Needless to say Osanne's hope that some able bodied troops would show up greatly diminished at the first three recruits. A cook. A bookworm. And a child, a mage, but still a child. She took a deep breath, rubbing her forehead. Tactics were against them so far, but the Emperor, as usual was not all that concerned. He believed their skill alone would be enough to cover for them, she supposed. 

But before she could truly state her concern to the royals, a young girl rushed out, no older than 12, and latched on to Esmeralda's waist, giggling a bit as her nursemaid chided her from the distance the girl had put between them. Adralyn, the youngest and the most guaranteed to be spoiled since there wasn't much left for her to inherit after her two older brothers and her older sister, smiled as she looked up at her mother, who also chided her, though less severe, for giving the maid such trouble. 

Osanne smiled tightly, knowing she couldn't say anything about her concerns for the girl's father in front of her, else they might end up with a stow away in the supplies. She looked back towards the gates, however, as the unmistakable sounds of squabbling rolled in their direction. She looked around and nodded to a knight that was standing nearby. They moved closer to the royals while she picked up her shield and crossed the white gravel gardens, careful of the painstakingly well trimmed pushes, not wanting to hear the groundskeeper squaking over a single petal that might fall unnaturally. She walked up to the open gates and cleared her throat.

"I would hate to interrupt this lovely introduction of yours, but I would for anyone else that is coming to join our ranks to be put off by the deadly lover's feud at our door. Do please hold off on killing each other when we are underway and can tell your families you were a casualty of battle and died with honor," she said before motioning to come in to the gates, "With any luck that will be soon and your squabble, which I'm sure if pointless, can resume," she said, the expression on her face feigning politeness, but there was a clear level of annoyance in her voice.

"Mama, are those people the ones travelling with Papa?" Adralyn looked around the garden, spotting the three that had presented themselves, though only one of them had approached the royals so far, though it didn't make much sense to her.
"It seems like it," Esmeralda smiled, smoothing out her daughter's hair, "They certainly seem interesting don't they?" she mused, looking at her husband with a look that said that interesting wasn't comforting to her.
"Relax," Balan said almost immediately, motioning towards the gates, "Those two's families we know well enough to know that there's no way under the heavens that they don't have their own platoons with them," he said simply.
"You were banking on something of that nature, weren't you?" she put one hand on her head, the other hand on her daughter's back.
"Of course I was and you should have been, too," he pointed out simply, "You know the political game almost better than I do, after all. And aren't you cousins or something with that fellow? He looks familiar," he said.
"Why didn't you just write to the families requesting aid?" 
"Because then it seems like I expected it. It's much more noble when no one's expecting it."

Adralyn separated from her mother and walked over to Pythia, looking at Thomas since he seemed to be addressing her as well, tilting her head a bit as she looked the two of them over. Pythia didn't seem that much older than her, but she was doing something like this, "Are you frightened?" she asked, possibly directed at the both of them, tilting her head, honestly curious of how they felt about the whole thing.