We left Corvin's shop, while Vensen and Timaeus stayed behind to watch the place. Corvin hailed an old carriage and asked the driver to take us to the Fifth District Cemetery.

We got in together, and I sat beside him. The carriage jolted forward over the uneven streets. He didn't speak, and neither did I. An awkward silence hung between us. His body was trembling and he didn't even try to hide it.

I turned my eyes to the window. The district streets were tinted yellow under the slanting sunlight. Vagrants lay on the ground. Some slept on pieces of cardboard, others twisted with hunger. Trash was scattered in every corner, and flies buzzed around it. On the sidewalks barefoot men with gaunt faces looked more like skeletons than humans.

After about fifteen minutes we arrived at the Eighth District Cemetery. I got out first, followed by Corvin, who turned to pay the driver. The driver refused the money, but Corvin insisted until the man finally gave in and took it reluctantly.

Such refusal of payment is almost impossible in the central areas, let alone in the lower ones. But I didn't ask him. My mind was already occupied with other things.

We entered through the main gate. An old guard stood there. He looked at us for a single second and let us pass without opening his mouth.

The cemetery was crowded, contrary to what I had expected. Men and women, old and young, all moving among the graves.

I turned to Corvin and asked him:

"Is it usually this crowded here?"

He shook his head:

"No. Few can afford burial here. The graves are expensive, and usually the place is almost empty. Seeing all these people is extremely rare."

He was clearly more unsettled than I was. But I paid it no mind. We kept walking until we stopped before two isolated graves, set apart from the rest of the burial ground. One bore the name Iris. The other was unnamed.

"Wait for me outside."

He didn't ask or protest; he just left immediately. I stayed alone, staring at the two graves. I raised my hand and took off my mask. At once, spirits began to float around me. Their red color had grown darker than the last time, and they seemed angrier now.

"I wish these spirits would disappear for just ten minutes."

And indeed, as soon as I whispered the wish, the spirits vanished around me.

I stood before the graves, doing nothing for a full minute. My heart was flooded with mixed emotions, a blend of sorrow and confusion, but one feeling outweighed them all: guilt.

I glanced at the endless stretch of other graves. Then the faces of the dead whose lives I had taken came back to haunt me. I hadn't forgotten the desires I had sensed in their final moments the one planning to leave the lower district, the one who had just had a child, the one who had found a job and wanted to cut ties with the Fang gang. I had crushed their dreams with my own hands. The mask had kept those feelings at bay. But now they returned, hitting me hard.

I approached the nameless grave. I knew it was Raven's, even though Corvin hadn't put any name on its marker. I knelt down on the ground in front of it and stared at the soil for a moment.

"There's so much I want to say to you. I don't know why you sacrificed your life to save me, but I'm grateful. I just hope you didn't know Jevan in the past and that's why you saved me. Yet I have a sick feeling that's the reason. I hope you've found eternal rest wherever you are."

Then I turned to Iris's grave.

"I don't know where to begin… I know you searched for him for a long time. You were happy when you found him after all those years. But sorry I'm not that person. That person no longer exists."

I rose from the ground and put the mask back on my face.

"I hope you too find eternal rest."

I started to leave the cemetery. As I walked down the stone path I noticed a woman kneeling at a grave, crying bitterly. Her wretched appearance alone could soften any heart any heart but mine. I cast a quick glance at her and moved on.

But the scene repeated. This time an old man and woman clung to each other, crying over a small grave marker. All along the way similar sights appeared: a child clinging to his mother's dress, an old man wiping tears from his wife's face.

I kept walking with a stony expression until I neared the gate. There my eyes fell on a man and a woman standing at a grave under a tree. The man had grayish black hair, and I recognized him instantly. He was the deputy leader of the Fang gang.

He was carefully placing a bouquet of flowers on the grave. Behind him stood the woman I had seen next to Vensen in the tavern. Her face was pale and her eyes vacant.

Morck cast a brief glance at me, then turned his gaze back to the grave as if I wasn't there at all. I didn't know if he had actually recognized me or if I was imagining it.

I continued walking until I reached the gate, where the old guard was still sitting in his place, leaning on his cane.

"Sir, may I ask you something?"

He raised his head and stared at me for a moment before giving a small smile.

"Oh, you're the man who came with Corvin, right? No need for such formality. Ask whatever you like."

I gestured toward the crowded cemetery behind me.

"Do you know why the cemetery looks so crowded today?"

He stroked his black and gray beard with his hand.

"I heard a huge battle broke out in the Seventh District. Many Fang men died there. That's why you see all these people."

I nodded my thanks and walked through the gate. Outside, Corvin was standing by the carriage just as I had asked. He looked rigid in his stance. I climbed in first, followed by him. Once we were inside the carriage, it started moving again.

I leaned my head against the window, watching the cemetery recede bit by bit.

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