* * * "That must have been embarrassing earlier," Sorran noted with a wry smile to Hem, who instantly glanced at his wife and daughter before his pupil that 'please-say-nothing-of-what-happened' look. Ever the respectful one, Sorran acknowledged the look. That didn't mean he would adhere to it though. "Just how hard did your behind smash into the floor?" Hem groaned, his ears flushing with shame. His wife, she too an elderly Sangheili by the name of Ilia, raised a brow. "Did you try to best Katoth'ee again, Hem?" she demanded with the tone of one who had seen it happen many times before. "It was close," he protested, and Sorran laughed a little. "If you call being disarmed and thrown on the floor within the first two minutes close," he mocked gently, sending Hem into another bout of groaning. Ilia and their only child, a daughter and mother herself named Kym, laughed at his shame. "You know, Sorran, when in one's house it's rude to embarrass the host," Hem tried to salvage some face. Sorran looked at Ilia, who shook her head and smiled. "Ignore him, he's always like this whenever he visits. Ever since I first met him and long before that he has been trying to defeat Katoth'ee, and still he has not succeeded," Ilia informed Sorran, before looking at Hem sympathetically and placing a hand on his arm. "Maybe when he's on his death bed, dear." "Probably not even then," his daughter teased. Sorran was enjoying himself in Hem's house. His own family had never been like this; what with the death of his mother at birth and the strict, zealous nature of his very conservative father, he'd never really known such a happy household. Hem and Ilia had been bonded for nearly eighty years, which awed Sorran. What surprised him even further was that in the near-decade Hem had known of the Great Journey's truth, he had never once revealed it to any of his family; as with Katoth'ee, he told Sorran he did not want to burden them with a matter they could do nothing about. Apparently they had first had a son a few years into their marriage, but he had been a sickly child and had died long before reaching adulthood. Almost fifty years later, they'd moved past the grieve and decided to have another child; from that Kym had been born. She was only 32 years old by Sangheilian orbital time, and, Sorran had to admit he found her very attractive despite being only 25 himself. Kym had borne two children already, which was rare amongst the Sangheili; theirs was not a race which bore offspring often. One of the young was a boy of seven named Kemyn, a few years away from being taken into the academy for the mandatory combat training all male Sangheili received. The other was a girl of six, Gilyi, already showing the signs of her mother's beauty. Both were somewhere else in the large house Hem's family owned, engaged in some sort of play. The Huragok who maintained the household was watching over them. Kym's husband was apparently a major in the Covenant army, drafted in roughly the same time Sorran had been all those months ago. She hadn't heard much from him since enlisting, she hold told Sorran sadly earlier. "So, how are things with the High Councillor, father?" Kym suddenly asked Hem, breaking Sorran's internal reflections. Hem forced a smile, and Sorran knew he was thinking about Restraint's cancer. "Well enough," he spoke abruptly. "I worry about him when I am not by his side, though." "You're [i]always[/i] worrying about him," Ilia spoke with exasperation. "Sometimes I think that you would rather be bonded with him than myself." "Don't be absurd," Hem answered with affection, staring deep into her eyes with love. "My heart is yours, Ilia. Besides, he cannot cook at all." "Oh, father," Kym sighed with a roll of her eyes as Hem broke away, laughing. "I think you should retire soon, by the way. You're old--" "Very old," Sorran added, earning himself a cold look from Hem. "[i]Very[/i] old," Kym amended with a small smile. "Too old to be an honour guard. You should be here, with mother and us. The children do not see their grandfather often enough." "Well, that is why Sorran is here," Hem conceded, taking Sorran off-guard a little. "I am getting too old for this, you are right. In a few years, Sorran will be [i]nearly[/i] as good as me -- never quite as good of course, but close enough." "I'll try take that as a compliment," Sorran answered. "Maybe then, I can come here and live out the rest of my days under the Sangheilian sun with all of you. There has to be a changing of the guard eventually; Sorran will be that change." "Well, thank you Sorran," Ilia told him gratefully. "You seem like a fine young man, and Hem has told us so many wonderful things about you." Sorran looked at Hem with surprise then, and colour returned to his cheeks. "I probably exaggerated a [i]little,[/i]" he covered up, earning him a cuff about the ear from his wife. "There's more food if you want it Sorran, help yourself," Kym told him with a bright smile. "I'm full to the brim, thank you all the same. It was delicious," he praised Ilia, who glowed a little under his compliments. Night had fully fallen upon San now, and in the distance Sorran could see the bright lights of the city break through the clouds. Hem's house was located but a few miles out; the land was still bountiful amazingly, and some crops and livestock were kept on his property. "Well, if you'll excuse us," Hem suddenly spoke up, taking Ilia's hand and pulling away from the table. Sorran blinked. "Where are you headed?" he asked as they both moved to exit the room. A smile stretched across Hem's face. "I'll tell you when you're older, boy," was all he answered before leaving the room, dropping a very disturbing wink. "Father!" Kym moaned after him, embarrassment clear in her face. Sorran finally realised what the other honour guard had been implying, and he too adopted a sheepish expression. "So," he said quickly to break the awkwardness. "Your husband is in the Covenant army, you mentioned earlier?" At the mention of his name, Kym practically lit up like a Huragok taking apart a machine. "Yes," she practically gushed. "He's a major; he told me he commands a lance. I am not quite sure what a lance is, though." "It's a small group of warriors, usually comprised of four Unggoy plus another Sangheili," Sorran informed her swiftly, taking a drink of the sweet-tasting alcohol in his glass, which apparently Ilia had fermented herself from the colourful berries which grew outside. Alcohol that was fermented rather than distilled was rare amongst the Covenant, and Sorran found the taste very different to anything he had tasted before; not unpleasant, though. "Oh," Kym blinked, looking a little abashed. "I probably should have known that. I don't like knowing too much about the war, though. It panics me, to think of all the things that could happen to him out there." "It is dangerous," Sorran agreed, before berating himself for not saying something more reassuring. "But the humans grow weaker by the day. So long as your husband his careful, he should not come to any harm." "I know, it's just--" Suddenly Kym was interrupted by the screaming of young children as both Kemyn and Gilyi ran into the dining room, both of them holding sticks in their hands and doing their best of bludgeon the other as siblings did. Both of them wore lightly-powered personal energy shielding, standard amongst wealthier Sangheili children to protect them from harm, so the risk of any actual damage was slight. Even so, Kym moved over to them both and took the sticks from them, given them a reprimanding look. Sorran watched with interest. "What have I told you of duelling within the house?" their mother asked harshly. Both of them instantly adopted what Sorran assumed were their cute-faces, looking up at Kym with wide, innocent eyes. "But it's dark outside!" Kemyn protested in a whiny voice. "Unggoy," Gilyi insulted, before side-stepping a little shove Kemyn tried to give her. Sorran smiled warmly at the sibling-rivalry; he'd always been an only child himself, but had always wondered what it would be like to have a blood brother or sister. "Stop it, both of you. What are you doing, anyway?" Kym asked them, noting the tin pan Kemyn wore over his head.