The men here had killed one another...

Fanilly's hands tightened. Her heartbeat quickened. This place had already felt so wrong, even before she saw the bodies. As if some sort of shadow was cast here.

And now that feeling had only deepened. These were loyal men of Thaln. Soldiers who swore their lives to the safety of the land and its people. Why had they done such things? Why would they have killed one another in such a manner? It was an abominable sight. She felt something rising inside of her, almost up her throat, and she clutched at her neck, breathing heavily.

The fort felt sick. It was the only way Fanilly could have described it.

"Grim sight, isn't it?" commented Alette. Her playful, cheery tone had vanished, for the moment. Whether it be a facsimile of sympathy or the genuine article, it was difficult to tell, "I haven't the faintest idea what happened here, but it isn't pretty."

She sighed.

Fanilly cleared her throat, taking another deep breath.

"You... call them out. As my knights said," her voice was somewhat stilted, "The others. We know they're here."

The Shark shrugged.

"Fine, I was gonna do it anyway. Abigail! Bors! Maethen! Clarice! Gather everyone and get on out here."

They weren't names that Sir Fionn would recognize, at the very least.

The first of those to appear had to be Abigail.

"Ah, I was merely lamenting the brutality, dear Alette..."

The figure who emerged from the doorway deeper into the fort was tall, and deathly pale, with hair that almost seemed bleached of color rather then white. Her eyes were yellow, and there was an air of beauty about her that, even now, Fanilly could not deny. Her unblemished, bleached white skin looked almost like it had been carved from porcelain, and her features were delicate and refined.

And yet it did not feel like natural beauty.

"So many deaths, without a hint of elegance," said the woman with a heavy sigh.

She wasn't disturbed by the violence, but rather the 'lack of elegance'? What kind of person...?

It was hard to remain focused on the woman when the one who was likely Bors appeared.

At first, Fanilly took him for an iron golem.

He was enormous, emerging from within the fort by barely squeezing through a doorway. Not a single glimpse of flesh could be seen, as he was concealed head to toe in dark grey plate armor. All Fanilly could glimpse a flash of green eyes within.

"I am here, Lady Alette."

His voice was like a rumble of thunder.

Maethen had to refer to the next figure. He was tall, though not nearly as tall as Bors, and possessed brown skin and orange eyes, with slender, refined features. The gray hair and pointed ears...

An elf of the near east? Desert Elves were an exceedingly rare sight in these lands.

He said nothing, but simply peered at the assembled knights.

And the final figure... was...

Fanilly stared blankly.

The others were clad in armor. The others were prepared for battle. They appeared as one would expect a mercenary to.

What was this ridiculous girl, shorter then Alette, wearing an elegant, frilled dress? A parasol in one hand, a book clutched to her side? Her purple hair in curls like that? No-one would mistake her for a child with that figure, but...

"Can we leave already? It's probably not here, and simply being present in this fort is a loathsome feeling. We can leave cleanup to them, can't we?"

The makeup. Everything. She looked utterly unsuited to a fight.

If the situation were different, Fanilly could have seen herself letting out a cry of exasperation.

But it only made the grim absurdity of the situation within the fort all the more detached from ordinary reality.

There were others who came with the four the Shark had called upon. Quite a few men and women, armed and armored in a manner one would expect of a high-quality mercenary band. Many of them with grim expressions.

In all of that, there was something Fanilly could latch onto.

It.

What was it? What probably wasn't there?

"... What is it? What were you sent here for?"

Fanilly echoed the sentiment of the others.

The way Alette winced when the girl named Clarice spoke implied she wasn't pleased to have it mentioned, but now being questioned from so many angles she had no choice but to speak.

"... We were sent her to meet with someone associated with our employer, if you must know," Alette said with a sigh, "To retrieve something. But when we, arrived, well... you can see what happened."

Alette gestured towards the soldiers' corpses.

"But your knight does bring up an excellent point, doesn't he? We're both here now, and it's not pleasant work to search through a mountain of bodies on your own," the Shark added with a smirk, "Why don't we search this awful place together? We're both looking for something out of the ordinary, I'm guessing. You for a cause to this senseless violence, and us for clue on how to earn the rest of our pay."

Fanilly could guess that Alette didn't believe the item, whatever it was, remained here. She was clearly unwilling to say what it was, probably because she wanted to try and avoid giving any hints towards the identity of her employer. So she was looking for clues as to where it may have gone?

But what was it?

What would have been at this fort?

What caused all of these deaths?

"... I... see no reason to reject the offer..."

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