"Your Highness, I'm sorry, but we can't afford to do that," Fentir said for the third time since Nerin sat down on the throne almost an hour ago.

Nerin sighed. "Then what is the point in me sitting here if everything I say is going to be pushed back?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"To keep up appearances," Fentir answered. The old man didn't look at him, but down at the crowd of confused nobles. They all waited patiently for Nerin to say something, to give a solution to their problems that they could actually afford.

But he was only there because Harudan was off fighting for them with an Old God. He had no idea what he was supposed to do and not even Fentir had bothered to teach him, he was expected to know it all immediately. Even though it irritated him, he put all his effort into learning everything he could about being King.

"Then you come up with a solution," he said, waving a hand at the noble before the throne. He didn't mean to sound like a petulant child, but he was tired and annoyed and had no idea what he was supposed to do regarding the country.

When it came to other matters, he had only one idea. He was still adamant on getting a note to Isiah in any way possible, once he figured out where the home of the crystal pillars was. There was so much Isiah needed to know. He would have no idea about Ishin or Harudan or anything that was going on.

He hadn't gotten a chance to do anything for himself since Harudan left. Fentir was working him to the bone, taking advantage of the fact that he didn't know how to say no when it came to helping the people. He was constantly on the throne, or having meals with nobles or going around the city to see the people. There was never time to research or do anything else he needed to.

When Isiah won and Nerin became King of Brenmar, he wasn't sure how he would handle it. He knew for sure that he didn't want Fentir was his advisor, he'd been the advisor of both Harudan and their father and both of them had ruined things for Vishera. When Nerin became King, he would get a whole new staff of people he could trust. Hopefully, it would be a long time before that happened so that he could learn how to be a proper ruler from someone who didn't want war.

But he knew it wouldn't be that long. Harudan was marching to Ziya with a God to aid his army in the coming battle. He had no idea if Ziya would survive the end of the war, not with Ishin on the way. It could be that Isiah succeeded in ending things with Harudan, but Minisia still fell. It would be the worst ending but after Harudan broke open the crystal, the most probable one.

Nerin sat with a deep frown on his face as Fentir told the nobles what the best course of action was. He should have been paying attention, but he was lost in his terrified thoughts. Fentir didn't need him to say anything as it was, he practically ran the country while Harudan was gone, while Nerin was the puppet King he never wanted to be.

He hadn't realised that his time in the throne room was over until the nobles began to file from the room. Running a hand down his face, he stood from the throne and gave Fentir a nod. "I'm requesting some time to myself," he said. "Have lunch brought to my room by my usual servant."

"Of course, Your Highness," Fentir replied and bowed. As per Harudan's request, a guard followed him up to his room and stopped next to the door. It had only been three days since his brother had left, but things felt different. He had a guard wherever he went, and wasn't allowed to do anything without being watched by someone. The only time he was free was when he was in his room, but even then, he was only there for a few minutes.

Under the guise of 'learning more about the country that would soon be his' he'd requested books on Minisia from the palace library. He had no doubt that the home of crystal pillars was somewhere there, it was just a matter of finding it. He'd had the books open on his desk since the day before, when he'd stayed up till the middle of the night, scouring the pages for anything that would help him.

Of course, he'd found nothing and it only made him panic more. Instead of letting his panic overtake him, he'd drafted a note to send to Isiah. It was a mess of words, barely enough to explain what was happening, but it was something. He would send it to Maeve in the hopes that someone could get it to Isiah. It was the only thing he could do.

On one side of the page were instructions to send it to the Beast, while the main part of it detailed what Harudan had done with the crystal and Ishin, as well as where Belganine's stone was. The last bit wasn't as detailed and had cut off in the middle of the sentence, waiting for the exact location.

With the hour or so he had free, he flicked through the thick tomes, looking for anything on the crystal pillars. Most talked about Ziya itself and the ellinite laced in the crystal. If only he had the book from Turian's laboratory, then he could find the answers as to why the pillars existed in the first place.

Only one book was of any help to him and it was only because it had a map of Minisia in the middle of it. From Ziya up to the cliff range in the south was a river, leading all the way to a note that said 'the crystal falls'. Next to it sat a little blob labelled as the Sanctum of Askarune and Nerin let out an incredulous laugh. Next to the map was a note that said the crystal pillars grew from the river, whose source was the crystal falls. Belganine's Sanctum was the Sanctum of Askarune. It almost felt far too obvious, but at least it was simple.

When he went to write it down, giddy excitement settling in his stomach, someone knocked on the door. "Come in," he said and closed his book, placing it over the top of his note.

Ashera was silent when she walked in, looking anywhere but at him. He hadn't seen her since Harudan burst into his room and stole the book from him and he hadn't forgotten the look on her face. Betrayal.

He couldn't think of anything to say as she placed the tray down on the desk. He'd asked for her specifically to apologise and explain himself, but he didn't even know why. She was a servant, a follower of the Old Gods taken from her home by his brother and he was the Crown Prince. They weren't supposed to be friends, but he wanted to be.

"Ashera," he said and stopped, drumming his fingers against the edge of the table. She ignored him, pulling the cloche off the tray and making him freeze. It wasn't the food he cared about, but the small leather-bound book that sat next to it. He grabbed it and flicked through the pages, sighing in relief when he found his notes in the margins. "Ashera, where did you find this?"

"In the King's study," she whispered.

"You went into Harudan's study? When?" he asked. Surely, she would have been caught, but somehow, she hadn't been.

Ashera almost looked proud of herself, her chest puffing out slightly. "There are secret passages all over the palace. I've been exploring them and I found one that came out near King Harudan's study," she explained with a shrug. "He took your book. You needed it back so I went and got it."

Nerin jumped from his seat, whirling around and grabbed the younger girl by the shoulders. "If you had been caught, you would have been killed," he hissed, conscious of the guard on the other side of the door.

"You told me you wanted to get information to the Beast, that you were his friend," Ashera said and grabbed the book from the tray. She pressed it to his chest, her lips pursed. "Or were you lying to me? It looked like you were."

"I'm not, I'm not! He... Harudan forced me," he said. It was technically a lie, he'd translated the book of his own volition, thinking that it was a good thing. "I've been trying to help Isiah. I need to get a raven to him, but I'm constantly being watched."

"Then give it to me. I'll send it," Ashera said as she stepped away, holding out a hand for the note.

Nerin clutched the book to his chest. "It's not done yet. Wait here a while. I'll give it to you when I find out the last location," he said and sat down at the desk again. His food went ignored and he opened the book to the last few pages. At one point, he had wanted to know how it would end, but in light of what his brother had done, it no longer mattered. All he needed to know was the location of Teremty's stone.

"Location of what?" Ashera asked, sneaking pieces of his lunch when she thought he wasn't looking. He hadn't even needed to apologise to her, she had given him the book and was willing to send a raven for him. She would be able to do it if she sent it under his orders.

"The stones," he said. One day, he would have to explain everything to her and properly apologise for what he had done, but he needed to focus on the book. "Eat. I need to work."

She was a loud eater and it distracted him while he tried to read, but he didn't say a word to her about it. It was enough that she had decided to stay with him and be his friend despite what she had seen. Maybe she was as naive as he was, but either way, it was good to have a friend while he was stuck in the palace.

The God of Creation lives in the middle of the Eastern Ocean, not far from the city of Ziya. The island is small, barely big enough for a small town, but Teremtys is the only soul who lives there. A day by boat from Ziya's port lies the eldest of them all, surrounded by the long-dead reef-

"Is that High Visheran?" Ashera asked with a mouthful of food.

"Yes. Can you read it?"

"Nuh. What does it say?"

"It's giving me the location for where Isiah has to go to get his powers," he explained and grabbed the map book again. "Now let me find where it is."

Finding the expanse of dead reefs in the ocean past Ziya was far easier than finding the crystal falls, maybe because he knew the exact thing he was looking for. There was a tiny dot in the middle of the map and he had to assume that it was what he was looking for. He jotted down the location on his note and before he could stop himself, he ripped the page from the book.

He rolled the papers up, sealing them with red ribbon and a wax seal. "Ashera, tell the raven keeper that this is to be sent to Maeve under my orders," he ordered and handed her the scroll. "I doubt they will know that the army there is gone. Do not leave until you see the raven leave, do you understand?"

She nodded, biting down hard on her lip. "I understand. This is going to help the Beast?" she asked as if she didn't believe him. Maybe she still thought he was working with his brother, but after Ishin, there was no possibility of that. He ran the country because it was what he needed to do, but he would help Isiah as best he could while he was there.

"Yes. It will tell him where to go," he answered even though he wasn't completely sure Isiah would ever see it. But it was the only thing he could do. "Now, go, there isn't much time."

Ashera bowed to him. "I am pleased to have served you, Nerin," she said and ran from the room before he could say anything else. He knew it was something the followers of the Old Gods said to their superiors out of respect, but he wasn't truly a follower, even if he had met both Askarune and Ishin. He wasn't going to dismiss her respect though.

His food was half-eaten, but he finally found that he was hungry. With his cheek balanced on the palm of one hand, he picked at what Ashera had left behind for him. His plan probably wouldn't work and there wasn't much time to find another, but at least he could say that he had done something to fix his mistakes.

There had to be something more, but the crystal had shattered, it's pieces disintegrated when Ishin revealed himself, he couldn't study it. All he had was the story in the book about Ishin and Nyat. Going off that, Ishin would stop at nothing to restart the realm in his image, even though at least one of his siblings was dead. They couldn't recreate Nyat's people, so what was the point?

And yet, Ishin had joined forces with Harudan as if it would do something to help him. Nerin couldn't understand it, but who was he to question the actions of a God? The only thing he could worry about was Harudan. If he stopped him, maybe he could stop Ishin too. Or maybe it was something only Isiah could do.

Either way, Nerin was learning from his mistakes. He would do what he could to make sure Brenmar survived what was coming from both Harudan and Ishmar, but in secret, he would do what he could to stop them both, starting with the note to Isiah. Harudan may be his older brother, but he was right during their earlier conversations, killers deserved to be punished.

END BOOK THREE

A.N: I hope you guys enjoyed this wild ride of a book. The fourth and final book, The Beast That Was Promised, will start posting on friday, but I'll do what I usually do and put the blurb up so you guys can add it to you library. Also, if you want to read ahead, patreon is about to finish book four. There is also a bunch of extras over there too