"Then the Emperor is dead, and the Dragonfires lie unlit for the first time since the Interregnum," the elf surmises, tearing her gaze from you and affixing her gaze to the tower rising over the city behind. As she thinks this news over, the weight of her attention being removed is a relief—before it flicks back, cold and heavy as ever. "Still, then, there is some time before the Daedra are free to interfere, even with the events of Red Mountain…"

Her proclamation is ominous, along with confusing. How could a far-off location and the Emperor's lack of an heir possibly tie back to the Daedra? But such is the nature of wizards, to know much and explain little, and she carries on without a break, her look decidedly more [i]interrogative.[/i] "And what of you? You are manifestly not one of the Emperor's bodyguards, nor do you have the bearing of a spy, and a successful assassin would have left through the same means they arrived, not followed this route to its end."

Given that a cursory exploration would easily have showed that there was no way for the assassins to get [i]in[/i] aside from this woman's assertion that nobody had entered in weeks—and the lack of evidence that they had been camping along the path, waiting for the Emperor's group to pass—it does seem likely that any successful assassin must have used some magical means to enter. And if they could get in that way, why not leave the same? It makes sense.

"So, one group or the other must have permitted your survival. But why?"