and head out.

With practiced efficiency Alex donned his armor and equipment. Demon took to her usual place in the basket as Alex lifted his pack onto his shoulders. A quick look around the room ensured that nothing was being left behind and Alex stepped out.

Raven was already waiting for him in the hall, "You're alive. That's a good start, too bad there's no back door to sneak you out of so we'll have to walk past mother to leave."

"Even if there was a back door it'd be quite a bad impression if we want any assistance from your mother in the future."

"No. She's odd. She'll forgive you for sneaking out but not for leaving without paying the girl you sleep with."

"That's because she's running business and food isn't free."

"Fair enough. Who did she send to you last night anyhow?"

"She brought Beul to my room and left her with me."

Raven stared in befuddlement, "Beul isn't a whore."

Alex shrugged, mildly enjoying the moment, "So your mother told me. On the bright side I didn't have to pay her in the morning."

"Did you do anything sexual with her? Mother will definitively kill you if you did anything to her."

"No, but we had nice conversation this morning. She's a lovely girl, and appears pretty intelligent too."

"She's cute," Demon cut in, "Can I keep her?"

Raven stared at Demon then at Alex as if waiting for him to add too the remark. Alex however said nothing, and Raven's face compressed into a thoughtful pucker.

"Is something wrong?" Alex asked when Raven remained in his silent contemplation.

"I'm just trying to figure out. How does the demon know if she's cute, Beul is also incredibly shy and rarely talks so there's not much cute about her personality. Beul has worn a veil since she was ten years old, I'm told she even sleeps with it on, so I'm confused how a single night would have been enough for you to be exposed to either her personality or her face."

"Oh. Her veil fell off in her sleep. She was at first rather embarrassed about it, but when I showed her myself having similar reasons to keep things covered in public she relaxed a little. She even took her veil off voluntarily without any prompt, although she put it back on before she left the room."

Raven stared at Alex in disbelief. "If that's true I'll need to ask you for lessons on talking to women."

"Don't bother," demon piped up, "All his charm is wasted on his morality, so he'll tell you what he thinks he does rather than helping you get laid."

Raven made a dismissive gesture, "My mother runs this brothel, getting laid has never been a challenge, getting a woman to tell me anything about herself on the other hand...that I have no idea where to start."

"Oh." Demon turned away and grumbled, "That he might be able to help with."

Raven's mother stopped them at the front desk to interrogate Alex, validating that his claims to Raven were true and that Beul was currently in the back office with he face on full display for the rest of the "family" as the matron called her girls. She didn't thank him at the end, but rather she expressed a desire to speak more with him in the future when he got the time to visit for longer than a single night.

Alex promised to give that time to her the next time he was in Tut 'Tel.

Raven grew more perplexed the longer his mother spoke with Alex, and was completely withdrawn by the time they departed. The silence hung undisturbed until they left the city's gates. "How do you do it?"

"Specifically what did I do?"

"How do you make it so easy for people to like you? I've never seen my mother ask a customer to return, she normally puts it all on them with something like, 'Should we expect your return?'."

Alex shrugged, "Apparently she didn't like me the last time we met."

"Maybe, but this was nicest I've seen her, EVER!"

Alex shrugged again but still bit his lower lip for a moment before practically spitting it out of his mouth.

After a few steps he ventured a reply, "If I had to venture a reason..." Alex normally spoke with an even confident cadence, but now his words were slow and flowed smoothly like a lazy brook, almost as quietly too, "I'd say that I'm probably spending much less time talking and more time listening than I used too."

Raven obviously didn't follow.

Alex sighed before elaborating, "When I was younger I thought I had value to add to other people and their lives. Now, not so much. Everyone I meet has problems, it's part of life, but everyone evaluates their problems on an individual level. The orphan Beul craves a mother figure, and you reject one, even though you're both sharing a mother."

Raven opened his mouth to defend himself, but the slightest tilt of the speakers head made him reconsider.

"You're not bitter, nor do you reject her on a personal level. You're rejecting her on an ideological one. Your mother stands as living embodiment of the origin point you want to reject, and believe it or not I really, and I do mean I REALLY understand wanting to forget where you were born. I told Beul about the childhood I was born into and she didn't exactly believe me, because it's not a really pretty history. People who know my origin either want to forget it, or they avoid it because their trying to be nice to me.

"That problem in my life is never going away, but when I compare it to the problems I have now...well, who cares who my father and mother were, no one ever tried to kill me over that. That issue didn't diminish, I simply gave it a lower value. So until I know when I see someone with an issue I want to solve I first have to learn if the person with the problem cares about it of not."

Alex made a motion over his shoulder to the city behind him, "Disease kills just as many in the slums as does starvation, but ask the people who live their what their biggest problem is and you'd be disgusted by how few will say 'lack of clean water' because all they can think about is food.

"The point I'm trying to get too is that by my age you either learn how to listen to people and learn what they value or you give up and become the local cranky old man that no one talks to. A little patience and empathy can go a long way, even if you only sustain it for a few minutes in a conversation."

Raven didn't answer at first, "What do you value, Alex?"

Alex shrugged, "The normal things I suppose. Living without worries, having a happy family, and making sure we all survive with some degree of comfort and security."

"No ambitions?"

"I slew a great demon and lived. What's left to achieve for my own ego after that? But you know, that very same achievement cost me everything else I had."

Alex stopped and turned the younger man to face him, "Listen Raven, there are a lot of pretty lies in life, and just as many ugly truths, but let me tell you one very important thing to carry with you. Everything in life boils down to goals and sacrifices, the good man is the man who chooses to sacrifice himself for his goals, while the evil man will sacrifice others for his goal. People who meet you in person will soon realize if you have any lofty goals, what they are and even what you are willing to sacrifice.

"I keep my goals small because people who want to use me have nothing to bait me with, and those people do not like me. But inversely my small goals combined with my unwillingness to endanger the people I like means that people feel safer around me, and that lets them open up. Not because I'm trying to be friendly, but because the animal in them knows that the animal in me is only a threat to them if they mean to do me and the ones I love harm.

"You're a clever guy, but you also like your mind games and that turns people off. If someone is important to you, don't play games with them, just be yourself. The animal in them will recognize if you're acting the fool because the animal in you doesn't lie to theirs even if your mouth does."

Alex held eye contact for a minute before asking, "You asked me what I value. So tell me, Raven, who are you willing to sacrifice for your dreams?" Alex gave a friendly pat on the shoulders along with a slightly down-turned smile before turning back to the road.

Raven watched the world weary mercenary walk away for a bit. The more he spent time with the man before him the less he felt he knew him. Alex said that the hero was dead, but Raven couldn't help but find himself being more intrigued by the mercenary than he ever was of the hero.

With that question still hanging in his mind, Raven made haste to catch back up to Alex.