Nerin was burning. He could feel it, like his insides were burning up. He should have said something to Rina and Isiah earlier, but they'd wanted to keep going and turning back meant possibly facing Jonin again. There was no way he could go on anymore, it was too hot for him.

Rina and Isiah hadn't been able to feel it. They weren't burning like he was. Maybe there was something wrong with him, a sickness or an injury he couldn't feel. He couldn't very well check, not in the minuscule light from the strange plants on the walls. If he made it out of the cave, he could check himself over then.

That was if he made it out. With whatever was wrong with him, there was a chance he wouldn't. The thought alone made him feel sick to his stomach. He was thirteen, a child still, and he had no idea what was wrong with him. He'd never heard of anything like it in his books, but he'd barely had the time to read enough to know even a fraction of the diseases that existed.

He didn't want to die. Panic rose within him, clogging up his throat and chest. It only made the burning feeling worse. Sweat poured down his body, sticking to his clothes and hair. Never had he felt so hot before, as if the fyrite in his bag had taken all of his power and thrown it back at him one hundredfold.

Rina kept a hand on his back. Her touch was cool, the one comforting thing in the pain and heat that was his body. She handed him her own water canteen, his now empty. As he drank, guilt flowed through him, but he needed the water more than she did. She couldn't even feel the heat in the same way as him.

"Come on," she whispered in his ear. "We should head back to the entrance. It was colder there, right?" He nodded slowly. The further they'd walked, the hotter the cave had gotten. Touching the walls had been like touching metal from a furnace, but there were no burn marks on his skin.

He couldn't tell if he was cooling down as they walked, everything still felt too hot. Cool tears ran down his cheeks, staining his red skin. He was grateful for the lack of light, it meant he couldn't see what he looked like. It would only make him panic more if he could.

He didn't know what they would do if Isiah found an exit. Going any further than they had would seriously hurt him, maybe even kill him. Rina would be able to leave, but he would be stuck behind. The idea of being stuck in a pitch-black tunnel determined to burn him alive only made him panic more. Breathing became a struggle and his hands shook at his sides.

"Nerin?" Rina said, fear and concern lacing her voice. "What's wrong?"

He let out a whimper. At any other moment, he would have been ashamed of the sound. "I- I don't want to die. I feel like I'm dying."

Rina muttered something in her language, a word he hadn't learned yet. "You're not going to die, alright? We just need to get you somewhere cooler," she told him, but she sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than him.

Nothing seemed familiar as they walked, even though the tunnel had been one continuous stretch. There'd been no other paths branching off as far as he'd been able to tell. If they'd somehow wandered down one, how would Isiah ever be able to find them again? That was if he even came back.

The pain in his skin and body slowly began to subside as they walked back the way they came. When he finally noticed, Nerin let out a loud sigh of relief. It still hurt, but nowhere near as much as it had. The air around him felt cooler, not exactly a relief to his skin, which still stung, but it was a start.

His panic felt almost silly as the pain and heat lessened, but he still knew that walking further into the cave was impossible for him. Sol and Lune felt miles from him, but he still prayed for them to help him. He prayed as hard as he could in the hopes that once Rina and Isiah left for the exit, the door in the stone would open again.

Jonin would find him immediately if it did and he would be taken back to Ishmar. Harudan would be there, waiting for him and he would finally have to confront the actions of his older brother. He wasn't ready for it, but it would be better than being stuck alone in a dark cave.

He knew what the door was, if the mural he had read to Rina was to be believed. He'd thought it false when he'd been reading it, an old wives tale of an old religion, and yet, there he was. As the mural had depicted, a door had opened. What he didn't know was whether it was actually the door the mural meant, or if it was some ancient means of traversing the mountains.

He'd never find out and it annoyed him somewhat. But there was nothing he could do about it. His health and safety were far more important than searching and discovering what lay at the end of the tunnel.

"I'm starting to feel better, Rina," he said. He hated how soft his voice, how quiet and childish he sounded.

She let out a relieved sigh next to him. "I'm glad," she replied and in the faint light of the moss, he could see a hint of a smile on her face. "We'll keep going though. Isiah will find us when he needs. I've got a little food in my bag, so if you get hungry, just let me know."

He nodded, even though she couldn't see him. He hurt too much to eat, even with the cooling air. Sipping at Rina's canteen, which was quickly emptying, he finally pressed his hand to the walls again. They were warm, but not overly so. He didn't hurt as much anymore. It was almost as warm as he would be if he was using fyrite.

"Do you think the doors will open again if we got too close to them?" Rina asked in the silence. "I don't want them coming in here. I can't see, I wouldn't be able to do much."

He took a moment to think, his hands still shaking. "I don't think so. It didn't open when we were reading the mural earlier, so I doubt it," he said. "Something changed between then and now." Lots of things had.

"So what do you think it was then?" she asked and bumped her arm against his shoulder. "Do you think it's because we were in danger?"

"Maybe," he said with a shrug. "That would make sense. Something is going on here that we can't quite explain. It could also be... I don't know."

"Could be what?"

He shot her a look, despite knowing that she had no idea he was doing it. "Why are you listening to me? I'm a child."

Rina let out a huff of laughter. "A smart child. I trust your words, Nerin, which is something I'd never thought I'd say about as Ishini Prince, but I do," she explained. There was a hint of sadness in her voice that Nerin couldn't find a reason for. "So, what could it be?"

He stayed silent for a moment, thinking over his words and trying to find the right way to say it. "I think... I think it could be Is-" His words were interrupted by a hot rush of air that sent them both tumbling to the ground. It burned like the sun and he thought his skin was going to peel away.

When it passed he let out a deep breath and lifted his hands. He couldn't see them, but he moved them up to his bare arms and tear-stained face. Everything felt normal. Again, he let out a sigh of relief and sat up, patting around him to find Rina.

Her hand met his face and she gasped. "Are you alright?" she asked, panicked.

He nodded against it. "Yes, I'm fine, I think. What was that?"

"I- I don't know," she said as she stood. A hand reached out to grab him and pulled him to his feet. "Do you think Isiah is alright?"

He looked down the tunnel as if he'd be able to see the older boy coming, but it was as dark as ever. "I hope so," he muttered. Whatever had hit them had been dangerous, possibly even deadly if they'd been closer to the source. Wherever Isiah was, it was closer. For all they knew, he could be hurt or dead, but Nerin would never be able to check.

His skin still stung from the burning air and he could tell by Rina's hiss of breath that she was in pain too. In a silent agreement, they sat against the wall. The tunnel was almost comfortable in terms of heat, but the uneven wall dug into his back and made him groan in pain.

Silently, he passed Rina the half-empty canteen. If they ever got out of the tunnel, he didn't know where they would find more water. There would be villages with wells nearby, but it would be far out of the valley. His wasteful slurping meant that there might not be enough to get them to another village. But he'd needed so badly to cool down.

His eyes ached as though he hadn't gotten enough sleep and even against the rough wall of the tunnel, they began to close. Rina's constant shifting at his side was the only thing that kept him awake. He didn't want to fall asleep, but after all the panic and the pain, he was exhausted. Maybe when he awoke, Isiah would be back, safe and sound.

When he did finally wake, it wasn't to Isiah telling him that he'd found an exit and a safe way for Nerin to use it, but Rina shaking him furiously. The moss above his head illuminated the panic in her eyes. "What? What is it?" he asked, his stomach churning with worry.

"Isiah, he just... I called out to him but he just walked past me," she said in a rush. "I don't know what's wrong with him." At her words, Nerin pushed himself to his feet with a tired grunt. In the distance was an orange light, bobbing up and down. In the centre of it all was a figure shrouded in shadow.

He grabbed Rina's hand and pulled her along, not caring about whether or not he tripped. The closer he got to the orange light, the faster it bobbed along the wall and the faster the figure ahead of him moved. "Isiah!" he called, but the figure didn't stop. "Isiah, what are you doing?"

But the man didn't listen. He kept going down the tunnel, faster and faster. Nerin was surprised he hadn't tripped yet. Rina huffed loudly behind him, her hand tight and sweaty in his. They let out simultaneous gasps when the floors and walls began to rumble around them.

"The door!" Rina yelled. Jonin and the others would still be out there waiting for them. Nerin stumbled into the wall in his rush to follow Isiah before Jonin caught him. He had no idea what the light meant, but it couldn't be anything good.

Screams echoed towards him, a cacophony of terror. He couldn't determine who they belonged to, Jonin or Isiah or any one of the men and women adamant on attacking them. It only pushed him to move faster. Jonin wanted him alive and well, he wouldn't hurt him. Meaning there was something he could do to stop Rina and Isiah from being killed.

He stopped short when he reached the daylight spilling into the tunnel. The tunnel entrance stood in front of him and just beyond that was Isiah. "Oh, Gods," Rina gasped behind him.

In Isiah's outstretched hand sat the source of the orange light. His fingers were clenched tight around it, obscuring it from view. Ahead of him, Jonin and the others stood with mixed expressions of fear and confusion. Nerin longed to grab Isiah and pull him back into the safety of the cave, but whatever it was in his hands scared him to stiffness.

At Isiah's feet were two bodies, unrecognisable through the char of their skin. Blackened and crumpled, they lay on the ground as husks of the people they had once been. They'd been burned alive. The smell wafted towards Nerin, who gagged and bent over, but never once took his eyes off Isiah.

Before Nerin or Rina could say a word, flames spewed from Isiah's hands. They leapt through the air and crawled along the ground until they reached the nearest people. Through the orange haze, Jonin stepped back, his mouth open wide with shock. Before anyone could do anything, the flames licked their way up the bodies of those standing closest and they screamed in a way that would haunt Nerin for the rest of his life.

The flames still ate away at them even when they dropped to the ground and finally stopped screamed. A hand reached behind him and covered his eyes, but he could still see it imprinted on the backs of his eyelids. The screams still rang in his ears, repeating over and over again until he was sure it was the only thing he would ever hear.

He'd seen death before, in his father and the people Rina had killed, but he had never seen anything like what lay before him. Isiah, a peaceful apprentice monk of the Old Gods, burning people alive.

"Isiah!" Rina cried, her voice catching in her throat. "Isiah, please!" More screams, more dull thuds as more people fell to the ground. Jonin ordered something that Nerin could barely hear over the sounds of people dying and faintly, footsteps pounded away from them. When the hand over his eyes finally moved away, Jonin was gone and bodies littered the ground.

Isiah dropped to his knees in front of him and the flames dissipated. The orange glow never went away and as Isiah leaned forward, the source fell from his hand. A stone clacked against the ground, small and smooth.

Rina rushed forward and dropped to the ground next to him. "Isiah! Isiah, are you alright?" she asked as Nerin came up behind her. "What was that?"

In order to hear Isiah's mumblings properly, Nerin had to face him, which meant clambering over the burnt bodies around them. He winced as he did so, urging himself not to trip or step on one of them. He crouched down in front of his friend, the glowing stone resting at his feet.

"I couldn't... I don't.... What..." Nerin couldn't understand most of what Isiah said, his mumblings still far too quiet. He reached towards the stone and yelped when his fingers grazed it. It burned more than anything in the cave as if someone had put a branding iron to his fingers. He ripped them away and stuck them in his mouth, wincing with pain.

The sound of fading footsteps caught his attention. Jonin and what was left of his group, five or so people, ran down the valley. They headed west, probably thinking they needed to get as far away from Isiah as possible. Part of Nerin was tempted to do the same.

"We have to go," he said to Rina, who looked at her with fear in her eyes.

She pushed at Isiah's shoulder. "Can you stand?" she asked, looking around them in disgust. Isiah let out a tired groan and climbed to his feet. He looked sick, but aside from that, uninjured. "Don't forget your stone."

Nerin didn't dare touch it again, even when Isiah looked at him pleadingly. "I can't touch it, Isiah, it burns," he explained. Isiah gave him a confused look but bent down to pick up the stone anyway. He stared at it in confusion, his hand trembling, and placed it in his pocket.

"Are you alright?" Rina asked him, placing a hand on his shoulder. Isiah shrugged it off and walked forward on shaking legs. Nerin stared after him, his fingers still in his mouth. Rina bumped his arm. "Come on, we need to go."

"Where?" he asked, finally pulling his fingers out.

Rina's shoulders slumped. "I don't know, the border, I suppose." As they struggled to catch up with Isiah's speeding form, the ground rumbled again. The door in the cliff closed, sealing shut so tightly that it was impossible to see that it could even open in the first place. The mural stood as it had the day Nerin read it to Rina, but he couldn't take his eyes from the image of the figure, the Beast that was Promised, standing in a circle of stones.