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

Fleuri's attack struck true, cleaving the vampire's head from his shoulders.  The body fell where it stood, while the head was picked up by Tyaethe.  It seemed he wouldn't be able to regenerate this time- he was no longer able to control the blood in his body, and his head didn't have enough to reconnect at this distance.  It made sense, he supposed, that Tyaethe would know exactly the limits of a vampire's ability to pull himself together.

"... I see, so I should have taken you all more seriously.  My my, I guess all that taunting didn't pay off, did it? You handsome gentlemen sure now how to reject someone..."

It seemed even without a body, Damon was still capable of talking.  It'd be an impossible feat for a normal human, but Damon ceased to be constrained by the limitations of mortals.  No doubt he wanted to give some final words before the death he had long evaded finally caught up to him.

Damon continued his final ramblings, expressing his disappointment at not getting a shot at fighting the Iron Roses' vampire and his regret at joining the conspiracy that resulted in his demise.  They were fairly understandable final words, all things considered.  Before finally fading, however, he gave a cryptic warning.

"You should best prepare, for not everything that is gone is dead."  With that, he went silent.  Their opponent had been felled.

[i]It's finally over.  Your long-overdue death has finally come, Damon Cal.  It's a shame you chose to inflict even more shame and disgrace upon the Cal family.[/i]

"If that's all, we'd best get down to support the captain with whomever else is down there," Fleuri said, walking over to Damon's body.  "But first, I think this might come in handy," he said as he eyed Damon's crossbow.  He carefully picked the up the weapon with one hand, and patted down Damon's body looking for more quarrels with the other hand.

"I'm not much of a shooter, but I wonder if that Nem girl...Tili, I think, could use this?"  he asked the others.  "The conspirators owe her a new crossbow anyway."  Technically, it should probably be handed over to the Cal family, but it seemed unlikely that they'd push for ownership of the weapon of another black mark on their family.  If Tili couldn't use it, they could always just toss it into Damon's empty coffin.

There was a lot of other stuff Fleuri wanted to talk about.  He wanted to discuss the fight with Jarde and Nicomede, he wanted to ask Tyaethe if she knew who Damon was, he wanted to discuss Damon Cal's dying words, and he wanted to complain about the bloodstains that had gotten on the sleeves of his white tunic during the fight.  Now was not the time, however.  The other knights had probably run into the others that Damon had mentioned, and would need support.

Carrying the crossbow and a few quarrels taken from Damon, Fleuri headed down the stairs.  The battle was not over yet, not until all of the conspirators were dead and Tili's sister was safe.

[@PaulHaynek][@Raineh Daze][@Krayzikk]