Quint followed them up the tenant stairs. There was a leather shop on the ground level.
“I’m afraid there might be some extra sounds during the day, but I didn’t hear anything yesterday and last night. Did you, Calee?”
She shook her head as she took out a key and let them in.
The flat was as big as Marena’s, maybe a little bigger with an extra bedroom.
“You can use the third bedroom as your office,” Quint said as he noticed fancier furniture in the Danko flat.
“That’s what we intend doing,” Calee said, “but father can visit the council palace from the closer office.”
“Whatever works at the time,” Fedor said.
The pair was apologetic about it. Quint wasn’t used to so much politeness.
“Now that you’ve seen our lodgings, we can eat. I’m starving,” Fedor said.
The restaurant was advertised as Slinnon cuisine, but Danko thought the claim was dubious.
“My landlady’s husband was from Slinnon. Her son lives there.”
“And she didn’t leave with him?” Calee said.
“Marena has roots in Racellia,” Quint said, hoping that would be enough of an explanation for the Dankos. “I’ve never eaten Slinnon food unless she’s cooked it for us and didn’t say anything.”
“Us?” Calee asked.
“She was the housekeeper for my last flat. I shared with some of my strategic operations colleagues. There were three who tolerated me. Marena was hired as the housekeeper. She offered her son’s room. She is my landlady and flatmate.”
“Has she behaved herself?”
Quint laughed. “Her son is a year older than I am.”
“I’m sure moving to the international quarter has been a good thing.”
“It has,” Quint said. “Shall we order?”
Fedor laughed. He knew Quint was changing the subject. “Sure. Shall we tell you what we think is good? Narukun food is different from Slinnon since Slinnon is a country filled with polens and polen culture is from a different source than Narukun and Kippun.”
After ordering, Quint asked how polen culture was different from hubite culture.
Hubites invaded North Fenola from South Fenola. The polens had developed a different religion and a more bureaucratic culture. Hubites, at the time, were tribal based that promoted individual achievements.”
“A warrior mentality?” Quint asked.
“Very much so. The polens learned how to defeat the hubites in battle, but they were only able to claw back the areas now known as Pogokon and Slinnon. Originally, Willots were being pushed out of Baxel by the grans, an offshoot of hubites forcing them to South Fenola, where they eventually pushed the hubites into North Fenola after rebelling against the hubites that had made migrating willots into slaves.”
“Has the migrating of races stopped?” Quint asked.
“No. I have no doubt the hubites remaining in Racellia will be pushed out at some point of time. If the Racellians don’t do it, the expanding Gussellian empire might cleanse South Fenola of their former slave masters, the hubites.”
“And the empires overlay everything?”
“The interactions aren’t that simple. The cultures can drive the elements that lead to empire building or it can be the other way around. Although there are similar patterns of empire, the causes that initiate the empires vary. I don’t get into that aspect of empire, culture, and migration in my empire book. I didn’t want to write more than one volume.”
“One thick volume,” Quint said.
“You really did read it all?”
“I even wrote a report on what I read.”
Fedor leaned forward. “I’d like to read your observations and maybe we can discuss your insights.”
“I’m sure they aren’t very original,” Quint said.
“You might surprise yourself.”
The food arrived.
“What are these?” Quint asked.
“Eating sticks, a polen innovation. The cuisine was affected by the polens using these rather than the other way around. We can talk about some of the origins that make up the polen culture later.
Quint wanted to talk about the hubites and Racellia, but it wasn’t the time for a serious conversation, and they talked about the food.
“It’s close, but not really authentic,” Calee said. “I would guess a polen started the restaurant and then it changed hands. The menu didn’t change, but the technique and some of the ingredients did.
The meal was over, and Quint paid for it as instructed by the colonel.
