Requiem stood at the gates of the city as she reviewed her mission

"As you know, Oak is the westernmost city in the kingdom. There's bandit tribes and various monsters out beyond our borders that would love nothing more than to come along and kill everyone and everything in their path. Lord Servas has put up a communications network of beacons and lacrima. Tonight, the final pieces of the backup beacon system is supposed to be completed and someone needs to make a quick look-see to ensure that these beacons...here, here and here are fully set up. They're placed near the lynch pin of the southern defenses and while not critical, it would still be pretty bad to have a break in communications there. Dismissed!"

Requiem walked up the hill to where the first beacon on her route was. The morning sunrise gave a warm cheery glow as she adjusted her jacket. She couldn't quite remember what had happened after she went into the bedroom last night, but Baron seemed to have been a perfect gentleman. For some reason, she blushed and then tucked some hair behind her ear, Focus Requiem, she thought to herself as she climbed the path leading up the hill to her first objective. Jaeger chittered and jumped off her shoulder, gliding around and collecting anything that was even remotely shiny, mostly bottlecaps, and then stored them in that magic hammerspace he seemed to have somewhere on his body. To say Requiem was mildly concerned about the mystery behind Jaeger's bottomless pockets was like saying the sky was blue. She would have to talk to a beastmaster about this. But later, Right now Requiem had a quest to do.

Her first stop was the large stack of firewood ready to go off at a moment's notice. The guard there was putting the final touches to the stack, "Hello there" she said quietly announcing herself so as to not scare the poor man. He turned, "'Ello lass, ya here ta see if I be doin' me job?"
"If it isn't too much trouble, Lord Servas seemed rather insistent that the city be ready."
"Well, ya can tell his lorship that Ol' Jethro be finished with his task. Now I be off for a pint o' somethin' fierce. Good day lass."
"Good day to you too, and thank you for your work." Requiem bowed as the man placed the last logs on and waved when he left. The girl then turned east and saw where the next beacon was. She entered the woods and walked under the bare canopy, passing occasional green in the form of evergreen trees.

Requiem finally reached the second beacon. The guard lay asleep nearby the completed project. The rune page found herself facing a dilemma. The man clearly had been up all night working hard, but to fall asleep in the middle of the woods during winter could be pretty dangerous. She quietly walked over and stood crounched there for a minute before gently shaking him, "Excuse me sir, you shouldn't be sleeping here."
"Huh? wha....?" The man groaned awake as he sat up and looked at her, "Well, glory be! and angel!"
"Um...sir?" She stepped back as adjusted himself, "I don't think it's safe to-" A loud snore cut her off and she frowned. The guard clearly needed rest but....well, at least there wasn't any danger nearby that she could feel. The young woman rubbed her temples and finally just walked away.

To the north, she could see the third beacon. She was about halfway there when a sudden realization hit her, Wait, aren't I BEHIND the city? She looked west and saw Oak. how in Illumin's blue sky the placement of the beacons was supposed to make sense was beyond the rune knight page. She rubbed her temples again and walked towards the final beacon, hopefully something wasn't going to make her question her sanity anymore.

The third beacon sat completed as she finally reached it. Jaeger stopped chattering and scampered into Requiem's jacket, shivering. She stopped and stood in the shadows, hoping to not be noticed by whatever it was that had set off the Momo and made her hair stand on edge.

She slowly stepped around the edge of the clearing, searching until she saw the body. There was no visible sign of damage nor did there appear to be any signs of violence. It was as if he had simply fallen where he stood. Her assassin's mentality taking over, Requiem made her way to the corpse and examined it in detail. As she noticed earlier, there were no signs of a struggle. No scuffs on the armor other than the ones caused by the man's fall. She flipped the body over, his face looked like he had simply fallen asleep. She held her hand near his mouth and nose to see if that was the case. A lack of breathing confirmed that the man was, in fact, dead. Requiem briefly considered looking around, but decided against it since something about this really didn't seem right.

She quickly walked away, ears perked for any sign of trouble. One long walk later found her back at Oak. She stepped to the guard on duty and showed her badge, "I need a pen and paper please."
"Here you go." She sat down and started writing.

To Lord Servas from Rune Knight Requiem:

As per the rquest, I have investigated the preparedness of the beacons in the area south and east of the city. The first two beacons were completed when I arrived, the third was nearly completed but the guard assigned to its construction was found dead. a rapid investigation showed no signs of struggle. His facial expression appeared as though he simply feel asleep. The most likely cause of death appears to be death magic. The situation did not appear favorable for further investigation so I returned.

Requiem handed the report to the guard and thanked him before going back to the barracks. Jaeger chittered and perched on her shoulder, holding a piece of paper, "What's this?" She took it and her frowned. It was a picture that she could have sworn she'd seen before. Requiem rubbed her temples and decided a trip to the baths was in order.