[color=ed1c24][h2]Fleuri Jodeau[/h2][/color]

Fleuri approached Lilianna at the gates.  He glanced around, not wanting to be eavesdropped on, but unsure as to what to look for.  In all likelihood, he was probably being needlessly cautious.

"I apologize for dragging you here like this," Fleuri began, speaking softly as to not draw attention, "but I need to ask you something.  Does this whole situation with the orcs and this dark lady with seem...suspicious to you?  If the Dark Lady wanted the orcs to get into the city, why didn't she charmed a guard to open the gates, or simply blast the gates apart with magic?  Instead, as far as we know, she clouds the earl's mind to ensure he can't lead a defense, then waits as the orcs try to smash their way in for several days, and then ambushes us when the orcs are on the brink of defeat.  An ambush that, if I have my facts straight, was aimed at the Knight-Captain, fired from a vantage point that had been scouted out before the siege began."

Fleuri wasn't a mage or a strategist, and it was always possible that his limited understanding of magic failed to take into account the limitations of what magic could or could not do, or perhaps he did not understand the strategic implications of clouding the Earl's mind, but he knew better than to underestimate a foe, especially a magic user, or overestimate one's success.

"Don't get me wrong, we had no choice but to stop these orcs before they broke through into the city, because they certainly would have eventually done so if we had not intervened, but I fear that up until that ambush, everything was going exactly as our enemy intended it, and," he said, looking concerned, "that raiding the city may not have been this dark lady's goal."