Crimson Paladin

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Fleuri Jodeau

Frankly, this conversation was becoming increasingly disheartening to Fleuri. From what he could gather, they were dealing with a fae so powerful she can generate and shape her own plane, powerful enough to drive a Duke of Thaln mad within his seat of power, and all Thaln's finest problem-solvers can hope to do is use words to convince her to undo the madness she inflicted on the Duke.

When the orcs and foreigners invaded, the Roses met them in battle and defeated them. When the traitors rose up, the Roses met them in battle and defeated them. But this...have the Roses ever before faced a foe within our own borders that could not be defeated, only placated, he wondered.

"I'm a bit concerned at the position of weakness that we'll be negotiating from." he stated. "What happens if her final answer is "no"? What happens if she doubts the kingdom of Thaln's ability to inflict upon her any manner of tangible consequences for her actions, or if she doubts our ability to offer her anything that she could not simply take by force?"

Fleuri knew very little about fae and their powers and limitations. He hoped that he was wrong, that the power of this fae queen wasn't beyond what the kingdom was capable of facing and overcoming.

"Or am I wrong?" he directed his question at Arken, "If words fail, is it within the power of the College to overcome her magic?"

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Fleuri Jodeau

Fleuri listened closely to Arken's explanation of fae realms. It was becoming very clear that the problem afflicting Brennan was not something that would be solvable by force of arms. If the Moonlit Queen was residing within a fae realm, it could prove difficult to get into contact with her unless they entered the realm. Doing so, however, would be extremely perilous, placing them entirely at her mercy.

"If we are to negotiate with this fae, I would suggest we try to get her to come out of her realm and meet us on more neutral ground," Fleuri spoke to Fanilly. "Within her realm, she would be negotiating from a very, very advantageous position, even if we were to do as Fiadh and Renar are suggesting and find someone who could approach her as an equal or rival."

Fortunately, they had someone in their midst who was evidently familiar with both the etiquette of addressing a fae "queen" properly, and with the navigation of a fae realm.

@VitaVitaAR

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon were peak.

@Lith

I'm a fan of Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans myself.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Fleuri Jodeau

Fae tricks were outside of Fleuri's knowledge- this wasn't a matter that he knew how to deal with. Magic, in general, was not something that he was particularly useful for dealing with delicately. He was working on how to deal with magic indelicately, but that wasn't much use here.

He had no objections to Fanilly's suggestion to summoning Fionn's fae friend, so he stood back and watched Gertrude perform the ritual. He doubted that Fiadh would know about this particular incident- after all, just because she was a fae didn't mean that she had anything to do with what happened here- but it stood to reason that she'd have some inside insight as to how fae think and operate, and what their magic is capable of doing.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Fleuri Jodeau

Fleuri listened to Gertrude's words, then the words of the newly arrived court mage. According to Gertrude, there was magic, likely fae or daemonic. Meanwhile, Arken sensed something was missing. Even with Fleuri's very limited knowledge of magic, he could tell that something supernatural, something far beyond that of an ordinary mage, was apparently behind this.

As Fionn and Tyaethe continued to play along with the Duke's ramblings, and Rolan turned to depart to carry out preliminary scouting in hopes of finding any whiff of the fae, Fleuri turned to Arken.

"You appear to have arrived in Brennan before us, Court Mage. Have you been able to glean any other leads prior to our arrival?"

From Arken's questioning, he seemed intrigued at the mention of this Moonlight Queen, which suggested that up until this moment, he may have not heard the Duke mention her.

@VitaVitaAR

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Fleuri Jodeau

There were a few things that Fleuri took note of as he observed this spectacle. First, as Sir Aglan noted, the Duke's state was a parody of madness. For all his eccentric ramblings, he was at least speaking in full sentences, didn't appear to have hurt himself or anyone around him, and judging by his response to Fionn's indulgence of his delusions, could understand and respond to what was spoken to him. It definitely wasn't anything like the murderous insanity that had afflicted the soldiers at the fort.

There was also the very important detail that mages and clergy hadn't been able to find anything wrong with him. Was it possible that for whatever reason, he was entirely lucid, that he might be acting this way for a reason?

"Gertrude," Fleuri spoke up. "You have knowledge of magic that neither the clerics nor mages that attended to him would have access to. Can you discern any manner of magic that might be afflicting him?"

If neither mages, nor clerics, nor a witch could find anything wrong with the Duke, it might be worth considering the possibility that the Duke is putting on an act. If so, surely such a man would not do such a thing without a very good reason.

@Octo

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Fleuri Jodeau

Despite having returned to the real world, Fleuri's daily schedule hadn't change too much compared to how he had spent it in Merilia's world. He continued to seek instruction from Rui and sought to spar with older and more experienced knights, and now that he had his horse back, he was able to practice with a lance as well. It would not please Reon to allow the skills he had picked up in Merilia's realm to stagnate, not to mention it'd be an insult to both Merilia and all the knights that had been passed over. Furthermore, and much more pragmatically, he wished to be as strong as possible for when the knights inevitably came face-to-face with whatever Merilia's friend had originally foreseen would bring them a "painful and unfortunate end".

Sure, passing Merilia's tests and being released implied that they, but you could never be too prepared when it came to averting one's own death.

---

It was a bit odd, Fleuri thought as he rode along, that the knights were being called to Brennan. This mission wasn't on direct behest of the crown, rather it was the initiative of the captain to come here. Evidently the Lord of Brennan had quite suddenly lost his mind, and Fanilly suspected that it could potentially be the work of the shard of Angoron. Considering their proximity to where they had fought the Golden Boars not long ago, Fleuri couldn't see it as being outside the realm of possibility that these events were connected.

By the time they saw the city's walls in the distance, the journey had been nothing but smooth. Fleuri was well-accustomed to spending time on the road in the saddle from his tournament days, and was quite used to traveling along this route. From the sound of what Fanilly had spoken, this mission probably wouldn't involve any fighting, and instead would entail investigation akin to what they did at the fort. Still, he knew better than to assume such a thing.

For all he knew, they could be riding straight towards what Merilia had been preparing them to face.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Fleuri Jodeau

As Fleuri awakened, he looked around in the darkened, room, looking for a sign that he had indeed returned to the real Candaeln. Without illuminating the room, he climbed out of bed and opened the curtains of his room's window, beholding not the sun rising on the ancient city of Talderia, but rather night over the city of Aimlenn.

Fleuri lit a candle and made his way to his desk, looking upon the papers which he had written on after the first dream. The geas would prevent him from telling anyone about the ancient knights, and he wasn't foolish enough to try and test its effects in writing, but it wouldn't affect what he had already written, of a different dream...right?

After looking over his writings of the previous dream, Fleuri pulled a journal from the desk and began to write down some of his thoughts and musings. He couldn't speak or write of the knights, but there were many other things on his mind that carried no such restrictions.

The past few weeks had given him a lot of opportunity to think about his goals and aspirations, and exactly what path he sought to walk. Even after joining the Roses, Fleuri still had some doubts as to whether it was the best way for him to serve Reon, or whether he should have gone into the priesthood and aspired to become a Paladin of Reon instead. However, between being picked by Fanilly to be in her personal retinue for these past few missions, and being picked by Merilia to be subjected to a most wondrous form of training, joining the Roses was very quickly proving to be the right choice.

Merilia's interventions hadn't just provided assurances that the path he had thus far traveled was the right one- it had also helped him to find the path forward. The first dream, the arrival and presence of Rui, and the second dream had all helped to ignite (or perhaps re-ignite) aspirations of mastery of swordplay. He would not worry about such petty, insignificant matters of rank, social standing, or prestige- for one of Fleuri's circumstances of birth, none of those things offered the potential for greatness. But to become a more skilled knight, to aspire to the mastery of swordsmanship that people like Florian and Rui commanded (regardless of whether he could actually get near that level), that was a journey that would have no true limit or end.

All in the service of Reon.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Fleuri Jodeau

Judging by Merilia's response, it would appear that she still had some lingering trust issues from Edwin's betrayal. It was evident that there'd be no convincing her. Thus there would be only three possible choices- submit to the geas, refuse and risk it being forced upon him, or request to remain in this world.

Of those three choices, the one to make was obvious. But was it his to make?

"Very well, I will submit to your geas- the only other choices I'm afforded are clearly far worse. Assuming, of course, that the captain- our captain- approves of this course of action and permits us to do so." Fleuri looked to Fanilly, awaiting her decision, and ready to follow it.

Specifying Fanilly as the knights' captain, as opposed to Merilia's unseen duplicate of Elionne, made Fleuri wonder- did Merilia recognize Fanilly's authority as the current leader of the Iron Roses? If not, would that make her a rogue Iron Roses? He was tempted to ask, but it was not his position to do so- that would be Fanilly's prerogative.

@Raineh Daze@VitaVitaAR

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Fleuri Jodeau

I should have known that this Witch's aid would come with a catch.

The joy of their third victory- and the slight bewilderment of the giant cake as celebration- dissipated when Merilia revealed that she wasn't going to let them leave without agreeing to a geas to keep the existence of this world's legendary knights a secret.

Fleuri would not have hesitated to give his word to promise never to speak of the knights of this realm. Indeed, if accompanied by a knight's oath, a geas ought to not even seem like it was there at all. However, Fleuri was not comfortable with such magics. He wasn't entirely sure how a geas functioned, but have one's soul and will bound to such a compulsion, it was not something to be done lightly, regardless of whether or not one also bore an oath towards the same goal.

It wasn't like they'd be able to stop her, though. If they could not sway her otherwise, the only options would be to accept the geas or remain trapped here. While he could see the definite appeal in remaining here to continue honing his skills, untainted by the temptation of the world's validation, it would surely displease Reon. He had a duty to his goddess and to the subjects of Thaln, and to stay here would be a breach of the oaths he had already made.

Thus it was quite likely that in order to uphold the obligations they had already made, they would be required to accept this geas, unless they could somehow persuade an immensely powerful thousand-year-old Witch to not put them through it.

I agree with Sir Gerard," Fleuri spoke. "You are an Iron Rose too, Dame Merilia- would the word of your fellow Roses not be sufficient assurance that we would keep the secrets of this realm?"

@Raineh Daze@HereComesTheSnow