"It is just embarrassing to share," Sabine responded, still cringing. "The last time I spoke to Peiter was a few years ago. He is doing okay, but he has not been quite the same since Tzirret travelled back to Elsweyr. I think Peiter might be seeing someone else now."

The next question brought Sabine straighter again, though she still avoided everyone's eyes. She paused to think, or perhaps to simply get over any worries she might have had about talking. "One man. Yes." She mumbled. "Here in the Silent City."

"Oh? Who is he?" Fendros asked. "Does he like you back?"

"I do not know," Sabine said. A soft smile crept up her lips. "I have been reluctant to find out. We travel away from the clan so often."

Meesei gave an understanding nod. "Indeed, our responsibilities can make it difficult to maintain relationships outside of the pack. Although, that is not quite as bad now as it once was. Between my portals and the propylons, we are home much more now. Still, I expect the search for the axe is going to take quite some time. I would understand if you did not want to attempt to start a relationship if you did not think you would be able to maintain it. Although..."

Holding up her hand for a few seconds, a few wisps of magic swirled around her fingers. "I could teach you how to teleport. How to open portals as I do. With direct instruction, it would not take you nearly as long to learn the power as it did for me to discover it. These portals are...freeing in many ways. It allows you to be anywhere you like, anytime you like. It makes it particularly easy for two mates to remain together under almost any circumstance. And I certainly think that you deserve the loving attention of another."

Sabine contemplated by way of holding out her slightly curled fingers and scrutinising them. She gave off an ambivalent balance of interest and reluctance. "I do not know if I have the magicka to make one myself. Let alone if I can understand the portals at all." She turned to face Meesei. "I could try, though."

"Speaking of trying," Fendros said, bringing up a knee and leaning his forearm on it. "I would suggest pursuing a relationship with this man anyway, or whoever else might catch your eye in the clan. Even with us moving around, you aren't in your teens and twenties anymore. You might find that people are more patient now. More willing to be separated for periods of time and still be with you." Fendros gave an encouraging smile. "The worst thing they can do is say no."

"Mm," Sabine conceded quietly. Her eyes went down and then met Meesei's again. "Have you been visiting places with the portals as well? You could find a mate yourself if you wanted to."

"You may not have the magicka to complete a portal on your own, but with a magicka potion for assistance, I would wager that you could accomplish it." Meesei pointed out.

As the conversation shifted back towards her, Meesei paused, leaning back somewhat. She, of course, could not mention Lunise, as she had given her word that she would not. She knew her pack was entirely trustworthy, but she did not want to betray her word to Lunise. However, that did not mean she could not approach the subject of having a mate. Even if Meesei directly told them that she secretly had a mate, the notion that her mate could be Justicar Lunise would be entirely unthinkable. They would place their guesses on every single man and woman they had met in every single clan in Tamriel before their thoughts would even come close to approaching Lunise. To them, she was still a cold, threatening, Elven-supremacist. That secret would be completely safe until Meesei decided to reveal it herself.

"There was a time when I considered it unwise to become romantically involved with anyone. I feared accusations of bias or favoritism, compromising the integrity of my position, those sorts of issues. However, I feel I have already made enough mistakes that taking on a mate likely will not cause any real issue." Meesei slowly started to grin. "Though, who is to say what I do on my own time?"

The hint took a second or two to sink in.

"Who indeed," Fendros echoed. His own grin formed and he quietly laughed. "Those portals truly are freeing. You could be cavorting with the emperor himself, for all we know." Fendros closed his grin to a smile and angled his face to one side. "Though I would sooner guess someone from a lycan clan. Do you have your eye on anyone, Meesei?"

Sabine's smile turned to Meesei again. Her eyes were illuminated with excitement. In contrast to her shyness when the subject was on her, she was oddly curious about Meesei's situation.

Meesei remained coy, though she had an answer in mind that would hopefully accomplish her purpose for bringing it up. "All I can say is that I would expect me to be taking some time for myself a bit more frequently than before. Of course, I would like to tell you all everything about it. I trust you all more than any other being in any plane of existence, but I also wish to respect the requests of a certain other person. My position does still complicate matters, and it is safer to keep it a secret. I will try to make the case for being more freely open to at least my pack, though." Meesei explained. The food was finished by this point, so she took the time to serve everyone.

Ahnasha, meanwhile, was grinning widely. "Never thought I would see the day. I thought you had married yourself to your work by this point, which was a shame, since your work is such an abusive lover. Figures that you'd be keeping it a secret, though. I almost think you're just trying to keep us in suspense. Well, hopefully you can convince this mystery lover to trust us; you could teleport us all somewhere nice for a...couples' vacation."

Ahnasha's eyes moved to Sabine. "And speaking of couples, don't think you're going to escape this without giving anything else away. Who is this man you mentioned? What does he look like? He needs to be handsome to deserve someone like you."

Sabine had the heels of her closed hands covering her broad grin as a nearly inaudible high-pitched note escaped her. "That is cute!" she whispered. "A secret lover. It is like a book, Meesei!"

Fendros held his head back and chuckled. The mix of the news and the reactions were all too amusing, though he was too hungry to add anything more. He ate while Ahnasha brought Sabine back into focus.

"Um..." Sabine closed her mouth and stumbled over her response to Ahnasha. Her hand went up to run behind and down her neck. "He is...yes, handsome. I see him often in the scholar's compound. I sometimes work with him." Sabine kept her eyes on the fire, not eating just yet. "His name is Karl. He is an alchemist, like me. He also studies the Dwemer."

"Like you?" Fendros chimed in. "Does that mean you have a lot in common or have you met your rival?"

Sabine stifled a giggle. "I am better than him at alchemy. He just..." She exhaled. "I like speaking with him."

"Well, learn to open portals, and you can speak to him whenever you like. Provided you work up the courage to talk to him about it." Meesei responded as she was serving herself from the food she had made. She took a moment to uncork one of the bottles of ale she had brought with her. It was nothing exceptionally strong, so she had little concern in helping herself to it.

"With all the places we have been, there is a plethora of exotic locations to visit. Plenty of romantic places to visit. You could have dinner from a master Breton chef in Daggerfall, admire the architecture and city life of Stros M'kai, and spend some intimate time together in Eastmarch's hot springs all in the same evening. I have actually used the ability somewhat recently. When I could get away from my responsibilities, I had a nice, romantic evening in an isolated, idyllic cove. Just the two of us. I have to admit, I had not realized how much I missed that kind of attention." She added.

"You speak of missing something. You make it sound rather unfair when you put it like that." Fendros gave Ahnasha a sideways glance, still smiling. "When was the last time we had a romantic evening on the beach?"

Sabine answered instead, speaking bluntly. "You could learn to make the portals, too. You could train to have much more magicka than either of us."

Fendros bit his lower lip. "I suppose I could," he said sarcastically under his breath. "Our last lesson seemed like mostly conditioning and practice."

"You already knew the basics," Sabine retorted with a grin. "You just need to master using them."

With a flick of his head, Fendros abruptly shifted his tone. "I feel we skipped over our last subject of conversation too quickly. Meesei, Sabine, what else can we know about your new paramours? We've had scant details thus far."

Sabine breathed out a soft laugh and gave Meesei a knowing look. One lesson with Sabine had not drastically shifted Fendros' disposition to learning magic. Regardless, they would not be beginning their lesson until their meal was done, so dwelling on it now would not necessarily be important.

Meesei chuckled. "I think Fendros might be a few years away yet from being able to learn anything as complex as a portal. You have a much stronger foundation to build up to that form of magic, Sabine. Fendros would have to work from the ground up. Though, Ahnasha...you would be in a good position to learn, with your knowledge of conjuration. You can easily teleport Daedra between worlds at will. My portals have some of the same concepts. No, you just have a very particular form of magic that you need to concentrate on for the moment, Fendros. But we can get to that after dinner.

As much as she wanted to be open to her pack, still had to remain tight-lipped for Lunise's sake. "As I said before, I have to stay quiet on his or her identity until I can convince them that there is no risk with informing my pack. I can say that he or she gives me that wonderful kind of romantic affection that I have been missing for years. I simply wish we could be together openly. I know that you all would keep anything I say a secret if I asked you to, but I want to respect my partner's wishes regardless."

Meesei took a drink from her ale, then shifted her eyes in Sabine's direction. "Of course, you have no such restrictions. You have already disclosed his name. Karl, you said? I cannot say I know him personally, but I have no doubt seen him around. If you wanted to whisk him away for a romantic retreat to a remote beach, I could give you a portal." She grinned. "But in all seriousness, do you think you will speak to him about it?"

"About portals? That would take some time," Sabine answered.

Fendros rolled his eyes. "About starting more than a friendship, Sabine."

"I...perhaps?" Sabine said, tightening her lips in momentary anxiety from being pressed on the issue. "I do not know. He is reserved. At least around me. I think he tries to avoid offending people by getting their names wrong. He cannot see very well and can only use magic to see properly for short periods. He says it hurts his eyes."

Curious, Fendros lowered his brow. "Are you worried he will brush you off?"

"No, it is..." Sabine sighed. She likely did not know where she was going with the thought. "I do not know if now would be the time. How long do we have until we travel to find the axe?"

Meesei gave a brief, somewhat amused huff. "I think you may be asking the wrong questions, Sabine. Or at least asking them for the wrong reasons. I would expect a few weeks before Saras' agents give us a more solid starting point to begin our search for the axe, but you should not see that as a limitation. If anything, you should see it as a reason to hurry. How much time do we all have to live in Tamriel? Not just us specifically, but people in general? I do not believe you should be content in waiting until afterwards, as there may not be an afterwards. We will do everything we can, but there is always the possibility we may fail. I do not wish to think about the possibility, but...Vile may take Tamriel. Or if not him, the Thalmor may destroy it. The time we have now is precious, and we should not waste any of it."

Despite the somewhat sobering nature of her words, Meesei's look towards Sabine was compassionate. "You should do what you believe will make you happy. Do not worry about whether or not it will be convenient. We now have the means to work around most of those issues. I can teach you to use portals, and even if you cannot, I will personally teleport you anywhere in Tamriel that you would like to go, should you need it. And if we do succeed, if we do stop Vile, then you will have even more time to enjoy whatever relationship you build."

The otherwise lighthearted mood gave Meesei's reasoning a jarring impact. While the others were rendered silent for a moment after she finished, none of them could deny the truth of her words. It was a reminder of just how tenuous their situation was, even if they were comfortably sharing a picnic in their clan's sanctuary home.

Sabine's perturbed expression faltered into a determined nod. Her eyes wandered to and from Meesei's face. "You are right," she quietly declared. "I will find him tonight. I should make him dinner. And we can catch up."

As opposed to her tone, Sabine was clearly nervous. She pinched at her piece of mammoth steak such that she was picking it apart, fibre by fibre.

"Good luck, little Runt."

Sabine stopped and turned her eyes up at Fendros. The only one who called Runt over the last decade and a half had been Lorag. A silent second passed between she and Fendros. Sabine straightened her back and took a deep breath in through her nose. Her breath released quickly through her mouth and she managed a smile to Meesei and Fendros. She perhaps needed the reminder. "Thank you," she said.

Fendros returned the smile. "Now, I shouldn't drink too much before the lesson, but I think what you say justifies enjoying some wine, Meesei." He reached to the bottle between him and Ahnasha to open it. "If only we had some cups, we could call a toast. Although, passing the bottle around should suffice."

Meesei could read Sabine's reaction perfectly, so she could tell that her words had been just as alarming as they had been convincing. Even among the others, the uncomfortable silence was telling. Nevertheless, Meesei maintained a smile, and offered her bottle of ale to Sabine. "I do not mean to sour the mood, I just wish to make sure that none of us squander any opportunities in any ways we might regret. We may very well succeed against Vile, but if there is anything I have determined from the last few days, it is that, even at the best of times, life can be unpredictable. So, perhaps it is best just to embrace that chaos from time to time. We are certainly going to cause some chaos for Vile when we invade his realm."

Once it was her turn, Ahnasha gladly accepted the wine before giving a chuckle. "Yeah, we're probably going to throw him completely off-guard. Daedra can be arrogant, Vile especially. He probably thinks us mortals to be too weak and afraid to do something so bold. That alone might give us a chance. He won't be prepared. Who knows, maybe we can convince Molag Bal to throw a whole Daedric army in with us? Maybe tell him that we heard Vile insult his horns, or...whatever Molab Bal has. And if we actually destroy Vile, even if it's just for a few centuries...well, we'd have to be the greatest heroes in Tamriel."

"Hmm, I do not think I would go that far." Meesei grinned. "After all, the Nereverine alone killed at least two or three gods by himself. We would only have one to our names."

Sabine smiled in thanks and took a draught from the ale. She had gained a greater taste for alcoholic drinks over the years, though she did not drink often. Meesei's words still had her sip a little more than usual.

"Hircine's hounds, Meesei," Fendros said through a hearty laugh. "I understand there is a predators pride in it, but must we devalue the achievement of besting a god? I think comparing ourselves to the Nerevarine is a sure way to never be satisfied." He brought a hand to his forehead and continued to laugh. "If you had told me ten years ago that we would be doing this, I would be convinced you had lost your mind."

"We will be the greatest heroes to lycans, at least," Sabine said, passing the ale along. Her tone was grounded, though not quite cynical. "They will probably be the only ones that remember us."

Meesei hummed a moment. "Perhaps I do not wish to be satisfied? A complacent hunter shall never improve." She remarked.

Sabine's comment was certainly realistic, and honestly, the most probable outcome. The lycan clans had gone through great pains to remain undetected through the years, so even if there were those in the world that would want to remember them, they had simply not heard the story of their struggles. Of course, Meesei also doubted that there would be many who would provide an unbiased perspective on lycans. Regardless, there were some possibilities that were at least probable enough to consider. "That is most likely true, though it is no guarantee. Our struggles have involved others aside from our clans. I doubt Molag Bal's followers will be writing any history books about us, but there are non-lycan worshipers of Hircine, and everything about us will be recorded in Apocrypha. Not to mention, representatives of the Empire and Dominion have been working with us for years. They will keep their records secret, but who knows what shall happen in the far future? Perhaps in a few decades or centuries, a historian may dig up those records? And if we help overthrow the Thalmor, perhaps we will even be able to have actual, open sanctuaries for our kind? If that ever happened, our stories would not necessarily need to remain secret. Although, that is all merely speculation. Optimistic speculation at that."

it was not long before Meesei had finished her dinner and was ready to begin their training. She had gone through only half a bottle of ale so far, but it would perhaps be best to save that for after their practice regardless. Fendros is particular would require his concentration. "At any rate, are you ready, Fendros? I believe we can identify some definite goals today."

None present held fame too high on their priorities. However, the thought of their deeds being read about in the future was an interesting one. The conversation grew quiet as they finished eating.

Fendros reacted immediately to Meesei's question. His eyes lit up and he gave a firm nod. "Yes. We're well overdue to start." He stood up. "Sabine?"

Though slower, Sabine stood up to her feet as well.

"...Are we to continue from where we left off?" Fendros asked. He gave Meesei an unsure glance.

Sabine turned to Meesei with a smile. "Should I still lead the lesson? Or did you want to teach Fendros something today?"

Meesei brought herself up to her feet, somewhat more leisurely than the others. She took a few moments to stretch out her muscles after having been sitting on the ground for an extended time. "I would just like to make sure that we have some well-established goals for your progress. I feel that just learning to 'deal with magic' is somewhat vague."

Meesei stepped away from the campfire towards a more clear area, indicating that she was at least going to be starting the lesson. "So, as we settled on before, the purpose of this training is to make sure you are someone who can hold and maintain the title of Champion, should that ever become necessary. That means you need to be able to best anyone who wants to challenge you, whether they be a pure warrior, a pure mage, or anyone in between. Both I and Lorag are confident in your ability to handle yourself in a physical confrontation. You are strong and certainly skilled with a blade, and you have been trained by a master archer. The greatest skill you need to be able to develop is to be able to deal with magic on your own, without the assistance of your pack. I do so with my own spellcasting ability, but that does not necessarily mean you need to become a mage yourself. Those without magical talent can and have been Hircine's Champion before, likely more often than not. You need only be able to handle a mage."

"To that end." Meesei continued as she placed any bags or satchels she was carrying aside. "I would propose training to take advantage of one of your greatest assets. Your birthsign gives you the natural ability to absorb magicka. You are already more resistant than usual to magic, but not immune. You need to learn to enhance your own natural spell absorption ability, which should be easier for you. With that, you will not only be restoring your own magicka reserves more efficiently when in combat with a mage, you will be greatly resistant to any magical effects. Spells will simply not harm you to near as much of a degree. Not to mention, you can use that talent with spell absorption to greatly enhance wards. You will be able to channel incoming magicka through a ward and into yourself, which in turn will make your ward stronger. Combine those abilities to a sufficient degree, and you will be a menage to any magic user that meets you in combat. Once you reach your potential, even I will have difficulties besting you. Perhaps you could even try to earn my title?" Meesei chuckled.

Fendros also put aside his belongings before following Meesei and Sabine. His expression had turned neutral now that they were beginning their lesson, though Meesei's final quip did disrupt his lips with a silent laugh.

"Everything else is being done with the assumption that I could be champion one day. I may as well keep it in mind, if nothing else." Fendros shrugged. "Not that the prospect sounds easy, by any means."

Sabine gestured forward encouragingly. "Show Meesei your ward, Fendros."

Fendros curled his lips momentarily. "Very well."

Extending a forward-facing hand, Fendros concentrated an uneasy flow of magicka into a glowing blue light in his palm. The light contracted as his fingers curled, and then showered out in front of him. A transparent, rippling film curled back in a dome, protecting his front. The speed at which he produced the ward demonstrated that Fendros had indeed been intensely practising the basics as Sabine had mentioned. However, even an average mage could tell by looking at Fendros' ward that it was not much stronger than an amateur could produce.

"Good spell!" Sabine said with a smile. She peered across to Meesei. "It was not very stable at all when we started. He can get stronger with more practice and with us helping. But if you think he is ready, we can step across to more advanced warding techniques."

"Indeed. A ward is the cornerstone of any magical defense." Meesei added, stepping up closer to Fendros. "Just always keep in mind that blocking spells is only half of your defensive strength. You must not only block, but absorb magicka to reach your greatest potential. It is a skill that both I and Sabine possess, but with training, you will be able to absorb magicka far more effectively than either of us. I think we can touch on those more advanced techniques." She explained.

Once Meesei had observed Fendros' ward long enough to determine that he would be able to maintain it, she extended out her hand towards him and charged flames into it. "Be ready, and pay close attention." She warned before letting out a weak stream of fire into his ward. "Magicka is the basis of any spell, so it is the common link between all spells. Once you are familiar enough with it, you can learn to shape it, no matter the form it takes. You will need to learn how to take it back into its natural form, then direct it into yourself. Pay close attention to the energy of these flames; you need to separate the heat energy from the magical energy in your mind, see how it interacts with your ward. From there, you need only mimic what your body does naturally."