Ser Florie

Ser Florie was the oldest, surely to follow her father to the seat of a small but pleasant manor outside of Brun. But she would not inherit the Havgan Holdings - no, those passed into the King's possession and then into some other house when her father died in the night of the Long Knives, and she moved south with her mother and brothers to Salisbury, a nowhere but a different sort of nowhere that was, at least, warmer.

She was just young enough to accept that Vassalry was snatched from her, and instead poured herself into excellence. By the time she was 21, she excelled in everything - the swiftest, the surest, balancing between proud and polite with the poise of a crane patiently waiting to spear a fish in the river. When she was old enough, she went errant, went to her home, and found it not that unlike Salisbury.

In her mind, Brun would have been wild, like her, challenging, like her father, and welcoming, like her mother. But she found it not unlike Salisbury, and the people had little interest in her nostalgia. Thus, she quested further north, looking for whatever something was calling her.

There are a hundred forgotten places in the North of Logres, on the borders of Cumbria and beyond, north to where a wall the size of the sky dares anyone bold enough to climb it. There were people on the road just as unusual. Ser Florie made friends with all of them easily - she was always the first to volunteer when someone she'd never met needed aid on a quest.

Tanaerel
Florie met Tanaerel on the battlefield when the Saxons tried to take Caerwent from the north. He was pretty in the way that made her want to punch him, so that he'd always look at his feet in shame when he passed and thus stop being such a distraction, unfortunately, he dodged and became a challenge. They kept count of their kills on the battlefields and only lied occasionally. Fate threw them at each other like a storm battering a ship on the rocks.

She might go errant only to find him in the same road, and so wretchedly pleasant to talk to that she couldn't help but let her horse relax as they clopped gently down the road. Once, they wound up at an inn with a single bed, and both stubbornly refused to be less chivalrous and take it. The Innkeep woke them up from where they had both collapsed sitting on the floor, the bed untouched, and tutted. "Knights," she thought.

Florie was so grateful Tanaerel went in for the kiss first - she could tease him about it. It was a lovely buffer until he began to woo her with ludicrous grandiosity, because fools are immune to japes. Of course he caught her genuinely smiling. Of course she let her guard down. Of course she asked Earl Rodrick's permission to marry him, and of course he said yes. She moved into House Winterbourne Stoke the next Spring.

Rolla
Florie had spent a tense several nights defending the Lady Agraine's homestead from a spurned lover who had sworn to break in when she slept, but Florie made her presence known by lighting great fires, and stuffing her armor with straw to make herself seem quite impressive. Apart from a light bit of harrying and frightful noises beyond the range of the firelight, he never made good on his promise. After three days, Florie tracked him down to a tavern, where he was looking for confidence in the bottom of a tankard. She shamed him, loudly and definitively, in front of all his fellows, until he agreed he would bother Lady Agraine no more.

A few months later, when Lady Agraine's daughter Rolla turned fifteen, and was sent (with no small compensation) to squire under Florie. Rolla proved to be a sensible, polite girl, who was initially at odds with Florie's cheerful, brash attitude. Once she learned how Florie's japes were a way to show affection, she began to respond in kind by pranks and tricks. Florie was, of course, delighted. The prank war that ravaged Idmiston, began to spill over to Winterborne-Stoke, and Lady Tanree, realizing that either managed to enter a prank alliance with The Twins risked an escalation that would consume the world, suggested strongly to Ser Florie that perhaps her energy might be better focused elsewhere.

Florie agreed, and began to hone her mischievous instincts towards outsmarting opponents, using her politeness and as a weapon, and her quietness as a honey trap. Now, three years on, she has become quietly confident. She gets along well with Ser Cadlew, and every three months they have fun stalking each other through the woods, trying to trap the other. So far, the score is 4 to Rolla, 3 to Ser Cadlew. She favors the sword and the bow, despite gentle reminders that the latter is not a chivalrous weapon.