...Left half, right half?

Works as well as anything for a first pass.

Cool. Eridani will take right.

Wyld will head left, then.

And... to work.

For what's reported by and about Dau'ukar (which Eridani finds first):

There's a wide range of reports, some of them more transcripts of verbal reports - some from Hhazrik's older brother, from very early in the war before he was slain in an ambush. (The report on which was given by an apparently emotionless Hhazrik.)

They describe a Principality scrambling to mount a defense against an unexpected invasion - and doing surprisingly well, it sounds like, but...

Hhazrik's earliest reports actually go into very exhaustive detail, often with no embellishment. The level of detail very slowly tapers off over time, and... Something's odd, possibly.

Eridani does probably have all of the Dau'ukar reports here, unless something has been misfiled, if she wants to call Wyld over to read through them with her.

Hum. Maybe she'll have a useful perspective.

She comes over, settling in with Eridani to read. 

The early forms help, really. They give a very good inside view into the functioning of the Dau'ukar Principality, even if it's through a lens of warfare. (Something Eridani is less familiar with, but, bureaucracy is bureaucracy and politics are politics, even if you put a sword in the paper pusher's hand, and many leaders were soldiers first.) (Something Wyld is very familiar with.)

But... There's a breaking point, sharp and sudden, immediately after a transcript that notes, rather obliquely, that Princes Jhalij and Hhazrik had an altercation - the system described is wrong. The events and locations reported don't flow perfectly with what's been established previously. There's - errors. Misdirections, and the skipped details aren't just sloppiness from a rushed life - they're at critical points to anyone trying to get a fine grained picture of the situation on the ground.

It builds up slowly, but the reports draw more and more into describing a Principality detached from what was initially laid out. They can't be fully certain, of course, they haven't seen the situation on the ground, but...

Nearly every report since Hhazrik's last in-person Council session has something odd about it.

"...So things are being hidden from the Council. Either by Hhazrik or someone intercepting her messages."

"Yep."

"Though, whoever's intercepting her messages would need to be very good or very familiar with both Hhazrik and Dau'ukar and the wider Principalities - this is all plausible, especially if you aren't reading closely."

"And especially if you're just experienced enough to realize the situation on the ground could easily be complicated enough to produce this much noise - or if you're experienced enough in systems with low bureaucratic infrastructure to know it's extremely difficult to get that much detail to report in the first place, but not imaginative enough to know it can be done, let alone in one lifetime, and you're assuming Hhazrik's been embellishing since the start."

"The Principalities aren't complex in a way that'd produce this much detail - everyone else's reports are likely normal within the limits of what their infrastructure can manage, and honestly what I saw of Hikep's bare bones reports felt more like 'they don't have a notable bureaucracy' than 'they're hiding something.'"

"This is - effectively tailored to trip up someone assuming Dau'ukar has the same lack of a bureaucracy."

"Either that, or they do actually lack this much of a bureaucracy, and Hhazrik did in fact just stop putting effort into embellishing."

"Taking a tour in person of that province is looking more and more appealing."

"Absolutely. Even if we weren't trying to unravel this mystery - if they're actually getting that much detail on their province, I wanna go whine at the Prince until she'll let me shadow some of her bureaucrats. I've been having a hell of a time getting even so much as a non-indiscriminate tax collection system properly up and running."

"It's a date, then."

Giggle. "A somewhat strange date, but I'll take it."

"Well, it's a bit open-ended. Plenty of time to twist it around."

"It'll make the bureaucracy much less tedious."

"A pleasant little thought to keep you going."

"A frequent opportunity for a break in the routine."

"Yep!" Kiss.

Kiss!!!

Giggle.

"Want to take a look at anything else while we're here?"

"Yeah. The province's older stuff - also some of the other Principalities' records, though we'd have to be a bit sneaky since we aren't supposed to look at those."

"It is the middle of the night. I'd say we're well on the way to sneaky."

"So long as we don't make a racket on our breaks."