Shadow Master (1st Book)

Chapter 7: The Question

Brom woke up the next day, but his mood soured instantly as the sinking feeling from the other day returned, forcing him to feel guilt, he knew why he felt that way. Memories from his childhood haunted him, and it made his heart thump with an unnatural speed as he remembered his mother and father. He groaned as his eyes began glistening.

Would my father have been ashamed of my choices?

Would my mother denounce me as my son if she knew what I had done

Thoughts of guilt and melancholy raged inside his mind, creating a cacophony of memories and voices as each one overlapped the other.

With a grunt, he forced all of it down, suppressing it.  For now, at least.

The memories from last night suddenly came flooding back to him. He reminisced of Fendrel telling him of his own life.

His hardships.

His father.

His mother's death.

Everything.

He also explaiined his abducting, or rather adopting in his words, him and Alianor. A small smile was managed as he remembered the ecstatic look on the older man's face when he accepted him as his father. He grinned to himself without knowing.

Speak of the devil. Brom mused as the Shadow Master came strolling in to the room with a certain laughing babe in his arms, a smile on his face. Quite a unusual sight for someone that certainly kills people, but for Brom, it was now a common sight.

Well, as common as seeing a very trained assassin holding his baby sister.

"Sleep well?"  It was filled with the affection a father harbors for his son, the concern, and the love that couldn't have possibly formed in just one night. That surprised Brom.

Though in the Shadow Master's case, it already had fuly developed the moment he, Brom, accepted Fendrel as his foster father.

"Yes, I did sleep well. Thank you for asking," Brom replied. Brom beamed at Fendrel, causing the man to reciprocate the action. However, Alianor's sudden bawling snapped them out of their daze. They glanced at each other then laughed.

"Really?" Fendrel gazed at Alianor, feigning annoyance,"I just fed you some minutes ago!"

The teen chuckled. He slid out of bed, and to the surprise and of both himself and Fendrel, he embraced the man with all his might. This elicited a startled gasp from his new father. "That is for being so helpful to us." He said kindly, then abruptly slugged Fendrel on the shoulder, making him grimace in pain,"And that's for kidnapping us!" 

The older man merely laughed in response,"Come, I am sure you are hungry."

He quickly dressed in a green sleeveless tunic that was laying beside him and a pair of pants, and followed the man out. You got that right!

After a breakfast of bread and cheese, along with ale, courtesy of Ayleth who came bounding in holding three tankards of mead in her arms and who looked unbelievably sober for someone who drunk atleast ten bottles of ale the other night, Fendrel took the teen on a tour of the whole home of the Silent Ones, though in Brom's mind, he thought of their "home" as more of a furnished cave. 

They had put Alianor to bed, and Fendrel had ordered the human male, Leoric was his name, to guard over Alianor. Much to the bemusement of Brom, Leoric was always scowling. He glowered so much it looked like it was his normal face.

Fendrel, after instructing Leoric to care for Alianor, took the teen to the tour. Brom was dumbstruck when he discovered that there were three rooms that were only for training.