"It might, but that would be for others to say," Finn replied. He did not know if he might still claim that throne, or if, in his absence, he might have been deposed, but he thought otherwise; a land without a king did not prosper, and the fiels of Connacht were still green. If he had sensed any reproach for his long absence in the other man's words, he would have made answer for it, but as it stood, he did not, and that told him something as well. But he answered, "I am Finnbheara," not to hedge further.
"And who might this young man be?" And he was young as their people counted things; Finn could see that. He could tell it by the new and polished stiffness of his manners and in the self-assured and yet self-conscious manner of him that only a young man eager to test his own mettle could manage. Finn reminded him so with gentle teasing.