Elara rolled her eyes at Sybil's platitude, despite the clear hatred the mortal woman had in her eyes every time she caught the woman's glances at her. "I'm glad we understand each other then, mortal." She ran her hands over the back of a chair and thought hard about what messages she would have to send to the dead vampire's families, an action that would rankle her and annoy her greatly at having to do it on the ungrateful Sybil's behalf to keep her alive... but now her own lot was thrown in with her mortal guests. She was the conquering general of her realm... and here she was bound by mortal behaviors that made her dance to stay in power. She, a queen, had to change her plans on their behalf.<br/><br/>At a signal from the maidservant who ducked back in the room, Elara turned to look Sybil up and down again. "The bathing chamber is through there, use what you need to clean up. When you finish, there will be suitable clothing available by the towels in there for you to change into. Please, don't kill my maid when she brings them. She's only doing her job." There was an undertone of thread in Elara's voice, implying that she would be greatly displeased should the mage do something to her underlings.  With a little flip of her hand, the vampire queen dismissed Sybil to clean herself up, turning to look at Cyne in a sort of exasperated expression.<br/><br/>"I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you had no idea you were being followed?" Elara asked, wondering if Cyne had indeed known about this mage coming after him, if it had been some sort of contingency plan his father set up long ago. Or if the woman was so devoted to her prince that she was risking life and limb to follow him into the unknown, even into death, as many called the portal in the mortal lands. "If you did, or if just your father did, he lied to me when we signed that peace treaty...." She paused, wondering if it was too late to recall the old mage from his mission to destroy the portal, and then sighed as she realized it was far too late. He would have already departed to get to the portal and start his magic in order to try and destroy it. But could it be destroyed? Elara couldn't say.  It was an object of magic from ages long ago and she didn't know quite what would destroy it if Caldwyn's attempt failed.