Alric chuckled softly, offering a lighthearted, reassuring smile, projecting both sympathy and confidence--in particular, careful that his council should sound more diplomatic, or even friendly, than judgmental.

"There may indeed be such an agenda; but there are more than a few innocents, here, who deserve, I believe, some modicum of subtlety and discretion in the means by which we seek to identify it. I have my own suspicions, of course, but would you not rightly scold me, were I to visit distress upon those who merely live here, in my search for answers?"