Corinthe, Pellitine (Southern Elsweyr) --- Weeks ago, a Khajiit by the name of S'arah was merely a smuggler boss. Few months ago, she was part of a Ka Po' Tun mercenary group along with Adi Tuah and few others. But now, after a period complete chaos following the Mane's death, S'arah became the adviser to the mayor of Corinthe. Her web of connections and capabilities for covert operations netted her this position beside the new mayor. In fact, she organized the mob that lynched the old mayor, after he declared his nephew as the reborn Mane. While she publicly directed various daily business for the mayor, S'arah was always on the lookout for her original goal, to gain control of the region or disrupt it prior to the main invasion. As various obstacles presented themselves to the newly independent Southern Elsweyr, the difficulty of her job increased steadily. Embargoes, propaganda and pirate raids, S'arah was ready to disappear back East and collect whatever payment Abasi-Kil feels like paying. Except that she hadn't done much after Adi Tuah's stunt, which probably meant that her payment would be from miniscule to non-existent. Sighing in disappointment, the disguised tigress went about her daily check up with her smugglers, or the Corinthe militia, as they were recently promoted to. "This one brought good news," a smuggler/militiaman reported. "We have defeated a scout party from the north, we even captured one of the scums." "Who is this scout? And what of our operation in Takar?" S'arah pressed on. She sent these cats out to subdue a possible northern hideout, though there was no order for capture. "Takar is no more, we burned it to the ground." the militiaman answered. "The scout's name is Ta'fel, that one won't say anything more than that." S'arah nodded in understanding before sending the Khajiit away. She continued her journey to the jail cell, where a detachment of her "militia" now gathered with the mayor. "Ah, my dear friend." The mayor greeted. S'arah knew the man to be a hands-on ruler, who preferred to personally oversee urgent matters. "I was just about to...greet our new guest." Joining her "superior", S'arah made her way inside the dungeon. She saw Ta'fel chained against a wall, with a table full of wicked instruments on the other side of the room. The mayor grabbed a spike from the table and held it close to the northerner's face, he spoke in a angered tone. "Tell us what you were doing, traitor scum. You don't want know what these tools can do." Ta'fel simply shook his head, muttering a Ta'agra curse unknown to S'arah. The mayor, already in a furious mood, took a brief step back, before embedding the spike into Ta'fel's shoulder. The metal instrument twisted with a sickening sound, withdrawing bits of flesh and bone. Ta'fel screamed on top of his lungs, as the pain shattered his body in ways he could not imagine. Even in grave pain, Ta'fel once again shook his head. This time, he gathered the blood from his mouth and spat right into the mayor's face. The mayor was surely over the edge now, as he wiped his face with his pocket cloth, he grabbed far more sinister looking instrument from the table. "Wait," S'arah interrupted. "Violence would get us nowhere. I have a alchemical solution just for this kind of occasion. You have to trust me." "Fine," the mayor spat. He returned his tool to the table and took a brief glance back before leaving "This one shall return in two hours. Just you wait, northern trash." S'arah sighed in relief at the mayor's departure. The cat was a strong warrior, a hotheaded fighter, not a calculating leader. This was preciously the reason why she was called upon to advise him, her reasoning often prevented the mayor from making some recklessly stupid moves. Just as in this case, the mayor would no doubt beat his prisoner to death, which would remove their chance for information and anger the north into an attack. Thankfully, with the two hours she got, S'arah had ample time to procure a truth serum and extract all the information she needed. After recording the words from Ta'fel's unwilling mouth, S'arah released him in secret and sent Ta'fel back north with a bloodied shoulder. Some time later, S'arah took her findings to the mayor, who had been drunk on his personal wine reserve and was sleeping soundly on his lavish bedding. The tigress simply dropped her report on a desk before heading back to the militia headquarters. This time, her militia captured another prisoner, an "Imperial" human, as the locals called them. The man, a messenger, seemingly lost in the desert while trying to deliver his message. "Now what," she asked impatiently. "Imperial dog here has some kind of letter," said the militiaman. "He got lost on his way to Orcrest. Haha, will you look at this fool." "Right, hand us the letter and start running north." "Wait, that one cannot escape. What if he..." the militiaman did not finish his sentence before S'arah snatched the letter and paddled away. --- A carriage between Elsweyr and Black Marsh --- S'arah only packed a small rucksack before leaving. Inside the bag were potion bottles, a hereditary moonstone dagger, the governmental crust of Corinthe and the letter. Apparently, the lizard "Argonians" are hosting a summit in some place called "Stormhold". The Khajiits were not invited directly but the Imperials insisted on their attendance. S'arah had left immediately after reading the letter. She did not need the mayor's opinion, if the cat does wake up, he will find her reports on Ta'fel's information and "escape" from the prison. In addition, she also forwarded her militiamen's advice on dealing with pirate, which included rerouting shipping paths, organizing escort vessels and posting bounties. Finally, she submitted her intention for the summit. Whether the mayor approved or not, it did not matter, for S'arah had crust and the dagger to back her "authority". An amazing opportunity, the tigress thought. This information meant lucrative bonus to her; the Tsaesci general would be delighted to hear that all of his preys are in one cage, for a simple decapitating blow would cut off many heads...