Ramza did strike Ashelia as the thoroughly optimistic type, but he wasn't necessarily wrong. She smiled slightly as she followed his gaze. She had been surprised again and again while observing Vaan and Penelo fight. They did fight for their own reasons, of course; they all had. But they were her people, in the end. She had seen her people's strength laid bare in her friends' actions. Why should it be so different for these? If Wedge is to be believed, the Queen left willingly. 'Tis not only her closest advisers she trusted. Maybe it was time for Ashelia to shift her perspective a bit.

"The war against the Empire is not ours to fight," Ashelia replied, though she carried on so as not to give the wrong impression. "I'll not leave innocent people undefended should events take a turn, but my first concern is with our contemporaries, the Heroes, as we've inevitably come to be called." Her tone was noticeably different from her explanation of the state of Crystallis. The queen had conviction. She was driven. "I intend to see us all home safely before we are drawn any further into politics that ought not concern us."