That surprised her. "And yet you learned." Very few women north of Dorne could claim to have been taught anything more than what was considered traditionally ladylike, Queen Aemma's words of the childbed being a woman's battlefield still haunted Alicent all these years later. "I can't help but be grateful you did, even if selfishly, because it gives us both a better chance of getting out of this maze."

Alicent's expression is schooled, but for the briefest of moments, a flicker of sadness passed over her. "I had a very dear friend once, but we grew apart." Fussing with her skirts, Alicent resisted the urge to pick at her cuticles and bit back tears, too proud to cry. "I heard this is the third such party they have thrown and they are quite large. It's possible you aren't alone, or that they have yet to arrive." That, of course, assumed Hazel to wish to not remain alone. Alicent certainly didn't, but she was perhaps less selfless than Hazel.

Noting the pauses, Alicent filed that away to think on later. "I believe the men in the North had Old gods, and the Valyrians had theirs, but we have the Seven." Alicent was firm in that. Her faith in the Seven had gotten her through years of grief and mourning and she clung to them here. "I've never heard stories of fae until I arrived here."