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"I don't think they like me very much."
Rivayn stood before Yda and Papalymo with his arms crossed over his chest. The sylphs scattered around Little Solace were doing their best to pretend that the three of them were anywhere but in their midst.
"Of course they don't like you," Papalymo returned with an annoyed sigh. "You're not a sylph."
"Don't listen to him," Yda urged, a characteristic smile on her face. "If the traditional sylph greeting didn't work on Komuxio, maybe you just need to greet more of them!"
Rivayn stared at her for a moment. "You want me to dance for all the sylphs in this camp...?"
"Not all of them," she returned. "Just, you know, a few. Half. A dozen, at most."
"Yda," Papalymo chided.
"What?" she returned. "It'll work!"
Rivayn's brow furrowed. "You just want to watch me make a fool of myself."
"I do not," Yda protested. "But while you're at it, perhaps you should dance for some of the Gridanians as well."
"What? Why?"
"It'll show the sylphs you take their customs seriously!" Yda explained. Papalymo, meanwhile, had walked away with an annoyed huff. Clearly he was of no mind to be dragged into their antics.
"Fine," Rivayn relented, "but you're helping."
"Of course, I'll just—" she stopped mid-sentence and made the most overdramatically pained expression Rivayn had ever seen as she grabbed her left leg. "Oh no, my leg!"
"You're kidding me."
"Legs cramps, you know," she explained, smiling innocently. "I suppose you'll have to go on without me."
Rivayn's expression turned stony. "You're faking it."
"Me?" Yda asked, looking aghast. "I would never!"
With a sigh, Rivayn turned toward the gathering of sylphs. He couldn't see Yda's delighted expression as he chose his first victim.
"Hey, cheer up."
Lyse looked up over her shoulder to see Rivayn approaching. "Guess you found me," she said after a moment, turning back toward the water.
"You had a rough day," Rivayn mentioned, sitting down next to her at the water's edge. "I wasn't sure you'd want company, but you haven't told me to leave yet, so..."
"This was my home," Lyse said after a moment with a defeated sigh. "Half of them don't remember me, and the other half would just as soon spit on me for abandoning them."
"You were a child, Lyse."
Lyse's breath hitched in her throat. "Sorry," she said after noticing the frown on Rivayn's face. "I'm just still not used to... you know."
"My name was different when I was younger, too," Rivayn told her, prompting a confused look as he got to his feet. "Technically it was Vayn, of the R tribe."
"Vayn...?" Lyse asked. "That's... gosh, that would take some getting used to."
"I hate being called Vayn," he assured her with a laugh, tossing a stone toward the water. It skittered across the surface before bouncing off of a protruding rock. "R'vayn Tia, technically, although I had been taken from my mother far too young to remember the last bit."
"Where did 'Vesaldi' come from, then?" Lyse asked curiously, wrapping her arms around her legs as she watched him.
"After I was thrown off the pirate ship, I washed up at the Moraby Drydocks," Rivayn explained, a grin on his face as he skipped another rock. "One of the Yellowjackets asked me what my name was, and I said R’vayn. And then he asked me my last name."
"What did you say?" she asked, completely enthralled with the story.
"Well, there was a half-built galleon floating nearby labeled 'Vessel D'."
Lyse stifled a laugh. "You didn't."
"I was a kid!" Rivayn reminded her with a laugh. "I panicked."
"Seriously, that's where 'Vesaldi' came from?"
"Maybe," he shrugged. "Or maybe I made it up. Who knows?"
Lyse rolled her eyes and smiled. "You're ridiculous, Rivayn."
"But you're smiling now." He dropped the rest of the stones he'd picked up and held his hand out to her. "Come on, you owe me."
Lyse looked up at his outstretched hand with a frown. "I owe you what, exactly...?"
"A dance."
"A— what?"
"You remember way back before we fought Titan, and you—"
"Oh no," she interrupted, shaking her head. "You're not still upset about that, are you?"
He stretched his hand out closer, looking her directly in the eye with a straight face. "You made it up."
"I did not!" she insisted.
"You couldn't keep track of which leg had the cramp," Rivayn countered. "First it was your left leg, and then, after I'd finished thoroughly embarrassing myself, suddenly your right leg was all better again!"
"I— Gods, I did forget which leg it was, didn't I...?" With a sigh, she took his hand and let him help her to her feet. "I guess that'll teach me to think I can put one past you."
With a satisfied grin, Rivayn pulled her in and put his arm around her back.
"This was not the kind of dance you did for the sylphs," Lyse pointed out as he took her hand in his.
"No it isn't," Rivayn acknowledged. "I can't really see myself slow dancing with a sylph."
She stifled a laugh as she tried to picture it in her head. "I would have paid good gil to see that."
"I bet you would have," he said with a chuckle. "Just remember that tomorrow will be better."
"I hope so," Lyse replied with a sigh.
"I will," he insisted. "And by all the gods, if you get another leg cramp..."
"I won't," she promised with a laugh, resting her head on his shoulder.
"Good." Rivayn smiled as the two of them began to dance while the sun set on Gyr Abania.