[center][h2][color=#b3ccff]Esben Matthiassen[/color][/h2][/center]
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As the Kirins started to leave the planning table, Esben quickly walked ahead fell in beside Izayoi almost immediately, talking under his breath: [color=#b3ccff]"Are you sure about sending Rudi with us? I was going to have him on the dragons."[/color] She barely glanced his way, though compared to half their discussions there wasn't any clear and easy-to-read expression that let him know what she was thinking.

[color=#736aff][b]"Galahad and I alone would have been enough. And that comprises a significant bulk of our frontal combat strength. Should anything go wrong, I would be relieved to know the boy can hold the line."[/b][/color]

[color=#b3ccff]"You're more confident against dragons than I would be—and assuming I [i]can[/i] keep them in line, we shouldn't need any heroics from him."[/color]

[color=#736aff][b]"I have fought them before. And Caradoc is a dragoon."[/b][/color]

[color=#b3ccff]"Used to working with other dragoons, yes, but I don't fancy an argument about this. If you think the three of you have it handled, then I'll trust you to handle it. Make sure you still have all your limbs when we reconvene."[/color] There was no time for anything else, as their paths diverged at the next turn in the halls while she hunted down Miina and he continued off to the hangars; he would just have to hope their diminutive healer didn't really have to show off how good she was getting on [i]dragon[/i] wounds.

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Other than his little interjection while Rudolf continued theorizing out loud on the flight, Esben spent most of the ride in silent contemplation of the problem put before them. Overseer Baramoux and some of the Seven still trapped within Solitude, with no word making it past the city walls, no sight from afar that could confirm any of their activities or if they yet lived. Alex, cavorting about and making a nuisance and worse of herself to the Kirins, who he expected had more than a small hand in Baramoux's lockdown and insurgent hunt turning on its head.

Yet all the same, despite nobody sent into the city making it back out, as far as what intelligence they had suggested, whatever long-range observations could see...much of life in Solitude seemed to continue as normal. Typical guard patrols, typical people with typical routines going about the day's business. No sign that Valheim had made it into the city proper.

No sign but their forward bases, which until he could get eyes on them himself, he had to assume were meant more to defend the city or stage an attack going north than they were to attack Solitude itself. And given that Valon had already begun to try and train up Valheimer replacements for Edren's dragoons, even if Alex wasn't in the city, he wouldn't be surprised everything looking normal and no agents making it back out was due to some effort to disseminate her own skills of disguise to the invaders. An excellent lure, drawing those in that still sought to serve Solitude rather than the monster stretching out to swallow them.

And no time to consider much of that before they'd have to start prodding at the beast itself.

[color=b3ccff]"Walk and talk,"[/color] he spoke up after Rudolf, already making his way towards the forest's edge. [color=#b3ccff]"Once we know how old our intelligence is we'll know how much scouting we need to do before we can start to hit them—and have your fastest soldiers run ahead and pick a good spot for a bivouac for us. No open flames, but I want everybody to have one last chance to check their things, divide ordnance, and get a hot drink and a snack before we spend the next few hours whipping these dogs."[/color]