Smooth Talking... Hopefully

"What is going on, Ceriden Malkaan?"

Ceriden's mind raced quickly as he came up with a resonable response to the commander's inquiry. Quickly, hopefully before she got suspicious of his attempts to deceive her, he replied, "I'm helping this woman manage her slave."

Which was true. The most believable lies were usually half-truths, and in this case, whether she bought the lie or not was probably critical to his continued good health. Fearful that his weak explanation would raise more questions then it would answer, he continued, "She needs him to be a bodyguard, which I explained requires him to be loyal, else he may turn on her at an inopportune moment. So right now we are trying to make it up to him after she chained him up and didn't feed him."