[color=A0A0A0][h2]Fleuri Jodeau[/h2][/color]

Jerel was right- in Fleuri's haste to get here, he had drawn a lot of attention to himself.  Many of the nobles has taken notice, some directly brushed by the knight, others simply noticing his uncharacteristic rush through the ballroom  The social ramifications of it still seemed unimportant, but it'd likely make it harder notice something amiss.

[i]This is my fault!  How are we supposed to find danger if everyone's watching us too?  [/i]In the middle of his worried train of thought, something dawned on Fleuri.

"Wait a minute...their reactions might tell us something.  They may be a little suspicious of something, but they're reacting as expected for one who doesn't expect any peril.  At least not the sort of peril that is to be expected at a gathering like this."

Don't get me wrong, Jerel," Fleuri elaborated, "These soirees are rife with the aristocracy's schemes and games, but this is different.  What we're looking for is something outside the bounds of the games of intrigue and plotting that the nobility come here to play.  They expect that the quarrels and spells unleashed here will be of words, not steel and magic.  Whatever the danger it is, it'll be something out of the ordinary- or rather, what is considered ordinary here."

The challenge for Fleuri was that while he might have some idea of [i]what[/i] to look for, he didn't know [i]where[/i] to look for it in a ballroom of this size.  By contrast, a man like Jerel, a lower-class man who was practically born with a bow in his hand, would probalby have a good idea as to where an assassin might position themselves, but might not be sufficiently familiar with the manners and etiquette of the aristocracy to realize if one of the attendees was acting off.

"Jerel, you're a skilled bow-hunter, correct?" he whispered to his fellow knight.  "Where would you guess an assailant might place themselves to threaten the Princess?  I've attended enough of these events that I could probably spot something out of the ordinary here, and if you can narrow down where the danger could come from, we might be able to pinpoint this danger to the Princess.  As he spoke this, he felt pangs of doubt?  What if he was wrong, what if he's putting the knights on alert over a child's prank?  Fleuri glanced back at the cake and recalled it vanishing without a trace in the space of a few seconds.  

[i]If it turns out this is a prank, it's a very elaborate one beyond the ability of most of the nobility.[/i]

[@jdh97]