The next morning Penelope woke up to the sound of the door opening. She squinted her eyes slightly but still felt sleepy. Deciding the nose wasn't anything to be concerned about, she closed her eyes again and began to drift off to sleep. It was still early and the knight wanted to get just a bit more sleep in while she could. Unfortunately, it seemed that whoever had entered the room had other plans as they stopped at her side.

"Penelope get up, now." John commanded in a serious tone. "There's something going on that you should probably look into."

The knight frowned and turned away from her father, clutching her blanket tightly around herself. "Can't it wait.. I won't sleep that much longer." she mumbled tiredly, without opening her eyes. 

She heard him pause before grumbling impatiently, "Not unless you're fine with Lockton ending up in a cell."

This time his words caught her full attention and she flipped over on her back so she could sit up. Rubbing her eyes, she looked over at her father and knitted her brows in both concern and confusion. "What are you talking about?" she questioned. Penelope didn't understand what he meant by saying Crow could end up in a cell. it wasn't like he had done anything wrong. However, a moment later, she paled as she recalled how he had skipped his lesson the day before. Had the king heard about it and reacted harshly? Suddenly her drowsiness vanished as her heart began to race anxiously. "Oh gods what did the king do? Is it because he missed the lesson yesterday? Oh gods.." 

John raised an eyebrow at her and paused before shaking his head. "I don't know what you're going on about...What's this about a missed lesson? What happened yesterday?" he narrowed his gaze. 

Penelope blinked and shifted uncomfortably. "W-Well the storm was bad yesterday and you know how I get during that kinda weather...s-so he stuck around with me on my guard shift." she explained. She felt her cheeks heat up embarrassedly as irritation entered her father's gaze and she quickly held up her hands. "N-Nothing happened though. Like I said we've been keeping a distance so he just comforted me until the storm died down."

"I see." John grumbled. He let out a long sigh and shook his head. "Well, I don't know anything about that but there's something else to worry about. A couple nobles freaked out this morning when they found a few of their things missing. Namely some of their gold and jewelry... They're rather certain it's Lockton."

"What?" Penelope frowned. "He wouldn't do that now. Not when he hasn't even been here for a full week."

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure." she sighed.

"Then you better come with me. They're already demanding that Tybalt have his room searched for their items." John said shaking his head. Penelope hurried to slip her boots on and moved to join her father as he headed for the door. Once she had joined him, John turned and began to lead her off in the direction of the Great Hall, where she guessed the nobles must have been badgering Tybalt.

I just don't know who else would take their things. No one saw anyone sneaking around the castle... I suppose we should investigate the staff." John muttered as he glanced around.

As he went on to mention how he was unsure of who would steal within the castle, the knight gave a small shrug. "I don't know but I'm certain it wasn't him no matter what they're saying...." she paused and eyed her father as she recalled Adam and Alden. "Speaking of which, exactly which nobles came forward about this? I have a feeling this might just be a setup..." she muttered warily to her father. 

Before he could answer, the two snapped their gazes forward as angry voices sounded from ahead. "You need to do something about this! He's stolen from three of us!" Adam growled as he stared down the captain of the guard. A chorus of support came from the few other nobles around him that were starting to look nearly like an angry mob in the knight's opinion. However, in their way, stood the lone Tybalt, who admittedly impressed the knight as he remained unflinchingly in their path, blocking them from the stairs. 

"I've sent a guard to speak with the king about this situation. However, there is no evidence connecting Collin to these cases. I will not act on the suspicions of paranoid people." Tybalt explained in his usual gruff manner. "I'd advise you all to calm down and let the guards figure this out properly."

Penelope exchanged a glance with her father as upset arguments erupted from the group of nobles. It seemed they were all rather certain Crow was responsible for the missing items. However, from what she had overheard, only three of them had actually been stolen from so that meant the others there had just jumped on the first chance to accuse the former thief. She eyed Adam with a hint of coldness in her gaze. Whatever was going on, she was rather certain he and his son had something to do with it.