[The first part gets a sigh, though it's more affectionate than anything else. That's Blanche, she's always going to care about the people and want to do everything she can for them. One destroyed village is just as important as everything and everyone else. She's definitely going to spread herself too thin one of these days...

But for now there's something else to address, and Alaric rests his chin on his hand as he considers her question.]

I don't know nearly enough about magic to speculate on what happened to those people. If the point was to kill them, it would have made more sense to leave their bodies where we could find them.

[That isn't a guarantee that they're alive, though.]

If you want my opinion, [too late you're getting it anyway] I doubt this mage we're chasing will be the true cause of this. For one, if they were planning an attack on the queen herself, they'd likely want to keep themselves better hidden. For another, magic like this isn't common. I've never heard tales of anything like this, much less seen anything close to it. If your parents had this kind of power, they would have used it in exactly the same way.

[It's nothing against Blanche specifically, just a statement of fact. Those with power will use it, particularly against their enemies' leaders.]

What I'm getting at is that it'd be strange if it was only one person involved in this.