The fake Sanctum of Askarune looked far nicer than the fake Sanctum of Ishin ever had. There were no collapsed ruins or unusable buildings, but neat, recently built homes. All of the older buildings had been looked after, and while they were worn, they didn't look as though they would fall for years to come.

If only the Sanctums of Ishin had been given the same treatment. Neither of them had been cared for, the real one given only one man to look after it properly. Both had been falling apart, while the Sanctum before him stood tall and proud as if it had never faced a single issue. It wasn't fair.

"Wow," he said despite himself. Even if it wasn't entirely fair, it still filled him with awe. If he looked closely enough, he could see the small figures bathed in their grey robes flitting about the buildings. The three of them were still far from the Sanctum, walking up the barely shovelled path towards it.

Next to him, Rina made an amused noise. "That's what you're looking at? Not the falls?" she said and pointed into the distance.

The morning fog hindered his vision and he narrowed his eyes in the direction she pointed. "The falls?" he asked and the fog parted as soon as he finished speaking. There wasn't much sunlight through the thick clouds, but if there had been, the falls beyond the Sanctum would have twinkled like stars. It was a crisp white, like ice, frozen down the length of the cliffs it sat upon. He had never seen anything like it, a frozen waterfall, like a moment in time, stuck for eternity. "Gods."

"Don't blaspheme, Isiah," Emrick said at his shoulder, laughter in his voice. In an instant, his hands were over his mouth and he was staring wide-eyed at his companions. Emrick was still laughing at him as if it were the funniest thing he had ever heard.

With dark cheeks and anxiety in his stomach, he smacked Emrick in the arm. "You're rubbing off on me!" he said, rage in his voice, but it was fake, for the most part. He'd spent so long scolding Emrick for blaspheming and had gone and done the exact same thing. It was an insult to his Gods and he'd said it as if it were nothing.

Emrick was still laughing at him and he frowned. An arm wrapped around his waist. "I'm sorry," he said, but he was still laughing. "Don't worry about it though. I doubt your Gods mind."

"That's not the point," he said and looked to Rina for help, but she was hiding a snigger behind her hand. What did it really matter at that point anyway? He was the Beast, chosen by the Gods, who didn't want him to follow his beliefs. Offending them wouldn't make much difference. In reality, he could do whatever he wanted. So he said it again. "Gods. Gods, Gods, Gods!"

Emrick chortled and pulled him closer. "Alright, calm down or your people will hear you," he said, grinning proudly. Isiah had almost forgotten about them. They were still far, but the wind could easily carry his cries to them. He settled against Emrick's side, spying the purple flower in his breast pocket out of the corner of his eye.

Next to them, Rina was shaking her head, but there was a smile on her face. "Come on, you two, we better get going," she said. "I'm sure someone will take you to see the falls when we get there."

A voice in the back of his mind chastised him as they walked, begging for him to take it back, but he had already damned his Gods. The only help they would be to him would be giving him their stones, their powers. They wanted him to use violence, to go against what he had been taught all his life and what he believed to be right. Any God who wanted that was not a God to him.

He still considered the monks his people, of course. They were the people he had grown up with, the people who had taken him in as a baby and raised him to be a kind and caring person. Even if he didn't fully believe in the same way they did anymore, they were still his people.

A woman gathering water from a well was the first to notice the trio coming up the path. Once again, Isiah had his hood on to hide his face, just in case someone saw him and decided that he was the enemy. The woman gasped anyway, most likely shocked from seeing anyone walk up the path to the Sanctum, and shuffled back towards the mess of buildings.

None of them hurried after her, knowing that more would come out to greet them soon. The path led straight down the middle of the small houses, branching out into smaller side streets. As the woman rushed down the path with her bucket, she called out a word Isiah didn't know and people began to walk from their homes, staring down at them with expressions he couldn't clearly see.

"What are they saying?" he asked Rina in a quiet voice, frowning at the robe-clad Askari.

"Visitors, I think," she said and shrugged. There was a feeling akin to anxiety in his stomach, something like fear but also like excitement. It had been so long since he had seen his people. The last time had been the girl in Huton, who he wished had listened to him. If only he'd been able to tell her that he was the Beast.

He froze when a man and a woman strode down the path, an air that demanded respect around them. Those in their doorways bowed their heads as the figures passed and Isiah immediately knew who they were. The Mother and the Father, there to welcome them and find out why they had come. Isiah grabbed Emrick's hand, squeezing tighter than he meant to, but the other man didn't seem to mind. He ran his thumb against his hand, but didn't say anything.

The Mother and the Father came closer, their robes billowing in the wind. They were both as old as the Mother in the Sanctum of Ishin, with greying hair and wrinkles around their eyes and mouth, but they were just as elegant. It was as if nothing but time had touched them, not the snow, not the heat, not war or sickness. They could have been eternal if it weren't for the slow passage of time. Before he could stop himself, Isiah bowed his head, his companions quickly following suit.

"Your Highness?" the Father said when he and the Mother reached the trio. "We weren't told about your plans to come here."

"Especially in times like this," the Mother added. She and the Father looked alike, the same lilac eyes, the same angular shape of their faces. They were related in some way, siblings, perhaps.

Rina curtseyed, the movement rushed and ungraceful. "I wasn't sent by my family," she said and glanced over her shoulder at him. Emrick was whispering translations in his ear. "We've come for a separate matter."

"And what matter would that be?" the Mother asked. She didn't look at all happy for them to be there, as if it would bring them far too much trouble. If the Sanctums of Ishin were anything to go by, it could bring them plenty of trouble, but they hadn't seen any search parties, even after Maeve.

Rina grabbed his wrist and pulled them both forward. "I am in the company of the Beast that was Promised."

With shaking hands, he pulled down his hood and the old siblings before him gasped. He didn't look that remarkable; too long hair and a copper coloured beard that he should have shaved off long ago. He was missing fingernails and his cuts from Huton had only just healed. He looked tired, not at all like the Beast that was Promised and yet they looked at him with such awe. He didn't know what to do with it.

"An Ishini?" the Father said, making it sound like an insult. Emrick was still whispering in his ear and he hissed in a breath at the confused glare on the old man's face.

It was time to speak and he pushed past the block in his throat. "I was an apprentice monk from the Sanctum of Ishin," he said, keeping his voice loud and clear. "I am one of you. I don't mean any harm, we just need some help."

Rina translates for him and the Mother eyed him from head to toe. "We always expected the Beast to be Askari," she whispered and shook her head.

"We require proof," the Father boomed and Isiah sighed. They always needed proof, not even his own people believed him at first. It made sense but it didn't stop him from being a little hurt.

The stone was in his pocket, but he didn't bother taking it out. He could feel the power in the air and in his mind, he grabbed ahold of it. The flames flickered to life in his palm and jumped to each of his fingertips. He dropped it and let the small fireball jump along the ground, melting the snow at their feet. It threatened to set the bottom of their coats alight, but he held it back, keeping his friends safe from his power. He'd hurt them too much with it, he couldn't do it again.

Once again, the people before him gasped and he pulled the flames back into his hand, where they disappeared with a quiet hiss as if falling into a deep snowdrift. The Father turned and gestured for those standing in their doorways to come out. Isiah shared a glance with his companions, chewing hard on his bottom lip. Blue and purple faces dressed in pale grey robes bobbed towards them across the snow. The Mother was staring at him with eyes wide with wonder. There had to be something he could say, but nothing came to mind.

A crowd formed behind the Mother and Father, watching him with mixed expressions of wariness and anger. The Mother looked to them and spread her arms wide. "My people, we have the honour today of welcoming to our Sanctum the Beast that was Promised!" she cried. She gestured for him to come forward and with a nervous glance at his companions, he walked over to her side.

It took the group of people a moment to do anything. Some talked to those next to them, but most just stared at him. None of them dared ask for proof, not when their leader told them what was what. Then the first dropped to the ground on their knees and leaned forward as if they were praying to him. Others followed after them until eventually everyone in the Sanctum was on their knees and bowing to him.

Isiah held out a hand to stop them, his face pale. "No, no, you don't need to do that," he said, but they couldn't understand him. They continued to bow, some murmuring something he couldn't understand. He turned to the Mother and Father, but all they did was smile at him. "Tell them to stand. They don't need to do that."

Rina quickly translated for him and Emrick moved to stand by his side, giving him a reassuring smile. He didn't want them praying to him. He may be the Beast, but he wasn't a deity, he didn't deserve their prayers. The only thing he'd done was save Maeve, but at the cost of hundreds of lives. He was no real saviour, no real protector.

The Father ordered his people to stand and most did so begrudgingly. None of them took their eyes off of Isiah and he couldn't help but feel naked and exposed under their eager gazes. "You said you wished for our aid," the Father said and gestured toward the Sanctum. "Follow us and we may speak in private."

He and the Mother led them to the biggest house in the Sanctum, one made of polished stone bricks with ornate wood trim. A fire burned inside, casting orange light over the rugs and wooden furniture in the sitting room. Portraits of unknown Askari hung on the walls and Isiah stared at them as the Father held out an uncomfortable wooden chair for him to sit in.

Emrick and Rina sat on either side of him, looking about as uncomfortable as he felt. All he'd expected when he'd arrived was to talk to the Mother, get some information if he was lucky, and leave. Instead, people were bowing to him, acting as if he was... Well, as if he was the Beast. He didn't know how to feel about it.

The Mother was talking, but of course, he didn't understand a word she was saying. When everything was over with, he would learn how to speak Rina's language. He needed to if he was going to do his job properly as the Beast. Emrick was happy to translate for him, whispering softly in his ear as to not disturb the conversation.

"What was it you needed our help with?" the Mother asked as the Father poured them cups of tea. With a shaking hand, Isiah lifted his cup and sipped the rich tea.

Rina answered for him. "Information," she said and leaned back in her seat. "To gain his powers, Isiah has to travel to sacred sites of his religion. We've been to three so far, but we don't know where the rest of them are. We were hoping that we would be able to learn something here."

"Sacred sites?" the Father said as he sat. "The Sanctum is one, is it not? Surely there would be something useful to you here."

"Anything that discusses the Beast? We usually saw them as murals or carvings," Isiah asked, Emrick translating for him.

The Mother and the Father looked at each other with furrowed brows. "Up on the cliffs, over the falls, there's a mural of the Beast. It tells a story in High Visheran, something about opening doors," the Mother said. "Is that what you were after?"

"That's exactly it!" he said. How could it be that easy? There was no possible way, but there they were, at the exact place they needed to be to get the next stone. "Are there any others?"

The Father hummed in thought. "There are rumours of a sacred place on an island near Ziya, but I don't know how true they are," he said. "And another in Ziya itself, a third up on the northernmost tip. People have travelled there, but have found nothing of importance, just ruins or nothing altogether."

"It will do," Rina replied, but she didn't sound happy about it. He wasn't either, nothing was certain. "Could you show us on a map?"

The island the Father spoke of was tiny, off the eastern coast near Ziya, sitting in the middle of the ocean. They would have to get a boat over there somehow if they wanted to check it out, which would be hard in the nation's current situation, but they would have to try. At least it was close to Ziya, convenient for them. The other was on the tip of a stretch of land that jutted out towards the Neverending Sea, further from where they were than he had hoped.

Emrick made a mark of it on his own map, thanking the Mother and the Father flawlessly in their language. Across the polished table they sat on, the Mother grabbed Isiah's hand. "Would you stay for a night, pray with me and the monks? I think it would do the people some good, especially in times like this," she asked, sadness in her voice.

He took a moment to look at Emrick and Rina, who both gave him slow nods. "Of course, I could think of nothing better," he answered and gave her a small smile. It had been a long time since he had prayed to his Gods, he'd all but stopped after meeting Askarune, but he was with his people, it was the least he could do.

The Mother smiled at him, full of relief and kindness. She patted his hand and it reminded him of the other Mother, his Mother and a wave of sadness washed over him. Of course, she didn't notice, happy that he was there with them and he couldn't help but smile back at her. For the first time since he had left the Sanctum of Ishin, he felt as if he were home.