Trigger Warning: Mentions of torture

Isiah's screams had lasted for hours, ceasing only when food had been brought to them. Rina tried to tune the sound out, but it was impossible. At least the screams meant that he wasn't saying anything. She couldn't figure out why he bothered to keep everything a secret. Harudan would kill them both anyway and the Beast that was Promised would be useless.

She'd known from the minute she had awoken that her journey was over. Everything ached and had for days, there was no hope of her getting out of the chains or the cell. There were guards on the other side of the door that would kill her before she got a chance to do anything even if she did get out.

Night must have fallen at some point, either that or Isiah eventually gave in, but the screaming stopped and the next thing she heard was pounding footsteps walking past her cell. She seethed in silence, longing to plunge a blade through Jonin's neck. Isiah was a kind soul trying his hardest to save Vishera, he didn't deserve what Jonin was doing to him.

At some point in the coming days, she would be executed. The thought of her death was so abstract that she didn't know how to process it. There were so many things she wouldn't be able to do if she died. She wouldn't be able to go back to Ziya, wouldn't be able to see the crystal pillars or her family or watch her brother become a true Warrior of Ziya. She wouldn't be able to save them from Harudan, but at least she wouldn't have to watch them die.

Images of her time in Askarune's trial flashed in her mind. The bloody crown on Harudan's head, taken from the dead body of her father, haunted her dreams and waking moments. If she died, that was what would happen. If she lived, she at least had a chance to stop Harudan with Isiah and save her family. But even if they lived, which she seriously doubted, would Isiah be up to the task?

He was being tortured for information. But why him? Surely Harudan didn't know that he was the Beast. Nothing made sense and she would never get the answers. There was no one to help her. Emrick was dead and Nerin was a child stuck with the enemy. She couldn't get out of her bonds, out of her cell, out of the town. The only thing she could do was wait until they took her from the cell and see if she could grab a weapon of some kind.

And wait she did. Chained to the wall, she had no choice but to eat the goop the man with yellow teeth fed her, but she didn't mind it so much. If she was going to try to escape, then she would need all the energy she could get. It tasted disgusting and if it were to be her last meal, it was an awful one, but she wasn't going to die without a fight.

She slept fitfully and when she awoke to the sound of screams, her arms were numb. Having them held above her head for days upon days was starting to take its toll on her and she didn't know what it would mean once she escaped. Would she be able to hold a sword? Hurt an enemy? She wasn't sure.

It wasn't just her arms, but her legs too. It had been days since she used them properly, the only movement the occasional stretch to make sure they still worked. The ache in her limbs was constant and it made her worried for how she would get out. If she did, she wasn't sure if she could get Isiah out, but she had to. She couldn't leave him there.

His screams were a constant reminder that she had to get him to safety and she had to kill Jonin and Harudan. Nerin's words be damned, he had to die. Her friend may only be a child, but he was already a better King than his brother. He, at least, had compassion and cared for her people and his.

But she'd never see him be King if she didn't get out of her cell. Her sleep had been plagued with failed escape attempts, her and Isiah dying at Harudan's hand. It was the most likely course of action, but that wasn't going to stop her from trying. She tried to stretch her arms in the chains and held back a cry at the pain that shot through them. If it hurt too much for her to move them, then she had no chance at ever making it out.

Another day passed the same as the last, she ate sludge and tried to block out the sounds of screams, begging for Isiah to give up and speak. He was so much stronger than he looked, but he needed to break soon, for his own sake. There was no point in keeping everything a secret.

She should have just told Harudan everything when he had spoken to her, but out of stupid defiance, she'd kept her mouth shut. When he had first come in, she'd been convinced that Harudan knowing the truth about Isiah would end badly for them, but if they were going to be executed anyway, what was the point?

But he never came back in to talk to her. He'd come in to gloat and that was all, to prove to her that he'd won. He hadn't though, she would kill him and win the war for her family. Even if it took months, she would rip him limb from limb. Ever since those first few guards back in Ishmar, she had become more and more bloodthirsty, but it was necessary.

She let out a sigh when the door to her cell opened and the man with the yellow teeth walked in again. Behind him, one of the guards stared at her with wide eyes and she bared her teeth at them. They didn't take her eyes off her and with a huff of breath, she met the gaze of the man who fed her.

The food was different this time, not the gross sludge that tasted like spoiled porridge, but actual meat and limp vegetables. "My last meal?" she asked and narrowed her eyes at him.

"Aye, that it is," he said in a similar accent to Emrick. Her dead friend had at least sounded a little posh after years of living with a Prince, but the man before her sounded exactly as she expected as if he had had no education in eloquence in his life.

With a sigh, she allowed him to feed her the meagre scraps of food. It tasted better than what she had been eating for the last week or so. Time had flown by since she woke in the cell, but it couldn't have been more than a week and a half. That would have been more than enough time to come up with a plan if she had been smarter, but she wasn't.

"How long have I got?" she asked the man when the food was gone.

He regarded her with a raised eyebrow. "Not long, another hour at most. I'll keep the candle lit for you," he replied and strode from the room before she got a chance to say another word. The last thing she saw before the door slammed shut was the guard, still staring at her.

For the last hour of her life, she stretched her aching limbs in the hopes that they would work for her, but by the time the door swung open again, she'd had no such luck. She ignored the prick of tears in her eyes as the man with yellow teeth stepped into the room again, keys jingling in his hand.

She tried to stretch her arms out when he unchained her and winced at the pain. He grabbed them and pulled a pair of manacles from his belt. She didn't bother to fight him when he put them around her skinny wrists, it hurt too much to do so. With a sigh, she leaned her head back against the wall. Isiah wasn't screaming. At least she wasn't walking to her death to sound of him in pain.

The guards on either side of the door moved to the side when the man with yellow teeth pulled her to her feet and walked her out of the cell. Every step hurt and her legs were a mixture of numbness and severe pain. She could easily wrench her arm from the man's weak grip and run down the hall, but she had no idea which way to go and no way to stop herself from being skewered by the blades on the guard's belts.

Any attempt at escape would result in her death, but she couldn't just let them walk her to the gallows. Harudan and Jonin would be waiting for her there and would watch with ugly smirks as she struggled against the rope. She didn't want to give them the satisfaction of watching her die, but what choice did she have?

"My friend," she said as they walked down the freezing halls. It had been so long since she'd felt the warmth of Isiah's stone that she had almost gotten used to the cold again. "Will he be executed too?"

"Not yet," the man replied, much to her surprise. There wasn't much point in hiding anything from her, not anymore. Isiah would stay alive until he spoke, and then he too would be killed. All their effort to get the stones and save Vishera, gone to waste. Harudan would take over and after that, the threat Askrune had told them of would come and lay waste to the ruins the tyrant King would leave behind.

The cracked stone halls were emptier than she expected, but she doubted a border town kept many prisoners. It was just her and the three people escorting her to her death. Of course, it had to be in a border town barely a day from her home. She had come so close but she would never make it. With every step, her legs ached more, wobbling so much that she was sure she would fall. The only thing stopping her was the guard's hands on her arms.

Tears welled in her eyes the further they walked. She didn't want to die, not at the hands of Harudan and Jonin. It wasn't fair. She had tried so hard to get Isiah and herself back to Minisia so that they could save everyone and to die so close to the border was almost like a joke. So much effort, so many dead, wasted.

The sound of metal against leather almost went unnoticed as she walked, tears rolling down her cheeks, and she gasped when a sword flew past her face. She fell backwards with a grunt as the man with yellow teeth gurgled loudly, blood spewing from a gash in his throat.

He stared at her as he died, but it wasn't her doing. Someone else had come to save her from being executed, but she couldn't think of anyone. The guard that had done it was the same one that had been watching her while she'd eaten. How long had they waited to do what needed to be done?

Everything was a blur as the guards turned towards each other, one with a blood-stained sword and the other fumbling to grab theirs. It didn't take long for the fumbling one to fall, a puddle of blood blooming out around them from the gash in their stomach. With panting breaths, Rina shuffled backwards, ignoring the pain in her arms and legs.

With wide eyes, she stared up at the guard, frowning at the way they held themselves. One arm was pressed against their torso, the other holding the sword in a limp grasp. They panted, the sound ragged and almost like a wheeze. They stared down at the bodies of the people they had killed and on shaky legs, bent down to grab the second sword.

After freeing her from her chains, they twirled the blade and handed it to her. "Take it, you'll need it," they said. "It won't be long before they notice that something's wrong."

The hilt of the sword was cold under her hand but she couldn't stop staring at the helmet covered face above her. "E- Emrick?" she said and pushed herself to her feet. "You're alive?"

"I don't feel like it, but aye," the voice replied and Rina let out a short gasp of joy, resisting the urge to wrap her arms around the man. He was obviously injured and she wasn't going to make it worse.

"How?" she asked and wiped at her eyes. He was alive, somehow. It didn't make sense, she'd seen his body in the snow, surrounded by blood, and yet there he was, standing before her with a sword in hand. He'd saved her.

He shook his head and pushed past her. "I'll explain later. There isn't much time," he said and started back down the hall.

"Wait, where are we going?" she asked.

He glanced over his shoulder at her. "To save Isiah," he hissed and readjusted his grip on his sword. She followed him down the halls, glaring at the open door to her cell as they passed it. "I don't want to hear him scream like that ever again."