Come on, Kylo. You can't bullshit a bullshitter. He may be the top of the food chain somewhere, but most people who really are don't go around broadcasting it. In her experience, the strings are pulled from the shadows by people you'd never look twice at if you passed them on the street.

"If there weren't anyone stronger than you, you wouldn't feel the need to look like you do."

She doesn't mean just the lava. He's crafted an intimidating persona on purpose, even back in Thorne, where they'd apparently welcomed him with open arms. Besides that, anyone actually important wouldn't care about babysitting a pair of Dreamers unless it either benefitted him or he had concerns about what they might do unchecked.