Finding it too strenuous to focus on the knights’ conversation, Crow was quickly distracted by looking around at other things in the tent. Over the course of talking to Olivia, his strange vision of trees had disappeared, but now it just felt like everything in the room was moving. He watched with his head tilted at a slight angle as the backrest of Jane’s chair seemed to twist of its own accord. The sight was intriguing, but it also made his stomach feel upset, so he turned away again.

As his eyes wandered over the tent, he eventually settled on Penelope’s face, and he smiled to himself, entranced by her beauty as he stared up at her. He wasn’t sure if it was the medicine in his system or just the low lighting of the room, but somehow, he found her even more attractive than usual. Absently, he reached out his hand, wanting to touch her to make sure she was really standing in front of him. It was hard to tell between all the other hallucinations the drug was causing. But, of course, he didn’t make it very far and just ended up with his arm hanging haphazardly off the edge of the mattress instead.

Suddenly, Crow blinked at he realized someone else was standing over him now. He looked up to see that it was Olivia. For a moment, he just stared at her, vaguely aware that she had asked him a question, until he remembered what she had just said. “’Course,” he grinned back at her. Why would she have even bothered to ask him that? He liked having them around. They may have been knights, but Penelope was a knight too, and he liked her just fine.

“See?” Olivia turned back to Gavin with a smug smirk.

“That doesn’t matter,” Gavin rolled his eyes. “He’s on a strong medicine, so he’ll say anything right now.”

As the two knights bickered, Crow grew uninterested and tuned them out again. Shifting slightly on the bed, he was aware of a mild discomfort in his torso, and he looked down to find the bandages that were wrapped around his middle. He frowned, unable to remember why they were there, but fairly certain they were the cause of his discomfort. “Hey, Penelope,” he mumbled as he brought his hand down to tug at the annoying dressing. “Help me get these off… Kind of hurts…”

Penelope let out a sigh at Olivia's words, shooting her friend a look of disapproval. As Olivia and Gavin began to bicker, she heard Crow mumble her name. Turning to looking back over at the thief, she blinked as she noticed him beginning to mess with the bandages around him and quickly shook her head. "No, you can't take them off Crow." she mumbled softly to him. Knowing he wasn't in a clear state of mind, she wasn't sure how much of her words would get through to him but she couldn't have him picking at his wound or the dressing around it.

She reached to take his hand in hers, guiding him away from the bandages. "You got hurt so you can't take those off." she told him in a sweet tone. She wondered if the medicine was beginning to wear off since he became more aware of the discomfort of his wound. Penelope glanced over her shoulder at her two friends. "I might actually want at least one of you to stick around until his medicine wears off enough to get Jane. That way I can stay with him while one of you gets her."

"We already decided to stay anyways." Olivia grinned.

"We?" Gavin snorted and rolled his eyes. He let out a sigh and looked over at Penelope. "I don't mind sticking around.. It might be a good idea. Just in case your brother decides to come back." The male knight moved to take a seat in Jane's chair while Olivia remained near the bed with Penelope and Crow.

"Soooo what questions should we ask?" Olivia asked Penelope with a mischievous smirk.

Penelope raised an eyebrow at her friend. "What are you talking about?"

"He's loopy and admitting things he would never say out loud. Sounds like a perfect opportunity to ask any burning questions you may have." Olivia winked slyly then turned to Crow. "Like... Is Penelope the best you've had-"

"Ok we're not doing that." The female knight grumbled quickly cutting of her friend as she felt her cheeks redden at the question. Penelope shook her head and shifted her gaze over to Crow before giving his hand a small squeeze. "Just ignore her and don't pick at your bandages, ok?" she mumbled keeping the same soft tone she had been using with him.

“But I don’t like them,” Crow frowned when Penelope pulled his hand away from the bandages. He tried halfheartedly to tug his hand out of hers, wanting to remove the wrapping on his own if she wouldn’t help him, but he didn’t have enough control over his body to do it, so he gave up fairly quickly. In his drugged state, he couldn’t understand why she was stopping him. If the pain was coming from the bandages, surely the best move would have been to take them off, right? It seemed logical to him.

He looked up at her as she explained that he’d gotten hurt. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he recalled something about getting wounded, but it almost seemed like a dream. “You sure?” he murmured skeptically. “I don’t feel that bad.” He was about to try and pull his hand from hers again but got distracted when he heard the knights talking amongst themselves once more. Putting a little more effort into listening to their conversation, he made out that they were talking about who would be staying with him. It wasn’t very interesting, so he stopped paying attention pretty early on to look around the tent again. However, his focus was drawn back when Olivia mentioned Penelope’s name.

The thief turned back towards the knight, who was gazing at him with a mischievous glint in her eye, and then glanced up at Penelope, who was red in the face. He wasn’t sure why she was embarrassed. It seemed like a straightforward enough question to him. However, he didn’t get a chance to question it before she began to give him a short list of instructions. “Okay,” he nodded absently, though he disliked the rules. The bandages were still bothering him, so he wanted to pull them off, and he didn’t think Olivia was being that intrusive with her question.

“Oh, come on,” Olivia groaned. “We finally have the opportunity to get some answers out of him, and you’re going to make us pass this up?” She turned to Gavin. “You must have more questions for him than any of us. Surely you agree with me, right?”

The knight shifted uncomfortably in his chair, hesitating for a moment before he replied, “I hardly think this is the right way to go about this.”

“Gods, you’re both so boring,” Olivia whined, looking between her two comrades. “You really don’t want to find out the deep, dark secrets of the most infamous thief in the kingdom? I bet he’s got some great ones to tell, don’t you, Crow?” She turned back to the thief with a sly smile.

The thief stared at her blankly. “Secrets?” he mused, narrowing his eyes slightly as her body began to distort in front of his face from the delusion. “Yeah… I’ve got lots of those.”

“Great,” Olivia clapped her hands together eagerly, glancing between Gavin and Penelope and lingering on the latter. “What should we ask him first? You’ll play along if I don’t ask anything about you, right?” She simpered pleadingly. “Please? This could be so much fun!”

Penelope relaxed a little as Crow agreed to her words. She still held his hand, worried that letting it go would cause him to try and pick at his bandages again. As Olivia spoke up again, she rolled her eyes at her friend insisting on questioning Crow. Her gaze shifted over to Gavin and she raised an eyebrow at him as she noticed him hesitate to reply. She didn't like that the male knight seemed to be considering Olivia's words. As Olivia tried to convince them into finding out Crow's secrets, the female knight shifted her weight uneasily. Olivia seemed pretty set on asking Crow questions but Penelope was reluctant to out of worry what the other female knight might just be able to get out of him. Crow did have a lot of secrets, most of which she believed to already know, so it was a bit concerning.

"What would you even ask about, Olivia?" Penelope said with a sigh.

"Well there's plenty of options!" Olivia grinned. "How he became a thief, family matters, friends, Jaxon.." She glanced towards Gavin, who quickly shifted his gaze away, before looking back to Penelope. "Come on, surely you must be curious about something! I mean you're with this man and he's the most infamous thief in the kingdom."

"Not really." Penelope shrugged.

Olivia eyed her for a moment before crossing her arms with a huff. "Oh I get it... You think you already know everything, don't you?" she challenged with a smirk. "Fine! We'll change the game up a bit then. I bet I can find out a secret from him that even you don't know about. It'll be fun!"

Penelope rolled her eyes. "He's delirious. Even if he does tell you something, that doesn't mean that it's completely true, you know."

"You think?" Olivia smirked. "I think we'll get enough of the truth. I'll even start with easy questions to prove it!" Excitedly, the other female knight turned back to Crow with a bright grin. "Alright Crow, we're going to play a game. I'm going to ask a question and you answer it! It'll get harder as we go so try your best to focus." she giggled. Penelope opened her mouth to object to Olivia but didn't get a chance to as her friend quickly hurried on to the first question. "First question, what is your name?"

Crow’s eyes flicked between the two knights as they spoke, but he found their conversation to be boring again. He didn’t understand why they were so interested in talking to him. After all, they were in a tent that seemed like it was alive. He looked up at the canopy over his head, watching as it moved like the breathing chest of an animal. Was he the only one that found it so strange? Why were none of the knights as fascinated by it as he was? Then again, maybe living tents were normal to nobles. They were rich enough to afford plenty of things that a peasant like him had never seen before, so perhaps this was nothing new to them. Regardless, it was captivating to the thief, so he continued to watch it with childlike wonder.

After a short while, he heard Olivia say his name, so he turned back to her curiously. At the mention of a game, he perked up a bit. Staying in this place day after day with nothing to do besides lay in a bed had been so boring. Anything that would break that routine was welcomed to him, so he listened carefully as the knight explained the rules. All he had to do was answer her questions? He frowned to himself. It almost seemed too easy. Even in his hazy state, he was confident he could do that much.

“First question: What is your name?”

The thief blinked. That was an odd question to start with. He had thought Olivia was planning to go with something easy, like she had told him she would, but instead it looked like she was already digging for secrets. Well, he supposed he would just have to go along with it. After all, he didn’t want to lose her little game, and they were only one question in so far. It would have been pathetic for him to back down now.

Crow’s lip curved upward in a delirious smile as he answered truthfully: “Collin.”

Penelope shifted nervously at Olivia's first question. The knight prayed that his alias was deeply rooted enough in him that he'd answer with the name everyone knew him as or that he'd he get distracted by some other hallucination. Unfortunately neither of those came true as she heard the name 'Collin' come out of him. She paled slightly as one of the thief's biggest secrets came out to the other two knights. Quickly trying to recover, Penelope let out a scoff and folded her arms over her chest.

"See? He doesn't even know who he is." she said to Olivia, who had a look of surprise on her face, and hoped it would be enough to throw the female knight off.

Olivia suddenly broke out into a victorious grin again as she turned to looked over at Penelope. "Are you so sure? Because I think I just uncovered something you didn't know about."

"No you didn't." Came the deep voice of Gavin before Penelope replied. She felt a swell of hope that the male knight would side with her. Surely Gavin wouldn't trust the words of a drugged man-even if said man was actually telling the truth. However, her hope began to decrease as she noticed the male knight studying her with a hint of intrigue in his gaze. "She already knew that was his name. I saw that expression you made when he said it." Now clearly interested in the questioning, Gavin rose up to his feet and stepped a bit closer to the bed, shifting his gaze away from Penelope as he eyed Crow for a moment. "No wonder you trusted him so much knowing sensitive information like that..." he mumbled as if things were finally making sense to him.

Penelope opened her mouth to argue but her words fell short. After all, what could she say? Gavin had called her out on lying and Olivia was already convinced. She let out a small sigh before shooting her friends a stern look. "Alright, alright. Yes that's his name but keep it to yourselves." she said with a hint of protectiveness. "I don't know who knows it aside from myself... And that includes his friends." She shifted her gaze to narrow in on Olivia. It was bad enough Crow had spilled his secret to the two knights, she didn't want it going out any farther.

"Our lips are sealed." Olivia promised with a grin. "Right, Gavin?"

"They have been for a while now." Gavin mused as he glanced towards Penelope. She noticed the corner of his mouth briefly twitch upward into a smirk before he looked down towards Crow again.

"Besides we can find out who else knows." Olivia giggled excitedly, clearly encouraged by her discovery. Her gaze focused back on Crow. "Alright then Collin, next question. Who all knows your name?"

Crow didn’t like Penelope’s accusation. Of course he knew who he was. He may have been a little disoriented, but he wouldn’t have forgotten something as important as his own identity because of that. The real question was: How could she have forgotten? It hadn’t even been that long ago since the last time he’d heard her use his name, so he didn’t understand how she’d forgotten in such a short amount of time. He’d expected her to try harder than that to remember it.

He looked up at Olivia as she even said that Penelope didn’t know his name. Somehow, hearing another person confirm out loud it made him feel a pang of disappointment. She really must not have known his name if her friend thought so too. Maybe the times he thought he remembered of her calling him Collin were just hallucinations too? That was discouraging. He let out a quiet sigh. Once they were alone, he would have to try to remember to tell her that his name really wasn’t Crow. He wanted her to know.

However, his doubts were laid to rest when Gavin suddenly joined the conversation and confirmed that Penelope really did know his name. Crow felt a wave of relief. Of course she knew. He wasn’t sure why she’d acted like she didn’t, but she really did know his name. All those times he recalled of her using it weren’t fake. The thought made him a little giddy. He was quite happy that the knight knew who he was, because he loved her and wanted her to share that part of his life with her.

As Olivia asked him her second question, Crow knitted his brow in thought. That was a difficult one to answer. There were quite a few people who had known him as Collin—his mother, of course, but also many of the people in the village of Myrefall. It was going to be difficult for him to scrounge up all of their names when it had been over a decade since he’d last seen many of them, especially when he was continually distracted by strange visions in the tent.

After a long pause, he gave up. Even if he’d been clearheaded, he doubted he would have been able to think of every single name. Besides, there was a much simpler way to answer the question.

“Just Penelope,” the thief said at last, turning to smile fondly at the knight. “Everyone else is dead.”

As Crow went on to answer Olivia's question, Penelope gave a look of mild surprise. Though she hadn't been sure about his companions not knowing him as Collin, the knight had thought that perhaps Rikki had known his real name too, especially after hearing her mention that she knew things about him that others didn't. It was surprising that two years later, she had still been the only one that knew his real name. Or at least, I used to be.. She thought with a concerned glance towards her two friends. The thought of Crow coming out of his delusional state and realizing what he had told them made the knight cringe.

"Impressive." Olivia grinned. She looked over at Penelope and chuckled. "Unless that means you're next on the hit list."

Penelope rolled her eyes at Olivia. "Are you done?"

"What? We're just getting started!" Olivia giggled. "I still need to find something that even you don't know."

"You have no sense of respecting other people's privacy." Penelope frowned and shook her head. "I think you should stop now. You got a pretty big secret out of him isn't that enough?"

Her friend pouted, seeming to realize that Penelope was determined to shut the questioning down. "Just one more question and that's it I swear. Please?" she begged.

Penelope gave a disapproving look. "What would you even ask him?"

"I'll ask him what you don't know. Come on, that'll be interesting right?" Olivia said and gave her a sly wink. "Don't you want to make sure there aren't anymore secrets he's hiding from you?"

"I'm sure there aren't." Penelope muttered with a bit less confidence. Though she had forgiven Crow for everything that had happened, she certainly hadn't forgot it yet. It wouldn't surprise her if he still had a few that he was keeping from her. All she could do was hope they were small ones. She felt a bit of temptation suddenly rise in her but she quickly shook her head. Even he did have secrets from her still, this wasn't the way she wanted to find them out.

"I say we ask it." Gavin suddenly piped in making Penelope frown. He looked over at her and shrugged his shoulders. "Just to clear the air, I mean. Then we'll be done like Olivia said."

"Two against one, Penelope, sorry." Olivia smirked. She turned to Crow again before Penelope could argue against them. "Alright last question since someone's being a stick in the mud." she shot a an accusing glance towards Penelope before looking back to him excitedly."What secret does Penelope not know?"

As the knights talked amongst themselves, Crow was quickly distracted once again by a dull twinge of pain in his torso that drew his attention away from their conversation. He knitted his brow in a slightly stressed manner, wanting to pull at the bandages again to make it stop, but too weak to remove his free hand from Penelope’s. The ceaseless discomfort irritated him, and he didn’t like the fact that he wasn’t able to do anything to deal with it. If only she would just listen to him that the wrapping needed to come off, then maybe he could make the pain go away. After all, it seemed like the best idea to him.

He turned back to try and convince her again but paused as he caught what the knights were saying. It sounded like they were planning to ask him another question, although Penelope didn’t look very happy about the decision. Glancing between their somewhat-distorted faces, he tipped his head to the side confusedly. He had thought they were done playing Olivia’s game when she started talking to her comrades instead of him. Apparently, that guess had been wrong. He wondered what they would ask him next, and if the chosen question was the reason why Penelope seemed so upset.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait long to find out. As Olivia queried what secret he kept that Penelope didn’t know about, the thief had to take another moment to think it over. There were plenty of things about him that she didn’t know, but that wasn’t because the information was necessarily secret. It just hadn’t come up in conversation before. She already knew all of his deepest secrets, such as his name, who his family was, and some of the more life-changing incidents in his past. Anything else he could have shared with her would have just been stories of his childhood or more recent history.

He supposed he had sort of kept his encounters with other women a secret from her, but that was done more so out of respect for her than anything else. If she ever bothered to ask him about it, he wouldn’t hesitate to be open with her, so he didn’t think that counted as a secret either. The thief chewed on the inside of his lip for a moment as he wracked his brain to come up with something worth saying in answer to Olivia’s question. Suddenly, he blinked as he came up with a response.

“There is one thing,” Crow said slowly. He averted his gaze with a bashful expression. “I never told her, but… two years ago, I was going to ask Penelope to marry me in Farhill.” He glanced up with a sheepish smile, slightly red-faced from the confession. “And I plan to ask her as soon as this war is over… I want to spend the rest of my life with her.”

Penelope shot Olivia an annoyed look as the other female knight went ahead and asked the question. As Crow finally admitted that there was one, she shifted a bit uneasily and looked over at him as he went on to surprise her by saying how he had planned to ask her to marry him two years ago. She felt a small stab of guilt, still having a bit of regret over her past mistakes, and she already had a guess as to where in Farhill he had been planning to ask her. The knight easily recalled the spot by the lake where he had taken her during her stay with him and the other thieves.

As he went on, her guilt over the past quickly became drowned out by a burst of affection for the thief as well as bashfulness. She smiled softly to herself as she looked over at him with a blush on her cheeks. Though she already knew they had plans to get married after the war, hearing him reaffirm that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her made Penelope warm with affection for him. The knight would have kissed him if not for the other two being right there so instead she settled for giving his hand an affectionate squeeze. She glanced towards the other two knights and noticed that Gavin moved to sit back down while Olivia remained nearby with a hint of amusement in her expression

"How sappy." Olivia mused with a smile as her excitement died down. However, a look of interest still lingered in her gaze and she turned to look over at Penelope questioningly. "Two years ago in Farhill, huh?" her smirk returned. "If I remember correctly, didn't you say that you two parted at the border because you had to 'give him up'? At least, that was the story I was told from back then."

Penelope blinked and looked over at Olivia. So much had changed that she had forgotten that she had told Olivia a lie about what had occured between her and Crow those two years ago. She had stuck to the story since, at the time, she didn't want her comrade knowing how close she had been to running off with the thief, especially when she had thought she had lost that future. She gave a sheepish smile and scratched the back of her head with her free hand. "That..may have been a small lie." she admitted slowly. She shrugged her shoulders. "I was planning to meet up with him once the mission was over and the king had the staff but," she paused and lowered her gaze going on in a quieter tone. "everything went wrong and a war started so I couldn't."

Olivia listened quietly before giving a small nod and moving to take a small step back. "Well that was fun while it lasted I suppose." she sighed crossing her arms over chest. "But deal's a deal. I'll stop now."

"Good." Penelope mused with a hint of relief. As Olivia stepped away, she shifted a little closer to Crow and leaned down to press a quick kiss to his cheek. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you too." she whispered softly to him before standing up straight again. "I just hope this painkiller wears off before Olivia gets bored of waiting around."

Crow looked up at Penelope fondly, reminded of everything he loved about her as he held her gaze. At the moment, he couldn’t recall why he had kept his old plans a secret from her. He wanted her to know that he’d always cared for her deeply, and that his thoughts about wanting to stay with her for the rest of his life weren’t new. She was by far the most important person in his life, and she deserved to hear it. Everything he said about how he felt towards her was the truth.

His smile widened into a delirious grin as the knight leaned down to kiss him on the cheek and whisper into his ear. Her words sent a thrill of excitement through him. He was elated to know that she wanted to marry him too. In the back of his mind, the knowledge felt familiar, but he was too disoriented to remember why. Besides, he didn’t want to dwell on it now. At the moment, he was simply caught up in his gladness to know that the intentions were mutual.

When Penelope pulled back again and murmured something about Olivia, Crow frowned. “Painkiller?” he repeated out loud with a curious edge to his voice. “What’re you talking about?”

At that, Olivia snorted, “I think Hazel’s medicine is giving our resident thief some major memory loss.” She stepped a little closer to the bed, seeming to take interest in him once again. “Hey, Collin,” she smirked, finding amusement in using the name she had just discovered. “Do you know where you are?”

Crow turned towards her with a blank expression. “A tent,” he stated plainly, wondering why she would have asked him such an obvious question. “Do you know where you are?”

Olivia rolled her eyes, “I know we’re in a tent, genius. I want to know if you know where this tent is.”

At that, the thief paused. He felt like he should know the answer to that question, but at the moment, he came up empty. “No…” he said slowly, looking around with a bit more concern as he tried to figure out where he really was.

“Thought so,” Olivia snickered. “How about this one: Do you remember when Layth was here?”

“Layth was here?” Crow’s eyes widened in alarm.

The knight whistled, “So, you don’t remember being attacked or anything?”

Crow just shook his head, shifting uncomfortably on the mattress. Like her first question, he felt like he should remember all the things she was asking him about, but he had no memory of any of it. There was just an empty hole where the knowledge was supposed to be. Feeling distressed, he turned to Penelope with a worried look, “What’s going on? What is she talking about?”

Penelope glanced down at Crow as he asked her about the painkiller. She looked over at Olivia as the other female knight stepped up to speak with Crow again. Though she had stopped questioning him about his past, it seemed she was still going to mess with the delirious thief while she still had the chance. Looking back to Crow, she frowned a little as she noticed him growing concerned by his lack of memory over recent events that seemed to slip his mind due to the painkiller.

She hesitated to answer him, unsure if trying to explain the situation would stress him out more or less. "Layth came by earlier to interrogate you and he hurt your wound. It's ok now though because he didn't find out anything and I got him to leave..You were in a lot of pain so I gave you something to numb it.. " she said, deciding to give explaining a try since she was sure Olivia would keep trying to poke at his lack of memory anyways. The knight gestured to the bandages on his torso before meeting his gaze again.

"How bad was his pain before by the way?" Olivia asked curiously. "I know Hazel was saying to use them sparingly."

"A lot.. I think he nearly passed out from it." Penelope frowned recalling his painful cry. Looking back to Crow, she eyed him with a hint of concern. "You don't feel too bad right now, do you?"

Crow listened attentively as Penelope filled him in on the gaps in his memory. He was upset to learn that Layth had injured him earlier, and he wished he could remember what had happened. It was unsettling to find out from someone else that he had gotten hurt by the knight. However, he supposed it cleared up some of his confusion about what was going on. Now he knew why there was a mild pain coming from his torso as well as why he was feeling so disoriented. His discomfort must have been from the combination of the attack and the painkiller.

As Penelope went on to ask about how he was feeling, he shook his head. “No,” he replied tentatively, attempting to move a bit on the bed as he tested his condition. Something smarted in response to the motion, but it was dull enough that he didn’t concern himself with it. “I feel okay,” he added a bit more decisively.

“That medicine must be strong stuff, huh?” Olivia mused, propping her hands on her hips as she looked down at him. “To take him from ‘almost passing out’ to this… I have to say, I’m a little impressed.”

Crow glanced between the two knights, looking a little more dazed as he began to forget what they were talking about again. In the next moment, he yawned and leaned his head back on the mattress, suddenly feeling tired. The strange visions brought on by the herbs were beginning to wear off, but now he was finding it difficult to stay awake. His eyelids drooped, and his fingers fell slack in Penelope’s hand as he began to succumb to the impulse to let go of consciousness.

“It looks like he might still pass out,” Olivia’s amused voice sounded muffled, as if she was moving further away from him. “But hey, at least it’s not from pain.”

“Just want to rest for a little…” Crow mumbled. Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, the urge to pass out overtook him. His head lolled to the side and his mouth hung open slightly as he breathed softly through parted lips, sleeping much more deeply than usual because of the potent medicine.

Penelope gave a small nod as Crow assured her that he was feeling alright. She felt a little relieved that the medicine was so effective, it was quite a difference from seeing him in the pain he was in prior. The knight let out a small murmur of agreement to Olivia's words as her gaze drifted over towards Crow's wound. She was still concerned about the damage her brother had done though. Suddenly she felt his hand slacken in hers and she looked back over at his face, noticing the thief seemed to grow drowsy.

"Yeah, that's a step up at least." she agreed with Olivia and watched as Crow quickly passed out. The potent medicine seemed to have knocked him out completely as she noticed how his head lolled to the side. No longer having to worry about him picking at his bandages, Penelope let go of his hand and took a small step back from him before turning to the other two as another thought came to her. "One of you should go get Jane now. I'll just tell her he passed out from the pain."

"Are you sure she'll buy that? He looks pretty peaceful." Olivia snickered.

"She might be a little suspicious but I think it'd be better to have her look at him while he's asleep." Penelope said with a shrug. If they waited until he woke up, the medicine would likely still be effecting him and if they waited too long for him to sober up from the drugs, she worried his pain would just return and the physician wouldn't help. Risking Jane being a little suspicious of why he passed out seemed much more sensible to the knight.

"Alright, I'll leave the explaining to you then." Olivia said with a nod before turning and hurrying off to get the physician.

Gavin watched her go and slowly stood up to his feet. "I better get going.. She might find it more suspicious if we're all here." he mused with a sigh. He paused and looked over at Penelope. The male knight surprised her as he suddenly flashed her a half-hearted smirk. "Tell Collin I think he's alright too.. If he even remembers liking me that is."

Penelope smiled a little at his words and nodded her head. As she watched Gavin slip out of the tent, she felt like a small bridge was beginning to be rebuilt between them. Though Gavin clearly still had heartache to deal with, he at least made it clear that he was trying to overcome it. Turning back to Crow, Penelope stood near his side as she waited for Olivia to return with Jane, hoping that the thief would remain asleep.

Knocked out quite thoroughly by the medicine in his system, Crow slept soundly both through the physician’s visit and even after she left. It was the deepest slumber he’d had in years—possibly even in his life. Neither sound nor touch could wake him until the painkiller finished taking its course through his body, and he eventually woke on his own.

The thief’s eyes fluttered open, still feeling heavy with lingering weariness, and he looked dazedly around the tent. While the delirium from the drug had passed, he was still mildly disoriented and had to take a moment to comprehend where he was. However, before he finished trying to remember everything that had happened, his thoughts were interrupted by a deep ache in his torso. He winced as the pain brought back his memories more quickly. He recalled that Layth had pressed down on his wound, and he had been in excruciating pain. Everything after that was all a blur. He didn’t even know when he’s lost consciousness.

Did I pass out from the pain? He wondered, tiredly lifting his head a bit to look down at bandages around his middle. To his surprise, they looked fresher, as if someone had recently changed them out. The realization made him shiver. No matter how or why he had been asleep, it seemed he had been so deeply unconscious that he hadn’t even woke when someone had redressed his injury. He didn’t like that at all. Being in the middle of the camp of his enemies, he needed to be more alert than that. What if Layth had come back and attacked him while he’d been out cold? It was dangerous for him to let himself rest so soundly.

As he grew more aware of his surroundings, Crow noticed there was someone else in the tent with him. He turned his head curiously to find that Penelope was still there. The sight of her brought a faint sense of relief to him. If she had been looking out for him during the whole time he’d been asleep, it was unlikely that anyone had done anything to hurt him while he’d been so vulnerable. He appreciated her willingness to stay nearby, even when he’d been unconscious and unable to converse with her.

In addition to Penelope, he then noticed a second knight in the tent: Olivia. He knitted his brow slightly. That was strange. He couldn’t remember when the other noblewoman had come to join them. Perhaps she had arrived while he’d been asleep? Just how long was I out? he mused with a twinge of concern. Even if she had appeared then, he didn’t see why Olivia would have bothered to come by at all, especially since she couldn’t get any entertainment out of pestering slumbering thief. Had something happened while he was unconscious?

Crow groaned and stretched on the bed, shaking his head as he tried to clear away the remaining fogginess. “Gods, I’m exhausted,” he muttered, wrinkling his nose as he realized how dry his mouth was. When was the last time he’d had any water? Thinking back on it, he couldn’t quite remember. He turned to look across the tent at Penelope. “What happened?” he asked with a frown, deciding to focus on the more pressing questions he had at the moment. “When did I fall asleep?”

Olivia arrived in no time with Jane and Penelope stood back to let the physician work after explaining what had happened with Layth. Jane was actually quite upset with Layth, though more so because it gave her extra work with the thief rather than actual compassion. Either way, Penelope quickly found a way to use that to her advantage and adding a bit of fuel to the physician's flames, she convinced Jane to go speak with the barons about Layth's cruel actions as well as take a break before returning to the tent.

It bought them quite a bit of time since Jane seemed fond of both enjoying supper with some of the other physicians as well as complaining to the barons about the additional work she had received. All in all, Penelope was relieved that the situation seemed to work in her favor. If the barons listened to Jane, she doubted Layth would come back to interrogate Crow again anytime soon. Having bought them a decent amount of time alone, Penelope relaxed and chatted idly with Olivia as her friend decided to stick around. Olivia would be taking over the night shift anyways and Penelope wanted to stick around longer just in case Crow woke up soon.

Luckily her waiting paid off as she heard the thief groan and turned to see that Crow had woken up. She studied him for a moment, trying to see if he had slept off the medicine enough, before moving to walk over to his bedside. "A while after Olivia and Gavin showed up." she answered then hesitated, realizing that he might not even recall those two appearing. "If you remember them even showing up that is... You were really out of it."

"No kidding!" Olivia snickered as she slipped over to the two with a grin plastered on her face. "Are you even fully here right now, Collin?"

Instead of clearing things up, Penelope’s answer to his question only served to further confuse Crow. Olivia and Gavin had showed up before he’d even passed out? Why couldn’t he remember that? Sure, he’d been in quite a bit of pain, but he’d never had memory loss from an injury before—well, except for one time when he’d hit his head falling off a wall when he was younger. Aside from that, it had never happened. He had a hard time believing the pain could have had such an effect on him by itself.

“Out of it?” he repeated questioningly when Penelope finished speaking. He was just about to ask her what she was talking about, when Olivia spoke up and caught his attention.

“Are you even fully here right now, Collin?”

The thief rolled his eyes, “I don’t even know what you’re—” Suddenly, he stiffened as it registered what she had called him. He turned on the knight with wide eyes, “Wait, where did you hear that name?”

“You told me,” Olivia shrugged with mock nonchalance.

“I wouldn’t have told you that,” he shifted his weight, inwardly much less certain than he was trying to sound. It was clear that he was missing quite a bit of information, and he really didn’t like what he was finding out. If he had told Olivia his name, how had she managed to trick him into it, and why? She’d had no reason to even think his current name was an alias. He didn’t understand her reason for digging up his real name.

Feeling unnerved, Crow turned toward Penelope in search of answers. “What exactly happened after Layth left?” he asked, tipping his head towards Olivia. “How much does she know?”

Penelope shot a subtle glare at Olivia before her gaze shifted back over to Crow as he reacted to hearing the other knight say his real name. She cringed slightly and looked off to the side as Crow tried to deny telling Olivia his real name. When he addressed her again, she tilted her head slightly, wondering if his memory had cut off just a little after Layth had left. "Not much more then than that...But.." Penelope paused and shifted slightly as she tried to figure out how to explain what had occurred to him.

"After Layth left, I gave you the painkiller Hazel made. She really wasn't joking around when she said that stuff would make you delirious.." The knight let out a small sigh. "A little after that Gavin and Olivia came in because they saw Layth leave and wanted to make sure everything was ok.."

"Don't leave out about how happy he was to see us." Olivia chimed in looking at Crow with a smirk.

Penelope rolled her eyes at her friend and looked back at Crow. "When they first arrived, you said you liked them." she explained with a small shrug. Out of all that was discussed, that was the least concerning information to her. "Then, someone," she shot an accusing look at Olivia. "decided it would be fun to try and get some secrets out of you. I tried to talk her out of it by saying that you probably wouldn't answer them truthfully."

"And I thought I could prove that you would by making you answer some basic questions that we all already knew." Olivia shrugged then let out an amused snort. "Technically I did."

"She asked your name and... well, you responded a little too truthfully." Penelope scratched the back of her neck and shook her head. "That was the worst of it though. After that she just asked who else knew, which you said was just me, and you passed out a little after all of that."

"Ah, ah, ah you're skipping over the last question." Penelope felt her cheeks heat up at Olivia's words. She had purposely skipped over mentioning knowing about Crow's plans about asking her to marry him, both past and present. The knight shifted her gaze away from him bashfully. Olivia smirked and turned to look back at Crow.

"Part of the game was finding out something Penelope didn't know so when she started to shut me down after we learned your name, I asked you what was one secret she didn't know." The other female knight let out an exaggerated sigh. "But you just told us some sappy stuff about how you were going to ask her to marry you two years ago and how you plan to after the war so it really wasn't as entertaining as the first question." Olivia shrugged. "I think that about sums everything up. Aside from you not remembering what happened with Layth and barely knowing where you were before you passed out."

Crow listened intently as Penelope began to explain what had happened after Layth had left. As she mentioned the painkiller, everything began to make more sense. He vaguely remembered her telling him that it was potent and that it would make him delirious when he took it. Having experienced it now, he supposed he had drastically underestimated just how delirious would make him. It felt strange to have to be told about things he’d said and did that he had no memory of.

As Penelope told him what he’d said to Gavin and Olivia, the thief reddened in embarrassment. While it was true that he did like them, his newfound thoughts and feelings towards the two knights were things he was still coming to term with, himself. He hadn’t wanted them to know that he looked at them differently now. Being guarded about in inner workings of his mind, he preferred to keep such changes of opinion private and slowly integrate alterations to his behavior that would be less likely for others to notice. That way, no attention would be drawn to the fact that he’d changed his mind about something. Was it Immature? Perhaps, but that didn’t change the fact that he didn’t feel comfortable letting anyone else into his thoughts like this.

He continued to listen in horror as Penelope went on to explain about how Olivia had decided to take advantage of his delirium by getting him to tell her his secrets. Knowing that she’d managed to get his real name out of him—something he had kept locked up so deeply—it made him deeply uncomfortable to find out that she’d tried to do such a thing. This was a different kind of vulnerability he hadn’t been expecting. It was clear that when he’d been intoxicated by the medicine, he’d had no control over what he’d said to her, so everything had been on the table. He shuddered to think what else the knight could have learned about him.

So, when Penelope told him that his name was the only thing Olivia had gotten out of him, Crow relaxed a little. He was still upset to learn that he’d said his real name in front of two people he’d had no intention of ever telling it to—he guessed Gavin had probably still been present at the time too—but he supposed the knight’s little ‘game’ could have gone much worse. The two could have learned about the details of his past that he hadn’t shared with anyone besides Penelope, or they could have found out he was the bastard son of the current king. He didn’t want anyone to know either of those things, so losing the privacy of his real name had been a small price to pay to keep those deeper secrets secret.

However, it seemed there was something Penelope had been keeping from him as Olivia piped up that she’d skipped a question. The thief held his breath, worried that there really had been something he’d said that’d had more consequences than his real name. He held Olivia’s gaze as the knight explained that he’d confessed his plans to marry Penelope both two years ago and after the war. While the latter wasn’t as worrying—he and Penelope had already discussed their intentions with each other—he hadn’t wanted her to know about his plan back then. It wasn’t anything personal. He just didn’t want to add to the guilt he knew she already felt for leaving him behind in the past.

Crow brought his free hand to cover his face, which, by now, was scarlet with humiliation, and groaned in a voice that was muffled by his palm, “Oh gods, I can’t believe I said all that.” He glanced towards Penelope with a grimace. “I know Hazel gave you more of that stuff for my pain, but next time, could you just do me a favor and hit me over the head with a mace instead? I honestly think I’d prefer it.”

Penelope looked back over at Crow as he spoke up after hearing everything that he had said during his drugged episode. She looked over at him and gave a small smile at his words. "Honestly, I just hope we don't have to use it again." she said shaking her head. Now that she knew how medicine affected him, she was rather reluctant to ever give it to him again. They had gotten lucky that only Olivia and Gavin had been the ones to overhear. If any other of her comrades had walked in, it would have been quite the disaster.

"I'm guessing that'll depend on if Layth comes back or not." Olivia mused then paused as she turned to Penelope. "You should have added in about him hitting you before she left. That probably would have helped the argument to keep him away with the barons."

Her smile faded at the mention of her brother and she let out a sigh. "Maybe but I told him I wouldn't as long as he left and he did so I don't see any reason to make a bad situation worse." she explained to Olivia before glancing over at Crow. Realizing the thief likely had barely any clue what they were speaking about, she decided she better clear up what had occurred while he was unconscious as well. She gave a small shrug and gestured to his new bandages.

"Once you passed out, I had Olivia go get Jane to treat you. She wasn't happy about the extra work Layth caused so I may have used that to my advantage a bit." Penelope gave a small smirk. "I riled her up enough that she decided to complain to the barons about what he had done.. So I'm hoping that'll be enough for them to keep him away from you for a while."