Meesei placed a hand lightly upon both of Sabine's shoulders the moment she reached her. "It is alright, Sabine. She was just administering a test of Rossarm's abilities. She gave me a list of items she needs for some purpose, and I will trust your judgment on why you promised her these things. In fact..." Meesei began, reaching into her satchel for the parchment Neesa had given her. "...how about you bring this list to the scholars while I tend to our guest? A glance at the list tells me that it is mostly parts of Dwemer make that she needs. Now, you should have some rest, Rossarm. I will show you back to your quarters." 

It was now long after Meesei walked away with Rossarm that she started to deliver on her promise of an explanation. Though, she did wait until they were inside just to make sure that Neesa was not still in earshot. "So, as is rather obvious, Hal-Neesa is a vampire. One that is truly ancient, and currently in the service of Molag Bal. If her own account can be believed, she was born a slave to the Ayleids, just before the time of the Alessian Slave Rebellions. We do not exactly have any way to confirm that, but she is powerful, and she [i]does[/i] speak the Dwemer language, and has considerable knowledge of the operation of their machines. In any case, she is no one that I would normally desire as a friend. She is dangerous, arrogant, and sees all of us as little more than children compared to her. But, we do need her. Or rather, the master she serves. Our attack against Vile is going to require the power of a Daedric Prince other than Hircine, and Molag Bal is the only one we have found who is willing to become directly involved. Certainly for his own, selfish reasons."

[hr]

Narsi did not react as Julan expected, but that did not cause him to lose his composure. He focused his blade on parrying her axe to protect himself, though he could not act quickly enough to give himself an opening to counterattack with it. Unlike Lorag, he did not predict her attacks before she made them, nor did he always come up with the perfect response to punish her mistakes. However, he could still press an advantage when he saw it. Narsi kept wanting to press close, but he realized that a grapple would be to his advantage. When he saw the opening for it, Julan let go of his own blade so that he could grab Narsi's wrist securely in his hand to control her weapon. Then, he gave up on struggling for the shield, and instead got his arm over her shoulder and through himself on her to wrestle her to the ground. Not only was he older, but his innate strength made the gap in physical power between them larger than Narsi was probably expecting.