Just like Peiter, Sabine was surprised to see Ma'tanza become so angry. She could only speculate but she believed that Tzirret may have told her a lie as well, whether intentionally or not. To this, Sabine took on a mildly worried look. On one hand, it was good that Ma'tanza wanted to speak with Tzirret immediately. On the other hand, going in so angry might have the whole affair ending in tears.

Sabine carefully laid a hand on Ma'tanza's shoulder. "To be clear, we think Tzirret had misinterpreted his orders. We think that he thinks he is still fighting." Sabine bit the inside of her cheek abd looked around the table for a moment. "We will finish this potion first. Then we can search for him."

It was not guaranteed but Sabine hoped that taking the extra time would help Ma'tanza to calm herself.

---

This time it was Gallus' turn to laugh. "As much of an experience it might be, I think I will just let you two get to know each other. Thank you for the offer." Gallus brought his arm around Tzirret's shoulders and encouraged him away. "Come along, Tzirret. We have important matters to discuss regarding your marching orders."

Tzirret felt a little jarred, but he did not put up anything more than token resistance. He waved goodbye to La'tahne and La'khay as he was shoved towards Tzirret's room.

Ma'tanza was reluctant to agree, and indeed, did not actually give any verbal answer. But, after Sabine started heating the alembic, Ma'tanza let out a sigh and prepared the mixture she had been making. It was a potion of magicka resistance which, at its current stage, would not take more than ten minutes to finish.

Peiter was without much to say or do during the wait, so he simply tried to appear interested in what they were making. All the while, he kept an eye on Ma'tanza expression to see if it would actually change. The intensity of her anger did seem to lighten at least somewhat, but she still remained obviously irritated, even as they were getting close to finishing the potion. Peiter had a few ideas about what specific aspect of the situation could be making her so angry; however, he could not be sure without directly asking, and he was certainly too nervous to attempt that. At this point, he was becoming increasingly frightened that they were making a mistake. He was not sure how Tzirret would handle an argument, and the last thing he wanted was to inadvertently cause the pair to split up.

Once the potion was finally finished, Ma'tanza quickly corked up the bottle and hastily labeled it, not even bothering to sort it with the rest of the potions. "Okay, now let's go find Tzirret. Where do you think he would be?" She asked impatiently.

Sabine uneasily picked up the potion bottle and placed it with the others appropriately. Ma'tanza did not seem as explosive as before, but she had certainly not calmed down. "Uh, I...um...I do not think he has any duties this afternoon," Sabine said, trying to be careful not to upset Ma'tanza further. "We could try his room? He might be carving something."

It was a wild guess based on the pendant that Ma'tanza wore. Sabine actually had no idea as they all left to try and find Tzirret.

Along the way, Sabine kept on giving Peiter worried glances. If this ended badly, she had no doubt that Tzirret would place some of the blame on them both.

It did not take long to get to Tzirret's room, given the weight of the situation. The door was slightly ajar, and inside, Tzirret could be seen sitting forward on his bed with his head hung down and his hands clasped together. Gallus was nearby on a chair, speaking to him. Tzirret did not look sad or angry, rather his face seemed somewhat despondant, almost ashamed.

Sabine decided to go no further than the door. She was too nervous to intrude on whatever was about to happen.

Unlike Sabine, Ma'tanza was not paying close attention as they approached the door to Tzirret's room, so she did not notice that he was currently in a conversation with Gallus. As such, she marched straight up to the door and flung it open. She first looked to Tzirret, but noticed Gallus moments afterwards. His presence gave her pause briefly, and caused her to open up with a bit more caution that she was planning.

"Oh...Ma'tanza apologizes. You are Tzirret's alpha, yes? This one did not know you were here..." She explained. Shifting her gaze back to Tzirret, Ma'tanza's eyes narrowed, and her anger started to show through her initial surprise. "Ma'tanza just wanted to...talk to Tzirret about something he said." She explained in an increasingly harsh tone.

Peiter continued his silence, and leaned himself against the door frame. Good or bad, he expected some sort of resolution would come out of this conversation. He expected this would be something of a private conversation, but there was a possibility he might be able to say something to help, so he decided to stay for the moment.

Both Tzirret and Gallus jerked their heads to look at Ma'tanza as she entered. Tzirret was most startled. "Ma'tanza?"

Gallus quietly let Ma'tanza explain herself, giving her a neutral expression. Once she was done, he glanced at the floor and then to Tzirret himself as he considered what to do. In the end, he took a slow breath in and smiled, "That's quite alright, Ma'tanza. I think Tzirret has heard everything he needs to from me, we can continue our conversation later." Gallus stood up from his chair and strode out of the room, carefully stepping past Peiter with a raised eyebrow. Rather than observe from the outside, Gallus leaned against a nearby wall with his arms crossed and looked down the hallway, waiting patiently.

Sabine observed Gallus curiously, but turned her attention back into the room once he was still. Inside, Tzirret was still looking confused, but he had sat up straighter to receive Ma'tanza. By the way his ears were brought back and his mouth was slightly open, he knew that he was in trouble.

"Um, I-...Tzirret wants to say something too, but..." Tzirret offered a stilted gesture as he spoke nervously, "You go first." Tzirret gave a pleading glance to Peiter and Sabine at the doorway. Sabine wasn't sure whether she should be leaving them to work it out in private or not. Another glance at the outwardly unconcerned Gallus did not provide any further advice on the matter.

Evidently, Ma'tanza did not seem to mind Sabine and Peiter watching the conversation, as she started quickly after Gallus left the room. "Yes...what are you doing Tzirret? This one hates to insult you, but you're being such a...hypocrite! When we talked before, Ma'tanza told you that she was afraid for her sister. She told you that she was afraid of the battle, afraid of what could happen to her friends and family. She told you that she was thinking about joining in to help keep them safe. You knew that, and you had to know how much it was weighing on her mind, how agonizing it would be if something happens to them because she isn't there to help them. You knew all of that, but you still convinced her to stay behind. Ma'tanza asked you to help her decide what to do, and you told her to stay in safety with the wounded. Even though it means her friends and family might be in more danger."

Now that she had started, Ma'tanza's speech was gradually growing even more emotionally charged. She walked closer to him so that she towered even higher over him while he sat on the bed in front of her. "And now, Ma'tanza hears that you have decided to join the fight. Not that it was required of you, but that you outright refused to let your friends help you to get out of it. Ma'tanza should stay away from the fight instead of helping her sister, but apparently it is okay for you to throw yourself into the middle of danger for the exact same reason?"

Tzirret began to lean back and locked wide eyes with Ma'tanza as she got close. There were a number of things that Tzirret wanted to say. Most of them were points to clarify what Ma'tanza had misunderstood. Unfortunately for Tzirret, he was so scared by the trouble he was in that none of the right words seemed in reach. He tried to latch on to all of the points that he wanted to make only for all of them to slip from his mental grasp.

"Ah-...n-no! It's..." Tzirret stammered, pitifully shaking his head, "M-Ma'tanza, it is not like that. Not completely-...He means...Well...He was trying to-..." In a desperate attempt to gain ground, Tzirret offered his palms forward. "Tzirret is sorry!"

This was not going well. Whatever Tzirret's original intentions were, he was only likely going to be on the receiving end of more ranting from Ma'tanza. With the way the situation had escalated, Sabine definitely wanted to stay out of it for now.

As one might expect, Tzirret's mostly directionless stammering did little to dissuade Ma'tanza from her opinions. He was not combative, and did not try to justify his words, but neither did he give any real explanation. As such, her expression remained quite cross. She stood with her arms crossed over her chest, and a persistant sneer.

"You are sorry? That is easy to say, because you don't have to put any meaning behind it. Were you going to tell Ma'tanza this, or were you going to walk into that fight without giving her the same chance to talk that she gave to you? It's not even the fact that you want to join the fight; Ma'tanza might have accepted that. It's that you didn't tell her that you could possibly get out of it. You say it wasn't 'like that'; then what was it like? What made you want to lie to Ma'tanza?" She asked in a tone that was shifting more towards disappointment than anger.

Tzirret curled his fingers, let his hands fall to his sides, and bowed his head down, breaking eye contact with Ma'tanza. He tried starting to explain himself a few times, mostly not saying any words but taking and letting out swift frustrated breaths. After one last attempt, Tzirret's shoulders lowered and he began to speak in a small, quivering voice.

"It is because Tzirret does not want to be a coward any more." With his face turned down, Tzirret hid the strain on his features as he tried to hold back his own sadness. "His packmates always worry about him too much because he was scared of just about everything." Tzirret let in a shallow breath and sighed it out, "He got to learn how to be braver on this journey. When he met Ma'tanza and her friends, he knew he could be brave and strong if he tried. He liked that. He did not want to be treated like the runt any longer." He raised a palm slightly, but not his head. "He thought that...that if he went out to this battle, he could prove to everyone that he could cope." He lifted his hand up to his eyes, "But now he is not even fighting any more. Gallus says that he was just to be a message runner all along because he could not read the Ta'agra on his order letter properly. He feels stupid! So stupid!"

After another shallow sigh and a wet sniff, Tzirret addressed Ma'tanza's words more directly. "This one is sorry that he lied to you, Ma'tanza. He was being selfish. He did not want to look like a craven hen like he always does." A clear droplet fell from the middle of Tzirret's hand as it was pressed to his face. "Now he just feels stupid because he made everyone upset without even proving anything."

At this point, Sabine felt a little sorry for Tzirret. She had no idea that he couldn't read Ta'agra, and likely neither did Gallus until now. Everyone probably assumed that he could read it if he could speak it, but he probably didn't need to read anything that wasn't Cyrodilic for years now.

Ma'tanza let out a sigh and started shaking her head. She still bore quite a bit of frustration, but her disappointment was starting to show even stronger. "That isn't an excuse to get yourself killed, Tzirret. What does getting shot by a stray arrow, or an errant spell prove? This one knows you are a few years younger than her, but she thought you were more mature than that. You know you don't have as much training as the others. Ma'tanza doesn't want you getting hurt, especially for no reason. She is surprised you would lie to her just to try to prove something like that. You have never needed to 'act brave' around Ma'tanza before, why start now? This agreed to be with you because you were kind and considerate, not brave."

Giving another pause, Ma'tanza ran her hand down the side of her head. "So what are you going to do now? Are you still going to try to get yourself on the frontlines?"

Watching the argument from the sidelines, Peiter became increasingly uncomfortable, for a few reasons. Tzirret, at least, recognized that he had made a mistake, but only time would tell how it would affect him. Peiter did not expect that Tzirret would make any attempt to join the fight again, but only time would tell how this would affect him. Looking over to Sabine beside him, he grabbed her hand and moved himself a bit closer to her. They had not really had an argument like this before, so he was not sure what to say when Tzirret would inevitably ask about it later.

Tzirret shook his head slowly and wiped his fingers to the bridge of his nose until it no longer held grasp and fell into his lap. "No," he said after a moment. He had a hint of demand in his voice.

At this point, Tzirret caught himself in his blubbering and wiped his eyes on one arm. With his next breath, he raised his reddened eyes to Ma'tanza with a small measure of defiance. "Ma'tanza, Tzirret wanted to agree to go out fighting so that he would not be treated as an incapable child by his packmates, not by you." Tzirret was trying his best to keep his voice level, but he was nervous enough speaking with confrontation that his voice was still shaking, "Ma'tanza treats this one with respect despite his anxiety." Tzirret's mouth hinged open and closed while he tried to find more words, "He just wanted the same from his pack." Tzirret sighed and raised his hands facing one another, "But...if Ma'tanza is still..." Tzirret closed his eyes and restrained the volume of his voice, "...worried..." He opened his eyes again and looked at Ma'tanza's face with a pleading expression, "...if Ma'tanza is worried enough to be this upset, then this one can ask to stay out of the battle. He is sorry that he was not more considerate." Tzirret waved one hand across himself and looked down again. "He won't try to do something stupid like this any more."

Sabine glanced to Peiter when he took her hand. She at first assumed that he wanted to move away from the argument, but he simply looked worried. Sabine reciprocated his grasp and looked back in the room. Sabine curled her lips and had to restrain herself from stepping in at this point. She wanted to take part of the blame for driving Tzirret to make some of his decisions, but he did not want to risk inflaming Ma'tanza by trying to rescue Tzirret. He still had to have his apology accepted first.

Ma'tanza pressed her fingers against her temple, lowering her head and closing her eyes as she thought. "Okay...good. This one just wants you to keep yourself safe. You should be honest with Ma'tanza. She has always been used to boys trying to lie to her and manipulate her. Always trying to find the definite way to impress her. You have always been honest with Ma'tanza, until now. Just...this one needs to get back to her work. She still has more potions to make for the day. This one...will talk to you later."

While they had not exactly "made up", Ma'tanza was not nearly as emotionally charged as she was when she first stepped into the room. She had not specifically accepted his apology, but she did not do anything to suggest she would not forgive him. She gave a brief nod to Peiter and Sabine as she walked out of the room, though Peiter was not quite certain what she meant by it. She could have been thanking them, or perhaps just acknowledging that she was done. In any case, there was an awkward silence between the remaining three, as Peiter certainly did not know what he could say.

Tzirret lifted his head just enough to watch Ma'tanza as she walked out of the room. He didn't come up with anything else to say by the time she was out of earshot. Instead, he ran a hand down one side of his face and slowly got up. With his head still hung forward, he began to pace out of the door.

Sabine parted the way for Tzirret as she had done for Ma'tanza when she left. "Tzirret..." she began to say but Tzirret gave her no attention.

There was a stop in Tzirret's steps when he reached Gallus. He slowly raised his head up to him with as neutral an expression as he could hold. "Gallus, may this one stay away when the stronghold is attacked?"

Gallus regarded Tzirret just as neutrally. He did not hesitate in his answer. "Done."

"Thank you," Tzirret responded, lowering his head again. Without another word, he stepped despondently back into the bedroom and sat down with his head in his hands. He did not seem to be bothered by anyone watching as he began to sob as silently as he could into his palms.

Even with all the time to think, Sabine had not done anything more yet. Looking lost, she turned to Gallus, who remained leaned up against the wall for some reason. "Are you going to do anything?" she asked.

Gallus raised an eyebrow and looked at Peiter and Sabine in turn. "Are you?"

A few more seconds passed before Sabine decided to turn to Peiter. "I think they will be able to work things out later but..." Sabine glanced into the room and then back to Peiter. She angled her head towards Tzirret. "He is...hurt. I think he needs his brother."

Normally, Peiter would have offered to help Tzirret without hesitation, but listening to the prior conversation, he wondered if that was a good idea. The whole issue that Tzirret had been attempting to address with his actions was that he wanted to stop himself from being seen as a coward that was entirely dependent on others. The last thing Peiter wanted to do at the moment was to accidentally treat him like a child. "I...don't know." Peiter whispered to Sabine. "The reason this happened was because Tzirret wanted to show that he isn't a child; that he can take care of himself. If I go in there trying to comfort him, what if he just sees it as an example of how we don't think he can take care of himself? I want to make sure he knows that I think he can handle this situation himself."

Despite his reasoning, Peiter ran his hands down his face in his uncertainty. "But, on the other hand, everyone needs the support of their friends and family at least occasionally. There's nothing abnormal, or coward-like about leaning on your friends for support when you need it. But will Tzirret know that? I just...don't want to make anything worse." He explained.

While Peiter's uncertainty was understandable, Sabine answered him in a voice that made it sound like the solution was trivial. "Then just go in treating him as an equal. If he does not want your help, I am sure he'll say so."

Sabine felt as though they were spending too much time analysing. She looked impatient as she peered through the doorway again. "Come," Sabine whispered to Peiter, gently tugging on his hand as she walked into the room carefully.

Tzirret did not seem to respond, crying as he was.

"Tzirret?" Sabine asked softly.

"What?!" Tzirret blurted into his hands accusingly.

Sabine hesitated, but continued. "I am sorry if I treated you as if you were too young to be capable. We...just saw you running in rashly into a very dangerous situation for anyone. We needed to tell you."

There was no response from Tzirret except more quiet crying.

Sabine turned to Peiter worriedly. It didn't appear as though Tzirret was angry enough at them to tell them to leave, at least.

Peiter followed suit and stepped into the room just behind Sabine. He still was not exactly sure what to say, but luckily, Sabine started the conversation off for him. It did not produce much of a response from Tzirret, but it did at least give him a few more seconds to figure out how to approach him. He tried to think of anything he might do that could accidentally come across as trying to "parent" Tzirret, as if he were a child. He sat down in the same chair Gallus had, across from his bed.

"I...know you can handle this, Tzirret. Ma'tanza doesn't seem too upset; I think at the heart of it, she was mostly concerned. Still, you haven't been with anyone before like this, so if you want any advice, maybe we could help?" Peiter offered.

---

Elsewhere in the stronghold, Meesei was getting ready for the meeting. Herself, Ri'vashi, Ri'nakhad, all of their lieutenants, the leader of the scouting team, and some of Meesei's companions were all going to be in attendance. In this meeting, they were going to review the scouts' report, and make the final decision on what forces they were going to commit to the attack, and when. Meesei had a rather thick stack of maps, notes, and other documents in her bag, and she had ordered copies made of some of the more important documents. She went ahead and made her way to the meeting chamber, which was going to be rather full as soon as everyone arrived.

Fortunately, Peiter's worries were unfounded. Tzirret kept his head bowed and his ears back, but lowered his tear-covered hands back into his lap. He spoke in saddened groans, "Tzirret never wanted to manipulate Ma'tanza. He never wanted to do any of those things she said." He shook his head lightly, "He just wanted to be brave like everyone else. Everything went wrong."

Sabine exchanged a glance with Peiter and stepped to sit beside Tzirret, placing a hand on his shoulder. She spoke just as softly as before, "It may hurt now but it is not too late to fix things."

Though Tzirret did not lift his head, the strain on the side of his face spoke of more sadness and frustration. "How?" He pleaded, "Ma'tanza thinks that Tzirret is a snivelling liar now! My pack is still going to treat me like a runt and I-"

"Tzirret, no," Sabine tried to speak over him.

"-There is no point in even-"

"Wait." Sabine said a bit more firmly. It seemed to quieten Tzirret, at least for a moment. "Tzirret, did you know that my nickname in my pack used to be Runt?" Sabine took her hand from Tzirret's shoulder and regarded him with a serious expression.

Tzirret gave Sabine a sad sideways glance, but hinted curiosity.

"I was very anxious. I was also small. Smaller and more anxious than you." Sabine explained. She readjusted herself in her seat such that she was further from Tzirret, but facing him more directly. "Do you know how that changed?"

Tzirret's eyes searched the floor in confusion but found no answer.

"I did not go into a battle or complain to myself." Sabine bowed her head forward, "I told my pack how I felt and whenever they treated me wrong I would tell them."

Though he no longer seemed to be sobbing, Tzirret looked to the ground and sighed. He didn't need to be told the entire story about how Sabine's confidence and healing came from a long journey through Black Marsh to ritualistically commune with a Hist tree. It was enough to hear that he would simply have to start taking more initiative. Again.

"That is one thing." Sabine said, with a small, triumphant smile. "As for Ma'tanza...well..." Sabine thought for a moment, blinking a couple of times. "You know her better than us but...Peiter?" Sabine turned her eyes to Peiter. "If I was angry at you because of something that you did not mean to do, what would you do?"

Tzirret made the effort to lift his head slightly to look up at Peiter, revealing his glum face that was still recovering from his crying.

At this point, Gallus poked his head into the room. He was almost completely unnoticed until he spoke. "Excuse me, kids. I have to get to the war room. I will catch up with you all in turn to see how this has turned out afterwards, alright?" He had a wide smile, as if he was glad about the eventualities so far. He pulled back and disappeared without any further communication.

---

The whole drama with Tzirret's attempts at proving bravery had caused Gallus to lose track of time. He would have liked to stay around for a while to help, but as it stood, he was already late for the meeting with the scouting party. He strode so briskly through the halls that he was on the very edge of breaking into a jog. As he reached the doors of the meeting room, he hoped that he didn't keep everyone waiting for too long.

Peiter went along with Sabine's lead. She started trying to relate to him, and he did not seem to be pushing back against her advice in any real way. At the very least, he was not angry for her trying to help. That meant he could be a bit more direct in trying to comfort him. Sabine started explaining some of what she had told him about her history with her pack, though he noticed she did not go into any details about Black Marsh. He guessed that was intentional, so he decided not to give away any more than she had. Afterwards, she directed a question towards Peiter, which he actually had to pause for a few moments to think about. He had, of course, worried about upsetting Sabine in the past, and had thought about what he might say to her. But, something specific to Sabine would not be helpful to Tzirret.

"Well...my first step would be to figure out how you really felt about whatever happened, and how you were feeling about me. When people are angry, they can say things they don't mean, and the things they mean, they don't say. I would wait until things cooled off, then just talk to you. Ask about what happened, and anything that might hint about what you're feeling. What about you, Sabine? If I were to anger you, what and you were still angry after an apology, what would you want me to do to make it up to you? Peiter asked.

---

Inside the meeting chamber, the crowd was starting to form. All of Ri'nakhad's lieutenants, and most of Ri'vashi's had arrived. Meesei had set her papers at the chair at the far end of the table, and had made sure there were copies of the important documents spread around the table. Meesei had asked both Gallus and Lorag to join in the meeting, and despite the rush he had been in, Gallus had not been the last to arrive, as they were still waiting on a few of Ri'vashi's lieutenants.

Meesei had taken her seat at the end of the table, though most everyone in the room was still standing, talking in groups among themselves. The last time Meesei had attended a meeting this large was when she was discussing the large scale strategy of lycan forces across Tamriel with the representatives of the clans back in Bruma. What was essentially the leadership of three clans were all gathered together in a single room, ready to plan for war. When she saw Gallus enter the chamber, Ri'vashi gave a nod to him. The meeting had not yet convened, so he was free to speak to anyone.

Tzirret sniffed, not ready to say anything just yet. However, he held a little hope in his eyes after hearing what Peiter said.

Sabine answered Peiter without much pause for thought. "I would have a reason to be angry at you. Even once I had calmed down I would wish that you would understand why I was angry." Sabine glanced to Tzirret and was glad to see that he appeared to be listening. She continued answering Peiter, "I am not sure whether there would be anything that would make it up to me except understanding and promising to be better in the future. Ma'tanza could be different, though." Sabine turned her head to Tzirret and gave an encouraging look. "What do you think Ma'tanza would like you to do, Tzirret?"

With the attention back on him, Tzirret looked down at the back of his hands on his lap again. After another sniff - it sounding like he was clearing up now - he gave a quiet answer. "It depends. She...probably just does not want Tzirret to try and lie to her to make him look better. If he tells her that he never wants to lie to her, or hurt her...maybe." Tzirret let out the rest of his breath, "But it might be too late. She probably hates Tzirret now. He has failed."

"I do not think she has decided to forsake you Tzirret," Sabine said with a smile.

Tzirret lifted his upper lip in disgust. "How does Sabine know?" he spat.

The answer was simple on Sabine's lips, "How hurt would you have to be in order to forsake Ma'tanza?"

In response, Tzirret stayed silent and softened his expression. Sabine raised her brow and looked to Peiter again. If there was anything more he wanted to add, now was the time, but it was getting to the point where Tzirret was close to hearing all he needed to.

---

Though Gallus' breath had quickened, it could not be heard over the murmur of the meeting room and the creak of the doors as he made his entrance. He scanned the room quickly and located Ri'vashi and Meesei in short order, returning Ri'vashi's nod with a smile.

Gallus made his way between Meesei and Ri'vashi and addressed them both as well as he could. "Afternoon," he began, "Sorry I'm a bit late. I had some personal errands to run. What's the mood like? Is the news going to be good?"

Peiter was impressed with the cleverness of Sabine's response; he doubted that he could have come up with an argument so simple, yet so impactful. She was trying to get Tzirret to see the situation from Ma'tanza's perspective, so that he would see that it was not as serious as his mind was making it out to be. In truth, Peiter did not know what more he could add that would not seem like a simple afterthought. He had no advice better than what Sabine had given, so he simply decided to show his support.

"It seems like you know what to do then, brother." Peiter commented with a smile. "Just try to see the situation through her eyes. I wouldn't go chasing after her immediately, but you can give her some time to settle her mind, then speak to her. Until then, perhaps you should try to clear your own mind? Get some rest, or some dinner. Or, perhaps we could all go for a swim? That would be your choice." He offered.

---

As Gallus took a seat nearby, Meesei slid one of the illustrations the scouts had made of the enemy stronghold to him. "The news is encouraging, overall. I cannot claim this will be easy, but the defenses are not overwhelming. I have reviewed the reports, and it seems like they do not have a full contingent of defenders. Likely, some of their forces are away preparing for the ambush they were expecting to carry out on our forces. But, the walls themselves are strong, and they still have no shortage of soldiers at the ready to defend them. I doubt we will be able to afford a long siege, so we will need to find some way to breach quickly. There are some possible weaknesses, which we will go over in the meeting itself."

Ri'vashi nodded in agreement, but did look around the room with slight uncertainty. "As for the mood, it is not as universally positive. There is some tension over the prospect of dedicating so many of our soldiers to this fight. Even if our own defense was not a concern, we have not entered into combat of this scale before. Some of the others feel we stand to lose a lot if something goes wrong, and they may be correct in that."