Walk of Shame

When Eligos felt Aryn begin to slide from his back, he crouched obligingly to lessen the effort for her to reach the ground from his height, then stood over her protectively as she stood splay-legged. She introduced him and her father, and Eligos tilted his head in ironic acknowledgement as Torin stated that they'd already met. "Indeed," he said flatly, without elaborating. Torin's accusations against the Abraxas family still irritated him like a burr beneath his skin all this time later, but Eligos kept a neutral expression. When Torin reiterated his question about what she'd been up to, Eligos stirred. Better to answer himself, and not risk Aryn, drunk as she was, from mentioning anything untoward in her uninhibited frame of mind. "Fireside hosted a gathering to celebrate the upcoming marriage of one of their members," he said smoothly, telling enough of the truth and no more than that. "There was alcohol provided, and it was perhaps a bit stronger than expected. As the hosts were busy with their own duties, I assisted Miss Valentine home." Torin certainly had no need to know that the duties Valentine and Tyrian Imperialis were busy fulfilling were in the nature of sexual endeavors. Hopefully Aryn had the sense - or lack of coherence - to not fill in any of the holes in the story he'd deliberately left empty.