Tristan has made an easy friendship with Mort. This did not come immediately. He did lie about his service, for starters, but after the initial wounded pride, it allowed Mort to see him more as an equal. What was important about Tristan was not a facade: He is loyal, he is determined, and he puts service to the common good above all. And, besides, Tristan just really likes him. 

It helps that what he's taken from Robena is a renewed sense of wonder and playfulness. When push came to shove, it was not martial prowess that failed - not Tristan's or Sandsfern's or Robena's - it was spirit. A subtle wrongness to Sandsfern that he would not be able to pin down until he saw her again. And Robena...

He still believed Robena did what needed to be done. This is why he kept her axe with him, clean and sharpened, for the day they met again. What failed is that she could take an action she couldn't believe in, did what she felt was [i]wrong[/i].

To Tristan, this meant that it was not enough that he [i]could[/i] act in the moment, but that he would always act as he [i]should[/i] in the moment. 

This new insight has alloyed him into being a playful showoff.

Is it, strictly speaking, a survival skill for him to be able to wear a tunic upside down, walk on his hands, and pretend that nothing's the matter? No, but it made Mort snort beer out his nose laughing when he managed to balance a hat on Tristan's bum, and Tristan doffed it with his feet. 

Was it, strictly speaking, making him a better warrior to practice birdsong for birds that didn't exist? To invent stories for the children about what they looked like, the impossible fruits that they ate in the fantastic places they came from? (Of course it was [i]all true[/i]; how else could he know how they sounded like?) 

It didn't. It made him a warrior who was accountable to children and their sense of right and wrong, though, the harshest and most insightful of moral arbiters. And it made him happy. 

The training is rigorous, as always. He can allow himself to soften, but not to blunt. When his muscles are too sore to test, when his mind is too foggy to fill, he takes longer and longer meetings with the spirits of the world, shows more and more concern. It is not insulting to rest like this. These are his most vulnerable moments that he shares with them. 

So, when it was time to travel, he did not comment on Constance's exacting choice of wording. The implication that the three who go out will not necessarily be the same three that return. He pretends he does not notice this even as he takes Robena's axe with his pack, already suspecting. 

He challenges his horse to a race, and mounts it a run just as it starts to overtake him at a hundred paces. 

And he laughed. 

He doesn't laugh now, but neither does he bow to Constance's grim decorum. He bows to the lady in the green dress upon the throne. "Thank you, again. I humbly ask if you would you have any musicians in your court? Or instruments, if no one to play them? The journey has been too quiet. It would warm us as much as any fire." 

As Constance's silences become more grievous, so too has Tristan's ways of breaking their tension. 

[hider=My Hider]
Tristan has paid special attention to his rites and ceremonies to see more clearly, and not lose another crucial moment as he did with Pellinore. 

— When you look closely at another person, you have the right 
to see them truly. Roll Weird. On any hit, ask their player one of the 
following questions about them; their player must answer it truthfully. 
On 7–9, in addition, their soul recognizes your scrutiny.
• For whom will you weep when death finds you?
• How have you failed to deserve what fortune has given you?
• Of what are you most deeply afraid?
• For what are you most deeply grateful?
• What is your soul’s greatest sin?
• What would make you welcome death?
On a miss, their soul recognizes your scrutiny and rebuffs you 
unanswered.[/hider]