Looking for Lead

The battlefield was still littered with corpses, the air thick with the stench of blood and gunpowder. The Elysean soldiers moved through the carnage, searching bodies for anything that could identify their attackers. General Armand Roux stood in the center, his uniform stained with dirt and dried blood, his saber still caked with gore.

Captain Étienne Giraud approached, a strip of cloth pressed against the wound on his arm. "We found something, General."

Roux turned. "What is it?"

Giraud held out a piece of parchment, covered in strange markings. "It was tucked inside the tunic of one of the fallen warriors. It doesn't match any of the known tribes we've dealt with before."

Roux took the parchment and examined it. The symbols were unfamiliar, but they were carefully drawn, not random scrawlings. "This isn't just some unorganized warband," Roux muttered. "This was coordinated."