"Tomas said you wanted to speak with me?" 

Penelope stepped quietly into Mia's tent. The baroness was looking over her map as usual, only letting her gaze briefly flicker away from it to look up at her lieutenants arrival. At her question, Mia nodded her head and gestured for her to come further into the tent. Penelope walked over to the baroness and eyed the map she had laid out of the outer villages. It was marked up with various symbols, some of which she recognized and others that were unfamiliar. 

"I wanted to speak with you a little more before you left again." Mia told her and let out a long exhale. "Did you manage to find out any other information about the thieves during your time in Aramoor?"

Penelope paused before shaking her head. "Not really but.." she hesitated and shifted slightly. She wanted to warn her baroness and the others at camp about Jaxon but doing so without alerting them to her working with Crow would be difficult. If they couldn't find anything in Wheldrake, it could be helpful to direct the knights into searching for the proper thieves rather than Crow and his band. "I just.. I have a feeling that we're after the wrong criminals this time."

Mia raised an eyebrow at her, clearly surprised by her words. "And what makes you say that?"

"Well.. The thief we're after usually works alone or in a small group. I don't think anyone's reported seeing him with more than one or two others at a time, right?" she crossed her arms over her chest and went on. "If that's the case, then I doubt they'd be able to pull off such a big and devastating raid... Plus I've never known them to kill during their raids, especially in such a big amount."

"I see.." Mia mused thoughtfully. The baroness paused for a moment, thinking over Penelope's words. "You do raise some valid points.. Which is why I must ask, if you don't believe that those thieves are responsible, why are you so keen on hunting them down?"

Penelope held Mia's gaze, straining to not avert her gaze. "Well.. t-they're still thieves who've been stealing from us for a while now and besides that, we could probably learn from them if they are guilty of this raid or not. It's another reason why we can't have someone like my brother catching them. He would be out for blood but we need answers more than justice for now." she explained. 

Luckily Mia bought the lie rather easily. The baroness nodded her head in approval and lowered her gaze back down to the map. "I'll keep your theory in mind when I send out patrols, which happens to be what I wanted to speak with you about. I need to know where you think it would be effective to send our patrols while you head to Wheldrake. Yours has seen the most success so I figure there must be something to learn."

Penelope gave her baroness a small, appreciative smile. While she was glad that Mia was crediting success to her patrol, she knew she couldn't really take the credit. Most of it was thanks to Crow after all, of course that wasn't a detail she could just willingly share so she accepted the praise for now and moved to help plan a few of the coming patrols with Mia. She made sure to try and keep most of them at a distance from where they would be traveling as well as away from the waterfall where the other thieves were located. 

---

As the day went by, Penelope spent most of her time with Mia and then with Gavin and Tomas, preparing for when they would leave the following day. Tomas was kind enough to let them pack the extra supplies she had requested, though Gavin was hesitant to accept them. It didn't take the knights long and they finished before sundown. With everything prepared for the following day, Penelope met back up with Olivia to enjoy a warm supper before heading off to bed. 

Excitement buzzed in the knight at the thought of meeting with Crow again. Though Wheldrake wasn't as far as Aramoor, it would still give them time together and that was enough to make Penelope eager for the following day even if it was for a less than joyful mission. She laid down for the night and closed her eyes, finding sleep came slowly to her. However, the knight eventually fell into a deep and peaceful sleep as her thoughts of the coming day died down.