Trafalgar stepped back through the doors and into the room where Valttair waited, pulling them shut behind him.
'Well. He caught me.' The thought carried more amusement than concern. 'For the record, I had no real interest in whatever he had to say to her.'
Which was true enough. What Trafalgar had wanted was an answer about the mission the patriarch meant to hand him, and so he had lingered near the hall rather than leaving with the rest of them. He had not expected to be noticed. He should have known better. A man did not climb all the way to Paradox by overlooking the person standing at the far end of his own corridor.
Valttair watched him cross the threshold. "How long were you listening?"
"I was not." Trafalgar kept his face even. "This room is reinforced. Nothing spoken inside it carries past these walls."
