Alexa's head shoots up and whips to stare at Redana. "I--wait, kill you?! Why would-- I do not-- [i]you[/i] have not--!" For the first time since Barassidar, Alexa properly takes in her ward. She'd sat through the tattooing and outfitting, but--well, with the letter burning a hole through her mind, she'd not really been focusing on the outfit. You'd have to be blind--and possibly on a different planet--to miss the outfit but.. Has she ever seen Redana so exhausted? Like an enormous weight has been placed on her, dragging each limp limb down? So droopy, so tired? So covered in crabs? With a small yelp, Alexa rushes forward and, to her credit, she tries to be delicate. The crabs are relatively small, but there are hundreds of them, each clambering over one another in a small sea of chitin. Picking the crabs off the princess one by one isn't working, so she decides on the next best thing: remove princess from crabs! It takes a bit of doing, but she clears out enough space to get a grip on the princess, and lifts her high above the wave of shellfish. Which, alas, leaves Alexa about thigh-deep in the rising, skittering tide. Bother. As delicately as possible, Alexa settles the princess on her shoulder. "Highness, if you will forgive my bluntness, why on earth would I kill you? You have done me no wrong, harmed none I care for. What cause have I to harm you?!" She's not fully panicking, but that edge of strain is creeping into her voice now. Her ward is worried, concerned, and it's her fault! "For that matter, there are at least two times in the past month alone that I did [i]not[/i] harm you! When Bella brought you to her ship, did I stand with her and bring you back to Tellus, back to my niche? Nay! When the Bloodfeather stabbed you, did I let you bleed out? Did I avail myself of that same knife for my own? Or did I get you to safety, to medical attention? Highness, you are not the monster Molech was!" Redana can't become that, right? She couldn't grow into that kind of tyrant? Alexa has to believe that!