Adam was still in Eric’s body. He was now consciously aware that he was back from the subconscious plane the strange ntal world where he had talked with the Spirit nad Philip.
He sent a faint smile in his thoughts towards the [System Window: Millennia].
He thought to himself There is quite a big difference in how ti passes. In the real world only a little ti went by.
But in that other plane where I was with Philip it felt like I was there for hours. The conversation with the Spirit had been short but it had been packed with an incredible amount of new information.
It felt like it had spanned a very long ti. Yet here in the physical council room it seed that only a few re monts had actually passed.
Adam’s attention then snapped back to the person standing right in front of him. Emperor Sir David’s eyes opened. A knowing smile almost like they shared a secret touched his lips.
"Philip has told everything," the Emperor said. His voice was calm and asured. It was a very big contrast to the earlier loud and angry pronouncents he had made when he sentenced Eric.
Adam’s expression still Eric’s face but controlled by him remained completely unreadable. He showed no emotion. It did not really matter much to him who stood before him now.
The imdiate threat the danger of being attacked seed to have stopped for a mont.
He did however feel a strange almost pleasant sensation when he thought about Philip. It had been... surprisingly agreeable to talk with another being of his own kind. Even if Philip called himself a "low-level" Spirit it had been good to not feel completely alone.
Adam’s gaze swept around the large council chamber. The fancy opulent chairs that had once been arranged in a circle around the room were now mostly broken.
Splintered pieces of wood and torn rich fabric were scattered all over the floor. The marble floor itself was cracked and broken in many places.
It was clear evidence of the violent fight that had just happened when Adam dealt with Captain Thomas and the Emperor’s guards. It was a scene of considerable destruction. The room looked like a storm had passed through it.
The Emperor moved closer to Adam. He placed a hand on Eric’s shoulder. His touch was surprisingly gentle not forceful at all. "Co," he said his voice softer now than Adam had heard it before.
"We should go outside. Everyone out there will be... worried about what has happened in here. They will be expecting the worst."
With that the scene around them seed to shift and change.
Outside the council chamber in a vast beautifully kept garden the air was thick with tension. It was a feeling you could almost touch. The golden-armored soldiers of the Empire had brought all the kings and rulers out from the eting room.
Now the soldiers stood guard around them. Their hands were resting warily on the hilts of their swords ready for trouble.
Every single soldier and indeed every king present had assud that a terrible battle had broken out inside the closed council chamber.
They were all fully expecting to see King Noor’s son Eric co crashing out defeated and injured. Or perhaps they expected to see the Emperor himself erge from the room carrying the boy’s severed head as a grim trophy a sign of his victory.
King Noor himself was a storm of anxiety. He was incredibly worried. Four Imperial soldiers stood around him in a close circle. Their stance was still guarded and watchful.
While a little bit of respect might have returned to their eyes after the Emperor’s order to treat King Noor with proper deference the feeling of suspicion the readiness for more conflict was still very strong. You could feel it in the air.
Alina stood beside King Noor. Her own fear was a tangible presence sothing you could almost see. She reached out a trembling hand and clutched at the fabric of the King’s sleeve. Her knuckles were white from gripping so tightly.
The King’s attention which had been locked on the massive closed doors of the council chamber shifted to her. He looked down at the frightened girl.
"My Lord," Alina whispered her voice shaking but earnest and sincere "please do not worry too much. I believe nothing truly terrible will happen to the Third Prince Eric. I think he will be alright."
The King’s brow furrowed in confusion. He rembered Alina’s strange cryptic words in the chamber the waiting room just before they had entered the outside.
She had said sothing then about soone nad... Adam.
"Alina," King Noor said his voice low and urgent so only she could hear "what were you saying before? You said that Adam would not let anything happen to Eric. What were you talking about? Who is Adam? And what truly happened to Eric inside that room??"
Alina took a deep shaky breath. She tried to gather her thoughts to explain sothing that was very hard to explain.
"My Lord," she began choosing her words very carefully "Adam... Adam is another personality. He is another person who lives inside Prince Eric’s mind. He shares Prince Eric’s body." She paused looking at the King to see if he understood.
"This Adam possesses power far beyond what you or I can even imagine My Lord. And he has a... a confidence a sureness about himself that is almost absolute. He believes he can do anything. And My Lord he can do things things that neither you nor I could even dream of being able to do."
King Noor stared at her. He was utterly dumbfounded. He was completely speechless. "Another personality?" he repeated slowly.
The words felt strange and alien on his tongue. He had heard of such things before.
He knew about illnesses of the mind where a person’s mind seed to break into multiple different selves.
But he had never ever imagined that such a condition could result in such... potent almost supernatural power the kind of power he had just seen glimpses of.
Alina nodded her head. Her expression was a mixture of awe at Adam’s power and fear of his sotis brutal nature.
"My Lord," she said and there was a note of surprise in her own voice "I... I had thought that all of you knew about Adam. I assud that you the royal family were all... keeping it a secret from others perhaps to protect Prince Eric." She seed genuinely astonished to realize that the King himself his own father was unaware of the true nature of what was happening with his son.
The King was reeling. His mind was trying to catch up with this shocking new information. This explained so much. It explained Eric’s sudden bursts of incredible power those monts when he seed to beco soone else entirely.
It explained his sotis cold and detached way of acting. It explained the very aura the feeling of power that had terrified the Empire’s warrior Captain Thomas. It all started to make a terrible kind of sense.
"Can you tell more?" King Noor pressed his voice urgent. He needed to understand. "Tell more about this... this other personality this Adam that my son Eric possesses?"
Alina took another breath.
"From what I have seen My Lord," she explained trying to be clear "whenever that personality Adam takes over Prince Eric’s body the Prince himself seems to have no mory of what happens during that ti. It is like he is asleep. And that personality... Adam... he is incredibly brutal when he needs to be. And he is imnsely powerful. I have seen him do things that are truly terrifying."
King Noor listened with intense focus. His mind was racing trying to connect all the dots trying to make sense of this shocking and disturbing revelation about his son.
"Does this an then," the King asked his voice barely a whisper so quiet it was almost lost in the tense air "that it was not really Eric who rescued you and your parents from Roland? Was it... was it Adam who did those things who killed the Baron and his n?"
Alina nodded her head slowly. Her eyes were sad. She confird his horrifying yet sohow clarifying suspicion. Yes it had been Adam.
But before she could explain any further before the King could fully process the huge implications of this incredible revelation the massive wooden doors of the council chamber creaked open.
The sound was loud echoing across the tense silence of the garden. It was abrupt and commanding making everyone jump.
Instantly the gazes of all the soldiers and all the assembled kings and rulers snapped towards the entrance of the council chamber. Every nerve in every person there was on edge.
Every mind was braced prepared for what or who would erge from those doors after the sounds of destruction they had only imagined before. The waiting was unbearable.
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