Mental preparation

All in all, Alexis had come to the conclusion that just assuming the worst possible chain of events would probably come closest to the actual outcome.

Their track record certainly offered some validity to that stance.
So while she would have highly preferred to talk to Zane beforehand - granted she honestly didn’t know how to convey the messed up situation to him in a way that would result in any support at all, either - she wasn’t all too shocked, that no, they’d have to deal with the Duke right away.
‘Cause that’s just how things tended to turn out for them.

On the other hand, realistically, that encounter couldn’t have been avoided anyway. Tarmen was, after all, very much directly employed by Ostiarium’s ruler, wether he liked it or not - probably not, she thought with a private, wry smirk.
Not to speak of the siege at hand. Her friend was quite right, they wouldn’t let anyone capable of holding a weapon sit idle, if Carver’s return to duty was anything to go by.

So they might as well get it over with now.

She felt for the strange rods the Alossi woman had left behind. Maybe they would serve to support their point.

If only Voah could have come along. Alexis really didn’t feel up to the task of convincing their esteemed Duke to provide any kind of resources for the rescue of a single person while a massive army marched on the city.
She wasn’t much of a diplomat, though maybe not quite as bad as she would have once assumed.

Alexis would still try. It was for Gonyaul’s sake, after all.