"So I'll watch what I eat and drink, watch strangers, watch my back," Lianda concludes. "Until they're done or gone."

"I still think you should remove your family from the city for a time, and leave here yourself, all in secret," Ena says, softly.

Lianda considers that, then shakes her head. "No. That just kicks the problem down the line. More your style, than mine. I prefer not to make problems for future Lianda. I'll leave - but I'll do so publicly. They want me? Let them know exactly where I plan to make my stand. The fewer bystanders around, the better. As for my children…" She makes a frustrated noise. "Babette will wait patiently if I just keep coming and going, won't she? Which does, in fact, mean moving them, at least until this is done. But my point about the complete lack of safety anywhere on this damn continent still stands. Except…"

She leans back, sighs, and continues with, "The Museum has a safehouse. Multiple. I don't want to alarm my kids, but if smoking out the Brotherhood isn't likely to take too long…" She rubs at her face. "I'll have to think on it. And if I'm sending them anywhere, I'll likely want to accompany them." She glances to Serana. "You alright with a delay?"

Serana hums. "I don't have a problem with it, a few more months hardly makes a difference, but my father's unlikely to agree. And I don't think you want more of his agents after them, either."

Lianda shakes her head. "No, no I don't. And I promised to help you, which means moving them after we get you where you're going." She groans. "Why does everything happen at once?"

"Time has it out for you personally," Ena says, wryly. "Thought you would've noticed by now."

Her sister doesn't seem particularly amused by that, judging by her exasperated glance. Lianda then returns her gaze to the ceiling, clearly thinking deeply.

Lianda sighs. "I'm leaning Whiterun, but - that's a month and a half out at their pace. I could manage it in less on my own, but that still makes for a massive delay. And, unless they leave in secret - hard to do with children - there's nothing to stop your assassin from following them there.

Ena hums, leans forwards. "Can you send them without you? I know it's less safe - but you'll have people after Serana, and your personal enemies are a dime a dozen. Send a courier - you're bound to have someone in Whiterun representing your interests, right - and get a group to meet your kids halfway. You have friends here, too, who could reasonably have business - can't your Museum friend send some adventurer with them?"

Lianda considers that. "I have Lydia here with them - she's strong, if not at 'solo a dragon' levels - and a friend in the Companions who can get around fast. Malielle could possibly be persuaded to send someone, yes, and I have enough friends among the adventurers connected to the Museum to find a few. Stealth's a different concern - I'm not going to be able to hide them arriving, even assuming I can hide their departure."

"You just need to hide it long enough to draw the assassin out," Ena points out. "And you can accompany them just about to Dragonbridge - that'll cover at least five of the days - before turning aside. Though I'm not sure how you'd balance leaving publicly with removing your family secretly."

"Have them set out ahead of me, probably in the early morning, then at midday make a big deal about where I'm going, catch up to them," Lianda says, "But if we want the assassin following me, we don't want her knowing where I'm sending my kids. I'm not sure how to tangle her up while they're leaving, though, especially if she's been able to move around in the day..."

"She hasn't been, really - she was keeping well out of the sunlight, and she's usually lethargic when the sun's up even if she's underground. She's got something that allows her to go out in the sun, but she's still at a severe disadvantage when she does," Ena says.

"So morning is probably a good time to send them - if it was just the assassin, I'd say midday, but by then more gossips are out and about." Lianda huffs, leans back a bit. "I hate this cloak and dagger stuff, but even the guards here get annoyed at me if I get into fights in the street. Plus, throwing magic and weapons around in the city's dangerous. Why can't everyone respond to a challenge to a duel at high noon like normal people."

Ena exchanges a despairing glance with Serana. Serana seems more amused than 'why is this my life', but Ena will take what little scraps of sympathy she can get.

"Some Nords I've known would be quite eager for that," Serana says, hiding a smile behind her hand.

"Well, brawls are something different - not that I haven't made plenty of friends that way… Anyways, assassins would hardly play by regulations." She shakes her head. "If you have nothing else for me, Ena, I'll go start dropping word that I'm back - and leaving already."

"No, nothing really," Ena says. "I'd offer to accompany you, but I think I'll be better served prowling the streets. Keep an eye out for any attempts, try to find where the two are holing up…"

Lianda raises an eyebrow, but doesn't respond other than to nod. "I suppose you'll either catch up to me or slink off," she says. "You're welcome to tag along - either with the two of us or the kids."

"I'll consider it," Ena says, feeling a bit evasive.

Her sister lets that slide, pays their bill, and then heads out.

Lianda stops back in at the Museum to request an escort from Malielle, then heads almost immediately to the Winking Skeever, Solitude's largest inn and usually the first choice of visitors from the mainland. She keeps her eyes open, but doesn't see any suspicious kids or old men hanging about. She supposes she wouldn't, though.

She's welcomed quite heartily by the inn's regulars, and she waves off any questions about her new friend with a laugh and a, "Oh, just someone I picked up. She needed an escort, and I can never say no to a pretty face."

Her friends laugh at that, and one man doesn't even up from his cards to say, "Or an ugly face. You helped this old man plenty of times," as he elbows the man to his right.

"I think he's quite classically handsome," Lianda says, brow arched, before a scuffle can break out. The men all laugh, and start needling each other - and Lianda, of course.

She elaborates a bit more later in the night - yes, she's headed up north, she needed to stop in Solitude to pick up cold weather gear, she's not planning on passing by Meridia's Shrine so can't leave a token for you, sorry (that conversation is held in hushed tones - Meridia's the least terrifying of the Princes, and she's had a resurgence in followers since the vampire attacks and wandering draugr picked up, but she still isn't liked). She's heading out around noon tomorrow, expects to be gone right near a month, maybe a bit less if she makes good time and none of the passes are blocked with snow.

She keeps her ears open, too, and notices Serana paying keen attention to the soft murmur and flow of conversation. There's rumors aplenty, many of them from far-flung reaches - one of them enough to drag her attention briefly away from her task.

"Markarth's jarl is dead, I tell you!" one haggard man proclaims, waving his arms widely. People are beginning to turn to him, as a hush falls in the face of the news. "I fled the city, rode my horse into the ground and ran over the hills - the news won't have come yet, that woman, Oblivion take her, killed everyone who gave a hint of opposing her, and secured all the messenger birds first."

"What woman?" someone in the crowd calls, her hand tense around her mug.

"Some Forsworn - those savages were calling her Aithne, though it was mixed in with that barbaric tongue of theirs," he replies, red in the face and shivering.

Lianda doesn't start, but it's close.

She knows that name - had heard it mentioned a few times, when she stayed in Markarth on her way from Hammerfell. Her friend Maeghin had called the woman an upstart. Ambitious. Clever. Ruthless. Often quiet, but with a watching air to her. Charismatic and divisive. He'd been confiding in Lianda about the turmoil among his people after Madanach's capture, and the assorted personalities stepping in to take advantage. (She'd suspected there was more going on than he'd admitted, of course.)