Chapter 152 - The Quiet Before the Storm

The transition from the freezing mud of the Iron Groves to the heated marble floors of Sol Manor was a shock that the body struggled to process. Vane sat on a low bench in the guest wing, staring at his reflection in a tall mirror framed in gold leaf. He looked like a ghost that had been roughly dressed in silk. The servants had scrubbed the mercury dust from his skin and treated the necrotic bruising on his arm with expensive tonics, but the exhaustion remained etched into the hollows of his cheeks. He looked like he had not slept in three days. It was a completely accurate assessment.