Rage and Rebellion (Histories of Havenhearth)

3.4 Cerys

The beautiful man was conversing with some of the young women and men she had just finished playing with. She could hear some of the conversation, "The rebellion is running rampant in that area, and they are dangerous threats to us all. I have no idea why there is still doubt as to their existence," she had a worried voice, and was speaking quite loudly. The woman spoke in Tain, but with an accent she had not heard before- she guessed (and was later confirmed right) that it was Quiremese.
"Absolutely not," another woman retorted, "what you speak of is just rumors spread to scare off the foreigners. Some barbarians are not aware that we can introduce intelligence and culture to their breed." This girl had fair hair, she also spoke Tainish with an accent, which suggested she was not a native speaker, Fuchsjaegerland perhaps?
"Agreed," a red-haired man added, a Gawan, judging from his clothes and features. The feline-like man listened to them both and cleared his throat to speak, the others turned to him immediately.
"They are no less intelligent than you or I. I would be wary of the rumors, without taking them at face value. Anything more or less would be senseless." His creamy voice and vocabulary gave him away as high-born. His words were precise, his pauses deliberate.
'We must not ignore that this is an ancient civilisation and given their history, they have good reason for various fears against foreigners. Imagine yourself as a Cassioni farmer." He smiled, either at his own imagination of his interlocutors as peasants, or because he had finished speaking and knew he had settled the discussion with his comments.
Cerys was not entirely sure what they had been discussing, the historian had not mentioned anything on the topic of rebel groups. He probably just did not want her to worry, especially given her overall lack of understanding of the land in which she had recently arrived in. The Quiremese girl broke the collective pensive silence, "So you think there is no danger."
"We must be wary enough to prevent there from being a definite reason for it." Cerys did not understand his point but it was at this moment he made eye contact with her and flashed a dazzling smile of white teeth and she lost all train of thought.
"You mean to say that until someone is killed?"
"It is far more difficult to know the enemy before they are the enemy."
"You mean to say that we must be informed and concerned enough about the situation and not behave in any inappropriate way that would put ourselves in danger. With anyone." Cerys interjected,  inserting herself directly into a conversation among legates and other people of importance, much older than she. She was rewarded with another direct smile.
"Wheels within wheels," he said simply and Cerys had no idea what this meant- perhaps in was a Cassioni saying translated into Tainish?
"So let me be clear, you think the Golden Defenders do exist?" The Quiremese tried again, this time with a little frustration in her voice.
"What I think is irrelevant," she replied, Cerys could see that not answering questions directly was a trademark of his conversation, which made it both very difficult, and very interesting to speak to him. One had to really think about the responses and if one could not figure them out, one would be lost. Is that what people learned in their legate training?
"Consider Cassioni history," he added. Cerys, to her disappointment, being ignorant to Cassion history and culture had now been isolated from the conversation, which descended into an argument among those involved.
"You're Cerys, aren't you?" She asked with warmth in her voice, the silkiness of it travelling into his ears.
"Yes, pleased to meet you," she held out her hand for the Tainish greeting, surprised that she knew who he was. "And you are?" He leaned in for the Cassion greeting, moving his head around hers so that their cheeks aligned but did not touch on both sides. "The historian told me about your trip over here,"
"The halfie's niece," the red-haired young man said coldly and Cerys did not understand the reason behind it. "Will you take over the family's business?"
"I'm not sure yet, I've barely even recovered from the journey. We aren't even certain how long I'll be staying," not wanting to sound rude she added, "although I'd be very lucky to spend as long as I can here, it does seem a lovely and interesting land to explore and learn about,"
"Indeed," mystery man said, in recognition of her attempt not to ruffle any feathers, she hoped.
"I'm certain your aunt will introduce you to some interesting people," the young man arched his eyebrow as he spoke, doing  so with some more coldness in his voice.
"I'm looking forward to settling for a little while at least," Cerys replied politely. "Chevelles first, with my aunt. And then we are not sure after that."
"Aren't you also headed to Chevelles?" The red-haired Gawan addressed the beautiful man and when he responded, "Indeed," Cerys felt a wave of excitement flow over her.