After Iliana and Cassian spoke, they separated and went their own ways. Iliana would’ve loved nothing more than to stay within her room, to lay her head on her pillow and fall asleep. Or perhaps wake up, maybe it had all been a wild dream the night before the address. If only she’d be that lucky…

Instead she set to her office, her guards in tow. She had a feeling she wouldn’t shake them anytime soon now. Not the witch within her guard or those who had been with her since she was just a teenager. A deep breath was waiting in her chest to be released when she made it into her office.

Another sweep through the room, more thorough than before, and then she was shut inside alone. Alone for the first time since she woke. The breath that fell from her was on the verge of a sob, but she shook her head and cleared it as a knock came. “Come in,” it was better she wasn’t left to herself yet. Not yet. She’d turn as the door opened and would reveal Tybalt. Her eyes concerned for a moment at his state, eyes running over him but finding him virtually the same as before the address.

“Commander?” She prompted, opening the floor for him to speak.

He wasn’t wrong. The whole palace had asked the same thing, over and over when she had passed them. But coming from him, it took a deeper meaning. Tybalt had known her since she was just a child who had been only paraded out for show before set back into a room for studies while her mother ruled. It wasn’t the wrong thing, that her mother ruled in her place while she was a child. However locking her away; where she didn’t get to learn first hand… Iliana still had a bitter taste in her mouth.

“I’m fine. Some of us had been spared what happened.” And Iliana was still wrapping her mind around it. But that was neither here nor there for the time being. “Are you okay?” She asked, looking over his armor and face, though she didn’t seem to find any burns on him.

He updated her on Oriana and Elena, who she still was conflicted over having in the cells within the palace. But where else? Surely there wasn’t a more secure place, but Iliana hated how many it put at risk. Hiram didn’t exactly have a gift that kept him stuck outside the walls of the palace. “I’m most concerned about Elena. Do we have no where else to keep her?” She fidgeted with a loose string on her dress. “And Remiel? Is he alright?”

He gestured at the armor on his being, and as she stared at it he told her that it was more than what it seemed. Apparently, Cassian had all sorts of nifty tricks like it. The necklace, one she had seen time and time again, now held much more weight in her mind. Now the shining armor on Tybalt, though it showed signs of battle. Like good armor should. “I am thankful you have it.” It was honest, and she let that weigh on them for a moment before they shifted gears.

The Eldouir’s would come one way or another. Whether Elena was here or outside the palace. All she wanted to do was protect those in her kingdom… those closest to her. “If she stays, we need every gifted willing to be here.” Every one that was willing to fight for Lorendale and not turn and run… she had a feeling there would be plenty of them packing their bags within the next few days and trying to put space between Loren and themselves. “Or where ever she’d be held. We need collars at the ready.” Because killing Hiram, especially with the army of red heads at his disposal, seemed impossible.

But then Remiel… he felt betrayed. Her body froze as she stood within her office. She should have had him stand up beside her and Augustus and Scout. Placing him somewhere else had made him angry and now they’d… but the words coming from Tybalt didn’t seemed directed at the address. It seemed to be more than it was. Which made her brow furrow. Plea his case for him? She shifted her weight but then nodded her head, signaling for Tybalt to lay the case before her. What did he feel was the worst part of it all? Oriana… she wasn’t sure who she was. But to be handled as she was… maybe he just meant her.