Reluctance, regret, lingering self-loathing, all of the above. She sighed as they walked and looked back at him over her shoulder. "My power has caused my family and people nothing but pain until recently. To feel as if I was brought here to sit on a throne because of it is not a pleasant thought." Her pace picked up just a fraction as they walked. She had made peace with herself, found a relief in her sister's love and was getting control over her powers now but that did not mean the wounds were any less fresh than they were.

She did, though, listen to his explanation of alchemy. The majority of it went straight over her head, as she had little in the way of study in the sciences. She was no chemist, much less an alchemist, so it made very little sense to her until the last words. "Equivalency can take many forms," she said, almost woodenly. "Is it always physical quantities, or is it sometimes more than simply two plus two equals four?" Because in her life? She couldn't have said where she acquired the water that created the ice she formed, and yet she was pretty sure that there was a real price to her abilities.

She was dead sure of it.