We entered the baths proper through sliding doors. An old man, remarkably muscled, with jagged scars from past battles running across his body, rinsed himself before entering one of three large pools. Copying the old man’s example, we cleaned ourselves as best we could with cheap coarse soap. As we scrubbed and scrubbed, the grime from our long travels slowly sloughed off us and, once we felt we were suitably clean, we entered one of the tepid pools. The feeling of embarrassment from my nakedness had long been scoured from me, but a sense of vulnerability remained, so Elwin and I would have to make quick our little bathing session.

For a moment I remembered Harun, comparing him to the old man. They were of a similar build, but would he pose a similar challenge? I played out the murderous scenario in my mind and was even tempted to use an Identify spell on him, but finally decided against it. I needed to leave here and return to the relative safety of the room without incident.

Although a hurried one, the bath did wonders for my morale, and Elwin looked supremely happy to be clean again.

Scratching behind his back, he turned and said in a cheerful voice, “I always do enjoy my weekly bath.”

I did my best to hide my grimace. Hygiene standards in this world were obviously not comparable to my own. Sighing, I simply smiled back at the Rogue, before slipping into the warm water. Slowly, ever so slowly, the warm water began to soothe the myriad of aches and pains of my recent travails in a way that magic simply could not replicate. Looking at my body, I noticed that, despite receiving a number of wounds, I did not have a single scar on my body. I touched the place where my slave brand should have been, only to find smooth skin.

Also, despite being at more than twice the Strength I was initially, there were no significant changes to my physique. I had the same very average-looking body that I always had. A quick gander at Elwin’s body showed a surprising lack of scars for a man of his trade, but an intricate tattoo of an unknown design ran down from the nape of his neck along the line of his back. A few moments later, I realized that my magic had probably gotten rid of any of his scars along with the slave brand.

Conforming with local customs and seduced by the relaxing pace, we moved into a hot drying room, adjacent to the baths. We sat on a wooden bench in a room reminiscent of a sauna, waiting to dry. I didn’t try to engage Elwin in any conversation, and simply replied to his attempts at conversation with noncommittal grunts and half-thought-out replies. Once dry, we donned our loaned robes and went back to our room, where we relieved Kidu of his watch. Elwin, volunteering to take up the arduous duty of having another bath, quickly poured himself a glass of water from a pitcher by the bed before returning to baths with the wildman.

Sitting on the bed, I finally had a little time to get my ducks in a row. I had traveled so far, ironically, only to return to the place of my imprisonment, albeit as a free man. I needed to get out of this city, sooner rather than later, once we acquired sufficient resources. There still remained a chance, no matter how slim, that someone might recognize me. Perhaps that would never come to pass; after all, I was probably presumed dead after the cave-in. Still, I wanted to leave this barbaric city and go somewhere relatively more civilized. But to do that I needed more cold hard cash.

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My short-term goals clear to me now, I spent an indeterminable amount of time running over a few things that I had learned. The names of the creatures I had encountered, the people I had met, my brush with death… Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

“Sir, your laundry is done,” piped a squeaky voice that had shifted from a lower octave, in the manner of adolescents just into their change.

That was pretty fast service, suspiciously so, I thought to myself as I got to my feet. Opening the door, I stiffened at the sight in front of me. The owner of the voice was the boy from before, but for a moment I saw Jongshoi’s face superimposed over his features. Reflexively, I began to reach for a weapon that was not there, before catching myself, and instead reached for the purse at my waist. Pressing him a bronze coin, I collected our cleaned laundry. He accepted the money gratefully and took Kidu’s dirty garments which the Hunter had left outside the door. The boy was constantly bowing through all of this, until, annoyed, I finally closed the door in his face.

Just as I was about to return alone to my thoughts, I was again interrupted, as my pair of companions burst into the room. It seemed that I had forgotten to lock the door.

“I see all our belongings are still here, congratulations on being able to stay awake!” joked Elwin as he plopped down next to me on the large bed.

Kidu seemed a little more relaxed than usual, the bath having miraculously healed some of the shadows behind his eyes, a feat that even my divine magic could not. More significantly, he had hacked off his beard, and the difference was rather astonishing. His features remained untamed and rugged, but he looked less like a primal thing and more like a civilized man.

“Why did you decide to do away with your beard, Kidu?” I asked on a whim, hoping that I had not committed a social faux pas.

“A man grown in the north cuts his beard after a time of great shame or loss. This is how it has always been. It was I who led the raiding party south, and so the fault is with me. This is a small thing to remind myself that I am an unbearded youth,” replied Kidu, his usually loud voice unnaturally quiet before he added, “But I feel a little better now after that cleansing. We, too, have hot springs in the north where the tribe gathers in the coldest of winters. This was most welcome,” he stated, simply to change the subject before he, too, lay down, and within moments, began to snore.

I touched my own face in sympathetic reaction, noting that despite the amount of time I had spent in this world, there was no evidence of even a hint of stubble.

“The inn’s serving in an hour, wake us up a little before then,” requested Elwin, yawning almost exaggeratedly and cutting off any further conversation, “So sleepy...”

It would seem I was to take this watch, so I began to devise plans for future experimentation. I still needed to try out a spell or two in controlled conditions, and for that, I would need test subjects. Dark whispers intruded upon my ruminations and a jarring and irrational thought played across my mind, was the boy from the bath spying on our group? I played with an equally irrational idea of experimenting on the boy, but thought better of using somebody too close to my place of lodging. Thankfully, I was in a city full of strangers I cared little for.