"Thranduil," she says, thinking that at least here she doesn't expect to be challenged quite so much on that front. "I've offered him a place to live here, and he's accepted - an imperfect solution," in a tone of acknowledgment, "but serviceable for now."

It isn't anything so gauche as offering him employ; he's an agent of the Inquisition, he has work to do there, she understands these things and beyond them she understands that even accepting a place in her household that will sometimes mean feigning a subservience wholly alien to him is something that his ego must carefully navigate. A year ago, it would have been unimaginable to expect him to bend that far, she thinks.

So he will not be at her beck and call, and not dedicated to only the protection of herself and Kieran - but it soothes her to think they won't be alone here, that there will be someone capable of acting in a crisis.

"And--" this part she likes far less, "--the Templar, Ser Coupe, has taken in hand my education in the martial realm. For reasons," a bit dryly, "known only to herself."