Nerin felt a little awkward with Isiah and Emrick watching him and Rina pray that morning. He did it anyway, even though he no longer felt a huge sense of duty to do so. The Beast was real and alive, thus proving the beliefs of the followers of the Old Gods to some extent. Praying to Sol and Lune felt like praying to false gods.

He did it anyway in the hopes that if they did exist, they would help them in some way. He didn't know why Rina still prayed, but he didn't bother to ask her. It was her business after all. He finished long before she did and waited with Isiah and Emrick in polite silence.

She looked different with her hair short, but it wasn't strange. When he'd asked about it earlier, all she'd told him was that she didn't want to get caught like she had at the laboratory. It made sense, but he still hadn't expected her to do it. Her hair was still as wavy as ever, but it cut off near her shoulders, still framing her dark face.

When she finished praying, she stood and gave the three of them a smile. "North?" she said and he nodded. North was the only direction they could go until they reached somewhere they could find on the map. What lay north was unknown to him; it was his job to translate the book, not read the map.

Even though he didn't get along with the man, he knew Emrick could be trusted. He'd been sceptical at first, but after everything at his uncle's home, he could finally trust him. That didn't mean he liked him, not at all, but trust was something they would need if they were going to find the stones together.

That was if he could even figure out when the second stone was. Internally, he cursed the person who wrote the book for not being more specific, but he could still understand why. The Sanctums were meant to be sacred, they couldn't be disturbed by someone power-hungry and dangerous.

As he thought the words, his mind flashed to his brother and he hated it. He loved his brother, but he was as bad as their father, if not worse. Still, Nerin should have seen it, but he was as oblivious as everyone else. It would be his biggest regret, not seeing his brother for who he truly was. If he had paid more attention, maybe he could have stopped the war before it began.

It was too late to do anything to prevent it now, but he could help end it before it truly began. Even though Harudan was his brother and he loved him, he was doing the wrong thing and needed to be stopped. Nerin didn't want to see him dead, but he didn't want him on the throne anymore.

That meant he would have to take the throne, him, a child who knew nothing of running a country. He'd never been trained to do so because neither his father or Harudan ever thought he would take charge. If he was being completely honest, he never expected to be anything more than a Prince. That was why he got along so well with his uncle, they were in the same boat.

But if Harudan was taken from his throne, it meant he would become King of Brenmar. He knew nothing about it, but he would have advisors. They obviously couldn't be the same as Harudan's advisors, they would have the same ideals as their King. It would take a lot of effort and planning and learning, but Brenmar needed a king and he would have to step up to the challenge.

None of that would happen if they didn't find all of the stones. He needed to translate the book as quickly as possible, but the writer was so vague that even his best attempts gave him no answers. North and west, that was all he knew. The cave in which it lay was still completely hidden. They wouldn't find it until the tide was low, meaning it would take them forever to eventually come across it.

He tried to read as he walked, searching through the rest of the little book for any mention of Askarune's stone. The third stone only made mention of Nyat and Ishin and so he flicked to the next few pages. He doubted the person who wrote it actually met and spoke to the Gods, seeing as Ishin hadn't been there when they found the first stone. The Old Gods didn't exist, but the Beast that was Promised did. It was strange, but not unsurprising. Not everything was the truth.

That probably meant that Sol and Lune weren't the truth either, but he found that he didn't mind so much. Part of him had always suspected that he would become a scientist like his uncle and Emrick; he found more joy in research than prayer anyway. He could have lived with them in the laboratory and devoted his life to the things he loved, but that would never happen. Turian was dead, Emrick was on the run with them and he may have to become King.

He pulled his eyes away from the book for a second to duck around a tree. The other three were far ahead of him, but he caught Rina's eye whenever she glanced over her shoulder to check on him. He gave her a reassuring smile and lifted the book for her to see. Eventually, he would find something useful.

Emrick and Isiah were talking ahead of him in hushed tones. Who knew what they were speaking about, it could be anything, but it was strange to see Emrick getting along with someone who wasn't his uncle. Every year Nerin had gone down to visit his family, the man had only really spoken with Turian.

Nerin had been only seven when he'd first met Emrick. He didn't remember all of the details, but he did remember how he'd barely said a word when Turian introduced them. Harudan had been all smiles, the seventeen-year-old thinking he needed to get along with everyone, but Emrick had barely paid them a second's worth of attention.

Being the seven-year-old he was at the time, Nerin had tried to make friends with him. Emrick had been fifteen and had been shy around him, a child, but Nerin never stopped trying. He followed the teen around, asking all sorts of questions and trying to help out with his research.

Emrick had eventually snapped at him, yelling at him so much that he cried. He vaguely remembered Harudan coming in and telling him off, but from the look on his face, Emrick hadn't cared.

Later on, when Nerin had been sulking in his room, his uncle had come in to talk to him. He'd sat with him on the bed, a hand on his back and a smile on his face. "Emrick is very different to you and me, Nerin," he'd told him. "I'm sure you'd already noticed."

The thing was, Nerin hadn't, not really, not until after Turian pointed it out to him. In his mind, Emrick hadn't seemed all that different to him, he'd seemed like a normal person. Turian had to explain to him that that wasn't the case and that he had come from the border towns.

"I've heard things about the border towns," he'd muttered after his uncle's little explanation. "From Harudan and father."

"Not all of those things are true, my boy," his uncle said, still smiling at him. That was always clear in Nerin's mind, his uncle's smile. "As I'm sure you can already see. But some of those things are, and those things can affect people. They have affected Emrick as well. You saw how shy he was."

Nerin hadn't liked that. He'd wanted to make friends. "He's not shy around you," he'd argued.

All his uncle had done was laugh. "He's gotten used to me by now. He'll get used to you too, I'm sure."

That hadn't been the case. Over the weeks Nerin spent at the laboratory the first year of Emrick's apprenticeship, he tried to get the man to be his friend, but all it had resulted in was him being told to go away so he could study. Nerin began to yell back in retaliation, irritated that he was being told off for just being friendly. And thus, the hatred really began.

Over the six years since Emrick arrived, for reasons he had never found out, all they did was fight. It was over stupid things too; Nerin being annoying, Emrick not letting him read a book he wanted, even over who had to dust the shelves that week. Harudan fought with him too, but he usually spent most of his time with Jonin and by the river, ignoring everything else.

And so it became a tradition that Nerin and Emrick would go out of their way to argue about anything and everything. He knew his uncle disapproved of it, but his anger towards Emrick overpowered his shame at his uncle's feelings.

If only his uncle was alive to hear Nerin's feelings. He didn't want to fight with Emrick, that was why he had been so calm when he'd yelled at him. There wasn't time for arguments anymore. For the first time in his life, he actually wanted to be civil with the man and it was all because he needed his help.

Once he figured out where they needed to go, he would need Emrick's knowledge of the realm to get there. He was also a good fighter, on par with Rina. Maybe, if he was feeling kind (which wasn't often), he would help Rina teach him. He hadn't practised since they left the laboratory, mostly because they were always on the move and his arm still ached from the burns Isiah inflicted.

With a shake of his head, he focused back on the book again. He'd flipped through the pages without paying attention to any of the words and had to flick back to where he was up to. His eyes and mind were tired of the words, but he couldn't stop. His job was to find the stones and he would fulfil it.

Nyat was older and frailer than any of the Gods thus far. She lay deep in her Sanctum, waiting, watching, knowing that she would die long before the Beast that was Promised every showed up. My arrival made her hopeful and I felt a deep regret at the look in her eyes.

Nerin sighed and turned to the next page of the tiny book. Rina fell into step next to him, but said nothing, allowing him to concentrate on what he needed to do. The trees passed by him in a rush and the snow that his feet continued to sink into went almost unnoticed. The scenery hadn't changed at all since they'd gotten off the boat, the forest stretching for days.

He hadn't heard many animals while he'd been walking, just the occasional bird cawing high above them. Most would have gone into hibernation, leaving the land in eerie silence. It was probably easier, not having to worry about any dangerous animals, but the silence made him uncomfortable.

Belganine resides in the home of the crystal pillars, watching over Askarune's people. The worn pillars that hold up the bridge are taken from the same rock that marks the entrance to Askarune's cave. The carvings are easier to read outside Belganine's Sanctum compared to Askrune's, as even when the tide is low, the pillars barely break the surface of the ocean.

The passage continued on, but Nerin didn't pay any attention to it. He finally had something, even if it was little, a bit more description about where the second stone was. He made a proud noise and closed the book, grinning up at Rina when she looked at him.

"Did you find something?" she asked, hope in her dark eyes.

He nodded. "I think so," he said. All he had to do was figure out where something like that would be on the map. Part of him doubted that it would actually be there, something so small and practically invisible, but it was worth a shot anyway.

That meant asking Emrick for help. The part of him that was still angry at the man didn't want to, but he knew he wasn't going to get anywhere if he didn't. He didn't get a chance to decide before Rina did it for him. "Emrick! Isiah! Nerin thinks he found something!" she yelled.

Ahead of them, the two men stopped and waited for them to catch up with matching expressions of curiosity. "What did you find?" Emrick asked, his voice calmer than it had been the day before. Nerin had no doubt that something would set him off later, but for now, he was calm.

"There are pillars in the ocean before we find Askarune's Sanctum," he said and pointed at the passage in the book. "I would imagine their pretty worn down by now, but this said you could just see them when the tide was low."

Emrick frowned down at him and he squirmed under the scrutiny. "If they were worn then, I wouldn't imagine they would still be there now," he said and crossed his arms over his chest. "Does it say anything about the exact location?"

Any pride he had felt at his discovery was gone, dashed away with the wind. "No, not that I've seen. I don't think it will. I suppose back when it was written, there used to be an obvious landmark there or people just knew where the Sanctums were. I don't know," he explained and rubbed at an eye with the heel of his hand.

"I don't know of any landmarks on the coast except for the sea itself," Emrick replied and sighed. "Gods, I wish I had my books."

"Don't blaspheme," Isiah scolded before turning to Nerin. "Even though we don't have an exact location, that's still better than nothing. That's something we can keep an eye out for when we're on the coast, so thank you."

It was strange to think that at one point, he had been in charge of Isiah. They were equals now, following under no one's lead. His contribution meant as much as the others. A smile spread across his face again. "I'll see if I can find more, but I doubt it," he said.

Emrick grunted. "Aye, thanks, kid," he muttered and turned to walk off again. There was no raised voice, no insults, just calm. It was strange and new and different, but Nerin wasn't going to complain.