i still see people reducing mel’s exile to “ambessa thought she was too soft to be a medarda,” when that really wasn’t the core issue, and was only a white lie she wanted mel to believe was the real reason. yes, ambessa wanted to protect mel’s compassion from noxus, but the larger threat was always the black rose. ambessa knew exactly what would happen if leblanc discovered that one of the most powerful mages in noxus (rudo) had a daughter capable of inheriting that power. all she could do was hope mel’s abilities would remain dormant long enough in piltover to escape both mel’s own awareness and leblanc’s gaze.