Jerry has the weathered, practical look of a man who has spent years sleeping in armor and waking before the fire dies. His skin is ruddy and wind-dried, his iron-gray hair clipped close at the sides and stubbornly cowlicked at the crown. He stands squarely, but moves with an economical, almost courteous precision, as if leaving room for everyone else to pass. His most unexpected feature is his broad, even teeth: he keeps them obsessively clean with a little silver scraper, and his huge, unguarded grin makes him look briefly like a genial baker rather than a veteran fighter. Before he speaks, he draws a dry breath through his teeth, a small rasp that people soon recognize as his announcement.

Jerry is patient with frightened people but impatient with anyone who confuses confidence for competence. He enjoys company and tells dry jokes around a fire, yet becomes stubbornly private when asked about his past. In a crisis he is brisk and decisive; after one, he turns gentle and attentive, sometimes to the point of smothering people with practical help.

Jerry Hollowmoore began as a caravan guard, convinced that a steady wage and a sharp blade could keep life simple. At twenty-nine, he was hired to escort a group of refugees through a flooded pass. When a bridge gave way, Jerry had to choose between holding the rope line and chasing the bandits who had cut it. He stayed with the line; most of the travelers survived, but his closest friend and fellow guard, Odo, vanished into the torrent. Jerry spent the next decade taking dangerous contracts partly to find Odo and partly to prove he had made the right choice. Years later he learned Odo had survived, but had been taken in by smugglers and now avoids him, bitter that Jerry never came looking sooner. Jerry recently retired from a famous adventuring company after its reckless leader, Amina, left a village exposed to a monster attack to pursue a more valuable relic. He is now trying to gather witnesses and compensation for the survivors, while secretly preparing for the monster's return. He still writes to Amina, though every letter grows harder to finish.