The three of them stood there for a moment, watching the white robe fade into the moving mass of the Settlement. Adam was swallowed quickly—first by color, then by motion, then by distance—until there was no clear sign he had ever been there at all.
Only then did Lina turn on Jahness.
"Jahness," she hissed, keeping her voice low but sharp, "you can't just ask something like that. Not here. Not to someone like him." She folded her arms, irritation plain on her face. "He already told us his Aspect. What if he caught your lie?"
Jahness winced and lifted his hands in surrender. "I know, alright? I know. I just… had a feeling. I couldn't shake it, so I asked. That's all."
"That's how people get themselves killed," Varkass added, frowning. "Or worse. Adam seems like a decent dude, sure, but that doesn't mean we get to poke at him and see where his kindness breaks."
Jahness glanced at him sideways. "So that's your opinion of him?"
"Huh?" Varkass blinked, genuinely confused. "Yeah. I mean, he seems nice enough. Calm. Helpful. Not trying to screw us over."
Jahness hummed noncommittally, then turned to Lina. "What about you?"
She paused, caught off guard by the sudden attention. For a second, she looked back in the direction Adam had gone, then exhaled.
"I guess…" she said slowly, choosing her words. "He's handsome. In a clean, almost harmless way. Kind of cute." She shrugged. "And if he was telling the truth about his responsibility and how he sees people… then yeah, I think we share some common ground."
She glanced back at Jahness. "Why? What are your thoughts?"
Jahness hesitated.
He stared at the dusty stone beneath his boots, then at the crowd, then finally shook his head.
"Me?" he said. "Well… he does seem like an ordinary guy."
Both of them looked at him.
"That's it?" Varkass asked.
Jahness frowned slightly. "That's exactly the problem."
Lina tilted her head. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that nothing about this place is ordinary," Jahness said quietly. "Not the Castle. Not the Settlement. Not Gunlaug. Not Sasrir." He lifted his gaze, eyes narrowing slightly. "And yet Adam walks through all of it like he belongs everywhere."
Varkass crossed his arms. "You're reading too much into it."
"Maybe," Jahness admitted. "But when someone survives a place like this while staying that… gentle?" He shook his head. "Either he's exactly what he looks like… or he's much more dangerous than anyone realizes."
Lina was silent for a long moment.
Then she sighed. "Whatever he is, he didn't hurt us. And right now, that's enough."
Jahness nodded slowly.
"For now," he agreed.
Adam hummed a little tune as he strolled down the sunlit streets of the Settlement, his footsteps falling in time with the soft rhythm of the melody. The occasional passerby caught sight of him—some returning a polite nod or a warm smile, others too absorbed in their own struggles to bother. A few particularly grumpy souls ignored him outright, but Adam didn't break stride. He hummed on, a soft, airy tune that seemed almost out of place amidst the grit and despair of the Forgotten Shore.
He had just turned a corner when, for the briefest instant, his shadow rippled unnaturally. No one else noticed it, and Adam himself didn't pause. He continued walking, eyes forward, but already his mind was alive with silent conversation.
"Well?"
"Lina and Varkass are swayed, but Jahness remains suspicious of you."
Adam tilted his head, almost imperceptibly, as if pondering the critique. "Oh, really? What gave me away?"
"You're too gentle," the voice replied. "Like a lotus blooming in the mud. He thinks someone like you doesn't belong in the Forgotten Shore—and he's right to question it."
Adam's lips curved into the faintest smirk. "How mean," he teased in thought. "Still, he's not opposed to continuing to work with me, right?"
"He's deciding to wait and see."
"I can work with that," Adam replied, his tone light, almost teasing, though it was entirely internal.
The sun caught his hair as he walked, turning it into a soft halo of gold. He paused, lifting his gaze to take in the vast expanse of the Dark City. In the distance, piercing above the jagged skyline, the Crimson Spire rose, a distant monument of power and hope. Somewhere within its twisted heights lay the Gateway back to Earth, patiently waiting for those brave—or foolish—enough to reach it.
Adam whispered under his breath, barely audible even to himself. "One year left."
A voice, familiar yet unseen, interjected softly in his mind. "Are you scared?"
Adam opened his mouth as if to dismiss the question, but then hesitated. He considered it seriously for several seconds, the quiet chaos of the Settlement flowing around him unnoticed. Slowly, his lips curved into a calm, assured smile.
"Afraid? Yes, yes I am. But—"
With that, he pivoted sharply, turning his back to the Spire and stepping into the welcoming shadow of the Bright Castle.
"I won't die here. I won't fall in a place like the Forgotten Shore. My destiny lies elsewhere—upon greater heights. The Chained Isles, the Kingdom of Hope, Antarctica, the Tomb of Ariel, the Domain War, Asterion… there's still so much left for me to see, so much left to experience."
"And most importantly of all—"
For the briefest instant, as his eyes caught a shaft of sunlight reflecting off the polished black stone of the Castle walls, a flicker passed over his iris. Gold, sharp and serpentine, rippled through the perfect blue like a shard of sunlight striking a deep pool.
"I still haven't written my ending."
Adam's smile remained, serene yet unyielding, as he walked onward. The Settlement fell behind him, the streets and shanties fading into the shadow of the Castle. Ahead, only the path to influence, power, and the unknown stretched forward—one that he would carve himself, in his own image, on his own terms.