There was a few nods from Sabine in response to Meesei's recount. Sabine still felt that Meesei did not need to know about the true reason that her relationship with Inderal went downhill, but she had worked through that issue on her own, with Peiter's help.

Meesei's question made Sabine's eyes shoot up to hers, confused at first. "Oh, well, we..." Sabine went red for a moment and looked away, "When you interrupted, it was...not the first time we mated today," Sabine explained slowly. She saw no sense in not being open and honest with Meesei at this point. "We actually have been doing it a lot today. It was the first time ever between us down in the river this morning."

---

Tzirret's face actually lit up at Bheja's words, but he waited for a chance to speak. Ma'tanza floated by with a question that prompted his the words he had anyway.

"Tzirret fights with a spear as well, actually, but he...um..." Tzirret paused and kept his eyes up for now. They float, he stated in his mind, obviously. "...he used to carve bone and whittle wood. He has not done so for a long time until recently, but he wants to do it more. This one likes making jewellery, mostly, but he can also make tools. Sewing needles, signal horns, hair combs, clothes pegs, little things like that."

Stepping back a bit, Tzirret lowered himself into the water up to his neck. It was a relief as always, and now he felt a bit less stilted than he did compared to everyone else as they waded and swam. He decided to continue with the commonality he had with the majority of the group, "Anyway, how have you all been finding training? Are your instructors good?"

Meesei's eyes widened in surprise, though it was not near the level of shock she had shown when she first stepped into their room. "So you've been mating...all day...then. I, um..." She paused briefly, clearing her throat. "...did not expect that. You must really be...enjoying it, I suppose. Forgive me, it is just...not what I am used to from my 'little girl', you understand. I do not want you to feel like you should not talk about this with me, even if it is not the most comfortable topic for me. If you ever have any, um, mating related questions for me, I will answer, even if it does make me as nervous as a frightened child." She said as she put on a more lighthearted smile.

---

Bheja let out a huff through his nose and smiled. "Really? I wish I knew how to do that. I ended up breaking quite a few tools at first; would have been nice to be able to replace them before anyone noticed. I hated being chided for that. Better than back home, though. Father was always quick to thrash me with a stick."

Ma'tanza was just about to speak up when M'ibasa suddenly leaped out from under the water and onto her stomach, pulling her under the water briefly. When she emerged, he tried to tackle her again from behind, wrapping his arms around her neck. However, she suddenly started to glow with a green aura, which spread through touch to her brother on her back and froze him like a statue. It was a paralysis spell. Granted, her abilities only allowed it to last for a few seconds, but it was enough that she was able to stand up in the water and walk around with him hanging off her back like a cape.

Ma'tanza started to laugh. "Serelian has been teaching Ma'tanza all sorts of useful spells. A lot of them for fighting, but she likes the other, more fun ones."

Sabine emitted an uneasy laugh and ran a hand through her hair nervously. "We have been taking breaks," Sabine assured, "And we did stop to eat lunch. We've just been experimenting. It hurt a bit the first few times, but not any more." Sabine curled her lips and thought to herself, but she did not come up with any immediate questions for Meesei regarding the act itself. She actually felt simply like rejoining Peiter.

However, there was one thing that Sabine thought a little strange and kept her around. "If I think of anything, I will ask you, but...Meesei, you have spoken to me about uncomfortable things before, but you were never frightened. Or, you did not sound like it. Why are you nervous about mating?"

---

When Bheja mentioned his father's punishments, Tzirret winced and sucked in a breath in sympathy. His wince turned into a look of surprise when M'ibasa ambushed Ma'tanza from under the water. Tzirret paddled back, out of the way of the splashing. He actually managed to chuckle at the rough housing, as it was obvious they were having fun, but the magic Ma'tanza weaved actually made him curious.

Tzirret stood up as well and stepped up, leaning to one side to see the frozen form of M'ibasa. "You made him freeze? That is amazing..." Tzirret commented, before curling his mouth into a smile as the spell wore off. "Is this a common thing you do to your brother, Ma'tanza?"

At this point, Tzirret was actually starting to relax. He had a paranoia that if he opened up too much, he would say something stupid and be ostracised, but thankfully he had not had too many opportunities to do so. It also helped that he was not getting picked on, but these people were not aware of the full extent of his anxiety, it seemed.

Meesei looked to one side and started rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. "Well, 'frightened' is probably an exaggeration. It has just always been a rather personal, and intimate concept for me. My father never spoke to me about it, so I had to figure out the details on my own. Since I never talked about it with anyone else, it just feels...strange to talk about it now, I suppose."

There were some unpleasant memories surrounding the topic for Meesei, but she decided it was best not to bring them up for the moment. Instead, she took in another breath and collected herself before continuing. "Anyway, I suppose you are probably wanting to...get back to Peiter. I did interrupt you, after all. I did have some questions about some potions you may be able to make, but they can wait until later. Enjoy yourself, but...do so carefully, alright? Always remember your potions."

---

Ma'tanza laughed as the spell wore off and her brother slid off her back. "Oh, only when he is being a mischievous little kitten. So...yes, pretty much every few hours." She joked.

After pulling himself back up out of the water, M'ibasa coughed and spit out a mouthful of water. "Ah, come on, that's cheating! It's no fun to wrestle when I'm a statue."

[i]"True...it's much more fun watching you dodge fireballs!" Ma'tanza responded as she suddenly launched a small ball of flame about the size of her fist at him, which hit him straight in the chest. Of course, the flame she had used had been very weak and dispersed in the air, to the point that he scarcely even felt the heat of it by the time it hit him and dissipated.

"Ah, hey! That's no fair either. This one wants to wrestle!" M'ibasa shouted. Curiously he turned his head towards Tzirret and seemed to look him over. "Say...M'ibasa challenges you!" He said without actually giving Tzirret a chance to respond before he attempted to tackle him.

"I will. I do not think we will keep going for too much longer," Sabine said with a laugh, "I will see you at dinner? We can talk then, if you like." Before she motioned to leave, Sabine hugged Meesei once more for a few moments. "And, thank you again."

With that, Sabine wiped away her remaining tears, let Meesei go, and walked back into her and Peiter's room, gently shutting the door behind her. When she turned to Peiter again, she smiled widely and walked up to him without a word. Facing him, she placed her knees on the bed either side of where he sat so she could sit on his lap. She then wrapped her arms around him and kissed him once more, interrupting any questions he might have. She would answer him once the kiss ended.

---

"Er-Wha-oof!" Tzirret stammered and widened his eyes as M'ibasa charged. Tzirret was so surprised that he was actually barreled over by M'ibasa into the water behind him. Those on the surface saw both pairs of feet pointing up into the air through the splash before they sunk.

In the struggle that followed, M'ibasa proved himself to have a strong grip, but not only was Tzirret better trained, he was physically stronger as a werewolf than whatever M'ibasa was - Tzirret did not think to identify him. There was a series of splashes, grunts, and the flailing of limbs, churning bubbles in the river water and marking their brief bout. After several seconds, Tzirret stood up straight out of the water with one hand under M'ibasa's armpit and another under his knee. M'ibasa was lifted out of the water a short distance before Tzirret grit his teeth, let out a shout, and threw him, upside down, back under the surface in the same movement.

Tzirret let go as he threw, holding his open hands up, ready for M'ibasa to recover. His dripping torso rose and fell quickly as he caught his breath. Tzirret wore an exhilarated look, he did not normally win against Peiter in these situations. In that, he quickly realised his overzealous approach and suddenly took on a sincerely fearful and apologetic look, his hands turning down. "Uh, Tzirret apologises!" he said quickly, "He would normally wrestle with his pack-brother, who is stronger than he is. Is M'ibasa okay?"

Out of respect for Sabine's privacy, Peiter had remained on the bed and not attempted to listen in on the conversation. He appeared nervous as Sabine was approaching, and spoke with an equal measure of fear. "So...how did everything go? What did...she..." He began, only to find her sitting down on his lap and interrupting his words with a passionate kiss. Not one to argue, he returned the kiss, as well as allowing his hands to wander quite...intimately.

"I...guess it went well." He commented once she pulled away from the kiss.

---

For a few brief moments, the water was still and silent as the group looked to where M'ibasa had been thrown under its surface. The water was not quite clear, so they could only see his silhouette underneath. However, just as Bheja opened his mouth, M'ibasa righted himself and emerged from the water. Just as before, he coughed up a mouthful of water, then panted as he tried to catch his breath.

"Bah, by the twin moons, why can't M'ibasa ever win anything?" He grumbled, prompting his sister to walk up beside him, giggling as she put a hand on his shoulder.

"Wow, you really are stronger than you look, aren't you?" She observed. "This one thinks her brother did not quite expect what he was getting into."

M'ibasa sighed. "Yes well...he's a werewolf. This one can smell it. But it would go much better if you'd help, sister! Come on, we can take him together!"

Ma'tanza looked to her brother sympathetically, then turned back towards Tzirret and shrugged her shoulders. "Ah, why not? Though, don't expect too much, brother. He is good enough to be traveling with the Champion herself, remember. You think you can beat us both?"

"It was fine," Sabine said, grinning, "We just had a quick talk. Meesei is a great mother." Receptive to Peiter's touch, Sabine gave a quick kiss to Peiter's lips and slowly repositioned to wrap her legs around his waist, pressing close again. "I will tell you what she said later. For now, just...keep doing that..."

Soon enough they were resuming where they had left off, but it was the last time that Sabine felt she could do any physical activity that day. She was exhausted.

---

Tzirret was relieved to see that he had not injured M'ibasa, but he still felt bad for not going easy on him. At the challenge from both siblings, Tzirret glanced down and up again, before looking more nervous and raising his hands. "Oh, this one is n-not so sure," he stammered, more nervous about physical contact with the lovely Ma'tanza than the challenge itself. The last thing he needed to do in front of these people was humiliate himself. "He, uh, he might injure someone! Yes, he does not want to...um, hurt Ma'tanza."

It never occurred to Tzirret until afterwards that his excuses might have been construed as overconfidence, but even he knew that he was probably about to get tackled again regardless. He braced himself on the soft, silty river bed for just that eventuality.

Ma'tanza huffed. "Oh, come now. This one had wrestled werewolves before. And they seemed much more eager than you. They probably weren't nearly as skilled as you are, but it's just for fun. That said, don't you dare go easy on us." She grinned.

Both Ma'tanza and M'ibasa took positions beside one another, while the other two simply continued observing from the sidelines, chuckling amongst themselves.

"Alright brother..." Ma'tanza began, slowly moving to Tzirret's right, while M'ibasa moved to the left. "Go for his legs!" She shouted, prompting both of them to start rushing towards him through the water. Just as she had ordered, M'ibasa dove down and tried to get his arms around Tzirret's ankles, while Ma'tanza tried tackling him head-on. Tzirret was easily strong enough to stand up against Ma'tanza, but her brother could potentially make him lose his balance if he could not react.

Widening his eyes and looking more fearful, Tzirret held out a hand each to Ma'tanza and M'ibasa, trying to stand them down. "I-is this needed? Tzir-, ah!"

Tzirret was attacked in the sibling's pincer manoeuvre. He attempted to step back to avoid them, but could not dodge through the waist-high water. He had to try and brace to keep his balance, and the biggest impact on his centre of balance came from Ma'tanza. He was not taken by surprise as before, so he was not upended this time, but he still had to put in some effort to resist Ma'tanza's tackle. He stood with his upper body arced towards her, pushing against her. His hands were on her shoulders, but his legs doing most of the work. He tried shifting to throw her off or get more leverage, but that is when M'ibasa's actions came into effect. Tzirret could not employ any effective footwork with the younger brother pinning his legs. The match seemed a stalemate for a short moment, but the first time Ma'tanza shifted her body weight to counter Tzirret's force, he was toppled into the water easily.

As soon as Tzirret lost his balance, Ma'tanza threw herself onto him in an attempt to keep him pinned down. At first, they both ended up under the water's surface, but she pushed him, and therefore herself, closer to the shore so they could keep their heads above water. The siblings had the advantage currently, though it was obvious that neither were particularly trained. Ma'tanza was trying to pin him with her body weight, and had her arms around his torso, on the outside of his own arms in an attempt to keep him from using them. However, she was not using leverage and was simply trying to control his arms through force. Being a werewolf, that would not work for long. Although, if her brother had time to do the same, they could both together have the strength to keep him down, and he was already scrambling towards them.

"Pin him brother! Keep him down!" Ma'tanza shouted.

Tzirret did not have time to register the sensation of Ma'tanza's body pressed up against his in that moment; he was too busy trying to fight. While on his back and with his arms locked to his torso, there wasn't much that he could do except fidget and try to throw his weight around at first. Trying that initially did not do much - he knew he had to escape. Thankfully, by sheer brute strength, he was able to lift his right arm back and free of Ma'tanza's grasp. With that, he propped one side of his body at an angle where he could kick his foot off the riverbed to flip them both around.

Ma'tanza was sent rolling onto her back with Tzirret on top of her. The tides were turned. His free arm came around to pin Ma'tanza's elbow while he attempted to wrench his other arm free to do the same with her other elbow. Currently, that side of her body was essentially pinned by Tzirret's torso. It was only in that pause, face to face and in full contact with Ma'tanza, that Tzirret hesitated. His mouth was agape as he spent a fraction of a second with confused thoughts about the position he was in. He perhaps would not have had the thoughts at all had he not been attracted to her. In fact he would have preferred to completely ignore them. However, in a fight such as this, those thoughts only needed a fraction of a second to influence the outcome.

M'ibasa essentially had a window to do whatever he pleased.

With Tzirret's delay, M'ibasa had the time to jump onto and throw his weight onto Tzirret's free arm. He wrapped his arms around Tzirret's, and did all he could to hold it down, freeing up Ma'tanza's arm in the process. She hooked her arm around his head and pulled it down to her torso in an attempt to put him into a headlock, even if it was from the wrong angle. She then used what leverage she could gain to attempt to roll him off of her to put herself back into an advantageous position. Alone, it would not have been possible for her, but with M'ibasa pushing as well, they were able to turn him back over to his back.

Ma'tanza kept her arm around Tzirret's head, and threw her weight onto his right arm. M'ibasa did the same with the left, leaving only his legs free. "Ma'tanza thinks...we have him!" She shouted, waiting to see if he surrendered.

With M'ibasa's manipulation of Tzirret's arm, Tzirret immediately realised his mistake, but he was in no position to to effectively resist. Tzirret tried to get up onto his knees to escape, but in that time, Ma'tanza had grabbed a hold of his neck and pressed his head into her collar rather painfully, but his head was sliding downwards...No! Tzirret had to try and resist. Unfortunately, trying to plant his knees to stop them turning him over only had his knees slide uselessly in the silt. Before he knew it, Tzirret was on his back with the siblings firmly pinning each arm and shoulder. Not even he could lift all of either of their body weights with just his forearms. Tzirret brought his knees up and tried to pull out to the river, but he would not budge.

"Okay! Okay! You have Tzirret," Tzirret said, his voice muffled through Ma'tanza's arm. His chest rose and fell, but he no longer struggled. "Ma'tanza and M'ibasa are a good team," he commented with a hint of solemn regret. "Um...May Tzirret stand up now? Ma'tanza's arm is hurting his neck."

With Tzirret's surrender, Ma'tanza released her grip on his head and rolled off of him, though she had to shove M'ibasa in order to get him to let go. The other two watching the fight laughed and applauded as it ended, and Ma'tanza quickly brought herself up to her feet. Extending her hand down to Tzirret, she helped him up as well, then gave him a pat on his back and a smile.

"Ma'tanza is sorry for hurting your neck. It just takes a lot to hold you down, mister werewolf." She laughed. Briefly, she looked down at her brother, who appeared to be quite excited from his victory, then smiled back at Tzirret. "Thank you." She continued, though this time in Cyrodilic. "This one's brother needed that victory. She likes to give him some encouragement every now and then. He just started his training, but he isn't very good yet, and doesn't win his fights very often. Ma'tanza likes to keep his spirits high."

As Ma'tanza spoke, her brother simply looked up at the two with a strange expression. Evidently, he was not familiar enough with Cyrodilic to understand the language.

When Ma'tanza finally released Tzirret, he sat up and rubbed the strained part of his neck. With the laughter and smiles, Tzirret was good natured enough to show a small smile himself and take Ma'tanza's hand to stand up.

Ma'tanza's explanation in Cyrodilic was actually enough to make Tzirret give a sympathetic look to M'ibasa. Even though M'ibasa seemed more boisterous than he, it reminded Tzirret of his own experiences in struggling with training.

"This one understands," Tzirret responded in Cyrodilic. He turned to Ma'tanza with a genuine smile. "Tzirret was-" is still "-the same for a while. Ma'tanza is a very kind sister."

There was a pause where Tzirret considered saying more to Ma'tanza, but he did not want to leave M'ibasa out of the conversation for much longer. Tzirret switched back to Ta'agra and looked back at M'ibasa, "We were speaking of M'ibasa. He is a brave and persistent Khajiit. Such things are a boon in any sort of training, but especially fighting. Never give up, M'ibasa."

Without the context of their conversation M'ibasa seemed a bit confused at the sudden words of encouragement. He cocked his head to the side and shrugged his shoulders, looking at him strangely. "Um, okay. Thanks." He said quickly before returning straight back to the water.

Despite M'ibasa's confused response, Ma'tanza smiled, expressing more genuine gratitude. "Thank you for helping." She said, leaning in and giving him a quick hug in thanks. Stepping back into the water, she laid down and floated on her back once more, followed shortly by the rest of her friends.

"Maybe...it is time to relax now. That means no tackling anyone anymore, M'ibasa. Especially the clan's guests." She warned, prompting a groan from the young Khajiit.

Ma'tanza's hug took Tzirret off guard momentarily, but he found his wits just in time to return it. Afterwards, he squat forward in the water and swam with broad strokes to follow her back to the others. He congratulated himself for actually handling the situation correctly for once.

The confidence boost Tzirret experienced truly helped him to relax and socialise for the remainder of the afternoon. The group shared jokes, opinions, and stories until eventually they were all called away to various duties. Overall they were very kind people. It was a surprise to Tzirret that the first group he came across would be so nice, all things considered. When he left, he actually was smiling again, sitting straight and confident all the way through dinner and to his bed.

Unfortunately, Tzirret's mind did wander as he tried to sleep, as it usually did. His thoughts went once again to La'khay and the impossibility of romantic involvement with her. He had thought that he had worked it out that morning, but he couldn't help but quietly cry some more. However, now that he had a concrete answer from La'khay, each tear helped with his closure of the issue. He felt as though the burden was all but lifted.

Sabine and Peiter did emerge for dinner as well, looking like they had both been working hard all day. It was not far from the truth. However, while they both agreed that the day was worth it, they also concluded that it was not something they would make a habit of. Once the lust and adrenaline had worn off, they both found themselves sore in sensitive areas and aching in muscles they did not normally exercise. They were dehydrated and utterly enervated. Sabine could hardly stay awake in her meeting with Meesei, but she agreed to look into scalable ways of preserving food the following day. Peiter and Sabine fell asleep in each other's arms not a few moments after their goodnight kiss. Sabine dreamed of him, of course.

Gallus had eventually found Colours after asking around for the better part of an hour. The search really did display the extent of how many people Colours had offended in the clan, with many spitting his name and asking why Gallus would ever have need of such a person.

Colours, after all that time, was found trying to initiate an intimate moment with some young Ohmes-raht woman in her tent, in spite of the tent being not particularly sound proof. Gallus, being short of patience by that point, had no qualms about 'accidentally' kicking out one of the tent pegs and toppling the canvas over the top of the couple to disrupt their foreplay. Shortly afterwards, Gallus and Colours found a spot to talk and Colours shared that he may indeed have had the contacts to enact their ruse. Gallus eventually persuaded him to attend the meeting tomorrow morning and they parted ways once more.

The next day came around for Tzirret with displeasure at first. He awoke in the early hours of the morning with one of his recurring nightmares. When he managed to get to sleep again, the rest of the morning until dawn was graced with a dream most pleasurable. He was flat on his back, both La'khay and Ma'tanza were about to descend upon his with their smiles, right before his consciousness regretfully took over. The reasons for his awakening were not only the light of dawn, but also the embarrassing coolness under his sheet.

After quickly cleaning himself up, Tzirret came out to find everyone for breakfast. He checked where he had retrieved breakfast yesterday and found members from his and Meesei's pack, as well as Ra'kalesh's pride.

"Good morning!" Tzirret said in Ta'agra without even thinking about it. His smile and straight back and ears openly displayed a sunny mood.

Tzirret sat down next to Sabine and Peiter, who were also smiling, but moving sluggishly. "How are Sabine and Peiter this morning? This one did not see you much yesterday afternoon."

"Good morning. Mmm...I am good, but..." Sabine stretched her arms out almost as if she was exaggerating, but she wasn't, "...I am stiff. Too much exercise yesterday."

Tzirret nodded as if nothing was wrong, "Ah, if you were out training, then no wonder Khajiit did not see you."

Sabine smiled wryly and did not correct Tzirret.

While the youths conversed, Gallus finished the last of his early breakfast before approaching Meesei. "'Morning, champion," He began in an upbeat tone, "I spoke to Colours, he may know someone in Senchal that can help us. Did you want to find him and discuss it before the meeting or during?"

As they would need to head up to the meeting soon, Meesei was quick to get through her breakfast, just as Gallus had been. She was just finishing her venison when Gallus approached. Looking up towards the ropes she stood up from where she was sitting. "As long as I know he has a contact, I can wait until the meeting. Which, actually, should be starting not too long from now. Evidently, the catalog of the clan's supplies was finished late last night. I may as well head up to the meeting hall right now; just check on Colors and make sure he is not going to be late." She recommended before heading off to the outpost.

It was about half an hour before the meeting began, with Colors being the last to arrive precisely at the scheduled time. Apart from Do'ajee, everyone who had attended the previous meeting was still present, though this time, the Ri'nakhad and his lieutenants had already prepared a series of maps and other documents at the table. Everyone took their seats much as before and allowed Ri'nakhad to start them off. A few of the lieutenants gave curious glances to Colors, wondering why he was present, but they assumed it was at the Champion's request.

"Champion, Gallus, Sees-No-Colors, good morning. We were able to complete the full catalog of our resources yesterday." Ri'nakhad explained as he grabbed a stack of the papers and slid them over to Meesei. "You may review them if you like, but a summary is that we may have enough resources, but only just. We will need to sell all of the non-essential supplies we have, and perhaps some of the essentials. There is no question that we will need to have our carpenters make those finished goods for sale. Even then, we will need to sell some weapons or armor to give us a reasonable amount of food."

Meesei spread out a few of the documents in front of her, though she answered as soon as Ri'nakhad was finished. "If that is the case, then it encourages me that an alternative plan we were able to create yesterday may work. The idea was actually Gallus', if you would like to explain." She said, gesturing to Gallus.

---

La'khay arrived for her breakfast a few minutes later than most of the others, as she had trouble finding some of her clothes just outside the camp. After getting herself a bowl of soup, she saw both of the two youths she had aided the previous day sitting near one another. She was curious enough to want to check up on them both, so she decided to take her seat near to Sabine. Jo'rashaad was also reasonably close on her other side, though he was preoccupied talking to his daughter.

A minute or so after she began her meal, La'khay leaned over to Sabine and whispered to her. "This one sees your hair seems back to normal. That's faster than La'khay would've thought. How did everything go with your mate after this one left? Did he love is as much as she said he would?"

"Right," Gallus stood up, more enthused than he was about proposing the overland crossing, "Meesei and myself spoke more after the meeting yesterday, trying to come up with ideas for securing supplies or wealth for the journey. In the desperation of this matter, we delved into the possibility of less savoury pursuits. It was suggested to possibly steal a cargo ship from Torval for the food supplies within. In a miscommunication, I thought Meesei was trying to suggest transporting the clan via ships, but it sparked some inspiration."

Gallus leaned over the map and traced a route from the southern coast up the river Niben. "Orcrest stands surrouded by desert, but a sea route may be possible most of the way. See here," Gallus glanced up, then traced his route into the inlet that Meesei had spotted yesterday. "This finger of water here is the Larsius river. It flows from the higher parts of northern Anequina and may accommodate large ships to the northern border of Elsweyr, perhaps a little further. The distance from this point-" Gallus drew a sharp line from the top of the river to Orcrest, "-and Orcrest has some rough terrain, but is a shorter route through the deserts, and closer to existing settlements. Not to mention, travelling over water will be far faster than over land with so many people." Gallus pushed away from the table and began to pace around the room by habit. He held his hands flat together as he gathered the words to continue.

"Now, in an ideal world, we would be able to procure a number of secure, new, crewed ships from Torval without anyone noticing and sail on our merry way." Gallus said with his eyes up at the ceiling. His pacing slowed as he looked to the others again, "This of course is impossible, short of divine intervention, but there are attributes of this clan that put it in a unique position. The majority are Khajiit. Some are Argonians, but most are Khajiit. It was many decades ago that slavery was abolished throughout Tamriel, and not even the Aldmeri have reinstated it, but..." Gallus put a hand in the air coyly, "It still goes on in some parts of Nirn. No one in any port nearby would take on the entire clan on a whim, much less keep it a secret, but there are smugglers in Senchal, at this moment, who would only see mountains of gold in smuggling this much working flesh. We may not even need a large upfront payment with such a deal!" Gallus raised his voice, obviously enjoying the sound of it as he came to the latter parts of the master plan, "Unbeknownst to them, however, we will not go on to Morrowind! Because, before they even enter the Topal sea, they will be set upon by their own cargo. They will think they had loaded slaves to trade in their lives, but these criminals we fool will realise too late that they had filled their ships full of lycans. We could take over at any moment at sea, steer up the Niben, and into the Larsius."

Gallus then lowered his voice, "Of course, travel by sea brings its own problems. We would need crew, food and water, a large scale hunt preceding cast off for the best chance of keeping order. There would be perils as dangerous as the long trek through the desert, but we will not be condemning everyone to die. We would not have to spend time carpentering furniture in the hope that we will find clients who do not ask questions. There are arguments for, and against." Gallus found his seat and lowered himself into it, leaning his forearms against the table, "Colours here may have a contact in Senchal to get us in touch with the slave market. First, though, I would hear what the council's thoughts are."

---

Sabine curled her lips, but with an air of mischief. "More than that, much more," she whispered, "Sorry I did not take care of my hair, but...it was hard to keep it straight on the bed."

Although Sabine did so slowly due to her muscles being so sore, she wrapped her arms around La'khay and pulled her into a tight hug. "Thank you again, La'khay."

Tzirret stood up momentarily to retrieve his own breakfast and returned within the minute. He was expecting to be nervous upon seeing La'khay, but he was surprisingly comfortable with her presence now. He even shot her a smile as he approached. Tzirret resumed his previous seat next to Peiter and took a mouthful of food, but he was curious about yesterday. He addressed Peiter so as not to interrupt Sabine and La'khay's hushed exchange. "So, what did Peiter get up to yesterday? Was it another sword lesson?"

Gallus' explanation of his plan created some surprised glances between the lieutenants, and even Ri'nakhad. It was not something that any of them had come close to considering. "You want us to...act like slaves?" Miranor said, almost exasperated with widened eyes.

Meesei simply nodded calmly. "Slaves and slavers, yes. I have been putting thought into the story we could tell to the scum we hire. We could act as if we captured the majority of one of the desert's wandering tribes. As such, all of the Khajiit members of the clan would play the role of slaves, while everyone else would play the role of slavers. They would be transporting all of us, along with our supplies. We could promise them a portion of our...stock, as payment, which they could keep upon delivery. We could trade them weapons and armor as well, if necessary. It does not matter what we promise them, since we will be turning on them after departure. Their equipment, supplies, and ships themselves will be ours. It is not a comfortable ruse to enact, I understand, but it solves both our time and supply problems. With us covering most of the distance by sea, we can cut what would be multiple months of travel down to less than one. We will still need to barter with the clan's resources to buy the supplies we need, but according to your report, it should not be difficult to do so."

"This one does not think this ruse will be easy to carry out." Jo'akith commented. His gaze went over to Ra'jorr for a few moments before continuing. "We have Pahmar among us, not to mention Senche. Those are not Khajiit who are taken as slaves; they are too dangerous. How could we ever convince them that the clan's members are legitimately slaves?"

"I have also been considering that issue." Meesei answered. There were some aspects of the clan that would be unusual for slaves, for which they would need to provide suitable explanations. "My thoughts are that we can say we have a special buyer for them among the Telvanni. Their wizard-lords are known for being eccentric at times, especially in their use of magic. Whether or not it is actually possible, it would be believable for us to say that a Telvanni wizard would be willing to attempt it. Of course, we will also need to have chains and other bindings to make their captivity seem reasonable. Mentioning threats towards their family would also explain why they are passive. But yes, overall, we will need to do everything we can to make the ruse as believable as possible while out at sea."

Miranor let out an uncomfortable sigh. "Alright, saying we do attempt this...plan, what would we need to do to make it believable?"

---

La'khay grinned widely at Sabine, patting her back as she hugged her. "Ah, La'khay knew he would love it, and give you some love because of it." She whispered to her with a chuckle. "You simply must tell La'khay all about it. Is he skilled? How long did it last? Do you want some advice?" She asked, not even hesitating to delve into the array of personal questions. Though, for La'khay, it was very easy to believe that she did not even see the questions as being personal at all.

Peiter could not help but to smile with Tzirret's question. He was a bit curious to see his friend's reaction if he were to actually hear the truth, but he was not certain if Sabine would appreciate him mentioning it. She had not given him the full story when he asked a moment ago. He shot a glance to Sabine, who seemed preoccupied talking to La'khay, then returned his gaze to Tzirret. "No, it was a...test of endurance. Rather exhausting, overall." He answered.