"Stay for breakfast?"

Echa could feel him grinning at her back and she rolled her eyes out of sight of him.

"If I do will you stop asking?"

"That would defeat the purpose."

She frowned. He certainly looked earnest, but she knew a weasel when she saw one. Still there was something about Tryst—maybe it was the fact that he simply didn't act like she'd expected from the First Mate. Of course, Jayln had told her that he was only recently promoted. It was surely just a matter of time before he started throwing his new weight around.

Perhaps it would be better to get to know him a bit more, to better control the inevitable fallout.

Rolling out of the bed, Echa sat at his desk, using the small mirror there to fix her hair.

"Tryst is a strange name, isn't it? Is it your birth name?" she asked abruptly and watched his grin widen in the mirror.

"Will you stay if I tell you?"

"Long enough to hear the answer."

He gave a dramatic sigh, but did answer, "It is indeed my birth name, but it's not so strange. Sort of a built in origin story you might say."

"So it is meant literally."

His eyes roamed her silhouette as he answered and she finished up. "Very. Not sure who the male guest of the party in question was. Suppose my ma wasn't good enough for him but for a few sweet words. And ma, well she was always a bit literal."

"Merely a tryst then." She gave an amused smile and when he returned it, she saw his eyes scanning her face for more. Echa reached over for her dress and Tryst leaned over to hand it to her.

"A tryst is never merely a tryst." His voice was joking, light with clever wordplay.

"I'm afraid you have the wrong audience for that line," she said matching his tone and standing to slip the dress back on.

She pulled her long hair out of the back and straightened a hem. "Good day, Tryst."

Sensing his luck'd run dry, Tryst nodded and she left the cabin. She shivered a bit in the cool morning air and quickly crossed over to when she could descend to the dreary storage room where her daughter was stashed.