The Beast That was Promised ✔

TWENTY: True Powers

He groaned. "His name is Isiah," he said, lifting his hands towards the sky just to see if he could do it.

"Whatever it is," Benj said with a wave of his hand. "Either way, you need to get to them, so we'll help you. Ziya can wait until it's all over."

"Thank you," he whispered and closed his eyes for a moment. He couldn't sleep, but he needed to rest his eyes. Everything still hurt more than it ever had before, even after the attack at Huton, but from what he remembered, none of the soldiers that had attacked him had hurt him that badly. The worst they had done was shatter the fear stone.

Even though he had remembered it earlier, he finally registered what it meant. The stone was gone, smashed into pieces in the snow. How was he supposed to open the door with Isiah without the stone? How were they supposed to do anything? He'd ruined everything. Because of him, the realm would die, all because he'd lost the stone. He'd been so stupid to let it fall from his grasp.

"The stone," he gasped as the pounding in his head worsened. He grabbed at his head and curled into a ball on the board, groaning with pain. Like someone hitting him in the head with a hammer, his head throbbed. "Do you have the pieces of the stone?"

"What stone?" Benj asked.

He laughed and stopped for a moment only to laugh again. His throat stung as the laughter grew more and more high-pitched, more and more hysterical. It was completely gone, giving them no hope of winning. He couldn't open the door, couldn't give Isiah back the stone so he could master it. Ishin was going to win, all because of him.

"Emrick?" Orvo said and it was strange to hear him say his real name. "Emrick? What's wrong?" But his head continued to pound so much that he couldn't reply. All he could do was groan and clutch himself as it got worse and worse and worse.

Tears ran down his cheeks and it was all he could do to stop himself from rolling off the board again. All of them stared down at him, trying to figure out what was going on. They were speaking, but the words came out as silence, the pounding in his head far louder than what they were saying.

Between one second and the next, the pounding stopped and was replaced by the muffled voice he'd heard earlier, clearer than before. Losing his family, not being accepted as who they are, killing, being unable to help people, freezing to death, mermaids. It was Askarune's voice, whispering in his mind the same way the stone had, telling him the fears of those around him. Heights, spiders, losing the war.

How did he know? He shouldn't know. The stone was gone, there couldn't be any way he could still hear Askarune's voice in his mind, but it was still there. It had been destroyed, but he had still felt the power in the air. He remembered it, feeling it move towards him, swarm within him like a storm. Then he'd been gone, unconscious as the stone's power became his.

His laughter cut off with a sharp hiccup. "The stone," he whispered again as he unfolded to lie straight once more.

Benj was still staring down at him with wide eyes and mouth. "What stone, Emrick? What are you talking about?" he asked. They had stopped but they needed to keep moving. He knew what had happened now, he understood how they were supposed to master each stone.

"I am the stone," he whispered and laughed again, slowly drifting into sobs. He was the stone and the stone was him. But what did that mean? How could Isiah master the stone if it was him? There was so much that didn't make sense, but he couldn't argue against it.

"What does that mean?" Benj asked.

"The stone was my power, they broke it when they attacked me," he explained, his voice like a whisper. "Isiah needed it to open the doors. I thought it was gone, but I am the stone now, I can still help him."