The three knights  trudged through the forest back towards the Brerratic battalion. Penelope keep the conversation between herself and Olivia short. This Younisian scout had already overheard more than enough, the last thing she wanted to do was leave an opening for either herself or her friend to give him even more information on their battalion. Occasionally, the female knight’s gaze would wander over to the young Younsian boy. He was quiet and clearly fearful. He made no efforts to jump into their conversation and instead kept to himself. Penelope caught him eying the surrounding forest a couple times but the look in his gaze suggested that he was looking for possible help rather than an escape route.

As the three came upon the camp, their captive quickly became tense, nervously eying the guards they passed by. Penelope let out a small breath as she noticed a few of her comrades shooting harsh glares towards the Younisian and muttering hateful words as the group passed by. 

“I… I’m not going to be executed right? I really meant it when I said I wouldn’t cause you guys any trouble.” the young boy whispered to his two captors, glancing between them.

“This is just a precaution. I’ll make certain that you’re able to leave this camp unharmed.” Penelope assured, feeling a sting of sympathy for the younger knight. 

“Hopefully your brother doesn’t get in the way of that.” Olivia mused with a nod towards the large tent at the center of camp. By the time the trio had neared it, talk of their return had spread like wildfire through the camp and now the barons along with their lieutenants— minus Tomas who was likely out of camp on his own patrol—stood right outside the meeting place. Mia eyed her lieutenant with a questioning gaze while the other two barons narrowed their eyes on the Younisian captive. And of course, there was Layth, who kept his venomous gaze focused solely on Penelope. 

Penelope dipped her head to the barons. “Olivia and I encountered this scout on our patrol. I believe that he overheard some sensitive information so I brought him back to camp with us to ensure that that information does not get back to the Younisian barons.”

“You should have just run your sword through him if you were that concerned.” Layth grumbled. 

“We’re trying to end this war peacefully. Not continue the bloodshed.” The female knight met her brother’s gaze with an equally cold glare. Layth had been getting on her nerves more than usual as of late and the constant clashing testing her patience. As the two siblings glared each other down, neither was willing to back down. It was only when Mia spoke up that finally made them turn away from each other once more. 

“Since he is here now, we must make plans on how to accommodate this new prisoner. Penelope, bring him into the tent with us for now. And Olivia, fetch some chain cuffs.” Mia order before turning and gesturing for the others to follow her inside. 

Penelope exchanged a glance with her friend before Olivia stepped away to do as ordered. The female lieutenant let out a small sigh and motioned for the Younisian to go ahead of her. She trailed into the tent after him and pulled up Tomas’ currently vacant seat for their new prisoner while she sat down in her regular one besides him. To her other side, she noticed Gavin glance over at them for a brief moment before looking to the barons once more. 

“Now then, I assume we’re all on the same page that we will be keeping this Younisian as a prisoner for the time being correct?” Mia asked, namely glancing towards Edward. 

Edward had his lips pressed into a thin line but with one quick glance at Penelope, he nodded his head. “We are.” he replied with a small huff. 

Bennet offered no opposition, merely nodding his head as well. With everyone in agreement—aside from Layth, who had his jaw clenched in visible frustration—Mia moved on with the meeting. “Good. Since we are hoping for a peaceful end to this war, I want it seen to that… I’m sorry but what is your name?” she paused looking over at the Younisian, who seemed to shrink slightly under her gaze. 

“It’s…Rory ma’am.” he answered.

“A pleasure to meet you Rory. My name’s Mia.” The baroness nodded approvingly. Turning back to the others, she continued. “Right then, I want it seen to that Rory is given a proper stay here even though he is a prisoner. A proper tent and meals. Of course, he’ll have to be chained and have a guard posted outside his quarters at all times.”

Layth balled his hands into fists. “Must we provide so much? He’s a prisoner and we need to be mindful of our supplies.” he argued. 

“He’s human and deserves to be treated as such until he can be released back to his battalion.” Penelope scoffed in return. She met her brother’s gaze with a glare. “Surely we have enough supplies to accommodate one prisoner for a short time.”

Layth parted his lips, clearly intending on arguing with his sister. However, before he could say anything, Edward chimed in gruffly. “Of course we do. There’s no need for this argument to carry on any further.” he grunted, shooting a warning glare towards his nephew. Penelope looked over at her uncle just in time to see him give a subtle nod in the direction of Rory. It seemed that, despite her uncle’s usual cruelness, he was in agreement with Mia for the sake of making sure that the Younisian wouldn’t think they were low on supplies.  It wasn’t hard to guess that the last thing Edward wanted was for his battalion to come off as weak to enemy knight. 

Penelope relaxed slightly, glad she wouldn’t have to further defend giving the young knight respectable care. Despite her calming down, tension was still radiating from her brother. One glance towards Layth was enough for the female lieutenant to see he was fuming from being shut down by his own baron once again, an occurrence that was happening more and more often. While Edward’s newfound agreeableness made things easier for her during meetings, it was clearly having a rather negative effect on her brother, who now found himself overwhelmingly outnumbered. 

Before the conversation could continue and drawing Penelope from her thoughts, the flap of the tent shifted and Olivia stepped inside with a pair of cuffs. The other female knight dipped her head respectfully before stepping over to Rory, who frowned at the sight but with one quick glance around the room, offered no protest to the chain cuffs and held out his wrists willingly. 

“Ah Olivia, excellent timing. Things were just wrapping up here.” Mia said with a small smile. The baroness swept her gaze over the others before continuing, “Now then, since our decision with dealing with this prisoner have been settled, Gavin I’d like you to go ahead and see to it that a tent is prepared for our new guest. Penelope you can aid Olivia with escorting Rory here and scheduling guards.” 

Edward nodded approvingly before he turned to his lieutenant. “Layth, while it’s still light out, you should take out a patrol to survey the area. Make sure there aren’t any other Younisians hanging around.”

“Understood.” Layth muttered, clearly unable to keep a hint of bitterness out of his voice. 

“Excellent, then I believe we can end things here. You are all dismissed.” Mia announced.

Penelope moved to stand up and waited for Olivia to finish putting the cuffs on before trailing after her friend and the prisoner. Layth fell in behind her on his way out and the knight could feel his cold gaze before he even opened his mouth. 

“So sister, going to go charm another enemy?” He taunted bitterly. “Disgrace the family name a little more?”

An all too familiar anger bubbled inside Penelope as she turned to face her brother as they stepped out of the tent. “Screw you Layth.” she growled in return. “You’re just bitter uncle’s actually siding with me right now.”

Layth clenched his fists at his sides. “You’ve got everyone fooled that’s for sure. You and that bastard thief of yours. It’s only a matter of time until this all backfires on you and hurts the rest of us.” he snapped in return. He paused and then sneered at her. “He may be playing the part of a nobleman right now but his fate has and always will be to hang from the gallows like any other dirty criminal.”

A flash of fury burned through the knight. She had been putting up with Layth’s constant antagonizing and finally her patience had run thin with his cold words. Her hand gripped the hilt of her sword but she managed to stop herself from drawing it on her half brother. Instead, Penelope took a threatening step towards him, pushing herself into his space as she met his gaze with a fiery look. Caught off guard, Layth’s bitter look gave way to one of brief surprise. While the two argued and spat hateful words at each other, neither had, at least of recent, gotten physical in their aggression.

“Bastard, I’m sick of you and this constant attacking. I’ve been hoping that you would eventually calm down a bit but since you refuse to, I’m challenging you to a duel to end these petty fights once and for all.” Penelope snapped. 

“And exactly what comes from winning?” Layth grunted, narrowing his eyes at his sister. 

“Loser admits they were wrong and this argument about my courtship ceases.” Penelope responded, narrowing her eyes in return. 

Layth smirked victoriously, looking as though he believed himself to have already won. “I accept your challenge on the condition that when I win, I get to have you admit that I was right about your courtship in front of your oh-so dear thief when he returns.” 

“Fine… but only if when I win, you congratulate us on our courtship when he returns then.” Penelope rebutted.

Her brother’s face wrinkled in disgust at the idea but Layth didn’t deny her request. Likely because he was so confident in winning. “Works for me.” he agreed, stretching his hand out to her. A smug look crossed his face. “How does tomorrow morning sound?”

“Sounds like a good time for me too kick your ass.” Penelope snorted, finding herself annoyed by how overly confident he was. Though it had been a while since the two had last even spared, the female knight was confident in her skills as a swordsman. At the very least, she’d make sure he wouldn’t secure any easy win, if he won at all. 
“Oh! And I can be the referee!” An excited Olivia pipped in.

Having been so focused on challenging her brother, Penelope had momentarily forgotten about Olivia and Rory, nor had she noticed that their tiff had gathered a small crowd of onlookers who were curious about the two clashing siblings. Realizing she had made a scene, the knight felt her face heat up in slight embarassment and she stepped away from her brother to join Olivia.

“No way you’re refereeing. Like I’d trust my sister’s friend to oversee such a thing.” Layth growled. 

“I’ll do it then.” Mia, whom had been one of the onlookers, offered. She eyed Layth. “I know Penelope is my lieutenant but I can promise I’ll be fair in my judgments.”

Layth hesitated. Penelope glanced between her brother and baroness. It wasn’t difficult for her to assume that he wasn’t fond of Mia overseeing the event but since she was a powerful baroness, it would be hard to deny her offer. It seemed her power outweighed his hesitation as Layth gave a reluctant nod. “I have no objections to that… I assume you don’t either?” he grumbled looking over at the female lieutenant, who shook her head. 

“Excellent. I’ll see you both on the training grounds tomorrow morning then.” Mia said with a polite smile. She excused herself and walked on leaving the others behind. 

“We should get going too. Gavin went ahead of us already to get the tent ready for Rory here.” Olivia pointed out.

“Right. Let’s go then.” Penelope agreed. She shared one last cold look with her brother before turning to accompany Olivia and the Younisian knight, still tense from the moment of anger that had led her to challenging her brother to a duel.