my own,” Hayao said, his face showing his emotions for the first time since Bren had met him. “There is no greater shame for one of my lineage. Yet you have still offered to take me in, and for that, I am very grateful. I swear that for as long as my line exists, we shall guard you and yours.”
“That is very…generous,” Bren said hesitantly. “But I do not think my offer garners such a commitment.”
Hayao didn’t respond but simply bowed again. Out of everyone that Bren had met, Hayao was the hardest to figure out. Bren believed it had to deal with the training that he had endured since he was young. Arashi had said the man had no honor, but Bren didn’t believe that was true. He was just a man who had to do things that others might find hard to swallow in order to hold to his own meaning of honor.
Once they arrived back at Hayao’s family home, they were greeted much more warmly than they had been on the previous day. Not only were the welcomed with a large feast, their rooms were changed to a newer section of the house that was much more comfortable. It was not as if they were treated badly, but the atmosphere had been cold and distant, now it felt as if they had actually been welcomed.
That night, Bren and the others were asked to dine with the rest of the family. The setting for dinner was a bit different than Bren was used to. There were no chairs, just thick cushions for the guests to sit on, nor was there a table. Each person got their own mini table that was brought by a young woman. Another thing Bren noticed was that none of the women in the family ate with them. In fact, the way the other men looked at the women with him, made it easy to tell that they didn’t think much of them, especially Brenda, who among all of them was the most outspoken.
“More,” Brenda yelled holding up the small glass that was used for the rice wine, which they often drank with meals. “Don’t you have a bigger glass,” she said, picking up a small glass decanter that held the wine and took a large drink. Bren had thought her actions would make things harder, but oddly, the elder man who sat at the head of the group laughed.
“Bring the lady as much as she wishes to drink,” the man said still laughing. “It is not often that I see a woman who can drink so much.”
As the night progressed, Brenda drank more and more, and many of the others began to join in the merriment. In the end, Bren and the other guards were forced to carry many of their friends back to their room. Bren, who seemed to draw the unlucky lot, was forced to take care of Brenda, who was not only drunk but had wandering hands.
“You were such a cute baby,” Brenda said as she leaned heavily against Bren’s shoulder. “Mother always talked about you when she came back from a visit. She used to tell me that she was going to arrange a marriage between me and you.”
“That’s cheating,” Faye said, grabbing Brenda’s other arm and helping Bren carry her weight, though he wasn’t having trouble with her. “I have been working on him for the past year.”
“I’m cheating,” Brenda said, slurring her words slightly. “I never took mothers words seriously. I mean Bren here was just a little kid who I had only seen when he was just a chubby baby. So my mother once talked me into going with her on one of her state visits and there he was. He was still just a kid but he was such a cutie,” Brenda said kissing Bren awkwardly on the cheek.
“Hay, no kissing,” Faye said with a slight chuckle as the entered the room.
“Jealous,” Brenda said pulling Faye close to her and giving her a kiss full on the lips.
Even though he was more removed from himself than normal, Bren was still caught off guard as Brenda pulled away from him and grabbed Faye’s head and forced a kiss on her. Bren fell to the ground as Faye pulled back wiping her mouth and coughing. “Why in the nine hells did you do that?” Faye asked, but Brenda was already sleeping peacefully where she fell.
After they put Brenda in bed, Bren sought his own bed. A few