She laughs a little. "Would you believe I'm actually not originally from these lands?" she asks. "It's true. I was a court mage for many years, until a rather nasty coup d'etat left me fleeing for my life. I ended up here, murdered my way up the ranks of the city, until I assassinated the old queen, about... oh, twenty-five years ago, or so. Alexsandra, I picked up from one of my conquests. They'd been using her as a common soldier, can you believe that?"