“Me too,” Crow muttered under his breath when Penelope fell in step beside him, nodding his head appreciatively when she wished him luck. “Thanks. You too. I have a feeling we’re both going to need it.”

It wasn’t long before the two groups split off to cover different parts of the village. Gavin continued to command the lead of his patrol, walking briskly ahead of them to set the pace. Meanwhile, Crow and Olivia lagged behind him, since both of them were still feeling tired—Crow from his late night, and Olivia because of the extra valerian he had slipped into her water. Regardless, they kept up just well enough with the determined male knight to keep him from complaining about the distance between them.

As the main road came into sight up ahead, Olivia turned to Crow with a dull expression. “Looks like Gavin managed to worm his way between everyone, huh?” she mused. “He really just doesn’t know how to have fun on a mission, or let anyone else try, for that matter.”

“What did you expect?” Crow shrugged, speaking quietly so the other knight wouldn’t be able to overhear him. “He hates me, and he thinks you’re too distracted to get anything done.”

Olivia scoffed, “There are six of us in this little village. He doesn’t need everyone to pay attention to find anything out. I’m sure he just did it because he’s jealous that he doesn’t have someone to sleep with at night.”

Crow smirked at her in amusement, “It’s too late to change anything now.”

“Maybe…” Olivia glanced at him with a mischievous grin. “Then again, we could just get drunk at the tavern to get him back for this. If he wants to waste our time, we’ll just waste his.”

“I don’t hate that idea,” Crow laughed. “But we should at least try to question the villagers. The circumstances might not be very enjoyable, but your barons did send you on this mission for a reason.”

“Gavin can do the questioning for us,” Olivia nudged him insistently. “Besides, Penelope’s got a group of her own that’s just as capable as ours is. I’m sure that if there’s anything here, she’ll be the one to find it.”

“You’re really set on this idea of yours, aren’t you?” Crow shook his head.

“Of course,” Olivia laughed. “I’m not going to let Gavin get everything he wants.” She nudged him again with an impish gleam in her dark eyes. “And I’m curious to see what you’re like when you’re drunk.”

Crow rolled his eyes, “That’s too bad, because I don’t get drunk. If you choose to do it, you’re on your own.”

“Come on,” Olivia pouted. “It’s just one time. Relax a little.”

“Not a chance.”

“Fine then,” Olivia sighed. “You do what you want, but I’m not going to let ol’ stick-in-the-mud walk all over me like that. I, for one, am going to enjoy myself.”

Crow wavered slightly at that. He glanced discreetly at Gavin, toying a little more with the thought of disregarding the knight’s authority with Olivia. Maybe it would be fun to make him flounder with the interrogation on his own… I shouldn’t, suddenly, the more logical part of his mind intervened. I can’t risk letting my tongue slip and telling anyone about what’s really going on. “You do that,” he said at last. “But I’m going to stay sober, and there’s nothing you can do to change my mind.”

“Gods, you’re just as boring as he is,” Olivia groaned.

Crow ignored her comment, his attention shifting to Gavin as the knight began to approach some passing villagers. He swallowed nervously. It was time to find out if his work had paid off.

A silence fell over the three as they walked to the village. Penelope stayed at the front, mainly to keep a bit of distance between herself and Rikki. Luckily it seem the female thief was done pestering her for now and eventually struck up a conversation with her companion as they walked. Without Crow around, the female thief appeared a little less motivated to get under her skin for the time being. She focused her gaze ahead as they walked into the village.

Since they had arrived rather late, most of the village was already up and going about their regular day. Penelope slowed her pace slightly as she tried to figure out who to approach first. Spotting a small group of villagers talking nearby, she decided they'd be best. She turned her head to the others and nodded towards the peasants. "I figure we should start with them then make our way towards the tavern." she suggested.

"Alright." Rikki nodded her head. The female thief smirked at her. "Sure you can handle interrogating them? You'll have to lie pretty well you know. Of course, we can always take over if you can't handle it."

Penelope met her gaze with a smirk of her own. "I think you'll find that I can do that just fine. Crow may have been helping us but we're still able to do our jobs.. Even if it's not in the most conventional way." the knight shrugged her shoulders.

"Let's just get this over with." Alistair said with an eager glint in his gaze. "The sooner we get to the tavern the sooner we can drink."

Oh boy.. Penelope thought with a sigh as she noticed Rikki grinning at him. She wasn't sure how reckless the two thieves were but she certainly hoped they didn't intend to get drunk. However, knowing who Alistair was seeing, the knight couldn't help but see a bit of similarity between him and Olivia. She shook her head and walked on towards the peasants, offering them a friendly smile as she joined in to the group with the other two who trailed a couple steps behind.

As the patrol approached a small group of peasants, Crow could tell that their presence was already setting the men on edge. He averted his gaze and bit his lip to suppress the smirk that threatened to take over his mouth, hoping the knights wouldn’t catch his expression. They hadn’t even struck up a conversation with the villagers, yet he could already tell that they had heard word of the investigation happening in Wheldrake. He just hoped they would be convincing enough to throw the knights off Jaxon’s scent.

When they came to a stop, Gavin glanced towards Crow, who just shrugged in response. It was clear that the knight wanted him to be the one to come up with the lie that would start the questioning, but he wasn’t about to offer his help. Gavin may have successfully kept the thief at his side, but that didn’t mean he was going to be compliant. If the knight wanted to get any information out of the villagers, he was just going to have to do it by himself.

Gavin shot Crow a cold look before turning back to give the men their usual introduction: asking the peasants if they had seen a large group pass through the area, saying that he was looking for a specific member, giving a fake reason for the search, et cetera, et cetera. When he had finished, he studied the villagers closely in wait of an answer.

The three men exchanged nervous looks before one of them finally stepped forward, “Yea, I seen the group yer lookin’ for, but ye won’t find ‘em here. They’re on their way t’ Azmar in the east.”

“Azmar?” Gavin’s eyes widened slightly, as if he was surprised there was any lead at all. The shock on his face was too much for Crow, who coughed into the crook of his arm to conceal a curt laugh. The knight glanced at him briefly before turning back to the villagers, “Do you have any other information? Perhaps when they left?”

“Don’t think so,” the man frowned, turning to his friends, who shook their heads. “That’s all we’ve got.”

“I see,” Gavin said, lowering his gaze thoughtfully for a moment before looking up at them again with a grateful nod, “Thank you for your help.” With nothing more to learn from the men, he turned to keep walking down the road, with Olivia and Crow trailing close behind.

As he passed by the villagers, Crow casted them a proud grin and—after double checking that the others weren’t looking his way—placed his hand on the shoulder of the man who had told the lie. “Thanks,” he muttered quietly before hurrying off to put some distance between himself and the other peasants before Gavin could notice his short delay.

Penelope went ahead in coming up with one of her usual fake stories to the villagers and began casually asking about the group they had been looking for. It seem that the villagers bought her lies but she couldn't help but notice that they nearly acted nervous about the group approaching them, despite how she tried to act friendly towards. It usually worked fine so the knight wondered why these villagers weren't as welcoming. Perhaps it was just because it was a different village. One woman shifted a bit closer to her husband as he glanced down at her before looking back to Penelope to respond.

"I think I seen the group yer looking for headin' toward Azmar in the east." he told her with a small shrug.

"Azmar, huh?" Penelope echoed with small frown. If they had truly traveled that far then it meant they'd have to go out on another trip. One she doubted Mia would approve of. "Do you know anything else? Did you talk to any of them?"

"No." the woman said shaking her head. "We just seen 'em come through."

"I see.. Well, thank you for telling us." she said with a grateful smile before turning to head away from the group. Once they walked away from the peasants, she turned to glance over at Rikki and Alistair, wondering if they had noticed something was off about the villagers they had just talked to as well. "Them seemed rather nervous, didn't they?" she asked.

Rikki was eying her nails as she walked behind the knight, looking rather uninterested. "Well maybe it's just because you're not as good a liar as you think you are. They probably figured something was fishy with the way you were questioning them." she responded with a shrug. She lifted her gaze to smirk at Penelope. "But I mean, hey you did better than I thought you would."

"Maybe they're just a bit antsy because of the war too." Alistair added on a more positive note.

"Maybe.." Penelope mumbled with uncertainty. While she knew Rikki was just saying that out of pettiness, perhaps the female thief wasn't completely wrong in her assumption. The knight had been successfully lying to the villagers of the previous villages they had searched but that didn't mean the people of Wheldrake couldn't see through her. She decided not to dwell on it for too long. Regardless of what the villagers thought, they had still given her the information she was looking for. Now she just had to figure out if anyone else had any further details about the thieves.

The group continued on towards the tavern, stopping only twice to talk with more villagers. Both times Penelope hung back to let Alistair and Rikki take control of the situation, deciding to test out the female thief's theory. A couple villagers still seemed a bit nervous while another, hot-tempered man acted short with them. The two thieves didn't seem to think much of it but Penelope found it strange. She also found it a bit strange that all of their responses were about the same. None of the villagers seemed to know more than merely which direction the thieves had left in.

The group eventually reached the tavern and Penelope became a bit more hopeful. Perhaps with a bit of alcohol in their systems the villagers would be even more loose lipped. She stepped inside after the other two thieves—as Alistair seemed to regain a bit of energy as he hurried inside—and began to look around for a group that was reasonably drunk.

The rest of the day went just as well as Crow could have hoped. The peasants that they ran into throughout the village all either fed Gavin the same story about the thieves heading to Azmar or avoided being questioned by making up excuses to get away. As time went on, Gavin attempted to refine his questions to get more details about when the group had passed through, but since the story they all told had been fabricated by Crow, they didn’t tell him anything more than what the very first group had offered.

By the end of it all, Crow was feeling quite pleased with himself and with the villagers, but he could tell that Gavin had grown more and more frustrated with the outcome of the interrogation. It was clear that there had been several sightings of the group they were chasing down, but the lead they had come away with was just as flimsy as the last one had been. It certainly wasn’t enough to persuade the knights’ baroness to approve of yet another trip to the far-away village of Azmar.

As time wore on, Gavin also seemed to grow more suspicious of Crow as well. The thief noticed him glancing in his direction more often during questionings, and the knight didn’t let him wander as far away while they walked from one part of the village to the next. It felt like the man was more certain than ever that he had done something to sabotage their efforts, but he couldn’t find any way to prove it. So, instead of turning on him outright, he reigned in his tether to keep him under even closer watch than before.

Despite the Gavin’s added precautions, Crow knew that there was nothing the knight could do to confirm his silent accusation. He went along with everything with a nonchalant attitude, giving off an air that he had nothing to hide. Unfortunately, his confident mannerisms only seemed to further irritate the knight, who refused to believe that he was as innocent as he wanted everyone to think.

On the other hand, Olivia didn’t seem to catch on to the tension between the two men as she grew more impatient with the mission altogether. As the sun sank lower in the sky, her whining increased until Gavin finally caved and agreed that they could take their search to the local tavern, so she could go drinking. Having gotten her way, she finally lapsed into a content silence as the patrol made its way down the main road once more.

They reached the building at sunset, and Olivia wasted no time hurrying inside to order a drink. Crow rolled his eyes as he followed after her, finding her enthusiasm for alcohol distasteful although he said nothing about it aloud. When he stepped into the tavern, he did a quick sweep of the room only to find that Penelope’s group had arrived ahead of them. It looked like they were just finishing up questioning a group of drunken peasant men and women. He muttered a curse under his breath. It was early now, but if they stayed too long, one of the intoxicated villagers might let slip that the thief had been the one to tell them all to lie. He had to do something.

“What’s with that look?” Gavin’s voice startled him out of his thoughts. He turned to see that the knight was eyeing him warily. “You almost seem worried about something.”

Crow fought the urge to curl his lip at the nosey man as he replied, “I was just thinking.”

“About what?” Gavin pressed.

“Just wondering if Penelope’s patrol had any better luck than we did,” Crow answered with a roll of his eyes as he gestured to her nearby group. “Don’t try to tell me you’re not curious. I know you’re just as eager as I am to find out what they learned.” He turned around again. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to ask her, myself.” Without waiting for a reply, he took off and left the knight behind.

Weaving between the tables, he made his way over to Penelope’s side and slipped his arm around her waist to get her attention. “Hey there, gorgeous,” he greeted her with a flirtatious smirk followed by a kiss on the cheek. “Did you find anything interesting?”

Once she had pinpointed a good group to speak with, the knight wasted no time in approaching them and Alistair wasted no time in ordering himself a drink. This time Penelope took charge of spinning the story again to the villagers and asking about the group they were looking for. A villager denied seeing anything and quickly went back to their drinking, the others followed a similar path and merely wished the group luck on their search.

Penelope let out a small sigh and stood up from the table to leave the villagers to their drinking. "Seems like this lead won't be any better than the last." she mumbled.

"It's still early." Rikki mused. "The more they drink, the easier it'll be to find out other information. Besides we have a lead, isn't that good enough?"

"Well... Not really." Penelope admitted crossing her arms as she glanced around the tables. While she was glad there was a lead to Azmar, it still wasn't solid enough for her to be able to convince Mia to let them travel again. If anything, the baroness would just end up sending out a different patrol. However, before the knight could explain herself to Rikki, she noticed someone come up besides her and turned her head to see Crow. She blinked in surprise as she hadn't noticed his patrol come into the tavern then smiled up at the thief.

"Maybe.. Most of the people we talked to said they were heading towards Azmar." she explained to him with a shrug. "But I haven't been able to get any other information out of them then that. But there is one more thing.." The knight paused for a moment as her gaze flickered towards the villagers before shifting to focus on Crow again and leaning closer to him. She lowered her voice to a whisper as she added,"The villagers we talked to have been acting a little nervous today. Alistair and Rikki didn't seem to think much of it but I find it strange. It's like they're guarded right now."

The knight shook her head and moved her gaze to sweep over the room. "I'm hoping the alcohol will fix that problem though."

“The people we spoke with said the same thing,” Crow said with a nod when Penelope explained how her investigation had gone so far. He was glad to hear that it didn’t seem like she had gotten any conflicting stories. Now, if she and Gavin communed to go over their findings together, they would both be on the same page, and they would all be forced to accept the fact that their tip in Wheldrake had been just another dead end. Jaxon’s thieves would remain safe and undiscovered in their real camp to the west.

However, in the next moment, he felt a rush of panic as Penelope lowered her voice and said that the villagers she had talked to had been acting strangely. Forcing himself to keep a calm expression, he crossed his arms with mock thoughtfulness. “I noticed that too,” he confirmed in a quiet tone, deciding it was safer to play along rather than try to convince her that she had just imagined the peasants’ reactions. After pausing for a moment, he went on, “I’m starting to think that something happened here, but I’m not sure what. Maybe some of Jaxon’s men robbed them, so now they’re not as trusting of strangers?”

“You’re back,” Rikki bounced up with a grin as she suddenly took notice of the thief’s arrival. “What did your group figure out?”

“Pretty much the same thing that yours did, from the sound of it,” Crow shook his head.

“Well, hopefully we can turn that around soon,” she winked at him slyly. “It won’t be much longer before the people in this tavern loosen up enough to tell us more, and then we’ll have our revenge on that rat bastard.”

“I hope so,” Crow agreed, forcing a smile in spite of the growing seed of anxiety in his chest. He looked over the other people in the room—Alistair and Olivia had been quick to find each other and order some drinks, he noticed—before turning back to the Penelope and Rikki again, “We’ve still got some time left before they get drunk enough to tell us anything worthwhile. Why don’t we find a table and order some drinks for ourselves while we wait?”

“Sounds like fun,” Rikki beamed at him, clearly eager to jump at the chance to drink with him after he had avoided being around her for so long.

Crow met Penelope’s gaze with a shrug, “What do you say, love? There isn’t much else for us to do at the moment.” And I need more time to figure my way out of this mess, he added silently to himself as he waited for her reply.

As Crow confirmed her observations, Penelope felt a little more certain that something was off. She nodded her head at his speculation. "Maybe." she agreed quietly. It would make sense if Jaxon and his men had chosen to target a few of the villagers and that was what was causing them to be so guarded. She hoped they'd be able to find out for sure soon. As Rikki bounced over, she nodded in agreement with the female thief's words, hoping she was right.

She looked back to Crow as he suggested getting a table and some drinks of their own. Penelope paused before nodding her head in agreement. "That's fine with me." she agreed with a small smile. They had some time to kill before they needed to worry about interviewing the drunken villagers anyways so she supposed relaxing for a bit couldn't hurt.

"What's going on?"

Penelope turned her head to look over at Gavin as the male knight walked up to join them. He had his arms crossed over his chest, looking as rigid as ever. "We're just going to sit down and grab some drinks before we start asking around here." she explained to him with a small shrug. "Are you coming with us?" she asked, deciding it was best to just invite the knight. He'd likely follow them anyways since she doubted he'd try hanging around Olivia and Alistair instead.

"I guess.." Gavin paused and then eyed the other two thieves. "I just hope no one else plans on getting drunk... Seems like we'll already have to deal with two." He grumbled.

Penelope rolled her eyes and moved to begin walking over to an empty table nearby. "We'll be fine. We're just killing a bit of time is all." she assured him before sitting down at one of the seats.

Crow was just about to lead the way to the nearest empty table when a new voice spoke up that made his stiffen. He turned to see that Gavin was making his way over with suspicion written on his face as usual. He had been hoping to find some time away from the wary knight, but it seemed like the man was determined to keep him in his sight at all times. To make matters worse, Penelope was quick to invite her former suitor to come drinking with them.

This is fine, he thought as he followed the others over to the empty table, swallowing his nervousness. I can still make this work. Shortly after he sat down, a wench came over to take their orders. He put in a request for a mug of ale and then turned back to the other three. No matter which way he looked at it, it was going to be difficult for him to weasel his way out of this one. They had all firmly decided to question the drunken villagers, so if he tried to hinder their efforts, any one of them could catch on. He had to find a way to throw them off more subtly.

After a short time, the wench returned with their drinks. When she set down his mug on the table, Crow offered her a quick word of thanks and lifted the drink to his lips, taking a slow draught as he continued to ponder over his dilemma. However, he didn’t get much thinking done before another voice spoke up near his ear.

“Heey,” Olivia drawled, leaning over him with a deep frown. She and Alistair had gotten up from their table and made their way to join the others across the tavern. “I thought you said you weren’ gonna drink?”

“I never said that,” Crow said, leaning away from her to get away from the smell of alcohol on her breath.

“Does tha’ mean you’re gonna drink with us?” the knight grinned, throwing an arm over his shoulders.

Crow opened his mouth to remind her that he still wasn’t going to get drunk, but then paused. He wasn’t quite sure how yet, but it felt like he could use this situation to his advantage if he managed to play his cards right. “You know what? Fine,” he sighed. “I still don’t plan to have too much, but I suppose I’ll humor you a bit.”

“Ooh,” Rikki grinned, shifting a little closer from where she sat at his side. “I smell a drinking contest.”

“Out of the question,” Gavin growled, eyeing the group with contempt from where he sat. “We’re here for business, not pleasure. We can’t have everyone getting drunk and drawing unnecessary attention to ourselves.”

“Too late now,” Alistair laughed, bringing his mug to his lips to take another long draught. He turned to Rikki with a competitive expression. “Bring it on, small stuff. I’ll defeat you any day!”

“Oh yeah?” Rikki met his look with a challenging grin of her own. She elbowed Crow at her side. “Come on, let’s show those drunken fools that we can outdrink them any day!”

Crow rolled his eyes, “I only said I would drink with you. I never said anything about participating in a competition. No thank you.” He brought his mug to his mouth and took a sip in a more tamed manner.

“Weak,” Rikki taunted before lifting her drink and downing the whole thing in one go.

“You idiots are going to ruin this mission,” Gavin said sternly. “Stop this before it gets out of hand.” Unfortunately, his efforts only earning him a snicker from Olivia, who downed the rest of her mug as well. The knight groaned and turned to Penelope with a pleading look, silently begging for her help to regain control over the situation.

Penelope grabbed her mug as the wench returned with their drinks. She took a small sip from it and looked over at Olivia as she stepped up besides Crow. It seemed the female knight had already drank a good bit before her and Alistair joined them, which was a bit concerning. To make matters worse, they quickly started up a drinking contest, which didn't sit well with the female knight anymore so than it did with Gavin. She met his pleading gaze and gave a small frown before turning her gaze back to the others. "Really guys you shouldn't be drinking too much." she spoke up in hopes of helping. "We won't be able to accomplish anything if everyone's drunk off their asses."

"'s fine." Olivia said rolling her eyes at Penelope. The other female thief smirked mischievously and moved to wrap her other arm over her friend's shoulders. "In fact, you should join us. Comme o' Penelope. Gavin can handle the villager thing while we all have fun."

"No way." Penelope snorted as she met Olivia's gaze.

"Commmeee oooonnn." she whined. "T's been forever since we've drank together! Let those two stiffs deal with it." She waved a hand dismissively at Crow and Gavin.

"We can all go drinking once this bastard is caught." Penelope grumbled shaking her head at Olivia's whining. She noticed Alistair finishing off another mug and let out a small sigh. "Now can we please stop this nonsense?" she said, glancing to Crow for back up before her gaze focused on the other two thieves.

Crow observed the exchange between the others quietly as he sipped from his own mug, trying to formulate a more solid plan from everything that was already going on. It was clear to him that Penelope and Gavin had no intention to get drunk, and there was nothing that would change their minds. He wasn’t surprised about that, since they were both set on interrogating the villagers with clear heads.

On the other hand, Olivia, Alistair, and Rikki seemed more interested in the prospect of enjoying themselves as opposed to taking the rest of the mission seriously. Knowing the other thieves, he didn’t doubt that they were in no hurry to learn Jaxon’s whereabouts that very night. Living by their own rules, they operated on their own timetable and probably assumed that if nothing got done that night, they would just take an extra day to keep looking for the murderer.

So, when Penelope tried to convince them all to stop drinking, her words naturally fell on deaf ears. He glanced at her as she shot him a quick look, understanding that she wanted him to help calm the situation down with her. As much as he wanted to side with her, he knew he had to let the situation continue to spiral out of control for his own sake. It was his best shot at finding a way to disrupt the remainder of their mission.

“They’re right,” he sighed, turning to the three wild companions with a frown. “We should stay focused on questioning the villagers.” He took another drink from his mug before adding: “Besides, we all know Alistair would win, so you’d all be wasting your time with a competition. It would be better to put your energies towards something useful.”

At the offhanded compliment, Alistair stood up a little straighter. “Tha’s right,” he slurred. “You ladies are wastin’ your time against a man like me.” He brought a hand to his stomach, beaming proudly. “’M bigger, so I can drink more. ‘S nature!”

“That’s it,” Rikki growled, shooting the other thief a glare. “You’re on!” She snagged another two mugs of ale from the platter of a nearby wench, handing one off to Olivia. “Let’s show him how a woman drinks.” With that, she brought the glass to her lips and tipped her head back to down the whole thing.

“Now yer talkin’!” Olivia laughed, following the thief’s lead.

Crow grimaced as he watched them and turned back to Penelope with a lopsided smile, “Well, I tried.”

Penelope gave a hopeful look as Crow spoke up to try and discourage the drinking. However, his last words seemed less than helpful. As she guessed, it quickly fueled the competition further as Alistair's boasting quickly triggered Rikki and Olivia was quick to join her. The female knight frowned and shifted her gaze over to Crow as he turned to her, meeting his lopsided smile with a look of disappointment. Before she could reply though, Gavin was quick to jump in with an angry look at the thief.

"Tried my ass." he growled in irritation and narrowed his eyes at the thief. "All you did was make it worse."

Penelope sighed and turned her gaze away from the two as she took another sip from her own drink. "It certainly didn't help.." she mumbled then shrugged her shoulders as she glanced towards the rest of their companions as they continued their drinking. "Regardless, there's still the three of us at least so we should still be able to handle this."

Gavin gave a small grunt of agreement as his gaze shifted momentarily away from Crow to look over at the other three. He fell quiet for a moment with a thoughtful expression. "Penelope, why don't you stick with them and make sure they don't cause any trouble." he suddenly suggested. "He and I can handle speaking with the villagers."

The female knight raised an eyebrow questioningly at his suggestion. Gavin seemed very determined to keep his eye on Crow today and it was beginning to annoy her slightly. What was it going to take for the male knight's suspicion of the thief to finally die down? Not to mention that it would leave her stuck babysitting Olivia and the other two thieves. Though she had agreed to his terms before, this time the knight was a little bit more hesitant.

"Actually, Gavin, I think it'd be better if Crow and I speak with them while you watch over these three." She said shaking her head. "The villagers might be drunk now but their guards will probably still be up a little so it might be best for us to speak with them instead."

Gavin frowned slightly as Penelope denied his suggestion. "Are you sure?" he asked glancing towards the other three. "They'd probably listen to you more than me and I'm sure we'd do just fine.."

"I recall it being mentioned that you two didn't find much out working together in Aramoor so yes, I'm sure." Penelope pointed out. Gavin glanced between her and Crow, struggling to find a way to argue with her. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't come up with anything more and let out a sigh of defeat before nodding his head.

Penelope turned to Crow and offered a small smile. "Guess it's up to me and you tonight then." she said before taking another sip of her drink.

Crow shot Gavin a glare as the knight accused him of making the situation worse. He knew he hadn’t tried to be particularly clever about encouraging the others to keep drinking, but with so many more important things to think about, such as how he was going to keep the drunken villagers from telling the knights about what he had done, he couldn’t afford to waste time trying to fool everyone about this. He just hoped the suspicious knight wouldn’t dwell on it.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple.

As Gavin suddenly suggested that Penelope should stay behind to make sure their drunken companions didn’t cause trouble, Crow averted his gaze to look over the tavern, hiding his frustrated expression from the others. It seemed like he should have put in a little more effort to keep his head down, after all. He exhaled, trying to think of a way to turn the situation around, but coming up with nothing helpful. In that moment, he was beginning to wish he’d gotten more sleep the night before. Maybe then he would have been quicker on his feet instead of stumbling just to put a little bit of distance between himself and Gavin.

Fortunately, Penelope came to his rescue by suggesting that Gavin should be the one to stay behind with the others. Crow glanced at her curiously. While he knew there was no way she could have known just how much she was helping him, he was grateful for her efforts to keep Gavin from breathing down his neck. Of course, the other knight tried to fight against the change in plans, but she shot down his attempt quickly by bringing up how poorly their last interrogation had gone.

When she turned to him at last, he returned her smile with a grin of his own, “I guess so.” Leaning over, he pressed a kiss to her cheek and reached beneath the table to give her hand an appreciative squeeze. “Thank you,” he whispered. “That ex suitor of yours has been practically keeping me chained to his side today.” Not wanting to draw any more scathing comments from the other knight, he pulled away from Penelope again before anyone could react to their momentary closeness, bringing his mug to his lips and finishing off the rest of his ale.

Because of how much Olivia and the other thieves were drinking, a wench was quick to replace his empty glass with a fresh one. He eyed the full drink hesitantly. Usually, he preferred to stop after just one mug, since he wanted to stay sober, but two glasses of ale definitely weren’t enough to get him drunk either, especially if he worked on them slowly. He casted another look around the tavern. While his companions were drinking themselves into oblivion, there were very few other people who looked intoxicated. There was still some time to kill before he and Penelope could finish the interrogation.

I suppose it couldn’t hurt to have just one more, he decided, lifting the new mug to his lips.

Almost immediately, he felt someone wrap an arm around his shoulders, and he looked up to see a red-faced Rikki standing over him with a drunken grin. “So, you decided t’ join us after all, huh?” she slurred, getting closer to him than he was comfortable with. “Well, yer gonna have t’ do better than tha’! We’re all ‘n our fourth mugs.”

“I told you already,” Crow rolled his eyes, pushing her away from him. “I’ll drink with you, but I’m not going to play your ridiculous game.”

“Why no’?” Rikki pouted, fighting back against the hand he was using to try to put distance between them. “’S jus’ a bit o’ fun.” She managed to get a little closer to him again and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “B’sides… you know we always have a grea’ time when yer drunk…”

Crow colored slightly and groaned inwardly, wishing she would stop bringing up their past in front of Penelope. “I’m not getting drunk with you, and that’s final,” he said stubbornly. “This is my last drink. After that, I’m—” Suddenly, he was cut off as Rikki leaned in and pressed her lips against his. His eyes widened in surprise, and he stiffened, taking a moment to comprehend what was happening before he snapped out of his shock and pushed her away more roughly this time. Behind them, Alistair and Olivia were whooping and laughing wildly, seeming to have found the kiss entertaining.

“Wha’ was tha’ for?” Rikki frowned disappointedly.

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know,” Crow snarled at her. “I know you’re not drunk enough to have forgotten that I’m with Penelope. That was completely uncalled for.”

“It was jus’ a bit o’ fun,” Rikki shrugged. “Ligh’en up.” She turned towards the knight with a sly smirk. “Pe’elope knows i’ was jus’ harmless fun… righ’?”

Penelope gave a small nod to Crow as he thanked her for helping him. "I noticed." she mumbled with a quiet chuckle. She shifted her gaze over to the group that was drinking and watched as her friend guzzled her fourth drink. What a mess.. she thought with a small sigh before looking down at her own drink. She had nearly finished it off and planned to stop at one, knowing that two drinks—especially ones that were strong—would be enough to make her drunk. The knight was already feeling a bit of the effects of drinking the mug anyways so she set the drink down for now.

Her attention turned over to Rikki as the female thief stepped over to Crow. The thief was clearly drunk but even then Penelope wasn't exactly fond of how close she was getting to Crow. She shifted a bit in her seat, finding herself a bit uncomfortable with Rikki's words. Even though Crow had assured her, Penelope couldn't help but still feel a bit unnerved by Rikki's constant attempts. She was nearly going to try and ignore it. That is, until the thief suddenly kissed him.

The knight's eyes widened at the sight and was quickly reminded of the kiss she had learned about the day before. Luckily, Crow shoved her way from him and Penelope found a bit of relief in hearing the anger in his voice. As Rikki turned towards her, Penelope met her gaze with a cold glare. "Yeah right. Drunk or not I'm sure you know what you're doing." she growled accusingly, the alcohol in her system making her a bit less encouraged to restrain her words.

"Oh yer jus' mad cause he lingered." Rikki snickered. "Makes you wonder wha' else he'd linger o', don' it?"

"Leave her alone." Gavin suddenly jumped in shooting a disgusted glare towards Rikki and Crow. "I'm getting tired of watching whatever game you're playing here."

"Ooo looks like someone's 'ryna play hero." Rikki laughed. There was a mischievous glint in her eye that made the male knight eye her warily as she shifted to stumble over to him.

"Sooooo friend o' Pe'elope," she drawled, leaning against the table closely besides him which cause Gavin to lean away from her. "I need yer opi'ion on somethin' here because I jus' can't figure 't out." The female thief let out a heavy sigh as if troubled by something. Penelope and Gavin both eyed her warily, neither seeming to trust the female thief in that moment. Penelope was a bit worried on where Rikki was planning to go with this. She had managed to keep most information about her relationship with Gavin a secret from her but she wasn't sure if Gavin would be able to do the same. The knight only hoped that his distrust of the thieves would keep him from revealing anything.

"And what is that?" Gavin asked her with an unamused tone.

"Weeelll, those 'wo," she gestured to Crow and Penelope. "were toge'her a couple years ago or somethin', right? And then our friend Pe'elope here couldn' make 't back to him for some reason." Rikki waved her hand dismissively and then shifted her gaze over to Crow. "Surely tha' reason was jus' her backin' out though. I mean, wha' else could prevent her for 'wo whole years? I'm jus' wondering wha's keepin' her from changin' her mind again and deciding to ditch again huh? Any ideas? Cuz, I sure don' have any."

Still blushing from a mixture of embarrassment at the situation and anger with Rikki, Crow glanced furtively at Penelope. After everything that had happened between them the day before, he was worried that she would take the kiss personally. He hoped he was wrong, and that he had built up enough of her trust for her to know that he hadn’t wanted the other thief to kiss him like that, but given his less than noble past, he wasn’t sure if she would be so quick to just let it go.

Fortunately, the knight’s frustrations seemed to be directed towards Rikki, so he relaxed slightly. However, the moment of relief was quickly shattered when the female thief spoke up again to make a rather sultry comment to Penelope. He shot her a glare. She knew fully well that the only reason he hadn’t ended the kiss sooner was because she had taken him by surprise. It’s not like I even kissed her back either, he added in silent annoyance, taking another swig of his drink as he forced himself to look away from her.

In the next moment, he flinched slightly at the sound of Gavin’s sharp voice. He looked up to see that the knight was looking at both him and Rikki with disgust. It almost seemed like the man was including him in what had just happened, as if it had been his fault. He narrowed his eyes as Gavin went on to confirm his suspicion. He didn’t like how little the knight seemed to think of him. Just because he had been too slow to stop Rikki from kissing him didn’t mean he had given her his consent to do so.

Before he could open his mouth to defend himself though, the other thief spoke up first. Crow tensed, unsure of what Rikki was trying to do as she stumbled over to Gavin with a mischievous look in her eyes that set him on edge. So far, they had all done a decent job of keeping her in the dark about Gavin’s and Penelope’s past courtship, but he wasn’t sure if the knight would be as willing to keep his mouth shut about it if she pressed for more details. He held his breath, praying that the other man wouldn’t give away the truth. However, it seemed that his fears were quite far off as the thief didn’t ask him about his relationship to Penelope, but rather brought up Penelope’s past with Crow instead.

Crow’s eyes widened slightly as Rikki questioned Gavin about why Penelope had left him two years ago. He was surprised that she would even bring it up. It was something he tried not to think about, since he had convinced himself that he understood and supported her reasoning when she had explained it to him before. But now that the subject had resurfaced again, he couldn’t stop the pang of nervousness that gripped him as he thought about the other thief’s words.

Despite telling himself that he had accepted the past and moved on, he had intentionally tried to forget about how hurt he had felt when Penelope had left him before. Though he would never admit it out loud, there was a small part of him that was afraid she would do it again. He lowered his gaze to his lap. He felt sure that Penelope loved him and wanted to run away with him, but then again, he had felt just as sure two years ago when she had disappeared last time. Maybe there was some validity to the question Rikki had posed, after all.

Stop it, he grimaced, averting his gaze and sipping at his drink to hide the expression. He knew he shouldn’t let Rikki get inside his head so easily. Penelope had chosen to trust him, so he should have been willing to do the same. It didn’t matter that she left him once. This time was going to be different… right?

“Well, I didn’t know Penelope then,” Gavin finally began to answer the thief’s query, his gaze drifting to the female knight as he spoke, as if he was speaking to her instead of Rikki. “But I would assume she must have straightened out her priorities and realized she had more important things to do than run off with a wanted criminal.”

Suddenly, there was a loud grating sound as Crow’s chair slid back against the wooden floor. The thief blinked, caught off guard as he realized he had stood up from the table without thinking. Noticing that all eyes were on him, he reddened and shifted his weight uncomfortably. “I’m going to get some air,” he muttered without looking up to meet anyone’s eyes. Not wanting to linger while the others’ attention was on him, he stepped away from the table and quickly made his way to the front of the tavern, eager to get away from the crowd so he could clear his head.

Penelope glared at Rikki as the female thief tried to suggest she wouldn't follow through with being with Crow again. The thief was speaking about something she had little information about and the knight found it quite annoying that she would even try to use that against them. Her gaze flickered over to Crow, expecting to share a similar annoyance with Rikki, only to find the thief had lowered his gaze to his lap. She blinked in surprise, quickly realizing that Rikki's words had gotten to Crow.

The knight grimaced, feeling a heavy pang of guilt. However, before she could say anything, Gavin spoke up. She turned her head to meet the male knight's gaze as looked over at her. Penelope curled her lip as she became frustrated with both Gavin and Rikki. "That's not-" she was cut off as the sound of Crow's chair sliding back on the wood caught her attention. The knight blinked and turned to look over at him as he rose to his feet and announced that he need to get some air.

Penelope frowned and stood up to follow him. She glared venomously at Gavin and Rikki. "You two fools have no idea what you're talking about." she growled. The anger in her voice was enough to make Gavin look away but Rikki was grinning from ear to ear with a look of victory plastered on her face. The drunken thief shifted away from the table and moved to step in front of Penelope.

"We'll seee." Rikki smirked with a shrug. "Looks like I knew e'ough though... So t' doesn' look good for you, huh?"

"Mind your own business, witch." Penelope growled clenching her fists at her side. She shook her head and roughly pushed passed the female thief as she made her way towards Crow. As angry as she was with Rikki, the female thief wasn't her main concern at the moment. It seemed that her past mistakes were still hurting Crow, and though it was Rikki's fault for digging at them, it was even more so her own fault for causing them in the first place.

The knight slowed as she reached him at the front of the tavern. Penelope shifted uneasily on her feet, unsure what to say to him at first. She let out a small sigh and moved up to his side, reaching to take his hand in hers. "Crow... I'm sorry about the past." she told him quietly and forcing herself to look up at him despite how tempted she was to lower her gaze out of shame.. "I'm not leaving again though. I told you, what I have now wasn't the life I was hoping for. I want to be with you."

Crow had nearly made it to the door when he felt someone take hold of his hand. He blinked and turned to see that Penelope had caught up with him. Feeling a twinge of embarrassment for his actions, he averted his gaze. He knew he wasn’t being fair to her by letting Rikki get to him so badly. Ever since they had gotten back together, she had done nothing to make him have such little trust in her. In fact, if either of them should have a reason to not trust the other, it was her.

They had only been together for a short period of time, and yet he had already given her more than enough reasons not to depend on him. From lying to her about his illness, to hiding his accidental kiss with Rikki, and even to his current, secretive dealings with Jaxon, he had done nothing but let her down while she had been completely transparent with him. He had no right to even harbor a shadow of a doubt that she would leave him again when the war ended.

So, when she began to apologize to him about the past, he just shook his head in response. “I know,” he said softly and then sighed. “And I believe you. I do. It’s just…” He winced and shuffled his feet uncomfortably. “Now, hear me: I don’t want you to think I’m holding a grudge against you or anything like that. I promise you I’m not. I understand why you did what you did, and I’m just happy you were even willing to give me a second chance… It’s just hard to keep out that little voice in the back of my head that keeps saying ‘what if,’ you know?”

He finally looked up to meet her gaze, “I know you have no intention of going anywhere this time, but we made the same promises to each other two years ago, and they turned out to be meaningless. I guess there’s still a small part of me that’s wondering what’s changed to give those words more substance this time around.”

Crow looked away again, feeling strange for speaking about his inner thoughts so openly with Penelope. He still wasn’t used to sharing his emotions like this with another person. It made him feel uncomfortably vulnerable, but he knew he needed to be honest with her. If he didn’t address his worries now, they would just fester inside of him until they caused a bigger problem down the road. It was better to face them now, while they were still small and easy to combat.

After a moment of pause, he reached out to take her other hand, so that he held both of her hands in his. “I’m not saying any of this to guilt you into making any absurd promises to me about why I should believe that you’ll stay this time,” he went on, forcing himself to meet her gaze again. “I already know that you will. I just wanted to be honest, like I told you I would before. So… whether it’s rational or not, that’s how I’m feeling.”

Penelope looked up at him as he began to explain himself and what he was feeling. Her gaze softened sympathetically as she came to learn that he was worrying about the 'what ifs'. She couldn't blame him for that—especially since she easily got caught up in such worries—but she wasn't sure how to reassure him since he already seemed to trust her intention to be with him after the war. It was just a lingering fear of the past repeating itself that would be a bit difficult to combat. As he took her other hand, she gave it a comforting squeeze and held his gaze.

"Thank you for being honest.." she told him softly, giving an appreciative nod. Though the topic was a bit difficult to deal with, Penelope was glad he had chosen to be up front with her, unlike when he had dealt with the previous issue of Gavin's words bothering him. The knight paused and shifted a bit. "I'm not sure what I can do to help ease that worry and it might not fully go away until we finally leave together after the war, but thinking about how things have changed might help you."

She gave him a soft smile and let go of his hands so she could wrap her arms around him in a comforting hug. "Like, for one, we've been together longer than a few weeks and we've faced even more challenges. We've talked about what our future will look like and I think we're starting to get a clearer picture of it." Penelope blushed a little as she mentioned their future, her mind quickly wandering to their past conversations about it. She smiled up at him affectionately. "I mean, I'm even starting to learn how to cook. Plus this time, there won't be a war to worry about. It'll eventually reach its end.

"And.." the knight hesitated and shifted her gaze away as a hint of guilt seeped into them. "I've learn from past mistakes. I won't give up so easily and if anything does happen to pop up that could potentially get between us, I won't just silently disappear. We'll talk about it and figure a way around." She knew he didn't want her to feel guilty about it but she couldn't help it. It was her mistake in the past that had caused for them to grow apart and though she had to be there for her family, she couldn't help but think that perhaps they could have figured something out if she had just sought him out instead of leaving him in the dark about why she had never come to meet him.

Penelope leaned up and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "It might not get rid of what you're feeling but I hope thinking about all that stuff will at least help lessen it."

Crow just shrugged when Penelope thanked him for being honest about what had been weighing on his mind. He had hoped that by opening up to her about everything, he would feel better, but instead he felt just as uncertain as before with the addition of some lingering awkwardness for speaking about his emotions out loud. Even though he loved her and knew he could trust her with the information, it was still a new experience for him to be so transparent with someone. He was used to keeping his feelings to himself or even ignoring them in preference of logic. Acknowledging and relaying his emotional state to the knight was just something he supposed he was going to have to get used to.

As she wrapped her arms around him, he did the same to her, slipping his arms around her back to hold her close while she went on to explain how things had changed between them since the first time they had been together two years ago. While it wasn’t enough to make him feel certain that the past would never repeat itself, her words did comfort him quite a bit.

He closed his eyes and rested his head against hers as he listened to her remind him about how they had been together much longer this time. She was right. Unlike their whirlwind three-week romance during their mission to Younis, he felt like they had a much stronger foundation to build on this time. They already knew quite a bit about each other from the past, but now, they were starting to figure out how to use that information work together in a completely different world—one in which they didn’t have the luxury of being in a different kingdom and pretending the barriers between them didn’t exist. It was harder, but it made him feel even closer to her in a way that he never had before.

As she also mentioned that they had talked more about the future, he opened his eyes again to look down at her with a soft smile. She was right about that too. Previously, he had only told her about what to expect in the outer villages. He had also told her that he’d wanted to live with her in Farhill, but that was the furthest their planning went. Well, aside from his intention to marry her after she met up with him at the Black Dagger, but that hadn’t been something they had ever discussed together. The plans and dreams they shared now were much more well-rounded and clear. Thinking about them again and seeing the color in her cheeks when she spoke of them made his heart swell with affection for the knight.

Suddenly, he noticed something in her expression change, and he listened quietly as she went on to tell him that she had learned from the past and had no intention of disappearing ever again. The words laid his worries to rest even more so than reminiscing about their relationship had, and he squeezed her a little closer in fondness, his smile widening as she kissed his cheek.

“But it did,” he said when she finished speaking, shaking his head. “I feel a lot better now. Thank you, love.” He leaned in to press a kiss to her lips, and then pulled back to meet her gaze with a grin. “Yesterday, you said I know just the right things to say, but I think you might even be better at that than I am.” He casted a quick glance back at the table where their companions were still seated, and then turned back to her more seriously. “We should probably rejoin the others. I don’t trust Rikki enough to leave her alone with Gavin any longer than we have to… especially after everything she’s already done tonight.”

Penelope smiled up at him as he told her that her words had helped. She was glad that she had managed to reassure him since she didn't want him worrying that she would just leave like before, even if it was only a small part of him that was. She leaned in to meet his lips as kissed and gave a soft laugh at his words. "I'm not sure about that but I'm glad you feel better." she told him, smiling up at him fondly.

As his expression turned serious and he mentioned returning to the others, the knight let out a small sigh and glanced towards the table. "Yeah, I don't either...I'm sure she'll eventually start questioning him about our relationship and I don't even want to know how she'll use that information." she agreed with a small shake of her head. The female thief was proving to be rather troublesome. In the matter of just two days, she had managed to strike cords with each of them and continued to get under Penelope's skin with her advances towards Crow. The knight was finding it more and more difficult to remain patient with the thief and her antics.

Letting go of him, she reached to take his hand again and began to walk back towards the table. Her gaze eyed their companions, noting with relief that Rikki seemed to have moved away from Gavin for the time being to rejoin Olivia and Alistair as they got a fresh mug of ale. The group seemed to have slowed down their drinking a bit but clearly had no intention of stopping any time soon. She shook her head at them and moved to sit down at the table again. Gavin glanced over at her, seeming a bit hesitant to say anything upon her return. It seemed her angry outburst at him made the male knight decide to choose his next words to her a bit more carefully.

"Good, you're back." he mumbled finally and shifted a bit in his seat before glancing around. "I was figuring it's getting about time to speak with the villagers."

Penelope swept her gaze over the tavern before nodding her head in agreement. "We'll go in a little while. I want to make sure things settle down here first." she muttered as she grabbed her nearly empty mug and took a sip of what was left before placing it down. She turned to look over at Crow and gave him a small smile. "At least, that's what I figured, right?"