A Betrayal of Faith ✔

TWENTY: Learning

They had spent two days at the Sanctum. Two days wherein Nerin learned the ins and outs of the huge ruin. There were no secret passages like there were back in Ishmar, and the stronghold wasn't hard to navigate, but there was something about knowing every inch of the place that brought him comfort.

On midday of the second day, Rina joined him. Isiah was with the Father, learning about his religion. It was strange to Nerin that he hadn't been taught everything there was to know about it. But religions were strange and customs were strange. He hadn't been taught things he should have about being a prince, after all. But that could easily be blamed on Harudan and his father.

The Sanctum was nowhere near as maze-like as his home. There was the main tower, the sitting room and a hallway at the back that led to a set of small bedrooms. That was where the Father had put them to sleep the last two nights. They were old and covered in dust, but it was better than anywhere else he had slept since leaving Ishmar.

The only downside, aside from the dust that covered everything, was the freezing cold. His fyrite helped a little bit, but he still shivered as he climbed down the stairs, Rina trailing behind him. He was nowhere near as powerful as she appeared to be. There was more to the Princess than met the eye.

She could fight, that he already knew from Ishmar, but she was better than he had thought. He knew of the Warriors of Ziya, he'd read about them in his books. The style of fighting the Princess used was similar to what he had read. If she had been trained by the Warriors of Ziya, then no wonder she was so strong.

That didn't explain her powers. Those were usually determined by the parents. Nerin had thought that his powers were strong, but in the face of Rina's illusions and Jonin's unseeing eyes, he was quite weak.

"Where are we going?" Rina asked, pulling him from his thoughts.

He shrugged. "There was a door at the end of the hallway, I want to see where it leads," he answered. There hadn't been much up the stairs, a library filled with crumbling books and another sitting room. He'd tried to read a few of the books, but the pages broke under his fingers and the words were too faded to read.

Isiah and the Father were in the sitting room as they passed. The door was closed, but their conversation wasn't hard to hear. Nerin hadn't seen much of his friend since they'd arrived, but he didn't mind. It gave him the freedom to do as he wished for the first time since they had run from Ishmar.

He would be completely free if the Princess wasn't with him, but after prayer that morning, she'd come up to him and said, "I'm quite bored, Nerin. You seem to have found something to entertain yourself with. May I join you?" And he'd been too kind to decline.

To him, she still seemed bored, but maybe it was better to be bored with company. Neither of them spoke much. If Nerin was being honest, he wasn't really in the mood to speak with her. The things she said about his brother bothered him. Harudan wasn't evil, he just had strong opinions.

There was a part of him that hated defending his brother like that, but they were family. Harudan had never shown any sign of being dangerous towards the Askari until the treaty, but he was much closer to their father than Nerin had been. King Iunis had been an influential man and Harudan trusted him more than anyone except Jonin. Nerin didn't know what to think.

All he knew was that Harudan was growing more dangerous by the day. There would be war soon and Nerin couldn't deny that it was his brother's fault. He wanted to believe that it wasn't, but he knew, deep down, he knew that it was. No amount of defence or anger could change that.

Their footsteps echoed loudly as they walked down the hallways. Most of the doors held the small bedrooms, but one led to a kitchen and another at the end went somewhere Nerin hadn't had a chance to explore yet. A small spark of excitement ignited in his stomach. It wasn't an unfamiliar feeling, but one he hadn't felt since the treaty.