She was silent, listening, watching. But something in the way they interacted - Maxim, Emira, and Kell - that unsettled her. It had been so many years since Neria had seen and interacted with her own parents, but Irving had never looked at her the way the King and Queen looked at Kell.

But she remembered the look in her father's eyes when he handed her her belongings, her coat, her one pair of boots. The iciness, the distance. It wasn't the same, but it still did not feel right.

Slowly, she reached for the tea that she had not touched, the tips of her fingers testing the heat. She drew the teacup to her with care and sipped silently. Emira addressed her again. Neria set the cup down upon the saucer softly.

"Yes. I am." Present tense. She wished she could reach for Kell in that moment, to hold his hand. To assure him again. She did not.

Instead, Neria lifted her head somewhat, taking in the small changes upon Queen Emira's countenance. "I am very fortunate to have met the both of them. Kell saved my life once and Rhy was a bright light on our dreary traveling days." She tried for a smile that did not come. She only felt tired in remembering what had been.