The assassination attempt may have been the flashiest item on the agenda, but it wasn't the only one. "Cimen is ready to brief you on what analytics has come up with on Lady Cerona's incident. Sylona has a personal matter that she would like to speak with you about. We have a new arrival and I know you like to greet them personally. And Miss Nirsus is at the gate, she wants to speak with you."

I'd been expecting that. "Is Cimen going to tell me anything I don't already know?"

Scroll shook her head, "No ma'am."

I skimmed another one of the papers. "Then, all due respect to Cimen and his people, but have him summarize it into a memorandum, and send Miss Nirus in, oh and fetch me two glasses."

A few minutes later, Pasala Nirus of the Black Horse Courier, the most reputable public news source for the past thousand years, was sitting across from me.

"So," she said slowly, "what do you have for me?"

"The Count of Skingrad is trying to kill his niece." No point in holding that back.

"I know, I figured that out three hours ago. How'd you figure it out?" That did not surprise me in the slightest. If I'd been objective like I should have been, I'd have done the same.

I poured us each a half a glass of wine, "Worked over the arcane tattoo artist that did the enchantments on the Disciples. You?"

She took a long swig of her wine, "I checked the exchange notices against the records for the Count of Skingrad's mining interests. There were discrepancies, so I talked to some cart drivers. A few bottles of decent whisky and a few warm meals later, they told me that a couple of shipments had been taken off the books and sent to the Jerall Mountains. Shipments of gold ore." She raised her hand, counting off her fingers as she spoke. "The Count of Skingrad sends a few off the books shipments of the only form of payment the Disciples accept, to the region where the Disciples make their home, in the weeks before the Disciples make an attempt on the life of his sole living heir." The corner of her mouth quirked up into a grin. "The math isn't that hard to work out."

I chuckled, taking a sip of my own wine, "Sala, one of these days you're going to sell out and join my Intelligence office."

Pasala laughed to, "Maybe, but not today." She took another drink and her grin faltered, "All kidding aside, how's Livia holding up?"

I grimaced, "About as well as can be expected. Cassie's with her now."

Nirus nodded sympathetically, "This isn't her level. There's a reason that your stuff goes on the front page and her stuff goes in the gossip column. A power play in the circles she travels in is tripping someone on a dance floor." She wrinkled her nose in disgust, "Not the slaughterhouse that they turned Livia's house into."

"Speaking of which, we need to talk about your story." This was the part she wouldn't like.

Nirus poured herself another glass, "Yes, how much time do you need to clean this thing up and get Liva set up before I run it. I don't want to rush her after what she just went through, but we need to handle this before the count makes another attempt," Her mouth twitched into a grin again, "And before another publisher can scoop me."

"Actually," I said tentatively, "I'd prefer it if you didn't run that as part of the story. I'd prefer you focus on Officer Meres's bravery in saving Livia."

Nirus took a long drink and poured herself yet another, then looked at me with one eyebrow arched. "You have got to be kidding me," her tone was deadpan. I'd known her long enough to know that this was her equivalent of screaming and cursing.

"No," I kept my tone firm but undemanding. "I need to set Meres up for an appointment with the Ministry of Justice. And as for the count," I waved my hand dismissively, "He'll die within a few months. If this gets out now, there'll be a big scandal, the Emperor will use it as an excuse to hold up the transition of the title and call for a Council Review. It'll be a mess, much better if everyone just assumes this was a terrible attack by madmen and the count slips quietly into Oblivion."

She glared at me, passion burning in her gaze, "The people have a right to know that their leaders are trying to murder one another."

This was an old argument that I knew I didn't want to get sucked into, but I couldn't help myselt. "Why?" I asked, a bit more venom in my voice than there should have been. "What obligates us to give information that we uncovered through great amounts of time, effort, and skill, to the average peon for a half septim on a street corner?" I folded my arms, "I'm an educated woman Pasala, and I've studied the Aedric texts as well as any priest. I've found nothing that suggests such a moral requirement."

Nirus started tapping her ring against my desk, a nervous gesture that signaled her irritation. "The people have a right to know because it's the only way society can function properly." She was going to bring up the Interregnum again, I knew it. "If the people had known half of the scheming of your breed, the Stormcrown Interregnum wouldn't have lasted half as long or have been half as brutal. They wouldn't have stood for it."

I rubbed my temples, "You have a much higher estimation of what the people will and won't stand for Pasala, but this isn't the time or place for that argument. What's it going to take for you to run the Meres story instead of the count?"

I knew the story she wanted to run with. Out it came, one word, "Telain."

"No," came my usual reply, like fire from a dragon's mouth.

Nirus persisted, "Come on Bella, a simple piece, just introducing your little girl to society."

"Print a word about Telain and our friendship is over." There would be other consequences of course, and she knew it, but those didn't need to be spoken aloud.

Nirus sighed, she wasn't going to get anywhere with this, we both knew it. "Fine, what's Aurelia up to these days?"

This I could barter with, "Skyrim, the place has more ruins than Coldharbor, she's ecstatic about it."

"I want first dibs on the story when she makes her major discovery, and I want a personal account." She rapped her ring particularly loudly against the desk, "An archeologist braving a warzone to learn the wisdom of the ancients, people will eat it up. If I can't report something that matters, the least I can do is sell some papers."

I could live with that, "Deal, no promises on her making any major discoveries though."

Nirus actually snorted, we both knew that wasn't true. My sister couldn't trip over her skirts without finding an ancient Ayleid ruin or a Dwemer machination. "Alright, I'll write your stupid fluff piece."

She stood up and I followed suit. Stepping around my desk we gave each other a quick hug. "Give Livia my best, I'll be around again sometime this week to check up on her." That quirky little smile came back, "Maybe write a personal interest piece on her recovery."

I chuckled and said my goodbyes, then dropped back into my chair and went back to sipping my wine and skimming my documents. It may have looked effortless in the moment, it had to, but appearing as an omniscient mistress of manipulation required a lot of work. Certainly it was made much easier and more feasible by the employment of a large and well-funded, well-trained, spy network, a cadre of a hundred expert analysts to interpret the intelligence gathered, and a dozen speech crafters to plan remarks for any and all occasions, and a horde of servants to take care of everything else. I thought of it as a grand performance; in a play, if everything is done right, the audience only sees the actors, never the hundreds of hands that make the performance possible.

I have a natural charisma, an above average intellect, and a well-earned social instinct, but I'd be the first to admit that I would never be achieve my level of success without such a well-developed support system. After a few minutes, Scrolls came back in, swapping out the documents yet again. "Sylona is waiting outside mistress." She pointed to one paper in particular, "I took the liberty of adding her file to the packet."

"Thank you Scroll, send her in." It was a good thing she'd brought the file, I try and get to know as many of my people as I can personally, but when the number reaches into the hundreds, it can get difficult to keep track of them all.

I skimmed over the dossier, Sylona Lorant, technically Lady Sylona Lorant. Daughter of a Dominus, a minor noble under the Countess of Bruma. She ran away from home to escape an arranged marriage, ended up on the streets of the Imperial city, Theodora found her and sent her my way. She'd been serving in the villa for the past year.

She was a wispy little thing, her Breton ancestry clear in her skin tone. I noted that she was one of those who had adopted the ways of Dibella into her uniform. She bowed low when she entered the room, then stood as stiff as a legionnaire on parade. "Thank you for taking the time to see me… I'm sorry I'm not sure what to refer to you as, my lady, or mistress?"

I set down the papers, "My lady, mistress, madam, whatever you like. Call me Bella if it you prefer. I'm not one for formalities with my staff." Mostly true, I usually just let them call me as they wished and never bothered correcting them.

"Alright my… Bella, I… I don't know how to go about this." The shyness, if I wasn't mistaken, was unusual for her. In the interactions with her that I remembered, she was a rather vibrant and outgoing girl.

"Please," I gestured towards the chair across from me, "make yourself comfortable. Would you like something to drink?" I refilled my glass, "If you would like something else, I can have Scroll get it for you."

She did as directed, maintaining her rigid posture, "No ma'am, I'm fine."

"Please, I abhor drinking alone." Certainly not true, I was no lush, but a stiff drink at the end of a long day was quite pleasant. And I had built up quite a tolerance, when one must at times attend seven balls in one night, one requires such. Still, she needed loosening up. "Here, I have just the trick."

I poured the wine back into the bottle and resealed it, putting it back in my desk. Then I stood up and turned to the painting behind me. I blew on it and the illusion and ward faded away, behind it lay a small shelf. On the shelf rested a small curved dagger with a blade of pure black glass, a book bound in dark red leather with glowing daedric runes on the cover, and a dusty glass bottle of amber liquid.

I grabbed the bottle, "I like to save this for special occasions, I don't know why." Opening the bottle, I filled my glass and hers, when I finished and resealed the bottle, it was still full. "There's some kind of enchantment on the bottle, it never empties, and no matter how hard you smash it, the glass won't break."

She eyed the liquid, "May I ask ma'am, what is it?"

I held the bottle up to the light, "I'll be honest, I don't quite know. Some kind of ancient barbarian sack-mead by the taste. The bottle's enchantment extends to the mead, preventing it from turning. My sister found it in a ruin and gifted it to me. She estimates it to date back to the time of Ysgramor, possibly being from Atmora itself."

"I can understand why you take it out so rarely." She raised her glass, "To the Goddess and your ladyship."

I raised my own and returned the toast, "To the Goddess and your ladyship."

She seemed surprised at the reciprocated respect, but we downed our drinks as one. A second later, we were both coughing and sputtering. The mead was probably the strongest drinkable alcohol in the Empire, if not Tamriel.

Sylona attempted to recompose herself, "It's… cough… a touch strong Lady Bella."

I nodded, getting myself back in order. This always happened and I'd found a shared bout of coughing fits really shattered the ice. "Yes, now please, what was it that you wanted to talk about?"

The shot of incredibly heady liquid confidence, had certainly helped shake her loose, still she spoke at the pace of a runaway horse. "My lady, Bella, you've been so kind. That is, to take me in. I want to do more to repay you." She grew oddly jittery as she spoke, and after finishing the sentence, she grabbed the bottle of mead and poured herself another glass, then slammed it back in a second shot. It went down easier this time, the second was always easier in my experience. Inured with this second dose of courage, she finally got to her point, "I wish to serve under Lady Cassiopeia."

I frowned, "I'm not quite sure you understand what that means."

She nodded in contradiction, "My lady I do, we, the other servants and I that is, we understand that a number of us undertake special tasks in the name of your ladyship at the direction of Lady Cassiopeia." I knew this of course, one could have such a large group of young people, or people in general, and expect rumors not to spread.

Sylona continued, her words still flooding out of her mouth like a dam had burst. "I expect I can be quite good at it. I am quite fast, and though not intensely strong, I am rather agile. I can climb well and I have good eyesight. I can transcribe documents quickly and I have a good memory." She was rambling now, this wasn't the first appeal I'd had to serve in such a capacity, but she certainly didn't fit the average mold.

Usually, they were quiet, calm, barely speaking as they took a seat in front of me. They rarely bothered with more than the basic respectful pleasantries before coming out with it. I glanced down at her file, she was only just seventeen, the same age as Auri. I looked back up at her, she was still going on. "…And, my lady, I don't think I'll have much trouble in seduction." To prove her point, she stood, reached behind her and pulled a ribbon at her waist. Her clothes fell away like petals on a flower and a second later, she was standing entirely naked before me.

She was beautiful for her age, though to my trained eye there were slight imperfections. There were some small bumps on her shoulders from her transition to womanhood that had yet to leave her. A small scar from some childhood accident resided on her knee. Her musculature was a tad uneven and parts of her skin were darker or paler than others. There were other bits and things that would go away with age and careful sculpting as they had with me. She would be a ravishing young woman. Still, there was more to seduction than that, and yet more to serving my interests as Cassie's ilk.

"Tell me Sylona," I stepped around the desk, "Do you truly wish to serve me this way? What makes me worthy of such dedication?"

On this, she spoke with conviction. "You have taken me under your wing Lady Bella, you have given me hearth and home and gave me a family better than my own blood ever provided. I will serve you in any way I can."

I closed my eyes, "If you do undertake this, you will be asked to do things you may not be comfortable with." I opened my eyes again and locked them with Sylona's, "Could you lay with someone, whispering your eternal devotion to them, be held in their arms, all while sliding a blade into their heart?"

I could practically see her heart flutter, but her voice was stone. "For you Lady Bella, certainly."

I pressed harder, hating myself for the harshness with which I laced my tone. "These will not all be evil men. I am not so arrogant as to believe my own interests synonymous with that of moral goodness. You may be asked to slip poison in a mother's drink as she reads to her child. You may have to pierce the heart of a priest with a bolt as he ministers his flock. You may have to paint heroes of the Legion as the lowest forms of degenerates. Can you do that?"

Again, with a voice of stone she assented, "yes."

I returned to my seat, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath before reopening them. "Alright, I'll speak to Cassie about it, thank you."

"Thank you Lady Bella." She gathered up her clothes and took her leave, I poured myself another drink and went back to my papers. A claw dug at my heart, I don't enjoy sending my people into that particular trade. I accept it's necessity, and I deeply value all those who do it in my name, but turning what amounts to a relatively innocent girl or boy into a trained, ice hearted, killer feels somehow perverse. The trust and dedication to me certainly did nothing to alleviate that guilt.

Scroll returned, standing in the doorway, "The new arrival is here ma'am."

"Alright, please, send her in." My enemies claim I've turned my ancestral villa into a halfway house for the unwanted. As I've said, most of my staff came to me by way of seeking sanctuary. This is partly out of pragmatism and partly out of charity. My father taught me that an act of kindness in the darkest times of a person's life is one of the best ways to get you their loyalty. It was a fascinating enterprise to represent this to my fellow nobles. Pretending an act of charity is purely an act of pragmatism that I'm pretending is an act of charity is an interesting dance.

To my surprise and pleasure, this newcomer was a beautiful high elf in nothing but a long cloak and a set of my underwear. I grinned "Hello Psythia."

She grinned back, a little too darkly. That was her mistake. I grabbed the enchanted bottle and brought it up just in time as a spear of ice shot out at me. The enchanted ice met the enchanted glass, and the enchanted glass won. The magic of the ice broke and it dissipated into hundreds of shards on my desk. Immediately, I spun and grabbed the black glass blade, cutting a wide arc in front of me and sending a scythe of white magical energy hurtling at her.

She neatly sidestepped it and came at me with pair of bound daggers. I flipped over the desk, putting it between us and pointed the blade at her again, the magical energy came forward again, this time forming a bolt. She barely dodged it, stepping around the desk. She advanced on me, I retreated, the open bottle spilling a constant flow of sack-mead in my wake.

"The Thalmor send their regards." A braggart, perfect, just another step.

"Well, I should offer their messenger a drink then." I brought the bottle forward, flinging a large amount of the alcohol at her. She didn't even bother to dodge it, only looking at me in irritation.

"Really," she said angrily, "Accept your death with some dignity at least."

I smirked, "I'd rather not." I pointed the dagger again. The assailant dodged as yet another bolt came flying out.

But I wasn't aiming for her.

The bolt struck the trail of sack-mead, the strong alcohol lighting instantly. The flame raced merrily along the trail towards the elf. She leapt away from the flames, suddenly conscious of her own booze-assisted flammability. The distraction was only a second, but it was enough. I rapidly closed the distance between us. She brought her ethereal blades up to block, but she was off balance. I feinted high and dropped low, the heel of my foot connecting with her shin, then I surged up inside of her guard, planting my blade in the soft flesh behind her chin before twisting it in place and ripping it out.

Just as quickly as I'd advanced, I retreated. She took a step forward and lashed out weakly, her blade never coming close to me, before collapsing in a heap.

Taking a deep breath and a long exhale, I laid the blade and bottle on my desk and tossed away my now blood stained robe and stepped out of my study.

"Ma'am," Scroll looked at me in slight confusion.

"I'm afraid our new guest proved rather homicidal in intention and made a mess in the process. If you would be so good as to have it dealt with, I shall retire to my room for the evening." Scroll nodded and I turned for my bedroom.

"Thirty three and a half," I muttered.

...

And we're back on our normal schedule.

Listen guys, I've got a whole lot of ideas bouncing around in my head and the list is only growing. I've told you about this before, I'm looking for advice on what to continue with. So far I've got ideas going for Skyrim, Fallout 4, Mass Effect Andromeda, Ghost Recon Wildlands, GTA V, Dragon age, and Fallout New Vegas. Which one do you guys think I should do?

Also, while we're on the subject of your input, I'm also considering when the best time to upload is, so I'm also looking for opinions on that. Is the current system of Thursdays and Fridays working well, would different days be better for you guys, and what times would you guys like. This isn't a content issue, so it doesn't really matter to me, I can do whatever's best for you guys.

Give me your thoughts people.

R&R