The Beast That was Promised ✔

NINE: Vows

Maeve was gone, destroyed by his brother at the same time he had Ashera send the letter to them. There was no way they would be able to get a note to Isiah. How would he know where he was supposed to go to get the next stone? Nerin couldn't react, not with Fentir watching his every move.

What he couldn't figure out was why. Why did Harudan feel the need to destroy Maeve? Yes, the Askari had taken it back, but was that a real reason to destroy it? Harudan had said he wanted to make Minisia a better place, but destroying its towns was not a good way of doing it. The only thing he could blame was Ishin and the power of a God getting to his brother's head.

The letter only got worse from there. Relief washed over him for a second when Harudan described reached the fake Sanctum of Askarune and not finding Isiah or Rina, but it was quickly ripped away when he read the news of Jonin's death. His lip stung from how hard he was biting on it, but he couldn't stop himself, lowering the letter and staring off into space.

He didn't know how he was supposed to feel about it. Jonin had been the one to chase them all over the realm, to kill his uncle and anyone else who stood in his way, but he was also someone who had been there all of Nerin's life. They hadn't spoken much, in fact, he'd always found him extremely intimidating, but it had been fun to hide away and see if the knight could find him.

Jonin was his brother's partner, even if they never told him as much. How was Harudan coping? Was he coping? It was safe to assume he wasn't and a large part of Nerin wanted to be there for him, despite everything that was going on. Losing someone was hard and their family had lost so much. Nerin already knew that he wouldn't miss Jonin, but the tears still fell, for his brother more than anyone else.

"Your Highness?" Fentir said, taking a step towards him.

Nerin held up a hand, stopping the old man in his tracks. "I'm not done, give me a moment," he said. There was so much information and he wasn't even at the end of the letter, there was more to read.

Every time he tried to read it, his eyes shot back to one particular sentence. Sir Jonin Hegor is dead. He couldn't look away from it, couldn't think past it and what it meant. Who had killed him? Emrick? Rina? It wasn't Isiah, that much was certain, but Harudan didn't even know that Emrick was still alive, so he would have assumed it was. And with Ishin up and about, gunning for the Beast, there was even more danger to Isiah.

And he couldn't do a thing about it. His letter to Maeve would be ash if it made it there before Harudan did, if not, no one would ever see it. The entire town was dead and gone. Isiah had no idea what was going on or where he was supposed to go. Nerin's only plan had been a failure.

With a sniffle in his nose, he finally continued reading the letter. There wasn't anything he could do except get as much information as possible so that he might be able to help Isiah. Fentir had said that Harudan had reached the army, but what had he and Ishin done after that? How badly were the Askari suffering?

His question was answered not long after. The entire portion of the army that had once stopped Juna was wiped out by Ishin's power. Harudan gushed about it like a girl in love and it made Nerin sick to his stomach. If Ishin could do so much, what did it mean for the rest of Minisia? Nothing good. Harudan was going to wipe them all out in order to get what he wanted. It was as if he didn't care anymore.

On the map on the table, most of the Askari statues were gone, leaving only the ones around a small port town and Ziya. It was obvious without reading the last part of the letter that Harudan would be heading to the port town next, where he would deal the same damage as last time. Nerin was going to vomit, expel his heart from where it lay in his stomach.