Chapter 54 - Fifty Four

Chapter 54: Chapter Fifty Four

The air in the advisory council room was thick with a tense, uncomfortable silence, broken only by the rhythmic thud... thud... thud of Duke Philip’s cane on the polished wood floor. Eric stood in the doorway, a calm, commanding presence that immediately shifted the room’s entire dynamic.

An attendant, sensing the gravity of the moment, silently appeared at Eric’s side and took his coat. Eric’s gaze swept across the long table, over the anxious, seated figures of the council.

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