“You’re not the only one who can be brooding and mysterious.” Dan’s grin betrays that this is also dry teasing. “I don’t read or write well. People tend to want that in a translator.”

He gets up, feeling stiff from the cold and then the heat, and starts to collect his layers from where he shed them.

“I won’t keep you long, then. What task is calling your name right now? Anything exciting?”