Okay! I'm sure we'll figure something out no matter what you choose ^^
I had a pretty similar idea about that, honestly. The only thing that might be different is that I imagined John would figure them out during the trip back to the inner kingdom (probably catching them kissing or something). I could see Penelope playing off coming along with them as wanting to spend time with her father
We can see how it goes though. I'm open to whatever feels most natural for the story
Oh, also, I had another idea for something interesting after this battle.
Remember the band of thieves Crow originally joined? I was thinking they could show up again about a week or two after the battle and raid the knights' camp. They're much more ruthless than Crow's group, so they would end up killing most or all of the night guards in order to get away. Of course, none of the knights know about them, so it would make sense for Penelope to assume Crow did it, which would cause some tension between them until they could talk and he could explain that it wasn't him.
I just think it would be interesting to bring them back into the story as minor characters, because both the knights and Crow's thieves would have to deal with them.
What do you think?
--
EDIT: Thinking about it again, I might want to see what happens with Crow's illness after this battle first. If he takes a dive for the worse (depends on what happens in Grimsby), I think it makes more sense to focus on Hazel and Jane first, and then add the band of thieves in once that part of the story is dealt with, so we don't do too much at once. Still I think it would be super interesting to throw in later cx
