The cafeteria of Capital Seat was for personnel and officers of all fractions, and was much more laid back than the Banquet Hall that was used for honored guests or important feasts. To Shilo, who’d only ever been to a couple greasy spoon cafés a few times in his life, it was impressive, and his mouth watered at choices that were laid out before him. Lytah brought him here as a treat for enduring all those boring tests and to wait around for Jin and some lady named Yun, much to the complaining of Kirlim. 

Despite his protest, the officer stayed stuck to them like glue. Secretly, Shilo was happy about that. Too many eyes turned his way to lock on him with silent contempt while they ate. Lytah hadn’t let him put on his ash camouflage, thus his blacken skin was on full display and his freak factor was running high. He tried to ignore all the looks and focused on his food.

Shilo finished his meal of fried tater wedges and ground steak with gravy and was halfway through his dessert of chocolate cake when Lytah gestured for Jin to come join them. The huge man sat his helm down on the table and ran a hand over his forehead to get a few loose sweat-dampened strains off his face. His head was shaved from his pointy ears down and what was left of his long, straight hair pulled back in a ponytail. 

“I’ll be back, lil’ valsiska,” Jin said, ruffling Lytah’s hair. With that, he left to procure some food, and by the size of him, it would probably be half the buffet.

“Why the hell are you still associating with him?” Kirlim snapped in a hushed tone. “I know full well your husband and the Council heads warned you from conversing with those two supposed nobles numerous times, but yet you still blatantly disregard their command.”

“Yeeaahh, they do keep trying, don't they?” Lytah said with a vindictive little grin.

A brawny, blacken female guard came to the table. She was, in fact, the same guard that stood with Jin at the hearing. She had a horizontal scar running across the bridge of her straight nose that in no way detract from her the handsomeness of her stern features. The scar only added to her character, and Shilo found himself wondering how she got it. 

“Hey, Enforcer,” she said, smiling wickedly as sat her tray down beside Kirlim. “Piss off.”

“Oh, you piss off! You think just because you belong to Chancellor Zeir now that I have to listen to a damn word you say? Marriage doesn’t entitle you to hold that kind of rank, woman.”

“I belong to no one, and my rank is, and has always been, my own.” Like Jin, she pulled off her helm and sat it on the table, only hers made a little clunky noise due to her five pleats of battle braids running down her head. “And me conversing with my oath-sister is of no concern of yours, so piss off!”

“You think I’m going—”

“Hey, little mage,” Jin’s deep voice growled. “My sister told you to leave, so I advised you to kick rocks before we do it for you.”

“Leave, Kirlim,” Lytah said sweetly. “Yeisha is also meeting me here and I can assure you, we’ll be perfectly fine without you. So fine in fact, that when you come back in an hour, Shilo and I will still be waiting here for you.”

“I’ll make sure the Council hears of this slight,” Kirlim growled as he removed himself from the table.

“Yeah, and you can go tell Romin and the Council they can all kiss my black, hairy ass while you’re at it too,” Jin proclaimed, holding up his goblet in salute.

The two warriors drank ale, Lytah wine, and Shilo, being a kid, had milk. He looked at his glass of milk with disdain.

“If it wasn’t bad enough that the arsehole keeps trying to forbid you from seeing us, but now he has to have you watched too?” the female guard growled. “What? Are you starting to show enough backbone that Romin is getting paranoid that his going to lose his live-in nanny—”

“Yun, quit making her even more uncomfortable than she already is. Shit, between you and that enforcer.” Jin stabbed a potato on his plate. He only had one plate, but with almost triple the portions. “That purple prick was only here because of the kid. But Lytah, just remember, hon, you are always welcome back home.”

“A good marriage takes time. I’ve only been married for two years.”

“And I’ve been married for a year and Jin, four, and both of us can tell you without a doubt that it’s a two-way pact full of benefits and compromises befitting both members, not just one. And if your spouse suddenly changes personalities after you’re wed, then the one he showed while wooing you was just a gimmick, and no amount of waiting is going to change that.” 

Lytah rubbed her forehead and stared down into her glass and said nothing. This was probably an argument she heard one too many times already. 

Shilo quietly finished his cake, not looking at anyone. The cake was rich and he wasn’t really used to sweets, his childish glass of milk was starting to look awfully good now.

Yun looked intently at the piece of steak at the end of her knife. “When you’ve decided you have had enough, and if the little maggot still won’t let you leave, let us know, valsiska. We’ll be more than happy to help.” She smiled wickedly before biting the meat off the tip of her knife.

“A long walk into the hilt of a sharp blade does wonders for a man’s perspective,” Jin whispered with a smirk. 

“He has a daughter, you know. Crap, you guys are awful. Besides, you’re both giving Shilo here a bad opinion of you two asshats.”

Shilo choked on his milk. I’ve been trying not to draw attention to myself and you go and point me out? Crap! He could care less about her marriage woes, what he was more focused on was their warning innuendos. These two seem fiercely protective and he didn’t want to do anything to find out how short of a walk it took to get impaled at the end of their blade. 

The warrior siblings smiled at him, their pearly white teeth in sharp contrast to their coal-black lips and soot color skin. Even though his own teeth stood out just as stark, theirs seemed vicious right now.

Yun tilted her head and studied him as he wiped the milk from his chin. Crap, he didn’t need to look even more pathetic than he already felt around these two. 

“So, this is Kaya’s—Heeey! Dammit, Jin!” Her brother, in reaching for his helm for some reason, knocked over her goblet and spilled ale all down her lap. She shoved him. They started growling at each other in some garbled tongue Shilo didn’t understand that sounded like grizzly bears trying to speak.

“Ummm, you knew my mother?”

An odd, awkward silence followed that was broken by Lytah clearing her throat. “Yes, we all knew of your mother at some level. A scrawny, blacken woman like her kind of stood out when compared to…” She gestured at Yun, emphasizing her point. 

There was plenty of truth to that that Shilo was all too aware of. More than a little self-conscious now, he hunched his shoulders and rubbed his upper arm.

“Shilo!”

Shilo lifted his head at the sound of Asha’s voice and felt his face brighten at the sight of her. She bounced on the balls of her feet and waved merrily, causing her hair to flip about in a bellow of curls. Yeisha walked beside her, smiling too. 

Asha embraced him in a bear hug, almost tipping the chair as she crashed into him. He returned the hug just a tight, not giving a damn what anyone else thought.

“Oh,” Asha exclaimed, pulling free of him to tug the knapsack off her shoulders. “Yeisha found me. She also brought you some clothes. Uh, I guess we’ll be living apart for a while…” 

“Yes, so it seems.”

He took the bag and looked up at Yeisha. “Thank you, and thank you for taking her in.” 

“Glad I could help,” Yeisha said with a smile as she ran a hand over Asha’s hair. “It’s no problem at all. I’m happy to help such a little sweetheart.”

Asha smiled and bit her bottom lip, a soft blush crept into cheeks as she played with the hem of her blouse. A pretty teal colored blouse with pink roses embroidered around the collar that he knew for certain she never had before, just like that ruffled pink skirt she was wearing. 

“Are you doing alright?” She looked well, but all the same, he wanted to hear some form of confirmation from her lips.

“Yes, I’m safe.” She clasped his hand tightly between hers, her turquoise eyes searching. “And you’re safe too, right?”

With a nod, he lowered his twilight blue eyes. Her hands were grey, the color of ash just like her name implied, and pale compared to his charcoal-black. 

“Yeisha told me we can still visit each other. She’s really nice. And I’m not just saying that because she’s letting me stay with her. She actually is. She said she’s going to teach me to read. I mean, not that you didn’t teach me already, but she is going to teach me more words.”

Asha looked happy, and at the same time, guilty for that happiness. He didn’t want to add to her guilt. He gave her another nod with a tight-lipped smile. He didn’t know how safe he was, but she didn’t need to worry about it. He could pretend for her sake.

“That’s great, Ash’.”

“Asha,” Yeisha politely said. “This is Lytah, Shilo is staying with her. And this is Jin and his sister, Yun. We’ll be having dinner later today with Jin and his wife, Siree, at Enolla and Ressil’s house.” 

Asha’s eyes widened as she noticed the burly man for the first time. Even seated he was huge. Jin had to be closer to seven feet than six, if not over, and solid muscle to boot. Both Jin and Yun gave her a smile that was a lot friendlier than anything he received from them. But she was a normal kid after all, not some blacken freak. He flicked at a cake crumb on the table. No, in truth he would have been more upset if they didn’t smile kindly at her. It was only right.

Asha returned the smiles and gave them each a polite, but cheerful, hello. 

Jin stood to his full height, Asha’s eyes went even wider as she tilted her head all the way back to view him. With a smile, he bowed low like a gentleman and said, “Jin Elkenrein. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Asha.” 

Asha gaped at him in awe as he returned to his seat. “Um, is it alright to ask how tall you are?”

“My dear, you wouldn’t believe how many times I get asked that,” he said with a smile. “I’m seven foot four. Just don’t ask about my weight, I have no clue on that.”

“With as much as he eats,” Yun enlightened a little offhandedly. “Probably around twenty-seven stones, easy.”

“Dull blades, Sis. You make me sound like a damn auroch.”

“Auroch?” Asha tilted her head.

“Wild cattle,” Yun said with a grin. “Big, dumb, and aggressive.”

“Thanks,” Jin drawled sarcastically.

“And who’s Enolla?” Shilo asked.

“My mother-in-law,” Jin said. “It’s okay, kid. No harm will come to her.”

Shilo pursed his lips. He must not have done a decent job of keeping the edge out of his voice.

“She’s the nice lady who gave you the clothes,” Asha said with a grin. “She has a son a little older than you and two grownup daughters.” 

She turned back to Jin with a smile. She was doing an awful lot of smiling. “Oh, so your wife is Siree? She’s very sweet. She and her mother are going to teach me things, like bread making and bow fishing.”

Why is everyone teaching her useful crap while all I get is damn stupid tests and death threats? Shilo bit the knuckle of his forefinger to try to quell the budding animosity. It was stupid for him to feel bitter, but she looked… 

Lytah turned her head and an arched eyebrow his way. Yeah, he already knew how selfish and asinine his thoughts had turned. He pulled the knuckle from his mouth and let out a soft sigh. Asha seemed better off without him. He should be happy for her, he was trying to be, but still it hurt.