I do like the dynamics of the huge personality and culture clash between them.
She made an appeal to his better nature when offering him the empire... in terms of sacrificing for the greater good, because that's how her entire worldview has been structured for so long.
Meanwhile, rather than what she has to offer, he's busy looking at her horrible abusive situation with dismay. For someone so focused on means-to-an-end, it doesn't seem to have even gone on her radar that playing the pity card at all could be an option (presumably because the idea that someone would be moved by sympathy for her is completely alien to her experience. Though this is just my interpretation of her character).
Anyway, I accordingly look forward to where this is going.