It only took a few minutes to make arrangements for the room. The tavern keeper went through the motions of extending their stay without issue, and Hirrus easily produced the required funds to keep the room up through the mythical “reset” that he had come to fear.

“Arrangements have been made,” he announced when he returned to the room. “You two will be fine here.”

Barin tossed Hirrus a grin and an exaggerated bow. “Thank you, good sir. I’ll try and enjoy my imprisonment, then.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Alric said with a laugh and a dismissive gesture. “Don’t pretend you’re not enjoying a vacation on someone else’s dime.”

Barin scoffed, but didn’t dispute.

Hirrus tried not to grimace at the idea of being used, financially, by someone who was obviously better-off, but that wasn’t the point right now. He was more concerned about keeping Dahlia safe. It wouldn’t have been hard to kick Barin out and let him go back to his normal life, but he couldn’t leave Dahlia alone here. What if she went into labor? He would rather someone be here to look after her.

Barin wasn’t an ideal choice, but Hirrus didn’t exactly have a lot of options.

“Dahlia,” Hirrus said, crossing the room to her side. “If you like, I could contact your family here. Your parents might want-”

Dahlia interrupted him by bursting out laughing. It was, perhaps, the first time he’d ever heard her laugh like that. So close on the heels of the first time hearing her cry, it was a moment of mental dissonance. It came from deep in her chest, and her eyes squinted closed with the intensity of the sudden gale of laughter.

“I’m sorry,” she managed to choke out after a minute, “you’re not normally the sort to make jokes. You caught me off-guard, especially with something so ridiculous.”

Obviously, Hirrus hadn’t been joking, but he knew better than to say that. The best he could guess was that Dahlia was just that committed to avoiding a conversation about it, though.

“I suppose there’s only one matter left to take care of, then,” Hirrus said, turning away from Dahlia and fixing Barin with an appraising eye.

Hirrus reached for his inventory and started to retrieve gear from it. He was wearing most of the gear he wanted to keep on hand, so everything remaining was of limited interest to him. Alric had also taken stock of the items and had his pick as well - along with whatever he had taken in their earlier exchanges, as the man had never returned a piece when he was done with it.

After parsing through the remaining items, Hirrus picked out a handful of pieces and tossed them to the floor. It was enough for a full set, and then a handful more.

To top it off, he added a couple of weapons.

“Barin, I’m choosing to leave this pile of equipment here,” Hirrus said, carefully enunciating each word, “because I can make that choice. Perhaps your decision tree might force you to prepare for the worst, should such a time come. At that point, it might be possible that you are forced to pick up this equipment and use it to defend Dahlia instead of bolting and saving your own hide.”

Barin raised his hands over his head, even though he was nodding. “This is preposterous,” he said with a grin, “I’ve done nothing wrong!”

Hirrus frowned. He had to assume that was the best reassurance he was going to get. “Hm. Well, Shemil is about as far northwest from here as Yenon was southeast.” Hirrus turned towards the door and gestured for Alric to join him. “We can get there in a day, if we are uninterrupted.”

“What do you suppose the odds of that are?” Alric asked, leaping up from his seat and hurrying to join him.

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“Considering how tight an obstacle the timeline represents?” Hirrus shook his head. “There’s no chance whatsoever.”

Despite knowing the hardships ahead, Hirrus left the Violet Plate with Alric in tow.

The streets of Inoha were in chaos.

Hirrus and Alric had to pick their way through smaller side streets to get through. He wasn’t entirely positive about what was going on, until he started to overhear snippets of the loud chatter that rippled through the town.

“...one member means that he soloed the entire guild! How is that even…”

“...every single officer in one night…”

“...Callabryn? He doesn’t have a house in the city according to the…”

“...what I think it was? That NPC they had in the market asking…”

“...anyone deserved it, it was that bunch of elitist…”

“...did the whole thing guildless! That’s impossible! If they…”

Apparently the global alert that had accompanied his victory had set the whole city into hysterics. People were apparently seeking him out, and while the excitement was that of a party rather than a riot, he wasn’t sure what they would do if they managed to track him down.

He kept his head down and made for the northwest gate out of town as fast as he could. It was mid-morning, so the gates were open now, and he found no difficulty getting through.

It felt like luck had let him escape without him being identified. Considering how he’d torn through the city upon arrival demanding to find Last of the Strong, there had to be dozens of people who could identify him.

Once they were on the Hari Path, the hustle and bustle of the city faded into the background. It wasn’t until they passed over the first hill that hid the city from sight that Hirrus realized how much he’d adapted to the constant noise, tuning it out.

Now that it was gone, the sounds that filled his ears were much more comfortable and familiar.

The crunch of the unpaved road beneath their feet. The susurrus sound of wind through the dry yellowing grasses alongside the road. The occasional chirp or caw or cry of distant birds.

Hirrus pulled up short and closed his eyes. If he concentrated, he could still hear the vague din of Inoha behind him, but right here, right now, it felt so far away.

“What’s up?” Alric asked. “Is this the spot where if you take one more step, it’ll be the farthest away from home you’ve ever been?”

Hirrus opened his eyes to glare at Alric. But it got him thinking. Was it? Before settling in Yenon, Hirrus had a busy career as a mercenary. But he couldn’t remember if he’d ever been farther northwest than Inoha. Most of his work had been between the town of Yeerin and Hari’s southern border with Evarion, but there had been exceptions.

Knowing what he knew now about the reset, it was possible that a mission had caused him to range far from home, and then the memory of it erased along with his death when he was recreated to go about his business all over again.

“I don’t know,” Hirrus said, shaking his head with a shrug. “Maybe.”

“Don’t know?” Alric laughed. “Aren’t you a computer program? Shouldn’t you remember everything that’s ever happened since the moment you were born?”

“Why would I?” Hirrus asked. “Do you?”

He didn’t wait for a response and started walking again.

He could feel Alric staring after him, likely incredulously, not immediately following. After a moment, the man scrambled, breaking from his spot and jogging to catch up.

“You know what?” Alric sputtered when he caught up. “I think you need a nap.”

“I don’t know,” Hirrus said, shaking his head with a shrug again. It had been a day or so since he last slept. And much had happened. “Maybe.”

“Every ten fucking minutes,” Alric grumbled, falling in step beside Hirrus again. “I think I’ve got it figured out if you’re a real person or not, and then you hit me with some ‘I, Robot’ shit and fuck me up.”

Hirrus growled. “I am a real person.” He turned to fix Alric with another glare. “If you truly doubt that for a moment, I’ll show you the same way I showed Last of the Strong.”

“No no no,” Alric said quickly, raising his hands in surrender. “Not like that. You’re definitely a person. A real person. I just mean, like, if you exist in meatspace.”

“Hm,” Hirrus grunted. Despite how much he’d been dealing with adventurers lately, he still didn’t know how to respond when they started speaking gibberish like that.

“I absolutely, totally, one hundred percent respect your personhood,” Alric continued, though he lowered his hands when Hirrus stopped glaring. “Really, I do. You’re not even just a person, you’re a good person. There’s plenty of people, being a person isn’t anything special. But good people! Rare! Super rare!”

“Are you going to prattle on like this the whole way,” Hirrus asked, “or are you going to be finished talking at some point?”

“Fuck, dude, have you met me? I mean. I can shut up if you want, but it’s not gonna stick.” The adventurer shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. “I have this thing where I can’t stand long silences. I think it goes back to my mom. She was always…”

Hirrus rolled his eyes with a long sigh. The next time he spoke to GM Dave, he would have to ask for another method of communication. As much as he was grateful for Alric’s presence, it was grating on his last nerve.

Luckily, Hirrus knew this trip should only take a few hours. He shuddered to think what it would be like to be stuck with this man for the entire rest of the week.

At least he’s not singing, Hirrus told himself.