"Too true." Ashelia tried to think what she would do in the same situation. She couldn't imagine why the Queen would just refuse to see the Heroes at all, and if she were being threatened and escaped preemptively, she surely would have been able to get word back to her advisers by now. It seemed most likely that there was some other task that needed doing. There was no way to know for sure, though, and Ashelia felt that familiar anger bubbling up again at the feeling of powerlessness these revelations brought.

Best to focus on the practical details, then. "If the Empire was involved, surely there must be some trace of their presence in the city. What is the status of your intelligence?"