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[color=peru][center][h2]Stratya Durmand[/h2][/center]
Time:[/color] 24th, Morning
[color=peru]Location:[/color] The Barracks and Castle Grounds
[color=peru]Interactions:[/color]
[color=peru]Mentions:[/color][/center]

  Well, the previous night had been an interesting peek into higher society. There had been a surprising number of participants for a drinking game. If she thought about it, the nobles probably put a lot of effort into keeping such tendencies behind closed doors. According to the report on Stratya's desk, the doors at the masquerade were not, perhaps, as closed as they were supposed to be. Ah, but she knew [i]that[/i] already. If she weren't knighted, there was no way she'd have gotten in. Though she had a way of endearing herself with the guards and lower class with her friendly personality, she knew better than to think she could get in to such an event with such charm alone.

  However he got in, she doubted the thief from that night had such a rapport with the guards. Perhaps someone had gotten them in. The young lady he was with? Stratya hadn’t gotten much of a look at her at all. Ah well. She'd had a bit of fun, in the end, and slipped off to a tavern after all the nobles retired. There, she had a single beer more, a nice meal, and then a pint of water before she left the tavern and went to the barracks and to bed.

  Mm. She may have taught the tavern a new drinking game over her beer and following pint of water, if she thought about it.

  All that drinking meant she was a bit late to rise. The drinking, which.. she.. remembered. Good. Her head had felt better, but she had more water and a good breakfast to help her noggin. 
  She found a sealed envelope placed on her desk, along with other notices. She’d learned reading and writing quite quickly, since coming from her village, though she did keep a dictionary in her desk, as well. Words like “confidential” didn’t tend to occur much in a small place like her home village. She’d needed the reference book less and less, as things go, and these days she scarcely had to use it at all. A few folks back in her village could read a little bit, but knighthood had driven her to greater proficiency. It meant she could read letters like all these confidential intelligence reports she’d received this morning. There were quite a lot of them, and one was in regards to the party she attended last night. While she already knew about that, much of the rest of the information she recieved was new to her. An immediate concern was the stable boy, Darryn. Depending on the nature of his disappearance, it might be related to some of these other alerts.
  She’d wasted enough of the day sleeping, it was time to get about her business.

  Stratya took to the streets in a mixture of medium and light armor, with just a few pieces of heraldry to go with it. They had guests who would not recognize the knights of the kingdom the way a local would, so it was best to be recognizable.
  Speaking of being recognized, she wasn’t a full building length from the barracks before she started hearing about the stench coming from the stables. From the descriptions and the prevalence of complaints, it wasn’t your normal stench. She had a hard time thinking it was merely someone slacking on their cleaning duties. As she made the short trip to the royal stables, she began to pick up on the odor. She started to pick up wafts of it from far away, and got the feeling in her gut that told her it was the stench in question. It was [I]bad[/I], some kind of rotting meat, she had to guess.
  She followed her nose and the complaints past the moat and the inner defensive walls, giving a short nod to the guards she passed on the way. The stables, toward the rear of the castle. “[color=peru]Ooh, it's rancid.[/color]” The knight grimaced as she approached the Royal stables, the odor stronger than ever. “[color=peru]Urg, it's ‘ere, alrigh’..[/color]”
  Her nose told her it was the stable itself, but she was having a hard time following the scent due to how awful it was, though she noticed the odor was not much worse inside the stables, maybe even better (though it was hard to tell). It was probably outside, then. She produced a handkerchief from within her armor and held it over her nose, resigning to using her wits and eyes from here. It didn't take her long, the first thing she did was wander around behind the building and, 
  “[color=peru]Aww, Gods be good..[/color]” she found the stable boy. Rather, she found something very important of his. She could barely recognize him, the way his jaw had been mangled. Shattered and beaten.. the sword she could only assume was used to sever the poor stable boy’s head from his shoulders was there, but she had to wonder if that was what had killed him. He might have been beaten to death. It was hard to recognize him, with the savaging apparent on his face and jaw. She sighed heavily (groaned, really), drew a deep breath, and “[color=peru]guard![/color]” She needed to keep anyone from coming back here and messing with this scene. And probably let someone else know about this. They'll need a new stable boy..
  While she awaited the response, she would begin examining the scene. Had blood been spilled on the ground here? If it were her, she'd try to wash it away. Did it look like much water had been poured here? She needed to determine if Darryn had been killed here or not. Had it been last night, during the two large events? It would have been an excellent time, with most noteworthy persons out of the castle. What bothered her most, though, was.. why?