Walking a very thin line:
Tess went to the City of Stars, disguised as a black-robed priest (death speaker). Entered the king's castle (noticed by Tana de Lao), and proceeded to try to find the king. Found the king's guarded door ... ended up sneaking into Tana de Lao's room (was hoping for another entrance from there). Tana de Lao took Tess to the Honeysweet, nominally buying his line that he was a member of the second shadow, and got a wizened old shadow elf who had been invisible, to appear out of thin air and knock out Tess. Tess was put in jail.

The Eyes of the Serpent got Tess out of jail, with a reprimand from someone in the dark, to not try and circumvent the chain of command. The person in the dark was either the king, or head of Eyes of the Serpent. Whether the two have the same aims is an interesting question.

Peace has a price:
Tess tried to stop the Alphatian and Glantrian war by informing the priest of Morgan about the device not known as the Blessed Radiance. Teleported to Ierendi and back. Maybe this would get the Alphatians back to the bargaining table.

Apologies for my bloody hands:
Tess apologized to Roland about keeping stuff secret regards the Shadow Elves and Alfheim saying "I apologize for not discussing these things openly before. Unfortunately it might have exacerbated things, as the sage confirmed when I asked."

Ever the doer of wrong shall I be, for if I do not, then far greater shall be the suffering.

Retire to the firing line:
Tess knows he is going to Glantri and putting himself in grave danger. Vasilev can get him there and war is definitely coming to Glantri. Tess wants to try and find out about the Shepherds of Rad, Rad, the Blessed Radiance, and wants to talk to Brenmeer. Glantri is the place central to everything. Glantri is also a cheaper place to learn magic, but that's just part of it all. The fact that Tess has given out information on the Blessed Radiance makes Glantri doubly dangerous.