He would have been lying, had he claimed he wasn't apprehensive sitting beside Reina as she attempted to do on purpose what she had been avoiding for twelve years.

It had been unnerving for an eight year old to wake to the same terrifying visions night after night, of course, but he could never admit how nerve-wracking it had been to be her father during the same. He was meant to protect her. To make everything alright. Instead, he had been fumbling along without the slightest inkling of why or how his little girl was seeing the future in her dreams.

Now she was all grown up, neither needing nor wanting his protection.

Not that he had done much of either, these past few weeks. He had been full well resigned to the fact that the best he could give her—could give either of his children—was a chance to escape the treaty signing and supposed-armistice. It was less than he wanted to give. Then again, hadn't he always been forced to give them less than they deserved?

But these regrets did no one any good. Least of all him.

Beside him, Reina shifted, a furrow on her brow. He reached out to her reflexively, then stopped himself. She had said thirty minutes. It had hardly been two. So far as he could tell, she was not even asleep—though he had little concept of whether or not that was even necessary. She sat with her legs tucked beneath her and her hands resting in her lap, breathing evenly in spite of the expression on her face, but firmly upright.

After another minute, her eyes opened. Much as he wanted to believe that was the end and all was well, he knew his daughter better than that. He knew her Dreams better than that.

"I can't reach it." She shook her head, as if to clear it. "The In-Between. I used to be able to just… let go and drop into it, but now I'm tied up. I can see it—or feel it, or whatever you prefer—I can almost touch it. But it's as if I'm anchored here and I can't get out."

"Am I to understand that, last night, you Dreamed within your Dream?" Regis asked. It sounded ridiculous even to vocalize.

"Yes. I learned to control it, but…" The light of understanding crossed her face. Followed immediately by frustration. "But of course. I could leave the physical world whenever I wanted to because my body was never really there. He always said I shouldn't be able to Dream while awake…"

So little of what she said made sense that Regis wouldn't have known which question to ask if he had the chance. She saved him the trouble, standing abruptly.

"Well. That is what it is. We do not have time for me to relearn my magic, so we must press on without the knowledge of what will come. As of dinner tonight, our cards will be on the table, regardless." She offered her arm.

Regis took it, allowing her to help him to his feet—albeit a bit more slowly and less gracefully than he might have liked. His knee screamed protests all the while.

"Iedolas has been clawing at Lucis for decades; he will not allow us to slip by lightly," he said.

"Iedolas is a pawn." Reina took his arm, lending her strength and balance. "No, it is not the emperor whom we should be concerned with, but Ardyn."

"The chancellor?" He asked, brow furrowed. Why on earth would the imperial chancellor be more of a threat than the emperor himself? And since when did she call him by his first name?

"Yes." Reina led him along toward the door, walking more slowly as he found his pace. "He has the potential to turn this inside out on us."

And yet she was almost smiling. A few weeks ago she had been disgusted even to hear his name in conversation. Regis had believed she hated him as much as she hated Drautos. But now—

It must have been something else.

"That he knows already of my presence is troubling," Reina said. "I had hoped to delay that until tonight, at least, but there's no helping it, now. We will simply have to be more cautious."