💎A Collision of Fates💎 (Straight to Gay) (MxM) (18+)

27 - Adam

Yerda listened to their story with horror, eyes growing wider with each new detail. The scholar kept running his hands over the prong that they had given him, the metal instrument that had been on the desk in the mingot mine.

When they finished the tale, Yerda sat down across from them and wiped his sweaty forehead with a handkerchief. "We must tell King Esteck immediately. That mine needs to be guarded."

"Exactly what we were going to suggest," Landel said.

"And... you two. I don't know what we're going to do with you two! Goddess, you could have been killed!"

"But we weren't," Adam said. "Thanks to those stairs."

"Still, this must stop." Yerda was speaking with a shocking intensity, a passion that Adam had not seen before from the royal scholar. "You are too important to be risking your life, Landel. You have a kingdom to lead. You must stop looking into this. It is... getting much too dangerous. And, if anything happened to either of you, I would never be able to forgive myself."

Landel shook his head. "This is my home, Yerda. I need to protect it."

Yerda looked at the two of them. "You can protect it by being safe!"

"Will it make you feel better if I tell you that I'll never do it again and I'll be a good boy from now on?" Landel smirked at the scholar.

Yerda sighed, resignation on his face. "Yes. Yes it would."

Landel laughed. "I'll be a good boy, Yerda. I promise."

"Why does that not make me feel better, Prince Landel?"

Adam joined in, putting his hands up. "This might not even matter because, hopefully, when the defenders go the mine, they will be able to find him and arrest him and this whole thing can be over."

"It may happen," Yerda said.

"Why do I get the feeling that you think it won't?"Landel said.

Yerda's mouth became a flat line. "Shadow casters are... quite powerful. It is a useful ability and... I think there are ways that this person could somehow make it out of that crater, unfortunately." The scholar stood up and brushed his hands. "All the same, though, I must speak with the King now. We must get this mine blocked off. If nothing else, it will stop this man from accessing that vein."

"And hopefully that's it," Adam said. "Without access, hopefully that'll fix the problem."

"Indeed," Yerda said. "Though, I am afraid that is optimistic. Like I said, the Crystal veins are spread out all over this continent. This Shadow Knight could be aware of other access points. And, even if that weren't the case, the Goddess will need an intervention to regain the soul that she has lost."

With every word, Adam's heart sunk. Were things really so dire?

"Old Hari--" Landel began.

Yerda shook his head. "The soul caster, bless him, can barely lift a finger now, let alone cast any soul. I am afraid we will need to find another way to fix the Goddess. But... I will speak with the King about it."

"Anything we should do in the meantime," Landel said.

Yerda smiled at them. "You've done your part. You've done too much of your part. All you need to do now is enjoy your long break. You've earned it. You've both earned it after such a close brush with death."

That left a bad taste in Adam's mouth. That was it? They close off the vein but the Shadow Knight gets away? If it were Adam's choice, he would've rounded up all the shadow casters in Sesstria and tried to figure it out that way. But, then again, he had no idea how many there were. Thousands, probably.