"Then we won't return to the castle before we hear from you."

"I still won't know where to send a courier, but if you don't feel like handing me your itinerary I'll leave messages in a few places when I finish - with Malielle, with Lydia in Whiterun, or if there's somewhere else more convenient..."

"Whiterun's central enough to check on whenever we pass. I would've thought you'd have rather threatened us away from the place, though, unless you moved the munchkins while I wasn't looking."

"Oh, you hurt my children, and there won't be any dark corner you can hide in. I am, however, no longer a child myself, and you've historically been protective of them. The records I found indicated that vampirism tends not to result in such drastic changes as that."

"Generally not, no," she agrees. "Whiterun will be fine as a dead drop."

She nods, but - okay this is bothering her.

"Not afraid of my ill influence on Runa?"

"People are more than the sum of their influences. And I know what you did in Hammerfell, and the last time mother's agents came poking around."

"...Oh." She can't really immediately formulate a response to that; she hadn't actually thought Lianda had known anything.

People aren't anything more than the sum of their influences... for a sufficiently broad definition of 'influences' and 'sum'. She will refrain from contributing this.

She sends her sister a more considering look, then, "I think it's best we don't linger."

"Yes. It has, as ever, been a pleasure."

"I doubt the actual reading will take me long, so the information should be there within the next three days, assuming I don't get held up while traveling."

"All right."

"See you two around, I suppose."

And off with the two of them, to put some distance between them and this mountainside before the dawn catches up.

She has no problem with that.

She sends her sister one last glance before leaving, but is quiet.

"You didn't expect your sister's response to you seeing the children."

"Not at all. She used to be a lot more all-or-nothing."

"I guess she's had some personal growth experiences."

"I suppose. We - weren't always all that close, too, so it's not like I get an inside peek at her head frequently... I'm still honestly shocked she knew that much about what I've been doing, though."