Nice beds. It had been a long time since she had slept on a bed at all, but a nice bed had been much longer. He said he had no influence here, but that had already proven itself untrue, based on the way the guard was treating them. Aleksandra still wondered about the night he had left this place, only because the trauma of it seemed to echo her own in some way, but she did as he asked. She respected his need to stay quiet for now.<br/><br/>"Fair." She agreed.<br/><br/>The city was lovely and she recognized some of the names he had mentioned, though she had not known any of them as well as she had once known Maleki. This would be the sort of test that Storka had trained her for, convincing nobility that she was the horse to back, that she should be given help to regain her power and her country. That was what Storka wanted, but now, Aleksandra could not help but wonder if it was truly what she desired. Regaining her crown meant that she would have to continue to fight for it. When they reached the guard post, Aleksandra looked a little confused about the request made of her, but then she offered her wrists up. It felt almost dangerous to put herself in a bound position, but there was not really any other choice. She and Storka had only faced one assassin, shortly after she escaped her country. She was not sure if LeVane was simply a coward or if any other assassins he had hired were incompetent.<br/><br/>Her thoughts were pushed away as they reached an area that looked and felt familiar, almost like home, but slightly different. She knew that some of the others who ruled here were from her home, but she had not thought of how they would carry that influence. It was nice to see it, even if only for a moment, before they were pushed onward.<br/><br/>"What kind of council?" Aleksandra asked, assuming that it was okay to talk because she was not commenting on Maleki's situation. From what she knew of the story, some of the lords and ladies that had come here had done so with Maleki's father. They had not been banished as his father had, they had simply chosen to leave for one reason or another. Some of them had likely left because they thought her father had been unfair, punishing Master Todori for things had brother had done.<br/><br/>Aleksandra was in that camp herself. Maleki's uncle was not an honorable man, but from everything she had come to know, his father had been. It was difficult to make sense of, partially because her father had been such good friends with the Lord Todori. She did not want to push more than she already had. Even though Maleki had joked about it, she still got the sense that she was a bad luck charm in his life.