"Hey, Liz. What brings you here?" Connell, as usual, acted as though there was nothing amiss about his situation. When Liz walked into the small sitting room, she noticed several new stacks of books on the tables.
"You're going to be one really smart kid when you come of age," she remarked, eyeing a few of the titles. "Either that, or a really dangerous one."
"It's my dearest ambition to become both," Connell said. "Tea?"
"Tea would be lovely," said Liz, taking a seat on the couch. While Connell went to get the tea, she looked at the stack of books closest to her. Nearly all of them had pages marked, and notes in the margin in thin, loopy handwriting. The notes impressed Liz. They seemed very well-thought out and thourough without being too verbose, especially for a teenager who hadn't even been to the Academy.
"My grandfather send you to keep an eye on me?" asked Connell, returning with the tea things.
'Actually, I'm here because I wanted to ask you some questions. I know you said you want to help, but," and here she looked at him in the eye, trying to convey as much seriousness and life-or-death situation as possible, "you still can't. I just need to know a few things. For our...little mission, so to speak."
Connell poured her a cup of tea and then leaned back, completely at ease. "You mean you want to know the history of our little corner of the world, right?"
Liz followed his train of thought immediately. 'yes, that's exactly what I'm looking for."
"Anything in particular?"
Liz pretended to think for a moment, as if there was any other topic she was more eager to hear about. 'What about that couple that ran the market?" she asked innocently.
"Ah, yes. David and Maria Sanguen. My grandfather was very fond of them. Took it quite hard when they were executed, but I think he felt they deserved it, starting up a rebellion like that. Friends of my parents," he added, sipping his tea.
"Hmm," Liz said, attempting to sound llike this information wasn't the least bit interesting.
'At any rate, they didn't deserve what they got, not even their little girl. Fact is, they didn't start the rebellion." He sipped his tea again as if he hadn't just dropped the most interesting piece of information, and Liz did the same, even though she was dying to know more. Finally, he continued.
"It was some man on the other side of the Lower Division. He started off marking up some posters, like I was doing, but he got others involved. And David and Maria, well," he stopped for a moment, then in all seriousness, said, "it never sat well with them, what happened to my parents. And to me. They really liked my parents, and the only person more sad about their deaths than my Grandfather and me were David and Maria. I think they thought they could sort of vindicate their deaths. But they just wound up scapegoats."
Liz set her tea cup down, as she was feeling that they were no longer playing pretend storytelling. She leaned forward towards Connell. "What else can you tell me?" she asked.