Dain smiles unexpectedly and -- hopefully only because of his current company -- instinctively puts an obvious hand over his mouth to hide it. A point for the genuinely-has-no-idea-what-he's-doing side of things, it seems. Vervain is more fortunate than he knows, that Dain is the Shepherd kneeling here hiding silent laughter, and not basically any other Shepherd in Maireglenne.

The poor man is going to have a tough time of it, when he realises. Dain will need to work out a way to help him.

"Vervain is just finishing up Alvi's breakfast," Dain tells Tuo -- partly so Tuo has a measure of the current situation, and partly to subtly remind the mystified novice priest he's not quite finished.