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

The last week had been relatively uneventful after the excitement of Jeremiah and the conspirators.  Many of the Iron Roses had been ordered to help guard the palace to ensure the princess' safety, but Fleuri had not been one of them.  His last few days had been spent keeping his skill sharp, reaching out to his contacts in the Reonite church to inquire about the possibility of obtaining a blessed or fire-enchanted weapon to better combat supernatural foes, writing to his family to inform them to restock their mausoleum's emergency supplies, voicing his concerns to Fanilly about the order's seeming shortage of magical specialists, and cleaning the blood stains from his formal attire.  He had just been able to settle in Candaeln's library to get some reading done when he was summoned to take part in a mission to Fort Daelantine.

The details of the situation were scant.  From what he had been told, a messenger showed up, dropped dead after arriving, and on his body there was a scrawled message, requesting that the Iron Roses' assistance at Fort Daelantine.  Other than that, they knew nothing about had happened or who they'd be up against.  It was all quite strange, and Fleuri couldn't dismiss the possibility that it was a set-up.  On the other hand, the Iron Roses couldn't afford to let lives potentially be lost on such a suspicion, and whatever the truth of the matter was, it was their duty to bring the malefactors to justice.  Fleuri's only gripe was that he'd have to wait until he got back to read the next part of the [i]Saga of Halfhorn[/i].

[i]I could have brought it along, but last time I tried something like that, it didn't end well, for multiple reasons.[/i]

As the fort came into view in the distance, Fleuri took note of the surrounding lands.  If someone was besieging the fort, the flat plains would serve as ideal terrain for a cavalry charge, and would afford no concealment for ambushers.  The current state of the fort wasn't clear at this distance, however, beyond the fact that it was still standing.  The Iron Roses would have to get closer to see what was going on, and two of the other knights, the rookie Jarde and the naga Maritza both volunteering to scout it out first.

"It won't be easy to approach unnoticed, not with flat plains on all sides of the fort," Fleuri remarked to the captain.  "On the other hand, we know nothing about the situation at the fort, so I concur that it'd be wise for someone to get a closer look at what we're dealing with before we get close enough to make ourselves known."

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