Princess Juliette was left displeased and concerned by how events had unfolded. What message could have upset the queen so, and been so important as to cause her to depart at a time like this? The most promising development had been two of the Aserits attempting to dissuade their father from the demand that Erin be murdered—maybe the younger generation was somewhat more reasonable? And Lord Florencia had done an admirable job of shifting the focus away from the poor girl. She had gone to him before for advice on swordsmanship and commanding her soldiers in battle, but it occurred to her that he might be a resource in the political realm as well.<br/><br/>But now there was a new problem emerging in the form of the twins. Juli winced slightly when Elise referring to her own kingdom as “incompetent.” Yes, the choice to send Lady Fool to greet a grim warrior king and his family had been a poor one, but to admit that so bluntly only made them look weaker still. Between Elise being so spoiled and Roran being so sensitive, she was not sure which of the twins would upset the stern Aserit sensibilities more. Someone ought to keep an eye on them.<br/><br/>“Nira, you can head back to my quarters for now,” Juli told her bodyguard quietly. Having the other woman following her around right now would be too distracting.<br/><br/>“Yes, Major,” she replied softly. Nira was not pleased to leave her charge unguarded, but she never mistook an order from Juli regardless of how politely it was phrased.<br/><br/>Despite the awkwardness of the situation, Juli moved to catch up with the twins as they walked with the Aserit. She caught the group just outside Teak Room.“I hope you don’t mind additional company,” she said to Henrik and Lenally, who were closest. “I would have preferred a more formal introduction, but I’m Princess Juliette of Greycastle. I regret the awkwardness we’ve all experienced thus far, but a certain amount of culture shock on both sides is to be expected under the circumstances.”<br/><br/>Juli knew enough about the Aserit royal family to have already known of Prince Henrik’s leadership role with the Blood Ravens—and the part of her that was a soldier was put completely on edge to be nearly unarmed (save a hidden dagger) so close to him. Her Ghosts were a fast, lightly armored unit, existing to strike the enemy were they were most vulnerable and then melt into the wilderness. And so they had avoided direct confrontation with the heavily armored and highly trained Blood Ravens as much as possible. Still, elements of her unit had unavoidably fought his, with losses on both sides. The question was, did Henrik know of all of this as well? The very existence of the Ghosts, let alone Juli’s involvement with them, had never been publicly acknowledged. But the Ghosts were well known within Theiri military circles, and it was likely the Aserit had a few spies in the regular military. Hopefully, she could discern what he did or did not know about her if she spoke with him enough.