According to Emrick's map, they weren't far from one of Minisia's biggest trading towns. In the spring and summer, the farms were always busy. According to the people who travelled to the palace in Ziya, there was never a dull moment. In the winter and in the middle of a war, it was deathly silent. If only Rina could have been there at a better time, she would have liked to see it.

The village itself lay downhill, a barely shovelled path leading down to it. Before the war, it would have been shovelled regularly for travellers, but since the war started, it had been left to be drowned by snow. It was safe to assume that it had been attacked. It was reasonably close to the border, close to the field of the dead. The Ishini army wouldn't have let such an important trading town to function as normal.

The plan was to check out the town, find out how many soldiers still occupied it and if necessary, sneak around in the cover of the night. If there weren't many, they might be able to get in and get supplies without being noticed. All she would have to do was cast an illusion on Isiah to make him look Askari.

He hadn't said a word against it when she'd suggested it. In fact, he hadn't said much of anything since the night she'd caught him and Emrick practising with the fear stone. She couldn't blame him, whatever he had seen had shaken him. But there was also anger in the mix, she could see it in his eyes.

Whatever was going on between the two men, it was affecting everything. They no longer spoke unless they needed to and Emrick was constantly walking far behind them with the excuse that he was keeping an eye out for anyone following them. Any time they stopped and sat as a group was worse. She hated it, having to walk on eggshells with the both of them.

Usually, she wasn't one to talk about issues that weren't any of her business, but when they had more important things to worry about, Isiah and Emrick's petty squabbling was something she would have to deal with herself. The least she could do was ask about it and try to figure out what exactly had happened.

Back in Huton, when Emrick had rescued them, she hadn't been surprised to see them kiss. If she was being honest, she thought that they had been doing that for a while, since Askarune's Sanctum at least, but maybe she'd been wrong. Whatever it was, it was tiring her out and making them all irritable.

As he had for the last day or so, Isiah walked next to her in silence. She'd tried to comfort him when she'd found him after everything with the fear stone, but all he had done was cry. She didn't dare ask either of them what Isiah was so scared of, it was his business, but that didn't stop her from being curious.

Emrick was far behind them, looking around the farms with a curious expression. Neither of them had been this far into Minisia before, it would all be new to them, but surely Isiah should look more excited about it. Or perhaps not, they were at war after all. If the situation had been different, she would have liked to see the wondrous look in his eyes.

She itched to talk to him but didn't know how to bring up the subject without making him uncomfortable. One wrong move and he wouldn't talk to her either, but it needed to be talked about, needed to be fixed if they were going to continue to travel together. They had to, after Emrick's discovery with the fear stone, he was stuck with them.

"Isiah," she said and sighed, already feeling like she was starting in the wrong place. "I think we should talk."

He didn't spare a second before he looked at her and ran a hand over his beard. "About Emrick?" he asked.

"About Emrick." Of course, it was obvious, that had been the only thing to be an issue over the last few days. Everything else, they had been able to figure out easily, where to go to find information, to find food, to sleep safely. For the most part, travelling behind the enemy army was far easier than she had expected.

They kept their voices down, in fear that Emrick might hear them if they spoke too loudly. "There's nothing going on," Isiah said.

"And that's entirely the issue, isn't it?" she asked and huffed loudly. "Does he not want it?"

Isiah laughed then, the sound watery and for a second she thought he was crying. "No, he does. I don't want it," he said.

"That's a lie if I ever heard one," she replied with narrowed eyes. She'd seen the way they walked together, talked together, the way they looked at each other even when the other was looking. They seemed happy, and that should have been good, accepted, in the mess that they had found themselves in.

Isiah sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I can't, Rina, I just can't. There's too much on my shoulders. I don't want to add to it," he whispered.

"But you'd be happy, wouldn't you?"

Silence filled the air between them, the wind whipping at her air. For once, the crunch of snow under her boots made no noise and she hissed in a breath. She should have chosen her words better, but she didn't understand what had made him go silent in the first place. There was so much she didn't know about him, but that wasn't going to stop her from trying.

"Isiah-"

"I don't want him to die," he muttered, staring down at the snow. "He almost has so many times now, because of me. I can't be the reason for his death. It's better like this, if I don't get too attached.

"I'm the Beast, Rina. Everywhere I go, people will die and I don't want you or him or any of my friends to join them. I've already lost the Mother and the Sanctum, I won't lose him too. We barely know each other. It's safer this way."

She scoffed, her eyes wide. That wasn't at all what she had expected. "You're kidding yourself if you believe that," she said and crossed her arms over her chest. She'd never been in a relationship, never needed to give advice regarding one, but that wasn't going to stop her from trying, even if it wasn't her place.

"Excuse me?" Isiah asked, offended. A quick check over her shoulder told her that Emrick wasn't paying any attention. Ahead of them, the path began to dip and the tops of the tallest buildings became visible.

"What I mean is, there is a high possibility that all three of us will die doing what we're doing. Wouldn't it be better to be happy while you can?" she asked. She didn't know where the words were coming from, but once she opened her mouth, she couldn't stop. "Finding a little bit of happiness in the middle of all of this is the least you can do. And so what if you don't know him that well, you two obviously have a connection, so get to know him more. It's that simple.

"Isiah, if he dies and you don't allow yourself to be as happy with him as you can be before that, you will regret it for the rest of your life. If he dies and you two were happy, it will be awful, but at least you had something with him, something you can look back on without regretting it."

For someone who hadn't had much of an opportunity to experience attraction to someone, her little speech surprised even her. But every word of it was the truth, she believed it with every ounce of her. Isiah was her friend, as was Emrick, and both had their own problems. Isiah was the Beast, he had a great weight on his shoulders, but there was a chance for him to be happy and he should take it as soon as he could, before it was too late.

When she looked at him, she smiled. He wasn't looking at her, but over his shoulder at the man who walked far behind them as if he weren't welcome. Maybe her words had gotten through to him and they could fix things. Maybe then, things wouldn't be so awkward as they walked. She would have to deal with the two of them being all lovey-dovey in front of her, but it was better than not talking.

"I'm-" Isiah said, turning back to look ahead of him once more. "Maybe you're-"

But she would never find out what she was, because a yell from below them interrupted him. Ahead of them, the path continued to dip, running down the steep incline of a hill towards the trading town. The scream itself didn't sound pained, but terrified and she hurried her steps to reach the source.

Before she could reach the part of the road that ran down the hill, Emrick pushed past her, dropping to his knees at the edge of the hill. There was a line of bushes that ran down the hill with the path and she ducked behind them with Emrick. Isiah crouched down by her other side, focused on whatever was going on in the town below them.

The town, named after the first Queen of Minisia, Maeve, seemed empty at first glance. But when she looked closer, the blurs of running people caught her eye. There weren't many of them and as quick as they appeared, they were gone, ducking into homes that were still standing, much to her surprise.

It took her a moment to find what they were running from. In a small courtyard not far from the bottom of the hill, running across the top of a well, was a figure dressed in familiar armour. The Warrior of Ziya spun deftly, defending themselves from the onslaught of blades coming their way. A group of armour-clad people chased after them and without seeing their faces, it was obvious that they were Ishini.

But there were far too many of them for one Warrior to fight and win against, no matter how well they were trained. She cursed and a voice that sounded far too much like her mother chided her. "We need to help them," she said to Emrick and Isiah, and stood from her place behind the bushes.

A hand gripped her wrist tightly. "Stop," Emrick commanded. "If we go out there, we'll be caught. Look past the town."

Sitting on the horizon, shrouded in a thin mist, were the faint outlines of a camp. It was nowhere near as big as she expected it to be, meaning it wasn't the full army, just a small amount left behind to hold and control Maeve. If she thought the small gang of soldiers was too much, then that small camp would be overwhelming.

"I don't care," she hissed and ripped her arm away. "These are my people."

With a hand on the hilt of her sword, she stalked down the hill, her feet slipping on hidden patches of ice. The sounds of battle drifted up towards her, groans and clashes of metal loud in the still air. She hissed sharply, the cold air making her teeth sting as she ran. They were her people and they were being killed. She wasn't letting another person die, not when she could stop it.

The well wasn't hard to find, all she had to do was follow the sounds of people dying. Footsteps followed after her and when she checked over her shoulder, Emrick shook his head at her, but she didn't care. She would save the Warrior, it was the least she could do as the Princess of the realm.

The group of soldiers by the well didn't notice her until she pulled out her sword. Only one turned and before he could do anything, Rina impaled him through the stomach, grunting with the effort. His red eyes stared at her through the helmet and she sneered at him, letting him fall to the ground and stepping over him.

The Warrior glanced at her in confusion, but they wouldn't recognise her with her hood up. The other soldiers finally realised that it wasn't just the Warrior they had to deal with, but her and Emrick as well. There were bodies scattered around the well, ones the Warrior had already dealt with, but there were so many more ready to kill them.

Side to side, she and Emrick took out as many as they could. He didn't dare argue with her, not when she could easily bring up Huton and silence him in an instant. Isiah was somewhere, she didn't know where exactly, but she could trust that he was safe. The Warrior didn't say a word to them but gave them a thankful look whenever they killed someone coming up behind them.

With three highly trained people, taking down the group of soldiers was far easier than she had expected. In the end, there were only two left and when they realised, they ran for the nearest exit like cowards. They didn't make it far. A wall of flame shot up in the middle of the street, blocking their paths and allowing Rina and Emrick to kill them quickly.

The flames disappeared after that and Isiah walked out from an alley he'd been hiding in, Ishin's stone in hand and his hood over his face. With a relieved sigh, Rina wiped her blade with a cloth and put it back in its sheath, raising an eyebrow at Emrick. "They're my people," she said.

"I know," he replied, briefly checking over Isiah from a distance. Rina rolled her eyes at him and wished she'd been able to continue her conversation with Isiah but some things were more important.

The Warrior of Ziya walked towards them, cleaning their thin blade. Their silver armour was stained with blood but she couldn't tell if any of it was theirs. After placing their sword back in its sheath, they bowed low at her. "I don't know who you are, but thank you for helping me," they said in a deep voice that made Rina freeze.

It couldn't be. He should have still been in Ziya, completing his training. He wasn't ready to fight an army, that much was obvious from him being unable to hold his own in a fight. But there he was, standing in front of her with no knowledge of who she was.

In an instant, her hood was down, revealing her face and short hair. "Benj," she whispered.

Her little brother gasped and fumbled with his helmet. They had once looked so similar that they could have been twins, only two years apart, but both of them had changed, her more so than him. They still had the same stark white hair, but his had been shaved close to the skin, the same purple eyes, his a shade darker than hers. His face had filled out more while she'd been gone, he looked more adult, the beginnings of a beard on his once soft face.

"Rina," he said and before she could say anything more, his armour-clad arms were around her, squeezing her tight. With an incredulous laugh, she hugged him back, one hand cupping the back of his head. He was taller than her, but it didn't matter. "You're alive. Your hair..."

"My hair is what you're worried about?" she asked as she pulled away from him, grinning. "What are you doing here? You should still be in Ziya."

He shrugged. "The people needed help, so we rushed through my ceremony and I came here. You've missed so much. Where have you been?" he asked and looked over her shoulder at her companions. He frowned, anger in his eyes. "And why are you travelling with a halfling and an Ishini?"

"I'll explain in a bit. Everything's fine, let's just get somewhere safer, alright?" she suggested and gave him a weak smile.

He sighed. "I know a place," he said. "Follow me." She shared a wary glance with Isiah and Emrick, who didn't look all that happy with her brother's words. She doubted they even knew who he was, but once they got somewhere not so out in the open, she would introduce them properly.

Never had she expected to find him there. She'd missed his ceremony, missed everything, but she'd found him anyway. She'd saved his life. It didn't look good for her, travelling with Isiah and Emrick but she could explain it easily, it was just a matter of Benj listening to her and believing her. No matter what happened, she wasn't going to leave them behind.