EliteCommander Member

Ahnasha responded with a slight chuckle. "Yeah, who knows how long it will be before everything lines up to bring us back here. Rhazii might be walking and talking by the time we get the time _and_ gold to make the trip worthwhile. Still, we should at least find the time to look around. Even if we can't buy anything, we might get some ideas for later. You mentioned wine brokers? We might be able to get some recommendations for the future. Or at the very least, we can get some fresh air." Once Rhazii had his fill and the water was at a suitable temperature, Ahnasha put him slowly and carefully into the water. He whined at first, but once he became acclimated to the temperature, he was more than happy to splash around in his bath while Ahnasha worked on cleaning his fur. Luckily, they had the forethought to put a cloth blanket underneath his bath to handle the inevitable spills. "Could you wash his loincloth while I'm doing this, since we already have the water here?" Ahnasha requested. Meesei looked up at the top of the Arcane University's tower. By the architecture alone, it was easy to see that it was a prestigious organization. It would likely seem even more impressive were it not for the presence of the White-Gold Tower at the city center. If she were forced to live inside a city, a place like this would likely be her first choice. There were, of course, people around, but it was not nearly as crowded as the rest of the city. Meesei preferred carrying out her own research to having someone attempt to teach her, but with the sheer amount of resources available at an institute of magical learning such as this, she could only imagine what she could discover. However, her thoughts were interrupted in an instant when Janius mentioned Sabine's name. As soon as Meesei turned to see that she was gone, she cursed her own inattention. "Sabine? Xhuth, I should have paid more attention!" Meesei said with a rare outburst of worry and emotion. "You said you saw her in the Arboretum? Ah, she might have found interest in one of the plants, or something like that. Come, let's get back there. Even if she's not there, her scent will be." She said, though her tone was more akin to an order. In this situation, she was very quick to take charge once more.

Ahnasha sat up as well with Rhazii. Since she knew little about the inn, she decided to let Fendros go find something with which to bathe Rhazii. He did not need anything full-sized, and they could find something for themselves after he was asleep. In order to make it easier to get him to sleep, Ahnasha decided to start feeding him while Fendros was away. It had been long enough that he was hungry, anyway. She was still feeding him by the time Fendros returned, but it would take a few minutes to prepare the bath, anyway. "You know, I do wish we could come back to the city with some time and gold. I get the feeling it has a lot more to offer than we'll be able to see." Kaleeth's response was uncertain at best. She understood Janius' meaning, and while she was not angry, it was clearly something she had not thought about before. She was unaware of some of the finer details of Janius' past. She was going to say more, but Janius was quick to move on with a question directed at Meesei. Meesei elected not to become involved with the issue, as it was something that would probably best be dealt with between the two. As for the Arcane University, it was certainly something that captured her attention, but she was wary about being disappointed. "I have to admit, the university is probably the most interesting part of the city to me. I would guess that it contains the greatest concentration of magical knowledge in the Empire, at the very least. I have heard of its great library, but I hesitate to get my hopes up about it. Even if it is open to the public, I would guess that the more interesting texts would be kept locked away. I would not mind seeing it, but if most of us want to move on to something else, I would not mind at all if we skipped it."

I'm in a game at the moment, I'll post shortly

To Ahnasha, Fendros' suggestion certainly felt tempting. Hygiene had not been much of a possibility aboard the ship for most of them. For Rhazii, at least, they had been able to clean him more often due to his small size, but he was due for another bath. Ahnasha smiled. 'I think I like that idea. Maybe we could give Rhazii a quick bath, then I could try to put him to sleep so we can...have one of our own?" She said, her tone becoming more suggestive. Kaleeth was not as familiar with Cyrodilic euphemisms as those in Jel, but she knew Janius well-enough to know he was nervous. Once her suspicion formed, she cocked her head to the side with a gaze that was both still curious, but also slightly suspicious. "So you brought women here to enjoy the beauty of the garden...then what?" Her tone was not angry, but it was not quite as innocent as many of the other awkward questions she had asked since joining the pack.

Even with the pain Alaira was in, Ssarak could not help but to feel anger towards her. This entire situation was her doing, and now the unnecessary fight was unavoidable. Even so, Ssarak needed to keep a calm head, as rash action could only lead to more harm. It was almost assured that they were _going_ to fight, so now, he needed to focus on pushing the odds as far in their favor as possible. Currently, he, Meirin, and Darius formed a barrier between the guards and the cart, Lyn, and a crippled Alaira. Meirin had shifted to intimidation tactics, something with which Ssarak believed he could help. "Enough!" Ssarak shouted, stomping one foot onto the stone road and clutching his weapon tightly. He took on a much more aggressive stance, and as well, created a subtle illusion to make himself seem even more imposing than he already was. The robed man would have to be a fool to not recognize that he was harming Alaira, so there was no point in trying to keep it secret. He was trying to harm Alaira, and with the outrageous demands he had given, Ssarak suspected that it was wealth on his mind. "Get out of her mind! Her first attack was unprovoked, but you have pushed this too far. That attack was _your_ doing." Ssarak said, looking specifically at the psychomancer. "You are trying to force your men into a fight which will be their end, all for your own gain." Ssarak hoped that, if there was any pre-existing ill-will between any of the guards, he might be able to play off of it to shake their resolve, but just to be safe, he decided to drive in one more point. "I do not want to fight, but do not think for a second that I cannot. I have spent my life as a soldier. I have faced armies of men, Esyire, and demons alike. I was raised on the battlefield. Do not think for a second that a small group of under-equipped, malnourished guardsmen are beyond my capabilities. You have your toll, now let us pass, or make the last mistake of your lives." Ssarak growled, his outward anger masking his inward composure. As well, he started to put pressure on the psychomancer's wards in the hopes of distracting him from Alaira.

As the others rushed for the exit, Shir determined that it was time for her to join them herself. Her volley of fire had been keeping some of the enemy suppressed, but they were still returning fire, albeit less accurately. Cautiously, Shir began to back up while still keeping up her suppressive fire and focusing on defending herself. Seeing as they were now down to only one opponent, the clones became more aggressive. Two of them were hit, one potentially fatally, when they stepped out into her line of fire, but they did not seem deterred. Their value for their own lives was considerably weaker than their desire to fulfill their orders. As Shir drew close enough to the escape tunnel, she dashed backwards quickly to make it inside. Fortunately, she was not hit during the maneuver, but with how narrow the corridor was, someone still had to keep up a defense until the door was closed. The clones, meanwhile, focused all of the fire they could on the entrance, now completely undeterred by Shir's suppressing fire. Shir dropped the rifle, pulled her shoto to her other hand, and placed all of her focus into defending against the incoming shots. If she was lucky, the passage would close before she was hit.

Ahnasha gave a slight chuckle. "Yeah, as it turns out, mental scarring and night terrors are things that lycans are...uniquely experienced with. With such a large pack, they are bound to have some sort of mages or scholars among them. It would be helpful for dealing with the issues of the freshly turned. But even if they don't, we will find something, somewhere, to help us. Even if we have to travel to every corner of Tamriel, we _will_ find something." She said before interrupting his response with a kiss. Given the amount of resources the Empire put into the appearance of their city, the Arboretum was well-designed to be peaceful and relaxing. The way the plants looked against the elegant white stone of the buildings and other structures certainly carried its own kind of beauty. Given how truly impressive the natural world could be, it was not something that any city could perfectly emulate, but the Arboretum had its own, unique charm. While Meesei simply looked around to admire some of the unfamiliar flowers, Lorag gave a grin and a chuckle at Janius' comment. Given what he knew about the kind of person Janius used to be, and the stereotypically romantic feel of the Arboretum, he made his own assumptions about the kinds of memories Janius was talking about. "Yeah, I'm sure your lizard lover would love to hear _all_ about those." Kaleeth simply looked at Janius with an expectant curiosity, waiting for him to elaborate.

Rareth shrugged her shoulders, though she quickly realized that it would probably be best to sit still. "Hmm, sure, why not? We've known each other for a little over a year. I was a part of a mission that could be seen as a sort of precursor to this joint operations group, actually. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how specific I can get with the details yet. With how new this organization we are a part of is, I'm not sure what is and isn't classified to everyone else. I'll tell you all about it later, if I can. What I can say, though, is that mission is where I met Telmeck." She said, pausing for a moment to go over in her mind what details were and were not public records. "At the time, he was Rothian military, one of the scouts on location. During the mission, he proved himself a cut above the rest of his team, so much so that I recommended him to elevation into the Rahn'Masser. As you can see, my recommendation was approved, and he is now an agent like myself." Once she had answered Shiva's question, Rareth decided to ask one of her own. "Say, how much do you know about the Rahn'Masser?"

Ahnasha laid down beside Fendros, holding Rhazii between them. Even if it was a serious matter, she wanted to avoid turning the conversation to the same kind of depressed, and even painful tone that they always ended up with whenever they talked about it. She wanted to keep at least some kind of good spirit in her response. "You think it's embarrassing for you? Try being me in all of this. It's hard to maintain the image of a strong and independent hunter when you're cowering in fear at your own thoughts." After a few moments, Ahnasha let out a sigh and turned her head to face him. She placed a hand on his cheek, turned his head toward her, then pressed her forehead against his. "Look, once we get to the pack in Bruma...maybe we will find someone there who can. It had plenty of members from all over, and we might just get lucky. Until then, we'll just take the remedy when we can, and comfort each other for the rest of the time." "Well...I guess that makes sense." Kaleeth answered, somewhat unconvinced. "I mean, fighting is a serious and dangerous thing. I don't see how someone could watch it for entertainment, but...I guess they are different from me." She concluded. As the others were starting to walk off, she looked up at the arena one more time. "For all those people, they must have a really big pot for all that gold." She remarked before following. As they approached the statues, only Lorag and Janius actually recognized who they depicted, though Lorag was not exactly interested in a history lesson. Kaleeth of course did not recognize them, but that was to be expected. Meesei knew of the people the statues represented, but she could not actually identify them just by sight. Given her interest in history, Meesei was actually spoke up before Kaleeth could. "Who are they? I have read some Cyrodilic history, but I would not know what most of its important figures look like. Mostly, I can only recognize its Emperors, like Tiber Septim."

While Shuo went off to the bridge, Rareth started off in the direction of the infirmary with Shiva and whoever else wanted to follow. As was standard, a medical team was ready to meet them in the hanger, so the medics did spot her wound fairly quickly. Of course, they did insist on taking her to the infirmary and treating her themselves, but she was just as insistent on walking there under her own power and allowing Shiva to be the one to heal her. She explained it was because Shiva had already been treating her injury and was already familiar enough with it to heal it quickly, which was partially true, but mostly, Rareth found that she actually preferred magical healing to more traditional methods. Rareth was still definitely sore, and she could feel a partially broken rib biting into her, but it was not too difficult to hide the pain. Once in the infirmary, the medical staff guided her to an empty cot, then reluctantly allowed Shiva to take over. Rareth's armor could be removed in sections, but due to the blood, the infirmary staff was insistent on taking and sanitizing it, so she just went ahead and removed the entire suit. The now-visible wound was closed, but obviously very bruised, which indicated there might still be some bleeding underneath. "Alright, I'll let you get to work." Rareth said as she laid down on her back, still breathing slowly and carefully.