Miranor, though she shared Gallus' worries about their current plan of infiltration, she was not yet ready to abandon it. "It will be dangerous, yes, but there are still ways we can mitigate it. Even if there is no way to resist the gas, we could use magic to our advantage. Provided we can sabotage the crank, we would just need a few spells to give us an opening to escape. We will be right next to the gate at that point, after all. We could tie some scrolls around our necks before we fly in, something to make us faster and give us protection from their arrows as we flee. It is not perfect, but...I volunteer to lead the infiltration."

Meesei's expression was severe, but without alternatives, she could not outright deny the plan. "If we find no other points of entry, we can consider this plan. As for the ladders, it would be easier to get onto the walls elsewhere while the enemy is distracted at the main gate. We just have to make sure the ladders are neither too close, nor too far from the main gate. If they are too close, the defenders may notice them, while too far, and our warriors will be too distant to support our primary entry point."

---

Ahnasha was still silent, though now, not entirely out of resentment. Irenya's mention of the execution of her father made her uncomfortable. She had always considered the Argonian invasion of Morrowind to have been a form of justice that had been a long time coming. As Irenya had said, the Argonians had focused their efforts onto a Great House of slavers, the Telvanni. But, it would be naive of her to think that no innocents were caught in the carnage. If, of course, her father was innocent. A lowly clerk did not sound like the kind of person who would even be able to own slaves, but she supposed she could not be sure.

Regardless of Ahnasha's silence, Irenya continued. "Oh, that happened almost two centuries later, during the Great War. Modern Morrowind reviles the Empire for their failure to give sufficient aid during the Oblivion Crisis, and the Red Year, but my mother still supported them, even after all that time. Our House, House Hlaalu, had been prosperous in the Third Era because of the Empire, and she never forgot us. After the Red Year, House Hlaalu...fell out of favor, far enough that it was stripped of its Great House status, so we did not have much of a place in Morrowind. Mother knew that the Imperial soldiers would need the aid of talented healers, so she convinced me to join her and move to Cyrodiil. I did not care for the Empire near as much as her, but I did not despise it, and it was not as if we would actually be joining their armies, so I agreed. I gave myself many reasons to join at the time, but I believe the largest among them was that I simply did not want to allow my own mother to go into danger alone."