then, let's get ready to return back to camp. I'll round up everyone else and ride at the back. You and Tomas take the front." Mia commanded before turning her horse to ride off. 

Penelope nodded her head and then turned to look over at Gavin and Alan, feeling rather satisfied at the outcome. Gavin smiled at her, seeming to share similar feelings over this new development. "This is nice and all but what about those thieves that were attacking us." Alan grumbled. "I saw a few of our comrades getting killed by them." Penelope felt her stomach twist at the topic. 

"I did too." Gavin admitted, losing his smile as he snuck a glance at her. He focused back on Alan. "I also saw them attacking the Younisian knights as well though." 

"So what are they just here to kill for kicks?" Alan snorted with disgust. 

An image of Crow after he had killed the enemy knight flashed through her mind. Now that things had calmed down, she thought over it a bit more clearly. "I don't think so." She told Alan. "I think they were trying to protect the villagers.. From brerratic or Younisian knight alike." It made sense to her. Crow had always tried to protect the villagers, even if before it wasn't through fighting. [i]The war must have driven him to.. that.[/i] She thought, feeling a pang of sympathy for the thief. [i]After seeing that today, I can understand why...[/i]

"Or maybe they just wanted to kill knights." Alan muttered rather darkly. 

Penelope looked uneasily at Alan's next words. She was rather sure Crow was just trying to protect his home and it's people but then she considered the other thieves he was now with. They had spoke rather viciously when she had warned him about the trap and she doubted it was just all talk. It was the reason she had chosen to work as their informant. Now she couldn't help but wonder if Crow wasn't much different from them. She still believed he was trying to protect the villagers but perhaps another part of him also got a cruel satisfaction from killing the knights. 

"Maybe." Penelope mumbled with a distant expression. "I better go find Tomas so we can get moving." She added abruptly before heading off to find the other lieutenant. Her head was clouded with thoughts of Crow, of who had been, and who had become. 

---

As night fell, Penelope stepped out of her tent, once again wearing the peasant dress and cloak. She slipped the hood over head head and glanced around the camp to make sure no one spotted her leaving. The knights had returned to camp earlier that day and most were quick to either sleep or celebrate. Penelope had chosen to sleep, knowing that she'd have to go meet up with Crow once nightfell. She was rather anxious about meeting him, as she was intending to ask him about his new fighting abilities. The knight found herself a bit scared as well. She was worried Crow had turned into a cruel person. And if he had, she wasn't sure how she'd deal with it. 

[i]He said he wanted to avoid fights. So surely he's still merciful..[/i] She tried to assure herself as she made her way towards Myrefall. She couldn't look down on him just because he was fighting and killing, it'd make her a hypocrite. He had seen her at her cruelest when she had bashed the first mercenary's head with a rock. She hadn't taken pride in it though and it was merely due to being faced with no other options. The knight just hoped he didn't take pride in his kills either. 

Penelope eventually reached the tavern and stepped inside. She swept her gaze over the inside, looking for Crow. However, she realized that this time she had been the one to arrive first. Her uneasiness about his new skills were replaced by worry about his well-being. She had lost track of him in the fight, so it was possible that the thief had gotten hurt. Stepping over to sit down at an empty table, she assured herself it was likely just because of how quickly she had gotten there, fueled by new, unanswered questions.