While Janius had been expecting a different story to the one Julan had given before, even he had to raise his eyebrows and think. The supposed lie about his parents coming to the castle surprised him. Still, after a few moments, he appeared to let it go. He had been intending something else.

"Aurana, you followed Julan and Rhazii after they left," Janius repeated. "You sneaked out into the night of a dangerous city, in the cold, wearing a nightgown, to look for two people who were virtually strangers, on the off-chance that you might find you long dead brother." He put two flat hands forward. "Trust me when I say this. [i]You are capable.[/i]"

Aurana remained ambivalent. She released an uncomfortable breath. "What do I even say, then? I don't know what to do."

Janius gave Julan and Rhazii a sideways look. "What would you do if we were doing the same to you, boys?"

[hr]
Lunise leaned her head back, breathing in and out through her nose. "There are operating matters that I cannot share. And specifics of my work is in confidence as well. Names, dates, the like." She blinked. "If there is anything interesting I am permitted to share, it is to do with the locals of Anequina." Her head levelled. Her eyes alternated between Meesei and Pircalmo while she spoke. "Though they are short-lived, there is a humbleness to many Khajiit. Their different forms have a profound influence in their places in life. There were times where we sent written messages to individuals to summon them to court for various matters, only to get no response. While we were often tried for tricks by many, there was one occasion where we were inadvertently forced to arrest someone for not sending anything back. It turned out, when we found him, that he was a Senche who lived on his own. He could neither read nor write. He only communicated through his sister, who could not leave her children to go to court with him. I could go on for some time about the various small challenges we faced bringing Anequina into the Dominion's fold."

"Were their any large challenges?" Pircalmo said, raising his tea cup in both hands to drink.

"Several, yes." Lunise nodded. She was somewhat neutral in her tone, though her usual condescending hints had been absent since she arrived. "One such trouble was, contrary to what I mentioned, something that unites all Khajiit. Their moon sugar. You see, skooma is already contraband in the Dominion, so that drew initial efforts of controlling and building on Elsweyr societies to rid the streets of the sugar itself. The idea was to improve the Khajiit as a workforce, without beating them and penning them away like some spiteful Dunmer slaver. If you know any one thing about Khajiit, you could tell that it would be a disaster."

Lunise paused to sip her tea. She spoke with one hand on the table, frowning at something on a bookshelf ahead of her. "My jurisdiction was to pilot the efforts. There was an uproar, with many dissidents springing up to us to complain. It became violent rather quickly, though we dispersed the initial riots. The very next day, there were far fewer people complaining, and far more skooma on the streets. By usurping all who dealt moon sugar legally, we cornered the market to those that dealt illegally. No matter how many dealers we killed or arrested, more came out of nowhere. It was hopeless, with arson every other day, robberies, property damage. The situation was not going to become any better. Our initial report came back with a simple response. It was along the lines of 'fix it now.'"

Still remaining neutral, Lunise readjusted in her seat. "On a Sundas afternoon, on my way back from visiting the town's mayor, I spotted a mother and child trade a satchel of moon sugar for some meat and vegetables in broad daylight. It had value that we were storing away. It occurred to me that we could use the sugar for our own benefits, rather than chasing some high bureaucrat's dream of annihilating it. I went back to my office to meet with other justicars and we formulated a plan to turn the scheme on its head. We, as the Dominion, sold moon sugar on to the local government, undercutting the high black market prices. The local government then resold the sugar again. Almost overnight, the unrest ceased. In fact, we had not only prevented a rebellion, but we had developed a method of control over the local governments that did not require force of violence. If we cut off the supply at any time, the unrest would resume, there would be damages, and many thousands lost in treasury revenue. Dominion sanctioned moon sugar became the scheme that all but secured the north kingdom, and even eventually the south kingdom. Skooma dealers still existed, but they were another problem to begin with. One far reduced from usual now."

Lunise dipped her eyes and took another sip of tea. For recounting how she had come up with the primary method that the Dominion now used to control the Elsweyr city-level governments, she sounded as if she was merely fixing a broken tool.