"Excuse me, Azurei, do you mind if I sit?" An elderly man gestured to the chair across from Ridahne. It was polite to address an Azurei as such if their name or title was unknown; the custom was reflective of a kind of unity the desert nation held, a notion that they were all one. More than that, it was a reminder to the Azurian in question that they, in that moment, represented their nation as a whole.
Ridahne blinked. She didn't generally give of the sort of vibe of a person others would want to approach, so when people did with any kind of politeness, it usually took her aback. Normally she would have outright refused, preferring to be left alone. But the shop was packed, and hers was only one of a few available seats. She studied him with her honey eyes, looking stately and serious despite the casual setting, then eventually nodded and said, [i]"A'ea."[/i]

The man lowered himself to a sitting position slowly and with great care, and he was quickly served the hot milky tea. "I was once stationed in Azurei, you know." He said this with a soft smile, and she knew right away he was a veteran of the Ten Years War. 
"Where?"
"High Khaileda." 
Ridahne gave a very small smile, hidden behind her mug. "Poor bastard. Khaileda eats men alive if they do not know her."
"Yes..we lost many to her slopes. The locals were like ghosts, the way they just appeared and disappeared."
"We get that a lot," she said. And it was true. Azurei had never been known to have a forceful, large military. But they were efficient, trained, and disciplined, and they knew their lands.

The man idly watched the screen, sipped his tea, then looked back to her. "Can I ask where you are from?"
"You can. Atakhara."
"Ah...the wastes..."
"And the sea," she defended quickly. "But yes. The wastes also." 
"Can I ask what brings you all the way here?"
"No." Ridahne's reply was flat, cold, and unmoving as stone. Her eyes did not meet his.
The man gave a slow, understanding nod. "Well. Whatever your reasons, it is good to see one of yours here, Azurei. Today, I mean.  I know it's not...I know things didn't end as well for the Azurei as they did for some others, and I'm happy to see at least some of you here, even if it's not many. And...well, especially seeing an Eija, it's--"

Ridahne's gaze turned from guarded to cold and heavy. The man could feel it pressing down on him like a pile of stones as she straightened a little in her seat, showing (even while sitting) just how tall she was. Bright, fiery eyes bored out from a tapestry of tan skin and tricolored tattoos with all the fury of a dog showing her teeth. 
"Do not presume to know me."
He could feel the chill in her tone. "I'm sorry, I just thought you had that air, I didn't mean--" An even sharper glare cut him off as she rose, finishing her drinks in long gulps before slamming them back down on the table. And whoosh. She was gone, leaving the old man alone at the table blinking and regretting his boldness.

Every so often, Ridahne could be lured into surface level chats with strangers, but personal talk was off the board. There were a lot of things she didn't want to talk about, much less reveal to strangers. Why people felt the need to pry was beyond her. She was walking now, briskly and without much direciton. She just needed to blow off steam a bit. Her head down, she moved fast through the crowd with a graceful efficiency that came with lots of practice. She did this for a while, but then something stopped her. It was nothing tangible, no sound or sight in particular that set her off, but something wasn't right. She could feel it in her bones. Ridahne looked around, but nothing exactly jumped out at her. What was it?

She caught a distant glimpse of another taja (one of two, for they always moved in pairs) and turned her face away so it could not be seen, though she didn't make a run for it, as they were too far off and focused on something else to pay her any mind. But that brought up another question that she'd failed to think of earlier: what were taja doing here? She could understand the presence of eija in a ceremonial sense, but taja could not be bothered with such trivialities as that. They were elite, the small and personal army of the Sota-Sol herself, or of any one of her five Sila-Sol beneath her. And never once had Ridahne ever heard of any of the Sol attending the Armistice festival. Never once.

A low, cold panic began to set in her stomach. She didn't know why, but she had a very bad feeling about them being there. Her training kicked in, then, and a strong sense of self preservation screamed over anything else she might be thinking. 

It was time to go.