He was dressed in the typical fashion of the horse riders, the tagars, his speech was broken and spoken like a chore. The news were simple, the Khagan was arriving into his dominions within the day; cassius was to provide for the wandering court while they took a short respite.
With the barbarian dismissed, he ordered his servants to prepare supplies and carts to transport them. He personally oversaw the quality of the products and then rode with them to the tagar camp; as his serfs offloaded the goods he watched the Tagar camp, the toiling servants, their women and children dressed in silk and gold, the curious idols all around the camp, but not for too long at a time, lest they notice he wasn’t a part of the scenery. He made sure no one said a word to the barbarians and lead them back to the estate; the outer wall needed repairs, weather and man had done a number on that repurposed mass of  brick and mortar. In happier times, his grandpa used to say, it was a lot smaller. He sunk again into his books until the sun had set. He had to entertain another Tagar; he was tall and tired “My lord invites you to feast, it would be a great honor for you to attend“ Cassius nodded while watching a candle slowly melt away
“I am highly honored by the invitation of  the noble khagan but I’m afraid I won’t be able to attend”
“The feast begins soon, I will escort you to the golden yurt myself” Cassius stared at the messenger for a few seconds; whatever words he had were strangled in his throat as he fell back into his chair “It is good manners to bring tribute, and to speak the tongue of the khagan when in his home”
“My apologies to your liege, I cannot speak tagaric but I can provide extra tribute in my stead, please send the khagan my regards and God’s blessings” The envoy stood blinking for a moment. “Find yourself an interpreter then, I will translate to you if I must. Now go! The feast starts soon” he barked out at cassius with impatience.
WIthout a word the comes got out of his chair and walked to his room. Berating himself on his cowardice, of course he was going to go. He knew what happened to those that angered the tagars, the sons berengar had their heads put on spikes upon their castle wall, the dukes of volek were enslaved, their crimes were endless.