- Which is interrupted by Jarl Brum, who finally shoulders his way through the crowd - the guards let him through, of course - and steps up next to the crown princess, carefully not touching her, and says in a low voice designed not to carry, "Your Highness, for the safety of you and your sister - I need to speak with you in private. About your... Guest."

She looks like she's about to say something snappy - but then she glances at her sister. 

...Who nods, a little. 

Light smile. "It sounds like the good general needs me for something," she says to the crowd. And then to Nina: "And you both must be tired from your journey. Let's get you some good food and better clothes; niceties can wait."

And then she turns - and her own enormous isenvulf, whose shoulders had been as tall as the back of her throne stands, and holy fuck, the thing is massive. He would dwarf the Darkling's war horses; the heartiest draft horses might give him a run for his money, but nothing smaller. He towers over the humans present. 

And Irina Grimjer is an exceptionally short and slight woman, but the wolf makes those distinctions vanish. Rather, that he calls to her heel, and that he looks to her so devotedly, gives her a sense of majesty and authority, a great strength despite her small size. 

She leads them out, keeping her sister and Nina close - at her right hand - and her isenvulf paces at her left. Behind them, her mother the queen steps up to quietly and pleasantly take the reins of socialization, and the crown princess's guard - all women, at closer glance - fall in around them with the cadence of well-drilled soldiers.

(...One of them looks kind of like Jarl Brum, if Nina is glancing at their faces.)

Play along, Nina. Yeah, right. Hopefully the princess stays on her side even out of public view.

She squeezes Nina's hand again. 

And they come to a private withdrawing room - not a very small one, given it needs to fit three wolves the size of varyingly sized horses, two royal princesses, an ¿honored guest?, a general, and a large contingent of guards - but given the wolves and the guards, it feels rather small for their group. Still, they all have room to move around, and there's seats if they wish to take them. 

Irina Grimjer doesn't take a seat, which means no one else does yet. 

"What is it, Jarl Brum?"

He stands at attention. "Your Highness... I recognize that woman. She is Nina Zenik, one of our prisoners on the ship when it went down - a Grisha Heartrender and a Ravkan spy."

She looks at her sister and Nina. "And what say you, Nina Zenik?"

"Jarl Brum identifies me correctly. But what your sister said in the ballroom remains true."

"And you, Kielo?"

She looks firmly at her sister - at Jarl Brum - and says: "She did not know who I was until the moment we stood before you. She didn't even know I am grisha until after the first time she saved me. She rescued a stranger, one who had imprisoned her and was leading her to death or worse. She rescued an enemy of her people. And she came before you on my word alone, that I asked her to trust me. Fjerda showed her only cruelty - and she has returned it with compassion, loyalty, and trust."

"And I would trust her with your life, sister. I would not have brought her here otherwise."

"Her kind cannot be trusted, Your Highness," Brum says, voice tight. 

Kielo turns fully to him. "What kind?" she demands. "Ravkan? Or do you mean witch?"

He regards her, expression stony. "They're treacherous when not controlled."

She steps closer to him. "That is not what you said eight years ago," she says, voice low and intense. "The reasonable thing - the traditional thing - would have been for His Majesty to declare me illegitimate and have me killed. To have the Queen killed for her handmaiden's testimony, and remarry to a woman who could give him sons. That was the ruling of a man who thinks me treacherous."

"You chose to give me a chance, Jarl Brum. You stood before the most powerful man in Fjerda and defended my family. You even made me drüskelle, honored of Djel. And if I'm a defiant child, one who takes risks none should and who steps beyond tradition, it's because I learned well from the man who's taught me more than any other."

"So trust me. Trust my loyalty." She stares him in the eye. "Trust your daughter's loyalty. Trust that our wolves do not serve Fjerda out of fear, but respect."

"And trust my judgment."

His lips thin, and there's unreadable cracks in his stony facade. "I will not gainsay your Highnesses... But it is my job to be paranoid. I cannot protect you through blind trust."

"It is your job to use your head!" she snaps. "You cannot protect Fjerda through blind distrust, either."

He's quiet for a long moment, before saying, "I will take your words under consideration, Your Highness."

Deep, shaky breath, and she holds Nina's hand tight. 

"See that you do," Irina Grimjer says, trying to regain some control of the situation. "But I believe you have a job to do, Jarl. I will speak to our guest, and verify what I can of her intentions. But I trust that my guards will be sufficient against a single Heartrender."

He looks deeply exasperated. Still: "As you command, Your Highness," he says before bowing deeply (though he doesn't sound happy about it still), and with one last warning glare at Nina, he and his isenvulf depart.

Good riddance.

Trassel relaxes from being ready to leap in front of Nina slightly.

Uh. Yeah. That was... a lot.

...And then Kielo turns to her sister and says: "So. Don't be mad? But there's some stuff that's about to be really relevant about how we got in."