While Rina was in the infirmary, Isiah was out in the streets, helping as best he could. He was far stronger than any of the other people around him and they used that to their advantage, giving him the hardest tasks possible. With the strength stone, it didn't matter, but using it for so long was exhausting.

He was helping the soldiers fortify the walls. There wasn't much they could use, just long planks of wood and stones bricks that were supposed to be used on buildings. He carried and set up the barrels of hot tar, which was the hardest part as Ishin's stone didn't protect him from the heat. When he was done, he would have to go to Rina and ask her to heal him. That was if she wasn't as exhausted as he was.

He had been working all day and there was still more to do. Sir Cillian and the Lady of Liman had asked him to help set up extra shelters within the town when he got the chance, but he didn't see much point in doing so. If the army got past the walls and he was sure they would, then the best place to be was underground. The materials were better used on the walls.

While he worked on them, soldiers down below dug ditches for heavy wooden spikes to be placed in. He'd worked on them for a little while, but the generals had found it better for him to be carrying the tar. As he walked across the top of the wall, the light barrel in his hands, he watched the soldiers fill the ditches with the spikes. Eventually, he would be back down there, working well into the night.

"Put that one down there," the general atop the wall ordered, gesturing somewhere Isiah couldn't see; the barrel blocked his vision. He hadn't learned any of the names of his superior officers and he didn't care to. They were making him prepare for a battle he'd rather not be there for.

He sighed as he placed the barrel in its holder and walked down to get the next one. There wasn't much choice in the matter. The Askari were defending themselves, they couldn't exactly lie there and let the Ishini take over, but it was just like Maeve. He was helping fight the battle, giving people a means to kill others. He was the least peaceful follower of the Old Gods out there.

He had killed people, by accident and under the control of Ishin's stone, but he had still done it. Instead of trying to convince all three of his companions to let people live, he'd stood by while they killed for him, content in the fact that he wasn't the one doing the killing, as if that somehow made it alright. Then there was Maeve, he had been the one to coax the soldiers from their tents with the flame, had led them to their death. What he was doing in Liman was similar. He was supposed to be peaceful, but he was as bloodthirsty as the rest of them.

At least he felt remorse and guilt. There were people out there who didn't care who they killed, they did it for fun. Harudan, as little as he knew him, seemed like that kind of person. As did Jonin. At least Rina and Emrick felt guilty, even while they argued that it was necessary. Nerin was too young to have done what he did, possibly even too young to understand what he had done.

It had felt like months since he had last seen the young Prince outside of Huton, but it had only been a few weeks at most. He had no idea if he would ever see him again. He wanted to, but there was always a chance that he wouldn't. They had been friends at one point. If only they could have taken him with them when they ran from Huton and Harudan. There were a lot of things he regretted and Nerin was a big one.

There was so much running through his mind and all he wanted was to get away from the walls of Liman to somewhere more peaceful, quieter. He couldn't until he was done and he had no idea when that would be. On the horizon were plumes of smoke from a distant town he had been told had been destroyed by a monster. Ishin, it couldn't be anyone else.

Isiah wasn't ready, not at all. He couldn't face a God, not with two stones and definitely not without Teremtys' stone, the one thing he needed if he wanted to win. He needed to win or the realm would be destroyed. Over the last few weeks, there had been a pressure on him to win, but with Ishin so close and Emrick still not there to open the door with him, the pressure was insurmountable.

It was all he could do to help prepare Liman for the carnage that was to come. When the battle came, he would help the people, not the army. He wasn't going to fight, but protect those he could with his strength and his flames. Ishin would no doubt try to face him and he would have to find some way to stop him, but he couldn't, not at all. Emrick had to hurry, but a feeling in Isiah's gut told him that it wasn't going to happen. For whatever reason, Emrick wasn't going to make it on time.

When the Ishini army reached them, all he could do was make sure he and Rina survived to get to Teremtys and the final stone. But without Emrick, he couldn't get the stone. And then there was the fact that he wasn't even sure if his plan would work. Why would only one stone be the solution to the problem that woke him in the first place? He had been given five stones, meaning he would have to use all of them as the Beast.

"Oi, you! Ishini!" a voice yelled, pulling him away from his turbulent thoughts. One of the soldiers stared at him, hands on her hips. "What are you doing? Get back to work!"

And so he did. Trying to push his confusion and concern from his mind, he hauled barrels of tar around until long after the sun had set and set up spikes in the ditches beyond the wall. Snow began to fall as the sky darkened and in the end, it grew far too thick for them to work properly. Not even Ishin's stone could fix that.

When the guard came to escort him back to the stronghold, he tried to push his luck. He had worked hard, worked well and hadn't caused a problem, surely he would be able to get something in return. Sir Cillian wasn't the one escorting him, so it could be easier.

"Do you think I could go down to the beach?" he asked them, putting on his best innocent face.

The two soldiers glanced at each other. "What for?" one asked.

"A break," he answered with a shrug. "It's snowing. No one will be down there so what's the worry?"

It didn't take anywhere near as much convincing as he had expected it to. Then again, they'd allowed him out to help out of desperation. "For a little while," the other guard answered in a deep voice. "I will go back to the stronghold to let them know."

He didn't know their names, but they were nice enough, considering they were willing to let him head down to the beach. It wasn't a long walk from the town gates to the beach, but the walk along the snow-dusted sand was. In the distance on a small cliff was the eastern part of the stronghold, bright orange light shining from the windows like large stars.

The pier was right below it, abandoned for the night. Boats of all kinds floated in the dark water. Come morning, they would be filled with the old and the young, those who couldn't fight. They wouldn't land anywhere, but they would be safer on the water where the army couldn't reach them. Until then, it was silent and surprisingly peaceful.

Somewhere on the horizon was Teremtys' island, if he was actually there. It was hidden by the thick clouds and the pitch-black night, but he knew where it was. Whenever he had a free moment, he looked over the map they'd taken from Emrick and Turian laboratory so long ago. It was directly east of Liman, travelling straight would take them there in a matter of hours. He knew how to row, Emrick had taught him, he could do it.

Even without Emrick there to open the door, he could still go and make sure that Teremtys was there. He didn't have to get the final stone to talk to the God; Askarune had been there beforehand to give them the trial. That had to mean that Teremtys would be there too if it was their Sanctum. Then Isiah could talk to them, ask them for a solution to their problems.

Teremtys was the oldest of them, according to Isiah's religion, the one who created most of what he saw so they had to know some way for him to do what was needed. If anyone could tell him, it had to be them. But would they help him? Ishin was their brother, would they help Isiah lock him away again even if he was the Beast that was Promised. There was only one way to find out.

If he left now, he would be able to make it back by morning to help prepare for the battle again. It wouldn't take much effort. There was only one guard with him, the other back at the stronghold, so a quick burst of fire would stop him from being chased. Then he had to get a rowboat, which should be enough to get him to the island. It was a long run from where he stood to the pier, but he could make it if he was careful.

Even if Teremtys didn't help him, he could still say with absolute certainty whether or not the Sanctum was there. They couldn't have travelled all that way only to find out that it wasn't. But even if it was somewhere else, they still had to wait for Emrick to come. They couldn't leave without him, he'd have no idea where they were.

If the stone wasn't there, he had no idea what he would do. There was nowhere else he could go, nothing he could do. If the stone wasn't there, then he would lose and Ishin and Harudan would win, the one thing that couldn't happen. And if the stone was there, then he had once chance to get it right, by using a stone he never had before.

He couldn't do it, but he had no other choice. Teremtys had to help him, it was their realm, they had created it. Surely that meant they would want to save it, but Isiah couldn't be sure. There was so much he didn't know, so much that didn't make sense and there was only one being that could possibly give him answers. He was so close, it wouldn't take much. He could do it, he had to.

The first few steps across the sand and snow were the hardest. They were slow, heavy with the weight of what he was doing, but he couldn't stop. Rina wouldn't mind if he went without her, it wasn't as if he was opening the door. He just wanted to talk to one of the many beings he had worshipped his entire life. It was bad enough that three of them were dead and he would have to fight a fourth, all he wanted was to talk to one of them properly and get the answers he desperately needed.

"What are you doing down here?" a familiar feminine voice asked. Isiah froze, his boots sinking into the wet sand. He'd only made it a few steps, barely far enough for his guard to notice what he was trying to do.

Rina stood in the sand nearby, her coat wrapped tightly around her and her short hair whipping about in the wind. Isiah sighed and gestured for her to come closer, where Ishin's stone could wrap her in its power. "I just wanted a break," he muttered, his eyes still on the boats.

She followed his gaze and hummed thoughtfully. "You were going to leave?" she asked, but she didn't sound offended, just tired.

"I was going to speak to Teremtys, to get some answers," he replied and sighed. "I don't know what I'm doing."

"You can't," she said and grabbed his hand to pull him to face her. "You can't run from this battle. You need to stay. If you go, how long will you be there? Even you know that you wouldn't come back because you're not ready."

But he desperately wanted to go. Maybe it was because he was running from the battle he wasn't ready for or maybe it was because he truly believed going to Teremtys would help him, help all of them. "I know," he said eventually.

"We still need to wait for Emrick. There's no point in going over there until he gets here," Rina said.

"If he gets here."

"He will, I'm sure of it."

But it had been so long since he had seen him. There was nothing to guarantee that he was still alive, all he could do was hope and that was far from enough. He didn't want to believe that Emrick was dead, but there had been so many instances where he nearly had died. It was fair that they would grow so close only to be separated again, but nothing in his life had been fair from the moment he left the Sanctum.

Rina seemed to notice his sadness and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "He'll come and we'll fix this, I swear it, Isiah," she whispered. The snow fell around them slowly, like flakes of the clouds falling from the sky, mixing with the wet sand as the waves crashed upon the shore. It was all so loud and so beautiful and soon it would be in chaos.

"I'm sorry," he said, choked. A single tear ran down his cheek, falling against his lips, salty and wet.

She shook her head. "You have nothing to apologise for. You're doing your best and I don't know if it will be enough, but we still have to try," she said and let out a long sigh. "Sir Cillian ordered me not to fight, but I will anyway. I know you will do what you can."

He would, but that wasn't the part of her sentence that attracted the most attention. "He did what?" he asked, his lips pulled up in a sneer. "But you're-"

"I know, but I'm not going to listen. He's an idiot," she said and chuckled. "Come on, we should get back. I doubt he'll be happy with us for being out here."

"I don't care what he thinks."

There was a second before she replied. "Neither do I," she muttered but it was a lie, even he could tell. She sighed again and gave him a weak smile. "Not much longer now. We can do this. Emrick will show up. He's alright, I promise you. Then we can go to Teremtys and win, alright?"

It all sounded so simple, but there was so much more to it. "Alright," he said, glancing at the boats again. He could still run and get to one, but Rina was right, he needed to stay and look after everyone he could, even if it meant facing something he couldn't defeat. Running didn't make him peaceful, it made him a coward and that was the one thing he couldn't afford to be.