Terry was happy to discover that once the talking had started, it generally flowed pretty naturally without a lot of input from him. Not that the other three talked that much about things he specifically cared about, but he picked up little tidbits like what inns were generally safe, and which places were hostile to adventurers. He hadn’t considered the possibility before so he took a chance and asked a question.

“What do you mean they hate adventurers in Timran? I’ve never been there. At least, I don’t recall ever being there.”

Haresh gave him a surprised look and said, “I’m surprised you managed to avoid it. It’s one of the bigger cities on the way to the north. You almost would have had to pass through it.”

Terry thought of the city he’d fled from as soon as he arrived. The people there had been polite, generally, but he hadn’t been announcing himself as an adventurer. He’d also been trying to leave. He also thought that wasn’t something he let pass unaddressed. It would be too suspicious. Again, he’d let truth, or something like it, do his lying for him.

“Oh, I think I may have been there. I had a lot of things on my mind at the time. I also didn’t stay. I just passed through.”

Haresh gave him a searching look followed by a sympathetic look. It’s not really deception, Terry assured himself. It’s misdirection. That’s all. Like a magic trick. No need for me to feel like a guilty asshole. However, he did feel guilty, and he did feel like an asshole. He was a long way from trusting these people, but they were the first people he’d met that he could imagine actually spending more than a few hours with by choice. He liked Haresh. The other two were, well, it wasn’t exactly that there was something off about them. It was more like they were being really reserved around him, which he couldn’t rightly fault them for.

It wasn’t like he was being a beacon of sincerity and open truthfulness. He suspected he came off as more than a bit secretive because he was actually being more than a bit secretive, and he wasn’t good at hiding his feelings. He found himself idly wondering if that was something he would have learned from his father if the jackass had ever been around. It was one of those things that he'd heard women complaining about. That the men in their lives were all repressed and difficult to read. I could really use that skill right now. He mentally stopped for a second to pick at that thought. God, what a fucked-up thing to wish I’d learned. Not that he thought he was wrong that it would be useful, but it still seemed like a twisted sort of skill. Either way, he wanted to dig a little more into what they’d been talking about.

“I haven’t run into too much hostility toward adventurers. I mean, aside from all the monsters. They didn’t seem to like me. Is that really a problem?”

“It depends,” said Ekori. “In some places, adventurers are considered little more than pretend cultivators. There’s more of that in the north where cultivators are so common. They may not have bothered you because you were from there.”

He caught her giving him a long look that made him very uncomfortable. It was like she expected him to confirm something for her. He didn’t know what. Maybe the cultivator thing? Was he a cultivator? He didn’t know. Of course, you’re a cultivator, said other-Terry. Hearing other-Terry after his extended silence was so unexpected that regular-Terry nearly missed a step. What do you mean that I’m a cultivator? It seemed like a reasonable piece of knowledge to demand. Gods above, muttered other-Terry. Were you actually dropped on your head as a child? How could you have not pieced that together yet? Where did you think all of that strength and those children’s tricks you’ve been doing came from?

The tone was so caustic that Terry worried the words might acid etch the inside of his mind. Hey, said regular-Terry. You could have told me that at any point. So, stop acting all pissy that I didn’t immediately recognize the visceral feel of a magical system I’d only ever seen in fiction. You douche. Other-Terry went silent for what felt like a long time in mental conversation land. Eventually, or around a second later, other-Terry finally piped up again. Fine, you might have a minor, valid point, but you also could have asked anytime along the way. ‘

It was regular-Terry’s turn to go silent in the mental conversation. He couldn’t deny it. He didn’t want to go so far as to say he’d been playing ostrich about it, but he’d kept putting it off. There was still a part of him that didn’t want to know. Once he knew, it felt like the last ties to the sanity of his old life would snap. Ignorance might not be bliss, but it had been a certain sort of self-destructive comfort. Relying on that strength to get by while not knowing anything about it had let a little piece of him hide in a corner and pretend that the unreality of it all meant none of it was happening. He recognized that cowardice of that, but he thought it was probably a forgivable cowardice. Well, I guess I can’t deny that, regular-Terry conceded. I suppose we’ll have to have some chats about the whole cultivator thing.

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He could almost feel other-Terry roll his eyes. Assuming that other-Terry had eyes. That almost sent regular-Terry down a rabbit trail of existential questions about the nature of personalities that seemed to exist only in his head. He also recognized that he might well be suffering from some horrible mental breakdown, but the evidence seemed against it. Yeah, said other-Terry, just one or two short conversations will probably be plenty to explain cultivation to you. In the meantime, pay attention to the other people. Terry refocused on Ekori. He hadn’t been spaced out for too long, but it probably had been long enough to make the moment uncomfortable. He didn’t even really remember what she’d been asking about. It finally drifted up from wherever his brain stored recent memories.

“I expect you’re right. It’s probably because I’m from there,” he said.

He was pretty sure he’d dodged the implicit question she wanted answered, but he didn’t know enough about the divide between cultivators and everyone else to be ready to fess up to that. Ekori narrowed her eyes a little at him but didn’t pursue the subject.

“In other places,” she continued, “adventurers are considered heroes. In my—”

“Our nation,” said Jaban, giving her a significant look.

“Yes. Yes, of course. In our nation, adventurers are valued highly for the services they render to the people. After all, if they didn’t hunt and kill monsters, it would fall to citizens and armies to do it. So, your reception will vary depending on where you go.”

“I see,” said Terry.

It all sounded really complicated to him, but he’d have to figure it out. Tiny delusional part of him aside, he was stuck here. That made information about how places would treat him invaluable. Since they were feeling chatty, he decided to see if he could pry out some more information about the guild itself.

“And how has your reception been at the Guild Halls?”

Haresh and the others traded knowing looks before Haresh took the lead again.

“Variable. On the whole,” he hedged, “we’ve gotten more or less fair treatment at the halls. There are exceptions, though. The bigger halls in cities tend to be fairer, but they’re also a lot stricter. They won’t let anyone take a contract if they don’t meet the rank requirements. No matter what. Things tend to be a bit more flexible in halls away from the cities. If you’re very brave, very capable, or very stupid, you can sometimes get contracts that are a rank higher, but we’ve found it more likely that the guild representatives there are pursuing their own interests.”

Terry nodded. He supposed it made sense. Bigger halls would have more people, which would mean more oversight. It wasn’t a cure-all for corruption by any stretch of the imagination, but it must make a difference. He expected that getting sent to halls away from the cities was either a reward for favorites where they could line their pockets or a punishment that dead-ended careers. If it was the latter, why not cheat the adventurers who came in? It wasn’t a bastion of goodness, but no organization ever was. He’d just have to learn where to go and where not to go if he kept adventuring. He didn’t see it as a good long-term strategy. Too much opportunity to draw attention to himself. But he did need to eat. He’d just have to deal with those problems as they came.

“So, people are people. I guess that’s not really a surprise.”

Haresh looked like he meant to say something else, but the man froze with his eyes fixed ahead of them. Terry almost looked, but Drumstick let out a squawk-roar of terror from the back of the group where the chicken-lizard had been keeping quietly out of everyone’s line of sight. Terry looked back at Drumstick, who was backing away, and finally looked forward. He saw that Haresh had drawn his massive sword. Jaban had his bow in hand. Ekori had summoned her spear, which left Terry with another flash of envy. I want one of those rings. He finally looked ahead. There was some kind of monster in the road. It bore some resemblance to a minotaur, save that its head wasn’t a bull. It looked familiar. Terry just couldn’t place it until its jaw opened and let out a huge bleating noise. Oh, it’s a goat… Goat man? Man-goat thing?

Terry was sure that he’d never heard a name for such a creature, so he’d called it the man-goat thing. He looked at this shoulder to see Dusk give the creature a disdainful look before she yawned. He couldn’t be sure if it was just the cat in her being a cat, or if she really wasn’t impressed with it. Either way, he needed to put her down. No point in bringing her within hitting range of that thing. He took a few moments to grab her, take off his pack, and set her on the pack. He scratched between her ears.

“You take care of the pack,” he told her.

“What are you doing?” demanded Ekori with more than a bit of anger in her voice.

He spared her a glance. She looked… She wasn’t quite afraid, but she did look very nervous. He didn’t know why. This thing was nothing compared to the foliasaur. He was tempted to let them kill it just to see what they could do, but even Haresh looked tense. He hadn’t actually asked any of them what their adventurer ranks were. He realized now that he should have. For all he knew, this thing would be more than they could handle. Terry weighed the pros and cons of not participating, but he didn’t know how close civilization was. If he got hurt, he’d probably heal. If they got hurt, he couldn’t do much for them. He didn’t like the idea of carrying one of them to the nearest town, especially if it was the one he’d just left. I guess I’ll have to deal with it. He started walking toward the man-goat thing.

“What are you doing?” shouted Ekori.

That time the question wasn’t angry, but fearful. He looked over his shoulder at the stunned adventurers.

“What? It’s not that big,” he said.