Rage and Rebellion (Histories of Havenhearth)

2.2 Sophine

When they reached their house, their father called out to them "Home at last! You are a fair bit later than I expected, have you all the food with you?"
"That and so much more, we have had the most amazing day,"
"You may tell me about it soon, but I need to start preparing our meal or else it will be late."
"Yes papa, but please, just let me show you quickly. I will help with all of the food preparation, just allow me to remove my favorite sash." Sophine left the basket on the table and ran to her room, thinking of where to hide their treasure. She pulled it out of her tunic and hid it under the bed for now, with plans to find a better place for it later. When she ran back to the kitchen, her father stood there, a scowl on her face in anger.
"What is all of this? You stole it?"
"No papa. Let me tell you the whole-"
"You stole money?"
"No, papa. It was the most-"
"I did not give you enough money for all of this,"
"Yes I know papa-"
"What did you buy with the money I gave you?"
"Here-" Sophine pulled out the fish and the meat, the package of candles and incense and the cooking oil and spices and laid it on the table for him to see. The parchment the foreigner had given her fell to the ground.
"Not another word until your mother gets home. There are ten to eat, my sister is coming, prepare the meats. Now."
Sophine nodded and her father left her to go out into the fields, presumably to go and tell her mother.

When they returned, Sophine's mother called the family into the eating room, and looked at the contents of the basket. "These candles and these cakes are fit for acsendancy, they could not be bought from our money. How did you come upon them?"
"We had the luckiest day." Adephine said.
"Just tell me how you came upon them," she looked sternly at Sophine.
"At the market square this morning, there was a performance, and a crowd had gathered to watch. And in the crowd, a foreigner was there. A lady foreigner."
"Sophine spoke to her in her language!" Adephine blurted out.
"You what?" Her mother interjected.
"I just said hi and asked her where she was from, and then at the end she gave me a gift and we bought the cakes to share with everyone,"
"You spoke with a foreigner?"
"Yes, I-"
"And in their language?" Said her mother.
"What have we told you about foreigners?" Asked her father.
"That they are barbaric and dangerous and should be avoided. I know, but she just seemed-" Sophine hung her head.
"Why would she give you money?"
"I don't know, just as a gift,"
"And you bought the candles with the money?"
"No, mama. I bought the cakes with the money."
"And the candles?" Sophine would not answer.
"Sophine? Where did you get the candles?"
"Another foreigner, she owns the candle-making stall." 
"Another foreigner?" Sophine's mother roared. "You lying child. You stole the money and you stole the candles!"
"Mama, she didn't!" Adephine interjected. "She spoke with the foreigners! Both of them, in a funny language!"
"Sophine, you lie to us, and you have your little sister lie to us as well?"
"No, I-."
"To your room! Not another word, and you will have nothing for lunch."
Sophine went to her room in tears. After her eyes had dried out, and she had none left, it seemed that lunch had already been consumed and the others were sipping at their tea or wines. She peeked our, and her grandfather invited her to come back out. Sophine's parents explained again about the foreign fiends, and made her promised never to talk to one again. She told them she wouldn't, and they prepared to return to town. Sophine thanked the earth spirit that she would be able to see the fire flowers that night.
***
Although a crowd had gathered to watch the family of foreigners, Sophine and Adephine were able to sneak to the front, sitting on the stones of the market square, while their parents waited to watch at the back.
The oldest of the females, probably the mother, was long-limbed and had long hair in a double braid down her back. The oldest of the males, it was difficult for Sophine to tell, was also tall and slim.The entire family, the man, woman and the three kids were dressed in Cassioni tunics, their hair styled in a local fashion. The family was still preparing for their performance.
The kids had sullen expressions on their faces, probably forced into playing their musical instruments and singing in public, Sophine figured. The oldest girl said hello to the crowd, greeting them in fluent Cassioni. She introduced them all, and explained where they were from. At several points during her speech, she made eye contact with Sophine, smiling at her. We're the same age, she thought, when the girl said how old she and the other two were. And she has a younger sister and a younger brother, just like me.
Instead of singing, the mother raised her voice and shouted at the crowd. "Do not knit the water! It is in boxes! Spirits help your rotten." The kids lowered their heads, staring at the ground in front of them.
The crowd laughed, making her voice rise up into a screech. The grammar was there, but she was getting all of the vocabulary wrong.
"Here! The dumpling of your  donkey." Even more laughter, nobody had any idea what she was talking about.

One of Sophine's neighbours, who was friends with her parents, stepped forward in front of the woman,adopting her stance, taking exaggerated glances back and forth, adjusting her posture and pose at each check for comic value. Then, when Edile was satisfied, she opened her mouth imitating her speaking Cassioni, but instead of uttering something with minor semblance to language, Edile just shouted out gibberish "wee banjoooooou Je wee swee banjooooo wee wee je swee." The crowd responded with smiles and laughter. The woman elevated her screeching and squealing in Cassioni. The crowd's laughter likewise elevated, drowning her out, shouting in her face "baaaaaaaaaaanjooooooooooooou." The impromptu performer took a bow to rounds of applause, and disappeared back into the crowd. Sophine could not contain her own laughter, and found Adephine hunched over, laughing so hard her stomach hurt. When Sophine looked at the girl who had introduced them, it was clear that she too had found the interruption amusing, and was doing all she could to hold back her giggles.

The woman started another sermon, and threw out a stack of paper above the heads of the crowd. Adephine grabbed some and stuffed them into her tunic: they used parchment to start fires for cooking. Then the lady did something Sophine could not believe: "do not worship these spirits!" she yelled in Tainish, picked up the earth spirit that Sophine had said hello to in the morning, lifting it over her head, she dropped it to the ground where it smashed into pieces, and they burst into a song.
The crowd angered, "how dare they!" and people began shouting at them, throwing things at them, fruit, vegetables, a stone or two. "rise against these foreign fiends," one or two tried to charge the foreigners, but others held them back. Valiers appeared and were pushing back anyone who neared the family, who seemed so engrossed in their own singing that they did not notice what was going on around them. "They are protected by local Valiers, you'll make trouble if you hurt them,"
"For the sake of the village, go home,"
Sophine heard the words "Golden Defenders!" shouted out a number of times. Fearful that a fight would break out Sophine grabbed her sister's arm and pulled her out of the market square into an empty side alley, where she kept an eye out for her parents, spotting her mother still in the shouting crowd near the performers, who had finally stopped, now surrounded by Valiers. Their shouts of "stop!", "Return home!", threats of jail time could be heard, and one was standing with her boot above someone's back, Sophie recognized Edile's tunic.
"Let's go, Mama will come soon."
"But the fireflowers," Sophine protested.
"We will watch them from home." Sophine was devastated. Watching the colourful explosions in the night sky over the dark river was her favourite event of the year. Their father led them through the maze of little streets out the smaller east gate of the town and they looped around the walls to return home to their grandparents and baby brother.

"Do you know what happened?" Adephine said lying on her bed next to her sister.
"I think some people are angry with the foreigners."
"The ones that gave us money and candles?"
"No, not them specifically, but other foreigners. The crazy ones we just saw. And the ones that are taking Cassion lands."
"There are foreigners taking lands from the Cassioni? How will we grow enough corn and wheat and melons if they take our land away?"
"I think the others had the same thoughts, which is why they were angry."

Sophine lay upon her bed and watched her sister's chest go up and down in her slumber while she listened to the conversation being had outside her room after her mother had finally arrived home. It had started raining, just as Sophine had thought it might, and the fireflowers had been cancelled.

"Barbarians' skills in technology, I've heard they are quite advanced, even beyond ours, but not their culture. Not their philosophy, not their history. None of that is as developed." It was the voice of her mother. "They all think in black or white, right or wrong, in absolutes. It is a weakness, a stupidity," Her mother went on.
"But these things, even if they are true, none of them they justify hatred of them. Or killings." Her aunt interjected.
"Maybe not, but none of that is as much a concern to us compared to their attempts to invade our land, steal our resources and try to convert our population to worshiping their spirits. If they are allowed to continue as they have started, we will lose everything that is Cassioni. Our lands, our language, our culture. It will all be annexed and lost."
"Yeah! We cannot stand idly by," it was her father.
"Let us seek out the Golden Defenders," her mother said,
"Golden Defenders?" Her aunt asked.
"It is a group which protects Cassion from foreign monsters. What the ascendancy isn't doing. I will go to them tomorrow. Let us speak no more of this tonight, for we have beautiful Cassion-made cakes to enjoy. Foreigners could never make something so delicate or beautiful or delicious."
Sophine burst into tears again, knowing that she would not be able to taste her own gifts, but also because she knew that what her mother was saying was wrong.