Chapter 5: The Silent Severance

The ride home from the conclave was a journey through absolute zero. Silence, thick and suffocating, filled the car. Silver drove, his knuckles white on the steering wheel, his profile a stark, unyielding mask. I stared out the window, seeing nothing. The trees were a dark blur, the moon a cold, mocking eye in the sky. His words played on a loop in my mind, each repetition a fresh scalpel cutting deeper. Nothing to me but a caretaker. A debt of gratitude. Human sentimentality. He had not...