"Hmm, I doubt they would believe any lie we could tell them that would involve us not going immediately to Orcrest." Meesei answered. In truth, she doubted that anything they could say, true or false, would give the Dominion much of a positive impression of them. The soldiers themselves might appreciate their decision to spare them, but the bureaucracy they would report to would be largely emotionless in its pursuit of its perceived fugitives. Hopefully, it would not matter in the end. If they could avoid the initial search, identifying them later on would be difficult. It would take time for any information about them to move to cities beyond Orcrest, and even then, they would likely only need to use aliases. It was not as if every guard in the Dominion could memorize the physical description of every known fugitive, and even if they could, the descriptions alone would likely be too generic to prove their identities. 

Since lying was not likely to be beneficial, Meesei decided she would rather be at least partially open about their intentions. "I believe I will be honest. I will say that we do not intend to go to Orcrest, and that we will let them leave with enough supplies to get to safety. It would be best if I personally confront them and explain the situation. I would be the one most likely to be able to escape them without harm, if the encounter turns to violence. I do fully expect them to resist in some form, but hopefully it will remain a verbal argument, rather than a physical one. How should we go about forcing their surrender? I believe we need a sufficient show of force to deter a violent response, but I do not want to directly threaten them if it is not necessary."