Aurana sniffed her blocked nose, wiped her eyes, and breathed out through her mouth. "I don't know how long I'll have. A few hours? I might be able to stay all night if mother and father have gone to bed, but...I don't know."

"Um..." A reluctant voice chirped up from the door. Jatinha stepped forward. "I can tell you that they have retired for the night, my lady. I think it would be wise to head back after a time rather than sleep here, else they might find your bedroom empty in the morning."

"Okay," Aurana said. After another deep breath, she turned her head to face Julan, trying to smile through a visage clearly on the edge of crying. "I appreciate you trying to help me, Julan. It's rare enough that I get to go out and meet new people, and meeting more of my family is better still. You've been really nice to me. Thanks." She leaned in to give Julan a hug.

"Would you come and live with us if you're allowed to?" Rhazii suggested.

Fendros was quick to interrupt whatever response Aurana might have. "No, Rhazii, you know that's not our decision."

[hr]
Janius ran his hands up his face and over his hair, pushing his hair back. "What a day," he breathed. "What an extraordinary, extraordinary day." All that he was hiding flowed out from his shifted demeanour; frustration, anxiety, and exhaustion.

"What they're doing to her is abhorrent," Janius answered, slumping against a wall. "And it sounds like something they would do, my parents. I have no reason to believe that her or the boys are lying about this." He raised his thumb and forefinger, almost touching at the tips. "Though I suspect that they had slightly closer contact to my parents than they are letting on." He waved the hand and shook his head. "That really doesn't matter at this point. I just..." He ran his hands down his face again. "I just don't know what to do. I have to admit that hearing all this on the same day as being told that we have to save the world by finding an axe and striking down a daedric prince is getting close to beyond reality." He ran to the end of his breath and breathed in deeply to calm down.

After a second, Janius looked at Kaleeth's face and gestured to her. "Say I was to try and convince them. How did your father convince your mother to let you keep training and going out and such?"

[hr]
A considered moment passed before Meesei heard anything from the other side of the door.

"Enter," Lunise's voice was imperious as ever.

Upon opening the door, the first noticeable item was the candle lit on the desk by the wall. It was illuminating the satchel and a rolled scroll obtained earlier that day. The Thalmor documents. Curiously, Lunise was nowhere to be seen.

A cold unease traced across Meesei's throat, and then across her entire body, dispelling magic that was not there. Just as Meesei processed this, a sigh sounded from the air. Two footsteps tapped on the rug before an Altmer in a long night gown winked into vision, seated on the desk chair and leaning her forehead on her hand and her elbow on the desk. Her eyes were scrunched shut and sunken in swollen dark rings. In her other hand, clear to see, was a bound dagger. Her fingers loosened and it evaporated before it could fall onto the floor. Seeing Lunise out of her uniform was jarring and oddly sympathetic.

"Come in, champion," Lunise said. "I beg you do not mistake my rude measures as an insult. I do not imagine I would live for long with this knowledge without taking them."