i got unexpected distress from my mistress

"Lady Vanea!"

"Lady Brighid!"

It's the soldiers and volunteer workers clamoring in the crowds around them that alert the two ladies to each other's presence, rather than any repartee exchanged directly between the faux-nobles themselves.

"You are..." Vanea starts, then frowns. She has only been a sideline attendant to Melia's political dealings, receiving incomprehensible updates from Dunban, and she is unsure how exactly to characterize Alrest's markedly different forms of governance - she wants to come off as informed, intelligent, inmitable.

"An accomplice to the movement," Brighid replies smoothly. "One that needs...whipping into shape?"

It really is a gorgeous innuendo.