Rina was in the infirmary healing the last of the injured when the first sounds of battle rang out. She'd known for hours that it was coming, but with guards at every doorway stopping her exit, she was stuck healing people. The yells and screams and sounds of destruction echoed in her ears and she longed to be down there, fighting with the people she had spent so long trying to get back to.

The windows in the room she sat in didn't face the city walls, but the ocean, which was dotted with the ships that held those who couldn't fight. They were safe for the moment, but without being able to see what was going on, Rina had no idea how long that safety would last.

She was nearly done, onto the last small group of wounded people. Some were missing fingers, others had been stabbed in non-fatal places and most were complacent as she worked. The second they were healed, they were forced up by the guards in the room and told where the armour was. She had heard it so many times over the last few hours that she knew the words by heart.

That morning, Cillian had woken her early to start her work and she'd known without him saying anything that the army was nearly at the gates. She hadn't seen Isiah since the night before when they'd been on the beach together and she wanted to make sure that he was alright. Cillian had him working on the walls again. He shouldn't have been down there, but he was anyway, preparing for a battle he wouldn't fight it. There was no way to check on him unless she went down there. She couldn't do that unless she found a way to get past the guards.

Every time she thought she was nearly done, another wounded soldier was dragged in. The mansion was too far from the town walls for any of the seriously injured to be carried in, so there was no point in having it set up in the middle of battle. Her entire role was useless, made up by Cillian so that she wouldn't argue. But it wasn't going to work.

People were dying in the streets and along the walls. She could save them easily if she was done there. The longer she sat there with people who were barely injured, the more restless she became. With every sound that drifted up from the walls, the guards around her looked to the fight, even though there was nothing to see.

All she could do was hope that their agitation would be enough for her to get out of the mansion. Using the stone for hours on end left her exhausted, but she still had some energy in her, enough to fight and heal at the same time. She would show everyone just how good she was, how powerful she was and if they dared to stop her, she would show them her wrath as well.

Somewhere out the window was Teremtys' island. She needed to make sure that Isiah survived the battle so that they could get the final stone. Ishin was out there somewhere, destroying everything in his path and Emrick still hadn't arrived. All they could was fight and survive and wait for him to show up. But she couldn't do that unless she was down where she should be.

Wounds closed up under her hands and the stone glowed a steady green. In the background of it all was the sound of the walls falling. Tears welled in her eyes as those she healed climbed to their feet without a word, marching towards the armoury, towards the wall, towards another injury and potential death. They would all be fighting to get back to her while the town crumbled, but she was too far.

A boom that echoed through her ears and made her legs shake was what finally got her moving. As quickly as she could, she finished healing the rest of the people in the room. Cillian wasn't going to keep her locked away for the whole battle, not when she could help and look after herself.

When the last person was running from the room, fear and determination in her eyes, she stalked over the guards in the doorway. "Your Highness, we can't let you through," one said, standing straight and proud.

"Under whose orders? Someone below me?" she asked, knowing that she sounded petulant, but if it was the only way to get out of the mansion, she would gladly do it.

The guard was silent for a second and she could see the confusion in his face under the helmet. "Sir Cillian's," he said.

"So, someone below me then," she said and let out an exaggerated sigh. "Look, I can see you jumping whenever you hear something. You want to be out there as much as I do, don't you?"

He nodded and the other one, a woman, swatted him in the arm. "We can't let you through under any circumstances, Your Highness. I'm sorry," she said and she looked genuinely upset.

There was only one thing left to try. "Imagine if you two are allowed out there and you get injured, fatally. You will never make the distance back here. But if I'm out there with you, doing what I am supposed to do as your Princess, then you would have a chance," she explained, allowing her desperation to flow into her voice. "All I want to do is help. People are dying and I can't be stuck up here. If Cillian catches me, I'll tell him that I snuck out. You won't get in trouble, I swear it."

Both guards were silent for a long moment and she was sure that she would have to fight her way past them, then the woman sighed. "Armoury is down the hall and-"

"Down the stairs, I know. Thank you," she said and burst through them before either of them could react. "Send for the doctors, just in case people do come up here. I'll be back as soon as I can!"

She ran as fast as her short legs could take her, panting loudly. She was so tired but she had to keep moving. There were people who desperately needed help and she was the only one who could do it. She needed to find Isiah and keep him alive, wherever he was. He was the most important thing, the one person who could save them all.

There wasn't much left in the armoury and the one person still there to help those she had healed didn't bother to help her as she shuffled into it. He would get in trouble if he did. Even in the midst of battle, people still looked out for themselves instead of thinking about what was best for everyone. Was that what she had once been like? What her family was like?

It didn't matter, there were other things she had to worry about. With her armour on and a sword in hand, she ran for the entrance to the mansion as the sounds of battle grew louder. She felt like a real Warrior, even if the armour wasn't quite right. She felt like who she was supposed to be.

The guards outside the mansion took no notice of her true identity as she ran past them and down the steps into the town. She froze at the bottom, staring into the night. When she had imagined Ishin, she hadn't known what to think, but it should have been obvious, he was the God of Flame. He was giant, taller than Askarune had been at his Sanctum and made entirely of blue and orange flames.

He wasn't acting in the way Rina had expected him to. She had expected fire everywhere, impossible to avoid or put out, but that wasn't what she saw. It was the catapults and trebuchets that dealt the most damage to the town, while Ishin was stuck behind a wall he could easily step over, fighting off the remains of her army. It was strange, but then all at once, it was obvious. Harudan needed to have something to rule over, control. And he couldn't do that if he had his pet God destroy it all.

It meant there was a chance for them to survive for sure. Her and Isiah, wherever he was. She had to find him before they lost their chance. Waiting for Emrick no longer mattered, they'd run out of time. With Ishin there, they would lose, she had known that from the start, but there were still people she could save if she moved fast enough. Once she could get enough people to safety and got to Isiah, they could head for Teremtys' Sanctum. She had been stupid to think that they had had a chance at winning.

Even so, she had to keep going. She ran through the streets, passing those who hadn't had a chance to get to the boats and were supposed to be hiding in their homes, but they must have been destroyed. She healed any injuries she saw, but most went unnoticed as she sped down the winding streets towards the carnage.

The wall was still standing, but it wouldn't for much longer, not that it held back the army that well. There were already soldiers in the streets, fighting against what remained of her people. They were completely outnumbered, the Askari, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Isiah was nowhere to be seen in the chaos that surrounded her. There were people everywhere, fighting and yelling and dying and above them all was Ishin, blasting flames into the space before the wall. People screamed and cried with pain but she couldn't see them, didn't want to see them. It was all she could do to look away from Ishin and keep her eyes on the people around her.

The instant she joined the fray, she was under attack. In the dark, it was hard to tell who was Ishini and who was Askari, but she let loose on anyone who tried to hurt her. Healing and fighting at the same time was even harder, but she had to do it, even if more people were being killed by Ishin than she could save.

It was far too dark for battle, far too dark for her to see properly, the glow of her stone and the flames her only sources of light in the Ishini filled streets. The wall was only a few hundred metres from her and it looked like they had done nothing to fortify it. Ishini climbed over the top and rushed through the fallen main gates to slaughter anyone in their path. Rina cut down one in her way and moved for the others, knowing that her efforts would be in vain.

A body fell before her and she stumbled, trying not to fall. An Ishini towered above her and the fallen man, his sword glinting in the light of the fires. With sweaty hands, Rina held her sword tight and didn't let the Ishini move before he dove towards him. But she didn't move fast enough and the awful clang of metal on metal rang in her ears.

She pushed him back with a grunt, lunging at the gaps in his armour. Again and again, she moved, weaving around the packed courtyard faster than the Ishini could handle. But with every twist of her blade, his was there to block her. Irritated, she jumped back at the last second and the Ishini stumbled forward, giving her the opening she needed. Her sword went through his stomach in an instant and he gasped in surprise before he fell.

The body on the ground, the one she had tripped over, moved at a slow crawl, heading up the road she had just come down. It was chaos around her, but she could spare a few seconds to heal them. She knelt at their side and forced them to roll over. Blood seeped from the stab wound in their stomach, but it was nothing worse than what she had been healing in the mansion.

"Princess," a familiar voice gasped and Rina froze. Sir Cillian's wide eyes stared up at her, filled with fear and anger. She could easily leave him there to die, but even though he was awful to her, he was her people. He didn't deserve to die so brutally. So she healed him, just like she would anyone else and ignored the look in his eyes as she did.

He stood when she was done and stared at her, but there wasn't a chance for either of them to speak before another wave of Ishini stormed the courtyard. Cillian was ripped away from her, replaced by the silver faces of the armoured Ishini.

She couldn't stay in the courtyard forever, not when Isiah was somewhere else. No one had told her where he was, probably to keep her from looking for him, not that it had worked. She didn't want to run from the battle, not when she'd fought so hard to get down there, but she needed to find him. She could help people on the way, but staying by the walls would only get her killed.

With an aching heart, she ran down one of the other streets that headed towards the beach, the only logical place Isiah could be. But each street she turned down was filled with people fighting for their lives, blood splattered along the road. She couldn't tell who was who and didn't want to accidentally heal someone she shouldn't, but she did anyway. She couldn't run past someone dying just in case they were one of hers.

When she could tell if someone was Ishini, she murdered them without a thought and kept running. Behind her, Ishin continued his barrage and all she wanted was to stop him, but there was no way to. He would ruin everything and she couldn't do anything about it except watch and weep. The flames destroyed everything in their path, crawling over the walls to jump onto the nearest buildings, which lit up like beacons in the night.

And on the God's shoulder was a figure, small in comparison to him, but visible enough against the light. There was only one person it could be and even at such a distance, Rina knew that it was Harudan.

An enraged cry from next to her pulled her away from the sight of the man she wanted to kill. A soldier ran towards her, sword at the ready and blood on his armour. All she needed to do was wait for the right moment, step to the side and draw her sword up. The man stumbled into the wall of a nearby building, clutching at the gaping wound in his stomach.

Rina pushed through the messy tangle of bodies, lunging for anyone who looked as though they were about to hurt her. She killed and maimed, fighting her way through the streets towards the beach and trying to ignore the crackle and roar of the flames behind her. She healed those she could, but never stopped to make sure if they were truly alright.

She turned another corner and froze in relief. In the middle of the street was Isiah, picking up a fallen wall of a building to allow those inside to escape. Rocks from the trebuchets and catapults soared over the top of them as she raced towards him, crashing into the buildings nearby.

"Isiah!" she yelled, grabbing his shoulders and twisting him towards her.

The wall fell with a thud, but it didn't matter, everyone had already escaped. "What are you doing here?" Isiah asked. His face was smeared with dirt and there was a cut on his temple that took barely a second for her to heal. He was alright, alive, and terrified.

"We have to get to Teremtys!" she told him, barely hearing her own voice over the sounds of battle.

"But you said-"

"Forget what I said. If we stay here, we'll die. Emrick isn't coming but we can still go," she explained, hating the words. They had spent far too long waiting for Emrick, but it was time for them to go. If they wanted Isiah to live and do what was necessary, then they had to go.

He looked like he wanted to argue, but he took a deep breath. "But your people... They'll die," he said.

"Do you want to join them? We can't stay here!" she yelled. As if to prove her point, a soldier jumped from the shadows and she pushed Isiah out of the way to get to them. The fight was quick, less than a minute with Rina getting pushed back, only to duck under the soldier's ferocious swing to impale them through the stomach.

When she turned back to Isiah, he was pale. "Alright," he said but he looked torn. All he wanted to do was help people and the one chance he would get to do that, they had to run. Liman wasn't the time to defeat Isiah, they had to let it go.

She grabbed his hand. "Come on, we'll help who we can on the way," she told him and ran down the cobbled streets. "There should still be a boat we can use."

The street turned back towards the town walls and she hissed in a breath at the massive figure that towered above them. Ishin was still outside Liman, standing so still that he could have been a statue. He didn't care what he did, as if it were just a chore, something irritating that had to be done.

As if her thoughts had been read, Ishin turned and Rina tightened her grip on Isiah's hand, a lump in her throat. The God's eyeless face stared at her, at Isiah and something in the air changed.

"Rina..." Isiah whispered, as frozen as she was. She didn't get a chance to reply because the God reached out his hand. The click of his fingers echoed in the air, louder than anything else around her. Blue and orange filled her vision as a torrent of flame raced towards them, and she found herself frozen in its path.