Evangeline looked down at the sprawled man. The smile had gone with the man on the edge; returned to himself he was of interest only for their common species. If such lapses of control as this were periodic or environmental, he would not have much of a future in a small society like the ship's, she knew. She remembered how it had been when she was young. Hiding never worked for long. In the end, you needed someplace to run. Here there was none.

Did she care?

...strangely, she couldn't answer. She only came back to her own memories. And there was another nagging distraction...

She eyed Alessa. "He's all yours, is that it? Can't have him hearing any impure speech?" She chuckled. "Life gets impinged on, little..." the arrogant, taunting mask fell away as her little speech died down.

"What are you, anyway?"