Terry had stormed halfway across the room before some things registered. Almost everyone in the room was staring at him with looks that ranged from horrified shock to disapproval and even one look of absolute glee. Being stared at by any group of people for any length of time was high on Terry’s lifelong list of Things to Avoid. He hated it, but he supposed that ship and any semblance of his dignity had already, much like Elvis, left the building. In addition to all of the very uncomfortable staring, he had a servant clinging to each arm, and another had wrapped their arms around one of his legs. He’d been dragging them in his wake without even noticing their presence. A small group of very frightened-looking guards had positioned themselves between him and the “Honorable” annoying adventurer girl from earlier that day. He could tell the guard were frightened by the ways their weapons shook in their hands and the whites were showing around their eyes.

As for the Chinese Period Drama Hell princess herself, she had taken two stumbling steps back and fallen on her ass. A fact which brought Terry no small amount of personal satisfaction. Her face had gone bloodless at what he had to assume looked like a man on a mission to kill someone and kill them good and dead. She had lifted a hand as if to forestall him or just ward him off. He hesitated a little at that point, though. I have no plan for this. He’d just seen her there in the door looking pompous and smugly satisfied, and something in his brain had just broken. He really didn’t want to have to fight his way out of this place, assuming he even could. He barely knew anyone in this room, which meant he had no idea what kind of enemies he’d be making if he killed any of them.

That thought was interrupted when a couple of things happened almost simultaneously. Gilvane came out of nowhere and tried to tackle him. Terry reacted on instinct, his open palm crashing into the middle of Gilvane’s broad back and driving the man to the floor. His recently honed instincts for danger went off, but he was confused for a second about what was setting it off. He didn’t know if it had been Gilvane or something else. He felt a surge of gathering power from the princess, and then other-Terry shouted at him.

“Move!”

Terry jerked to one side, praying he’d guessed right, and something he didn’t immediately recognize zipped past his face trailing a wave of heat. It knocked the rice hat he’d insisted on wearing right off his head. There was a collective hesitation like the entire room was holding its breath. Terry slowly turned his head to look at the rice hat. It had a hole burned straight through it. He reached down and picked the abused headgear off the floor. He eyed the still-smoldering edges of the hole. The entire world seemed to fall into one of those slow-motion moments that only ever happened in movies as Terry turned his gaze from the hat to the girl. She wore an open-mouthed look of bewilderment. It was as if she couldn’t quite believe that she’d done what she just did. Then, her eyes met his, and bewilderment turned to outright panic.

“I’m sorry!” she shrieked.

She sounded like a little kid who knows they’ve been caught and are desperately trying to mitigate the damage before the twin hammers of discipline and punishment fell. Whatever hesitation he’d felt before vanished as anger was displaced by overwhelming indignance. Indignance on behalf of his hat. It wasn’t enough that she’d inconvenienced him, slowed his progress, and been at least indirectly responsible for putting him in a room with a Church guy Terry thought at least had a suspicion about who he was. He’d worked hard for that hat. Okay, maybe not that hard, but it hadn’t exactly been effort-free. He’d killed people to build up enough goodwill that someone was willing to give it to him, and she’d wrecked it. Now, he’d have to find another one, and it seemed like they weren’t that common. He’d seen a few here and there, but no one had been selling them in any of the markets he’d visited. Are the damn things only sold where the stupidly pretty people are in control?

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He started toward her again, deftly avoiding the weak swipe of Gilvane’s outstretched hand. He batted aside first the guards’ weapons and then the guards themselves. Before he was sure what he’d do, he’d seized the back of Kelima Silventar’s dress, right at the nape of her neck, and hoisted her into the air. She yowled like an angry cat when he gave her a hard shake. He waved the smoking hat in front of her face.

“Look what you did to my hat!” he shouted.

Then, she punched him in the mouth. It was hard enough that it actually split his lip and he could taste the blood. He’d fought things in that forest that weren’t as strong as this woman, which lifted a sense of restraint he’d been wandering around with since he arrived. He knew he was strong, probably stronger than any human being back on his original world, but it seemed this woman was as well. He let go of the dress, and she dropped to the ground. It seemed her balance was pretty good when she wasn’t startled because she stayed on her feet. At least, she did until Terry punched her in the face. She went down in a heap, only to whip her head around and glare daggers at him. She tried to any rate since one of her eyes was already swelling closed. Things got a little chaotic after that.

It was a blur of punches and scratching nails and both of them hurling obscenities at each other. It was only after Terry realized that there was uproarious laughter that he understood that he had made a horrible scene. It was not helped by Heletina shouting at them to stop like an overworked public school teacher who had finally reached her very last nerve. Terry tried to step back, but the annoying adventurer girl took another swipe at him, only to freeze when her mother’s voice rang out like a shot.

“Kelima Silventar! Stop this instant!”

It was a tone of voice that every child has heard and learned to fear. It was the voice of a parent who has been pushed too far. Kelima slowly straightened from her fighting stance and, shuddering, she reluctantly turned to face her mother. Terry thought that was the appropriate time for him to be literally anywhere else. He took one step toward the door.

“Terry!” snapped Heletina in the exact same tone of voice.

He flinched and, just as reluctantly as Kelima, he turned to face Heletina. The woman’s eyes were lit with the kind of fury that only children can generate in their parents. Her mouth was pressed into a line so hard that any color in the woman’s lips had vanished. The baronet, clearly having seen this show before, gave Terry and Kelima brief sympathetic looks before shaking his head and taking a sip of something Terry was certain contained alcohol. Heletina lifted a trembling finger and pointed at the table.

“Sit,” she commanded. “I arranged this dinner, and we will eat it.”

Doing his best not to hunch his shoulders or look like a whipped dog, Terry started to walk toward the table. He wasn’t entirely certain where to go, though. His steps slowed a little.

“Now!” came Heletina’s whipcrack voice. “And what are the rest of you doing? Stop snickering and sit!”

With Heletina’s towering displeasure now being cast equally upon all, there was hasty shuffling toward the large table. Terry finally discovered that there were place cards. He was horrified to do discover that he had been seated to the immediate left of the Baronet. Doing his best to wipe some of the blood off his face without making a spectacle of it, he sat. The rest of the guests started taking their seats. Terry had been so preoccupied with not drawing any more attention to himself, that it was only when Heletina spoke in a harsh whisper that he looked up.

“Behave, you two,” she said from directly across the table.

Terry wasn’t sure what she was on about until resigned dread settled over him. He turned his head to the left and found Kelima sitting right next to him, staring straight down at her plate, and refusing to meet anyone’s eyes.

“This is your fault,” said Terry under his breath.

She leveled a furious look at him.

“My fault? All you had to do was—”

She was cut off by a hand landing on her shoulder. Terry was shocked to feel one land on his. The baronet leaned down and gave them both a patient look.

“I believe that my dearest wife will actually murder you both if you don’t stop behaving like children. Just a word of caution.”

Terry wanted to say something in his defense, but he couldn’t think of anything. He’d gotten into a fistfight with a girl, at her parents’ house, and in front of guests. His social skills were shit, but even he knew that was a bad look. He just nodded and took his cue from Kelima. He steadfastly stared down at his plate and didn’t meet anyone’s eyes.