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

"I've been there twice," Fleuri replied to Gerard's question.  He had visited it once as a squire, and again after finding his faith again.  "It's the oldest shrine to Mayon in Thaln.  I can think of a few possible reasons whoever was behind this might have an interest in it, and none of them are good."

Perhaps it was simply the pre-determined site of a rendezvous, an easy landmark to meet with other malefactors and conspirators. Another possibility was that they wanted to vandalize and desecrate the shrine out of spite for the goddess.  As the patron goddess of the Iron Roses and the most commonly worshiped goddess of Thaln, anyone with ill will towards those organizations might also have ire towards her.  A more alarming possibility, however, was that they wanted to use the shard's power on Mayon's faithful.  Fleuri wasn't sure if the shrine could be subverted in such a manner, but it wouldn't be a good idea to wait and find out.

Normally Fleuri might also consider the possibility that it could've been a written reminder for the soldier to make a pilgrimage, but the circumstances around the man's death were too suspicious to write off any possible lead.  If Abigail's analysis was correct, the man knew the killer and likely thief enough to let his guard down when he was killed, implying that he was lucid when it happened.  Perhaps he was simply somebody who had been deceived by the infiltrator, but if so, why bother killing him at all, why not leave him to be driven mad?

"I think this man might have been an accomplice, the circumstances of his murder seem too strange to simply be a soldier at the wrong place at the wrong time," Fleuri stated.  "If that's the case, then this note might be the lead we need."

"I'm going to inform the captain of what we found," he told the younger knight, "She needs to know about this as soon as possible.  Thanks for your help, Abigail."  Fleuri rushed back to the courtyard as quickly as he could, where the other knights, Alette, and her massive subordinate, still were.

"Captain, we've found something," Fleuri reported to Fanilly, before making a brief pause to compose himself.  "Gerard, myself, Abigail found the scene of a double murder in the fort.  Someone appears to have slit the captain's throat in his bed, stolen something from his desk, and stabbed a soldier to death outside.  Unlike the other deaths, however, it looks like both the killer and the soldier were lucid when this happened, and Abigail thinks that the soldier was letting his guard down when he was stabbed, which sounds to me like he wasn't killed trying to stop or apprehend the culprit.  When we searched his corpse, we found a note simply saying [i]The Silver Stone[/i]."

Fleuri wanted to ask Fanilly if she had discovered anything out there, but he could wait to ask about it later.

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