"Then I'd best help you." He wears fewer layers, but the ties and stays of his own clothing are tricky and not common in the middle kingdom. Doul tugs at a couple of toggles and shucks bits of leather and fabric, letting them drop behind him.

The skin that's revealed is scarred and marked from years of fighting. A couple of blue-black fantastical animal figures are tattooed over his chest and one thigh. One is missing a leg, the ink cut off by a larger, longer, looping and very old wound. A little bit higher, a little more to the center, and he'd have a very difficult time with what comes next.