Julan poorly hid a surprised reaction towards Janius' thinly-veiled guess at his true issue. He now forced himself to keep his eyes off of the game entirely and just stared at the water unflinchingly. "Yes...the rite. It's, um, a...really big deal, I think. I need to make sure I...win, since my grandfather really cares about it. And mother. Or, well, I guess, um, mother really just cares that her father really cares about it. I shouldn't let everyone down." 

Despite the fact that Janius had not yet responded, Julan was already looking more nervous. He glanced up at his father, and would have been sweating if it were possible for an Argonian. He broke eye contact quickly, just feeling his heart start to beat faster until the silence finally got to him. "I just don't know the rules to their game, okay? That's it." He lied. 

[hr]

"I...don't think so." Ahnasha answered. "It's not harmful, painful, or dangerous. I would need to teach you some of the basics of necromancy, just to be able to manipulate the magic in the ritual properly, but I could do most of the hard work. For the most part, though, you don't need to worry about the ritual itself. Just worry about making your decision. The [i]average[/i] person might be concerned about hunting enough grand souls, but we're not average. We could go on some mammoth hunts together, or maybe minotaurs or goblins. It honestly sounds like fun." 

Finally, Ahnasha stood up, then offered her hand to Rhazii to help him up as well. She was smiling now, despite some of the uneasy topics they had just discussed. "Why don't we go ahead and transform. We can look around for a water source later. Even [i]my[/i] beast spirit is starting to get restless, so I have to imagine yours is practically clawing its way out of your mind. I am starving, and we have a whole feast waiting for us back at that camp."