ALDRIC
The drive back to Skollrend took longer than I expected. Mostly because I could not stop thinking about the crazy way Pauline has ended our conversation. The roads were empty at this hour. So it was just me and the occasional truck hauling goods to nowhere I cared about. My headlights cut through the darkness and lit up the white lines on the asphalt. They disappeared under my wheels one after another in an endless rhythm.
I replayed the conversation with Pauline in my head. Her confidence at the end bothered me. That certainty in her voice when she said nothing would be found. Like she had something up her sleeve I didn't know about. Like she was holding cards she hadn't shown me yet.
People who kept secrets from me didn't last long in my service. I knew all too well that secrets were currency but I preferred to be the banker.
