Chapter 34: Morning Masks
After the meeting concluded and the broad outlines of the coming war were drawn, Edward stood and brushed the dust of the long night from his clothes. He turned calmly, bidding Silas farewell with a cold nod, then left the tavern with Tula following him like a permanent shadow.
After they departed, Silas stood alone in the empty tavern, save for the smell of tobacco and old wood. He exhaled a long breath filled with exhaustion, rubbed his face with his rough hand, and sighed with suppressed irritation: "Damn them... they do nothing but give orders and leave me to face the mud alone." He shook his head, trying to dispel his dark thoughts, and added in a low voice: "Now, let's solve these problems one by one... we have an army of youngsters to build."
Early in the morning, as the first rays of sun pierced through London's pale fog, Edward and Tula were on their way toward the stone palace. Edward's features did not suggest the victory he had achieved last night; instead, he wore his usual mask of nobility and coldness.
Edward turned toward Tula, walking with steady steps, and spoke in a low voice: "Tula, the money I have now will settle the family's debts, but it will open doors of questions. Everyone will wonder how a 'bankrupt noble' came across all this gold overnight."
Tula replied, his eyes cautiously scanning the road: "Questions are merely noise, sir. What matters is that Lilian is waiting for you, and that your family name will be clean again before the law, even if our hands are stained with blood in the shadows. Real power isn't in possessing money, but in making them fear asking where it came from."
Edward fell silent as he approached the palace gate, where Lilian might be standing or perhaps waiting behind those walls. He began to think about how he would hide the reality of the monster he had become behind the clothes of a noble returned from the dead