The Beast That was Promised ✔

NINETEEN: On The Beach

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.