“How, then, shall we ensure that these fine, upstanding heroes shall remain worthy of the trust we place in them? By ensuring that they are aware that there will always be a sword hanging over their head, ready to fall at a moment’s notice. Henceforth, never again shall these Adventurers be allowed to run rampant!”

- Lord Dolan Khazmarke, Majority Leader and Deepfolk Representative to the Federation House of Worlds, upon the passage of the Independent Armed Contractor Security Act, more commonly known as the ‘Hellrazer Act.’

Major Tor-Harrek’s office, FExCorps headquarters, Bridgetown

The major was, I discovered, a collector. Minor artifacts, fragments of stone, and yellowed scraps of parchment were hung all over the walls of her office, each framed or otherwise tastefully presented, with a plaque underneath each presumably detailing what they were. There were a lot of traces left on them, bits of history whispering unintelligible stories, but everything was so faded that I was only slightly tempted to try “borrowing” one of them to learn more.

Ko, well aware of how I could be around old artifacts, gave me a squeeze through the padded cloth shoulderpad he was riding on.

I just gave him a scratch under the beak in response, glancing at one of the plaques. I only had a chance to read “Elven stellae, likely in honor of Lenthelia, goddess of the stars and wanderers” beneath an ancient fragment of a stone carving, before the major had seated herself behind the desk that dominated the office. Her expression hadn’t budged a bit since we’d first laid eyes on her, and none of my conversation starters had gotten anything more than “We’ll speak in my office.” And now that we were in her office, hopefully we could get this over with and then find out about the possibility of work that the guard captain had mentioned.

Shushing Cherubix’ latest outburst, I turned back towards the major, finding her waiting calmly with a raised eyebrow. “What did you need to speak with us about, ma’am?”

She took a deep breath, then fixed all of us with a hard, brown-eyed stare. “You three are the first in a relatively large influx of adventurers this town is going to be seeing over the next month or so. Congratulations.” The deadpan expression rather failed to sell it, I had to say.

“You should already be familiar with Adventurer’s Guild standards of behavior,” I really didn’t appreciate the fact that she looked directly at me for that sentence. “But the mayor asked me to reiterate them, and I want to add on my own personal addendums.”

And, here it comes… I thought to myself.

“First off, don’t start trouble in town. I and the mayor both have the right to deport you for any kind of misbehavior, and I am authorized to call out a kill-on-sight order on any of you, should I deem it necessary.” The threat of spontaneous legalized murder was delivered with absolutely no expression or change in tone of voice, which just made it even more chilling. I'd heard something like it almost a dozen times, by this point, and it still gave me shivers thinking too deeply on the possible consequences of my chosen profession.

“Also, I am a personal friend of the officer in charge of this sector’s Hellrazer contingent, and have informed him about all of the… unusual adventurers that will be paying Bridgetown a visit in the near future, so if they do get called in they’re going to come loaded for owlbear. Don’t think you can manage to beat down the first responders if and when they show up.”

The fact that she looked at Faraday of all people when she said that was interesting. The man was a big ol’ law-abiding softie, when he wasn’t taking apart things that deserved killing. The only way that he would resist arrest was if they caught him at the end of one of his benders, and even then they’d likely have to do something stupid like threaten to harm a child in order to get his temper up. He was a mopey drunk, not an angry one, thank the gods.

“Beyond the simple good behavior that I expect from any resident, though, I have one other mandate.” She lifted up a finger and pointed it at us like a battlewand. “If you get into trouble outside of town, you need to deal with it - outside. If you come running up with a horde of goblins on your heels, I’ll order the gates shut in your face and the wards set to ‘fry.’ No offense, but I care a lot more about the safety of the civilians in town than a bunch of ratcatchers. Even if you get inside before I realize what you’ve done, if it’s at all likely to get them to leave the town alone, I will kick your asses back outside for them to tear apart. Don’t,” she said, making sure to look each of us in the eyes, “let it come to that.”

Her expression softened noticeably, as she looked at Cherubix and continued, “For you, Ms. Cherubix, a word of warning: the town’s had some problems with the local fey, and some are going to find your presence distinctly off-putting.” She cracked a smile, then, which made me blink in surprise - I hadn’t thought she could. “Given your sunny disposition, I doubt that too many will hold your nature against you, but I’d ask you to try to be patient with those that do.” The normally-ebullient brownie had been wilting under the stern lecture, but at this her over-sized ears perked up and she smiled slightly back at the major.

Glancing at me, she said merely, “I trust that I don’t need to add anything regarding your past habits, Ms. Arbodor?”

I rolled my eyes but nodded submissively. “One trip to prison was enough for me, thank you kindly, no matter how short it ended up being.” As irritated as I was at having the subject brought up again, she was being unusually polite about it, compared to my past experience.

She nodded in turn, then turned towards Faraday - and, again, that degree of intensity was not what I’d expected for her to aim at the man. “And you, Mr.… Constance.”

The pause sounded awkward, like she wasn’t sure what to say. Faraday stared at her, a matching look of evaluation in his eyes.

“How much do you know about me, Major?” he asked after a few tense and silent heartbeats.

“Enough. We’re in an odd situation, being as isolated as we are and so far from the Union front. I don’t get much intel from Central that isn’t relevant to the town’s safety, but I’m cleared for pretty much anything that might impact this outpost. Including,” she returned his stare, unblinking, “your full background.”

Faraday was silent for a moment, but then shrugged, making Cherubix bob up and down like a dinghy on a rough sea. “I’d just as soon keep my past in the past, Major. No need for old wounds to be opened, or old names to be brought up. The man I once was… he’s dead, ma’am, and I’d like him to stay that way. I’m here to try to make up for what he did. I hope that I can do some good for this town, while I’m here.”

Wait, what? And she seemed to be buying it, hook line and sinker, like she knew what he was talking about and agreed with him. What the hells, man?

But that could wait, the major was still talking, and I focused back on the conversation. “So I was led to believe. If none of your previous associates contact you, I won’t concern myself with your past. I just needed to ensure that we understood each other on that.”

Faraday nodded in silence, apparently content to leave it at that.

She paused then, and the mood in the room lightened notably, though my puzzlement over that odd exchange remained like an itch in a place I couldn’t scratch in public. Cracking that tiny smile again, she continued in a much-less-serious tone, “Well, having gotten that unpleasantness out of the way, I suppose now is the time to give you the newcomer’s briefing.”

She pointed at the closed door to her office. “Take a right as you’re leaving and you’ll find the office of Jiri al-Badr, my head archivist; he’s the one to speak with if you want leads on interesting sites or intel on the nearby terrain - though, fair warning, he can get tetchy if you waste his time. I highly recommend speaking with him to get acquainted with the… oddities of this particular world.” She grimaced briefly, but then smoothed her face out and kept speaking.

“You’ve already met Captain Marahm; any time goblins raid a farm or there’s a mob of skeletons pushing up against Hillside’s wards, he’ll be offering a bounty for dealing with the situation. I’ll expect you to offer your services in those cases with a minimum of fuss and without trying to extort him or the townsfolk.”

I returned the pointed look she directed at me with a bland smile. Bargaining wasn’t extortion, and civilians rarely opened negotiations by offering everything they were willing to pay to get a job done. Besides, one of us was a paladin - if Faraday’s presence didn’t reassure her that we wouldn’t leave an impoverished widow or orphan to die without being paid, I didn’t know what would. Not that it was worth correcting her about it now, though.

The major continued. “You should also find plenty of interest in your services from the merchants in town - it’s been almost five years since the last adventurers disappeared out in the wilds, and the crafters and traders here have been starved for the more exotic goods that previous bands brought in. Talk to Jericho Springwold in the general store, she’s got her ear to the ground where that’s concerned.”

“Lastly,” she said, her voice shifting back into a much more serious tone, “if you believe you’ve discovered a threat to the town, do not hesitate to inform me of it - I have a budget for exactly such circumstances, and discretion in how to allocate it as a reward for prompt warning of such threats. We don’t know nearly enough about what’s out there, and if you can give me even four hours to call for reinforcements or start an evacuation, I’ll make it well worth your while.”

… Huh.

That was new. Ko and I glanced at one another. Sure, we’d saved a village before and gotten rewarded for it, but they only promised us gold after they realized they were in trouble. And especially after our experience with Eghem’s bureaucracy just yesterday… For her to be saying all that meant that she likely had reason to be concerned. Hells, this world might actually be just as bad as the rumors had implied.

I wasn’t the only one pondering the subject. Cherubix piped up, “Um, are we… likely to find big scary things that could hurt the town?” Her huge black eyes were even bigger than usual.

“No idea.” The major’s smile was devoid of humor. “However, given the state that some of the last adventurers came home in - or didn’t, as the case may be - and the fact that we regularly have to defend the outlying villages from fey, undead, goblins, and oversized wildlife, I’m not taking any chances that you all might decide to stay quiet if and when you find something nasty is headed our way.”

Faraday nodded firmly at this, and said “Don’t worry ma’am, if we find anything like that we’ll be sure to inform you as soon as possible.” I nodded my agreement, mentally adding “After we haggle up the price a bit, of course.” If she was willing to pay for it at all, then she would be willing to bargain.

She began making the motions to shoo us out of her office, but I raised a hand - something was still niggling at the back of my mind, and she’d seemed... well, relatively helpful after she’d delivered her warnings. “Major, if you don’t mind, could you explain the mayor’s attitude when we arrived?” At her questioning glance, I continued, “He looked all set to kick us back through the Bridge right then and there, but then he seemed to change his mind.”

She blew air out of her nose in a quiet snort, and looked down at the desk briefly before back up and meeting my eyes. “The number of adventurers who have registered intent to journey here over the next few months went from zero to over two dozen in just the first month after news of the thirteen Prophecies dropped. Those with clean records are vastly outnumbered by the ones with… issues. You three are relatively tame, in comparison. And I think a lot of that display at the Bridgehead was just that: a show, to convince the civilians who were watching that he’s not worried.”

She rolled her eyes, so quickly I wasn’t sure if I’d actually seen it. “Considering what some of you lot are capable of, he’s got reason to be concerned about panic or, worst case, actual riots if he doesn’t give people reason to think you’re under control.” I grimaced in unexpected sympathy, thinking about some of the characters I’d hung out with during my year of training with the Guild. If the scariest of them decided to go rogue… “havoc” would be a mild word for the results. There was a reason the Hellrazers were so heavily equipped - they were the ones the Federation relied on to keep adventurers in check, and for a lot of us those expensive and deadly toys were necessary.

The major had apparently exhausted whatever patience for us she’d possessed. Her expression returned to the emotionless basilisk gaze I’d thought at the beginning of this conversation was her norm. “Which, incidentally, means that you have even more reason to be on your best behavior, to ensure it never comes to that. Something to think on, hmm?” She flicked her eyes at the door. “As I said, speak to Jiri before you leave, and Captain Marahm wanted to talk with you once you’re done here. You’re dismissed.” And with that she grabbed a stack of papers and started going through them, pretending we were no longer in the room.

I glanced towards Faraday, only to find that he was out of his chair already and heading towards the door. Scrambling up as gracefully as I could with a hawk on one shoulder and a shortbow slung over the other, I joined him outside as he closed the office door behind us.

“So. That was unexpected.” I said, glancing between him and Cherubix. “Just how much trouble do you think we’re about to walk into, here?”

Faraday returned my look evenly for a moment before shrugging the shoulder that Cherubix wasn’t standing on. “The wilderness might not be as nasty as the rumors we’ve heard suggest, but that doesn’t mean that the town’s safe. I’m guessing that they’re managing to deal with problems as they crop up, but only just, and they don’t know what else is out there. That’s liable to leave any commander on edge and looking for someone to fill in their blind spots.” He looked around, then headed towards the door on our right. “Come, let’s talk to the archivist; maybe he can paint a clearer picture for us.”

I grabbed his arm before he could fully turn away, and looked him straight in the eyes with a dead-serious expression on my face. “Yeah, before that though - these ‘previous associates’ of yours. We’ve been working together for two months, and this is the first I’m hearing about them. Do we need to be worried about someone walking up and fireballing us to get at you?”

His face closed off, but I just glared at him and kept going. “Look, I don’t need to know the whole picture. Your past is your business, even if it’s apparently a lot more interesting than I originally thought. But if you’re not square with me on this particular bit, we’re out. Is whatever-that-was in there going to come back to hurt you, or us?” Ko was focusing all of his attention on the man, just as interested in the answer as I was. Cherubix had gone completely still and silent, as if she were afraid that doing anything to draw our attention would turn the conversation’s intensity on her.

Faraday stared at me for a good five heartbeats before looking to the side and - grudgingly, I could tell - answering. “Not that I’m aware of. The Ministry buried it deep, so anyone who goes looking for the man I used to be should end up convinced that he’s dead.” He shook his head, then continued. “Regardless, if someone shows up looking for me, don’t you go getting in their way. If they want revenge, they can take it, far as I’m concerned.”

Wait, ‘the Ministry’? Curiouser and curiouser, and I had to wonder which part of the federal bureaucracy he’d gotten tangled up with, though I doubted that I’d get an answer if I asked.

For the most part I’d meant what I’d said - his past was his business, no matter how curious I was, and so far it hadn’t impacted our team at all. But still… he hadn’t said anything about this. Not a word, over two months of working together. That wasn’t necessarily a breach of trust, but it wasn’t something I could just skip over without thinking about it.

A part of me - the part that had grown up in a poor orphanage with a target on my back because I heard voices that no one else could, voices that whispered other peoples’ secrets that I shouldn’t know - insisted that I couldn’t trust him, that he was lying in order to keep my guard down, so that he could take advantage of that trust later. The rest of me, the parts that understood how fucked-up my head had gotten during those years, that understood what it meant for a paladin to lie like that, told that first voice to shut the hells up and take the man at his word.

All of this went through my mind in just a heartbeat or two, and his face still hadn’t lost that stoic, earnest look, like he expected me to ream him out and wouldn’t begrudge me the tirade. I looked right back at him and kept my expression schooled to show concern and little else, watching his face for any tells.

It was a nice face to look at, mind you, even without having reason to be watching it closely. It wasn’t hard to understand how he frequently had company in his room after we’d spent more than a couple days in a town. He’d likely been quite dashing as a younger man; light brown skin, a strong chin, hooked beak of a nose, piercing brown eyes, and an expressive mouth. Now he was in his late thirties or early forties, and the short-cropped black hair and beard were starting to go gray, the skin of his face becoming rough and weathered, and crows-feet deepening around his eyes. The overall effect only enhanced the look of a grizzled, handsome adventurer, though. The rippling muscles sure didn’t hurt in attracting the ladies’ attention, either.

I’d wondered, when we first met, why someone his age would join the Guild to start a new career. Now I might have an inkling of an answer, if he really was running from something in his past.

The debate kept going through my head - to trust him, or to drop this newfound partnership and move on somewhere else without him? In the end, what decided me was that brief conversation we’d had outside the Eghem bursar’s office. If he could extend trust to me, knowing my past, then I’d return the favor. Hells, he’d kept me alive often enough over the last two months, I’d even watch his back if someone came for him.

If we did get fireballed by someone he knew, though, I wasn’t above using him as a shield.

I broke the staring contest, looking around for the door to the archivist’s office. “Alright, big guy, I’ll leave it be. Just don’t expect me to let some vengeful ex-lover or whatever try to stab you without a fight. Nobody shanks a partner of mine if I can help it.”

Cherubix, who so far had stayed quiet on Faraday’s shoulder, glancing worriedly between the two of us as we’d been having that conversation, broke into her normal happy grin at this. “Hey, yeah! Nobody stabs you without our say-so!” She swatted at his head, and he took the blow with a small, relieved smile, nodding at both of us with a look of gratitude on his face.

I just patted him on the arm, leaving the subject be now that we’d all had our say, and turned to walk towards the archivist’s door.