Spoiler (click to show/hide):
I'm thinking that the military is still fairly mercenary. While the officers are fairly loyal, each admiral/captain is in charge of keeping their own crew happy, and the marine/fighter pilots have a habit of moving where the rewards are best unless there's something specific they're after, such as getting stationed near their home. As such, there are 'political' games where the various admirals try to secure the best fighters to keep their team at tip top shape, which is why she's trying to woo Talren, but she's not sure what currently motivates him. Most of the marines in this instance were 'loaners' from the crown, as the Amazons are mostly associated with the crowns business.
I was also thinking that Theresa was the commander in chief, or something sufficiently similar. Maybe she's only in charge of the purse strings? Family structure wise, I was planning for there to be the queen and a champion within the royal family. Elizabeth would be the champion, and is in charge of 'settling' any challenges to the crown, but can never be queen herself. Victoria was a general scholar, and Loren was 'expected' to be the ambassador or something with Theresa being in charge as her martial attitude was a bit easier for the various political factions to manipulate. The Empire, bad guys who I've forgotten the name of, may have been the instigators, but they worked with a few factions within the political sphere. Despite being a 'kingdom' there's a great deal of negotiation going on since there's a lot of archipelago that the kingdom is protecting and taking tribute from.
You can tell she notes your lack of honorific, and seems to back off on trying to recruit you to her marine contingent. Instead, she asks about the spells you cast earlier, very curious about the blast you generated. "I've seen a few spells like that, but they were all mounted crystals." She holds her hands up, almost at her limit, and they're about the same size as the numerous magma crystals you've seen all over the military. You certainly weren't carrying any of those, so it's a bit of professional curiosity it seems.
What lie should you tell, or should you simply say it's a secret? People generate mana, so you could go with you, or your race, have a rather large supply, and you got a custom spell crystal that you can simply force mana into. Your name drop of Theresa should easily explain how you afforded or secured such a thing. And it's not that far off from the truth considering the various magical equipment you've secured so far. Given the... nature of the Amazons, you don't think you'll escape their attention for long, and this creates a good cover for anything that might happen in the future.