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

Fleuri lowered his sword as he entered the fort and saw what was within.  The inside the fort was a grisly sight to behold.  The soldiers within the walls were dead, killed in a variety of violent, gruesome ways.  This wasn't the first time Fleuri had seen the aftermath of a battle before- back when he was a squire, he and his mentor beheld the aftermath of several small battles and skirmishes of the War of the Red Flag  They walked upon the ground where just days or even hours before, soldiers fought and killed one another, with bodies left to the scavengers.

While his past experiences had steeled Fleuri for this terrible sight, it didn't do anything for the bewilderment he felt when he looked at the scene.  Unlike those battlefields, this fort didn't appear to have any corpses of an opposing force- the bodies all appeared to be Thaln soldiers.  Furthermore, the position of the bodies was such that the soldiers had never managed to mount a defense against an attacking force.  Lastly, there was no getting around the seriousness of this- an entire fort slaughtered within a day without having managed to put up any resistance against whoever or whatever did this, beyond a dying, maddened messenger.  If Fanilly's band of Roses were to run into it, could they hope to fare any better?

When the door to the interior of the fort suddenly opened, Fleuri immediately readied his weapon, startled but ready for a fight.  The newcomer to the scene (even if technically, she had no doubt been present at the fort longer than the knights) was a young woman of short stature, carrying a red spear.  For a moment he thought that they'd have found another band of bandits, but the girl's words suggested she was just as confused at the fort's state as the Roses were.  Still, Fleuri kept his guard up, ready to back up the captain as she demanded the spearwoman's surrender.

Fortunately, things did not escalate.  The shark-toothed woman had no interest in fighting the Iron Roses, and perhaps more interestingly, some of the other knights recognized her.  Sir Gerard called her by name- Alette the Shark- and identified her as part of a mercenary band that normally operated further north.  Sir Fionn took it even further- he addressed her as an old associate or friend whom he knew personally.

It was definitely advantageous that they had with them a few knights with mercenary backgrounds.

[color=A0A0A0][i]If she's okay by their standards, she's okay with me,[/i][/color] Fleuri thought as he complied with Fanilly's orders to search the bodies.  A cursory examination yielded a rather disturbing find- the soldiers appeared to have killed each other.  Many of them had wounds made by the weapons held by the corpses beside them.  Other corpses gripped the weapons that fatally injured them, as if they had killed themselves.  No wonder there were no outsider bodies here- the soldiers were the only combatants when this happened.

While examining the bodies generated as many questions as it had answered, some of the knights brought up was one other matter that still hadn't been explained- what was Alette's band doing here?  Fleuri turned back towards the mercenary, curious as to what the answer would be.  Alette probably wouldn't just give away her employer, but perhaps she could at least give some context as to why she was here.