Henchman Bug or Working as Intended?

I noticed yesterday while playing that two different times, my henchmen didn't rejoin me after leaving a town area. I had to rehire them and they were of a lower level, since it was a lower level town area. The only thing I can think of is maybe when you portal to a town, you lose them. Anyone else noticed this?

If you map travel it breaks your party for sure. It usually sends PCs to different districts even.

I do think that you get to keep the same henchmen from town to town, although I could be wrong. I could swear that I went into the courthouse with a hench from yak's and it was still lvl8 when I came back out.

When you map travel you are removed from your party.
When you enter a town by walking, your henchies become the standard level for that town. For example, if you pick up henchies in Ascalon City and then walk to Piken Square you will start with level 3 ones and when you enter Piken Square they will become level 6.
If you then walk back to Ascalon City they will go back to level 3 when you enter the city.

Ok, thanks. I don't really like it, but it helps to know how it works. I thought maybe I was going crazy.

I was hoping the henchmen leveled if you kept them around long enough, but that unfortunately doesn't appear to be the case either.