Chapter 102

ACHILLES. I drop the knife, satisfied that I don’t even need to say anything for the guard to give me the information I need. Normally, I wouldn’t like what’s going on here. It’s obvious that Tristan has taken liberties and employed his usual processes on these guards without my permission and now they are bleeding, shaking, and afraid. I should be furious with him, but I’m not. All I feel is this deep sense of emptiness, even as the information slips out of the guard’s mouth. And as soon as he started, he couldn’t stop. “He told us he would give us money from his very own safe if we set him free,” he says, shaking against his restraints. “I… my family needs it bad. I have a sick daughter. My wife left me years ago and ran off into someplace with someone else. I’m all they have now. The only reason I let him go is because I needed it, and I thought he would see through his promise…” He trails off, sobbing. Tristan looks at me as though asking permission to hurt them still and get