Archaic Phrases

"Hear you me, dragonlady?"

Astra quickly replied silently, "Yes."

Then she stopped short. She was not sure talking to this man was a good idea. She remembered a voice from earlier, warning her about Colonia Gallia. The man added, "Are you not a dragon, you could still answer me. We shall meet again." And then he fell silent.

The man in the ermine collar was indeed trying to buy her cheaply, insisting that it was in the lieutenant's interest to sell Astra quickly, and that fifty pikas was an excellent price. The lieutentant insisted that this was out of the question, and that he had buyers in Blacksand that were interested, and that he only offered in Colonia Gallia because the port was closer, and had been well disposed toward him in the past. But that was background chatter. Astra thought about what the other man had said, or rather, the way he had said it.

"Hear you me?" That was peculiar. "Do you hear me?" was the way that most people would say it. Maybe they said things that way in her grandmother's time, or more likely, her great grandmother's. "Are you not a dragon, you could still answer me" was even more peculiar. At first she thought it was a question, but then she remembered some very old songs. In the old language, "Are you not a dragon" was equivalent to "If you are not a dragon". The man sounded stilted, but the question was posed as if it were still normal to speak that way. It was as if the man had learned to speak from reading texts that were well over one hundred years old. Or perhaps learned them from listening to someone that was a hundred years old.

The man was still in the shadows.

1. Astra tries to establish silent communication with him.
2. Astra chooses not to try silent communication.

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